9 minute read
What went down in Alumni Hall
Flooded
After being told to evacuate the building due to a water pipe burst late at night, Alumni Hall residents were forced to find a different place to stay.
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“Everybody’s gotta get out of the building! Get out, get out!!”
With a toothbrush in hand, pajama-clad junior Chase Parrott was almost ready for bed when he heard shouts and thuds in the hallway on the fourth floor of Alumni Hall around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night. His RA was going door to door, waking students and ordering them to leave immediately.
The RA was urgent, but Parrott didn’t know why they had to leave until he got a text from a friend. “There was a pipe leak,” the text read, “you have to get out of the building.”
Alumni Hall residents received an email from Graduate Community Director Laurel Mahler at 11:16 p.m. stating that, “...due to flooding in the basement, all residents need to evacuate the building immediately.”
Interim Chief of Police Joseph Tiraboschi and Facilities Director Kevin Roy communicated at 12:15 a.m. Monday morning by email to the campus community that Public Safety had been notified of a “water main break at Alumni Hall” at approximately 10:30 p.m.
Public Safety immediately contacted Facilities, and the departments had been working together to “isolate the water to the exterior of the building.” They also stated Residence Life was working to relocate students, and all community members should avoid the “main campus road” and Alumni Hall until further notice.
“I walked out of the building and there was a whole group outside, a lot of the kids that lived in Alumni,” said Parrott.
“The police officer was like, ‘I know we just told you guys to get out, but we really don’t know how long this is going to take, so we advise you grab your stuff for the night,’ and nobody really knew what that meant, because
___ By Irene rotondo ___ @irenerrotondo
we didn’t know if that meant we were coming back in two hours or if we weren’t going to sleep there tonight.”
The students were then allowed back in the dorm for a quick collection of their possessions. Parrott grabbed the items he needed for school the next day and headed out -- luckily, he had a friend in the Living Center who was still awake, and they opened their suite to Parrott.
Not all students were as lucky, though -- or at least, not at first.
Sophomore Alumni Hall roommates Celia Fogarty and Jenna Lagana weren’t in their room when they got texts from their RA around 11:00 p.m. telling them to evacuate. Fogarty was heading back to campus from work and frantically began calling friends for a place to stay, while Lagana watched the news unfold with her boyfriend and his friends in Abbey-Appleton Hall.
When she got back
A flooded basement in Alumni Hall (Photo Courtesy of Brenna Lachapelle)
to campus, Fogarty had arranged to stay with a friend -- except all she had were her work clothes on her back and wallet in hand. Fogarty headed back to Alumni, where she discovered her key card access had been shut off.
“Fortunately, one of the guys working on the pipes let me in, so I could grab some of my stuff for classes, but if I wasn’t able to do that, all I had were my work clothes, and nothing else,” Fogarty recalled.
“I got the text from my RA and I was just confused,” said Lagana. “I ended up DMing her separately and just being like, ‘What’s going on, can I come back to Alumni?’ and basically she said, ‘No,’ but didn’t tell me where I could go.
“I was already at Abbey, but if I didn’t have somewhere to go, See Alumni continued on Page 8
Curtain call
The Best of Broadway club put on its spring production of “Grease” this past weekend and celebrated its graduating seniors in what was their last show.
__ By Cait Kemp __ @caitlinkemp09
As the final scene came to a close and the audience erupted into applause, the cast could finally take a breath. They did it, the show was over.
For the seniors, it was their last curtain call – a bittersweet moment that they knew was inevitable, but wished would never come.
The Best of Broadway club put on it’s spring production of “Grease” this past weekend, and seniors Jess Darby and Brendan McGann stepped onto the stage for their theater finale.
McGann starred as Kenickie, one of the lead characters, and Darby took on the role of Eugene, her first speaking part.
The pair had a different experience from the rest of the cast, knowing they would not be returning in the fall to begin another year of Best of Broadway.
“This was my main extracurricular involvement, I’ve always put so much time and effort into it,” said Darby. “My sophomore year I directed, I’ve choreographed the last three years, so it’s just leaving that is going to be really weird.”
Although Darby and McGann are ending their Best of Broadway experiences together, their journeys to get there were very different.
