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VOL.

94

I S S UE 5

reflector.uindy.edu

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Overcrowding causes
some registration stress
By Jessica Mehrlich
STAFF WRITER

Although the registration dates for

second semester all have passed, many
students are still scrambling to piece
together their schedules. According to
Registrar Kristine Dozier, particularly in
the freshman class, students were forced
onto the waitlists in an unprecedented
number of courses. Some students have
been waitlisted for so many courses that
as of right now, they do not have full
course loads for next semester.
Dozier said this situation will not last.
She explained that the process is far from
over and is confident that by Jan. 19 students will have their schedules filled out.
One thing we always try to tell students, even when they come in for their
very first registration, is [that] this could
be temporary for you; you might change
your major, Dozier said. Lots of things
change. We have two months before the
start of next semester to plan accordingly,
get the courses a student needs and work
with the departments and the colleges.
Dozier attributes this stress in the
registration process to the record-setting
sizes of the past two freshman classes.
We have had two record freshman
classes come in, Dozier said. When
you take into account the two record
freshman classes and the new gen ed core
that went in three years ago, we have a

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different distribution of courses; we

have a higher demand for courses; and
the initial planning for that demand
with two very large classes needing
all those courses was not thoroughly
vetted before registration opened,
especially for freshmen. Thats why
freshmen were 15 minutes into registration and were waitlisted for all of
their classes.
Dozier expressed understanding
about the frustration students are facing.
She is making sure that the Registrars
Office is doing all that it can to help
get students schedules where they want
them to be.
I completely understand that stress,
and we are very aware of it, Dozier said.
I can say that we are very proactive in
our office about identifying the needs of
the really high waitlisted courses. We are
identifying the needs of students who
are below full-time status. We are very
proactive.We reached out to the deans of
the colleges where those high-demand
courses were, and now its a process. If
we do open up new sections, we first
have to contact the waitlist students.
Once a new section is opened up,
waitlisted students will receive an email
offering them a seat. Unlike a typical
registration scenario, students will have
to notify the Registrars Office that they
do want the open seat and wait to be
manually added to the course. Once all
of these students have responded, or the

deadline has passed, the remaining

seats will open up and be available to
all students.
You will be where you need to be
at the start of second semester, Dozier
said.
She is confident that the Registrars
Office will be able to resolve the current
scheduling issues and wants students
to know that they will not be left with
incomplete schedules.
We are constantly working and trying
to figure that [scheduling issues] out for
students, Dozier said. We arent going to
leave them with that [incomplete schedules]. Its not the end.We would never
let students be in that situation.
Vice President for Student and Campus Affairs and Dean of Students Kory
Vitangeli believes that this is all part of
being at a growing university.
Academic Affairs and CASA [Core
Academic Skills Assessment] are every
semester trying to look at the course
load compared to where students majors are, Vitangeli said. I think its
something that the university is looking
at with the growth in students, but also
with the courses that are offered. I think
that slowly but surely they are getting to a
good equation for how students can get in.
Although this situation is frustrating,
Vitangeli does not think that this is an
issue specific just to the University of
Indianapolis.
I think that every institution probably

strugtaken by upper classmen, what

gles a little
is left for freshmen?
bit with making sure
there are enough
seats for students
Graphic by Josie Seach
that want classes. And
the reality is we only have so many faculty, once-boasted 1:15 ratio down to 1:11.
and they can only teach so many classes,
Vitangeli suggested that students meet
Vitangeli said. You know the order with their advisors and put together their
has always been that upper classmen four-year plan, to make sure that they get
have priority getting into classes over all of their courses in before their schedfreshmen [and] sophomores. I think its uled graduation date.
frustrating, but its also a fact of higher
I think its the worst when you get to
education. We will have to hire new your senior year and youre not able to get
faculty. ... Every year, there are new fac- into something, Vitangeli said. Try to
ulty being added to areas where classes take as many classes toward your major
are overflowing.
[as you can], even if they are ones that
Some may think that this problem may not exactly be in your plan [but] that
could be solved by making class sizes get you to a place where you can get in all
larger. However, this is not the case. Vi- of your credits before you graduate. And
tangeli said through the addition of really work with your advisor. Get those
faculty, class sizes have dropped from the gen eds in early.

