2008 Woodie Awards
Letter #1
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
I want you to ask yourself honestly what it means to be a residential campus. I promise you exploring that question will most likely take a lot more energy than you realize. Why is it important? Trinity is a residential campus and yet most of us have no grasp on what that should mean.
The Upperclass Experience Task Force attempted to tackle that question over a year ago and came up with a solution known as the Sophomore College. There were students on the Task Force, as well as alumni, Residential Life staff, faculty and parent representatives. If you've read the report, you'll see that we did an exhaustive study of colleges similar to the Trinity profile to better understand what programming they did for their students. The Sophomore College was not a unilateral decision by Residential Life designed to ruin the lives of students at Trinity.
If you've read the Task Force Report, you see a number of initiatives tied in to the Sophomore College all aimed at sophomores. These initiatives start even before school begins. First Year students enjoy a lot of attention during their orientation while sophomores receive little. That is going to change with Welcome Week events designed to give attention to sophomores, juniors and seniors as they come back to campus to allow more focus to start the year.
If you've read the report, you'll see that within the Sophomore College is programming tailored directly for issues that sophomores face. Initiatives to have faculty members come and talk to students about majors and careers, study abroad fairs and health and wellness are just a few topics that can be tailored directly to the sophomores who face those unique hurdles.
Change is necessary and often disliked by a lot of people. But it is a necessary and vital part of making Trinity greater. Have you read the report? If not, you should before you make up your mind. It's on the Dean of Students' page of the Trinity Web site. My guess is that if you read it without bias, you'll like the idea more and more.
Travis Givens, member of the Upperclass Experience Task Force, senior, communication and mathematics double major
I want you to ask yourself honestly what it means to be a residential campus. I promise you exploring that question will most likely take a lot more energy than you realize. Why is it important? Trinity is a residential campus and yet most of us have no grasp on what that should mean.
The Upperclass Experience Task Force attempted to tackle that question over a year ago and came up with a solution known as the Sophomore College. There were students on the Task Force, as well as alumni, Residential Life staff, faculty and parent representatives. If you've read the report, you'll see that we did an exhaustive study of colleges similar to the Trinity profile to better understand what programming they did for their students. The Sophomore College was not a unilateral decision by Residential Life designed to ruin the lives of students at Trinity.
If you've read the Task Force Report, you see a number of initiatives tied in to the Sophomore College all aimed at sophomores. These initiatives start even before school begins. First Year students enjoy a lot of attention during their orientation while sophomores receive little. That is going to change with Welcome Week events designed to give attention to sophomores, juniors and seniors as they come back to campus to allow more focus to start the year.
If you've read the report, you'll see that within the Sophomore College is programming tailored directly for issues that sophomores face. Initiatives to have faculty members come and talk to students about majors and careers, study abroad fairs and health and wellness are just a few topics that can be tailored directly to the sophomores who face those unique hurdles.
Change is necessary and often disliked by a lot of people. But it is a necessary and vital part of making Trinity greater. Have you read the report? If not, you should before you make up your mind. It's on the Dean of Students' page of the Trinity Web site. My guess is that if you read it without bias, you'll like the idea more and more.
Travis Givens, member of the Upperclass Experience Task Force, senior, communication and mathematics double major
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