During the 2013 fall semester, the Academic Advising Office resurrected The RUDDER academic advising handbook. “The handbook was a publication from the 1920s through 1990s, published by the Student Council (later Student Senate) and eventually by the academic advising office,” Jean-Paul Benowitz, assistant director of academic advising, said in an email. The office decided to rename the First-Year Student Academic Advising Handbook, to give back its original name lost in the 1980s.
The handbook, designed for first-year students, provides them with helpful information to smooth the transition from high school to college. The publication also is used by faculty members for first-year seminar orientation presentations.
The RUDDER handbook, comes with a new cover and includes a title page explaining the publication’s history and an image of the of the original handbook cover, designed by Fred Horbach ’53. Benowitz recently sent a new copy of the RUDDER to Horbach. “What a pleasant surprise! To open a large, brown envelope and find the new edition of The RUDDER,” said Horbach’s email.
He never knew the handbook originally was published by Student Council, which he had the privilege of serving as president during his senior year at E-town. “It was nice to know I had made a small contribution to the college; for Elizabethtown College had given me an amazing wealth of experience that immeasurably enriched my life,” he wrote.
The new cover is based on the previous one designed by Horbach. “We wanted to incorporate the sailboat and the whole sailing theme and recapture the essence of The RUDDER,” said senior Cassie Meade, designer of the new cover. “It took a couple of drafts and finally came together with a nice nautical feel.”