For the first time in over a decade, undergraduate students will be able to take a wellness class to fulfill their physical wellness requirement for graduation. The School of Applied Physiology has been working on and has added a new Science of Physical Activity and Health course, or APPH 1050, for the upcoming fall semester.

“[The course was created] to allow students the opportunity to get into and maintain a structured activity pattern and experience first hand the benefits of an active lifestyle,” said Dr. Teresa Snow, an academic professional in the School of Applied Physiology and coordinator for wellness courses. “As a student, it helps increase energy levels so you can accomplish everything you need to in your hectic schedule and not be exhausted at the end of the day. It helps you focus, cope with stress and stay healthy.”

The class will be offered this fall with five activity sections, each having about 25 students. It will be a two credit hour class, meeting two days per week for 90 minutes each day. Class one day would be lecture and discussion of material with the typical activities, assignments and examinations of a health class. The other day would be structured physical activity in small groups at the Campus Recreation Center.

Grading policies have not been finalized yet according to potential syllabi, but will most likely be split between the two portions of the class. The lecture portion would include examinations and written assignments which will most likely make up more than 50 percent of the grading.

Physical activities will be on a pass-fail basis based on attendance and participation in fitness assessments revolving around the options for activities students will have when signing up for the course. These activities include running, weight lifting, yoga or “fitness 101”, an option for beginner exercisers that will involve warm-up activities, circuit strength training, cardiovascular conditioning and cool-down and stretching techniques.

According to Snow, this will be a collaboration between the CRC using their certified instructors to administer the physical component and Applied Physiology instructors who will supervise the class component and be responsible overall for grades.

The previous class, Physical Evaluation and Conditioning for Health, was dropped by administration around the time of the 1996 Olympics when the previous student athletic complex was demolished and there were no facilities to hold the class in. At that time, the decision was made to only offer the HPS 1040 class as a wellness requirement, which there was opposition to from the beginning.

Through the years, there have been discussions of bringing the physical component back to this kind of course, but only recently that there has been the necessary push and support to finally take action.

According to Lucy Tucker, Undergraduate Vice President of Academic Affairs, SGA has been instrumental in getting the conversation with administration and faculty regarding this course initiated and keeping it going in order to achieve these results.

“The idea behind the initiative was multifold,” Tucker said. “First, many other peer institutions offer physical education courses that allow students to practice what they’re learning in the classroom in their health courses.”

“Also, a course like APPH 1050 gives some students, who would not ordinarily ever have the opportunity to learn skills such as how to strength train properly, the chance to learn from a qualified instructor,” Tucker added. “Lastly, a promotion of physical activity to the student body also has many other implications such as the improvement of both physical and mental health and exposure to a positive way of dealing with stress.”

SGA put out a survey to students last year that indicated that there was an interest in having a physical component included health courses.

“I hope [the class] gets a very favorable response from the students. If the demand grows, then we will try to accommodate that demand. I would like for all of my students to look back and be able to say that the health course they took was valuable and that it had an impact on their lives in some positive way. That is what all of our instructors want for our students,” Snow said.

A new Sports, Society and Technology (SST) program is scheduled to launch in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts (IAC) in 2014. The program will allow students and faculty to work together to study and understand sport in the context of both historical and contemporary cultures.

“The Sports, Society, and Technology program is an interdisciplinary initiative that combines sports studies with multiple academic fields. The distinctive interdisciplinary focus of SST brings together faculty and students who are interested in linking sports studies to science and technology, engineering, urban studies, computer analytics, physiology, health and medicine, media studies, business management, law and the social sciences,” said Dr. John Smith, a postdoctoral fellow in Sports, Society and Technology who is helping to lead efforts to get this program established.

The program will introduce students to the extensive literature on sport as a mass cultural phenomenon, an industry and as a career path through a curriculum designed to include hands-on field experiences. The curriculum will also help train and prepare graduates to go on to work successfully in the sports industry, health-related fields and other related professions.

According to Smith, the faculty within the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts were unanimous in their thoughts on the SST program being as inclusive as possible so that they would be able to bring in as many students from across campus who may be interested in these types of classes. The interdisciplinary component is one of the most important, as it will bring in the thought process of and lead in the learning and understanding of topics in these courses.

