Miami Hurricane, February 10, 1967

              Campus Stealing is $100,000 Headache
By DAN BARBER
Hurries«* Miter
Campus stealing, a university problem as old as the Ivy on Harvard’s bookstore, will climb Into the life of the University of Miami this year to th* tune of an estimated $100,-000.
The hlgh-price of honesty came to light this week when a special Hurricane investigation revealed the fact that the UM bookstore suffers from “an excess of $50,000 each year” in thefts and that the 6ame amount appears easily matched by miscellaneous thefts In the residence areas and surrounding shopping areas.
The bookstore figure was revealed by the man who has run that operation since “it was barely out of a broomcloset", veteran UM administrator John Galbraith who says he has keen eonsiderably shaken by the rising theft totals.
The Mia
42ml Year, No. 15
University ot Minuit, Feb. 10, 1967
Galbraith took over the bookstore operation 32 years ago when the entire yearly inventory wasn’t as much as the 1966-67 stealing figure, but he has not sat by and idly watched the thievery. For a number of years the bookstore has employed a variety of security techniques and the current task is in the hands of the internationally known Wack-enhut Corp.
Galbraith’s figuring of $50,000 may be a modest ges ture of a situation that was rumored to Involve as much as $80,000 in merchandise ranging from records, to mechanical drawing instruments, to almost anything that can be concealed in the shirts or pocket of the UM theif.
Elsewhere on the ('a in pus, thievery appeared to be on its usual rise in the men’s apartment areas but may be enjoying a slight decline in the women’s residence halls. Off campus stealing has continued to grow’ with the Unf-versity Shopping center stores like Breedings Drugs and
•armane
MO 1-2511, Ext. 2912
Food Fair among the favorite targets.
The general philosophy behind the stealing appears to cover almost all the varieties, whether on campus in the i bookstore or elsewhere.
“The problem emerged after World War II,” Galbraith ¡explained, “veterans accustomed to moonlight and just appropriating anything they needrfl.kent |hc hohii up when j they came back to the states.”
Now there aren’t any of t4>se slmllir'ejfciWs
Constitutional Troubles
USG Shows Hidden Weakness
By Karin-Pat riel» Ji'Iiiinoii and Dan Barber
In an apparent deep sleep since the final days of the Tom Spencer-Josh Vernaglia administration, Undergraduate Student Government appeared to
show signs of restlessness this week in the face of a controversial change In the executive branch.
The action started over the semester break when presiding Vice President Jack Sperry, a
‘Amigos’ Arrive At UM; Will lour Campus, City
junior music major from Tampa W'as forced to resign from his office because of academic difficulties.
Because the constitution left no exact pn>cedures to replace Sperry, Student Body President James Fleming read the constitution to mean that all areas not dilincated in the Constitution reverts to Roberts Rules of Order which states that in the case of no succession clauses the President shall fill the vacancies in his branch.
Argentinian A mitro Norma Graverò» — or is il Amiga? — arri ve» al airport early Thuraday.
Yesterday morning, with the arrival of twenty-nine Argentinian college students, the 1967 Operation Amigo program at tbe University of Miami officially got underway.
The students, 20 men and nine women from colleges and universities in Argentina arrived at the University of Miami, February 9, at 7:00 a m. They were met by smiles of UM itudents at the Miami International Airport customs area.
A 20-car student cavalcade with fl police escort took the Amigos to the UM campus for a recaption at the Norman A. Whitten Memorial Student Union patio at 7:30 a.m.
dally welcomed to the university and met the atudent» with whom they will stay.
The nine women students are staying with UM women students In their Miami homes. Ten of the men will stay in fraternity houses; ten, in campus apartments.
While In Miami, the students will attend UM classes, with an emphasis on economics and government courses. They will tour several Miami Industries, Including the Eastern Airlines complex, The Miami Herald building and the Seaquarium.
