Parents & Families E-Newsletter - August 2011
Dear Parents and Families,
The new semester always brings a renewed energy and excitement to our Purdue campuses as we begin to welcome students – your sons and daughters – for the fall semester.
Our returning students soon will get back into the daily routine of campus life, and our class of first-year students will adjust to the challenges that go along with entering this new phase in their lives.
To help all of our students arrive at their first day of classes prepared and excited for the semester, Purdue offers a multitude of resources. This newsletter will help you assist your new student navigate the many opportunities available once they arrive on campus.
Student orientation and safety are things Purdue takes very seriously, and we work hard to provide supportive and fun activities to make your son or daughter feel welcome and safe on campus.
Two new programs this year will help students make healthy choices in regard to alcohol. Our AlcoholEdu for College program is designed to guide students to make informed decisions about alcohol, whether or not they drink. Not simply a “just say no” program, AlcoholEdu offers guidance to students on how to respond to the drinking behavior that may occur around them.
Purdue has also instituted an interim Medical Amnesty policy for students, which will help students make healthy choices about alcohol by assuring them they will not face university discipline if they seek medical assistance when they or someone they help has been consuming alcohol. These programs will make our students safer, and help them make mature, informed decisions about alcohol.
Purdue’s fire department has a number of outreach programs to educate students about fire safety. Our police department offers many programs and services to help students make choices about personal safety and security on campus.
The coming semester will offer your student many choices, new ideas and opportunities for personal growth. Your support as parents and family members will be an essential part of their success. This newsletter will update you on the many of the exciting things happening around campus and the resources available on our website. It will also help you keep up with what your student is experiencing.
While you say your goodbyes this month, rest assured your son or daughter will find a supportive, nurturing environment at Purdue. Their success is our number one priority and we look forward to watching them grow into the leaders of tomorrow.
Sincerely,
France A. Córdova
President
Administrative Announcements
Fall registration requires a few steps to complete
Students are being reminded to complete their required registration steps for the fall semester, including:
- Pay tuition / fees by Aug. 22
University tuition, fees and housing must be paid in full or enrolled within an installment plan by Monday, Aug. 22- Make sure your student has signed you up as an Authorized User on their myPurdue account. This will allow you as an Authorized User to receive University eBills and access to review detailed account information as well as make payments and enroll in the Installment Plan options. Students can grant their parent/guardian access to review and pay their bills online through the MyPurdue portal.
- Step-by-step instructions for students to provide authorization
- Already an Authorized User? Log-in
- Make sure your student has signed you up as an Authorized User on their myPurdue account. This will allow you as an Authorized User to receive University eBills and access to review detailed account information as well as make payments and enroll in the Installment Plan options. Students can grant their parent/guardian access to review and pay their bills online through the MyPurdue portal.
- Make sure your student confirms their registration via myPurdue and checks their registration status at least 10 days prior to the first day of class. Even students who are fully covered by financial aid must confirm enrollment each term. Have your student perform the following steps:
- Log-in to their myPurdue account.
- Select the "Financial" tab.
- Click on "Registration Status/Enrollment Confirmation."
- Review the output. If any items are in red, further action is required (make sure to pay by the due date)
- Arrange for payment plans if needed for fall tuition / fees
Students and those who have been set up as ‘Authorized Users’ to their online accounts may select an installment payment plan. This plan can ease the burden of making one large payment for tuition, fees and housing each semester. The net balance due for tuition, fees and housing is divided among four payments with a down payment. A small interest charge is applicable based upon enrollment in the plan, but is rebated based upon early repayment. For more information, call 765-494-3257, or review this option with your student on their myPurdue account.
Questions: Contact the Bursar's Office at 765-494-7570 or askbursar@purdue.edu.
DFA offers guidance on Paying for Purdue
Purdue’s Division of Financial Aid offers its best advice, an ongoing communication forum and extended hours during the start of the fall semester:
- Top ten tips for Paying for Purdue
- Ongoing Communication: join DFA’s Facebook Fan Page, visit DFA’s website or follow DFA on Twitter (Purdue_DFA)
- Extended hours schedule
Student Affairs offers weekend hours during BGR
Families bringing their first-year students to campus for Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) on Aug. 13-14 may take advantage of extended office hours for several administrative offices. The Division of Financial Aid and Bursar's and Registrar's offices will be open 2:30-6 p.m Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 13-14. All offices are located in Hovde Hall -- Room 45 (DFA), Room 132 (Bursar) and Room 60 (Registrar).
Purdue police provides street safety reminder
The Purdue Police Department has 40 officers to assist in keeping students safe on campus. To enhance their efforts, they are encouraging Purdue families to spread the following street safety message to their student.
Campus can become quite congested with cyclists, motorists and pedestrians and all need to do their part to be safe.
