Times are changing for BGeXperience – again. BGeX, the required freshman academic program which was first offered at the University in 2001, is being changed for the 2009 academic year. These changes mark the second year in a row the program has been changed, both years due to budget costs. For freshmen moving in Aug. 22 in the fall, the program will be concentrated on Sunday, Aug. 23, and the class sizes of values classes has increased from the previous limit of 25 students to 35. George Agich, the director for BGeXperience, said the reasons for the changes in 2008 were due to budget cuts. As a result of the cut, the residents won’t be moving in three days early, they will move in just under two. ‘The size was increased up to 35 to save money,’ Agich said. This won’t be a problem due to the fact that most instructors of values classes are experienced faculty members and have taught BGeXperience before, Agich said. ‘They know how to engage the students during their first year,and that’s what it’s about,’ Agich said. Until 2008, students moved into the residence halls to start their freshmen year the Thursday before classes started. Sophomore Lauren Trombley said she liked this approach. ‘I felt like that gave me a lot of time to adjust to the college environment,’ she said. ‘It gave me enough time to get moved in and understand what was going on.’ In 2008, however, the program was changed from a three-day introduction to one-and-a-half day experience with resident advisors and peer facilitators more involved on Saturday night. The resident advisors and peer facilitators held a session with the students in the values classes and showed a video about the community, in an effort to help the students get more involved in the city of Bowling Green. Trombley, who was one of the resident advisors helping, said the way things were done needed to be more organized. ‘Saturday was crazy. Everything was so jam packed,’ she said. ‘The connections between the resident advisors and peer facilitators was very disorganized. I think residents need more time to prepare themselves for the college life.’ This year, the sessions will all be on Sunday starting at 11 a.m. with five sessions including an introduction to values, values in the college life, the common reading and another session with the peer facilitator ending the day. Freshman Maeron Bullington said she doesn’t think the increase in the class size will be an issue. ‘A 10 person difference isn’t that much to me as a student,’ she said. Agich said this should be looked at with an open mind. ‘If we say that this will be a bad change in advance, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy,’ he said. ‘We’ve just gotta make this work.’