By Margarita MartIn-Hidalgo
Hurricane Staff Writer
A UM faculty senate committee has started to draft a proposal to develop a living wage policy for contractors hired by the university, UM employees and possibly UM student employees.
The ad hoc Committee for the Status of UNICCO Employees will determine which companies providing labor, services, and goods to the university would fall under a proposed UM living wage policy, said Jane Connolly, the committee’s chair. The proposed living wage standard would be the same as that of Miami-Dade County.
The senators’ policy will include UNICCO Services Company, the UM maintenance provider, and Chartwells, the firm that oversees the dining services, Connolly said. Follett, the company that manages the bookstore, and Fifty States, the security company, could fall under that provision, Connolly said.
It would also include UM employees and may include UM student employees, Connolly.
Connolly and six other faculty members formed the committee in late August to review salary ranges of UNICCO and Chartwells employees. The senators formed the panel after reading a report that showed UNICCO workers at UM earned less than a federal standard for the 1999-2000 academic year. The government standard for a family of three for the year 2000 was $14,150. The average UNICCO employee at UM earned $13,120—$1,030 below the mandated limit.
According to the report, UM was the second-lowest paying university in the country for that year. It trailed behind Tennessee State University, where the average worker earned $13,000 for that same period.
The faculty senate submitted a set of recommendations based on their investigation to President Donna Shalala on Oct. 26. One of the proposals asked the university to establish a committee of students, faculty members and administrators to consider the adoption of living wage policy, said law professor Michael Fischl, a senator on the committee. They committee also asked the administration to renegotiate the contracts with UNICCO and Chartwells to immediately raise the salaries of their workers by $1.25. The purpose of the second provision was “to enable Chartwells and UNICCO employees to have the benefit of health care coverage immediately.”
Chartwells and UNICCO have optional health care plans, but without the raise many employees would not be able to afford those plans, Fischl said.
“I think it is a very good idea,” said Jorge Lozano a UNICCO janitor. “The pay is very low here and the health care insurance is very high.”
Last week Shalala asked Steven Green, the senate chair, to ask the ad hoc committee to determine which companies would fall under the proposed living wage provision, Connolly said. Connolly said she believes Shalala decided against forming a new committee because she wants to see a quick resolution to the matter.
The group would have preferred to have administrators on their team because they are privy to contact information, Connolly said.
“But I’m not in principle against bypassing that if it gets the living wage for these workers,” she said. “My biggest thing is to get this done for the workers.”
Shalala was away this weekend at the football game against Boston and was not available for comment.
“We see the proposal as a step in the right direction and we hope action is taken,” said Allegra Cira, member of the recently-formed student group Coalition for a Living Wage at UM.
“But we will continue our own efforts to inform the campus about the importance of a living wage and to begin to pressure the university to adopt a living wage,” she added.
Michael Fischl, a law professor at the UM Law School, said it is “wonderful” to see students have taken an interest in the issue.
“The conventional wisdom today is that students don’t care about political issues,” Fischl said. “As the master at Pearson Residential College, I’ve never seen a group of students who care more about community service and charity and taking care of folks less fortunate than they.”
“What’s neat about this issue is that it sort-of bridges the gap between community service and politics,” added Fischl who teaches labor and contract law.
Fischl said he hopes “the folks who provide essential services on this campus for the rest of us are paid a living wage. I have great faith that president Shalala is giving the proposal a very fair hearing.”
Fischl said raising the salaries of low-wage workers to a living wage could have staggering consequences to the university, such as an increase in student tuition, parking fees or pay cuts of professors’ salaries. But Fischl said he is willing to pay the price.
“Would I favor a solution that required a broadly shared sacrifice among other groups on campus….in order to enable us to pay these folks a living wage? You bet I would,” he said.
Proposal may change wage rates for UM
Meredith fondly remembered
Chad Meredith’s death has left the University of Miami in a state of shock and sadness.
“It’s not just a loss for me and my fraternity, it’s a loss for the school,” said sophomore Timothy Williamson about losing his best friend, Chad Meredith.
