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The Brick, a guidebook to the history and traditions of N.C. State distributed at convocation, will include copies from last year as well as 1,500 new copies which will cost $8,500 to print, according to Deb Luckadoo, director of Campus Activities.
Due to the Free Expression Tunnel incident following the election of President Barack Obama, an updated version will be printed to include a short statement regarding the results of the Campus Culture Task Force.
Matt Rust, assistant director of First Year College, said the statement will be brief.
“The statement will mention how Chancellor Oblinger and the student body have reaffirmed their commitment for the Free Expression Tunnel to be used with civility and respect,” Rust said.
Luckadoo said the idea of the new copies is to include updates. She said last year’s copy of The Brick featured the Free Expression Tunnel in two different sections, Traditions and Landmarks.
“In the updated version, the Free Expression Tunnel will only be seen in the Landmarks section,” she said.
Luckadoo said the goal of The Brick is not to spread the new message about the Free Expression Tunnel, but to take advantage of “whatever opportunity” is available.
Rust said removing information about the Free Expression Tunnel from the Traditions section came in response to student feedback.
“Students kept asking why the tunnel was in there twice,” Rust said.
Rust didn’t discuss details about exact changes, but said they will be finalized before the May 4 deadline. He said the reference to Kay Yow will be updated.
In addition to the Yow reference and Free Expression Tunnel statement, Luckadoo said the new copies will include sections on Homecoming and the Inter-Residence Council.
According to Luckadoo, The Brick is supposed to serve as a history book to incoming students.
“They will show their kids, nieces and nephews 30 to 40 years from now and say look at N.C. State.”
Luckadoo said rather than throwing out copies from last year, some students will recieve a non-updated copy while others will recieve an updated copy.
She said the updated copies will serve as a supplement to the old copies.
Rust said the motivation for The Brick came from Technician editorials during the 2006-2007 school year about the lack of awareness of traditions and history at State.
“I would love for [The Brick] to be picked up as a tradition,” Rust said.
Ann Babcock, a freshman in textile engineering, said as an out-of-state student, The Brick taught her more about N.C. State than what she learned on her campus tour.
“[The Brick] is good because it gets freshmen excited about everything the school has,” she said.
Babcock said she kept her copy but many students do not.
“Lots of them get thrown out by people who don’t care about it, but for people who do care it’s really interesting,” she said.