Three Westminster locals arrested

By Christine Boynton, Commentary Co-Editor and Melanie Chupein,Co-Editor in Chief

Aaron Christopher Robertson, 20, Brian Charles Prodehl, 20, and John Thomas Gibbs, 20, all of Westminster, were charged with armed robbery, burglary, and theft, stemming from an incident that took place just before midnight on November 14, in Rouzer Hall.

Freshmen Greg Vernon and Sergio Nieto were the victims.

“We were by the door and all of a sudden three guys in all black hoodies and black long pants and bandanas came in and locked the door behind them,” said Vernon in a phone interview conducted soon after the burglary.

The intruders demanded that Vernon and hand over money and personal items.

“Then my friend starting getting jumpy, so they told him to go stand in the corner, like they were going to shoot him,” Vernon added. “They went through the rest of our stuff and just told him not to move.”

Nieto could not be reached for comment.

“I could tell one of the kids was a townie, and his name was Aaron, which I told the cops,” said Vernon.

The day after the incident, the Department of Campus issued three campus-wide emails alerting the college community about the incident.

A November 15 email stated, “At approximately 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 15, 2007 two resident students came to the Department of Campus Safety reporting they had been robbed in their room at Rouzer Hall. Witness statements indicate that the robbery took place sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 12:50 a.m.”

“One of the suspects displayed what the student described as a revolver and made threatening statements against the two students demanding money and personal property, which the students surrendered,” the email continued.

The robbery caught the attention of local newspapers and television stations.

On November 16 in an article from The Baltimore Sun titled “3 sought in robbery at college,” Arin Gencer reported that three men entered Rouzer Hall, armed and dressed in dark clothing and bandanas over their faces, according to Michele Leiberman, a spokeswoman for McDaniel. The brief article advised anyone with any information to contact the city police Criminal Investigations Division.

Also on November 16, ABC2 News published the article, “Armed Robbery at McDaniel College,” leading off with, “It’s common courtesy to hold the door for someone entering behind you. But investigators in Westminster say that may be how three suspects got into McDaniel College and robbed two students.”

The article also noted that the local police were trying to determine exactly how the suspects gained entry to the building. The article emphasized that police believe the incident was isolated and, “there’s no reason for parents to be concerned.”

Only three days after the robbery, all three suspects had been identified and arrested, including the suspect whose voice Vernon had recognized.

Gibbs was charged with armed robbery, multiple counts of assault, burglary, theft, and use of a handgun in a crime of violence, according to an email submitted by Campus Safety. Prodehl had been charged with armed robbery, burglary, and theft. Roberston was also charged with armed robbery, burglary, and theft. All three men remain in custody, and Captain Randy Barnes of the Westminster Police reported that the case is closed.

In an interview with The Free Press, Director of Campus Safety Mike Webster, revealed the list of items taken from the student dorm: “U.S. currency, approximately $200, a lap top, a cell phone, and I believe an iPod. Most of that stuff was recovered by Westminster police when they did a search of the home.”

Many stories have circulated as to how the men entered the building, including a faulty door. There has been speculation that a student let the three robbers into the building, according to sources close to the incident.

At the time of the interview, Vernon said, “I don’t like Rouzer. I mean they fixed the door and everything, but it’s pretty open and easy to get into.”

The front door at the main entrance of Rouzer had been faulty and easily accessible without a key. All students had to do was force the door open with a strong tug, and then they could gain entry to the building. The problem with the door has since been fixed, and there is little evidence to suggest that this is how the suspects entered the building.

Another resident of Rouzer, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported to have seen the men just before they entered the hallway.

“I went to take a shower around 9:30 at night, and I saw three guys. I went back into my room to get my keys. I took my shower, went back to my room, and locked the door,” said the source. He did not report the sighting to campus safety.

“I just figured they were joking around,” he said.

This mindset did not come as a surprise to Webster, who said, “Students, and it’s not just McDaniel students, people 18-24 nationally are a very trusting group.”

Even Vernon had difficulty believing the gravity of the situation.