for only a few days, but they ended

up being there for three months. His
unit was part of the assault force in the
second battle of Fallujah, also known
as Operation Phantom Fury. The whole
city of about 250,000 people was evacuated for the battle. At the time, Fallujah
was declared the most dangerous
city in Anbar, the most dangerous province in Iraq, said
Ranbarger. Fallujah was the
biggest urban operation for
the Marines since Hue
City, Vietnam.
Ranbarger said he
fought street-by-street,
house-by-house and
room-by-room. He
said that he saw many
horrible things such as
his friend being shot 15
times, and dogs and cats
that were left behind
devouring dead bodies. He
said he saw a cat hiding in a
human rib cage, and a dog
carrying around a human
hand.
He said he was convinced that he was going
to die, but the units humor

got them through it. Ranbarger said he had

suffered from memory loss and traumatic
brain injury from the battle, but he never
saw a psychiatrist. He said that his brain
had rewired itself, and he was a danger to all
around him, especially in his sleep. He said
he tried to suffocate or strangle people in his
sleep, and barricade the room with pillows.
After his deployment, he was helping to
train 20 new marines for Afghanistan.
But in his sleep, he said he would curse
at them, shout orders and kick them.
Ranbarger could not remember doing
any of it. His
unit of Marines staged
an intervention with him
and told him
that he needed
help.
He said that
when he told
his command
that he thought
he had PTSD,
they did not
understand and
did not care.
They e ven
thought he

was trying to get out of deployment to

Afghanistan and told him that PTSD was
a cowards disease, according to Ranbarger.
Ranbarger said he was harassed by
some fellow Marines by being spit on
and pushed around. Eventually, he was
transferred to the 3rd Marine Regiment,
he said, for a failure to adapt. He was
forced to pick up garbage and was not
allowed to fight.
After a while, the Navy gave him 10
percent disability and medically separated
him from the Marine Corps, which ended
his career. After his retirement, there were
some civilians who respected him and
thanked him for his service, but there
also were others who treated him like an
outsider. He said once he even was told
that he was an ignorant tool of the military
industrial complex who shed blood for oil
and should be ashamed.
I felt alone, Ranbarger said. I felt
depressed. There were times that I had a
loaded weapon, with a pistol in my hand,
ready to pull that trigger.
One of the things that helped him
through his PTSD was forming bonds
with friends. One of the times that he
had a loaded weapon to his head, he
called his friend to see if he could hang
out. He then took the round that would

So

ph

om

ore

With all the classes already

Retired Marine tells the story of his ongoing battle with PTSD
By Jessica Hoover
NEWS EDITOR

at reflector.uindy.edu

Novelist Scott Russell

Sanders reads for Kellogg
Writers Series
The Kellogg Writers Series rounded out its fall semester readings with
novelist Scott Russell Sanders. Associate Professor of English Kevin
McKelvey introduced Sanders.

UIndy chaplain pens

first book
Many of the University of Indianapolis faculty have written and
published academic or scholarly
books. Jeremiah Gibbs first book
Apologetics after Lindbeck is derived from his dissertation and has
been about five years in the making.
Apologetics after Lindbeck takes
a look at postmodern theology and
how it deals with faith and reason.

