Oct 30, 2025
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Penultimate soccer broadcast of the year.
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LSP - Something for Everyone Since 2011Support LSP for $5 a month with a membership by clicking the "Follow+" button. Occasional goodies, pe
Penultimate soccer broadcast of the year.
My bed at FSU
Its not much but its a start!
PLEASE ALLOW 10 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS SURVEY. RESULTS WILL GO TO THE DEPARTMENTS BEING REVIEWED, SO WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR TIME AND HONE
Framingham’s First Year
www.goFramingham.com
Take 10 minutes and shape 2019.
When #YvonneSpicer proposed a 2% hike in water bills in #Framingham.... This happened: Head over to about 46 minutes in and see Yvonne get
When you give a woman a hammer...
This describes my FSU experience perfectly.
Administrators discuss maximum weekly work hours for students at Board of Trustees meeting
By Julia Sarcinelli News Editor
The Board of Trustees met Jan. 26,2016 and heard reports from administrators.
Some students are “not happy” about a new limit to the number of hours for on-campus jobs, according to student Trustee Fernando Rodriguez, who spoke at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, Jan. 26.
He added students will not be allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, which has prompted some students’ to not apply for jobs such as resident assistant.
Rodriguez said, “I would not have had the leadership opportunities that I’ve had” if the limit was in effect during his previous years at FSU. He added this limit would also hinder students who need more money and financial aid to attend college.
Dean of Students Melinda Stoops said the 20-hour limit will put the University in compliance with the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). She said if students are working on-campus jobs at a full-time rate, they are required to be paid full-time benefits.
Vice President of Enrollment and Student Development Lorretta Holloway said according to FICA rules, the University was encouraged to limit students work hours’ to 20 because after a certain number of hours, the department is required to pay into FICA. She added a major reason why the limit is going into place is because right now, there is “no mechanism for checking who is doing the jobs.
“If we were audited, we would have nothing to say since we’re not keeping track,” said Holloway.
Of 660 jobs available to students on campus, 140 students work multiple jobs, and 45 students work more than 35 hours each week, according to Holloway.
She said a pilot program will go into effect in the fall of 2016 and the limit will officially start fall of 2017. She said the pilot will help the administrators set exceptions for certain jobs that focus on academics, such as note-takers, and to set up guidelines. The limit will not apply to summer employees.
Holloway said, “Many students, when they get a professional job on campus, it’s their first job, and they don’t know their rights,” and a concern is how working many hours affects a student’s classwork.
Trustee Brian Herr expressed his concern about the policy. “You have all these hardworking students who have to work” in order to afford college, he said.
Holloway said she recognizes many FSU students need to work, and she is more focused on keeping track of how much students work. She said she looked at FSU’s sister institutions, which have set maximum hours that students can work.
Chief of Staff and General Counsel Rita Colucci said the policy would not lead to FSU hiring fewer students, but instead would result in spreading hours among more students.
Also at the Trustees’ meeting President F. Javier Cevallos said there will be a “#blacklivesmatter teach in” from Feb. 22-26 during which select classes will focus on content regarding the African American experience. According to Cevallos, there are 75 faculty members in 20 disciplines and 127 courses involved. On March 2, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., a town hall meeting will be held to discuss the teach ins.
According to Cevallos, the finalists for the Vice President for Enrollment and Student Development have been selected and a decision will be made by the end of February. The new Vice President for Enrollment and Student Development will take office July 1.
Cevallos also said the University’s focus on the 3 Rs - recruitment, responsiveness and retention - have been going well. For recruitment going forward, the University hopes to hire three interns who speak either Portuguese or Spanish or both.
The administration hopes to increase the number of male and minority students in the honors program.
In another initiative, Cevallos said about 15 students from Ecuador will come to FSU to take classes in music video production.
He added he hopes to improve retention with a new Retention Coordinator and to “reinvent” First Year Experiences.
He also said the University will be implementing a new software called Starfish. According to Cevallos, Starfish will be “the Facebook version of retention,” allowing faculty, staff and administrators to communicate directly with students.
Provost and Vice President Linda Vaden-Goad said Starfish will allow students to speak easily with their advisors, see tutoring sessions’ waiting lists in CASA and to share data.
