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Emily Walker

Welcome to the Crimson 2019 – The voice of the students

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Welcome to Florida Tech, whether it’s your first or your final year here!

We hope you enjoy your stay here, and during your time you’ll pick up a few copies of our paper, The Crimson.

The Crimson is Florida Tech’s student-run newspaper, offering our community the scoop on campus events, local, national and international news, opinion pieces, reviews and more.

We hold the First Amendment in high regard, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

While Florida Tech is a private institution, it has no rules in place censoring the media, meaning we can freely exercise our First Amendment rights.

We take this responsibility very seriously at The Crimson and seek to report the truth accurately and fully.

Being the voice of the students is our number one priority.

This means we want to hear from you.

If you have a story and want it published or need help telling it, let us know.

Not only do we want to report, but we want to share your perspective and help inspire change through our paper.

More than anything, we want you to join us this semester to help get as many voices as possible out to Florida Tech.

Don’t think you’re a good writer?

That’s okay–we have a team of editors who can work with you to make your work shine.

We can also need photographers and students interested in design, creating comics, planning events and managing advertising.

This year, we are working hard to have a great variety of stories.

We want The Crimson to obtain everything from updates on building renovations to reviews on new music to your opinion on the quality of education in your degree program.

Another platform we are going to be focusing heavily on this year is our social media and online presence.

We will be posting daily updates on Facebook and Instagram, with stories, questions, meeting times and a peek into what goes on behind the scenes while we edit.

Additionally, we will use fitforum to send out reminders regarding meeting times and campus events, as well as questionnaires.

Finally, we have a website! You can visit it for all our articles at crimson.fit.edu.

We hope to see you this semester. We meet at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday evenings in Grissom Hall’s basement.

To contact us, please email us at crimson@fit.edu.

Students showcase creativity at Film Festival

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The FITV Student Film Festival showcased the creativity of the local community through film.

This year, the film festival took place at the Gleason Performing Arts Center and lasted a span of two days.

The festival accepted films based on 7 categories, being action, drama, comedy, documentary, meme, horror and sci-fi/fantasy.

Together with the showing of the films, the festival incorporated segments like Film Talk, where they discussed the many aspects of film and its importance.

Other segments included Spotlight, in which winners from last year’s festival were showcased and Trivia, where the audience was questioned on their film knowledge.

The festival ended with the awards.

Each film was judged prior to the showing and their results were revealed at the end of the festival.

The awards were given to the first and second place in each category and also best film of the festival, that being “Waltz of Despondency”, by director Cedieu Gantt-Exavier.

The awards included a trophy, filming equipment and also movie passes for Premiere Oaks, for anyone involved in the making of the films submitted.

  • Ahmed Alnasser receiving an award for his film “Daily Journey”. His film claimed first place for Comedy.
  • Ebube Ubochi receiving an award for his film “Screen Time”. His film claimed first place for Documentary.
  • Alessandro Bonauito, together with his cast, receiving an award for his film “If WW1 was a Bar Fight”. His film claimed first place for Action.
  • Rebecca Wilson, together with her cast, receiving an award for her film “Wherever You Go”. Their film claimed first place for Horror.
  • A member of FITSSFF receiving an award for the film “EU vs USA Zombie Invasion”. Their film claimed first place for Meme.
  • Gabriel Jankowski receiving an award for his film “The Longest Time”. His film claimed first place for Sci-Fi/Fantasy.
  • Best film winner Cedieu Ganntt-Exavier celebrates his win with his mother for “Waltz of Despondency” as best Film Overall and best Drama.

Campus organizations come together for Earth Week

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Surf Club team cleanup
The Surf Club hosts a surf class during their beach cleanup on April 20 for Earth Week. Picture by Emily Walker.

The Student Organization for Sustainability Action hosted Earth Week in collaboration with other organizations at Florida Tech from April 16-23.

Ana Castaneda, a junior in sustainability, has been a part of SOSA for three years and the president of the organization for the past year.

She said this year, she made the decision to host a fall Earth Day in addition to spring’s Earth Week.

“I think it’s very important to create an impact,” Castaneda said. “Let people know we are working toward certain environmental goals, create awareness. I think that’s the main goal of Earth Week or Earth Day.”

Ken Lindeman, the advisor for SOSA, said Earth Week is reminder to stop to think about how to treat the planet better.

