Yeah, yeah. So I'll be managing like the slides. And so if you see them moving, don't worry about that and then questions still pop up. Well now I manage that.
And Sharon, when we get started in 10 seconds, do you? Do you want to be the first one to speak or do you want me to kick it off?
Shiro Burnette
03:00:09 PM
Welcome to another Sewanee Session! Feel free to introduce yourself in the chat as we wait for others to join in.
It doesn't matter wherever you want.
Alright, and I'll I'll type in the thing.
All right, welcome everyone.
Feel free to introduce yourselves in the chats as we wait for everyone to log on in.
Aglaé
03:00:40 PM
Hi, I'm Aglaé!
Mary Pat
03:00:42 PM
hi! im mary pat!
Joshua
03:00:43 PM
Hello, Joshua Ryan from Cookeville, TN
Gennessee
03:00:44 PM
Hello, I'm Gennessee Torres!
Benjamin
03:00:50 PM
Hey guys! I am Ben from Hungary!
Stefen
03:01:01 PM
Hi! I'm Stefen from Maryland
Kenya
03:01:08 PM
i'm kenya from nashville tn :)
Joe
03:01:12 PM
Hi there. I'm Martha McArthur, listening for my son Joe who is in class. We are in St. Louis.
Mary Pat
03:01:13 PM
I’m from Indiana!
Awesome, alright, so for second time we can go ahead and get started. My name is Cheryl Burnett. I am an admission counselor here and everybody talking about campus life here on campus and so and my colleague Taylor Baird. She's also going to be helping out as well as two student panelists, but I'll go ahead and let them introduce themselves and we can go ahead and get started.
Camille
03:01:26 PM
Hello! My name is Camille Pfister. I'm from Austin, TX!
Kostas
03:01:30 PM
Hi I am Kostas from Greece!
Alright, I'll go first. Hi guys, my name is Harriet Oglesby. I'm a sophomore from Oklahoma City. I am a biology major, I minoring in French and pursuing a certificate in civic and global leadership.
Outside of my academics, I'm involved in the Orcadian program, which is the tour guide panel thing that you're seeing. Right now I have a canali internship on campus, which is a service based internship. I work at the fitness center and I'm a Proctor which is like our version of a residence assistant.
Hey, I'm Peter Irwin. I'm a junior from Atlanta, GA. I'm a math major, an outside the classroom. I am a senior Co director in the Orcadian program and I'm on the football team.
Awesome until you don't introduce yourself as well.
Yes, I wanted to let students go first, but it probably will be helpful. My videos on to introduce myself lunch ever said I'm Taylor Baird. So I also work in the opposite admission so will be helping moderate the panel. I will mainly be on chat duty and so if you are using the moderated chat, I know good amount of introduced yourself know that we kind of hold those in queue. So if you do type something in and don't see it immediately, that's just so we can help relay it to our panelists.
But if you have questions there, I'll be helping throughout to either send links or helpful information and we'll get those questions answered before the end of the afternoon.
Awesome and so like I said at the very beginning, we're talking about campus life today and so really just kind of everything revolving around, you know, living here on the mountain and really unpacking. You know what students do on a day to day basis. But with that we thought it would be a good idea to start out with our University model which is Y ^3 which you guys may have seen come up on some type of mailing or email at some point throughout this entire process.
Just 'cause it really does kind of get at the heart of what we are about here, but I wanted to let the students have an opportunity to really communicate what ecobee means to them. So whoever wants to start out first, so good.
Taylor Baird
03:03:35 PM
https://new.sewanee.edu/care-team/sewanee-cares/eqb/
Hunter
03:03:42 PM
Hey, I’m Hunter and I’m from LaFayette, Ga
Jimmy
03:03:42 PM
Hi. I'm Jimmy Mitchell from Charlotte, North Carolina.
I can go so I think it could be has become especially apparent, especially during the pandemic. In general, I think it's just, you know, like in easy terms, just having each others back. It's a really a sense of community.
Taylor Baird
03:04:20 PM
We will be recording today's session!
Should treat each other fairly and respectfully, and it's really about like the connections that you make the networking. I'll just all of the interactions between student student student to faculty, students, staff, student to you know all of the community members that may not be directly involved with campus. I think it's just a really important aspect of Swanee that just has selected General Aura. I guess is a good word for it.
Quinnlan
03:04:47 PM
Hi I’m Quinn from Charlotte NC
Yeah, I think everything that Harriet said. I mean, it's behold how good, and I think that it. It's what creates that like Swanee atmosphere like Harry said like the whole reason, I think the school feels so like opening and welcoming is just because we all try and live by ECB and like it just makes a difference in your daily life. Like just doing the passing. Hello like always saying hi dear friends and always like.
Going around wanting to talk to people or meeting new people when you get like, especially as a freshman coming in when you meet new people, everybody wants to talk to you and welcome you. I think that's kind of just defines what Swami's life is like.
Awesome and just to kind of give like some groundwork as well. The actual translation is a key combo NEM, and so is in. Like Peter said, it's relating to a song that says now, behold, out good. It is when brothers and sisters do well together in unity, and so really kind of forming the basis of Community life here. It's funny and you know, like they both said, you know, looking out for each other and really just being there for each other.
What happened I? I linked in the chat to Ari QB page and so you can actually if you are curious, open that tab up and look through some of our really our Community standards. An any core values that were asking students to consider an buy into an. I just wanted to add I think for Sharon are both alums so we both work. It's funny now but we both attended 28 students and I think that one of the neatest things about a college campus is that it's ever changing and so with each iteration of the student body and.
You know new concerns and new passions and conversations that need to be had that's changing every year. But when you have sort of that centering value and mission and shared motto that I think holds holds true over time, so I think that's something really when we talk about tradition of spawning, which were tradition heavy? Yes, it's tradition, but it changes and evolves overtime when that's necessary. So I think that's something I've I've really appreciated about it.