“I didn’t know what was going on until I saw the gun,” he said. “As soon as I saw the gun I knew it wasn’t a joke.”

There has also been speculation on campus that the robbery was drug related. All evidence proves that this was not a random incident because the victims knew the suspects and were able to identify them to the police. The anonymous source reported to have allegedly witnessed “a strong odor coming from the room,” that supposedly ended soon after the robbery, which the source described as “a wake up call.”

Barnes could not confirm that the incident was drug related.

“I can say that it’s not random, that at least one of the victims recognized one of the suspects,” he said, “but at this point I’m not able to say what the motive was for the robbery.”

Webster also denied any knowledge of drug involvement with this case, but confirmed that this was not a random incident. “The victims and the suspects knew each other,” he told The Free Press, “The victims went to an uninvolved student who they knew also knew the suspects and asked that student to get their stuff back from the suspects.”

This accounted for the delay in the reporting of the incident.

McDaniel has since taken steps to ensure student safety, including a replaced door and a changed lock.

The first campus email informing the college community about the robbery included some preventative advice that urged everyone to know who you are admitting into any residential facility, report any suspicious people to Campus Safety, and keep your door locked. Also, steps to follow if being robbed were listed, instructing: “1. Do not resist. Your money is not worth your life, 2. Get a detailed description and write it down as soon as you safely can, 3. Call police immediately and stay on the line until the dispatcher hangs up, 4. Stay calm and don’t disturb evidence.”

Despite all of the safety precautions that should be taken, Webster said, “Complete security is impossible to achieve.” All students can do is be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to Campus Safety.

By Mike Habegger, Co-Editor in Chief

In recent weeks, there has been controversy surrounding the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s classification of McDaniel College as a “Master’s College/University” and its subsequent listing in the 2008 U.S. News and World Report “America’s Best Colleges” rankings as a regional Master’s University.

The issue was discussed at recent faculty and board of trustees meetings and has aroused concern among a small number of current students. The worries are associated with the relative prestige of McDaniel that stems from the annual rankings.

Concerned faculty and students are upset they were not alerted to the situation earlier and that, as a result, the institution may be miscast as a school with a limited scope of educational programs, which is especially important to prospective students and faculty that place merit on the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

“If I apply to graduate school, I don’t want those schools finding out that I just received my bachelor’s from a poorly-ranked master’s granting institution,” said Michael Young, a senior chemistry major. “It’s also a big deal because such a classification has the potential to be self-fulfilling.”

President Joan Develin Coley maintained that the classification “would make absolutely no difference in the education of any undergraduate at McDaniel.” The college will continue to advertise and conduct itself as a liberal arts college.

The Carnegie Foundation constructs its yearly classifications based on a report submitted by the institution to the government called “The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System,” known popularly by its acronym, IPEDS. In 2005, the Carnegie Foundation revised its original classification system and called it the “Basic classification.” The purpose of the classifications is to provide objective information for those interested in “conducting research on higher education” so as to make the diversity of institutions in the United States “roughly comparable.”

According to the “Basic” Carnegie classification, McDaniel is a “larger Master’s College/University.” This is not necessarily in conflict with other identifying characteristics listed, such as it being a majority undergraduate, highly residential, four-year school. It is classified this way because it grants 50 or more master’s degrees each year.

The Carnegie classifications are very complicated, such that most current and prospective students and potential employers will not glean anything of use from them. That aside, the classification is given relevance when third-party rankings of institutions apply it, such as the service provided by U.S. News & World Report which has been ranking American colleges and universities since 1983. The rankings have become a source of pride for faculty. They are also a starting point for some prospective students who begin their college search looking at a list of similar institutions to decide where to apply.

“I think the idea that people–including graduate schools, employers, etc—don’t read U.S. News is preposterous,” said Young, responding to a comment made by a top administrator during a recent faculty meeting that U.S. News is “just a magazine.”

“In my opinion, a degree from a regional master’s granting institution at an undergraduate level–not to be offensive–says that you care less about the quality of the education you are getting and more about the degree itself,” said Young. “This affects how you represent yourself as an individual in respect to the college education you received.”

