This time of year it’s not uncommon to see “Your big sis loves you” written on car windows, or shirts saying “Chris’s little bro too.” This isn’t because students are suddenly proud to be biological siblings – this is the Greek organization system of pairing up an older fraternity or sorority member with a new member to help understand the beliefs and principles of their organization.

“Your big brother is supposed to be your mentor through pledging,” Vance Aloupis, senior Pi Kappa Alpha brother, said. “He’s supposed to show you the ropes.”

These big brothers and sisters also educate the new members about the University and help them through the transition into college.

“Your job as a big sister is to show them the way,” Jacky Beato, senior and Zeta Tau Alpha sister, said. “You introduce her to her friends and help her get used to the University.”

The Greek “siblings” also provide support for each other.

“My big sister is always the first one to stand up for me, the first one to help me,” Beato said of her own little sister experience. “That is something really nice to have.”

Aloupis knows firsthand how a much a big brother can be help. His big brother, Michael Johnston, was Student Government president while he was Aloupis’ big brother. Aloupis has followed in his big brother’s footsteps as the current SG president.

“He opened my eyes up to what the university has to offer,” Aloupis said. “He opened my eyes to the whole position of SG president.”

Being exposed to the position sparked Aloupis’ interest in it, but Johnston’s encouragement made it a reality.

“He told me that if you really want it, you can do it,” Aloupis said. “It was really a huge inspiration for me. He would say ‘little bud, you’re going to do this and do a great job.’ He was a huge source of my strength.”

While each organization pairs up brothers and sisters differently, most ask members to rank the new members they would like to be paired with and vice versa. There is then a revealing ceremony where everyone learns of the pairings.

“It’s been really great because the past two years I’ve been paired with my number one choice,” Beato said.

Aloupis agrees.

“My big brother and I hit it off right away, but he told me that he probably wouldn’t be taking a little brother,” Aloupis said. “I put him down as my first choice anyway.”

Aloupis’ ceremony required him to stand back to back with his big brother and then turn around and see him.

“I was so excited when I saw that it was [Johnston],” Aloupis said.

The connection between big and little brothers and sisters lasts beyond their first year in the fraternity or sorority.

“Throughout the past three years he’s been my mentor and really my best friend here,” Aloupis said of Johnston.

Beato says that she and her big sister would have lunch regularly, which helped form a strong relationship.

“I just love my big sister,” Beato said.

Leigha Taber can be contacted at l.taber@umiami.edu.

Poke. Poke back. Poke. Poke back. Welcome to the world of Thefacebook, the online community of the University of Miami, where flirting with that cute person that sits next to you in your English class is only one click away.

What started as a modest collection of students at UM forming small webs of shared connections has ballooned into a profile site rivaling the number of registered users as the newly started Napster free music service on campus in just under two months, with no publicity but word of mouth. The site has grown so big that even Pat Whitely, vice-president for Student Affairs and some of her staff have joined the growing trend.

For the thousands of UM students with a profile on it, the hardest thing about getting other students to join Thefacebook is explaining just what the site is all about. One has to explain why so many people have spent countless hours that should have been devote to schoolwork searching page after page of students to find the next cute person, or to start the next big group.

According to the opening page of the site, Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges and universities.

“It’s such an easy way to contact people and find out what’s going on on campus and find out what there is to do on the weekends,” says Jacky Beato, senior, who was responsible for contacting the site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and asking him to add UM to the growing list of schools represented through their own Thefacebook branch. “I wanted it on campus because it’s a good way to connect students at UM in your classes and outside your typical situations, mostly just for communication and fun.”

Students agree with Beato. Since the site has become so large, it’s easy to find someone who shares a common interest or is in one of the same class to chat with or get notes from.

“I’m on Thefacebook to meet people with common interests and classes that I wouldn’t have necessarily otherwise talked to or have met in person,” Kevin Stillwell, freshman, says.

