Miami Hurricane, November 18, 1988

              Arab understanding
A University of Miami Palestinian student explains
his roots and culture.
Opinion — page 4
Spreading the word
Noted black poet Sonia Sanchez spoke to a University of Miami class Monday.
Accent — page 6
Battle of Titans
UM faces powerhouse Louisiana State University
Saturday.
Sports—page 8
THE MIAMI
URRICANE
Volume 66, Number 23
University of Miami
Friday, Nov. 18,
UM may name commuter director
By PAT McCREERY
Editor fn chief
It Carolyn Salisbury gets her way, University of
Miami commuter students next year will have many
of the same social and educational opportunities
now found only in residential colleges.
Salisbury, president of the Roadrunners commuter student organization, recently asked administrators to create a commuter affairs office with a director and programming budget. The office would
provide programming for that half of the student
population which commutes to class.
She wants the director to have clout similar to
George Shoffner, director of the department of Res-
Students ignoring
OSCAR schedule
Programming funds may be allotted
idence Halls.
Commuter students, Salisbury said, think they
deserve more administrative support, especially because UM spent over $5 million to renovate five dormitories into residential colleges and then increased
the colleges' programming budgets.
"There's so much that's done for residential college students. They have barbeques, lectures and receptions," Salisbury said. "For years, not enough attention has been paid to commuter students."
Acting on the suggestions of Salisbury and others, Dr. William Butler, vice president for student
affairs, has asked UM's budget committee to supply
enough money for a director, secretary and programming funds.
"I admit that I don't have all the answers about
what to do with commuter students, but I recognize
that 50 percent of the campus ... needs our attention," Butler said.
The budget committee will forward the request
along with its recommendations to Provost Luis
Glaser. Likewise, Glaser will pass the proposal to
President Edward T. Foote II, who will forward it to
the board of trustees' finance and audit committee.
which will make its recommendations to the full
board.
Glaser, who outlined this process, said changes
may be made to the initial recommendation anywhere along the route.
He said he favors University-funded activities for
commuter students, but is not sure yet how much
money, if any, the University can afford to spend.
"We are still wrestling with many things in the
budget," he said.
Glaser said administrators may not know until
April, when they finalize the University's budget,
whether they have enough money for a commuter
Please see page 3/COMMUTEtS
By ALBERT XIQUES
e . i■.tant JVcws Editor
Already in its second full semester of operation, the much
hailed On-line Student "Computerized Academic Registration is
not being used to its full potential. According to Dr. Thompson
Biggers, associate dean of enrollments, only 68.9 percent of
the students scheduled to register during the first two weeks
have already done so.
Of the 11,113 student* who
were scheduled to register, only
3,578 had registered by last Friday. This represents about one-
third of the total numlw, nt t*x_,
..... wteee    ■> > ■      > •   ,-.e-., »-i i ■> ,      ut
though more Ihan half of the
registration period has passed,
he said.
"I'm having nightmares of
August all over again — but
worse," Biggers said, referring
to the eight- and nine-hour lines
some students had to endure.
"We're seeing a lot of continuing students saying that they'll
just register in January."
Biggers added that he fears
students do not realize this is
the main registration period for
the spring semester, and if they
fail to register now they may
get closed out of classes or have
to stand in long lines.
Student Government President Freddie Stebbins agreed
the lack of student registration
is a problem.
"I wish more students would
take advantage of it because it's
much easier than the system
we've had the last 10 to 20
years," Stebbins said. "It appears that they are starting to
think that since it only takes a
few minutes they can put it
off." He added that students do
not realize that if they wait,
classes will not be available.
Biggers also said the longer
lee.lt eel-    Wait,    lit,     leus    likf.lv
selections.
"There are some classes that
are closed," he said. "If they're
closed now, imagine in January
|sincej no new classes will be
opened."
Biggers stressed that students
who do not complete their registration before the first day of
classes will be charged a $100
late fee. For every week they
continue to wait, the fee will increase by $100. However, if students register now and decide to
change a class later, no
add/drop fees will be charged.
Auto thieves
apprehended
By ROBERT S. MARSHALL
Mu// Wrel.-r
Raymond Oritz, a 4-foot-9 gra-
vedigger from Miami, came up
short Nov. 10 when University of
Miami police buried his chances
(o steal his second car for the day
in the parking lot between the
apartments and Ponce De Leon
Boulevard, according to UM police reports.
Oritz and his partner, Jorge
Luis Ramos, 22, of 531 N.W. 73th
St.. Miami, were arrested for auto
theft, burglary to conveyance,
possession of burglary tools and
possession of a controlled sub-
slance by UM police.
The arrest signals a marked increase of successful arrests by
I'M police this month of auto
theft and burglary suspects.
While on a routine patrol, UM
Public Safety Officer Melvin
Tooks noticed Ramos in the parking lot. "It | Ramos' car| looked
i eui uf place for the area," Tooks
said.
As 'looks approached Ramos,
Oritz rmerged from behind a
parked 1986 silver Honda. Ramos
was seat-id inside a 1986 blue
Mazda 626 with the engine run-
rooka asked Oritz what he was
mar the cars. Tooks said
Oritz replied he was "taking a
Tooks responded by stat-
siory's impossibility.
kl said he then asked the
ir names in order to run
und checks.
cave false names, but
they were similar to their own
and they used their own birth-
dates." Tooks said. "We kind of
figured what was going on. So
we ended up getting their real
names and found their police records."
Tooks then called for assistance
and Sgt. Robert Remmen arrived.
They asked Ramosfor the vehicle
registration, since they could not
search the car unless they knew it
was stolen.
