Maroon

              The Maroon VOL. 79, NO. 02 Loyola University New Orleans FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2001 MAROON.LOYNO.EDU Grant to establish endowed chairs By Erik Isidore Contributing writer The Louisiana Board of Regents recently awarded Loyola $920,000 in matching funds for two endowed chairs and three professorships. Loyola used the money to establish the Gerald N. Gaston Eminent Chair in International Business and the Rev. John H. Mullahy Eminent Chair in Environmental Biology. Professorships established were the Gerald N. Gaston Distinguished Professorship in Science and Religion, Adams & Reese Distinguished Professorship in Law and the Rev. Aloysius B. Goodspeed/BEtjGARS Distinguished Professorship in Communications. On August 14, the Board of Regents awarded $7.72 million in matching grants to seven New Orleans institutions. The board annually awards money to private and public institutions in Louisiana. Other schools that received grants this year were Xavier University, the University of New Orleans, Tulane University and Our Lady of Holy Cross College. In order to be eligible to receive matching funds, colleges and universities must raise 60 percent of the cost for each endowed account from private sources.- According to J. Patrick O'Brien, dean of business administration, the procedure to receive money in the form of a chair is an extensive one. "Each chair position costs $1 million. In order to receive funds for a chair, Loyola must go to the board with $600,000. The board then matches Loyola $400,000," he said. The money then is invested into stocks and becomes an endowed account. The department uses a portion of the money to support the faculty member who fill the chair position. "Five percent of the interest draw-down, which is $50,000, is used to pay a portion of the chairholders salary and provide an expense account for him to use in meeting department needs," O'Brien said. Freshmen set enrollment record By Ellen Pivach News Editor Loyola's campus is a bit more crowded these days. This year's freshman class is the largest in the university's history, with preliminary numbers showing 863 registered students, breaking last year's enrollment record of 844. According to Deborah Stieffel, Dean of Admissions, the class of 2005 comprises approximately 27 percent of Loyola's 3200 undergraduate students. This is a 2.3 percent increase from the 2000-2001 academic year. "The official number of new freshmen will not be published until the last working day of September when the university posts its official statistics," Stieffel said. In his faculty and staff convocation speech, the Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., university president, noted the large number of applications from which the Office of Admissions selected the new students. "On the undergraduate side of the ledger. Dean Stieffel and the admissions staff have done extraordinary work in assembling the class of 2005," Knoth said. "Our freshman application pool increased over last year by over 550 applications for a total of 3.419 undergraduate applications." Members of the class of 2005 come from various areas around the United States and the world. The class represents 41 states, in addition to Puerto Rico, as well as 17 countries including Nicaragua, Haiti and Germany. Almost 60 percent of the incoming freshmen are from outside of Louisiana. Within the in-state student population. 32 percent are from New Orleans. As far as ethnic diversity, approximately 27.6 percent of the class of 2005 represents minority populations. Black students make up 7.5 percent of the freshmen, and Hispanic students make up 12.8 percent of the class. Men make up 35.7 percent of the class of 2005, and women make up 63.7 percent. This year's freshman class doesn't stand out only for its large size. The students also appear to be academically inclined. "They are certainly the most academically qualified we have seen," Knoth said. The average SAT combined score among the freshmen is 1215, and the average ACT combined score is 26. Both numbers exceed national averages. The average grade point average of the class of 2005 is 3.63. Stieffel said the rise in enrollment numbers isn't anything extremely significant. "With regard to numbers, they have been pretty consistent over the STAFF PHOTO BY BRIAN CONVEFIY Almost every seat is filled in Nunemaker Auditorium as freshmen wait for the next orientation activity. The Class of 2005 is the largest in Loyola's recent history with nearly 870 registered freshmen as of Sept. 3. Cabra residents left disappointed By Latoya Simons Assistant News Editor Cabra residents have twice as many roommates as they expected this fall. The crowding is due to a largerthan-usual number of out-of-town freshmen, who are required to live on campus. "When I came, I thought there would be four to an apartment, but it's still eight. They should limit the number of people. The place is just too small," said Hanadi Abdelrahim, business and French sophomore and Cabra resident. Last year, with the idea of attracting more students. Residential Life said that Cabra would have fourperson suites with single rooms, said Robert Reed, director of residential life. Res. Life made the decision based on the assumption that the number of freshman applicants for on-campus housing would remain the same, Reed said. He said he usually meets with Debbie Stieffel, dean of admissions and enrollment management, and asks for estimates of incoming freshmen on campus every fall. The meeting takes place about a year and a half in advance, said Stieffel. This year, the number grew, although Reed was not aware of it at first. "In February, we projected to have 610 freshmen. We let | the upperclassmen | sign up as singles, because we thought there would be enough space," Reed said. "We never planned on having more than 700 freshmen." According to Stieffel. the Office of Admissions passed on the information about the large freshman class to the Office of Student Affairs, but it did not get passed on to Res. Life. Students already assigned to Cabra as single residents were doubled up, and some were unexpectedly moved into the dorm from Bieverand Buddig, but were given the option to cancel their contracts without penalty. "A number of people were disappointed because they felt that we should have told them in the Spring, but we didn't make this decision until later," Reed said. In spite of the discontent of many residents, things were not as bad as expected. "We thought we had to put people in roll-away beds, but it didn't happen," Reed said. Not all students are disappointed. "1 wanted to be in Cabra even with a roommate," said Fred Fally, business junior. "Cabra Hall is not as bad as everyone says. It's actually a very nice place to live." Because of the low numbers of residents in Cabra last year, Residential Life was considering closing the dorm completely. "Last year (they had a number of vacancies in Cabra. There was talk about not using Cabra at all or using it as rent space to Tulane or Xavier. though we prefer to use our own students," Reed said. "We initially wanted Cabra to be apartments; we may have to rethink all that, but making six person suites are also a possibility." Another option is renovating it in parts. "Possibly, if we renovate it by suites, three suites on one side of the building at a time. We could keep going like that until we're finished," Reed said. According to Stieffel, if Cabra were to become single rooms or sixperson apartments, it would affect upperclassmen and may give out-ofstate students preference in housing selection, which could affect the See FRESHMEN, Page 4 See CHAIRS, Page 5 See CABRA, Page 5 MBHKnews THE CHANGE FROM TO CLIFF'S OFF BROADWAY p9 4 NEXT WEEK: The Pride of the Pack kermTt ruffins j SERVK UP NEW