T I-I E ETRIE W -EEKLY "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot ofpeople angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." -Douglas Adams Volume XXXIII, Number 22 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 March 1(, Fieldhouse Break-ins End Seeny, 32, having been arrested Campus Police Arrest Suspect for similar crimes many times be­ fore, was already banned from TIM YOUNG siege. Within two weeks, it has UMBC's campus. The officers Retriever Weekly Staff Writer been broken into nearly 12 times quickly took him into custody and - a number that shocks not only brought him back to Headquarters, The long streak of robberies at students, but campus police as well charging him with trespassing. the Fieldhouse were brought to a Mr. Seeney was spotted by sur­ From there, an officer positively successful end by campus police veillance on campus sometime identified Sweeney as the man they when a suspect, identified as around 9 a.m. on the main campus had seen fleeing from the scene of Derek Antonio Seeney, was ar­ just walking around. When ap­ a previous robbery attempt at the rested on Feb. 20 for merely tres­ proached by officers Dennis Fieldhouse on Feb. 18, during a passing. After further investiga­ Conklin and Bruce Perry, and routine scan of the area. tion, the alleged crime turned out asked for his name, he quickly an­ When searched, officers found to be a considerable amount more. swered, unaware that the officers on Seeney a tool they had believed In the recent weeks at UMBC, had just reviewed his files the day the Fieldhouse has been under before. see ARREST, page 6 President Hosts Open Community Meeting Dave Chen I Retriever Weekly Staff GABEMARCUS nity to pose questions to President what's going on," Lankford said. Don't Eat Yellow Snow: Snow enthusiasts Veronica Castro Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff Hrabowski, according to Lisa Around 1 p.m., after most of (back) and Caitlin O'Brien make the most of their unexpected day off. Akunin, associate vice president of the attendees had arrived, the Students and faculty gathered Marketing and Public Relations. meeting was moved from the last Friday to attend the Open The number in attendance leaned Ballroom Lounge where it was Snow Causes Rare Community Meeting held by strongly to the side of the adminis­ originally scheduled to be held, UMBC President Freeman tration. Meta Lankford, 21, a senior to the Ballroom because of space Hrabowski to discuss current uni­ majoring in Mechanical Engineer­ constraints. Hrabowski re­ Closing of UMBC versity issues. ing, was one of the few students marked that he was not expect­ The meeting was held to hear who attended the event. ing as much interest in the meet­ EMILY BERNSTEIN Circle, one student hit the deep part student concerns and to give the "I haven't heard the president ing as it received. Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff of the ditch at the bottom and was UMBC community an opportu- speak in a while and I needed to see Addressing the audience in the launched into the air. She suffered a Ballroom, Hrabowski an­ It isn't often that UMBC shuts broken vertebrae. The student, who nounced that UMBC's budget down due to inclement weather, so wished not to be named, was driven would be increasing from when officials announced that school to St. Agnes hospital and is now back $179M to $193 million, repre­ would be closing at 2:30 p.m. last on campus where she will be resting senting the largest budgetary in­ Tuesday, students all over campus for the next couple of weeks. crease since he has been at rushed outside to enjoy the snow. The snow finally stopped falling UMBC. As the exodus began - with fac­ around midnight, with scattered flur­ "It is critical that we all speak ulty, staff and students hurrying to ries continuing into the morning. Sev­ the same language about who we their cars to beat the inevitable eral inches of snow had aecumulated, are as a campus," Hrabowski weather-related traffic - snowball but UMBC crews managed to have said, referring to UMBC's des­ fights of massive proportions ensued. most of the walkways plowed and ignation as a research university. Snow angels could even be seen in salted by_mid-afternoon Wednesday. "We're getting more money be­ various spots around campus. Parking lots also, for the most part, cause of the expensive nature of Later in the evening, residents took were clear and ready for use. Morn­ our mission." to sledding on the hills by the stadium, ing sunshine contributed to the im­ The increase in the budget will near Potomac, across from the apart­ provement in conditions