Betta’s owner recognizes Xavier’s impact
Katie Rosenbaum
Campus News Editor
Erika Breese
Betta’s, one of the more prominent local businesses near Xavier, has endured a rocky relationship with the University, according to owner Will DeLuca.
The upcoming Xavier campus expansion has had an effect on local businesses and communities.
As a former member of the Norwood City Council and a local business owner, Will DeLuca recognizes the impact that Xavier has on his restaurant, Betta’s Italian Oven, which opened in 2003.
DeLuca bought property at 3764 Montgomery Rd. in February 2001 with the intentions of building a restaurant there.
People thought he was crazy for opening a restaurant on Montgomery Road, DeLuca says. However, he was impressed with Xavier’s campus, especially Cintas Center.
It was important to him to build a restaurant because there was very little in the surrounding area for local residents and members of the Xavier community.
Since the opening of Betta’s, DeLuca says that his restaurant has been relatively successful, but this does not come without hard work. DeLuca works about 75 hours every week in order to keep the business running.
“If this restaurant were in the hands of other people, they may have just closed it because it is a tremendous amount of work and time,” says DeLuca. “However, my wife and I are going to do anything to succeed here.”
The one thing that DeLuca thinks would make Betta’s more profitable would be a liquor license.
Erika Breese
Will DeLuca .
“We don’t want to be a bar, but a liquor license will help us have better profit margins,” says DeLuca. “It’s hard to make a profit when someone comes in to order a $6 sandwich and a glass of water.”
DeLuca has been on a waiting list for seven years for a liquor license, but it is difficult because a town or city can only have a certain amount of liquor licenses based on its population. Since Norwood’s population has been decreasing, there are no new liquor licenses available.
When DeLuca heard that the Norwood Café was selling, DeLuca gave an offer to buy the bar, so he could obtain their liquor license. However, the Norwood Café was sold to Xavier for $290,000, not including the cost of the liquor license.
DeLuca says that he is upset that Xavier is keeping the liquor license. DeLuca had purchased and then sold Center City Collision property on Montgomery to Xavier because zoning issues prevented DeLuca and a potential business partner from opening a coffee shop.
DeLuca received two other offers to buy this property and other offers to lease it, but he decided that selling to Xavier would be in everyone’s best interest.
Xavier’s expansion will help improve Montgomery, DeLuca says. Montgomery has already improved from the time he opened Betta’s. DeLuca would have to try to ward off drug dealers in front of his restaurant and would call the police on a regular basis. However, he says that there still can be improvements to Montgomery.
“When a potential out-of- town student is checking out campus with mom and dad and they drive down Montgomery Road, they may wonder where in the world they are. Expansion will be great to improve Montgomery Road’s look,” DeLuca says.
DeLuca says that by selling the property to Xavier, Xavier officials, whom he did not name, made a verbal agreement that Xavier would later help him with parking and would try to sell the liquor license to DeLuca.
“When you have something that someone wants they call you and return your calls, when you don’t have anything that is useful to them they don’t call you or return your class,” says DeLuca.
DeLuca says that Xavier does not need the liquor license because of their size, they qualify for an entertainment district liquor license.
However, Elizabeth Blume, Director of the Community Building Institute says that Xavier needs the liquor license because while, in the future they may be an entertainment district, currently Xavier Square has not been not designated an entertainment district.
A community entertainment district is an area that includes a combination entertainment, retail, educational, sporting, social, cultural or arts establishments.” An area must be approved by a city council before it can become a community entertainment district according to codes.ohio.gov.
Furthermore, Blume says that DeLuca has not contacted the Community Building Institute, whose goal is to build and strengthen relationships between Xavier and the community.
DeLuca needs to come and talk to us to tell us his concerns because we are open to discuss his concerns, says Blume.
Although DeLuca has concerns that certain Xavier officials are not following through with their verbal agreement, he says that he is excited by the potential of campus expansion and
“I’m a strong supporter of Xavier and what they are doing,” DeLuca says.
New library ‘Chronicle’-d
CIO David Dodd unhappy with article's ‘innacurate’ portrayal
Darren LaCour
Op-Ed Editor
Erika Breese
The remodeled first floor of the McDonald
library has generated interest from the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
With the first floor of the library being transformed into the prototype for the new Learning Commons, the university has been successful in generating quite a bit of hype about its project.
In fact, the project has even garnered the interest of a popular and prestigious university trade publication.
Recently, an article titled “Strains and Joys Color Mergers Between Libraries and Tech Units” ran in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a widely respected magazine for college and university faculty and administrators.
The article, which described mergers between library and technology departments at universities, used Xavier as a current example of an institution which is joining the two departments. Now, the newly formed department is divided into two separate groups, Discovery and Content Management, each of which has librarians and technician employees. Discovery interacts with students, helping sign out material or helping with technical problems. Content Management is responsible for assembling digital data, cataloguing and developing library collections.
Those Xavier staff members contacted for the interview were excited about the opportunity to share what they see as progress.
However, since the article’s publication, those involved were a little disappointed with the content.
“The article did not accurately reflect the forward-looking view of the Learning Commons here at Xavier,” said David Dodd, vice president for Information Resources and Chief formation Officer at Xavier, who was a primary source in the article.
Much of the article’s content was derived from other universities and their experiences with the merging of the library and technology departments, not all of which were pleasant. For example, at Gettysburg College, librarians said that they felt shunted after that institution merged the two departments in 1995.
Andrea Foster, the reporter who wrote the article, said that she did not see reasons why university staff should be upset.
“I accurately described Xavier’s vision for its integrated IT and library organizations,” said Foster.
In a phone conversation, Foster said that “it’s not my job to give a glowing report; it’s my job to report what is happening.”
Though the article does not solely sing Xavier’s praises, Dodd is confident that it will cause no setbacks for the progress of the Learning Commons.
“What Xavier is doing is pioneering and very positive for the faculty, staff and students of the University,” Dodd said.
“The Learning Commons is intended to provide the highest quality of support for teaching and learning at Xavier.”
Though the article does not solely sing Xavier’s praises, Dodd is confident that it will cause no setbacks for the progress of the Learning Commons.
“What Xavier is doing is pioneering and very positive for the faculty, staff, and students of the University,” Dodd said.
For the full text of Andrea Foster’s article, follow this link to Chronicle of Higher Education’s website: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i19/19a00103.htm
Kathryn Rosenbaum
Editor-in-Chief
Rachel Peters
Ann Tassone
Darren LaCour
Senior News Editors
The Xavier Newswire 3800 Victory Parkway Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-2129 On-campus location: The Publications House, 3739 Ledgewood Dr. Telephone: 513.745.3607 Advertising: 513.745.3561 Fax: 513.745.2898 Email: Kathryn Rosenbaum
Editor-in-Chief Nathan Sergio
Advertising Manager Full list of staff contacts www.xu.edu/newswire