Meredith drowned while swimming in Lake Osceola on the University of Miami Coral Gables campus last Monday morning, a short three months after arriving at UM as a freshman from Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Chad had been very excited about coming to UM,” said Nikki Conn, a close friend of the Meredith family, his sister Kelly’s best friend for the last 13 years.
“Chad told his parents he wanted to come to the University of Miami because of its diversity. He was a fine student and athlete,” wrote President Shalala, in a statement she released the day Meredith drowned.
In Indianapolis, Meredith had been a top high school baseball athlete.
Meredith was also part of a very close-knit family, Conn said. He had two older twin-siblings.
“I just can’t believe that Kelly’s little brother isn’t here anymore,” Conn said.
“He was very close to Alexa, his six-year-old niece,” she said.
“She loves her uncle. They were very close. She missed him a lot. At night when she looks at the moon, she would say ‘That’s the same moon that my Uncle Chad is looking at,” Conn said.
Meredith’s closest friends at UM were his soon-to-be fraternity brothers of Kappa Sigma, however, he had made ripples throughout his residential college also.
“Chad was polite, sweet. He always asked how you were going, how classes were going. We all spoke to him at one point or another,” said freshman Amanda Hoyos, who lived two suites across from Meredith in Mahoney Residential College.
“He was always very popular in school,” Conn said.
From day one, Meredith exhibited all the qualities of a Kappa Sigma brother, said Travis Montgomery, fraternity president.
“He filled all the requirements for a Kappa Sig brother. We look for gentlemen-men of honor, men of courage,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery and Meredith became friendly when they realized they were from the same hometown.
“We had a lot to talk about. We even worked in the same country club back home,” Montgomery said.
Meredith was over at the Kappa Sigma house every night, Montgomery said. He knew every fraternity brother.
“He just had a personality that attracts people. He was everything I wanted in a friend. After 3 months we were already best friends,” Williamson said.
Alumni and fraternity brothers alike were impressed with Meredith’s compelling personality, Montgomery said.
The Kappa Sigma pledge group this semester was smaller than usual-9 pledges, Montgomery said and the alumni were not pleased at the small turn-out.
“The alumni were giving us heat about it. I told them that even though it was a small group, they were really quality guys,” Montgomery said.
“I chose to take Chad as the representative pledge to go to dinner with the alumni and afterwards one of them told me, ‘If the other pledges are half as good as this one, we’ll be fine,” Montgomery said.
“He bought into everything about Kappa Sig. Chad told me after the pledging ceremony, ‘I like hanging out, I like having fun, but I wanted something more and this is it,” Montgomery said.
“To be a Kappa Sig brother is to be a best friend throughout life. We wanted him badly to be a brother and would never have done anything intentionally to hurt him,” Montgomery said.
“He was a natural leader,” Williamson said. “The media has tried to make him out to be an easily-influenced weak, little kid. He was really strong-willed and had a good head on his shoulders,” Williamson said.
“You don’t make Chad do stuff. He was a wrestler and could beat us all up! It was just a stupid thing that four guys did,” Montgomery said, becoming somber.
Williamson and Montgomery said that Meredith was very excited about swimming in the late.
Freshman Nick Cooksley told Williamson that Meredith had said that before the end of freshman year he had to swim in the lake, Williamson said.
“We want him to be remembered as the bright, funny kid he was. He was light-hearted and really intelligent,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery, Williamson and Dave May, the other student who went with Meredith to swim in the lake that day have had plenty of good times with their friend to cherish.
“We went to the FSU game, we went up to UF. Chad was all about the road trips,” Montgomery said.
“His car got towed in Tallahassee and he didn’t even get mad. We just went and had fun trying to find it all around town.”
“He always wore that baseball cap,” Williamson said, smiling.
Lesson learned from tragic death
University officials believe it is too soon to decree sanctions against the two individuals who swam Lake Osceola last Monday morning with freshman, Chad Meredith, who drowned.
