Kris Breeden
Staff Reporter

Though more than 130 colleges have joined a “reconsider the drinking age” initiative, McDaniel College has opted to tackle concerns about alcohol abuse through other routes.

The movement, dubbed The Amethyst Initiative, is an organization initiated by John McCardell, founder of Choose Responsibility. It is made up of U.S. college presidents and chancellors that, in July 2008, officially called for the reconsideration of U.S. drinking age laws, particularly the minimum age of 21 as established nationally by the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984.

Many presidents at colleges that McDaniel competes against athletically have signed up for the Initiative, including Dickinson College, Gettysburg College, Goucher College, Johns Hopkins University, Moravian College, and Muhlenberg College.

Other local schools have signed up as well: College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Towson University, and University of Maryland?College Park.
The current total signatory count is 130 schools nationwide.

Beth Gerl, Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs, notes that the 130 signatories is an interesting number.
She says, “Only eleven schools have signed on since mid-August, and I’m not sure what that means, but it’s interesting.”
It seems the program could already be coming to a standstill.

According to Gerl, the program has also faced federal funding issues, which she says is “clearly why some schools are not signing on.”
She adds, “It’s not about the 130 that have signed; it’s about all the schools that haven’t.”

Amethyst is traditionally believed to ward off intoxication, which is why the founders of the Amethyst Initiative thought the stone to be an appropriate symbol for their mission.

One of the main arguments, as described in the Amethyst Initiative’s statement on their website, is that “adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer.”

Gerl feels that the process is more complicated than simply dropping the drinking age.
She says, “It’s great that college presidents are coming together, but there are many other issues regarding the abuse of alcohol that ought to be focused on.”

It’s true that one can enlist and vote at 18, but it concerns Gerl “that a lot of high school seniors are 18. We need to be realistic. It’s an age of experimentation and testing your boundaries.”

Gerl says she likes to speak to students, particularly first year students, about making smart choices about alcohol consumption.

“Students need to be taught at a young age how to be responsible. We take a more educational approach in the hope that people will learn and won’t repeat the same actions.”

She feels talking to students about alcohol at an even younger age could be very beneficial.

“We’ve got to do a better job in this nation,” she says, “at helping parents to have these important conversations very early.”

When asked about alcohol consumption at McDaniel, Gerl seems optimistic.

“I’ve seen some more responsible use of alcohol. I’ve seen friends, teammates, brothers and sisters from sororities and fraternities come to faculty to discuss concerns about their friends’ alcohol use,” Gerl explains.

She adds, “These are good steps.”

Gerl supports programs such as Late Nights, which encourage students to come together and help their peers. She elaborates, “It gives students other things to do. They can look at their own life and what role alcohol is playing there.”

All of this won’t stop students from drinking, but it does allow for more openness about alcohol. If students choose to consume, Gerl wants them to be informed on how to do so responsibly.

“We keep updating, keep trying to come up with creative ideas,” says Gerl. “I think we’re making some good headway.”

Danielle Azoulay
Staff Reporter

Having a car on campus just got more expensive. Not only are gas prices rising, but so is the price to park at McDaniel College. The fee to park on campus is now $100, an increase $25 since last year, causing many students to get upset.

“I used to pay $385 per semester to park on campus at Temple, but I understood why. We were in the city, and the school had to pay someone to sit there and watch my car 24 hours a day,” said Senior Amanda O’Loughlin who transferred to McDaniel in 2007.
So what is the reasoning behind McDaniel’s parking price increase?

Dr. Ethan Seidel, Vice President of Admissions and Finance, explained that the main reason is that the school now has more parking lots which means that there is more that must me maintained. Also the cost of building the new lot by North Village cost approximately $400,000 according to Seidel.

“Overtime we are trying to pass off some of that cost onto the people who use it,” said Seidel, “If you didn’t have a parking fee the school would have to pay for the lot, then everybody would have to pay for the parking lot whether they were users or not.”

He feels it was hitting the three digit mark that truly alarmed students. “In reality parking only went up $12.50 a semester,” said Seidel.

However, to many students like Senior Sarah Crum that extra $12.50 a semester wasn’t worth it.

Crum, who had to have a car while at school because of her internship, said “to pay $100 is ridiculous especially if you live in the Garden Apartment area. It is more convenient to find a spot on the street.”