Thank you Taylor. That's great. So kind of transitioning to the next topic. I think one of the most common questions that you know. Taylor and I may get from students, particularly at this stage, is you know where you're going to live here on campus. And the majority of students they do live on campus, so Harry and Peter if you can. Maybe just talk about some of your just like living situations, period. We were briefly chatting about Rez life and the officer's life and you working in that so.
If you guys can just describe your experiences there.
Well, I mean, if your sister Proctor if you wanna go that covers it well.
Taylor Baird
03:07:25 PM
https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/living/residential-life/incoming-students/
Yeah, so I am a Proctor. As I said earlier, which is just our version of a residence assistant, just different word for it. But basically I do work with res life. We are just kind of a liaison between students and the Residential life office and staff.
It's a really nice opportunity. You get to meet everyone in your dorms. Really like you really kind of forming the community in a certain way.
Taylor Baird
03:08:07 PM
Students may choose to live in one of the 19 residence halls on campus; there are 15 co-ed halls, two men’s halls, and two women’s halls.
I'm in my room as you can see behind me. It's I I live in a single just because I am a Proctor, but I I can tell you right now. I was really, really nervous about Rez life. I didn't know anyone coming into Swanee. Everyone is placed with a random roommate, so you're you fill out each of you for a lot of questionnaire about like your sleeping preferences, study times. If what time do you like to wake up?
How loud you like to listen to music. And then there's also like fun questions. Like every time you walk into a room like what's your theme song? Just like very fun stuff and it's very expensive and matches you with a person very, very similar to you. So my roommate actually I chose to live with her this year as well. Not now since I'm a Proctor, but we did choose to live together. She's my very best friend. It works out very, very well for everyone I've heard.
Very few like fail stories, and even if if things don't workout, that's why the proctors are here. We are here to like, negotiate. You know, if things aren't working out with your roommate, we can help you guys either come to some sort of compromise and potentially fix the entire situation to where you have no more issues. Or we can always relocate you.
So yeah, the the residence halls themselves are absolutely beautiful. They are also different, so it it's really fun to kind of try to get a different Hall every time, just to kind of get a new experience. So I live in Smith Hall. It's right behind the president or the admissions office. If you've ever been there, it was built in like 2013. There only 90 students here, so it's pretty small community. We all tend to know each other. You get to meet everyone just passing through the hallway and you come pretty close.
Taylor Baird
03:09:34 PM
See each hall here: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/living/residential-life/residence-halls/
Peter, do you want to say anything about like your whole in particular?
So I'm currently in Saint Luke's Hall, but I am a junior so that helps me get a Saint. Louis Hall is when the more popular dorms on campus get, it's like awesome location, big big rooms but like that does help me get through the lottery process because after freshman year you're not randomly assigned a room, you're given a lottery number within your grade and you just pick a room that becomes available to you and they give you a list of the rooms that you can get.
An I am not roommates with my roommate from freshman year. I'm still really good friends with them. We just wanted, like I think, the fun part about the main processes you get. Pick your friend like try a new friend you want to live with, maybe. Or try and like this. Then like sophomore year, I had a different roommate junior have new roommate so it's really fun just to like see what it's like living with your friends. My roommate freshman year actually lives across the Hall from me, which is kind of weird situation that came up. But like freshman year, I was in Benedict Hall.
Which I love because it was the courtyard. It was like a bid to call, typically just because of the courtyard is really close community and there was a bunch of football players and then a bunch of pre students. And so everybody was really active, just kind of hanging out his community. And I made a lot of friends just because of my dorm Hall. And like I said the group chat with everybody who I was. I was friends with in Benedict Hole and now like junior year we still like hang out and have like our Benedict Friend Group that get togethers. So I think that's that's been my experience.
Joe
03:11:49 PM
Are the residential halls all about the same size? Wondering # of rooms in each.
Awesome, and so I'm looking at the questions that are coming through the chat and once again as Taylor said, don't worry if they're not showing up immediately. But we can start to see them. But the question about like forms for you know the Roommate Questionnaire and things like that that will all come out a little bit later towards this summer and we will have another session all about enrollment process and the types of forms and things to be on the lookout for that. There was another question about the size of res halls. Can either you talk about, you know?
We mentioned like the size of Smith, but just what they look like across the board and the types of situations.
Stefen
03:12:03 PM
when do the forms for picking rooms and roommates come out
I think generally like the layout of each of them is very different. I know there are a lot of dorms that like have a completely different configuration for every single room. The one that comes to mind is Elliot Hall, which is an all male dorm. No room looks like another room, which I think is really cool. I don't think I've ever been to like a friends room or anything that I felt like cramped, which is really important. I'm a very claustrophobic person.
And like the thought of having to live in a space like that would make me very uneasy. I think every room is very livable. If it's a double, it's obviously bigger than my room right now.
Taylor Baird
03:12:49 PM
We'll have a session all about enrollment forms on April 26! See upcoming sessions here: https://engage.sewanee.edu/portal/thesewaneesessionsyield
But yes, space wise I'd say there's like I don't know like I know this one is like 260 square feet and that can go up or down my freshman year room was massive and then they think this is one of the like smaller ones, so they're they're really good sized. I was actually shocked when I moved in freshman year. I did not think it was going to be ice cold as it was.
Yeah they are. I don't know they all. They're all different, but they're all kind of similar. In the end. I think some rooms like some doubles will have the single room like the room I'm in currently. Single room that you can put two beds in, but then I've also been in doubles where like if you work it right, you can have one bed. There's like a split to create like a study room in another room, but people put beds in both rooms. Anyways if you want like a little bit more.
Privacy between roommates. Other ones just have like the two room, but then there's a little wolvey getting cuts off to another study area, and so it kind of. It's just a weird mix of like between doubles, and I think also with like suite style rooms versus traditional Hall style rooms. Change the layout a little bit. Obviously 'cause traditional wholesale you don't. The bathrooms like down the Hall, so there's probably it's typically going to be more like the singular room, or just like sweet style has the shared bathrooms and they're probably going to have.
