Author: Evadne Coache

The transition to college is one that not everyone is ready for; while it may come easy to some it may prove difficult to others. Even though everyone handles the transition to college differently, the one challenge that most if not all students face is time management. Since the transition to college not only comes with new challenges, but also comes with new found liberties a lot of students get caught with that excitement. In Andrew Roberts’s book The Thinking Student’s Guide to College, he gives advice to college students on how to make their college experience one “where professors challenge you to do the best you are capable of, provide you with personalized feedback on your work and show you new ways of understanding the world” (Roberts,1). Unlike other advice books on college, Roberts is not interested in giving college students tips regarding their social life, he is more interested in giving advice on how to get the best possible education out of the college you decided to attend.

During your first semester at Trinity, you will encounter many new things but the one that will probably attract you the most is the new found liberty I mention earlier. For most people this is probably the first time they will be away from parents and even if you attended boarding high school, the college experience is nothing like the high school experience. In college you are completely responsible for your decisions and you will not have anyone telling you what to do with your time or making sure that you have done all your work, that is why it is very important for you to manage your time. One of Roberts’s most useful tips is the importance of time management. Roberts says that “the real problems in selective schools show up only with students who do not manage their time” (Roberts, 96). He also goes on to explain the importance of devoting large blocks of time to studying and ways to keep track of where your time is going. If you want to succeed academically at Trinity and want to make sure you’re not the student that is stressing out about a paper or test because your waited until last minute to get your work done make sure to manage your time wisely.

Coming into a liberal arts college like Trinity, you are expected to be involved in every extracurricular possible. You hear everyone around you telling you to take classes that you’ve never taken before, to participate in clubs and to do everything that is in your hands to become a well rounded individual, after all that is the purpose of a liberal arts college education. Coming to a college like Trinity can be overwhelming especially if you’ve never been expected to do all these things, or if you’ve never been in a place where you had all the opportunities Trinity has to offer. When I arrived at Trinity, I was overwhelmed and nervous about the expectations the college had from me. In my personal experience college wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about, I also had a job and most of my free time was dedicated to that. I found myself frustrated most of the time because even though I wanted to make time for the college experience I was supposed to be getting I couldn’t because I had other responsibilities I had to take care of.

Many of you may have the same problem I had, due to the fact that you may find yourselves with more responsibilities than just being a college student or because of the fact that you feel that handling your work is what takes up most of your time. One of the most important lessons I learned during my first semester at Trinity was that I had only so much time in my day and responsibilities that I had to take care of but that there was also a balance I needed to have. I had to make sure that I made enough time for my academic life in order to succeed and that I challenged myself as much as I could even if I couldn’t take part of the extracurricular activities that Trinity had to offer. I had to understand that not because everybody around me was doing all these extracurricular activities meant I had to. It is also important to understand that even though you may not have the time to take part of the opportunities offered at Trinity outside of the classroom means you shouldn’t challenge yourself at all. Regardless of the fact that you may not have enough time to truly take advantage of these opportunities make sure you take classes that you truly enjoy and ones that are going to challenge you rather than taking classes because that is what works best with your schedule. You may not always have the time to take part in clubs or community service but just remember the reason why you are in college and the fact that your education should be one of your top priorities!

Bibliography:

Roberts, Andrew Lawrence, and ebrary, Inc. The Thinking Student’s Guide to College 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print.

About the author: Evadne Coache is a first year student in the Color and Money seminar. She is from Hartford.CT and is a graduate from Miss Porter’s School ’11.

