The Carolinian [September 1, 1998]

              & Carolinian The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Tuesday Phone: (336) 334-5752 Fax: (336) 334-3518 Issue 1,
September 1,1998 Online: http://carolinian.uncg.edu Volume 78
Phillips-Hawkins takes on a new look
Stephanie Lowman
News Editor
that has been completed is
the extensive renovation of
the Phillips-Hawkins dor-mitory.
The $6.8 million
Proposed Appearance
As you returned to cam- renovation was finished
pus this semester, you have just in time for the begin-doubtless
noticed a number ning of the new semester,
of changes in the appear- For months, construction
ance of the university. crews have been hard at
One of the major projects work preparing the build-ing
for the 270 new occu-pants
planning to reside in
the dorm for the 1998-99
school year.
The residence hall has
undergone many interior
and exterior alterations, in-cluding
new windows, a
pitched roof, two new el-evators
and the addition of
air conditioning.
New communication sys-tems
were added in order to
provide students with ac-cess
to the Internet and e-mail
systems.
One particular focus was
on reconfiguring the inte-rior
living spaces in order
to promote student life and
group living. For this rea-son,
several new lounges
and common areas have
been added.
In addition, the facility
will offer a wide array of
special interest housing op-
Second Century Campaign
sets sights on $50 million
Stephanie Lowman
News F.dilor
The university's Second Cen-tury
Campaign has officially
reached its projected goal of
$42,850,000 to expand the fu-ture
of academic and student af-fairs
for UNCG. Through the
help of corporate and alumni
support and the arduous work of
the campaign committee, over
$48 million in pledges and gifts
have been raised since the
project began over five years
ago. But. according to H.
Michael Weaver and Adelaide
Holderness. the committee co-chairs,
there are no intentions of
ceasing any efforts to raise ad-ditional
funding for the univer-sity.
In fact, UNCG is now striv-ing
for a new goal of $50 mil-lion
by the end of 1998. This
amount would place the univer-sity
in a secure position to em-bark
on new ventures and pro-grams
in the next several years
and beyond.
Thus far, the campaign has
proven beneficial to UNCG.
particularly in the areas of teach-ing
equipment and research,
support for programs, scholar-ships
and athletics. Altogether,
over 50 new scholarship funds
have been established. A gift of
over $5 million was also
pledged to help strengthen the
existing (Catherine Smith
Reynolds scholarships.
The first students to receive
the aid from these scholarships
begin classes this semester. New
State-of-the-art equipment has
been added to several laborato-ries
on campus to enable stu-dents
and faculty to conduct
thorough research in areas such
as nutrition and interior design.
As for the international pro-grams,
over $1 million was al-located
to support student and
faculty studies abroad.
These funds have helped the
OIP to reach its goal of sending
2(X) students abroad in one aca-demic
year, two years ahead of
schedule. The athletics fund has
been given pledges to reward
those students in the NCAA Di-vision
I program with new
scholarships. Gifts were also al-located
to support the purchase
of new art for the Weatherspoon
Art Gallery.
Study shows graduation rates affected
by low initial GPA and other factors
StaffReports
For a college student with a
low first semester GPA. from
1.0 - 1.99 on a 4.0 scale, mak-ing
changes in a major, course
load or living arrangements
might delay graduation.
What's inside?
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The findings, from a study
of students who completed
eight to 10 semesters, were
from research conducted by
Dr. D.F. Mitchell, an associate
professor of sociology at The
University of North Carolina
•at Greensboro; Dr. Bert A.
Goldman, a UNCG professor
of education; and Morcland
Smith, an application pro-grammer
with UNCG Man-agement
Information Systems.
Goldman does research on
relationships between changes
students make during a college
career and the effect of those
changes on the timeliness of
graduation. Goldman said he
believed the information
should be used as a guide to
faculty advisers. "Faculty ad-visers,
particularly of incom-tions.
Students interested dormitory also contains
in health and fitness, nurs- single living accommoda-ing,
romance languages tions available to those up-and
international studies perclassmen wishing to
ing freshmen, need to be aware
of first semester GPA,"
Goldman said. "If you have to
make changes, better students
won't be adversely affected,
but for poorer students, the fac-ulty
adviser needs to warn
them that it may delay gradu-ation."
In 1989 Goldman and
Jacqueline Gillis challenged
the traditional belief that all
students who enter college
having decided on a major
graduate at higher rates. In
1997. Goldman and Smith
found that flexible students,
those who make changes, are
more likely to complete col-lege
than students who are in-flexible
in adjusting their
plans. They found that students
who did not always live on
campus, and students who
Actual Appearance
can benefit from living in live on campus,
these surroundings. John Campbell, director
The Phillips side of the of housing and residence
life, believes that "with the
combination of aesthetic
and operational improve-ments.
Phillips-Hawkins
will be one of the finest liv-ing
facilities on our cam-pus."
Residence life also seems
to think that special inter-est
housing is beneficial to
students because it effec-tively
links together both
their academic and residen-tial
experiences.
The renovation of
Phillips-Hawkins may have
very well started the trend
to renovate the majority of
dormitories on campus.
Approximately $2 mil-lion
has already been des-ignated
towards improve-ments
in other residence
halls, and even more is ex-pected
to be appropriated
in the near future.
Spring Garden reopens...
(;toffre> (JartnerATHK (" VROI.INIAN
Chancellor Sullivan. Mayor Allen, and Lee Kinard celebrate the reopening of Spring
Garden Street. The street reopened lor good on August 17.
changed majors or course
loads were more likely to
graduate and continue enroll-ment,
and less likely to with-draw
or be suspended.
The new study conducted by
Mitchell. Goldman and Smith
iested the Goldman and Smith
hypothesis and attempted to
replicate the results while us-ing
two controls: length of
time at the university and GPA.
The study examined the rela-tionship
between graduation
outcomes and changes in ma-jor,
housing and course load
within four levels of first se-mester
GPA achievement. The
study included only students
who had completed eight to 10
semesters.
"We found that students who
show high academic potential
in the first semester can make
changes and it doesn't seem to
delay graduation, but for stu-dents
who aren't showing po-tential
and also need to make
changes, those changes seem
to mean a delay in graduation."
Goldman said.
Results of the study also in-dicated
that as GPA increases,
percent graduated increases
and percent of continued en-rollment
decreases. They
showed that the decrease in
withdrawals and the increase
in graduation rates are actually
a function of the amount of
time enrolled.
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