THE DAILY ATHENAEUM
“Little good is accomplished without controversy, and no civic evil is ever defeated without publicity.”
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Wednesday November 11, 2015
Volume 128, Issue 58
www.THEDAONLINE.com
WVU retention rate rises to 78.8 percent by corey mcdonald staff writer @dailyathenaeum
An increase in the average GPA and ACT test scores of the 2015-16 West Virginia University freshmen class will allow the University to boast about freshman academic profiles, as well as its improving retention rate, due to statistics from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. The fall 2015 semester saw 4,782 freshman students en-
ter WVU with an average GPA of 3.45, an increase from the 3.32 GPA of the freshman class of fall 2010, which totaled 5,034 students. The overall ACT score also improved, raising from the 23.6 score of 2010’s freshman class to a 24.00 from the freshman class of fall 2015. Associate Provost Sue Day-Perroots attributed these statistics to a significant increase in honors students and the University’s focus on directing students to their majors quicker.
“(Honors students) have increased by about a third of what they were last year,” Day-Perroots said. “Obviously that is going to skew us a little bit higher.” This spike has increased academic profiles for the University as a whole. The overall retention rate for WVU has improved too, something WVU President E. Gordon Gee has set high goals for—aiming to reach 90 percent in the next few years. The rate has grown nearly 2 percent, from 77 percent in
2014, to 78.8 percent in 2015. WVU displayed its highest retention rate for the last eight years in 2008, with 79.6 percent of students continuing their education at WVU in the next year. After 2008, the rate displayed a steady decrease for the next three years, dropping to 75.1 percent in 2011. Since then, the retention rate has seen a stable increase. The Office of the Provost has been employing strategic retention initiatives to help increase this statistic.
One program, Summer Scholars, hosted approximately 20 students and gave them three weeks of coursework prior to coming on campus in the fall. Another program, Mountaineer Success Academy, hosted students a week before the start of the semester to learn about academic resources available on campus, like tutoring options. “Students themselves have also helped to drive access to the resources,” Day-Perroots said. “We have a tutoring
task force this semester because students came in and wanted more access to tutoring opportunities.” The University’s overall enrollment, however, had a slight decrease from 2014 to 2015, and has been consistently decreasing since 2011. Total enrollment at WVU— which includes the divisional campuses of WVU Tech and Potomac State— has seen a steady decrease since 2011, according to
see rates on PAGE 2
Jeremy Bird visits WVU, discusses the importance of reforming the election process
#RelightWoodburn
By Jake Jarvis Staff Writer @DailyAthenaeum
file photo
Woodburn Hall is decorated with lights to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season in December 2009.
Student’s tweet serves as a catalyst in relighting Woodburn Hall during holiday season by jordan miller staff writer @dailyathenaeum
A tweet sparked a movement in the West Virginia University community a few weeks ago, calling for the University to reinstate the tradition of lighting up Woodburn Hall for the holiday season. Biology student Layne Veneri sent the tweet with a picture of Woodburn Hall outlined in the white lights that were signature until 2011, when the University discontinued the tradition for energy efficiency. “Hey #WVU, you should start lighting up Woodburn like this again for the Holiday Season... #Relight-
Woodburn,” the tweet read. After 346 retweets, 407 favorites and having an impression on more than 56,000 Twitter users, the idea to relight Woodburn left social media and gained traction in the real world, with the Student Government Association unanimously passing a resolution in support of the movement. Despite the public hype, however, the movement is still in its early stages, and the feasibility of the project has yet to be investigated. Due to the cost of relighting Woodburn, Paul Stewart, manager of the electrical shop in WVU Facilities Management, does not think the project is likely to happen. Stewart guessed it would
cost thousands of dollars to reinstate the tradition, from the number of lights that would need to be purchased, the crane for installment and the cost of electricity. The SGA resolution proposed that since many Morgantown residents and WVU students considered the lighting ceremony at Woodburn a holiday tradition, WVU should relight Woodburn with LED efficient holiday lights for the winter season. Ultimately, the decision will be made by those higher up in the University’s administration, and Stewart said SGA’s proposal of LED light bulbs may make them reconsider the project.