Regardless of what it’s being used for, there is no doubt the online addiction it has caused. Walking through the library, computer labs and even offices on campus, one will always find many students searching their social net, checking their Facebook messages or poking a random stranger.

“Sometimes you think you’re going on to ‘confirm’ a friend request and the next thing you know it’s an hour later because you’ve been looking at all the new people you’re connected to,” Francine Madeira, senior, says. “You just can’t manage to get off.”

Despite Thefacebook’s good attributes of bringing an entire school together through one site and making it easy to communicate and organize student events daily, there is a down side to the site: stalking.

“There are creepy people that take your screen name off of Thefacebook, who are not even listed as your friend, who then IM you and more or less start stalker like behaviors toward you,” says Ryan Langel, sophomore, who recently had a bad experience with another person on the site. “It’s not safe cause you feel comfortable thinking that the only ones who see you are the ones that are connected to you through friends, but that is not the case.”

UM’s dependence on Thefacebook was most present recently when the site crashed, causing rumors of the closure of Thefacebook because of a lawsuits its creators are facing in Connecticut. To say students were distraught would be an understatement.

Students were frantically trying to remember how they made friends before the site’s introduction and how they would get in touch with the members of the groups they were a part of like “I’m on Facebook to get laid” and “I heart the OC.”

Christopher Vasquez can be contacted at c.vasquez1@umiami.edu.

TODAY
Election Day. Today is the last day you can exercise your right to vote and make your voice heard.

WEDNESDAY
Different organizations square off in the Homecoming 2004 Organized Cheer in the UC Patio at 7 p.m.

THURSDAY
Quantum Entertainment, Hurricane Productions and the Rathskeller Advisory Board are cosponsoring a Speed Dating event at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are available in the UC Breezeway. Space is limited.

In honor of Homecoming 2004, the Alma Mater and Spirit Tree Ceremony will be held at the Rock at 11:30 a.m.

The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre and Alvin Sherman Family Stage will host the performance of As You Like It, William Shakespeare’s classic tale of comic love. For more information, visit www.miami.edu/ring. Performances run until Nov. 13.

UM will host a panel to discuss the issues that mattered in this year’s election in What Happened? A Post-Mortem at 3:30 p.m. in Studio C in the School of Communications. Seating is limited.

FRIDAY
Homecoming 2004 Hurricane Howl will be at the UC at 7 p.m. It will feature a parade, pep rally, fireworks and free food. Wyclef Jean and the Refugee All-Stars close the night with a free concert at 9:45 p.m. on the Green.

The School of Communication will host its groundbreaking ceremony for the addition of the new student center to the Frances L. Wolfson building at 3:30 p.m. in the courtyard of the Frances L. Wolfson building.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6
It’s the 78th annual Homecoming game as UM takes on Clemson at the Orange Bowl.

Due to the recent scheduling of the nationally televised UM homecoming football game, the Mike Epps comedy show at the Convocation Center has been postponed. The comedy show has not secured a new date, so tickets purchased for the event may be refunded at the point of purchase.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre invites students to a free performance of As You Like It at 8 p.m. Come early as tickets are given away on a first-come first-served basis with your ‘Cane Card.

The Honorable James C. Cason, Chief of Mission, U.S. Interests Section in Cuba will address the seminar on Transition from Communism: Lessons Learned, Challenges Ahead for Cuba at 9 a.m. at the Omi Colonnade Hotel on Coral Gables. To make a reservation, or for more information, call ICCAS at 305-284-2822.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Hair, Quantum Entertainment’s latest production, will hold its debut performance at 8 p.m. in the Kutcher Auditorium at the UM Hillel. Tickets are $10 for UM students and can be obtained at the UM Ticketmaster outlet by calling 305-284-6399, or by visiting www.gotoquantum.com.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15
Applications for FunDay group leadership are due in UC 240.