“If you wanted to scale up, it’s like Mother’s Day,” Lindeman said. “Once a year, you stop hopefully and celebrate your mother, your father.”

Lindeman said because there is so much both he and SOSA want to accomplish, they have stretched Earth Day into Earth Week.

Additionally, he said sometimes they are asked by other organizations to speak about Florida Tech’s work on Earth Day.

SOSA partnered with groups on campus such as SGA, Squamish, the Surf Club, Flow Arts and the Ethos Garden Club.

They also worked with off-campus groups such as Odyssey Charter School and Brevard Electric Vehicles.

On Saturday, the Surf Club partnered with SOSA to host a beach clean-up and surf class.

Ashley Reitano, the president of the Surf Club, said the club does beach cleanups whenever they can.

“When we bring these three-gallon bags, people might notice how much trash they pick up and fill up these bags even though it seems like there doesn’t look like there’s a lot, and then there ends up being a lot really fast,” said Reitano said.

Jared Nelson, a member of the Surf Club said freshman in planetary science, said community members began to help at Saturday’s event.

“We were out cleaning up trash, and some people were coming up to us, giving us their trash,” Nelson said. “They were saying how this is really important, how the community’s really building and becoming more aware of the garbage that they’re leaving or more aware of the impact they they have on the beaches and stuff.”

Reitano said the goal during Earth Week is to get as many people to participate as possible.

“I think, personally, all of the things that I’ve been involved with for Earth Week have come out of groups and organizations making a big deal about having events that allow everyone to get involved,” Reitano said. “I think it’s important to let everyone to get involved.”

For the Surf Club, they encourage people to participate by teaching people to surf after they clean up the beach.

“It’s an awesome way to combine so that everyone comes out and learns about it and just by spreading that, everyone gets to be more involved and might notice what they do in their everyday lives,” Reitano said.

Earth Week wraps up on April 23. For Lindeman, the theme for the week is raising awareness that will impact people beyond the event.

“The planet isn’t interested in our economies and social dynamics,” Lindeman said. “The planet has been operating for billions of years, and things are changing in many, many realms. Anything we can do to get people to stop for a moment and understand that we take a lot of things for granted seems to be helpful.”

Women’s golf team drops Title IX complaint

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Florida Tech’s women’s golf team will not be filing a Title IX report after speaking with athletic administration.

With the discontinuation of the women’s golf team but not the men’s team, the women’s team considered filing a Title IX complaint, as Title IX has certain standards that require universities to provide men and women with equal athletic opportunities.

However, they found out the number of men’s and women’s teams met Title IX’s standards and decided to drop the case, according to Alexis

Dizinno, a freshman in environmental science and a member of the women’s golf team. Dizinno said the team wasn’t given a reason as to why they were being discontinued and not the men’s team, even after their discussion with athletic administration.

“When we found out that the women’s team was being cut and not the men’s team, we questioned how that was allowed, and we asked around,” Dizinno said. “I think in the end, one of the athletic administration people had told us that that was the case and that it was legal, so we haven’t done anything to file a complaint so far. I don’t think it is possible.”

Chris Saltmarsh, the women’s golf team coach, was emailed and called for comment but did not respond to the request.

According to Daniel Supraner, the director of athletic communications, the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf has left athletics with nine men’s teams and nine women’s teams.

“With Title IX, they want what you’re giving to men’s and women’s teams to reflect the number of the student body,” Supraner said. “Title IX requires that we match that proportionality.”

Bill Jurgens, Florida Tech’s athletic director, said the decision to cancel women’s golf was based on the current and future success of the program.

When making the decision to cut the women’s golf team, Jurgens said they considered who was currently on the team and who would be on it in the future.

“A number of [the current] athletes will be graduating,” Jurgens said. “It will be very difficult to replace them with the ones we have right now.”

Facilities, the present size of the teams and the number of athletes that would be affected were some of the main components considered when deciding what sports to cut, according to Jurgens.

Jurgens said Athletics decided to cut programs because Florida Tech has a larger athletic program than similar sized universities.

“It was an operational decision to try to downsize our athletic programs to be more compatible with the size of the university that we have,” Jurgens said. “That was pretty much something that the university set in place that they felt was important for us to continue to be competitive in our sports program.”

Before the discontinuation of tennis and women’s golf, Florida Tech had 23 varsity teams including the dance team.

In the Sunshine State Conference, seven out of the ten universities have fewer teams.

