Media Major is Crowned Miss UDC
THE NEWLY-CROWNED MISS UDC ARIANA BROWN IS A MASS MEDIA MAJOR (COURTESY ANTOINE WOOD) Ariana Brown’s family is likely still upset with her. After all, she did exclude them from one of her most important moments as a UDC student. But after hearing the mass major explain her reasoning, it becomes more understandable.
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Budget Cuts Hit Hard
PHOTO BY JORDAANIA ANDIMA
A budget shortfall has forced the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to cut all non-essential activities outside of student services and core operations for the fiscal year 2010-2011, according to the school’s Director of Finance, Steven Graubart.
“Budgeting is an ongoing process in a way. If we see that there is potential for us to have a shortfall in funding for needs, we can request money from the city and also take a look at what we can cut back on,” Graubart said in a recent interview. | READ MORE
UDC Goes Hollywood
CAST OF BUILDING 41(COURTESY DALE LYONS)
Georgetown University has the Exorcist Stairs. The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) has Building 41. Horror film director and UDC alum Dan Ikenberry, chose the building that most UDC students know for housing the library, for the setting of his directorial debut film.
Building 41, a slasher film, runs roughly 20-minutes and features UDC students and alum as cast. The university also serves as a backdrop, an element to the film that Ikenberry purposefully set out to accomplish from the beginning.
“I wanted to get UDC students to help me out and give them a chance to experience what it’s like to shoot something,” said Ikenberry, who also works on campus for UDCTV. “I felt like this would be fun because I work here and it would be fun to have it at UDC.”
Most Saturdays for two years, Ikenberry and crew met on the empty campus to rehearse, share ideas and film scenes. And like Hollywood, they dealt with the same snags and adversities that plague big budget films. “Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” said Ikenberry, with a laugh.
Without giving too much away, the film is centered on a group of students forced to take a Saturday class. As expected, neither they nor their professor is happy about spending the weekend together cooped up in a classroom.
However, their displeasure quickly turns to fear when students from the class slowly start to disappear. What begins as your seemingly typical college genre movie quickly turns into a battle for survival. The fight for their lives spills from the classroom to notable hallways and rooms, and even goes deep into the bowels of the basement of Building 41.
Ikenberry does well in giving the film a gritty, unpolished feel. “I wanted that low-budget look,” said Ikenberry. “A lot of horror films today are too nice looking. If it’s a horror film, make it look like one.”
The film’s cast has good chemistry and is successful in capturing the diverse array of personalities of UDC students. Throughout the film, the acting feels genuine and not contrived. And there are a few moments when an actor or actress’s terrified shrills sound authentic, making the viewer forget they are watching a film.
The Building 41 experience is a good one and Ikenberry hopes to have the film ready for public release early next year.
Campus Face-Lift Brings Beauty
UDC's new plaza will be the site of future graduations and more.
Basketball Helps Ward One Kids
Children at Ward 1’s Boys & Girls club (#10) play basketball thanks to Hanif Hill. Young students there enjoy basketball and hit the books three times a week. In early September, Hill had 25 kids signed up with tutors until December. He eventually wants to add additional mentors to the program.
Bakery Hosts Open Mic
Enjoying the breeze of the mid- November evening, NE resident Sunni Purcel gathered along with neighboring locals to recite his poem titled "Magic Dust." For Purcel, this is the first time performing an open mic at the newly-established bakery Divinely Decadent Delights.
Living With Diabetes
In February 2004 William Broome was rushed to the emergency room with what he thought was shortness of breath. He soon found out, however, that his blood sugar had reached a dangerous level of over 400 and physicians feared the worse.