However, all administrators interviewed by the Hurricane suggested there are lessons to be learned from the “poor decision” that took Meredith’s life.
For starters, swimming in the lake has been flat-out prohibited since a similar dip turned fatal for a UM student twenty years ago.
Secondly, the three students who swam said they had been drinking alcohol earlier that night. At least two of them, Meredith and Travis Montgomery, were under-aged.
Both offenses are punishable according to the university handbook.
The severity of the offences and the sort of repercussions Dave May and Travis Montgomery are likely to face remain uncertain according to Dean Gregory Singleton from the Office of Students.
Routine offenses, according to the student handbook, merit an investigation and a court-like hearing.
All cases are unique, and resolution is shaped by considerations such as whether the individual accepts guilt, has past disciplinary infractions and other special circumstances.
There will not be a hearing to go over these infractions any time soon, Singleton said.
“Now is not the appropriate time to do so,” said Singleton, who emphatically expressed the University stands behind the fraternity.
“The University has been nothing but supportive,” said Montgomery, who is also fraternity president. “There has been no threat of disciplinary action. Disciplinary action is the least of my worries.”
Pat Whitely, vice president for student affairs told the Hurricane all university disciplinary procedures are confidential.
“Right now, we’re all grieving for the death of a terrific freshman,” said Whitely.
Administration on top of the investigation as well as the Miami-Dade police have ruled out the incident as an example of hazing, and said the fact that its participants were affiliated with Kappa Sigma did not make it a fraternity event.
“The first thing the police told us when we were taken in for questioning is, ‘Don’t worry you’re not in trouble. We don’t think this is hazing.'”
Meredith’s father has also released a statement saying that the event was not hazing, Montgomery said.
“It was three brothers and one pledge. The president was in the lake. Why would the president be in the lake if it was hazing? There were no other pledges there, either,” Montgomery said.
“Greek organizations are always under the spotlight,” said Singleton, pointing out the responsibility fraternity and sorority members bear as student leaders who are active within their community.
University President Donna Shalala concurred.
“This is not a Greek issue. It’s an issue of students making poor choices,” Shalala told the Hurricane.
Shalala met Chad during orientation week. Her vivid recollection of the student including his intention to become a lawyer -as reported by the Miami Herald one day after the incident- surprised many.
“That makes it a lot more personal,” said Shalala, who telephoned Chad’s parents to offer her condolences. “It’s obviously been very difficult for them,” she added.
As far as the lessons to be learned, school officials seemed to agree.
“Swimming at five in the morning during a hurricane warning is not a smart choice,” said Whitely, who added she hopes students will be more mindful in light of Chad’s experience.
“Some young men made a decision they will probably regret for the rest of their lives.” said Singleton. “They’re certainly a good group of men,” he added.
“It was a horrible decision. As President, I should have known better. I will never know why I did it,” Montgomery said.
“I hope it serves as a wake up call for everyone,” President Shalala said.
Entertainment News
KEN KESEY
The acclaimed author and leader of the Merry Pranksters has died at age 66 of liver cancer. Kesey worked with fellow beatnik Neal Cassidy and intellectual freethinker Timothy Leary in promoting the vast LSD revolution of the 1960s. Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a dissection of conformity still widely popular with students today.
MONSTERS,INC
Monsters Inc. continued to rack up at the box office, taking in another $46.2 million and extending its total gross to an amazing $122.8 million. The Farrelly Brothers’ Shallow Hal, starring an enormous Gwyneth Paltrow (what happened?), debuted in second place. Next weekend, records are likely to be shattered with the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
OZZY OSBORNE
Ozzy Osborne’s “Merry Mayhem Tour” is being rescheduled for late November after Osbourne injured his leg getting out of a shower. In true rock spirit, Osbourne toured for a week with a severe stress fracture before consulting a doctor. The tour’s date in West Palm Beach will now be rescheduled indefinitely.
SUTHERLAND
The much hyped television show 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, failed to live up to ratings expectations with only 11.6 million people tuning in for its debut. The show was trampled by the first episode of NYPD Blue, which is now in its ninth season.
