The Reporter

thurs First Year Program hoping to be a success Academically Marie Franzman news writer For this school year, the new first year students are having a much different experience than the students that had preceded them. There have been some changes to the programs and classes that the first year students have taken part in that are meant to make their experience at Stetson a better one. These new changes are meant to help the first year students create a better sense of community, and more specifically a learning community. "The biggest change is now there is one coordinator for first year experience," said Dr. John Tichenor, professor and director of institutional research and registrar. The new coordinator of the first year studies is Dr. Leonard Nance, before Nance was the assistant dean of the arts and worked with the discovery program. The university "got the idea of centralizing the first year students' experience from the programs and actions other colleges and universities such as Notre Dame who have deans specifically for first year students. "Curricular learning communities are classes that are linked or clustered during an academic term, often around an interdisciplinary theme, and enroll in a common cohort of students. A variety of approaches are used to build these learning communities...learning experiences build community among students," said Washington Center for improving the quality of undergraduate education at www.evergreen.edu/ washcenter/home. At the university this year is using linked classes, FOCUS, resident advisors, blocked classes, and the like to help build these learning communities on campus. Linked classes are where two professors are working together and coordinate their efforts in teaching their classes. For example, Professor Andy Dehnart's EH 121 class is linked to Dr. Don Musser's world religion classes. This allows Dehnart to assign a paper on a topic from Musser's class and they can coordinate their test dates so that the students do not have the tests for these two classes on the same day. "Learning communities have been shown to increase student retention and academic achievement, increased student involvement and motivation, improve students' time to degree completion and enhance student intellectual development," said the Washington Center. As in blocked classes, the students in one linked class will also be in the other linked class together. This gives students a chance to get to know other students their age and who are experiencing similar things as new students. Blocking classes allows advisors and faculty to place first year students in classes together. For this year certain classes were blocked so that only first year students would be in them for this fall semester. This will help students form comfortable study groups and work well together on class projects. Ishabel Vicaria, a first year psychology major See FIRST-YEAR, 2/4 DANIELLE WILLIAMS / THE REPORTER President Dougas H. Lee prepares to shovel the ground during the ground-breaking signifying the start of construction for the new dorms. Sean Barth news writer When President Lee asked students around campus what they liked most about Stetson the most common replies were the atmosphere in the classroom, and the atmosphere in the residence halls. On October 21, 2005 President Lee along with six other members of the Stetson community with gold shovels in hand and hard hats on, broke ground on the new residential housing that is going to be built across the street from the softball fields. The new housing will consist of two new buildings, one modeled after apartment style living and another traditional hall, which will be able to 'This project shows Stetson continually dedicating its time and resources to students. This act symbolizes our commitment to excellence.' PETER URSCHELER sga president hold up to 370 students. The apartment units will be a mix of four bedroom two bath units and two bedroom two bath units, with all bedrooms being single occupancy. It has not yet been decided upon who will have first choice when registering for housing on campus The new housing is hoped to promote more students to live on campus as well as an increase in applications. "Admissions is going to have a problem," said Cici Brown, the chair of the Trustee Facilities Committee, who was, along with President Lee, the first person to break ground on the project. Peter Urscheler, a senior marketing major and president of SGA, was very enthusiastic about the project having served on the design committee for some time. "This project shows Stetson continually dedicating its time and resources to students. This act symbolizes our commitment to excellence," said Urscheler. The mayor of DeLand, Robert F. Apgar- was also excited about the project, pleased with the cities ability to work with Stetson. "I consider Stetson and Deland to be a partnership. Stetson has been a willing partner in making sure it [new residence halls] fits the community," said Apgar. A major concern among students has been the financing of the project. There has been a common See DORMS, 2A Major Exploration Fair helps students make decision Eric Kurlander and CAMILLE BILLY / THE REPORTER Curran talk with one another at the fair. Caitlin Reagan news editor Perhaps one of the most important decisions a student will make during their college career is their major. On Wednesday, October 19th, in the Stetson Room, first and second year students visited with department heads, professors, and teacher aids to help answer their questions about a specific major. Kelly Cleary, Director of Career Services, coordinated this event in helping students select a major or a minor "and getting info about choosing careers." Every major and minor was designated to a table with pamphlets, presentation boards, and even faculty and students standing beside each table trying to basically "sell" the major or minor to students. While the biology table displayed not only pamphlets about requirements for the major but also animal skulls, the Russian studies table mainly promoted their study abroad programs that they offer. Perhaps the largest department there was the Business School which took up about 4 tables displaying all the different departments a student could major in: Finance, Marketing, Family Business, and Accounting. Dawn Thompson, senior sociology major, attended the Major Exploration Fair to simply support her major and answer any questions underclassmen may have about sociology and anthropology. Thompson hopes that the Major Exploration Fair could perhaps "think of new ways to promote the information about majors to the students" in the future. If a student was interested in studying abroad, information was being offered about study abroad programs to Freiburg, Moscow, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Nottingham to name a few. Kasey Cox, first year English and international business major said she came to Major Exploration Fair to get information about other majors because she is debating about possibly changing her major. "[This is] a good experience to talk to professors. It makes them more See FAIR, 2A Thursday's Forecast: Chance of scattered thunderstorms. High 85 Low 69 CALENDAR 3B NEWS 2 A CROSSWORD 2B NEWSMAKERS 3A HISTORY 2B OPINIONS 4A HOROSCOPE 2B RUMINATIONS 2B LIFE IB MOVIE REVIEW 3B METRO REPORT 2A STUDENT GOVERNMENT 3A MOVIE LISTINGS 3B _-™-I3,fi 3 i.i r-js_v ■*» ^_j- Eiovie R®vS©ii x& i **e> a, "i-1- a i Krrr-i **. a- Life Editor Erin Lovell gives Movie Critic Blair Townley insight for DeLand's newest reviews Orlando Bloom's nightclub. movie, Elizabethtown. PAGE 1B PAGE 2B The defending A-Sun champions prepare for the new season. PAGE 1C