Tooks said he noticed the ignition switch lock had been removed. When asked about the
name "Alan Kirk" on the registration, the pair replied that the
car belonged to a friend.
"I pretty much doubted that
and told them." Tooks said.
"The windows were tinted so it
was pretty hard to look inside,"
he said. *'I had to put my face
right up against the window.
When I looked inside, I saw a
slam hammer on the passenger's
seat with the ignition to the car
on the end of it." A slam hammer
is a tool with a screw attached to
the tip used to fix dents in car
bodies.
"When we searched them, we
found that they each had two
pairs of pants on," Tooks said,
noting they probably were hitting a place and then changing
clothes quickly to avoid recognition.
A search of the Mazda uncovered the car's ignition lock and a
small bag of white powder which
Tooks said he suspects is cocaine.
Oritz and Ramos were taken to
Dade County Jail.
Hurricane top jobs available
Tuesday, the University of Miami's Board of Student Pub-
ina will elect next semester's Miami Hurricane editor in
' tnd business manager. Students interested in either job
•hould obtain an application from Pam Hernandez in Whitten
University Center 221.
CHRISTINE URESUN/Huniama Staff
Food for thought
Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters Gayle Schleifer, Kathy Wittmer, Sonja Schnell, Alison Gillespie, Karen
Feldpouch. Kaylie Ebner and Marlene Gato dressed as nurses, vegetables and fruit to promote heath and
nutrition for the American Heart Association Wednesday at the University station of Metrorail.
SG bill to extend drop period
By SUNNY GOLDIN
Stuff Writer
A bill to extend the period during which a course may be
dropped without a "W'was
passed by acclamation at the Student Government Senate meeting
on Wednesday. A "W" on a student's record is a formal sign of
withdrawal from a course, but
does not affect the student's
grade point average.
The bill now goes to the administration for consideration. If
passed, the period would be extended until the third Wednesday
following the first Tuesday of
classes.
The bill, authored by C. Dean
Furman, speaker pro tempore,
and Jacque Levermore, SG Cabinet undersecretary, was designed
to give students additional time to
decide if they want to drop a
class.
With the current drop period,
students who have Tuesday/Thursday classes only have
four class sessions to decide if
they wish to drop the class. The
bill would allow for at least one
additional day of class to make a
decision.
"In all likelihood it would start
next year," said Furman, noting
that the administration has 30
days to decide on the bill.
The senate also passed a bill by
acclamation requiring the University and the department of
Residence Halls to give proper
notice of all health and safety inspections being conducted.
According to the bill, written
by Marc Oster, speaker of the
Students to get more time to judge classes
senate, and junior senator Ken
DeMoor, prior to the inspections,
Residence Hall staff must prominently advertise the inspections
and make reasonable attempts to
contact the students before key-
ing-in to student rooms.
"This bill does not create a perfect world, but it begins to address the question of administrative entry," Oster said. "I feel the
bill balances the needs of Residence Halls with students. We
cannot allow Residence Halls to
create anything similar to a police
state."
The initiative for the bill came
earlier this semester when some
students complained resident assistants were unnecessarily entering student rooms during
health and safety checks and not
informing students about the inspections.
The bill also must be passed by
the administration before it can
take effect.
In other business, the senate
ratified Paul McDonnough's appointment as Parliamentarian. He
replaces Mike Marcil, who was
recently elected to a sophomore
senate seat.
Also during the meeting, Stu-
dent Govenment Productions announced that Thomas Dolby will
play at the Whitten University
Center on Dec. 2. Admission-is
free for University students, and
500 guest passes will be available
for $10 each.
The senate decided by acclamation not to meet next week due to
the Thanksgiving holiday. The
senate will resume with its last
meeting of the semester Nov. 30.
Senate secretary dismissed
By ALBERT XIQUES
Assistant News Editor
On Wednesday, Marc Oster,
speaker of the Student Government Senate, dismissed Secretary
of the Senate Max Adams from
his position.
The secretary of the senate is
not elected to the position, but is
appointed by the speaker.
In a letter to Adams, Oster explained that the action was taken
due to Adams' inability to improve the organization and add to
the cohesiveness of the SG Senate, "for whatever reasons."
Adams, who ran for SG President last spring, had been appointed by Oster to the position
during the summer, so that he
could "assist the speaker in the
day-to-day operations of the senate."
"I have looked at Max Adams'
service in the senate and I said to
myself,'... Is he an asset or a detriment?' and for whatever reason, he is not assisting the speaker in the speaker's
responsibilities, and therefore I
had no choice but to dismiss
him," Oster said. He also added
that Adams' inability to work
well with his colleagues in the
senate contributed to the problem.
Part of the controversy arose
from a memorandum sent from
the SG Council of Chairpeople,
comprised of the leaders of SG's
committees, to Oster listing numerous concerns about Adams
and asking that Adams resign or
be dismissed. According to Oster,
he did not receive the memo until
after he had already dismissed
Adams.
Adams, however, said that he
thought his dismissal was politi
cally motivated, and that he was
not treated fairly.
"He beat me — because of my
views, because he doesn't like me
— he got me out," Adams said.
Adams also added that he felt
that the action was taken because
of pressure that C. Dean Furman.
chairperson of the council of
chairpeople and co-author of the
memo, was applying to the senators.
He also alleged that SG leaders
wanted him out because Furman
did not want to run against him
for SG President in the spring.
Both Furman and Oster denied
Adams' allegations.
"If we wanted to get him out of
SG, we would have brought articles of Impeachment against
him," Furman said. Had Adams
been found guilty of the charges,
he would have been barred from
SG for one year.
1