Nov. 14, 2011 by IU Southeast Horizon

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Policy seeks to alter syllabus standards By HANNA WOODS Staff hrwoods@umail.iu.edu The Student Government Association passed a proposal on Oct. 27 that would amend the current faculty policy of how professors deliver their syllabus to students. Kevin Evans, secondary education junior and SGA vice president, authored the fundamental syllabus proposal that is currently being reviewed by faculty. “This issue [with the current policy] is that many students do not get their syllabus until the first day of classes,” Evans said. “Getting the student that information is very vital — one, for their success, and, two, we feel that it will be beneficial to the retention rates on campus.” The focus of the proposal is to create a guideline for faculty members to post a fundamental syllabus on OnCourse, outlining points such as number and type of graded assignments, basis of how the final grade is composed and a representative reading list. “I am not looking for them to post the entire syllabus, just the important pieces,” Evans said. The Student Recruitment and Retention Committee is currently looking over the proposal and making changes to better fit the faculty and student body. Jay McTyier, program analyst for the Registrar, has been working with IU Bloomington on the Course Description Project, which focuses on providing information through OneStart that students will see when viewing the class before registering. “The project was the development of an institutional utility to hold more robust course descriptions for the class bulletin,” McTyier said. Currently, IU Bloomington is the only campus that uses this function available through OneStart. However, IU Southeast will be the first regional campus to use the program if it passes through the Faculty Senate. “It really is a matter of cutting and pasting,” McTyier said. “If you build [a syllabus] in OnCourse, you can copy and paste it to OneStart, and, then, remove the extraneous elements.” Evans is currently working on authoring an executive order that will amend the syllabus policy in the faculty handbook. The executive order is the first one IU Southeast has seen since 1999. Evans said the SGA has been more focused this year on projects for the benefit of students. “The SGA has totally rebranded ourselves, See SYLLABUS page 2

Graphic by Stephen Allen

Source: Brittany Hubbard, director of Financial Aid and interim director of the Academic Success Center

Summer tuition rates decrease

will adapt to the amount of demand resulting from the discount. “We are currently reviewing the summer offerings from last year and attempting to estimate de Tuition rates for the upcoming summer semester mand for summer 2012,” Brittany Hubbard, director at all Indiana University campuses will be discount- of Financial Aid and interim director of the Academed 25 percent for resident undergraduate students ic Success Center, said. The summer tuition plan will be in and 9 percent for non-resident undereffect for both the summer 2012 and graduate students. summer 2013 semesters. The plan, which was decided by IU “I haven’t heard any word on sumPresident Michael McRobbie, was anmers beyond 2013,” Hubbard said. nounced on Oct. 24 and is set to help One of the goals of the discount relieve students of financial stress. plan will be to improve student attain According to an IU press release, ment and make a more powerful sumthe plan will also help promote mer session. year-round college attendance and “Attending in the summer helps decrease the time it takes many stustudents take the required courses in dents to earn a degree. fewer years,” Hubbard said. “Continu The current tuition rate for the fall ous enrollment can also help students and spring semesters for in-state stustay focused on their program of study. dents is $193.80 per credit hour. With This is a great opportunity, and I enthe discount, summer tuition cost courage all students take advantage.” will be $145.35 per credit hour. Approximately, a total of 4,600 stu For out-of-state students, the curdents were enrolled in summer classes rent tuition is set at $530.50, and the this year. summer tuition rate will be $482.05. Brittany Hubbard “Last summer, our official enroll The tuition discounts include othdirector of Financial Aid ment for undergraduates was 1,895 in er applicable fees that are charged to and interim director for the the first summer session and 2,231 in students, including the temporary Academic Success Center the second summer session,” Hubbard rehabilitation and repair fee and the said. nursing program fee. Hubbard said she is glad Indiana “The discount includes all fees like the Student Activity Fee and the Student [Technol- University has announced the plan for the new sumogy] Fee,” Michael Kerstiens, director of Accounting mer tuition. “Being the director of Financial Aid, I see the fiServices, said. The change in the summer tuition rates should nancial strains our students face daily,” Hubbard said. “This is a great opportunity for students to not affect the available amount of summer courses. A committee was formed to help determine the pursue degree completion at a faster pace and lower courses available to students and how the university cost.” By JENNIFER HARRINGTON Staff jeharrin@umail.iu.edu

This is a great opportunity for students to pursue degree completion at a fast pace and lower cost.

Student strives to unify various labs on campus By TAYLOR FERGUSON Staff tayfergu@ius.edu

Photo by Taylor Ferguson

Kevin Evans, special education junior and Student Government Association vice president, explains the process of centralizing various labs onto one website.

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Kevin Evans, special education junior and Student Government Association vice president, is currently working on getting information from the math, science and language labs centralized on one website in order to save students time from having to visit multiple sites. “I feel that it is beneficial to students to have all of these resources located in one place instead of having to click around a bunch of dif-

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ferent links,” Evans said. “Right now, if you go to the Student Development Center website on the left hand side, you have to go all the way down to the bottom of the page.” Math, language and science are not the only labs offered at IU Southeast. “There is also an accounting group and communications group that do labs, which many students do not know about,” Evans said. Evans said he also believes it would be beneficial for students to know how to become a tutor or supplemental instruc-

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tor in the areas in which these are needed. “It’s important for students to know the resources available to them on campus, and, also, the ways they can get involved — that includes tutoring, [Supplementary Instruction] and involvement in the centers,” Evans said. Evans said most students are not aware of some of the rewards that come with becoming an SI or tutor. “Some students don’t know that if you become an SI you get $900 a semester for each class you teach,” Evans said. “Tutors get paid $10 an

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hour.” Evans said there are not any problems with the current labs; however, there is no central site that directs students to these locations on the web. “Having a central website for resources will give students a one -stop-shop to find out about all of the resources available through the Development Center,” Evans said. Rather than consolidating all of the labs onto one of the old sites, Evans said they are working on restructurSee LABS, page 2

VOL. 76, ISSUE 10 INDEX

News............................................................ 1, 2 Sports................................................................3 Events...............................................................4 Opinions..........................................................5 Profiles..............................................................6 Diversions........................................................7 Features...........................................................8