FEATURES, page 2
GREEN & GOLD From a waterfront cleanup to a recycling workshop, USF St. Petersburg goes above and beyond your typical Earth Day — opting instead for Earth Week. Read about the campus’ greenest week here.
OPINIONS, page 6
ARTS, page 7
KING OF DREAMVILLE
FREEING THE PRESS
Student-run media organizations across the country have to fight daily to maintain independence, in both funding and coverage. In reaction to this trend, campus newspapers are joining together to #SaveStudentNewsrooms to showcase the challenges they face.
J. Cole’s lyricism makes him a divisive figure — some call his style socially conscious rap, some call it preaching. His most recent album, “KOD,” continues the trend with a healthy dose of musical hypocrisy.
THE CROW ’S NEST T H E C A M P U S N E W S PA P E R AT U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D A S T. P E T E R S B U R G
Volume 50, Issue 13 - April 23, 2018 | Online at crowsneststpete.com
University still hush-hush on consultant By Nancy McCann Contributor
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t’s been more than two months since a Boston labor lawyer hired by the university met with adjunct faculty on all three campuses and taped a video that was sent to all adjuncts. But the university still refuses to say how much Katherine Lev was paid or provide any records about her contract. In emails to The Crow’s Nest and its attorney this month, the university’s spokeswoman and its general counsel repeated the university’s assertion that the records requested by the newspaper are exempt from disclosure under a provision of the state’s Public Records Law. But the newspaper’s attorney, Alison Steele, responded that the narrow exemption cited by the university “does not apply to contracts between government agencies and outside attorneys, or to such
attorneys’ invoices.” Steele, a veteran media lawyer whose clients include the Tampa Bay Times, urged the administration to “make diligent inquiry to locate and produce its records” related to Lev’s engagement by the university “with substantially greater alacrity than has become its custom.” At issue is the secrecy surrounding the role of Lev, a lawyer, labor law consultant and adjunct faculty member at Boston College. Her name emerged as the university system’s 900 adjuncts neared a vote on whether to have a union – the Service Employees International Union – represent them in their quest for better pay and benefits. The university strongly opposed the union drive at every turn, downplaying the potential benefits for adjuncts and criticizing the SEIU in several emails to adjuncts. >> SEE HUSH on P2
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Fish to Dish: Patrick Bixler, assistant to The Tavern at Bayboro’s owner, utilizes every part of the grouper after butchering it. Read about The Tavern on P4 & 5.
Davis Hall second floor due for remodel
By Emily Wunderlich ewunderlich@mail.usf.edu
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nviting, flexible and modern. That’s how Edward Lewis, USF St. Petersburg construction project manager, envisions the second floor of Lowell E. Davis Memorial Hall, which is in the planning phases of renovation. “The process starts with a conceptual design,” Lewis said. “We’re trying to work out how that space is used and how we can best utilize it and get the maximum out of it. At the moment, you’ve got a building that was built 25 or 27 years ago, so we need to bring it up to modern
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sort-of ideas.” The university received $3.1 million in state funding for the project in 2017 and chipped in an additional $2 million. Although this is only enough to cover the cost of the second floor, Lewis considers the remodel an “ongoing project.” Lewis expects a rendition of the final product to be complete by fall 2018. BFRANK Studio, LLC, the same architectural company that remodeled The Edge in August, will tentatively begin construction the following spring. To minimize disruptions to students and staff, Lewis predicts renovations will be
split into two phases over the course of four to six months. “There’s never an ideal time to do a project of this size,” Lewis said. “Nobody wants to overstress or put students out from their routine, but there will be an element of that because we’re going to be remodeling the building.” “Unfortunately we’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette in this case,” he said. In addition to classrooms, offices and part of the university’s information technology department, the 34,000-square-foot space will include standardized room dimensions to reflect class sizes as mandated by
the state. “We’re working closely with the registrar’s office to make sure that what we design, when it goes back in, meets the classroom requirements for size,” Lewis said. “As an example — I know it must happen sometimes — a classroom that seats 50 people will have 6 people in the class, or the other way around.” Lewis said the university is also exploring different systems of construction, such as demountable walls that can be moved from room to room. “The technology that goes into this is fantastic,” he said.
As one of the largest teaching buildings on campus, Davis Hall houses the largest college on campus: the College of Arts and Sciences. The building has undergone several minor maintenance jobs since its opening in the early 1980s. “If we had a bottomless pit (of money), I’d be doing the whole building,” said Lewis, who once heard a student compare the hall’s interior to a scene from the 1980s horror film “The Shining.” “But even that would be difficult because we haven’t got enough space.”
THE CROW’S NEST IS THE WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA ST. PETERSBURG. ALL CONTENT IN THE PUBLICATION IS PRODUCED BY USFSP STUDENTS. SINGLE COPIES FREE.