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the pendulum NEWS WEDNESDAY. MARCH 30. 2011 // PAGE 3 With event, committee seeks to raise student awareness about limits of tuition Caitlin O’Donnell News Editor Elon University will hold its third Elon.. .Pass It On! event Wednesday, March 30 to raise awareness about the importance of philanthropy on campus. Tuition payments cover 81 percent of a student’s education during the course of the school year, according to Jozi Snowberger, assistant director of annual giving and parent programs. “Imagine your school year stopping,” said Alex Nickodem, coordinator of the senior class giving campaign, in a previous interview. “If not for private donations, what you’re looking at wouldn’t be there.” This year, March 25 represented the official day when tuition stops covering a student’s education and donations kick in. Because this date was during spring break, the event was held until students returned to campus. “It’s an opportunity to educate students that Elon relies on the generosity of alumni, parents, grandparents and friends of the university to help make a student’s education possible year after year,” Snowberger said. At the beginning of the day, members of the Student Alumni Council, a newly formed group on campus, will pass around notebooks to students with a statement on the front explaining how much of their education is actually covered by tuition. “Students will be asked to sign their name in the notebook acknowledging the statement on the front and then ‘pass it on’ to a classmate, roommate or someone they pass by while walking to class,” Snowberger said. “That person will then sign it and pass it on." Any student who ends up with a notebook at the end of the day will be asked to submit it through campus mail. The number of students impacted with the message can then be totaled, Snowberger said. During the day, SAC members will staff a table in Moseley Center with free gifts for students as well as information about philanthropy at Elon. Students will also be able to sign a thank you poster for donors to the university. SAC was formed in December 2010 with the purpose of educating students on what it means to be an Elon alum, according to Snowberger. “Through programming and other mediums, SAC plans to develop responsible future alumni, provide opportunities to deepen lifelong connections to the university and educate students on the history and importance of alumni gifts,” Snowberger said. In the past, the event was held at College Coffee and students were not asked to actively participate, Snowberger said. Elon...Pass It On! is not the only event designed to raise awareness about giving back. The senior class giving campaign is currently targeting the class of 2011 with a goal of 20 percent of those students giving back to the university. A gift of $20.11, symbolic of their graduation year, is encouraged. COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS The Elon...Pass it On! event recognizes the importance of giving bacit. “If someone can give less than that, that’s fine, if someone wants to make a bigger impact, that’s fine, too,” said John Barnhill, assistant vice president for University Advancement, in a previous interview. “Everyone has different resources. If we think in terms of personal participation, every person who gives counts as 100 percent.” Snowberger said in the case of Elon...Pass It On!, there is no formal giving campaign for freshmen, sophomore and junior students, but rather a chance to make them more conscious about why Elon encourages donations. “We want students to understand that tuition doesn't cover it all, it covers the basics of an education,” she said. “The gifts to Elon are what help create the margin of excellence, they help to form your experience.” Faculty address internship issues in Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences Eva Hill Copy Chief Faculty members in Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences have formed a committee that will temporarily serve as a means of discussion for internships within the college. The newly formed committee is looking at broad questions regarding internships, according to Pam Kiser, the committee chair and professor of human service studies. “Essentially, this committee is looking at drawing a set of the best principles to move internships in the College of Arts and Sciences to a more consistent, high level of quality,” she said. Elon College is the largest academic unit at Elon but does not, as a whole, require students to complete an academic internship before graduating. The School of Communications and the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business both have designated internship offices and requirements, according to Kiser, but certain majors in the College of Arts and Sciences also require credit-based internships. Students studying human service studies are required to complete an internship their senior year, according to Kiser. She said the internships in the College are mentored by faculty members and are more research-oriented. Students are also able to complete them for elective credits, she said. Kiser said members of the committee have been discussing pertinent questions, such as the best practices for academic internships, the hallmarks of high quality internships, what a syllabus for an internship looks like, what kind of training and faculty development for mentoring internships and what types of compensation appropriate faculty. Pam Brumbaugh, director of experimental education, said the CareerServicesoffice helps coordinate internships in the College of Arts and Sciences and is an internship resource for students. “We talk to folks about finding an internship and help them find what they’re looking for,” she said. “We can talk about credit requirements department by department and send students to the people who might best meet their needs in terms of being a faculty sponsor.” Students studying education are required to complete student teaching, which is the mother of all internships, according to