— STAFF EDITORIALS —
University needs to cut with care
The recession in which we find ourselves was hard to see coming, as our nation’s leaders and financial gurus can attest, and it required swift and decisive, effective action. At the time, it probably appeared to Xavier’s financial team that a blanket hiring freeze represented this kind of action.
Though it was swift and decisive, it seems now that the hiring freeze was only partly effective, laden less with benefits (measured in dollars) and more with costs (measured in academic esteem and, thus, faculty confidence).
It likewise seems prudent, now, to form a group tasked with university-wide budgetary surgery; this new task force will slice and graft enough to eke out $3.5 million for the next year.
This approach of precision was needed from the start, not the clumsy sweep of the hatchet that is the hiring freeze. Unfortunately, now the university will not only have to mend the wounds caused by this recession, but those caused by the freeze as well.
The challenge facing the administration is to take a long-sighted approach that acknowledges the complexity of such a situation, and to avoid the pitfalls that often come with hasty moves.
Unfortunately, this new task force has just six weeks to act, instead of 11 or 12, and could conceivably make a few well-intentioned, but under-informed decisions about where to stitch and where to graft.
Now, as then, the university needs some vision.
Let’s just hope we don’t bleed out.
Number 14 might be a little high
If you are like many Xavier men’s basketball fans on campus, you love your Musketeers and enjoy seeing them do well, but you might not devote your full attention to the Musketeers until things get serious with the Crosstown Shootout in December.
It was probably to your surprise then, when you decided to look over the latest rankings this Monday and saw our team hailed as the 14th best team in the country by both the Associated Press and the coaches in ESPN/USA Today.
Sure, you heard the crazed cheers from X-Treme Fan leaders in Gallagher before Thanksgiving break after the Musketeers pulled off miracle wins with half-court heaves and unexpectedly outstanding play from underclassmen, but you still had to wonder: “Does Xavier really deserve to be ranked as the 14th best team in the country?”
The answer is that they probably do not. Sure, beating Memphis, Virginia Tech and Missouri was impressive, but Xavier earned a top-15 ranking by merit of not losing as teams around them dropped like flies.
The Newswire loves the fact that the Musketeers are considered among the country’s best this early in the season, but that seems to speak more to the job that Sean Miller has done establishing Xavier as a college basketball power than of the merits of this year’s squad.
Truthfully, the Musketeers will likely require a sizable gift from an opponent to remain undefeated come Christmas time, especially with another ‘top 15’ team on the schedule in Duke on Dec. 20.
While it is great that Xavier has received such impressive accolades so early in the season, we warn you Musketeer fans to keep your hopes in check.
Obama ‘did it’; what comes next?
Sarah Weiten
Editorial Columnist
Over the weekend, while you were relaxing with family and eating turkey/tofurky, you were not likely to do anything more demanding than sleep off the ridiculous amount of homemade (aka: not caf! Yay!) dishes you consumed. Wonderful.
Seriously, its’ been crazy around here and you definitely deserved a break.
But if you happened to emerge from your tryptophan-induced coma for a look at the TV, you may have seen pretty messed up stuff.
In a three day siege of two luxury hotels and several other locations in India’s business center of Mumbai, ten terrorists, possibly from Pakistan, killed over 170 people and wounded many more.
For part of the siege, the terrorists targeted Americans, killing at least six U. S. citizens.
These attacks have strained the already tense relationship between India and Pakistan, who both have said that they plan to mobilize troops if they have evidence that the other is doing so.
Although things have not escalated to this point yet, it is important to note that both countries have nuclear technology.
This brings me to one question: How is president-elect Obama going to handle this new international crisis?
Honestly, the most I’ve heard anyone around campus talk about politics in the last few weeks was to say how glad they are that the election is over and done with.
But it’s not at all.
These attacks in Mumbai, India over our Thanksgiving break show that the tests our President-elect will be facing are far from being over and in fact, have only just begun.
The night of the election, Obama supporters in Chicago began to chant “Yes we did” as opposed to the slogan “Yes we can” that had been used throughout the campaign.
I think this use of the past tense is unfounded.
Was the sole purpose of this campaign to get Obama into office?
That has indeed happened.
But much more difficult challenges than those mounted by Senators Hilary Clinton and John McCain lie before the president-elect.
Challenges like repairing the faltering economy and fixing the countries failing education system, not to mention maintaining international relations and attempting to prevent any number of tensions between countries from escalating into full-blown warfare.
To those who chanted “Yes, we did,” I ask, are you really so foolish as to think your fight is over?
False alarms
Brandon McClain
Editorial Columnist
Fire alarms: you hate them and so do I. They’re obnoxious. They’re loud, they have that pulsating white light that blinds you while you’re trying to escape the building and worst of all they happen far too often.
Yes, I’m talking to you, Mr./Ms. “I don’t know how to watch what I’m doing in the kitchen and I’ll set off the alarm because I can’t pay attention to my current culinary adventure.”
Yes, this includes you, the person who somehow forgets to turn off the stove once you’re done cooking. Magically, you then set off the fire alarm, thus forcing everyone to stop what they’re doing and go outside for ten minutes while the police and fire departments try to figure out which moron burned their Ramen or started a grease fire.
I know what you’re thinking, that it’s not that big of a deal and that it shouldn’t be an issue because things happen.
