MY SCHEDULE SUCKS WINNER - PAGE M I www.thetowerlight.com
Life on wheels:
not so easy
Students, administration
butt heads over ease of
access around campus
construction sites
CARRIE WOOD
Editor in Chief
Illustration by Rachel Fauber
Towerlight
Homecoming concert a ‘Fiasco’
Headliners Keri Hilson, Wale drop out
of gig, CAB offering refunds on tickets
LAUREN SLAVIN
Arts Editor
This year's "Wild with Pride"
homecoming has turned into a
fiasco after headlining artist Keri
Hilson and opening act Wale pulled
out from performing.
With only three weeks before
the Oct. 11 show, the Campus
Activities Board was in a "time
crunch" to find a new performer,
according to CAB director May
Medallada.
"We already had all the promo¬
tions out and we were getting the
hype up for Wale and Keri," she
said.
Fortunately for CAB, hip-hop
artist Lupe Fiasco is under the
same agent as Keri Hilson.
The “Superstar” singer placed
high on a CAB survey released over
the summer asking who students
would like to see at the homecom¬
ing concert.
“We think students will be really
happy,” Medallada said. “We’re
still really excited to put on the
show and I know he’s excited to
come here.”
Student reactions remain mixed
after the Campus Activities Board
announced the change in the
Homecoming lineup.
“I wasn’t planning on going but
now I might possibly go,” sopho¬
more special education major Alex
Hirsch said. “He has better songs
and she only has one hit and she
just came out. He’s probably a
better performer considering he’s
been around longer."
Hirsch has one of the more pos¬
itive outlooks on the situation.
Sophomore criminal justice major
LaPrea Rich was very disappointed
with CAB’s outcome and will be
returning her ticket.
See CONCERT, page 18
In 60 minutes, a person could do
a lot of things - watch two episodes
of his or her favorite sitcom, make
a dozen or more bowls of ramen, or
take a long nap. For Kiara Gittens,
however, 60 minutes is her commute
to class - and she lives on campus.
Gittens, a junior at Towson, is physically
disabled and has to get around via her motorized
wheelchair. With construction on campus becoming
more of a common sight, she said that it takes her at least an
hour in order to get to class on time.
"I don’t like it at all. It has made my life horrible," she said. "This is now
my third year. Never in my life have I had to go through all this drama just to
get to class. Figuring out how to just get around is so much work."
Because of the construction, temporary wooden ramps were built under
the Lecture Hall steps to help the disabled get to Linthicum Hall. Vice
president for student affairs Deb Moriarty said that the ramps were "built to
standards," but Gittens said that they are too narrow to navigate.
“It’s barely maneuverable at all,” Gittens said. “The fact that they have the
ramp where they have it causes issues, because student groups set up tables
there. Then I have to figure out a way to get around those tables in addition
to trying to just get around the ramps. It’s impossible."
The administration hadn’t heard that there were problems with the ramp,
according to Moriarty. She also said Disability Support Services has been
doing what they can to provide alternate routes.
“They try to plan with access in mind, and it’s not always going to be the
same access that it was before, but we try to make sure that we can reason¬
ably get disabled students to where they need to go,” Moriarty said.
Provost Marcia Welsh said more action needs to be taken, such as going
beyond the minimum requirement, in order to help the disabled students
on campus.
‘We have some challenges, and we need to make sure we’re not just doing
the letter of the law, but the right thing for students who need a college
education," Welsh said.
Other things, such as the handicapped-accessible doors in every campus
building, also require attention as soon as they break down, Welsh said.
"[With] those kind of things, I think we have no excuse," Welsh said. "We
need to make sure that they are working. Having a slope be four percent
instead of five percent is a different issue, but I think handicap-accessible
doors should be fixed immediately."
See WHEELS, page 7
