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The University struggles to provide more diversity among students

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 25, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Gabbie Capriles

Students often transfer and the administration struggles to bring in more diversity at a school with little socio-economic variety and 70 percent white students.

The University of Richmond, severely lacking in both ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, has a retention rate of 88 percent and a partially unhappy student body. Compared to Boston University, College of William and Mary, George Washington University, University of Virginia, and Wake Forest University, the University of Richmond has the second highest percentage of white students and the lowest retention rate, according tro Collegeboard.com.

Wake Forest has 82 percent white students, making it the only other school from the list above with a higher percentage. The rest of the schools had a white-student percentage in the high 50s or low 60s. All of the colleges listed above have a retention rate between 91 percent and 97 percent, compared to the University of Richmond’s 88 percent.

Many students at the University recognize the lack of diversity, but don’t have adequate resources to change the problem.

But, the Westhampton College Government Association decided to make diversity the theme for this year. Jess Ruzic, the class president of the Westhampton College Class of 2010, said that diversity was an important part of campus and the students and administration recognized it and were working on it this year.

“We explore different avenues in terms of how we can bring in more diversity or bring the diversity that there is into light,” she said. For example, the WCGA is trying to put more diversity into the CORE course.

Although the CORE faculty thinks that it is good as it is and it fulfills its intended aims, the students perceive a lack of diversity in the selected works and are pushing to increase the diversity, she said.

The WCGA is also looking into aspect of socio-economic diversity, she said. It is attempting to make textbooks more affordable because they are such a financial drain, she said.

“It’s an ongoing project and concern,” she said. “We need to look deeper into each of the areas to see what everyone can do.”

The University of Richmond website has its own section for diversity, called Diversity in Action. Here the administration tells prospective and current students, “At Richmond, we foster a culture of diversity and open dialogue in which every voice is represented and in which everyone is able to maximize his or her potential while maintaining their individuality.”

The Diversity in Action page has a link to another page, which further defines Richmond’s definition of diversity. The website reads: “No matter who you are, where you come from or what you believe, you’ll find an environment at Richmond that values diversity in all of its forms–ethnic, socio-economic, geographic, sexual orientation, political, religious and others.”

Also included on the diversity website are links to services and programs on campus that support diversity. These services include the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Common Ground, the University Chaplaincy, and the Office of International Education.

The Student Development Division has a mission statement that states, “…Foster personal development among students in an environment that champions diversity….” Also, one of the division’s objectives is to “Respect the importance of inclusive diversity in the implementation of all Student Development services and initiatives.”

Steve Bisese, the vice president for student development and former dean for Richmond College, said that he did not think that there was a lot of prejudice on campus, but that there was more bonding among people of color, which made them stand out as separate.

There is a big problem with economic diversity because there are people here with a lot of financial aid and people with none and even though the students with a lot of financial aid are able to attend the school, they can’t afford everything that the wealthier students can, he said. There is a pre-orientation that is open to anyone but focused on people of color and an international orientation, both of which students find helpful and enjoy, he said.

But even with these resources, some students still are not optimistic about the campus’ diversity. Some choose to stay at the university and find their own diversity, while other students transfer. Senior Leslie Gleue said that although she noticed the lack of diversity at the University of Richmond, she met a lot of international students, became friends with minority students and had a good experience with other backgrounds.

A first-year student, Karen DeBonis is considering transferring. “It’s basically the lack of diversity here,” she said. “Not the lack of, but the scarcity of ‘real people.’ When I went to visit the University of Mary Washington, I was in the dining hall and I saw a kid with tattoos all up both arms. There’s no one at UR like this.”

She defined real people as people with self-expression, those who did not feel it necessary to adhere to a certain code of what was fashionable and appropriate to wear, but instead made their own rules.

Another first-year student, Gracie Aghapour, is transferring at the end of this year to the College of Charleston. Although part of her decision to transfer was homesickness, she also noticed the lack of diversity on campus.

Charleston is a bigger school and will, by default, have more diversity, along with better departments for environmental science and art, both of which are subjects she is interested in.

When describing a personal experience with the lack of diversity on campus, she said that in the beginning of year she felt extraordinarily Asian.

“I’ve never seen myself as anything before,” she said. Coming from an extremely diverse Charleston, S.C. high school, Aghapour said she encountered ignorant and bigoted statements on the UR campus.

Another student, Laura Caruso transferred out of Richmond after her first semester. “I feel the student body as a whole lacks cohesion and unity,” she said in her transfer application. “The campus is divided into many cliques (by Greek affiliation, sports teams, race, etc.). Unfortunately, few of these groups mingle or befriend others.”

Caruso, who is home this semester, hopes to transfer to either Bucknell University or Gettysburg College. “Both campuses seemed more down-to-earth and had a more visible minority population,” she said.

Diana Mergiotti of Langhorne, Pa., also transferred after her first year at the University of Richmond. “My distaste for the snobby student body and the fact that the school was so tiny led me back home,” she said.

She transferred to Villanova University and said she was much happier there. “Being here [at Villanova] is more like being part of a unique and increasingly diverse family and less like being in a small pool of overly competitive people who all look and act exactly the same,” she said.

Another student, Toba Hellerstein, left Richmond because it was too expensive. After she left the University, she took a year off to learn Arabic and live in various countries such as Morocco, Syria and the West Bank, she said.

Next year she will attend the City University of New York: Hunter College both because it is less expensive and because there is an extremely diverse student body. “This is not to speak simply of ethnicity, social class or religion,” she said. “Other considerations include age. I love the fact that I can take International Relations 306 with a single mother and a graybearded man going through a midlife crisis.”

At the University of Richmond, she said the lack of diversity both amused and bothered her. When asked if she noticed the lack of diversity, she said, “In every sense except the remarkable variety of pastels.”

Although a number of students transfer, those who study abroad at Richmond experience ample diversity.

For example, Virginia Bunker, a senior, traveled to Ghana, Africa, her junior year. She chose to go to Ghana because her boyfriend at T. C. Williams High School was from Ghana and she had always heard that it was a beautiful and friendly country.

She said that she learned many different things non-academically while studying abroad. “There are life lessons–being able to function outside of your comfort zone,” she said. “I learned to appreciate things that people take for granted. It reaffirmed my passion for Africa.”

Some 60 percent of UR students go abroad, which brings back more awareness of diversity, Bisese said.

On campus, Bunker said she noticed a big lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. At her high school, there was much ethnic diversity and she was the minority as a white person. She said that coming to the University of Richmond was shocking and she almost transferred because of it.

“I went through extreme culture shock,” she said. “I went from being the minority to being the majority.” But she didn’t transfer because she had nowhere else to go.

This summer Bunker is traveling through Africa to do volunteer work, she said. Next academic year, she will be a substitute teacher and help coach her high school track team, she said.

Sasha Parr, who graduated from the University of Richmond last year, is currently working as a paralegal in Intellectual Property Law in Washington, D.C. She said that she saw much more diversity in the workworld than during college.

“I have to say that the people I’ve met since graduation and the people I currently work with are a lot different than the people I met at UR,” she said.

“I have met people from a wider variety of backgrounds and with different sorts of experiences.

“Not to say that this is for better of for worse, but by way of example one of my coworkers left college early because she became pregnant. She raised her daughter, who is now 13, as a single mother and now works full time and is finishing her degree. I had definitely never met anyone at Richmond with any sort of experience like that.

“Between my job and meeting people in my building, I’ve come to see myself as a sort of minority–the fact that I was raised by both my parents who then were able to pay for at least part of my college education before setting out on my own is not exactly the norm that I had considered it to be back at UR.”

Parr attended a New England prep school that was incredibly diverse, she said. A fundraiser that was popular at her high school was a “dragdance,” where students paid $3 and went dressed in drag, she said.

Her sophomore year, she suggested the same thing to the on-campus group, New Directions, but the attendees consisted mostly of their own members and several students were harassed on their way to the event for dressing in drag, she said. “Not exactly the most welcoming campus ever,” she said.

Ruckus Network provides students with free music

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 25, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Barrett Neale

University of Richmond students can legally download free music from the Ruckus Network, which Information Services hopes will decrease violations of the Recording Industry of America’s policies.

About two years ago, students began asking Information Services about the possibility of a free music downloading service for students, according to Kathy Monday, vice president for Information Services. She researched the possibilities, but she said at the time most companies were charging universities a fee for each student, which was too costly.

Balu Chandrasekaran, a senior, said he was a member of the Richmond College Student Government Association Senate for two and a half years, and for a year and a half he acted as vice president of student advocacy. In the spring of his sophomore year, he heard about other schools that provided free music for their students, and said he wanted to see if the University of Richmond could provide a similar service.

