QUChronicle.com September 4, 2013 Volume 83 Issue 2 Proud recipient of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors' award for 2012 & 2013 College Newspaper of the Year
sports Men’s soccer preview, page 16
opinion Going Greek can wait, page 6
Arts & life Make cafe food fancy, page 11
QU hopes to continue growth with largest freshmen class By amanda hoskins Staff Writer
With an overwhelming number of 1,835 students, this year’s freshmen class is now the largest that Quinnipiac University has seen, and this may not be the largest for much longer. Quinnipiac is expanding each year, according to Vice President for Admissions and Financial Aid Joan Isaac Mohr. With the new engineering school, the university now has more to offer students. “Growth in this year’s class is really due to growth in the school of health sciences and the fact that we have a new engineering program,” Mohr said. Last year’s incoming class had 1,787 students, according to Mohr. She says the university hopes to have at least 1,800 students in next year’s incoming freshman class, with roughly 200 transfer students. She says the university hopes to soon have an enrollment of about 7,000 undergraduate students.
Although there may not be enough room on the Mount Carmel campus, the York Hill campus has the ability to expand by a few hundred students, according to Mohr. With more students being enrolled, diversity begins to overtake the Residence Halls. Mohr proudly announced that 18 percent of freshmen identify themselves as students of color. In the freshmen class alone, students have come from 27 different states and 30 different countries around the globe. Students’ majors in the freshmen class are scattered among the wide variety of choices that the university offers. Twenty-six percent of students entered the School of Business and Engineering, 28 percent selected a major within the College of Arts and Sciences, 30 percent in the School of Health Sciences and 6 percent in the School of Nursing. However, the number of students in the School of Communications has decreased by 10 percent.
9%
26%
6%
School distribution College of Arts and Sciences School of Nursing School of Communications School of Business and School of Engineering School of Health Sciences
28%
31%
“I think each of the schools sort of follows whatever the current trends are job wise, as students apply,” Mohr said. With the nationwide financial mess in 2008, fewer students applied to the business program. At the time when health jobs were not as avail-
Illustration by Matt Eisenberg/Chronicle
Quinnipiac welcomed its largest freshmen class of 1,835 students this year.
able, fewer students applied to the School of Health Sciences, according to Mohr. Although the university as a whole does not need to fear the amount of incoming students, the School of Communications hopes to work on increasing the number of students that enroll.
Enrollment in communications at colleges and universities leveled off not only here at Quinnipiac, but across the country, according to the Dean of the School of Communications Lee Kamlet. See ADMISSIONS Page 4
Public Safety unveils Departments improve campus diversity new decal system News Editor
By julia perkins News Editor
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The Public Safety Department will initiate its new parking decal system, developed by Adirondack Solutions, within the next two weeks, according to Chief of Public Safety David Barger. Students will now have a barcode with the decal system on their parking sticker, which Public Safety can scan, according to Barger. “[The barcode] gives us all the information on that particular vehicle so we can tell if it is not the right vehicle, if it is a duplicate decal or something like that,” Barger said. There are six different types of decals: Hilltop, Westwoods, Whitney Village, Commuter, York Hill and Senior, Barger said. Each driver will have a four digit number preceded by
the letter “S” on his or her decal. The decals will also be color coded by year. Seniors will have a burnt orange color on the top and juniors will have the color red on top. In the past, if a student or staff member parked illegally, Public Safety had to look up the violator’s decal number in a database and leave a ticket on the person’s car. Sometimes these tickets would get lost or get damaged due to the weather, Barger said. The new system will allow Public Safety to scan the violator’s barcode and issue him or her an electronic ticket. A copy of this ticket is emailed to the violator, the Bursar’s office and Public Safety, Barger said. “This is just a more efficient way of doing things and it is both for us and for the violator,” Barger said.
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Students now have a barcode on their parking decal. Public Safety will be able to scan the barcode to get information on the vehicle.
Quinnipiac University developed a plan to promote diversity on campus after the New England Association of Schools and Colleges reported how the university could improve its commitment to diversity. The association that grants accreditation to public and private schools’ report in December 2009 stated: “an infused approach with a foundation of data to inform decision-making and preparation for a diverse student body will be helpful in enhancing the cultural sensitivity of the staff and faculty through training and development.” After this report, the university launched the Strategic Plan for Inclusiveness, Multiculturalism and Globalism in Education (IMaGinE). This template explains how each department on campus can become more respectful of difference, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer Diane Ariza said. The plan focuses on the goals of growth and sustainability, campus climate and accountability. Beginning this September, each department, or unit, will begin to create their own IMaGinE Plan. The units will have a liaison to the IMaGinE advisory board, who will help the departments formulate a draft of their plan by April. The intent of these plans is to figure out where the units want to be in
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the future. This academic year, the class of 2017 is made of 18 percent of underrepresented students, which is the highest yet, Ariza said. However, the IMaGinE Plan is about more than just increasing the number of minority students on campus. “Just having a diverse population does not provide you with a more well-rounded global citizen,” she said. “You have to have faculty that know how to ask the questions. You have to have extracurricular activities that get students out of their comfort zone. Checking the box is not going to get us far. That gives us some ammunition to provide some experience, but it’s the depth of un-
“Just having a diverse population does not provide you with a more well-rounded global citizen.”
— Diane Ariza Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer
derstanding.” Last year, the School of Communications, the Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine, Residential Life and the Department of Cultural and Global Education piloted the IMaGinE idea and created their own plans. These units will share
connect
By JULIA PERKINS
The Quinnipiac Chronicle
their experiences and give advice to the other departments as they try to form their individual plans. Ariza also wants to get students involved by using social media and reaching out to student organizations. “We’re looking at trying to engage our student leaders from Greek life, student government, the student paper and the multicultural student organizations to lead by example,” Ariza said. “We are trying to have these leaders think about what message do they want to be sending to their constituents.” President of the Black Student Union Ashaa Russell will meet with leaders from the major student organizations on campus, such as Greek life, the Student Government Association and the multicultural organizations to discuss the IMaGinE Plan. In the long term, Russell will reach out to other organizations and the general student population. Russell said the IMaGinE Plan will not completely change what the organizations want to do. “Instead, each unit or organization should ask themselves, ‘what are some changes that I can make within my agenda for this school year that will accomplish the goals of the Imagine Plan?’” Russell said. “Sometimes the smaller things have a bigger and have a more lasting effect afterward. The Imagine Plan shouldn’t drastic[ly] change the orSee DIVERSITY Page 3
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