Braving spotty showers, thousands of families moved new students into their college homes on Saturday.
Chandra Myrick is the executive director of university housing at the University of Tennessee. She said a lot of the important work starts earlier in the day.
"This morning started with traffic flow, half our battle is just getting students onto campus," she said. "Our staff has been up pretty early this morning getting ready to welcome students to campus."
Families started arriving on at UT for move in as early as 7 a.m.
A number of community organizations and law enforcement were on campus to help direct cars and keep families on track.
"Some streets have been designated one way with the flow of traffic," Myrick said. "We've found that that's been tremendously helpful when it comes to traffic flow"
Myrick said this year about 7,500 students will live on campus.
Jacob Connett, Kenner Miller, and Chase Cromer have been friends since they were freshmen in high school. Saturday marked the beginning of their new journey at UT.
Cromer plans to major in Chemistry. He and Connett said they want to play intramural sports.
"I'm most excited about not only getting an education, but to hang with my friends whenever I can and make connections," Cromer said.
Miller said he woke up at 1 a.m. to drive from Clarksville, Tennessee. He's working in the student union this year and said he looks forward to seeing how it's transformed come January.
"I'm excited to see how it expands and all the places that are gonna be new," Connett said.
Executive Director of University Housing Chandra Myrick agreed.
"Our new residence halls are under construction and are slated to open in fall of 2019," she said. "The new student union is under construction and is also slated to open next year."
Myrick also said students have until the first day of classes to get moved in.