First Year Matters | issue 2.3

The First Year Matters newsletter is published by the Office of the Dean of the College and features information about academic and community life at Wesleyan; news about events and happenings on campus; and profiles of people and their work.

The SARN Peer Advisors hold weekly drop-in hours and academic skills workshops in the residence halls. You may be able to catch them in Usdan or Olin periodically, too! Write to sarnadvisors@wesleyan.edu if you have a question you want answered or you want to schedule an appointment with your Peer Advisor to discuss time management, note taking, reading or exam preparation strategies. Yes! Exam preparation! Some of you have weekly quizzes already or an exam in three weeks. It is never too early to begin preparing for exams! The first week of class is a good time to begin organizing your notes, writing weekly reviews of the course material and charting out the important details of your course information. Peer Advisors will be happy to review your study plans with you.

Part of preparing for exams is managing your time carefully. Begin this weekend by gathering your syllabi together and writing out all of your assignment due dates and exam dates in your Semester Calendar located in back of your Wesleyan Planner 2007-2008. Bring your completed or incomplete plans to the Peer Advisors to review them. If you didn't receive a WesPlanner on Arrival Day, the Usdan Info Desk has a supply of planners available to you.

The Drop/Add period begins on the first day of classes each semester and is ten days in length. Students must first click the "Enroll Me" button in their e-portfolio before they will be permitted to participate in Drop/Add. The drop/add period for the Fall 2007 semester will close at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 17. After the end of drop/add, all students must confirm their course schedules through the e-portfolio.

The drop/add system allows students to submit drop/add requests on-line. Instructors accept drop/add requests electronically and drop students who do not attend the first class meeting. Advisors are able to review and approve drop/adds electronically. An e-mail notification system informs students, faculty and advisors of daily drop/add activity. The ranked drop/add requests which students made during pre-registration will appear in the drop/add system and are used by instructors to admit students to courses. Students may also make unranked drop/add requests once drop/add opens. During drop/add, instructors determine who may be admitted to the course. Advisors must approve individual drops and adds.

During drop/add students may enroll in more than 4.00 full credit courses with the permission of their advisor, who must increase their credit limit electronically. Students may change the grading mode of courses for which this option is available during the drop/add period. After the end of drop/add, grading mode changes cannot be made. The Registrar's Office maintains a list of Drop/Add Frequently Asked Questions. Peer Advisors can also help answer questions or direct you to the correct source of information regarding your drop/add questions.

Ronald K. Brown has chosen to give the world premiere performances of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE: "One Shot" at

Wesleyan on September 14 and 15, at 8:00 p.m. in the CFA Theatre. You viewed the readings over the summer and read the supplemental readings in your e-portfolio. Tickets for first-year students purchase have been on reserve at the CFA Box Office in Usdan and will be through September 7, 2007.

This month, you will finally have the opportunity to meet Ronald K. Brown, the choreographer and artistic director of your common reading for this past summer. On Friday, September 7, he, along with co-curator Deborah Willis, will be at the opening reception for "Charles 'Teenie' Harris: Rhapsody in Black and White" in Zilkha South Gallery from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. There will be a talk about the work at 6:00 p. m. On Thursday, September 13, there is a Meetingplace Gathering - an open dialogue with Ronald K. Brown in Beckham Hall at 8:00 p. m. On September 14 at 7:15 p.m., a pre-performance talk by Neil A. Barclay in the CFA Cinema. On September 20 at 7:30, Deborah Willis will return to talk about "Black: A Celebration of A Culture in Photographs" in the CFA Cinema.

Student Activities and Leadership Development When it comes to planning a program on campus, the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD) should be your first stop. The office will assist you or your student group in organizing social, cultural, intellectual, political, and recreational programs. Whether you need to reserve a space, request additional funding, order equipment, or simply brainstorm programming ideas, make an appointment or stop by the office in the lower level of North College. The office also offers leadership education programs and resources that will help you get involved and become an active student leader on campus. Check out the SALD website at http://www.wesleyan.edu/stuact/ for more information.

New Student Orientation and Hall Olympics Thank you all for participating in New Student Orientation. We hope you all had a wonderful experience and hope you continue to rely on the Office of the Dean of the College and Academic Affairs to make your Wesleyan Experience well-rounded and fulfilling.

We also want to let you know that the winners of the Hall Olympics are the residents of Fauver 2 who barely edged out Clark 1/2 and Butt B 3/4. Great job to everyone who participated. We hope you had fun.

