Articles written by Mallory Boykin

Two freshmen killed in separate auto accidents two days apart

wpolley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:56:06 -0400

Andrew Thurmond, left, and Hunter Keel, right: are both remembered as friendly people. Contributed

The Auburn student body was shaken by the deaths of two students this past week.

Andrew Jackson Thurmond IV, 18 years old, and Hunter Lane Keel, 19 years old, both died in car accidents.

Authorities believe alcohol was involved in both accidents.

Thurmond was killed Wednesday night in a car driven by Scott Leighton, another Auburn student.

Both Thurmond and Leighton are new members of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

Lt. Steven Woods with the Auburn Police said the accident occurred near mile marker 216 on Alabama Highway 14 at around 10 p.m.

According to the OA News, Leighton hit two vehicles after losing control of his 1998 Corvette because he ran off the road while traveling at a high speed.

Woods said he could not comment on the cause of the accident because it is still under investigation.

Bicycle safety important for both cyclists and drivers

wpolley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:46:15 -0400

Both sophomores in building science: Rush Thrift, left, and Bradley Meadows, right, ride their bikes to campus every day. Morgan Thacker / ASSOCIATE PHOTO

Bicyclists ride a thin line between vehicles and pedestrians when it comes to ways of the road.

The danger of not paying attention to traffic rules was emphasized after last week’s Tiger Transit accident, which occurred when a driver swerved to miss a cyclist.

Lindy Biggs, director of the sustainability initiative, said bicycles are kind of a hybrid between cars and pedestrians.

“If you are on the sidewalk, you have to behave like a pedestrian,” Biggs said. “When you are on the road, you should be treated like a vehicle, and cars should acknowledge you.”

While Biggs said bikes are a mix of both, Jeff Ramsey, public works director and city engineer for the city of Auburn, said he thinks cyclists should follow the same rules as a motor vehicle and ride in the road.

Auburn names new assistant VP for facilities

wpolley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:26:49 -0400

The search for the assistant vice president for facilities is over.

Dan King has been named to take on the position starting Dec. 8.

“This is a great opportunity; my wife and I enjoyed seeing the community,” King said in a statement to Deedie Dowdle, executive director of communications and marketing. “I really look forward to being part of the Auburn family and can’t wait to get started.”

Executive Vice President of Auburn University Don Large was head of the search committee.

“Dan King brings a tremendous amount of expertise, leading complex facilities management operations and teams to this position,” Large said in a statement to Dowdle. “He also brings a great deal of enthusiasm, and we’re happy to welcome him to the University and the community.”

The assistant vice president for facilities will handle the responsibilities of John Mouton’s former position, senior adviser to the president for facilities.

The administrative position was filled after a nation-wide search was conducted.

Parking scarce, students cut class

wpolley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:22:28 -0400

Students search for places to park: Fridays before a home game. Morgan Thacker / ASSOCIATE PHOTO

As football season continues and parking spots are hard to come by Friday afternoons before a home game, some students have given up on trying to come to class once the weekend rolls around.

Brennan Wade, an SGA senator on the Student Interest Committee met with David George, director of parking and transit services, Friday to discuss the issue.

She said the main concern she has heard from students is about not being able to get to class, not necessarily from students who live in The Quad or The Hill.

“I don’t think we’ve necessarily heard complaints, I think we’ve just heard that people couldn’t get to class,” Wade said. “There was either people wouldn’t even try to come because they couldn’t find a parking spot, or they would try to come and then they couldn’t even make it to class because they couldn’t find one.”

Wade said the meeting with George went well.

AU Alert improves

wpolley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:21:03 -0400

AU Alert gets upgraded to enhance the ways students, faculty and staff are texted, e-mailed or voicemailed emergency messages.

Some of the improvements made to the messaging system include a shorter delay between sending and receiving the messages on students’ phones, the ability to prioritize phone numbers and input information directly into the system.

“We will have a better opportunity to provide more efficient and effective messaging to the Auburn University community with these new enhancements,” said Major Melvin Owens, executive director of public safety and security.

Susan McCallister, associate director of public safety information and education, said one of the problems in the past was the number of alerts being sent overloaded the system, because before one message was sent, they would start sending another.

For example, the tornado warnings were coming so fast, before they finished sending one message, they would send another about the time the warning would expire.

Updated: Auburn Student Killed in Automobile Accident

wpolley — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:37 -0400

Andrew Jackson Thurmond IV, an 18-year-old Auburn University student died in a car accident Wednesday night.

Thurmond was a passenger in the car driven by Scott Leighton, another student. Both are new members of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

Lt. Steven Woods with the Auburn Police said the accident occurred near mile marker 216 on Alabama Highway 14 at around 10 p.m.