Cevallos said an anonymous gift of $5,000 helped students in need buy books and borrow laptops and graphing calculators through the University.
A partnership between MassBay Community College and FSU will allow students with a liberal studies or business major to complete a two-year associate degree at MassBay and a four-year bachelor’s degree from Framingham State for $28,000 over a four-year period. Cevallos said students can transfer from MassBay to FSU if they would like. Additionally, some faculty members will teach classes at MassBay.
Executive Vice President Dale Hamel said the Compliance, Audit, and Risk (CAR) Committee conducted a risk assessment exercise and found 126 potential risks at FSU. The committee will categorize these risks and various departments at FSU will suggest solutions to the committee. CAR will then recommend the best course of action to minimize each risk.
Hamel also announced to the trustees that a new residential parking lot will be constructed at the intersection of Franklin Street and Mt. Wayte Avenue.
According to Vaden-Goad, the University has accomplished about three quarters of the goals in its Strategic Plan.
Trustee Fernando Quezada said the Office of Institutional Effectiveness is requesting that the 5 Year Strategic Plan be expanded to address changing goals.
Holloway said the overall goal of collaborating among offices has been successful. She added new projects, such as conducting a UMass Boston survey to decide what specifically will be helpful to students struggling with homelessness and food security, will take place.
Executive Director of the Office of Development and Alumni Relations Eric Gustafson said thanks to donors, there is now an emergency grant fund for students who are at “a crisis point,” such as at risk of not being able to stay at FSU.
Deborah Altsher, the director of financial aid, said 42 percent of students who attend FSU and filed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) qualified for the Pell Grant provided by the federal government for low-income families. Altsher said this number is “really high” and she predicted students are “only going to get needier.”
Gustafson said the alumni campaign has resulted in $3 million for student scholarships. He added some of the money is being put into a permanent endowment, and some will be immediately available to students.
According to Altsher, 87 percent of FAFSA filers received financial aid, 13 percent denied loans and 83 percent qualified for some need-base aid. She added 80 percent of FSU students filed the FASFA, which she said was a good number.
The Financial Aid Office will hold FAFSA days, according to Altsher, during which students can go to the financial aid office from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to receive help filing their FAFSA forms, and they can bring their parents.
Altsher said the Financial Aid Office has been sending out financial aid packages to prospective students as early as March, and has sent out 50 percent more awards by April than three years ago.
Chief of Staff and General Counsel Colucci said with the help of the new marketing director, Averil Capers, the University has started new branding and marketing strategies. She added administrators will also look into other means of advertising, such as television commercials.
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sean Huddleston said he wants to engage the community, especially the minority population, as part of the Center for Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan. He said the Martin Luther King Jr. conference, held Saturday Jan. 15 for first through twelfth graders, was designed to prepare them for college readiness.
Huddleston praised the Framingham State students who attended in order to talk with elementary and secondary education students. FSU will sponsor the conference for 2017.
The Diversity Fellows Program was recently renamed the Mary Miles Bibb Fellowship in honor of the first African-American woman to graduate from Framingham State, according to Huddleston.
He added the Brother to Brother (B2B) program is another initiative to increase retention.
Colleen Coffey, director of the MetroWest College Planning Center, said the organization is working closely with its targeted communities of Framingham, Marlborough and Milford.
“The need is great. The numbers that we’ve been able to serve in just over a year, just for low intensity going out into the community and talking to people about education and possibility of education - we’ve just reached over 3,000,” said Coffey. She added the center’s workers have done over 16 hours of training for FAFSA and will be completing 30 more hours of training. She said it is “much more than just filling out a form - it’s about an investment.”
Sophomore Deron Hines works at the center and said he when he decided to go to college, there “wasn’t as many people in my corner.” He came to Framingham State and said when he met Coffey, she “opened my eyes immensely.” Working at the center has allowed him to help kids who remind him of himself.
Iracely Sanchez, a sophomore, also works at the center and said she wants to make an impact and help open the eyes of high schoolers to provide them with options and information about MassBay and Framingham State. “College is the way you get to know who you are as a person. You get to meet people whom you’ve never met before. It’s a great way to learn more about you. So I believe that this job and where we stand is a great way to help the community and advance into a better tomorrow.”
