The Stetson Reporter

STETSON .UN IJV E R S I T Y by andy dehnart | Air conditioning has been restored to Emily Hall following a week of unusually high temperatures in the residence hall. Failure in one of the air conditioning units caused another to fail, leaving the building without a/c. Because of the heat, many residents left their rooms during the week, spending the night in the Commons or local hotel rooms. Although workers successfully brought tlie a/c system back online late Thursday evening, Vice President for Facilities Management David Noyes said that some work still needs to be done. A generator is currently powering the well motor that was brought over from Edmunds Center to replace the failed unit. Also, a second chiller barrel needs to be installed, he said. Officials project that work will be done sometime this week and may involve turning off the air for an hour or more. At a town hall meeting Thursday, approximately 75 Of Emily's 240 residents queried administrators about the air conditioning and other campus living problems. "I simply want to express our regret and express our appreciation for your cooperation,"- Jim Beasley, vice president for Campus Life, said at the meeting. "I'm very sorry > UJ m "I simply want to express our regret and express our appreciation for your cooperation, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and discomfort you've experienced." for the inconvenience and discomfort you've experienced," he said. Noyes said that the series of problems was "both extremely unfortunate and unusual." Power failures [see related story on page 2a] caused •equipment to burn i, he said, and the failure of one unit led the other unit to tlso fail. "These buildings have overheated something Urrible. The a/c has been overtaxed. ... At 50 percent capacity, it just couldn't catch up," Noyes told the resi- -dents. "It's nothing we would wish on anyone," Noyes said. "We do not have a financial limitation on dealing with this problem." In addition to residents requesting reimbursement for fans and hotel stays, resident Tara Hoffman asked Beasley for a prorated refund for residents' inconvenience, because "a lot of us are here because we have to be.... We should get our money back." Nearly everyone applauded. ' ■ . ■ Beasley promised to look into the possibility of refunds for the room and said he would respond within a week. In a letter sent to residents dated Monday, Beasley Informed residents of Chaudoin Hall's North wing and residents of Emily Hall that they will receive reimbursement Tor fans and area hotel stays during the outage period. Also, residents ofChaudoin's North wing and Emily Hall will receive $50 credited to their university accounts. At times, the conversation shifted to concerns about issues like problems with the new telephone system and other changes. At one point, questions were raised about the necessity of spending money on a chapel when there , are lingering maintenance concerns. Beasley said, "that's a good question," and said that donors approach the university about funding particular projects or areas. Other residents echoed that concern. One resident said there was "a lot of discontentment about the way my money's being spent." Assistant Director of Residential Life Nicole Kotlan asked residents, "Can we refocus on Emily please?" Residents also asked about the age of the air conditioning system, which was installed originally in 1963 along with a wing addition. Although the original infrastructure is that old, upgrades to equipment have contin- ' ued through 1994. Noyes also told the- Emily Hall residents that constructing a newer, more centralized air conditioning system is in the university's master plan. A'campus-wide town hall meeting has been scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. in the Stetson Room as a result • of concerns raised in the Emily Hall meeting. Co-sponsored by the Council of Vice Presidents, Emily Residence Hall Council and The Reporter, the forum will bring together administrators from various departments who will answer questions from students. . Andy Dehnart is the editor of 'The Reporter. u (9 < a z O ee u. life | Swing dancing is the latest craze of the dance world. Dancers are donning zoot suits and fedoras as well as short dresses and colorful bloomers. Popular music, like Cherry Poppin Daddies and Brian Setzer Orchestra, from the forties has been brought back in the craze. Clubs in Orlando like Rat Packs have embraced the craze as well. [see Life page 1 b] wed s e p t ,< 4 issue 4 volume 111 AND THE DOW N CHAOS: Books lie on collapsed shelves in the basement of the du-Pont Ball Library, photos by andy dehnart by julie gowan | Last Wednesday morning, the basement of the du-Pont Ball Library became covered in books as bookshelves collapsed one after the other, falling prey to the domino effect. "A workman was working in the overhead of the South end of the library and what resulted — which is currently under investigation — was that the support braces became unfixed from a stack at the south end, and that particular stack arrangement fell over and pulled the other stacks with it," said David Noyes, vice president of Facilities Management. . . Despite the massive collapse, which occurred around 7:15 a.m., no one was injured. The contractor and subcontractor involved are working with Facilities Management to formulate a plan . to restore the racks and books until the entire racking system can be replaced. "It is currently the responsibility of the contractor and sub contractor that are involved with the renovations," said Noyes. It will take at least!2-14 weeks to get the racks needed for replacement of the shelves. Noyes said, "If this is the case, we will have to probably box those books and store them either on or off location in order to