The QC, Vol. 94, No. 13 • January 17, 2008

              The Voice of Whittier Coi
1914
Quaker Campus
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Issue 13-Volume 94
QC@WH1TTIER.EDU
January 2008 a positive turnaround from previous years
PHOTO BY
Students pledging for Thalians (left) and the Metaphonians (right) participate in teambuilding activities in the lower quad
nicating the good that we do and the
value that we add to the community.
We're getting back to the place where
we are highly involved on campus."
With regard to the Lancers and
Orthogonians, who lost their pledge
classes in January 2007, Coleman is
confident that they will rebuild. "They
have reworked their program," he said.
"The male societies have struggled;
this is the first year I think they' ve done
some real soul searching to re-examine what they do. They've changed
how they identify a young man they
want to join, how they prepare their
pledges and how they implement their
Josh Wood
QC News Co-Editor
Associate Dean of Students Andre Coleman has deemed this year's
society pledging to be overwhelmingly positive in light of losing two male
society pledge classes last year.
"Pledging is really aboutorienting
these people into their organizations,"
Coleman said. "It's not about stupid,
embarrassing, hazing types of things.
The groups are doing better all the
way around."
Over the last few years, societies
have been growing both in number
and presence on campus. This January, there were 157 bid requests and
95 bid acceptances, the highest in
five years.
The society program has been
slowly building momentum, which
could be attributed to the college's
continuing interactive efforts to help
strengthen societies. "For so many
years societies were left on their own,
but forthe last couple of years we have
really paid greater attention to the kind
of products we offer to the students
and community," Coleman said.
This January also marks the third
consecutive year that the ASWC
President is a society member: Dan
Strauss, a Lancer, follows Adam
Steinbaugh, a Sachsen, and Bobbie
Roy, a Palmer. This year is also the
third year that the Freshman Class
President has decided to pledge.
"For so many years people saw
only the negative parts of what societies were doing," Coleman said.
"We've done a good job of commu-
Website launched
A new image for an old school
Joey Weber
QC News Asst. Editor
This past holiday season, a gift
was bestowed on the Whittier community in the form of a new and
improved website that went live for
the first time on Christmas day.
The updated website is one portion of a series of changes the school
is making as part of the Image
and Identity Project, which began
during the 2003-2004 school year.
"The Board of Trustees did not feel
that the school had done the best
possible job in terms of marketing
itself, and so they set aside some
money to try and address this issue," Lisa Meyer, Vice President of
Enrollment and Chair of the Image
and Identity Committee said.
One of the principal goals of
the project is to better represent the
school. That's where the committee
came into play. Made up of current
student representatives, alumni,
faculty and staff, the committee met
to discuss an underlying question:
"Who do we think we are?" Magu-
ire Associates, a higher education
consulting company, was then
hired to survey different members
throughout the Whittier community
to find out just what distinguishing
factors set Whittier apart.
Revamping the website was a
large part of the Image and Identity
Project. "The website is one of our
primary tools, and we are hoping
that it is going to be a helpful one,
and also one that reflects who we
are," Dana Rakoczy said, Director
of Communications and Head of
the website portion of the project.
"We've made changes in the hopes
that the site will convey that Whittier is a good four year liberal arts
college in Southern California,"
Meyer said.
Making the site more user
friendly was a major concern forthe
committee. "The largest and most
important piece is the navigation of
the site; it is similar to that of the
blueprints of a building," Rakoczy
said. The next Step was the visual
appearance of the site.
The new Whittier website
features an updated logo which
includes the founding date of the
college, 1887, photographs from
see WEBSITE, page 6
THOMAS ELLIOTT / QC PHOTOGRAPHER
on Wednesday afternoon.
program."
InterSociety Council Co-President Mike Muse believes male societies have had increasing success for a
number of reasons: "The majority of
male societies are either coming back
and need to have a strong rebirth on
campus or are fighting off extinction.
Those two underlining factors are
driving restructuring of recruiting,
pledging and the way things are done
to make things stronger."
The Franklins, who are returning this year, also have a reworked
see PLEDGING, page 5
Strauss inaugurated
as 2008 ASWC President
Justin Velasco
QC Editor in Chief
With his left hand on a book
of poetry by John Greenleaf
Whittier and his right hand in
the air, junior Daniel Strauss
was sworn in as the next ASWC
President after winning the fall
2007 Executive Cabinet election.
Junior Jacob Genzuk was
elected to Vice President and
sophomore Caroline Cox was
elected to Director of Campus
Relations.
On top of Strauss's agenda
as the new ASWC President, he
plans to see the Student Bill of
Rights through and meet with
Dean of Students Jeanne Ortiz
on a regular basis to discuss the
administration's adoption of it.
In addition, COR is currently
working on hosting live music
every Sunday in the Upper Quad.
The program is still in the organizational phase, Strauss said.
Strauss also wants to increase athletic representation on
COR to support student athletes,
as well as to help build participation and attendance at games.
In order to make Freshmen
see STRAUSS, page 5
PHOTO BY JUSTIN VELASCO / EDITOR IN CHIEF
President Herzberger (left) and Adam Steinbaugh (right) inaugurate Strauss (center).
CIAO! FROM ITALY
Students in the JanTerm class in
Rome say hello.
Campus Life, Page 8
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Cafe Sevilla a treasure waiting to
be discovered.
A&E, Page 11
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