Page 17 - ThePhoenix1997-98

NEWS Gill Gym restored to former glory Now, only nine months after the Inc., the renovators of Hoover Li- 8'1' JEN V'CK Featj,resEditar five-alarm fire destroyed the 59 brary. The entire expense is com- year-old building on New Year's pensated by the building'S insur- On a cold winter day last year, Eve, reconstruction is almost com- ance coverage of $2 million. students, faculty, and the commu- plete. According to Ethan Seidel, Vice nity watched in horror as Gill Gym- Gill's entire athletic area was President of Administration and nasium burned for hours. envel- consumed by the fire, and athletic Finance, building and design of oped in flames. and military science offices suf- Gill took place simultaneously and In late February, revamping be- fered from smoke damage. The allowed for its athletic area to be gan on what was left of the facility cost of rebuilding reaches about reopened for use in midsummer. that approximately 200 firefighters $1.7 million and is being handled "With all the summer confer- from 15 companies fought to save. by Henry H. Lewis Contractors ence sports teams and the Balti- more Ravens coming to practice, we had to have access to Old Gill by July," Seidel said. The inside' of the "new old gym," as it has come to be known on campus, glows brightly with The fire left old Gill Gym a shell of its former self green, rubberized, all-purpose flooring and freshly painted white feed the fire into the offices from something like this happens is that walls. These walls were deter- the athletic area, Seidel said. you can be flexible." mined to be structurally sound af- Smoke and fire damage in the The ROTC uses Gill for vari- ter the conflagration, but the win- adjoining and newer Physical Edu- ous activities, classes, and storage. dows have been bricked over. In cation Learning Center has also The fire destroyed a1l of their the basement, a new 100 scat meet- been repaired, along with addi- equipment which was stored in the ing room was constructed. Seidel tional improvements. A new basement. But Doyle says almost said the room wi II be used as a wooden floor covers one of PELC's everything has been replaced and classroom and meeting room for three playing courts, while the was covered by Army insurance. large sports teams, such as the foot- other two are being resurfaced with She added, however, that Gill's ball team. the green multipurpose flooring. new surfacing isn't quite as accom- Before the fire, Gill was famous scheduled to be completed by Fall modating for ROTC's purposes. for its wooden floor, said to be the break. "Now with the new surfacing, finest on the East Coast. But its Fire officials have suspended it's not something we want to walk fame turned to tragedy as the fire their investigation into the cause of on with boots," Doyle said. fed on it. the fire, but did rule out criminal As a result, drill and ceremony "Once the floor caught, the activity. The origin of the fire was practice has become tedious, and flames went all the way through the found to be in the northeast corner some Thursday labs have had to roof," said Seidel. "The heat bent of the basement. relocate to the Forum. the steel beams." Physical education classes have Although minor inconve , Now reconstructed to be fire resumed in Gil! and athletic teams. niences may continue to exist in preventive, Gill's flooris a concrete intramural sports, and ROTC no Gill Center, they shrink in ccmpari- slab below the rubberized surfac- longer have to vie for space in son to the Gill that stood blackened ing, and a sprinkler system has been PELC. For Maj. Karen Doyle, and gaping in January. installed in the basement. The wall commanderofWMC's ROTC Bat- "What could have been a real between the gym and the offices talion, this has come as a relief. disaster," Seidel said, "actually JOSE(JUBA)SIQUEIRA was made into a fire wall with the "Everybody pulled together and ended up with a positive outcome." Less than II year after it was ravaged by fire. reconstruction on Gill Gym elimination of the window that pre- made things work," she said. "One is almost complete. viously existed there and helped to important thing you Jearn when OCTAA gets thumbs-down from first-year students Continued/rom page J were offended" with the presenta- them to go because it is interesting Trigger levels and tolerance were Rogan quipped, "I don't want to get topics ranging from biological risks tion as they already abstained. to see what people perceive about also discussed. caught drinking because then I'll of alcohol to how advertisers se- They are developing ways to build drinking here [in the U.S.]