Old dogs ineligible for new tricks

When growing up in a two or more child household, sometimes being the oldest can be disappointing. Watching younger siblings receive newer and better toys makes first-borns wonder, �Why didn’tI get that?� or �Why wasn’tthat thought about when I was that age?�
Similarly, Seton Hill University (SHU) upperclassmen have had to endure watching their new peers qualify for certain opportunities that were not available during their own freshman year.


By Valerie Masciarelli,
News Editor
When growing up in a two or more child household, sometimes being the oldest can be disappointing. Watching younger siblings receive newer and better toys makes first-borns wonder, �Why didn’tI get that?� or �Why wasn’tthat thought about when I was that age?�
Similarly, Seton Hill University (SHU) upperclassmen have had to endure watching their new peers qualify for certain opportunities that were not available during their own freshman year.
The Passport Program, funded by International Studies at SHU, is one of these new opportunities. The premise of the program is to provide freshmen students with a free passport.
�During your freshmen year, we want you to start thinking about possibilities of traveling and studying abroad,� said Michele Chossat, a associate professor of French and study abroad advisor.
This program is available to all freshmen, including those in the Adult Degree Program. Chossat said she hopes to receive at least 30 students by the deadline of December 1, 2006.
�When students go (abroad) for J-Term and M-Term, then they realize what’s out there, and that turns into a semester abroad,� Chossat said.
�Our goal is to open the doors of the world to students,� she added.
The program has been in place for around a year, though Chossat said few freshmen students have utilized it in the past.
Meanwhile, upperclassmen students who have had to get their own passports in the past are wondering where this program was when they were freshmen.
�Although I didn’tknow when I was a freshman that I�d be going to Poland, I still would have got a free passport just in case because I knew I wanted to travel abroad someday,� said Katie Manni, a junior who recently traveled abroad.
Also implemented in the fall of 2005 was the Geographic Diversity Grant. This grant is for students from outside of Pennsylvania, but not outside of the United States, according to Mary Ann Dudas, director of financial aid.
At the present there are 24 students enrolled at SHU who have this particular grant. Not all out-of-state students receive this grant, however.
�It’s need-based, as well as geographically. Not everyone who comes from out of state receives this grant because they have alternative aid sources,� said Dudas.
The goal of this grant is to �replace money they can’tget from their own respective states because they decided to come to school in Pennsylvania,� said Dudas.
�Those students are sometimes making a sacrifice when coming to Seton Hill,� she added. However, upperclassmen students make just as much of a sacrifice, too, and this scholarship was not available when they were applying to SHU.
�It would be nice to have that extra money since we have so much room and board to pay, plus we have to pay for the gas to get to and from SHU over breaks and visits,� said Victoria Mara, a junior from Ohio. Amber Dietelbach, a senior who is also from Ohio, agreed.
�It costs us about $60 for us to go home each time,� Dietelbach said.
Surely SHU does not mean to discriminate against its freshmen of years passed, but when considering how many people could have benefited � and still could benefit � from the grants and programs instituted only recently, it seems a shame that the cut-off should remain so strict.
While SHU is a growing university and it must change to accommodate student needs, the students who have been on the Hill longer should not be overlooked when creating opportunities that could possibly appeal to more than just freshmen.
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