Apartments against Commuters, Greeks against Pearson-the heat is on for the $10 000 prize for the Live Championship Game in the School of Communication courtyard, April 17.

The UMTV produced 30-minute fact-based trivia game show where the questions come from the professors, rallied participants from the five residential colleges, the apartments, commuter students and the Greeks.

The two winning teams will move on to the final championship to battle intellectually in an hour-long show recorded live. The teams from the other residential halls were eliminated in the preliminary round.

Sanjeev Chatterjee, faculty advisor for UMTV, developed the concept for this quiz show and became the executive producer.

Under the direction of senior Rachel Brilla, and with the effort of Terri Maloney, head of post-production, the show materialized.

“I would like to see UMIQ become an event much like SportsFest, where the University community comes together in a competitive spirit where bragging rights are involved,” said Brilla.

She explained that Provost Luis Glaser allocated $15,000 in prize money to be used for academic purposes.

This will allow each of the eight players from the losing team to go home with $250 each and also award $1000 to each member of the victorious team.

Jacob Vincent, from the Apartment area, said he joined the team because he was lured by the idea of winning $1000, yet not all contestants were in it for the money.

Cherisson Cuffy of the same team said he did it for the fun of it, and many others said it was their love of competition and the idea of being on TV which led them to participate.

The Greek team, put together by outgoing student government president Jose Diaz, said that they were really enjoying themselves in this game and that overall the questions were very fair and somewhat easy.

A sample question could be: “What was the title of the first motion picture to offer sound recording?”

Professors from different fields of study such as history, English literature, chemistry, and motion pictures put together

questions to be asked in the different rounds of the game, Brilla said.

For the “In Depth Round”, the “specialist” in a particular subject area will be asked three in-depth questions directly by the professors. They will be recorded from another studio and their images will be transmitted to a screen to be seen by the players.

Some of the professors asking “In Depth” questions include Tom Goodman, professor of English literature, and biology professor Collin Hughes.

Including Diaz, the Greek team is composed of four Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers and three Zeta Tau Alpha sisters.

“As a fraternity we strive for excellence in manhood”, said Villamor Asuncion, creative writing major and Sigma Phi Epsilon Brother. “I like competition in sports and in life-inevitably it spills over to academics.” The success of this show relies entirely on the time and effort put in by students, organizers said.

UMIQ is a timely extracurricular activity that has taught students to work with limited funds and technology, and has provided students with a way to learn the ropes of the industry and the ‘real world,’ organizers said.

Brilla and Maloney said they spent every Tuesday and Thursday this semester in the editing labs.

“If we are feeling ambitious we can spend about 12 hours or so a day,” she said. “In the beginning we were spending about 40 hours to get one finished half hour episode.”

“The total time we have spent this semester working on post-production alone has surpassed maybe 200-250 hours,” she added.

Brilla said that a fixed budget, like all the other government organizations and clubs have, would allow UMIQ to advertise more effectively; promote the show in the breezeway; and have some money to purchase backdrops, a better buzzer system, and some of the technical equipment needed to operate a true game show.

“It takes ambition, desire and drive to follow through with a project of this proportion,” Brilla said. “Terri and myself know what this show has the potential to become and we will be content with the fact that we made this show happen, and we got it off the ground.”

“This has been a long and tedious process-but it’s also been lots of fun,” Maloney added.

The first two episodes of this television Quiz show, developed by students and faculty of the School of Communication, have already aired and can be seen Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. on campus station 24, and in the Coral Gables area on channel 96 at the same time.

Hoops-4-Hunger helped homeless women.

“No one deserves this. These are real people. There are a lot of people in this country who are one paycheck away from being on the streets. Homelessness is a growing problem,” said Sarah McGrail, public relations representative for Students Together Ending Poverty [STEP], a student run charitable organization at UM.

Hoops-4-Hunger was a fund-raising three-on-three basketball tournament organized by STEP, in conjunction with the Wellness Center Intramural Association. The event took place on 23rd March at noon in the Wellness Center.

“We wanted to generate awareness for the cause and basketball is something people play everyday,” said Mindy Sevnor, STEP chair.

The funds raised will be donated to Creative Beginnings, a shelter for homeless women and children, organizers said.

“One in four young women are out of a job and it is very difficult to get one without an address. The shelter provides them with one,” McGrail said.

“There are a lot of mothers and children who have nowhere to go. They are pushed by the wayside and not enough attention is being paid to them,” McGrail said. “The stories you hear out there are horrifying. Some of these women have actually been raped by policemen.”