Hate crimes occur all over campuses on the U.S. and Trinity College is not the exception. Even though, on many campuses, measures have been taken to try to prevent these incidents from happening, they are not always successful. Trinity has had several incidents regarding hate crimes regardless of the attempts in trying to stop them. In 2005, minority students were targeted and discriminated, when derogatory terms where written on their dorms doors. After this incident took place, Trinity held open sessions to discuss this issue and held conversations regarding discrimination, however a few weeks after the incident took place everything was back to normal as if nothing had happened. In 2011, another hate crime took place at Trinity. On April 22^nd, 2011 “a white male threw a cup of beer at a student of color’s vehicle and yelled racially charged statements to that same person” (Protesting Hate at Trinity College, 2011). After this incident took place, Trinity once again stood up for what they believed, by holding conversations and holding a race rally. Even though it is important and relieving to see that Trinity will try to do something when these acts take place, it is extremely sad to see that we wait for these incidents to happen in order for us to do something about them. It is important for Trinity to continue to take steps toward stopping these incidents from happening and to support and make minorities feel like they are part of the community. It is also vital that Trinity implements a zero-tolerance policy regarding hate crimes.

One of the things that hate groups do in order to show their negative feelings toward minorities are hate speeches. A hate speech is defined by Kaplin as “verbal and written word, and symbolic acts, that convey grossly negative assessment of particular persons or groups based on their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. It is limited to face-to-face confrontations or shouts from a crowd. It may appear on shirts, on posters, on classroom blackboards, on students bulletin boards” (pg. 3). Allowing hate speeches to occur on campuses “may lead perpetrators to more aggressive tactics, as they perceive an environment accepting of bigotry” (Downey & Stage 3).Even though hate speeches should not be allowed on campuses, laws exist that protect offenders from being punished in a way that minorities feel is fair.   For instance, the First Amendment which states that “Congress shall make no law restricting the freedom of the press, freedom of speech, or the freedom of religion” protects these offenders from being punished. “Institutions must continually balance the rights of all individuals to be free from racial and other forms of harassment and the rights of members of the academic community to express themselves freely, regardless of the content of their expressions” (Downey & Stage, 6). This issue is a conflict between the First and Fourteenth amendments. While the first amendment gives everyone the freedom of speech, the Fourteenth Amendment states that “the states shall provide equal protection of all citizens under the law”. Because of this controversy, groups on campus may think it is okay for them to commit hate crimes, and they will continue to believe this as long as this is allowed.

Another possible reason why hate crimes continue to occur is because those who are targeted do not speak up. The most common reason why groups that are being targeted will not speak up is because they feel that the incident “was not serious or important” (Downey & Stage, 5). They also feel like they are not part of the community in the college/university they attend. When the incident in the Spring of 2011, regarding the minority that had a cup of beer thrown at him took place, many minorities spoke about their true feeling regarding these incidents. “Many women on campus and many gay and lesbian students on campus, feel that acts of sexual violence, misogyny and homophobia/heterosexism are routinely dismissed” ((Protesting Hate at Trinity College, 2011). The fact that targeted groups do not feel like a part of the community says something about the colleges/universities where these incidents are taking place. In order to try to stop these hate crimes from happening, it is important for targeted students to demand respect and actions from the administration when these events take place. If the targeted groups want to see change regarding hate crimes and the way they are treated, they must do their share in this issue.

Even though the issue of hate crimes is a complex one, it is really important that the institution where this issue is taking place does everything that is in their power to try to get rid of it. The most important factor in solving these issues are the community standards. If the institution made it clear from the beginning to all applicants that those types of acts would not be tolerated, then maybe they would not occur. If the college upheld the standard of respect for everyone in the community to its highest, then these issues would be less likely to occur. In the student handbook for Trinity College, there is a section regarding sexual harassment and discrimination, but nowhere in that section does it say that discrimination is something that will not be tolerated. If Trinity wants everybody in the community to understand that hate crimes is something they are serious about, then they should talk about zero-tolerance towards these incidents somewhere in the student handbook.

Even though some measures have tried to be taken at Trinity, it has obviously not been enough. Alfonso Bui’s film Someplace I call Home documents the state of the Trinity community in 2005, when some students had derogatory terms written on their dorm room doors.   Although the college did not tolerate the incidents that occurred in 2005 and in the Spring of 2011, it is sad to see that the only time when these issues were talked about were when these incidents took place. Trinity must make the time to talk about these kinds of issues and the ignorance that exists on our campus in order to make it a better place for everyone. Even though we have come a long way, there is still a long road ahead regarding discrimination in our campus.

