Daily Egyptian MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 100 ISSUE 9
Performance reflects on 40 years of Rocky Horror
Morgan Timms | D AILY E GYPTIAN Sarafina McKeown, Brandyn McGhee and Caroline Thoma prepare their hair and makeup backstage during the intermission of Saturday’s midnight showing of Rocky Horror at the Marion Cultural and Civic Center. This Halloween marked the 40th anniversary of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” film, which was initially panned by critics on release. This was Skyline Creek Productions’ fourth Rocky Horror season, and Saturday’s midnight performance brought a record-breaking audience of around 500 people.
College of Mass Communications and Media Arts thins its budget CORY RAY | @CORYRAY_DE
Budget cuts in College of Mass Communications and Media Arts are stretching the college further than its gone before. The college experienced an $88,000 budget cut from the university — 1.6 percent of its overall budget. The cuts come from a collection of sources that include not filling vacant staff positions for the year, not purchasing new equipment at the same rate and reducing on the spending of supplies, according to Dafna Lemish, dean of the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. So far, MCMA has terminated one nontenured track instructor in the School of Journalism. MCMA has two vacant instructor positions: one tenured track position in the School of Journalism teaching advertising and one nontenured track position in Department of Radio and Television in broadcast news. Lemish said she is trying to fill the latter because it is critical to class instruction. Lemish said some positions and duties were distributed among current staff and said the reduction of some positions, such as a second administrative secretary, has led to an increase in office efficiency.
While vacant positions were overlapped, no additional people were terminated. The positions were only distributed among others once someone left. Examples of overlapped positions include combining the two associate dean positions, combining the recruitment and retention coordinator with the internship coordinator, and distributing the duties of the chief academic advisor among the three department advisors in the college. “Some [cuts] were actually a good move for the college because we just cut things that were unnecessary, or were a little bit more luxurious years ago when we had more money,” Lemish said. “Some of them are quite painful because lots of people are doing more than they did before without any additional compensation but just out of their commitment to the work of the college.” Stephen Henry, a graduate student from Arlington, Texas, in communication studies, is worried about professors’ duties being spread thin. “When we keep on asking people to do this work solely for the love of the work or solely for the benefit of the students, there’s a lot of potential that we might lose people that care very deeply,” Henry said. “I’m worried about us losing our fantastic instructors because they have to look out for themselves at their level.”
@DAILYEGYPTIAN
Please see MCMA | 2
Paul and Virginia stand the test of time ANNA SPOERRE | @ASPOERRE_DE
In 1969 two young children looked on as Old Main, one of the original buildings on campus, went up in flames. The Paul and Virginia statue stands between Shryock Auditorium and Davies Gym. It shows two children holding an umbrella from which water cascades. The statue was donated by the class of 1887, according to museum records. Now, the class of 1965 is fundraising to restore the historic piece of art. The bronze and copper statue was installed on the 100th anniversary of a French novel from 1788, “Paul et Virginie”, by JacquesHenri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, said Eric Jones, a registrar at the University Museum. The story, often associated with the themes of The Enlightenment, is about two childhood friends who later fall in love. Michael Hanes, Phillip Pfeffer and Patti Elmore, class of ‘65 graduates, were asked by the Alumni Association to be in charge of the their class’ 50th anniversary. “We’re trying to re-institute the idea of the 50-year anniversary class giving the university some kind of a gift that would be lasting,”
Hanes said. Three projects were suggested to them and Paul and Virginia appealed to the three because they were in school when Old Main still stood and the fountain is an iconic image, Hanes said. Since Old Main was burned down, the original Paul and Virginia statue was moved because unrest was common on campus in the 1970s. “They determined it would be safest for Paul and Virginia to be put at Stone [Center],” Hanes said. An exact duplicate was cast in bronze and placed in the current location where it has sat since the 1970s. The original is still at the garden of the Stone Center. With this project, they are hoping to restore and return the original Paul and Virginia statue to the original pool where the replica sits today. Physical plant employees began working on a sketch last month, and proposed the completed drawing to the class of 1965 alumni during Homecoming weekend. Concerns include cracks in the bottom of the statue’s pool and the crumbling stone walls that surround the fountain. Please see STATUE | 3