“I wanted to help and be supportive since I don’t think our country’s paying enough attention to the cause,” said Kerrol Nelson, one of the players.

“Homelessness is an escalating problem. Even in Coral Gables which is an upscale part of Miami, poverty is seeping through. Just driving to UM, you will see homeless people,” Sevnor said.

The funds will be used by the shelter to provide food, clothing and a place to live for the homeless, organizers said.

“People are just coming up with band-aid solutions and not changing the way the government system works, which is the real problem,” Sevnor said.

“We need to fight misconceptions. Even in a place like UM, a lot of students have never been exposed to poverty,” McGrail said.

STEP organizes various on campus events such as the Hunger and Homelessness Week in the fall and visual events and writing campaigns on World Hunger Day coming up in April.

One upcoming event is “Give A Shirt,” where students are encouraged to donate old t-shirts to the poor.

“Even the little things count. Learn about the issues and don’t walk away. Some of our members keep McDonald’s coupons which they hand out to the poor. We need to stop and take notice,” McGrail said.

Co-sponsors for the event were the Biltmore Hotel, GNC, Hooligans and the Big Cheese. The admission fee was $20 and ten teams participated.

For more information on STEP and any of its upcoming events, contact Sarah McGrail, PR representative.

Event winners were awarded various prizes.

First prize was free massages at Rouge in the Grove, gift certificates from GNC and packages from Don Carters. Runners-up won $50 from Hooligans and one hour of free games at Gameworks.

While many students were soaking up the sun in Cancun and the Bahamas, a group of UM students had a different idea of how best to spend spring break.

Leaving behind suntan lotion and hedonistic desires, over 70 students spent their vacation divided amongst eleven volunteer sites across the country for this year’s Alternative Spring Break.

The students were divided into teams of about seven to nine people, based on the cause they preferred to volunteer for. Causes varied, including hunger and homelessness in Chicago; youth violence in Detroit; wetland restoration in Louisiana. Students also worked to improve the lives of migrant farm-workers in rural Florida; enhancing fine arts in city schools in Providence, R.I.; and supporting environmental protection in the Smoky Mountains.

“I wanted to participate because I feel like people in our generation have become spectators,” said Juan Pena, a senior who addressed issues of youth violence in Detroit last week “While we go to Cancun and etcetera, people in our country are falling through the cracks.”

“I felt like I got a lot more out of this experience than what I gave,” said Andrea Sauertieg, a senior psychology major who served as the leader for the HIV/AIDS site in Washington D.C.

Beginning 12 years ago when volunteers came together to help the community after Hurricane Andrew, Alternative Spring Break has since grown into a well-developed program committed to promoting active citizenship.

It is part of a larger national organization called Breakaway, which immerses students in different cultures, heightens social awareness, and advocates lifelong social action.

Yasmin Bootwala, a senior serving as chairperson of this year’s ASB said she had a ten member executive board and 12 site leaders to make all of the trips a success.

“Obviously the program would die without the outstanding participants themselves,” Bootwalla said. “ASB runs on good hearts and good people.”

Bootwala said they held a raffle earlier in the year to raise money to help alleviate the costs of the trips. She’s hoping for an alternative fall break and an international spring break site next year.

“I felt so gratified and fulfilled when I got back,” said Shelly Stromoski, a senior majoring in public relations, who spent her week working with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia. “That’s something you can’t get from going on a regular vacation.”

Filled with flying hair, bucket-drumming bands, bouncing groupies, lots of energy and music for all tastes, the first annual Battle of the Bands, organized by Hurricane Productions [HP] and QuantUM, had a rocky start.

Conceived out of two separate events, then somewhat haphazardly put together two weeks before the actual date, the show left many dissatisfied with the way it was organized.

Originally, HP had planned a show for Saturday, the 23rd. QuantUM had another scheduled for Thursday, the 21st. When they found out about each other’s events, they decided to unite and co-sponsor one single event.

“We had to compromise,” said Zach Lezberg, QuantUM’s president. “We didn’t want to have an event for four hours-people would get bored.”

Since HP was planning for three professional bands, they allotted 45 minutes per band. QuantUM’s event was planned for eight to ten amateur bands playing for fifteen minutes each.

By combining the shows, HP had to reduce their bands’ playing time to half an hour per act, which caused one of their entries to drop out of the running.

None of the participating bands were informed of this arrangement, a fact that angered most of the amateur acts-No Such Road, Rizzo, Sondazed, and Crashing Tide. The two professional acts were Active Ingredients and Morisson Poe.