Blake Humphrey, member of the SGA Board of Governors and lead sponsor of the resolution, said SGA is currently working on making contact with administration to discuss whether the idea is possible. In the event that the University gets on board with the project, Humphrey said a meeting with stakeholders will be held, and an advisory committee may be formed. “I believe that when students show support for something, it’s beneficial for the community and provides some sort of intrinsic value for people at West Virginia University,” Humphrey said. “I think it’s
see woodburn on PAGE 2
Jeremy Bird, who grew up in a trailer park in Missouri and went on to study divinity at Harvard, is a man of politics. He’s sat at the helm of presidential, congressional and international political campaigns. Too often, he said, politicians angle their campaign, trying to capture the group of voters who return year after year to cast their ballots. Unfortunately, those voters tend to not be in the Mountain State. “So we write off West Virginia,” Bird said. “Before (the campaign) even begins, we write you all off. How does that feel? … In some ways, you can’t blame them. They’re trying to win, after all.” As a part of the Pi Lambda Pi Jewish Lecture Series, Bird spoke to members of the West Virginia University community on Tuesday afternoon in the Gluck Theatre about the importance of reforming the entire election process. Bird emphasized using technology to streamline the voting process and using social media to reach voters in a “totally unfiltered way.” During Obama’s re-election, only 32 percent of eligible voters in West Virginia actually cast a vote, Bird said. This followed a similar trend across the country where voter turnout was the lowest it has been since World War II. “We have a major, major problem in our country that you should care about,” Bird said. “We have a laws problem, a candidate problem, a gerrymandering problem and we have a narrative problem.” Though his name is not often heard, Bird was one of the experts behind President Barack Obama’s campaign. During Obama’s first go around, Bird helped the field organizer for South Carolina. Obama swept South Carolina, and Bird found himself as the campaign’s national field organizer in 2012. He’s since garnered significant media attention from publications like The New York Times and Rolling Stone for his innovative approaches to social media. Take Facebook as an example. Obama’s campaign launched an initiative to ask supporters to “remind” their friends to register to vote. “When we did this, we saw huge increases,” Bird said. And don’t forget Twitter, which is already a staple in the 2016 presidential election. When Obama was first elected president, only a handful of people from the Silicon Valley bought into the app’s 140-character limit. Bird sees Snapchat as the next frontier. Even though 23 million viewers tuned in to watch the first Repub-
see bird on PAGE 2
WVU students educate adolescents on the dangers of prescription drugs By Tessa Iglesias Correspondent @DailyAthenaeum
Second-year students at West Virginia University are traveling to middle schools and high schools across the state—and sometimes in Pennsylvania—to educate youth about the dangers of prescription and illicit drug abuse. Housed in the School of Pharmacy, the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience course is a service learning class. Students use interactive methods to discuss the anatomy and general physiology of the brain and body, as well as teach about how drugs affect normal brain and body
functions. “When students are confronted with a situation that involves abusing drugs or alcohol, then they are now able to make an informed decision, and hopefully it is not to participate,” said Catalina Saenz, a second year pharmacy student who has presented at Suncrest Middle School, West Preston Middle School and Weir High School. When IPPE students visit schools, they use a presentation called “The Neuroscience behind Prescription and Illicit Drug Abuse,” which is originally from Duquesne University’s School of Pharmacy. The presentation in-
59°/46°
DANCE OF VIENNA
INSIDE
German club hosts cultural dance event A&E PAGE 4
PARTLY CLOUDY
News: 1, 2 Opinion: 3 A&E: 4, 5 Sports: 6, 8, 9 Campus Calendar: 8 Puzzles: 8 Classifieds: 7
forms audience members about how heroin, marijuana, alcohol, inhalants, cocaine and amphetamines alter the brain, and how these alterations cause mood and behavioral changes, leading to addiction. The middle school presentations, however, are tailored to a younger crowd, Saenz said. Younger audiences experience a different presentation developed by WVU pharmacy students, called “Your Healthy Brain and Body, and How to Keep Substance Abuse out of Your Life.” This presentation is more interactive, making use of a Drug ID board
that shows what the drugs they’re learning about actually look like and a “Candy vs. Medicine” PowerPoint game from the Ohio University School of Pharmacy. Specifically designed for middle schoolers, “Candy vs. Medicine” is used to promote medication safety as students are shown two pictures—one of medicine, one of candy—and have to guess which one is which. Saenz said this activity shows that candy and medicine can look quite similar, and stresses the importance of keeping medications in their original containers and away from children or others who can easily gain access.
Catalina Saenz and Sara Rizzuti at West Preston Middle School.
Throughout the presen- something they can relate tations for younger stu- to in terms of addiction, dents, IPPE students use dependence, tolerance and the theme of playing video games to give students see drugs on PAGE 2
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FALLOUT 4 Avoiding media hype is the key to forming realistic expectations OPINION PAGE 3
Submitted
THINKING BIG Williams and Montgomery are WVU’s centerpieces SPORTS PAGE 9