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Campus Life C-1 The SRU theater department produces macabre adaptation of ancient Greek tragedy, in their production of "Electra"
The Rocket www.theonlinerocket.com
Friday, November 18, 2011
Slippery Rock University Student Newspaper
Est. 1934
Volume 94, Number 10
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
SRU to add 188 parking spaces for spring 2012 By Jonathan Janasik Rocket Contributor
ALEX MOWREY/THE ROCKET
Senior safety Jayson Nickson takes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship game lost to Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 21-14. Nickson started all 11 games this season for SRU and had 54 tackles (29 solo, 25 assists), along with three interceptions this year. The loss knocked the Rock out of playoff contention, putting an end to a solid season that saw the Rock rise up to 14 in the Division II AFCA national coaches poll.
SEE SPORTS PAGE B-1
Two new parking lots, adding about 188 parking spaces, are slated to be built in the upper part of campus in the 2012 spring semester. Assistant Vice President for Construction, Design, and Management, Herb Carlson, said Slippery Rock University is finalizing plans to build two new parking lots near the upper portion of campus. According to Carlson, the first parking lot will be built next to both the Robert M. Smith Student Center and Patterson Hall, and will hold about 88 cars. The other one will be built on Main Street at the current location of Kraus Hall, and will hold about 100 cars. While students complain about how there's never enough parking, Carlson says that's not the case. “It’s not a parking problem, it’s a walking problem,” Carlson said. “We have statistics that say that there are more parking spaces than we have people with cars. People just don’t want to have to walk across campus to get to class.” A parking lot where Kraus Hall is located was being planned years ago, but the project never took off because of the cost, Carlson said. Since then, the university has sent contractors to remove hazardous materials, such as asbestos, from the building, allowing it to be demolished much easier. Carlson said that it is now only a matter of finding money to fund the construction. According to Carlson, building the parking lots will not be cheap. The cost of demolishing Kraus Hall and building both parking lots could cost the university an estimated $1.4 million. The parking lots will be paid for through the Campus Fund and operating money, Carlson said. The Campus Fund is money Slippery Rock alumni have donated to the university. Although most of the money goes towards student scholarships, some also gets used on campus projects. Bidding for the parking lots will start in December and if approved, construction will start in spring. Carlson said both parking lots are expected to be finished by summer. SEE ENVIRONMENTAL PAGE A-2
Colleges use social media to better connect with students By Will Deshong Rocket Staff Reporter
Part one of this series examined how universities use social media to connect with prospective students in an attempt to recruit them to their campus. An active social media presence was deemed basically a requirement for university admissions offices nowadays. While the emergence of social media has risen in that respect, the connection between universities and students doesn’t
stop once students are enrolled. In fact, the bond only becomes more prevalent. In a 2011 study done by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, researchers found that 100 percent of colleges use social media to interact with their students. Rita Abent, the executive director of public relations at Slippery Rock University, sees social media as a way to connect with a large portion of the public. “I think it’s important,”
Abent said about maintaining a social networking presence as a university. “People use various medias and say, when an increasing part of the population isn’t reading newspapers anymore, it’s silly to only try to communicate with them through that media. For us, it’s a tool to connect with people.” Facebook is the most popular social media site amongst
universities, with 98 percent of schools using the social networking giant, SRU included. Twitter follows in second with 84 percent usage amongst universities, but holds the largest rise from a year ago, increasing from a 59 percent mark in the previous study. Both the study and Abent suggest the popularity of social media by colleges is only going to expand
going forward. “It will be a growing importance as social media continues to grow as a communication tool,” Abent said, while the increase figures year to year in the study support her claim. SRU has an official Facebook page, but also has several more social networking connections with its students through individual department, club and organization pages on Facebook and Twitter that offer students specific information pertaining
to specific interests around campus. “Slippery Rock is very, very big,” Abent said about the various connections found from the university. “We have an official Facebook page, Rock Athletics has a Facebook page and Twitter, admissions has a Facebook and a Twitter, and so on.” The university is using these media pages to not only SEE FACEBOOK, PAGE A-3