Miami Hurricane, March 02, 1984

              Volume 60 Number 40
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Friday, March 2, 1984
By LOURDES FERNANDEZ
Hurricane News Editor
Christine Craft, television anchorwoman who has spent more of the past year in courtrooms than in newsrooms, spent most of Wednesday at the University of Miami.
After a luncheon with several students and communication professors, she spoke at the Beaumont Cinema and later in a press conference. That night she delivered a lecture at Gusman Hall.
In 1981, Craft filed suit against Metromedia affiliate KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo., after the station demoted her from co-anchor to an off-camera reporter. KMBC’s executives told her she was "too old, too unattractive and not sufficiently deferential to men.”
She sued Metromedia on three charges: fraud (being hired on her abilities and demoted on her looks), sex discrimination, and violation of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 in paying her less than co-anchor Scott Feldman (she got $35,000; he got $80,000).
“In my case, the important part was not ‘was 1 or was I not a mutt,’ but that when I was fired I didn't defer to men," she said. “I dared to know the difference between the American and National League.”
Four days after the demotion, Craft met with Metromedia executives, who offered her an out-of-court settlement of $9,500. She might have taken it, she said, “but then they added, ‘Well, we'll throw in the clothes.' That did it.”
She spoke of the times when she would have to cancel stories at KMBC in order to try on clothes. “It was a ridiculous waste of time," she says.
A six-member jury in Kansas City found Metromedia guilty of fraud and sex discrimination, but the judge overruled the sex discrimination charge and ordered a retrial and change of venue for the fraud charge.
The retrial took place in Joplin, Mo. Although a conservative community, said Craft, Joplin “could tell who was telling the truth and who wasn’t.”
She doesn't expect the lawsuits to make any major changes in the broadcasting world, but she said there have been some specific changes already. Also, real
change comes from dialogue and debate, she said.
“My name Is being spoken in hushed tones throughout newsrooms and that's good."
Craft said she does hope the lawsuits will "empower not only women, but also men — to fight for integrity."
She criticized the consultants who recommended her demotion. She said that their research is "dubious" and that ratings are antithetical to what news stations should be. Newscasters should have integrity and there is no place in the media for consultants that use these dubious methods, according to Craft.
Consultants are the creators of the "illusion of credibility," said Craft, which means that what becomes important is not the news, but whether newscasters are credible. That, she said, is heinous and wrong.
“Broadcasters have the responsibility to lead the way, not listen to consultants or cater to the common denominator," she said. "Our job is not to give the people what they want; our job is to give them the news. Clearly, a good journalist covers the news."
She said she loves the medium, but television news has its restrictions, especially time. Another complaint is that much of that time is devoted to light news, such as a series one station ran on Pia Zadora.
When asked if she would go through the trouble of a suit again, she said, "Absolutely — it’s still worth it."
Craft, who cracks jokes as easily in an intimate meeting of 20 people as in a lecture to 200, said she has maintained her sense of good humor and "learned quickly not to make it (the case] a personal vendetta.”
Currently, Metromedia is appealing the fraud charge, and Craft is counterappealing the sex discrimination charge. Craft has not yet received any money from the previous decisions and owes $40,000 in court costs.
However, Craft said, “I'm not getting weaker, I’m getting stronger."
For the time being, Craft plans to finish her lecture circuit sometime in mid-May and then help Sen. Gary Hart in his campaign. She is writing a book, Once More Without Feeling, and she would like someday to form her own video production company.
Miami Hurricane/ROBEK I MASS
Craft speaks to students and faculty at the Beaumont Cinema
Foote, students discuss tuition
By LISA GIBBS
and
RONNIE RAMOS
Of the Hurricane Staff
Students and administrators Wednesday got an opportunity to diacMM the tuition increase for the first time since the Board of Trustees approved it. However, Wednesday's meeting of the Undergraduate Student Body Government Senate provided more questions than answers.
President Edward T. Foote, who spoke at the meeting, dismissed as "too easy" 2,800 memos signed in protest by students earlier in the week.
The mimeographed memos read: “I hereby express my displeasure over the 1984-85 tuition increase of $600. I further believe that the student body should be granted more information regarding the allocation of tuition funds."
Foote said that anyone would agree with such a petition.
“Go ask them |the students| if they want to pay less tuition," Foote said. "Ask them if they want to pay zero tuition; of course they're going to sign. I’ll sign. That's too easy."
USBG President Mark Cheskin, who supported the memo idea and spent several hours soliciting signatures, responded that the admins-trators' dismissal of the petitions indicated the administrators’ lack of consideration.
