The Reporter, Vol. 2, Issue 1

Go Get Your Books.

Tuition Hike: Can You Afford it?

Student Dies After Losing Control of His Vehicle

Back And Stronger, Better, Faster Than Ever

A Retrospective On One Very Crazy Year

Tuition for students at MDC increased due to budget cuts within the state of Florida.

Konstantinos Vrotsos, aspiring actor & West campus student, died on July 3rd after crashing.

Disappointed by last year’s re-sults, the girls are determined to bring this year’s title home.

Ranting Ralph and Eclectic Elias blurb about the summer’s most controversial and talked about events.

THE REPORTER IS THE FREE BIWEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT MIAMI DADE COLLEGE. ALL CONTENT IS PRODUCED BY MDC STUDENTS. THE REPORTER IS A PUBLIC FORUM FOR EXPRESSION.

PLEASE RECYCLE

BRIEFING 2-3 NEWS 5,7,9 A&E 12-13SPORTS 10-11 FORUM 14-15INDEX:

Contact Us: [email protected] (305) 237-1253

Got News? Let Us Know.

TURN TO NEWS, PAGE 5 TURN TO NEWS PAGE 9 TURN TO SPORTS, PAGE 11 TURN TO FORUM, PAGE 15

TURN TO ACCREDITATION, PAGE 7 TURN TO NEW FEE, PAGE 9

4VOL. 2, ISSUE 1—AUG. 1, 2011

College’s Accreditation Placed On Warning

ACCREDITATION

Miami Dade College was warned it might lose its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools because it does not have enough full-time faculty. The warning will last six months.

New Parking Fee to be Instituted This Fall

NEW FEE

Miami Dade College is now charging a $3 per-credit-hour parking and access fee.

Miami Dade College was warned it might lose its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools on June 23 due to the lack of full-time faculty.

“The warning is for only six months. The only issue is that in their opinion we should have more full-time faculty members,” Col-lege Provost Rolando Montoya said. “We will submit additional information to demon-strate that we have sufficient full-time facul-ty to fulfill the mission of the College and to maintain the quality of our programs.”

MDC currently has 3,129 part-time faculty

By Monique O. [email protected]

By Melissa [email protected]

and 655 full-time faculty. Effective August 18, the College will be hiring 50 full-time faculty members, according to Montoya.

“The number of part-time faculty also var-ies and the head count seems large, but you need to remember that adjunct instructors teach one, two or three classes per semester, while full-time professors teach five or six sections,” Montoya said. “Full-time and part-time faculty members have the same creden-

A $3 per credit hour access and parking fee will be instituted at Miami Dade College starting this fall.

The fee will be accessed to all students — residents and non-residents— regardless of if they own a vehicle or take public transpor-tation.

MDC joins other local institutions that have parking and access fees as well. Bro-ward College charges students $4 per credit hour and Florida International University charges students $164.84 for a yearly park-ing decal.

“While the College is never enthusiastic about instituting fees, it has become a forced reality given the state funding reductions

our institution continues to experience,” said North Campus Dean of Students Malou Harrison.

Earlier this year, MDC’s operational fund-ing was cut $13.5 million.

In addition, the College received zero dollars in capital funding from the Public Education Capital Outlay. This resulted in Hialeah Campus’ Renovation Project and MDC’s General Collegewide Improvements Project being placed on hold after it was ve-toed by the Governor.

“Any kind of fee always affects the stu-dents and hurts our pockets,” said Kendall Campus Student Government Association President Ruben Gomez. “We the students understand that there is a financial problem occurring in the state and this is a wake up call to tell our politicians not to make finan-cial cuts on education.

The access and parking fee will be used

www.mdc.edu/thereporter The Reporter @TheReporter_MDC

Tzatziki SauceTzatziki is a Greek sauce served cold that is made of sheep or goat milk yoghurt.t.

Nitrate Free BaconBacon that is free of the nitrogen compounds found in chemical fertilizers.

BeefFed an all-natural vegetarian diet.

The WorksThick-cut cheddar cheese, garden-fresh vegetables and grilled onions.Zucchini Fries

Sliced strips of crispy, battered strips of Zucchini, served with ranch dressing.

If you’re hungry on campus, but tired of the same old cafeteria food, The Reporter has found some of the best grub around campus; food that tastes good, fills you up, and is easy on the wallet.

The Pub Burger (With Zucchini Fries)One of CG Burger’s classics, the 6-oz. homestyle burger is under $9. The zucchini fries—CG Burger’s signature fry—comes in at under $5. DINE ON

A DIME

Full-time faculty under employ by the College.

Part-time faculty under employ by the College.

655 3,129

TURN TO CUISINE, PAGE 12

GREGORY CASTILLO / THE REPORTER

2 BRIEFING | AUG. 1, 2011 THE REPORTER


—Igor Argibay

—Igor Argibay

—Jose Prado

Maila Zitelli joined Miami Dade College on July 5 as the new chair-person for the Department of Eng-

lish and Commu-nication at Wolfson Campus.

As chair of the department, Zitelli oversees the jour-nalism, creative writing, English, lit-erature and speech

and composition offerings.Most recently, Zitelli was previ-

ously the chairperson for the Lan-guage and Literature Division at the College of Southern Maryland.

She was also previously a ten-ured associate professor for 18 years at Minot State University in North Dakota.

Urbana, the literary magazine at Miami Dade College’s InterA-merican Campus, is implementing changes that allow music submis-sions from student musicians.

A student competition will be held to choose the featured musi-cian for a volume of the magazine, with the winner’s music being made available to the public via the maga-zine’s website. There will be two featured musicians, one of them a student and one professional.

For more information send an e-mail to: [email protected].

Wolfson Campus Welcomes New Chairperson

Changes to Literary Magazine Urbana

Miami Dade College’s North Campus will host Shark Pride Day, a welcome back event for Fall semes-ter, on Wednesday Aug. 24 between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., then again be-tween 5 p.m. through 6:30 p.m.

