HOME COOKING
BELOW KEY
Terps look to continue ACC home dominance tomorrow
Comedian Todd Barry is perfectly fine with having a cult following
SPORTS | PAGE 8
Friday, February 19, 2010
DIVERSIONS | PAGE 6
THE DIAMONDBACK Dance, theatre departments will combine to form school
BALL AND CHAIN Chain stores can weigh down local independent businesses BY NICK RHODES Staff writer
When CD-Game Exchange manager Melanie Coppola heard Mario, Sonic and Lara Croft had moved in down the street, she began to get a little worried. The new home of these classic video game characters — the soonto-be GameStop on the corner of
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THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Hartwick Road and Route 1 — could mean “game over” for the locally owned business. “The GameStop is going to really suck for video games around here because it was already the number one place people would go to,” she said, referring to GameStop stores in nearby cities. “It’s a little too close now.”
Planned mergers for classics and diversity programs won’t go forward
see CORPORATIONS, page 2 The incoming GameStop threatens to hurt the business of the CD-Game Exchange.
BY DERBY COX Senior staff writer
CHARLIE DEBOYACE/THE DIAMONDBACK
Large chains like Domino’s and Boston Market threaten small businesses in College Park. CHARLIE DEBOYACE/THE DIAMONDBACK
Most of the academic consolidations discussed last semester are unlikely to materialize, but the dance and theatre departments are moving forward with their plan to combine, administrators said. Despite the focus on mergers as cost-saving tools last semester, the university’s dire budget situation was not a driving force in the decision to combine the dance and theatre departments to form the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, said Daniel Wagner, the acting chairman of the dance department and chairman of the theatre department. Instead, the newly formed school will intend to promote cross-collaboration among the departments, he said.
Vito's Pizzeria on Route 1 is being undercut by bigger business chains like Domino’s. CHARLIE DEBOYACE/THE DIAMONDBACK
Adjuncts apathetic on unionization issue Staff writer
A state debate over whether graduate assistants and adjunct faculty members have the right to unionize has sparked contention among state officials and heated responses from graduate students, but adjunct faculty have remained largely quiet on an issue that some say should be just as critical to them. Graduate assistants and adjunct faculty
at state public universities do not currently have a legal right to collectively bargain. But after a November report was issued stating that they should not be allowed to unionize because of the expense it would impose on and the friction it could cause in state institutions, a heated dispute erupted among graduate students, state officials and university system administrators. Most adjuncts, however, seem apathetic or unaware of the issues surrounding this ongoing debate.
see MERGER, page 3
TO MERGE OR NOT TO MERGE?
Disengagement a recurring problem among part-time faculty members BY MELISSA QUIJADA
Although university officials considered fusing other departments, including African American studies, women’s studies and American studies, the disciplines were found to be too dissimilar to go forward with the plans, Arts and Humanities Dean James Harris said. Talks of folding the classics deparment into another program have also been abandoned. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies was not considered as part of a merger as had been previously reported, he said. Initially, the consolidation of African American studies, American studies and women’s studies was considered to increase collaboration, as well as insulate the departments from budget cuts. A
After a slew of university departments were selected to be merged or folded into other departments and colleges, officials announced doing so may jeopardize certain programs’ autonomy and dilute their uniqueness. Other programs are still likely to be merged, to increase collaboration among the departments involved.
“The sort of disengagement that most part-time faculty feel is because they work two or three jobs,” said Monica Jacobe, an adjunct University Senate representative. “A lot of adjuncts don’t take their job farther than what they are contractually obligated to do.” Adjuncts make up about 22 percent of the faculty at the university and teach about 11 percent of the courses. At the
No longer being considered for merger: ■ African American studies ■ Women’s studies ■ American studies ■ Classics
Mergers still in the works: ■ Dance and theatre departments ■ Mathematical and physical sciences college and chemical and life sciences college
see ADJUNCTS, page 3
Univ. researchers create new method to judge state progress Indicator includes social, environmental factors BY DANA CETRONE Staff writer
Residents of Parkside apartments are increasingly ignoring the building’s fire alarm, which has rung falsely several times in recent months. MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK
Not-so-saved by the bell Parkside residents increasingly ignore false fire alarms BY KELLY FARRELL Staff writer
The Parkside apartment complex is quickly earning the title of the building that cried wolf, as false fire alarms continue to go off on a regular basis for unknown reasons. Many residents no longer pay attention to the incessant fire detec-
TOMORROW’S WEATHER:
tors’ warnings and instead choose to stay in their apartments when the alarms start blaring, assuming the warning is false. “The first one was real, I think, but a bunch went off during the day to fix the system, and then there were a lot of fake ones after,” said resident and junior elementary education major Nicole Berry. “We left for the first
Sunny/40s
alarm, but after that we usually stayed in and ignored it.” Stephanie Levy, a sophomore psychology major and Parkside resident, said she doesn’t pay any heed to the warning bells anymore, either. “I usually just ignore the alarms because usually there isn’t anything
see ALARMS, page 3 INDEX
NEWS . . . . . . . . . .2 OPINION . . . . . . . .4
Maryland just got a little bit poorer. A new index developed by university researchers aims to provide a more accurate measure of economic growth by including environmental and social factors such as clean water, crime and urban sprawl. The new measure, the Maryland Genuine Progress Indicator, shows the state is about 50 percent less prosperous than the more traditional Gross State Product, the state equivalent of the national Gross Domestic Product, would indicate. Why the decrease? GSP tracks all the goods and services a state produces, regardless of how beneficial those activities are. “The system is a monitoring of all goods and services and is used to measure how well off we are,” said Mathias Ruth, director of the Center for InteFEATURES . . . . . .5 CLASSIFIED . . . . .6
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grated Environmental Research, which developed the “cutting-edge” measure. “If pollution increases, we all get sick, and then hospitals do better financially, which shows positively in the GDP. The GPI is an alternative to subtract all those negatives and add in all the positives, like community service and child care that have no price.” Ruth and his team of researchers from the CIER hope the GPI, which is based on 26 different factors, can eventually replace GDP as the main way states and nations measure the strength of their economies. This could improve officials’ policy choices, he said. Gov. Martin O’Malley formed a workgroup last year to investigate alternatives to GSP. Since the new indicator’s debut Feb. 3, the governor has embraced the new system, launching a website dedicated to it.
see INDICATOR, page 3 www.diamondbackonline.com