Some students are “not happy” about a new limit to the number of hours for on-campus jobs, according to student Trustee Fernando Rodriguez, who spoke at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, Jan. 26.
He added students will not be allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, which has prompted some students’ to not apply for jobs such as resident assistant.
Rodriguez said, “I would not have had the leadership opportunities that I’ve had” if the limit was in effect during his previous years at FSU. He added this limit would also hinder students who need more money and financial aid to attend college.
Dean of Students Melinda Stoops said the 20-hour limit will put the University in compliance with the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). She said if students are working on-campus jobs at a full-time rate, they are required to be paid full-time benefits.
Vice President of Enrollment and Student Development Lorretta Holloway said according to FICA rules, the University was encouraged to limit students work hours’ to 20 because after a certain number of hours, the department is required to pay into FICA. She added a major reason why the limit is going into place is because right now, there is “no mechanism for checking who is doing the jobs.
“If we were audited, we would have nothing to say since we’re not keeping track,” said Holloway.
Of 660 jobs available to students on campus, 140 students work multiple jobs, and 45 students work more than 35 hours each week, according to Holloway.
She said a pilot program will go into effect in the fall of 2016 and the limit will officially start fall of 2017. She said the pilot will help the administrators set exceptions for certain jobs that focus on academics, such as note-takers, and to set up guidelines. The limit will not apply to summer employees.
Holloway said, “Many students, when they get a professional job on campus, it’s their first job, and they don’t know their rights,” and a concern is how working many hours affects a student’s classwork.
Trustee Brian Herr expressed his concern about the policy. “You have all these hardworking students who have to work” in order to afford college, he said.
Holloway said she recognizes many FSU students need to work, and she is more focused on keeping track of how much students work. She said she looked at FSU’s sister institutions, which have set maximum hours that students can work.
Chief of Staff and General Counsel Rita Colucci said the policy would not lead to FSU hiring fewer students, but instead would result in spreading hours among more students.
Also at the Trustees’ meeting President F. Javier Cevallos said there will be a “#blacklivesmatter teach in” from Feb. 22-26 during which select classes will focus on content regarding the African American experience. According to Cevallos, there are 75 faculty members in 20 disciplines and 127 courses involved. On March 2, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., a town hall meeting will be held to discuss the teach ins.
According to Cevallos, the finalists for the Vice President for Enrollment and Student Development have been selected and a decision will be made by the end of February. The new Vice President for Enrollment and Student Development will take office July 1.
Cevallos also said the University’s focus on the 3 Rs - recruitment, responsiveness and retention - have been going well. For recruitment going forward, the University hopes to hire three interns who speak either Portuguese or Spanish or both.
The administration hopes to increase the number of male and minority students in the honors program.
In another initiative, Cevallos said about 15 students from Ecuador will come to FSU to take classes in music video production.
He added he hopes to improve retention with a new Retention Coordinator and to “reinvent” First Year Experiences.
He also said the University will be implementing a new software called Starfish. According to Cevallos, Starfish will be “the Facebook version of retention,” allowing faculty, staff and administrators to communicate directly with students.
Provost and Vice President Linda Vaden-Goad said Starfish will allow students to speak easily with their advisors, see tutoring sessions’ waiting lists in CASA and to share data.
Cevallos said an anonymous gift of $5,000 helped students in need buy books and borrow laptops and graphing calculators through the University.
A partnership between MassBay Community College and FSU will allow students with a liberal studies or business major to complete a two-year associate degree at MassBay and a four-year bachelor’s degree from Framingham State for $28,000 over a four-year period. Cevallos said students can transfer from MassBay to FSU if they would like. Additionally, some faculty members will teach classes at MassBay.
Executive Vice President Dale Hamel said the Compliance, Audit, and Risk (CAR) Committee conducted a risk assessment exercise and found 126 potential risks at FSU. The committee will categorize these risks and various departments at FSU will suggest solutions to the committee. CAR will then recommend the best course of action to minimize each risk.
Hamel also announced to the trustees that a new residential parking lot will be constructed at the intersection of Franklin Street and Mt. Wayte Avenue.
According to Vaden-Goad, the University has accomplished about three quarters of the goals in its Strategic Plan.
