Taking unnecessary risks with prepaid tuition
xx PAGE 32 Duo brings country to Columbia Web-Exclusive Video
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Budget forces chair to lay off 11 work aids by Amanda Murphy Assistant Campus Editor STAFF AND faculty aren’t the only ones threatened by Columbia’s current financial position. Now, student workers are falling victim to the college’s fiscal constraints as well. Since the week of March 7, the Theater Department has laid off 11 student employees because of large budget cuts. John Green, chair of the Theater Department, ultimately made the decision. “It was a horrible decision to have to make and one of those a chair never wants to have to make,” Green said. “But under these circumstances, I had to make what was a painful decision for me and many of the students.” Green said the action came mid-semester because of budget miscalculations earlier in the academic year. It was predicted more students would be accepted into the Federal Work Study Program, in which the federal government covers a portion of tuition for students who qualify. Green referred to it as having to make the “right decision at the wrong time.” Emily Cooke, senior theater major, said she thinks the department handled the situation poorly. Cooke’s hours were cut greatly, and she will no longer have a job after April 25. “I’m hurt by the college,” Cooke said. “I don’t have a way to pay my bills now. I don’t have a way to pay for groceries.” Rumors circulated that cuts were going to be made, but many students were caught off guard, Cooke said. “I was offended they didn’t sit us down and explain to us what was happening and why,” she said. “I felt disposable.”
xx SEE THEATER, PG. 7
April 11, 2011
www.ColumbiaChronicle.com
Volume 46, Issue 26
Theater Department cuts student employees
Tiela Halpin THE CHRONICLE
Junior theater major and former head stage combat teaching assistant Sam Hubbard stands in an empty Getz Theater, 72 E. 11th St. The building is home to the Theater Department, which recently laid off 11 student employees because of budget cuts. Student work aids make up a large portion of the department’s staff, and with no jobs or fewer hours, faculty and students predict the department will struggle.
Life rises from toxic roots Poison may be linked to creation of elements necessary for existence by Katy Nielsen Assistant Health & Fitness Editor SCIENTISTS SAY the poisonous chemical
STOCK PHOTO
Health & Fitness
» PG. 11
Arts & Culture
formaldehyde, widely used in embalming and preserving biological specimens, may have helped create the organic compounds that led to the development of life on Earth. The discovery of the link between formaldehyde and chemicals that gave rise to
» PG. 18
Basketball powerhouses miss Final Four
Metro
life was made by researchers George Cody, Conel Alexander and Larry Nittler, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who studied samples collected by NASA. If verified, it would solve a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades. Their findings were presented in a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 4. The researchers discovered that the hydrocarbons believed to have been brought to Earth by meteorites and comets when the planet was young, formed by a chemical reaction with formaldehyde, which is widely prevalent in the universe. This means basic elements in the early solar system may have originated from a chemical we now consider poisonous.
» PG. 36
Berny Stone loses 37-year-old seat Old station’s artistic conversion
xx SEE LIFE, PG. 12
INDEX Campus 2 H&F 11 A&C 17 Commentary 32 Metro 35