He first brought it up at a forum at The Pier with Len Goldberg, the former vice president for Student Development, President William Cooper and Provost June Aprille, and he said he continued to mention it at different times to different people. Although he understood the students’ desire for affordable music, Chandrasekaran said he was concerned about the legal issues of sharing music.

He talked to Monday last fall and said this was something a lot of students wanted. She said she went to a conference for information technology professionals, conducted by an organization called EDUCAUSE.

According to its website, “EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.” It invited various software vendors to show their products, and Monday said representatives from the Ruckus Network announced that they were changing their licensing model. The only cost to the University of Richmond, she said, would be to buy a server and the time to administer it.

Steve Bisese, the vice president for student development, said the appeal of Ruckus was its affordability, the fact that it was voluntary, free for undergraduate students and could be instituted quickly. Although academics always come first, he said he believed that a certain part of the university’s responsibility was to provide amenities to students that give them a time to relax.

Ruckus had a good record, and he said the only complaints were that it was incompatible with Apple products and the security issue of giving students’ names and email addresses in order to create their student profile. Scott Tilghman, help desk manager, said Ruckus offered the widest range of music and had good reviews from other colleges.

It seemed to have the most opportunities for the future based on its potential and what it had already accomplished, he said. There weren’t many competitors, but he said some of the competitors did have problems. Ruckus allowed the University of Richmond staff to test its product for free, and he said the browser was easy to use.

Students should take advantage of this opportunity to legally get free music, Tilghman said. Information Services researched the options, and he said they waited until it found services that had a good reputation and met as many student needs as possible.

Ruckus is tailored specifically to the needs of college students, Monday said. It is financed by advertisements, which she said allows its members to download songs for free. It is already partners with more than 100 schools, according to a Ruckus press release from Feb. 28, 2007.

There are more than 1.5 million songs in its library, and she said users could go to ruckus.com to create a profile, download the player and share music with other Ruckus users. The songs have a 30-day license that means they expire after 30 days, but she said the license renews each time the student connects to the internet.

The license renews even when the student is connecting to the internet offcampus, which she said means that even when students are gone for extended periods of time, such as winter or summer break, they can continue to play all of their Ruckus songs.

A Ruckus representative came to campus last semester to talk to Bisese, she said.
Monday and Bisese talked to student governments to assess whether it was a worthwhile investment, and she said despite the limitations the students seemed excited about it.
Each song has digital rights management (DRM) information, which is encryption software that legal download services use to ensure media files are not illegally shared, she said. Apple does not license its DRM technology to any company because it works solely with its own music service, iTunes, which she said means that students can’t transfer the music to their iPods.

Additionally, students who use Mac computers cannot download the Ruckus player, and she said Information Services has no way to resolve that issue. But on the Ruckus site, it lists that if students with Mac computers run Windows XP or Parallels Software International Inc.’s Parallels Workstation, they can download the Ruckus player, she said.

Freshman Leigh Donahue has a Mac computer, and said she was disappointed to learn that she couldn’t use Ruckus. “I thought it would be a good way to preview CDs,” she said. “I went to sign up and went through the process and realized I couldn’t get it.”
One of the advantages of the university is that it supports a wide range of computer companies, Tilghman said, and the cost would have increased in order to get a music service that accommodated Macs as well. “Music downloading is not an academic purpose,” he said.

He understood that students with Macs would like access to this service, but he said this was an extra service that the university was providing. If there was a method for delivering music that was inexpensive and included Macs, he said they would have chosen that instead.

Information Services received between 10 and 20 complaints a year from the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry of America about students downloading movies and music illegally, he said. The RIA has a certain number of students it intends to prosecute, he said, and it is happy if it catches students.

Even though it’s tempting and easy to download music illegally, he said students should weight their odds. It’s traumatic for Information Services to get letters from the RIA, he said, because of the severity of the laws involved.

Chris Faigle, security administrator, said the RIA can subpoena universities for information of students downloading illegally. “We are not a defense for the students,” he said, and Information Services has an obligation to give that information to the RIA, even if it means that they will use it to sue students.

Freshman Dan Raimondi used to use a service called Ares, which he said allowed him to get free music to put on his iTunes. Certain songs are tagged by the RIA, and he said he unknowingly downloaded one of them.

The RIA called him, and he said he had to remove all the songs that he had gotten through Ares, and do 10 hours of community service at an off-campus site. “All my iTunes files got messed up,” he said.

He had very little music to listen to without his iTunes, and said he often resorted to watching music videos on YouTube. When he got an e-mail from Bisese that Ruckus was available, he was happy because he knew it was legal, he said.

He signed up for it right away, and said within the first week he had already downloaded 600 songs. He has 1,800 songs now, and he said even though he is running out of songs to download, he still listens to the albums he has every day.

His favorite part about Ruckus is how easy it is to find songs and download them, and he said the quality was superior to what he got with Ares. He didn’t like that certain songs on some albums aren’t available, but he said he liked that it could do everything that other downloading services do.

Freshman Sarah Dinces does not have a Mac computer and could use Ruckus, but she said she prefered to use services that allowed her to put music on her iPod. “I think the idea is really cool,” she said, “but why would I get music just to play it on my computer?”

Faigle said even though Ruckus was available to all college students, there were benefits students receive because the University of Richmond was one of Ruckus’ partner schools. The proxy server that the University of Richmond purchased allows students to download songs at a faster speed, he said, and Ruckus’ movie content is only available to students at partner schools.

Freshman Mike Albares said he used to get music using iTunes, and had to pay for his songs. He was excited when he heard about Ruckus, he said, because he could type in any song, get it for free and listen to it right away.

He uses it anytime he wants a song that he doesn’t already have, and said it didn’t bother him that he couldn’t put the songs on iTunes. “I have my iTunes collection and my Ruckus collection,” he said.

The selection of music could be better, but he said his favorite part about Ruckus was receiving e-mails about new music. “It’s a young, new thing,” he said. “They’ll improve it.”
Chandrasekaran said he liked Ruckus because it benefited everyone. The students got free music, schools could offer a great service at minimal cost, Ruckus got more business and artists got paid to have their music on Ruckus, he said.

He was impressed with its collection of music, and said he liked being able to download music from the 80s and 90s. One of the drawbacks he noted was that a student’s music library does not transfer if he or she uses a different computer, but he said that laptops help that.

Doug West, University of Richmond’s director of Telecom, Media Support and User Services, said an advantage of having Ruckus was that the university could manage the process of student music downloading. There will be information for incoming students about Ruckus in the booklet, “Making the Most of Your Richmond Education,” that they receive in the summer, he said.

Bisese said that in addition to summer publications, there would be information about Ruckus at orientation. “Ruckus provides promotional services as part of their relationship with us,” he said.

Students who have feedback about Ruckus should contact him because he wants to work on behalf of the students, but he said if they have questions about the technological aspects they should contact Information Services because they know how the system works.

Monday said that she would continue to inform students about updates with Ruckus through Spider Bytes. The dean’s office, student government and word of mouth were other ways to spread news about Ruckus, she said.

Incoming students can register for Ruckus as soon as they have their e-mail address, she said. When the students graduate, they may continue to use Ruckus, but she said they must subscribe for a fee of $8.99 per month.

Chandrasekaran said he would probably continue to use Ruckus after he graduated in May because he didn’t use his CD player and didn’t want to pay a dollar per song with iTunes. The download speeds might be slower without the UR proxy server, but he said he would still use it.

Ruckus could be a way for the school to keep in touch with alumni, and he said that it might encourage alumni to give back to the university. He is excited about the possibility of getting free movies as part of the Ruckus service, he said.

Ruckus’ movie agreement is with the MPAA, Tilghman said, and it would tell the University of Richmond if free movies became available. Chris Lawson, Ruckus’ director for corporate development, said in an e-mail interview: “We have some long-standing relationships with media companies, and are forging new relationships all the time. Both should provide a lot of new and entertaining video content for our student users. We are working right now to make films, TV and other forms of video available to more students as soon as possible.”

The video content would include Hollywood films, indie films, foreign films, current television shows, sports and music videos, and he said much of it would be supported by advertisements like the music service. Ruckus would let its users know when it becomes available, he said.

Exchange students rooming with Americans learn much about their cultures

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 25, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Emily Baltz

As she prepared for her first year at Richmond this summer, Elizabeth Boone was excited to receive the mailing that would introduce her to her new roommate. She tried to guess what state she would be from and what her name would be, wondered if they would become friends, and envisioned their first phone conversation.

“I’m from a part of the country where all the girls get matching comforters and furniture for their dorm rooms so every room looks like it came from a magazine,” Boone said. “I’d imagined that when I called my roommate, we would talk about a color scheme.”

When the mailing arrived, Boone was surprised to learn that she would live with Babui Salsabil, an international student from Bangladesh.