WU-TANG
The Wu-tang Clan will have a new album dropping in mid-December that is reportedly more “single oriented.” Rza is serving as the main producer amid rumors of group instability and the possible departures of Gza and U-God. The first single “Pinky Ring” has been released to national radio. Wu-tang forever?
Upcoming movies
November 14
The Wash, featuring George Wallace, DJ Pooh, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem. Roommates Dee Loc and Sean have to figure out how to rescue their kidnapped boss, Mr. Washington. Rated R.
November 16
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris and John Cleese. Adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novel about a boy who discovers on his eleventh birthday that he is a powerful wizard. Rated PG.
November 21
Black Knight, featuring Kevin Conway, Martin Lawrence, Tom Wilkinson, Marsha Thomason and Michael Countryman. An African American waiter travels back to medieval times to defeat an evil king. Rated PG-13.
Out Cold, featuring Flex Alexander, A.J. Cook, David Denman, Caroline Dhavernas, Zach Galifianakis, Willie Garson, Derek Hamilton and Jason London. A group of party-loving snowboarders try to save their town from becoming a tourist trap. Rated R.
Spy Game, featuring Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Uma Thurman and Kimberly Paige. A veteran CIA agent must organize the rescue of a captured protege who was captured by the Chinese while on a personal mission. Rated R.
November 30
Behind Enemy Lines, featuring Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson, David Keith, Gabriel Macht and Shane Johnson. A navy pilot is shot down in enemy territory while documenting genocide. His commanding officer tries, against orders, to rescue him. Rated R.
Texas Rangers, featuring James Van Der Beek, Rachael Leigh Cook, Oded Fehr, Derek Flores, Eric Johnson, Matt Keeslar and Ashton Kutcher. During the Civil War in the Texas frontier, a group of young men form the Texan Rangers, a justice agency, in order to try to tame the wild territories. Rated PG-13.
Affair of the Necklace, featuring Hilary Swank, Christopher Walken, Brian Cox, Simon Baker, Adrien Brody and Jonathan Pryce. Controversial true life story of countess Jeanne De La Motte Valois, who fought to restore her name and place in society after the royal family deprives her of them. Rated PG.
‘Beat the Geeks’ Comedy Central’s latest game show effort
When Comedy Central unveiled Win Ben Stein’s Money, critics applauded the cable net for the show’s creative format; contestants would play against each other to answer tough questions, and when one was eliminated, the remaining two competed against Ben Stein himself for $5,000.
Since then, they haven’t had much success with their other game shows; Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush wasn’t the hit the cable net expected, and their more recent Let’s Bowl gets less ratings than an infomercial for a do-it-yourself dentist kit. (Seriously, who would waste their time and watch people settle their legal disputes over bowling?)
However, despite these two big failures, they will not give up and sit idly by with just Ben Stein being their only game show. On November 7, Comedy Central unveiled Beat the Geeks, an unoriginal and pretty bad show.
The show goes like this: there are three resident geeks that have a scarily extensive amount of knowledge in the areas of music, television and film. A fourth, special guest geek joins in on the fun, and said geek’s knowledge can be in anything, ranging from Star Wars to Michael Jackson to Playboy.
Three contestants start off and try to eliminate each other by answering questions, like Ben Stein, the two remaining contestants play against each other, like Ben Stein, and the finalist plays against a geek, like Ben Stein, for a prize worth $5000, just like Ben Stein.
The whole ‘geek’ idea is pretty interesting, but the show just doesn’t pull it off. The show’s lighting and music is just like that of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the format is very similar to, surprise surprise, Ben Stein.
But forget that. What really kills the show are two things – the easy questions and the host. Geeks has fallen into the trap of asking extremely easy questions, making the show just not interesting to watch. Anyone can answer these questions. The hard questions, to be fair to the contestants, are only asked of the geeks. This is too bad because any show is only interesting when hard questions are asked.
