Category: Spring 2008

By Reilly Moore

Alcohol policies are different at colleges and universities around the country, but depending on the policy, it can influence prospective students as well as current ones.

At the University of Richmond, the student handbook says, "The use of alcoholic beverages on the campus is expected to be in compliance with federal, state and local laws as well as University policy." Because the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, this policy theoretically prohibits drinking by the majority of Richmond students.

But the policy is not always enforced, resident assistant Josh Huffines said. Students often drink in small groups in dorm rooms or the University Forest Apartments, but these types of incidents are too hard to prevent, he said.

"If I wrote people up every time I knew people were drinking, I would be writing incident reports all night," Huffines said.

When students are caught for routine alcohol violations, such as possession of alcohol in a residence hall room, the consequences for a first offense are not severe, he said. The resident assistant relays the information to the area coordinator, who then deals with the incident further. The police and the student's parents are rarely contacted for a first offense, he said.

The primary focus of the current policy is to prevent large-scale parties and binge drinking, Huffines said. Recently, enforcement of the alcohol policy has become stricter, he said.

"The policy is definitely enforced more this year than it was last year," Huffines said.

Evidence of the crackdown on large-scale drinking was shown before this year's Festivus, formerly known as Pig Roast. A flyer was posted on the door of every University Forest Apartment warning that any alcohol-related violations during that weekend could result in immediate evictions.

University police have also been taking a firmer stance on alcohol violations, Huffines said.

"The police are writing up more students than the RA's," he said.

Richmond College freshman Dan Alper, received a written arrest from university police after an incident earlier this year, he said.

Alper had been drinking in his residence hall room and decided to go to the apartments with some friends, he said. Along the way, one of the people in his group gave him an open beer can, he said.

As the group approached the apartments, Alper saw a University police officer and tried to dispose of the can, he said. The officer stopped him, took his information and gave him a written arrest.

Alper received sanctions from the school as well as the police. He met Patrick Benner, associate dean for residence life, who punished Alper with a $50 fine and 15 hours of community service.

Alper also had to appear in Henrico Country court for an arraignment in April and must attend his hearing at the courthouse on May 6, he said.

"I have to stay in Richmond for five extra days to go to court," Alper said. "One half-empty beer can is causing me a big hassle."

Though Huffines said enforcement of alcohol-related infractions had increased, Richmond's policy was lenient compared to some of its competitor schools.

Furman University in Greenville, S.C., is one example. The school, which had been a dry campus, permits alcohol in only four areas on-campus, according to the Furman web site.

The web site reads, "The ban on alcoholic beverages in the campus residential and educational facilities reflects the reality that too many college students, often legally and underage, drink to excess….The possession and or use of alcohol beverages is prohibited in all campus locations except [the four] listed below."

Unlike at Richmond, where students 21 and older can possess alcohol and register parties, Furman's alcohol ban applies even to those students older than the legal drinking age, according to the website.
For prospective students and their families, questions about different alcohol policies are frequent, especially on tours, freshman tour guide Mary Morgan said.

"I get asked about the alcohol policy or how easy it is to drink on every tour," Morgan said. "Usually, the parents ask about the police or how strict the enforcement is and the students ask how big the parties are and how much drinking happens on campus."

Rather than make a firm stand on the issue, Morgan said she was trained to respond to question about the alcohol policy by telling students and their parents that the university abides by all state and federal laws.
"I'd like to just be able to say, €˜Almost everyone here drinks and it isn't hard to find alcohol,'" Morgan said. "But alcohol policy is such a sensitive issue with some parents."

At the end of tours, when the tour guides informally take any questions from the students or families, the questions about alcohol are answered more honestly, Morgan said.

"If a kid comes up to me alone and asks, €˜Is it really easy to drink here,' I am much more likely to give them a real perspective without having to be careful about what I say," Morgan said. "That actually happens a lot."
The actual admissions officers at the school face the question of alcohol less frequently, admission officer Kate Wheeler said.

"Prospective students rarely reveal to admission officers that they desire a campus where alcohol is free-flowing and there is no enforcement of the law," she said in an e-mail interview. "It may be the case for many that they do want this, but they aren't going to say it to the people who read their applications."
The parents of prospective students are usually the ones to ask the admission officers about the alcohol policy, Wheeler said.

"I don't know if it's a reflection of student interest or unease with the topic," she said.

Wheeler said that she didn't think there would be a decrease in applications if Richmond advertised more restrictive alcohol rules.

Applications and enrollment do not suffer because of the dry campus policy at Furman either, Furman admission officer Woody O'Cain said.

"For the typical, everyday life of a student, the campus is still considered dry," O'Cain said. "However, this does not seem to be a deterrent in students applying and enrolling, especially as every year the size and quality of our applicant pool increases."

Because Furman and Richmond are both competitive schools with difficult academic programs, students who are concerned only about drinking tend not to apply, O'Cain said.

"Classes are rigorous," O'Cain said in an e-mail interview, "and it would be difficult to be academically successful if a student's first priority happened to be drinking. Those students who perceive college as a place to party for four years (classes optional) would not be a good fit for Furman."

O'Cain also said that though the campus was dry, students and prospective students knew that drinking still occurred.

"If students wish to include alcohol in their socializing, it can be found," O'Cain said, "even as the dry campus policy is enforced by administration and RAs."

Though the evidence, such as the increase in applications mentioned by the admission officers at both Furman and Richmond, indicated that alcohol policies do not act as a deterrent to all students, for some students, the party scene at a school was a deciding factor.

"I wanted to go to a school where I knew I could have a good time," high school senior Elizabeth Donaldson of Avon, Conn., said. "I applied to schools because of their academics, but breaking the tie between schools came down to little things like the party scene and alcohol policy."

Donaldson applied to Richmond, University of Maryland, Elon University and Syracuse University. She decided to enroll at Syracuse partially because of the party scene, she said.

"I know people who go there and say it's a great time," Donaldson said. "The other schools were good options, too, but Syracuse is good academically and socially."

Another high school senior, Jack Hodil of Hampton, Pa., who will attend Richmond in the fall, said that he didn't initially consider alcohol policies when applying to schools, but was glad that Richmond's policy was not too strict.

"It didn't affect my decision at first," Hodil said, "but I consider the drinking policy a major addition to Richmond's positives."

Other students were not as worried about partying as Hodil and Donaldson, but were still happy that Richmond was not a dry campus.