“I was excited, but I didn’t know what to expect,” Boone said. “I researched Bangladesh, but I didn’t really know anything about it, especially the Muslim religion. My first question was definitely not about comforters.”

According to the Housing Office, international students like Salsabil, who make up 6 percent of Richmond’s student body, are almost always paired with American students during their first year to help them make a smooth transition to life in the United States. This is a common practice at other schools, whose international enrollment is similar to Richmond’s. The College of William and Mary’s website indicated that 340 of its undergraduate students, or about 6 percent, are international. At the University of Virginia, about 5 percent of students are international.

Though a January 2007 General Accounting Office forum report indicated that international enrollment was slipping at colleges and universities throughout the United States, Office of Admissions records show that international enrollment has been consistent, a statistic that may help attract international students.

“I chose Richmond because of its thriving international community, and because I felt comfortable here,” first-year Bulgarian student Virzhiniya Lekova said.

In addition to assigning them American roommates, the university sponsors several other programs designed to help international students feel at home in Richmond.

One such program is international orientation, which takes place in the days before most firstyear students arrive on campus and includes programs about adjusting to American culture and a trip to King’s Dominion amusement park.

“Richmond really tried to make school like home,” Lekova said of the program. “At international orientation we were all new and kind of scared, but we got to do a lot of new things and make a lot of new friends. I was already kind of familiar with the culture but had problems adjusting, and international orientation was very helpful.”

Salsabil agreed. “International orientation was great; it really helped me adjust to college,” she said.

Veronica Seguin, an American citizen who attended an international high school in Beijing, did not attend international orientation, but said that Richmond still made efforts to make her feel comfortable.

“Going to an international high school helped prepare me for the transition to college and Richmond make that transition even easier by checking in with me and offering international events,” she said.

Lekova and Salsabil said that other programs, including the International Club and dinners for international students had improved their experience as well.

But, Lekova said, “The thing I love most is my host family.”

Lekova said her host mother, Charley King, who works in Student Accounts, does all the things her family would do if they were in Richmond, including driving her to and from the airport, taking her to explore the city, and storing her belongings for the summer.
Salsabil, who returned to Bangladesh before the end of the semester to tend to her sick mother, said her host family was “incredible.”

Though international students were pleased with the University’s efforts to acclimate them, Boone said that her struggle to adjust to life with an international student was largely ignored by the university.

“The administration goes to great lengths to recognize the struggles the international roommate will have, but the American roommate has to make just as much of an adjustment, and that experience is not being validated,” she said.

Boone said that, though her overall experience living with Salsabil had been positive, she feels that American students assigned to international roommates would benefit from “any gesture, even just an e-mail or pamphlet, preparing them for life with an international.”

Under the current system, “the [international] roommate gets more attention and you feel disadvantaged,” she said.

Another first-year student, who asked to remain unnamed because of the nature of his comments about his roommate, said that living with an international student was a “nightmare.”

“I wish I had received some warning about how different it was going to be,” he said. “All my friends were adjusting to different music or different sleep schedules, and I was trying to figure out a new culture. It wasn’t fair.”

An international student, who also asked to remain unnamed, said that she and her roommate also did not get along, and that her roommate moved out after first semester.

“Some of the problem was culture, but it was mostly her personality,” she said. “She was really difficult, and just didn’t appreciate my feelings, cultural and otherwise. We just didn’t click.”

Though these students described problems with their roommates, both Boone and Salsabil said their living experience has been positive. Boone said she had enjoyed learning about her roommate’s culture, including Indian music. She also enjoyed watching an international cricket tournament game in which Bangladesh defeated rival India.

“Babui was really excited, so it was easy for me to get excited too,” she said. “We hung up Bangladesh’s flag, and we were screaming and cheering.”

She said that Salsabil was anxious to learn about American culture as well. “If you care about what I care about, I’m likely to be as supportive of you as possible,” Boone said of her relationship with Salsabil.

Salsabil said, “I’ve really, really enjoyed living with Elizabeth, and I’ve learned a lot from her.”

Even before Salsabil returned to Bangladesh, she and Boone did not plan to live together next year because Salsabil was going to work as a resident assistant.

“But,” Boone said, “I would definitely keep Babui in mind as a possible roommate for junior year.” Salsabil plans to return to Richmond for the spring 2008 semester.

Lekova also said she had enjoyed living with an American student.

“It’s beneficial because you can ask cultural questions,” she said although she and her roommate get along well they will not room together next year. She wants to live in the Global House with other international students. “I want a more international environment” she said.

Aside from her roommate and boyfriend, both of whom are American, Lekova said that most of her friends were international.

“Americans are always very nice and genuinely friendly, but most of my friends on campus are Bulgarian,” she said. “It’s just more comfortable for me to be with them because we have more in common.”

Nevertheless, Seguin said that although she arrived at Richmond expecting to be friends with a lot of international students, most of her friends are American.

“Surprisingly, not many of my friends are international,” she said. “I thought they would be because I thought American teens would be totally different from me and not understand me, but only a few of my friends are from other countries, and I identify really well with the American kids.”

Seguin said she was surprised that even though she had lived oversees for most of her life, she had not attended any International Club events, mostly because many of her American friends had not shown any interest in attending them.

Lekova said she felt that there was a gap between American and international students because Americans did not attend international events.

“American students would really benefit from getting more involved in the international community,” she said. “Americans that do come to the international socials seem to be very, very fond of them.”

Andy Feltzin, a sophomore from Philadelphia has many international friends. In fact, both his girlfriend, Lekova, and his roommate, who is Ethiopian, are international. He said he chose to associate with international students because, “they are just on my wavelength.”

Feltzin said that he came from a high school that consisted of a mostly white student body, so when he arrived at Richmond he wanted to learn more about other cultures.

“I really hadn’t had much chance to branch out, and international students gave me that opportunity,” he said. “I was really interested to find out other people’s stories from their homes, and learn about other places.”

He said other American students would benefit from becoming part of the international community, but that their involvement should be their choice, not something the university forces upon them.

“I think it should be completely natural, but I think it’s an incredible opportunity that many students choose not to take” he said. “I’ve learned so much about the world from my international friends.”

First-year student Jordan Trippeer, who said she had attended a lot of international events, from social dances to club meetings, echoed Feltzin’s sentiment.

“They’re really awesome people, and the whole school could learn a lot from them,” she said. “I’d encourage American students to try and make international friends.”

Lekova said that while she wished there were more interaction between Americans and international students, she was not surprised by the division.

“I think it’s just a matter of comfort,” she said. “The Bulgarians here are like my family, and I think American kids probably find that kind of relationship with other American kids. But, I wish there was a way we could all come together. We’re different culturally, but we’re also really similar.”

Boone agreed that international and American students could learn a lot from each other.

“The most important thing I learned from living with Babui wasn’t about cricket or being
Muslim, it was about learning to live and get along with someone different, and that they might not be so different after all,” she said. “I didn’t get a matching comforter set, but I did get an absolutely awesome experience.”

Productivity suffers when students engage in multitasking

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Amy Demoreuille

Despite popular belief, multitasking reduces productivity, with clear implications for workers and college students alike, according to new studies and research reports.

Multitasking occurs “when people are simultaneously performing multiple tasks or rapidly switching between multiple tasks so that it seems that they are performing them at the same time,” Shamsi T. Iqbal (cq), a student at the University of Illinois (cq) at Urbana-Champaign (cq) and researcher on multitasking, said. Human beings can naturally multitask if there are no conflicts between the visual, auditory and motor channels, she said.

Multitasking increases performance and efficiency but becomes a problem when people’s actions exceed the limitations of their processing resources, she said. “In those cases,” she said, “it is postulated that processing resources from one task is usurped from another, potentially resulting in decreased performance for the second task or both.”

David E. Meyer (cq), a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory (cq) at the University of Michigan (cq), has been quoted as saying: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes. Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

Multitasking is “illusory at best,” Jonathan B. Spira (cq), chief analyst and CEO at Basex (cq), a business-research firm, said. “The brain doesn’t multitask. It is capable of one task at a time.”

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Many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car, neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors say in a recent New York Times (cq) article.

Multitasking is a problem at the University of Richmond (cq) because people think they’re better multitaskers than they are, President William E. Cooper (cq), a psychologist, said last week. Multitasking gives people the false impression that they’re working effectively and they can’t have breakthroughs in their work without full concentration, he said.

Out of 17 Richmond (cq) women interviewed, 14 often multitask while they work and 13 think it negatively affects their work. Two women think that the quality of their work is just as good when they’re multitasking, it just takes them longer. The rest agree that they are much more productive and produce better quality work when not multitasking, and when multitasking, work is often “rushed, of poor quality, incomplete and sloppy,” sophomore Elizabeth Robinson (cq) said.

