News

Residence Life held the first ever fall housing lottery from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30 as a way for rising juniors and seniors to secure on-campus housing arrangements early. A commitment to the on-campus housing for the full academic year is mandatory for participation in the housing lottery, which brought some concerns to the study abroad community. In order to partake in the fall housing lottery, students that intend to study abroad for one semester next year were required to find a partner studying abroad the opposite semester, so that...

For over half a century, the seven houses of Greek Row at Puget Sound have been encouraging students on campus to join the fraternities and sororities available on campus. This spring, once again, the Greek community will welcome Potential New Members (PNMs to the houses for various events, in order to let students decide which house is best for them. Formal recruitment for joining a sorority or fraternity will take place during the first couple of weeks of the spring semester. Registration forms are available on the Puget Sound website....

The University’s Justice and Service in Tacoma group held the Books to Prisoners Book Drive from Oct. 22 to Nov. 9.  The book drive goes through the Seattle-based nonprofit Books to Prisoners to offer incarcerated individuals the opportunity to read. Over the past weeks, boxes were positioned in Collins Library, the Student Diversity Center and the Center for Writing, Learning and Teaching.  Members of the JuST group have been busy collecting books, tabling to publicize the cause and raising money to cover the cost of sending the boxes into a...

The fall election for senate positions in the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound has brought in seven new senators for the coming year. Daniel Laesch and Michaela Metzler are the Senators-at-large. Housing representatives include the On-Campus House Senator Isa Ruiz and the Residence Hall Senator Taylor Smith. Kyle Long will serve as the Off-Campus Senator, Danielle Dorr as the Greek Senator and Alissa Hartnig as the Freshman Senator. Elections for the student government are held twice a year, in the fall and spring. The fall election concerns...

Among many of the important improvements currently on campus, one has been long under debate by many campus officials, who have yet to find a way to solve the issue. Retention and graduation rates on the University of Puget Sound campus are lower than most similar schools by about five to seven percent, according to Dean of Students Mike Segawa. Schools like Reed and Whitman have larger amounts of students completing four years and graduating from the school at which they began their higher education. More than the average numbers...

Last week, on Tuesday, Oct. 30th, approximately 200 students from the class of 2013 gathered in Marshall Hall to kickoff the Senior Class Gift Campaign, where President Thomas and Phonathon manager Shannen Riede ‘13 introduced soon-to-be alumni to the Puget Sound Fund. As of now, the senior class has achieved approximately 10 percent participation in the campaign. According to Clay Ross, Assistant Director of Annual Giving and class of ‘09 alumnus, this is unprecedented; other classes did not achieve this 10 percent until January, typically. “This year’s event was so...

Rausch Auditorium, housed in the basement of McIntyre Hall, is used by students and professors alike for such events as movie showings, comedy sketch shows and theater productions. But while the screen makes showing movies a simple process, the Theatre Arts community has spoken up about the outdated and impractical lighting for the stage. “The difficulty with Rausch lights is that our lighting options are extremely limited,” Kelly Sener, a Theatre Arts major and Co-Publicity Chair for Student Initiative Theatre, said. According to Sener, the lights are unable to serve...

Consistently one of the top producers of volunteers and participants for both Teach for America and the Peace Corps, the University encourages students to consider these alternative non-profit, service-oriented opportunities for post-graduation. With application deadlines approaching, it is important that students, especially graduating seniors, understand their options and utilize available resources on- and off-campus. Upcoming deadlines for Teach for America are Jan. 11, 2013 and Feb. 15, 2013. According to the Teach for America website, the advantages to applying earlier are: earlier notification of admission status; access to more available...