Maroon

              THE MAROON A LOYOLA TRADITION SI NCI 1 2 3 • 'TOR A t.RI ATI R LOYOLA" VOL. 85, NO. 2 WWW.LOYOLAMAROON.COM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2006 To park or not to park By RAMON VARGAS THE MAROON PARKING Policy change, limited space raise concerns For the first time since 1999, freshmen residents will enjoy the privilege of parking on campus. With the adoption of the new policy, and no parking lot expansion to accompany it, there will be more people competing for fewer spaces. A decision to restrict freshmen residents from parking on campus, implemented by Parking Services in 1999, was meant to alleviate a severe congestion problem in the West Road and Freret Street garages. University Police Capt Roger Pinac said he believes that due to reduced enrollment, more spaces will be available and therefore congestion should not be an issue. Residents, however, have differing opinions about the new policy."I think (freshmen resident parking) is awesome," said Rebecca Gardener, marketing freshman. "A lot of people from out of town don't have cars, and because there are no streetcars, a lot of my friends feel trapped. If you wanted to go to the zoo or the museum, you couldn't" Gardener sees the new policy as a way for local freshmen to help the out-of-towners experience the Big Easy's pleasures — museums, malls, theaters, the Fly, sno-balls and the French Quarter — via a comfortable car ride. "I totally understand that upperclassmen should have privilegesprivileges over freshmen, but I think it'll be OK because I've never had trouble parking," she said. "There's always at least 10 spots open." However, veteran commuters such as Willie Wilson, marketing sophomore, have felt the strain created by the new parking policy. *1 find it hard to get a spot. I'm always rushing to class," he said. "I drove up all the way to the top floor of the garage and still couldn't find a spot. It's a frustrating thing." A parking regulations bulletin ALETHIA PICCIOLA / THE MAROON A new policy adopted by Loyola, which allows resident freshmen parking privileges for the first time since 1999, creates a strain on the availability of parking spaces in West Road garage, some say. Backup plan in place By JENNA HARRIS ONLINE EDITOR University prepares for online courses in case of evacuation Loyola has implemented a more advanced version of Blackboard in order to continue classes online and to temporarily communicate should a long-term evacuation occur again. In preparation, all classes are being registered with Blackboard. This may prevent school from being extended into December, should classes only be canceled for a short period of time, administrators say. According to Loyola's Hurricane Emergency Plan, a university closure of four class days or longer would result in the fall semester being extended for one additional week in December. Should the university be forced to close for an indefinite period of time, Blackboard would be used for online instruction. Brenda Joyner, assistant provost for teaching, learning and faculty development had a disclaimer, saying that, "there is no intention of trying to make Loyola an online institution." Blackboard would instead be used as a way for students to stay in touch with faculty and to continue their education online, she said. "If we would have had a hurricane in early September (of this year), wtf would have wanted to use Blackboard to continue classes for three to four weeks," Joyner said. "We could do it for an entire semester if we needed to." According to University Crime rates on the rise as city rebuilds By EUGENIO HERNANDEZ 111 CONTRIBUTING WRITER University Police say campus crime remains low As New Orleans slowly begins to rebuild and citizens return, so has the city's infamous crime. University Police Capt. Roger Pinac attributes the crime influx to "more and more people moving back into the city." "The more people you have in the city will obviously increase the amount of crime the city has," he said. Pinac said that much of the problem with controlling crime recently can be blamed on a "depleted New Orleans Police Department," a group, he points out, that is still working out of trailers. Once the city that led the nation in homicides per capita by nearly 10 times the national rate, New Orleans saw its homicide rates drop drastically after Hurricane Katrina. According to a Sept 6 article in The Times-Picayune, "... There have been 93 homicides in New Orleans, compared with 202 by this time last year, according to police, meaning murders are running at about the same rate as before the storm, given the drastically reduced population, now at about half pre-Katrina levels." In a March 30 issue of The New York Times, NOPD Capt. Timmy Bayard said that crime in the city is "not as plentiful as it was (before the storm)." He added, however, that finding criminals is like "looking for a needle in a haystack." City reports from the NOPD have found that criminals have taken to hiding in devastated and abandoned areas of the city, The New York Times reported. NOPD Assistant Superintendent Steven Nicholas told Fox News, "I think a lot of what you can see — there was an upsurge, a wave in crime — is based on that false sense of perception that everyone had in the last quarter 0f2005 when we had virtually no one living in the city." He went on to say; "Crime is down over 50 percent in all categories. The murder rates are down. 1 just think going from zero to this point may, in fact,be an upsurge" see PARKINGr page 3 see PLANf page 5 see CRIME, page 2 SPORTS [M| Meet the Wolfpack's newest Men's I I Basketball scholar-athletes.  page 11 LOYOLAMAnOQN.COM MAROON DIRECTORY: CALENDAR, page 2 | LIFE & TIMES, page 6 | SPORTS, page 10 | EDITORIAL, page 14 | NEWS TIPS: 865-3535 CORRECTIONS: In last week's Maroon, a Life & Times article said New Orleans was not home to any Fortune 500 companies. New Orleans is home base for both Entergy Corp. and Freeport McMoran, both of which are Fortune 500 companies. We at The Maroon regret this mistake.