This February, in celebration of Black History Month, SJU offers an array of on-campus events, many of which celebrate the impact African American culture has had on the arts including:

Live music by “In the Pocket,” a Southerastern regional band that blends Motown, jazz, reggae, and contemporary soul.

The SUB sponsored trip to the African American Museum of Philadelphia.

A showing of the award winning series “Eyes on the Prize” chronicling the African American experience and civil rights movement from 1954-85.

And those are just the highlights.

For more information and a detailed schedule of events visit the Hawk Eye website.

Jenn Burrini, ‘10

In an effort to help pay the bills, the New York Times, led by Chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., has announced that the newspaper is considering a number of different ways to charge its website visitors for online content. According to New York Magazine’s website, a final decision as to how the Times will charge its online readers has yet to be settled on; a decision is expected in mid- to late spring.

The NY Times has an impressive following of 20 million unique readers from all around the globe. Some supporters of free access argue that a switch to paid-access would limit freedom of information for a global community. As for Sulzberger and the NY Times, the biggest challenge they face is determining what price they should charge for their online content.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, leveling its capital city Port-au-Prince and several other towns across the country. The death toll is expected to be significant, and communication has largely been cut off between Haitians and the outside world. The Red Cross has estimated  that nearly 3 million people could be affected by the earthquake and its aftermath.

A statement was released by Vincenzo Pugliese, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in Haiti describing the situation:

The earthquake has caused major damage in the Port-au-Prince area, as well as in Jacmel.The National Palace, the Cathedral, the Ministry of Justice and other important government offices have been destroyed. Hotels, hospitals, schools and the national penitentiary have all suffered extensive damage. Casualties, which are vast, can only be estimated. An unknown number — tens, if not hundreds of thousands — have suffered varying degrees of destruction to their homes.

Haitians, fearful of houses collapsing on them or of a second earthquake, slept in the streets of Port-au-Prince last night. Electricity supplies have been interrupted. Water is in short supply. Some major transportation routes have been severely disrupted by surface cracks, rocks and boulders, fallen trees and smashed cars.

Both the Government of Haiti and the U.N. in Haiti have appealed for immediate and extensive relief supplies and assistance, including search and rescue capacity and medical personnel. MINUSTAH [the U.N. mission in Haiti] is expecting a team of search and rescue experts from China to arrive today to lead rescue operations at the collapsed MINUSTAH headquarters. Between 50 and 100 people are estimated to have been in the six-story building when it collapsed and have yet to be accounted for.

Other U.N. offices have also been damaged, and 10 people are missing from the UNDP compound that houses UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNIFEM, WFP, OCHA and UNEP. U.N. personnel seriously injured in the earthquake were evacuated from all sites overnight to U.N. medical facilities near the airport, which remains operational.

Other search and rescue teams are reported to be arriving from Guadeloupe and the Dominican Republic and the United States. These will be deployed to major government buildings, hotels and hospitals.

U.N. soldiers and police have been patrolling night and day since the earthquake struck shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday, helping to maintain law and order, as well as assisting with rescue operations.

While the earthquake was felt as far afield as Les Cayes in the southwest and Gonaives to the north, little destruction has been reported in far flung areas of the country. However, in the capital region, destruction is massive and broad, while Haitian services are visibly unable to cope. Staff from the U.N. agencies, funds and programmes and from MINUSTAH’s offices at Hotel Christopher have regrouped at the mission’s logistics base, attached to the Port-au-Prince airport, where they continue to work coordinating and supporting the incoming international relief effort.

If you are looking for information regarding friends or family members in Haiti, please call the U.S. State Department Operations Center at 1-888-407-4747. An Earthquake Haiti group has also been created on Facebook where individuals can post pictures and information regarding loved ones.

If you would like to help, there are numerous organizations that are raising money to help with relief efforts in Haiti. CNN’s “Impact Your World” page has a full listing of national and international organizations that are providing relief aid for Haiti: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

The latest in a series of Lower Merion zoning board hearings discussing the fate of Saint Joseph University’s Maguire Campus has led to little progress in resolving the tensions between the university and the Merion Community Coalition (MCC).

