3.3.16 The Yellow Jacket

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INSID E: HO W THE UNIV ERSIT Y P L A NS FOR HOUSING OV ERFLOW. S E E A3

MARCH 3, 2016 | VOL. 93 NO. 14 | EST. 1924

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Fourth credit service option now counts for SLR requirement By JOHN LYDIC Staff Writer

A revamped academic option is set to begin next Fall semester, according to one university official. The fourth credit option for service learning has been available to students previously, but it had not counted

for the general education credit requirement. That is set to change, according to Dr. Marie Leichliter-Krause, associate dean for First-Year Programs. “Now that it has gone through, students can use the fourth credit option as their general education credit course,” said Leichli-

ter-Krause. “So students who don’t want to take Service Learning 105 or Service Learning 106—our mission trip option—can now use the fourth credit option to work within their major. That’s the biggest, most significant change.” The fourth credit option allow students to plan out a

service opportunity that ties into their area of academic study or an area of interest to them. They can add the service project to an upper-level class in their major, with the help of their professor, and add one credit to the course. “Now students can do that component or whatever they design in their field, working

with a faculty member and then getting it approved,” said Leichliter-Krause. “They can then really design something that is relevant and useful for them.” This is a change the Office of Academic Affairs and Student Services has been working on for some time, according to Leichliter-Krause.

It was recently approved by the administration, and will be offered to all students beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. Leichliter-Krause wanted to make sure students understand that this change to the fourth credit option puts the SLR >> A4

Lee: Movement in Security: 'We understand' the parking problem senior staff a sign DPS anticipates of growth, progess more demand MORE CARS ON CAMPUS

By KIMMI BASTON Executive Editor

Last week, Waynesburg University President Douglas Lee announced two staff position changes at the senior administration level of the university. Mary Cummings, formerly senior vice president for Student Services and Enrollment, will become Vice President for Graduate Programs. The Rev. Jim Tinnemeyer, vice president for Faith and Mission and university chaplain, will enter the role of Vice President for Student Services while retaining his two current roles. The decision to move Cummings and Tinnemeyer into these roles, according to Cummings, was based the need for development in the university’s Graduate and Professional Studies (GAPS) program. “The group of people there is doing a great job. They’re stretched in a lot of directions and there’s a lot of new competition, and so [we’re] really trying to step back and do a strategic planning process first,” said Cummings. “What do we need to do to make sure that we continue to keep Waynesburg University in the forefront and a leader in graduate programs in the area?” Lee said he was faced with a dichotomous decision when the need in Graduate Programs was recognized – whether to ADMIN >> A3

Author shares story of Nigerian scientist's battle against NFL By KIMMI BASTON Executive Editor

It was in his family home in Nigeria that Dr. Bennet Omalu’s story began. It was in a morgue in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, that he unknowingly altered his entire life with his own curiosity. It was in his Pittsburgh apartment that the brain of an ex-NFL football player vaulted him into the spotlight. And it was in all of these places that author and journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas found the story she knew she must tell, no matter the consequences. Laskas, an award-winning writer and professor at the University of Pittsburgh, visited Waynesburg University on Monday, Feb. 29, to tell the story of how she and Omalu, a neuropathologist, took his ground-breaking Omalu research from anonymity to a movie starring actor Will Smith. “Concussion,” a movie based on the nonfiction book by Laskas, details Omalu’s journey from examining one NFL player’s brain to discovering a serious brain condition brought about as a result of repeated football injuries. Omalu’s research shows a protein in the brains of deOMALU >> A4

for parking with off-campus ban By JACOB MEYER Sports Editor

According to Director of Public Safety Michael Humiston, the university has sold more than 710 eligible 201516 parking passes. Humiston also said there are 338 total parking spaces across the nearly 25 campus lots. Humiston does not have concerns for having more than twice as many parking passes than allotted spaces, as he referenced that not all 700 people are on campus at once. Mary Cummings, who was Vice President of Student Services at the time of interview, admits that Waynesburg University has “a perceived parking problem, as do most other universities.” “I don’t think it’s just with students either, but faculty and staff perceive a problem as well. Like many things, I think a lot of things happen on perspective and frame of reference,” Cummings said. “Having come here from Carnegie Mellon University, I don’t think we have a parking problem at all. Personally, I had to walk a lot farther, had to pay a ton more and spend a lot