According to their website, U.S. News & World Report “collapses nine of the Carnegie categories into four main groupings.” Indeed, the rankings are reflective of a twice watered-down classification of otherwise very unique and complex institutions—differences that are adequately represented in the full Carnegie classification.

“They [U.S. News & World Report] use Carnegie Classifications in a way that they were never intended to be used,” said Coley.

The 2008 U.S. News rankings list McDaniel at number 22 as a Master’s University in the “North”, which is fairly high—much higher than it was ranked in the liberal arts category, but considering the nature of the schools listed higher, it may be a concern. For example, Hood, Loyola, Scranton, and Alfred are listed ahead of McDaniel, none of which exhibit a firm commitment to the liberal arts ideal.

In June, a majority of members of the Annapolis Group, an organization of the leading national independent liberal arts colleges, agreed not to participate in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, opting instead to develop “an alternative common format that presents information about their colleges for student and their families to use in the college search process” to be available on the web. A plausible reason for this was a fear that they would be reclassified in the U.S. News rankings based on the redefining of Carnegie’s “Basic” classification system.

Most of the members of the group have managed to retain their standing as “liberal arts institutions” in the U.S. News rankings, while McDaniel has not. This, coupled with the fact that, for example, Gettysburg is classified as a “larger Master’s College/University” by Carnegie and yet is listed in the U.S. News rankings as a “Liberal Arts College” suggests that there is limited correlation between the rankings and the Carnegie classification system.

However, U.S. News appears to classify schools in a clear-cut manner. The publication claims that the principle stipulation for being defined as a liberal arts college is that it “emphasize undergraduate education and award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the liberal arts”—a condition that McDaniel would appear to meet.

McDaniel’s classification is an exception to a largely arbitrary rule.

Some of McDaniel’s competitors are listed by Carnegie as “Baccalaureate Colleges” even though they exhibit some graduate and undergraduate program coexistence. Some are listed as “Larger Master’s Colleges and Universities” even with no graduate coexistence in undergraduate programs. McDaniel is listed as a majority undergraduate program with some graduate program coexistence, and yet, it is the only school to miss out on being included in U.S. News’ liberal arts ranking list.

“In some sense both categories [liberal arts and master’s college] are right for us. We simply feel that the one that suits us better and the one that is closer to our core identity is liberal arts college,” said Coley. “We simply want to be in the category that best describes us historically and currently most accurately…I don’t think that according to the criteria McDaniel is misclassified.”

Coley spoke of a reclassification compromise between the Annapolis Group and Carnegie to better reflect the character of some of the schools. It has also been said that an agreement with the Maryland Higher Education Committee (MHEC) may result in a different categorization of McDaniel in the Carnegie classification system, and by extension, the U.S. News & World Report rankings. The school is working internally to remedy the situation.

Barring the success of these plans of action, McDaniel is likely to remain on the Master’s Universities ranking list at U.S. News & World Report indefinitely.

By Dave Robertson

Beginning in the Spring Semester of 2008, students will be charged for printing from computers in labs across campus once they have printed 400 pages, according to a plan approved by the college’s administrative council (including vice presidents, top managers and the president during Fall 2006.

Charging for printing is not a new concept, according to Dr. Esther Iglich, CIO.

Members of the Green Terra project, McDaniel’s latest effort to be me more environmentally friendly, and others brought the idea to people who run various labs and students who often use them. None of them complained, Iglich said.

This new plan, sparked by the college’s effort to go green, is in response to wasteful printing by students, whether for personal use or for clubs and organizations, Iglich said. Subsequently, the electronic costs and continually updating machinery have skyrocketed.

Starting with the major labs (i.e. the Writing Center and Library), the January term will be the trial run for this new implementation, Iglich added.

Many pieces of salvaged paper with little printed on one side will be placed in the printers across campus for the trial run.