Although Crum feels that her car is not as safe of campus as it is on campus, she believes that the odds of her finding a spot near her building is so slim that it would be a waste of $100 to register her car.

The lack of parking in the Garden Apartment area has been noticed by many, including the school’s surrounding neighbors.

According to O’Loughlin neighbors have been placing notices on cars asking students to respect the elderly that live in the area, and that there is “ample” parking on campus.

“We want to park near where we live too,” said O’Loughlin, who feels that she would rather park on Pennsylvania Avenue than have to park across campus even though she paid the $100 to register her car.

Other price increases for this year include tuition, Pub food, air conditioning permit fee, swim lessons, and music lessons per credit.

Roxanne Fleischer
News Co-Editor

On September13 on the website of The Daily News of Galveston County, Texas, President and Publisher Dolph Tillotson promised in a blog to continue publication both in print and online throughout and after Hurricane Ike.

“Having a daily newspaper to hold in your hand is a reminder that life goes on,” Tillotson said. “We think that’s important, and we’ll work hard to fulfill that part of our mission as soon as we can.” He acknowledged that efforts would be delayed because of damages.

While places like Galveston and Houston have reporters who faced the brunt of Hurricane Ike, a student reporter from Texas A&M also felt the impact of the storm on her news team, despite little damage to College Station, the town that surrounds the school.

“I felt like I was a professional jumping up with ideas and grabbing the stories I could while the editor in chief brainstormed all over the dry erase board,” said Clair Lavender, a writer for Texas A&M’s Battalion. “We sent out video cameras and had reporters spending the night at certain shelters. We did what we could and we did it in great time?We weren’t exactly prepared but when the time came we did exactly what we needed to do and got some really great stories out there.”

While College Station did not get hit as hard as expected, the school and community did make preparations for evacuees. Hotels, churches, and even the A&M’s Kyle football stadium, Reed Arena and the G. Rollie White Coliseum were used as temporary housing for refugees. Lavender also said that the vet school opened its doors to livestock and pets of evacuees.

Chelsea Phillips, a 2007 McDaniel graduate, is also living in College Station; she is taking graduate classes at Texas A&M. She said that while there was not too much damage in their area, the amount of evacuees made her realize the impact of the storm.

While grocery shopping, Phillips said she “overheard one man asking his son, ‘Isn’t it nice to be able to shop in a grocery store with lights?’” The packed store made her realize her fortune in avoiding much of Ike’s damage.

“That people would have to come to College Station to find an open, lit grocery store–it wasn’t really something that I even considered!”
Phillips said that they had expected winds up to 50 mph and flooding. “We were all relieved, of course?there was kind of a letdown, after all the hype. But that feeling was definitely tempered by a thankfulness for being spared from the danger and destruction.”

College Station did get hit with rain and wind late Friday evening and all Saturday, but Hurricane Ike had unexpectedly turned eastward and spared the Texas A&M community.

Other parts of Texas and Louisiana, however, were not so lucky. The American Red Cross posted on their Hurricane Ike newsroom page that 114 shelters have been set up in Texas, and 12 have been set up in Louisiana, as of September 17, to aid those who cannot get back to their homes or no longer have one.

According to the Associated Press, over 50 deaths have been reported as caused by Hurricane Ike, but officials expect that number to rise as the search for survivors continues. Residents of Galveston are encouraged not to return to the coastal county yet, because damages are still too great.

At Texas A&M, however, damages were minimal, Lavender said one student’s car was hit by a fallen tree and was the most damage that she knew of.

“College Station was well over-prepared for anything which got a lot of kids running home and stocking up on water and flashlights,” said Lavender. “We’re all ok though.”

Angela Baldwin
Staff Reporter

What do the disciplines of English, Sociology, Political Science and Cross Cultural Studies have to say about the 9/11 tragedy? That’s what the new Sophomore Interdisciplinary Class, “September 11th and Its Aftermath” hopes to accomplish.

Dr. Rebecca Carpenter, of the English Department, ended up in charge of putting the 9/11 class together. “I took the initiative and put it together,” she said.

In response to high interest in teaching the class, Dr. Lauren Dundes, of the Sociology Department, and Dr. Christianna Leahy, of the Political Science Department, became the other two professors.

