Casey Crough
Staff Reporter

Patrons of the Pour House walked up to their familiar counter to find an unfamiliar sign that read: “We are very sorry to inform you that the Pour House Caf? will be closing it’s doors on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 until further notice. We wish to thank all of our patrons for your continued support and loyalty throughout the years.”Where will students call home now? The Pour House provided a haven for students to relax, work on homework, and enjoy various types of entertainment.

Students and community members of Westminster gathered at the Pour House for on last cup of coffee and to have a final memory of the place they loved.

“Oh my gosh, around 6:00 on Tuesday the place was packed and busy?it was hard to find a table?students and people from the community were all there,” said Tiffany Roberson ‘10.

“I am really saddened,” said Roberson, “whenever I needed to get off campus I would go to the Pour House.”
Janet Hollinger, the previous owner, opened the Pour House in June 2002, and sold the business in January 2008 to Laura Shultz.

According to the Carroll County Times, the most recent owner and the business partner of the shop were forced to close because of bad finances.

“My goal was to create a place where everyone felt welcome,” said Hollinger. “Most of all I miss the customers?I miss winking to every man whether he was six or sixty-six?and I miss the warm smiles and customer exchange,” said Hollinger.

Adrienne Dulaj, alumni ‘07, worked at the Pour House for about four years.

“I will miss everything about the Pour House…that place put me through college.”

I loved the artistic atmosphere, the friends I made over the years, and most importantly, the coffee!” said Dulaj.
The Pour House will be missed, but was there anything that could have saved the business?

The poor economy tragically brought one of Westminster’s favorite coffee shops to an end.

“The only real change that I saw that may have negatively affected the business was closing the place on Sundays. That was an affluent day for the pour house,” said Dulaj.

Currently, Hollinger is working on creating a day spa called “Amazing Faces” in the Virginia Beach area. The spa will provide micro pigmentation, permanent makeup, laser hair removal, clay body wraps, an ion cleansing system, and many other fabulous services.
There is no doubt that the previous success Hollinger brought to the Pour House will carry over to her new calling.
But, does Hollinger have any interest in buying the Pour House again?

“No,” said Hollinger, “The bank had called Scott (her husband) and I to see if we wanted to purchase their portion, but we have a family here in Virginia Beach. I loved the Pour House when we had it.”

But what will happen to our musicians who performed at the Pour House?

Keith Adams ‘10, guitar player of “Turtle Buddy,” feels like it is a shame the Pour House is closing since they are such nice people.

“It is a good place to play, but it is a rare find to have people who are so honest and caring about your music?they e-mailed us and asked us to play, which doesn’t always happen with other places,” said Adams.

Hopefully someone will step up and continue the business, but until then customers will only have a memory. Patrons of all ages will miss the Pour House, but they will never forget the place that they used to call home.

Juliann Guiffre
Co-News Editor

Upon returning from abroad last spring, junior Claire Turpel sent out nine emails to presidents of eight student clubs, asking each to join her in forming what would be called the Justice League.

While at the University of Reading west of London, Turpel joined a group called the Campaigns Forum, an organization concerned with raising awareness of a variety of social justice issues. She was so inspired by it that she decided to create a club like the Campaigns Forum here at McDaniel.”When you’re at college, you get isolated from what’s going on, and that’s not necessarily anyone’s fault,” she said.
Turpel emailed the presidents of the McDaniel Democrats (Pat Johnson), College Republicans (Janice Watson), Active Minds (Kate Maloney), Black Student Union (Lia Snow), Allies (Brittany Wells), Women’s Issues Group (Laura Descher and Siri Hiltz), International Club (Salini Jayamuni), and Environmental Action Club (Ember Fleming). She herself was the president of Amnesty International.

She said they were all very willing and excited to be a part of the group she was forming. Fleming was particularly surprised, because she thought that “when people think of social justice they don’t really think of the environment,” she said. “So I was happy that Claire approached me, and I was really glad to have my club involved, because we have a great group of people this year.”

Maloney said Turpel attended one of their meetings in order to talk about the Justice League, and that they joined because “we wanted to promote a cause and raise awareness. It’s important to not only be aware but to take action.”

