Centralized Heating and Global Village

James Yarrington, director of Campus Planning and Design & Construction Services, opened the meeting with the Capital Project Review. According to Yarrington, the centralized heating and cooling project is already helping lower operating costs while increasing savings, which he estimated to be around $1.2 million. Yarrington also discussed the Global Village construction. The $54.5 million project will offer 414 new beds. The estimated completion date is late summer of 2010, making it available for fall residents.

Open Access Initiative

RIT is now part of the Open Access (OA) initiative, a growing movement that promotes “all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication.” According to OpenAccessWeek.org, “It’s gaining even more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it.”

To show their support, the RIT Digital Media Library offers access to digital archives that includes over 11,000 faculty and student scholarship works. The Wallace Library will be participating in Open Access Week (October 19 — 23), during which the RIT community will be able to learn more about OA, what it means, and be able to join the discussion.

To learn more about Open Access Week, visit http://openaccessweek.org

Greater Expectation Team Report

The Greater Expectations (GE) team reported on their proposed changes in an effort to improve student learning and engagement. The three main proposals include changing First Year Enrichment (FYE) courses (as highlighted in last week’s SG Update), renaming General Education electives, and implementing new Writing Intensive (WI) courses.

According to the GE team, the term General Education “is vague and might seem to imply that anything not in the major counts as general education.” Therefore, to minimize confusion, it was recommended to rename General Education courses to “University Arts and Sciences” (UAS) courses.

The implementation of WI courses, which addressed the development of students’ writing skills and will include four additional course requirements, initiated a heated discussion among the senate members. The first course in the WI series will aim to introduce new college students to the university standard of writing and will not be waived by AP credit. This course will be satisfied by the existing Writing Seminar courses. The next two courses will be offered as part of the UAS, with at least one of them satisfying a concentration or minor. Lastly, the fourth will be within the program major. Here, students would learn how to write professionally within their own field of study, giving them a better chance at landing a job after graduation.

To learn more about proposed changes visit GE team official website, http://rit.edu/greaterexpectations