continue construction and not delay it." Brad Willenbrock, a senior majoring in English, said that the basement contains "valuable articles and periodicals that have necessary information." Willenbrock is taking a research collaboration course in the American studies department about the history of student activism. Prohibiting access to the stacks in the basement "will hinder the research process for papers, term papers and research papers," said Willenbrock. "If you ask any senior, they're likely to say the same thing," he added. Sara Rosenblad, a senior communication studies major, said she will have difficulty selecting a topic for her senior research without knowing what resources will be available once she starts. She said, "As somebody who often relies on old theories for communications, it's going to affect my work." Further, "This is just one more thing," she said, "on the stack of other problems that this school has." As.a result of this incident, all the basement stacks that house bound journals and magazines from before 1986 - will not be accessible for the foreseeable future. . The library will provide interlibrary loan service to obtain articles from other libraries, but students should plan ahead for their needs. Even though the ILL requests will be processed within 24 hours, the library staff will depend on other libraries to get the materials to Stetson, and they cannot predict exactly how long this process may take. Staff is telling students to plan on an average of 10 days of waiting for certain materials. Julie Gowan is a sophomore who was nat thinking about her. senior research and its complexity until now. ins on a by jeff HAMRICK | G. Benjamin Wills, the director of administrative affairs, is on administrative leave, as of last Wednesday at 3 p.m.., university officials told The Reporter recently. Wills' leave was announced by Judson Stryker, the vice president for business and finance. Stryker is Wills' immediate supervisor. It was not immediately clear why Wills had been placed on administrative leave. The Reporter attempted to contact Stryker, but staff members were told that they should speak with Brian Miller, the director of Public Relations. Further attempts to acquire information from Stryker's office and Wills' office were all deflected by support staff who had been instructed not to speak about Wills' departure. Miller declined to divulge information about Wills' departure. He declined to state whether or not Wills was on temporary leave or if Wills would be returning. Miller confirmed that Wills was on administrative leave and that he was no longer physically on campus. Wills, on staff since August of 1997, is the university's risk management officer. His job duties include the evaluation of contracts, benefits plans, insurance and the formation of policies that will limit the university's legal liabilities in various situations. Wills was on the panel of administrators who made the decision last spring to ban halogen lamps from the resi dence halls. He is also a pivotal figure in the university's endeavors to create a cogent sexual harassment policy. . Last year, Wills was accused by four female em-, ployees of creating a "hostile work environment." Two of those women resigned. Following a meeting during which complaints against Wills were reviewed, Wills distributed a written apology to the employees but did not claim responsibility for his actions, The Reporter was told. The women said that the grievance procedures established by the university to counter sexual harassment had failed. , Wills did not return phone calls left at his office. It is not clear if Wills' departure is connected to this incident. The Reporter will release further information as it becomes available. Jeff Hamrick is the business manager ofThe Reporter. by emily eisenhauer | Pop quiz—what's the capital of Canada? If you said Toronto, you would probably be in the majority, but you would still be .wrong. Montreal? Not even close. Vancouver? Wrong again. • It's Ottawa, a city of 330,000, in the province of Ontario. So why should you care about what the capital of Canada is? Because Canada is the third largest country in the world, our political ally, our largest trading partner and our next-door neighbor. But despite our close political, culturaland historical ties, as well as the fact that we are neighbors on a continent of only three countries, very few citizens of the U.S. know much more about Canada. [ read this story in Forum, page 4a ] by jeff hamrick | Last summer, 53 adventuresome students ventured to Innsbruck, Austria, to participate in the School of Business Administration's second annual summer study abroad program there. Although the vast majority of the students participating in the program-are struggling to earn their bachelor's degrees in business administration, the program actually offers liberal arts coursework. Not to mention, of course, the kind of "coursework" that one encounters when living in a completely different culture. "Our primary motivation is to give students a chance to study abroad who would not ordinarily have the chance to do so." [ read this stoty in Life, page 3b ] by chris tunno | Central Florida Golden Knights and the Miami Hurricanes came into town last week and left Stetson with nothing; no wins and no goals. In the first game, the Golden Knights' Danya Harris scored a goal and had two assists in a 4-0 rout. The other goals were scored by Alison Thomas, Kim Shrum, and Margrette Auffant. The game was entirely one-sided as Central.Florida out-shot Stetson 25-4,'Two of Stetson's four shots came from first-year student Candice Herrmann who was inserted into the game and made a small difference on offense. Stetson goalkeeper Genevieve Roy saved 11 shots for Stetson. [ read this story in Sports, page 4b ]