Music, prizes and food will be offered to students attending both day and night classes. The daytime event will be held in the Building 4000 breezeway. The night event will be held in the Building 1000 atrium.

“It is a great opportunity to wel-come the students to the North Campus family,” said Student Orga-nization Coordinator Evelyn Rodri-guez, who is also one of the advisers to North Campus’ Student Govern-ment Association.

North Campus Welcome Back Event

—Isabelle Anadon

North Campus’ Student Life department is hosting Club Rush on Wednesday, Sept. 7 in the 4000 building breezeway.

Club Rush offers students an opportunity peruse the extracur-ricular activities available at their campus.

“It is an opportunity students have to interact outside of the classroom,” said Student Or-ganization Coordinator Evelyn Rodriguez. “Joining a Student Organization has many benefits including student development workshops and events, traveling, a great addition to your resume and much more.”

Miami Dade College’s Home-stead Campus is offering an ac-celerated degree program in which students seeking an As-sociate in Arts degree in busi-ness can earn their degree in one year.

The program begins in the fall and ends in the summer.

“Financial aid is available but limited, so if interested it is im-portant to attend the orientation to speak to a person in charge of financial aid,” Gita Runkle, busi-ness department chairperson said.

Orientation is on Friday, Aug. 19 at 9 a.m. in Room F222 at Homestead Campus.

Students are to take seven classes per term. Classes are from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. You must have col-lege ready scores on your College Placement Test or have already taken prep courses, as well as be recommended by someone in the business department.

Miami Dade College is now of-fering a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences. The State Board of Education unanimously made the decision to approve the degree.

Students that pursue this degree can choose from three concentra-tions: Biotechnology, Biopharma-ceutical Sciences, or Science Edu-cation.

The degree is the eighth bacca-laureate program at MDC.

The New Student Center at Miami Dade College’s North Campus has moved to a new temporary location in Room 1271. The original location is being remodeled.

The Center serves to welcome first-time students as well assist students in taking their first steps in college. This remodeling is expected to be complete by the end of August.

According to Georgette Perez, director of the North Campus New Student Center, the area that is un-der construction will be “much nic-er and bigger.”

In an effort to keep faculty, staff and students in good shape, Wolfson Cam-pus’ Wellness Center will continue to offer its walking program in the fall 2011 semester.

The program features three routes for novice, intermediate and advanced walkers: short, moderate and long.

The short route is a 0.5 mile walk circulating buildings 1 and 2, tak-ing approximately nine minutes. The moderate route extends up to one mile through scenic views of Bayside Marketplace and Bayfront Park, last-ing roughly 20 minutes. The 45 minute route reaches more than two miles and takes participants into the Port of Miami.

All participants meet in front of the Wellness Center. A route leader will be-gin stretching routines before the walk.

“Our goal is to change people’s perspectives on life and help them become a healthier individual,” said Wellness Center Director Daniel Es-tape.

The walking program is available to all students, faculty and staff free of charge.

World-renowned chef and New World cuisine founder, Norman Van Aken, has been appointed Ex-ecutive Chef for the retail food oper-ations at The Miami Culinary Insti-tute located at the Wolfson Campus.

As Executive Chef, Van Aken will oversee menu development as well as the mentoring and training of the world-class kitchen team, and the infusion of the food and culture in-novation philosophy.

“Chef Norman personifies what South Florida creativity and cui-sine is becoming with a career and lifetime of various restaurant ex-periences broadening his culinary horizons and vision,” said Chef John Richards, the director of the college’s International Hospitality Center.

The restaurant, which has yet to be named, is scheduled to open its doors in October 2011.

The Honors College at Miami Dade College will enter the 2011-12 academic school year with new directors at the Kendall and InterAmerican Campuses.

Director Loretta Adoghe will be leav-ing her position as Kendall Campus Honors College Director to be the De-partment Chair for the Biology, Health & Wellness and Funeral Science De-partment at the North Campus.

Replacing Adoghe at Kendall will be Jennifer Bravo, the current Dual Lan-guage program Honors Director at In-terAmerican Campus.

“Even though changes are often dif-ficult, I am confident that we will be able to work together as we welcome the new academic year,” said Bravo. The staff at the Honors College is working on finding a replacement for Bravo.

Wolfson Campus’ Student Life department and Student Allocation and Programming Board will host a Fall Welcome Back event on Aug. 24 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at the Wolfson Campus student life patio.

The event will feature Japanese culture in an effort to bring aware-ness to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan in March.

There will be student performers, a Japanese-inspired fashion show, and a live performance of Taiko, a type of traditional Japanese drum-ming.

“Often we forget about incidents that effect a nation such as Japan, but we need to remember that a bit of help can go a long way,” said Niouse-line St. Jean, publicist for the SAPB.

The Hispanic College Quiz an organization that encourages students of Hispanic descent to embrace their cultural back-ground, is offering a scholarship opportunity to Miami Dade Col-lege students.

The organization is currently accepting video submission from students through Oct. 16. Stu-dents need to state why their her-itage is important to them. They intend to spread the importance of cultural diversity amongst the student body.

The videos will be up for vote, and the top three students will receive scholarships: First place will win $5,000, second place will win $2,500, and third place will win $1,000.