- For our cyclists and motorists, please be aware of pedestrians, be mindful of distractions and adhere to all traffic control signals and measures.
- For pedestrians, please be careful crossing roadways, use our marked crosswalks, be attentive, and do not be distracted by cell phones, iPods or any other electronic devices while crossing roadways.
This message will be conveyed via student newspapers, Facebook and other media outlets at the beginning of the school year. For more information on campus safety and security and Purdue’s nationally accredited police department, visit the Purdue police website.
Educational discounts save students money on hardware and software
Students are eligible to receive up to a 10 percent discount on computer hardware and software by using Purdue’s negotiated discounts with vendors.
- Hardware: To view equipment, stop by the ITaP showroom in Stewart Center, Room G65.
- Software: Can be preordered online or on the kiosk located in BoilerCopyMaker, Purdue Memorial Union, Room 157. BoilerCopyMaker is the pickup location for all software orders.
Family Day slated for Sept. 17
Purdue faculty and staff (and students) hope to see families back on campus 
for the annual Family Day event Saturday, Sept. 17. The day starts with a hearty pancake breakfast. Families will then have the opportunity to meet faculty and staff from the students' college/school, cheer the Boilermaker football team to a victory over Missouri State University, and relax to a musical performance by local artists Michael Kelsey and Kyle Bledsoe at the Boilermaker BBQ afterward.
More Info.
RSVP to Pancake Breakfast
Student Support Services
Supplemental Instruction (SI) supports students in “high risk” courses
Purdue will make available Supplemental Instruction (SI) within 11 “high-risk” courses this fall semester. SI is a peer-led academic assistance program available to all students enrolled in the identified courses. Peers who lead the study sessions have already performed well in a particular course and are trained to get students actively involved in the course material.
Courses include in SI instruction this fall are MA 153, MA 154, MA 159, MA 161, MA 162, PHYS 172, CS 159, BIOL 203, MGMT 200, COM 318 and STAT 301.
The purpose of SI is to increase retention and grades in historically difficult courses and ultimately increase graduation rates. All students may participate in this “free service,” which is a voluntary, nonremedial approach to learning targeting high-risk courses rather than high-risk students.
AlcoholEdu seeks to educate, change high-risk behavior
Purdue introduced AlcoholEdu, an online course about the impact and responsibilities associated with drinking, last month. Students expected to take the course include first-time undergraduates; transfer students under 21; students living in residence halls, fraternities, sororities and cooperative housing; residence hall advisors; and team leaders for Boiler Gold Rush.
AlcoholEdu for College, a curriculum created by Outside the Classroom, is available to 36 percent of all first-year students at America's four-year higher education institutions. It is designed to challenge students' expectations about alcohol and change high-risk behavior, teach alcohol's impact on academic and personal success, encourage safer decision-making and empower students to create a healthy campus community
The course has two parts. Students must complete the first portion by Aug. 21. Introduced by a video, Part 1 takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to complete and can be done in multiple sessions. Coming in September, Part 2 will take about 15 minutes to complete.
RSC renovations are taking shape
Work continues on the expansion and renovation of the Recreational Sports Center (RSC). To compensate for the RSC construction, recreational spaces have been made available at nine campus locations: Boilermaker Aquatic Center, East/West Gym, Turf Recreation Exercise Center, Owen Hall, Tarkington Hall, Wiley Hall, Meredith Hall, Harrison Hall and the gymnasium in Lambert Fieldhouse. Nearly 70 percent of the new facility will open in August 2012 and the remainder in October 2012. The new facility will be larger and include many new features for students, including a climbing and bouldering wall, recreational pool, wellness center, expanded fitness and group exercise space, and demonstration/instructional kitchen.
Technology tools help students succeed
A number of new online technologies have been introduced the past few years to supplment instruction and improve communication between Purdue students and faculty.
Email and course Web pages continue to be the primary ways that instructors and students communicate about coursework. Course Web pages are accessed using Blackboard, the University’s online course management system. Students will find instructor-prepared materials and their grades using Blackboard.
Four multimedia ‘apps’ created by Purdue IT staff are providing supplemental instruction to Purdue students. Instructors may offer one or more of the following aids:
- Hotseat
Students ask questions and express opinions in class through text messages, Facebook, Twitter or the Hotseat site. Instructors, especially those with large classes, use it to engage students in discussion, evaluate content comprehension and poll opinions. - Signals
This early-intervention system tracks students’ academic progress and provides them online with a visual indicator of how they are doing in the course -- a green, yellow or red marker. Instructors can warn students through email messages and grades on each password-protected course home page. - DoubleTake
Using this mobile app, students can take videos from their smartphones for class assignments and upload them to course home pages for evaluation. Students often use this app for group assignments, especially those outside the classroom or campus. - Mixable
Students who are active in social network forums Facebook and Twitter can form study groups and collaborate with other groups using Mixable. On their smartphones or through Facebook, students also can play back audio recordings of their classes captured through the BoilerCast system.
