Volume 72, Issue 1 www.themclabeacon.com Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fight breaks out near campusBy Andrew Roiter

Managing Editor The area known around campus as the firepit has had a history of violence and early Sunday morn-ing police responded to yet an-other incident. According to North Adams po-lice a 22-year-old MCLA student was leaving a party at the firepit when he came across of a pair of unknown suspects in a physi-cal altercation about halfway up Bradley Street. When the student, whose name police withheld, at-tempted to break up the fight one of the combatants turned and de-livered a punch to the student’s face. North Adams Police Director Mi-chael Cozzaglio said, “What we’re trying to find out is that if it was two MCLA students [fighting] or North Adams residents or what.” The victim told police that he did not know either suspect, but that after he was assaulted one or both parties entered a car and sped down Bradley Street towards the College. The victim also declined medical attention.

Following the incident on Bradley Street, officers arrived to break up the party at the firepit. No arrests were made. “I believe this is an isolated inci-dent where alcohol was involved, late at night, where nobody should’ve been,” Cozzaglio said. He added that the firepit is tech-nically on private property. The owner of the property has made it clear to the NAPD that when people are on the property the are trespassing. As of Tuesday, the police were still looking for suspects and witnesses to the incident.

U-Status for MCLABy Ed Damon

Senior News Editor

Under new Massachusetts legislation, nine of the state-run colleges now have university status. The Massachusetts Col-lege of Liberal Arts is one of these schools, but will not be changing its name.

The bill signing, which took place at the State House on July 28, was attended by of-ficials from all nine of the state schools.

The new bill will go into effect Oct. 26. Six of the state colleges will change their names to reflect their university status. These schools will become Bridgewater State University, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, Salem State University, Westfield State University, and Worcester State University.

Three of them, however, will not be changing their name, in order to reflect their specialty school status. These schools are Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The name change brings Massachusetts in alignment with the majority of the country, since 45 states have university systems in place.

The formation of a state university system has been in the works for years, with the presidents of state run colleges believing that the status change will help students

when applying to jobs.Though six colleges are now universities

by name, they are separate from the pre-ex-isting University of Massachusetts system. The nine colleges in the new university system will only be able to offer doctorate degrees through the UMass system. UMass also has a separate operating budget set by the state.

The Department of Higher Education said that the name change will not cost the schools or state any extra money. Signage and stationary will be replaced on an as-needed basis, rather than all at once. The schools’ websites have been changed to re-flect the impending name change, however.

Senior Michelle Webb is one student hap-py about MCLA having university status.

“I think that when we need to apply to jobs, it will look better,” she said. “A lot of people put importance on universities.”

Junior Jared Swanson, however, is not so sure.

“I’m not sure if it’s a big advantage,” he said. “We’re still a state university. I’m not sure how it will fair compared to a private university.”

President Mary Grant says that this gives the College a renewed chance to talk about its mission, which places more importance on liberal arts than other

WJJW streamsBy Chris Goodell

Staff Writer

WJJW is still looking for more DJs this semester as part of their efforts to make ra-dio more popular amongst students.

“Over the years, there was an overall de-cline in interest,” English/Communicaions professor and WJJW adviser Jim Niedbal-ski said. “We’re trying to turn that around in a big way.”

In order to make radio programs more

accessible to students around campus, WJJW will be streaming over the internet for the first time this year. However, while the technology is already in place, WJJW’s financial situation could delay their ability to stream.

According to Niedbalski, streaming over the internet requires an outside server, which costs approximately $600 per calen-dar year.

“Financially, it would make the most sense not to start [streaming]

Cara Sheedy/Beacon StaffWJJW DJ Jeff Bliss grabs the mic.

Student discovers fight between two suspects on Bradley Street

U-Status continued on page 12

WJJW continued on page 12

Cara Sheedy/Beacon StaffThe corner of Bradley Street and Church Street.

Inside This Issue

$700 fee increase

(where’d the money go?)

pg.3

Downstreet Art opens

pg.8

Billy Shannon feature

pg.11

Volleyball preview

pg.16

“The firepit is techni-cally on private prop-erty. The owner of said property has made it clear to the NAPD that he or she does not want people there and that they are trespass-ing.”-Michael Cozzaglio