Lancaster

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Site Information

Location

The Lancaster site is held at Franklin and Marshall College, in (where else?) Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster is right in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch country, but as a CTYer, you won't get the chance to do any Amish sightseeing, except perhaps on a weekend trip to the Farmers' Market in downtown Lancaster. The rest of your time will be spent on campus, which at 55 acres is small but not cramped. The campus can seem a good deal smaller, though, during times when it is shared by other programs, including a number of sports camps. However, CTY is by far the largest presence at F&M during the summer.

Dorms

There are four main dormitories occupied by CTYers: North and South Ben, (or Benjamin Franklin Residence Halls) Thomas, and Schnader. North and South Ben are each subdivided into four halls, and Thomas and Schnader both have north and south subdivisions as well. North and South Ben form the west side of the residential quad, flanking the dining hall, and Thomas and Schnader are on the east side. Weis Hall, on the north end of the quad, is home to the academic and administrative staff, and is off-limits to students. Since 2003, access to all the dorms is controlled by fobs.

(During the 2004 sessions, students lived in North Ben, Thomas, Marshall-Buchanan, and Dietz due to renovations at F&M. Dietz is located across Hartman Green and Marshall-Buchanan is on the south side of the quad. Similarly, in 2005, students lived in Schnader, South Ben, Marshall (males only), and Buchanan (females only) while the office and medical office were housed in Thomas. Also in 2006, students lived in Schander, South Ben, Marshall and Thomas, due to renovations again at F&M, while the office and the medical office was housed in Thomas.)

All the dorms are air-conditioned, though the individual air-conditioners can be cranky. One distinctive feature of the bedrooms is their modular furniture. By properly positioning the wardrobe and dresser, the bed can be placed on top of both, creating a loft—ladders are provided in each room for this very purpose. This frees up a lot of space in the room, provided that you don't mind sleeping within two feet of the paneled ceiling. Occasionally, a student will fall out of a lofted bed, prompting the staff to enforce a "no lofts" policy. When this occurs, the RA's come through the halls debunking everyone's beds.

As of at least 06.2, North Ben is under construction, outcome unknown, forcing some instructors/TAs to live in Weis.

Food

All students eat in the central cafeteria on campus. There are four lines and four dining rooms. See Alcove and LLRT for information on the groups associated with specific areas of the dining halls.

Selection of food on each line:

  1. Mixing Bowl Cafe (burgers, sandwiches)
  2. Italian Kitchen (pizza, pasta, salad)
  3. Diner (burgers, fries, etc.)
  4.  ????? (standard style dorm food, usually meat, veggies, with rice/mashed potatoes); also used to have stir fry (stir fry is back again!!!)

(Again due to renovations, the students were forced to trek across the footbridge during the 2004 sessions for meals at the Alumni Sports & Fitness Center.)

History

Lancaster is one of the oldest CTY sites, and as such, has some of the oldest and richest traditions. Although the first OTID (Office of Talent Identification and Development, a former name for CTY) summer program was held at St. Mary's College in 1981, it was held at Lancaster and Carlisle in the following year, and these two sites have been the oldest continuously running CTY sites.

Throughout most of its history, Lancaster has been the largest site at CTY, hosting over 500 students each session. Until the mid-1990s, Lancaster's many courses were organized into five colleges, for Humanities, Writing, Math, Computer Science, and Science. Each college was partly autonomous, with its own graduation ceremony, and, for a time, its own t-shirts. Since then, the academic organization has been streamlined into three subject areas (Humanities/Writing, Math/Computer Science, and Science) with a single graduation ceremony.

Because of its size and age, Lancaster has seen numerous student groups and traditions arise; some of these can be seen below.

Courses offered

Lancaster has had traditionally been a hotspot for math and science courses. It is the only site to offer Number Theory, Theory of Computation, Data Structures and Algorithms, Selected Topics in Advanced Biology, and Selected Topics in Advanced Chemistry. Lancaster is one of two sites to offer History of Disease, Archaeology, and Paleobiology, and in 2001, it was the first site to offer Cryptology. Lancaster also offers Fundamentals of Computer Science. Lancaster also has some strong humanities offerings, such as Ancient Greek and Etymologies, though it lacks the breadth of Carlisle in this regard.

Students and Organizations

Students

RA's

Positions

Groups

Traditions




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