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Parents—Welcome to The
Ingram Commons!
Together with Suzanne Thigpen, the
director of Parents and Family Programs, I write to welcome you to a
summertime series of the "PreVU" email newsletter, especially for
parents of incoming first-year students. We will send these to you
regularly throughout the summer and hope you will find them useful. This
project is the result of collaboration over the last several years between
the faculty and staff of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt and
the Parents and Family Association advisory board. Our planned topics are
listed below. Remember, we'd love to hear from you.
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Frank Wcislo
Dean, The Ingram Commons
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Suzanne Thigpen
Director, Parents and Family Programs
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Parent helpline: (877) 887-2736
New student hotline: (615) 343-5180
Summer PreVU topics
- The Ingram
Commons first-year experience
- Academic
resources and services
- Student
organizations and social life at Vanderbilt
- Student
health and wellness
- Housing and
moving in
- CommonVU
(orientation) and VUcept groups
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A welcome letter from
Dean Wcislo
On behalf of the faculty, staff and students who
live and learn here, welcome to The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at
Vanderbilt. This is a special place. Ten of Vanderbilt's best professors,
each a distinguished scholar and teacher, live on The Ingram Commons as
faculty heads of house, making their home in faculty apartments in each
house. They are mentors of the living-learning communities that your
students will create in their houses. Resident advisers and head residents
live on the floors of the houses, serving as peer mentors and providing
support and experience about social and academic life at Vanderbilt, as
well as the community norms that govern it.
Upperclass students are part of the community as well—some alumni of The
Ingram Commons, others as Move Crew volunteers, and still others as leaders
and members of the more than 400 campus student organizations. Some 180
faculty and student VUceptors lead Vanderbilt Visions small groups,
designed to help first-year students make connections outside their houses
and discuss the roller-coaster transition to university life that they'll
experience this fall.
At its core, the first year focuses on academic classes led by the faculty
members of Arts and Science, Blair, Engineering and Peabody. Their teaching
and mentoring allow students, when actively engaged, to discover ideas and
talents not yet imagined.
We want you to know that we believe in the future of your sons and
daughters. Vanderbilt wants to help them reach their goals. We saw in each
of them something that we want to make a part of Vanderbilt. Their
intellectual strengths, social interests, ethical perspectives and cultural
experiences are the pieces of the mosaic that we will assemble this year
across the living-learning communities of The Ingram Commons. We will
provide your students with intellectual and academic challenges, strong
undergraduate support services and a rich social life. We also assure you
that they will encounter all the dilemmas we associate with coming of age.
We ask you to join us in an educational partnership and begin talking with
your sons and daughters now about their lives as independent adults.
I ask you to urge your students to:
- visit
professors during their office hours
- challenge an
interpretation in class
- chat with their
faculty head
- help their
RA create a house event
- understand
somebody different than them
- get involved
in student governance
- make music
- help a
friend
- get to know
their VUceptor
- think why
they want to join a Greek organization
- volunteer
their service
- cheer for
the 'Dores
- discover
Nashville
- care for
themselves, their home and their classmates
- take charge
of their education
- feel
empowered
And finally, join my wife, Jane Wcislo, and me at least
once this coming year at an evening in the Dean's Residence. Our living
room and dining room are places where good food, lively company, smart
people and great ideas mix for some memorable evenings.
See you on Move-in Day, August 18.
Frank Wcislo
Dean of The Ingram Commons
Associate Professor of History and European Studies
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The Road to Vanderbilt
The
Road to Vanderbilt, a small spiral-bound book, was mailed to
your student in early May. Inside The
Road is a checklist of tasks that need to be completed before
students arrive on campus. Additionally, you can find information on campus
services and resources. Be sure to discuss this publication with your
student.
A PDF of this publication can be found here.
Upcoming dates and
deadlines
June
1
Housing application due
June 4–22
Class registration period
June 15
Deadline for roommate requests
June 22
Deadline for uploading Commodore Card photo
Important links
Road to Vanderbilt
The Ingram Commons
Common Place Class of 2016
Parents and Family Programs
Housing
Dining
Commodore Card
Student Health
Student Accounts
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Information to expect
from Vanderbilt
May 1–August 18
May
- Receipt of
the matriculation fee, Undergraduate Student Account Agreement, and
request to submit photo for your Commodore Card (mail)
- Materials
and instructions for class registration (mail or email, depending on
school)
June
- Mailed copy
of The Ingram Commons reading: Half
the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
- Information
about health insurance (mail)
- Postcard
about meal plan (mail)
July
- Directory of
Dining Services (mail)
- Information
from the bookstore about ordering textbooks and course materials
(email)
- Letter from
VUceptors (mail or email)
Early August
- Notification
of housing and room assignment, roommate information, mail box number
and Vanderbilt address, shipping instructions, move-in instructions
(mail)
June
July
- Welcome
letter from the board chairs of the Parents and Family Association and
the Parents Leadership Committee (mail)
- OverVU parent
newsletter (mail)
- Welcome
phone call from a Vanderbilt staff member during phone-a-thon
August
- Family
Weekend brochure (mail)
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