Rene Marois (cq), a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory (cq) at Vanderbilt University (cq) said in the same New York Times (cq) article: “A core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once.

We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it often can.”
Scott Allison (cq), a psychology professor at the University Richmond (cq) says: “We live in a society in which people have the illusion that they can do many things at the same time as well as they can do them separately. The truth is, work performance suffers when people multitask. Not only that, but multitasking can cause stress.”

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In 2005, Glenn Wilson (cq), Reader in Personality at the Institute of Psychiatry (cq), University of London (cq), gave an IQ test to a group of people who were to do nothing but take the test. A second group then took an IQ test while distracted by e-mails and telephones. The first group scored an average of 10 points higher and the second group scored an average of six points lower than a group in a similar study that had been tested after smoking marijuana.

Technology serves as a lubricant and keeps knowledge flowing, but it has increased the variety of ways someone can interrupt or be interrupted, according to a report by Spira (cq) and Joshua B. Feintuch (cq) from Basex (cq).

Everyday in the workplace, workers divert their attention to interruptions and other distractions that consume about 28 percent of a worker’s day, or 2.1 hours including recovery time, based on surveys and interviews of workers by Basex (cq). American company workers waste about 28 billion hours a year and assuming a salary of $21/hour, the cost to business is $588 billion, according to a report by Basex (cq).

A recent study of Microsoft (cq) workers found that they took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages.

About 55 percent of workers respond to an e-mail shortly after it is received and only 30 percent answer when it’s convenient, according to research by Basex (cq). Interruptions can be unimportant, urgent or both because many workers can’t differentiate, Spira (cq) said. Degrees of interruption include personal importance, group importance and organizational importance, he said. Personal importance is how critical an issue is to an individual, group importance is how critical an issue is to a group, and organizational importance is how critical the issue is to the overall problem, he said.

4

Responding to interruptions is part of human nature, and the most difficult to resist are those that entertain us, he said. Total interruptions, dominant interruptions, distractions and background activities are the four main types of disruptions, he said. Total interruptions, such as an active phone conversation or a thought-intensive game, completely occupy the conscious mind and thwart any thought relevant to the original task, he said.

Dominant interruptions, such as walking outside or recreational web browsing, largely occupy the mind while the task at hand develops in the back of one’s mind, he said.

Distractions, such as instant messaging, “do not stop one from consciously working on the original task but do draw attention away from it so it proceeds more slowly or less accurately,” he said.

Background activities, such as listening to music, are less-obvious but divert some of one’s attention away from the original task and slightly reduce speed and accuracy, he said.

Interruptions can also be passive or active, he said. Passive interruptions are triggered by technology or another person, while active interruptions are “initiated by the very person who chooses to be interrupted by them,” he said.

About 94.5 percent of workers consider an interruption by a superior acceptable, 87.2 percent consider an interruption by a colleague acceptable, 90.8 consider an interruption by a subordinate acceptable and 62.4 of workers consider an interruption by a friend for a non-work or non-business related question acceptable, according to a recent survey by Basex (cq).

5

Multitasking shrinks brain capacity instead of enlarging it and people can’t multitask and learn new things, Cooper (cq) said. The only way to learn things in depth and be original is to resist multitasking, he said.

Marois (cq) conducted a study with three other Vanderbilt (cq) researchers where they measured how much time is lost when a person tries to handle two tasks at once. They found that when participants were given two tasks at once, their response was delayed up to a second more than when they had to do each task separately. This one-second delay could be fatal while driving 60 mph, Marois (cq) said.

Out of the same 17 Richmond (cq) women interviewed, 15 said they talked on the phone while driving and only two said they talked only when necessary. Three of the women have had cell phone related close-calls and two have actually had serious consequences. Sophomore Colleen Muldoon (cq) leaned over to get her cell phone and almost hit a car, junior Katie Vaska (cq) stalled out while driving stick shift and talking on the phone, and junior Mahima Ratnaswami (cq) has drifted into another driver’s lane during a phone conversation, they said.

Senior Catherine Estevez (cq) said once she reached over to get her cell phone when it fell on the floor, “blew right by a speed trap,” and received a $200 speeding ticket, she said. Sophomore Jane Crifasi (cq) ran through a red light once while talking on her cell phone, but luckily there wasn’t an accident, she said. Other women note that they do stupid things while driving but acknowledge the fact that they may not notice, they said.

6

Many believe that today’s youth are the most adept multitaskers, but a study conducted at the Institute for the Future of the Mind (cq) at Oxford University (cq) found that a group of 18-to 21-year-olds and a group of 35-to 39-year-olds matched in speed and accuracy when given a list of images to translate into numbers using code, while they were interrupted by phone calls, instant messages or text-messages.

Some Richmond (cq) women have good strategies for focusing on their homework. “I try to give myself time limits for how long I’ll work,” Vaska (cq) said.

“I’ll work for an hour and a half and then take a break or finish this subject and then do something else. I get a lot more done quicker that way and I tend to stay more focused when I am working.”

Listening to music or multitasking a little can be used as “a jolt of caffeine” to get you started working but you should stop multitasking as soon as you start to seriously work, Cooper (cq) said. Multitasking on a basic level, such as walking to the dining hall while talking on your cell phone, is acceptable because one action is automatic while the other requires consciousness, he said.

People should manage the technology that surrounds them when working or driving, such as not listening to music with lyrics, checking e-mail once an hour at most, and not talking on the phone while driving even if using a headset, according to a recent New York Times (cq) article.

Some universities block internet access in certain courses and have other policies that will prevent multitasking, Cooper (cq) said. If multitasking becomes problematic at Richmond (cq), the university could address multitasking in orientation and offer a seminar, he said.

7

People don’t know the consequences of multitasking and people can make them aware by discussing and writing about the problem, Spira (cq) said.

Brain scans, social networking algorithms and other new tools should help provide a deeper understanding of the brain’s limits and potential and a new organization, the Institution for Innovation and Information Productivity (cq), has been created to sponsor such research, according to the same New York Times (cq) article.

Multitasking has existed since the beginning of time and as time progresses, there are more opportunities to multitask, Cooper (cq) said. People need to be careful how they use the technology available because multitasking is something that could literally affect the evolution of our species, he said.

Kelsey Blank, face-to-face interview
President Cooper, face-to-face interview
Jane Crifasi, e-mail interview (jane.crifasi@richmond.edu)
Catherine Estevez, e-mail interview (catherine.estevez@richmond.edu)
Jen Forde, face-to-face interview
Hayley Fowler, face-to-face interview
Jackie Gunderman, face-to-face interview
Ali Hoffman, e-mail interview (ali.hoffman@richmond.edu)
Aurie Horn, e-mail interview (aurie.horn@richmond.edu)
Shamsi T. Iqbal, e-mail interview (siqbal@uiuc.edu)
Alexandra Jenkins, face-to-face interview
Kathryn Joyce, e-mail interview (kathryn.joyce@richmond.edu)
Colleen Muldoon, e-mail interview (colleen.muldoon@richmond.edu)
Julia E. Nouss, e-mail interview (julia.nouss@richmond.edu)
Mahima Ratnaswami, face-to-face interview
Elizabeth Robinson, face-to-face interview
Allison Scott, e-mail interview (sallison@richmond.edu)
Jonathan B. Spira, e-mail interview (jspira@basex.com)
Caroline Stutts, face-to-face interview
Emily Tiernan, e-mail interview (emily.tiernan@richmond.edu)
Katie Vaska, face-to-face interview
Lohr, Steve. “Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, And Don’t Read This in Traffic.” The
New York Times, 25 March 2007.

8

Spira, Jonathan B., Goldes David M. “Information Overload: We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us.” Basex Report, March 2007.

Spira, Jonathan B., Fientuch, Joshua B. “The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How
Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity” Basex Report, September 2005.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine names UR 22nd in the country

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Morgan Walker

The University of Richmond now outranks schools such as Boston College, Johns Hopkins and Cornell on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s list for the best value in a private university.

Richmond sits in the 22nd spot on the April 2007 list, up 10 spots from the last time the ranking was released in January 2004, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s associate editor Jane Clark said.

Kiplinger’s editors chose the University of Richmond from a pool of more than 1,000 private liberal arts colleges and universities based on academic quality and affordability, according to the magazine’s website. When assessing where a school will fall on the list, the editors weigh the two factors as two-thirds for academic quality and one-third for affordability, Clark said.

The assessment of the academic quality involves looking at the university’s admissions rate, average SAT and ACT scores, the student-to-faculty ratio and the four and five-year graduation rates, Clark said.

