Volume 93 • Issue 5
fRAMily Foliage
October 18, 2024
FSUgatepost.com
Emma Lyons / THE GATEPOST
May Hall at sunset on Oct. 17.
$65,000 spent on Larned switchgear repair By Dylan Pichnarcik News Editor A new switchgear in Larned Hall has been installed after three weeks of the building running on generated power. The installation cost was $65,000, according to Robert Totino, vice president of Finance, Technology and Administration. Totino said Larned stopped running on generated power on Sunday, Oct. 13 after a replacement switchgear was installed by ABB - ESSCO. On Saturday, Sept. 21, a switchgear failure in Larned Hall caused a power outage to the upper campus for up to 19 hours. The upper campus is considered to be all buildings on the east-
ern side of State Street. This includes Larned, Corinne Hall Towers, Peirce, and Horace Mann residence halls, as well as the academic and administrative buildings. On Sept. 27, ABB attempted to repair Larned’s switchgear, but they were unable to do so. On Sunday, Oct. 13, the upper campus power grid was brought down from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. so the installation of a new switchgear could be completed by ABB with the assistance of the Office of Facilities, according to Director Dan Giard. Giard said ABB sourced a replacement switchgear from another electrical contractor. Totino said, “I believe that was
roughly $65,000 cost for the work that was done solely on Sunday.” He said that amount includes labor as well as the equipment. In addition to the cost of the repairs on Sunday, Giard said approximately $1,000 a day was spent on fuel for the generator in Larned, which will total between $20,000 and $30,000. “It’s closer to $100,000 to put a price tag on that whole job,” Giard said. Larned ran on generated power from Sept. 21 to Oct. 13 for a total of 22 days. According to Giard, the money to complete the project will come from the Facilities Department’s annual budget. “I’m sure we’re going to be over budget this year,” he said.
News SGA pg. 3 AWARD pg. 5
Opinions EMBARRASSMENT pg. 6 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE pg. 7
Sports
See SWITCHGEAR Page 4
Panel discussion gives context for U.S. polarization By Raena Hunter Doty Arts & Features Editor The Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) hosted a two-part Diversity Dialogues series about voting. The first event, titled “The Global Pulse of Democracy: U.S. and International Insights,” took place in the CIE Oct. 10. The panel discussion hosted two FSU professors - Giuliano Espino, professor of political science, and Jonathan Martin, professor of sociology - and David Smailes, former professor of political science. Each talked about issues within democracy and voting. Jerome Burke, CIE director, said the
event was a “unique opportunity to gain insight into the state of our governance from a global perspective and to understand the key forces shaping the future.” Espino started his segment of the event by saying that there may be differences in how people understand democracy, “but one thing that is inherent in democracy is some form of compromise at the end of the day. “There is going to be debate and discussion between different and competing world views, but for a democratic society to function, there has to be some baseline level of understanding that allows for this compromise,” he added.
Izabela Gage / THE GATEPOST WOMEN’S SOCCER pg. 10 He said one potential threat to democracy is high levels of polarization, VOLLEYBALL pg. 12 where people tend to strongly agree with one side of the political spectrum and disagree with the other end. This creates a situation where not much compromise is possible. “The more polarized a society gets, the less a democracy can function. If government becomes about winning, if government becomes about giving your team as many ‘W’s’ as you possibly can because you don’t want to help the other side … democracy becomes very difficult,” Espino said. Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST
Arts & Features
TASTE OF CULTURE pg. 13 See POLARIZATION Page 14 GENERATIVE AI pg. 15
INSIDE: OP/ED 6 • SPORTS 9 • ARTS & FEATURES 13