Keely Naughton, a senior from Atlanta, said she planned to attend Richmond in the fall. Her decision was not at all based on drinking policies, she said, but she chose not to isolate herself from alcohol completely.
"I don't drink," Naughton said. "I know there is substance-free housing for girls, but I didn't want to participate in that. I didn't think it was healthy to completely isolate myself from €˜substances.'"

For some students, the more casual party scene that Richmond offers is a positive. Naomi Mayeux, a high school senior in Tarrytown, N.Y., is still deciding between Tulane and Richmond.

"What I like about Richmond," Mayeux said, "is that it's more like my private high school€”not a rowdy party scene, but more of a house party or frat scene. I actually like that the school seems more serious about academics and less about drinking/partying."

Naughton said: "When I was visiting schools and tour guides were throwing around terms like dry campus I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted. But then I found Richmond and I just fit, so it doesn't matter what the alcohol policy is."

Though some students disagreed with Naughton, most students believed that the college-selection process is more about academics and fitting in than drinking and partying.

By Stephen Utz

There is a sense of urgency to institute the strategic plan, University of Richmond President Ed Ayers said in May.

The strategic plan outlines five areas that the university wants to improve. They include increasing affordability, diversity, increasing community involvement and creating a cohesive environment between schools and linking student life with all of these, Ayers said.

The five-point plan he released early in March is still in its draft stages. How each principle will be addressed is still being determined. The university released a draft of the plan and is creating working groups composed of administrators, faculty and students to create a specific plan to accomplish the five principles, Ayers said.

The working groups will meet all summer through conference calls to develop strategies to achieve the goals that they have set out to reach, he said. It is their job to define the metrics of success for each goal, he said.

A new draft will be presented at the beginning of classes in August and the final plan should be announced in October, he said. This is a five-year plan that will be coupled with a new capital campaign that will be implemented in a year or two, he said.

Other schools have recently instituted strategic plans that are similar to the University of Richmond's. "We didn't look at other plans," Ayers said. Diversity and affordability are issues that all colleges are facing, he said. Other schools' plans were not looked at because the University of Richmond is a unique institution with specific needs to address, he said.

As Ayers traveled the country, welcoming alumni and donors, he kept asking one simple question, he said. "What do we want the University of Richmond to be known for?"

The responses repeated the same objectives, he said. An emphasis on diversity and affordability was important to donors and alumni, he said.

The rising cost of college is a problem, he said.

The university is reviewing its financial-aid policies to make sure it has the best policy for its students, Ayers said in an interview with news writing students. The tuition increases must end, he said.

The strategic plan will address the issue of diversity. "The University will be a diverse community, strengthened intellectually and socially by the range of knowledge, opinion, belief, and political perspective as well as background (race, ethnicity, gender, age, religious, economic,
geographic) of its members," according to the strategic plan.

The lack of diversity on campus has been a predominant stereotype about the University of Richmond.

Students have described Richmond as a homogeneous place with one race dominating all others. African-Americans make up 10 percent of the campus population, Ayers said. That is consistent with the average throughout the rest of the country, excluding the historically black colleges and universities, he said.

The most common stereotype about the population demographic is that the university is made up of rich, white, Northerners. Ayers said that was not the case, but students believe that was the truth so the stereotype has persisted. "People are willing to believe the worst about themselves," he said.

Even though Richmond's population is consistent with the rest of the country, there is room for improvement, Ayers said.

Another area of importance to Ayers is increasing the connectivity between the schools on the campus, he said. "How do we maintain contact with the liberal arts?" he said.

"The University will have an academic enterprise that will be connected, innovative, rigorous, and personal with the intent to foster faculty growth and ensure student success," the plan said.

Business majors should be able to take other classes that interest them, Ayers said. They should not be secluded in the business school without access to the school of arts and sciences, he said.

Faculty will be in charge of the curriculum that will bring the schools together, he said. The curriculum should be challenging for both the students and the professors, professor David Leary said. "In the end, you want something that everyone can agree on," he said.

The draft of the strategic plan also calls for increased community involvement by the university. The university will "shape, both educationally and experientially, its students and as a means to contribute its skills, energy, and goodwill to the identified needs of the larger community," according to the plan.

The university already contributes to Build It and other programs in the community, Ayers said. Students build a house for a family as part of the Build It program. He noted in his Inaugural Address that students are very active in community service.

The strategic plan will determine what the university will do to increase its community involvement for students, faculty and administrative staff. "What aspects of community engagement will ensure that our students develop an ethic of service that is transportable to any community worldwide?" according to the plan.

Each point of the strategic plan is intertwined with the others, if one progresses the others will also be successful, Ayers said.

The success of the plan will create an identity for the University of Richmond, he said. "No school has been on as rapid an ascent," he said. The school has not had time to forge a new identity as it has thrived, he said.

"It's within our power to define what we want to be known for," he said.

The increased cohesion between schools will make the university unique, he said. That will create and identity as a strong liberal arts school combined with a graduate program that is exposed to undergrads.

"Our peers have to recognize that Richmond is a leader," he said.

Schools similar to Richmond have released plans that have goals that are comparable to Richmond's. Wake Forest University and Furman University are trying to increase affordability and diversity. Wake Forest is trying to link the liberal arts with the professional world in a similar way to Richmond.

"We have a tremendous opportunity to build more productive connections between and among arts and sciences and professional schools in law, medicine, business and divinity," Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch said in his state of the university speech recently.

Students like the proposals set forth by the draft. "I'm optimistic and hopeful that with the new leadership of Dr. Ayers and his staff that we are ready to move the university forward, and also focus out attention on student life and how they perceive the university as undergrads" sophomore Brendan Schlauch, a Richmond College senator, said.

Mike Murray, a sophomore senator, was cautiously optimistic. "I like the increased voice that the students' have, but I want to make sure the administration follows through and listens to students throughout the process," he said.

Other students have hope that the strategic plan will create a new identity for the university. " It should be a well-respected, liberal arts school that students like to attend, a place where prospective students want to be, and alumni want to give to," sophomore Josh Huffines said.

The school may need to do a better job of educating everyone about the strategic plan. "I haven't heard about anything, and I feel that generally I am an educated student about what goes on," freshman Justin Nguyen said.