After creating the League, Turpel planned a week of events, to take place November 10-14, to promote the group to the campus?complete with a kick-off party, tasting of locally-grown food, open-forum, a movie screening of Fern Gully and Dead Man Walking, recycle games, trash quest and tie-dye making, and “social justice” trivia.

Different clubs sponsored certain events throughout the week. During the kickoff party, students could make friendship bracelets with Active Minds and cut out hands and write what you’re most thankful for with the Environmental Action Club (EAC). There was also a box to put questions or topics to raise in the open forum.

“I wanted to keep it really open, any issue that the clubs promote, human rights in China, recycling issues, Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual/Transsexual/Questioning alliance issues, anything” said Turpel.

That Wednesday night, Turpel kept the forum casual by having everyone introduce themselves and say their favorite ice cream. One newcomer responded with, “Mint-chocolate chip and Eric,” and a girl looked up and said, “I’m eating Eric.”

The group of students addressed such issues as “Did Sarah Palin do a disservice to women’s issues?” and “Will racism dissolve now that Obama is our President?” and “Is helping the environment or the human race more important to you and why?”

Junior Stacey Kight thought the forum was “a fantastic opportunity for students to come and talk about things that are so much bigger than themselves.”

Like Turpel, Kight feels that “it’s essential for college students like us to get together and talk about these issues because it’s so easy for us to get wrapped up in our own hectic schedules and inevitably disregard the big picture.”
Snow, president of the Black Student Union, had an optimistic take on the state of our country concerning these issues. Conceding that awareness still needs to be raised, she exclaimed, “But there are people like us. There’s hope!”

Jen Noel
Staff Reporter

As another semester is coming to a close here on the Hill, so too does the curtain fall on this year’s installment of the Lighter Side. There were numerous memorable moments that filled the pages of the blotter, so memorable in fact that I decided to dedicate a portion of this week’s Lighter Side to the Best and Brightest (more like the Most Foolish and Strangest) of 2008.Let’s never forget the soap and suds party in an Academic Hall bathroom or the Mission Impossible crew that scurried on top of Decker Center. The campus safety vehicle versus dump truck episode also makes it into the noteworthy category. The boulder bandit of Rouzer Hall undoubtedly flies to the top of the list.

However, the recipient of this year’s numero uno position goes to the student who was able to effortlessly transform into Spiderman and scale an exterior wall of McDaniel Hall. This incident could easily become the newest definition of inane.

The past two weeks have also brought an interesting array of incidents to the blotter. On November 16, students in a Garden Apartment could not keep a keg party a secret. Apparently a new drinking game on campus involves throwing empty beer bottles from a window. Even if they thought shattering the bottles would elude Campus Safety, they now have to face the Green Terra gang for not recycling.

Also having to face the wrath of the avid recyclers on campus was a student who decided the Whiteford parking lot resembled a dumpster. On November 21, Campus Safety issued a citation to a student who dumped a pile of trash including banana peels, food containers, plastic bags, and other perishable goods out of their car door. Fall cleaning probably should have a week sooner and a few feet closer to a trash can for this litterbug.

On November 9, litter was at the bottom of the problem list for a student on Pennsylvania Avenue. An unsuspecting individual fell victim to one of the oldest college pranks in the book?furniture stacking.

Campus Safety received a report that a student was unable to leave their room because an unknown culprit barricaded their door shut with furniture. Someone obviously needs to think about picking up a few more credits if they have nothing better to do in their free time.

A final tale from Rouzer Hall is the only fitting way to end this column. A report was generated on November 13 that serious property damage occurred in the freshmen boys’ dorm.

Campus Safety arrived at 12 a.m. to find over 20 ceiling tiles broken. Aside from someone using a pogo stick up and down the hall, I feel like this was definitely not an accidental occurrence. Perhaps a new year will also bring a wave of maturity for the youngest members of our community.

It has been an interesting ride through the pages of the blotter this semester, and fears of a lackluster week never crossed my mind. Try not to let the merriment of the holidays overcome you and farewell till next semester when the inane acts will abound again.

Danielle Azoulay
Staff Reporter

The first snowflakes of winter thrilled students, putting smiles on the faces of many who are currently stressed over end of the semester projects and exams.

“I was so excited I ran outside and let the snow hit my face,” said senior Lindsay Shue after the first flurries of the season fell on McDaniel College on Monday, November 17. “It was a nice break from studying.”

