News

News

Changes coming to audio tech

By Ari Natter | August 28

Audio Technology students may start seeing some changes to their major this year, as the program is being "re-centered" away from performance and content aspects, Department Chair Michael Gray said. The major was determined to have drifted away from its original focus, a science and technology program, after undergoing a review process, Gray said.

---

News

AU snuffs smokers and sales

By Mackenzie Ryan | August 28

Students taking a cigarette break will have to walk a little farther before they light up this year. The steps and walkways around the front doors of the residence halls are now designated smoke-free areas, which is just one of a handful of new procedures that AU is implementing in an attempt to promote a healthier campus.

---

News

Anderson could lose its lounges

By Evan Wagner | August 28

Anderson Hall is tentatively set to lose its formal lounge, conference room and den next year if Housing and Dining Programs, the University office that runs the residence halls, meal services, and EagleBuck$, decides to move there from its current home in the Rockwood Building.

---

News

Officer Sanchez resigns

By Evan Wagner | August 28

Officer Juan Sanchez will never again march into the Letts-Anderson Quad to break up a fight, dash into McDowell Hall to help a sick student, or cruise the quad smiling in a Public Safety SUV. After seven years at AU, "Sanchez," as he was known by students, has left the school to become a federal police officer.

---

News

Car bomber gets 32 years

By Evan Wagner | August 28

A local man was sentenced to 32 years in prison last week by a federal judge a year after attempting to blow up his father in a Friendship Heights parking garage-a term that the judge said wasn't nearly long enough. Prescott Sigmund, the son of a local businessman, admited in court that he had placed a nail-packed pipe bomb in his father's SUV last July.

---

News

Campus Briefs

August 28

Briefs from around campus for the week of August 28, 2003

---

News

Credit cards denied

By Stokely Baksh | August 28

Beginning Monday, AU will stop accepting credit cards as payments for tuition, fees, room and board , although they will still be used for other campus services including EagleBuck$ and purchases of books. According to Assistant Vice President of Finance Doug Kudravetz, credit cards were used as payments in $50 million for tuition.

---

News

Chem building renovates

By Joseph Popiolkowski | August 28

The Beeghly Building, home to AU's Chemistry Department, reopened Friday after an extensive six-week renovation of the building's ventilation and exhaust systems and removal of a potentially explosive residue, Willy Suter said, director of Physical Plant Operations.

---

News

Conspiracy argued

By Ryan Grannan-Doll | August 28

A conspiracy between the organized crime community, the Central Intelligence Agency and anti-Cuban dictator Fidel Castro rebels led to former President John F. Kennedy's murder, nationally renowned political assassination expert John Gordon argued Tuesday night.

---

News

Hoyas seek building for crew

By Rebecca Bellville | August 28

Georgetown University hopes to build a boathouse for its crew teams - an idea that has won praise from the AU Crew team. The proposed boathouse, which would be built on an acre on the Potomac River between 34th Street NW and the entrance to Georgetown's campus, would total about 33,000 square feet.

---

News

Rain brings flooding, power loss

By Rebecca Bellville | August 28

A Tuesday afternoon thunderstorm caused flooding and power outages across the AU campus, forcing the Washington College of Law to cancel Wednesday classes, and has been blamed for a car accident that slightly injured an AU graduate student. The swift rainfall brought flooding to stairwells in several buildings and the Nebraska Parking Lot and knocked out power in Nebraska Hall and the WCL building, according to Willy Suter, director of Physical Plant Operations.

---

News

AU uses summer to renovate

By Keith F. Shovlin | July 7

The summer season brings warmer climates to the D.C. area, making construction projects easier to complete, and AU has not ignored this advantage as areas of campus are getting spruced up while the weather is nice and many students are away. The projects range from the renovation of Letts Hall to a new and improved Tavern.

---

News

Higher Ed act reviewed by Congress

By Rebecca Bellville | July 7

Proposed amendments to the Higher Education Act could touch AU students' lives when it comes to financial aid. In fall 2002, AU had 5,870 undergraduate students. Approximately 2,348 of them received some form of financial aid according to Amy Gerber, associate director of Financial Aid.

---

News

George resigns

By Keith F. Shovlin | July 7

Athletics Director Tom George is stepping down July 31 after 20 months at AU and returning to the private sector in order to deal with personal circumstances. "I appreciate the opportunity that American University has afforded me and I want to thank the entire community for their support of my efforts," George said in a press release.

---

News

Ex-fraternities still active

By Mackenzie Ryan | July 7

Two former fraternities may be planning on recruiting new members this year and AU is taking steps to warn incoming students and parents that these "underground organizations" place students at physical and emotional risk and possible University judicial prosecution.

---

News

Universities stand by policies

By Leslie Gold | July 7

The Supreme Court ruling of June 23, which upholds the use of race as a criterion for college admissions, caused many institutions to breathe a sigh of relief. The Court, while striking down the University of Michigan's point system, affirmed the constitutionality of the "narrowly tailored use of race to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body" in the majority opinion of the court.

---

News

Katzen breaks ground

By Natalie Deriso | July 7

It has been a rainy season, but construction on the Katzen Arts Center continues as planned. The future home of the performing arts department is located next to Nebraska Hall across Massachusetts Avenue from campus. The construction is on schedule and should open its doors to students in the spring 2005 semester, according to Jerry Gager of the Office of Facilities, Planning and Development.

---