According to Dizinno, the discontinuation of the women’s golf team came as a surprise to them.

Dizinno said the women’s golf team was called into a meeting with the athletic department a couple of hours before the announcement of their discontinuation was sent out to all of campus.

Prior to the meeting, there had been no warning of discontinuing the team.

“It was super upsetting, especially for me as a freshman,” Dizinno said. “We just recently found out that they’ve been thinking about cutting the team for two years. There are two freshmen and two sophomores on the team who had not been warned about this and had no idea that this was happening, and we just felt neglected and overlooked.”

Dizinno said the athletes on the golf team with scholarships will get to keep their scholarships.

“They stopped giving scholarships two years ago, so this freshman class is the first one without scholarships even though they cancelled them a couple years back,” Dizinno said.

While some team members such as Dizinno are planning to transfer universities due to the team’s discontinuation, the women’s golf team has been told they can play with the men’s golf team.

Professors suspected in Crawford’s hamster infestation

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Recently, students, staff and faculty have noticed an infestation of hamsters in Crawford, cause of which is still under investigation.

While facilities claimed the hamsters were likely coming from the atomic toilet, some students have the suspicion their professors are smuggling them into class.

A hamster peeks out of a professor’s pocket during a lecture. Picture by a traumatized student.

“My professor proudly shows off his hamster,” one student said.

The student added that her professor keeps his hamster in his pocket and feeds it nuts throughout class.

Another student said the hamsters may be there for emotional support.

“Before, my professor seemed so lonely,” she said. “Having a hamster really seems to help him. Whenever we’re doing work and he’s at his desk, his hamster is there for him to pet.”

While many find the furry creatures adorable, some students said they’ve become a distraction.

A graduate student said it wouldn’t be a big deal if professors were better at controlling their hamsters.

“Lots of people have hamsters, and that’s fine,” he said. “But I don’t want them out and about in class. Keep them in their cages.”

It isn’t just students that have a problem with the hamsters. Some professors are bothered by their presence as well.

One professor in communications said the daily sight of her coworkers’ hamsters is upsetting. “It’s disgusting,” she said. “I can’t have a hamster, and to see them flaunting theirs around the school? I’m ready to quit.”

Another professor said seeing the hamsters everyday is a sad reminder that she can’t have one.

“I’ve always liked them,” she said. “I wish I had one, and seeing them every day just reminds me I’ll never have one.”

Facilities is working to get to the bottom of the infestation and stop it from spreading further.

“Our biggest concern is containment, both of the hamsters and professors,” one staff member said. “If it is professors bringing the hamsters in, we have a bigger issue than we thought. Everyone will want to try it. As they say, monkey see, monkey do.”

While there are several courses of action being considered, the staff member said they’re leaning toward shutting down Crawford for several days.

“There are a couple reasons to shut it down,” the staff member said. “We’d like to exterminate any remaining hamsters in the building. But the biggest issue is that most of our professors probably need a break. If they had some time off, they might not feel the need to bring their hamsters onto school property.”

One professor, who wished to remain anonymous, is horrified at the idea of not being able to bring his hamster to class any longer.

“He’s my best friend,” he said. “He’s basically a part of me.”

The professor added that his hamster is like a security blanket, and when he has to spend the entire day without his pet, he feels tense, agitated and unfulfilled in life.

Some of the program chairs in Crawford are also looking into the problem.

They want to keep the building clean while also keeping their professors happy.

They’re considering adding rules about allowing certain pets, as long as professors follow specific protocol for cleaning up after their furry friends.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I do know it’s something a lot of students have complained about,” one program chair said. “No one wants to see a hamster sticking out of their professor’s pocket at eight in the morning.”

Florida Tech Endgame – Thanos targets athletics

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After Thanos acquired the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped away half the population, he decided to endeavor on a new quest: getting rid of Florida Tech’s athletic teams.

The Mad Titan arrived on campus in Februrary.

Thanos walking about on the tennis courts. Photo captured by Bill Jurgens.

The men’s and women’s tennis teams and the women’s golf team have already fallen victim to his scheme.

While Thanos’ exact plans remain unclear, he has revealed that he is working closely with the athletic department to take out certain teams.

He said with help from the inside, soon the department will have just the right number of programs.

“When I’m done, half of athletics will still exist,” Thanos said. “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”

The discontinuation of the tennis and women’s golf teams has taken away the fun for many student athletes, as they worry they’ll be turned into dust next.

