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Photo illustration by BLADEN FINCH
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Power outages plague Village II residents, leaving them without lights |
Upstairs South floods as result of broken sprinkler nozzle, not fire alarms |
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Over Labor Day weekend, Village II residents experienced several power outages. “We had two during the weekend and one on Monday,” said Kristen Whalen, Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Student Leadership. There was no exact pattern or set time when the outages occurred, except that they all happened at night. “After the second time, we narrowed it down to the outside,” said David Hopper, Director of the Physical Plant. The cause of the outages was due to a shorted wire in one of the lights that line the walkway of Village II. Please see Power, News page. |
The bathroom and adjoining rooms of upstairs South were flooded when a sprinkler nozzle came off in a bathroom on Thursday, Sept. 19. For senior Josh Nolz, junior Pat McStay, and sophomores Steve Leahy and Kelvin Murray, the spigot in their bathroom activated and began pouring water as if here was a fire. “I thought someone pulled the fire alarm,” said Murray, who along with Nolz, and Leahy were in their rooms when the water started flowing. Please see Flood, News page. |
From Aug. 27 to Sept. 12, five students were suspended from Virginia Wesleyan as a result of repeated violations of the drug policy. As of Sept. 16, 16 students have violated the drug policy, 28 have violated the alcohol policy, and over 265 community service hours have been assigned as a result of the infractions.
“Every three days, one student was found to have violated the policy,” said Ryan Brown, Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Community Development. These numbers spurred a campaign informing students of these infractions, as well as the idea that the college wants to retain its students.
“It is an opportunity for an educational experience,” said Moore about those caught violating the drug policy, “and it’s our intention to retain students and take other steps to ensure they make the right choices.” Since Wesleyan is a private college, the office of Residence Life and Campus Security do not need a student’s permission to search their room.
Although the office of Residence Life was unable to comment on specifics regarding the violations due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 which “protects the privacy of student education records.” No information can be released without the written consent from the student. No students have been caught violating the policy since the campaign informing resident students of the violations began.
For more information on the drug policy, please refer to the Student Handbook.
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Photo by BLADEN FINCH.
The tires were slashed and windows smashed on this vandalized vehicle. |
The cars belonged to junior Brandon Mino and seniors Jeff Heeder, Vinnie Coulass, and George Rogers. The incident was estimated to have occurred during a short window of time between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
“Ben [Foley] and I saw Heeder’s trunk open and walked over to see what he was doing,” Bev Snyder said. “That’s when we heard air escaping from his tires and saw the broken glass on the ground.” Heeder was not there. Snyder and Foley saw the other cars and went to find their owners. They first came across Rogers and Mino.
“We asked them what had happened, but they didn’t know about it,” said Snyder. Snyder and Foley were the first to discover the scene on their way into Teagle parking lot shortly before noon, coming back from Lynnhaven Mall. They had left the parking lot around 10:30 a.m., and did not notice any activity. All four cars, which were parked in the back of the lot against the tree line, had been parked there since the previous night. They were all parked in a row, except for Heeder’s Blazer, which was parked alone five spots away.
“There must have been more than one guy breaking into the cars,” said Mino. “They did all the damage in broad daylight and no one saw anything.”
Please see Vandalism, News page.
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Photo by BLADEN FINCH. |
This year’s first blood drive, sponsored by Health Services, was held in the C-MAC on Sept. 17. The drives take place on campus three times a year and are open to any student, faculty or staff. According to Director of Health Services, Mary Giffhorn Gerriets, RN, the typical goal of 40 donations is usually reached. At the end of the day, 41 donations were received. A total of 49 people had shown up in hopes of giving blood, however, several had to be turned down for various reasons such as anemia or low weight, as the requirement is 110 pounds.
For student Crystal Miles, donating creates the possibility of providing blood for her foster sister who was in need of a donation, but felt somewhat uncomfortable about getting it from a total stranger. Miles feels that by giving blood, perhaps in the future she will be the one who saves the life of her foster sister or someone else she knows.
“If I needed blood, I would much rather get it from someone that I know,” commented Miles. Other students, like senior Margo Salzberger, saw the signs around campus and just wanted to help. However, the blood banks are disturbingly low and help is still very much needed. There were outstanding numbers of blood donations after the terrorist attacks on our nation for the thousands of victims. Despite this, Marie Bleh, who volunteers for the Red Cross three to four times a month, says that much of the blood donated for the September 11th efforts had to be discarded because the average shelf life is a mere 42 days, and only two years if it is frozen. The overwhelming need for blood still persists. “Nothing feels better than giving the gift of life,” said Bleh. She reported that there are rarely ever complications such as missing the vein, for example, but added that “it’s always good to look away.”
“It’s just a little bitty pinch,” commented Salzberger in agreement. Gerriets hopes there will be even more students willing to donate by the next blood drive, which she hopes to bring back on campus possibly sometime in November.
Site created and maintained by Linda De Rosa.