The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 138 NO. 54
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
Friday, April 22, 2011
In 1950, The Miami Student reported a pre-election demonstration turned into a “near-riot” when approximately 900 male students gathered on High Street near the Sigma Chi fraternity house. Vandalism and damage was reported around campus and throughout uptown.
Efficiency initiative leads to job cuts By Lauren Ceronie Campus Editor
While striving to deal with tough economic times, Housing, Dining, Recreation and Business Services (HDRBS) has implemented the Leveraging Efficiencies and Aligning Needs (LEAN) Initiative to streamline processes and eliminate waste. The LEAN initiative, started in January 2010, has saved Miami University several million dollars and created revenue, but has also eliminated about 200 jobs in HDRBS and 35 jobs in the residence halls specifically, according to Peter Miller, associate vice president for auxiliaries. “Over three years, I believe we have reduced the number of non-student staff from approximately 900 to 700,” Miller said. While the jobs were eliminated permanently, HDRBS was able to do so with very few lay-offs, although Miller said he did not know the exact number. Most of the positions were simply not filled when the employees retired, Miller said. HDRBS also utilized a retirement incentive program where employees who were eligible to retire and agreed to do so received $10,000, according to Miller. “This helps in situations where we’re reducing staff,” Miller said. “People are doing it voluntarily, they’re happy and it helps us get to the result faster.” Through these eliminations and other processes the LEAN Initiative has made the operation more efficient, HDRBS saved $4.5 million in expenditures and made nearly $5 million in revenue from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2011, according to Miller. A place students may be more aware of the LEAN initiative and eliminations of positions is in the residence halls, where 35 building and grounds assistant positions, better known to students as housekeeping, have been eliminated or relocated. In beginning the LEAN initiative, HDRBS brought in consultants to look at how systems could be made more efficient and less wasteful, according to William Moloney, senior director of hospitality and custodial services. This included looking at building and grounds assistant’s work and finding more efficient methods, Moloney said. The consultant researched everything from the square footage of residence halls to the number of fixtures in bathrooms to determine how many employees were needed. “Over time, once we started reorganizing we saw we wouldn’t need as many people,” Moloney said. “Based on that research, we started not filling positions 18 months ago.” All of these positions were eliminated when employees retired or left, not through layoffs, according to Moloney. During the elimination of jobs from HDRBS, the workers’ contract with the local union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), were not violated, according to Moloney. AFSCME Executive Board Officer and Miami University Building and Grounds Assistant Dustin Jones agreed the union contract was not violated, but said Miami did not communicate well with employees and AFSCME members about the LEAN Initiative. “We were aware the positions were eliminated but Miami did not allow input from us,” Jones said. At the start of the LEAN initiative, the consultant hired by Miami informed
employees about the cutbacks, Jones said. However, the possibility of fewer staff and more work for the remaining staff was not his main concern. “Our biggest fear was that they were going to outsource our jobs,” Jones said. “In my opinion, they were putting the fear out there so working shorter would seem better.” Initially, communication between the university and employees was strong, according to Jones. “At the very beginning they had meetings with the employees in each quad and were trying to come up with ways to save money,” Jones said. At the meetings, employees told HDRBS they thought the best way to eliminate waste in the university was to control the number of office staff and assistants for administrators, which had increased rapidly, Jones said. Since then, HDRBS management has cancelled meetings with employees, according to Jones. “We want a good environment with management and we ask that they have a receptive ear, not that we always get what we want but that they listen to us,” Jones said. “With management canceling meetings we have hit more brick walls than ever before.”