“We got more students to sign these petitions than |students| who signed up for the Orange Bowl in two days," Cheskin said. "The petitions gave students a chance to express their displeasure, and they will make the process better for next year
"For the administration to brush off the petitions shows they don't care what students think, pure and simple."
The entire Senate expressed its displeasure over the handling of the tuition increase, protesting the senators’ lack of opportunity to provide input and lack of knowledge of where the money will be going
"1 would like to believe that the administration wants to work with us," said Sen. Izhar Haq, who wrote bills to re-establish a tuition budget committee and to ask the administration to release the budget. "There’s been a breakdown of communication between student government and the administration "
Foote said that once the budget is approved by the Board of Trustees, information about the budget is available to the students in the form
of a booklet kept in the library. However, the "plan of operations" booklet is not sent for final approval until May; thus, the booklet is not available to students until June.
Haq said that he called Foote's office for budget information and was told there was none available. "We have the right to know exactly what the Board is voting on .... All we want to do is see what the Board has tentatively approved. Students have the right to be represented on a budget committee.”
Foote, who answered the questions of other students as well as senators, said that Cheskin had been present at several budget meetings and that nothing was confidential. Provost William Lee, Vice President for Student Affairs William Butler and Vice President for Business and Finance David Lieber-man corroborated Foote's statements.
Cheskin had a different story. Though admitting to the Senate that he and Treasurer Angie Vas-quez had been allowed to attend a few meetings with administrators, he said that the two had no input as to where the money would go. Cheskin said he and Vasquez were able only to contribute to discussion of how much of the tuition increase would go toward filling the gap between projected expenditure and revenue.
“We were not allowed to question," said Cheskin. He told the Senate that he was asked by Foote and the administration not to reveal what was discussed at the meetings.
After much debate and despite some opposition, the Senate passed the bills requesting the re-establishment of the budget committee and the release of budget information.
However, a resolution proclaiming Tuition Awareness Days (TAD) failed. Some senators felt the resolution was, as one called it, "senseless."
"We worked hard . . The same people who sponsored the bill opposed it," said Haq of the opposition to his bills.
“USBG is in the process of installing new mechanisms of the budget-making process," said Haq. “There is some misunderstanding as to what these bills will accomplish."
USBG intends to concentrate on reworking the budget guidelines for next year.
"We're going to work with the administration,” said Cheskin. “No future student government will be the scapegoat for the tuition increase."
Inside
An eye on the Eye
Our series on the campus eateries continues with a look at the Eye /PAGE 3
Why endorsements
A column on why the Hurricane endorses for the Undergraduate Student Body Government /PAGE 4
Calle Ocho
Students show their talent in the Calle Ocho festival / PAGE 6
Rugby
The Rugby Club wins its fifth consecutive state championship /PAGE 9
Sign on the dotted line
Undergraduate Student Body Government Supreme Court Chief Justice Glenn Gerena adds his signature to those collected during the Tuition Awareness Day petition drive. USBG sponsored the day to protest the $600 tuition increase.
Sharvy’s rights violated, philosophical group states
By LOURDES FERNANDEZ
Hurricane Sews Editor
The University of Miami has violated the professional rights of former philosophy professor Richard Sharvy, according to the latest report of the American Philosophical Association.
Because of the Feb. report, job notices from UM in Jobs for Philosophers will carry a dagger, meaning UM's “administration has been found prima facie — to have violated a philosopher's professional rights."
The report, prepared by the Committee for Defense of Professional Rights of Philosophers, also stated that "because an ad hoc fact-finding committee of the University of Miami faculty senate has been appointed to look into the matter, the Board is witholding further action for the time being."
Sharvy first complained to the association in Oct.1982, when he was not re-appointed to his position in the philosophy department. Sharvy’s appointment was a probationary one, due to expire at the end of the 1982-83 academic year.
According to Sharvy, chairman Ramon Lemos recommended to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that his contract not be renewed, even though the philosophy department voted to keep him on
Sharvy’s complaint, first only with the chairman, later included the dean, Provost William Lee, and President Edward T. Foote.
This is the not the first time Sharvy has had a run-in with the university. When teaching here, he sued the university after janitors inadvertently hauled away several boxes of his he had left in the hallway And, in his own words, he "chewed out" Foote about the campus beautification plan when he encountered him on campus one day.
His actions may have influenced the decision to not renew his appointment, according to the committee. States the report: "In the end it appears that his re-appointment was denied only because certain actions and public statements of his, being found offensive by officers of the university administration, were accepted by them as reasons not to re-appoint him."