According to the OA News, Leighton hit two vehicles after losing control of the one he was driving due to running off the road while traveling at a high speed.

Woods said he could not comment on the cause of the accident because it is still under investigation.

Also, according to the OA News, one of the vehicles was on fire when the Auburn firefighters came to the accident.

Woods said the passenger in vehicle two is in their 30s and vehicle three was carrying three passengers in their mid-20s to mid-30s and a juvenile.

Leighton was taken to East Alabama Medical Center, the driver of vehicle two was taken to Columbus Regional Medical Center and the driver and a passenger of vehicle three were taken to EAMC.

Senior adviser to president appointment ends

wpolley — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:18:09 -0400

After being senior adviser to the University’s president for the past three and a half years, John Mouton is now the Wilbur Chair Professor for Building Science.

The responsibilities of the senior adviser will be handed over to the assistant vice president for facilities.

Mouton said when his contract expired in June, he wanted to go back to the faculty and do his research.

“I came to work for Dr. Richardson about three and a half years ago, and I intended to go back to the faculty all along,” Mouton said.

Before being appointed by University President Ed Richardson to senior adviser in 2004-2005, Mouton was appointed by University President William Muse in 1996 to the Wilbur Endowed Chair in Building Sciences.

Now back as the Wilbur Chair Professor, he is teaching and working with other faculty on their projects.

“I’m developing some specialized graduate studies, and we’ll be the only place in the country that has them,” Mouton said.

Survivor runs race on behalf of nurses, doctors

wpolley — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:58:00 -0400

As a young college student, Casey Fullilove Palmer, was looking forward to graduation and a spring wedding when her world was turned upside down with one word — cancer.

Now in remission, Palmer had a fundraiser Wednesday night at Chick-fil-A to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Money from the event goes toward the Nike Women’s Marathon Palmer and her mother are participating in, which is for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Palmer said the marathon is her way of thanking the doctors and nurses that helped her through her chemotherapy treatments.

She said she was inspired to participate in the race because of an Auburn cheerleader who had Hodgkins and ran in the race.

She found out about her through friends, and that was how she repaid everyone who helped.

“Her spirit in it helped me decide that that is how we wanted to pay everybody back,” Palmer said.

Palmer, who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, said her doctors thought she had anxiety because the symptoms are itching, chest and back pain and night sweats.

Dogs, owners bond while walking to fight against rabies

wpolley — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:45:00 -0400

Pets will have the chance to strut their stuff Saturday.

The College of Veterinary Medicine is having its student chapter of the American Veterinary Medicine Association Mutt Strut 2008.

Jessica Sherrill, a sophomore veterinary graduate student, said while the University had Mutt Strut last year with Tuskegee University, this year they are putting on the event by themselves.

“Every year they have a symposium at a different vet school and it just so happened that last year we got to hold it,” Sherrill said. “Since I believe we are the only state with two vet schools, Tuskegee and Auburn teamed up together to hold it.”

Sherrill said the event is held to promote World Rabies Day, which is Sept. 28, and animal health in the Auburn and Lee County community.

“It’s a good way to get out with your dog to let them socialize and also to commemorate a special worldwide day where we are trying to emphasize world rabies prevention, basically,” Sherrill said.

Alyson Adams, a sophomore veterinary medicine graduate student, said participants can either walk, jog or run the Mutt Strut.

Gogue plans for upcoming year at AU

wpolley — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:17:32 -0400

Auburn University President Jay Gogue: said this year he hopes to accomplish more goals on the strategic plan. Rod Guajardo / ASSISTANT PHOTO

Auburn University’s future looks bright for the coming year.

President Jay Gogue said he aims to cross more items off the strategic plan.

“Last year we spent a lot of time trying to get some key points in the strategic plan that are important,” Gogue said. “This year is much more of an implementation, how do we get these things that we’ve listed, how do we get them done.”

Gogue said parts of the plan have been designated to different groups to implement them. The Cabinet receives monthly updates, according to him, on where we are with the strategic plan, and the Board of Trustees is updated twice a year — one update is coming up in November.

One of those items is the goal of discovering additional revenue streams for the University.

“If you look at the way a university is funded, right now there are five revenue streams that most public universities try to run their university on,” Gogue said.

He said the University receives money from the state, tuition, research money, donations and auxiliaries.

“Auxiliaries are bookstores, residence halls, food services, those kind of things,” Gogue said. “What universities do and the way you play games, if you will, is we can hold your tuition low, but charge you a lot more for residence halls. Some schools do that, and they use that as revenue streams.”