Study room off to the side, just to separate like the bathroom from your bedroom.
And as far as like number of rooms in each dorm, it can range from like a really small amount like. I think there's one with like 60 rooms and then quintard, which is one of the bigger dorms has like 140 students that can be can be in it so it ranges and a lot of people like to choose based on whether they like a really small community or if they like you know, more traditional what you would expect in a dorm.
Like a lot of people living there so that ranges as well.
Yeah, yeah, just like reiterate like that variety, there's I don't know if you can see the text on this one slide, but there there's 19 residence halls here on campus. And with that there comes a lot of variety and so you know, like Harriet said, we have Smith, which was built Enyo around 2013. But then we have some like Saint Luke's which were billed, you know, close to the family in the University itself, and so there's a lot of character with it. There's a lot of variety even within that size range of between like 60 and a little over 100.
There's that many residents because we want to keep those. Living situation is pretty small. You know it's a lot easier to get snow. 70 other people you know in a residence Hall as opposed to a few 100 so still mimicking that community aspect that we talked about in relation to Ikapi earlier Taylor. Did you have something to add?
Yeah, I was just going to mention I think hopefully will become apparent. The more we talk about campus life, obviously. But I think one misconception is that you're going to be spending an extraordinary amount of time in your room as a college student, and that's just sort of that scheduled transition. You know, it's very different than your high school schedule, and so it's obviously a place that you want. You want to be safe.
Uncomfortable and you kind of your haven and you can retreat there, but I think as you are engaging with your classmates and you know find those activities that are really meaningful to you. You're obviously resting and sleeping there, but studying might not. You might really find out that you like to study in the library or in a common space, not in your room. Think there's a lot of flexibility and you know just space around campus that you're going to find purpose and enjoyment in. That's not just your singular room on campus.
Correct and then looking at the chat really quickly, there was a question in regards to like housing prices. It's all the same, and so that's the same weather depending on like where residents while you're in and then also will get into it in a second. That's the same in terms of like language houses and theme houses.
Edie
03:16:41 PM
What are the rules/limitations for room decoration?
And here this may be a good question for you as a Proctor, and also Peter if you have insight into it as well. But are there any types of like rules slash limitations for how students can decorate their rooms, arrange it, move furniture around all that type of stuff.
Rachel
03:16:45 PM
What is the price differences between the different types?
There's not a ton of limitations. You are more than welcome to bring a fridge. Microwaves just know, like hot plates, you know things that can easily catch fire, that's I feel like.
Pretty general, not seem picky. They don't like you to bring like your own large furniture like you can't really bring like a massive couch to put in your room just because like the amount of furniture in here is kind of like for safety reasons. Obviously like I don't know if you guys can see I have this lamp here like you can bring. You can bring stuff with that easily really. Just nothing that will catch fire.
Yeah, no safety hazards. Not really in it. You can hang stuff on the walls as you can see there's not an issue with that decorated as much as your heart desires.
Taylor Baird
03:17:38 PM
A reminder that 98% of Sewanee students live on campus!
Taylor Baird
03:18:20 PM
Theme Houses: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/living/residential-life/theme-houses/
I've had a couple friends live in a theme houses I had a friend who unfortunately it really different supposed to be in the greenhouse and then, but then they had to move out of the actual greenhouse and you got put in a dorm, but he was still part of like the concept of the theme house. I also have friends who are in the gaming house currently and so I think the cool thing about the theme houses is one that you can apply to be one. So my friends were in the gaming house.
They applied to be the gaming house this year and it's like the first year of the gaming house and they got it and so you basically get it's a group of people who want to live to that similar theme or styles like greenhouse is obviously very like environmental sustainability, an no waste, and that sort of thing, and so then a lot of the theme houses then put on events like for that. So like right here on the slides, the peer health hosts.
Taylor Baird
03:19:00 PM
The Dean of Students Office accepts proposals from the student body to create special interest houses that focus on a specific theme.
People on events for like mental health or like yoga in the Quad or the Community Scream when we just have a kid. Scream every now and then. So what's cool about theme houses? You definitely are committed to that sort of lifestyle and promoting that lifestyle on campus, which is kind of how you get into living in that house.
Also, language houses. I think you're the coolest thing ever. I have a lot of friends in the French house, 'cause I'm a French minor. So basically you agree to do your best to only speak the language of the House when you're there. It's just a really help you like. Integrate yourself into both the language and the culture so I know what the French house we at least used to. I don't know if this is happening with Covid, but there used to be a student from France who would come and live as the director of the House.
And they would basically just help everyone figure out like gaps in knowledge. Help them learn like original cuisine. I know there's a girl right now from Hungary who lives there, and it's just teaching them how to cook all these amazing things. So living in theme in the language houses are really good in that aspect. And then also all of the languages like to collaborate together and put on events. There's a lot of like international Food Festival's international culture, language, whatever where all of the languages get together.
There was one last semester where we went to one house at a time and basically like walk down every single language house and like try different food, learn things about their culture, stuff like that. So it's it's really cool if you have a chance to live in one, I highly recommend it, especially if you're interested in learning another language.
Harris
03:20:54 PM
Was Peter saying "Gaming House", as in video gaming?
Yeah, I feel like we're probably on the same page. There are two questions that came in Peter, just to clarify that you were saying gaming houses on my video gaming, correct? Perfect 'cause the on the website. I think since it has been just a different semester with covid we don't have sort of the.
Yes, yeah, just 15 houses for this year. It's up with sort of our mainstays of the women's center that coho greenhouse like you mentioned in our language houses. So if you do click on that link in the chat, you aren't going to see some of those student theme based ones that were having just for this academic year. So are there any others that you guys could think of just for this year that your friends are living in? I know there's.
This is the Q and a house on the Q and the Korean ally House.