North Campus Club Rush

New Accelerated Degree Program

Honors College Receives New Administration

MDC Approves New Biological Science Degree

New Location of North Campus Student Center

Wolfson Walking Program New Executive Chef at MCI

Wolfson Welcomes and Gives Back

Scholarship Video Contest

For more information contact Student Life Office T (305) 237-1250, by email [email protected]

For more information contact MDC School of BusinessT (305) 237-5109

For more information contactBiology/Health and Wellness Dept.T (305) 237-1101

To view Urbana online visitwww.mdc.edu/iac

For more information contactGeorgette PerezT [email protected]

For more information contactDaniel EstapeT (305) [email protected]

For more information contactProfessor Geoffrey PhilpT (305) 237-1267

For more information, contact:John Richards, Director of MCIT 305-237-7024B [email protected]

For more information, contact:Niouseline St.JeanT (305) [email protected]

For more information visitwww.hispaniccollegequiz.com

// BRIEFINGMelissa Adan, Briefing Editor // T (305) 237-2715 // B [email protected]

For more information, contact: Evelyn RodriguezT (305) [email protected]

—Zayda Costa

—Morena Guerrero

—Richard Pizarro—Jael Teme

—Brittany Esquijarosa

—Melissa Adan

—Sergio O’ Day

— Brittany Esquijarosa

— Kirsten Rincon

Miami Dade College English pro-fessor Geoffrey Philp has published his first children’s book, Marcus and

The Amazons. The e-book was quick to catch the attention of the public, becoming an amazon.com “Hot New Release.”

Marcus and The Amazons is the story of two ant colonies—

the Formicas and Amazons—that are at war with each other. The Amazons

Professor’s New E-Book take the Formica Queen-to-be hos-tage and challenge Marcus, who is her lover, to rescue her from the grasp of their army. Marcus, a pacifist, has to overcome the obstacles set before him and save his beloved princess without succumbing to the pugna-cious nature of the Amazons.

Throughout the story, Philp con-veys a message of battling oppression.

PHILP

—Melissa Adan

Eight Miami Dade College pro-fessors have been selected as the 2011 Endowed Teaching Chairs. Professors selected for the award are chosen for demonstrating ex-cellence in teaching and receive a $7,500 annual stipend for three years.

2011 Endowed Teaching Chairs

AT&T II Elena Perez-MirabalEnglish Professor at North Campus

Women in Business Ece Karayalcin, Film

Professor at North and Kendall Campuses

MDC Alumni Association Magdalena Lamarre

Social Science Professor at

Homestead Campus

Columbia/HCA HealthcareCorporationLenore YatesNursing Professor at Medical Center Campus

Andrew BlankMiriam Abety

Social Science Professor at Inter-

American Campus

Rotary Club of MiamiLourdes España

Mathematics Professor at North Campus

Philip MorrisJuán MorataNatural Sciences Professor at Wolfson Campus

Dade Community FoundationNora DawkinsEnglish Professor at North Campus

ZITELLI

THE REPORTER AUG. 1, 2011 | BRIEFING 3


PHOTOGRAPHER / THE REPORTER

Edible Arrangements: More then three months after the opening of the Miami Culinary Institute, College President Eduardo Padrón was on site to help with the grand opening of the school’s organic edible garden. The garden, created by Natural Greenscape, will provide a sustainable source fruits, vegetables and herbs that will be used in the preparation of dishes in the institution.

1

PHOTOBRIEFING

ALL PHOTOS BY ALAIN BICHOTTE / THE REPORTER

PHOTOS BY ALAIN BICHOTTE / THE REPORTER

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THE REPORTER AUG. 1, 2011 | NEWS 5


College Tuition Set To Increase Starting Fall

TUITION INCREASE

Miami Dade College’s appropri-ations in the Florida state budget were reduced by 7.6 percent from last year’s amount, according to a statement released by College of-ficials.

As a result, the 2011-2012 per-credit-hour cost has increased from $73.00 to $78.84.

In February, Florida Gov. Rick Scott submitted recommenda-tions to the legislature requesting tax cuts amounting to approxi-mately $4 billion, in an effort to reduce excessive spending and attract more businesses to Florida.

“This is a job’s budget,” Scott said at a press conference on Feb. 7. “This is designed to reduce state spending, to lower taxes and to hold government accountable.”

These recommendations left the state Senate and House to delib-erate two starkly different budget proposals before reconciling on Senate Bill 2000: Appropriation,

Student Life Offers Many Resources

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against College

which outlines the state’s spend-ing for the current fiscal year.

The new budget met Scott’s recommendations.

Yet before signing the new budget into law, Scott vetoed $615 million, according to a May 26 Miami Herald article.

In response to these vetoes, MDC President Eduardo Padrón released a statement to students via email.

“I must report discouraging news on the topic of state fund-ing, news that will certainly challenge MDC’s ability to serve the students of our community,” Padrón said.

According to Padrón’s email, Scott’s $615 million veto in-cluded more than $10 million in appropriations for classrooms, laboratories, infrastructure and site improvements across MDC’s campuses.

“$6.7 million of those funds were desperately needed to ex-pand the Hialeah Campus’ class-rooms, science labs and other critical student support facilities,” Padrón said.

Jennifer Basile, vice president for United Faculty of Miami Dade College at Kendall Campus, says the cuts in education may cause lay-offs, the elimination of cours-es and other services offered at the college.

“Our lawmakers in Tallahas-see are able to push cuts through because no one is checking up on them,” said Basile. “This can be changed by educating and mobi-lizing your peers with what’s going on and the potential losses Miami Dade College is facing.”

Erik Bentancourt, a business

STUDENT LIFE

LAWSUIT

By Akeem [email protected]

By Monique O. [email protected]

By Akeem [email protected]

The 2011-2012 cost per-credit-hour has increased from $73.00 to $78.84.

After several years of allegedly unpaid lunch breaks, three Wolfson Campus security guards have decided to fight back and claim what they believe is theirs.

Student Life features more than 100 clubs and organizations throughout all campuses. Here, your parking decal, MDC ID, event and service learning schedules are made available.

// NEWSMonique O. Madan, Editor-in-Chief // T (305) 237-1253 // B [email protected]

pushing heavily and unfortunately unsuccessfully on a state level is tu-ition for residency purposes,” said Antonio Delgado, director of Student Life at InterAmerican Campus, refer-ring to a bill that passed unsuccess-fully through the Florida Legislator to allow undocumented students in Florida to attend college with in-state tuition.

