*NEARLY $3,000 IN EQUIPMENT MISSING FROM MAROON OFFICE
Nearly $3,000 worth of photography equipment disappeared from The Maroon office Tuesday evening.
Photojournalism junior and Maroon photo editor Ann Hermes reported Wednesday morning that her personal digital camera and a digital camera owned by The Maroon apparently had been taken from her desk the previous night, along with USB cables used to link the cameras to a computer and a zoom lens.
The memory cards to both cameras had disappeared earlier in the week, prompting Hermes to take some extra caution with the equipment.
“I left the office around quarter till 5, and then Katie [Ide] called my cell phone to tell me she was leaving,” Hermes said. “I asked her to put the cameras in my desk.”
But Ide, a print journalism junior and Maroon chief copy editor, said she only found two of four cameras on Hermes’ desk when she left around 6 p.m.
“I didn’t see anybody take them,” Ide said. “It’s like they got up and walked off by themselves.”
Hermes’ personal camera, a Nikon D-100 with a zoom lens, is worth $2,000. A Nikon Cool-Pix owned by The Maroon cost more than $600.
Hermes said it appears that someone knowledgeable in digital photography stole the equipment, because they knew which USB cords to take.
“I guess I just didn’t expect that somebody would take [the cameras] from the office,” Hermes said. “I thought people would realize how valuable they are to me.”
Hermes reported the missing items to University Police, who say they’re investigating the case.
*NATIVE ARGENTINE PARAKEEETS SPOTTED IN THE PALM COURT
Monk parakeets, a species of bird native to Argentina, have been spotted nesting in the palm trees that circle the Palm Court.
Robert Thomas, director of the Loyola Center for Environmental Communications, said that the birds were brought into the United States many years ago as pets.
Then some of the monk parakeets were released into the wild and have thrived because the climates in New Orleans and Argentina are so similar. They also nest near another South American species, the rose-winged parakeet.
“They’re bright green and about 18 inches long,” Thomas advised any potential bird-watchers. “They look a lot like parrots.”
*STUDENT OPERA PRODUCTION DRAWS TWO SELL-OUT CROWDS
The Loyola Opera Theater staged its production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” in front of sell-out crowds this weekend.
Both of the performances in Roussel Hall, on Jan. 23 and 25, saw the auditorium filled to maximum capacity.
According to music education senior and cast member Brandy Hawkins, most of the audience was made up of locals.
“It was very exciting to see all of the work for the past few semesters pay off in front of a sold-out audience,” Hawkins said.
The cast and crew started work on the production in September. It has been called Mozart’s best opera, written just before the composer died in 1791.
Originally written and performed in German, Loyola’s production was translated into English, so that the audience and cast members could more fully understand the meaning of the words.
Stage director David Morelock and conductor Carol Raush oversaw the student cast, who they say were treated just like professionals
“You have to bring them up to another level,” Morelock said.
*PAY PHONES TO BE INSTALLED IN DANNA CENTER BY NEXT WEEK
Throughout campus the only thing left to remind people where the pay phones used to be are a bunch of wires.
Around some of the pay phones are notices stating that new phones will be installed sometime in February.
Loyola’s former pay phone service, BellSouth decided to get out of the business last year, telecommunications director Jay Bertucci said.
According to Bertucci, Loyola has a contract with a new vendor, and both of the phone companies were supposed to coordinate about installment plans.
However, due to a misunderstanding Bell South workers came and removed the payphones too early.
“BellSouth took the payphones a week and a half before they were supposed to,” Bertucci said.
However, he expects the new phones to be installed by Feb. 3.