During preparation for the class, the faculty experienced and learned from the different disciplines. Dr. Leahy mentioned, “We worked all summer narrowing it down,” in reference to cooperation in choosing material for the class.

Each discipline has a specific goal in focusing on 9/11. Dr. Leahy’s focus is how US foreign and domestic policy has changed since 9/11 and, in addition, why 9/11 happened. “You have to understand the history of US policy,” Dr. Leahy said, emphasizing the importance of this to understanding 9/11.

Dr. Leahy answers the “Why” question with an article by Fareed Zakaria from Newsweek, and a chapter of a book by Robert Fisk.
She chose the Newsweek article for its “average, doctor’s office level writing,” anyone can understand this “thoughtful, interesting piece.” On the other hand, Robert Fisk’s answer was “sophisticated, had a breadth of knowledge all in one chapter,” Dr. Leahy said.

She also discusses the US policy on torture, the general “disregard of humanitarian law” and the “US disregard of human rights.”

“Events gain meaning through the narratives told about them,” Dr. Carpenter said, revealing what English has to do with 9/11. She mentioned how meaning of 9/11 is found from the construction of stories about the event.

In addition, she emphasized how stories from different perspectives are important to understanding all the meanings of a single event.

From her reading assignments, there are several different nationalities included. She also has the students read a novel called The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a play called “Stuff Happens,” and poems about 9/11.

From the variety of readings, she hopes that her students “emerge better informed citizens of a democracy.” She believes that “You need to understand how others think to be informed.”

Dr. Dundes’ focus is to “engage in the systematic study of society and look for social patterns” as well as “encourage students to be aware of ethnocentricism and to see events such as 9/11 from a culturally relativistic viewpoint.”

Her focus pertains to the “issues of race, gender and cross-cultural understanding as they pertain to 9/11.”

Dr. Dundes, along with Dr. Roxanna Harlow, conducted research on how factors like gender and race affect reactions and views of 9/11. She assigned the article, published in Sociological Perspectives, along with assigning “The Terror Dream” by Susan Faludi.

“The Terror Dream,” according to Dr. Dundes, claims that “after a humiliating attack on our dominant invincible nation, we temporarily embraced a vigilante cowboy mentality where feminist ideals were replaced by a portrayal of women in need of rescue.”

Dr. Mohamed Esa, guest lecturer, teaches students everything about Islam; misconceptions, terrorist groups, radical movements and background. He said that most have “no idea about Islam” and that the students “deserve more that what CNN gives, they deserve balanced exposure. There’s good stuff about Islam.”

Jen Noel
Staff Reporter

It’s easy to see why some may find Westminster a boring place to live. There is not always a lot happening around town besides the events occurring on our very own college campus. However, boredom usually leads to some of the most noteworthy shenanigans.

It would appear that something like boredom or perhaps some deeper rebellious nature compelled a culprit or culprits to cause some mischief in Academic Hall. It was discovered on September 8, that an unknown perpetrator decided to convert the men’s bathroom into a slip and slide by empting all of the soap containers onto the floor.

Then, as if this radical action was not enough, the perp stole the soap containers. I wonder if they know soap containers run about a $1.25 at a local store, but you can never tell what lengths people will go to get what they want.

Another group of students must have missed the memo about the soap and suds party because they decided to begin some ruckus of their own. On September 16 around 11:20 pm, a band of students tried to live out their Mission Impossible dreams, McDaniel style.

A call was made to Campus Safety reporting objects flying from the roof of Decker Center. Upon arrival, Campus Safety was able to pinpoint the culprits atop the roof with a spot light. I am sure that was a true deer in the headlights moment for the culprits. I wonder if they considered rappelling down the wall for escape; that would have added a real dramatic effect.

It’s important not to forget the most bustling area on campus for the blotter-Rouzer Hall. Just outside the doors of the freshmen dorm, an incident was reported involving the Conference Services golf cart.

On September 15, Campus Safety arrived to discover a busted head-light and the cart moved to a different location. The golf cart enthusiasts obviously never took a spin on Mario Kart if they couldn’t control that one horsepower of raw torque in an open parking lot.

Amid the creativity during the lackluster moments of college life, the usual issues involving fire alarms and alcohol abounded.

I applaud those of you went out of your comfort zone to provide amusement to the mundane areas of the campus blotter. Keep things interesting and know your bizarre actions will add some flare to the Lighter Side.