Published: October 22, 2009

On Oct. 15, Fordham College  at Lincoln Center (FCLC) held the year’s second college council meeting in the Leon Lowenstein building’s South Lounge, highlighting academic advising policies, the new theology core and online SEEQ forms.

Rev. Robert R. Grimes, S.J., dean of FCLC,  opened the meeting with an update on this year’s freshman class.  He noted that this year, “Fewer students came from very far away, yet fewer came from very close by.” This year FCLC received a total of 5,637 applications and was looking for a class of 417.  The current size of the class as of “Freeze Day,” when all counts stop running and are officially taken, is 434.  He also drew attention to high school senior open house on Oct. 17, which he urged faculty members to attend, emphasizing the importance of prospective student to faculty connections.

Academic advising was the next item on the day’s agenda. One change is the abolition of PIN advising numbers.  From now on, once a student has met with his or her advisor, the advising hold will be lifted from their account and they will be free to register for classes.  The change comes in response to the occurance of lost or forgotten PINs from previous semesters.

Next, Aristotle Papanikolaou, associate chair of the theology department at FCLC, took the floor to discuss the revised theology core. He explained that, while the major will still consist of 10 required courses, the senior thesis has been eliminated and the 10 courses will change to allow for a more focused degree.  Papanikilou referred to this new system as having a “tiered structure,” which stems from students who voiced interest in more specified fields or tracks within the major.  The amendment was put to a vote and was unanimously approved with one abstention.

Andrew Clark, associate chair of the modern languages department at FCLC, put forward a recommendation to make results of SEEQ course and professor evaluation forms available online to students the Fordham’s portal.  Christopher Chromey, FCLC ’12 and an Residence Hall Association (RHA) representative, said that students were not aware that they even had access to such results, which are filed in the university’s library. He suggested adding a line to the form’s instructions alerting students of the availability of results.

All members of the council were in favor of this proposal, but since it was simply a recommendation, it was not formally voted upon.