Improving student life is one of the principles of the plan. "I love that it is a 24-hour strategic plan that focuses on life in and out of the classroom," Steve Bisese, vice president for student development, said. The school has begun to integrate itself with the Living and Learning Communities, which allow different students to come together to discuss topics outside of class, he said. The Living and Learning Communities are programs that are centered on a class that everyone involved in the program must take, and then they must do projects together outside of class as well. There are many different programs offered, including Civic Engagement, Campaign 2008, and language across the curriculum program that have brought students together, he said.

Richmond is at a crossroads, Ayers said. Ayers is excited about the prospects for the future, and is ready to forge an identity for the school, he said.

by Anna Kuta

The University of Richmond faculty's decision to change from the hour system to the unit system has been met with both opposition and acceptance by students.

As of the fall of 2008, all classes will be measured in units. The effect of the change was first seen in the spring as students registered for their fall classes.

All courses in the arts and sciences, business and leadership studies schools are now weighted under the unit system, and student transcripts will be converted to units beginning in May 2008, according to the Academic Advising website.

The university was previously using the hour system. Under the hour system, a typical class was either three or four hours, indicative of the time recommended that students spend on work for each hour spent in class.

A unit is equal to 3.5 credit hours, Joe Kent, the interim provost, said. The primary motivation behind the change was to get students to focus on four courses per semester in an in-depth manner rather than five courses per semester, he said.

"After some compromises the total number of units required for graduation was set at 35," Kent said, "which means that during three of eight semesters a student might take five units." With AP and transfer credit, most students will only need four courses per semester to graduate in four years, Kent said.

With the change to units, the total number of courses the typical student must take during four years will be reduced, the curriculum will be simplified, staffing flexibility will be expanded, and clearer expectations across courses will be created. These goals are listed on the university's website.

The majority of private national liberal arts colleges comparable to UR have a system where students take four courses in a typical semester, Kent said. Some call them units and others measure in semester hours with most courses being four semester hours, he said.

Many of these schools have an additional short term or winter term where students take a single course, Kent said.

The decision to move to units was proposed and voted on by the faculty. Thirty-six of the top 40 colleges in a U.S. News & World Report survey required that students take an average of four rather than five courses per term, many on unit systems like the one UR is adopting, according to the university's website. The survey found that no institutions have moved back from four courses per term to five.

There has been a lot of controversy on campus about the new system. Some students said they didn't understand why the university was making the change, and many students said they simply weren't informed about it.

"I only found out through the grapevine," Kelly Larsen, a freshman science major, said, "and even then, the people that told me didn't know much about it. I know they had meetings regarding the switch to units, and specific meetings for science majors, but I was unable to attend these and therefore I still do not really know anything about units."

Emily Dowd, a freshman, said she didn't think the change was explained very well. "Everyone was complaining," she said.

Much of the resistance to the change might have stemmed from the fact that students were simply informed, one student said.

Faculty and students have a wide range of views about the unit system. Some are opposed to the change, and others support it fully.

Dr. Joseph Essid, director of the campus writing center, said he strongly supported the unit system. "We assign a lot of work at Richmond," he said. "The new system encourages more focus by students.

"Our students try to do too much, in particular pursue double and triple majors. I think anything making this harder, and encouraging minors and intellectual exploration for its own sake is good." Essid also teaches English and Core. He is among the faculty who helped make the decision about the change.

"I like that under the unit system, a lot of majors and minors got smaller," said one student who is considering a double minor.

The intent of the change may be to keep students from double-majoring or triple-majoring, but students who really want multiple majors and minors will still find a way to do it, one freshman said. Many students still plan to double-major, and they are concerned about graduating on time.

Emily Dowd plans on double-majoring in English and psychology with a Spanish minor. She said she was concerned she might face limitations with studying abroad, because she would have to find somewhere that offered classes that counted toward her major, or not study abroad at all, so she could graduate on time.

Another student who is considering double-majoring said: "Now not only is it harder to double major, but it is hard for people like me who are still undecided to figure out what they want to do. Once I do figure it out, it might be too late to complete everything under the unit system."

Other students still do not understand the reasons behind the change.

"Why fix something that isn't broken?" Elizabeth Hyman, a freshman, asked. "My major gripe with the unit system is that it changes my fine arts requirement. Under the unit system, chorus is now a pass/fail class, which means that we all have to take an extra semester of it to get credit. And I know a lot of science students are upset because it will affect their labs."

Some students are questioning the motives behind the credits-to-units change. "It seems like we are getting the unit system to be more like Ivy League schools," one student, a freshman, said. "That is not a good enough reason to switch everything up."

"It seems unfair that labs do not factor in at all to the unit system," Larsen said, "because labs tend to be the reason I can’t take some classes because of conflicting times." Larsen said she was finding it hard to fit in her COMII requirement, which is two units, on top of two labs.

Not everyone disagrees with the change. "I don't think it's a big deal," Ashley Miles, a freshman, said. Miles said she didn't know why people were upset, because the unit system would make registration easier for everyone and make all classes weighted the same.

Next semester, students will experience firsthand the differences resulting from the change.

By David Larter

The typical Richmond student is working toward a double major and is involved in multiple extracurricular activities, but being overcommitted can lead to unhealthy amounts of stress that can have serious health consequences.

Neal Holly, a Richmond College area coordinator in the Residence Life office, said that students are stressed before they come to college, and that once at college they continue the patterns they learned in high school. "The students here worked hard in high school not just to get into college, but to get into €˜the right' college," he said. "They put a tremendous amount of pressure on themselves, and that continues once they come here."

Grade inflation has become an epidemic among the top universities in the country, and Richmond's high academic standards add to the stress levels, Holly said. "Students come here who had a great GPA in high school," he said. "A student might have been valedictorian in high school, but they come here and get Cs. It can be very stressful."

Peter LeViness, the director of University of Richmond's Counseling and Psychological Services said that about 12 percent of the student population go to CAPS every year and about a third of the population will go to CAPS before they graduate. "A common pattern we see among the students that come through here is that they are taking on too much," he said. "A lot of the stress they have is self-imposed. It comes from perfectionism."

Though academic standards add to stress levels, many students say that the stress comes from assigned academic work. A survey conducted during the fall 2004 semester revealed
that 45 percent of Richmond students think the heavy academic workload caused "very high amounts of stress" for them.

"I think stress is a major issue on campus," said Richmond College sophomore Tyler Morris. "Occasionally I'll have so much to do that I know I'm just not going to have enough time to do it."

