Miami Hurricane, April 05, 2002

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Baseball heads into FSU series
SPORTS page 5
Smoochy’s death has been exaggerated
ACCENT page 7
Britney needs to grow up
OPINION page 9
The Mi ami Hurricane
Coral Gables, Florida
Volume 79, Number 43
WWW.THEHURRICANEONLINE.COM
Since 1927
Friday, April 5,2002
DAVID EPPILITO / Hurricane Staff
LUCKY PENNY: Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity brothers contribute to the Penny Wars event, part of a week-long fundraiser benefiting children bom with HIV/AIDS.
Pediatric AIDS benefit begins
Sigma Alpha Mu holds Sam Slam fundraiser
By Daniel Boniface
Hurricane Staff Writer
Sigma Alpha Mu officially kicks off its inaugural SAM SI.AM today, 6:30 p.m. at the Rock with special guest appearances by President Donna Shalala and Sebastian the Ibis, organizers said.
Pronounced “Sam Slam," the weeklong event will raise about $2,000 to benefit children born with HIV/AIDS, through the Elizabeth (¡laser Pediatric AIDS Foundation,organizers said.
Elizabeth Glaser, founder of the foundation, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion in 1988 and then unknowingly passed it on to her two children Ariel and |osh. She died in 1994.
“Think about when you were fifteen,” said Israel Andrews, founder of SAM SLAM and current Sigma Alpha Mu brother. “Now think about everything you’ve done since then. None of that would have happened if you were born with this disease. Think about that: being born into a life of death where the life expectancy is 15 years of age.”
To help raise funds, SAM SLAM pitted four participating sororities against one another in different events, organizers said.
Penny Wars began in the University (enter on Monday and runs until Wednesday. It features a basketball tournament called Bounce 4 Beats, Andrews said.
"You'll hear our brothers say,‘a little change goes a kmg way. Help end pediatric AIDS,’” Andrews said. “It shows how this campus is more than just school. It shows that people care and get involved. Stopping by and taking the time to understand what our philanthropy is about is most important. Even if they only donate 30 cents, that 30 cents will go a long way.”
“1 think it’s a wonderful idea, a lot of fun.” said Brette (¡lick, a Delta Delta Ifelta sister. “It's like a little mini-homecoming."
Opening ceremonies will be folfowed by an event called SAM Manhunt. Thirty Sigma Alpha Mu brothers will scatter across campus, each with 20 condoms, organizers said.
“The sorority girls have to find a brother and ask him for a condom,” Andrews said. “It’s a good event because it helps promote safe sex. We want to make it public that we as college students take our responsibilities seriously.”
Events tomorrow include a cheer competition beginning at 7 p.m. at the Rathskeller, followed by a brotherhood auction.
The black-tie auction will sell 12 Sigma Alpha Mu brothers to the highest bidder. The brothers have promised prospective buyers anything from back massages to dinner at a fancy restaurant on South Beach, Andrews said.
“I'm looking forward to the auctioning of the men,” (¡lick said. “It’s always nice to see a man in a suit.”
Events on Saturday also include two 16-year-old guest speakers who will share their experiences of being born and living with HIV.
Ana Garcia,South Eforida Representative for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS
Foundation, will also speak.
The talk is open to all University of Miami students and takes place at I p.m. in the Flamingo Ballroom.
Closing ceremonies are slated to take place on Sunday.capped off by the first ever awarding of the SAM SLAM Cup. The name of the winning sorority will be engraved on the trophy and passed on each year, Andrews said.
“I had always thought about doing some thing big for my fraternity," Andrews said. “If you want to do something huge, you got to reach out and go campus wide."
Andrews came up with the idea for SAM SLAM in early May last year after learning about pediatric AIDS in a genetics class, he said.
“The greatest thing about Greeks on this campus,” Andrews said, “is that if you have an idea, you’ve got a whole fraternity or sorority behind you, supporting you. This event never could have come to fruition without the support of my brothers.”
Andrews sees this event as a positive example of Greek life on campus
“The Greek community on this campus has really come together this last year," Andrews said. “We’ve had to face a lot of adversity, but because of philanthropies like this and others I think we’ve shown that (¡reek life on this campus is nothing but beneficial"
Sigma Alpha Mu chapters at Florida International and Tulane have also expressed interest in carrying the event at their universities next year.
“We’re hoping that it spteads nationwide and becomes a legacy," Andrews said.
Wyche hired as Dean of A&S
New dean aims to improve UMs math, science disciplines
By Danielle Scott
News Edita
University of Miami’s first African-American dean, Dr. lames Wyche, will join the (follege of Arts and Sciences this Aug. 1.
Wyche, an established biology professor and researcher, was also appointed Vice Provost by President Donna Shalala.
According to the Miami Herald, Shalala-who has known Wyche since 1981 when he taught at Hunter (College where she was then-president-said that Wyche will restore the Gollege of Arts and Sciences to “pre-eminence on campus."
