Beach Weekly S12E2: Flooding on campus, new student housing & more

In Season 12, Episode 2 of Beach Weekly, Lei Madrigal covers flooding on campus, new student housing and more. Cupid at the Beach is on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at which students can craft Valentine’s Day cards and spend time with their partner. The event will take place inside the University Student Union Beach Ballroom on the second floor from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All craft supplies and treats are free for students while supplies last. The Career Development Center is hosting an online Alumni Job Search meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 6 via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Participants must register online. A Black History Month Cookout will be held at the USU Southwest Terrace on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at noon. The 25th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will be held on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 11 a.m. in the USU Ballrooms with more events to come. Last Thursday, Feb. 1, flooding caused by heavy rainfall forced closures to several roads on campus and employee parking lots E3 and E4. The storm also damaged multiple EV chargers on campus and flooded the Walter Pyramid, forcing the women’s basketball game to be relocated to the Gold Mine. Major storms are expected to continue into this week. The University Police Department has planted decoy bikes around campus in an attempt to catch bike thieves. Each decoy bike has a location tracking feature that allows the police department to determine where stolen bikes are going. Bike theft is one of the most frequent crimes on campus and the decoy bikes are a renewed effort to reduce and prevent theft. The 2024 Campus Safety Plan provided by the University Police Department listed many upcoming improvements to campus safety such as upgraded fire alarm systems in the Parkside and Beachside dorms, upgraded lighting along Parkside housing pathways and renovations to the Parkside Service Center. This summer, construction will begin on a new student housing project called La Playa Hall to increase affordable student housing on campus. The new facility will add at least 424 beds and cost an estimated $115 million, according to the project’s website. La Playa Hall will include a built-in mental health facility run by the Counseling and Psychological Services program on campus. Beach Building Services said the extension of the CAPS program has also been implemented in other housing locations. With construction starting in Summer 2024, the current expected completion date is set for Summer 2026. An ocean exploration company called Deep Sea Vision announced that it captured sonar images of what is thought to be the remnants of Amelia Earhart's lost plane at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The 16-person crew made the discovery with an underwater drone near Hawaii, about 100 miles from Howland Island. Deep Sea Vision plans to investigate the area more thoroughly later this year. As of Feb. 2, the Israeli military says that it has defeated Hamas in the major city of Khan Younis and will now focus its military operations in Rafah near Gaza’s southern border. Since the conflict began last year, over 2.2 million Gaza citizens have fled to areas throughout Southern Gaza like Khan Younis and Rafah to escape the Israeli invasion. Host: Lei MadrigalEditor: Julia GoldmanProducers: El Nicklin, Aidan SwanepoelLike, comment, and follow us on your favorite platform for more content! Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-49er-podcasts/id1488484518?uo=4 Google Podcastshttps://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kMzEwMjEwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4HJaqJep02kHeIQy8op1n1 ⁠Overcasthttps://overcast.fm/itunes1488484518/daily-49er-podcasts