The Stetson Reporter

issue 9 volume 114 SPORTS: Rugby plays final match against UCF page 5b OPINIONS: DeLand residents should get into giving spirit page 4a Career Service director leaves for Mississippi By John Mills NEWS WRITER A void will be left in Career Services until a replacement for its director can be found. Toni Avant, director of Career Services, spent her last official day working at the university last Wednesday. Ebonie Smith, a first-year business administration major, who worked as the assistant student internship coordina- . tor, said of Avant, "It was fun working with her. Even though I have only been there for a couple of months it was fun getting to know her." Avant was responsible for managing and providing direction to the Career Services program. She will now assume the position of the director of the Career Center at the University of Mississippi, where Avant earned her master's degree in higher education and student personnel services. "Her new position affords her the opportunity to direct a larger program while returning to her alma mater. It also places her closer to her family, an important factor in her decision to leave Stetson," said Michelle Espinosa, dean of students. A reception was held in Avant's honor last Monday, Oct. 29 in the student lounge of the Hollis Center. Students and colleagues were encouraged to attend. Avant received several promotions > while working for the university. Highlighting some of Avant's greatest accomplishments while at the university, Espinosa said, "Toni's promotions from assistant director to associate director, and subsequently to the position of director of Career Services ' here at Stetson speak to her contributions to our community and to our students. Toni's ability to collaborate with faculty, staff and students in the development ofthe overall career services program at the university enabled her department to positively impact everyone involved." Espinosa said that a search committee would immediately begin reviewing resumes of candidates for her successor, When candidates are brought to the university, students will be involved in the interview process. "We hope to identify a new director during the spring semester," said Espinosa. During the interim, Michelle Espinosa and others from Campus Life will be helping support Dennis Ferraro, assistant director of Career Services, in the wake of Avant's absence. Contact John Mills at [email protected]. ^Reporter C ORRE CTIONS 1. "Univerisity saves energy, helps environment" NEWS, Issue 8. In the article, John Jett's title was given as the director of environmental service. His actual title is director of environmental affairs. 2, "Math clinic's popularity multiplies" NEWS, Issue 7. In the article we spelled Danyell Harris' name as Danyelle. Contact Us 421 N. Woodland Blvd. #8409 DeLand, FL 32720-3751 386.822.7224 • FAX 386.822.7233 reporter® stetson.edu [email protected] [email protected] life® stetson.edu . . [email protected] [email protected] online©' stetson.edu [email protected] University prepares for economic downturn By Teresa Schwarz *t MANAGING EDITOR As a result of the recent decline in the economy, the university has initiated changes to prepare the coming year's budget for economic uncertainty. With the stock market's decline, the university's endowment, which funds the majority of scholarships, has decreased in value. The endowment is made up of a variety of elements, such as stock and mutual funds, that are closely connected to the economy. When the market is down, the university is not able to provide as many scholarships to incoming students or to make up for cuts in the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG), as it did last year when the state cut the FRAG by a few dollars per student, according to Dr. Jim Beasley, vice president of administration and chief operating officer. *—-*"— The FRAG was recently cut by the state legislature by 2.8 percent due to a $1.5 billion budget "We will strive to mibiimize the impact on students, faculty and staff in every way possible." economy, according to an e-mail sent to Beasley by the lobbying group Independent Colleges and —— •- Universities of Florida. This translates into a cut of $70 to $75 per student, which is smaller than the original expected cut of about 20 percent, according to Beasley. This loss will be reflected in Florida students' spring 2002 billing statements. Approximately 70 percent shortage brought on by the declining of the student body are Florida resi dents who receive the FRAG, according to Brian Miller, executive director of Marketing and Communications. Donors have also been affected by the economic slide. According to Beasley, the majority of donors rely on investments and the general economy for their prosperity, which allows them to present gifts to the university. There is some uncertainty as to whether the annual gifts will be on par or if that money, which the university depends on, will also decline. To watch spending carefully, the university has switched from depart- see BUDGET, page 2a Student initiative obtains safe rides By Wesley Sun EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The advent of a new Safe Ride program will provide stu dents looking to have a good time with an opportunity to get free and reliable transportation from campus to downtown DeLand on prime party nights. These new Safe Rides will be running on Thursday and Friday nights from 10:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. The rides are being provided free of charge by Thorn's Taxi services and will run non-stop during the allotted hours, shuttling university students back and forth from