Darby danced for much of her life as she competed with a studio and her high school team. She also loved to sing and discovered that participating in musicals would allow her to do both of those activities at Springfield College. Darby joined Best of Broadway without any theater experience, and fell in love with it from the start.
“I wasn’t even going to audition, but on the last day of auditions freshman year somebody that I barely even knew dragged me into it,” said Darby. “I made so many friends with the club I was like, ‘Oh, this is actually really fun.’”
McGann began acting classes in third grade and was in his first play the next year. He started participating in musicals as a middle schooler and was a part of the drama club all throughout high school. However, once he got to Springfield College, he didn’t join Best of Broadway until his sophomore year.
“When I got here I didn’t know anybody
A group of Springfield College performers at the Best of Broadway show on March 2, 2022. (Photo Courtesy of Springfield College Flickr)
really so I didn’t join my freshman year. But my sophomore year I wanted to get into it because I missed it, and I auditioned and they took me under their wing so it was great,” said McGann.
From there, he never turned back as he developed into a key member of the club, and worked hard to put on a show that was worth showing to the community.
“At the end of the last show, at the end of when I’m singing, I just give everything – my all. Show everyone that you love doing what you do and just give them a show,” said McGann.
Neither Darby or McGann are pursuing careers in musical theater in the future, so Best of Broadway has been their outlet to their creative and artistic sides. Darby is a psychology major with a criminal justice minor, while McGann is a math and computer tech major.
“It’s really nice to have that kind of outlet, even though I never did theater before coming to college. I always loved performing, I always loved singing, so having that opportunity to continue into college as well as getting new experiences, making new friends, to just keep doing what I love,” Darby said.
Best of Broadway has served as a community for them – a family.
The bonding experience is something that they cherish. After the completion of the final show, a reflection on their time with Best of Broadway was centered around chances to spend time with fellow cast and crew members.
“We had a full cast bonding night in the theater right before the start of tech week… just a reminder that we still love and support each other and that we can have fun,” said Darby. “That was probably the most fun I ever had in the theater.”
Darby and McGann have wrapped up their careers in theater, and will forever be grateful for the Best of Broadway experience. While the curtain has closed on their time in theater, the memories will last forever.
March
continued from Page 3
the Women of Power club, spoke about the intersection of her race and gender as a young Black woman, and why her identity is important for a broader perspective on feminism. To her, feminism isn’t just about being a woman. Instead, she looks at how it is an ideology that connects different statuses by advocating for equal rights amongst all gender identities.
“As a woman of color on campus, I feel like I have had a unique experience at Springfield College, especially in my program, sports management,” Lizana said. “I am one of the only (women of color). So I feel like a part of our activism on campus is teaching everyone about these unique experiences and how our different personalities and qualities intersect with each other.”
Another main theme from the march was that being a “feminist” is not just about supporting a select group of women and that the term values equality for everyone. Organizers of the march acknowledged that there are many stereotypes surrounding the label “feminist,” and that in order to break down the barriers of gender inequality society needs to be more open-minded about how the term continues to evolve.
After the walk through campus, multiple speakers came together and spoke about what feminism means to them. Cooper and Warchol were some of the staff members that gave short speeches. Both talked about the importance of community and the power of representation.
“We need to lift everybody up and I say this a lot with students, praise each other, lift one another and support each other, whether that’s from the townhouse backyards to the lunchroom or on the court or off the court,” Warchol said.
Cooper added, “I am pleased to be the first female president of Springfield College and in the future when the next woman president comes along she won’t be the first and that’s what all of you will be doing.”
Numerous students presented their thoughts to the crowd as well. Senior Brianna D’Haiti read a poem she wrote about dealing with stereotypes that are brought upon women in today’s society.
Monday’s march was just the beginning of the Women of Power’s activities that are lined up for the month. The club is also hosting its second annual Sanitary Product Drive, with donations being brought to Christina’s House in downtown Springfield and to the Open Pantry Community Services. Boxes have been placed in all dorm buildings and there are in-person donation opportunities in the Union on March 14 and 28, from 121:30 p.m.
Paris Lizana addressing the crowd following the Women of Power march on March 7, 2022. (Photo by Hayden Choate/ The Student) President Mary-Beth Cooper joins Springfield College students during the Women of Power march on March 7, 2022. (Photo by Hayden Choate/The Student)
