Cabrini:Maybe biggerisn't better

Cabrini began its .,_ __ _, 44th academic year with the largest freshmen class in the college's history. Significant projects are being conducted and planned by the school to aid in the rapid growth. The college's ____________ admissions office and the school's reputation for academic excellence can be credited for the remarkable growth seen both this year and recent years. While it is a commendable feat and hopefully this will be only the beginning of classes with the title of largest class, questions are being asked on how the college will be able to continue to comfortably maintain its students concerns, educations and lifestyles. More importantly, will the college be able to live out its reputation for being a school that can relate to the individual and not just an identification number?

Founded andbuilt upon the principles of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Cabrini College has claimed rights to being a school that can connect with the individual. Its patroness mentored and cared for thousands of immigrants with whom many she grew to know and love. These were the keystone principles of Frances Cabrini. The college teaches to serve others as Cabrini did. Tuesday, August 29, hundreds of first-year students served the people of the community through food shelters, nursing homes, AIDS centers and dorens of other establishments. Students visit- ed with the founder of the college, Mother Ursula Infante, MSC, who tirelessly worked to build a school that would focus on the community and live the principles of Frances Cabrini, students, faculty and administration.

Cabrini's expansion is evidence from students that there is a desire to be at a school where the faculty does know most names and the administration can walk the campus without such infamous questions as "Do you know her?" or "Are you the vice president?" Growth of any school is a step in the right direction and is an indication that something is definitely going well. The cliche bigger is better can be true when resources are available to handle the growth, such as extra dorm rooms, more faculty, and larger facilities overall. However growing too rapidly can have severe effects on every person related to the college community.

If there are too many residents in a living space, substandard conditions can evolve quickly. Two to three students living in a small room, no other space to escape tight quarters in a dorm room, and 60 students to one bathroom are a few examples that are just on the tip of an iceberg with much larger problems inconspicuous to the naked eye. In many scenarios the largest problems don't arrive until it's too late to review the situation.

President Antoinette Iadarola is credited with the exhausting job of havmg put the school into excellent financial straits through campaigning for supporters and donors. The college is in a position of nowhere to go but up. The current economy supports all forms of growth and the trickle-down effect has meant everything from parents wanting to send their children to Cabrini to donors writing six and seven digit number savings checks. The school has an energetic admissions department recruiting students from all comers of the nation. It is instinctual that when times are good, the college wants to grow. But before the college can grow any larger in size of students, it must grow in size of accommodations. More dorm rooms are needed to support modest living. The building of dorms after-thefact of a growth spurt reflects on improper planning and the need for communication between college offices. Gathering areas and common rooms must not be sacrificed due to expansion. These areas are needed for students' sanity and studying. Facilities such as parking must be enlarged to accommodate the rising numbers of vehicles on campus.

Cabrini's enticing quality is that students can know and relate in class and in private with faculty members. If the college plans to launch campaigns for increased enrollment, then the need for more faculty will increase and cannot be ignored. Cabrini is a rarity among other schools in that its students can communicate with faculty members who know them personally. No matter what benefits may lie on the other side, whether it may be more money or area prominence, nothing is worth sacrificing the excellent roles teachers play and the relationships they have with Cabrini students.

Joe Holden is editor in chief of the Loquitur. Aside from being a tireless leader and a devoted worker, Joe is also a snazzy dresser.

Let's all try to be calm and rational about this

Welcome back upperclassmen, good to have you here. I think that we are going to have a splendid year.

The new communications center looks great (although it lacks the old newsrooms rustic charm.)

The new dorm rooms in Grace Hall are some of the nicest on campus. The intramural sports program finally looks primedto take off. Life at Cabrini College is pretty good.

But we also havea couple of new policies pertaining to residence life. I don't know, maybe you've heard about them already.

Something stinks in House 2. I'm not going to go into detail, because some of you will read this article while attempting to eat. And if you don't know what happened, I don't want to be the one to have to tell you. All right, we have a fecophile running around campus somewhere. That's a problem. But the school's response to the situation has been just as odorous.

Explain this to me: Does the administration think that the effective way to punish the Phantom Pooper is to kick out everyone who is unfortunate enough to live near the scene of the crime? I almost wish that the college had gone through with kicking the students of that quad out. Picture that you are a tuition-paying parent and your son has to spend time at home because some other rotten kid had a weird concept of abstract art. Imagine the phone calls Dr. Valente would have gotten over that. It would almost have been worth it.

This is a big deal. This incident shows how irrational and unconcerned the administration has become with the student body. Their "take it or leave it" approach has become our ultimate reality. Think about it, the college is overcrowded already. Every student that gets the boot off campus is another spot available for someone else to pay for Do you think you get your housing deposit back if you are kicked off campus? Nope. But they get room and board from an additional warm body. Mo' Money, Mo' Money!

And just as the college has no qualms about kicking out House 2 residents who chose the wrong quad to live in, they also have no qualms about forcing guests to hit the road in the middle of the night. There is nothing funny about the 4 o'clock visitation policy. It is an accident waiting to happen.

40% of us will be in an alcohol related car accident in our lifetime (courtesy of Charles Schaffner, director of Public Safety.) That is 2 out of 5 roommates in an apartment, for the mathematically challenged. The risk of being involved in an accident is significantly higher at four in the morning. Who is on the road at four in the morning on Sat- urday and Sunday? Many people who shouldn't be. Would your parents kick your friends out of your house at 4:00 in the morning? I would hope not. Why don't you give dear old ma and pa a call to tell them about this policy? Let's get some feedback from the primary sources of revenue for the college.

If we don't like the new rules, we can just go home. There are plenty of others who would like to take our place. After all, the college is putting up a brand new state of the art dorm, and expanding its graphics design major. We are expendable.

But some of us went to Leadership Camp and paid attention. Some of us learned about putting the good of the campus community above our individual concerns. Some of us want to look back on our college experience as having lead something more than a tour around campus or a game of Bingo. Many student leaders have spent time trying to find solutions to these problems already. But we need to be in this together. We were last spring during the housing lottery (freshman, ask a friendly upper classman about that one.) We can come together again. The good of the student community will prevail.

One bumper sticker on a car on Residential Boulevard sums up this article perfectly: "Question Authority."

Chris Nielsen is a columnist for the Loquitur. He is sick of writing columns about feces in House 2.