The affordability of the school factors in the total costs of the school, the cost after need-based aid, the need met by the university, aid received from grants, non-needbased aid given to students, and the cost after non-need-based aid, Clark said.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine is a well-respected ranking and these things help market the school, Richmond’s President William Cooper said. “Kiplinger’s compares us to major research universities,” he said. “To be on the same page as some of those distinguished universities and to outrank them is an honor.

“We are becoming increasingly legitimate as a national university. We are in the hunt and we have to continue the momentum.”

This publication will help the university get a certain amount of attention and if you look at all the rankings out there, Richmond is always in the top tier, Richmond’s Director of Media ands Public Relations, Brian Eckert, said. “Independent endorsements without our participation always gives us something to market,” he said. “And it all contributes.”

The University of Richmond responded quickly to the release of Kiplinger’s April issue and added this honor into its marketing strategy for prospective students. “We used it on Saturday at an open house,” Cooper said.

Although receiving a spot on the list of the top 50 best values in private universities is an honor, no ranking is perfect, Cooper said. But Kiplinger’s is pure and legitimate ranking compared to something like Fiske’s Guide to Colleges or Princeton Review, he said.

When students choose a university, they are buying a relationship, Cooper said.
Just because a school is in the top 10 of every ranking does not mean it’s the school for you, he said.

Parents always tend to focus on the school’s ranking compared to other schools, Betty Schneider, Langley High School’s career center counselor said. Langley High School is in McLean, Va. Schools create competition by focusing on the rankings, she said.

“Rankings don’t help the applicant, they help the school,” Schneider said. “My job is to focus on the student’s perspective and these rankings just create unbearable competition for the students.”

Ranking is a big factor for the parents, Andrea Milam of Lexington, Ky., said.

Milam has two daughters: Lauren, who is a first-year Westhampton College student on a partial dance scholarship through the University Dancers and Ally, who is a junior in high school interested in attending Richmond in the fall of 2008.

“What makes a parent willing to pay $45,000 a year is something like a ranking,” Milam said. “It is what pushes it over the edge when compared to other schools. This ranking has been an affirmation that the school is worth the money. It illustrates the school has goals.”

Full and partial scholarships through sports and other related activities are not the only ones given out to students at the University of Richmond. One out of every 15 incoming freshman receives the Richmond Scholars Scholarship, which offers full tuition based on merit. Other scholarships come from the Presidential Scholarships, National Merit scholarships and the Bonner Scholars Program, according to the university’s website.

What makes the University of Richmond stand out is that it gives more non-need based aid than most of the other school’s on the list, Clark said. In fact, Richmond’s website says that the university gives financial aid through grants, loans, scholarships and other sources to 65 percent of its students. The university is also one of only 21 of the top 50 universities to guarantee 100 percent of need-based financial aid, according to Kiplinger.com.

First-year Westhampton student, Kelly Behrend of Mount Holly, N.J., is here on a full scholarship through the Bonner Scholars Program. “Bonner Scholars is a merit-based scholarship for community service and need-based financial aid,” Behrend said. “Without Richmond’s extensive financial aid opportunities, I would not have been able to attend this university.

“Richmond was able to acknowledge my financial need and my merit as an applicant and was able to meet it 100 percent. I am so grateful the university was recognized for the amazing efforts it is making in helping students achieve their academic goals.”

In the event of a tie between two or more schools, Kiplinger’s assesses the average debt at graduation and the overall quality of the school based on other rankings, Clark said.

Because the school’s overall quality is involved with most national rankings, the university is making efforts to improve the quality of life on campus, Jessica Ruzic said.
She is president of the Westhampton Class of 2010. “The Westhampton College Government Association is working hard on creating a livable environment for the students,” Ruzic said. “Administration works on making sure this school is affordable and academically strong, whereas we can help by improving the quality of life through projects such as the new Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness.”

Current students at the University of Richmond put emphasis on Richmond’s ranking when applying to graduate programs at other schools, Westhampton College Junior, Alison Andolena, said. “As a junior who is going to be applying to law schools next fall, a ranking that is higher than other well-known schools is definitely a good thing I am going emphasize in my applications,” Andolena said. “Hopefully, it is something that will end up helping me.”

Richmond is definitely in the running to outrank other schools in the future, Clark said. The university’s only weak spots when compared to other schools are the admission rate and the four-year graduation rate, she said.

The University of Richmond admits 47 percent of its applicants each year, giving it the second highest admissions rate in the top 25 schools on the list, according to
Kiplingers.com. Schools such as Harvard University, Columbia University, and
Dartmouth College rank higher on the list and have admissions rates lower that 15 percent, Clark said.

Also, the four-year graduation rate is not as competitive as others, Clark said. If the university can become more competitive in these two fields, the ranking is likely to rise in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s list of the top 50 Best Values in Private
Universities, she said.

Perfectionism keeps the “freshman 15″ at bay for many at UR

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Ryan Clark

Perfectionism drives a number of students at the University of Richmond to lose weight instead of gaining the “freshman 15,” Westhampton College Dean Juliette Landphair said in an interview last week at the Deanery.

The “freshman 15” that some college students gain has become more like five pounds for women or seven pounds for men, according to a recent Brown University research study.

The study revealed that one out of six freshmen gained 10 pounds or more during their first year and 6 percent gained 15 pounds or more, Stanford University nutritionist Vivian Crisman said. A joint study by Brown University and Purdue University revealed that students continue to gain two to three pounds in their sophomore year, Crisman said.

On average by the end of sophomore year, males are 9.5 pounds heavier and women are 9.2 pounds heavier, said Jackie Beckham, a Baylor University research assistant. The Brown University study showed that freshmen men gain most of their weight at the beginning of the first semester and then gradually gain more weight, but women tend to gain most of their weight in the first semester and then slowly even off, Beckham said.

It’s important to adopt a healthy lifestyle because college is the time when students establish eating and fitness habits that they’ll follow for the rest of their lives, said Pete Anderson, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Many students find it hard to eat healthily because it’s the first time many of them have lived away from home, said Patricia Beffa-Negrini, a University of Massachusetts research associate. Students want to explore their freedom and there is no one to stop them from eating brownies, ice cream and French fries for dinner, Bethesda, Md. dietitian Ann Litt said to USA Today.

College students also have hectic and irregular schedules, she said, and they tend to graze instead of actually sitting down for a meal. An article from the Seattle Post- Intelligencer revealed that portion control was one of the most critical strategies in maintaining weight in buffet-style dining halls where the food supply is endless.

“Most adults don’t know what a typical portion size is,” said Dr. Alene H. Waller, the University of Richmond associate medical director. It’s easier to regulate weight when you pay attention to portion control, she said.

But dining hall food is not the only reason that college freshman tend to gain weight, Crisman said. A change in eating behaviors and habits is a great contributor to weight gain, she said.

The cause of freshman weight gain is a combination of late-night snacking, easy access to alcohol, social eating and less exercise, Crisman said. The stress of living away from home and going to class can also take a toll on freshmen, Beffa-Negrini said.

Many students eat because they are sad, lonely or bored and food comforts them, she said.

“Unless you want to be a Sumo wrestler, don’t eat at night,” Beckham said.

Many students snack late at night after drinking. Students must watch out for alcohol’s appetite-enhancing effects, said Pittsburgh nutritionist Leslie Bonci.

Access to beer, drinking habits, and not having enough time to get to the gym all cause collegeweight gain, University of Richmond junior Renee Wilson said.

In order to avoid weight gain, Bonci recommended that students eat breakfast every day, focus on portion control by always measuring food out, never eat out of a bag and to set limits when eating with friends.

Trying to lose weight seems to be an issue bothering students at Richmond, said Peter LeViness, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services. CAPS’ mental health surveys revealed that about 20 percent of male undergraduates and 50 to 60 percent of female undergraduates said that they often had concerns about dieting or trying to lose weight, he said.

Many students gain weight because they are taking in more calories than they are burning off, LeViness said. “An inconsistent sleep-wake schedule may also increase food cravings, especially for high-calorie foods,” he said.

“Students cut back on their physical activity when they get to college and you hear much more concern about people trying to lose weight,” University of Richmond sophomore Ali Scuderi said. “You do see quite a few people who could have eating disorders.”

CAPS recommends that students try to exercise about four to six times a week,
LeViness said. Students should treat this time like an academic class that they make a priority during the week, he said.

Most students who want to lose weight at Richmond are not seeking to lose a lot of it, but just enough to get back to a weight where they feel comfortable, said Carolyn Powell the University of Richmond nutritionist. “Most of the students I see for weight gain are athletes who have trouble keeping on weight from all of the calories they are burning,” she said.

John Denton, Richmond sophomore, said: “I think that more guys gain weight in college than girls. Guys want to look buffer and eat a lot of protein, while girls want to have a thin ideal body.”