This plan was initiated after growing concern that 50 percent of pages printed on campus machines are wasted, Iglich said. The cause for the waste? After talking to members of the college community, Iglich suspects that students hit print more than once and print brochures and fliers for clubs and organizations instead of using the copy center. Ultimately, the frequent printing heats up the machines and drains toner and ink cartridges.

Without actual print counters, the number of pages used is only an informal estimate, Iglich explained. With printing budgets up nearly $10,000 over last year (actual physical cost, excluding energy costs), this money “could very well have been used in other ways,” she added.

To implement print counters, the college will on need to invest a few thousand dollars on the software, Iglich said, and that software should pay for itself in less than a year. Once new software is installed in computer labs, each time someone hits the print option on the computer, a box will pop up and ask for a student ID number and a universal password (the one for email, Blackboard, and Archway) before processing the print job.

Many schools across the nation, including William and Mary, Carlton and University of Maryland, have implemented this change both in an effort to go green and to compensate for wasted paper in labs, Iglich explained.

“If they don’t have it, they’re on the verge or asking other schools about charging for printing in labs.”

An amenity which many students take for granted, free printing is a luxury that McDaniel College can no longer support, she added.

Though no more than 5-10 percent of students copy an outrageous amount, Iglich said: “Everyone else has to pay for it.”

As a side note, she added that McDaniel’s policy is probably one of the most generous of any schools that implements this additional charge to students.

Iglich said the faculty involved polled a variety of students emphasizing the last thing on their mind is trying to prevent or prohibit work. And all students supported the effort.

Regardless of the positive feedback she received, the first reaction of most students when told of this plan was one of severe and virtually unwavering disgust.

Responses like “We pay $30,000 a year to go here, and now they’re adding another expense to our tuition!” or “What the f**k?!” or “They can’t do that!”

But once informed of the situation, most changed their reaction to a more understanding, “Ok, I guess I can handle that.”

Sophomore Sarah Hughes said, “People waste so much paper. They kill trees and print more than they need. Also they don’t offer front to back copying, and no one recycles.”

Junior Neal Marcello said that considering we get 400 copies for free before being charged, “That’s plenty.”

“Recycling bins are everywhere on the Carlton campus—people harass you if you don’t recycle, just as much as if you refuse to vote,” said sophomore Ellie Camlin. “They’ve even started composting,” she added with a laugh.

Currently, Internet Technology workers are setting up the server and program where over the next few months many test runs will occur. But students will be notified well in advance about the fee-for-printing plan through campus-wide emails.

Fire extinguisher obsessions, urination as drought relief, an air gun, and the usual lack of common sense. It’s all part of the lighter side.

By Becky Snider, Blotter Reporter

While there is nothing as exciting as a golf cart heist this time, campus certainly hasn’t been dry. And I mean that in the literal sense. Several accounts of underage alcohol possession have been reported in Whiteford and Rouzer. Big surprise there, I know.

There was of course the normal reported slew of fire extinguisher thefts and faulty fire alarms. What is this obsession we have with fire extinguishers? Must we steal them and horde them in our rooms? I mean what is this inevitable draw of “tampering with fire equipment”? Is discharging a fire extinguisher that could possibly save your life all that exciting? It does indeed seem to be the time of the year to make a fiery mess of things.

In other news, on Saturday, November 17, at around 12:30 a.m. Campus Safety officers witnessed a student urinating outside Whiteford Hall. Apparently students are concerned about the drought that we are in. The grass must have looked a bit dry and obviously needed some watering.

In fact, the grass was not the only thing that needed watering. One student from Rouzer was found throwing water balloons out of a window on Tuesday, November 13. At just after 8 p.m. Campus Safety found the said student in possession of an air gun. The DoCs confiscated the air gun and a jar of BBs from the student.

The student apparently did not know that having the air gun was a violation of campus policy.

Speaking of policy, on November 20 Campus Safety received a complaint for an illegal substance found while conducting health and safety inspections in a dorm.

What happened to common sense guys? It’s not smart to leave things that can get you into trouble just lying around out in the open!

