New Spiders Blog

The Collegian is the student run campus newspaper. It is published weekly and available on Thursday afternoons all around campus and online at www.thecollegianur.com

The Collegian is a great source of information about what is going on in Richmond, on campus, and a way to find out what major changes are coming from the administration or students. The opinion section (for which I have written) is a place for students to speak out and express their views or encourage the rest of us to take action on something. It can also be the location of that week’s latest controversy or scandal whenever something big happens that is worth making the front page. Often the topics discussed in The Collegian find their way into classroom discussions or dhall convos and facilitate a larger campus-wide conversation on the topic of the day/week/month, etc. For example, last year one of the major debates on campus was the “trayless” controversy at dhall. Students are always welcome to write letters to the editor, guest columns or serve as staff reporters and photographers. The office is in the basement of North Court and positions can be applied for at the end of each Spring semester.

The University of Richmond does not have a Pre-Law major; however, there is a minor available called Law and the Liberal Arts. It is a unique inter-disciplinary major that offers courses in a variety of departments. I am an Economics and Political Science majors and many courses I have taken to complete my major have overlapped with my Law minor.

You must take:

6 units, including

One unit in Area 1

Five units from at least five of the remaining areas

No more than three of the courses to be applied toward the minor may be from any one department.

 The available courses are:

Area 1: Law

CJ 320 Fundamentals of Criminal Law

ECON 231 Law and Economics

PHIL 260 Philosophical Problems in Law and Society

PHIL 364 Philosophy of Law

PLSC 331 Constitutional Law

PLSC 333 Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

PLSC 352 International Law

WGSS 302 Women and the Law

PLSC 379 Selected Topics (appropriate when the subject relates primarily to law and the course is approved by the law and the liberal arts advisory council)

Area 2: American History

HIST 120 U.S. to 1877

HIST 121 U.S. Since 1877

PLSC 336 American Constitutional History

Area 3: Economics

ECON 101 Principles of Microeconomics

ECON 102 Principles of Macroeconomics

ECON 105 Introduction to Global Economics

Area 4: Ethics

LDST 205 Justice and Civil Society

PHIL 220 Contemporary Moral Issues

PHIL 360 Ethics

RELG 267 Varieties of Christian Ethics

BUAD 392 Ethical, Social and Legal Responsibilities

Area 5: Legal System

CJ 321 Fundamentals of Criminal Procedure

PLSC 337 Legal System

SOC 207 Crime and Justice in a Post-Modern Society

SOC 324 Law and Society

Area 6: Logical Reasoning

CMSC 150 Introduction to Computing

CMSC 155 Introduction to Scientific Computing

LDST 250 Critical Thinking (.5 units)

MATH 250 Fundamentals of Abstract Mathematics

PHIL 251 Elementary Symbolic Logic

Area 7: Public Speaking and Debate

RHCS 101 Rhetoric and Public Address

RHCS 201 Argumentation and Debate

RHCS 325 Medieval to Modern Rhetorics

RHCS 332 Practicum/Debate (.25-1 unit)

RHCS 343 Rhetoric and Politics

PLSC 290 Mock Trial (.5 units)

Area 8: Writing

ENGL 382 Topics in Advanced Composition

ENGL 383 Introduction to Composition Theory and Pedagogy

The graduation requirements can all be found in the course catalogue or online at the Registrar’s Office website (oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/registrar).

So even though this is about graduation, it’s something you have to plan for now since the requirements are spread out and have to be met continuously while you’re at Richmond. For example, you must complete 35 units total and 28 units of UR approved work and at least 17.5 of those units must be done in residence at UR.

You must complete the requirements for your major (obviously) from 9-18.5 units. You must attend Commencement. You must pay all your fines and such. You have to have an overall GPA of 2.00

You need to take Library 100 and 101 which are noncredit “skills workshops” that you will do during the first year so hopefully you’ve already registered for LIB 100. Another noncredit obligation is Wellness. You should have already registered for URAWARE (WELL 085). After that you need to complete two other WELL 090 classes before senior year.