“In the spirit of fair competition, it does not logically follow that the ‘professional’ bands selected by Hurricane Productions would be favored in the length of sets over those selected by Quantum,” said Eric Valdes, Crashing Tide’s guitarist. “I feel deceived. Had we at least been told it was going to be unfair, we could have dealt with it better.”

“We didn’t want to affect any of the bands’ performances, that’s why we didn’t tell them,” Lezberg said.

“If we were to start over, things would be different,” said Ben Werlin, Friday Groove chair of HP and one of the event’s organizers. “Everyone would get the same playing time, and things would go a lot smoother.”

Despite these challenges, organizers say the event had a high turnout, between 500 to 700 show throughout the night.

Of course, not all the attendees were satisfied.

“It wasn’t very entertaining,” said Eric Hochstadt, junior. “Some of the bands weren’t very talented.”

Prizes were awarded as follows: Active Ingredients took home first place and $1000, Morisson Poe got second place and $300, and Crashing Tide won third place and $200.

“I thought the results were right,” Hochstadt said. “At least the judges got it right.”

“We came in second to a really good band, so we’re happy,” said Jean Morisson, lead vocalist for Morisson Poe. “It was more important for us to play for everyone than to win first prize.”

“We don’t consider it losing, we consider it being inspired,” added D. S. Poe, bassist.

“I feel pretty good. I’m less broke now,” said Tony Castro, Crashing Tide’s lead vocalist.

Celebrity judges included Brian Capelli from ‘Cane Records, Cujo from 94.9 Zeta, Delaine Matthieu from Channel 7 News and Ethan Schwartz from South Florida Jamz. Bands were judged on originality, musicianship and audience reaction.

“We told the judges not to judge on time, but on quality,” Lezberg said.

All the bands save Morisson Poe played completely original sets-of their six-song set, three were covers.

“I think it’s a load of crap,” Hochstadt said. “I don’t think bands should be playing covers at Battle of the Bands.”

In between acts, the emcees gave announcements and plugged various organizations and events. More often than not, their appearance was followed by a sudden hush from the audience. Time between bands was also filled with karaoke and “guess that song” contests-though the emcee had to offer the audience cash incentives of Monopoly money in order to get anyone to volunteer.

The only two karaoke acts sang “Bye bye bye” by N*Sync and “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. The “guess that tune” contest went on for a full five minutes-five minutes filled with complete silence in the audience.

Of the 25 bands that auditioned, six made the final cut. Decisions were made by a committee, and were based from live performances and demo tapes.

Student government president elect Mike Johnston only has one suit; he hasn’t even worn it yet.

As a matter of fact, Johnston says his wardrobe is quite simple: “A pair of board shorts, white t-shirt and flip flops – a day at the beach – I love the beach.” While Johnston believes that a good character should precede a good suit, don’t mistake his laid-back attitude for laziness; he still means business.

“I’ve had a really good foundation – this is my third year on the executive board, I’ve started on the student government executive board since I was a freshman.”

Because of this, Johnston says, “I’ve been able to build a lot of good administrative relationships and being president is all about the trust and experience that comes with those types of relationships.”

Johnston is a 20-year-old senior majoring in engineering.

He is also pre-med and plans on venturing to the Peace Corps after he finishes with his schooling.

He listens to country music, especially Tim Mcgraw, and his favorite movie is A River Runs Through It, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

When he’s not catching a movie you can probably find Mike at the beach or at one of UM’s sporting events.

“I love sports, every single sporting event – I try not to miss any,” Johnston said.

With all these activities Johnston attends to, one may wonder when he accomplishes any schoolwork or his newfound Student Government responsibilities. But Johnston has got this covered too.

“I’ve learned to balance work and play,” Johnston said. “There are some times when I have to stay focused on my studies and responsibilities but being an executive officer in my fraternity, I’ve learned to budget my time and money.”

Johnston attributes much of his development and maturity as an individual to his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha.

“Pi Kappa Alpha has been the biggest leadership experience for me. Going Greek has forced me to mature,” he said.

Yet while holding a prestigious title in his fraternity and a large background in leadership experiences, Johnston prides himself on being the same person he was before becoming Student Government President.

“One thing I pride myself on is I don’t ever try to flaunt my titles-I work for people and not titles. It doesn’t take a title to change things-it takes a strong ambition and a good personality.”

President-elect Johnston presents himself as a humble, outgoing, and laid- back man who loves country music and an occasional party.

However, Johnston also emphasizes that he’s here to serve the student body. “There are a lot of people who are older than me, who make more money than me, but we’re still the same at UM – I’m here to work for everyone.”