ORONO – The University of Maine Campus was bustling Friday with students, parents, relatives, and UM staff and volunteers helping to move the largest first-year class in the history of the Orono campus into the dorms they will now call home.

In a new trend that’s catching on nationwide, nearly the entire 2,105-member Class of 2011 are living in one area of campus in a program referred to as the First Year Residence Experience.

“One of the chief intentions here is to give a strong sense of connection to the university,” UM Dean of Students Robert Dana said Friday. “It’s really a much tighter-knit community than it has been.”

The new class is approximately nine percent larger than the cohort that enrolled at UM last fall and nearly 82 percent are Maine residents.

The Class of 2011 is the largest group ever to enroll at the state’s flagship university at the start of an academic year. The number reflects an adjustment to comparative figures that discount those students who enrolled at University College of Bangor when it was affiliated with UM prior to 1995.

Although traffic was congested through Orono to get to the campus, once at the university, officials and volunteers had coordinated parking for unloading vehicles packed with clothes, school supplies, minifridges and microwaves.

“I thought the process was actually pretty good,” Dianne Barrette, mother to first-year student Chelsea Suranie of North Smithfield, R.I., said.

“They emptied the car and before we had the car parked they were moving her into her room.”

Although Suranie said it didn’t really matter to her whether she was living with all first-year students or had been mixed in with upperclassmen, her mother and father liked the idea.

“They’re all together and they can learn off each other,” said Suranie’s father, David Suranie of Winsocket, R.I.

A highlight of the Hilltop Complex and Stewart Quad section of campus where the first-year Black Bears are housed is the new recreation center, which had its opening day Friday.

With its gleaming copper and glass-faced exterior, the building sits at the corner of campus and is conveniently located near the university’s trail system.

The 187,000-square-foot facility features a variety of work-out and recreation options, including three basketball-conversion courts, a multipurpose pool area, locker rooms and office space.

The Hilltop Dining Commons also was renovated over the summer and offers a more inviting space for first-year students to eat.

But the first-year experience involves more than just state-of-the-art facilities.

“We’ve increased staffing, and we are providing sort of a fully comprehensive, enriched program here,” Dana said. “Every student has a takeoff place for greatness.”

Instead of students having to seek out programs that might interest them on campus, many events and services will be brought to them. Each month will feature a first-year program, in addition to numerous activities that will be offered every day.

First-year students also have access to a Web site geared toward their needs that lists resources, activities and events that might interest them.

“It will allow new students to get to network together,” UM President Robert Kennedy said Friday.

The idea is to provide students with the same bonding experience that fraternities and sororities had years ago, he said.

Kennedy said he hopes the early connection to the campus community will keep students connected once they become alumni.