For Thanos, this wasn’t a concern when he made the decision to snap them out of existence.

“Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe,” he said. “But this does put a smile on my face.”

A group of athletes who wish to remain anonymous said they tried fending off Thanos.

However, their efforts proved futile.

When athletes began hurling various types of balls and other equipment at him, Thanos reportedly dodged them easily.

One athlete threw a football at his chest, but Thanos simply brushed it off and said, “You should have gone for the head.”

Before leaving the scene of the battle, Thanos told the athletes they were strong but warned them that he could snap his fingers and they’d all cease to exist.

The athletes said they won’t give up fighting, although they plan to begin working with engineering students to create a new weapon. They are calling themselves “The Revengers.”

Bill Jurgens, the athletic director, declined an interview, stating he had “greater goals to accomplish.”

Suspicious jars full of dust have begun to collect in his office.

The last moment of the Florida Tech men’s and track’s teams posing before disappearing from existence. Photo by The Revengers.

Thanos said in his quest to balance the athletic programs, he has received quite a bit of backlash.

However, he said this will not deter him from his quest.

“I know what it’s like to lose,” he said. “To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives. Or should I say, I have.”

While he doesn’t regret his decision to begin removing certain teams in his pursuit of balancing the athletic programs (and the universe), he said of the teams he has sacrificed, “I hope they remember you.”

Students work for a “more inclusive” campus

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A student raised the possibility of creating a LGBTQ+ center at Florida Tech during the student leader luncheon on March 13.

Rodney Bowers, the dean of students, reportedly responded that the campus is small and is already inclusive.

Jacob Chesslo, a junior in physics and the president of Spectrum, Florida Tech’s LGBTQ+ student organization, submitted the question about an LGBTQ+ center for consideration at the student leader luncheon.

Chesslo said other universities have LGBTQ+ centers that offer resources such as safe sex information, hormone therapy information and clothing swaps.

“Basically, an LGBTQ+ center— it’s not only a resource for students who don’t know what they necessarily want or who they are, but it also provides a safe space for students facing challenges, whether they’re transitioning or just getting out of a relationship,” Chesslo said.

While Bowers said there are no current plans for an LGBTQ+ center for Florida Tech, he said the creation of one could be a possibility for the future, depending on funding.

For now, a group of faculty, staff and students meets every two weeks to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, according to Bowers.

“It’s called the gender identity group, and we’re trying to look at things to be a little bit more inclusive,” Bowers said. “For instance, allowing faculty, staff and students to use a preferred name in any internal communication. We’re looking at gender-neutral bathrooms, gender-neutral housing and the use of pronouns and how we can get that going like some schools have. Anything that has been brought up to our attention that doesn’t appear to be inclusive, we try to change.”

Currently, Bowers said they are looking into the possibility of installing a gender-neutral bathroom in Harris Commons.

Gender of bathroom
Florida Tech is looking into creating more gender neutral bathroom. Photo by Emily Walker // Crimson

Gender-neutral bathrooms are an area Evangeline Archer, a senior in aerospace engineering, believes Florida Tech needs to improve on.

“I keep getting told there are a bunch of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, but I’ve only seen two,” Archer, who goes by Evie, said. “The dean said it’s a small campus. If it’s so small, start working. It would benefit everyone if they just demolished the wall in between [two bathrooms] and they became unisex bathrooms.”

Archer has experienced a mix of support and discrimination on campus.

In 2017, her roommates at the time sent an email to the entire school outing her as transgender. “Overnight, I was just outed,” Archer said. “I had calls from friends that next morning that said, ‘Hey, did you check fitforum? There was a nasty email about you.’”

According to Archer, she read the email and took a day to think about what she wanted to say.

When she wrote a response that night, she said she was surprised with students’ reactions.

“That’s when I started seeing actually that a lot of people—even people that I don’t know—were just really supportive,” Archer said.

Archer said students sent her texts and emails in support, some using the hashtag #SupportEvie.

“I thought it was cute and a thing that kind of empowered me to be more myself,” Archer said. “I basically just answered the email, and at the very end, where my signature was automatically put in by Gmail, I crossed it out and put in ‘Evangeline’ instead.”

Chesslo said while he doesn’t know of any hate crimes committed on campus recently, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been discrimination and that those on campus are trying to actively include LGBTQ+ students, staff and faculty.