by melting not be used to fund the start of ments and anywhere else there was a some of the remaining snow. new programs. Instead, it will be big enough slope. For the most part, Tuesday during the snowstorm, used to catch up on the needs of cafeteria trays and flattened boxes however, conditions around the area the university, which have been acted as sleds. were decidedly perilous, leading of­ under-served. Areas which will Just after 6 p.m., there was an in­ ficials from the physical plant, police see DISCUSSION, page jury from sledding on campus. After 7 sledding down a hill outside Hilltop ....... uuw wr(~al<s havoc oil stGtae, e.. greetfngs and sports schedule~ bUt men's C!Do~gin, Golden Key lacr(JSSe still tnant:!fges to welcomes its new beat Cornell, Jeff Ratcliffe rnemberst Peck's picks for isAt.hlete ofthe week, and the 1999 Oscars, Carolyn Chris Kerner talks about Danaoker:t gives us a peek the NCAA tournament at vegetarianism and some outlook. cool, Cruel Raisons. PAGE2 THE RETRIEVER WEEKLY NEWS March 16, 1999 THE SCENES · SGA Candidate Threatened TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-Student Gov­ ·Passionate About Poetry: ernment Association presidential can­ didate Fabien Zinga received a threat­ ening phone call loaded with racial Michael Fallon slurs late Monday night, and he be­ lieves the university's underground fraternity-based organization known as HEATHER WILLIAMS House of Forgotten Names. He is cur­ also once an instructor at UMBC). "the Machine" was behind the threat. Retriever Weekly Staff Writer rently working on essays that he hopes to They live in a three-story townhouse The anonymous caller used the word publish sometime in the future. He has with beautiful tile and plasterwork. It "nigger" several times, Zinga said, and It's always exciting to come across the stories of an artist, the stories of a is close to the Baltimore Museum of threatened to lynch him. a person with a passion, but it's even teacher, and many stories that are a com­ Art and Johns Hopkins University on "I could tell by the voice on the more exciting when that person wants bination of the two. St. Paul Street. His deep roots here and phone that it was a white man," said to share it. Michael Fallon's passion One story he tells is of a renowned poet, his comfortable life explain his un­ Zinga, a senior in_pre-med. "He mainly is poetry, and he has been infecting Andrei Cordescu, who was reading at the willingness to move city to city and said a lot of curse words, but the one students at UMBC with an enthusi­ Eight by Ten - a rather uncomfortable to live the corporate lifestyle. thing that really caught my attention asm for words for nearly 20 years. little club in Baltimore. Cordescu was up "It would have been better for my was when he said they were going to His office, which he shares - as on that tiny stage reading, when a very career if I'd been willing to do that," hang me up on a tree." do most English instructors at the uni­ large, drunk, blonde woman (classic a Ia he said, but he is happy with the versity-is somewhere between cozy Dundalk) stumbled onto the stage. choices he's made. University Prepares for Severe and cramped. Between three book­ "I can do this!" she kept sh~uting. "Get As far as teaching stories go, he had Weather she! ves, three desks and one com­ up here and talk? Is that all? I can stand the honor of educating Chester Wick­ LEXINGTON, Ky.- Sirens wale and puter, there isn't much leg room, wire, a civil rights activist dark clouds loom. The sky turns an ee­ but Fallon actually manages to and a retired chaplain at rie green. Tornadoes are coming and hold small classes of two or three Hopkins, and Isaac Reihard, your dorm is in their direct path. in this space. So what if knees a distinguished writer for the The Lexington-Fayette Urban touch? His bookshelf is situated in Baltimore Sun, in a begin­ County Government activated sirens in the far corner lodged awkwardly ning poetry workshop at various parks around the city last week beside his desk, on it stands as­ UMBC. as part of a statewide severe weather sorted journals, anthologies, books The two, who are drill. of poetry and critical essays. good friends, showed up for "Compared to other areas they're His desk is comfortably. clut­ his class, he said, and al­ [tornadoes] pretty rare in Kentucky," tered, though it has no photo­ though he wasn't sure if the said Channel 27 meteorologist Chris graphs or personal items. A year's other students in the class Bailey. "We usually see about eight per worth of a monthly calendar takes were quite aware of whom year where Texas sees like a hundred.