Trinitonian SERVING TRINITY UNIVERSITY SINCE 1902 s WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
VOLUME 109, ISSUE 26 s April 20, 2012
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Earth day activities promote greener space
What’s Inside
Learning a lesson Marc Ellis speaks on lessons of the Holocaust during lecture Page 11
photo by Purushottam Shah
photo by Kendra Moloney
Handle with care Check out our run-down of Earth Day festivities you won’t want to miss Page 15
University is raising prices and standards n New scholarship requirements and tuition increase will go into effect at the end of the spring semester by Kenneth Caruthers Intern
Serving it up Tennis team plays through a tough weekend, winning two out of three home matches Page 19
WEEKEND WEATHER High High High
Friday 80° Low
54°
Saturday 52° 73° Low 42° Sunday 81° Low 59°
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Various activies around the Trinity campus marked Earth Week 2012. The Trinity Trash Hill event (above) on Monday and Tuesday collected all of Monday’s trash from around campus to create a visual representation of the amount of waste the university is producing. On Wednesday, a lecture given by David E. Shi, president emeritus of Furman University, explored ways to control consumption and prepare for a future with less global resources.
Effective at the end of this semester, Trinity University is implementing an increase in tuition and new scholarship requirements for students. Trinity students will be required to maintain a 2.5 cumulative grade point average or better to renew academic scholarships. Previously, Trinity students had to maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA or better to retain their academic scholarships. In addition to this scholarship change, Trinity is also increasing the tuition beginning in the fall semester by 4.5 percent. Christopher Ellertson, the associate vice president for Enrollment and Student Retention, explained that Trinity decided to change its academic scholarship GPA requirement after comparing it to those of other higher education institutions. “We changed the renewal criteria because we want to provide students with an opportunity to be successful here and not to lose their scholarship
support,” Ellertson said. “If you take a look at our merit scholarships, we did a survey of like institutions, and that change is actually more consistent with what other institutions do. The students that we offer scholarships to contain a higher percentage of those who would be able to retain their scholarship with a 2.5 versus the 3.0 renewal criteria. A lot of students will come in and some will struggle with the transition in that first year from high school to college because there are certain areas of academic rigor that will be very demanding that first year.” Ellertson also explained that the change is meant to benefit students and encourage them to take harder classes that they might have shied away from in the past. “We want students to take the most challenging courses possible. We don’t want students to back away from challenging courses or have advisors not recommend courses out of fear of losing a scholarship,” Ellertson said. The Financial Aid Office will monitor this new standard at the end of each academic year. If a student fails to meet the standard yet demonstrates sufficient financial need, they will convert the scholarship to need-based grant. n See TUITION Page 3
photo by Purushottam Shah
Teachers from Germany socialize at an event earlier this week as part of a twoweek seminar on campus.
Trinity hosts seminar
16 teachers from Germany recently converged on the Trinity campus for “The Fulbright Teachers Seminar on Diversity in U.S. Education” from April 7-21. They spent two weeks at Trinity and around San Antonio to learn about cultural diversity, especially as it pertains to education. During the seminar, the German teachers attended presentations and discussions with experts, including Trinity professors, and got hands-on experiences at area schools. The university won a national competition, beating out cofinalist Penn State, for the honor of hosting the seminar. As a part of the cultural exchange which the Fulbright program fosters, an American group of teachers will spend two weeks at the University of Tubingen later in the summer.