School of Business Administration receives $10 million

The chairman and CEO of several rapidly growing Florida-based health care companies that currently serve more than 500,000 clients, Miguel Fernandez, has given the UM School of Business Administration $10 million, the largest gift ever made to that school. The money will be used to create the Miguel B. Fernandez Family Entrepreneurship Building, which will house an entrepreneurship center, information resource center, undergraduate placement center, academic pavilions and student residences.
Hispanic Business Magazine recently ranked the School the nation’s seventh best business school for Hispanics, and its M.B.A. program was ranked first in the state of Florida in a recent Wall Street Journal corporate recruiter survey.

Laughter group starts morning off with a chuckle

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES – To most students, having to be awake at 8 a.m. is not a laughing matter, but there are others who gather around in the sculpture garden to do just that – laugh.
And laughing is not as simple as it might sound. The laughing club gets together on Mondays and Thursdays for about 15 to 20 minutes and does laughing exercises accompanied with stories.
The stories alone are enough to make those in attendance smile, but the concept of physically acting them out and forcing out different sounds of laughter often gets a real laugh out of everyone present by the end of the exercise.
The tradition was brought to the UCLA campus from across the world, more specifically, India.
Scot Pipkin, a fourth-year geography student and a regular of the laughing club, heard about clubs of this kind from a friend who had traveled to India.
On a crisp morning, Pipkin stands in a circle with five others, feet bare on the wet grass.
Pipkin said there are laughs other than the ones exercised at the meetings that require a larger group of people.
“It can get really powerful with the bigger group,” he added.
Pipkin explained that he is involved with this for the personal satisfaction that comes from seeing people go from grouchy to energized.
“I dig it,” he said

New collections at Richter Library

The Otto G. Richter Library staff to announced the installation of a Contemporary Fiction collection and a Paperback Exchange collection. The fiction collection consists of recent award winning fiction titles and is housed on the library’s 1st floor in the Meyer Gold Reading Lounge. The Paperback Exchange is located in the 1st floor opposite the Current Newspapers collection, and patrons are only asked that they replace any book taken with another book that’s in decent condition.

From carnivals on the Rock to a citywide volunteer project, Homecoming 2004 is in full swing. On Friday, student organizations flooded the Rock, transforming it into a sea of festive T-shirts, posters and hats for the Homecoming opening ceremonies. Omicron Delta Kappa [ODK], one of the most prestigious honor societies on campus, signaled the official beginning of Homecoming with the ringing of the ODK bell, a long-standing tradition. Jason Starr, Homecoming chair, gave recognition to his committee and sponsors who made the event possible, before reading out the roll-call list of organizations participating in the Homecoming competition.

A mini-carnival was held shortly after, with food and games like human foosball, a pitcher’s tent and arcade basketball. Karaoke and a disc jockey transformed the Rock into a dance floor.

On Saturday, about 800 students woke up early to participate in one of the largest events in Homecoming: Hurricanes Help the Hometown [HHTH]. HHTH is a day where the student body gives back to the Miami community by spending the day volunteering community service at different sites in need of a helping hand.

“This is the largest volunteer event on campus every year, and it impacts so many people at one time,” said Marc O’Connor, homecoming chair for non-competing personnel. “It gets the message across that volunteering is important and you got to go out and help your community while you’re in college, even if you didn’t live here.”

The approximately 34 different HHTH sites ranged from Habitat for Humanity to retirement homes.

“I went to the Tropical Audubon Society, and we basically helped them with their renovation so they could display more of the plants and the wildlife that’s natural to Miami,” Paty Escuder, junior, said. “So we picked out a lot of the weeds that were exotic. It was an amazing experience – I would absolutely do it again next year.”

Students lent a hand to the kids in the community, volunteering in children’s homes and other kid-oriented sites.

“I went His House, which is a Christian-based home for children who have been abused or abandoned,” Humberto Ortega, sophomore, said. “We washed the cars, inside and out, that the resident moms and dads use to transport the kids. I thought that the organization was amazing. They really provide a stable home for all the children that are obviously going through a lot of problems.”