OPINION 2

ry

ONLINE THIS WEEK

Photo by Kasey Nethe

Retired Lance Cpl. Matthew Ranbarger of the United States Marine Corps
came to the University of Indianapolis
to share his story about Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder on Nov. 9. The event was
in collaboration with the Student Veteran
Association and sponsored by Active
Minds, a registered student organization that promotes awareness of mental
health issues.
Ranbarger said since he was a child,
he had wanted to be a marine, but there
were some obstacles he had to overcome
first. He said he had an inhaler and was
put on Ritalin, so he had to fight for more
than a year to get into the Marine Corps.
He enlisted at the age of 18 and was
shipped off to boot camp by 19. When
he took the Armed Services Vocational
Aptitude Battery test, he earned a high
enough score to qualify for any job in the
military. However, Ranbarger still chose
to join the infantry, which puts a soldier
on the front lines in direct attacks against
the enemy.
In 2004, he and his unit were deployed
to Fallujah in Iraq, expecting to be there

have gone into his head and gave it to his

friend, telling him that he had saved his
life. His friend still holds onto that round
to this day.
I struggle every day, but the fight
gets easier the more that Im not alone,
Ranbarger said. If I feel alone, I call
somebody and talk to them. ... Humans
are not meant to be alone. We are social
creatures.
There are many veterans who go
through their lives not even knowing
that they suffer from PTSD. According
to Ranbarger, there are 22 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans every day who attempt
suicide because they did not get help.
Following his speech, a question-andanswer session was held. Although there
were many questions, one student simply
said, Thank you. This was followed by a
round of applause and a standing ovation.
Sophomore respiratory therapy major
Katie Monk said that she had gained
some useful advice on how to treat people
with PTSD.
[I learned] how to help people cope
with their issues, Monk said. You may
not know that they have it [PTSD]. So
always treat veterans with respect. Dont
shun them or treat them differently than
other people. Be respectful of them.

New engineering programs come to UIndy

Software, industrial and system engineering will be available in the fall of 2016
By Kylee Crane
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The University of Indianapolis will

enhance its E in the acronym STEM
which stands for science, technology,
engineering and mathematicswith
the integration of software and industrial and system engineering programs
in the fall of 2016.
UIndy has had a dual degree program with Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis since the 1990s.
Students in the five-year program graduate with two degrees, one from UIndy
and one from IUPUI.
Associate Professor of Physics and
Earth Space Sciences Stephen Spicklemire said that there is no intention to
get rid of the dual program. The administration and faculty were just looking
for a less time-consuming alternative
for engineering students.
The students get a degree from

SPORTS 4

ENTERTAINMENT 6

UIndy in either chemistry, mathematics,

computer science or physics, and they get
a degree from IUPUI in either electrical,
computer or biomedical engineering,
Spicklemire said. Not all students are
attracted to that because of the fact that it
is a five-year program, so we looked for a
way we could develop more traditional four-year
programs [that]
would be more
attractive.
According to
Dean of the Shaheen College of
Arts and Sciences
and Professor of
English Jennifer Drake, the university
looked into engineering programs that were
not only unique to the state of Indiana, but
also had a large number of jobs available
for students in the future.
Drake said that the liberal arts aspect
of UIndy makes the programs unique and

attractive to prospective students.

We saw the opportunity to distinguish ourselves, Drake said. We said,
What would make these programs in a
school the size of UIndy seem special?
And what makes us special is that we
would be graduating engineers who would
have a strong,
broad background in liberal
arts and in sciences. Engineers
who graduate
from UIndy
given the quality of our general education
corewould
know how to write, speak [and] think
critically, engage with people who are
different from them and would just have
a broad-based education. Thats really
distinctive.
Because of the general education core
requirements, Drake said the students are

We looked for a way we could

develop more traditional fouryear programs [that] would be
more attractive.

unable to take a lot of engineering electives,

so they have embedded projects throughout the curriculum for students to work on,
which she called the design spine.
Spicklemire, who has taken the role
of creating the curriculum and the design spine, said the administration will
be working with industry partners, and
possibly the health science departments
on campus as well.
If you look at what employers want
engineers to have that they dont see
much of is the ability to work together
in teams from the beginning, Spicklemire said. So we developed this set of
courses [that] they take throughout their
time here, where they work in teams
with other kinds of engineers to solve
engineering problems. Its all about
designing solutions to problems that we
find.
Although the programs will not officially begin until next fall, students
already are able to submit applications
for admission into the programs.

FEATURE 7 Faces of War Gallery > See Page 6 Day in the life of the President > See Page 7