Stress comes at various times in the semester and comes in several different forms, students said. "I'm most stressed when there are a lot of papers due at the same time, especially at the beginning of the semester," said Rachaphum Panichsombat, a Richmond College freshman. "I can accept it during finals, but at the beginning of the semester it's really hard to deal with."

Westhampton College junior Emily Smith said: "I think that midterm week is the most stressful time. It's just as busy as finals but you know that you are still only halfway through."
Graduating senior Ashley O'Keefe said: "The times I think are most stressful are when I have life things to do as well as academics. If I have to run a lot of errands or if I have interviews, I start to feel really overwhelmed."

Richmond students experience a whole range of stressors, LeViness said. "When we see students, a lot of times they are dealing with more than one thing," he said. "They are overwhelmed by academics, they are overcommitted with activities and they are dealing with things at home. They are getting hits from all sides and they get overwhelmed."

Not all stress is bad. There are three levels of stress. Not enough stress leads to boredom. Eustress is when a person has enough stress to motivate and to drive toward completing
goals. But distress is when a person has too much stress, and this can lead to exhaustion and other serious medical conditions, according to LeViness.

Sarah Fisher, a nurse at the Richmond health center, said that many of the students that come into the health center were dealing with stress-related illnesses. "It's difficult to document these kinds of things," she said, "but stress seems to tie in with any number of health issues that we deal with on a regular basis at the health center." Headaches, nausea, diarrhea, and, in extreme cases, pulmonary problems can all be linked with stress, Fisher said.

Insomnia is a common reaction to stress among Richmond students, Fisher said. "A lot of students that come through here with stress-related issues are having difficulty sleeping."

Students often sacrifice sleep during stressful times to catch up with work, but that will only increase stress and lead to exhaustion, said Tracy Cassalia, who is a health educator with the recreation and wellness department at Richmond. "If you are not getting enough sleep, it actually reduces your effectiveness by 50 percent," she said. "And pulling all-nighters are about the worst thing you can do if you are stressed. It takes your body three to seven days to adjust to a new sleep schedule, so you will not feel 100 percent again during that time."

LeViness compared studying while sleep-deprived with studying after a night of drinking. "Nobody would ever think about studying after six or seven beers," he said. "But students will not hesitate to study on four to five hours of sleep. Studies have shown that it is about the same thing."

Long-term, unmanaged stress can lead to behavioral, psychological and medical consequences down the road, LeViness said.

"Students often handle stress by binge drinking on the weekends or form other bad habits," LeViness said.

In the short term, high amounts of stress trigger the same reactions in the body that are used in self-defense, LeViness said. Adrenaline is triggered in the system and released into the bloodstream, but if the adrenaline is not enough to handle the stress, cortisol is then released as a long-term stress-coping mechanism, he said.

"Adrenaline is like a match," he said. "It gets the fire going. Cortisol is like a furnace that keeps burning. The problem is that cortisol, when it is in the bloodstream for prolonged periods, can damage your body."

Cortisol can cause people to gain weight under stressful situations, he said. "Adrenaline releases the fuel," he said. "Cortisol increases hunger so that the fuels can be replenished. That's why people have a tendency to eat high-carb foods and sugars when they are stressed and they put on weight."

Cortisol in the blood can also affect the brain, he said "Your memory will not work as well," he said. "Recent animal studies have shown that cortisol could be linked with brain degradation. It can cause damage to the hippocampus."

It may also explain why so many people get sick during midterms and finals, he said. "Cortisol works away at your immune system and leaves you more susceptible to sicknesses like the cold and flu."

In the long-term, stress, combined with prolonged large amounts of cortisol in the blood, can have serious behavioral and mental consequences. People under stress are prone to heavy smoking, eating disorders and alcohol abuse. Psychologically, stress can lead to sexual dysfunction, anxiety disorders, burnout and depression.

There are also serious medical risks associated with prolonged stress. Stress can cause heart attacks because cortisol has negative effects on the cardiovascular system, LeViness said. Stroke is another possible consequence of unmanaged stress. High blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headaches, ulcerative colitis, skin breakouts, and general aches and pains are all possible consequences of unmanaged stress, he said.

So what are some good ways of managing stress? Students said they had different ways of limiting stress in their lives. "I never work for more than two or three hours at a time, Panichsombat said. "I find other things to do. Going to D-hall and talking with friends are good ways I have of managing stress."

Richmond College freshman Matthew Plotzker said that he used several healthy methods of stress management. "I sleep, talk to my roommate, play videogames," he said. "Sometimes I go to the gym."

Graduating senior Ella Fratantuono said that sports helped her clear her mind and limited her stress. "Definitely athletics help me focus more," she said. "I play ultimate frisbee and that's really effective in relieving stress."

Exercise is one important way that experts say helps manage stress, Cassalia said. "Exercising releases endorphins into the blood," she said. "That is where the €˜natural high' that
people talk about comes from. Really, it relieves stress by getting your mind off of whatever it is that is stressing you out."

LeViness said that working out would not only relieve stress, but it would also increase energy. "Stress triggers the fight-or-flight reaction and all those fuels, the adrenaline and cortisol go into your body," he said. "The problem is that when you are under stress, especially in an academic environment, physical action is very rarely what is required. Exercise allows you to use and burn off all those extra fuels."

O'Keefe said that time management was an important part of relieving stress in her life. "I definitely try to schedule things as opposed to cramming them all in at the last minute," she said.

Experts agree that this is an excellent way to control the impact of high levels of stress. "The problem becomes that people, even if they schedule, will start to over schedule," Cassalia said. "People need to understand that when they make their schedule they need to schedule time for exercise or meditation, or whatever it is that they do to relax."

LeViness said that meditation could also aid in stress relief. "Things like meditation, visualization, deep breathing and muscle relaxation are all very helpful ways of managing stress," he said.

Holly said that students should be aware of the resources on campus. "Its important to realize that there are people here that you can talk to," he said. "The people that you see succeeding here, who are involved in multiple activities, are the ones who are constantly talking with people about their issues and getting help."

By Elizabeth Hardy

A new trend is developing at the University of Richmond, and it has nothing to do with Seersuckers or sundresses. University of Richmond students are downloading a new video-chat technology, Skype.

Skype is being downloaded by more than just the UR population. At the beginning of August 2005, the Skype counter showed more than 144 million worldwide downloads, according to O'Reilly Media Network, a website about technology trends.