There's the interfaith house from for people of all different faiths to come together.
Yeah, there's so many it's hard to keep track. There's a lot of options.
So, and that's to the broader point that I think kind of share and I can speak to is the Office of Residential Life will work with Dean of Students, and so each year and sort of the information that I dropped in the chat is that students do get to kind of speak up and talk about programming or themes that are important to them. And so it is application based each year. So some houses have been around for one year and then the interest hasn't sustained. And students, you know it wasn't reading for the next year. But in other cases that application.
Might come around once and then it it does open that door for years to come. For seems to be enough greenhouse Sojo for for your question. Sometimes it might be just that academic year, but it might be. There might be years in addition to that, based on the theme and student interest in and support for that.
And then also to write some context for the language houses those responses through each of their language departments, and so all of them together is Spanish, French, Russian, German and Italian. And so when you submit that application, you're making an application to that Department. So when I was a student here, I lived in the Spanish house, and so I submitted an application in Spanish to the chair of the Spanish Department. So as he was explaining, you know throughout that whole process, you know, we, along with.
The occasional international resident are responsible for putting out events revolving around, you know, Spanish culture. This open to the entire community. You don't have to live in one of those Spanish houses or one of the language houses to attend those events.
And I know that I think this is. It's really important that we're talking about residential life because it is a huge part of of your life on campus. Seeing that most all of our student body is residential off for years. But I do want to offer some some comfort that in our later sessions in April, we're going to have one all about those enrollment forms instead of all the specifics about residential life and forms. And kind of how that happens. But I think one big takeaway is to know, you know, we have guaranteed housing for all.
For years and it's obviously this the year that you're most concerned if it's your first year in that we do that like hear it mentioned really intentionally over this summer, so there's no deadline or threshold that you need to apply for housing or you would get preferential housing or anything of that sort so I know that's part of the college conversation. But at Swanee specifically, really, it's just right now for you discerning. Is this where you would like to enroll and pay your deposit, and then all of those specifics will really unfold between May and.
August, so don't want to get too distracted or add any undue stress there. Yeah, there is no preferential deadline for housing or anything like that. It's funny.
Awesome so we can go ahead and start to transition into our next topic, which another big thing just as much as like living on campus is also eating on campus so dining at Swanee. So if you guys wanted to explain just some of your experiences at Mcclurg or just all of the dining options that we have here.
Joe
03:25:12 PM
Are theme houses only for non freshman?
I mean, so obviously the the only dining Hall we have on campus is Mclaury Dining Hall, like Sheriff said. So the main bulk of my dining experience is always at Mcclurg.
I've been especially grateful this semester now that things are they added more stations because I think the best part about clerk was the different stations you could go to and that way you it doesn't get as like repetitive or you don't get tired because you can always mix it up. So typically the stations at Mcclurg are like the home home line, which is like your typical homestyle cooked meal like rice, meat, vegetables, everything you need and then they also have like the sun line, which is like you can mix and match wherever you want. They like chicken beef noodles.
A bunch of broths and vegetables to make a really cool bowls with.
Taylor Baird
03:26:22 PM
Theme Houses and Language Houses are not available for first-year students.
And then they also have. They always have the grill line, which is like hamburgers. Hot dogs, fries, always some sort of pasta with marinara Alfredo sauce, and then the dessert line, which is awesome. And the rest of the vegan lines. If you have any. If you want even certain like vegan food, you can. They always have and they actually they have some really awesome like vegetables that if you don't really like the vegetables, homestyle you go over to the in line. You get the good vegetables in the vegan line, which is a really fun way to mix it up. And they also like a salad bar and like.
Nathaniel
03:26:38 PM
are students grouped by year or all mixed together?
Yogurt, yogurt, fruit, and soups. So I think dining it's it's you got you the best part about doing things that you learn to like. Mix it up and figure out the best parts of it. And I think they do a great job preparing food for all the students. Chef Rick is really proud of the dining operation he like. He's offered to give me as like a tour tour guide. He's offered to give us towards the kitchen. Apparently he loves showing people the kitchen how to actually make the food. And then he's also very open to emails about things. So if you have any.
Dietary restrictions, or you just want to see something new in the in the dining Hall? They're open to your questions. I think one time we asked to like we somebody asked for like fried food or fried cheese Friday and they just one Monday. They just put out a bunch of mozzarella sticks and so it was really fun opportunity like just.
I have like your your essential dying like basics.
Our beers like great as it can be for us.
Yeah, and aside from the Mcclurg Dining Hall, which is our main one, we do have some other dining options, so one of the most popular places on campus is Sterling's coffee house that is, a student run. Really good place to work too if you're interested in working.
But they have, you know, really good coffee. Other black teas. Stuff like that. But they also have sandwiches, salads, amazing pastries. They've been so good this semester. Smoothies stuff like that. There's also a place in the library called Cap and gown that's open. The majority of the hours that the library is open and they also have good drinks. They have a lot of like they have like cheesecake, so like fancier pastries and sterlings I guess.
But then they also have like a lot of grab and go snacks like chips and.
Taylor Baird
03:28:22 PM
As a first-year student, you'll have a roommate who is also a first-year student. However, the residence hall may have students from all four years in the college.
You know Pretzels, candy bar stuff like that.
As far as other like places to eat, there's we have two places downtown Swanee that we also go to a lot. One of them is blue chair with your Tavern. This is open for breakfast as well as a late night pub. So so the.
Breakfast they have, you know, just typical. Like cute little diner and then for lunch and dinner. They have amazing like hand breaded beer battered.
Chicken strips Patty melt. Stuff like that. And then there's also shenanigans next door, which is also really popular like late night place for students to go with really good food.
Taylor Baird
03:29:24 PM
More info on dining: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/dining/
I also have like us money market right down the road that has a lot of really small grocery options and stuff like that. So you're well taken care of with food. We did actually open up a new dining Hall this semester. I don't know like effects, temporary or not. I'm assuming it is, but it's called kravens. It's down by some of our dorms that are a little bit further out and that's just to provide additional dining options to students. They have a lot of really good sandwiches, quesadillas.