Weight loss is a bigger issue than weight gain at Richmond because many students are driven by perfectionism, Landphair said. “Like Duke and more selective institutions, students here tend to be more perfectionistic,” she said.

In a 2003 Duke University report, undergraduates said their social atmosphere was characterized by “effortless perfection,” Landphair said. Students felt there was an expectation to be “smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful and popular, and that all this would happen without visible effort,” she said.

Rebecca Bacheler, Richmond sophomore, said, “There is a lot of stress because of the pressure put on by the intense academics here, which definitely causes more drinking and over eating or an excess of working out to relieve stress resulting in weight loss.”

Whenever students are prescribed medication, their biggest concern is whether it will make them gain weight, Waller said.

Landphair didn’t see the issue of weight as a big problem at Richmond despite this research, she said. If it posed a threat to many students, the university would have addressed it, she said.

Some students gain weight because of inconsistent eating patterns where parents aren’t regulating meals, and alcohol use, Landphair said.

An extra 100 calories can lead to a 10-pound weight gain in one year, Powell said.
There are “Feeding Fitness” options in each dining location on campus that label food choices containing 30 percent or fewer calories from fat per serving, Powell said. “With the opening of the newly renovated Heilman Dining Center we concentrated on updating our menu and offering a wide variety of healthier items,” she said.

Students gain weight by eating on the go, Richmond Health Educator Tracy Cassalia said. Students eat very little throughout the day and then are starving at night, she said.

Drinking is another source of empty calories, Cassalia said. Even though it says “light beer,” it still has calories, she said. Being able to drink beer three nights a week can make it difficult for some students to maintain their weight, Amy Bastianelli, Richmond senior, said.

But part of adulthood is learning to live independently and how to use self control, Landphair said.

Richmond used to include physical education as a general education requirement, but with the Weinstein Center there is no need for that anymore, Landphair said.

Even though students do not have to complete a physical education course at Richmond, they are required to complete wellness classes before they graduate, Cassalia said.

“Richmond is ahead of the game compared to some bigger schools,” Cassalia said.

Students can meet with nutritionist Carolyn Powell or work with personal trainers, she said.

The opening of the Weinstein Center has inspired students to stay fit, Powell said.
“Just getting to the gym is the hardest part,” she said. “Having a new facility, which leaves such a positive impression, definitely helps keep students motivated and keeps them coming back for more.”

Seattle University lets students receive a physical assessment and then work with faculty to create a workout plan. The university is working on receiving computer chips that will plug into equipment for students to track their physical progress, said Mclean Reiter, the manager and sports physiologist at Seattle University.

“We are currently working on a partnership with the hospital, where the lab is located, to allow the clients and students to use the Technogym equipment,” Reiter said.

“Technogym is an exercise equipment company that interfaces with a smart card.”

The smart chip acts as a type of personal trainer that tells students how many sets and reps they need to do, Reiter said. If a student doesn’t complete the number of reps set by the chip, it will recalculate for the next workout, he said.

Columbia University’s online system called the “100 m.i.l.e. (miles I logged exercising) club,” inspires students to workout at least 100 minutes per week, according to the article. Students log the minutes they spend exercising on the internet. “I’ve been more diligent about working out since the new gym opened,” University of Richmond sophomore Alex Hogan said. “It has much more availability for machines, space and the times it is open.”

One of the most important aspects of college is becoming aware of eating and fitness habits because adults who start putting on weight at a young age have a hard time losing it later, Waller said.

Where are you going to school?

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 22, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Amy Burlage 

Teams can also hold fundraisers. Gill said that the crew team recently raised$52,000 in a fundraiser. The club sports program recently started an annual letter-writing fundraiser to friends and family of club members requesting donations to their team, Recreation and Wellness Director Tom Roberts said in a telephone interview.

“We are going to continue to try and increase funding, to look for new ways to
distribute funds,” Roberts said.

The more participation a sport has, the easier it is to get funding, Celander said. Sports teams with representation on the executive council (ice hockey, women’s water polo, rugby and crew) get an inside view to funding and therefore know when and who to ask for money, he said.

“The Sports Club Council is made up of four elected positions and the most interested clubs get represented,” he said. “It hurts other clubs because clubs on the council know when the money is around before it gets exhausted.”

Next year there will be an additional $10,000 set aside for travel safety, according to the Funding and Distribution chart.

Celander said the clubs need more money so they have options for how to spend it. Patrick Hyde, the secretary of the council, agreed, and said the new travel budget is the biggest improvement he has seen in his UR career because it allows more flexibility with annual and raised funds to be spent on facilities, equipment and other needs.

Until now, the school administrators have charged 40 cents per mile for two 12- passenger vans and an Expedition, which offer limited use to club sports as well as outside organizations such as the debate team, according to Alec Smith, treasurer of the council and former crew team president.

“Renting a charter bus can cost a team up to $4,000, and students caravanning pose a huge risk,” said Smith.

Four to five UR teams travel across the country, and a few have gone to national tournaments, but more teams would be able to go with more transportation funding, according to Gill.

Elizabeth Simpson, the vice president of the council and president of the Women’s Water Polo team, said: “The (College of) Notre Dame water polo team travels to the West Coast every spring break and when they come back to the East Coast, they have so much more experience and beat all the East Coast teams…UR teams are competitive but they can’t win districts or nationals without travel funding.”

The women’s water polo team has been able to travel to Puerto Rico, the University of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee in recent years, according to Simpson. As Celander found out shortly after arriving at UR, teams such as ice hockey require individuals to pay $1,000 dues so that they can have opportunities to travel to places such as Atlanta, Florida, Arizona and Pittsburgh.

Only when all of the Sports Club funding is exhausted are teams able to seek other resources for money, according to Hyde. The Richmond Dean’s Office funded the men’s rugby team to travel to regional championships, he said. Increasing funding and support is “always difficult” but it is becoming easier because the large percent of students involved makes club sports more visible to the administration, Roberts said. He says that the administration realizes the benefits of club sports to the university, and is satisfied with their support.

“Tom Roberts is bringing about attention to sports clubs around the university,” Gill said. “The publicity is showing the influence club sports play on campus.”

Gill says that the current funds are finally reaching an adequate level where every club gets represented fairly based on how much work they put in, and the university is “very supportive” in encouraging them to continue growing.

Amelia Wolfe, the recreation and wellness office manager, said that quality club sports that offer opportunities to travel and compete at more intense levels are extremely important in terms of students deciding on UR and retaining them.

Gill said club sports are becoming “more and more essential” for incoming students, most of whom were varsity athletes in high school and want the opportunity to continue playing without the stress of a collegiate varsity team.

“Some kids won’t even consider a school without a club program,” Celander said.

Beyond the physical and mental benefits of a club team, members find a social network away from Greek life that they immediately connect with, according to Hyde. Students become closer with their teammates by working hard for a common goal, he said.
Student support is very large for club sports, and that shows with almost perfect club attendance at all meetings, said Roberts.

The most obvious sign of increasing support is the construction of the Weinstein Recreation and Wellness Center, said Roberts. This building will have a club lounge with work stations, mailboxes, storage and a place for clubs to meet and hang out, he said. It will also have a gymnasium and multipurpose room for club practices. Although UR has struggled to create a credible and strong club sports program in its recent history, the community is currently filled with club sports enthusiasts and administration and students who are dedicated to creating a great program for the future of the university, Gill said.

Now that Celander is graduating from the University of Richmond, he gets asked the frightening question for college seniors; “Where are you going to get a job?” The same thing that was on his mind while choosing colleges still has an impact on his career choice: ice hockey. Celander said that he talks about the 106 games he played at UR in every single job interview he attends. Club hockey has not only been a resume builder, he said, but a way for potential employers to get a look at his character and leadership abilities.

For many students, club sports are more than just exercise.

“Being part of a club sport is an important way to keep a balanced life… to take a break from the overwhelming work most of us have,” said Simpson.

Facebook

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 19, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Ashley Nerz

Before Facebook.com, there was not one place that college and high school students could rely on to make instant friends, join clubs, advertise events, share photo albums and keep in touch with old friends.

Now, many students at colleges and high schools nationwide can not keep themselves away from the online friend directory created two years ago by Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg. Whether they are looking up a friend’s contact information, sending someone a message, poking their secret crush, or just taking a study break, students find themselves spending a lot of their free time on Facebook.

“It definitely wastes a lot of time,” said Daria Luddy, a senior at the University of Richmond and a member of Facebook since October 2004. But “if it wasn’t Facebook, I would find something else to distract me.”

Kyle Bullock, also a senior and Facebook member since October 2004, said that Facebook distracts him “because they keep putting more stuff on it, like pictures.”

The photo album feature was added to Facebook late last fall.

