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It’s that time: spring’s top fantasy athletes,
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QUChronicle.com
Students build for break, The QUINNIPIAC page 5 Volume 80 Issue 19
March 30, 2011
Albom will give keynote address By Joe Pelletier and Michele Snow
makings of a
FACELIFT By Nicole Celli News Editor Carl’s not dying, the student center staff joked during spring break’s move-out period. He’s just getting a facelift. The Carl Hansen Student Center’s second floor hallway is scheduled for completion in August, according to Director of the Student Center and Campus Life Daniel Brown. He also said that contractors haven’t given a date of completion for the first floor of Alumni Hall, which “won’t be a multipurpose space like before, but open area where programming can occur but with different types of seating.” The Alumni Hall side of the second
floor will house office suites for Greek life and student media, an additional four meeting rooms, the graphic arts room, organization mailboxes, and a suite with 60 storage bins for student organizations without offices. “Basically what we’re going to be able to provide which we’ve never been able to provide is for 60 student organizations the exact same amount of space,” Brown said. “And I say space because we will never have a student group that has an office again, with the exception of [the Chronicle, Q30, FACELIFT, continued on page 4 Ilya Spektor / Chronicle
Above, Alumni Hall’s new look graces Tator Lawn. Right, the student center’s second floor undergoes ventilation renovation.
Class of 2011 President Dan Dempsey confirmed that esteemed author and journalist Mitch Albom will provide the keynote address at the 2011 commencement ceremony on May 22. Albom’s agency for speaking engagements, Royce Clayton Incorporated, also confirmed the appearance, according to the Quad News. SGA’s Class of 2011 cabinet planned to release Albom’s name on Saturday at the Annex in the Rocky Top Student Center. Dempsey reached out to the Chronicle shortly after the Quad News report, confirming Albom as the commencement speaker. “The rumors are true, Mitch Albom will be delivering the undergraduate speech,” Dempsey said. “I am very happy about the selection, I am very happy with how the selection process went about, and how Public Affairs included the senior class cabinet’s ideas. So far, I have already received a lot of great feedback and students have been very receptive.” Quinnipiac’s Board of Trustees met today to formally approve Albom as the speaker. Quinnipiac has not yet confirmed that approval, but according to Dempsey, it’s only a COMMENCEMENT, continued on page 4
After sentencing, Law School registrar will stay on board By Joe Pelletier Editor in chief Mary Ellen Durso will stay on board as Quinnipiac’s Law School registrar after being sentenced to three years probation for bank fraud and conspiracy, according to Law School Dean Brad Saxton. An email from Saxton said that she will remain employed by the university. “I have conducted a careful review of the situation and continue to have complete confidence in Dean Durso’s ability to per-
form her duties here responsibly,” Saxton said in the email, sent out to law students, faculty and administration. Durso, the Law School’s registrar and assistant dean of academic affairs, was sentenced to three years of probation on March 9. She pled guilty in December 2010 to one count of conspiracy and five counts of filing false returns. As part of the sentence, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Mark R. Kravitz, Durso will spend the first six months in home confinement.
University spokesman John Morgan would not comment on Durso’s ability to work as registrar during her time in home confinement: “The university does not comment on personnel matters,” he said in an email. Law school graduate Rob Shepherd called Durso one of the best administrators at Quinnipiac, but wasn’t fully satisfied with the university’s handling of the situation. “If anything criminal happened to a lawyer, it would bring into question whether they should practice,” said Shepherd, who
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graduated in December. “Even though she isn’t a lawyer, it brings in a serious question of whether she should work in this setting.” Then an explanation didn’t come, which Shepherd said makes it appear the university is “hiding something.” “But I know they’re not hiding something, that’s the thing,” he said. “A basic statement or explanation would have fixed that.” Shepherd recalled one time when Durso helped him fix up his car, and another when she helped him through computer troubles REGISTRAR, continued on page 4
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