Miami Hurricane, April 03, 1990

              An informed opinion
| SGdST"*"lls rewmn,e»dations for today's
Opinion—page 4
And the winners are...
,Ve“,h'11Ul Accent — page 6
Pity poor Bill
THE MIAMI
URRICAN E
Butler upholds 2.5 rule; students
still disqualified
USA referendum will appear on ballot
By TOMB. HIGGINS
£SCHAELR-M0RR,s
R,Jur ?th tl0n by Dr' W'Uiam Butler. University of Miami vice
president for student affairs, the .-t> minimum grade point average requirement has survived a Supreme Court ruling declaring it unconstitutional.
The Court also reversed itself on the University Student Association referendum and VOTE 90
t*‘!!?,lo.w “ t0 fPPear on election ballots during elections today and tomorrow.
The Court heard an appeal on March 27 of its March 22raling declaring USA unconstitutional «TJ? t0 a decision on “ar£|j 27, the Court issued an opinion Thursday evening that unanimously declared USA ronsMtitkm-
aL
At the same meeting, the Court released a letter they had sent to Butler. That letter castigated Butler for not responding quickly to the Court.
"... the entire Court is dismayed
by this lack of action on your part,” the Court wrote.
Under the SG Constitution, bills dealmg with University policy and changes to the SG constitution have to be approved by the administration Since the original referendum calling for the 2.5 requirement was an amendment, it required administrative approval. Once that
approval was	it became
University policy over which Pres-
«yWardTF00,e,,hasfinal Writing "as the designee of the President,” Butler sent a memo to the Supreme Court yesterday in which he declared the 2.5 rule still ui effect.
"I have concluded that the amendment is part of the Student Covenimtnl Constitution and is ¡JJ*“*.. University policy," Butler
®^r's ">««0 states the only method of changing the 2.5 amend-1S, by . adopting another
*2 5 rale* " Wh,dl W0Uld repeai 0,6 "To bypass this would be a gross mistake on my port," Butler said.
He added the original amendment legislation was “well thought" and had influenced his decision last fall to accept the proposal as University policy "I acted on it with the full force of this office [student affairs]. The full
DAVE BERGMAN/ Assistant Photo Edit«
Please see page 2/COURT
Pumping 'em up
cSSSboS* T^dst^cVnn^iZfS °H0rS f°m& ^ds ot wisdom at Saturday s intrasquad scrimmage at the sc„„am.g. s,	s‘,urd’y
Ex-candidates deny trashing Hurricane newspapers
By LAURIE L. THOMAS
Contributing Editor
A complaint was filed yesterday in the dean of students' office against two former Student Government candidates accused by eyewitnesses of removing numerous copies of The Miami Hurricane from Stanford Residential College and attempting to remove more from Mahoney Residential College early Friday monung.
The front page of the March 30 issue contained a report headlined “GPA rule eliminates five SG candidates.” In the report. Teesta Sisodia, a presidential hopeful, and Kevin Ferber, her running mate for vice president on the TKW ticket, were declared by SG adviser Dr. Craig Ullom as ineligible to seek office during the current elections.
In a memo written by Ullom, he declared Sisodia, Fer-ber and three other candidates ineligible to seek office because a section of the SG Constitution stipulates executive officers “shall have and maintain a cumulative 2.5 grade point average ... and be registered as a full-time student throughout tenure in office.” Sisodia and and Ferber claim they should not have been disqualified because their GPAs are not available to be verified because of a hold placed their grades.
Friday night the newspapers were delivered around 11 m. to the residential colleges as usual While on duty, IRC desk assistant Tiffany Bost said she saw Kevin Fer-
I
ber carrying a stack of Hurricanes at least seven inches high out of SRC at about 12:15 a.m. Bost, also assistant Hurricane news editor, said she was curious why Ferber had so many newspapers and followed him out of SRC and down the walkway toward the Hecht/Stanford Dining Hall. She said she was about 30 feet behind Ferber and lost sight of him after he walked down a ramp leading to the parking lot.
While following Ferber, she encountered Teesta Sisodia, who was approaching the SRC entrance. Bost walked to a garbage can at the end of the walkway, then turned to walk back. On her return trip, Bost said she saw Sisodia carrying a stack of newspapers about four inches high.
When she re-entered SRC, Bost said she checked the bin in the lobby and all copies of the Hurricane were gone.
Bost said she was concerned Ferber and Sisodia had removed all the newspapers from the bin and contacted Hurricane News Editor Tom B. Higgins. He called Hurricane Accent Editor Amy Ellis, also a Pearson resident assitant, and informed her of what Bost reported to him.
Ellis said she entered the PRC lobby in time to see Sisodia leaving with a stack of papers at least eight inches tall. She approached Sisodia and asked her why she needed so many newspapers. According to Ellis, Sisodia offered to put the papers back. However, Ellis said Sisodia first explained she needed copies for the people who live on her floor in SRC; then Sisodia said they were for her family and friends. Finally, Ellis said Sisodia told her she was taking the copies to a fraternity house.
Sisodia left the building after returning the papers to the PRC bin. according to Ellis. She also suggested Sisodia come to the Humcane business office, u she needed to obtain extra copies.
Ferber and Sisodia tell a different version of the story.