It further said that the committee found that Lemos had not violated Sharvy's rights. However, Dean Arthur Brown of the College of Arts and Sciences actions did violate his academic freedom "in so brutal a manner as to be without precedent as far as the committee's memories reach."
Lastly, it states that Foote and Lee "compounded the offense by further disregard for informed and virtually unanimous faculty opinion and by furnishing Professor Sharvy with a distorted and incomplete statement of the reasons for his dismissal."
UM to observe King holiday
By MARY CRONIN
Hurricane Staff Writer
A proposal to observe Martin Luther King Day as an official UM holiday would reduce employees' floating holidays from two days to one day if approved.
The proposal would affect the Coral Gables and Virginia Key campuses only and does not affect faculty because they have a different holiday schedule, said Roosevelt Thomas, assistant vice presidLMit for personnel and affirmative action and originator of the proposal
The medical school employees follow a Dade County holiday schedule which they chose five years ago. Thomas added
While controversy has arisen over the university's willingness to replace a floating holiday (personal day) with Martin Luther King Day. Thomas said UM is more generous with employee holidays than most universities and business nationwide.
“We have 12 holidays a year and fewer than five percent of companies and universities in the United States give 12 holidays," Thomas said "The standard is nine to ten holidays a year," he added.
Although Thomas said he has not heard many complaints about the holiday switch, many people have questioned why King's birthday was chosen as an official university holiday.
Thomas stated he believes the holiday is legitimate
“Martin Luther King Day is the only holiday that has any significance to black Americans. It also has a special significance to South Floridians," said Thomas. "With all the racial tension in Miami, our observance of Martin Luther King Day is a positive signal to the community," said Thomas
About 30,000 tickets given in six months
By PAT GARRIGA
Hurricane Staff Writer If you've received a parking ticket in the period from June to December, you’re not alone. Some 30.-000 other people did too, according to Jane G. Gailey, University of Miami parking coordinator
In a series of interviews during the last two weeks, Gailey provided statistics and background information concerning the parking situation on the Coral Gables campus According to a May 1983 travel and parking survey conducted by Ira M. Sheskin, geography professor, and Ralph Warburton, professor of architecture and planning, approximately 14,600 people come to the Coral Gables campus on an average weekday during the fall and spring semesters
The survey found that 92 percent arrive by car — 45 percent before 9 a.m. and 38 percent between 9 a m and noon. Thus, there is a "rush hour" for parking spaces beginning at 9 a m.
The study also states that 71 percent spend less than six minutes finding a parking space. However, for 80 percent of those in the survey, another six minutes is needed to go from the parking lot to the destination on campus.
As of December, the total number of parking spaces available was estimated to be 7,000, according to Gailey. These spaces are divided the following way: 2,381 commuter spaces; 1,709 resident spaces; 787 faculty, administration and employee spaces; 124 visitor spaces There are another 1,900 spaces which Gailey said were “on-street parking."
There were 10,000 decals purchased for the period of June to December, according to Public Safety. These were distributed in this way: 8,100 resident and commuter; 1,400 faculty, administration and employee; 500 visitor.
Buying a decal does not guarantee a parking space, said Gailey; the decal can only reduce the chances of getting a ticket once a space is found
Any "no-decal vehicle" can be billed for a ticket, Gailey said, since the owner is traced through the li-
cense plate number
Traffic enforcement officers are authorized to issue tickets. They do not work on a commission basis, according to Gailey. There is one full-time officer and 12 work-study students, who work both in the parking lots and in the office Before becoming an officer, a week-long training course, paid for ty. Public Safety, is required
Often a ticket is paid, yet the person continues to be billed for the same violation
According to Nancy Pettigrew, collections manager in the bursar s office, that problem can be blamed on the present manual billing system. which can take from one month to six weeks to clear an account
The solution is an on-line computer system in each department, she said Thus, when a bill is paid in Public Safety, it would immediately show up on the person's account as paid
Pettigrew said there is a long-range plan to have such a system implemented by 1985
When asked if a student can be billed for a parking violation at the parents' address, she said this could be the case if that was the address given for billing when the student enrolled
Students have the option of appealing a violation they believe is unfair
Gailey said, "The motto in this department is. ‘Pay it or appeal it.' and I’m a firm believer of the written appeal "
Of the 3,000 tickets appealed. 53 percent were granted, 37 percent were denied and 10 percent were reduced.
The appeals board consists of appointed members: one undergraduate student, one graduate student two faculty members and two employees. All are expected to serve for one year.
Gailey added that whenever there is a high number of violations in one particular area, it is investigated The solution is often the placement of additional signs or the trimming of branches which have obscured existing signs.
Please tum to page 2/PARKING