Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
Thawing snow floods Cohen
Darren LaCour
Senior News Editor
The snow and ice that got Xavier students an unprecedented two consecutive days off from classes continued to cause trouble on Tuesday as it thawed. The extreme temperature changes caused expansion that made the roof of Cohen Center fail, allowing water to rain into the building.
According to Bob Sheeran, Associate Vice President for Facility Management, the problems started late into the afternoon on Monday, Feb. 19 with the thawing, continued through the night and then worsened on Tuesday.
Luckily, only a relatively small part of the building was affected. No classrooms were hit, but offices in the health services and art departments as well as the gallery suffered water damage.
“We had roughly 15 people on the roof this morning removing ice and snow to prevent more leaking,” said Sheeran. A roof contractor helped patch holes as they uncovered them in efforts to stop the water flow. “Roughly half a dozen people were inside vacuuming water, covering furniture and setting up buckets.”
Physical Plant’s efforts helped keep the damage minimal, but an entire wall of the art gallery was destroyed. Fortunately, it appears that most of the students’ work was removed before it was ruined.
The Cohen roof had only experienced minor leaks before, but the odd temperature changes caused this unexpected problem.
“The entire roof is and has been scheduled to be replaced this summer,” said Sheeran, who explained that the roof was due to be replaced. “If it weren’t for this unusual weather, we wouldn’t have had this problem.”
The contents of the ruined offices were removed, and those displaced are temporarily operating out of other offices within their departments. “Unfortunately, the building’s at full capacity. We don’t have vacant offices where people can go temporarily,” said Sheeran. “This is an inconvenience, but we’re doing our best to keep it the smallest inconvenience possible.”
Assistant Professor Kelly Phelps helped clear out the office of Marsha Karagheusian-Murphy, Chair of the Art Department, whose office was one of those that suffered water damage. “The office is kaput,” Phelps said, “but as for the contents, it’s too early to assess the damage.”
Large fans were still set up in the affected areas to dry up the water off the ground while buckets were arranged to collect continued drips.
Ledgewood housing to remain available to students
Darren LaCour
Senior News Editor
The final round of Xavier’s plan for campus expansion calls for the demolition of many of the houses on Ledgewood Avenue and the potential displacement of many students and organizations. Many students were under the impression that these changes would take place during the summer of 2007, but these rumors are incorrect.
Senior Billy Reinstatler, who lives at the Men4Others house on Ledgewood, said that word got out in October that their house would not be available the following academic year. “I’m a senior, so I’m not really affected, but two of the guys that live with us are sophomores so they found different housing,” Reinstatler said.
Bob Sheeran, Associate Vice President for Facility Management, confirmed that initially the plan was to tear down some of the houses during the summer of 2007, but that plan was altered around Christmas. “The funding is not in place,” he said. “We want to make it a seamless process, so when we tear the houses down we’re ready to begin construction.”
Reinstatler explained that in January, he and his housemates met with Angie Kneflin, the Apartments Director for Residence Life, who informed them that their house would still be available for the 2007-08 academic year. By then, however, the two sophomore students had already found new houses.
“They don’t know if it’s going to be a themed house next year,” said Reinstatler. “They’ll have to find eight guys, but they might open it up to anyone.”
As far as the capital campaign goes, Sheeran hopes to start construction during the summer of 2008, but that still depends on the successful raising of funds. “We have to think one academic year at a time,” he said. “We can’t make students move out in the middle of the year to tear down the houses; we have to make sure that the houses are available for the entire school year.”
All of the Ledgewood houses will still be available for the 2007-08 year.
He also added that the order in which the buildings are constructed will impact which houses get taken down and when. “It’s too early to say when they’ll come down, and some houses will even be able to stay until after the buildings are built and we begin working on the surrounding grounds.”
Students living in Ledgewood houses can breathe a sigh of relief, unless they had already made accommodating plans to live elsewhere. For the 2007-08 school year, Ledgewood will maintain the status quo.