the cul-de-sac in front of the Carlton Union Building to the parking lot behind the Stetson Flower Shop. Students are not required to call for a ride or arrange for a safe ride ahead of time, but need only to show their university ID. The program begins on Thursday, Nov. 8 and will continue each week until the winter holidays, excluding Thanksgiving weekend. This project was inspired by Shelly Stoops, a senior marketing major and is the result of the efforts put forth by the co-chairs of the Alcohol Free 2000 Task Force—Stoops and Jim Budke, a graduate student working towards his master's in business administration. According to Stoops, the task force was formed last year as a response to a resolution from the National Panhellenic and Interfraternal council, asking leaders in Greek organizations to move parties out of Greek housing. Since its creation, the task force 3 ^p^Ni •1 rWVxj 1 itfflk*" M RIDE: Sophomores Chrissy Smith and Carrie Collier catch Thorn's Taxi outside the CUB to go to downtown DeLand. has asked fraternities and sororities to sign a resolution declaring an abstention from co-sponsoring any events in Greek housing unless the houses are substance-free. "The fraternities on this campus are not substance-free, so there are no more parties, so to speak, in the fraternity houses," said Stoops, who is a member of Pi Beta Phi.. "So it pulled a lot of people that wanted to go out and have a good time...off campus." The co-chairs began by seeking the aide of Darald Stubbs, director of Student Life. According to Stubbs, most Safe Ride programs in this country are student-initiated, since universities will not accept liability for such a service. Also according to Stubbs, this has not been the first time this program has been attempted, but it is the first time university students have been willing to take the initiative on their own. "The students in the past were just asking why the university doesn't do it," said Stubbs. "These were the first to pursue it to that extent. It was all through them, and we definitely support their initiative." Stoops and Budke then turned to the Student Government Association for help, expanding the reach of this pro gram to encompass the rest of the university. Although unable to provide any financial support, the SGA did pass a resolution in support of the Safe Ride program. "I think it's important not to neglect the fact that college students are going out," said Stoops. "I realized that I wanted this to be a campus-wide thing, not just a Greek thing. I thought it was just as important for the rest of the campus as it was for the Greek organizations." After Stoops and Budke re- see SAFE RIDE, page 2a Registration loses lines, takes place online By Doreen Overstreet GUEST WRITER For the first time in its history, the university has used an online registration process, similar to that used by major universities. After the university implemented its new Banner system, the majority of the seniors, juniors and sophomores completed advanced registration through the Registrar's Office's website for the spring 2002 semester. The process began Sunday, Oct. 28 for seniors and ended Tuesday, Nov. 1 for seniors, juniors and sophomores. Freshmen will be registering beginning Nov. 7 until Nov. 9. The online process appeared.to work quite well for most students, replacing the usual standing lines, yet the problem of class availability is still present. According to Registrar Jim Barbour, the registration process went much smoother for the senior class than it did for the juniors and sophomores. , The source of the difficulty was 'the amount of students on the system -at exactly 4:00 p.m. This may have had —,..,..—......_ to do with other offices throughout the university being on the network simultaneously. The Registrar's Office will try to solve that problem by starting the registration process at 4:30 p.m. in the future to avoid extra tie-ups from campus on the system. "In the sophomore class there were 400 students registered in one hour," said Barbour. "And in terms of efficiency, that was much better than "In the sophomore class there were 400 students registered in one hour, and in terms of efficiency, that was much better than using the old system." using the old system." Students such as Zach Wright, a sophomore finance major, agreed. "The online registration process was better than standing in line," said x , Wright. ■■■?■ ----- Sophomore po litical science major Michelle Modica said, "The process itself wasn't bad, but the same problem happened of not having classes available." One problem arose with senior class registration when Student Accounts Office blocked many students from registration. The block was put in place for unpaid or past due bills. It was later removed in order to accommodate stu dents who were unable to pre-register. A common student complaint was that everyone with a certain number of credit hours was to register at the same time. Those students that fell short by a few credits were grouped by their class year and had to register a day later. "It is very frustrating because I have 29 hours and have to register with the freshmen. That makes my chances of getting the classes I wanted very difficult," said Kevin Felgenhauer II, a sophomore pre-law major. Barbour said that credit hours were not broken down in time blocks to ensure that all students did not have a time conflict with their registration. Regarding technology problems, the CIT Help Center set up during the first five hours had relatively few incoming see REGISTER, page 2a http://reporter.stetson.edu - talk/applaud/criticize/react/reflect in our uncensored discussion area [click Shout]