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Alcohol Differences Between UK & U.S.
Opinion columnist and London native Callum Squires explains the variations.
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Trinity Tech Tigers advances to Regionals
Three man security team excels without coach from TexSAW competition.
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Kanye West hits Double Digits
10 Years have passed since West’s first album: The College Dropout.
theTrinitonian Volume 111, Issue 18
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www.trinitonian.com
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Serving Trinity University Since 1902
Revised curriculum approved No current students will be affected by the change in policy; implented for first years of fall 2015 by Cassandra Watson NEWS REPORTER Last Friday, Jan. 31, the Faculty Assembly voted to officially approve the proposed changes to the Trinity curriculum. The vote came after recent revisions by the University Curriculum Council (UCC). After three years of development and deliberation, the changes will be put into place in the fall of 2015. No current students will be affected by the changing curriculum. Those who came in under the current common curriculum will graduate under it. All students under the current common curriculum will be phased out by 2019. “We should not make students do something different from what they were understanding they were going to do,” said Angela Tarango, assistant religion professor. One of the main differences in the new curriculum is the change in the first-year experience. The new curriculum combines the first-year seminar with the writing workshop so that students will learn how to write
at a college level their first semester. Students will then choose a cluster of three classes to take at the end of their first year and into their second year that all focus on a broad central theme. The classes will be in different disciplines with the purpose of showing students how different fields explore the same topic. “The idea is for students to understand how different disciplines approach one particular theme,” Tarango said. Another five courses, one in each discipline, will be required in addition to the three-course cluster. In total, the new common curriculum will include ten courses. The common curriculum now requires students to complete around 15 courses. The new curriculum will also require students to take courses encompassing what are called core capacities. These include skills such as written, oral and visual communication, digital literacy and engaged citizenship. “We wanted to change the curriculum in a way that gave students the opportunity to master the basic skills that would prepare them for work in the modern workforce,” said Erwin Cook Murchison Distinguished professor of the humanities and classical studies. “One of the good things about the common curriculum is that if you don’t know what your major is you can come in and take a
bunch of different classes to try and figure it out. If they want us to focus on learning modern skills, that would be good, but I don’t know if that would help people determine a major if they are unsure,” said sophomore Grace Hardwick. There are fewer core-course requirements so it will be easier for students to double major with this new curriculum. The changes will hopefully give students more direction early on in their college experience and require them to take classes from a wide spectrum. “We’re hoping that that’s going to figure into helping students figure out a minor or a major. People are going to see stuff they might not have tried under the common curriculum now,” Tarango said. Faculty will be a major part of the endeavor to roll out this new curriculum. Many classes will have to be created, revamped or scrapped to better fit the change. Professors will also need to come together to create new first-year experience classes and course clusters. “I think that this is going to give our faculty the chance to show their very best side because we’ll be creative. We’ll come up with new ideas, new programs and improve Trinity’s reputation nationwide as an innovative place where students want to be. I believe it’ll be easier to sell Trinity’s message with this new curriculum,” Cook said.
According to Travis Batts, senior Pike and member of Greek Council, the hearing found the organization responsible for recruitment, guest list and alcohol use policy violations. A hearing last spring resulted in the organization’s placement on social probation for the fall of 2013, removing the opportunity for a second round rush party and replacing it with a service event. “That event didn’t end up happening, so the Pikes came to Brianna [McGlamory] and asked if they could partner up with the SPURS at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. Brianna said, ‘no,’” said junior Vivian Ha, secretary for Zeta Xi and Greek Council Judicial Chair. “Then they came to Graham Bates, the outgoing Greek Council Judicial Chair, told him that Brianna had said ‘yes’ to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in conjunction with the SPURS, so Graham said ‘okay,’ but that
they all have to be there the whole time. On the day of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, there were like five pikes there.”
• February 14, 2014
Men’s baseball wins openers
photo by Nayeli Perez In season weekend opener, Pat Hirschberg, senior outfielder slides into home as Tigers erupt into cheers in the dugout.
Although student feedback was sought in the preliminary processes of the curriculum changes, there wasn’t much student involvement during the revisionary process. “Students were not a big part of the planning. This was faculty led. There’s been some student feedback, but there hasn’t been a lot because the changes won’t affect current students. Alumni were consulted. We asked them what they wished they had
more of during their college experience at Trinity,” Tarango said. The new curriculum changes were decided independently of the credit-hour course changes. It hasn’t yet been decided as to whether all courses will be changed to four hour credits. “It’s a separate change that has been going on at the same time as the curriculum change,” Tarango said.
the organization responsible for the policy violations, according to Brianna McGlamory, coordinator for fraternity and sorority life, it was considered in the decision to suspend the new active class. “The students [on the Greek Council Judicial Board] looked at previous judicial records and based on previous judicial sanctions – and not seeing a change in behavior from those sanctions – they decided that a different sanction was needed,” McGlamory said. According to Ha, Greek Council’s intention in suspending the organization’s new active class was to refocus the organization and its current members before allowing new members to participate. “We think they have a lot to learn before they take a new pledge class. We don’t want them teaching those habits to a new orientation class.
Frankie [Arndt], the new Pike president, expressed to us the desire he had to change his club, that he didn’t like the direction that his club was going. We felt that if the Pikes were to take on the responsibility of a new active class while also trying to make internal changes with the old actives that it would be extra stress,” Ha said. “If Frankie was going to be very committed to what he said, it would be better for him and better for the organization if they didn’t take a pledge class. We also wanted to do something that they’d take seriously.” According to Batts, the organization pleads not responsible to the alcohol violation and maintains that suspending the new active class could harm the organization.
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity absent from Bid Day festivities Pikes face new active class suspension without appeal option; not present at Bid Day
by Faith Ozer NEWS REPORTER After facing social probation last fall, Trinity’s chapter of the national fraternity Phi Kappa Alpha (Pike) had their 2014 new active class suspended. The Greek Council Judicial Board found the organization responsible for three policy violations that occurred at their Jan. 15 Neon event. The board also decided this decision did not warrant an appeal, and prohibited the organization from filing one. Pike remained absent from the Jan. 31 Bid Day celebrations but is no longer on social probation.
“The life force of a Greek organization is its members. If you take that away, you take away the force of numbers and ability to rebuild with new people.” Travis Batts Senior Pike Greek Council Member While Ha maintained that these past events were not directly influential in finding
see PIKES Page 5