Physical Plant does not plan to demolish any of the houses until they are ready to begin construction, but they are eager for that day to come. Sheeran explains, “Our intent is to leave the houses up as long as possible, but at the same time, we want to get them down as soon as we can.”
Women win fifth straight
Emily Neubauer
Contributing Writer
The Xavier women’s basketball team continued its recent success last week with two wins against a pair of Atlantic 10 rivals, defeating Richmond 63-53 and Massachusetts 75-67.
Playing in front of a sparse Richmond crowd last Friday night, freshman stand out Amber Harris led the way with 17 points, with senior teammates Joei Clyburn and Michele Miller close behind with 15 and 13 points, respectively.
Not only was Harris again highly successful from the field, but she also nearly notched a triple-double with 11 blocks and eight rebounds. Continued from page 1
Harris’ 17 came on 7-of-12 shooting while going 3-for-4 from the free throw line. Her 11 blocks breaks the previous XU single-game record of eight established earlier this season by teammate Joei Clyburn.
Clyburn also had a successful night, going 6-for-7 from the floor to record 15 points while also snaring 10 rebounds. Miller followed with 13 points and five rebounds of her own.
Going into the half, Xavier had a 44-34 lead over the Spiders. This quickly dissipated, however, as Richmond went on a 13-4 run over the next 6:40 to start the second half. With only eight minutes left in the game, the Spiders pulled within one point at 48-47. Xavier held on, though, applying impressive defense and allowing only one Richmond field goal over the next 6:20.
The Musketeers played some of their best defense of the year, holding Richmond to just 31.4 percent (22-for-70) from the floor and 21.4 percent (3-for-14) from beyond the 3-point arc.
It was a special night for reasons other than improving to 20-7 on the year and 8-3 in conference play. Coach Kevin McGuff celebrated his 100th win as Xavier’s coach.
McGuff is the fastest coach in Xavier history to reach that mark, needing only 149 games to get there. The win also marks the 10th time in program history Xavier has won 20 games and the second straight year in which the Musketeers have recorded 20 regular-season wins.
Xavier was back in action last Sunday, taking on the Massachusetts Minutewomen. Both Harris and senior teammate DeAnna Mason recorded double-doubles for the Musketeers, leading Xavier to a 75-67 win over UMass.
XU led 41-32 at the half but UMass quickly tied the game at 44 with 16:20 left in regulation.
The Minutewomen claimed their first lead of the game after Kim Benton made a pair of 3-pointers to give UMass a 54-53 edge with 10:40 to go. The Minutewomen enjoyed their largest lead of the game with 8:20 left to play, with the score at 58-55.
Their fate changed quickly, as the Musketeers reclaimed a 63-61 lead with less than five minutes remaining and never looked back.
With the win, Xavier improves to 21-7 on the year and 9-3 in Atlantic 10 action.
Xavier returns to action against last place Fordham at 12 p.m. on Thursday at Cintas Center.
Introducing the 2007-08 SGA Executive tickets
Willie Byrd
Jackie Baker
Esteban Gamboa
Platform highlights:
-Allocating funds for cheaper graduate school entrance practice exams
-Expand mentorship program for pre-law and pre-med majors
-Street lights above shuttle stops
-New jerseys/equipment for club sports
Maggie Meyer
Craig Scanlon
Kailin Borton
Platform highlights:
-Weekend shuttle service within Cincinnati area
-Inter-faith prayer facility on campus
-Implement “study days/dead days” before exams
-Improved handicap accessibility on campus
Andrew Smith
Ray O’Brien
Dave Sandmann
Platform highlights:
-Implement keyless access to the residence halls so that students can enter by swiping their All Card
-Bring back the Skyline Chili cart that was formerly available during lunch in the Nieporte Lounge
-Install sand volleyball courts on campus
-Have Chipotle, Wendy’s, Papa John’s, etc. accept board points
Election polls open at 8 a.m. on
Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Wednesday, Feb. 28 in the Gallagher Student Center.
Brian Bowsher 
Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Downing
Senior News Editor
The Xavier Newswire
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