Maroon

              THE MAROON A LOYOLA TRADITION SINCE 1923 • "FOR A GREATER LOYOLA" ONLINE EDITION AT LOYOI.AMAROON.COM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2009 VOL. 86, NO. 12 ROOM, LOSE OR DRAW By MASAKO HIRSCH ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Students who plan to live in Carrollton Hall next year will need to choose their roommate carefully.Students will no longer apply as a group for residence, but will instead be chosen on an individual level. "We wanted to address and make sure that it was fair for individual students, so that every student could compete for a room based on their own merits," said Craig Beebe, associate director for residential education. "We didn't think someone should be de-prioritized just because they didn't have a group of students to live with," said Beebe. Beebe noted that the same point system would be used to prioritize applicants: grade point average and class standing, plus bonus points for a clean disciplinary record and active involvement in Residence Council. The points for each student won't, however, get added up for a group total as in past years. "Our hope is that most studentsstudents will still get to live with their group anyway. It just might be a little more of a roundabout way of them getting into a group," Beebe said. This will be possible, he added, because students who want to live together will most likely have a similar number of points. It will also allow students to create new relationships, he said. Residential Life is changing the way rooms are chosen by creating an event called "Room Draw." Some students are unhappy with tin- change. *Tve met new people every year, but I wouldn't want to meet them by force," said Sergio Lobo- Navia, philosophy junior. "It's a great part of the freshman experience, but we're no longer freshmen."Nick Courtney, philosophy junior, agrees. "I have a roommate that I don't really know, and to be honest, it's kind of awkward. I think it's as awkward for him as it is for any of us," Courtney said. "I think that the risk of creating situations like that throughout a residence hall and having a sys- Residential Life's new policy requires that all students must apply for housing as individuals and removes the option to choose suitemates. HOUSING APPLICATION BASICS: (from httpy/toynaeduAwWWoomdrawJitm) t lit Imrtwj nhrtto prarm H mw celad "N— »■■-. This is the opportunity for all current Loyola students to choose where they live on campus next year. Thb procteeral is important because students may no longer count the points of a preferred roommates In their own scores. 3. At sMmls' atalfaai NfJMnHta Hat* tfcef way ripM9 wltfc eao TUt MMMte «M»ttt iwatar biiMiMl At tot* may bring their preferred See ■j^BiM«KwMcamDus. University considers reinstating ESL courses By JAUNE JACKSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER International students, or students who do not primarily speak English, are being denied admission to Loyola, said Debbie Danna, director of the Center for International Education. "We've had to turn down students who were academically talented," Danna said. "And the university's starting to realize it was a mistake."In response, Loyola is seeking to bring back their Fulbright Grantawarded English as a second language program, a possibility that was announced at the Nov. 13 faculty senate meeting. The ESL program was initially shut down because of funding, Danna said, but when the program did exist, there were about 20 to 60 students enrolled in the program each year. "The numbers were looking good righl before Katrina," Danna said. Danna said the program was moved to City College right before Hurricane Katrina. Now, City College no longer exists According Danna, students who participated in the ESL program came from all over the world. A large majority of the students hailed from Korea, Latin America and Japan. Danna also said the program was home to many Fulbright Scholars. The Fulbright Scholar Program is designed to provide grants and scholarships for internationalHumanities dean hails from Georgetown, international schools By ANDREA CASTILLO SENIOR STAFF WRITER A Wisconsin native at heart, Jo Ann Moran Cruz, the new dean of Humanities and Natural Sciences, came from Georgetown University, and has also taught in Chile, Turkey, Italy and Qatar. The former chairwoman of the history department at Georgetown, Cruz hopes to globalize Loyola and create connections with other universities. Before Cruz had accepted the deanship in April 2008, English professor Mary McCay served as the interim dean of the college. McCay was elected after former dean Frank Scully accepted a job at another university. While McCay was interim dean from fall 2007 to fall 2008, Loyola began a national search for a new dean. According to Richard Wilson, senior academic counselor and member of the search committee, Cruz's academic scholarship, her experience as an administrator at Georgetown and the way she presented herself were some reasons the committee choose her as dean. "I think that she will start a lot of new initiatives to help the college to grow, to help support our faculty with things that they want to do in their research and teaching," Wilson said. Cruz studied late medieval and early modern British history and later focused on the works of Dante. Cruz has also spoken at conferences in the Middle East and written on Middle Eastern topics. The topics of these conferences ranged from popular medieval perceptions of Islam to technologies from the Middle East and their impact on medieval Europe, to a comparative paper on the role of religious texts in elementary schools in the Middle East and in Europe. In addition to her professorship and chair in the history department, Cruz also helped direct international initiatives and was head of the faculty senate at Georgetown. Cruz would like to apply her penchant for international education to the college. One way, according to Cruz, would be to promote study abroad among students, increase the role of faculty globally and partnering entire programs abroad. "The new center for Latin American and Caribbean studies can develop partnerships with universities in Latin America and the Caribbean." she offered as an example. COURTESY OF LOYOLA Jo Ann Moran Cruz begins as dean of humanities this spring. see SUITEMATES, page 4 see ESL, page 3 see CRUZ, page 5 LAISSEZ LE flPf BON TEMPS pages Corrections: In a Jan. 30 article, The Maroon misstated the number of freshmen who returned in 2008 from 2007. We should have said 363 of the 495 new students who enrolled in 2007 returned in 2008. Also, the headlines should have read "Loyola deans create programs, combat retention problems," and "Deans try to lower attrition rates in their colleges." We regret these mistakes. MAROON DIRECTORY: CAMPUS WATCH, page 2 | EDITORIAL, page 18 | LIFE & TIMES, page 8 | SPORTS, page 16 | NEWS TIPS: 865 3535