." The program would be better if have to take OCTAA again." duce the public into drinking. Ac- upon what students found positive, Presenters also used various it was presented "an hour at a time" According to Homeff "the pur- cording to Paul Oakes, first year such as incorporating more inter- techniques to spice up the program. Jenkins said. The concentrated pose is not to make a dry campus," student and business administration action and discussion Jane Sharpe and Linda Garber, two material was just "too much." but rather to provide choices. The major, the presentation, with its Student Orientors faced the dif- presenters, used a beach ball to re- This concern was critically message OCTAA was 10 send was limited interaction with students, ficult task of motivating their inforce ideas. "C.A.'s (classroom evaluated by the teaching staff of "we can have fun without alcohol," proved to be "very monotonous." ortentees to attend OCTAA. Aaron assistants) and S.O.'s participation OCTAA. According to Bendel- she said. This was reinforced dur- Students' opinions of OCTAA Corbell, junior political science and encouragement made our atten- sharply contrasted with their reac- major, used added incentives to dance successful," they added. Simso, OCTAA is "already sup- ing orientation with the lock-in at tion to the other alcohol presenta- persuade his students to attend, "I Bosley described how presenter posed to be tied to the first year the Four Seasons Sports Complex, and the last segment is to seminar" tion, speaker Mike Green. "He was took them out to lunch and brought Karen Doyle "wore different hats be taught in the first year seminar dance parties, and other alcohol- free activities. amazing," said first year student left over cake," he said. "I thought and shot candy into the audience" classroom. Maryellen Rogan. Green's presen- the breaks were a good time to see {Q add humor to the program. "The hope now is to have two Bosley explained that OCTAA tation "was better because he had how it was going." Despite the effort of some pre- hours during Orientation and an- "education is only one piece of pre- experiences to go along with what "I brought them pizza at lunch- senters, some S.O.'s still had com- other four during the first year vention" on campus. There is a he was saying." Oakes agreed that time," echoed Student Orientor plaints from their groups. Tameka seminar in one hour blocks," need for "school policies to reflect" "he was great because he knew how Mark Ruby who employed a tech- Collins, second year S.O. took Bendel-Simso said. the message the program sends. to relate to us." nique similar to Corbett's. grumbles from her group with a However, "the logistics now are She identified alcohol-free activity While the same excitement was Adrienne Nemeth, Student chuckle when one said, "You left grants sponsored by Residence Life not generated from OCTAA, steps Orienror and business/economics me in Hell." Collins reported that difficult in implementing" this and as a positive step in this direction. She nothing has yet been decided. have been taken to remedy this. Dr. major, faced different challenges "even though this is information added that "OCTAA has to be tied Recognizing some of the rough Mary Bendel-Simso, presenter of with her group. As the only S.O. they need, J feel 1 betrayed their spots of OCTAA during its first run OCTAA and Academic Coordina- from WMC Budapest, she oriented trust because they depend on me to to something" to make it meaning- through, Horneff sincerely wants ful tor of the First Year Seminar, said many of the new Hungarian stu- make orientation fun." "suggestions in all aspects of ori- statistics on the effec- Currently, presenters met to evaluate the pro- dents. In Budapest, "drinking is an While the presentation of the tiveness of OCTAA are not avail- entation. Orientation now is about to change" modifying and making gram on September 15. Many accepted part of social life," she program was criticized, the mate- able. However, some students jok- an already successful program. agreed that OCTAA was "too re- said, and a seminar on how to drink rial was new to many. "I learned ingly suggested it may deter drink- "We must do OCTAA for four petitive, too long, and too con- responsibly was an unique concept. which influences you more, biol- ing inadvertently since attending years" Horneff said, "and we're descending" to students. Homeff "I had to give them a different per- ogy or environment," said first year OCTAA is one of the sanctions for looking into ways to make it more added that "there were groups that spective," Nemeth said. "I told student math major Ina Jenkins. violating campus alcohol policies. interesting and to present it better."