Membership
To become a student of Columtreal, you must first read and understand the guidelines below, then apply for membership. If your application is approved, you will receive an invite to the Columtreal University Roleplay group with the title of CU Looter. With the group invite, you’ll also receive an IM with instructions to either pay the one-time L$500 donation at the admissions office for an invite to the CU Student Body group, or work through the in-character financial aid process for the invite.
Membership Benefits
Students and Faculty of CU who are approved will enjoy the following:
- Invitation to the exclusive Columtreal University Roleplay and CD Citizens groups
- Access to instant-invite using For Hire signs to business groups in Black Bottom and Hathian
- Personal Character Evolution profile which tracks police, medical, employment, and course transcript records
- Access to all Alterscape community websites: forums, events, groups, personal Character Evolution dashboard, and member-only information
- Ability to join and propose student organizations, greek fraternity/sorority, or campus businesses
Character Evolution System
Columtreal University is an ALTERSCAPE community which features the Character Evolution System. It’s a role-play system with features designed for text-based role-play, doesn’t require a HUD to use, and rewards members with exclusive group titles while tracking their role-play history / character development via different groups who submit content like police reports, medical reports, and advising reports. Additionally, the time spent on sim, in different business venues, and participation on forums help you earn new roles quicker. Members can access their history by logging onto this website.
Basically, the more you interact with the police (get cited, arrested, etc.), hospital (get treatment, recover, etc.), work (RP at one of the many official businesses as an employee), spend time on the streets of Hathian or campus, and teach or attend courses, your character will evolve and you will earn special titles indicating your experience and status in the community.
Freshman to Alumni
New students will begin as CU Freshman and will have to spend time on campus, attend events, and classes to accrue the necessary credits, as detailed in the section above, to advance in the following order:
- Freshman
- Sophomore
- Junior
- Senior
- Alumni
Every time you meet with faculty for a 1-1 advising session, your earned credits from attending classes and time on campus will be automatically reviewed and rewarded if you meet the next grades’ criteria. Be sure to participate in advising sessions on a regular basis!
Paying Tuition vs. Financial Aid
When a student registration has been accepted, an invite to the Columtreal University Roleplay group with the CU Applicant title is sent. At this point, the student has two paths to obtain the CU Freshman role in the CU Student Body group:
- Tuition: For an instant invite to the CU Freshman role, visit the Administration building. At the counter, pay the cash register a one-time donation of L$500 for lifetime membership. Proceeds go towards the upkeep of the sim.
- Financial Aid: Not everyone can afford the fee in Second Life; for this reason, we’ve setup an alternative way to join as a CU Freshman without payment. First, you must be a member of the Columtreal University Roleplay or CD Citizen group by registering online and receiving an invite. Second, you must obtain a job on campus by visiting one of the various businesses with the orange "For Hire" sign; use the sign to select your desired role and you will be instantly employed. Finally, RP and accrue up to 20 hours of time on your employer’s timesheet before returning to the Admissions building and using the orange computer terminal to process your financial aid request and receive an instant invite to the CU Freshman role. We recommend you pursue working on campus when you’re not in class or attending an event; it’s a great way to meet new people and start role-play scenes.
Classroom Features & Systems
Every working class room has an overhead projector (themed with CU colors) in the front. These projectors can be clicked on to interact with the Class Registration System to create and track classes.
Instructors will first need to click on the projector and START a class (note: instructors must appear on the faculty roster in order to have access to start classes). The option will load a short web form to fill in the class title, what major it applies to, and a brief description. Upon submitting, the classroom would now be booked for the next 90 minutes. If another faculty member clicks on the projector, it will inform them that the class is currently booked and how much time left until it becomes available (we have 3 classrooms, so try another!).
The recommended flow for anyone interested in running a class on campus is to use the events calendar on the site to post the date and time of your class/workshop. On the day of the event, when you’re ready to start, just follow the instructions above. Posting on the calendar is not a requirement to start classes; it’s just highly recommended to get the maximum students. The more students attend, the more credit a faculty member will earn towards advancing their rank on staff. We also didn’t make it a requirement in case there are enough students on campus and someone wants to hold an ad hoc workshop/class.
Students at this point can click on the same projector to immediately enroll into the class. If an instructor has not started the class, it will indicate so. At this point, students can just RP in the classroom. Depending on when they enroll and how long they RP in the classroom, they will up to anywhere between 1-3 credits for the class and it will appear on their transcript. If a faculty member wants to attend a class as a student, clicking on the projector will give them an additional option to enroll.
Class/Course Ideas and Best Practices
Read this threadfor ideas on what kind of classes and how to best run them…
