so long sweet summer hi
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wednesday
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september 8, 2010
t h e i n de pe n de n t s t u de n t n e w spa pe r of s y r acuse , n e w yor k
INSIDenews
I N S I D e o p ini o n
INSIDepulp
I N S I D Es p o r t s
Book work Interest group investigates
The Millennials Angela Hu discusses the lives of
Clogged up Pulp rates the dirtiest bathrooms on
Hall of a coach Former SU coach and recent hall of fame inductee
effectiveness of law aiming to lower textbook costs. Page 3
Generation Y. Page 5
campus. Page 9
Dick MacPherson is still influencing Syracuse football decades after his retirement. Page 20
N.J. man draws graffiti note for SU girlfriend
fr at er nit y a nd s o r o r i t y a f fa i r s
Committee to evaluate party rules
By Beckie Strum News Editor
Syracuse Police arrested a man after painting a message to his girlfriend on a highway billboard outside the Brewster/Boland/Brockway Complex. Christian Santacroce, 18, of Middletown, N.J., was charged with a Class D felony, criminal trespassing, making graffiti and possession of a graffiti instrument, said Sgt. Tom Connellan of the Syracuse Police Department. Santacroce painted graffiti on a Burger King billboard across Interstate 81. The message was still visible from the Brockway Dining Center as of Tuesday night. The message read “False” in yellow paint, with the name “Avery” painted on the ‘e’ in “False.”
By Abram Brown Staff Writer
brandon weight | contributing photographer Graffiti on a billboard is seen from the windows of Brockway Dining Hall. A New Jersey man drew the message for his girlfriend, a Syracuse University student who lives in a dorm adjacent to Interstate 81.
see graffiti page 6
Undocumented workers attracted to jobs at state fair By Rebekah Jones Staff Writer
Mario Penafiel leaned against the makeshift wall of the Himalayan boutique Restaurant Row at the New York State Fair after 10 hours of selling products to the crowd. It was another five hours until he got his first break — at midnight, when he returned to the hotel where he and four other fair workers from Ecuador had been staying. Penafiel is one of many undocumented workers hired by larger corporations, such as Himalayan Mercantile, to work the booths at the fair, which ended Monday. He worked 15-hour days, totaling approximately 100 hours a week, with no breaks, for $4.28 an hour. The company bought him lunch on slow days, giving him half an hour to eat the only food in the immediate vicinity — deep-fried onions, potatoes and Twinkies. He was not allowed to walk more
than 200 feet from the booth, in case the crowd picked up again. And on busy days, Penafiel said he didn’t get breaks at all, which makes him one of the few people at the fair who hoped for a lesser turnout. He said he once nearly collapsed from
“It is hard to get a visa....When you get a visa, you work what you can get.”
Mario Penafiel
2010 New York State Fair worker Himalayan boutique Restaurant Row
fatigue. “I was so tired,” he said. “I just want sleep. Just a break — half an hour.” After moving to the United States two years ago, Penafiel said he thought working long hours for low wages was normal. “It is hard to get a visa,” he said.
“When you get a visa, you work what you can get.” This year the fair aimed to provide more international vendors, in an attempt to better represent the population of New York, said Fred Pierce, director of public affairs for the fair. But hiring foreign vendors could result in more undocumented workers being taken advantage of. As part of the effort to attract foreign vendors, the fair finished renovations on the International Building this year, eliminating nonforeign vendors from the site, Pierce said. The idea for the renovations was to bring in a larger international crowd to supply fair visitors with an accurate representation of the New York population, which has a large immigrant population. “We try to make it a microcosm of New York state,” he said. But Pierce said foreign workers can be easy targets for greedy companies, even though every vendor signs
a contract agreeing to abide by New York state health standards, as well as tax and labor laws. “It could just be the case that people don’t understand the language and don’t know they’re getting taken advantage of,” Pierce said. Many of the companies that rent space at the fair travel along the East Coast, which makes it difficult to verify workers’ documents and enforce labor laws. This leaves many non-English speaking workers without resources to reach out to. Some workers may even be afraid to report the violations, he said. Pierce said the fair does not conduct background checks or verify that employees are legal and being treated fairly. “We don’t ask where work forces come from,” Pierce said. “Vendors police themselves.” On the opposite side of the fair from Penafiel, inside the Americraft see fair page 4
A committee made up of greek chapter presidents, alumni and university officials hopes to meet Wednesday to discuss and possibly revise the new policy regarding greek social events. “We’re going to look at everything and make amends, and meet somewhere in the middle,” said Bobby Atkins, Sigma Alpha Mu president. The Social Responsibility Committee, formed in response to the proposed social event restrictions, is run out of SU’s Office of Residence Life. Regardless of any discussions or agreements made at the meeting, the new policy is in effect for all events hosted by greek organizations this weekend, said Eddie Banks-Crosson, SU’s director of fraternity and sorority affairs. “We just want to make sure that our groups are providing a safe environment to have fun in,” BanksCrosson said. Banks-Crosson held a meeting last week with greek chapter presidents and their risk management chairs to explain the new policy. University officials characterized the rules passed out last week as simply “new emphasis” on long-standing practices, including 150-member guest lists and requiring any list to include a guest’s birth date. SU moved these new rules to make a single codified document governing the social policies for the five greek organizations: the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations and the Multicultural Greek Letter Council. Banks-Crosson said the outcry see greek page 6