Battle of the Ravine Reggie Murphy layed down a ferocious dunk in HSU’s loss Thursday
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MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2014
HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 18
In The Fold
Elevators stir up safety concerns
Sports
Moe Skinner Staff Writer
The elevators on campus are not a new issue for students, faculty and staff returning from Christmas break. Are the elevators safe for students to use? What should students do if they are stuck in an elevator? “This is a common problem every year when students return to campus,” Philip Collins, campus maintenance supervisor, said. “Just like students, the elevators have also been on a break.” The elevators have a “use oiler,” meaning that when they are running, they are oiling the rollers and other vital parts. When the elevators are not in daily operation, they do not get oiled. When the elevator is not regularly oiled, it may tend to be noisy and jerky. This can be alarming to the passengers. “That was scary, I thought it was coming apart,” Carmin Wills, junior mass media major, said as she exited the elevator on the first floor in Arkansas Hall. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. I’d take the stairs.” When an elevator has a malfunction, the maintenance department receives a work order about the problem. “Campus work orders are prioritized and elevators are the first to get fixed,” Collins said. Henderson is under contract with Arkansas Elevators for the maintenance and repairs. The maintenance department has keys to reset them if needed. “We do not have the authority to work on any of the elevators,” Collins said. “Arkansas Elevators is notified of the problem, and they in turn prioritize us, too.”
*Illustration by Brett Little
Arkansas Elevators then sends a certified car inspector to perform the necessary repairs. They also make the call of when an elevator is repairable or obsolete. Collins reassured that if the noise and the jerking continued in the Arkansas Hall elevator, the matter would have to be re-investigated. Every working elevator has a certificate inside the car that assures the rider that the car has passed an annual inspection. Collins was not aware that the certificate showing in the Arkansas Hall elevator had expired. He assured that all the elevators had current certificates. Although, the office claimed the originals were on file, at the time of the interview they failed to produce them. The proper certificates were on display in the elevator cars by the day after the interview. Collins ensured that all the elevators were safe to use. He shared some do’s and don’ts about using elevators.
If you are stuck in the elevator, do not panic. Check to see if the car has a call phone button. If it does not, use your cell phone and call the necessary people to report the outage. If there is a large group of passengers, separate away from each other as much as possible to balance the car and distribute the weight evenly. This fact should especially be remembered during move-in and moveout days. Students living on the top floors of Smith and Newberry don’t want to have to carry all their belongings down the stairs. Weight distribiution during those days will help keep the elevators working properly. Finally, yet importantly, never overload the elevator. The excess weight can damage the elevator or even cause an outage. Students should be aware of elevator etiquette and ride responsibly and safely.
Woman wrongly grounded seeks justice after nine years Maura Dolan Los Angeles Times
The Department of Homeland Security made a mistake when it put a former Stanford University doctoral student on the government’s no-fly terrorist watch list. A federal judge has ruled that she must be given the opportunity to apply for re-entry to the United States. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the government’s refusal to allow Rahinah Ibrahim, 48, to board a plane in San Francisco in 2005 stemmed from an error that the government must correct. Ibrahim was eventually allowed to leave the country, but she has not been permitted to return from her home in Malaysia. “The government concedes (she) is not a threat to our national security,” Alsup wrote. Alsup, in a summary of a sealed ruling issued Tuesday, said the government should “cleanse/or correct its lists and records of mistaken information and certify under oath that such correction(s) have been made.” “In light of the confusion caused by the government’s mistake, such cleans-
ing-certification relief is ordered in this case,” Alsup wrote. He also ordered the government to inform Ibrahim whether she remains on the no-fly list and be able to tell her under what section of the law she is being prevented from returning to the U.S. She must be allowed to challenge that decision if she so chooses. The day after she was arrested and held until her plane left, Ibrahim was permitted to depart with her teenage daughter for a conference located in Hawaii. They continued their journey to Malaysia, where Ibrahim planned to stay for a few months before returning to Stanford to complete a doctorate in urban planning. “On the day she was to return to California, she was informed at a Malaysian airport that her student visa had been revoked and she could not reenter the United States,” said Elizabeth Pipkin, her lawyer. “This has been a long slog,” Pipkin said. “She has been trying to clear her name for nine years.” Pipkin helped Ibrahim challenge the government’s actions in what was believed to have been the first trial of its kind in the country, held before Alsup without a jury. But Ibrahim was not
permitted to return to San Francisco to testify in person or to finish her doctorate. The court heard videotaped testimony from her, and Stanford allowed her to complete her doctoral work from Malaysia, where she is now a university dean. Ibrahim’s case has bounced back and forth between the district court and a federal appeals court. The government is expected to appeal Alsup’s ruling. Alsup said the public was entitled to information about what happened. It was also ordered that both sides discuss and come to agreement by April 15 on a redacted version of the sealed ruling. Pipkin said she did not know what led to her client’s name being placed on the watch list. “The government has never provided a good reason for that,” she said. Pipkin said she was under a protective order and could not reveal the procedures that allow the government to put someone on the list. She said Ibrahim has incurred more than $4 million in legal fees and costs and would seek reimbursement from the government. “I hope the government will learn from this and going forward will have more transparency in the way they treat people,” Pipkin said.
Henderson couldn’t fend off OBU last week as they lost in the final seconds. The Reddies lost the close game in the last three seconds of the game.
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Features
*Photo courtesy of Fabled Motion pictures
‘Come Morning’ director Derrick Sims is a recent Henderson graduate and he will be on campus for the Henderson showing Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Arkansas Hall Studio Theatre. JD Roberts gives a primer for students who plan to attend. >Page 2
Diversions MiSSiLE Kelly Thomas and Ashley Loftin ruminate on everyday life >Page 3
Find more news and information online at WWW.HSUORACLE.COM Monday
Tuesday
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36
19
18
Wednesday
46
19
Thursday
55
45
Friday
61
Saturday
Sunday
73
59
41
INDEX Features: page 2 | Diversions: page 3 | Sports: page 4
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