The Reporter

HAT'S INSIDE NBAS 2A 0PIKKSNS 4A LfFS IB Sstens 5E EHStStA 6a I N S I D http://reperS3r.stetson.edu SPORTS! Men's, women's soccer make playoffs page 5b •'■■'. 1' -.■■■'-.'■'-■'vT""/!-'."!.- OPIIMIOfNISs Stetson saves money through student/faculty ratio page 4a Local students evicted from DeLand homes By Bryan Funk EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Compared to "many larger universities, Stetson doesn't have a particularly large off campus population. The university has approximately 1,500 beds on campus for students, and of about 2,100 students, thirty-two percent live off campus. While this is a relatively small amount compared to the off campus student populations of Gainesville or Tallahassee, it remains significant when taken next to the size of the university and DeLand. For years students located in the city of DeLand have coexisted in relative harmony with their neighbors and their community, the majority of them as responsible and sober of citizens as any others in the area. Recently, however, this has begun to change. Concerns about some off campus residents engaging in unruly and disruptive behaviors have lead some of their neighbors, including a member of the university faculty to lodge complaints against them. Specifically, they've asked that city ordinances already in place that limited households in certain areas to only related individuals be enforced This means that in any home occupied by more than an individual, all the occupants will have to be related or face eviction. This particularly affects off campus students, most of whom live with one or more roommates to whom they are not related. The impact of this is that homeowners can be fined up to 250 dollars a day. The board in charge of enforcing this ordinance considered ten homes last month with twelve more being investigated by the city's code enforcement officer. Homeowners renting to students find themselves forced to either limit renters to a single occupant or find a family to rent to. Homeowners or renters accused of housing multiple unrelated occupants must attend a hearing in which witnesses take oaths and testify. Students no longer allowed to live in off campus houses will likely not be removed in the middle of the semester, but rather have until the end of the school year to obey the ordinances. Darren Elkind, attorney for the city of DeLand, said in an email, "If you are planning to acknowledge that there are more than two unrelated persons and only plan on asking to have to the end of the year to comply, then there isn't much need for testimony - but i can't promise you that the board which decides the case will follow the city staff's recommendation to give to the end of the year." Contact Bryan Funk at bfunk@stetson. edu. ^Reporter C O RRE CTION S "Petition calls for fair trade coffee service," NEWS, Issue 8. The photo that ran with the article was taken by Michael Davis. ^Reporter Contact U s 421 N. Woodland Blvd. #8409 DeLand, FL 32723 386.822.7224 FAX 386.822.7233 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] PARKING chaises PARK: A student gets into her car in the central parking lot, one of the areas where parking is an issue, photo by rob presley By Jamie Kinsley ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR "-\\ n November 1st, the jj parking lot by the Wilson Athletic Center will be converted from an X parking lot to an X/W parking lot. This change comes in part from the comments students made at the Senator Showcase. After reading the comments students made, the Student Government Association discovered that the majority of complaints stemmed from parking issues. Many students who live in the area of campus designated as W have been having trouble finding an appropriate place to park. Those students who live in Emily or Chaudoin Halls are issued W parking decals. However, this year public safety chose to issue only one decal per legal parking space. Public Safety Director, Jim Hess commented, "Last year, they gave out 400 stickers for 200 spots, and it was pretty chaotic. This year, we decided to count the number of legal parking places and "give that many out." This creates a problem because there are more residents with vehicles than there are parking spaces available. -~~~ Therefore, when W parking decals ran out those students living in the W area were issued X decals. The campus currently has three X —r— ---^^^ parking locations: by the soccer fields, behind the Russian Studies Center, and by the Wilson Athletic Center. The problem that arises from this set up is that students who live in Chaudoin and who have X decals will park in the W lot by Chaudoin because it is closer and, many feel, safer. However, this bumps people who have W decals out of their spots and forces them to park in the grass or "This year, we decided to count the number of legal parking places and give that many out." other illegal places, where they are being issued tickets. Junior education major Jessica Strauss said, "I have an X parking permit, and I'm an R.A. I think it's ridiculous that they gave me an X permit, and I think that they should take away all the tickets I've gotten for parking in the W lot." .