"Skype may not take over the world," O'Reilly Network columnist James Gaskin wrote. "However, Skype makes the world's highest-quality phone connections available for the world's lowest price: free."

More than 25 million registered users were persuaded to join Skype by word of mouth, according to the O'Reilly Network. That is how it is primarily spreading across the University of Richmond campus.

"Skype fans spread the word that Skype was a hip and free method of talking to friends anywhere in the world," Gaskin wrote in his 2005 article "What is Skype?"

So what can Skype do for UR? Students have different opinions.

"I use it to video-chat and play online games with my girlfriend," freshman Brendon Cristobal said.

Cristobal is not the only one. Long-distance couples can put on their wireless headsets and stay connected through Skype anytime they are on their computer. Skype users can play games, instant message and see each other's faces during conversation.

In a survey conducted about Richmond students' Skype usage, one respondent said, "Skype is the closest thing to actually being with the person."

Long-distance relationships are not the only relationships Richmond students can keep up with on Skype. UR was named the "Hottest School for International Studies" by Newsweek in its 2008 issue "25 Hottest Schools in America." Student panelists at the spring Study Abroad Orientation said they appreciated free international calling methods like Skype.

Of 50 randomly selected Richmond students, half said they primarily use Skype to talk to friends who are studying abroad.

"While abroad, I was able to use Skype to keep in touch with my family and friends," one survey participant said. "We used the video feature, so I was able to keep in contact better and it helped me avoid feeling homesick. Also, it is a cheap alternative to using a telephone."

Another respondent felt similarly.

"Without Skype, I don’t think I would have been able to afford calling my family as much as I did," the respondent wrote.

Survey participants also said they used Skype to talk with family members and to friends who go to different schools.

"It allows me to visually communicate with my friends who are at different schools," a participant said.

Junior Yasmin Wazir talked about the benefits of Skype as a college student away from home.

"I used Skype for an interview process," Wazir said. "The night before my interview I made my mom download Skype and she quizzed me with medical questions for two hours. It was extremely beneficial. She actually yelled at me for twirling my hair and not having good posture. It was a lot more beneficial for my mom to €˜interview' me over Skype from West Virginia than over the phone."

The wide-ranging uses of Skype prompted bloggers and journalists to explain the Skype "phenomenon."

"Why do we Skype?" journalist Phil Wolff asked on Skypejournal.com. "Off the cuff: freedom from cost, privacy from government and employers, multiple modes of communication in one conversation, and presence for avoided voicemail."

But not everyone joined Skype. It poses risks to your computer, some students said. "Skype is a joke," freshman Jesse Goss said, "It screwed up my computer and made it go so slow."

The Australian National University explained this issue in greater depth on the Information Services' "Pros and Cons of Skype" page. It listed Skype as a target for hackers and susceptible to viruses, malware and the rapid spread of malicious files. Skype bypasses network security and firewalls, which worries security experts.

The quality of Skype's video-chat software also concerned students. Senior Nicole Huetter relied on Skype's video chat to maintain her relationship with her Australian boyfriend.

"I used Skype a ton when it came out," Huetter said. "It was a pain to call Australia, though. The calls to Australia always had delayed responses."

Another senior, Diana Gallagher, agreed.

"I used it to maintain a long-distance relationship with a guy in Canada and then in Scotland," Gallagher said. "In Canada it was fine, but in Scotland the service was really bad, so it would end the call or be staticky. I could hardly hear him."

Skype continues to address these concerns, but students said that it was not always as successful at addressing its competition. Some students preferred AOL Instant Messenger, MSN or Mac's video-chat software.

"Skype's video quality is darker than and not as good as MSN," Huetter said. "Skype's calls are often dropped."

Sophomore Ally Watkins tried Skype but reverted back to Mac's video-chat.

"My boyfriend has a Mac and so do I," Watkins said. "So we use that video-chat program."

Sophomore Jacquelyn DeWolfe stayed loyal to another competitor, AOL Instant Messenger.

"I've used Skype to talk to people who have it," DeWolfe said. "But I don't make the calls, I only receive them. I haven't gotten into it yet, not like AIM."

Students preferred AIM over other forms of online communication, according to the student survey. More than 60 percent responded that AIM was their favorite form of online chat, with one person listing Skype as a first choice.

Nevertheless, self-proclaimed "Skype fanatics" like Gaskin trust in its value and its future.

"Dig a little deeper into what else Skype offers now and plans to roll out soon," Gaskin wrote. "You realize Skype is the most advanced voice communications tool available today. […] Many companies are hitching their products to the global Skype bandwagon."

UR students who follow the Skype trend agreed.

"Sometimes it is the best option when face-to-face contact is not available," a Richmond survey respondent said.

By Stephanie Rice

University of Richmond students and their parents pay $49,190, a 5 percent increase, for tuition, room and board for the 2008-2009 school year.

Tuition will increase 3.3 percent to $38,350 and room and board will go up 13.9 percent each to $7,200. Then books, personal expenses, and loan interest bring the total to $49,190, said Herb Peterson, vice president of business and finance for the university.

The hiring of new full-time faculty and staff brought about the increase, he said.

"The University of Richmond has made great strides over the years and is one of the top 50 national liberal arts universities in the country," he said. "We must get better each year."

The university's Planning and Priorities Committee, made up of senior administrators, deans faculty and students, discussed the overall university budget and recommended an increase to President Edward Ayers.  Ayers then reviewed the proposal and sent it to the Board of Trustees for final approval in January.

"Tuition increases are necessary and enable the institution to implement enhancements that directly benefit our students€”such as new faculty and staff positions and the renovation of the Commons that will take place this summer," Ayers said.

The increase will create two new faculty positions, one in the Business School and one in the School of Arts and Sciences, said Linda Evans, the university's assistant director of media and public relations.  A new position will also be created in the Center for Civic Engagement and two new positions in Student Development, one to expand our outreach to students of color and one to help support Greek life, Evans said.

About 32 percent of students will pay the full cost of attendance and the other 68 percent will receive some type of aid based on each student's need, Financial Aid Director Cynthia Deffenbaugh said.

The Office of Financial Aid staff decides a students' need by subtracting his or her expected family contribution from the cost of attendance.  A student's family contribution is decided by the federal government after the student fills out and files the free application for federal student aid.