“There are definitely some areas in which faculty and students could improve,” Chesslo said. “I know that, especially for those who are transgender on campus, there’s no clear, set way to get your given name off of documents and your preferred name onto them. I know that a lot of faculty and staff sometimes don’t know how to approach certain students with that.”

According to Bowers, this is something administrators are currently working on with IT.

Their goal is to allow PAWS users to select a preferred name, which will affect their email addresses, usernames and class rosters.

Caroline-Willow Mctigue, a freshman in electrical engineering, said not having her chosen name used in her email is a source of discomfort for her.

“The email is quite annoying,” Mctigue said. “Every time I type my email in, it kind of has a small blow to have to type in the first letter of my first name.”

Mctigue said if there was an option for students and faculty to put their prefered name in PAWS, it would help a lot.

The gender identity group and its goals are a “work in progress,” according to Bowers.

“None of us are experts in this field, and we’re trying to address issues as we become aware of the issues,” Bowers said. “It’s all based on what we can get done in a reasonable timeframe.”

Students with concerns related to how LGBTQ+ issues are handled on campus can contact Bowers at rbowers@ fit.edu.

According to Bowers, he will bring up students’ concerns to the gender identity group.

Captain Marvel Review – A great way to spend International Women’s Day

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Official movie poster by Marvel.

Captain Marvel delivered action, humor and heartfelt storytelling that can be enjoyed by hardcore Marvel fans, as well as people new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Something Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel’s directors and screenwriters, achieved better than previous Marvel creators was the balance between humor and seriousness.

While this certainly wasn’t the most serious Marvel movie ever created, it also wasn’t as lighthearted as movies such as Ant-Man or Thor: Ragnarok.

The balance of tension and humor made it a funny and emotional watch without it feeling too heavy.

Additionally, the events in Captain Marvel tied in perfectly with last spring’s blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War, filling in some of the gaps and setting things up for the next Avengers movie.

However, it never felt like the movie was made just to explain Infinity War or the upcoming movie, Avengers: Endgame; it could stand on its own as a great movie.

As the movie was set in 1995, directors brought in a mix of new and old characters.

Brie Larson played Carol Danvers, otherwise known throughout the film as Vers and Captain Marvel.

As both a no-nonsense and quick-witted character, Larson’s character was a refreshing take on superheros and was more balanced than others have been in the past.

Her training taught her to be tough and efficient during fights, but her sarcastic personality came through in everyday situations.

While Larson’s character was definitely the central focus, the supporting characters were dynamic and added both humor and emotion.

Samuel L. Jackson reprised his role as a Shield Agent, Nick Fury.

There was a younger, dorky quality to his character that made him more relatable than in previous movies and broke the tension in serious moments.

His relationship with Goose, a cat that joins him and Danvers for most of the movie, was unexpected and hilarious.

Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), Danvers’ best friend from the Air Force, added emotional interest to Danvers’ backstory and stood on her own as a dynamic character.

The bond she shared with Danvers was strong and connected the viewer to her immediately.

Additionally, Rambeau’s relationship with her daughter was sweet and help round out her character.

A character with an interesting arc was Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), the leader of a group of aliens called Skrulls who invaded Earth.

His character development was unexpected and a refreshing twist on typical villains. Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) was a tough mentor for Danvers.

While his character arc wasn’t particularly original, it fit the story well and led to an exciting conclusion.

The music throughout the film added to the story.

The score, composed by Pinar Toprak, helped add tension and emotion without becoming a distraction.

Additionally, the use of songs from the 90’s helped make the movie feel more realistic and added a fun element to certain scenes.

The visuals were fairly good.

Most of the movie takes place on Earth, although a portion of it takes place in outer space and on another planet.

There weren’t any moments where the CGI was glaringly obvious, though if you paid attention, you might have noticed it a few times.

The costuming for the Skrulls could have been slightly more well-polished; there were several times when the costume was distracting when it should have fitted seamlessly with the character.

Overall, Captain Marvel was a fresh spin on typical Marvel tropes and created a great original movie with the MCU’s first female lead.

New Gleason policy “aims for fairness” across campus

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A year ago, Florida Tech implemented a policy that requires all groups on campus to pay for use of the Gleason Performing Arts Center auditorium.

According to Jeffrey Richardson, the assistant manager of Gleason, the payment is used to compensate workers.

