the March 26, 2009 • Volume 105, No. 21
Etownian elizabethtown college
One Alpha Drive • Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298
On the Web: www.etownian.com
Announcing TGIS Theme 2009:THROUGH THE DECADES
The Roaring Twenties Images: googleimages.com
The Office of Student Activities has given the Etownian the exclusive right to announce this year’s TGIS theme! This year’s theme is time travelling “Through the Decades.” With this motif, TGIS intends to celebrate America and Elizabethtown throughout the 20th century. Decades highlighted by TGIS will be: the roaring twenties, the thirties, the fifties and family values, the sixties and the hippie movement, the crazy eighties, and finally the era all of us students grew up in: the glorious nineties. A schedule for the TGIS theme weekend is currently unavailable, but is in progress. See next week’s issue for details on what exactly OSA has planned for Elizabethtown and its students! It promises to be a roaring good time!
on campus
Organic garden next step toward greener community Jamie A. Miller Staff Writer
T
his spring, directly following Easter break, Elizabethtown College will introduce its first annual community garden! An acre of land where the farmhouse once stood is where this student run facility will be started and managed until the new dorm building is constructed. This elaborate project began just last April when Eric Turzai, director of Dining Services, was greatly impressed with Dickinson College’s environmentally friendly atmosphere. Dickinson has developed a 40-acre sustainable farm that began with just one small garden project. They are currently in their second year of a three-year transition to organic farming. Following in Dickinson’s experienced footsteps, Etown
the Etownian
putting out the news ... for over 100 years
The Etownian is a weekly n ews p a p e r p u b l i s h e d Th u r s d ays d u ri n g t h e academic year.
hopes to better enhance its pricing by selling the freshly grown food to Dining Services at market price. For example, if a head of lettuce costs $25, the lettuce grown in the garden would be sold to Dining Services for $25. That money would then go back into the fund to maintain the garden. Etown plans on occupying one half of the acre with the garden. One-fourth of the plots will be rented to the campus community. Their contribution will help pay for the other quarter of garden that will be devoted to student use. Senior Jess Hargest, an environmental science major, is the willful advocate who will be the heart of this beginning process for students. Seedlings are already being planted in the greenhouse so that they will be ready to go after Easter break. While Hargest prepares to graduate this year, the garden will be left in the hands of
underclassmen. Turzai really stresses campus community involvement in the development of this project. Maintenance tools such as rakes, shovels and a motor till have been donated by Etown College retiree Dr. Wes McDonald. Students and the campus community will be asked for donations as well. A local farm owner will help till the soil while the facility gets going. Even though Etown is starting small, funding issues will still be a challenge. Organic foods can generally only be grown in limited quantities, and Etown expects to rent out 20-25 plots. The organic food digestive equipment the garden will need is costly, and the project itself will take 3-4 years to pay off. However, in the long run, Turzai assures it will save the College money. Ultimately, Etown is moving
Raising Hunger Awareness
Starved for Culture?
Students willingly got a taste of what it is like to be hungry this weekend.
Features, page 4
Some music venues in nearby Lancaster really hit the spot.
Centerfold, pages 8 & 9
toward a greener culture, in- some point take over the land vesting in eco-friendly clean- where the garden is temporaring supplies, and putting waste ily being planted, Etown plans to good use. In the future, or- on eventually occupying space ganic waste facilities will take by the quads to expand and the scraps of student meals and resume the project. incorporate and harvest them Turzai is just as eager and with manure at a local farm to excited as the rest of the camproduce electricity. pus community and staff, who This project is a student he said have been really recepresponsibility. The initiative tive to the idea. “The end result will educate and challenge the will be really neat … we get the campus community by provid- first-years under our belts, and ing responsibly-grown organic we’re good to go,” he said. food for current and prospective students. Anyone who missed the informational meeting Tuesday, March 24 c a n e m a i l Tu r z a i a t TURZAIEC@etown.edu to stay posted. All positions are on a volunteer basis and will be active during the school year only. Dining Image: stock Services will manage the Produce such as tomatoes will be garden during the summer. grown in Etown’s newest green Since the new dorm will at project, the community garden.
Red Envelope Day This event protests Roe vs. Wade and some recent decisions made by the Obama Administration.
Campus Life, page 11
Life or Death? Should deserving criminals be put to death?
Opinion, page 13