By Darin Stone
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 15, 1997

AIC adds more students, cafeteria hours for spring semester

Mike Celaya, AIC director of enrollment services, said the first semester ended with "no major crisis."

"Things here went just as they would go on any campus," Celaya said.

He said student involvement in various activities was one of the major success stories of AIC's first semester.

"Students became more and more involved in different activities," Celaya said. "(Students) got leg work done in establishing a student government, such as researching various school constitutions."

Celestino Fern ndez, AIC executive vice president and provost, said it has been a challenging year thus far for both the students and the faculty.

"The classes here have been very demanding for the students," Fern ndez said. "The professors have spent a large amount of time outside of class meeting one on one with their students."

Celaya said he has been pleased with the opportunity students have had to work with their professors and pursue their academic goals.

"Students have been energetically interacting with the faculty," Celaya said. "Because of our size, students here can pursue their deep passions."

He said AIC is slowly growing. The first-year liberal arts campus, which is affiliated with the UA, plans to add at least six more students and bring enrollment up to 50 this month.

Two students are not expected to return for the spring semester, Celaya said.

AIC is not without its share of pitfalls, though. Fern ndez said AIC faculty are reviewing the school's "Becoming a Fully Educated Person" class in hopes of making it more profitable for students.

"Right now we are revising the class, hopefully making it more consistent with our mission," Fern ndez said.

The campus has also had problems with its cafeteria facilities, which it shares with businesses at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park, 9000 S. Rita Road.

Celaya said the cafeteria's hours have not been completely accommodating to student's schedules, but plans are in the works to extend breakfast and lunch eating periods. He said the cafeteria, which was open last semester from 6:30 to 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., plans to extend its breakfast hours until 9 a.m. and its lunch hours by an hour.

Celaya said the campus is adding more furniture to the building, something that was lacking during the first semester.

"Furniture was limited, but we commissioned a team of students to compare prices and buy sofas," Celaya said.

All furniture is paid for by the campus, but not all has been received.

And a permanent site for AIC's residence halls has yet to be decided, which has delayed the construction.

"We are still three to four years away from having residence halls on campus," Celaya said. "Obviously we cannot build residence halls until we know where our permanent location is going to be."