A look at distracted walking on Homecoming voting to begin Conference play to test women’s campus Tuesday soccer team p. 3 p. 5 p. 8 @DailyAthenaeum Th e Daily Athenaeum dailyathenaeum [email protected] WVU’s Independent Student Newspaper MONDAY, SEPTMEBER 30, 2019 www.thedaonline.com Sheetz closure causes concern among students something late at night, we are going BY PENNY DE LA CRUZ to have to walk further and/or waste money on Uber eats,” said Deionte ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR Harrilla, a third-year biology student from Pittsburgh. Earlier this month, WVU an- Some students, Harrilla included, nounced in a statement that the Sheetz are looking at the Sheetz closing more convenience store in University Place optimistically, looking more into what will be not be renewing its lease. the building space can become. With all of the people that this store “I mean, if it has to go then it has serves, some students are concerned to go, but I think that they should that food will no longer be as accessi- turn the space into an updated din- ble to them. ing hall for Sunnyside [students] and “Th ere are three dorms, three apart- then turn Summit’s dining hall into a ment complexes and multiple houses bigger downtown gym or a program- in this area that use the Sheetz,” said ming space, like Blue and Gold rooms Lyrek Lockley, a second-year forensics in Towers,” Harrilla said. “I just hope student from Virginia Beach, Virginia. they make use of the space so that it’s Lockley said a lot of people in the most benefi cial to students” Sunnyside area go to that Sheetz, since Other suggestions for what can fi ll the only dining hall in the area, the the vacancy when the Sheetz leaves in- Summit Cafe, closes before some stu- clude putting in a University-owned dents want to eat. convenience store, similar to Lyon’s “Th e [other] closest Sheetz is the Den in Lyon Tower or JACs in the one by Hotel Morgan, and I don’t know Mountainlair, which was replaced by who is going to want to walk all the way Jazzman’s Coff ee earlier this year. over there, but I’m not,” Lockley said. Th e University has requested ad- Th e only other Sheetz store on the ditional information and the ability to Downtown campus is 0.9 miles away pursue all options with the developer, from the one closing, which is around according to the statement, sent to the PHOTO BY KYLE MONROE a 20-minute walk, according to Goo- Daily Athenaeum on Friday.Th e Uni- The Sheetz at University Place is located just off of University Avenue, and is within walking distance of Summit and Honors Halls, as well as the downtown gle Maps. versity does not know what prompted campus. “It sucks because now if you want the decision to not renew the lease. Businesses talk about the effect of homelessness, other issues BY JHARAD LESTER always out there. They sit on the “You’ll see a lot of people across the street over- Barton said such issues have bench outside and cause prob- negatively affected the business. He STAFF WRITER lems,” said Delvante Barton, a man- dosing, sitting on cars, and all that stuff. The said there are people who sit out- ager at Benny Velino’s, which is on police get called, but it continues to happen” side and cause problems, causing Homelessness and other issues High Street. “They’ll grab at people, many customers to walk past the such as loitering and criminal ac- -Delvante Barton, Benny Velino’s manager get too close to them and ask them restaurant and won’t come back. tivity throughout downtown Mor- gantown are negatively affecting for money and food.” ery couple of weeks because they “That happens a lot,” Barnes Both Barton and Barnes said the businesses on High Street, accord- “They cause problems at least will hang out, ask for money and said. city government has not helped ing to some local business workers, once or twice a week,” Barton said. food and cause disruptions. He said Barton said there was a recent solve the problems faced by the and many say there is not enough Benjamin Barnes, an employee other businesses close by have had fight outside the door that pre- businesses in the community. being done to stop it. at Blue Moose Cafe, said that he has to call the police because some- vented