Fall semester is the time to seek next summer employment
Although summer isn’t even officially over, it’s already time to be thinking about employment for next summer. Purdue’s Center for Career Opportunities offers many services to assist students with career exploration and employment.
Student Resources
- Fall Career Fairs
- Resume updates and critiques
- Register for or update profile on CCO Express
- Interviewing Techniques
- Prepare an “elevator pitch”
Parent Resources
Contact Information
Center for Career Opportunities (CCO)
Stewart Center, Room 190
Appointments: call 765-494-3981
Website: www.cco.purdue.edu
Campus Life
Students gain research publishing experience
The first edition of the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research (JPUR) is showcasing some of the best undergraduate research activity while introducing students to the academic writing and publishing process. Introduced this month, the new journal will be published annually in August and is also available online free of charge at www.jpur.org.
"There are over 2,000 undergraduate research projects conducted every year at Purdue, which is considered a national leader in experiential learning," says Dale Whittaker, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs. "Many Purdue faculty are dedicated to teaching undergraduate students by enhancing their learning experiences with research opportunities in laboratories and the community. This new journal devoted to reporting undergraduate research draws attention to the work taking place and inspires more students to seek these experiences."
Visit the journal website for more information.
Students consider Fraternity and Sorority Life options in fall
Purdue students have many living options to experience at Purdue. Among them are the Fraternity and Sorority Life program, which also includes cooperative housing. Students can learn more about these options this fall during several information sessions, including:
- Aug. 15 & 16 — Fraternity and Sorority Life Info Sessions (during Boiler Gold Rush)
- Aug. 20 — Meet the Greeks, 2 to 5 p.m., Memorial Mall
Recruitment for sororities takes place Aug. 26-Sept. 6, and the deadline to register for recruitment is Aug. 24. Fraternity recruitment is informal, and fraternities extend invitations to join throughout the year. Cooperative housing recruitment takes place during two weekends in January.
More info.
Greek Life overview (PDF)
Researchers. Intellectuals. Leaders. … Meet five incoming undergraduate Boilermakers who are already working on some of life’s biggest mysteries (one even leads a nonprofit):
- Shelby Dartis, a freshman in pharmacy from Indianapolis.
- Mark Krutulis, a freshman in mathematics from West Lafayette.
- Haefa Mansour, a freshman in engineering from Mentor, Ohio.
- Peter "Joel" Mercado-Reyes, a freshman in biochemistry from Apopka, Fla.
- Alison Switzer, a freshman in pharmacy from Indianapolis.
Find out more about these students at the "Five Students Who ..." website.
"BoilerBytes 22" features points of pride for Purdue
Boiler Bytes, Purdue’s news magazine show that airs on the Big Ten Network, also is available online. This month’s edition, "Boiler Bytes 22", gives a closer look at some fairly well known points of campus pride:
- The Solar Decathlon house Purdue has one of 20 student teams chosen to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 and will compete in a world competition in Washington, D.C., starting Sept. 23.
- The Biology Olympiad, whose national finals were at Purdue.
- A look at campus sculptures and the history, dimensions and meaning behind them.
- Adventures in Computer Science Camp.
- Purdue Athletes Life Success (PALS) program, which brings area children to campus for a week of physical activity and provides a platform for learning healthy habits, self-esteem, a sense of educational direction and a hope for the future.
“Get Involved” helps students become engaged in campus life
Purdue students build strong leadership skills and gain closer ties to their classmates through more than 900 sanctioned student organizations. These organizations help build a student's competencies — everything from financial and time management skills and goal setting to tolerance, conflict management and motivational techniques. Students can learn about available clubs, how to start a club, and fall club callout information by visiting Purdue’s Get Involved website.
CityBus plays integral part in campus and community transportation
Greater Lafayette’s public transit system CityBus transports Purdue students around campus and across town, free of charge through its agreement with Purdue. CityBus also offers free trolley tours of the downtown Lafayette area in conjunction with the seasonal Farmers Market.
- Students become acclimated to CityBus services online and through its personal rider program.
- A CityBus Facebook fan page also keeps riders abreast of news and updates.
- Students can access real-time information on their next ride using the CityBus MyRide features on their phone, Web-enabled mobile device, or computer.
- Two guided downtown trolley tours are available on a first-come, first-served basis on Saturday mornings May to September. Guided tours depart at 9:40 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. at Fifth and Main streets and take about 50 minutes to complete. The trolley tour picks up and drops off at the corner of Fifth and Main.