The “Facebook Team” is always adding features to the directory, which Richmond students embrace quickly. The newest addition during spring was the ability to post events on the website. The Kappa Sigma fraternity used this feature to invite students to “Carlo’s Super Sweet Sixteen Party” at Bar 321 in downtown Richmond . Aside from the new features and the time wasted on Facebook, many students use it for contact information. They often use the site to look up fellow undergraduates’ phone numbers, dorm rooms and screen names.

“It makes life a lot easier because of the contact information,” said Luddy. Members of Facebook also have the opportunity to share their marital status, political views, date of birth, interests, hobbies, favorite music, favorite movies, quotes and class schedules. Facebook “allows you to learn more about people you know,” said Luddy.

Even sophomore Josh Tabb, a student who is not a member of Facebook, confessed that he is familiar with the site. Although he said he never got around to joining Facebook, he often finds himself sharing his friends’ accounts. “I use it mostly just to look at pictures,” he said. “Like when people come up in conversation and I don’t know who they are.”

Sophomore Mike Stubbs, a member of Facebook since October 2004, decided not to use Facebook for a month because of Lent. He also gave up America Online Instant Messenger.

“I did it because Facebook and AIM waste a substantial amount of time that I could be doing other things. I also wanted to develop more personal relationships,” said Stubbs.

He ended up encountering a lot of challenges.

“I had a group project to do and I had to find out who my partners were without it. The little things on Facebook are a huge convenience,” said Stubbs.

Another feature of Facebook that Stubbs missed was the birthday reminders that Facebook gives every day.

At Richmond, there are 4,375 registered users, according to Chris Hughes, a spokesperson for Facebook.com. As more students continue to rely on Facebook to contact each other and get to know each other at Richmond, some administrators are showing concern for students because of the potential dangers it can bring to their reputations and privacy.

“Students don’t necessarily realize that it can be dangerous because we are all a big happy society,” said Chris Faigle, a campus network security specialist. “I really wish more people knew how public Facebook is. If you ever run for president, whoever can sell the information on your profile will be offered $100,000.”

Anyone with an .edu email address can join Facebook and request friendship with other members. If they have a richmond.edu email address, they automatically have access to all other member profiles with a richmond.edu address. Therefore, not only Richmond students, but Richmond faculty, staff and alumni have access to all Richmond Facebook profiles unless a member has personalized privacy restrictions on their account. A section on Facebook.com titled “My Privacy” offers its members the option to make their profiles visible to only their friends or everyone with a Richmond.edu
account. The section says that “We built Facebook to make it easy to share information with your friends and people around you. We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information.” Many students do not know about the “My Privacy” section.

Bullock said he had no idea he had those options. Luddy said she found out about these options when she was a Rho Gamma for sorority recruitment and wanted her profile to only be visible to her friends.

Lt. Adrienne Meador of the campus police department is concerned about students putting contact information on their profiles because it is a public site. She said on Facebook there is a lot of trust, “but you’re giving people access to where you live. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“What students don’t know is that you can find all of the contact information that is on Facebook, like dorm rooms and phone extensions, through the online campus directory,” said Faigle. These tools can be found on the “search” of the University of Richmond website under the option “Search for People at the University.” Only registered users on campus have access to this feature so that all of the information is safe. Meador said she thought the reason students do not utilize these university tools is because they are lazy.

Katybeth Dreisbach, a counselor at the Career Development Center and a member of Facebook, said if students are going to post a lot of information on Facebook, they should look at it as a representation of their reputation. She said someone once said that “Anything you put online is public information. Someone once used this phrase to judge what to put on Facebook, ‘Would you put it on a billboard for your Grandma to see?’” Dreisbach participated in a program in the fall through the Westhampton Deanery called “Whose Facebook is it Anyway?” The program aimed to educate students on the potential dangers of Facebook, as well as who was on Facebook. Dreisbach is particularly concerned with potential employers on Facebook.

“What is happening is that very young alums taking part in recruiting will look up potential employers on Facebook. A former Richmond student who now works at a big investment bank uses Facebook. They want Richmond to be represented well,” she said.

After discovering that potential employers could see his profile, Bullock said that he was worried and he was going to delete his whole profile.

“I’m worried because of the clubs I am in, like ‘Marijuana,’ ‘Beta Mu Delta’ and ‘No Ma’am,” he said. “Beta Mu Delta” is a marijuana fan club that stands for “Blaze Me Down,” while “No Ma’am” is a males-only club that states, “If you like hanging out with dudes (and only dudes) and drinking beers, then this is the club for you.”

Luddy, on the other hand, was not worried about potential employers seeing her profile.

“I’m personally not because there is nothing on there that is incriminating. It is not necessary for them to look at it because it is more college-oriented. It does not speak to a person’s skills for employment,” she said.

Both Bullock and Luddy said that no one ever warned them about potential employers checking their Facebook profiles during their senior year. In fact, aside from the “Whose Facebook is it Anyway?” program in the fall, most of the University of Richmond administration is not actively doing anything about Facebook. Both the police department and network security said they are concerned for the students’ safety, but do not police Facebook.

“You certainly don’t want to have a lot of opinions on there that a lot of people are going to hate,” said Faigle. He advises students not to post anything on the internet to be safe. However, he said network security will not tell students what they can and can not post on Facebook.

“As long as you don’t have something highly illegal on there, I don’t care,” he said.

Campus police have not used Facebook to investigate any cases to date, but Meador said officers will definitely use Facebook in an investigation if they think that it will be helpful.

“The way that you express yourself is up to you as long as you aren’t doing anything incriminating,” said Meador. “On the flipside, I hope some students are stupid enough to put incriminating things up.”

While no one is actively policing Facebook profiles, many Richmond coaches suggest that athletes do not post any pictures related to drinking on their Facebook profiles. However, the athletic department does not have any specific rules that censor Facebook. Sophomore Lawerence Lessing, a member of the golf team, said athletic administrators sent an email to the athletes telling them to be careful about their information on Facebook.

“I think it’s kind of ridiculous that the athletic department does this because it has nothing to do with our sport or team and it should be up to us what we want to put on there,” said Lessing.

Stubbs, a member of the track team, said his coaches do not know about Facebook.

“Due to an incident with Webshots last fall, the team has put one and one together to know what to put on Facebook and what not to,” he said.

Webshots.com is an online database for anyone to post their digital pictures for the public to see. No members of the track and team would comment further about the Webshots incident.

Sophomore Ali LeVine, a member of the women’s soccer team, cancelled her Facebook membership after receiving warnings from her coaches.

“I quit Facebook because I didn’t want to have to worry about who besides my friends was looking at my information or pictures. The benefits didn’t outweigh the risks,” she said. “I’m sure all coaches care deeply about their players and only want the best for those players and the program.”

Sorority members at Richmond have clear restrictions on their Facebook profiles. They are not allowed to post pictures with alcohol or refer to alcohol in their profiles. According to Courtney Kwiatkowski, the Panhellenic president, the policy was started last year because of the national rules established by the sororities on campus. There is no similar policy for fraternities.

“It is to protect the images of our sororities and their members,” she said. “Many chapters at other schools are doing the same thing.”

Chapter presidents are encouraged by Panhellenic to check their members’ profiles for alcohol-related material.

“They don’t want any evidence against their chapter. If you think of it from a liability perspective, it’s a good idea,” said Meador.

Not everyone agrees.

“I understand why because you don’t want to give Greek life a bad reputation. I feel like it’s censoring something that is going to happen anyways. It’s unnecessary and ridiculous,” said Luddy, a member of Pi Beta Phi.

Bullock, a member of Kappa Sigma, said: “It’s pretty ridiculous. We’re in college; get over it.”

Athletes and sorority members at Richmond are among many college students nationwide who have restrictions on their Facebook accounts. According to an April 27 article in the University of South Florida’s “The Oracle,” athletes at Loyola University Chicago are not allowed to have Facebook accounts. Athletes at Florida State University are encouraged to “rethink” what they post on Facebook. As the issue continues to grow,
more universities are acting cautiously about what their students can include in their Facebook profiles.

Despite the many concerns about Facebook, it still helps many students network. “One of the greatest things about Facebook is that it is all about networking and networking is what makes the world go round,” said Dreisbach.

Luddy said: “I’m Facebook friends with people I met at interviews. It helps you keep a connection with people you meet for a day and hit it off with.”

As students at Richmond keep up with the growth of Facebook and embrace its new features, the virtual friend network shows no signs of fading.

Rape at UR: Facing the Problem and Ending the Silence

Published by Rachel Beanland on February 19, 2008 in News writing. 0 Comments

By Victoria Byrum

Her story began like this:

“I was at a party at a UFA and I was drinking. It was a Friday night. I ended up upstairs in one of the bedrooms with a friend and a bunch of people I didn’t know. We ended up passing around a bottle of alcohol, and one by one people trickled out until it was just me and four guys I didn’t know.

