Speech

Mark Jandacek

Ben McMahon

Brian Westemeier

Russ Gotto

Rachel Whartman

Time Management

Everyone in this classroom I'm sure has had to make a decision at one point or another on what would be the more productive thing to do. College students especially are faced with that decision on a regular basis as they deal with peer pressure and homework assignments. Sometimes trying to pick which one would be more favorable to us is not easy. At Loras College, how many of you are familiar with the quote "Thirsty Thursday"? Well thirsty Thursday makes Friday test a little difficult for those that decide to take part in the festivities. Sometimes Friday's academics are affected by Thursday night's decisions. All too often, students make a choice to go out rather than stay in and study and might not even make it to class the next morning. In a random survey handed out to 30 Loras students, the statistics of people whose priority of either partying or getting drunk was high for being at a Catholic school. Over 1/3 of the students interviewed had drinking or partying in their top 4 priorities. It may be questionable what students priorities are when they are at school to get an education. Not everything that the students on campus are doing is bad news though. Students are trying hard to organize their lives and manage their time as well as they can. Technology has really helped students be able to organize their schedules. 60% of students use their laptops or post it notes to manage their time. These are a few statistics to help you understand what is going on with students on campus as we are all trying to focus. Our group will be discussing the question; what can be done to improve time management to reduce stress?

The past information on stress was discovered through interviews with people that have been working here at Loras trying to help time management with incoming students. MOI is a class that every freshman is required to take, but it hasn't always been like that. MOI started in 1998; it was part of a national movement to pay more attention to transitioning first year students. Curriculum changed around Loras College in 1999 and it then became a requirement in the general education credits list. Two individuals began this movement- Dean Burney and Dr. Auge. What was here before MOI you may ask? Before MOI, Karla Braig taught a first year seminar class that was required and worth only one credit. The goal of the class was to help students cope with home sickness, learn study skills and learn other college skills. The MOI class now is not much different from first year seminar other than it now has academics combined into the class. Another way that time management was brought into student's lives was with the planner. The planners used to be handed out because they were combined with the student handbooks that we all receive at orientation. They stopped doing that and started to sell them in the bookstore. In 2002 there was a textbook for MOI that each student had to purchase, it had sections in it with transition issues and time management tips. In the book there was a page that discussed monitoring your time and had time slots to help organize your schedule. In 2003 the approach to problems with transition was changed, and students were required to research different time management issues. The students had to make presentations out of the information but eventually it became too complicated and expensive to have students doing this. This led to having an individual instructor speak about the topic in class. "Students needed help seeing how important it is to use time wisely. This is why one on one meetings were set up with advisors and their students to be able to discuss how they are doing." This was quoted by Rita Dudley. The laptop is another very important contribution to time management. The laptop came to campus in 2000. In an interview with Rita Dudley she described how the laptop is evolving and becoming more helpful to student with their organization, but there are many setbacks with the laptop. A few years ago a student was dismissed from school because he was not attending any classes because he was playing the game Halo on his computer all day long. This is an example of a disadvantage the laptop has had in the past. The laptop is still with us and is used by every student on campus. Now students are more connected than they were in the past.

There are things going on currently at Loras to help with time management. The advising program continues to be strengthened, putting a strong push on the one on one activity with advisor and student. The students that are having problems managing time, advisors try to pinpoint the problem early in the semester. If problems are identified with a student, his/her name is sent into the academic dean's office. This group of people meets on campus every week and look at names to discuss who in the group could help the student most effectively. The appeals board then meets with the student and tries to understand what the problem is with the students and makes suggestions on how the student can reprioritize. There are also people on campus that are available to individually speak to students and help them organize things. The guidance office is also available to help students with this. The class that freshman take is very helpful. MOI is a class that focuses on time management. In MOI students practice managing time by filling out a schedule of their week. In the schedule the student adds all of their practices, work, studies, and classes to help organize time. Rita Dudley quoted, "You really have to let the students learn on their own." The main thing that the advisor focuses on is helping them adjust to having all of the new free time. A freshman is not used to having class spread out throughout the day with hours of down time. The regular high school senior attends class from 8-3:00. This is difficult for the students to make the choice of what would be best to do with their time when they get to college and have all that free time. Students use their laptops all the time so organization also takes place through the laptops. Having the campus be wireless has offered students the opportunity to put a lot of their scheduling on their desktops. A program that students use frequently now is the "Post-Its" program which is little post it notes that students can use as reminders all over their desktops. Students also use blackboard. Blackboard is an electronic way for professors to keep in touch with the students on a daily basis. On blackboard assignments are