I’m here to tell you otherwise because false fire alarms happen too often on this campus and it’s rather ridiculous.
Last time I checked, Xavier’s dorms get priority response from the fire department, which is a good and bad thing.
It’s great to know that if there is a real issue, we’ll be covered ASAP.
But here’s the thing about that:when it’s a false alarm, that takes firemen and police away from someone else who may actually need something more than just their room to be ventilated because of some burned popcorn.
Second, it’s a pain to have to drop what I’m doing to evacuate just so that the fire department can tell us that minor smoke caused all the mayhem.
If you can’t cook or make something without setting off the alarm, then please, do us all a favor and use the microwave. Or at least pay attention. Watch the stove.
Let’s be the responsible adults that we’re supposed to be while we’re in college and let the firemen take care of the real fires.
— LETTERS TO THE EDITOR—
En(twigh)light-enment
You printed an article in the Nov. 19 edition of the Newswire about the best-selling book series by Stephenie Meyer. While I appreciate that someone on campus decided to write a piece about the books that I love so much, I do not appreciate the incorrect information that was given about the book. I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I also believe that if you’re going to bash something, you need to get your facts straight.
In this article the writer talks about how the main male character, Edward, “...locks Bella [the female main character] in her own basement to prevent her from seeing a friend while he goes out to dinner.” First, I would like to point out that it is stated explicitly in the book that Edward is a vampire and that he doesn’t eat normal, human food so he would, in fact, not be going out to dinner. Secondly, I have read the book series numerous times including quite recently and nowhere in the series does Edward lock Bella in a basement. Third, Bella does not have “awful” parents. The release date for the movie was also wrong because Friday was Nov. 21, not Nov. 22.
From what I read in this particular article, I’ve come to two conclusions. A) I’m not sure if the writer actually read the book written by Stephenie Meyer because there are many discrepancies about what the writer says happen in the book and what can be read in the book. B) I feel as if the writer is opposed to the novel(s) because the writer of the article may have a feminist outlook on life, which is fine but those views should have been left out of what should have been a more objective piece of writing.
Hopefully in the future the Newswire will be more careful about printing the truth about contents of movies, books and the like.
Anne Ogle | ‘10
Caf needs help
My experiences last year with the caf were nothing special; far from it in fact. I took solace in the fact that Xavier’s contract with Chartwells could bring about change. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. Things are as bad as ever and have become exceptionally worse over the past two weeks.
At dinner tonight (Sunday, Nov. 16), I decided to get a chicken caesar sandwich. After hearing the worker tell students in front of me that, “no, you can’t get just the chicken,” I was handed a sandwich with one tiny piece of cold chicken that took up half of the roll, leaving me with mostly dressing, cheese and bread, but no chicken.
The friend I was eating with had a similarly bad experience. He ordered the pasta with marinara sauce only to be yelled at by the cafeteria employee because the station was out of that sauce and the employee would have to make more. This struck us both as odd considering it was 6 p.m., a typical time for a dinner rush.
In the past week, my friends and I have had several such souring experiences in the cafeteria. One night last week, there was no milk, no lettuce at the salad bar, stale bread, watery grape juice, no orange juice, unclean waffle makers and no Cap’n Crunch or Cheerios. During lunch at one point of this week, I was yelled at for attempting to order a salad from the Xhibition station and was told, “no, you can’t get your salad without ham.” On Tuesday evenings I have class at 5 p.m. and work immediately after so I eat dinner beforehand. A friend I went to dinner with last Tuesday attempted to get French fries from the grill (which were all set out and ready), but was yelled at because it was 4:27, not 4:30, when the cafeteria opens for dinner.
Lastly, two friends described their experience at the caf before Friday’s men’s basketball game against IPFW. After waiting in line for nachos while the employees sword fought with the corndogs that they were supposed to be serving, they were told that the employee was almost out of nachos and that they should, “come eat dinner at a normal hour, like normal people.” If the caf is open until 8 p.m. and my friends want to eat at 7 p.m., they should be able to without being mistreated. The worker proceeded to complain and say that after them, he would be done serving, a point made true when he told the girl next in line that, “no, you can’t have nachos and no, you can’t have a corndog because I am out,” even though there were, quite obviously, nacho ingredients and corndogs in front of him.
On top of the low quality food and service, the silverware is consistently dirty, the dessert station is swarmed with flies and the soups are sitting in the same pot all day over a low heat to keep it warm, often re-served the following day if not fully consumed.
I hope by now you understand what I am attempting to get at. It is unfair for me to be FORCED to pay $4,000 per year for a sub-par meal plan with unmotivated, disgruntled employees. I feel that workers should not complain about things that, to me at least, seem like part of the job description (i.e.: preparing the food during operating hours). Regardless, I am hopeful for the future for two reasons: primarily, that I will be living off-campus next fall and I will be able to cook myself tolerable meals. Secondly, that with the groundbreaking of the Hoff Academic Quad, there is a chance for new options for the future classes that attend Xavier.
You claim that your “mission is to continually provide a healthy and enjoyable experience in a welcoming setting every day, coupled by top quality customer service.” It is my hope that someday soon, those of us dining in the caf will be able to see some evidence of this.
Kyle Johnson | ‘11
Katherine Monasterio
Op-Ed Editor
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