The Samford Crimson
- Serving Samford University Since 1915 -
Volume 104, Issue 4
Brooks Hall:
facilities
addresses
'sewage smell'
DANIEL DODSON
Managing Editor
Brooks Hall has been facing an
array of issues affecting campus
life. Students and faculty last week
reported a sewage smell filling
the stairwells of the building.
According to Director of
Facilities Management Mark
Fuller, a service call last week
prompted an investigation
into seeing what the smell was.
"Upon further investigation we
found that the main sanitary sewer
line just outside on the south side
of the btulding was backed up in the
manhole," Fuller said. 'The cause
of the backup was tree roots and a
misaligned joint in the sewer line."
Fullersaidthatthelineiscurrently
flowing correctly but more work
will have to be done in the future.
The budding has been through
minor renovations in the past,
as some classrooms have been
modernized whilst some old
outdated rooms stdl exist.
It was reported last week that
classes were having to move
from a classroom in Brooks due
to extremely high temperatures.
"I think we can all agree that the
summer weather was much hotter
and lingered longer than most in
the past, " Fuder said. "Due to this
fact the number of cads our HVAC
department received increased
dramatically more so than usual at
the beginning of the semester and
has continued to tax our personnel
and our aging equipment."
According to Fuller, the decision
was made to temporarily change
classrooms due to the extended
time it would take to fix the space.
"Currently, all spaces are
operating normally," Fuder said.
Facditi.es management
responded to nearly 20,000
work orders last academic year.
"Some issues take a more
thorough investigation taking,
in some instances, and an
extended period of time and
unfortunately a disruption
to the routines of students,
faculty, and staff,” Fuller said.
Although facilities seems
confident that all spaces are
functioning properly, students and
faculty reported this week the same
classroom once again emitting
high temperatures. For now,
students anxiously await for the
cool temperatures of fad to arrive.
INDEX
Sports 3
Features 6
Opinions 7
October 4, 2018
thesamfordcrimson.com
Burglaries close to home: Samford house affected
DANIEL DODSON
Managing Editor
A recent series of burglaries
in Homewood reached a
Samford- owned house last week.
"The Homewood Police Department
has informed us that several burglaries
have occurred over the last month near
the north side of campus, including
Windsor Drive, " an email to the campus
from Executive Director of University
Marketing and Communication Katie
Stripling said. "The homes were all
unoccupied at the timeofthe burglaries,
but items were stolen from the homes. "
In this situation, the house is
owned by Samford and houses staff
members. Laptops and other items
were taken from the residence.
"It appears to be an on¬
going event," Samford Chief
of Police Wayne Pittman said.
According to Pittman, Homewood
Police have been investigating several
burglaries in that same neighborhood.
This was the first case in the series
where a Samford property was affected.
The university was informed
of the crime as part of the Clery
Act timely warning protocol. The
Clery Act, which was established
in 1990, is a federal statute that
requires schools to report certain
crimes and disclose crime statistics.
According to Pittman, the Clery
Act geography reaches a radius of
about one mile from campus. In the
case that an event is serious and
could have an effect on Samford,
public safety or the office of university
communication will notify the campus.
Samford has witnessed an uptick in
burglaries over the past year. In March,
a man was arrested for burglarizing
vehicles on campus during the day.
It was reported that he
returned to campus
municipalities across
the state and stole
from cam until he was
eventually caught
by public safety.
Last week, the
university released
the official 2017
security report. A
drastic increase in
burglaries on campus
property is shown
in the report. In
2016, there were a
total of five reported
burglaries on the
main campus. Four
of those occurring on
j ust campus property,
and one occurring
in a residence. In
2017, a total of 33
burglaries on campus
continually property were reported to public safety,
and other Data for 2018 was not readily available.
40
30
20
10
0
Reported
Burglaries
2014 2015 2016 2017
Dala Iron Sanford Annual 5ecunty Reooa
Former professor shares personal ties to immigration
WILLIAM MARLOW
News Editor
As part of Samford’s Hispanic Heri¬
tage month celebrations, Carlos Ale¬
man, the deputy director at the Hispan¬
ic Interest Coalition of Alabama, spoke
at Samford University on Sept. 27.
Spanish Heritage Month spans from
Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and celebrates Latin
American and Spanish heritage and
culture.
At the event, Aleman discussed the
U.S.’s ongoing immigration debate.
Immigration matters to Aleman both
professionally and personally.
Professionally, Aleman is a immigra¬
tion historian. He studies Latino mi¬
gration trends and patterns in the U.S.
south and midwest as well as in Latin
America
Aleman is also a Nicaraguan immi¬
grant. He was bom in Nicaragua, but
had to leave due to war and poverty in
the 1980s. His family fled to San Fran¬
cisco.
Too often, Aleman said people paint
incoming immigrants as criminals.
'These characterizations don’t de¬
scribe the overwhelming majority of
immigrants who are trying to improve
themselves and their communities," he
said.
According to Aleman, most immi¬
grants just want a better life for them¬
selves and their children such as Ale¬
man's parents.
Although Aleman's family hoped for
a better life in the U.S., they still strug¬
gled. Aleman's mother arrived in the
U.S. unable to speak English and had to
raise him and his brother alone.
'To many this sounds like a broken
family, but for me it was just family,"
he said.
Despite these hardships, Aleman
merged into American society. As he
grew, Aleman developed both a Latino
and American identify. He listen to sal¬
sa and hip-hop music, and ate rice and
beans as well as burgers.
"I consider myself as much Latino as
I do American. To me ... these things
are not mutually exclusive," he said.
"This is a nation of immigrants built by
families."
For a time, Aleman and his family
were undocumented immigrants but
then became legal permanent resi¬
dents. Today, they are all U.S. citizens.
Rather than entering the U.S. ille¬
gally, many argue immigrants should
apply for citizenship. However, Aleman
argues the government has now made
the citizenship process harder.
"What we don't talk about is the
fact . . . our government has taken away
paths to citizenship. The right way to
do things has been narrowed," he said.
In April, Attorney General Jeff Ses¬
sions created another controversial
immigration law, the zero-tolerance
policy. It instructed the government to
prosecute all adult migrants entering
the U.S. illegally. This policy required
immigrant children be separated from
their parents.
Immigration speaker contin¬
ued on page 2