At Homestead Campus, students have the opportunity to join clubs like the Aviation Flight Team, Early Child-hood Education, Brother’s Keepers or the Military Student Organization.

Nicole Bryant, director of Student Life at Homestead Campus said that Student Life is a “one-stop shop” for students.

“Student Life can [help you] do anything,” Bryant said, “from getting acquainted with the campus to mold-ing you into a campus leader.”

supervision and management student, said he is concerned with how budget cuts can affect classes at the College.

“We barely have enough avail-able faculty as it is,” Bentancourt said. “This would mean that the College may let go of even more faculty members, which will lead to the lack of the individualized education.”

Juan Mendieta, MDC’s direc-tor of communications, released this statement to The Reporter via email.

“Our aim has always been

‘students f irst’ and we follow that mantra when addressing budget issues so that impacts to the classroom are avoided and/or minimized as much as possi-ble. Even if the College increas-es tuition by eight percent, it will not offset cuts to the MDC budget since it is not a one-to-one ratio,” Mendieta said. “We do not take lightly the issue of tuition and fully believe the state should shoulder the cost of education, not the students.”———————————————————————————Jose Prado contributed to this report.

Gaby Narvaez used to be like many students at Miami Dade College.

“I used to be the type that would go to class and then straight home,”said Narvaez, an MDC graduate who cur-rently serves as the student organiza-tion coordinator at Wolfson Campus. “As new students I encourage you to participate and get involved on cam-pus.”

Student Life features more than 100 clubs and organizations through-out all campuses.

Through this department, you can get your parking decal, MDC ID, be-come informed on the many events, clubs and organizations on campus or even find out about upcoming ser-vice learning or community service opportunities.

Student Life offers students the op-portunity to share ideas with other students with similar interests at a va-riety of clubs and organizations.

For example, Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society with a presence at seven campuses.

North Campus P.T.K. Vice Presi-dent Ruth Moreno explains that their mission is to “promote leadership, scholarship and service.”

“We want to give members the tools necessary to be successful in any endeavor and be well-rounded leaders in the school,” Moreno said.

Students at the Medical Center Campus gain insight and experience in their majors with clubs like Future Veterinarian Technicians of America, Student American Dental Hygienist Association, and the Laboratory Sci-ences Student Association.

One of the most prominent student organization that directly relates to every student at MDC is the Student Government Association.

SGA represents the student body on any campus, local, and state is-sues.

“One issue that [SGA] has been

STUDENT LIFENorth CampusRoom # 4208Clubs Offered: 30T (305) 237-1250

Medical CampusRoom # 1171Clubs Offered: 11T (305) 237-4213

Wolfson CampusRoom # 2101Clubs Offered: 42T (305) 237-3536

Homestead CampusRoom # A116Clubs Offered: 19T (305) 237-5065

West CampusRoom # 1171Clubs Offered: 11T (305) 237-8904

Hialeah CampusRoom # 1118Clubs Offered: 5T (305) 237-8736

Kendall CampusRoom # 100Clubs Offered: 36T (305) 237-2327

Kendall CampusRoom # 1106Clubs Offered: 16T (305) 237-6163

Percent lost from last year’s state budget

7.6%Amount in millions

vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott

615

Alix Jean Joseph says Miami Dade College owes him.

“I’ve been working here for eleven years and have been given no breaks,” said Joseph a night-shift public safety officer at the Wolfson Campus.

Joseph is one of three cur-rent or former night-shift pub-lic safety officers at the Wolfson Campus— Abraham Charles and Wy’Ketdra Hutchison are the others— who claim they were not paid for 30 minute meal breaks

The College’s Part Time Employee Guidelines for Non-Instructional Personnel provides in part:

“The College practice is to provide part time non instructional employees with an unpaid meal break of no less than thirty minutes no later than after four (4) continuous hours of work, and can be scheduled at any time before.”

over several years. As a result, they say, their hourly pay was less than minimum wage.

The trio filed a class action lawsuit against MDC despite each being hand-delivered checks on June 3 to pay for the time they were owed, according to their attorney Richard Ben-nett. In Joseph’s case, he rejected a check for $3,393.61.

“The plaintiffs returned the checks because they want to make sure everyone under their same circumstances gets paid,” Bennett said. “There is a pos-sibility of other present and for-mer part-time employees that might be in the same boat that we might not know about.”

According to College Attorney Carmen Dominguez, the Col-lege abstains from commenting

on whether or not the College’s Human Resources department is researching whether or not other employees will be affected by this motion.

MDC’s Part Time Employee Guidelines for Non-Instructional Personnel states that “The Col-lege practice is to provide part-time non instructional employ-ees with an unpaid meal break of no less than thirty minutes...”

The three are non-instruction-

al employees of the College and are non-exempt employees un-der the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the complaint file.

They seek to recover unpaid wages and attorney fees.

“My clients work eight hours, yet are only paid for seven and a half,” Bennett said. “They have complained several times be-fore, but they were still not given their 30 minute break because of short-staffing issues.”

The College filed to move the case from state to federal court on July 12. On July 19, plaintiffs filed a motion to return the case to state court.

“It’s a state law matter, not a federal law matter,” Bennett said.

The next court date is current-ly pending.

“Unfortunately I am not per-mitted to discuss anything of on-going litigation,” said York Flik, attorney representing MDC.

Log on for a look inside the Student Life Department: www.mdc.edu/thereporter

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APPETIZING.

MDC’s Accreditation Under Threat

ACCREDITATION

FROM ACCREDITATION, FRONT

tials.”SACS describes the warning as a

public sanction issued due to non-compliance with Core Requirement 2:8: “ The number of faculty is ad-equate to support the mission of the institution and to ensure the integ-rity of its academic programs.”

However, SACS does not have of-ficial guidelines on the ratio of full-time and part-time faculty an insti-tution should have.

