bad date with nicole hi
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thursday
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september 30. 2010
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
INSIDenews
I N S I D e o p ini o n
INSIDepulp
I N S I D Es p o r t s
Shopping spree New York state will raise the
Not so thirsty Marina Charny questions the
Let it all hang out The NewHouse hosts a semi-
On to the next one The Syracuse football team has the weekend
clothing tax 4 percent on Friday. Page 3
excitement of thirsty Thursday. Page 4
topless Quad campaign for breast cancer awareness. Page 13
off before starting Big East play. To succeed in conference, there are still some critical kinks the Orange needs to iron out. Page 24
SU tests library for PCB traces
Substantial donation to be revealed
By Beckie Strum News Editor
By Dara McBride Asst. News Editor
One of the largest scholarship gifts in Syracuse University history will be announced Friday afternoon on the Quad. The Office of Financial Aid and Schola r s h i p What: Scholarship Programs announcement e-mailed Where: The Quad When: Friday, 3:30 s t u d e n t s T u e s d a y, p.m. announcHow much: Free ing the gift, Project P, and the coinciding barbeque and music event. “We think you’ll be a Phan of Project P,” the e-mail read. The benefactor of the scholarship donation has yet to be announced, but students who attend Friday will be able to meet the people behind the gift, according to the e-mail. University officials said they are currently unable to comment on the specifics of the event, but said it was a historic event for SU. “I can tell you it is a historic, major gift announcement for the university,” said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, in an e-mail. “To put it in perspective, we announced a major, very significant gift this summer for the new law school building, and that was $15 million.” Signs were placed on the Quad as of Wednesday, promoting the event and listing a website. The website includes no more information than the already-released time, the location of the event and that it will be “ground-breaking.” Chris Jensen, a senior art photography major, said he had not heard of the gift or event, but it would not affect him anyway because he is graduating soon. He said he has not had probsee gift page 6
PROJECT P
brandon weight | staff photographer Protective plastic covers a part of Bird Library’s basement floor after a sample was taken to test for the presence and depth of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
E.S. Bird Library has seen its fair share of trials in the past couple of years — running out of shelf space, students fighting for more group-study areas as others push for more academic research materials, controversy over offsite book storage — all the while dealing with an inherently tight budget. A glimmer of hope came to library administrators when the family of The New York Times columnist and Syracuse University alum William Safire pledged a gift to redesign Bird’s basement, a rearrangement that would free up space on upper levels. But when tests showed old carpeting from the basement contained a carcinogen, polychlorinated biphenyls — or PCBs — in fall 2009, staff put the renovations on hold and added toxin removal to its to-do list. SU Risk Management and the Environmental Health Office have since been running tests on the basement floor and discussing with administrators possible options for moving forward with construction, said Dale King, assistant dean of administration services at Bird. Crucial core samples were taken Wednesday morning that will show how deep the PCBs have filtered into the concrete floor, a measure of how big or small — and expensive — PCB removal might be. “The Environmental Health Office is the main area looking at it, along with risk management, to see what we can possibly do to move forward,” King said. “We’re not sure if they are there or they aren’t still there. They might have etched in the concrete, but we don’t know. And if they’re there, we don’t know how deep it may go.” Wednesday’s samples will show if the PCBs are in the basement and how deeply they’ve penetrated the concrete. The deeper the PCBs are, the harder their removal will be, King said. PCBs, outlawed in manufacturing in 1978, originated from the carpeting installed in the basement during the see pcbs page 6
Comedian, TV star Damon Wayans to perform during homecoming By Aaron Gould Asst. Feature Editor
The star of “My Wife and Kids” is coming to Syracuse University to perform a comedy show homecoming weekend. Damon Wayans will be coming to Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center on the evening of Oct. 16. Phi Beta Sigma and Omega Phi Beta, together with the Office of Student Activities, will be putting
on the event. The comedy show is part of Homecoming Week 2010, called Orange Central. An actor, wayans producer, writer and comedian, Wayans, 50, had his first on-screen appearance in Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop.” Wayans also starred
in the film “Major Payne” and the critically acclaimed show “In Living Color.” The New York-born comedian has also made several HBO comedy specials. “Looking at other universities and what they do during their homecoming weeks, our homecoming lacked a major event,” said Donald Saint-Germain, a junior AfricanAmerican studies and policy studies major who is in charge of the budget
for the event. “After sitting down with the sisters of Omega Phi Beta, we came to an agreement that something we haven’t seen for a long time is a good quality comedy show,” SaintGermain said. Tickets are $10 with a valid SU or State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry ID and $15 for general admissee wayans page 8