Students get house calls
Student Affairs seeks feedback from freshmen
By John Ashley Menzies
Staff Reporter

Student Affairs staff members went knocking on doors of freshmen dorm room Tuesday night in an effort to understand how freshmen are handling their first semester.

Barbara Herman, assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said the 28 staff members went to the residence halls to try and make a personal connection with the first-year class.

“Each class will have some identity,” Herman said, as she walked through Colby Hall. “We want to schedule programs and events to help meet the needs of the students.”

Emily Burgwyn, director of Student Affairs Information Services, took down comments from students and phone numbers to follow up on situations.

Staff members asked students general questions about how their first semesters have gone and about any complaints they may have.

Student complaints ranged from having rooms that were too cold, parking, too many cats around campus and confusion about transfer hours.

Ashley Mims, a freshman theater major, said parking is bad and that she is concerned with the number of stray cats that are roaming campus.

Megan DeHority, Mims’ roommate and a freshman biology major, said freshmen should be able to park in the faculty parking lot during the weekend.

“I look out there on the weekend and it is empty,” DeHority said. “I think we should be able to park there.”

Rebecca Swaim, a freshman pre-business major, said she had confusion about Spanish transfer credits from a community college in Houston.

“I was told something different by everybody,” Swaim said. “They need to have a general policy to handle all transfer credits.”

Burgwyn took Swaim’s phone number so she could follow up with her in hopes of finding out what was happening with the credits.

Herman said Student Affairs wants to make sure they deliver what students expect when they come to TCU.

“The more we know, the better job we can do,” Herman said.

For the students who were not in their rooms, Burgwyn and Herman left cards that students could mail back to Students Affairs with their comments.

Herman said members of the class of 2007 can contact Carrie Zimmerman from Student Development Services or James Parker, the dean of the class of 2007, if they have any comments or complaints.