Now for the Gen Ed Requirements. You’ve probably heard plenty about these already. CORE 101 and 102 which you are all taking during the first year is pretty self-explanatory. Some of the others can be met by exemption from scores on AP tests or even SAT Writing or SAT II: Subject Tests.

So next we have COM1- English 103 Expository Writing. COM2 - foreign language: met by showing proficiency at or above the intermediate level by taking the 200 level or placing out through the AP or UR test.

FSHT: History- Not just classes from the History Dept. you can also find a couple in Religion so make sure to look around if History or any of the other subjects are not your thing. The same applies for many of the Gen. Eds.

FSLT: Literature- English dept. again or any of the upperlevel foreign language lit. classes.

FSNB/NC/NP: Natural Science: Physics, Chemistry, Bio, also look for Geography or AP scores to get out of this if you’re not “sciencey”

FSSA: Social Analysis - Everything from Psychology to Economics. Lots of options here.

FSSR: Symbolic Reasoning- (aka math) Calc 1 is pretty common but there’s also CompSci and a Philosophy class called Elementary Symbolic Logic.

FSVP: Visual and performing arts - Once again, it’s not just art, music, dance, and theater classes that fulfill this one. I took a Latin class.

If you have any questions, here’s the website I got the info: http://undergraduatecatalog.richmond.edu/requirements/index.html

or you can contact me directly.

Guess what?  It’s that time of year when the booklists for your classes have been posted on the Bookstore website!  It’s really easy to find the books you want on the site, and then once you’ve found them, you have a couple of options:

1. You can go ahead and order some or all of your books from the website now and pick them up when you get to school.  When ordering, you do get to choose whether or not you want a new or used copy (if available)
2. You check out the selection online, but decide to wait until you get to school to get your books from the bookstore
3. You use the ISBN numbers listed on the website to compare prices at other websites, like Amazon or Half.com, to see if perhaps you can get a better deal (though don’t forget to factor in shipping! - and don’t forget to ship to school!)
4. A combination of the above

I usually do a combination of the above, though I mostly order books through another online vendor, since it is often the cheapest way.  Be forewarned, though: if you order online, and then drop the class, it’s much harder to get a refund!  Also, if you are planning on ordering online, don’t wait too long, because you never know which book you might need during the first week of class!

Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) was founded in 2004. CCE provides intellectual, experiential, and physical space for the coordination of community-based learning efforts in the Greater Richmond community.

It is located in Tyler Haynes Commons and aims to help students, faculty, and community partners work together in order to understand the factors that contribute to local, national, and global social and civic problems.

The CCE’s programs and initiatives, which bring together campus and community members, include the following:

• The Bonner Scholars Program awards scholarships to students performing weekly community service.
• Build It places students in Northside Richmond on a weekly basis to serve as tutors, mentors, coaches, readers, and administrative support to schools and nonprofit organizations.
• Community-based learning refers to courses in which students learn in both classroom and community settings.
• The Richmond Families Initiative supports the development of stable, healthy families in collaboration with nonprofit partners by engaging students and faculty through sustained community-based learning, research, and service projects.
• Fellowships support students who intern in the nonprofit or government sectors and students who undertake research related to social and civic issues.
• The ESL Tutoring Project connects students with non-native staff members who wish to improve their English skills.
• The Alliance for Civic Engagement assists leaders from various civic-minded student organizations through collaboration on programming and outreach.
• The College Mentoring Project pairs University of Richmond students with Richmond Community High School juniors needing assistance with the college-application process.

Applying for medical school can be complicated, so it’s important to plan ahead and make the right contacts if you’re thinking about going this route.  We highly recommend that pre-med/pre-health students contact Richmond’s pre-health advisor, Dr. John Vaughan, before planning their schedules.   Being a pre-health student, I’ve been in contact with Dr. Vaughan since freshman year and he has been a huge help in deciding what classes are right for me and helping me prepare for nursing school after graduation.