They have specials every day and they're open most days of the week. So even though we only have like one really big main dining option, there are a ton of options other than that that you can use your domain dollars which are just flex dollars that are allocated from your tuition. So it's I can't remember the exact amount. I think it's like 150 domain dollars per semester and then those roll over to the next semester, so you're taking care of as far as food goes.
Taylor Baird
03:30:39 PM
Another component of the meal plan is "Flex Dollars". Each student has a Flex Dollars account that is automatically funded each semester with a $150 deposit with unused balances from the fall term rolling over to the spring.
And so just kind of giving more context. You know, with Mcclurg being our main dining facility, a lot of that really kind of points back to the QB. And once again, how we view our community. And so in the same way that you know, we.
Have our residence halls or McLaren Hall is kind of just like we all eat in the same place. You know eating together and coming together for that particular moment of the day. I think it's really special you know part of this one experience as an alumni. I remember my days Mcclurg very finely, especially as a young alum who's navigating grocery shopping for the first time by myself, but I think it's a really great option. But also, I think it's really nice and think about how the campus like reinforces everything.
We do have a University farm which sources a lot of our food in the dining Hall. Roughly, you know, a large portion of our.
Produce specifically mainly comes from the University farm, and there's also another option that students can work at as well. Anything else to add? Taylor on dining?
I was going to mention two components that probably a little bit hidden in campus life. One is that Mcclurg will do sick meals and so that might sound nice and normal if you know if you're at home and you have family that can help take care of your friends to help take care of you in college, that's not always the case, right? You might get sick for the first time away from home and not really know who to lean on.
Yet, and so are, you know, our dining Hall will help coordinate actually getting a meal to your residence Hall into your room. So obviously as you build those friendships and and have people checking on you, then then that's wonderful as well. But I think for a small community again, you're less than 2000 people were able to offer that you know relationship and attention, and so that's just always been. I think we talked about it a lot, but that's a really neat component that McLaren will coordinate. And they also do meals for athletic teams.
So if you are traveling a lot, I mean you'll be eating on the road. Ann and your team will be coordinating that, but a lot of coaches will kind of talk about dietary restrictions or recommendations, or they're going out a longer trip and they they need non perishable items. And the dining Hall will work with athletes to either like get you a meal later in the evening if you're coming back late or work with coaches to help make sure you guys are fed on the bus so just the little things that you might not always think of that have been really helpful.
Abood
03:33:08 PM
Are international students grouped together or not necessarily?
Awesome and so with that. Actually I'm speaking about athletics here at Swanee. I don't want to go to in depth with this. 'cause I know we did have a previous session on student athletes here. It's funny, but it is a part of campus life. In it, you know, encapsulates what happens here as a student in your day to day activities. So Peter actually could you describe just a little bit about your student athlete experience and how that kind of gets scheduled into your daily life.
Yeah, I mean I've loved my my experience. I think the best part of for like for it since I'm on the football team. The best part was coming in for fall camp two weeks before school started. Was I really had like 80 friends to know and let's give me this awesome network of students that I'd like you to meet every year. And I know throughout that. Like I said this.
Widespread friend Group which I really love.
And also in terms of like I think the cool thing I like about student athletes here as we all try and support each other. So our head coaches really insisted on. Like if we go support them, they'll come support us. But it's also like worse or the same school we want to support athletics across the board to be successful. So I go like we've had teams go to you like basketball games, women's lacrosse games, soccer games, all that which is also like a fun dynamic on campus in terms of fitting into the schedule you do when you are in season.
Practicing there are no classes between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM, so typically practices are in that time slot. But then you just have to get. I think that the biggest thing is getting used to the schedule. You definitely lose some free time that you could have, but if you work on time, management becomes very easy. Use have to know like I go to class. I do some work. I go to practice. I do some more work, but then there's a huge support system so and then, like like most teams I think will have academic advisors and the football team does today. If you need help scheduling like you're just life.
They have, there's a coach who's there to help you plan out how you're going to schedule things or playing out when you need to study and all that so it's very accessible to like fit. Being a student athlete into the schedule.
Awesome and so also thinking about things to do like in your daily life. Here it's money in addition to being a student athlete, in addition to you know things that happen like language houses in theme classes. So he does have a lot of different clubs and organizations that students can be a part of, and so can both of you. Just describe some of the things that you're involved in outside of. You know, maybe just like your *******.
Taylor Baird
03:35:44 PM
Great question, Abood. Not necessarily but you could request that on your living form if that was important for you! Outside of residential life, there are lots of organizations to help connect and support international students.
Yeah, so for starters, I had no idea what I wanted to be involved in when I came here. They have this really great thing for freshman right at the end of your freshman orientation. It's called the activities fair. They set up all these tables in the dining Hall and it has just about every single organization present, and you can just walk through and literally sign your name to everything you want. Anything that interests you. And then I found that a really helpful way to kind of.
Go to meetings, decided that wasn't for me or you know I like that, but I like this one more and I would rather devote a lot of time to that.
So that's how I found the Arcadian program which Peter and I are both part of. That's what this whole thing is. When I told my parents that I was becoming a tour guide, I don't think I've ever seen that surprise I whole life because I've always been like the shy, quiet kid who like never wants to talk to anyone. So I think they were very surprised. Just other clubs that I've joined I was part of Forestry Club for really long time. I really enjoyed that. Had a lot of like like bonfires.
Just a lot of they do like webinars with different.
People in different fields that was always really interesting. Farm Club is always a great one. You get to go hang out goats, which is really, really popular. It's funny we all love the goats. He can also just help out with the farm in general. With like, you know actual crops instead of just hanging out with goats.
Trying to think of other stuff I.
