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Volume 66 No. 9
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Patterson inagurated as 18th Shippensburg University president Luke Rainey
Staff Contributor
Charles Patterson was inaugurated as the 18th president of Shippensburg University on Oct. 27. The inauguration ceremony, held in the Luhrs Performing Arts Center, punctuated a week of celebrations and campus activities. Shippensburg University students, faculty and distinguished community guests were among those in attendance. Patterson previously held positions at Baylor University, Georgia Southern University, Georgia Southwestern State University and Mansfield University. He began his career at SU as the interim president on June 30, 2021, and was appointed on May 6 this year. The ceremony began with Shippensburg University Community Orchestra’s performance of “Hornpipe.” Doug Harbach, a member of the Council of Trustees, presided over the inauguration. Shippensburg University ROTC provided the presentation of colors and the university’s concert choir sang the national anthem. The Rev. Jan Bye, who recently retired as SU’s United Campus Minister, delivered the invocation. Council of Trustees Vice Chair Antoinette Marchowsky gave the welcome address and 12 additional people provided greetings. President Emeritus Anthony F. Ceddia was featured as a guest speaker. Ceddia is the longest-serving president in the university’s history with a 24-year term. In his speech, Ceddia told the stories of Shippensburg University alumni Jeanne Shaheen, Dean Koontz and Rob Davis.
Seller list 30 times. Davis is a former NFL player of the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, and he is the current assistant head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. “We are the place where magic happens,” Ceddia said. “We have come to love this university because of the way it nurtures aspirational behavior among our students.” Ceddia also praised Patterson’s character and work ethic. “His background is full of success, but more importantly, he is a good man. He loves what he does. He is committed to this institution.” “It’s not about him,” Ceddia said. “It is about this place we call Ship. There could be no stronger testimony than that, and if he lives it … this place will be better for it.” Lt. Gen. Leslie C. Smith also spoke. He was the commander of the 83rd Chemical Battalion and the 3rd Chemical Brigade. Smith served in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Shield and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Smith was the inspector general of the United States Army until he retired in 2021. Smith serves as the vice president for Leadership and Education for the Association of the U.S. Army and the W.E. Carter Chair of Leadership at Georgia State University’s College of Business. Smith described Patterson as “a leader, an educator, a mentor, a friend.” Carmine Scicchitano/The Slate “His knowledge, his skills and his abilities,” Smith said, President Patterson addressed the audience. “have placed him in the place where he needs to be right now today: leading and developing Shippensburg University.” Shaheen is a United States senior senator in New Hampshire and has held the office for 13 years. She previously Story continues on A2 served as the state’s governor from 1997 to 2003. Koontz is a novelist whose books have topped The New York Times’ Best
Queen Street shooting leaves one dead Seth Turner
Asst. News Editor
Around 2 a.m. on Nov. 6, police responded to a verbal altercation on the corner of North Queen Street and Coover Avenue in
Shippensburg. The altercation escalated and resulted in a suspect firing shots. The victim later died from the gunshot wounds. The male suspect who fired the shots remained on the scene until officers arrived. This investigation is
still active. The victim was identified as Milton D. Washington, a 29-year-old Harrisburg resident. Those close to him knew him as “BJ”, and he leaves behind two children. The Slate reached out to the Pennsylvania
Statee Police for more information, but was unable to get in contact with officers involved in the investigation. Pennsylvania State Police are encouraging anyone who witnessed or has video evidence of the incident to contact PSP Carlisle at 717-249-2121.
Discrepancies in the University-101 curriculum
Connor Niszczak Asst. Copy Editor
“If University 101 is a student’s hardest course, we are not doing our job.” Alex Karlheim, Director of First Year Experience (FYE) at Shippensburg University, sees those words as a professional mantra. Karlheim helped develop University 101 (UNIV 101) and supervises the dozens of Peer Anchors that work to help incoming firstyear students transition to the college atmosphere. Each fall, Karlheim and the FYE faculty co-coordinators hear from students who struggle to see the value of the course and occasionally deal with professors who teach material not aligned with the goals of UNIV 101. ”We do a lot of follow-ups, and they usually say ‘I have other hard courses, and this is the course I don’t focus on.’ In my professional opinion, it takes work to fail University 101. It shouldn’t be your hardest course,” Karlheim said. According to the FYE website, UNIV 101 is based on the following four objectives: Cultivating Aca-
demic Success, Engaging With the University Community, Fostering Personal Development and Wellness, and Promoting Understanding of Diversity and Social Responsibility. “UNIV 101’s blanketed goal is to serve as the promise that students do not have to go through their first semester alone and that our job is to connect students to resources, to connect them to peer group and to provide transitional materials,” Karlheim said. The goal of UNIV 101 sounds relatively straightforward, but factor in several dozen faculty that each brings a unique background and field of expertise to the course, and classes could quickly stray from the core objectives. To limit this, the faculty co-coordinators and experienced UNIV 101 professors worked to construct a model syllabus, which was implemented for the first time this semester. This includes a checklist of things that “should be common elements of all classes,” such as three reflection essays, a one-on-one meeting between each student and their peer anchor, a
meeting with the career center to craft a resume and attendance at two campus events. There is also a general weekly schedule so that all students are learning the same things at relatively similar times. For example, Week 7 is when students should be taught about the registration and scheduling process, and they should know what early warning grades are. “Three things have to happen: reflection essays (we have to collect essays at random to evaluate 101 effectiveness), anonymous pre and post-test surveys and a general weekly schedule,” Karlheim said. Professors still have the flexibility to add their flair to how they teach the course, but Karlheim explained that moving towards a more standardized curriculum helps limit comparisons between students. What University 101 does not aim to do is have one student tour the Ceddia Union Building, walk on the Rail Trail and do the Ropes Course while their roommate sits in a classroom and takes notes for the entire semester. Not each professor will opt into every available experience,
Seth Turner/The Slate
The Dauphin Humanities Center, where UNIV-101 is commonly held.
but standardizing the course makes it more equal across the board. “I like the standardized portion of it because it gives all freshmen the same concepts, so even though the professor may teach it differently than someone’s friend or roommate, it still gives them the same idea,” peer anchor Lindsey Foor said. However, some professors still stray from the guidelines. One first-year student, who asked to remain anonymous, took a test in their University 101 class that was composed of mostly biology questions. One question asked about how old the Earth is, another asked what varsity sport their peer anchor is involved with and a third asked what the ”central question or theme” of the course is — the correct answer was marked as ”science and a sustainable world.” “[I think my first weeks of class would have been] better, because I wouldn’t have gotten a 67%. This is the class I am doing the worst in. Besides science notes, I’ve gotten nothing [out of University 101],” the student said. This is a stark contrast to the of-
ficial goals of the course mentioned above and is not a standard firstyear experience in the course. In one recent FYE Assessment Survey, a student said that UNIV 101 helped them learn about the available resources and that “I really got to know how college works, which was really helpful for a first-generation student.” Depending on how and to whom the issue is raised, the professor in question will have a meeting with the department chair or one of the Faculty Co-Coordinators, Karlheim explained. According to Dr. Laurie Cella, one of the faculty co-coordinators of the FYE Program, these are productive meetings, where they discuss how the course is going and ways to incorporate resources and presentations that would support students. A time window will then be provided for the professor to make any necessary changes; if that does not happen, that professor may not be asked back to teach UNIV 101. Story continues on A2
Seth Turner/The Slate
An empty classroom in the Dauphin Humanities Center.