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DAILY WILDCAT
Tuesday, november ,
DAILYWILDCAT.COM
SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA SINCE 1899
They are the 23 percent More than one-fifth of UA freshmen do not return as sophomores
UOFA
2010-2011 YEAR RETENTION RATES
By Stewart McClintic DAILY WILDCAT
More than 20 percent of students who start at the UA don’t return after their first year, according to Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Jeff Orgera. The UA freshman retention rate for the 2010-2011 academic year was 77.3 percent, according to Orgera. He said this number varies slightly from year to year but remains roughly the same. There are many reasons why students do not return to the UA after their freshman year, he said. These reasons may include financial, social, locational and academic problems. He said he and the Office of Student Affairs determined the main reason students do not return after their freshman year is because of financial instability for out-of-state students. Kellen Merrigan, a former UA student, who is now an undeclared sophomore at the University of Colorado, Boulder, left for just
5.6% of students from 2010-2011 were academically disqualified (unable to retain above a 2.0 gpa)
Out of 100 students
GRAPHIC BY BRENDAN RICE / DAILY WILDCAT
Sources: Office of Institutional Research and Planning Support and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Jeff Orgera.
that reason. He said it was an easy cost to go to an in-state school. immediately after his freshman year. decision for him to move back to his “The education didn’t seem worth Another reason why students leave, hometown, and pay a fraction of the the price,” said Merrigan, who left Orgera said, is because they don’t fit
in socially or do not like the city of Tucson. Former UA student Kasey Taylor said that is why she left. Taylor is now a marketing sophomore at Arizona State University, and transferred there last year after her first semester. “I didn’t like Tucson,” she said, adding she thought the party scene in Tucson was too much for her to handle. Taylor said it was too hard for her to focus because every day was the same: Go to sleep, wake up, go to class, party and wake up and do it all over again. Taylor said that, although she enjoyed her time at UA and met some interesting and diverse people, she needed something different. Orgera said that about 5.6 percent of freshman each year get academically disqualified from the university. The rate of academic disqualification has dropped about half a percent since the late 90s, he said. He said that academic requirements vary from college to college, but in general it means a student could not retain a grade point average of 2.0 or above. Matt Lewis, an undeclared junior at
RETENTION, 2
Q&A
Prof wins teaching award By Amer Taleb DAILY WILDCAT
WILL FERGUSON / DAILY WILDCAT
Kindle Rising, a speech language pathologist, demonstrates techniques she uses to help stroke patients relearn basic consonant sounds. Rising works for the UA Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences to help patients who have lost some or all of their capacity for speech.
UA receives $2M in funding to study speech impairments By Michelle A. Weiss DAILY WILDCAT
The UA has received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for its next 5-year phase of aphasia research. Aphasia is an acquired impairment of language, said Dr. Pélagie Beeson, head of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. In other words, there’s damage to the part of the brain important for language, she said. That portion of the brain is located on the lateral side of the left hemisphere.
This is the sixth year of aphasia research for the Aphasia Research Project and the next phase will involve written and spoken language, Beeson said. Doctors will work with patients oneon-one and conduct MRI exams for individual examinations. “The science of understanding the brain and how the brain supports language is very interesting,” Beeson said. Depending on each patient’s situation, treatments may include reading, writing words, coming up with names for things and composing
sentences. Vascular disease, The most common cause of aphasia, is most often seen in older adults after a stroke, Beeson said. In a healthy brain, there is an outer core of gray matter and an inner core of white matter. For someone who has had a stroke, neurons may be lost in a specific area. “Over time, it basically looks like a fluid-filled hole in the brain,” Beeson said. Other causes are head injuries or head
GRANT, 2
Group formed to address gender identity Those who struggle with classification encouraged to attend By Michelle A. Weiss DAILY WILDCAT
A new Campus Health Service group will provide therapy, education and support for students struggling with gender identity issues. The weekly Gender Spectrum group launches Thursday on the
third floor of the Campus Health Service building in the administration conference room. Each session costs $5 and may be billed to bursar’s accounts. “It started because we have a number of transgender, gender non-conforming kind of folks who identify along the gender spectrum,” said Jennifer Hoefle, the director for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Affairs. “It’s very much in response to students asking for this kind of
particular support service.” There is a significant number of students who have talked about not being comfortable in their own skin or not fitting in with others, said Martie van der Voort, a mental health clinician at Counseling and Psychological Services. She added that about half of the students she works with deal with gender issues at some point. She said people who don’t fit in may struggle with the gender binary, the idea that there is a clear distinction and differentiation
between male and female. The goal of this group is to allow people to accept and feel comfortable with their own gender and the sessions will target the entire gender spectrum. “I’m extremely excited to see the Gender Spectrum group form and I think it will provide a very necessary resource for our students,” Hoefle said. This group will allow people to
SPECTRUM, 2
Paul Blowers, an associate professor in the department of chemical and environmental engineering, was named the 2011 Arizona Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. National and state winners were recognized for their excellence in undergraduPaul Blowers ate teaching. Daily Wild- associate cat: How does professor, it feel to be chemical and named the 2011 environmental Arizona Profes- engineering sor of the Year? Blowers: It was really surprising. I know so many outstanding instructors across this campus and within my own college that are as good or better at teaching than I am. So surprised, definitely.
AWARD, 2
WORTH
NOTING This day in history
>> 1832: Louisa May Alcott, the American author of the classic “Little Women”, is born. >> 1947: The U.N. passes a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews. >> 1961: Enos the chimp is launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbits Earth twice before returning.
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