Dr. Vaughan’s e-mail address is jvaugha2@richmond.edu and I’m sure he’d be more than happy to hear from incoming students over the summer. Even if you haven’t made up your mind yet, it wouldn’t hurt to shoot him an e-mail and see what the options are!

1.       Registration follows “The First Come, The First Serve” rule, so be well prepared. (pay attention to the time zone problem)

2.       Be familiar with the registration process.

3.       Write down the CRN numbers of the courses you are interested to speed up your registration process.

4.       Check out the spreadsheet to view the availability of all courses

http://newspiders.richmond.edu/checklist/fallcourses.html

5.       You need Backups, Backups!

6.       You need advance approval to register for LAIS 121, Italian 121 and French 121

7.       If you register for a 200-level language course, then don’t forget to register a Lab session at the same time.

8.       Don’t worry if you don’t get the course you want. You have until August 7^th 12p.m. to make changes. Also, you are allowed to access BannerWeb on August 21 and 22 after your meetings with advisors. Furthermore, there is a two-week “add and drop” period that begins the first day of classes.

9.       Contact your PAAs for any questions you may have about registration.

GOOD LUCK!

Registration is in just a couple of weeks. Ahhhhhh, it brings back such fond memories. I remember being an incoming Richmond student, back in the summer of 2006. I had never glanced at Bannerweb or the selection of classes before registration opened up. I didn’t even know there was a list I could look at. On the day that registration opened, I went to work at my usual time of 6:00 in the morning, and didn’t return until after 5 pm. I ate a leisurely dinner, and then decided I should probably look at Bannerweb and see what all the hullabaloo about registration was. I began to look for classes that would be fun. To my supreme dismay and surprise, I realized that all the classes I was interested in were not available for me. Alright, I thought, I’ll try some others. They, too, were filled. In panic, I began to pick rather obscure classes just to make sure that the website was working. Unbelievably, those classes were filled, too. How can this be, I asked?! How do they expect us to register if they are all full!?

Over an hour later, and after much frustration, anguish, and confusion, I emerged, registered for 4 classes. They weren’t the classes I wanted, but they would at least fulfill some general education requirements. I was much relieved, needless to say. So, what is the point of my rambling nostalgia?

I don’t want you, my dear readers, to make the same mishaps that I foolishly committed as a naive incoming student. Fortuantely, you are much better informed than I ever was, and you have your handy dandy Peer Advisors to guide you (a luxury I was not offered!). Registration can be a highly frustrating time. So, make it easier on yourself. In advance, well in advance, please make a list of all the possible classes you would be interested in, and come up with a variety of schedules. The more time you put into this the easier registration will be. Inevitably some classes you want will be filled by the time you register. Yes, it’s frustrating, but unfortunately all you can do is accept it and look at your backup schedules. This will really spare you much confusion. Registration is all about speed and preparedness: if you register early and fast, and if you have a backup (or two or three!) in mind, you will be in a much better position than poor ol’ me.

Take it from me. Don’t do what I did and wing it. Sit down for a few hours and get those backup schedules going!

Those of you who have already been contacted by your PAA know the dates of registration. For those who haven’t yet, it’s important that you keep these dates in mind. It’s an exciting time when registering for classes and we want to make sure that this is a great experience for you. If you click on the following link, you will go to the site containing all the information regarding how to register:  http://newspiders.richmond.edu/academic/bannerweb.html

If you have any more questions, you can email your PAA and they will be happy to answer. HAPPY SCHEDULING! SEE YOU ALL IN AUGUST!

If you are in the market for a shiny new computer to bring with you to Richmond next month, you are in luck!  There are now special online stores available for University of Richmond students to take advantage of!  Whether you are a Mac or PC person, it doesn’t matter, because both are available in the form of Apple, Lenovo (IBM), and Hewlett Packard.  Simply go to http://is.richmond.edu/purchasing/students.htm to find the link to the particular manufacturer that you are interested in. Enjoy!