Sports, A5
Arts and Life, A6
Quarterback battle wages on this week at Syracuse
Beauty and obscenity grace the stage
Independent Collegian IC The
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Serving the University of Toledo since 1919
www.IndependentCollegian.com 92nd year Issue 9
Ottawa River grant to help sustain wildlife By Casey Cheap IC News Editor
Nick Kneer / IC
The $235,000 grant will help UT make the river a more suitable aquatic habitat for fish.
The 3,700-foot stretch of the Ottawa River that runs through Main Campus will have a different look by August of 2012. A $235,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will be used to clean up a large section of the river. This grant will allow UT to clear out some of the dead trees along the river, making a more beneficial environment for the wildlife. UT will also make in-stream
habitats using natural stone and tree trunk-like material to create shelters for fish swimming in the river and adjust rock placement to alter the flow of the river. Patrick Lawrence, chair of the Department of Geography and Planning, said one of the goals of construction along the river is to make the water ripple more, creating a better aquatic habitat. “Right now there is not a lot of diversity in the river’s habitats,” he said. “We want to recreate some of the river’s natural habitats and diversify
species.” Phase one of the grant was originally to just address a section of the river near Savage Arena. “We got a grant from the Stranahan Foundation, had planning from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and had additional funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife [Service],” Lawrence. The annual grant from the Ohio EPA will be used to expand upon a previous grant from the Stranahan Foundation awarded two years ago. — River, Page A2
Library renovations underway By Sura Khuder IC Features Editor
Nick Kneer/ IC
“Our library has to be something we can really show off,” he said. “Libraries are things students look at when they come to an institution; they are things that parents look at when they come to an institution. I wouldn’t go to the University of Toledo if I saw what I saw in January.” The renovations to the second floor will occur in three phases. Plans in the first phase are final and are set for completion tentatively by Spring 2012. The second phase is less set in stone, but will be a center of innovative design and technology according to Pryor with plans to be completed by the middle of 2013. The third phase is anticipated to include renovations that will create a balcony overlooking the first floor of the library and a bridge linking the second floor of the library to the second floor of the Student Union Building. Pryor said the last phase still has many details to be worked out. “The goal is to be responsive and collaborative and get ideas from people. I can’t, however, go
Dismantled bookshelves are left on the second floor of Carlson Library. The shelves are set to be replaced by study and collaboration areas.
— Library, Page A2
The renovations happening on the second floor of the Carlson Library have left many students, faculty and staff with unanswered questions.
According to Benjamin Pryor, vice provost and dean of the College of Innovative Learning, university libraries, and learning ventures, the second floor renovations are in response to the depressing shape the floor was in when he saw it last January.
Jazzing up UT
Nick Kneer / IC
World-renowned trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, the sixth speaker in the Shapiro Lecture Series, spoke about the importance of remembering America’s roots through music. yesterday.
Author of First Read book encourages persistence By Jennifer Ison IC Staff Writer
When author Ron Currie Jr. first took the stage at Doermann Theatre, he told the audience, “I am a paid liar,” referring to his career. Currie Jr. visited the University of Toledo Tuesday to
speak to the freshman class. He discussed his latest book, “Everything Matters,” as a part of UT’s annual First Read program. He wrote the book based on experiences from his own life as an adolescent with one large exception. Junior,
the main character, knows when the world will end and he wonders, “does anything I do matter?” He admitted he experienced writer’s block when preparing for the speech, saying he couldn’t advocate the value of higher education
as a college drop out. “Oh, delicious irony,” he said. After going back and forth between praising higher education and bashing it, Currie Jr. settled on speaking about the message he hoped the book conveyed
-- persistence. “Junior must persist like I needed to persist in my own life,” Currie Jr. said. Currie Jr. went on to discuss some of the situations he found himself in that required persistence throughout his life including two
stays in a hospital ward for depression and suicidal thoughts, the death of his father and the seemingly constant rejection of his writing. “But we persisted, he and I,” Currie Jr. said, referring to —Read, Page A2