The Stetson Reporter

by julie gowan | The Center for Information Technology (CIT) finished two projects this summer that will give students up-to-date technology. Those projects will permit students to signup easily for Resnet connections and provide voice mail to students. "With ResNet we've created an automated core activation process to streamline students from coming to the CIT office," said Jim Snyder, director of infrastructure and support for CIT. Students who have an Ethernet card installed in their computers should click on their Web browser (i.e., Netscape or Internet Explorer). Next, follow the instructions given by the server in order to sign up for the system. "All ports are activated in the dorms, except for Stetson Hall and Best Apartments," said Snyder. "In Stetson Hall, the assembly is different and Best Apartments are experiencing some electronic problems." Students are encouraged to notify CIT if they experience any problems with the connection process. The upgrade is part of the upgrade that started last summer with the introduction of ResNet and voice mail for faculty and staff. "The implementation of the new sign-up process allows an easier convenience to students while they're moving in," said Snyder. All students, including first-year students, were notified the second week of August about the new voice mail system. In September, voice mail will be available for each student living in the residence halls, and fraternity houses, and sorority houses. It will not be available until after room change week, which takes place Sept. 6th. "We are looking to have the system set up and ready to go by the middle or nearing the end of September," said Snyder. "We're waiting until after room change week to activate the system to avoid having to duplicate greetings when people decide to move." CIT will be creating a two-level system. The computer will record a main greeting for the room, greeting the caller with the message, "You have reached the mailbox of 6068," for example. A second greeting will be created by the occupants of the room and will allow people to sent voicemail specifically to one occupant of the room—and not both roommates. Each occupant will have a personal code to check their messages. Students will have to check their voice mail periodically. "We believe all of the bugs have been alleviated from the system and should be up and running by our set deadline," said Snyder. "I like that we are being offered this new technology, but I think they took on more than they could handle this summer," said Colin Sue-A-Quan, junior finance major. "I understand waiting for the campus to get settled, but I think the dorm rooms should be set up with only one mailbox. Students only own one answering machine; not two." Snyder says students should keep their answering machines until the system is ready, but then remove them once the system is put in place. "The system will override [the answering machine], but students should keep it just in case," said Snyder. Snyder also said that call waiting will remain active. "However, after the third ring, if the resident does not answer the beep, the caller will be transferred to the voice mail system," said Syder. News Editor Julie Gowan is unable to take your call right now.... 112th year interactive by jeff hamrick | Today, The Reporter begins its 112th year of publication with a mostly new staff, a similar look, and a renewed commitment to a publication of outstanding quality. I hope you'll take the opportunity this year to interact with us. We depend heavily on students, faculty, and staff for information, story leads, and opinions. Without you, the publication of this newspaper would be impossible. This year, Julie Gowan and Brian Campbell will be creating the university's rough draft of history by chronicling the "events of our time" as The Reporter's News editors. Andy Tippin and Teresa Schwarz will be recommending restaurants, chatting about organizations, spotlighting people, and generating a section that lets you know a little bit about life here. Kaitlin Bellerose will field bitter opinions and pleasant commendations in our Opinions section. Becky Kruse will be running back and forth between soccer matches and crew meets this year as the Sports editor. Our creative design gurus—Jeff Hidek and Kevin Hale—will shape the front pages of each section and assume responsibility for advertisement design. Those advertisements, by the way, can be purchased from Business Manager Kristina Jones, who will be raking in the money for us. Ashleigh Miller, our circulation and marketing manager, will bop back and forth from the glorious metropolis of Sanford, Florida, where The Reporter is printed. There, Skip Cowan will half-tone photographs, burn negatives, and run the paper. And of course, Joey Kulakowski will be projecting The Reporter around the world every week as our online editor. Beth Dehnart, a Reporter legacy, will be our resident grammar Nazi and the entrenched enemy of writers who use too many commas and misconjugated verbs. Leslie McMasters, our brand-spankin' new staff adviser, will occasionally forget our names but will always be available as a counselor and guide. 'And let us not forget the inimitable Dr. Michael Raymond, The Reporter's self-described "crusty" faculty adviser. Enough of this dithering. Let us begin again. JeffHamrick Editor-in-Chief, The Reporter UE: Elizabeth Maresca, residential hall director of Carson-Hollis Hall, greets a first-year student with her staff, including Sara Wieneke and Cigdem Keskin. PHOTO BY PAUL DAVIS Lower Carson-Hollis now houses UE students, maybe classrooms BY JULIE GOWAM | One of the newest programs headlining college campuses this fall is theme housing. Across the nation campuses are selecting smaller houses to house a "theme" or a certain organization to bring unity between residential life and that partiqular group. The possible transformation of the Best Apartments into a theme house for community service was discussed over the summer. It is not being used to house an influx of first-year women students. Not only did Carson-Hollis get a new roof, had all of the rooms painted, new carpet, and new furniture for the rooms and lounge, but is now housing the Honors' program, as well as the new University Experience (UE) program,, spearheaded by Michelle Espinosa, director of Campus Life. "The UE program is a brand-new living and learning community. It is an extended community where all of the residents are in a similar class and living in the same building," said Alli Westberry, assistant director of Residential Life. Students who take the University Experience class are undecided in their major, but have three sections that they're concentrating in: science, computer science, and English. These students will be housed in lower Carson. "One purpose this program brings forth is that it brings together Residential Life and faculty members on another level outside of the program with this type of theme housing," said Westberry. "I'm really excited about working with the Honors program and new UE program at Carson- Hollis," said Elizabeth Maresca, hall director for Carson Hollis. "I think it's a great program, even though it's in its developmental stages rightnow, and...I'm excited about the opportunities it's going to give students who will live on these floors with this type of theme