Taylor Baird
03:37:18 PM
Recreation at Sewanee: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/playing/
We're all involved in so much here I'm I'm also. I'm also part of Saint Jude Swanee for Saint Jude. It's really good if you like volunteer work.
Which is something that I'm really big on, so there's a lot of volunteer opportunities on campus as well. There's a huge list of them somewhere I you can definitely go scroll through those. Volunteering is huge on campus.
Yeah, I that's that's really about it.
I think, yeah, I think I heard a lot about as a freshman. 'cause I I missed the activities fair because of football, which is really sad. 'cause all the football players like walked. We walked through the fair as freshmen and we're like oh, that looks cool. And then we're like, OK, we gotta go practice. But I think the funding that is like even if you missed that or you don't, you get so overwhelmed at the activities fair 'cause I've actually heard people who are like Oh my God, I didn't sign up for anything so I want to sign up for everything but forgot to kind of thing is like word of mouth is really big. It's funny like I hear from so many people all the time about like the clubs they're doing.
Especially as freshmen. If you know any upperclassmen.
Taylor Baird
03:38:32 PM
In addition to our 24 varsity teams, around 800 students participate in intramural sports each year.
They like will ask if you want to talk. Other clubs will ask if you want to join, so I only involved in the Arcadian program as my like or Club basically and again I heard I got that from some Upperclassmen who I knew who were tour guides and they're like oh you should do it. You should try it and so I just looked at the application that I realized those something I really want to try and do.
But then also like as I have an answer of the club. So like the I have a life of a couple friends who are in the fire Department. So that's a really big like word of mouth thing. 'cause they do have their tables but I think they just get out is saying like hey we have our volunteer student fire Department if you guys want to join like we have tryouts in this time so it's a huge like spread the word kind of thing. I also have friends who are in the one of the investment clubs on campus and so like they again are always posting like on social media or just talking about like the events they'll have and they are always trying to encourage people to join.
Taylor Baird
03:39:18 PM
Explore clubs and orgs here: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/connecting/
And so even I think there's just so many and there's because there's something like every student. Like he said, were all involved in so many things that it's really cool to like find these clubs that you want to be in. Just 'cause, like somebody's in one of the clubs and eventually you're going to hear from that person that you should join that club and you'll find what clothes you want to be in.
Yeah, also, these aren't necessarily clubs, but a lot of the fellowships that we have for opportunities kind of create their own little clubs I guess. So like I don't know if you guys have seen carry fellowships, which is like a business program, but that's kind of like an organization for them where everyone involved in that.
Has a lot of events and seminars and stuff like that that they can go to. I'm also a part of the Kanali program which is connected to the Bonner program, which you can apply to as a freshman. That's the service based internship that I was talking about. You basically choose like 3 organizations around Swanee as a freshman and you can do a lot of volunteer work there.
You get to hang out with people. I think there's like 50 people in my group, so you get to meet a lot of people like that and just a few weeks ago we had our first in person meeting this semester and we one of the staff members brought a bunch of Chick-fil-A for us and we threw around a Frisbee play. Some ******** just kind of a lot of chatting and catching up with people that we might not have seen. 'cause of class schedules and everything so.
Those kind of opportunities you know aren't just like for the fellowship part of it, but it also is a really good opportunity to meet other students.
Taylor Baird
03:40:59 PM
Around 66% of students are involved in Greek Life at Sewanee: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/connecting/greek-life/
Awesome and so with that I actually just went to a quick slide that we have on the Office of Civic Engagement here and so that's another resource that outside of the Bonner program in the Canali program, if students want to get involved into any type of service around, you know, like the Greater Swanee Community, that's a great office to get pointed towards opportunities. Whether that's a formal like internship or some type of spring break trip that we have two different sites that Sony has partnerships with.
And this would be a perfect time to promote the fellowships and the Bonner Leader program. So for everyone in this session, you are admitted students, and so whether you've decided to come or not, or you're so exploring that and kind of examining everything for herself. But these fellowships in the Bonner Leader program, those applications are open for admitted students, so I'll drop in the chat some more information about those. But you're likely receiving, like text messages and emails from us.
Promoting other programs. Those applications are due Thursday, April 1st. So if you're watching recording of this that will be outdated, but if you were thinking about that and kind of on the cost, definitely encourage you to explore it and and get those applications in. And we do ask that students are intentional and you kind of discern really what's the most meaningful and you would really with your time commitment. For those, only pursue one question we get.
Awesome, thank you Taylor and so also with this. Like I said we have the Office of Civic Engagement here but we wanted to highlight a couple of other things that are happening in around campus both like initiatives and programs that we have here and so another one that we have.
Is the Robertson projects on slavery, race, and reconciliation. But I wanted to give both Harriet and Peter. If you guys have any type of involvement with this project or you have friends that are involved with this project, only give you guys opportunity to explain that from your voice. But Taylor and I also happy to hop in explaining anything if you guys would like us to.
I I don't. I'm not involved with it. I don't have any friends involved with it. I do like.
I think lawsuits I followed it. I followed on Instagram and like they're keep up with it on their website, which is I think it's a really great thing to like. Just keep up to date with very easily 'cause they like their Instagram post. Like not daily but like they often post stories about.
Certain research or data that they found or like, I think the timeline highlighting students of color like throughout the years at the University and their achievements at the University. But like the way I see it, is kind of like how this slide says it's confronting the history of Swanee in order to like create a better future for it and like reconcile with that and work towards a better, better situation on campus and all that. And so it's for me. It's been really nice. 'cause like it's it makes that.
Taylor Baird
03:43:58 PM
The Roberson Project: https://new.sewanee.edu/roberson-project/
Information and research. Very open and very easy to read and like, learn about and so especially right now is like we do need to people learning how to reconcile with the universities passed in the history of how it was founded gives you a great insight into like the actual actual names, the dates, like how it how it all started and then also like watching it transform over the years.
