tm THE UILFORDIAN Greensboro, N.C. Volume 92, Issue 14 www.guilfordian.com January 27, 2006 Corroded pipe bursts, affects Binford rooms "The room smelled so had my chest hurt to breathe the air" Beth Bass Senior Writer At around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14, Devin Swanson returned to his room in Binford hall to discover what he described as a waterfall coming from above the window. The light fixture was filled with water and dripping. Pieces of ceiling were falling. Water was dripping onto his roommate's desk, which housed his laptop, speakers, and iPod. "My first reaction was 'Are you serious?' As I walked in the door I heard 'tap tap tap tap' from the recycling bin and thought it was some sort of animal," said first- year Swanson, former resident of the first floor. "Until I looked up and saw drops coming from the ceiling around the bed and closet." A corroded pipe inside the wall caused water to cascade from the third floor to the basement. Water soaked the carpets and students' belongings in three rooms straight down and seeped into a fourth room on the first floor. "The room smelled so bad my chest hurt to breathe the air," said Joshua Payne, first-year and third- floor Binford resident. "Next thing you know, the whole hallway smelled like my room." Because of the weekend and Martin Luther King, Jr. day, affect ed students were told by R.A.s to stay with friends until the prob lem was fixed. It took until Tuesday, Jan. 17, for the carpets to be cleaned and the water to be removed from the dorms. "Mechanical systems behind walls - you don't know. You can only imagine on a campus this big how many we have. But we try," said Randy Rasmussen, Maintenance Supervisor. The Binford R.A.s called the Office of Public Safety, who then sent an officer to asses the prob lem. The officer then called facili ties and the water was turned off. However, the rooms were not cleaned or sanitized until Tuesday. Gerald Little, Director of Environmental Services, returned to work Tuesday to find an angry message from a parent on his voicemail. "I think we're actually very punctual when addressing issues like this," said Little. "Because it was the holiday and the staff was off when we got the messages, it was late." He added that his voicemail message lists an emergency num ber where he can be reached on his cell phone. He explained that if people had listened to his entire voicemail message, he could have been contacted sooner. Public Safety also has a list of mainte nance staff cell phone numbers in case of emergency when the usual procedure of an R.A. filling out a work order is insufficient, "I was absolutely confused about why I didn't hear about it until Tuesday," said Little. Some students affected by the water were moved to rooms in Milner and Shore, because of the smell. Students with damaged belongings - namely, electrical Forum updates budget plans Corroded pipes in Bindford break, displacing students. Continued on page 3 Vandalism targets campus cars Sevilla Trevisani Managing Editor The Budget Committee held its second open forum on Jan. 19 for the Guilford com munity to ask questions about the proposed 2006-2007 budget. The purpose of the meeting was to update the community, on the latest formu lations of the budget, give specifics on tuition increases, salary increases, financial aid and Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP) implementation. College president Kent Chabotar estab lished several goals for the budget commit tee. The primary goal is to have an equi table budget every year. Other goals include decreasing the endowment spend ing, increasing tuition, increasing major maintenance and other capital projects, and increasing pay for faculty and staff. The objective of the committee was to bring order to Guilford's finances. The original projection for the 2006-2007 budget estimated a deficit of $706,000. This is referred to as the gap. A revised and more accurate pro jection revealed that the gap was closer to $1,580,000. These revisions included figures relating to the revised endow ment distribution, annual giving esti mates, early college revisions, revised financial aid esti- Guilford exceeds 2,575 applications this year. Continued on page 2 Pascale Yallee Senior Writer Students driving Ford Mustangs may want to invest in spare tires. Last semester there were several reports of slashed tires of stu dent and faculty vehi cles. The windows were broken, and items were stolen from inside. Reports show that only Ford Mustangs and Public Safety cars were targeted. No one gender has been tar geted exclusively. There is no particular Guilford parking lot that has been targeted more than others. Public Safety cars had the windshields broken and were also the vic tims of tire slashing. Even President Kent Chabotar's car was vandalized and slashed. were slashed and robbed on the same day. Public Safety has not concluded whether or not these incidents are coimected. "It feels like an invasion of privacy," said first-year Ryan Davis. "I also thought I could trust that if I park my car on campus, when I went back to my car it would be in the same condition as I left it." The wave of wreckage continued last semester when, on numerous occa sions, a brick was thrown through the window of the Public Safety Office. There have been tire slashings on other college campuses, including NC A&T, UNCG, Greensboro College, and Bennett College. However, Public Safety does not think vandalism is Vandals target Ford Mustangs On one occasion last semester, five cars Continued on page 2

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