11th Annual Community Service Fair Life outside the classroom is a big part of the Wesleyan experience. To find out more about volunteer opportunities in and around the Wesleyan community, check out the Community Service Fair on Monday, September 10, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Usdan University Center Courtyard. Each year 30 local agencies come to campus to share what volunteer opportunities exist with their agency. There will also be information on student run programs. If you're interested in learning about all of the student organizations on campus (or how to start your own), check out the Student Activities Fair on Friday, September 15, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Hockey Rink at the Freeman Athletic Center.

WesLEAD - Fall Leadership Conference Are you interested in strengthening your leadership skills and learning more about student involvement at Wesleyan? Register now for WesLEAD, a one day Leadership Conference sponsored by the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development. Various sessions throughout the day will focus on leadership skills, community building, social justice, and collaboration. Meet faculty and staff and also hear from fellow student leaders on campus about their experiences with being involved at Wesleyan.

If you have questions or are interested in participating, please contact: Nicole Chabot, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, at nchabot@wesleyan.edu or x2143, or stop by our office on the First Floor of Usdan! The Fall Leadership Conference will take place on Saturday, October 6th, Usdan University Center, 9:30 a. m. - 3:30 p. m

The Financial Aid Office's Student Employment website is your one-stop shopping guide to working on-campus. The site features a step-by-step guide to finding a job, frequently asked questions, helpful links, and access to job postings.

Job postings are categorized and provide detailed information about positions on and off-campus, desired hours, pay rates, and direct e-mail links to supervisors to schedule interviews. Incoming students will also have the week of Orientation to set-up job interviews before the upperclass students arrive on campus. Students are encouraged to take a look at the job postings to get a sense as to what jobs are available and what they may be interested in. If you find something that you are interested in, each job description provides contact information for the supervisor of that position. Send them an e-mail or give them a call to set up an interview.

The Job Posting Board is updated daily, so check it frequently for the latest job opportunities.

If you have not already done so, take some time to get together with your roommate(s) to go through the Thriving Together workbook. Establishing ground rules early in the semester and resolving the issues in the Roommates' Agreement Form will help prevent minor problems from escalating into major problems later in the year. If you need assistance completing the agreement, ask your Resident Advisor for help. RAs are trained in conflict mediation and can offer an impartial perspective. Whether you are already best of friends or just cordial acquaintances, a healthy roommate relationship requires open communication, compromise and respect.

During New Student Orientation, Randy Haveson shared his take on keeping your alcohol consumption at a low risk level, if in fact you choose to drink at all. Most Wesleyan students consume nothing or at a low risk level which results in few, if any, problems. Just as a reminder, here's the Code again:

2 - Limit your drinking to no more than TWO times per week. Studies show that high risk drinkers consume alcohol three or more times per week.

There's a difference between people who drink and people who get drunk. People who get drunk are at higher risk for problems. And studies show that people who drink four or more drinks in a day are at greater risk for having alcohol-related problems. If you are interested to learn how your consumption rates, take the Electronic Check-Up to Go (or e-CHUG)!

Mathew Ball, Class of 2008, hails from Denver Colorado and is currently the President of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (�WSA�). He is a College of Social Studies major with a strong interest in philosophy and history. Ball studies Arabic and works at the Usdan Center. He has studied and worked in Cairo, Yemen, and Hong Kong and most recently returned from visiting Ethiopia this summer. He has taught during the summers with the Breakthrough/Summerbridge program in Denver and Hong Kong.

At Wesleyan he represents students on the WSA - as a sophomore he headed the Student Budget Committee where he had the responsibility to make sure that lots of exciting events were put on by student groups. He reports that it was a lot of fun simply because there was a lot of student contact. Although he had joined many groups on campus, the WSA was one of the most rewarding. He believes that the WSA is becoming a more effective source for student representation on campus. This year, the WSA is "putting a premium" on student outreach and the new things going on around campus. It's not much of a secret that we have a new President, new Dean of the College, a new Campus Center, and a new dining plan. The WSA will play a very large role in shaping how all of these things look by the end of the year, and he plans to engage students in processes in order to get more conversations running between the administration and the students. He strongly encourages people to use the WSA for anything they need across campus. They are very receptive to what students have to say, and have a good sense of how to get things done. Write to them at wsa@wesleyan.edu.