Trustee Fernando Quezada said the Office of Institutional Effectiveness is requesting that the 5 Year Strategic Plan be expanded to address changing goals.
Holloway said the overall goal of collaborating among offices has been successful. She added new projects, such as conducting a UMass Boston survey to decide what specifically will be helpful to students struggling with homelessness and food security, will take place.
Executive Director of the Office of Development and Alumni Relations Eric Gustafson said thanks to donors, there is now an emergency grant fund for students who are at “a crisis point,” such as at risk of not being able to stay at FSU.
Deborah Altsher, the director of financial aid, said 42 percent of students who attend FSU and filed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) qualified for the Pell Grant provided by the federal government for low-income families. Altsher said this number is “really high” and she predicted students are “only going to get needier.”
Gustafson said the alumni campaign has resulted in $3 million for student scholarships. He added some of the money is being put into a permanent endowment, and some will be immediately available to students.
According to Altsher, 87 percent of FAFSA filers received financial aid, 13 percent denied loans and 83 percent qualified for some need-base aid. She added 80 percent of FSU students filed the FASFA, which she said was a good number.
The Financial Aid Office will hold FAFSA days, according to Altsher, during which students can go to the financial aid office from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to receive help filing their FAFSA forms, and they can bring their parents.
Altsher said the Financial Aid Office has been sending out financial aid packages to prospective students as early as March, and has sent out 50 percent more awards by April than three years ago.
Chief of Staff and General Counsel Colucci said with the help of the new marketing director, Averil Capers, the University has started new branding and marketing strategies. She added administrators will also look into other means of advertising, such as television commercials.
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sean Huddleston said he wants to engage the community, especially the minority population, as part of the Center for Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan. He said the Martin Luther King Jr. conference, held Saturday Jan. 15 for first through twelfth graders, was designed to prepare them for college readiness.
Huddleston praised the Framingham State students who attended in order to talk with elementary and secondary education students. FSU will sponsor the conference for 2017.
The Diversity Fellows Program was recently renamed the Mary Miles Bibb Fellowship in honor of the first African-American woman to graduate from Framingham State, according to Huddleston.
He added the Brother to Brother (B2B) program is another initiative to increase retention.
Colleen Coffey, director of the MetroWest College Planning Center, said the organization is working closely with its targeted communities of Framingham, Marlborough and Milford.
“The need is great. The numbers that we’ve been able to serve in just over a year, just for low intensity going out into the community and talking to people about education and possibility of education - we’ve just reached over 3,000,” said Coffey. She added the center’s workers have done over 16 hours of training for FAFSA and will be completing 30 more hours of training. She said it is “much more than just filling out a form - it’s about an investment.”
Sophomore Deron Hines works at the center and said he when he decided to go to college, there “wasn’t as many people in my corner.” He came to Framingham State and said when he met Coffey, she “opened my eyes immensely.” Working at the center has allowed him to help kids who remind him of himself.
Iracely Sanchez, a sophomore, also works at the center and said she wants to make an impact and help open the eyes of high schoolers to provide them with options and information about MassBay and Framingham State. “College is the way you get to know who you are as a person. You get to meet people whom you’ve never met before. It’s a great way to learn more about you. So I believe that this job and where we stand is a great way to help the community and advance into a better tomorrow.”
Photo by Allie Gath
Gatepost Interview: Mary Liscombe - Former McAuliffe Center Director & classmate to Christa McAuliffe
By Alexandra Gomes Associate Editor
Can you tell me about your time at the McAuliffe Center? What inspired you to work there?
I was a middle school science teacher and I took a course at Framingham State with Bonnie Lidback - who has passed away now - and I was telling her that I was thinking I might like to do something different. The next week in class, she said, ‘You know that conversation we had last week? There is a job that they’re going to be having here on campus, opening up this center that’s going to have middle school kids come here. I think you’d be good for this job.’ So I looked at the job, immediately sent in my resume, had an interview and got the job.
What are some of your proudest achievements from your time there?
