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October 23, 2007
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Vol. 80 Issue #8
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Free Access to Ideas... Full Freedom of Expression
Inappropriate Use of Free Period Comes Under Scrutiny By Barry Nickerson Anchor Editor According to the Rhode Island College Student Handbook, Free Period is defined as “every Wednesday from 12:30-2 p.m.” This is “a time slot during which classes are not scheduled” to promote involvement on campus. For Junior Casey Gaul, Anchor Layout Editor, class during Free Period has been a problem for two semesters. She has taken a class this fall during Free Period and is scheduled to take another in the spring: Art 227. “It’s tough being a socially active editor of the newspaper when a class during Free Period keeps me away from the weekly staff meeting,” said Gaul, a Graphic Communications major. Sophomore Joseph Roberge, the current Anchor Arts & Entertainment Editor and president of RIC Otaku, was frustrated at having class during free period last year. The class he took, COMM 232 (Intro. to Graphic Communications Tech.), was offered on Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m.1:50 p.m. “It prevented me from attending organizational meetings for clubs I was a part of, especially since it was during my first semester here and the class was for my major,” said Roberge, who founded RIC Otaku last year. Classes during the established Free Period are, according to the RIC handbook, not supposed to be held. Students with class during Free Period are unable to attend events such as Student Activities Day, Freebie Wednesdays and the various workshops that are held at that time. Rhode Island College President John Nazarian said he was “disappointed” that
classes were being held during the Free Period. “Wednesday from 12:30-2 p.m. is a class-free period,” said Nazarian. “I didn’t know that classes are scheduled at that time.” Nazarian said that he does not endorse these classes and that he did not sign off on them. “That has not been authorized by this office,” he said. He said Free Period was “created specifically to schedule certain kinds of functions on this campus.” Otherwise, students “would not benefit from the services offered by this college.” “I would not approve” of the scheduling of classes during Free Period, he said. “That is against the policy of the College. Classes are not supposed to be scheduled at that time.” Kristen Salemi, director of Student Activities, was unaware that classes were being held during that time. “It was my understanding that Free Period was an intentional time that the College administration had set aside long ago for out-of-classroom experiences,” said Salemi. “I am sure that mounting demands for additional classes and facilities have driven the need to begin scheduling classes at that time, but hope that the new trend is discussed for re-evaluation,” she said. Which classes are held during Free Period? During the past three years, classes that were scheduled at that time were all Graphic Communications and Art courses, including Introduction to Graphic Communications (Spring 2005, Fall 2006), a Topics course (COMM/FILM 450 in Spring 2005) and Introduction to Art Education
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Great Teaching Puts Rhode Island College On the Map By David Matrisciano Anchor Editor This week, almost every Rhode Island College student will enroll for classes. Most students here go to two websites when they enroll. The first is obviously RIC’s Online Services. The second is www.ratemyprofessors.com. This website gives an overview on the professors you are going to choose, with reviews by other students who have taken courses with the professor. It is quite simple. The professors are rated on a scale of one to five in four different categories. The four categories are easiness, helpfulness, clarity, and the rater’s interest. The latter is how interested in this subject the rater was when they took the course. There is also another category that is optional; the hotness total. This website has 574 of RIC’s teachers on file. Donna Christy, a mathematics professor at RIC has had the honor of being ranked number three in the country by her students out of more than one million other professors in the United States. Ratemyprofessors.com is run by mtvU, a television channel that is on a vast majority of campuses in the country. The methodology of ranking these professors as quoted by the actually website is as follows: “RateMyProfessors.com uses a five-point Likert scale, as well as a binary scoring system, for student-generated professor ratings. For each of the professor lists, each individual rating value was first standardized around its mean. Using the standardized scores from the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 to date, weighted scores were computed using the following weights: 15% for 2005, 25% for 2006 and 60% for 2007. The weighted score reflects a combined, long-term performance rating of just over a two-and-one-half years, with an emphasis on the most recent ratings.” For full details on how the top lists are compiled, visit http://www.rate-
myprofessors.com/methodolog.jsp. To give a background on Christy, she is a RIC alumna with a double major B.A in mathematics and eco-
Photo Courtesy of Barry Nickerson
nomics in 1979. She received her M.A.T from RIC in 1985. She rounded off her education with a Ph.D. in math education from Boston University in 1989. She says that she tells students while picking classes that “sometimes students like a teacher, sometimes they don’t. The students should take what fits and, in the case of the math department, everyone in the department cares. ”She also told us that the math department here at Rhode Island College has several teaching awards by student evaluation. She also said that one thing that the department focuses on is accreditation; mainly because this is the best school for teaching in the state. She also said that “it’s great to get RIC on the map. It’s never about me. It’s about the students, the college, and the department. The department has high respect, good cooperation throughout. All have a tremendous regard from their students.” One of her points she pointed out was that “students make us want to come in. Our job is to show that you care and make class fun; make it like a community. I tell my students: leave everything at the door and come in for two hours or so of relaxation and learning.” One RIC student that gave Christy great reviews said, “I would have never taken calculus unless it was with her. She is there to help. There’s a lot of homework but she is so flexible on when you hand it in. You can hand it in whenever you want and she doesn’t mind. There is no pressure in her class. There are quizzes and a lab or two but they help you for the tests. She tells you exactly what is going to be on the test.” Another said, “Dr. Christy is by far the best professor that I have ever had in school; not just in college. She made math fun and educational and her tests are easy as long you study. She is so helpful and caring and she just makes math a fun subject. She really knows what she is doing and I would refer her to everyone who needs to take math 143 or 144.”