Even if there is not that much common sense going around recently, there certainly is some decorating sense going around. Campus Safety found a push bar torn off a door in Rouzer. Now as to why this really happened, your guess is as good as mine. Though I have it on good authority that the mystery thief decided it would look really good placed decoratively in his room.

However, it seems that some have no sense at all. A non-student was stopped and ticketed by Campus Safety on Sunday, November 18 for speeding and going the wrong way down a one way street. The non-student, in a tragic coincidence, was driving by Winslow Center at the time as well.

Even more coincidental, as I was writing this piece, Campus Safety came into the library computer lab and escorted a student out of the building. The two Campus Safety officials told the student to immediately stop what he was doing and to shut the computer down completely.

Now I can’t tell you what the exact issue with the student was. However his behavior was indeed odd. The student seemed to be talking loudly to himself while watching some sort of Anime show. Several witnesses also saw him pouring clear liquid out of a gallon bottle into a smaller one. Again, your guess is as good as mine.

The semester seemed to slow to a crawl in odd events. Though I am sure the things that are bound to happen over Jan-term will make up for that. For now, we must be entertained by alcohol and fire extinguishers.

Editor’s Note: This weekly piece highlights some of the more inane calls and incidents to which campus safety responds.

By Eleanor Nagle

Dancing frat boys moved and clapped to the beat of a variety of hip-hop artists at McDaniel’s second annual Hip-Hop on the Hill on December 1.

Despite starting forty minutes late due to technical difficulties, this year’s Hip Hop on the Hill provided sure entertainment to all in attendance. Junior Clayton Rosa (right), who organized the show, opened with a self-written rap and introduced the MC for the night, hip-hop artist Fresh Daily.

The first performance was from the group Illah Willy Shakes and DJ Boy Wonda, who did duets that literally brought everyone out of their seats to dance with lots of interaction with the audience. One of their lyrics, “I’m off probation now and I’m gonna get high,” led Daily to say that, “We’re high off life right now,” after the performance.

The second performance was from the group Roman Empire (below) from New York. Roman Empire is a pretty well-known group that has performed with rapper T-Pain and has been feature on both BET and MTV. They opened their set by telling everyone, “Put your hands up in the air!”

Roman Empire is made up of two rappers, one from Africa and one from Bulgaria who cite their cultural difference as one of their inspirations. “We come here to make things really hot with our different cultures and backgrounds.”

Roman Empire shook things up a little when one of the members played a violin in the background. More information on Roman Empire is available on their MySpace Page, Myspace.com/REROCKERS.com.

Another band that performed, God’s Illa, was made up of three brothers. The group came out and led the crowd in a chant, “Please, give me some hip hop music. Please, I need some hip hop music.”

It was after God’s Illa (bottom right), that Clayton, the only McDaniel student to perform came out again and explained what hip-hop meant to him.

“For me, hip hop is a culture…it helped make me who I am today,” he said.

Fresh Daily, the host of the show, also performed with the front row frat boys yelling his name to which he responded, “Make some noise for my frat boys in the front.” Fresh Daily also performed with rapper Picasso.

The final performer of the night was Substantial, probably the most famous rapper of the night. Substantial was backed by a jazz band and vocalist and provided a nice mix of jazz and hip-hop.

He performed one of the most memorable numbers when he did a hip-hop rendition of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Lyrics to the song included, “Hip Hop is one of my favorite things.” The female vocalist that accompanied the rapper dazzled with her vocal range.

When it comes to audience response to Substantial, sophomore Eric Welkes said that the rappers performance was “pretty substantial.”

The night was not only enjoyable for the audience but for the performers as well.

“The energy is always great,” said Willie Shakes. “It was definitely a pleasure to come rock out again.”

Fresh Daily, who hosted last year’s Hip Hop on the Hill said there were noticeably more people this year. “It was a lot of fun. The crowd was mad,” he added.

The audience reaction was incredibly upbeat and there seemed to be a general agreement that the show was quite good.

“It was hip and groovy. I really dug it,” Welkes said.

CDs were sold in the lobby for $5 by the rappers themselves and many audience members got autographs and pictures.