the davidsonian
OCTOBER 7, 2015 VOL. 108 ISSUE 5
The Independent Student Newspaper of Davidson College since 1914
New reps elected to SGA and Honor Council
Inside NEWS On-campus housing costs questioned and defended 2 Homecoming King and Queen elected 2 LIVING DAVIDSON
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Movie review recaps “The Intern”4 First main stage performance this Fall goes Greek 4 PERSPECTIVES Ethan Whitener thanks the grounds crew 5 (Clockwise from top left) Freshman Senators My Doan, Ezan Karim, Elif Kaya, Sev Stier, Aman Madan and Grant Koehl. Photos by Shea Parikh.
College clarifies workload expectations STEFFANEY WOOD Senior Staff Writer This semester, Davidson published its expectations for students’ workloads, defining them as “at least 48 total hours of academic work each week in a fifteen-week semester” for a four-course schedule. According to Registrar Angie Dewberry, these expectations are not new, but this is the first time they have been explicitly defined. They are published in the Academic Program and Policies of the 2015-16 College Catalog. In addition to specifying specific numbers of hours that students are expected to devote to coursework, the definition also states that “students are typically expected to engage in academic activities outside of the scheduled time in class. Depending on the nature of the course, some meet for longer sessions in person, while others include more out of class work. The expectation is that regardless of the individual design of the course, each course has a total workload of at least twelve hours per week.”
The college needed to publish an official definition in order for its accreditation to be reaffirmed in 2017, the next time Davidson is set to be accredited. The accreditation process, according to the U.S. Department of Education, assures the quality of higher education curricula. The college receives its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which accredits schools and colleges in the southeastern United States. Davidson was first accredited by the association in 1917, and reaccreditation typically takes place every ten years. The 2017 reaffirmation of accreditation will mark the centennial anniversary of the college’s first accreditation by SACS. The accreditation process by SACS focuses on mission standards, governance, curriculum, and student learning. The organization also oversees peer schools such as Washington and Lee University and Furman University. “As you probably know, other schools calculate the credit students receive for courses dif-
ferently than Davidson does,” explained Shelley Rigger, Assistant Dean of Curriculum and political science professor. Many other institutions use hours or credit hours instead of course credits. “In order to be accredited as giving credit for the same amount of learning that other schools do, we need to provide a definition of a credit hour that aligns with the definitions others use. The definition we are providing is a description of what we already do,” Rigger continued. The learning outcomes outlined on course syllabi are part of the new credit definition as well. Course credit is awarded after “successful completion” of these learning outcomes. “Davidson is doing more sustained and substantial learning outcomes assessment as part of this reaccreditation,” English professor Shireen Campbell said. “Learning outcomes [are basically] what students should be able to do as a result
Jose Balcazar and Jennie Goodell suggest improvements to campus composting 5 YOWL Student discovers Davidson’s Chamber of Secrets 6 Enthusiastic freshman invites all International students home 6 SPORTS Men’s cross country has strong weekend in Louisville 7 Volleyball captain Mikayla Derochie talks season and her career 8
See WEEKLY on page 3
Student-developed app makes sustainable dining interactive COLLEEN KARLOVICH Staff Writer Have you ever wanted to know the Commons menu right when you get out of class? Or if Carrburritos composts their scraps? What about the meal plan hours for the Davis Café? There’s an app for that! Foodscape, an iOS app created by students working with the Sustainability Office over the summer, offers answers to all these questions and more. Steffaney Wood ‘18 explained that “the purpose of the app is to inform students and the community of sustainable food practices among on-campus and local venues, while at the same time creating a convenient way to establish dish preferences.” The app, available on iTunes, contains information regarding the sustainability efforts made by each of the dining services, which include Commons, Davis Café and Main Street restaurants Fork!, Pickled Peach and Carrburritos. The Sustainability Office hopes to encourage more, if not all, the restaurants on Main Street to participate. For each of these venues, Foodscape
provides the restaurant’s hours, dishes (often including pictures), prices, phone number, address, a brief description and website. Foodscape also assigns icons to every restaurant and dish to inform students and community members about the dining services’ sustainability efforts. Kaity Anstorm, a recent graduate who has been working on the app, clarifies: “To be truly sustainable, it can’t just be environmental, like most people think.” The restaurant must also demonstrate economic, social, and environmental awareness to achieve a true sustainability status. These icons range indicate features from using certified-organic Bird Friendly coffee —like Commons does — to encouraging employees to participate in volunteering. Anstorm shares, “The icons are so cool because it’s finally increasing transparency [...] There are some restaurants that have decided to make some changes to how they are running their restaurants, so they’ve started to do composting and started to do more volun-
See FOODSCAPE on page 3
Use Foodscape to view the menu at Commons and learn about the College’s sustainable food practices. Photo byScott Cunningham.