“I went to the Bake House, [an art complex housing 70 artists and rentable studios] in downtown. We set up a Halloween carnival for all the kids, with arts and crafts, costume design, face painting, and story telling,” Jovanni Bello, junior, said. “I enjoyed it. It was nice helping out the kids from the community.”

Students even volunteered at local churches, helping them set up for various festivities. Patrice Mincey, site leader, went to Wayside Baptist Church, where she helped set up their Harvest Hoedown, a carnival for kids.

It was a good experience, because we could actually see the work being done and know that it’s going to actually be used,” Mincey said. “It was very rewarding.”

It seems that every participant could agree that the day was rewarding.

“It is a day of hard and dirty work. We do not sugarcoat the fact that students get sweaty and tired,” said Ariana Minatelli, HHTH chair in charge of Greek participation and recruitment. “But they can also expect a deep thankfulness from the people that they are helping, and hopefully get a greater appreciation for what they have.”

Christine Dominguez can be contacted at c.dominguez3@umiami.edu.

Before classes even started this semester, UM students were being encouraged to register to vote by numerous organizations. However, two months later, some students are finding themselves shut out from the polls.

While the efforts of national groups like Rock the Vote and UM’s Get Out the Vote [GOTV] have added many students to the voter rolls, not all students’ registration forms have made it the elections office.

Sophomore John Warnecke wanted to get his vote in as early as possible, so he went with his friends to the first day of early voting on campus on Oct. 25. After standing in line for more than an hour, Warnecke stepped up to vote and was told he wasn’t registered and thus couldn’t vote.

Other students have discovered they’re not registered even before making it to the voting booth.

Transfer student Leah Delpercio, junior, knew she was going to register in Florida before she arrived at UM. During orientation, her orientation assistant had everyone register to vote and said they’d get the forms to the elections office. Delpercio never received her registration card, but didn’t think anything of it until her roommate, who registered in October, received hers.

“I didn’t think to check if I was registered,” Delpercio said. “I just figured that was how things worked in Florida.”

When Delpercio called the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, she was told she wasn’t on the rolls, it was too late to file and that she wasn’t allowed to vote in this election.

“They weren’t nice and they weren’t helpful,” Delpercio said. “They could barely speak English, and I had to sit through an hour-long ordeal of them trying to find my name on the roster list.”

Warnecke, like Delpercio, thought he’d registered in August. While he was in the UC someone with a clipboard approached him and had him fill out the right form. All the organizations that had permission to register people on campus used tabling and didn’t walk around the UC, so Warnecke has no idea what happened to his registration form.

“During orientation there were other groups from the community coming on campus,” said Pamela Schiess, director of GOTV. “We couldn’t get rid of and monitor them all the time.”

The Office of Student Affairs received a few other complaints before Election Day about problems people had registering and have worked with the Elections Department to work through the issues.

“We had a complaint from a mother of a student whose name didn’t appear on the voter registration rolls. It turned out that their name was misspelled,” said Gilbert Arias, assistant vice president of Student Affairs. “Another student listed their address in Broward County.”

Voters had the opportunity to check if they were on the rolls last Wednesday at the Partisan Fair sponsored by GOTV.

“We’ve registered 800 people since Oct. 4 and turned in all the forms after making copies of them,” Schiess said. “The problems people are having are isolated incidents, mostly where people turned in the form but the Elections Department couldn’t read it.”

No matter what the reason, many students who thought they were registered are not, and they’re not happy.

“I’m outraged and embarrassed,” Delpercio said. “In a state where every vote really counts, problems like this could make a huge difference on the outcome of the election.”

Students who spoke with the Elections Department were encouraged to register so they can vote in the next elections, but for this year they’ll have to sit it out.

Catherine Howden can be contacted at c.howden@umiami.edu.