“It was a nice surprise,” said junior Terri Martin, “it’s not often we get snow before Thanksgiving.”

Friday, November 21, brought more snow ? a thin blanket during the morning hours with forecasters calling for one to two inches later in the day.

Although students enjoyed the snow many are surprised by how cold it has become and even more so by how quickly the temperature dropped.

“I’m not that surprised it is cold outside, it is November,” said Senior Stephanie Banik, “but it is amazing how suddenly it got freezing.”

Temperatures were in the mid 60’s at homecoming and dropped to the upper twenties only a week and a half later.

“Winter has come fast,” said Martin, who like many students now finds herself bundling up before heading to class unlike a couple of weeks ago when a hoodie would suffice.

Several students have found themselves unprepared for the sudden cold.

“I was going to have my parents bring my winter coat with them when they came down for homecoming, but it was so warm I figured that it could wait until I went home for Thanksgiving,” said one student who preferred to remain anonymous. “It got so cold in the last week though that I had to go to Marshalls and buy a new coat in order to keep warm,” she said.

Other students are wrapping themselves in extra layers and waiting until Thanksgiving break.

“I wasn’t even planning on bringing my winter coat to school until after Thanksgiving. I wasn’t expecting it to get this cold. I guess I’m just going to have to tough it out,” said another student who also prefers to remain anonymous.

Looks like we could be in for a cold winter, and hopefully a bit more snow.

Kris Breeden
Staff Reporter

McDaniel College’s burgeoning graduate program has an enrollment that tops undergraduate enrollment ? a little known fact among undergraduates.

McDaniel actually offers 16 different programs of graduate study, many of them revolving around education, including counselor education and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Other programs include human resources development, exercise science, and gerontology.In terms of student growth, during the 2007-2008 school years, 3,030 students were enrolled in graduate classes at McDaniel.

This number dwarfs the approximate 1,700 students attending McDaniel as undergraduates.

“The graduate program has always been larger than the community in general realizes,” explains Dr. Henry Reiff, Acting Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies.

When Dr. Henry Reiff began working in the graduate office in 1989, he says the faculty meetings consisted of seven to eight people and everything was contained within Thompson Hall.

Now taking up the 2nd floor of Academic Hall, the Graduate programs hold faculty meetings of more than thirty people.

Reiff explains that Enrollment increased with the development of new programs, which started in the mid-1990s. First, a Human Resource program was developed with a cohort approach. Since then, McDaniel has added programs in BEST (Better Educators for the Students of Tomorrow), gerontology, and TESOL.

Another catalyst for growth was the expansion of programs off campus, which took off during the mid-90s.
“Half of the students at any one time,” according to Reiff, “are not coming to campus for their classes.”

Select McDaniel Graduate and Professional Studies classes are offered throughout Maryland, including Calvert, Cecil, Charles, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s County.

And there are more graduate developments in the works: an IT program for certification in online teaching and a program for Leadership in Global Enterprise.

One result of all the efforts made within the graduate program, says Reiff, has been a change in demographics. With the cohort and off-campus programs, the graduate school has a more diverse demographic than the undergraduates.
On campus, “it used to primarily be Carroll County teachers,” Reiff explains.

Now, he says, McDaniel even attracts students from Pennsylvania, including Adams and York County.
“I knew a student who drove 75 miles each way,” he states, “which I think is a testament to the quality of the programs here.”

What does all this mean for the McDaniel undergrads?

The McDaniel graduate programs want to offer more to the undergraduate community.

“One of my goals of Graduate and Professional Studies,” says Reiff, “is to increase the connectedness with the undergraduate programs.”

Reiff would like to see an increase in internships offered to undergraduates within the graduate programs.
“One that jumps out is Gerontology,” he says, “and the same with Human Resource Development. I think it would be a good way to get experience and help decide if you want to pursue that graduate degree.”

Another measure the graduate school plans to take is offering more graduate classes to undergraduate students.
“We really have grown a long way, but there’s tremendous potential for expansion and developing new programs,” says Reiff.

“I really am excited,” he explains, “by trying to build a better connection, awareness, and understanding between the graduate and undergraduate communities.”

For specific information on Graduate Studies at McDaniel College, go to http://www.mcdaniel.edu/126.htm or stop by the Graduate and Professional Studies office on the 2nd floor of Academic Hall.