The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014
VOLUME 141 NO. 31
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1983, The Miami Student reported not even the 20-degree weather and steady snowfall could keep the community indoors and away from the BaskinRobbins down the street. While snacking on a scoop, junior Bob Murphy said, “A good ice cream connoisseur knows no weather.”
Are lead student REC workers unpaid? Students, staff, alumni and community members alike admired the Armstrong Student Center at the official dedication ceremony.
JALEN WALKER THE MIAMI STUDENT
Working out wages: REC jobs pay less BY JAMES STEINBAUER FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Lead student staffers at Miami University’s Recreational (REC) Center have long been the soul of the colossal building’s operations. Besides interacting with customers, lead staffers at the REC are in charge of the facility’s upkeep, helping with membership recruitment and assisting injured patrons. Although held to a plethora of responsibilities, lead student staffers at the REC are paid significantly lower wages than other student workers around campus, specifically those in dining halls, according to senior lead REC student staffer Matt Gingras.
“As you train up, I think you get a 10 cent raise an hour,” Gingras said. “But then [pay] gets capped off at $8.10 per hour.” Following its completion in January, the Armstrong Student Center has been advertising a starting salary at $8.25 per hour for new student workers, with similar dining facilities, such as Bell Tower, offering similar starting salaries of $8.25 per hour. In 2012, Miami University combined the fitness department and the customer service department, creating the office of Housing, Dining, Recreation and Business services. .This merger added the “serve-safe certification,” a certification for the proper handling of food, to the list of required certifications for staff
at the REC. Along with being certified to serve food, REC lead staff are required to have CPR certification through the American Red Cross, the CPR certification used by professional rescuers, as well as blood-born pathogen certification and training through the university. Lead staff jobs also contain some administrative functions. Often working as managers on duty, lead student staffers help develop the student staff schedule, are directly in charge of students working under their own shift and are responsible for the training of new staff. “Our lead staffers are wonderful,” Senior Director of Customer Services and Facility Manage-
ment for the REC Ron Siliko said. “They’re our most talented staff, our most skilled staff and our most dedicated staff.” A recent example of lead student staffers’ time commitment and dedication is their willingness to help fill shifts on short notice following a large spike in sickness this past month, Siliko said. One reason for the difference in pay between REC staff workers and those at dining halls may be the high desirability for REC jobs. The REC usually gets 10 times the number of applications for the number of staff needed, Deth Cropenbaker, the REC’s Director of Fitness said. “Generally, the less attractive a job is, the higher the wage will be for
that job,” Cropenbaker said. “There are economic realities. If the university sets a rule, you follow the rule. If I say that one of my employees is worth this much to me, I’m not the one who gets to set that wage.” The university has a freeze on raises, Cropenbaker said. They allow promotions as position changes and title changes, but they do not allow raises in pay. “I believe that the workers at the REC should get higher pay,” Senior dining hall worker and active athlete Michael Shivers said. “Not only do they now serve food, but they have had the responsibility of saving people’s lives when they have a heart attack, and I don’t have to do that at a dining hall.”
City lets fines slide on snowy sidewalks BY EMILY CRANE NEWS EDITOR
Senior marketing major Geoff Parker leans on his shovel and takes a sip of his Gatorade. At noon, temperatures are barely above zero, but a slight film of sweat has begun to form just above his eyes. He sets the bottle on his porch at 103 Oberlin Court. and returns to work. Thudscrape goes the shovel. Swoosh goes the snow. At Parker’s feet, a rare sight begins to emerge: a patch of gray sidewalk. There are 61 miles of sidewalk in the City of Oxford, not counting Miami University’s sidewalks. About a third of these are in the “Mile Square” alone, according to Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott. As winter draws on, snow and ice continue to pile up on walkways around the city; Elliott estimates only around 15 percent are being actively cleared. The question then arises: whose job is it to clear the sidewalks? “The Oxford city codified ordinances state that it is the responsibility of the property owner or occupant to remove all snow and ice,” Elliott said. “Those in violation of this
ordinance are guilty of a minor misdemeanor, which has a maximum fine of $150.” Several recent Ohio Supreme Court rulings however, have made local enforcement of such ordinances problematic, if not impossible, Elliott said, since the court ruled it unreasonable to expect citizens to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow in such a place as Ohio, where such “inherent dangers” are expected. “This year, I am trying a different tactic,” Elliott said. “Rather than reminding property owners and residents of the law and penalty, I am appealing to their better or neighborly natures.” In a statement posted Feb. 5 on the City of Oxford’s website, Elliott called on Oxford residents to “please pitch in and shovel the snow off of the sidewalk in front of your house or business.” Yet several miles of sidewalk remain covered in white, particularly in stretches packed with student rentals. Associated Student Government Secretary for Off-Campus Affairs Ari Frum said this is largely due to the fact that students and
property owners are unclear as to whose responsibility it is to clear the sidewalks. “There’s a question of whose responsibility it is,” Frum said. “But even if students were to understand that it’s their responsibility, would they take ownership of it? I’m not sure. I would love to see that.” With such ambiguity over the matter of snow removal, the City of Oxford has broached the subject of whether it ought to become the city’s responsibility, Elliott said. The city has considered both the option of hiring private contractors to remove the snow and the option of purchasing $150,000 in equipment and hiring a staff to remove the snow. But neither option is feasible at the moment because of cost. “We’ve estimated that to hire a contractor to take care of just one snow event would be around $10,000,” Elliott said. “How would we pay for that? It’s just not in the budget. Especially for a winter like this one where we’ve had [a lot of] snow events. We’re talking about
SIDEWALKS, SEE PAGE 8
PHIL ARNDT THE MIAMI STUDENT
Sidewalks on campus may be clear, but off-campus, the snow and ice piles high as occupants and property managers continue to pass the buck on shovel duty.
DEDICATED DONORS
JOSH ZAK THE MIAMI STUDENT
President David Hodge addressed donors with a smile at the official Armstrong Student Center dedication ceremony.
Donors give $500 million The Miami University Campaign for Love and Honor has announced a record total of $535,610,796 from contributions of more than 105,000 donors. According to a Miami University press release, the campaign, considered the most lucrative in Miami University history, surpassed its goal of $500 million in July. President David Hodge said is urging those in the Miami community to appreciate the donors who made the campaign possible, as their generosity is paving the way for Miami’s success into the future. “It is natural to focus on the numbers, but the real impact of the campaign is what we are doing and what we will be able to
do thanks to the forward-looking generosity of our donors,” Hodge said in the press release. “The greatest significance of what we have accomplished is only beginning to be counted— in generations of student dreams realized, lives empowered, innovation unleashed and in so many promising ‘Days to Be.’” Since its launch in 2002, the campaign has funded the advancements of several academic programs on campus, including those in the Armstrong Interactive Media Studies program, Howe Writing Center and Scripps Gerontology Center. In addition, 33 faculty members have earned professorship and 586 scholarship endowments have been instated.