Taylor Baird
03:44:33 PM
Instagram - @robersonproject_sewanee
Yeah, I'm I so with Mike and Ali internship, which again is directly related to Bonner, one of the sites that I've been working at recently. This semester is called the Lone Rock star Cade Project, which is sort of like a sub organization under the Roberson projects. They work very closely together, but basically this project is a lot of transcription of old documents of convicts, state convicts who worked in this one.
Mining company basically transcribing those documents into an online format, and that is actually going to do a lot of work with one of the genealogical societies that I think it's African American genealogical society, so that's a lot of good reconciliation work we hold while we haven't yet, but we're about to do like a campuswide transcribe a thon, where basically you can create a free account.
Taylor Baird
03:45:46 PM
Carey Fellows: https://new.sewanee.edu/academics/babson-center-for-global-commerce/carey-fellows-business-honors-program/
And anyone from this one community can log on to zoom and we will. All you basically open up like the scanned pages of the book that they have with the names and everything on it and you just sit there and transcribe all of it. So it's really easy to get students involved. You can put as there's no like time constraints you can put as little or as much time into it as you want to, but that's something that I have found a really good way to be involved in the Roberson project through my internship.
Awesome, that's great info. And so as we transition to one of our last few slides, feel free to put more questions in the chat since we have a little bit of time to go through those. So definitely starts with those in Taylor and I will start to work with them or feed them to our panelists. But the last program or initiative that to talk about would be the dialogue across differences program, which is actually pretty new here. So same as before. If either of you have any separate personal affiliation.
Taylor Baird
03:46:26 PM
Hippocrates Fellowship: https://new.sewanee.edu/programs-of-study/medical-health-programs/hippocrates-fellowship-program/
With this program, or just understanding, want to give you guys the opportunity to discuss that, but also tell and I can jump in.
I mean, I personally am not involved with it. I do like unfortunately a lot like recently all their events have been when I have practice or like write the but I think it's great 'cause I you get when they do. When that program does schedule events and dialogues you get the email like you get multiple emails about like which helps remind you. But I know I've seen a couple of this semester especially with just dialogues an I've worked with like the people in the program to.
For dialogue with in Greek life, but those, I think there's a separate just kind of like.
More localized project that wasn't very official, but I have like that was my experience with them.
I haven't worked super extensively with it. I do have a lot of friends that have been trained through this program, so they do a lot of training to help students facilitate dialogue in their own kind of organizations. I did go to one of their dialogues last semester that they had right before the election. It was a lot about like basically how to be civil when everything is so part like bipartisan and everything like that. So there are a lot of really helpful initiatives that they do.
Taylor Baird
03:47:50 PM
Bonner Leaders: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/engaging/civic-engagement-internships/bonner-leaders-program/
Through a variety like they, they always choose very top notch organizations who do really get training to kind of teach students ways to get involved in things that they might not have thought about before. So I do think it's a very valuable program I've had. I've had a lot of friends coming out of that with a lot of training, so a lot of students are utilizing it. I just don't have a lot of time.
Awesome, thank you. And so as we start to wrap up, I'm looking at one of the questions that came through and can you guys just describe just help campuses generally right now in terms of campus precautions and things like that Kansas City and how you guys are navigating through that and just what the general student perspective is regarding that.
We say precautions like give me like the just general safety like that sort of thing on campus.
I mean so currently on campus it's follow the three WS like watch Wash your hands, watch your distance, wear your mask and so I've had luck. Like I Luckily we do have a lot of in person classes here, but like I have a class that's in a tent outside. So like all the desks are six feet apart and wear your mask the entire time.
And then I have a class. It's like indoors, but it's just because there's like six of us in the class, so it's a very large classroom. Just six people spread out very far apart. Same situation like wear your mask the entire time.
Taylor Baird
03:50:51 PM
University COVID updates: https://new.sewanee.edu/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19/university-updates/
I think the biggest thing that I dismissed that I enjoyed was opening up Mcclurg a little bit because last semester I think I got a green box like every time because you couldn't really. You couldn't stay in clerk and there's only one line and I think things got more difficult, but opening up Mcclurg definitely opened up a lot more dining options, which certainly helped when there's not much like when everything does feel a little bit restricted. Having dining options certainly helps you kind of deal with that a little bit.
But I think it's just I one thing that I like about this one is that we're all like this is home, so I think we're all committed to being. You want some ideas best. So I think a lot of times you everybody follows the guidelines as like the best of their ability, and it's certainly nobody wants to have followed like I think the hardest part for is for the people who like saw it pre covid. It's like everybody wants to get back to where it was, which is hard to see. But then at the same time we understand that.
It's easier, we're just lucky to be here and like to protect the bubble and not have to do like online class and not be here. 'cause I think most students would prefer to be here than home no matter what is going on.
Yeah, so we do have the University mask mandate right now, which I don't think anyone even complained about it all because we're so used to it at this point, and it's not a big deal.
We are not permitted to leave campus, but we can leave for like doctors, appointments, prescriptions, getting gas.
You can also leave for if you leave overnight, you can leave as long as it's for seven days at least just so you can quarantine before you come home. We do have weekly testing for students, which is super easy. It takes like maybe 10 minutes out of my day, so I just go every Wednesday to the gym and get my testing done.
As Peter said, like it really hasn't impacted classes all that much because of our small class size. It's not a big deal.
And then I think the last thing is there's been a lot of emails recently about vaccines, so the University as of next week I believe is getting like 300. Johnson and Johnson vaccines. I know that a ton of students have already gotten at least one. I've gotten my first shot few weeks ago.
They're offering transportation to students. I think up to like 100 students a day to go get their vaccines. So we are working very proactively to make sure that hopefully this is last semester of intense like covid regulations. But yeah, it's been. It's been a good environment regardless of covid.
So I'm looking ahead and there are some other questions revolving around the same topic, particularly in terms of later in the fall. Alot of that still being planned out, but we're of course being in contact with.
