Vol. 79 No. 2

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THE SIGNAL THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY SERVING THE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1933 2011 Football Preview

VOLUME 79 | ISSUE 2

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011 GSUSIGNAL.COM

Carpenters coucil protests university involvement with contractor MIRANDA SAIN Editor-in-Chief Members of the Southern Carpenters Regional Council have been protesting Georgia State’s relationship to Fidelity Interior Construction on campus since May. The council is accusing the university of “contributing to the erosion of area standards for carpenter craft workers” regarding its current Tower Place 200 project.

According to the council, Fidelity Interior Construction “does not meet area labor standards for all its carpenter craft workers on all projects, including fully paying for family health benefits and pension[s].” Georgia State hired its general contractor, Warren Hanks Construction Company to renovate Tower Place 200 which

houses part of the Robinson College of Business. The Warren Hanks Construction Company awarded the metal stud and drywall projects to Fidelity Interior Construction. The council charges that Fidelity Interior Construction classifies workers as “independent contractors” which allows them to pay below the

area standard. Because Fidelity is able to price out jobs cheaper than its competition, the council says that “other legitimate contractors have been at a competitive disadvantage in bidding work.” While the council is not asking for workers to refuse work, the council is urging students to call Georgia State President Mark Becker to do what

he can to change the situation. The Southern Carpenters Regional Council lost a $1.7 million lawsuit against Fidelity Interior Construction in 2009. At the time of printing, Georgia State had not returned calls for comment. To see the council’s flyer, please visit our website.

AYSHA JOHNSON | SIGNAL

What you said on Facebook about the M-Deck fiasco...

“Georgia State University is the WORST. We pay ungodly amounts of money for the employees to be RUDE to us, their websites to NOT work and for us to be told ‘sorry we CAN’T help.’” – Mercedes Jordan

–Katie Colón

“I would agree only if GSU would do something about their servers. We’re spending way too much money in student fees for this kind of stuff to be happening. If anyone could actually access their site to purchage a parking pass, then it would be easy and convenient, but this bull with ‘heavy volume’ is neither.”

M

“At least when we waited in line at 6 a.m., we…knew we were going to get one. Or you know, they could do the most productive thing and build more parking garages.” –Maeghan Dessecker

“No, online is much better. People who buy M-Deck should be people who live off campus.”

– Lindsey Choisnet

Crash of Auxiliary Services website causes parking pass fiasco By Chris Shattuck News Editor Servers hosting Auxiliary and Support Service’s online parking pass registration website went down last Monday, Aug. 15., as they struggled to handle the large influx of students simultaneously seeking permits with the inaugural launch of the site.

Mon

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Access to the website was denied for approximately an hour and half Monday afternoon, following a virtual onslaught of the site charged with distributing parking passes for Georgia State’s M-Deck and Non-Residential Lofts parking lots. Set to begin sales

Wed

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Thur

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at noon on Aug 15., the website crashed within 15 minutes of the official beginning of parking permit sales, which actually brought down the entire Georgia State website for a brief time. In an email sent a couple hours after site functionality had been re-

Fri

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stored, Wayne E Reed, the assistant vice president for Auxiliary and Support Services, addressed the student body to announce a rescheduled date to apply for parking passes online and to apologize for any difficulties incurred as a result of the incident. All transactions

that were actually processed Aug. 15 were cancelled and the date for parking pass registration was rescheduled for the following day, whereby they promptly sold out without mishap. In the past, if a student wished to purchase an M-Deck parking pass,

that student would have had to brave the notoriously long lines in front of Auxiliary and Support Services each semester and hope that enough remained by the time they reached the front of the line. So to alleviate the problems and frustrations

SEE PAGES 10-11 FOR

Top 10 Plays from last years season. and This Years Quaterback Breakdown

INDEX

caused by this system, the decision was made to completely virtualize the permitting of parking passes via a new website operated by Auxiliary and Support Services. SEE PARKING, PAGE 5

News...........................2 Opinions....................6 Sports.........................9 Entertainment.......13 Campus Life...........17


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