BY THE NUMBERS Approximate number of jobs cut by HDRBS since 2008
200
Sophomore Ashley Ceroli said she believes that housekeepers are an important part of residence hall life. “For the amount of people they have working, they do a pretty good job,” Ceroli said. However, Ceroli said she has noticed her residence hall has not been as clean lately. “If there’s litter on the floor it gets left there longer and I notice that sometimes they skip weeks cleaning the bathroom,” Ceroli said. Ceroli said she believes keeping the residence halls clean is not the sole responsibility of the housekeepers. “We should have students do corridor cleanups,” Ceroli said. “We all live here, we should try to keep it nice.” As part of making work done in the residence halls more efficient, HDRBS separated the cleaning and maintenance services
provided by the building and grounds assistants, according to Matt Frericks, senior director for auxiliaries construction and facilities. “We had 28 building and grounds assistants where 70 percent of their time was spent on cleaning and 30 percent on level 1 maintenance,” Frericks said. “The consultant separated this out and now people spend 100 percent of their time on one or the other.” By separating cleaning and maintenance services, HDRBS was able to reduce the number of maintenance staff needed to eight, according to Frericks. This staff specializing in maintenance will concentrate on level 1 maintenance, defined by the university work that can be done by the average competent homeowner, Frericks said. Through the LEAN Initiative, HDRBS was able to consolidate the number of cleaning products the custodial staff uses from over 100 to around 25, according to Moloney. Custodial staff will also begin using no-touch cleaning equipment in residence hall bathrooms that sprays and disinfects bathroom walls and showers, Moloney said. “Our staff has been tremendous with this, they’re going into it with an open mind,” Moloney said.
The show goes on ... all night
SCOTT ALLISON The Miami Student
Hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco performs for an enthusiastic audience Tuesday evening at Millett Hall. The event was sponsored by Campus Activities Council. Fiasco performed hits from his latest album, Lasers.
Trail to the truth: The Ron Tammen mystery 58 years later By Amelia Carpenter Online Staff
Ronald Henry Tammen Jr., 19, was a well-rounded Miami University sophomore in April 1953. Tammen was one of four children brought up by a wealthy and patriotic family in Maple Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Tammen had been selected as a resident adviser, was a member of the U.S. Navy ROTC, member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, a bassist in the Campus Owls, a well-regarded university jazz band and a varsity wrestler. Tammen had dark brown hair, was 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighed 175 pounds. That is, until he disappeared 58 years ago on Sunday, April 19, 1953 — basically without a trace. Tammen was studying the evening of April 19, 1953 in Fisher Hall (where the Marcum Conference Center now stands) and was last seen around 8:30 p.m. by the dorm mother, who exchanged his dirty sheets for clean linens. (His sheets were supposedly
dirty from a dead fish – a prank a fellow resident pulled on Tammen). Tammen’s roommate, Charles Findlay, returned to their room that evening to the radio playing on Tammen’s desk with the light on, psychology book open and his belongings (wallet with his personal information and car keys included) left behind. Findlay did not know at the time his roommate would not return. Fisher Hall had a history of uses since it was built in 1856, according to the Miami University Archives. It was originally part of Oxford Female College, then a hotel and from 1882 to the 1920s, Fisher Hall was an insane asylum. Fisher was converted to a first-year residence hall in 1925 and was widely considered haunted. It is speculated that Tammen ran from the draft, being that his disappearance was during the height of the Korean War, or he ran from his “pregnant girlfriend,” which was never confirmed to the reporter’s knowledge although many Fisher Hall residents said
Tammen was dating a girl from Indiana University. More likely, Tammen was somehow assisted in leaving Miami the evening of April 19, 1953. According to an April 28, 1953 article in The Miami Student, officials had ruled out foul play as a theory because Tammen was “rugged and strong,” and had temporarily settled on amnesia as the reason for his disappearance. A May 5, 1953 article in the Cincinnati Times-Star FAMILY Magazine said then Oxford Police Chief Oscar Decker was sure Tammen would be found and soon: “Tammen may be asked for his draft registration card or, if he seeks a job in some dance orchestra (he played in the campus dance band), they’ll ask him for his union card,” Decker said.” Both were left in Oxford. Someone will report him sooner or later, although he may still be suffering from a lack of memory, and the mystery will be solved.” The summer after Tammen disappeared, Mrs.
wSee TAMMEN, page 8