The Daily Barometer OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY • CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
DAILYBAROMETER.COM • 541-737-2231
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2014 • VOLUME CXVI, NUMBER 83
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Blue lights: Just a push of a button n
14 blue light emergency phones on OSU campus are underutilized, still provide sense of security By Sean Wallstrom THE DAILY BAROMETER
It’s late, and you just left Withycombe Hall after a midterm. Your phone is dead and you have to walk up to 35th Street to get your car. You may feel uncomfortable. Unsafe. Then you look toward Wiegand Hall and see a vibrant blue light coming from an 8-foot-tall sentinel. Suddenly, you know emergency assistance is only a minute away. Fourteen blue light emergency phone towers are strategically placed around the Oregon State University campus to aid those in case of an emergency. Each tower costs approximately $4,000 to initially install, for a total of $56,000 here at OSU. If emergency assistance is required, it only takes the press of a button before Oregon State Police dispatch is immediately notified. Officers from the
department of public safety as well as Oregon State troopers are notified of the exact location and arrive within a minute. “My phone dies a lot and I walk around campus at night because I have late classes,” said Hanna Zarnegin, a freshman in general science. “In an emergency situation, it could help.” Though there were more than 750 blue light phone activations in the past five years on campus, most were not for actual emergencies. Of the 39 blue phone activations between September and November 2013, not a single incident was an emergency. OSP Lt. Steve Mitchell says the added element of on-campus security outweighs the setbacks. “In police work, we treat all alarms as if they’re real — we don’t hesitate,” Mitchell said. “You can’t take a chance of thinking it’s just a false alarm and have a person being assaulted and lying in the bushes outside one of these blue lights.” JUSTIN QUINN | THE DAILY BAROMETER Mitchell said there are con- This blue light emergency phone tower on Southwest 30th Street is one of 14 on See BLUE LIGHTS | page 4 Oregon State’s campus.
Unlocked door leads to unlawful entry n
24-year-old male breaks in to residence Wednesday, detained after smashing microwave oven By Megan Campbell THE DAILY BAROMETER
The door was unlocked. The man walked right in. At 2:24 a.m., Corvallis police received a phone call alerting them that someone had unlawfully entered a residence at The Union Apartment complex on Harrison Boulevard Wednesday. Because entrance to The Union is restricted to anyone but residents, police struggled to enter the building right away. By 2:41 a.m., police made it into the apartment and detained the 24-year-old male, Skylar Keith. Later, Keith was cited for criminal mischief II and criminal trespassing I. Police are unsure how Keith entered the secure building and where he came from. Reportedly, Keith was intoxicated and thought he was in an Oregon State University residence hall. In the time his unlawful entrance was reported and when authorities arrived, Keith caused damage inside the apartment, which included punching through the residents’ microwave door.
Coed fraternity More than $2.4M in building art at OSU Federal, state-level statutes mandate 1 percent focuses on of total construction costs go toward public art Corvallis still at professionalism risk of flooding See BREAK-IN | page 3
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By Kaitlyn Kohlenberg THE DAILY BAROMETER
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Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity at OSU molds pledges for realworld business scenarios By Courtney Gehring THE DAILY BAROMETER
Alpha Kappa Psi, one of Oregon State University’s few coed fraternities, ended its winter term recruitment with more than 10 new pledges. Alpha Kappa Psi is an independent professional fraternity that recruits members of all years in school with any major. Its goal is to develop and prepare students for the post-graduate world. Unlike Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council chapters’ more social-oriented recruitment, Alpha Kappa Psi pledges are recruited after submitting resumes and cover letters and then completing a sequence of professional interviews. “The first step toward entering a pledge class is an interview and a lot of times that is the first interview someone has ever done, and that already provides great practice,” said Kaitlynn Phillips, an OSU senior studying merchandising See FRATERNITY | page 3
Ever wonder where Oregon State University gets the money to pay for art installations like the one out front of Reser Stadium or the Kelly Engineering Center? Well rest assured, students are not the ones footing the bill for the sometimes-costly exhibits. The National Endowment for the Arts gives annual budgets for state-level organizations, like the Oregon Arts Commission, to fund various programs to increase and ensure the existence of publicly accessible art installations. The Percent for Art program was initiated in 1975 in select Oregon counties, then statewide in 1977. According to the OAC website, the program mandates that state-funded building projects set aside no less than 1 percent of all state building construction plans with budgets more than $100 for the acquisition of public-facing artwork. This means in the $330,000 budget for the new Student Experience Center is required by the state to be set aside for the acquisition of art that will be publicly accessible within or surrounding the building. Though the dollar value can seem high, especially when considering large-budget projects like the Student Experience Center or the Linus Pauling Science Center, many find the 1 percent of total construction cost reasonable. “I think the Oregon legislature really acted in wisdom and with cognizance of the value of art when they passed this law,” said Stephen Lawson, administrative officer for the Linus Pauling Institute. “One percent is,
in my view, a good percentage to apply of the construction costs to art within the building.” Lawson was a member of the selection committee that helped determine the art that would be installed in the Linus Pauling building even before construction See ART | page 3
THE DAILY BAROMETER
Melting snow, heavy rains and strong winds have brought high water and flood risks to Corvallis and the greater Benton County. As of Wednesday afternoon, Benton County roads at Cherry Creek and Llewellyn Road were experiencing dangerous high water levels. If localized flooding occurs, the City of Corvallis predicts that Marys River near Crystal Lake Drive, Jackson Frazier Wetlands near Lancaster Street and Oxford Circle, and Sequoia Creek near Sycamore Avenue and Janssen Street are the most at risk of dangerous water conditions. Public safety agencies in both the city and the county urge drivers to exercise caution and to not drive in standing water. The strong rains and winds may also cause power outages. All downed wires could be live and therefore are not to be touched. Heavy rain is expected in the forecast for the rest of the week with high temperatures in the low 50s. managing@dailybarometer.com