From: Breidenstein, Angela
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 8:32 PM
To: Trinity Students FY 2008
Cc: davemansen@alumni.trinity.edu; Tuttle, David
Subject: Welcome back from your faculty class marshal

Dear Class of 2012,

Welcome back to classes, waking up before noon, and hopefully some sun in San Antonio!  I know I experienced a mix of sitting on a beach reading fiction (5 novels - Dr. Grissom would be proud of her former student) and catching up on sleep in the first part as well as catching up on work and trying to figure out if I'm catching up or getting ahead in the second part of the week.

As we return from the break, I want to remind you -- as I'm sure you already know -- that time flies between now and the end of the semester in May!  I hope you'll return to your academic studies with energy and enthusiasm, and that you'll also of course bring those to your work in clubs, organizations, committees, and friendships.  Take advantage of the lectures (what a great Lennox Lecture series on poetry!), the plays and arts offerings, spring weather (if it returns!), sports, IM's etc.    I'm also attaching below some information about the International Careers series which is starting next week... it looks interesting! In a future email, I'll send you some ideas and thoughts on summer internships and employment.

Finally, I want to share with you information regarding mid-semester grades and deadlines.  Faculty will be submitting mid-semester grades between now and March 17, after which you and your advisor will receive the grade reports (of D's and F's only).  These are important early warning notices meant to help bring your attention to areas of concern. If you are not sure about your standing in a course -- meaning your learning and also your performance via grades -- please talk to your professors.  You may not receive a report but still want to know how you are doing - please do talk to your professors as that shows your interest and commitment (to your learning, not just the grade).   If you feel you don't have a good grasp of the material in the course -- please work with your professor, study groups, peer tutors, the writing center, the HHMI tutors (science, math, psychology), other students, and perhaps even a tutor. If you are worried about being behind - now's the time to catch up! Pronto!  Also, the last day to withdraw from a course is March 26, which hopefully won't be necessary -- talk with your advisor if you're concerned about that as well as implications (maintaining full-time status for scholarships, accruing credits toward graduation, etc).

Sooner than we know it registration for next fall will be upon us... and of course you'll hear from lots of us about that -- as well as spring events like family weekend, the academic honors convocation, and more. 

If you have any questions, concerns, ideas -- please don't hesitate to let Dave Mansen, your alumni sponsor, or me know -- remember, we're inventing these faculty marshal and alumni sponsor roles as we go so let us know if there are things we could be doing that we haven't thought of!  We're meeting next week to look at the calendar and will happily add our presence to existing events or new events!

Best,

Dr. Breidenstein