Out of the $1.65 billion endowment the university will spend $41.2 million on financial aid in the 2008-2009 school year.  About $12.1 million of that money is specifically allotted for financial aid.  There will also be unrestricted endowment income totaling $26.9 million that may or may not be used for financial aid purposes.  The endowment total is as of June 30, 2007.
"We are about 43rd in terms of size of endowment," Peterson said of the university's ranking when compared to other institutions of higher education in the United States. "I believe that we are about 10th in tuition alone.  We rank in the sixties for tuition, room and board and that is the reason that the room and board increases are unusually high."

The university is part of 1 percent of schools in the United States that can afford to pay 100 percent of every eligible students need, Peterson said.  This will continue to be true after the increase.  Financial aid will still be determined by subtracting a student's family contribution from the cost of attendance, he said.

Students receiving aid must pay or get a loan to cover his or her family contribution no matter what kind of aid they receive.  Aid is given out in the form of grants, loans and scholarships.

"Developing new approaches to access and affordability is a key element of the strategic-planning process now under way," Ayers said, "and I am committed to ensuring that the university remains accessible."

Response to the increase among students was varied.

"I felt like the tuition increase was done in a very covert manner," sophomore Ashley Murphy said in an e-mail. "I wasn’t aware of it until one of my classmates told me about it, after it had been decided upon.  I believe the university should have informed us and our parents about the idea, along with a list of the exact reasons for the increase, before an agreement was made."

Students also were concerned with how the increase would affect diversity on campus.

"Increasing our reputation as a university is about attracting better students," sophomore Barrett Neale said.  "Sure, it helps if we have more money to build more buildings, but we also have to take into consideration the financial impact this has upon the student body.  We talk about increasing diversity, but as long as we increase tuition we will be hard-pressed to have any socioeconomic diversity on campus."

Freshman Natalia Virani said:  "The increased tuition scares off more and more people from even considering to apply to the university; this increases the divide in the student diversity, as many students are turned away from UR because of its price tag."

Junior Katie Malczewski said she would rather have the money used for financial aid spent on professors' salaries.

"I feel like the $41.2 million spent on financial aid to help all the families who can’t afford the tuition hike would adequately pay four or five people's salaries," Malczewski said.  "Accessibility is important, but this is a little over the top.  We can’t buy our way to the top of U.S. News & World Report rankings."
The rest of the endowment and revenue earned by the university is spent on program services, management and general funds, and fundraising, according to a 2005 990 tax form obtained by The Collegian that covers July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006.

Program Services cost the university about $120 million within that year.  According to the form, program services includes professors' salaries and other expenditures that benefit student instruction, research done by faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, public services benefiting organizations outside the university such as the Center for Civic Engagement and academic support for all those previously mentioned.

Other program services also include the bookstore, housing, food services and athletics and student services such as admissions, student government, the chaplain's office and others.

About $72 million went toward salaries and wages, pension plans and employee benefits.  Another $7 million was spent on supplies and another $7.2 million on "other."

Management and general funds include the salaries of former university President William Cooper, June Aprille, former provost and vice president for academic affairs and Peterson as well as other management employees.  Cooper was paid $470,972, Aprille $278,320, and Peterson $219,627 which totaled about $1.33 million after adding contributions to pension plans and expense accounts.

The men's basketball coach, Chris Mooney, was the highest paid employee other than management with a salary of $321,296.  David Johnson, the vice president for advancement, was next with $315,965.  Professor of Finance Patrick Fishe was third with a salary of $249,399.  The dean of the Business School, Jorge Haddock was next with $230,000.  Former dean of the Law School Rodney Smolla was the fifth highest with a salary of $228,303.

Together with benefits, the total cost of these employees was about $1.6 million.

Other salaries and wages, pensions, and benefits of the management and general funds amounted to about $10.1 million.  Supplies totaled about $449,000 and "other" was about $4.3 million.

For other services the university spent about $215,000 in legal fees, $2.19 million for printing and publications, and $4.44 million on travel.  Most of the travel and printing and publications was done by those covered under program services.  The legal fees were mainly spent by management and general funds.

The accounting firm that completed the tax form for the university, KPMG LLP, was the fifth highest paid for professional services with a bill of $110,000.

The top five highest paid companies for other services were all construction companies totaling about $14.9 million in fees.

The university made about $341.9 million in total revenue.  About $19 million came from direct and indirect public support as well as government contributions.  Program services revenue including government fees and contracts totaled about $85 million.

By the end of June 2006, the university had $546 million in investments and securities.  Of that, $26 million was in corporate bonds and $447.9 million in common stocks.

The university made about $72.2 million from tuition in 2005-2006.  That money was tax exempt as well as $11 million made from auxiliary enterprises, which include the bookstore, food services, housing and athletics.  Altogether the bookstore made $3.98 million and Food Services $10.9 million, less returns and allowances.

The form states that the money is exempt because these departments provide "resources for the students and faculty on campus.  Any revenue earned by these departments is used to cover expenses and therefore, sustain their operations throughout the year."

By Amaya Garcia

Last August, Michele opened a Facebook account at the University of Richmond network. She now uses it regularly to keep in touch with more than 100 friends, almost all of whom are UR undergraduate students, mostly internationals.

Michele sends them messages and "threads" – a kind of group discussions – and frequently looks at their pictures or posts her own photos. If her friends have a "status" description that sounds somehow worrisome, she might call them to check if everything is OK.

But Michele might also call her friends and politely ask them to remove pictures or comments that she doesn't consider appropriate.

After all, Michele is one of the nearly 7,000 who is part of the UR network in Facebook. Michele Cox is the director of the study-abroad program at Richmond, and using the college-based, social networking webpage has become part of her job as an adviser for international exchange students.

"Facebook is a wonderful communication tool," Cox said.

Like Cox, an increasing number of university officials and professors have started using Facebook as a tool to communicate with their students and to know more about them. According to recent accounts in the media, many employers are also interested in the virtual personas of their workers.

Facebook.com, launched by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, is a new and almost unregulated sphere. So it's unclear to which extent university officials and professors are allowed to access the accounts of students, and what use they can give to the information they find there. And this makes many college students feel concerned.

Cox said she used Facebook mainly to advertise the events that her office was organizing, to share information about scholarships and to keep in contact with students once they go back to their home institutions. She also wants to start a Facebook group to encourage science students, who are less likely to study abroad, to profit from this program.

At the same time, she thinks it's her obligation to warn international students, who are in most cases unfamiliar with Facebook before coming to the United States, about the possible negative consequences that displaying inappropriate pictures or comments may have, Cox said.