The meeting, held Thursday from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the Lower Merion Township Building, featured cross examinations and rebuttals by St. Joe’s lawyers, most prominently Michael Sklaroff, Esq., and real estate appraiser Maureen Mastroieni. Discussions centered around the potential impact of the proposed facility improvements on Maguire Campus and neighboring homes’ property values.

Sklaroff’s cross examination questioned the validity of the information and methodology behind reports previously presented by Mastroieni, claiming that they did not take into consideration factors which might have affected data concerning home values in neighboring areas. Mastroieni asserted the reliability and relevance of her study, and argued that the impact of the proposed facility changes would be  “devastating” for the property values of neighboring homes on Latches Lane, Berwick Road, and Raynham Road. She estimated in her report that there would be an expected decrease of neighboring property values ranging between 5 and 20 percent.

Approximately 50 individuals were present in the audience, including members of both the MCC and Saint Joseph’s administrators and staff.

The next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 7:00 p.m., during which the MCC will present testimonies from another acoustics expert as well as a planner. St. Joe’s said that it would also provide testimony from a real estate appraiser, as well as testimony concerning the anticipated intensity of use on Maguire Campus.

After all of the decade’s/year’s best countdowns, lists, rankings, and overblown statements about the uniqueness of the 2000’s, 2010 has finally arrived. With global warming, terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and human rights issues still prevalent around the globe, this upcoming decade will surely be filled with as many challenges as the one we’ve left behind. Here’ s a look at how cities throughout the world welcomed 2010.

Berlin:

Times Square:

Sydney:

Las Vegas:

Rotterdam:

God help any St. Joe’s kids abroad this winter break. TSA recently decided they weren’t being ridiculous enough, so they came up with a few more ineffective, inconvenient and downright annoying “security policies”. For those keeping track, we can add:

(1) Only one carry-on bag allowed on-plane. Seeya, fifty bucks we will now have to spend to check baggage that would otherwise have gone on the plane.

(2) Double screening for baggage we do take on — once at security and once as we get on the plane. The second screening is, you know, to prevent bombs we may have magicked into the airport once past security.

And, worst of all, (3). For the last hour of any international flight, no getting up from seats. Nothing on our laps. No accessing carry-on baggage. All to prevent us from hijacking the plane with our books and iPods, you see.  Hope I’m not next to one of the people who will inevitably wet their pants because they can’t get up for the bathroom on my next flight.

For Gulliver’s take (recommended): http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/12/the_latest_on_flight_253

NY Times’ account: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27security.html

Thoughts?

[UPDATE] All that stuff above? Cancelled after a whopping two days. Thanks, TSA. Glad to know all the flailing around with nonsensical policies included a dash of common sense — even if it was a few days late. Maybe now they’ll work on important things, like perhaps a review of the watchlist that allowed Abdulmutallab to get on a plane without being patted down.

It’s that time of year again… The Hawk wants to know how much you plan on spending this year on gifts for others (or yourself).

A pedestrian was hit by a car on the 5200 block of City Avenue on Saturday evening, bringing traffic to a near standstill for the better part of an hour.

An unidentified man was struck by a late model Toyota Camry just outside the 7-Eleven on City Ave. Lower Merion police responded to the incident, and the victim was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with undisclosed injuries. No other injuries were reported.

According to police on the scene, there were no St. Joe’s students involved in the incident. Lower Merion police are still investigating.

-Matthew De George ‘10

Student Body President: Kelly McGlynn

VP for Student Affairs: Lauren Williams

VP for Academics: Lynsey Daniels

VP for Communications: Jordan Biello

VP for Financial Affairs: Mahmoud Mustafa

VP for Mission: Maggie McGannon

Class of 2013:

Caitlin Callaghan, George Tsoflias, Amanda Barbeau, Camille Vitanza, Mary Sisti, Stephen Coyle

Class of 2012:

Brendan Bryant, Steve Dolan, Courtney Kaska, Stephen Astringer, Zachary Curtis, Julie Kosuth

Class of 2011:

Adrianna Exler, Hilary Aztrott, Mark DeAngelis

* For more information about the University Student Senate (U.S.S.), visit http://www.sju.edu/studentlife/clubs/studentsenate/