Headline: Freshmen Living in Steam Tunnels, Eating Squirrels
Posted by Nicole Sharp on 03 May 2005 at 17:07So, Case announced today that we have a record 1,152 students scheduled to come in as freshmen next fall, with increases in the number of out-of-state students, humanities majors (hello, iPod Shuffle issue!), etc. I'm happy to see Case getting some recognition. However, there are some huge issues here. We already have a housing shortage, and the dorms set aside for the incoming freshman don't have room enough for 1,152 people. If Housing decides to leave Southside--or part of Southside--open another year, they have to tackle the issue of feeding the people they stick down here since Fribley is scheduled to close. (The most amusing possibility, in my opinion, is Housing declaring that they will place all freshmen on Southside. Then they'll have managed to exactly turn the tables from what they did the year I entered.)
And then there's the issue of SAGES First Seminars. Since this will be the first year of full implementation, there's quite a bit of pressure to make things spectacular. The university has staked a lot on this program, and I fully believe the program is capable of all that they expect and then some. But only if the proper resources and training procedures are in place. 1,152 freshmen in First Seminar sections of 15, the pre-determined size of a First Seminar, would require 77 sections. The last time I spoke with anyone in SAGES, their intention was to have 55 First Seminars next fall. To me, it looks like they're going to be running around campus looking for more people to teach First Seminars. They have that option, or making a third of the instructors teach two sections of freshmen. (There is theoretically the option of having some students take the First Seminar in their second semester of freshmen year, but that destroys the whole purpose of the course, really.) Short of getting professors to teach multiple sections on top of their established workloads for the fall, SAGES has to face the prospect of having professors with little--or worse, no--training teaching First Seminars. I can tell you now that that is a recipe for disaster.
Our administration here at Case have some great visions, I admit, but if Case can't deliver what it's promised--especially if it can't manage something as basic as room and board--for all these people whose attention they've managed to grab, the university is going to lose what credibility it has. No branding campaign will make up for, "Hey, isn't that the college that had freshmen camping in tents for a couple months because they didn't have enough housing?"
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- Incoming Freshmen Update
Posted in Nicole Sharp's Blog on 28 June 2005 at 23:08
Back in May I posted with concerns about how Case would handle the influx of freshmen. I had part of...
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Mano Singham said
On 04 May 2005 at 08:33There is going to be a meeting of the University Undergraduate Faculty on Thursday where this topic is bound to dominate the agenda.
Yes, this is going to be a problem but I think we will overcome it. The worse problem would have been if, after all the work that we all have done to improve both education and residence life at Case, the numbers stagnated or even dropped. I personally feel a level of dynamism on the campus that I find exciting.
This is a morale-booster even if it is going to be a severe administrative challenge!
Keith said
On 04 May 2005 at 07:56Actually, they'll do what Ohio State used to do every year. Quads become quints, triples become quads, doubles become triples, singles become doubles, in that order until everybody has a place to flop - no matter how snug.
My first quarter freshman housing was as the fifth person in a quad. In the rush to resolve the housing issue as quickly as possible things got a little funny. I got the call to meet my proposed new roomie in a double, in which I would be one of only two occupants. I went and met them and we hit it off very well. They were Biology (pre-med) and I was Music Ed. so our schedules meant we would probably never see each other anyway. It would be like having a single occupancy room. We got to the point of signing the final paperwork when the administrator looked at us both and said "This isn't going to work." They'd got that far before realizing they were about to put me in a room in an all women building.
Just a signature away from being the only one in the building packing a Y chromosome.
She and I dated for over a year - until she transferred to another school (UC San Diego) to be closer to home.