by Summer L. Douglass
Staff Writer
With the selection of the 2000 Orientation Week co-coordinators named in junior Kelly Mitchell and sophomore Courtney Henderson, the University of La Verne is in the process of evaluating its freshman Orientation course, University 100.
The Orientation Week Leaders (O.W.L.s) and Michael Houdyshell, coordinator of campus activities and commuter programs, are considering a prospective change in the way the University 100 class has been taught in the past.
“For U-100, we’re just transitioning to the point in orientation, where we will have students who are just O.W.L.s and students who just co-facilitate U-100,” said Houdyshell.
Under the current system, all O.W.L.s-unless they are Transfer O.W.L.s-are required to help lead a U-100 course with a ULV faculty or staff member. This proposed change has been under way for the past year, and still may take a few years to be permanently implemented into the Orientation program.
The main reason for this change is due to the fact that students have different interests when committing themselves as O.W.L.s. Houdyshell stressed that different students do well in different leadership positions.
“I think some students are really into being an O.W.L., while other students are really into being a part of U-100,” said Houdyshell.
This change is important to the staff. It will encourage more students to become involved in Orientation Week.
“One of the biggest things we want to see, and this is with a lot of things on campus. We want to see more commuter-student involvement,” said Houdyshell. “We want to see them come and really be involved in all or part of Orientation, more than has happened in the past.”
Some of the other goals that are important to those involved in Orientation include more involvement on the part of staff, faculty and parents of the incoming students.
“We’re going to look at our marketing materials and information that we send out to prospective students and parents,” said Houdyshell. “We want to get the parents involved. Because if the parents want to come to Orientation, then the students will come.”
The idea to separate the O.W.L.s and co-facilitators for the U-100 class is not a definite plan of action. It is an idea that needs more thought and planning before being put into effect.
“This isn’t definite, by any means. We are just thinking about it at this point in time, because we don’t know where we’re going with Orientation just yet,” said Houdyshell.
