Campus Connection, Feb. 16, 2011
February 21, 2011
The Merciad has partnered with student newspapers at Gannon University (The Gannon Knight) and Penn State Behrend (The Beacon) during the 2010-11 school year.
Our goal is to bring you the most important news happening on local college campuses each week.
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THE BEACON
Motion City Soundtrack to play at Behrend
By Connor Sattely, editor-in-chief
editor@psu.edu
Motion City Soundtrack
One lucky Penn State Behrend student will hear a private concert from Motion City Soundtrack this spring in a bit better venue than the campus’s gymnasium: their bedroom.
The Penn State Behrend Concert Committee has determined at least two “pre-concert events” set to precede this spring’s Motion City Soundtrack and 3OH!3 concert.
The first of the two is a free “acoustic set” which Motion City will play in a student’s room if they win the contest, says Concert Committee President Mike Kline.
“What we’re going to do is have people submit fan videos,” Kline said. “They have to be at least 45 seconds, and they don’t have to be music videos. But it just has to incorporate some of Motion City’s music.”
Kline says a committee will determine which fan video is best, and that submission’s author will earn their own private concert.
The other pre-concert event involves both Motion City and 3OH!3: a private dinner with the bands. Buying a ticket in the first week that they are available – Feb. 21 through Feb. 25 – will automatically enter a student in a raffle. Twenty to thirty students will be selected at random to attend a special pre-concert dinner with both bands.
Kline also says that a third pre-concert event, involving 3OH!3, is in the works, but details aren’t set. It could be anything from a pie eating contest to a lip-syncing contest to 3OH!3’s music which the band could judge, he says. Plenty of ideas are still being thrown around by the committee.
The pre-concert events, Kline says, will help to liven up the concert and make it more interactive for students.
“As far as I know, concert committees have never done anything like this,” said Kline, who has been involved with the Concert Committee since his freshman year. “These can help make the concert a lot more interactive and exciting for students.”
Tickets for the Motion City Soundtrack and 3OH!3 dual-headline concert will go on sale on Feb. 21 at the RUB desk. They will cost $20 for students, and students can buy two tickets per ID at that cost. They go to sale to the public one week later, and cost $25 to non-Behrend students. Kline says these public tickets will be available online, so students at other schools can purchase them.
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THE GANNON KNIGHT
By ABBY BADACH, editor-in-chief
badach002@gannon.edu
Photo by The Gannon Knight: The opening of Gannon’s new residence hall remains scheduled for fall 2011.
Workers have been braving high winds and snow to continue construction of Gannon University’s new $17 million, five-floor residence hall, which – despite the Erie winter conditions – is still slated to open in fall 2011.
“The weather, obviously, slowed things down on the outside,” said Doug Zimmerman, director of Student Living. “It’s tough to lay block, it’s tough to put mud down for brick and all that stuff when it’s 50-mph gusts and the wind chill is zero. When you get up five stories, the wind is really whipping through there.”
Zimmerman said the plastic envelope that now covers the building keeps the workers dry and warm as they begin putting up studs in the walls.
Currently, he said, the staff is working together to gather specifications for appliances in the building so the appropriate wiring and plumbing can be installed.
In a September 2010 interview with The Knight, Linda Wagner, vice president of finance and administration, said the new residence hall will have capacity to house 300 students. She said the $17 million budget is all inclusive, including the 78-spot parking lot, landscaping, technology and furniture for the building.
Zimmerman said eight large semis full of furniture for the new residence hall will arrive in early August, and it will take almost a week to move into the suites, rooms and lounges.
The new residence hall will feature two floors of upperclassman suites and three floors of freshman suites, totaling 75 units, said Wagner, adding that the upperclassman suites will have single bedrooms and all suites will have a common area, kitchenette and two bathrooms.
Zimmerman said that entry to the building, the floors and the suites will be granted by swiping one’s Gannon I.D., while physical keys will be allocated for each of the bedrooms.
“It really helps if someone loses their key and you don’t have to re-key stuff and change locks,” he said of the new suite swipe-card access system.
He added that the first floor of the building will house a convenience store for students, although plans for its design and contents haven’t yet been finalized.
Junior accounting major Teresa Antonucci said she thinks the store is one of the new building’s best features.
“If you need to grab something to eat late at night, I know Doc’s [Landing] and Knight’s [Cove] are closed earlier,” she said. “And there’s nothing really that stays open too late close to campus to get toothpaste or whatever.”
Antonucci added, though, that she valued her freshman year living in the dorms and thinks the suite-style life might make it difficult for freshmen to meet each other.
“We have more apartments than dorm buildings,” she said, “but I think we should have more dorm-like buildings – because I feel like that’s where I made most of my friends.”
Becca Coleman, a sophomore theater and history major, said she thinks the design of the new residence hall is moving the university forward.
“I think it’s great that Gannon is starting to upgrade with the times,” she said. “I think that this is the beginning of a lot of renovations with the residence halls.”