UM officials and students Paul Friedlander, 20, a UM were on hand to greet the student who is student chair-Amlgos, At a breakfast at 8 j
a.m., the Amigos were offi- 1 Continued on Page 9
Master Plan Deals With UM Growth
Another first In the widening opportunity of UM students to participate in the growing life of their University takes place Wednesday night, February 15, when a high-level panel of University officials gives the first non-faculty presentation of the proposed UM Master Plan. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Flamingo Ballroom of the Whitten Memorial Union.
Keyed as the major planning atep in the history of the University of Miami, The Master Plan deals with the physical growth of the universi ty from new buildings to landscaping, parking, and equipment that furnish the proposed structures.
On the panel will be UM staff architect Charles Cotter-man and Vice President Eu gene Cohen, plus other resource individuals who are specialists in various areas of the university planning.
The only other large-scale showing or the proposed plan occurred In December at a faculty meeting in Beaumont Lecture Hall.
University officials stressed the fact that student suggestions can still be Incorporated into the master plan and that they will be encouarged in the same manner as the Interchanges which occurred during the University Forum sessions.
Fleming did so by appointing sophomore class representative Dennis Richard to Sperry's spot and swearing him in at the Monday night USG meeting. Immediately after Richard’s oath was taken, the floor was filled with questions from council members and spectators about the legality of one, the president appointing Richard without council approval and, two, the fact that a student must be a junior in class rank before he is seated from a regular election and that this standard should be followed In appointments also.
Before the Vice-Presidency crisis cooled, another hot spot erupted when USG Treasurer Chuck Omohoundro revealed the president and himself had okayed the donation of $300 to the UM Debate Tourney with out council consent, and after the council had defeated a similar proposal earlier last fall.
Background Investigation on the Vice-P residency Issue brought out no serious objection to the fact that Richard was appointed to the spot, but attention was directed mainly at the fact the appointment was made without counsel with
Continued on Page ft
Inside
Posed Student enacts popular crime.
Inside today’s Hurricane, Experimental College will be found on page six. Dean Williams on page 15, and more about the home of those ducks on page 19.
Lng around with the apparent ‘new affluence’ of today’s college generation but still the stealing rate is climbing with greater momentum.
The Rev. Farley W. Snell, head of the University’s Coordinated Ministry program and a observer with an inside look at the student life picks out a couple of the reasons why UM students are stealing.
“Initially, I think that this thing la part of an assumption that society will pick up th* tab caused by the stealing,” Snell explained, “they figure that th* price of th* stealing is already written into th* cost of the article they pick up so w'hy not get his share.
“Another factor,” the Wesley Foundation head observed, “is this thing that we are set up in kind of a game to beat the system, to prove that we might he smarter than the guy who’s trying to catch us.”
Indeed Snell is right In the fact that the cost of stealing does affect the bookstore prices, but unfortunately there usually is only ‘one loser’ when th* game is played in the housing areas and in campus parking lots.
A check of the Dean of Men’a office obtained the Information that most of the theft in campus apartments goes unpunished while the bookstore has had a growing list of ‘convictions’ given to students apprehended either by th* Wackenhut forces or bookstore employees.
Assistant Dean of Mpn James MacDonald talked about the problem and outlined several suggestions In an Interview the other day.
‘‘I think basicially the problem lies in several factor* as far as the meji’s apartments are concerned. One is the fact they are spread out over such a large area so that a stranger may not benoticed as easily as he would be in the dorms. Secondly, the inside doors In the back entrances to the apartments are of Inferior quality and * number of times the thief has Just kicked them In.
“Maybe the best solutions seem rather common, but they are effective. Locking your door every time you leav* the apartment is the first one, questioning unfamiliar peo-jple in your area is a second, and thirdly try to keep ai ¡much of your valuables, money, *tc. out Of the apartment ^altogether. If you have to have them with you then try putting them In a heavy footlocker and keep it locked.”
The questions of locks Is not a new one to the campus and a crusading effort by the Men’s Residence Hall Association under the leadership of President Tom Wilson appears to have the problem licked.
The men’s housing unit has fought and successfully won a battle to have lock* placed on at least one inside
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