He and others plan to stage what one student leader called a ?EUR??,,????'?????<

University officials say they need to use most of the 15-acre wooded hill behind the Comcast Center to relocate support facilities that are to be displaced by the redevelopment on east campus that will bring more stores, eateries, entertainment and graduate student housing. They say putting the maintenance operations anywhere but on the wooded tract would be too costly or pose too many environmental problems.

 

Affected Area Graphic

Anne G. Wylie, vice president for administrative affairs, suggests it?EUR??,,????'?????<

A delegation of students, faculty and outside environmentalists met with Wylie and she said afterward that she?EUR??,,????'?????<

The campus festivities mark the first year of the college?EUR??,,????'?????<

In addition, College Park currently is in second place in a nationwide contest to be declared ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The east campus redevelopment has been in planning for years, but the fate of the woods became an issue in February, when some students learned of the facility relocation plan and questioned it. The student government association unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an independent review of the issue.

?EUR??,,????'?????<

Some professors and students say the woods are a valuable teaching laboratory as well as a precious natural resource.

Ray Weil, a professor of soil science, said he takes his classes to the woods to study the soil and how it functions in an ecosystem. The university dug him a ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Davey Rogner (left) and Clark DeLong in the wooded area the university plans to clear.

?EUR??,,????'?????<

Joe Sullivan, associate professor of plant science and landscape architecture, said he holds class behind Comcast as well to let students see how forests grow and how they recover from natural catastrophes. A tornado that ripped through campus in 2001, killing two students, tore out and damaged trees.

?EUR??,,????'?????<

Sullivan said he and other faculty members intend to join students Saturday for a teach-in of sorts about the ecological functions and values of the woods.

Other faculty members are trying to steer clear of the controversy. Marla McIntosh, a professor of urban forestry and director of the university?EUR??,,????'?????<

McIntosh said she hasn?EUR??,,????'?????<

?EUR??,,????'?????<

Source: Baltimore Sun