"hHe.
Volume XVVIII, Issue 17 Educating Women To Excel February 15, 2006
ON THE
INSIDE:
Bird Flu Found
in Europe
Page 2
Winter Olympics
Page 2
Meredith
- Basketball
Pace 3
Health Insurance
in the US
Page 3
Announcements
Page 4
Blackout on Campus
WEDNESDAY
Sunn
High 65/ Low
THURSDAY
Mostly Sunny
High 69/ Low 50
Mostly Cloudy
FRIDAY
High 68? Low
SATURDAY
Showers
High 49/ Low 28
SUNDAY
Partly Cloudy
High 44/ Low 33
MONDAY
Showers
High 43/ Low 37
TUESDAY
Showers
High 60/ Low 39
EMELIA DUNSTON
Staff Writer
On Wednesday, January 8lh,
like any other Wednesday,
tnost students were sitting in
class either enjoying a lovely
lecture from their professor or
completing some last minute
work. But, for some reason,
this Wednesday didn’t go
as plaimed for students who
had classes in Marlin Hall.
At approximately 2:30 in the
afternoon, as reported by Fa
cilities Services and the Of
fice of the Dean of Students,
a water line under Martin
Hall broke. The crawl space
underneath began to fill with
muddy water because of the
red clay under the building.
The water began to spill into
the mechanical room located
in the basement of Martin.
One of the things located
in the mechanical room is
the main electrical panel
for the entire building. By
the time someone realized
that the water line had bro
ken, the mechanical room
was filled with three to four
feet of muddy water and the
electrical panel was partially
submerged in the water. As
a result, for safety reasons,
power was cut to the build
ing immediately and since
the main source of power in
the building was submerged
in water, power was cut at
the next level up in the pow
er grid which cut power to
the entire western part of the
campus.
Facilities Services immedi
ately began working to stop
the water leak and pump
the water out of the Martin
Hall mechanical room so
that they could assess the
damage. Around the same
time. Dr. Reichard began
working with the Deans to
relocate evening classes to
other rooms on campus. By
approximately 9:00 RM.
that night, power had been
restored everywhere except
Martin and the Ellen Brewer
House, which is fed by the
Martin electrical panel. Af
ter the water was pumped
out, it was also discovered
that several parts of the elec
trical panel must be replaced
before power can be restored
to Marlin. The parts were
located in California and
were expected to arrive here
by Friday. Watson Electrical
was on standby to make the
repairs as soon as the parts
arrived, which involved an
other short power outage to
the entire western part of the
campus sometime Friday
Phpio by: Terri Richards
afternoon. The Deans and
Department Heads worked
with Dr. Reichard and the
Registrar’s Office to re-lo-
cate classes scheduled in
Martin for the remainder of
Thursday and Friday.
U.S. Representative David Price
is Coming to Meredith
on February 22
at 7 p.m. in
Kresge.
(Meredith Faculty, Staff and Students only)
Brought to you the Meredith College Democrats
Dining Services to Improve
MEGAN DONAHOE
Freshman Member-At-Large
This week, the SGA Ex
ecutive Board met with the
director of Dining Services,
Thad O’Briant, to discuss
potential changes to Belk
Dining Hall aild the Beehive
Cafe. Many students had al
ready come to SGA and to
Mr. O’Briant with sugges
tions to help make both din
ing areas better. Mr. O’Briant
said that 616 students, fac
ulty, and staff responded to
the survey that went out last
semester. The biggest issues
mentioned from that survey
were how to make hours
more convenient to students
and to have more variety at
meals.
The most discussed issue
was that of hours. Many stu
dents have made complaints
that the hours of Belk Dining
Hall and the hours of meal
exchange at the Beehive
are inconvenient. During
the hours that the dining ar
eas are open, many students
have class and caimol get to
either place in the allotted
hours. While it may seem
simple to keep the dining
hall open longer or to extend
meal exchange hours, there
are many factors that go into
keeping both dining areas
open, including the budget.
The second largest issue
discussed was that of va
riety. Many students have
expressed a desire to have
a larger variety of things to
eat in the dining hall and in
the Beehive, especially on
weekends. Students have
noted that pizza is usually
served in the dining hall
at least twice a week and
about three times per week
end. Not only do students
want more variety, vegetar
ians have expressed a need
to have a bigger selection as
well. On a whole, students
want to have all food items
labeled for all meals.
Keep in mind that this meet
ing was just to express sug
gestions for future changes.
Dining Services will be send
ing out another survey in the
near future and just by filling
it out, you have the chance to
win an IPod Nano.