Technician
friday january
29 2010
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Atrium renovations delayed, Senate prepares response Completion of new Atrium pushed back, construction to continue through fall semester Nick Tran News Editor
Wednesday, Student Senate announced the renovations to the Atrium would be pushed back until at least the beginning of the spring semester, as opposed to having it completed before the fall semester as originally thought. Some students are outraged their expectations will not be met after the lengthy Rally 4 Talley campaign made promises regarding the renovations. Matt Delavega, a junior in park and recreation tourism management, said this delay makes a bad situation worse. “They told us it would be done in the fall and now they want to tell us it won’t,” he said. “I feel misled.” Delavega said the students should expect it to be complete when promised because they already paid for it. “I never supported Talley or the renovations in the first place. It’s frustrating we already have to pay for something we didn’t want in the first place and now they want us to wait?” Randy Lait, the director of Dining Services, said during the Rally 4 Talley campaign the desire for the Atrium to be finished before fall was expressed, but planning was still in progress. “The scope of the project has a lot more in it than can be done over the summer,” he said. “The important promise was that the Atrium would be renovated. When we’re done, it’ll be awesome.” According to Lait, the Office of
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Kevin Brackett, a junior in First Year College, Laura Edwards, a freshman in elementary education, and Kayla Richter, a senior in criminology, sit and talk after eating lunch in the Atrium. “I come to grab food and go straight to my next class,” Brackett said. The food vendors in the Atrium are a convenient option for students with classes on North Campus. “It’s just too far to go to Talley,” Richter said.
State Construction is still reviewing the construction documents and that part is still on schedule. The delay comes from unforeseen issues identified by the Office of State Construction, for example replacing the electric switch gear and
the need to install a new sprinkler system. The need for these additional components has increased the expected budget for the project from $3.5 million to $4 million for now, but we won’t really know how much it will
cost until the construction bids come in, Lait said. “I don’t know where the extra money will come. I’d expect it to come out of dining,” he said. “There’s no possibility the extra will come from students. We want to deliver [the Atrium]
with as little disruption to students as possible.” Some food options will still be available at the Atrium during the renovations, but seating options will be limited. The current interior dining area will be the new front for restaurants while the old serving area will be blocked off for renovations. University Dining has considered options to increase seating capacity, including setting up tables under Harrelson Hall. The current suggestion is to construct a temporary structure in the Brickyard to serve as an eating area. “This is a very much-needed project and will be a great benefit for students,” Lait said. “We can all agree this is a project that needs to be done, it just could not be done in 90 days.” Will Hammer, a sophomore in sociology, said the interim solutions sound ridiculous, but the delays should have been expected. “We probably should have expected this because that’s just how the University works,” he said. “It’s all politics and a lot of people will be disappointed.” Hammer said he felt the plan could have been better formulated to consider possible delays. “They should have made sure first before announcing a completion date,” he said. “It’s kind of misleading, especially since we already paid for it. I guess it’s not really surprising it’s tak-
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Distance education fees mandated by UNC System The extra fees required for online classes are regulated by North Carolina Adair-Hayes Crane Staff Writer
Every semester N.C. State students go online to register for classes for the upcoming semester. Many of those courses students sign up to take are offered both on campus and online through distance education. Students enrolled in distance education courses are required to pay extra money in addition to full-time undergraduate tuition. Many students, however, do not know why they are required to pay the extra money. According to Vice Provost for Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications Tom Miller, the University does not establish these extra fees; the fees are mandated by the University of North Carolina System. This means that students at public universities throughout the state also have to pay the extra fees. Miller said that when the tuition was set for distance education in the late 1990s, the UNC System expected that students would sign up for either all on-campus courses or all online courses. However, in recent years, more and more students take both on-campus and distance education classes. While tuition for undergraduate oncampus courses is capped at 12 hours, the tuition for distance education is determined based on the number of
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credit hours a student signs up for. The tuition is based off a formula where the University takes the annual tuition rate, divides it by 29.6 and rounds it to the nearest dollar to determine how much a student will pay per credit hour. “What you’re paying extra for is tuition fees. When they set up the way that we’re required to charge tuition for distance education it’s by credit hour,” Miller said. “You actually pay less fees with distance education than you do with on-campus. You don’t pay student health fees or gym fees. Campus fees are not included in distance education fees.” Miller, who attended a UNC-System meeting about this issue on Thursday, said that he does not believe it is fair to students and has been working for the past five years to get it changed. He said he would like to see the tuition for on-campus courses done by credit hour so that it is the same for both online and on-campus classes. “Everyone recognizes that this is a problem but they can’t seem to do anything about that. Some universities didn’t want to change the way the tuition is charged because they were afraid it would change the pattern of courses students would take,” Miller said. Students such as Anna Holland, a junior in biological sciences, said she, like many other students, did not know the state was the one who required the money. “The policy should be changed,” Holland said.
CyTunes makes more of music See page 5.
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More than 5,200 competitors started the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Hillsborough in 2009, the sixth year of the race. All proceeds from the event go to Wake Med Children’s Hospital.
Krispy Kreme Challenge reaches capacity of 6,000 Organziers want higher percentage of students for future races Joanna Banegas Staff Writer
The sixth annual Krispy Kreme Challenge begins at the N.C. State Bell Tower Feb. 6 at 8:30 a.m. This year the race reached its capacity of 6,000 runners compared to last year’s 5,500 runners that participated. Rebekah Jewell, public relations chair for the Krispy Kreme Challenge, said this year they had to turn people away. “This is the first year that we had to cap registration,” Jewell said. “We’ve got as many people as we could to run this year.” According to a Krispy Kreme press release, the Krispy Kreme Challenge is a student-organized charity race benefiting the N.C. Children’s Hospital. At the first Krispy Kreme challenge only 10 runners participated
in the race. Five years later, the race had 5,500 runners in the race and donated $40,000 to the N.C.’s Children’s Hospital. Jewell said she thinks the number of racers increased in the past two years because the event was exposed on ESPN and the public relations committee has worked hard. “I think it is starting to become one of North Carolina State University’s fastest traditions,” she said. “It was on a magazine for the top 100 things college students need to do before graduating college. A lot of people are starting to hear about it and ... the ESPN coverage last year really did bring a lot of attention to us.” She also said people have done more to stand out in recent years. “Especially last year when people found out that we were going to be on ESPN,” Jewell said. “A lot of people tried to get noticed by the cameras.” According to the Krispy Kreme press release, the requirements to complete the Krispy Kreme Challenge are that competitors begin at the University’s Bell Tower, run two miles to the Krispy Kreme store on Peace Street,
eat one dozen doughnuts and run two miles back to the Bell Tower in less than an hour. Those who sign up as “casual runners” are not required to eat all of the doughnuts and “supporters” only receive a T-shirt. Jewell said they would like to target more University students in the future. “We’re trying to get students to be the large majority of the people that are participating in this race,” she said. “We would still like to do more so that the percentage of the participants is a larger number with University students.” Jewell said the race emphasizes fun and all the ways people can have fun. “We’re trying to show people that you can have fun while you’re still running for a charity and just trying to be different,” Jewell said. “I definitely think that the craziness of the event makes it what it is,” Jewell said. “The fact that you have to eat a dozen donuts in the middle of the race makes it different from any other traditional racing event.”
HOWL T-shirts available for $10 at NC State Bookstores HOWL $5 from each HOWL FOR HAITI T-SHIRT SALE FOR FOR HAITI HAITI to benefit Haiti Disaster Relief Efforts