“It isn’t a charge for the building,” Richardson said. “It’s a charge for our student workers, or our workers in general, to be present to take care of the equipment and to take care of the building for whatever that may need.”

During regular Gleason operating hours, Richardson said the use of the auditorium is free.

After hours, those using the auditorium are required to pay $20 per worker per hour.

William O’Steen, the manager of Gleason, said the cost is dependent on how many workers are needed for an event.

Some events will cost groups far less than others.

For example, an event where one person is giving a speech takes fewer workers than a concert.

“Depending on the event is how many support staff we’ll have in the building at the time, which will fluctuate the cost,” O’Steen said.

Both O’Steen and Richardson began working at Gleason a little more than six months ago.

William “Billy” O’Steen and Jeffery Richardson are the managers of the Gleason Performing Arts Center. Photo by Emily Walker.

The policy was implemented about six months prior to their arrival, Richardson said.

However, he said at a student-leader luncheon soon after he began working at Gleason, President McKay brought up the policy.

“The president himself stood up and said, ‘This is how it is, period,’” Richardson said.

As time has passed since the policy was put into place, Richardson said he has noticed a misconception surrounding it during his time at Gleason.

“There’s a lot of kind of gray area where people talk behind people’s backs and say, ‘Oh, we have to rent the Gleason now,’” Richardson said. “And that’s kind of a weird misnomer that isn’t true. It’s not renting the building, it’s just paying for the students’ time after hours.”

While off-campus groups or companies requesting the use of the Gleason auditorium are required to rent it, Richardson said all groups on campus simply pay for the workers’ time.

One group that uses Gleason on a regular basis is College Players, Florida Tech’s student-run performing arts group.

According to Richardson, they use Gleason multiple nights a week and are Gleason’s number-one patron.

Harris Halabi, a junior in civil engineering, was the treasurer for College Players last year.

He is still a member of the organization, as well as an audio-visual technician at Gleason.

According to Halabi, College Players heard about the policy through the Conference Services Bureau.

“We heard about it pretty quickly because we had spaced lined up, and then we got some emails about it,” Halabi said.

According to Halabi, the Conference Services Bureau told College Players they had to pay for Gleason technicians when they held events, and the technicians could not be members of College Players.

These rules, according to Halabi, are not specific to College Players.

All organizations must pay for technicians to be present during events, and the technicians working cannot be a part of the organization using the auditorium.

However, Richardson said College Players has adapted to the policy change well.

Additionally, the Gleason team has worked with them to make the change as smooth as possible.

“They were very understanding of the policy once it was explained to them what the policy was,” Richardson said. “One of the things that is so nice about College Players is they’re very self-managed, so we don’t need to support their events very much other than having a student representative here in case there are any issues.”

According to O’Steen, people have been concerned about how the policy affects College Players, but he said it aims to be fairer to every group on campus than past policies.

“It wasn’t anything against College Players,” O’Steen said. “From what we were told, we were charging every group on campus to use our space as far as support tech goes, and it just became an issue of other groups not understanding why not all groups were paying.”

As College Players has worked with the changes, Halabi said it has been a learning curve.

“It’s been tricky, but we’ve made it work,” Halabi said. “I think personally there might be more work to be done, but that’s no longer up to me.”

Shelley Mitchell, the president of College Players, declined for an interview.

She stated in an email, “We have been working with this situation for a year now and have moved past any difficulties that came with it.”

College Players isn’t the only group Gleason works with.

O’Steen said he and the other staff members at Gleason work with every group to keep costs to a minimum.

“We cut costs as much as we can,” O’Steen said. “We have an event tonight—it’s a lacrosse documentary viewing. We’re doing all our setup while we’re all still in the building on the clock so they don’t have to pay for setup later. It cuts their costs down.”

While a lot of work is done during the time a group is using the auditorium, prep is done before a group arrives, and cleanup is done after they leave.

O’Steen said the staff at Gleason does what they can to get that work done during regular operating hours to help keep costs low for groups using the auditorium.

He said their main concern is working in a way that is beneficial to clubs with limited resources and helping make events great.

Halabi said despite the challenges College Players have faced, Richardson and O’Steen have worked with them to make the process less difficult.

“They have been super supportive in not just supporting College Players, but also all organizations and all events,” Halabi said. “They really want to make Gleason a central hub on campus, which is pretty great.”