Bibliography:

Downey, John P. “Hate Crimes and Violence on College and University Campuses.” 1999 40.1 (1999): 3-9. Print.

Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.), and Kingsbridge Productions. Some Place I Call Home. Trinity College, 2007. Film.

Trinity Student Handbook

“Protesting Hate at Trinity College, April 2011.” College Archives – Documents (2011): n. pag.

One problem that often takes place not only on the Trinity Campus but in many other places is that when it comes to issues regarding hate acts about race many of these times these get pushed under the rug. I am interested in researching college judiciary procedures in order to understand why after hate incidents have occurred on campuses the college/university doesn’t always get to see the follow ups that come with these incidents.

The first step to solving and stopping  hate crimes is to make sure that everything that can be done to figure out who was part of this hate acts is done. It is also really important to make sure that the community knows that these acts will be intolerable and that the biggest punishment will be applied to those individuals that take part in these activities. Part of this solution is also to figure out that those people coming into Trinity are not gonna be part of this group of people that are responsible for these hate acts. I think that idea of final report of asking a question regarding community/diversity to Trinity’s applications is a good idea.

Bibliography:

United States. Responding to Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Incidents on College/University Campuses. Washington, D.C.?: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Community Relations Service, 2000. Print.

-Responding to Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Incidents on College/University Campuses are responses from students, college administrators, civil rights organizations, etc regarding the way in which colleges are handling hate crimes. They also offer possible solutions to this problem and recommend to unite with other colleges against these crimes .

Downey, John P. “Hate Crimes and Violence on College and University Campuses.” 1999 40.1 (1999): 3-9. Print.

One problem that often takes place not only on the Trinity Campus but in many other places is that when it comes to issues regarding hate acts about race many of these times these get pushed under the rug. According to the Final Report of the Charter Committee on Campus Climate “our community has been marred repeatedly by malicious acts of racism” (pg 1) and that is why this report was put together. It is vital that in order to end these acts those students who are part of these acts are severely punished for this.

Throughout this year there has been multiple emails concerning hate acts on campus. The purpose of those emails is to let he community know that this has happen and to assure them that the people responsible for this will be punished. After the first email informing the community that this has happen I have never seen more follow ups regarding these issues. The first step to solving this is to make sure that everything that can be done to figure out who was part of this hate acts is done. It is also really important to make sure that the community knows that these acts will be intolerable and that the biggest punishment will be applied to those individuals that take part in these activities. Part of this solution is also to figure out that those people coming into Trinity are not gonna be part of this group of people that are responsible for these hate acts. I think that idea of final report of asking a question regarding community/diversity to Trinity’s applications is a good idea.

I think that in order to build a stronger paper I need to find out the different hate acts that have taken place at Trinity and what has been the consequences to the individuals that were part of them. I also need to find out how does Trinity go about investigating hate acts and what are the written rules regarding this matter.

Here is the link

Here’s the link. I added a special qualities column in which I made notes whether and applicant had been recommended by someone or had a particular impressive thing on their application. I also wrote down notes if there was nothing impressive about the applicant of if he/she seemed average.

Rosa Martinez is a Mexican American from San Antonio, Tx who is in the top 6% of her class at Jackson High School. She has a 3.8 GPA, a score 3 on her AP English Language exam, a 1910 SAT score and a few extra curricular activities like editor in chief for the yearbook and the class secretary for the students government. She also has awards/honors like Most Valuable Member of the Yearbook Staff and has received High Honors her whole high school career.

Rosa would be a great addition to the Trinity Community in the academics as well as community wise. Her teachers and guidance counselor described her as hard worker who “strives to succeed but is not overbearing”. “She values the opinions of others and is enthusiastic about everything she does”. Even though her parents went through a divorce during her freshman and sophomore year which was an extremely rough time for Rosa, she still managed to keep up her grades which shows determination and the ability to never give up.