i • r m. I •#: rf & & SEONLY &JBI f * !!f ItBW* .m THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MERCYHURST COLLEGE SINCE 1929 r— ARTS& u yvu 01 ENTERTAINMENT I Melody [ Dance performance to leave depicts homelessness | Mercyhurst page 9 page 12 Vol, 75 No. 11 Mercyhurst College 501 R 38th St Erie, Pa. 16546 January 24,2002 . • Construction on academic building Students^br a Sensible! ahead of schedule due to mild weather Drug|PoKcy actually is, according to Billingsley. By Annie DeMeo The target completion date tor the look to Staff writer building is the end of October. Billingsley was quick to point out Student that getting hopes up about an early Temperatures reached a high of fifty completion for a building is not this week, making for favorable con- something any one living in Erie Government struction conditions on campus. The should do. The preliminary schedule relatively mild winter that Erie has included a provision that a harsh win- ois|ipport experienced provided for a "full ter could delay the project. steam ahead" mentality for workers "We've really been lucky with the on the Audrey S. Hirt Academic Cen- winter weather, and if it continues, ter By Kelly Rose Duttine v and we have a relatively normal Contributing writer? r "Because of t h e mild winter we are spring, the building could be finished currently ahead of schedule," said a few weeks early,** said Billingsley. Tom Billingsley, vice president of -Knowing typical Erie weather, no Mercyhurst College students that administrative affairs. "We had a late one's willing to go to the bank with belong to the organization known start, and the unseasonable winter that yet." M as %dents for a|SeiisibleU>rug we've experienced so far has enabled Billingsley last met with the fore- Policy are petitioning to erase^ a us to make up some grqund." I men of Building Systems, Inc. two e^ori^prn the Free Application Concrete has already been laid on weeks ago. A meeting is scheduled C^KFederal Student Aid ^ o n c e r n - the second floor, but according to t h e for Wednesday, Jan* 23, after which ing past drug charges^The question preliminary plan, it was not sched- the administration will have a much clearer sense of how the building is on the FAF S A asks if a student has uled to begin until the second or third ever beenaconvicted of a drug of| week of February. progressing. Billingsley noted that some aspects L "Two weeks ago, they told me that fense. of t h e building are ahead of s c h e d u l e the building was between 30 and 40 There is not a question, however, while others are not Some individual percent complete," he said. "1 suspect that asks if a student has ever cornel Annie Sitter/Merciad photographer mitted a violent crimen such as rape,- tasks are ahead, but it is difficult to that at this meeting 1 will hear that « determine how far ahead of the pre- they have reached the 40 percent Due to the mild weather conditions so far this winter, construction on The*SSDP is a national organiza- liminary schedule the entire project completion mark." the Audrey S. Hirt Academic Center is currently ahead of schedule. tion that is lobbying wrepeal die PgJierEducatiOT Amendment that s that;students convicted of drug possession or d e a l i n g can lose City posts new parking regulations along 3heir federal financial a i d y f o r one ^oiwoyears on a first pffense^nd ^definitely for repeatofFenders.^ Briggs and Lewis Avenues ||S|D I^e^^§e^$ienienski |stated t t e C T o c H^^^•JIM Bduoa^o^ n of security services, many students ^Amendment srjou^|ferepeale^e- By Sara Seidle were complaining about the initial cause it sljtdws oMscrikunation^vith Editor in chief regulations, especially after tickets students \ social economiastatus were issued. In response to the com- Jand also is a^^anon^the^right The city of E r i e has changed the park- plaints, Siddun said, f"That's a city ^priywy^ ing regulations along Briggs and street They are going to post it how The^Mercyhurst C h a p t e r s | r y - Lewis Avenue not once, but twice in they want to post it." Popovic said 3ng Jo get as many students as pos- the last two weeks. that no tickets have been issued since sible to sign the petition set t h a t the The newest regulations permit the second set of s i g n s were posted. group can approach "Mercyhurst parking along the east side of Briggs "We have not t a g g e d anyone yet, but iStudent Govenirne^-MSG willj>e and Lewis Avenues every day except we will probably start on Thursday asked to adopt the policy and sup- Tuesday. Parking it available on the or Friday." fc port the SSDP*s requests V l i a v e west side of the streets on Tuesdays According to the city of Erie traf- the Higher^Education Amendment between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. only. Park- fic court, if found in violation of t h e repealed.