“I find this incredibly novel; bi-zarre. We don’t have sufficient full-time professors but they don’t even tell us the ideal number we should have,” said Michael Lenaghan, a full-time international relations professor at North and InterAmeri-can Campus. “I in turn teach an average of nine courses a semester. They need to do the math.”

Any school that loses its accredi-tation faces major obstacles. Its stu-dents wouldn’t be able to receive federal financial aid and they would have a difficult time transferring credits to other institutions.

During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, MDC had approximately 46,000 stu-dents that received federal funding, according to College-Wide Finan-cial Aid Director Mercedes Amaya.

Last year the college credit to

student population increased by about 5.5%, according to Montoya.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if enrollment dropped dramati-cally. People want a legit school, and if their diploma isn’t viable, what would be the point in com-ing here?” said Brittany Harvey, a 20-year-old business major at North Campus. “I think I can un-derstand the warning. Part-time professors don’t really have of-fice times or office hours. It has stopped me in the past from hav-ing easy access to what I need.”

The warning applies to all com-ponents of the institution includ-ing all programs, branch campus-es, off-campus sites, and distance learning programs.

In December, the warning will either be removed, extended, the College could be placed on proba-tion or its accreditation could be removed.

Florida Christian College in Kissimmee was also given a six-month warning.

“The economic situation has re-ally forced us into this, really.” said John Todd, a full-time speech pro-fessor at Kendall Campus. “How-ever, I find part-time professors to be committed to the education goal of the College. I know I was when I was one.”

More than 600 law center stu-dents at Wolfson Campus will have easier access to lay down the law.

The United States Attorney’s Of-fice for the Southern District of Flor-ida donated their entire collection of books to Miami Dade College’s Law Center.

The library is set to have approxi-mately 4,722 books as opposed to the current paralegal collection of 1,500.

“I’m very excited, we’ve been working on growing our program for years and this new law library is definitely a huge stepping stone,” said Law Center Director, Thomas Nguyen.

The Law Center at MDC is the only ABA approved program in Mi-ami-Dade County. It has been work-ing for more than a year to build communication partnerships with all legal law offices and legal organi-zations in South Florida.

Because the U.S Attorney’s office is going electronic, they have made

Law Library Donated to Wolfson Law Center

available to MDC their collection of books.

“Most books they have provided are federal volumes that we lack, the entire collection is about four times the size of ours.” Nguyen said. “This Law Collection will probably make our legal law collection one of the biggest in the country and is set to be worth approximately $600,000.”

It will be located on the first floor of the library located at Wolfson Campus in an area the size of two classrooms.

“We have knocked down the walls of the two spare classrooms we had here at the library to make room for this enormous collection of Law books,” said Adria Leal, a Wolfson campus librarian.

Previously, students were lim-ited with the small collection at the campus library or would have to commute to the Miami Federal Courthouse’s library in Down-town.

“As someone who has done le-gal research at the University of Miami library and the Federal Courthouse, it is very nice to have something that is more accessible to the students here at MDC,” said Jose Medina, an intern at the Law Center. “We will feel more com-fortable which will ultimately improve our ability to do the re-search required.”

DONATION

By Kirsten [email protected]

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida donated their entire collection of books to Miami Dade College’s Law Center.

Safety First

INFORGRAPHIC: PUBLIC SAFETY

Patrolling the breezeways and halls across Miami Dade College, the Public Safety Department is tasked with the safety of faculty, staff and students. As an addition-al layer of safety, each campus is equipped with alert systems that warn occupants of any pertinent dangers. For college-wide emer-gencies, such as a natural disas-ter that may force closures, MDC Alerts provides text-alerts to all subscribers, as well as a hotline to provide staff and student callers with up-to-date information.

Here is a look at some of the functions of both Miami Dade Col-lege’s Public Safety departments and the MDC Alerts system.

To Serve And ProtectBesides maintaining safety at Miami Dade College’s eight campuses, the public safety departments offer a plethora of other services; here are some of them:

If In A PinchIn an urgent situation, students can contact their campus Public Safety department using emergency phones. Some of these phones are equipped with a red panic button that connects the caller directly to an operator at the department, while also informing them the location of the phone, so an officer can be sent out to the situation.

Getting In TouchHere’s a listing of how to reach you campus Public Safety Department; both by location and phone number.

Reaching OutThe College emergency alert system has infrastructure designed to allow important information to be broadcast at both campus-wide and college-wide levels. At the campus-wide level, alerts can be triggered to affect individual buildings in the case of an event that immediately threatens the well being of occupants, as in the case of a fire. At the college-wide level, the College sends text alerts to MDC Alerts subscribers; the text alerts are designed to relay important information about that affect college operations, such as closures during hurricanes. Cathy Anthofer, director of emergency preparedness, says that one of the most important things during an emergency is to be knowledgeable of what to do during an emergency. “People should be aware of what to do during an emergency,” said Anthofer. “If an alert says to ‘shelter,’ do you know what it means?”

SOURCES: MDC.EDU/MAIN/SAFETY, MDC.EDU/MAIN/ALERTS, CATHLEEN ANTHOFER, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, ARMANDO GUZMAN, CHIEF OF PUBLIC SAFETY AT KENDALL CAMPUS— RESEARCH: AKEEM BRUNSON, LAZARO GAMIO—GRAPHICS: LAZARO GAMIO

Incident Reports Students can file a report with the department, as well as file reports anonymously online.

These two emergency phone variations are found on walls.

Each campus has its own emergency alert system.

Mass text alerts are sent out in case of a college-wide emergency event.

This pylon-like variation is often found outdoors, most notably in parking lots.

Lost And FoundPublic Safety departments maintain an inventory of items turned over to officers. Also, an incident report can be filed for a missing item.

Parking DecalsFaculty and staff can register their vehicle with Public Safety, while students can register with the Student Life department.

