August 2012

From the President

For more than forty years Wheaton College has launched its new school year with a week-long student leadership retreat at our northwoods campus, HoneyRock. 

Next week nearly 300 student leaders and Wheaton staff will gather in northern Wisconsin. They will come from summer work or ministry experiences, global summer internships, and travel opportunities to prepare for the school year.  In the remoteness of the northwoods they will work, hike, play, worship, and reflect together on student leadership goals and how they can best contribute to community life together. 

From overnight wilderness trips, to nightly campfires, in meetings, meals, and team-building experiences your students will work with peers and staff to anticipate an exciting new year of community life.  They will then return to campus a week before most students arrive to prepare a suitable welcome for your student at Orientation, or just before classes begin on Wednesday, August 29. 

My leadership team and I will also head to HoneyRock next week with our spouses and families to prepare for 2012-2013.  In addition to hard work it will be a time of great refreshment and renewal of relationships.  I will relish the opportunity of meeting with the student leaders at HoneyRock, and welcoming you and your student to Wheaton’s campus in just a few weeks.

In Christ’s Service,

Philip G. Ryken
President

Welcome New Parents!

The Parent Relations office at Wheaton College looks forward to welcoming you and your student to campus in just three weeks.  One of our annual highlights at Parent Orientation is hearing the enthusiasm of parents who, despite feeling a mix of emotions while saying goodbye to their student, feel confident about their student's future learning experience in a globally-minded, Christian, academic community like Wheaton.

The Parent Relations office is here to support you as you grow oriented to the offices of Wheaton College, the services in place to care for your student, and the adjustments parents make in supporting this developmental stage of a college student’s life.  This newsletter is one information source designed to help keep you informed about news and events at Wheaton.  We also want to point you to our Parent Relations website as another hub of links and resources, including some perspective on how you as a parent can encourage your student through the challenges and joys of their college days.

Many quality books have been written on the subject of parenting college students and emerging adults.  One that we like to recommend is by Wheaton College alumnus, David Veerman ’65. Published in 2006, Letting Them Go, is available through online booksellers and is full of practical insight that many parents will find useful.

Lastly, we encourage you to save the date for Family Weekend: October 26-27!  Many parents comment that what they love most about Family Weekend is meeting the new friends their student has made and experiencing a taste of what a day in the life of their student is like in a town and on a campus like Wheaton.  You can visit our Family Weekend webpage for a look back at Family Weekend 2011 and watch for the fresh schedule of events for Family Weekend 2012.

Wheaton Athletics

The start of a new school year also means a new year of Thunder Athletics. Wheaton’s home games kick off on August 30 with the football program’s first-ever Thursday night game. That same weekend, the Thunder soccer teams will open up play with their respective versions of the Bob Baptista Invitational. Women’s tennis, volleyball, women’s golf and men’s golf open up their season that weekend as well. Jump on our website to catch the full season preview. 

2012-13 Season Passes are available for purchase and are good for admission for the whole family.  Passes can be used at most home athletics events during the regular season.

For up-to-date news and results on Wheaton’s varsity teams, visit the Wheaton Athletics website at athletics.wheaton.edu. You can also follow Thunder Athletics on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for our text-message service that will send scores and results directly to your phone; fans can also sign up for our weekly athletics newsletter.

Financial Aid

Parents, we look forward to welcoming your students to the campus as incoming freshmen or welcoming them back as continuing students.  During new student and parent orientation, our office will be open during our regular business hours from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday.  We would love to meet you and answer any questions.  If you or your student wish for a personal meeting with a Financial Aid counselor, we suggest making an appointment beforehand so that we can make sure we’re available.  Our number is 800-362-2674, and our email address is finaid@wheaton.edu.

1. Make sure that the application process is finished and that Financial Aid has processed an award.
2. Check to see that your son or daughter has responded to the award online to accept/decline the award.
3. If your student has accepted loans, there will be additional requirements such as loan master promissory notes and loan entrance counseling to complete. Please be sure he/she completes them by mid-August.

Did you know? We have a work-station in our office that students can use for financial aid purposes such as accepting awards.

Questions about your student’s account? If your student’s financial aid has already disbursed into his/her account, you might want to contact Student Accounts at student.accounts@wheaton.edu or call them at 630-752-5801.

May your sons and daughters get off to a great start!

Student Health Insurance

Wheaton College requires all students to show proof of health insurance. If you have comparable coverage as outlined on the student health insurance website, you can waive out of the plan before the deadline of September 14, 2012.  The waiver process is only online.  Do not sent insurance cards to Wheaton College. There are no refunds after this deadline date.

Gallagher-Koster is the broker company that manages the waiver site. Gallagher-Koster also manages the insurance product that Wheaton students will be required to enroll in if they do not fulfill the waiver requirements before the September 14 deadline. They are well known among the student health insurance community.  If you have student health insurance question or any waiver concerns, you can contact them at 1-855-275-3700 or email them at wheatonILstudent@GallagherKoster.com.

This plan encompasses preventive services such as physicals, prescriptions and vaccinations.  Student Health Services is considered an in-network or preferred provider for this plan. SHS provides services to students and their spouses regardless of the health insurance they carry.  Students can view the new plan and waiver at the Gallagher-Koster website.

Student Health Services

New students: welcome to Wheaton College!  Returning students: glad to have you back!

