uiargonaut.com
Tuesday. November 10, 2015
VETERANS DAY
enrollment
Enrollment down again UI sees enrollment slip but an increase with in-state freshman students Ryan Tarinelli Argonaut
The UI campus has a tight-knit community of veterans, and Torres said he has become close with many people since he started spending time at the Office of Veterans Assistance. “It’s somewhere you can hide out and be away from the hustle and bustle of people,” Torres said. “It’s a little slice of heaven.” Torres said he often spends time in the veterans office working on homework or talking to other veterans. Cole Julson, who served in the Marines, said he has made many friends with other veterans on campus through the veterans office and through joining other organizations, such as the Veterans of Foreign War (VFW). “There are just some things that are way easier to talk to those guys about because they were there with me,” Julson said.
Overall enrollment at the University of Idaho is down this semester, partially due to a decrease in transfer students, said Jean Kim, vice provost for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. “It didn’t strike me as a surprise that the transfer (student) market was down,” Kim said. UI reported a 1.4 percent decline in overall student enrollment this semester compared to fall 2014, according to a university statement released Friday. The decline brings UI’s overall student enrollment to 11,372, down from 11,534 students last fall. Despite the overall slip, UI saw a 1.2 percent increase in enrollment of in-state undergraduate freshman this semester. UI also reported an increase in international student enrollment and duel-credit student enrollment. “I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Kim said. “We’ve sort of stabilized the ship.” Kim said administrators will use this year’s enrollment numbers as a baseline going forward as they work toward President Chuck Staben’s goal of doubling student enrollment in 10 years. “I am very optimistic that we can make progress toward that,” Kim said of the goal. To increase transfer student enrollment, Kim said UI started the VandaLink program, which encourages students at Idaho community colleges to continue their education at UI. VandaLink has been established at College of Western Idaho, North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho, Kim said. VandaLink, she said, will have an impact on future enrollment numbers and will ensure a stronger connection between UI and Idaho’s community colleges.
SEE SERVED, PAGE 5
SEE down, PAGE 5
File photo Nick Groff | Argonaut
Members of the University of Idaho Army ROTC present the colors for the National Anthem before kick-off at a Vandals game in 2011 for Military Appreciation Day. The Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony will start at 11:11 a.m. Wednesday at the Memorial Gym.
To those who served Veterans Day provides a time to honor those who have served our country Jessica Gee Argonaut
Although the forecast calls for showers, the weather won’t matter during the wreath-laying ceremony outside the front steps of the Memorial Gym Wednesday. The Veterans Day ceremony, set for 11:11 a.m. sharp, will honor and recognize all those who have served in the U.S. military. Julson “We do that because we know that Veterans have served all over the world in all kinds of temperature and climate extremes and they have fought and died in those same extremes,” said Daniel Button, University of Idaho veterans
adviser. “We believe that it is only appropriate for us to conduct the ceremony outside regardless of the elements of the weather.” Button said during the five years he has been at UI, he has been continuously involved with coordinating and advertising Veterans Day events. Veteran Aaron Torres said he will likely be spending Veterans Day working on homework. Torres, 25, said he served in the U.S. Army for four years and now is hoping to get his degree in business. “I don’t like to think of it as just being my day,” Torres Hopman said of Veterans Day. “It’s for all of the brothers and sisters who have done their service for the country.” Torres said he was deployed to Iraq during his time in the Army and was a part of the Airborne Infantry.
asui
Securing a union ASUI Senate pushes to change name of commons to reflect current use Nishant Mohan Argonaut
If it’s used like a student union, paid for like a student union and run like a student union, it is probably a student union. That’s the opinion of ASUI Sen. Brianna Larsen, co-sponsor of a resolution that ASUI Senate passed last month to change the name of the Idaho Commons Building to the Idaho Commons and Union Building. Larsen said the name change was an appropriate response to functional changes that have occurred over time since the building of the commons in 2004. “The commons already functions as a student space,” Larsen said. “All that’s missing is a lounge and a name.” Additionally, Larsen said student fees pay for more than half the cost to run the building and payed for more than half the cost to build it. She said a name change helps to recognize
that reality. Larsen said changes in function have been gradual, but the change did not become necessary until the old Student Union Building was renamed the Bruce Pitman Center last year. “We are one of the only schools without a designated student union building,” she said. “And that is bad.” ASUI Sen. Katelyn Bartles said the university already has recruitment issues when students compare UI’s commons building to Washington State University’s larger and more fleshed out Compton Union Building. She said this becomes worse for students without the opportunity to visit and find that UI appears to have no designated student union building. “I’m a senior, and I have never considered the Pitman Center a SUB,” she said. Bartles, who was chair of the Idaho Commons board last year, said the name change may also affect conversations about use of space in the commons. SEE union, PAGE 5
CAMPUS
Award-winning poet to visit UI Allison Joseph will spend this week in Moscow, take part in public reading Diamond Koloski Argonaut
Poetry will take center stage in the English Department this week as award-winning poet Allison Joseph visits campus for the Distinguished Visiting Writers series. Joseph will give a public reading at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Borah Theater in the Bruce Pitman Center. The event is free and open to the public. Robert Wrigley, a UI poetry professor, said has met Joseph in the past and is excited for her visit. “We chose her because she is an exceptionally fine poet,” Wrigley said. “She is widely acknowledged as one of the country’s most generous, rigorous and talented teachers of writing.”
The purpose of the with graduate stuARG Distinguished Visitdents and commuing Writers series is to nity members. For more news expose UI students to He said the content, visit uiargonaut.com established and successEnglish committee ful writers. Yet Wrigley looks for someone said student writers who can work aren’t the only ones who reap the with different types of writers or benefits from the series, which poets, and spends a great amount also extends to the community. of time considering who would Bret Shepard, MFA program be best to invite to campus for director, said he believes Joseph the series. will do a great job of helping the “Everyone has their own program celebrate this week of projects they are working on, so poetry on campus. we look for someone who can Joseph’s week will include read across the genre, and that’s teaching a workshop to UI one of the qualities I believe graduate students, a public Allison will bring to the stureading and a craft workshop dents,” Shepard said. with Wrigley. Canese Jarboe is an MFA The craft conversation graduate student who will inbetween Joseph and Wrigley will troduce Joseph to the auditake place at 4 p.m. Tuesday in ence during her public reading. the Shoup Hall Arena Theatre. Jarboe said she is eager to play The conversation is free and a larger part in the literary comopen to the public. munity by helping to facilitate Shepard said the program events like these. looks for great writers who can interact and communicate well SEE POET, PAGE 5
IN THIS ISSUE
Idaho volleyball beats EWU on senior night, takes top spot in Big Sky North. sports, 6 News, 1
Sports, 6
Opinion, 9
Students should find value in attending guest speaker events. Read Our View.
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Opinion, 9 University of Idaho
@uiargonaut Volume 117, Issue no. 24
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