Personally, I think the show would work better if they had it as a team of geeks against another team of geeks. Instead, we get uninteresting contestants answering ho-hum questions while the geeks spout out cheesy threats.
But nothing is cheesier than the show’s host, J. Keith van Straaten. Looking like Drew Carey if he lost 200 pounds but kept his head, this guy does not hold anyone’s interest and gets swallowed up by the geeks. He does not have what is necessary for every game show host to have – personality.
Every host, from Chuck Woolery to Bob Barker and even Louie Anderson have some personality, but this one has none. He could go the Regis Philbin route and be just annoying enough to make people watch the show, but he is just too annoying and boring. When he tries to be intimidating, he comes off as confused, and when he tries to make a joke, he looks like not even he gets it.
His co-host, Tiffany, is another story. A true testament to what Comedy Central knows best, she is there solely for eye candy and keeps the viewer from changing the channel. But not even she can hold anyone to watch this pathetic attempt of a game show.
The next two episodes will come on at 10:30 p.m. after South Park and it will begin regularly at 7:30 p.m. on December 10th. For it to survive, however, Comedy Central better make a major re-tooling of this show, or it will fall to the wayside and hopefully stay there.
Quaint French restaurant packs in flavor and people
When my father came down from NJ for the week, I decided it was a prime time to finally visit the much-buzzed about Houston’s in Coral Gables. When we arrived, we were met by velvet ropes, an hour wait and too many Miami power couples dressed in too-expensive Prada mini-skirts and electric blue two-piece suits.
Down the road a bit, at 2415 Ponce de Leon, we discovered a quaint French restaurant called Les Halles. After a short 5-minute wait, we were promptly seated in one of the wooden tables. We were surrounded by people and slightly squashed, seeing as noisy tables all around us (including a retirement party) were making it a strain to even hear our waitress.
The place itself had confusing decorations, Mexican-like paintings of French locales. It was only one room without any type of partitions or walls. This added to the claustrophobia, and I’m sure the retirement party was also a factor, though perhaps it’s not usually like that.
To make up for this minor disturbance, the food itself was just perfect. My entree, a grilled vegetable plate, was bursting with sweet flavor.
Each vegetable was grilled with just the right seasoning and for just the right amount of time to bring out maximum flavor. The caramelized onions melted in my mouth, and the moist zucchini (a vegetable that has a habit of tasting plain) was just as sugary. A side salad’s dressing complimented the overall abundance of moist sweetness perfectly.
My friend raved about her Chicken Caesar salad, calling it “delicious” and giving compliments specifically to the dressing. My quite simple, unsophisticated dad (though I do very much love him), when asked about his steak said, “It’s a steak.”
The final exclamation on the dinner came in the end, with dessert. I had almost had my fill, yet still ordered vanilla ice cream filled puff pastries with chocolate sauce on top. The waiter brought over the dessert and poured the chocolate sauce at the table. It looked so scrumptious that it seemed a crime to taste it, but of course I dug right in.
“Perfection” was the first word that came to my mind. My friend muttered “incredible” while gobbling down a bite.
And our sentiments were not hyperbolic in the least. The small, flaky pastries filled with a small dollop of vanilla ice cream were fine by themselves, but it was the chocolate that really stood out in the dish – it was as sinfully delicious as chocolate gets. It’s always wonderful when dessert tops an already excellent meal.
The service was only so-so, however. This is Miami, so drinks refills are expected to be long delayed, but “They’re leaving me high and dry” is a phrase I used frequently. Moderately pricey, a meal for one should come out to about 25 dollars, a meal for two perhaps 40-50.
Neil Simon cooks with humor and reality
In The Dinner Party, Neil Simon places people who would rather not come anywhere near each other in the same restaurant with others in the same predicament. It is a recipe for disaster – or not, if one has Simon’s light touch of wit and humor and gift for tackling a thorny issue like divorce.
Albert Donay, a rental car dealer who considers himself at heart a born painter, has had two divorces. That is fairly common, but it ceases to be standard fare when one learns that both divorces involved the same woman. The first time was better than the second, or else they wouldn’t have tried again, goes one line in the play.
