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BASKETBALL A list of our top 5 football movies New practice and suggestions of what to wear to facility floor flooded the Saints game, page 6. by pipes, page 7.
Who dat?
Saints fans react to Sunday’s historic game, page 7.
THE DAILY REVEILLE WWW.LSUREVEILLE.COM
Volume 114, Issue 77
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What’s the catch?
Crawfish season off to slower than average start, but numbers expected to increase with warmer weather By Sarah Eddington Staff Writer
Stephen Minvielle farmed crawfish for the last decade and typically caught 18 to 30 sacks a day this time of the year. Last Tuesday, he only caught six. Minvielle, director of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association, said the current state average is less than one sack per 25 acres of
land, which is much lower than the normal average of one per 10 acres. “With the conditions we had early on, we should have had a really good season,” Minvielle said. “The catch did not show up.” Robert Romaire, professor at the Aquaculture Research Station, said this year’s unusually low temperatures are responsible for the limited CRAWFISH, see page 15
photos by NICOLE KARAMICHAEL / The Daily Reveille
[Top] Vernon Pfister, research associate at LSU AgCenter’s Aquaculture Research Station, retrieves a pyramid trap with crawfish in it Thursday. The Aquaculture Research Station is located off Ben Hur Road. [Bottom] Pfister shows crawfish caught in a trap.
BUDGET CUTS
Facility Services receives $1 million funding reduction Workers anticipate additional layoffs By Xerxes A. Wilson Senior Staff Writer
Reeling from more than $1 million in cuts in January, Facility Services is struggling to maintain its standards while waiting for the next cut. Facility Services — tasked with custodial upkeep and maintenance of campus facilities — cut more than $400,000 from its operational budget earlier this month. The unit was also forced to shear $460,000 in the form of 26 funded, but vacant, positions along with $140,000 by
terminating eight filled positions, said Tony Lombardo, interim assistant vice chancellor of Facility Services. Bobby Pitre, executive director of Facility and Utility Operations, said students and staff on campus will experience longer wait times for repair requests, reduced quality in the area of custodial services and a hastened degrading of facilities on campus. Paul Favaloro, director of resources, said having to cut positions results in less man hours available, generally resulting in a decline in quality. “We work hard to maintain a high standard,” Favaloro said. “But with less people, we are demanding more per person to do those tasks, and it just gets a
lot more difficult to maintain the level they are used to seeing.” Favaloro said the cuts also necessitated some program cuts, like the termite program, and will hinder Facility Service’s ability to respond to emergencies during to hurricane season. “You are going to see those immediate impacts, and those things that will accrue as time goes on,” Favaloro said. The physical qualities of the University will decay creating longer backlogs for maintenance, Favaloro said. Pitre said this decay will add to the deferred maintenance backlog that already has $200 million in repairs waiting for MAINTENANCE, see page 15
SARAH HUNT / The Daily Reveille
Jeff Mitchell, Facility Services employee, works on renovations on campus Monday. After undergoing a budget cut, Facility Services is struggling to maintain quality.