The Challenger Center at the McAuliffe Center is one of a whole network of Challenger learning centers. There are about 40 or 50 of them around the country - actually around the world - and we became one of the best Challenger centers in the nation. We saw between 10 and 12 thousand students through that program. While I was there, I started a program where I worked with the space grant consortium from NASA and I would have between eight and 16 Framingham State pre-service teachers participate in this program teaching middle school kids during the summer about robotics and science, and they would fly a space flight mission. It was really great because it was all paid for by a grant through the Space Grant Consortium, so it was a paid internship for them in the summertime. So, those are two things I’m really proud of - being able to work with the pre-service teachers and all the teachers who came to the Challenger Center and having all those children come to the center.
Can you describe Christa as a college student?
We were both commuters, and she lived in Framingham. She went to Framingham Public Schools, and then she went to Marian High School in Framingham. Then she came to Framingham State. We were both in the class of 1970. … We had lunch together because she became friends with my best friend from high school. She was one of those people who was very bubbly, very outgoing. … She was the leader of the Girl Scout troop for her younger sisters. She taught CCD at Saint Jeremiah’s Church in Framingham. She had an after-school job. She worked down at what used to be the Howard Johnson’s restaurant, but it’s now the British Beer Company. She was involved in a lot of different things. She was still going out with her boyfriend from high school, whom she eventually married, Steve McAuliffe. She was a good student, smart girl. Everybody knew Christa because she was just bubbly. She was friendly.
What is your fondest memory of her?
I think just in general how she would get excited about things. She went to a science conference with … her physical science professor during freshman year and she came back and had met two astronauts there. She was all excited about the space program. I just remember her saying, “I’m going to do that someday.”
What do you think her legacy is?
She inspires people to dream and to think and try something you wouldn’t normally try. I’ve been thinking about that question a lot lately, and normally I would say it’s all the educational programs - and it is all that too, the educational programs and the schools that have been named after her, the centers that have been named after her - all of those things are wonderful, but Christa had a couple of sayings that were attributed to her. One of them is, “Reach for the stars.” That kind of sums up who she was. Don’t be satisfied with what you’re doing now. Always think and dream, and work for that dream. The other one was “I touched the future. I teach.” That to me is so important. That inspires teachers to think of these young people in front of them beyond the day-to-day classroom, to think about who they can be someday and how are you going to influence them to be the people that they can be in the future.
What is the one thing everyone should know/remember about her?
She was a regular person. She was a common, everyday person - a mom, a teacher - but she wasn’t afraid to dream big, and she wasn’t afraid to go for her dream and make it happen.
Editor’s Note: Christa McAuliffe was an FSU alumna who was selected to be the first teacher in space. She was one of seven crew members aboard the space shuttle Challenger when it broke apart 73 seconds after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. It was 36 degrees at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and it was 15 degrees colder than any previous launch attempt.
Following her death, schools and Challenger learning centers have been opened in her honor nationwide. FSU is home to one of these centers - the Christa McAuliffe Center. According to its website, christa.org, the center “offers integrated science learning opportunities that help k-16 students develop the skills and knowledge they will need to meet the challenges of work, life and citizenship for the 21st century.”
Letter to the Editor
By Carl Hakansson Geography Department Sustainable Policies Coordinator
Over the past seven years, Framingham State University has made great strides in addressing its carbon footprint and incorporating sustainable policies into its day to day practices.
The University converted its outdated power plant, thus reducing its carbon footprint by over 30 percent, increased its power use created by renewables by close to 20 percent, converted dining services to a totally compostable kitchen while also saving significant amounts of water, reduced paper use by over 25 percent, extended class scheduling allowing for more flexible scheduling of classes and reduced commuting trips, and created a LEED Gold residence hall among other accomplishments.
Where we have fallen short of expectations is encouraging the student body to be fully committed to addressing climate change and sustainable policies at the University. I encourage each student to read our Climate Action Plan which is located on the FSU website, to become familiar with what you can do as a student (i.e. recycle, turn off lights in empty rooms, join the Green Team) and to demand that the University live up to its designation as a Green Campus.
FSU has been designated by Princeton Review as one the most affordable green universities in the country for the past 4 years. That designation is not renewed automatically. It takes commitment and vigilance at every level and is dependant on student involvement.
Please become aware of what is going on environmentally at the campus level and please help to make FSU a leader and a model for sustainable practices in higher education.