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E PENDULU
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010 | VOLUME 36, EDITION 6
www.elon.edu/pendulum
A
JUSTINE SCHULERUO | Photo Editor
Chemistry majors Sara Dennin, a senior, and junior Tony Rizzuto work on their research in a lab on the third floor of McMichael Science Building.
The new strategic plan is budgeting for an addition to be made to McMichael to allow for more room for both students and professors' research.
Lab space in McMichael insufficient
Samantha King
News Editor
Tony Rizzuto is a junior Elon College
Fellow chemistry major trying to turn
an abundant natural gas into something
useful, like a fuel, for his honors
project. If Rizzuto succeeds, he will be
publishing his original results in an
academic journal, a task his lab partner.
Matt Horowitz, is already working on.
Each spends hours in the lab trading
off working space. They share a mentor,
and more importantly, they must share
half a countertop for their projects.
Usually there are usually multiple
students working in a lab space in
McMichael Science Building.
“We have to stagger it,” said Robert
Vick, associate professor of biology.
Vick is studying muscular structure
with a student. They need a treadmill,
which the student is supplying herself.
Currently the biology department
has four spaces strictly for lab work,
including the greenhouse, leaving many
students and staff to share space and
rearrange time slots for projects.
“I think it is important to understand
that no one. Harvard, Duke, not even God,
has unlimited resources,” Vick said.
In the coming years, though, lab
space will no longer be an issue. The Elon
Commitment strategic plan calls for an
extension to the east side of McMichael.
But Vick said he won’t believe it until
ground is broken, and many professors
and students are apprehensive about the
new accommodations.
The university has no definite
plans for the construction of a science
extension. The extension is just one of
the options being discussed. Others
include a separate building.
“If you look at previous plans, there
are buildings that never materialized.
It may or may not happen, and we are
looking at a few different places,” said
Dan Anderson, the director of University
Relations.
According to the master plan, the
extension is just a potential idea at this
time.
Shon Gilliam is the physics lab
manager and organizes all of the lab
equipment for the department. He said
he is concerned about equipment. There
are as many as four courses taught using
four different types of lab materials in a
single classroom.
“It gets messy,” Gilliam said. “Every
year space is an issue. Every year we get
more students and have less space.”
Gilliam said he is concerned about
equipment in the building and how it
would be set up, which hasn’t yet been
discussed.
Vick, along with others in the field.
said he is concerned about the logistics
of the building. He said he believes
departments should not be split.
“When you separate departments,
there is no interaction,” Vick said. “No
sharing of ideas in passing.”
The environmental studies
department was moved to Powell and
now has little interaction with the other
science disciplines.
Senior chemistry mcjor Sara Dennin
agrees. “If their offices are in McMichael
and labs are in the other building, it
would be much harder for us to find
them.”
Dennin said what the department
really needs are new classrooms and
more computers with specialized
programs. In McMichael’s computer
programs, only six students can be on at
the same time.
Although Dennin, Horowitz and
Rizzuto will not be here when the
extension is built, they said they are
excited for the department to have
enough space to accommodate students,
faculty and research.
Earthquake
hits Chile,
kills hundreds
Linday Fendt
Reporter
SANTIAGO, CHILE — Chileans were
shaken awake in their beds after a colossal
8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the
coast of Chile early Saturday morning,
killing at least 708 people as of Monday,
according to the New York Times. There
are currently two Elon students studying
abroad in Chile.
The quake hit at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m.
EST) about 60 miles off the country’s
coast. Most of the serious damage and
injuries occurred in Concepcion, Chile’s
second largest city, but damage can be
seen throughout the country, including
Santiago, Chile’s capital.
“1 had been in bed for about five minutes
when everything started shaking," said
Renee Zale, an Elon University junior
spending the semester in Santiago.
Zale, a Massachusetts native, had
never experienced an earthquake before.
“On the east coast (of the United
States) they don’t really stress earthquake
preparedness, so it took me a second
to realize what was going on, then one
of my host sisters yelled my name and
we all went and stood in a doorframe
downstairs,” she said.
See CHILE | PAGE 2
Tentative April
deadline set for
completion of
Elon vmderpass
Jack Rodenfels
Senior Reporter
There is a light at the end of the tunnel
for Elon University’s current underpass
construction project.
The completion of the pedestrian
underpass beneath the railroad tracks
parallel to Lebanon Avenue and Trollinger
Avenue is set to be completed in April.
A five-man crew from Crowder
Construction has been working on the
project since August.
“Barring more bad weather, we look
to have the underpass completed and
fully functional by the end of April,” said
Tony Nash, foreman of the project from
Crowder Construction.
According to Nash, the progress of
the pedestrian underpass was halted for
almost two months because of inclement
weather, forcing construction workers
to slow their process and move back the
anticipated completion date.
Before the completion of the
pedestrian tunnel. East Lebanon Avenue
and East Trollinger Avenue between
Lindner Hall and North Antioch Avenue
will re-open. Crowder Construction
estimates Lebanon Avenue will open in
mid-April, eliminating traffic congestion
throughout campus and adding parking
previously filled by construction
equipment.
See TUNNEL I PAGE 6
McMICHAEL
GRAPHIC COURTESY OF ELON UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
The possibility of an extension on the McMichael Science Building brings the chance that
students and professors will have more space to do research.