TL20060921-01 "Sept. 21, 2006 www.thetowerlight.com The Towerlight Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice-weekly Thursday INSIDE Calendar........3 Perspectives........4 News.......7 History.......11 Arts......15 Puzzles.......19 Classifi eds......20 Sports.......24 on the Students meet to debate Constitutional impact of gay marriage News, page 7 �Jackass Number Two� proves to be even more vulgar, offensive, but still funny Arts, page 16 Five hot dogs, three minutes, no problem Patrick Smith/The Towerlight �Big Ben� Park, left, was able to eat five hot dogs in three minutes before his competitors at a food eating contest in Glen Dining Hall. Kiel McLaughlin Associate Sports Editor Thirty years after its construc-tion, the Towson Center Arena is in line for a long-awaited facelift. Administrators and faculty members are developing plans for a wholesale renovation to the arena, including expanded seating, refurbished locker rooms, updated ceilings, and an improved heating, ventilation and air conditioning sys-tem. The last major renovation to the building came in 1999 when the Varsity Athletic Weight Room was built with funds donated by various Daniel Renz Contributing Writer Ben Park eyed his five hot dogs considering whether that number could be consumed in three min-utes. And his moments for strategic thinking paid off when he won the Glen Dining Hall�s inaugural hot dog contest held Tuesday evening for eating five hot dogs faster than his opponents. �It was like drinking hot dogs,� Park said after the contest. Then he proceeded to devour a funnel cake. After eight students stuffed their faces with hot dogs, more took their chances at eating slices of pie quicker than their neighboring competitor. �This type of event has never been held by Chartwells or Towson Dining in the past, although I�m sure student groups have had them before,� Beth Valle, marketing direc-tor of dining services, said. Students entering the dining hall were greeted with a live DJ and a podium setup. The live music, provided by TK the DJ of Alana Shor Entertainment, was pumping Apartment fire takes home, memories Towson Center to get new look Photo courtesy Towson University See CONTEST, page 9 See FACILITIES, page 22 Glen Dining Hall attracts attention with first food eating contests Community helps two female graduate students after belongings destroyed Brian Stelter Editor in Chief The first word that came to their mind is �gone.� Nikki Wilson�s souvenirs from a trip to Europe. Carolyn Schwarz�s walk-in closet of clothes and shoes. A year of accumulated apartment mementos and memories. �It�s gone. It�s just gone,� Schwarz said. �There�s no other way to explain it. It�s gone.� Wilson and Schwarz, gradu-ate students at Towson, were vic-tims of a three-alarm fire Monday afternoon at Cromwell Valley Apartments off Providence Road. The fire started in a third floor apartment and spread to the fourth, engulfing the roof. About 30 residents were displaced. The loss of their apartment is See FIRE, page 9 "