Talking about some issues with international students whose names she wouldn't provide, Cox said she's had to ask students to remove profile pictures that were far too sexy. "It seemed as if they were trying to sell their bodies rather than to look nice," she said. In other cases, students appeared drinking in many of their photos, even if they were underage.

Cox said she also told a student that the lyrics of the song she cited as her favorite in her profile were really disturbing. In this case, she said, it was the student's professor who warned her office about the student's fondness for that song.

In most cases, students react well and appreciate her comments, Cox said, because they realize that Facebook isn't only accessed by their friends.

"International students have to understand that professors and employers do check Facebook," she said, "and that what they see there can have consequences."

Cox also said that her office would never base the admission of international students who apply for Richmond on their Facebook profiles. And a similar policy is used at Richmond's Office of Admissions, said Maria Cedeno, assistant director of admissions.

The office of admissions has always been the first step in a student's college experience, and nowadays it's also, in many cases, mediated by Facebook.

At Richmond, recruiters will accept the friendship requests of prospective students – that means they'll add them to their friend-lists when they ask for it – but they can't base their decisions on the content displayed in applicants' profiles, Cedeno said.

Doing so would be unfair, she said, because students haven't explicitly given the university permission to evaluate their virtual personas. Officers should only consider grades, recommendation letters and essays. As for Facebook, it's not really the place of admissions officers, Cedeno said.

Students might befriend the admissions officer who visits their school because they think this connection will be useful in order to have an advocate in the admissions process, she said. But this doesn't usually mean they'll think about taking the step of cleaning their Facebook account to make it more appealing for college recruiters.

"Most students don't think that far ahead," Cedeno said. "After all, they are 15, 16 or 17 years old when they apply."

She said that, for most high school students, it was more important to have a profile that was attractive for their classmates than one that would seduce recruiters.

Things might be different for graduating students, who during their college experience usually become aware that Facebook can be key when applying for graduate school or when trying to get a job. The first is the case of Claudia Coons, a senior who has just been admitted at Carnegie-Mellon University, in Pennsylvania, for its graduate program in public policy.

"I thought they would check my Facebook account," she said. "But I don't think I have anything there that can make them decide not to admit me."

Coons said she would "untag" – take her name out of – a picture that someone else updated on Facebook and that she didn't want people to see. By doing so, she wouldn't be trying to please admission officers or employers as much as avoiding to be judged based on an image that didn't represent her, she said.

"I wouldn't be bothered if admissions people or professors looked at my Facebook profile," Coons said. "But I can understand why other people might be bothered."

Coons also said that she would be upset if she found out that a professor based his expectations of students on their Facebook profiles.

But some professors view this issue differently.

After all, Facebook is an easy and fast way to know more about students, and this can allow professors to develop a more successful approach to the way they teach their subjects.

A recent search for "Richmond faculty" on the network produced 190 accounts. Among them were associate professor of music Andrew McGraw, director of microscopy and imaging Carolyn Marks, and associate professor of chemistry Carol Parish. Also David Kitchen, associate dean of the school of continuing studies and summer programs director – as well as, we learn on his Facebook profile, Michele Cox's husband.

Rick Mayes, an assistant professor of political science at Richmond, said he used Facebook for several purposes. The most basic use is just looking at his new students' names and the faces that go with them, so that he can quickly match the right name to the correct face.

He also said Facebook was a useful tool to keep in touch with alumni and create a network of students that were interested in the topics his classes deal with. "For example, if I have an undergraduate student who wants to intern in a field where I know a graduate student is working, I'll put him in contact with the alumni using Facebook." Mayes said.

But the virtual network offers much more than just these possibilities, he said. If a student befriends him in the webpage, therefore allowing him to look at his complete profile and all other settings, Mayes might take this chance to know the student better, he said.

"I think Facebook isn't really a professor's domain," said Mayes, who has nearly 400 friends in the Richmond network.

"I know that, in a certain way, I'm trespassing."

For one of the courses he teaches, Global Health and Human Rights, Mayes has to choose the students who will compose his class, and Facebook can help him make a more accurate decision, he said. Even if he has always chosen students that he already knew, he'd take the students' profiles into account in case he had doubts, he said.
Looking at the students' profiles, he can find out whether they have read the books that are discussed in the class, or whether they have done volunteer work before, which is relevant because Mayes' students spend a week working at a health center in Peru.

But Mayes said he wouldn't reprimand his students if he saw something he didn't consider appropriate in their Facebook profiles or pictures.

"I'm sure they're savvy enough about which contents they make accessible to different people," he said.

Mayes also said he wasn't worried about the possibility that students could try to portray themselves in a way that didn't represent them but pleased professors, because they knew professors were also on Facebook.

"Everybody does that," Mayes said. "I have a resume where I only put the best things of my life, and not my frustrations. And we all send a Christmas letter in which we are selective about which events to mention and which ones to avoid. There's always an aspirational element."

A similar opinion was expressed by Kathleen Dreisbach, assistant director of the Career Development Center.

"You do the same when you write a resume or go to an interview," she said about students' tendency to present themselves in ways that are alluring for employers.

But Dreisbach said she thought most students didn't give their Facebook personas too much thought. As a career counselor, she said she was more worried about the negative impact that students' inappropriate pictures or comments could have.

"Students perceive Facebook as a private space, but it's not," she said. "Before displaying something on Facebook, you should think if you want it to be public."

It is quite frequent for companies to use Facebook when deciding to hire a candidate, Dreisbach said. This happens because recent graduates often end up in the human resources department for one or two years.

These graduates are still part of their college's network, and this gives them access to the profiles of fellow schoolmates.

"Limits blur," Dreisbach said, "and people can get into trouble."

Her recommendation for students is to use Facebook wisely, by choosing the highest privacy options and displaying appropriate profile pictures.

An inadequate Facebook profile can have negative consequences in a student's career, but students can also use the network to demonstrate that they are reliable and career-oriented, Dreisbach said.
Students can even add settings that allow them to display their knowledge of languages or show the places they have travelled to.

Dreisbach said she looked at the Facebook profiles of students before hiring them as assistants for the CDC. "They are going to represent this office and I want them to do it well, so I want to see how they represent themselves," she said.

And this is the attitude that prevails at most companies and institutions, Dreisbach said.

Apparently, even student-run organizations, such as sororities and fraternities, are beginning to take Facebook seriously and asking their members to follow certain rules when they display personal information in the network.

