The Hurricane Productions [HP] referendum to increase the student activity fee by $7.50 was turned down by 572 students during this year’s student government elections.

The increased budget of about $108, 000 would have enabled HP to increase the quality of on-campus entertainment, members said.

472 student voted in favor of the referendum, and 181 abstained.

“Maybe people thought such a large amount would be greedy, that HP was asking too much,” said Mike Johnston, SG speaker of the senate. “But people ask a lot from HP.”

HP members told the Hurricane that normally $7.50 could buy a movie ticket whereas for a $7.50 increase in student activity fee, HP could provide students with on-campus concert, sneak previews, the latest movies, local bands playing, distinguished lecturers and much more.

“We are asking students to go out and vote for it as it will enable us to provide them with first class entertainment,” said Graham Micone, the HP representative who had authored the bill to place the referendum on the spring elections ballot.

It looks like HP will just have to be giving UM more of the same, said HP Chair Maria Gomez.

“We’re still going to do the films and concerts and pretty much everything we did this year,” Gomez said. “Just not to the caliber we have hoped. But we’re not sacrificing quality at all.”

Hurricane Productions has not decided whether they will go up for referendum again next semester.

“We haven’t really discussed it quite yet,” Micone said.

“I hope if we do decide to do it again that people won’t be so afraid to vote yes,” Gomez said.

Johnston speculated that it was lack of publicity that prevented the referendum from passing.

“Publicity could have been better. Maybe some people didn’t know what HP was,” Johnston said.

“The last referendum that passed was very well publicized,” Johnston said, referring to the IBIS yearbook referendum that was on last November’s student government election ballot.

HP chairs have not yet discussed the reasons their referendum failed, but admitted that publicity may have been a factor.

“I can only conjecture, but I was just wondering if people really understood what it was for,” Gomez said. “If publicity was a problem, then that’s just something we have to look at next time.”

“It could have been. We did try to publicize it though. We did try,” Micone said.

Anyone with questions about Hurricane Productions can contact Gomez at 305-284-4606 or chair@um-hp.com.

Ryan Magee is a Wellness Center fanatic, frequenting the gym about five to seven times a week. He plays soccer and racquetball on Mondays and Wednesdays, takes Karate classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and runs bi-weekly cross-country journeys through Coral Gables.

Magee is 19 years old, 5’11”, 160 pounds, has brown hair and blue eyes. However, he is not your average teenager: his goal is to become a pediatric cardiologist.

Magee’s motive is personal.

“I want to know what’s wrong with me.”

On November 27, 1996, a day before Thanksgiving, Magee, then a 14-year-old high school freshman, was running through his daily afterschool routine, a regiment that included a cross-country trek of eight miles followed by a grueling four hour soccer practice.

During the seemingly normal soccer practice of fast-paced sprinting drills, Magee collapsed onto the ground.

During the 12 minutes when coaches and an on-site nurse gave him CPR, Magee’s heart had stopped pumping blood and had gone into ventricular fibrillation, a condition where the ventricles of the heart shake wildly.

Emergency medical technicians soon arrived. After shocking him twice with a defibrillator, technicians were able to get his heart pumping again.

After a two week coma, Magee was visited by a Catholic priest who performed the sacrament of the sick on him. He awoke from his coma the next day.

To this day, Magee is unable to remember the week before and a month after the accident. His mother told him that after awakening from the coma, he recalled, “I talked to god and the angels and they told me I wasn’t ready to go.”

Twenty days after the accident, Magee received an automated implantable cardio-defibrillator, an emergency device that acts as a defibrillator, pacemaker and EKG.

After his surgery and tests were completed, Magee returned to school in January 1997. By March, Magee found himself going against his doctor’s orders when he decided to start playing soccer again. Magee ultimately regretted this decision.

Two years later, in the first game of a fall soccer tournament, Magee went down again.

This time the implant kicked in, giving Magee an electrical shock that reset his heart’s pace.

“I had the electric taste in my mouth, it was just like licking a battery,” he remembers.

Despite arguing with emergency medical staff to let him stay in the game, Magee was forced to go to the hospital for testing once more.

After numerous screenings, Magee began reading his latest set of test results. At that moment, he realized his mission in life – to learn more about his condition and to help others with similar problems. Magee began to read medical books, researching the problem for which doctors still have no explanation for.

Magee is a sophomore majoring in pre-med bio-medical engineering.

Now considered a medical phenomenon, Magee attends an all-expense paid trip every year to the National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C. for tests.

Every year, doctors get the same results.

“No one knows what to do with me medically,” he said.

So he does what he wants.

“As long as I have this thing in my chest, I’ve got nine lives,” Magee said, pointing to the protruding implant in the upper left of his chest.

Everyone around him also notices his positive attitude.

“He takes everything lightly,” said friend Zach Carpenter.

This outlook, along with an “I’m not scared of dying” perspective on life (one that he has had since he was fourteen), makes his continuing commitment to medicine even more special.

“He’s always willing to help you,” said Carpenter. Not only is Magee’s love for life seen in his excessive physical activity, but also in his devotion to help others. During vacations, Magee spends his time working in hospitals at home in Cape Coral, FL. And when he’s not volunteering at hospitals, Magee spends his time chasing down answers in his medical books.

“I can’t help it, I’m always on the move…my initials are R.P.M.”

