Friday, Sept. 16, 2005
Loquitur The
Perspectives
High schools fail to challenge students page 6
Cabrini College’s Student Newspaper
Sports
Eagles falter to Falcons in season opener page 13
‘Growing pains’ painless for Rooymans residents www.theLoquitur.com
Radnor, Pa.
Vol XLVII, Issue 2
ASHLEY WEYLER NEWS EDITOR ARW723@CABRINI.EDU
The Rooymans Center, which housed counseling services, tutoring center and nurse’s office in the past, is now home to 18 freshman males and one resident adviser. The Rooymans Center, built in 1967, originally called Council Hall, was not always used for offices before its recent renovation. The building was actually erected as a residence hall. The decision to return the Rooymans Center to a residence hall came late last semester, when Laura Shapella, the assistant director of Residence Life and other members of the Residence Life Office realized exactly how many freshmen were enrolling to Cabrini. Roommates Scott Dietrich, a freshman business administration major, and Doug Will, a freshman fine arts major, feel lucky to live in the Rooymans Center. While touring campus as high school seniors, they had no idea that living in the Rooymans Center was even an option. “It was never even mentioned on the tour,” Dietrich said. “I like it even though it’s all guys,” Dietrich said, “Everything is new and it’s right in the middle of campus.” “The rooms are about the
Inside
A&E
Fall fashion week page 10
Features
Remembering Sept. 11 page 8
ASHLEY WEYLER/NEWS EDITOR
The Rooymans Center now houses 18 freshman males and one resident advisor.
same size as the Woodcrest rooms, only we have two people living in our rooms and there are three people living in those rooms,” Will said. “People come and hang out here; it’s fun,” he said. When asked about the smell of medical supplies from the former nurse’s office, the roommates say the only thing that smells is the odor from some of the sports players after practice. The Health Center and tutoring center, which was previously located in the Rooymans Center, have been moved to the basement of Founder’s Hall. The counseling center moved into Grace Hall
last year. According to Shapella, the Rooymans Center is most likely to remain a residence hall, even after West Residence Hall is completed. The enrolled freshman class for the 2005-2006 school year is the biggest incoming freshman class in the history of Cabrini College. The conversion of the Rooymans Center is not the only change made to the residence halls on campus. Many lounges have been converted into dorm rooms to support the demand for residency on campus. Shapella said, “I understand that it is difficult to lose lounge space, but I
ASHLEY WEYLER/NEWS EDITOR
A Rooymans Center resident works on his computer in his new dorm room.
hope that students remain patient with us as Cabrini transitions and grows as a college.” Shapella said that more students accepted admission at Cabrini this year than ever before and this is proof that the college is moving in the right direction. “As a department we are proud that so many students want housing, so we are going to do everything we can to accommodate those requests and make adjustments,” she said. The fact that Cabrini is growing is wonderful, according to Shapella. She said, “Anytime a college is in a period of transition, there are bound to be some
growing pains, but everyone is working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible.” “We are moving forward, we will have a new residence hall by the next academic year and hopefully students will be able to see how these changes and growths are only going to benefit Cabrini as a whole in the future,” Shapella said.
Loquitur welcomes your comments on this story. Please send your comments to: Loquitur@yahoogroups.com . The editors will review your points each week and make corrections if warranted.
Surprising survey: students bored LAURA VAN DE PETTE NEWS EDITOR LCV722@CABRINI.EDU
The electronic responses of 10,378 teenagers who participated in an online nationwide survey painted a grave picture of how students rate the effectiveness of their schools in preparing them for the future. A large majority of the high school students surveyed say their class work is not very difficult, and almost twothirds say they would work harder if courses were more demanding or interesting, according to the survey which was conducted by the National Governors Association. Politicians were expecting responses that centered on the teenagers complaining about the workload and were stunned to find that fewer than two-thirds believe that their school had done a good job challenging them academical-
ly or preparing them for college. According to the New York Times, “About the same number of students said their senior year would be more meaningful if they could take courses related to the jobs they wanted or if some of their courses could be counted toward college credit.” “High school was a joke. Aside from taking physics class my senior year, I breezed through high school. I never felt challenged and never had to exert much energy or time into my work. I wasted a lot of time senior year that could have been spent preparing me for college. I wish my high school had offered an intro to elementary education class or something to introduce me to the major I was hoping to study in college,” said Megan O’Brien, a junior early childhood education major. The results of the survey prove that high school students across High School, page 3
Two-thirds of the students surveyed said that they would work harder if courses were more challenging.
KRT