Tyler Wolfe and Ashley Hall, Yellow Jacket

With snow on the ground and without, students and faculty often struggle to find legal parking spots on Waynesburg's campus. more time looking for parking spaces there.” The price for a parking decal is $20 from August to the following August. “If you compare us to other institutions, we’re cheaper than most. Some of that tradeoff of it being cheaper is that parking on campus is limited,” Humiston said. “So, it’s basically a hunting pass; it doesn’t assure you that you’re going to have a guaranteed parking slot on campus, because we just don’t have the room for that.” An increase in price could bring down the number of students who buy parking passes, which Cummings said is something the administration has considered in the past. “Sitting here as a business

person, we could probably get to a more complicated pricing model, of paying for reserve spots, paying for premium lots versus secondary, etc.,” Cummings said. “It would probably take more resources to try to figure out and make all of those complexities work, and detract from some other thing that someone is working on right now.”

With the implementation of the four-year residency policy, in which no student at Waynesburg who matriculated after 2013 can live off campus, Humiston said there will be more students, and thus more cars, on campus. “I’m anticipating that, absolutely. There’s only so much PARKING >> A4

Middle States, internal goals reflected in calendar Future schedules show 3-week winter break, early graduation By JACOB MEYER Sports Editor

B eginning with the 2014-15 academic calendar, Waynesburg University adjusted its academic schedule. Ensuring 14 total weeks for instruction in both semesters, adding a fall break and reducing the winter

break from four weeks to three weeks were the main changes the university made. To remain an accredited institution with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Mary Cummings, who was Vice President of Student Services at the time of interview, said the university must have at least 14 weeks of instruction in both the Fall and Spring semesters. “With the new administration that came at [the time of accreditation], they reviewed everything with Middle States making

2016-17 Calendar StatS 3 WeeKS of Winter BreaK Jan. 9: Spring SemeSter ClaSSeS Start

april 30: graduation sure we had the appropriate amount of class time and the appropriate weeks for the semester,” Registrar Vicki Wilson said. The fall break was imple-

mented, according to Cummings, to give the students a mid-semester break, with the hopes that students better utilize that week to go on mission trips. In regards to the shortened winter break, Cummings said that it is not related to any accreditation standard or improved mission trip opportunity but to accomplish the university’s goal of ending the semester close to May 1 every year. Since the semester ends a week later in the fall, due to the implementation of CALENDAR >> A2

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ON OVERDOSES

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Washington County is increasing efforts to provide access to Narcan, a drug that reverses drug overdoses, for members of the community in addition to first responders.

One student, Sarah Knapp, voiced her opinion to the Yellow Jacket about why she belives the university should invest money into a campus swimming pool.

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INSIDE

RECORD-BREAKING RACE

COLLEGE IS A TIME FOR NEW THINGS

Sophomore Elinore Loch broke the Waynesburg and Presidents' Athletic Conference indoor 800-meter dash record last Saturday at the indoor track and field championships.

Freshman Rebecca Strang moves outside of her comfort zone as she enters the Miss Pennsylvania pageant competition.

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Campus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . A1–A4 Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1, B4 Editorial/Op-ed. . . . . . . . B2 News Digest. . . . . . . . . . B3 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1–C4 Arts & Life. . . . . . . . . . . . D1–D2 Entertainment . . . . . . . . D3–D4 Copyright © 2016 Waynesburg University 51 W. College St.Waynesburg, Pa. 15370


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