—. In response to student complaints such as these, Student Government Association President, Michael Davis decided to-- go to Public Safety Director Jim Hess and make a suggestion: make the X parking lot by Wilson Athletic center into W parking. Davis' hope was to encourage students who live on that side of Emily Hall to park over there, thus opening up the parking lot between Emily and Chaudoin. Hess felt that this was an excellent idea and added that the blue phone, which is used to call public safety, should be moved to the entrance of the parking lot. This way, students will have only to roll down their window and press the call button, then wait in their car for Public Safety to come escort them directly from their car to their residence hall. Public Safety is planning on moving the call boxes in all the X lots-to the entrance for safer convenience. When the Wilson X parking lot is converted to X/W, there will be enough W spaces for everyone who lives in the W area to have W decals. The hope is that students who live in Emily and Chaudoin will be less restricted in where they are allowed to park and will, perhaps, be able to park in closer proximity to their respected areas of residence. Converting the Wilson X parking lot to X/W will solve one problem, but there still remains a problem with the Central parking. Public safety also ran out of C parking decals, which means that not all students who live centrally were able to get C decals. There • were some who were issued X decals. "Our next challenge is to see if there is anyway to give C stickers to all the people who need C stickers," said Davis. There are no certain ideas concerning how to make parking easier for these students, but Hess says that they are working on it. "We are going to wait and see how the W thing works out. When we solve the W and then count the X and see how many we have left we will know how many Xs need C decals," said Hess. They cannot do too much about the central area parking problems because there is not much room for overflow. "I would like to find some relief for the center, and if the number left over is small we might propose using the Rinker parking area as an overflow for C," said Hess. Public Safety does keep a list for people who want W or C and who have X, and has given out several W or C decals to X holders because students have either left campus or changed residence. "ResLife is notifying us when a student has changed residency and a vacant parking space is available, which is something that has never been done before," remarked Hess. "At the end of the semester there may be even more." Contact Jamie Kinsley at jkinsley@stetson. edu. By Bryan Funk EDITOR-IN-CHIEF On Monday, October 27, the university community lost a much-loved and valued member. Matthew Beeman was found dead in his room, his death ultimately ruled unsuspicious by the DeLand Police Department. The impact on campus was immediate and heavy. Crowds of mourners and curious onlookers gathered around ^__. Stetson Hall as what little information was available gradually filtered through to students. That afternoon, the Office of Marketing and Communications released an email to the student- today mailing list which explained that morning's events and announced, "It is with profound sadness that the university reports the death of Matthew R. Beeman, 21, a senior music major and resident of Stetson Hall." The university administration implemented pre-existing crisis response "The response is pretty much the same in any crisis, and that is to make staff available and to make opportunities for students to gather." plans, executing a number of different approaches to dealing with the tragedy. Among these were an increased role for the counseling center in aiding students who were particularly affected by events, increased interaction between faculty and students, and a meeting held in Elizabeth Hall. Said Michelle Espinosa, Dean of Students, "We have a crisis response plan for any number of different crises, and they overlap, I mean the response is pretty much the same in any crisis, and that is to make staff available and to make opportunities for students to gather and to allow that to happen on its own." In explanation ofthe individual elements of this plan, Espinosa elaborated: "In the immediate aftermath we typically respond in a couple of ways, which we did. In terms of working with local authorities to respond to the incident and the immediate crises, working with our own counseling center and other staff on campus to cre- ss& BEEW1AN, page 5a TRIBUTE: Flowers and pictures set by Matthew Beeman's door, photo by bryan funk fiogpaBRm&3amtoM* i®m-8g&-&&iDB®& ®m§m Bm^m$;@mm