The Griffin: volume 73, issue 14 - Feb. 7, 2003

              The officers, Sergeant Nate Billings, Mike Murphy, Mike Johnson, Russ Fiorella and James Mazur, were honored for responding to the fire at 42 Glendale and evacuating the residents of the neighboring houses last weekend. "This is the worst fire I have seen in this community in my 21 years of service at the College," Everett said. "I am very proud of the officers for their professional response to this emergency." Billings is a former police officer of Pennsylvania. He moved to Buffalo after marrying a Buffalo Police officer. He was appointed to the position, Billings has covered all three shifts. He was working the midnight IMazur was appointed in 2002 to the department after v serving in the United States 1 Coastguard. He is currently Y in the Reserves, but will be 1 returning to service due to the current situation in Iraq. "Our mission is to protect life Murphy, also appointed in 1998, works patrol during the midnight shift. Prior to becoming a Public Safety officer, he worked security at various Buffalo locations. Fiorella, formerly a police officer in Washington, D.C., started his Canisius College Public Safety department career as a parttime dispatcher. He was then appointed to officer in 2001. shift on the night of the blaze. Johnson, the newest officer, was appointed in September of 2002. He started his career at the College as a part-time dispatcher. He then went to work with the purchasing department and soon after became a Public Safety officer. He recently graduated from Buffalo State. College's department of Public Safety in 1998 and was promoted to sergeant last year. Because of his supervising C.J. BUSCAGLIA Gary Everett, director of Public Safety, honored five officers with the Department of Public Safety Commendation for Bravery for securing students' safety during the fire at 42 Glendale. Student called to duty Seth Vath, a junior and member of the lacrosse team at the College, found out last month that he might be going to war. Vath, 22, has been a member of WWW.GOGRIFFS.COM Seth Vath, a first semester senior and goalie for the men's lacrosse team, may leave to go to war as soon as the end of February. the United States Army Reserves for three and a half years. His platoon, the seventy-seventh engineering company out of Penn Yan, NY, deals with asphalt and concrete in order to build roads. "1 knew I would have to go to war, because it is something that I signed up for," Vath said. "I didn't expect to go during college. But I look at it [war] as another experience 1 can learn from. But it is so much more. It is about defending our country." In the meantime, Vath has had to move out of his off-campus residence, inform all of his teachers and administrators about his situation and contact all of his family members. "After 9/11 we [the platoon] knew. Our commander came down and talked to us. He told us that sooner or later, we were going to go," Vath said. "I could be leaving as soon as the end of February to the end of the semester. Or we could go sometime between." Vath has completed all of the pre-mobilization procedures in the past couple of weekends. The paperwork includes creating a will, power of attorney and signing up for life insurance. Pre-mobilization procedures include getting basic shots and vaccines, a dental screening, fitted for a gas mask and several different levels of paperwork. His platoon recognized the premobilization procedures when they were asked to travel to Canandaigua's Veteran Affairs. See Student on page 2 "We felt and heard the explosion from inside our home, it felt like something had hit our house. We searched outside, thinking maybe a hubcap had flown off a car's tire and hit our house—we didn't think to look up at the sky," Virginia Pruet, Texas resident and Canisius parent said. Reports have come in that Saturday morning at approximately 9:16 a.m., the Columbia space shuttle exploded and fell apart as it reentered Earth's atmosphere after a 16-day mission in space. All of the shuttle's seven crewmembers perished upon reentryonduding the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon (payload specialist) and first Indianborn astronaut, Kalpana Chawla (mission specialist). The other crewmembers were all American born and included Rick Husband (commander), William McCool (pilot), Michael Anderson (payload commander), David Brown (mission specialist) and Laurel Clark (mission specialist). A memorial, led by President George W. Bush was held Wednesday to honor the seven astronauts who perished in Saturday's explosion. residents as far east as California saw the shuttle begin to fall apart as it entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Golden State. A doctor in Texas was able to capture video footage of the spacecraft as it fell apart—this is the same footage being used by news broadcasts across the nation. An explanation for the space shuttle's demise is still unknown although many speculate that the piece of debris (most likely a piece of insulation) that struck the left wing during takeoff, on Jan. 16, is the cause. 1 NASA officials claim that such an occurrence happens I occasionally during take-offs, yet it has never resulted in a problem. Tuesday, officials determined that the flying debris (which would have weighed no more than two and a half pounds) could not have produced a significant amount of damage to the shuttle's tjles to cause Saturday's disaster. Tape of the Jan. 16 take off was reviewed while the Columbia Shuttle disaster rocks nation Wreckage from the explosion has been found in as far away as 28,000 square miles, spanning several states. Thus far, most debris has been found in east Texas where residents heard and felt the explosion, which was 40 miles above the ground. mW M WM Via Rl Canisius Community WWW WW* Canisius College, Buffalo. NY Volume LXXIII, Number 14 Friday. February 7. 2003 Public Safety officers honored By Anne Santa Maria News Reporter See Officers page 3 By Danielle Haynes Editor in Chief By Katie Schlientz News Editor see Shuttle page 2 Five Public Safety officers were awarded the Department of Public Safety Commendation for Bravery by Dr. Ellen Conley, vice president of Student Affairs and Gary Everett, director of Public Safety. C3 BUSCAGl IA FLAGS STAND AT HALF MAST Canisius College lowers the flags to half mast to mourn the seven victims of the shuttle Columbia. www i :nn < :< >m The shuttle Columbia exploded 40 miles over Texas, scattering debris in a 28,000 square mile radius. TODAY'S ©tiffin m i MOM 6 IMAM 8 mm i6 INSIDE Last Sunday, an alleged nonstudent broke several windows on the second floor of the Student Center. See News Editor Amanda Breidenstein's coverage on page 2. Check out page 7, where News Editor Katie Schlientz grovels and begs you to attend a sexual assault program next Monday. Don't become another statistic. Read it and go. Check out the highlights from this week's Contemporary Writer's Series with Viken Berberian on page 8. Also, the photos from the 100 Days Party are sure to make you jealous! In three games last week, the hockey team went 1-2. The Griffs knocked off Bentley, but were defeated by Fairfield and Mercyhurst. See page 13 for more.