North CampusT (305) 237-1100 , Room 1175——————————————————Kendall CampusT (305) 237-2100, Room 5118 ——————————————————

Wolfson CampusT (305) 237-3100, Room 1140—————————————————— InterAmericanT (305) 237-6046 , Room 1123——————————————————

Medical Center CampusT (305) 237-4100, Room 1153——————————————————Homestead CampusT (305) 237-5100, Room D114——————————————————

Hialeah CampusT (305) 237-8701, Room 1115——————————————————West CampusT (305) 237-8100, Room 1130——————————————————

For more information about Public Safety, visit: http://www.mdc.edu/main/safety

For more information about MDC Alerts, visit: http://www.mdc.edu/main/alerts

APPETIZING.

*Not all programs offered at all off-campus sites

Andrea Penoyer is not your typical working mom. After all, not all moms have their lives filmed for a reality TV show. But even with raising a son and working for the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s anti-crime unit, all the while being part of TLC’s Police Women of Broward County,she is able to pursue her second degree from BARRY UNIVERSITY. “Barry makes it possible with evening and weekend classes that are convenient for me.”

www.barry.edu/MDC

BARRY UNIVERSITY is the second-largest private, Catholic university in the Southeast • Main campus in Miami Shores, Florida, offering more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s, and

doctoral programs in: Arts and Sciences • Business • Education • Health Sciences •Human Performance and Leisure Sciences • Law • Podiatric Medicine •

Public Administration • Social Work • Day, evening, and weekend classes at sites throughout Florida

ANDREA PENOYERTLC’s Police Women of Broward CountyBachelor of Public Administration, 2010Current Master of Public Administration student

Create YOUR FUTURE.

12343-Miami Dade College:Layout 1 7/28/11 10:46 AM Page 1



Alexandria Holloway, dean of The Honors College, has devoted nearly half her life to education.

After working in the field for 43 years—35 of those at Miami Dade College—Holloway is set to retire on Aug.31.

She will be replaced by Pascale Charlot who was most recently the assistant dean of student af-fairs at New York University’s Law School.

Holloway, a Jackson, Mis-sissippi native, was originally due to retire five years ago, but elected to enter the Deferred Retirement Option Program in the Florida Retirement System. Now that she has completed her time in that program, she has no choice but to retire.

The move wont be an easy one for Holloway, who has developed a close-knit bond with her stu-dents and colleagues at The Hon-ors College.

“It really is like a family,” Hol-loway said. “This has been the greatest of all the positions I’ve held.”

After completing her under-graduate work at Jackson State University, she went directly to earning her master’s degree in music education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Since then, she has been work-ing in the field of education.

“I always knew that I loved teaching, and I loved working with students,” Holloway said.

Her first job was teaching music in the Champaign, Illinois public school system, a position she held consecutively for about five years, before spending a year at her Alma Mater, Jackson State, teaching mu-sic and piano courses.

She then returned to the Champaign public school sys-tem until one day in 1976 she got a call from a friend at the Univer-sity of Illinois. He informed Hol-

Dean Of Honors College Set To Retire

loway that the chairman of the music department at MDC was interested in offering her a job.

Holloway was hesitant at first, believing that Miami was not a place she wanted to be. However, she decided to give it a chance— on a one year trial basis—taking a job teaching music and piano courses at the Kendall Campus.

“What I saw at Miami Dade was something very special. I saw students who came in with minimal skills given an oppor-tunity to progress, and they just soared,” she said.

Refreshed by the desire for edu-cation her students possessed, Holloway decided to stay at MDC.

One day, when the choir direc-tor became ill, Holloway filled in. Under her direction, the stu-dents decided to become a gos-pel choir. Soon, MDC began to offer a one-credit gospel choir course (MUN1391), the first of such courses offered in the state.

The JUBA Gospel Ensemble, as they came to be known, even recorded an album (JUBA Live) in 1985 at the prestigious Criteria Studios in North Miami.

Not long after the release of the album, Holloway became chair of the music department. It was a position she would hold for six months.

Holloway was then offered the position of Associate Dean for the Division of the Arts and Sciences.

While serving in that role, Hol-loway oversaw the construction of the Martin and Pat Fine Center for the Arts (Building M) on Ken-dall Campus.

When Eduardo Padrón be-came college president in 1995, he offered Holloway the position of interim executive dean at the Homestead Campus.

“That was an incredible oppor-tunity,” said Holloway, who en-joyed the ability to interact with students on a more personal level.

After three years she was as-signed to be the academic dean at the Wolfson Campus.She fell in love with what she calls “The Wolfson Culture.”

In 2001, Padrón asked Hol-loway to start a new program— The Honors College.

HONORS COLLEGE

By Mark [email protected]

The original dean of The Honors College, Alexandria Holloway, is retiring after 35 years of service to Miami Dade College.

Holloway, always up for a chal-lenge, spent a year researching honors programs at other insti-tutions. In 2002, The Honors Col-lege was launched, with Wolfson Campus serving as the catalyst.

The program was designed to offer an option to some of Miami-Dade County’s brightest young students.

“[Holloway] was the one who made this possible, who took Dr. Padrón’s directive and made The Honors College a reality,” said Virginia Fuillerat, the director of The Honors College at Wolfson Campus. “It is her baby.”

Holloway acknowledges the special bond she has formed with her students.

“I don’t have any birth chil-dren, but I have hundreds of chil-dren,” she said.

Alejandro Almanza, a 2004 graduate from The Honors Col-lege’s inaugural class, credits Holloway’s compassionate, en-couraging and problem-solving nature with bringing out the best from her students, both during and after their time at MDC.

Almanza, now 27 and a senior human resource recruiter with the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine/ UHealth System, believes that Holloway’s presence will always be felt.

“The foundation that Dr. Hol-loway established for The Hon-ors College has evidently con-tributed to it’s success and has left a lasting imprint on the lives of all who have been fortunate enough to be a part of this pro-gram under her leadership,” Al-manza said.

