Ballantine Hall chair to be decided

Members of the Ballantine Hall Committee are meeting today to elect a new chairman after former chairman Emanuel J. Mickel resigned from his position after a decade's worth of work.\nBut the question of whom to appoint has been a cause for concern for some members.\nFirst year Campus Writing Program staff member Anita Schaad said that although faculty members have held the job in past years, staff members should be just applicable for the job.\n"I think some of the professional staff wants a faculty member to hold the position," she said. "But the other members just want someone that can get the job done."\nThe new chairperson will handle communication between the building and other groups and organizations, as well as all administrative duties, such as setting up convenient dates for meetings. In past years, the administrative duties were handled by the faculty council office.\nProfessor of American Studies Nancy May-Scott said she's happy with what past faculty chairpersons have done. \n"This place used to be a pit," she said. "It took us 30 years to paint it, and we've made several other improvements."\nMay-Scott said she doesn't want to compromise all that hard work just to get a staff person elected.\nMembers of the committee said even though differing opinions exist about who to elect as chairperson, the group seems to be working just fine. They said they feel that biased opinions need to be put aside before anyone makes any progress.\n"I don't feel that there is any tension between the faculty and staff," current committee member Isabel Piedmont said. "We just have to find a chairperson."\nAlthough Scott complemented the work of past chairpersons, she said that the new leader along with the committee have several issues to discuss.\n"What's not enforced is the trash," she said. "Like the IDS for example, people read those and just leave them in the hallway. This gets to be a real issue."\nSchaad agreed with Scott about the trash problem, and said she feels the policy on the closed faculty and staff lounge should be changed.\n"In past years this has been open to everyone, and this seemed to work," she said. "But now it's closed to students, and I don't agree with that."\nMickel said in a previous IDS article he decided to close the ground floor lounge in September 2002 because of crowding issues. He said students were taking up too much sitting room, so he wanted to be sure the faculty and staff of Ballantine had enough space for themselves.\nToday's committee meeting is not open to the public.\n-- Contact staff writer Jess Huffman at jerhuffm@indiana.edu.