“Pretty soon I was the only one drinking, and somehow I ended up on one of the beds kissing a guy. Then I blacked out. I had had enough to drink that I had no idea what happened. The first thing I remember is waking up facing a wall I didn’t recognize, on a futon I didn’t know. I was still drunk enough things weren’t really coherent, I didn’t really know what was happening. I realized I was in a pair of clothes that weren’t mine, and I was next to a guy I didn’t know. I got up, went upstairs, and found my clothes in the bedroom. I put them on and he drove me back to LoRo. I went up to my room and slept for two days.

“I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened till I talked with my roommate who had been at the party. She told me we had definitely had sex. I believed her completely. More than one person had seen us, and no one had tried to stop it or even said anything. All I ever ended up knowing was his first name.

“I never said a word. I didn’t want to think about it or deal with it. This is probably the first time I told the entire story to anyone, and it’s been over two years.”

This story, told by a University of Richmond class of 2007 woman, is far more common than many students might think.

A report by the National Institute of Justice titled, “The Sexual Victimization of College Women,” states that “women at a college that has 10,000 female students could experience more than 350 rapes a year.”

Kerry Fankhauser, the Westhampton College assistant dean, said the University of Richmond probably has upwards of 150 rapes per year. University police reported six accounts of forcible sex offenses between 2002 and 2004.

Neither Patrick Benner, the assistant dean of Richmond College resident life, or Angie Harris, the Westhampton College assistant dean of resident life, could recall a rape report that had gone through the university judicial system.

Benner described what would happen if a student ever did report to the deanery, saying, “If there ever were a case, we would first notify the victim of all of their options, then let them make the decision about how to proceed.”

Harris also leaves the decision up to the victim.

“Our greatest concern is the victim’s well being,” she said. “We offer them more of a supportive environment than anything else, encouraging them to write letters to their assailants or other helpful things.”

Though the students may not report to the police, both deaneries are legally obligated to disclose the number of victims who visit them.

The Student Health Center and Counseling and Psychological Services, on the other hand, have no legal obligation to report to police, as both adhere to a confidentiality clause.

Peter LeViness, the director of CAPS, said, “The only time we would ever report to the police would be if the assailant were a stranger from off-campus, or a repeat offender, a threat to students’ safety.”

CAPS may not disclose numbers to the police, but they do record the reasons that students use the center.

According to LeViness, since 2004, only three students have visited CAPS regarding sexual assault or rape. An anonymous survey conducted by CAPS this past spring showed that 9.8 percent of women and 3.9 percent men
who took the survey had been sexually assaulted while a student at the university. These low numbers, LeViness explained, may be due to the low response rate of the student body or because the phrase ‘sexual assault’ was not clearly defined.

“At the very least, the numbers are usually an underestimate,” he said. “Plus, students more distressed would have been less likely to take the survey.”

Dan Fabian, the Richmond College assistant dean and faculty head of Stealing Home, an on-campus organization that deals with assault, believes that drinking is the biggest issue regarding sex offenses.

“Nationally,” Fabian said, “71 percent of men and 51 percent of women involved in sexual assaults were drinking at the time. You can have sex. Just don’t mix it with drugs and alcohol. It will be better anyway.”

Lt. Adrienne Meador, a University of Richmond police investigator who specializes in on-campus sexual assault cases, believes that, “alcohol use leads to a significant amount of self-blame. Victims fall into stereotypes, thinking, ‘I knew better’.”

Kate Harmon, the student president of Stealing Home, says that alcohol not only shifts blame, but could remove it entirely.

“People don’t know what happened to them was wrong,” she said, describing how alcohol not only lowers
inhibitions, but cognitive abilities as well. Still, Harmon argues, “If you do it (rape), you do it. Who cares if you’re drunk?”

While the use of alcohol by victims may discourage students from reporting rapes or sexual assaults, it is not the only factor that faculty and students cite. Time was another issue continuously brought up.

“Most people do not respond immediately. They take a few months to process what happened,” Fabian said.

Juliette Landphair, the dean of Westhampton College, also addressed the time barrier.

“Months or even years later, they [victims] have not sought out support. Because they haven’t addressed it, their lives fall apart, mentally and academically,” she said. Other circumstances also affect the rate of reporting on campus. Fankhauser, a sexual assault survivor, sees the apathy on campus as another hindrance.

“Students here get so overwhelmed and focused in on themselves instead of looking out at what’s going on,” she said, emphasizing the lack of student involvement in sexual assault issues. “What is going to get people going? Getting a community perspective. This is a community. You live here for four years. Look outside yourself and take ownership.”

Richmond College officials have struggled with ways to educate men.

“You’d have a really good speaker or RA program, and no one would attend,” Steve Bisese, said the former Richmond College dean who now is vice president for student development.

“Students choose not to attend these events,” he continued, describing how even resident assistants were often forced to go to their own programs.

“I am a huge fan of students taking charge. It takes a passionate student to have a rallying cry,” Bisese said.

Educating men about sexual assault is vital, administrators agree. According to Fabian, a national survey conducted in 2001 showed that one in four men would rape a woman if they knew that there would be no consequences.

“Men are primarily the perpetrators, whether the victim is male or female, so it only makes sense that we educate them,” Fankhauser said.

According to Fabian, who is also an orientation coordinator, Stealing Home had asked the University of Richmond Players to perform a play called “Think Again.” This play consists of multiple scenarios that depict rapes on a college campus, and is shown separately to males and females.

“Men, especially when they are 18, become uncomfortable when this issue is brought up,” Fabian said. “They laugh, which would be detrimental to women in the audience.” Fabian said this particular aspect of orientation will not be changing in the near future, though the structure of the play itself will.

This year, a new campus group called S.A.R.T, or the Sexual Assault Response Team, began work. According to organizer Kate Harmon, this team consists of seven University of Richmond students who have been trained through the Richmond YWCA in sexual assault and rape responses. These students carry a pager 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which will be used when a student reports to the police or CAPS. The S.A.R.T member on call will serve as an advocate for the victim, providing emotional support and a medium through which to communicate.

“It’s easier to talk to someone your age than, say, an assistant dean,” Harmon said.

Jessie Dorne, a S.A.R.T member, says that most people can’t articulate what happened, or decide what to do in their situation. S.A.R.T.’s job will be to help them through the process.

S.A.R.T officially began the week after Spring Break, but Harmon says it has yet to be used. One explanation for this is the difficulty of publicizing such a program.

“It’s hard to do a Spiderbyte saying, ‘Have you been assaulted?’,” Harmon said. University police Lt. Adrienne Meador also says that the idea of peers knowing what happened may be potentially problematic.

“One problem would be from a privacy perspective,” she said. “Victims may not want their peers involved, especially on a campus this small.”

Stealing Home has also begun a forum called Saturday Nights, where victims are given the opportunity to anonymously express their experiences. These expressions can be written accounts of their stories, poems, drawings, songs, or any other form of self expression. The initiative, Fabian explained, began as a website for Duke, and was adapted for University of Richmond students. Fankhauser, who has been involved in the Saturday Nights effort, says that the school hopes to publish a booklet of Richmond’s contributions to distribute among students by the spring of next year.

The university administration has also attempted to raise the reporting rate of rape on campus. Harris developed a new, anonymous reporting website for students to record their experiences. Instead of going to the police or the health center, students can formally report what happened without feeling pressured to decide what action to take next.

“It’s hard to separate steps like tests and police reports from, ‘I have to make a decision’. It’s all so overwhelming,” Harris explained.

Fankhauser agrees that this new system of reporting is a great new development.

“Students don’t realize that reporting doesn’t have to mean pressing charges,” Fankhauser said.

Also under development is a plan for what will be known as the Westhampton Center, a $3 million building project. Landphair says that the center will be attached to the current Westhampton deanery, and will house numerous new resources for Westhampton women. One of these resources includes the Westhampton College
Resource Director, a new administrator whose job will be to handle issues of rape and sexual assault.

“We know that campuses that deal with this best have a professional staff member whose sole responsibility is to deal with this,” Landphair explained. The center is in its initial fundraising stages.

The underreporting of rape is not a problem exclusive to the University of Richmond. Information included in a sexual assault pamphlet distributed by Stealing Home said that, according to the FBI, rape is the number one most underreported violent crime in the nation. There is no one solution that might fix this problem, though certain steps can be taken in order to lessen the severity of it.

“I think what people need to realize is how long lasting the effects of something like this may be,” the class of 2007 rape victim said. “Even if you try and push it to the back of your mind, it doesn’t go away. And it’s something you don’t realize right away but it happens. It’s important to deal with it right away, and save yourself a lot of pain.”