Another of Holloway’s former students, Susana Montes, now 26 and working as an analyst for Facebook, says that Holloway has been “like a mother” to her and the many other students who have been under her guidance.

“[Holloway] has changed the lives of thousands of students who, in turn, are changing thou-sands of lives,” Montes said. “She has left a huge mark in the com-munity and the world. For that gift, she will be remembered by all those whose lives she has touched.”

Pioneer: Set to retire later this month, Alexandria Holloway, the original dean of The Honors College, remains optimistic about her future endeavors.

MARK PULASKI / THE REPORTER

New Access And Parking Fee to be Instituted This Fall

NEW FEE

for various projects including construction of the new five-floor building for student services at Kendall Campus expected to be completed by Fall 2013, according to Harrison.

“The fees ultimately will benefit the students in the long run be-cause if our biggest issue in Inte-rAmerican Campus is our parking, then it will help resolve it,” Suarez said.

The college has not proposed adding addit ional funding for parking but, instituting a flat rate amongst all students through tu-ition. Thus, if a student is taking 12 credits they will be paying $36 that

semester. “I don’t see the parking fee as

an issue because we spend at least $36 on our cell phone bill so why not spend it on something that will benefit our student body?” said InterAmerican Campus Student Government Association President Alain Suarez.

But not everyone feels the same. Brigitte Barberiz, a 19-year-old Kendall Campus literature major believes the new fee is unfair.

“I find it crazy that on top of the fact that we have to pay a lot of money for classes and textbooks, we have to pay for parking.” Bar-beriz said, “The College is making it harder for students to afford get-ting an education.”

FROM NEW FEE, FRONT

Maisha Vrotsos sighed when she read what her younger brother typed in his laptop two days be-fore his death.

“[It read] ‘live life to the fullest and take each day to better your-self,’” Maisha Vrotsos said.

Konstantinos Vrotsos, a crimi-nal justice major at Miami Dade College’s West Campus, died on July 3 after he lost control of his vehicle.

According to Detective Ja-vier Baez, a Miami Dade Police spokesman, Vrotsos was driving his Nissan 350 Z when he crashed into a Florida Power & Light post near Biscayne Blvd. NW 107 St. at approximately 3 a.m.. The vehicle caught fire.

He died on impact. “The walk to his grave is like that

of a red carpet, when you reach the end you find my son, Konstan-tinos,” said Blanca Vrotsos, the young man’s mother.

Most recently, Vrotsos traveled with his MDC’s Student Alloca-tion Programming Board organi-zation to a conference in Atlanta, GA. It featured ways to promote student life.

However, Vrotsos didn’t stop at the doors of the College.

He was well known for his act-ing career in several soap operas such as Gata Salvaje, Angel Rebel-de, Soñar No Cuesta Nada and Go-ing to California. Born in Athens, Greece on Dec. 5, 1991 and nick-named Konz, he began his career at the age of five performing in commercials.

By the age of six Vrotsos became a Screen Actors Guild award mem-ber and he began traveling from Miami to Los Angeles with hopes of winning the hearts of casting directors.

“He was very charismatic and

West Campus Student Dies In Road Accident

was always called back for cast-ings, more importantly, he was humble,” Maisha said.

Konstantinos attended five to seven red carpet events annually and won more than five honorable awards, including being given the keys to the city of the Domini-can Republic in 2007, according to Blanca.

“He was a person who lived it all, there are many actors that wish they would have experienced what he did,” Blanca said.

During his career as an actor Vrotsos acted in more than 100 commercials with companies such as McDonald’s and CVS Pharmacy. He also appeared in a short Pepsi commercial with base-ball player Alex Rodriguez. He last filmed a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken in 2010. It’s still air-ing today.

“I was with him in moments only him and I shared,” Blanca said. “I enjoyed him for 19 years and I am happy.”

Vrotsos’ family has created a Konstantinos memorial Facebook page.

“[It’s] set up for remembering my brother, it has album for fans and friends, photos and videos of Konz’s work as well as his fam-ily pictures.” Maisha said. “It was made to keep his legacy alive.”

Fans and friends can purchase ‘Konz memorabilia’ through the memorial page in order to help the Vrotsos family recover for funeral funds.

Twenty-one-year-old Jenniffer Carballo, was Vrotsos’ girlfriend of more than a year. She says she will miss singing to him at night the most.

“I only sang for him because I felt comfortable, tranquil,” Carballo said. “There was no light; no judging. It was just the perfect environment— it was private.”

According to Carballo, Vrotsos was a thrill-seeker.

“He was my partner in crime, and now it feels like I have no crimes to commit,” Carballo said.

STUDENT DEATH


Talented MDC student, Konstantinos Vrotsos, dies in tragic car crash after losing control of his vehicle.

10 SPORTS | AUG. 1, 2011 THE REPORTER


After a year of vigorous competition on the courts and in the classrooms, student athletes that participated in the 2010-2011 season are taking their next step to success. The Reporter chronicles the next steps of alumni student athletes both academically and professionally.

SOURCES: MDC ATHLETICS, RESPECTIVE PLAYERSRESEARCH: GREGORY CASTILLOGRAPHIC: LAZARO GAMIOPHOTOS: MDC MEDIA RELATIONS, GREGORY CASTILLO

Far From HomeMDC SPORTS

Visit us online for an interactive map of where MDC Sports Alumni have gone after graduation:www.mdc.edu/thereporter

BASEBALL

Jorge Saez Former MDC Baseball Third Baseman. Transferring to Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.

BASEBALLDerek LawFormer MDC Baseball right-handed pitcher. Selected in the 9th round of the MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Maurice Kemp Jr. Former Forward for MDC Men's Basketball. Transferring to East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALLMelanie DucottFormer MDC Women’s Basketball Point Guard. Attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Fla.

