SLIPPERY ROCK — On Thursday Slippery Rock University will begin welcoming students to its campus, kicking off a weekend-long celebration that marks the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year.

The Weekend of Welcome, as SRU has dubbed the festivities, encompasses four days and begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, when freshmen and transfer students begin inundating the campus. In all, the university’s incoming Class of 2020 is made up of 1,584 students from 21 states, the District of Columbia, and 16 foreign countries, according to information provided by the university.

Karen Perry, SRU associate director of campus recreation, said months of planning and hundreds of volunteers go into SRU’s move-in weekend to make it a success for students and their families.

Each night, from Thursday through Saturday, the university hosts social events and movie screenings for students, to help them make friends and meet people on campus. The weekend’s worth of events culminates Sunday evening, when the university will have a “moonlight breakfast” with prizes and a DJ.

“It’s more or less a little bit of a down day where they (students) can maybe catch their breath a little,” Perry said.

Just as important to administrators is what students and their families experience during the day, when they’re arriving and moving into their student housing. SRU mobilizes hundreds of volunteers to help the students move in and get them acclimated to campus life, Perry said.

“As they say, it takes a village. This is just our big thing to really welcome everyone and let them know it’ll be a positive experience for them,” Perry said.

But it’s not just fellow students and university employees reaching out to students this weekend. Slippery Rock Mayor Ron Fodor said he gets involved as well, traveling around SRU’s campus and greeting students and their families.

For Fodor, the influx of students means more business for shops in the borough, but it’s also a time to celebrate what is often a life-changing experience for hundreds of young people.

“A lot of these students haven’t been away from home their whole life. It’s a big transition for them. We have to understand that they’re making a big change and taking a big step,” Fodor said.

Perry said the move-in days can snarl some traffic routes around the borough. The university doesn’t shut down roads or streets during the process, but members of SRU’s ROTC program do erect signs and staff checkpoints to help students and their families get around campus.

She said people traveling through the borough in the middle of the day will likely see extra traffic along Main Street, as well as on Route 108 from Interstate 79 and Route 258 from the Grove City area.

“Obviously we want people to go through town, but that’s also where you get your stop lights,” Perry said. “So if you can avoid the Main Street in the middle of the day, you’re going to avoid some traffic.”