Claude Pichon, a rare book dealer, married a woman who got half of all he had after their divorce. At one point he wishes he had divorced Albert as that would have been cheaper. The two are the first to arrive at a party they think was arranged by their divorce lawyer. Slowly the plot thickens and makes Simon’s concoction savory. As the other guests arrive they realize they have a lot to talk about.
The Dinner Party is a play with particular ingredients that could only have come from the boiling pot of hearty humor from Neil Simon’s kitchen. The playwright situates the action in Paris at a fancy restaurant. The characters are French. It would seem that he wants to pay homage to MoliEre, the inventor of bourgeois comedy, but in truth his attempt at sophistication lacks pretentiousness.
This is evident when one of the characters speaks of French authors like Camus and Sartre as if reading from a very American grocery list. It is a play with hints of MoliEre but wholly in the style that made Neil Simon famous. It is not a subtle play, nor is it surprising. However, it captures the bittersweetness of a broken vow.
It rings true because Neil Simon, after five marriages, knows what he is talking about. People say, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Simon apparently thrives in this kitchen.
It is a traditional play with Neil Simon’s trademark witty lines and comic characters that are exaggerated in their goofiness, echoing Charlie Chaplin and Jerry Lewis. What is not so traditional about the play is the absence of an intermission.
The action flows without interruption, in a real-time fashion where groups of characters with particular issues exchange their repartees or sardonic remarks, then leave the stage for another group to come and do their thing. It is well-timed, allowing for the plot to unravel gracefully, without jaggedness and with plenty of laughter.
‘Three Sisters’ take stage at Ring Theatre
In an outstanding theatre department performance, director Bruce Miller and his cast breathe life into the pages of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, doing justice to both the masterpiece and the genius behind it.
Set in provincial nineteenth century Russia, Three Sisters explores Chekhov’s recurring themes of the passage of time and the hope and grief that come with loss, endurance, love and life itself through the trials and triumphs of three strong women: Olga, Masha and Irina Sergeevna.
Throughout the five-year time span of their story, the sisters and the military men surrounding them live their lives in direct opposition to their innermost feelings, which are seldom freely expressed, and their real desires, which go unfulfilled.
Portraying the intent behind Chekhov’s play was a formidable task for Miller because its most meaningful aspects are disguised in philosophical dialogue and what goes unsaid as opposed to a climactic action, event or emotion. Because the play is not confined to the cliche plot outline of the rising action, climax and falling action, more emphasis was placed on its more subtle aspects.
The actors, whose command of their roles was superlative, accomplish this goal with sophistication and grace. Caitlyn Loesch, Kat Lower and Jessica Delbridge individually capture the essence of their respective characters Olga, Irina and Masha; while, at the same time, collectively share a chemistry that makes their sisterhood authentic.
Douglas Ghizzoni naturally transitions his character through the years from the once soft-spoken only brother Andrei to father, husband and victim of an unhappy marriage. Marcos Sanchez’s portrayal of Fyodor Ilich Kulygin is moving as his pathetic attempts to accept his failed marriage evoke both pity and admiration. Brad Bauner, who plays the father figure to the sisters, conveys beautifully the frustration of the misunderstood, aging doctor.
Next to the acting, award winning set designer Kenneth Kurtz served an equally important task and executed it with both simplicity and creativity. Employing the resources of scenery and the layout of the Ring Theatre, the entire theatre was used as a stage, with actors entering and exiting from different places throughout, taking the action into the audience.
With an audience of mainly Ring Theatre patrons and supporters, student attendance was heavily lacking. Though performed for a high-brow, older crowd, Three Sisters has an appeal to all ages. Realizing the need to incorporate the student body, the Friends of the Theatre have established a student membership for $35 for the season.
Director Bruce Miller wrote, “For a director, finding the action hidden on the page, and making it come alive on stage is both the challenge and the joy.”
This joy was passed on through his work to the audience as Chekhov’s challenge was met and mastered.