According to them, they were working in Ferber's room on campaign plans with Warner Hale, TKW treasurer candidate. Eventually, Hale and Sisodia left. Ferber and Sisodia said they received calls from Hale about midnight. He told them he had read the disqualification report and was not happy with the contents because the report did not help the TKW ticket; the three agreed to meet at Hale’s truck, parked in the SRC lot.
Hale said he took about 20 copies of the paper from the SRC bin and went upstairs to his girlfriend's room to read one. Hale said he planned to take the extra copies later to the Pi Kappa Alpha house, where he is a brother. After reading the front-page report. Hale said he was very upset and threw away all the copies he intended to distribute to Pike pledges who had helped with TKW's cam-
Pa‘?)uring the phona calls, the three agreed to meet at Hale's truck, parked by the SRC dining hall. According to Ferber and Sisodia, they went downstairs to meet Hale. Once in the lobby, ferber said he went to the restroom and when he emerged, could not find Sisodia, so he picked up a stack of f/k/rican«about an inch high and walked to le's truck.
Sisodia said she jraited for a few minutes by the truck
Sisodia
Ferber
up;
Hal
and then proceeded back inside to look for her two companions; when she didn’t see them, she said she picked up a stack of papers about an inch-and-a-half tall and walked back to the truck. Sisodia said she estimates they had a stack of papers no more than seven- to eight-inches tall; she said the total did not exceed 100-120 copies of the Hurricane Ferber said he had no idea how many copies
Please see page 2/NEWSPAPERS
UNIVERSITY OP
DAVE BERGMAN/ Assistant Photo Editor
Sam Jankovich, left, introduces Miami’s new basketball coach Leonard Hamilton yesterday.
Hoops coach hired
By TODD CLINE
Contributing Editor
The last time University of Miami Athletic Director Sam Jankovich hired a coach from Oklahoma State, Jimmy Johnson went on to win a national championship in
football. Jankovich hopes the same will hold true in basketball, as he named Leonard Hamilton as the new Hurricanes hoops coach at a press conference at the
Miami Arena yesterday. Hamilton is the first black head coach to be hired by UM.
"Leonard Hamilton will take this program to the next step,” said Jankovich. “He will be the person to make the difference."
Hamilton said he decided to take the job around 1 p.m. yesterday. Jankovich offered him the job
Please see page 4/COACH
Fires cause problems in Mahoney, Hecht
By BETH JAHREIS
Staff Writer
The Coral Gables Fire Department responded to calls at the University of Miami on three separate occasions last week.
Firefighters extinguished blazes shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday in Mahoney and Hecht Residential Colleges and were called to Mahoney again Friday evening.
In all three cases, the fires were located in the trash chutes and began in the basement dumpsters, according to Capt William “Bo" Bennett of the department.
The cause of the fires is unxnown. Bennett referred to the incidents as “suspicious,” and said the residential colleges are
Officials estimate 50 UM visits yearly
equipped to prevent any accidents.
According to fire regulation, sprinklers in the chutes go off daily to dampen the trash, Bennett said.
‘‘We ask the students to let us
know if they know anything about how the fire[s) started,” said Rich Yovanovich, Mahoney Residence Coordinator. “It [arsonl is a serious violation of University policy."
In each fire, approximately 22 firefighters arrived on the scene.
"We have to dkpatch a number of units. It really ties up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment,” Bennett said.
Resident assistants are responsible for clearing the residential colleges during fire alarm incidents.
“We clear each floor and work our way down once a general alarm is sounded.” said sophomore Mary Ann Morocco, a Mahoney RA.
Although fire drills helped familiarize the students and RAs with the evacuation process, Morocco said the RAs have had a lot of actual experience due to the frequency of trash chute fires.
“When there’s smoke in the halls, people tend to leave a lot quicker,” Morocco said.
The time it took before students were allowed to re-enter the residential colleges varied. According to Bennett, firefighters were able to secure the fire within 12 minutes at Hecht. At Mahoney on Friday.
the building was not re-opened for about 45 minutes according to sophomore Allan Kirkland.
“I was in the middle of a TV show and you can’t very well watch TV in the middle of a parking lot,” Kirkland said.
Other students reacted to the inconvience. ‘‘I’m mad and I'm not even a fireman,” commented Ron Edwards, a Mahoney resident.
The Coral Gables Fire Department frequents the University. "Including fire and rescue calls, we probably get about 50 calls [from the University) a year,” Bennett said.
“We’re always here,” said Mike Bertzel, a fire department driver and engineer. “These [trash] fires are common."
Speaker: Racism affects whites, too
By JOSE LLERENA
Staff Writer
Racism against whites is a serious problem on our nation's campuses and is propagated by the nation’s minorities, particularly blacks, according to statements made during a program held in the Maboney/Pearson Residential College classroom Thursday.
Leslie Carbone of Accuracy in Academia discussed this in her speech “Campus Hypocrisy and the War against Racism on Thursday in front of an audience of about 15 people. Her speech was sponsored by Students for America, the conservative student group on campus.
"It is clear that genuine racism against whites is a protected form
of expression, like burning the flag on college campuses," Carbone said.
• She added, "Accuracy in Academia is a non-profit public service organization that documents and publicizes political biases and discrimination occurring both inside and outside the classroom."
University of Miami Students for
t
America President Brian Bartley said,“The topic was dealing a little bit too heavily on discrimination against whites. I was kind of hoping that we could have had more of a two way thing. But I talked to some of the students afterwards and it seems like everyone has a positive reaction.” Bartley is also a Pearson RA.