THUNDERY hi
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lo
MONDAY
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april 11, 2011
t h e i n de pe n de n t s t u de n t n e w spa pe r of s y r acuse , n e w yor k
MAYFEST 2011
INSIDE NEWS
Cleaning up Stores on Marshall Street are still trying to recover after a January pipe burst. Page 3
INSIDE OPINION
Getting focused The Daily Orange Editorial Board calls for more voices to talk about bringing a women’s center back to SU. Page 5
For the last 50 years, the Women’s Building has slowly drifted from its original purpose, prompting the question:
WHAT DO SU’S WOMEN NEED?
INSIDE PULP
No place like home Syracuse indie band Ra Ra Riot returns home for the first time since 2009 at the Westcott Theater. Page 9
INSIDE SPORTS
In a past life One Syracuse men’s soccer player’s journey to SU began years ago in war-torn Togo. Page 20
350 guest tickets to go on sale By Sean Cotter STAFF WRITER
MayFest will continue as a universitysanctioned event for the second year in a row, Student Association and University Union officials announced Monday. The Cataracs, known for being featured on the single “Like a G6,” will headline the event. From 1 to 6 p.m. on April 29, MayFest will take place in Walnut Park, SA President Neal Casey said. Opening for The Cataracs will be Hoodie Allen, a hip-hop artist, Casey said. The first performer will be DJ Guy Harrison, a freshman in S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, he said. MayFest is designed to lead into UU’s Block Party 2011, which begins at 7 p.m. on the same day. The two events are programmed separately
SEE MAYFEST PAGE 4
daily orange file photos The facade of the Women’s Building remains intact, but the inside is a mere shadow of what it once was. The Syracuse Alumnae Lounge is now a conference room with a single plaque honoring those who made it possible.
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By Kathleen Ronayne MANAGING EDITOR
n 1950, Katharine Sibley scooped the first shovelful of dirt from the lot on Comstock Avenue, on the empty ground that would become the Women’s Building. Almost half a century earlier, eight women came together to form the Syracuse Alumnae Club, which first had the vision for a central place that could meet the recreational and social needs of women. They financed that dream with money from bake sales and dances. As the project grew, so did the scale of the fundraising, from vaudeville entertainment to silent moving picture shows. The original $50 donation was only a fraction of the cost of the $2,350,000 building. Three years after Sibley dug up that first shovelful of dirt, the Women’s Building opened its doors and was dedicated on Nov. 15, 1953. “This building has exceeded all of our expectations,” Sibley, SU’s first instructor for women’s physical education and athletics, said at the dedication, according to university archives. “It is truly the dream come true to the everlasting credit of thousands of Syracuse girls — the salt of the earth — who had, as we shall always have, great faith in our beloved university.” The building’s purposes were many —
gyms and bowling alleys for recreational and competitive sports to lounges for the Syracuse Alumnae Club and female commuter students to housing offices for the Women’s Athletic Association, Women’s Student Government and the Pan-Hellenic Council. It was, in its essence, a place to serve every need a woman on the Syracuse University campus might have, a place for the women of SU to call their own. “The dedication of the Women’s Building today marks the end of a fifty-year dream and the beginning of a new era in women’s education at Syracuse University,” read a brochure given out at the dedication. It’s all in line with SU’s rich history of being open to the needs of women — SU was the first coed university in the state of New York when it opened in 1870. When the university took over the main fundraising for the Women’s Building in 1948, thenChancellor William Tolley made it his top priority, said Marion Meyer, assistant dean emeritus in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. But today, only few remnants of the building’s original purpose remain. The Syracuse Alumnae Lounge is now a conference-style room called the Alumni Conference Lounge. Only a small plaque remains
SEE WOMEN’S BUILDING PAGE 4
relay for life
Teams raise more than $150,000 By Nick Gallagher Warren STAFF WRITER
daily orange file photo KATHARINE SIBLEY AND FORMER CHANCELLOR WILLIAM TOLLEY break ground for the Women’s Building in 1950.
Participating in Saturday’s Relay For Life was personal for Naser Al-Saleh and those in his Habitat for Humanity pre-orientation group. One of the group members, Heather Buchan, suffered from a relapse of cancer during Winter Break and couldn’t return to campus this semester. Al-Saleh and his group signed a “get well soon” card to remind Buchan they are thinking of her. “Our whole pre-orientation group is here in support of her,” said AlSaleh, a freshman economics major. A total of $152,214.92 was raised during this year’s Syracuse University Relay For Life fundraiser as of Sunday night. Relay, an annual event at SU, is held by the American Cancer
SEE RELAY PAGE 6