College is an exciting time.  It provides a great opportunity for learning and growth. Student Health Services would like to assist students to utilize this opportunity to the fullest. SHS is a fully equipped medical office that active students and their spouses are welcome to utilize regardless of the type of health insurance they have.  SHS is staffed with 4 board-certified physicians who are alumni of Wheaton College and one nurse practitioner.  The nursing staff is experienced in college health.  Students are welcome to stop in to speak with a nurse about their medical questions or be assessed free of charge.  Our hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30am-5:00pm; Saturday, 10:00am-12:00pm.

Our services include: physician appointments (cost $25.00); in-house or outsourced laboratory services (rapid strep or mono tests, for example), observation rooms, completion of small office procedures such as wart removal; registered dietician appointments, massage therapy; International travel clinic; vaccinations; pharmacy; free medical shuttle, and more. For more information about our services go to our website or contact us at 630-752-5072 or Health.Services@wheaton.edu

All services that have fees are billed to the student’s account.  The student will be sent a statement in their mailbox that they can then send it to the insurance company for possible reimbursement.  SHS does not bill insurance companies directly.

SHS provides preventive health and promotional activities throughout the year.  The flu shot will be available in September and will be announced on the website and other media venues.  SHS is also proud to announce a new web magazine with health promotional idea such as healthy cooking, exercise, stress reduction and more.  The magazine will be available for reading mid-September.

Wheaton Bookstore and Campus Stores

 Fall Textbooks 2012.  Your student can now place his or her order for fall textbooks via "Easy Book" at www.wheatonbooks.com.  Textbook orders will be picked, processed, bagged and ready for your student when they arrive on campus.

EasyBooks keep getting better!  In addition to having a large number of money-saving used books, we've also expanded our money-saving textbook rental offerings.  When students pull up their list of books, they’ll have the option of renting books, especially the higher priced ones.  Our rental offerings come either directly from the Bookstore (listed right under the new/used prices) or from a national textbook company called Skyo (in the Compare Prices section).  Either way students rent their books, they’ll be able to return them to the Bookstore at the end of the semester.

We’ve also introduced Guaranteed Buyback.  For titles that we know we’ll be buying back at the end of the semester, we let the purchaser know what the buy-back reimbursement will be at semester's end.  For those books that are purchased, the buyback price will be guaranteed at the December buyback. Please note that our Guaranteed Buyback books may only apply to books bought at the Wheaton College Bookstore.

We also continue to offer Comparison Pricing on our web site.  For most books you will see a box called "Compare Prices" where you can see prices from Amazon, Half.com, and Skyo and elect to place orders right on the spot for these books.  Please note a few things when ordering from these other places:

• Time needs to be allowed to receive these orders—whereas books ordered directly from Wheaton College Bookstore will be waiting for you at campus when you arrive, orders from Half.com and Amazon can take up to 6 weeks to arrive.
• Follow-up on orders placed elsewhere is necessary—it’s almost a guarantee that some of the book orders you place on Half.com and Amazon will be problematic.  Some of your books will get lost in transit, not get shipped out at all, or be the wrong book.  With the Bookstore, you’re guaranteed to have what’s listed on our web site when you arrive on campus.  With other sellers, you will probably get what you need much of the time, but there will be times when you don’t.  That’s where follow-up on your part is crucial.
• Purchasing from other book sellers, even those listed on our site, does not carry the same guarantee as buying your books at Wheaton College Bookstore. We are responsible only for items purchased within the Wheaton shopping cart.

Using Financial Aid or a Wheaton Campus Store gift card? We recommend that you do not use EasyBook Compare, but purchase exclusively from Wheatonbooks.com.  Financial aid students who have a credit balance in their Student Account are allowed to make purchases for class room related materials from the Wheaton College Bookstore. Please email bookstore@wheaton.edu or phone 630-752-7010 or 630-752-5327 for more information.

One College, One Book - Our campus book for 2012-13 is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a novel by Rebecca Skloot.  It is available online at www.wheatonbooks.com for $11.97.  Students, staff and faculty are urged to buy the book, read it this summer, and bring it to campus when returning in the fall.  Many parents joined us last year in reading the 2011-12 choice: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Wheaton's Award-Winning Food Service: Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit is the award winning food service provider for Wheaton College, charged with feeding more than 2000 undergraduate students on a daily basis.  It's a job we are so blessed and honored to fulfill.  We know that back at home parents often want to send a special something to their son or daughter to let them know they are thinking about them.  We offer a number of different treats and baskets parents can order for their son or daughter for any occasion.  Whether it's a birthday, holiday, final exam, or just to let them know you are thinking about them, we can put something together that they will appreciate.  Some of the items we offer are birthday cakes, cookie baskets, exam treat baskets, cake pop baskets, gift cards, and holiday themed baskets like our very popular Valentine’s Day Cake Pop Basket.  With enough notice, we can even customize a care package to meet most any need.  You can even plan out the year in advance and not have to worry about calling us last-minute.  Just give us the dates you want something for your son or daughter, and we will take care of the rest.  To find out more and get pricing information, please contact Kimberly Farmer: kimberly.farmer@cafebonappetit.com.  We look forward to serving you!

Wheaton Associates: Making Wheaton Affordable

Questions?  If you have any questions about the Wheaton Fund and/or Wheaton Associates, please don’t hesitate to contact the Wheaton Associates office at 630-752-5925 or wheaton.associates@wheaton.edu.

For more information or to make a Wheaton Fund gift, please visit wheaton.edu/giving

We look forward to seeing you on campus very soon!

The Wheaton College Parent Relations staff
www.wheaton.edu/parents