The program was started after discussions between IAC Dean Jacqueline Jones-Royster and IAC Associate Dean John Tone focused on the creation of a Sports Studies program at Tech that would include a wide appeal of challenging classes that appealed to students all across campus.

The creation of the program was then made possible after a generous endowment was made by Dr. Homer Rice, the former Georgia Tech Athletic Director, to the Homer Rice Chair in Sport, Society and Technology. This donation has allowed Tech to begin and continue to search for and hire a distinguished scholar in the field of Sports Studies to be the Homer Rice Chair, teach courses and direct the program as a whole. Tech is currently conducting a nationwide search for this faculty member, according to Smith.

The SST program currently offers the following courses: Foundations of Sports Studies; History of Sports in America; Sociology of Sports; Sports Economics; Sports Psychology; Sports, Science and Technology; Soccer and Global Politics; Sports and Stadia; Legal Issues in Sport Management; History of Martial Arts and The Olympics in Asia.

With its current offerings, the faculty and administration involved with SST program have goals to expand the course offerings, create a larger and academically rigorous curriculum, and establish a minor program.

“In order to build the most distinguished Sports Studies program in the country, Georgia Tech aims to expand its curriculum, hire tenure-track faculty, secure major research grants, develop a student-internship program and host international conferences and special events,” Smith said.

As conditions within the library infrastructure and systems continue to deteriorate, the libraries administration has put together a renovation plan to be executed in 2020 to address these issues.

“We constantly have students talking about the fact that the power outlets don’t work, there aren’t enough of them, the lights are bad and you can’t see, the restrooms are awful and all of the things that all of us think are pretty terrible for a building that’s used as much as this one,” said Catherine Murray-Rust, Vice President of Learning Excellence and Dean of Libraries. “So we did the 2020 plan to bring some attention to the state of library buildings and say to campus that we understand that the nature of libraries is changing.”

“The ten-year concept plan for the Georgia Tech library reflects the continued transition from a collection-oriented model to a service-oriented model. These notes and schematics suggest ways that Library space can be better utilized to fulfill its mission, provide Central Campus collaboration space, manage collections, update and improve office space for library staff, and provide needed upgrades to building…systems,” said the plan overview.

The plan began by defining the space utilization for the library in 2011 against what the plan for 2020 should be. In terms of available space, study space made up about 29 percent in 2011 and would be increased to 49 percent in 2020, stacks; bookshelves and collections made up about 46 percent and would be reduced to 24 percent and offices made up 14 percent and would increase to 23 percent. With this, the 2020 plan proposes an overall reduction of physical collections throughout the library. Since a quarter of all print journals are available digitally and 85 percent of the collection has not been circulated for ten years, this is an area of priority.

“We’re willing to make some very radical changes in the way the space is used in the two existing library buildings, Crossland and Price Gilbert, in return for the campus renovating these spaces and using them for different purposes. We want them to still be libraries in the broadest sense of the term, places where there are library services, but we don’t want them to be places where we store a lot of paper that nobody uses anymore,” Rust said.

With these proposals though, there are no true concrete plans as to how this assignable space would be renovated or reorganized, but only discussions and broad outlines currently, according to Dean Murray-Rust.

In addition, there would also be a complete overhaul of some of the electrical and mechanical systems that many people don’t see on a day to day basis. According to Katherine Norris, the Project Coordinator for Library Facilities, many of these such as the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit are the same ones that have been in the library since it was built in 1953. These systems were not built for the amount of traffic and use that they are receiving today on a daily basis.

Maintenance costs on these systems have also steadily increased from $421,000 in 2009 to $632,000 in 2011. These will only continue to rise as the problems are being fixed with band-aid solutions, with some parts literally being held together by duct tape. Norris explained a complete overhaul of these systems must be planned in a strategic manner as to not detriment student life.

“It’s incredible that the facilities staff is able to keep the library in working condition with the equipment they have. The most noteworthy thing for me was the fact that there is no real working thermostat for the library, so the staff has to actually guess and check the temperature by manually adjusting it little by little if they want to make any changes,” said third-year AE major Nicholas Picon, who took a behind-the-scenes infrastructure tour of the library.

