University of Tampa
Vol. 75 No. 3
www.theminaretonline.com
minaret@ut.edu
September 5, 2008
Construction Power Outage Sparks Angry Students Journalism II
The lights went out this past Saturday as a power outage swept across Vaughn, Brevard, Austin and some of ResCom. Some students planned ahead and visited their friends in other dorms but others stood it out as they sat in their hallways.
Administrators sent students an email about plans for a power outage, saying it would be from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Residents complained about how hot their dorms were. Saturday night’s temperature was 77 degrees with humidity being 94 percent. Windows are locked shut in all
UT Alumnus’ Family Escapes from Gustav
dorms, causing the air to be sticky and hot. Opening them would be a violation, and many students to suffer. “Where do they expect everyone to go?” said junior Vaughn resident Craig Karner. “People have food in their refrigerators. What were we supposed to do with it all?”
Stars
Not everyone was lucky enough to have friends in other dorms to escape to. If food and or drinks spoiled because of the power outage should the school reimburse the students? “Vaughn was really hot, everyone was hanging out in the See
“Sparks Fly” [2]
Many UT residents were without power and some were not notified.
By Ellery McCardle News Editor
As Hurricane Gustav pummeled the Gulf Coast this past week, a University of Tampa alumnus anticipated the destruction in his home city of New Orleans. For Victor O’Brien, a 2007 UT graduate and former Editor-inchief of The Minaret, hurricanes have always been a threat to his family. O’Brien “I remember in ninth grade, we had to evacuate,” he said. “It just wears you out.” Evacuating With Gustav’s warning signs, O’Brien’s parents did not take any chances. They evacuated late Saturday night to Northern Mississippi where his grandmother lives. The drive usually takes five to six hours, but with people scrambling to head north, the trip took 12 hours. “I can’t believe this is happening again,” he first thought. O’Brien said he has been talking to his family every few hours since they evacuated. As of Monday evening, his family had not experienced heavy storms. “They’re optimistic that everything is going to be okay back at home,” he said. NOLA: High Risk Living in an area with a high risk of hurricanes, O’Brien said when you evacuate you never know what you’ll come home to. “You prepare to lose everything. You can dodge the bullet, but the idea of evacuating is emotionally hard.” With the threat of a repeat of Hurricane Katrina every year, O’Brien said his parents have nevSee
“Escape” [6]
Inside ...
Senior Peyton Lester shows her license to a sheriff. She was not cited or arrested in the routine stop.
Photo by Kara Wall
Keeping the Road Dry: A DUI Check on Campus
By Emily Williams Reporter
Last Thursday, the Tampa Police and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department organized a DUI processing point on UT’s campus last Thursday to catch any impaired drivers. From 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., every driver traveling on North Boulevard was required to stop, present a license and briefly interact with
an officer. One driver stopped but failed to produce her license for the sheriff, according to Minaret photographer Kara Wall. The woman was asked to step out of the vehicle, then sped away, catching the officer’s arm in the window. He was slightly injured and had ice on his arm for the rest of the evening. Three police cars chased after the woman, but it is unknown whether she was caught.
Sergeant Doug Groves, who was on duty during the DUI processing Thursday night, said that the checkpoints are more of “an awareness thing for people” than an attempt to arrest drunk drivers. “Afterwards, we saturate the area with officers. That’s when we’re less noticeable in the unmarked cars and make more of the arrests,” he added. Such checkpoints are not
uncommon around the Tampa Bay area, and this was not the first time local DUI enforcement has set up a checkpoint on North Boulevard. TPD and the sheriffs Department have a DUI road block on North Boulevard twice yearly; the TPD posts details of the upcoming checkpoint in advance on its website for the See “Checkpoint”
[2]
SG Shakeup: Group Reps Get More Responsibility By Charlie Hambos Asst. Editor-in-Chief
Student Government officials spent their summer working on some changes to the way SG will be run this year. Embracing the student’s role as a SG representative by initializing mandatory committee involvement as well as working
hard for new student opportunities for meal exchange at Pandini’s. In a letter addressing the General Assembly on the first official SG meeting of the year, SG President Andrew Learned discussed his goal in the new committee involvement. “The change is being made in order to foster more discussion
RNC Starts with Changes [4]
and involvement of all parties at General Assembly meetings,” Learned said. The meetings will be held at the normal time of 7 p.m. However, organization representatives and independent meeting attendees will meet in Vaughn Center Conference rooms with each respective committee.
Suicide Prevention [8] Video Game Addiction [9]
The Sports Blog [18]
Tampa Goes Hop [3] Pre-Game Sex
[19]
Recipe for Chocolate Cake [11]
Following the committee meetings, the representatives will return to Reeves Theater to attend the weekly General Assembly meetings. If all goes according to schedule that will be at 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday. Attendance is See
“SG Rep” [7]
News....................[1-7] Features ...............[8-9] A&E ................[10-13] Commentary....[14-16] Editorial................ [14] Sports ..............[17-20]
“Reading without reflection is like eating without digesting.” [Edmund Burke]