Taylor Baird
03:53:37 PM
Here's a link our most commonly asked questions: https://new.sewanee.edu/admission-aid/your-domain/your-questions/
With family, so as we get closer to that time, but if you have more specific questions, definitely feel free to send either myself or Taylor an email and will work to try to find that answer. These are some a little bit quicker questions, but just general like personal advice would either of you in terms of like students coming for classes recommend like students have like a laptop or an iPad. You know to help out with that.
Aidan
03:53:55 PM
Would you recommend a laptop or IPad for classes?
I, I mean, I would definitely recommend having something, but like it. Just especially now. A lot of classes do run through like bright spaces like our home page for all the classes now. So you definitely do need access to that. However, like if you don't have a laptop, the library has like tons of accessible computers and like things you can check out, which makes it really easy, but I would. I would recommend having some sort of device to use if you if it's available to you.
Yeah, I know the two of those I would say laptop is like the most universal one that people choose. I have seen kind of a spike in iPad so I think a lot of people are enjoying like the newer iPads with the Apple pencils and stuff that like let you write. Take like really pretty notes on them. Some people have both. If they just I guess don't want to buy a bunch of notebooks and they just have their iPad for notes. But yeah, I'd say laptop is like the most common one. There's a lot of Mac books.
Public, it's any kind of laptop is perfectly fine. I know I was really worried about that. I was like I don't know what kind of laptop is the best. I do know that Apple I think is the most easily like repaired by like Swanee people. So if it were to break I think that the IT people are much more well versed with Apple than some of the other ones. So that's just something to consider, but it's always. It's always easy to make any like repairs or technology fixes that you need to do.
Also, and so I'm looking at the time as we just start to start to wrap up. Do either of you just want to give like a brief, just general reflection of your campus life or campus experience up to this point in your swaniker ear and just how that maybe compares to where you were when you were first coming to campus for the first time?
I think I personally like. I just feel so comfortable here. I mean like I think you get very comfortable as a freshman, like right away. Just 'cause the just the community we have is so accepting and just throws you in so quickly that works out. But I think it's great now. Like as a junior person like for me, I just know so many people I basically like know the entire campus. Now that's in some case, or I've seen everybody and so you just go around. It's like great, just be able to like always say hi to somebody.
Like, no matter who's passing, because it's typically like I might know them and then also just just being out like experiment with things I haven't done the done so so like last semester I had the opportunity. I haven't really been able to go to any of the lakes and that's like a really cool fun thing to do because we have so many like we have like some cannabis and so like I finally this year that goes with Lake and or like just I finally got to take advantage of a lot of opportunities that I didn't get to do as a freshman or sophomore like I had the perimeter trail, that sort of thing and like just.
All the professors kind of like.
I just feel a lot more comfortable now as a junior, but I think coming in like I would do it exactly the same I think. Just go like dive right in as a freshman and they would like it. Will workout great just the way it gives the waistline. Communities built.
Yeah, I was definitely pretty nervous. Like on my drive here my like 15 hour drive. I was just stressing. I'm also quite like my roommate. You know? What about how many friends? So like within the first hour my roommate and I were already having a great time together. We really leaned on each other to kind of branch out our friend group.
Taylor Baird
03:57:41 PM
The Sewanee Outing Program is helpful in exploring the Domain: https://new.sewanee.edu/campus-life/sewanee-outing-program/
So our main friend group that we made within the first couple days of moving in is actually still our closest friend Group, which is really nice. It's definitely. I mean you can branch out from groups, change stuff like that, but I think it's also really easy to make friends because of just the way the classes are set up because classes are so small, it's really easy to just lean over to the person next to you and have a little chat before class starts or after or.
You know, be like what on Earth was that? How more you know really bonding through the struggle is something that I found through my class friends. But yeah, just like Peter was saying, I think I'm so much more comfortable. I never expected to like see myself as any sort of leader on campus, which is something that I've become like through the marketing program and through the Canal Leader program. So like just the change in myself also has been huge.
And then also just the community as a whole. Every student and faculty member genuinely cares so much about your well being.
Taylor Baird
03:58:53 PM
Connect one-on-one with a current student to hear more about campus life: https://sewaneeambassadors.com/
I didn't believe any student when I was when I went to these panels as a perspective student. I was like yeah, OK, sure like every college says that, but like genuinely professors, email me like every week asking how I'm doing. I just got off a meeting before this one with Mickey Hamilton who works with off civic engagement and shoes, basically making me give her like a rundown of my whole week to make sure I was doing OK. So that's really, really important is Sony is a huge support system for.
Awesome, thank you guys so much for sharing your experience here. Also thank you to all of the attendees who are on the call. We will be posting this recording for you guys to reference later, so if you missed part of the beginning or were only able to be present for a little bit, you will be able to revisit that. But I do have a page up here if you want to send us some more questions. I have both myself and Taylor's email address and there's also a link that you can chat with.
20 students, so there's a platform that you can see their BIOS, see what they're involved in here on campus and send them a quick message. You know asking about that particular club or organization or anything like that. There's also a link if you guys haven't been able to make a visit to campus yet, whether virtually or in person, you can check that out and make a visit date. Anything else, Taylor?
Just yeah, thank you guys for joining and typically for these sessions it's sort of split down the middle of those of you who have already deposited and now you're coming to Swanee Anna Group that you're you're doing your homework and your due diligence to figure it out by the may time frame. So deco. Sure if we can be of any help in empowering you and helping you make that choice. We love to do that but also to normalize. It's fine to still be.
In making that decision will have two more sessions in April, So what about the Swanee Pledge and what that entails? And then that enrolling it's running session. So I did link in the chat the landing page to register for those and will email that out as well, but I think the enrolling it's Ronnie will really get into sort of those. The details, like I mentioned before of forms and due dates and arrival will typically hold that a little later, just so at that point more students have actually made that final choice.
So more to come, but thank you so much for tuning in today.