Wednesday, October 13 , 2010
Volume 9, Issue 7
www.eaglenews.org
Don’t forget: On Tuesday go to your Thursday classes According to the academic calendar students should report to their Thursday classes on Tuesday, Oct. 19.
ONLINE eaglenews.org
EN Print and online classifieds from as low as $10
UPD discovers marijuana plants $50 worth of marijuana was found near the aquatic center on campus. See NEWS on page 4
Think before you speak Formulate your opinion and open your mind before you speak in class. See OPINON on page 12
Scary, healthy treats for Oct.
College Club part of housing empire By Allison Gagliardi Editor-in-Chief
H
ousing has pushed its borders past campus. The university housing department acquired 504 beds by officially purchasing College Club Apartments last Tuesday. The apartment complex, located on Ben Hill Griffin road, has been dubbed “West Lake Village.” “It was a bit of a seesaw ride. The University has known of the possibility for quite some time,” said Brian Fisher, director of University Housing. In Nov. 2009 the university signed a contract with the intent to purchase. The following March that contract was voided. June of this year a new contract was drafted and accepted. “When you make a transition there are a great number of challenges but we have been planning for nearly a year,” Fisher said. The current leases of West Lake Village are being honored by the University. “It is our responsibility to hon-
or existing leases. We have made some additions to the community rules and regulations,” Fisher said. “We are interested in preserving the experience as much as possible, we are not looking to overdo it.” According to Fisher, Section 8 of the lease agreement allows for the landlord to make changes. “We are trying to be similar to what they(College Club residents) agreed to, as much as possible. We understand that some people elected to live there a part from the university. We are trying to continue to give them what they were looking for when signing a lease there,” Fisher said. Some early highlights of the physical changes that will be made to the buildings include, re-keying the complex, painting, improving exterior lighting and breezeway lighting and repairing handrails and stairwells. The six buildings on the site have been renamed to Flamingo, Tarpon, Panther, Manatee, Marlin and Pompano. “(The names are) part of long term plans for the
growth of our housing department. We didn’t expect them to be used for West Lake; we expected to use them in South Village. Now we will have to, perhaps, go back to the drawing board for South Village names,” Fisher said. The complex currently has a Resident Director who lives on site and six resident assistants. University Police is now monitoring the area. A shuttle from the apartments to the university also runs daily. Even with the new addition, Housing and Residence life doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon. Palmetto Hall will soon be the newest addition to South Village. The building is expected to be complete fall 2011 and will house 415 new students. Eventually, Fisher hopes to house more than 5,000 students. “5,500 students won’t be too far from now, about six to eight years,” Fisher said.
BY THE NUMBERS
6 504 1:84
buildings and resident assistants
beds
ratio of resident assistants to students. By next year the ratio will be 1:40.
10.5.10 5,500 date the purchase was offical
number of students Brian Fisher, director of Housing and Residence Life hope to have living on campus
Facebook, now a social crutch facebook
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Checking FB again... By Kayla Stirzel Staff writer
Stay healthy this Halloween with treats that dish out only the good stuff.
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See A/L on page 10
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Tampa Ray brings sorry crowds
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Tampa Ray attendance is not what it could be. Read a column on the sad turnout. See SPORTS on page 15
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Index News ........................ See page 3 A&L .......................... See page 8 Opinion .................. See page12 Sports ..................... See page 14 Fun & Games ........... See page 11
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F
acebook has a tight grip on people because of how frequent users feel the need to check their pages or how with a click of an app on our phone we can check our notifications. Larry Fitch, a senior majoring in communication, used to check his Facebook once or twice a week, but now that he has a new smart phone, he checks Facebook multiple times daily because it’s just one click away. Users know that Facebook is often the biggest distraction and procrastination tool when they’re studying. It’s easy to get sucked into Facebook for hours a time browsing other people’s pages or talking on chat. Travis Leicht, a senior majoring in finance and economics, says that when someone is interested in dating someone else they “stalk their page and pictures like a background check” before they go out with them.
Facebook has changed the way users communicate with other people. It’s the most convenient way to keep up with friends in their busy lives and especially with friends and family who don’t live near them. “You can reconnect with people and keep in contact with them no matter where they are in the world and [you] get to see their face,” said Holly Cunard, a junior majoring in business management. Sitting and talking on Facebook chat or looking at your friends’ pictures doesn’t help make a relationship stronger. Face-to-face interaction and conversations are slowly fading away as we have conformed to a technology-dominant society when shooting a text or posting a comment on wall is considered a way of maintaining a relationship. Although Facebook has altered dating and getting to know people the natural way, it has generated so many ways for people to express themselves and a way to get mass communications out to others. “The most amazing thing
about Facebook is it allows the everyday person to share and communicate ideas freely and with no cost,” Leicht said. Think about when you lose your phone and have to get a new one. All you have to do is create a group and send out message to all your friends instantly getting all of your numbers back. Or how about having a party? No one sends out invitations in the mail, but everyone sends out an invitation on Facebook because users rely on it to be their source of connectedness to the world. Facebook is not only a social network site to keep up with friends and creep on ex’s, but it’s a way to keep users distracted when they get bored. It’s also where users waste a lot of time. It’s hard to remember back before tagged pictures and status updates. But that’s the way we live today – vicariously through a social networking website. nTurn to page 9 to read a review on “The Social Network”