University of Miami fraternity and sorority members ended Greek Week 2002 with a renewed sense of community.

2002 was a record year for participation, with every fraternity and sorority involved in the Greek Week events.

“It gave a great positive outlook on the Greek community on campus,” said president of the winning sorority Delta Phi Epsilon, Amanda Hawryluk.

The annual Dance-A-Thon at the Rathskeller last Saturday raised almost $9000 for United Cerebral Palsy, about $1500 more than last year, organizers said.

“That’s more than any year we’ve ever done,” said Greek Week co-chair and Alpha Sigma Phi brother, Jorge Lima.

Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Delta Gamma sorority went home triumphant as Dance-a-thon winners.

“We got to spend time with each other-12 hours together with nothing else to do. That never happens,” Hawryluk said.

Organized Cheer, one of the most participated events during the week, raised money for Families of Freedom, a scholarship fund for the children of victims of Sep. 11.

Alpha Sigma Phi and Zeta Tau Alpha won the first place Oscar-esque trophies for the event.

Lima also said that the blood drive was very successful.

“The South Florida Blood Bank told us we saved over 7000 lives with the blood we donated,” Lima said.

The fact that all the Greek organizations participated this year-something that hasn’t happened in 15 years, organizers said-really cemented the community, Lima said.

“This year everyone did something. It might not be a huge thing that we do, but we can get together and do something. We gained a sense of community,” Lima said.

The competition that pervades the week did not overthrow the merriment of the events, Lima said.

“The events were amazing. The biggest point was the Mystery Event. We had all the Greeks sitting out by the pool watching a movie,” Lima said. The movie was Revenge of the Nerds.

“It was kind of cold so we were all bundled up watching a movie about how stupid Greeks are,” Bae said.

“The events were more fun this year and there was so much enthusiasm,” Hawryluk said.

“We had competition but not dirty competition,” Lima said. “People were proud to be Greek.”

Spirit awards were given to Sigma Alpha Mu and Delta Delta Delta.

Overall first-place winners for Greek Week 2002 were Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and Delta Phi Epsilon sorority.

“All of the sororities participated really well. This year was probably the closest it’s ever been,” Bae said. “I’m just glad our sisterhood is so strong.”

Peppered by several complaints of foul campaigning that deferred results for 24-hours, the first round of Student Government elections yielded no winners for the three prime posts, which will remain up for grabs until precincts close for good Wednesday afternoon.

Michael Johnston, current Student Government speaker, gained an ample edge in the presidential race with 418 of the total 2,020 votes cast for all six candidates.

Ninety-nine votes behind, current Student Government senator JD Barbosa says he is optimistic he will get more than the 319 students who voted for him last week to click on his name once the voting station gets rigged up in the UC Breezeway for the final strife.

Election Committee member Mike Lupez released the results last Friday at the Rat.

Dim cheers and applause followed the appointment of less prominent seats.

Two startling cases were the new commuter north representative, Max Alvarez, and Nursing School delegate, Shani Reid, who made the cut with the loyal support of 3 and 13 voters respectively.

When Lupez announced the question mark on the president’s seat would loom for one more week, silence took over the restaurant.

Nobody made a congratulatory move toward Johnston or Barbosa.

They weren’t there.

Johnston told The Hurricane he believes his primary victory is the result of a “very personal campaign” built around a platform of concrete ideas – many of which, he claims, have already worked their way into the group’s agenda.

Barbosa credits his base of support to a straightforward style of leadership, the clarity with which he has publicized his platform and his ability to get things done.

“Mike has remained very vague throughout this campaign,” said Barbosa, in reference to Johnston. “We need a president who will work for the students, not for the administration,” he added.

Asked to explain what made him a stronger presidential candidate over Barbosa, Johnston told The Hurricane: “I never like to put people down. Our ticket is very strong.”

Indeed, Justine Levine and Mahala Dar, running for vice-president and treasurer respectively, will enter the runoffs with a considerable lead. Levine got 499 votes, followed by Gina Yacone’s 385, and Dar fronts the treasurer race with 417 votes, while her standing contestant Martinique Busino gathered 277.

Low voting turnout came as no surprise to any of the sources close to the race consulted by The Hurricane; however, Renee Dickens Callan, Elections Commission Advisor, noted this year’s candidates attracted more students to the voting tables than in recent years.

One entity that kept busy throughout the race was the Student Government jury, who heard, discussed, dismissed and upheld an undetermined number of complaints brought forward against candidates who allegedly broke campaign rules. The most often violated: dragging hand-cards with campaign slogans to the voting stations.

Then there was the complaint triggered by a leaflet abandoned inside the urinal of a male restroom. One such violation could add up to 15 negative points. Twenty would slash a candidacy.

Two sources close to the election told The Hurricane under condition of anonymity that they frowned on one of presidential candidate Stefanie Hernandez’s campaign gimmicks.

“Free fruit bars!” hailed Hernandez -fourth runner up for the presidency-as she engaged passers-by into a

“why-vote-for-me” conversation on the Rock Tuesday afternoon.

“They were donated,” Hernandez told The Hurricane in reference to the fruit bars. “I don’t know from where,” she added.

Steven Priepke, the only presidential candidate that spoke about the fruit bars on the record had this to say: “I had a strawberry one – delicious.”