As for Wyche, he said that the location and diversity of Miami is what drew him to our “premiere private institution ”
“The University of Miami is in a very important corridor that links North America to the Caribbean and South America,” Wyche said. “Miami is the South East cultural hub"
Wyche spent 14 years at Brown University as a professor and associate provost in the school's division of biology and medicine. Most recently, he was interim president of rougatoo (olfege ¡a historically black college | in lackson, Mississippi. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from |ohns Hopkins University, an M.A. from Brown University, and a B.S. from Cornell University.
“He’s a big catch for us,” Shalala told the Herald. “He’s very competitive in the market-
place."
Prior to joining Brown in 1988, Wyche was on the faculty of Hunter College from 1981 to 1988 and	the
University of Missouri-Columbia from 1974 to 1980. Wyche has served in a number of positions with the National Advisory Research Resource Council, National Institutes of Health, and is extensively published in the field of cellular biology. He is also an active member of the American Society for Cell Biology, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and has served on various national and international scientific committees.
With his focus on the sciences, Wyche said that the first departments he wants to strengthen are math and chemistry.
“As a new person coming in, obviously 111 be bringing some of the things from my experience bag. I’d like to take some of the premiere departments like psychology and use them as models and also create natural interfaces between departments to benefit the students and the uni versityr Wyche said.
Students in the arts may wonder if Wyche will
forget them as he builds up the science disci-
See DEAN • Page 3
Dr. James Wyche
SG bill shot down
Proposal spurred by publicized ruling
By Margarita Martin-Hidalgo
Hurricane Staff Writer
The Student Government Senate overwhelmingly shot down a bill last Wednesday that proposed that the Honor Council adopt standards of precedence for sanctions of honor code violations.
Twenty-four senators killed the proposal, which was first put forth before the student body last week by senators |D Barbosa and Carlos Echeverri. Five senators voted in favor and two abstained. About eight senators were not present.
The proposed recommendation asked that the Council adopt a guideline of sanctions for honor code offenses, Barbosa said
They presented the proposed legislation in the wake of a surprising report in the
Miami New Times that Andre fohnson, the famed UM wide-receiver, was given a weak sentence for plagiarizing a paper in a sociology course he took last semester.
Citing the Buckley Amendment, the federal statute that forbids the disclosure of student's academic records, university officials have been mum about the case.
At the meeting, Barbosa argued that some cases are “extremely similar” and therefore should have “extremely similar" outcomes.
He also recommended that council members have access to files of past cases only after their deliberation and that the records be tracked with number codes to protect the identities of the previous violators.
The senate held off the vote last week because some senators felt they were not well-informed about the Honor Council procedures.
See SG BILL • Page 2
UMTV program takes national award
By Jaclyn Lisenby
Hurricane Staff Writer
The UMTV news program,NewsVision, was recently awarded first prize for newscasting in the National Broadcasting Society competition. This is the fifth year the program has placed first in the live newscasting category. UMTV, the on campus television station, has produced NewsVision for the past ten years.
UMTV Executive Producer Garrett Russo also received an honorable mention in the category of News Package.
“Because the program has won so many times, we have to make it better every year," said producer of the show and broadcast (our-nalism junior Maureen Capasso. “We are proud to have won it again tor UM "
As recipients of the award, six communication students and two faculty members work mg on the show were invited to attend the awards ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia.
Chris Osborne, of CNN, was the emcee for the ceremony.
The students attended a four-day conference where personalities of the industry, such as (effrey Kofman of ABC News and UM alumnus Brian Hegner of Fox Sports, gave lectures on production, networking, and marketing.
The competition is open to all chapters of AERho, the National Broadcasting Honors Society, of which Capasso is the UM chapter president.
The National Broadcasting Honors Society is very competitive, as over 100 schools have chapters, including the University of Florida and Penn State.
Capasso and Garrett stress the importance of the contributions of the people they work with on the show.
“Carolyn Cefalo, our advisor, is tremendous,” said Capasso.“She keeps us in line, and
definitely should be recognized for the success of the show."
Students participating in l!MTV are work ing hard to make next year’s show even bigger and better.
“It’s important to realize that it’s entirely campus-run," says Capasso “The next time
you pass someone filming on campus, you might end up on an award-winning show!” The trophy that NewsVision received will be displayed in the School of Communication.
You can catch NewsVision on channel 24 (on campus) at 7 p.m. on Thursdays.
i
Amount of Int’l students decreasing
By Ernesto Londono
Humcane Staff Writer
A few days after Sep. I LSireen Karam emptied out her half of her dorm room into a couple of suitcases, bought a last-minute ticket and boarded two airplanes before arriving home.
“I didn’t want to be hassled because of my religion or race," confided the 20-year-old former UM business mator during an interview from Alexandria, Egypt, where she is currently studying.
“Mv parents were sort of worried, but ultimately it was my decision to leave,” explained karam. who entered the university with a superb application that netted the Stanford and Business Dean’s scholarships, which
See MID EAST •~Page 2
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