Brown-bag lunches appeared outside of freshmen’s dorm rooms in Jones Residential College Tuesday morning as a way to make the students feel comfortable in their new home.
Instead of finding a note and treat from Mom, 80 freshmen students in Jones were greeted with a paper bag containing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a cookie, a piece of fruit and a Jones Soda. Each sack lunch, which included a personalized note written in crayon, was prepared by an upperclassman resident of Jones.
Each year, Jones upperclassmen meet the night before the first day of class to assemble the packages for their new residents.
“The bag lunches show the freshmen that someone is looking out for them, and they appreciate the gesture,” said Joe Schermoly, a Communication junior and the dorm’s president. “It’s worth the effort because everyone appreciates it, even the cynical ones.”
Regardless of the surprises that may or may not have been waiting outside of their doors, freshmen students attended their first day of classes on Tuesday and faced the anxiety of going to a college class.
“I was 98 percent scared and 2 percent excited,” Weinberg freshman Marcela Castillo said about her first day of classes.
Although students who attended Introduction to Sociology with sociology professor emeritus Charles Moskos were aware of the size of the class, the reactions to the first lecture were varied.
The class, which Moskos teaches Fall Quarter in Ryan Family Auditorium, is popular among freshmen and draws several hundred students.
“I was expecting this,” said Victor Karas, a Weinberg freshman.
Karas said he did not feel as though having to take a class with several hundred other students was any more difficult than his small freshman seminar.
“You get the lecture and his opinions, but you can’t expect he will write you a recommendation,” Karas said of the relationship he expects to have with Moskos.
Education freshman Alyssa Cose-Primus said she also expected the large class size.
“I’d rather know my professor, but the focus on learning is the same anyway,” she said.
Not all students were content to be in a class with an enrollment capacity of 600. Taube Schwartz, a Communication freshman, decided to drop Introduction to Sociology after the first 30 minutes of class.
“I’ve heard great things about the professor,” she said, but added that a class of several hundred “is not what I’m looking for.”
“I like professors who you can ask information from in a class,” she said.
Schwartz added that, at some point, she would like to take a class with Moskos, but she said she felt Introduction to Sociology was not for her.”
“Because of the class size,” she said, “it basically dictates that the class has to be a lecture since you can’t have a valuable discussion when 700 people are trying to put their two cents in.”
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