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Pacific's New Year's Resolutions
By: Nick Hansen - Columnist
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
When a new year rolls around, humans like to create goals for themselves that they try to follow to make their lives better. Upon the start of the spring semester I walked around campus asking students what new years resolution they would give Pacific. I took their responses and went to the heads of the departments in responsible for the respective fields. I figured it would be better to have a serious response to questions than my made up answers.
Keri Olsen, a Resident Assistant in Manor Hall said she would like to see Pacific “provide students with entertainment so they stay on campus during the weekend,” to create a more of a sense of community.
“The new University Center is expected to provide students a third place,” said Dan Shipp, who is an Assistant VP of Student Life. “All the food services on campus will be in there.” In the morning students will go to the UC for breakfast. Go to class, come back and get a coffee while studying in Pacific Commons (dining hall) or sitting outside on one of the exterior decks. Also, there will be a Pub, called ‘The Lair’, a student chosen name, as the University Center is being designed with Pacific student preferences and expectations in mind."
Mr. Shipp also included towards the end of our conversation that there will be a ‘green room,’ where two 42” TVs and one big 50” TV will provide host to video gaming and TV watching. It is expected that you can bring your friends over to play the latest game on the same kind of equipment you would see at Magnolia Hi-Fi in Best Buy.
The University Center will also become Pacifics’ first ‘Green Building.’ Meaning, “the architects designed it while keeping in mind efficient building systems (heating and air conditioning), selecting finishes like wood from well managed forests, and using less energy by natural and artificial lighting than buildings of similar size and function.”
Recently back from Co-Op, Jason Marks who is a fifth year Engineering student, was surprised to see the sport court gone from Hand Hall lawn. Mr. Shipp said there are proposals in thought to remove Bannister Hall (where Housing and Greek Life currently resides) and put in the sport court there. This will provide the ability for students to exit Baun Fitness Center and walk right onto the sport court.
Class registration in years past has been tainted with long lines, closed courses and angry students. This year, lines were short to non-existent but yet Senior Brett Fikse was still baffled. “Registration for this spring was all screwed up. Half the professors knew it was online whereas others said we had to fill out paperwork.”
Cecilia Rodriguez who is responsible for the Registrars office sat me down with Ann Perkins, associate registrar to discuss the new implementation of the online registration system. She said of the nearly 3200 students who registered for classes, a couple hundred students couldn’t figure out the system and still showed up with paperwork and professor signatures.
Professors weren’t entirely off the hook however, as some never received the training required to use the system and thus thought that the old way still worked. The registrar’s office is looking forward to the early fall registration (for continuing students) as they expect very few students in their office, as everything is now online. However, if you feel there is anything they can do to make your experience less stressful, please let them know. They’re always open to feedback. (
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Students coming back from a semester abroad experienced some difficulties with Housing and room assignments. Julie Vandaveer came back from England to spend her final semester back in Stockton. Her story leads us to her apartment in Monagan which she and another girl were placed in the same room at the same time. At the last minute, the other girl was moved out of the space and into another open one.
Steve Jacobson, the Assistant VP of Residential Life & Dinning Services said people change their minds on housing so often that it is difficult to keep lists updated. As it currently stands there are three people in charge of placing 2200 students into their respective rooms.
Banner is the “over-riding system that runs many of the operations on campus. The new software [housing is purchasing] will interact with the University system and will provide a seamless flow of information between us that will be able to offer live and up-to-date information.” The system is will be fully rolled out for the Fall ’07 and Spring ’08 housing sign-ups. All room registrations will be online and will contain live data. Issues with sign-ups, roommate requests and other variables will all be met to the best of their abilities. “Is the system perfect? No. Are we working on making it better? Yes!”
William Zurbrick, Pacific’s slackline enthusiast, said he would like to have “Pacific allow more parties on campus to keep students from going off campus thus raising DUI’s.” This seemed to raise a chord with several students. The older generation remembers when parties were rampant on campus and in the past two years they’ve really taken a hit. Fraternities aren’t holding off campus parties that students are bussed to, the Black & White Ball was reminiscent of this, but imagine that kind of party 3-4 times a semester.
Jason Velo, who is apart of Student Leadership and Involvement, offered some points which many students may find of interest in regards to why most parties are off campus. He said “the freshman and sophomore classes have higher incoming GPA’s and SAT scores which leads them to be more likely to go for professional degrees,” this leads to more studying and less partying.
Others who stand in authoritative positions have said that the Party Registration forms’ enforcement has forced students to plan parties in advanced, which appears to be something we don’t like to do. However, students have pointed out that this leads to RA’s shutting down parties at 1 AM regardless of what is going on. Unregistered parties will be shut down on a moments notice.
Perhaps the older generation is learning that partying 24/7 is not what we want to do all the time. Pacific claims to not have changed their policies in regards to parties on campus, but students seem to claim otherwise.
On February 2, 2007 the Pacific Baseball Team will continue play at Klein Family Field, even though it is not complete yet. My personal resolution for Pacific was to complete the baseball diamond. Who better to talk to about the diamond than Lynn King, Director of Athletics.
Lynn King doesn’t particularly care for New Years Resolutions, as birthdays are better times to look back on what has been done and what can be changed to make the next year better. However, he did say that the Baseball stadium is not complete due to funding issues. King said the “stadium is being built in stages, we are raising money to be able to start the next phase.”
The grass was put in last week for the areas around the field, and “the piles of dirt will be moved to the site of the new University Center in two months.” If Lynn King were to have a New Year’s Resolution for Pacific he said it would be to “have greater student involvement in student produced productions – theater, musicals, choir and student sporting events.”
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Comments (2)
1. 06:39PM 02-01-2007
Good article
Guest
2. 06:44PM 02-01-2007
Nick Hansen.. you knock my socks off!
Guest
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NOTICE
Next week's issue (Volume 100 issue 14) will be Pacifican's last issue for the Fall 2008 Semester!
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful holiday season.
Perspectives 
When a new year rolls around, humans like to create goals for themselves that they try to follow to make their lives better. Upon the start of the spring semester I walked around campus asking students what new years resolution they would give Pacific. I took their responses and went to the heads of the departments in responsible for the respective fields. I figured it would be better to have a serious response to questions than my made up answers. 