housing." Maresca sees the program connecting academics with the residence halls, "wanting this to be a positive and innovative experience." "In my role as the hall director I plan to be a liaison between the faculty and resident assistants," said Maresca. Serving as the two resident assistants for the program are Sarah Wieneke and Josh Strate. "Our big goal for the year is to connect academics and their living environment through co-programming not only with the other RA, but with the faculty as well to make it an overall better learning experience," said Wieneke. Strate sees his role as a facilitator and a person they can turn to with questions about the college experience and give insight as to what paths may be good to go down. "I may not know all the answers, but I can direct them to someone who can help them, and a friend as well," said Strate. Students who signed up for the course were given a choice on [ see page 2a ] ill Mill^ir(«MU.nJMUi!iH^k ^ i it 111 Br.tiT.111 iriTlT' "i i-i h ir ff li'iil jitnfi Ii rl ihniAiiiffrnni K'aawsA Task force urges socially responsible investments Residential Life hires two assistant directors by julie gowan | The Department of Residential Life was sticking to their theme this year for resident assistant training: "Blueprints to success, building a stronger Stetson community." "Laying a strong foundation was important," said Michelle Espinosa, director of Residential Life. Part of that foundation was the hiring of two new assistant directors for the Residential Life team. Dan Ofstein and Michaelle Finch joined the Stetson community early this past summer and began work on summer conferences and training operations. Finch was named assistant director of Residential Life and coordinator of Summer Conferences, and Dan Ofstein oversees the west side of campus. [ read this story in News, page 3a ] by jeff hamrick | A member of the Environmental Task Force recently finished preliminary recommendations concerning the management of the university's endowment. Dr. Robert Sitler, chair of the task force, has tentatively recommended that the university's "investment policies...consistently reflect its commitment to environmental stewardship." Sitler recommends, among other thingo, that the university's investment advisers be given values- oriented guidelines to use when making investment decisions on behalf of the university. The associate professor of foreign languages said that the "online report does not represent the recommendations of the Environmental Task Force" and that the current version of the report is "simply a collection of preliminary information and ideas." Sitler, the faculty adviser for Green Stetson, suggested that the university "filter out investments in companies that produce tobacco, alcohol, and weapons... [and] that have poor labor practices or environmental records." The university currently has at least $200 million in various funds that are "invested in a single investment pool," according to Sitler's preliminary report. According to Dr. Judson Stryker, Vice President for Finance, the university does not select the mix of securities that are purchased with endowment and other funds. "We hire outside institutional investors to do this...they have the expertise and they have discretion as to how this portfolio is structured," said Stryker. The managers of the university's investments—Sun Trust Investment and Capital Guardian Group—respectively manage the university's fixed assets (bonds and debt) and equities. According to Stryker, the university's only current investment criteria is that approximately 60 percent of the university's funds be invested in equities, and 40 percent in fixed assets. "We will make periodic adjustments to this mix," said Stryker. "The objective is to maximize Stetson's best interests." The endowment is a critical source of long-term revenue for the MQ&LJLQ C,Q M E.,„- , > j This is the first of three • \ ■ •articles by Jeff Hamrick on ;A x J '. i '. i the Environmental Task Force :. | j recommendations. Part two ; \ iiwill appear in next week's : '-] News section. i university, although 5 to 6 percent of the capital gains growth and dividend distributions are used to meet current liabilities. Sitler's preliminary report suggests that the university should make a list of the securities that compose the endowment available for public scrutiny. Additionally, the preliminary version of the report states that the university should "exercise...its proxy voting privileges to encourage corporate...citizenship and...promote its professed values commitments." The university community would participate in this values-oriented evaluation of the university's investments by reviewing an "annual report to the Stetson community" containing a list of corporations in which the university has invested, the size of those investments, a list of our proxy votes for the year, and summary explanations for each vote. Stryker said that he could not make the list of securities that are currently owned by the university public. "I would think that this information would require Board [of Trustees] approval to make that information public," he said. The Lynn Professor of Accounting said that he "generally" decides how the university's proxy votes will be handled, although he said that he would present any controversial vote to the President's Stafffor consideration. Stryker, the former associate dean at the School of Business Administration, also said that his office currently does not write and file a proxy vote rationale for review. Sitler also recommends that business students "become involved with the research and decision-making" necessary to manage the proxy votes. Sitler said that "any investment decision process is inherently political," and that the politics of investment at the university should avoid teaching that "the most important consideration in life is money." Dr. Paul Dascher, dean of the School of Business Administration, said that he wants to "challenge our students to think about these issues" and that students involved in the Roland George Investment Institute should "sit back and be looking at the concept of social responsibility." "I think that student involvement would be educationally valuable at some point in the process, perhaps as an integral part of their [ see page 2a ] JUMP UP: First-year students bound into the air as part of one of the many icebreakers done at Playfair. Playfair is a 45-minute session of numerous games, photo by paul davis [ read this story in Life, page 3b ] First-year athletes signed to university by becky krUse | As first-year students make their first appearances on campus this week, a select group has already made a strong impression on the athletic world. Twenty-one freshmen have signed with three of Stetson's Division I teams. The week before school was a busy week for many. For volleyball and soccer players, school started with move-in on Sunday and practice starting Tuesday. Practicing twice daily, these men and women have been conditioning for the season ahead. Eleven freshmen join the Men's Hatter Soccer team this season, almost equal to those returning. And they're coming from all over the country; students from Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, and New Mexico will join seven Floridians as the team goes onto the field this fall. [ read this story in Sports, page 5b ]