INSIDE
BURLINGTON, VT
VTCYNIC.COM
VOL. 132
ISSUE 9
Opiates
Hockey Profile
Local artists display their work at Signal Kitchen
Lecture discusses past and present opiate use in Vermont
Junior Mario Puskarich reflects on bouncing back from injuries
page 7 life
page 13 sports
page 10 arts
W E D N E S DAY, O C T O B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5
UVM Athletics
Sorority suspended after social media posts
The
Word
Steak Frites
THEWORD@VTCYNIC.COM
Heads up! Nov. 2 is the last day to withdraw from classes.
This Halloween weekend Nightmare Vermont, an interactive haunted theater experience, will be taking place at 7 p.m. from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31 at Champlain Valley Expo.
Men’s soccer goes up against SUNY-Albany at 1 p.m. Saturday at Virtue Field.
BY sarah olsen solsen2@uvm.edu
Associate Vice President and Athletic Director Robert Corran is pictured. Corran annnounced his retirement Oct. 22, and will be leaving at the end of the academic year. ANABEL SOSA/The Vermont Cynic
Director’s farewell BY zach giroux zgiroux@uvm.edu
Grammy and Emmy awardwinning comedian, Kathy Griffin will be performing at 8 p.m. Friday at the Flynn Theater.
Come show your support for men’s basketball as they play Keiser University at 3 p.m. Saturday at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
DREAM, a Vermont youth mentoring organization at UVM, will be selling Halloween candy at 10 a.m. Friday outside the Davis Center. Profits will go to help mentor kids in Burlington. Come by and stock up on sweets! The Word is a weekly collection of reminders, interesting events on campus, news items and more. Submit suggestions or comments to theword@vtcynic.com.
After 13 years with the athletic department, UVM Associate Vice President and Athletic Director Robert Corran is stepping down Corran announced his retirement in a staff meeting Oct. 22. Corran signed a three-year contract extension in 2013, approximately worth $235,000 per year, which will expire in June 2016 with an option for one additional year, according to UVM athletics. The departure will not be effective immediately. He will serve until the end of this academic school year, officially set for June 30, 2016, according to UVM athletics. “I have been considering this decision for the past year and have concluded that the time is right for myself, for my family and for UVM,” Corran said at the press conference. Corran, who is in his mid60s, has been in command of the Catamounts’ athletic program since 2003, according to UVM athletics. He is the eighth athletic director UVM has had, according to UVM athletics.
“I have had 13 wonderful years at UVM, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, where the program is today and its promise for the future,” Corran said at the press conference. “He’s soft-spoken, but he certainly has strong opinions and he doesn’t shy away from making difficult decisions,” Senior Associate Athletic Director Jeff Schulman.
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I have had 13 wonderful years at UVM, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished ROBERT CORRAN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
“[Corran’s] commitment to the academic success of our student-athletes always has been paramount, and he has instilled a strong culture of caring, effective leadership and communication among our coaches, staff and student-athletes,” Presi-
dent Tom Sullivan said, according to UVM athletics. Under Corran’s leadership, the Catamounts have won seven straight America East academic cups, according to UVM athletics. Corran said he is ready to leave UVM and looks forward to what the future has in store. “I very much look forward to spending more time with my family and to having the opportunity for extended travel, something which my wife Libby and I enjoy greatly, and which we plan to do in the future,” Corran said at the press conference. A nationwide search to fill the position is underway and will be disclosed to the public when a new director is confirmed, according to UVM athletics. Corran’s staff is optimistic about the future of the department and athletics as a whole. “I think the replacement process will be seamless,” Associate Athletic Director Joe Fischer said. “We are a Division I program and a nice place to live, I’m sure we will attract a number of people that are qualified.”
Art missing from Davis Center facebook.com/ thevermontcynic
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BY john riedel jpriedel@uvm.edu
A painting was stolen from outside the men’s bathroom next to Brennan’s in the Davis Center Oct. 9 at 12:59 p.m, according to the police services crime log. The artwork belonged to UVM staff member Peggy Powell, who is a library support assistant in the Bailey/Howe Library. “I haven’t had anything of value stolen for a long time and I just know they do that, you
know, we all have temptations to do things we wish we didn’t do but it just seems like they’re stealing something valuable that’s quite personal to me,” she said. The artwork is titled “Red Frenzy” and is an abstract of her living room, Powell said. “It’s just hard on the person whose art is stolen,” Powell said. “It was like my child got stolen when the art got stolen.” Building Manager Kim Surwilo, a sophomore, said thefts like this do not happen often. “This is the first time that
I’m hearing of this artwork being stolen,” she said. “We have shift reports that everyone writes at the end of their shift and I had never seen anyone report it in their shift.” There are security cameras in the building and patrols are done every hour, Surwillo said. “It’s a lost cause according to police,” Powell said. “They looked at video surveillance and everything.” Police services say this is an ongoing investigation.
UVM’s Alpha Chi Omega sorority was recently suspended, pending review by their national office after “questionable” pictures were posted on social media, said Pat Brown, director of Student Life. “I asked the national office to peruse some things and let me know what they find out, which is a typical kind of thing,” Brown said. The reason for the suspension was some “inappropriate” content on social media, including some questionable pictures, he said. Brown said he is not sure of the exact date, but that the photos were posted recently. Emily Chamberlin, president of the UVM Alpha Chi Omega chapter, would not comment because of a national sorority policy. “Unfortunately that’s just the position that we’re in,” Chamberlin said about the policy. Brown said he doesn’t think it’s hazing, but that the national office will make the final call. “If it appeared to be hazing, I would’ve reported it to police services for them to investigate, too,” he said. “That’s up to the national office to sort of look at all that information and figure out what’s going on and what needs to happen,” he said. Brown said he hopes to hear back from the national office soon about their investigation into the chapter. The national office was in contact with the sorority immediately after Brown called them about the suspension, he said. “They were looking to get some information back today,” he said. Members of the national Alpha Chi Omega office were not available for comment by print deadline. The last time a sorority at UVM was placed under suspension was after an incident Dec. 7, 2013, when three members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority were taken to the hospital for intoxication while on their way to a sorority event, according to a Jan. 15, 2014 Cynic article. They were only under interim suspension, and the suspension was lifted Jan. 13, according to the article.