Brumbaugh, but the College has not set an internship requirement for all majors. “Student teaching is considered the same nature as an internship,” she said. “The College has not chosen to require it, and it’s very well-supported in that school and highly recommended, but it’s not required. I would not want it required, I think they’re doing fine.” Kiser said the reason the College doesn’t have a specific internship office is because of the variety of majors and specializations. “Students in other schools do not have faculty mentoring and the same kinds of academic assignments that are linked with the internship experience,” she said. “Each faculty member has a different specialty area in the College of Arts and Sciences and we think about those kinds of issues in the mentoring than the administrative function. It’s also a teaching function.” NagathaTonkins, internship director in the School of Communications, said she thinks students in the School of Communications, which has both an internship and career office, are fortunate to have these resources. “I think it helps the students tremendously with the process and it gives them the process and information on how to apply and apply things that they should and should not do and how it pertains specifically to the communications industry," she said. “For example, we have a communications internship database that shows students where other interns have been and they can access the supervisors information, they already have a contact.” Tonkins, who is in her third year as the internship coordinator in the School, said it’s important for students to understand that it's not just about getting an internship for academic credit. “The School of Communications expects internships to be a valuable academic learning experience,” she said. “There are assignments to enhance their learning on their internship.” Representatives include faculty members within the three branches of the College, which are arts and humanities, the social sciences and math and sciences. The committee meets every two weeks, and was formed by Alison Morrison-Shetlar, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Essentially, this committee are IS looking at drawing a set of for the best principles to move internships in the College of Arts and Sciences to a more consistent, high level of quality.” -PAM KISER, COMMITTEE CHAIR Students raise concerns over affordability, convenience All Access Used for unlimited visits to three all-you-can-eat facilities. Students can choose an additional 7 or 14 combo meal package. Block Meals Option of either 200 or 300 block meal plans that can be used at all-you-can-eat facilities or exchanged for a combo meal. MARK CAPOZZOLA j Qraphica Editor MEAL PUN from PAGE 1 meal plans were approved by the Board of Trustees in February. Immediately following this approval, Dining Services began the marketing campaign, which will continue despite the complaints. Prior to the changes, student input was collected for more than a year. Along with online satisfaction surveys and a market research procedure, focus groups were held on campus. Carroll said rather than focusing on the proposed new meal plan, they addressed the current one. “They didn't run focus groups or surveys based on the new meal plan,” he said. “They made the new one, addressing the complaints of the current meal plan system, but didn't allow any student input or feedback before it was finalized." The majority of students Carroll has talked to about the issue consider ARAMARK to be a large corporation with the sole goal of making money at Elon. “That is partly true, for every corporation's goal is to make a profit,” he said. “A lot of students, 1 feel, don’t understand how nice the people in the ARAMARK office are. They were very receptive to my feedback and seemed upset about my dissatisfaction with the new meal plan.” In response to the Facebook page started by Carroll, freshman Steven Ebert began an online petition with the goal of obtaining 1,000 signatures. “It seemed that everyone feels the same way, that students had some serious issues with the new system," he said. The petition specifically addresses the issues of convenience and cost, he said. The new plan does not give students the option of swiping for a combo meal plan unless they pay $900 more than the basic “all access" price. The “all access -h 7” plan gives students unlimited access to three dining halls and seven combo meals a week. “That means not being able to go to Acorn, Boar's Head or Octagon unless you buy the middle plan of ‘all access -i- 7,’" he said. “Not everyone has time to sit down in a dining hall for three meals a day. Ebert said he agrees with Carroll's suggestion of creating a block meal plan option for sophomores on campus. “At this point, reversing their decision to enact the new plan is unlikely,” he said. “ I hope we can find middle ground.” As of March 29, the petition had a total of 533 signatures. “They’re not the bad guy here, and students need to know that,” Ebert said. “The petition isn't personal and it isn't angry. Petition has such a negative connotation, but the point behind this isn't negative. It’s solely an opportunity for us to show ARAMARK that we don't think that this is what’s best for us.” The current meal plan campaign will continue, Gazda said, and ARAMARK will continue to respond to feedback. In response to input thus far, he said additional programming changes will be implemented in the fall. Colonnades Dining Hall will be open continuously from breakfast to dinner, McEwen Dining Hall will be open for brunch every Saturday and Sunday and late night dining at McEwen will be expanded to include Saturday. Carroll said student opinion should be taken seriously because they are primarily here to serve the students. “If they don’t realize that soon, then I believe Elon’s SGA should talk with administrators about switching to another dining services provider,” he said.
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March 30, 2011, edition 1
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