“I was shocked at what I saw. The electrical equipment is still the original equipment that the library was built with in the 1950s. This means that the reason the library doesn’t have any more outlets is because the building can’t handle any more,” said second-year BMED major Marnie Williams. “The library is one of the most widely used buildings on campus and there is so much potential for it to be even more used. There is an awesome vision to transform the upstairs area into cool new study spaces that would be even more heavily used by the student body, but there is also a huge need for money in order to make it happen.”

“I really believe that the renovations of the library should be a much bigger priority for the school and community than the currently are. It really bothers me that the renovations of other, newer buildings are higher on the list when the library is such an essential resource for students. It is a central point of campus and houses a lot of the services that students rely on to succeed in academics,” said second-year CHBE major Veena Krishnan.

Over the past two weeks, students, faculty and staff received an email from Institute President G. P. “Bud” Peterson and other administrators inviting them to take the Campus Climate Survey. For the first time, the administration is taking steps to learn more about how people feel about the community and culture across campus through this assessment.

“No one’s ever done this before… and it’s not often that this kind of research has been done where students are going to drive it,” said Dr. Archie Ervin, the Vice President of Institute Diversity.

The survey is being administered by The Office of Assessment in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Institute Diversity and is designed overall to allow the entire campus community to share their perceptions of Tech. Its main focus is to point out the campus community and culture and truly inquire into how things are done around Tech. It will also address how people feel about various things and what kinds of changes can be made.

The administration will also be able to see how the campus community feels about the culture and determine what kinds of changes should be made in upcoming years.

“The data will help us to understand how the leadership of GT can work to enhance student learning and student life; how we may be able to better support faculty research and teaching; and how we can assist our staff in the performance of their various roles at Georgia Tech,” said Dr. Jonathan Gordon, the Director of the Office of Assessment.

Most of this is coming back from the Institute’s 25 year strategic plan designed in 2010, as many of the survey questions were designed around a section of the strategic plan that Dr. Ervin pointed out was “talking about the kinds of community we want to be,” and “not just focused on diversity but about the experiences of all the people in the community… [and] the culture that we’re trying to build.”

The campus climate survey was designed by separate task forces made up of students, faculty and staff…

As the strategic plan stated on page six, Tech “aspire[s] to be an Institute that pursues excellence and embraces and leverages diversity in all of its forms. In the years ahead, we must continue to enhance a culture of collegiality, close collaboration, global perspective, intercultural sensitivity and respect and thoughtful interaction among a diverse community of scholars that includes all of our students, faculty, staff and alumni.”

The campus climate survey was designed by separate task forces made up of students, faculty and staff who made the decisions on what topics needed to be covered. People were brought together from different colleges, departments and aspects of campus life to offer multiple perspectives on the content that should be included. These ideas for content were passed along to the Office of Assessment, who actually handled creating the questions and narrowing it down to 25 questions that would allow administration to obtain a baseline of information to work off for the future.

The Office of Assessment is also handling the circulation of the survey, which is being sent out for the last time next Tuesday, with e-mails from people like President Peterson; William Schafer, the Vice President of Student Affairs; Dan Morrison, the Director of Residence of Life; and the Undergraduate and Graduate Student Body Presidents Eran Mordel and Michael Kirka.

“We are administering the survey online. Students, faculty and staff will be contacted via email with a URL to complete the survey. After an initial survey invitation from President Peterson, we will send two reminders (each spaced a week apart) to those who have not completed the survey,” Gordon said. “We use a survey token to track who has completed the survey and who hasn’t so that we don’t send reminders to those who have already completed the survey. However, we do not match this token with the actual survey responses. In other words, people are able to respond to the survey anonymously.”

The results of the survey are going to be collected at the end of February so that the data can be analyzed and published in high level formats for anyone interested to see. The administration will also be able to see how the campus community feels about the culture and determine what kinds of changes should be made in upcoming years, as well as gauging progress in years for the years’ past.

“When we say a climate survey its not about how the weather is, its about the Georgia Tech community and the cultural and campus climate of that community, how people live and experience Georgia Tech, that’s what it’s about,” Ervin said.