February 17 Issue of The Merciad

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:Features On Page 3:

Arts & Entertainment On Page 4:

Senior painting

Sports On Page 7: Men‘s hockey

Professor teaches

night turned out

players step up

master class

picture perfect

their game

The MERCIAD

Read more inside & online

Mercyhurst university

Est. 1929 Vol. 89 No. 13

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Mercyhurst REACHes new decisions about the core By Erin McGarrity Staff writer

Effective fall 2016, Mercyhurst will operate on a traditional two-semester calendar and the existing common core curriculum will transform into the new REACH Curriculum. As a response to student feedback that the former core curriculum was too inflexible, Mercyhurst is implementing the new REACH “experience” as a way to give students more of a choice when it comes to the courses they take. The new curriculum reduces the number of required courses for students from 17 to 13, which will allow room for more electives. The REACH Curriculum branches into three main components: the Freshman Experience, the Liberal Arts Experience, and the Senior Experience. The Freshman Experience will still include the typical Writing and Research course, newly dubbed COMP120. However, two one-credit courses, iMU101 and iMU102 (Introduction to Mercyhurst and Involvement at Mercyhurst, respectively), will replace the former IDST

requirement. Both professors and staff from Student Life will teach these iMU courses, which will ultimately lead to better retention and assimilation among freshmen, according to David Dausey, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Students will have the chance to learn professionalism, resilience and how to get used to being in college. We want to make sure we’re interacting with students in a way that helps them to be successful,” Dausey said. The Liberal Arts Experience will be where the REACH acronym comes into play. Each letter in the acronym stands for a different category: Reason and Faith, Expression and Creativity, Analytical Thought, Contexts and Systems, and Humans in Connection. Students will need to take two classes under each category, resulting in a total of ten required classes. Instead of having to choose from a pre-approved list of courses under each category, students will have the choice among any 100- or 200-level course in the fields prescribed under each letter of the acronym. According to Dausey, this will give students more

Trang Nguyen photo

David Dausey, Ph.D., on behalf of the Mercyhurst administration, introduced the new REACH core curriculum to students this week.

flexibility. “This part of the curriculum focuses on breadth of study,” Dausey said. “Instead of having a short list of courses from which students can choose, we want to trust them to make choices based on their own interests and passions that will allow them to become wellrounded,” he said. The last part of the new curriculum, the Senior Experience, will include Ethics 400

which ia redesigned capstone course unique to Mercyhurst. The class will be more focused on REACH, in that it will make students consider what this school specifically has taught them about facing challenges and living in the real world. Ethics 400 will also go along with the capstone course in any given student’s academic major. Dausey said that he hopes it teaches soon-to-be graduates how to think and communi-

cate effectively. “With Ethics 400, we are hopefully going to provide students with a moral and ethical framework, regardless of religious background, that allows them to respond constructively and resiliently when faced with a challenge,” Dausey said. In addition to the three branches of the REACH Curriculum, students will also need to take a minimum of one one-credit experience

in service learning or civic engagement. Students will be able to easily combine this requirement, appropriately called outREACH, with a study abroad or travel experience. Dausey cites the creation of this component with the desire for students to live outside of their comfort zones. “We want this to be disruptive and cause students to look at the world differently. We hope that it challenges some of their assumptions about how the world operates,” said Dausey. This new curriculum change will not affect anyone’s graduation. The Office of the Provost is currently working to evaluate everyone’s record to ensure that students are up to speed. This review will be complete by April 1, and students will have the chance to see their updated program evaluations on WebAdvisor before registering for fall classes. A complete breakdown of the REACH Curriculum, along with a list of FAQs, is available now on the MyMercyhurst Portal under Academics and the Office of Academic Affairs. @TheMerciad

Female athletes make big impact on community youth By Catherine Rainey News editor

Young girls all over Erie joined with the female athletes of Mercyhurst on Saturday, Feb. 13, for the fifth annual Girls and Women in Sports Day. The event, organized by Bethany Brun, director of Service Learning, is an opportunity for girls from the community to learn about and experience various sports with collegiate level athletes. “From a student athlete perspective, I think it’s wonderful to get to share your sport with younger girls, present yourself as a role model and encourage them to get involved in sports at a young age,” Brun said. More than 100 girls from 17 different Girl Scout troops attended, according to Brun. The event took place in

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the Mercyhurst Recreation Center. More than 10 sports teams were represented at the event. These included soccer, basketball, rowing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, swimming, softball, tennis, water polo and cross country. Each sport had a different activity for girls to participate in. For example, the golf team brought a putting green and the soccer team had cones set up to practice dribbling. Some stations had competitions with prizes for the winners. The basketball station involved a shooting game in which the winning particiCasey Bleuel photo pant earned the privilege to sit Freshman rower Amelia Kanonczyk guides a young girl using a rowing machine. The event behind the bench as an assis- offered activties in more than 10 sports. tant coach during the girls’ game against the University in Sports Day generally has a tell me that a lot of the Girl sports, so they don’t get to do of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, positive impact on all involved. Scouts focus on crafting and a lot of events like this,” Brun which concluded the event. “I had a couple of Girl art and stuff like that, but a lot said. Brun said Girls and Women Scout leaders or mothers of [their] girls are involved in Several student athletes had

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similar responses to the event. “Our coach always tells us there’s bigger things in this world than just us. It’s not all just about being the best player we can be; it’s about being the best all around person we can be,” said junior basketball player Natalie Piaggesi. “That’s something I think we can portray to the girls who are looking up to us.” Freshman rower Amelia Kanonczyk enjoyed working with the young girls. “I liked the fact that the girls were willing to go out of their comfort zone to try the erg, a rowing machine, and some of them really liked it,” said Kanonczyk. “I never had the opportunity to learn about rowing and actually get into it until this year. I hope the young girls will find a sport they love and stick with it because being on a team is such a wonderful experience.”

Online Poll Results

Do you plan to watch “Fuller House” on Netflix?

No, too excited for Gilmore Girls! (37%) I didn’t even watch Full House. (37%) Yes! The Tanners are back! (22%) Yeah, I need a new show to binge watch during study breaks. (4%)

Be sure to vote in this week’s online poll: 1

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How do you feel about the new REACH core curriculum?

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