Yvonne Green, a junior majoring in French and Spanish, said that she avoided updating pictures where she was in any kind of questionable behaviour while she wore the letters of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta.

"I see it as a way of showing respect," Green said. "You just want to be tactful."

Even though she isn't aware of any special policy in her sorority regarding Facebook, she said she thought that any association wanted its members to represent the best of themselves and their group when they were in a public domain.

For instance, when Green traveled to Spain last summer, she didn't upload the pictures where alcohol was involved, even if there was nothing illegal about them, given that Spain's drinking age is 18, and she was 19 at the time.

The worry about the consequences of displaying on Facebook an image where they appear breaking the law is common among students. This is especially important regarding the issue of drinking, given that the legal age in Virginia is 21, but alcohol is present in most of the social events that college students attend.

The University of Richmond's policy says that no sanctioning actions should be taken if the only evidence of a student breaking its rules is a Facebook picture or a comment, Richmond Dean Joe Boehman said. Richmond's faculty and officers want to use Facebook as an educational tool, he said, not as a means for law-enforcement.

"If I see that a student is drinking too much, I won't punish him," Boehman said. "But I might have a conversation with him and try to find out if he has a problem with alcohol."

There is a broad debate among university officials about reprimanding students because of inappropriate contents displayed in the webpage, Boehman said. As for him, he won't sanction a student, but he might have a conversation with him and keep notes about the incident for his records, he said.

"In this campus, I'm not aware of anyone who's using Facebook as an investigative tool," Boehman said. "I'm not saying we wouldn't if there was a major incident."

Boehman said that he warned students about his policy regarding Facebook before accepting their friendship requests.

Maybe, he joked, this was the reason for his reduced number of friends in Facebook: 59 in all, 24 of which are at the Richmond network.

The case of residence assistants (or RAs) is slightly different from that of other students, Boehman said. There have been situations in which they've been confronted for the content of their accounts, although these issues have been related more often to inappropriate comments than to breaking of rules.

Boehman, who said he couldn't be more specific for fear of intruding students' privacy, said that standards are higher for RAs, because they are role-models for the rest of the student community, both in the real and in the virtual world.

"When an RA does something in a public place, and Facebook is a public place, people will assume that this attitude is correct, just because an RA is doing it."

"I know that students think of Facebook as a private place and a space to experiment with different identities," he said. "And I think it's a great tool.

"But I spend a lot of time talking with students about the image they portray because employers don't always have the same ethic constrains that officers or professors have here at Richmond when using Facebook."

Boehman said he had heard of cases in which alumni were denied interviews at the companies they were applying for, because of their Facebook profiles.

Pablo Melcon, a senior from Spain who is majoring in computer science and studies at Richmond in the international exchange program, said he didn't see an ethical difference whether it was a professor or an employer that was checking a student's Facebook account.

"To me, it's the same, because they are both trying to know more about your private life," Pablo said. "Although possibly if it's an employer the consequences can be greater, because they can simply deny you a job."

Melcon said that his appreciation of this intrusion could be different because in his culture the division between private and public life was clearer than in the United States.

But, like most Richmond students – both internationals and Americans – Melcon said he believed he had nothing to hide on Facebook, and he wouldn't make any changes to his account now that he had to look for a job.
"I think you should just be yourself on Facebook," Melcon said. "I don't think I have anything to hide and, sooner or later, my employers will find out the kind of person I really am."

By Maria Ribas

The game room of the Tyler Haynes Commons, that couch haven next to The Cellar, will soon live up to its name and feature billiard tables, flat screen televisions, and video games.

According to Max Vest, director of Student Activities, that is just one of the many changes expected to take place in the Commons during the next year. Although Tyler's Grill will remain as it is, The Collegian, WDCE, WCGA, RSCGA, and various other on-campus groups' offices are being relocated. The Career Development Center will move from the basement of Richmond Hall to the vacated space on the third floor of the Commons.

"The Commons is the primest piece of real estate on campus so it was a matter of deciding which groups had to be there and which could be moved," Vest said.

The decision to renovate the Commons stemmed from brewing student dissatisfaction with the use of the space. An online survey conducted in January found that only 8 percent of the 768 students polled thought that the Commons was better than similar facilities at other universities and 68 percent thought it was comparable or worse.

Several student focus groups also expressed concern about the quality and diversity of food options at Tyler's Grill. The idea was raised to bring in a chain restaurant, such as Panera Bread or Subway, but students were unwilling to sacrifice the variety of sandwiches, burgers, yogurt, and chips that an independent vendor can sell.

"I'm disappointed that students didn't support bringing in brand name food," said Lochrane Smith, a sophomore who was part of the WCGA focus group. "Many students complain about the quality of the food at The Pier, but without student support the administration probably won't work as hard to change anything."

Vest said it would have been difficult to fit an outside food vendor where Tyler's Grill now is. Unlike other buildings on campus, an addition is not a possibility. The Commons was built before the Chesapeake Bay Act was passed, which now prohibits building within 100 feet of a body of water such as Westhampton Lake.

It was therefore necessary to maximize the use of the space and many students felt the game room was not being used well. According to market research done by Porter Consulting in November of 2007, students said that the space was not conducive to studying because of excess sound levels and the feeling of being watched by passersby on the upper level walkway. The students consulted envisioned the space as a late-night gathering spot, with flat screen televisions and pool tables.

That vision will likely become a reality, as plans are currently being developed to transform the area into a true game room. Construction is scheduled for January and February of 2009.

But, transforming the space into an activity-specific area will mean it can no longer host events such as blood drives and the Senior Citizens Prom. These events will likely be relocated to the Alice Haynes Room, although that entails reduced visibility from outside foot traffic.

The second floor of the Commons will also receive a makeover, with quarry tile similar to the tile by Tyler's Grill replacing the old linoleum. Flat screen televisions will be installed displaying, among other things, advertising for student groups. The use of the Westhampton Hanging Lounge is also being reassessed, although facilities officials are uncertain what could replace it or adapt it to better use.

Before the game room is renovated, the third floor of the Commons will undergo an extensive reorganization. The new Career Development Center is expected to occupy 50 percent of the current meeting space, so the suite of meeting rooms and the banner art room will be combined into one large meeting space. The Collegian and WDCE will be relocated to new offices in the basement of North Court. These changes are scheduled for this summer, beginning in May and ending by mid-September.