* ing is prohibited on the east side of parking policy, a vehicle is ticketed Student g o v e r n m e n t organiza- the streets at all other times.- Annie Sitter/Merciad photographer and fined. The fine is initially SIS but tions of c o l l e g e s around the coun- try such as Dartmouth, ^falc, and Initially, the regulations prohibited New parking regulations have gone into effect along Briggs and die fine increases to $25 if it is not paid within 10 days. Two notices are Ohio State University havejop- parking on one side of the street or Lewis Avenues. * the other depending on whether*it then sent If the fine is still not paid posed the amendment£The student was an odd or even day. There was a ti Lieutenant Popovic of the Erie Po- ing trouble with snow removal along after 60 days, it becomes a state cita- officers of t h e SSDP arc also meet- separate set of regulations for the lice Department said that the signs the streets. "One side of the street tion and the cost increases to S62. OTg'Vith^istrict^ttoroey^Foulk summer months as well. Parking was that were initially placed along never gets plowed," said Popovic. He If a vehicle accrues five tickets that next week to discuss the? Higher open on both sides of the street on Briggs and Lewis A v e n u e s were done added that this resulted in many ve- have reached state citation status, a Education Amendment and toesk Saturday and Sunday. These regula- so in error. "There was miscommu- hicles being towed. The new regula- boot will be placed on the vehicle. In T^oulk to speak on campus about the tions forced anyone parked along the nication with the paint and sign de- tions will also permit the streets to order to have a boot removed, the specifics ofamendmei f | streets to have to move their vehicle partment," said Popovic. be ^cleaned during the summer owner of the vehicle must pay $ 100 For more infotmation, visit the from one side of t h e street to the other Popovic explained that the changes months. £ £ plus the total amount of ail fines ac- SSDP national website at http://| on a daily basis. were made because the city was hav- According to Ken Siddun, director crued. www.ssdp.org. .i__i i. PAG £ 2 THEMERC1AD JANUARY 24. 2002 CAMPUS NEWS Donations begin tO roll in Cracking down on drinking College students evaluate drinking habits Phone-a-thon brings competiton between 'Hurst organizations By Nick Perkins them in a daze, such as some of us Contributing writer try to hide at the Hurst. As long as By Annie DeMeo the drunkards weren't hurting their Staff wri t e n 3 § 8 ^ A past survey given to parents of peers, or the community, there was college students said 95 percent be- no perceived problem. That all The annual phone-a-thon got under- lieve excessive alcohol consump- changed in 1993, when researchers way Sunday, Jan. 20, with callers tion is a serious threat to their chil- at ^Harvard separated plain old from men's ice hockey and Ambas- dren and 85 percent say having al- drinking, which by itself most don't sadors battling for unrestricted funds cohol easily available at college see as harmful, from binge drink- that have traditionally gone toward campuses contributes to too much ing, defined as consuming four or student financial aid. The callers drinking. more drinks in one sitting. The raised $31,186, and got 495 pledges. The American Medical Associa- Harvard study had two key find- This year the office of institutional tion chair-elect J. Edward Hill de- ings: first, binge drinking is hugely advancement hopes to raise clared, "the majority no longer per- common, with 44% of college stu- $100,000, after raising $80,152.53 dents admitting to binging at least last year. The goal may be difficult ceive college binge drinking as a right of passage; they see it as a once in the previous two weeks. to reach, given the present state of Second, that binge drinking hurts the economy. Photo by Annie Sitter/Merciad photographer major public health threat." Al- though, the question asked here is people, not j u s t the drinker but his/ "We are anticipating'that the Students answer phones, taking pledges for a worthwhile cause.