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Volume 94
Issue 1
Next Publication:
Thursday January 31, 2013 48
WEDNESDAY
H
Monday, January 28, 2013
PINE LOG The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 6
63
H
Lumberjacks
blow late
lead in
Natchitoches
By Tinesha Mix
Opinions Editor
On Dec. 28, 146 Lumberjack Marching Band
students and alumni traveled to London,
England, to participate in the 2013 London New
Year’s Day Parade. They stayed in London for a
total of eight days, sightseeing and taking in the
European culture.
The LMB was invited by the Queen herself
during the 2011-2012 school year, when her rep-resentatives
flew overseas and handed director
of bands, Dr. David Campo, the personal invita-tion
to participate in the parade. Not only did
they get to participate in the parade, but they
were also chosen as the group who led the entire
parade.
The parade premiered on television in both
England and the United States, where roughly
280 million people were watching. In addition
to the millions that watched the event on televi-
By Dakota Cowley, Jacey Gaddy, Wendi
Kunkel & Alicia Washington
Special to The Pine Log
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board is mandating all state universities re-vise
their core curriculum for the first time
in almost 15 years.
The core, the basic courses all students
are required to take regardless of their
major, is currently composed of 42 to 46
hours and 37 exemplary education objec-tives.
The new core will only comprise 42
hours and six core objectives.
The new core will go into effect for fresh-men
students in the fall of 2014. At that time,
all incoming freshmen will be required to
use it. Upperclassmen will have the option
to remain under the current core or switch
to the new one.
To students, this means the current core
classes that are mostly taken during fresh-man
and sophomore years will be revised
to form a new and improved set of core
courses that will help future students better
develop a set of life skills and capabilities
that are wanted from employers post gradu-ation.
The new core is based around six specific
components— critical thinking skills, com-munication
skills, empirical and quantita-tive
skills, teamwork, personal responsibil-ity
and social responsibility. The purpose of
implementing this new core is so students
can gain knowledge of human cultures and
the physical and natural world. It will also
assist students in increasing their level of
personal and social responsibilities along
with their intellectual and personal skills.
The revision of the Core Curriculum was
initiated at the state level, coming directly
from Austin. This is not being done solely
by SFA nor is it coming from the Legislature.
“This is not the University’s decision,
it’s actually the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board that regulates all pub-lic
Universities in the state of Texas,” ac-cording
to Dr. Don Pratt, SFA associate pro-fessor
of biology, who chairs the advisory
committee overseeing the core curriculum
revision.
The revision process will require a large
amount of work by universities across the
state. Schools will have to revise courses
and assess what classes meet what objec-tives.
It will affect all state universities in Texas,
but each university has the opportunity to
mold its curriculum based on the courses
its committee decides need improvement
for their particular university, as long as
everything fits within the prescribed rules
and guidelines.
Pratt said he is not entirely sure what
process has necessitated revision of the cur-rent
core curriculum, however he’s certain
with revision comes new focus on a differ-ent
aspect to learning. The way it will begin
to affect students is that instead of simply
checking off basic courses on a set list, stu-dents
will begin checking off a set of skills
to be mastered.
SFA’s committee members are partly
concerned with students graduating with-out
certain base skills that are valuable
after graduation and in the job field. That
is why the new core curriculum focuses on
mastering applied skills, Pratt said.
Dr. Richard Berry, SFA provost and vice
president for academic affairs, said the re-vision
of core curriculum is necessary, al-though
it will be a large undertaking.
“I think that it’s needed because the cur-rent
core and supporting elements that
this will be replacing is very dated,” Berry
said. “We’ve been needing a revamping of
the basic structure of the core curriculum
of state universities and colleges for quite
some time.”
Berry said he didn’t want students to only
take courses that focused on these objec-tives
in their first two years, but rather work
on these skills throughout their college ca-reer
and be able to apply them to their field
of study.
“The core is something that is not a set of
courses you take your freshman and sopho-more
year, but a set of objectives we have to
continually work on from the freshman all
the way to the senior year,” Berry said.
The school’s proposed core will have to
be submitted to the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board, which works closely
with policy-makers and education stake-holders
to develop and implement a higher
education framework for public universities
in the state. According to its website, the
board’s initiatives aim to increase the num-ber
of students who complete a postsecond-ary
education, to keep college affordable
and accessible for all Texans, and to align
higher education outcomes with current
and future workforce needs.
The new core objectives are based on
what employers expect college graduates to
have a good understanding of upon gradu-ation
and to implement in the work force.
Each core course must meet at least three
core objectives. Critical thinking and com-munication
are required, and various other
objectives must be met depending on the
foundational component area.
Ber ry l isted accountabi l-ity
of universities to provide a
Core curriculum
changes affect 2014
freshman in Texas
Core curriculum, page 5
By Katelynn Wiggins
Staff Writer
An SFA student has received the
first settlement letter for illegal down-loading.
Last fall, the Office of Student
Rights and Responsibilities fielded
a settlement letter from a copyright
company concerning a student illegal-ly
sharing a pirated movie on campus.
“Our major part in all of this is to
keep that student from being sued,”
Dr. Peggy Scott, director of the Office
of Student Rights and Responsibilities,
said. “We get them in here, make them
understand the severity (of the of-fense,)
and try to correct the situation.”
However, this time the situation
could not be corrected. The settle-ment
letter basically said: “We caught
you with our stuff, we tell you how
much money we want and you have to
pay it,” according to Scott. The student
was charged about $400.
“Students at other universities have
been charged in the thousands, or a
semester worth of tuition here,” Scott
said. If the settlement is not paid, that
opens the door for a lawsuit.
While this settlement letter was a
big deal, the office handles about 50
to 100 cease-and-desist cases each
year. Basically, the copyright company
sends SFA a letter requiring the stu-dent
to stop the illegal downloading
or face penalties. There is no sneaking
around and getting away with ille-gal
downloading or sharing illegally
downloaded files.
“They are able to narrow it down
to the user and how they were con-nected,”
Scott said. “They can tell if
you were doing it through the wireless;
it doesn’t matter, they will find you.”
Scott also warned against students
sharing their log-in information, say-ing
that if someone is illegally down-loading
using another student’s wire-less
log-in, that student is still held
responsible.
“File sharing started with a very
legitimate purpose,” Scott said. “It is
Students face penalties
for illegal downloading
Hardy Meredith/Student Publications Illegal downloading, page 5
SFA’s marching band played in London’s New Year’s day parade.
LMB, page 5
LMB leads 2013 London
New Year’s Day Parade