BATON ROUGE — Around 6,500 new LSU students are moving onto campus this weekend, with more than 20 dorms and apartments open and ready to welcome them.

This year, the move-in process looks a little different when it comes to traffic flow.

"This year we're bringing cars off Gourrier Ave instead of River Road at the advice of LSU parking and police kind of spread out some of those traffic patterns to make it a better experience for our tigers," said an LSU official.

There are also a few items students need to leave at home before arriving.

"Air fryers, tabletop ice makers, candles those are items that are not allowed in our apts and dorms on campus," the official said.

LSU Residential Life is already looking ahead to next year, when a new addition to campus will be ready.

"LSU is a choice of so many students and so we are building 2 new dorms on campus planned to open fall 27 to accommodate that need and make sure we are housing tigers in the best place on campus," the official said.

LSU Police is encouraging new students and their parents to download the Shield app.

"You can report things anonymously. You can look for campus transit, you can request safety transports through there as well," said an LSU Police official.

WBRZ's Abigail Whitam reports.