people from entering the See Homeless page 4 “It’s the same people that are to kick people out once or twice ev- body refused to leave. business for at least a half hour. Prospect and Price Creative is a student-run creative services agency. Located at the intersection AD DESIGN ADVERTISING BRANDING & LOGOS of Prospect and Price Streets in Morgantown, our mission is to provide a hands-on learning environment where our students PHOTOGRAPHY VIDEO PRODUCTION TABLE PROMOTIONS work with local businesses to meet their marketing needs. www.prospectandpricecrea ve.com • 304-293-4141 2 MONDAY, SEPTMEBER 30, 2019 WEEKLY WEATHER FORECAST SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENTS dailyathenaeum MONDAY 9/30 Staff Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or WVU’s INDEPENDENT thunderstorms. Hot. STUDENT NEWSPAPER HIGH 85° LOW 68° NEWS Douglas Soule me: *parks illegally everywhere in Editor-in-Chief TUESDAY 10/1 Hannah Williams morgantown* Managing Editor Partly cloudy skies. Hot. Jordyn Johnson Digital Editor Haleigh Holden HIGH 89° LOW 69° parking offi cer: *gives me tickets* Art Director Avery Lyons WEDNESDAY 10/2 Page Designer Caroline Murphy me: Page Designer Partly cloudy skies. Hot. Alayna Fuller News Editor HIGH 89° LOW 69° Gabriella Brown Assistant News Editor Jared Serre Sports Editor Cody Nespor Assistant Sports Editor CRIME REPORT Cole McClanahan Culture Editor Penelope de La Cruz Assistant Culture Editor Sept. 26 Health Science Center SeVohn Hunter 10:40 P.M. | INACTIVE Alarm condition. Podcast Editor Kayla Gagnon WVU Dadisman Hall Sept. 26 Destruction of property. Video Editor 1:20 P.M. | CLEAR Caylie Silveira Sept. 26 Patteson Drive Photo Editor 9:42 P.M. | CLOSED Traffi c stop. ADVERTISING College Park Sept. 26 Vehicle accident. Derek Reh 1:06 P.M. | IMPOUNDED Media Consultant Sept. 26 Area 49 Emma Hershman Media Consultant 7:48 P.M. | INACTIVE Back ticket tow. Andrew Green College Park Sept. 26 Media Consultant Identity theft. 12:35 P.M. | NOT IMPOUNDED PUBLIC RELATIONS Sept. 26 Rec Center 7:42 P.M. | CLOSED Sarah Stanford Back ticket tow. Public Relations Booth Leader Mountaineer Station Sept. 26 Hope Boone Alarm condition. 12:18 P.M. | CLOSED Public Relations Kenzie Bostick Sept. 26 Rec Center Public Relations 1:25 P.M. | CLOSED Fire alarm. Tiff any Bunn Public Relations Jordan Coddington Every week for the next month there will Public Relations Th e DA is student-run and editorially Abi Enos Public Relations independent from West Virginia University. be a parade in Morgantown. Thats it. Andrew Green All content decisions in the DA are made by Public Relations That’s the tweet. Emma Hershman students without prior review by the Public Relations Desirae Lindow University. 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G285C October 22 / 7:30AM - 3:00PM / The Daily Athenaeum strives Kayla Stewart October 8 7:45 am — 11 :45 am November 7, 2019 -7:30 AM-3PM Videographer / for accuracy and fairness in October 15 7:45 am — 11 :45 am the reporting of news. If a re- Shelby Th oburn / Videographer October 31 7:45 am — 11 :45 am Services provided by WVU Urgent Care Suncrest/ port is wrong or misleading Evansdale. WVU Medicine will bill your insurance. a request for a correction or BUSINESS OFFICE clarifi a cation may be made. Azim Turakhonov Offi ce Assistant MONDAY, SEPTMEBER 30, 2019 Editor: Assistant Editor: 3 Alayna Fuller NEWS Gabriella Brown [email protected] [email protected] A look at distracted walking on campus BY GABRIELLA BROWN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR While several dangers come with texting and driving, there are many that also come with texting and crossing the street. A popular area for stu- dents to cross the street is be- tween Woodburn Circle and the Mountainlair. Dozens of students cross at any given moment, backing up traffi c, sometimes as far as the Willey and High Street intersection. However, while dozens of students cross, few look be- fore doing so. On Friday, between 12:41 p.m. and 12:56 p.m., 254 peo- ple crossed the street, accord- ing to a DA observation. Of those, 64% did not check for cars before crossing. Cathy Bowers, a Morgan- town resident, said she avoids that area as often as possible.