VOLLEYBALLYenifer Calcano Former Outside Hitter for MDC Women’s Volleyball. Transferring to the University of Texas at Brownsville

SOFTBALLStephanie BuendiaFormer Outfielder for MDC Women's Softball. Transferring to Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma.

The Mile CounterThis chart shows the straight-line distance in miles between Miami and the city in which players are residing. The majority of the players contacted stayed east of the Mis-sissippi; seven of twelve of them in three states: Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

SOURCES: WWW.TRAVELMATH.COMGRAPHIC: LAZARO GAMIO

Frederick Kandis

Julien Sargent

Melanie Ducott

Noemi Rodriguez

Maurice Kemp Jr.

Jorge Saez

Simone Suetsugu

Brian Goodwin

Yenifer Calcano

Ashley Wilkes

Stephanie Buendia

Derek Law

0 miles 500 1000 1500

Boca Raton, Fla., 41

Boca Raton, Fla., 41

Lakeland, Fla., 190

Charlotte, N.C., 652

Greenville, N.C., 698

Cleveland, Tenn., 704

Chattanooga, Tenn., 708

Washington, D.C., 923

Brownsville, Texas, 1077

Buffalo, N.Y., 1,182

Alva, Okla., 1,327

San Francisco, Calif., 2,594

Of those included in this graphic, Derek Law is the farthest from Miami; more than two and a half thousand miles away and more than a thousand miles farther away than Stephanie Buendia, the next farthest player.

SOFTBALLSimone SuetsuguFormer Infielder for MDC Women's Softball. Transferring to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Chattanooga, Tenn.

SOFTBALLNoemi RodriguezFormer Infielder for MDC Women's Softball. Transferting to Queens University of Charlotte in Charlotte, NC.

BASEBALLBrian Goodwin Former Outfielder for MDC Baseball. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals.

MEN'S BASKETBALLJulien SargentFormer Forward/Center for MDC Men's Basketball. Transferring to Florida Atlantic Univerisity in Boca Raton, Fla.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALLFrederick KandisFormer Forward For MDC Women's Basketball. Transferring to Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLAshley WilkesFormer forward for MDC Women’s Basketball. Transferring to Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y.

THE REPORTER AUG. 1, 2011 | SPORTS 11


// SPORTSGregory A. Castillo, Sports Editor // T (305) 237-2157 // B [email protected]

Expectations in sports are never a rarity, but after the roller coaster of emotions suffered throughout the 2010 season, the MDC Women’s Volleyball Team is ready to get back on the court.

Going undefeated throughout the regular season and securing a state championship, the team stumbled at the end, finishing in 6th place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament. The team blamed their loss on mental mistakes.

“Right now, this is a new team,” said Mari-franchi Rodriguez, 20, middle blocker and the only member of the team to receive All-Tournament Honors at the 2010 National Ju-nior College Athletic Association. “We want to get together and regroup.”

Rodriguez was a huge part of the team’s success, and is a heavily coveted prospect on the national spectrum, but she is not alone in the teams hopeful title run.

The team also returns 1st team All-State defensive specialist Yukie Futami, and defensive specialist Meghan Kenney, and defensive spe-cialist/outside hitter, Rosan Rivera.

“I feel good being a big team with lots of experience,” Rivera said. “I believe we gave it our all. Next year we’ll be great with the new girls we’re getting.”

Head coach Origenes Benoit and his staff worked diligently in the off season, scouting for new talent to return the team to championship form.

“We try to recruit good kids,” said Ben-oit, who is in his sixth year as head coach of the Women’s Volleyball team. “One of our main goals is to always have a good crew.”

Even with them returning a talented core and bringing in a slew of new talent, one thing these girls and their coach know bet-ter then most, after last year, is that nothing is given to them, they’ll have to take it.

“We need to learn from our mistakes, have a good attitude,” said Meghan Ken-ney, 20. “If we do that, minimize the er-rors, we’re going to take it.”

PICTURE PERFECT OPPORTUNITYCOMING OFF OF A 6TH PLACE FINISH AT NATIONALS IN 2010, THE MDC WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM RETURNS THEIR BEST PLAYER ALONG WITH A SLEW OF NEW TALENT IN HOPES OF CAPTURING A NATIONAL TITLE.

LADY SHARKS VOLLEYBALL SEASON PREVIEW

By Gregory [email protected]

Reshoot: (From Left) Origenes Benoit,Yukie Futami, Rosan Rivera , Meghan Kenney and Marifranchi Rodriguez (middle, bottom) are looking to regroup from a 2010 national stumble and win it all.

PHOTOS BY GREGORY CASTILLO/ THE REPORTER

ROSAN RIVERA MARIFRANCHI RODRIGUEZ MEGHAN KENNEY YUKIE FATAMI

We need to learn from our mistakes, have a good attitude. If we do that, minimize the errors, we’re going to take it.

—Meghan Kenney

“Right now, this is a new team. We want to get together and regroup”

—Marifranchi Rodriguez

12 A&E | AUG. 1, 2011 THE REPORTER


CampusCuisine

FOOD REVIEWS

A quick eight-minute drive from the Kendall Campus to The Palms at Town & Country takes us to CG Burgers. Opened in May, CG offers an array of hearty, mouthwatering burgers, fries, wings and more at an affordable price.

The restaurant offers a spacious dining area with a modern-west-ern look that makes for a pretty

With Miami’s Latin-inspired f lavors being present on almost every street corner, it’s hard for any one location to stand out, but Caribbean Cafe near MDC’s North Campus happens to do just that.

Opened in 2006, the restaurant offers a casual dine-in experi-ence at a price too affordable to pass up, and sits less than a mile from North Campus.

Menu items are served as “completas”, or “a complete meal.” Customers select two side dishes ranging from traditional Latin and Caribbean f lavors in-cluding rice, beans, vegetables and add an entree to complete their meal.

The entree menu is as diverse as possible for a menu consist-ing mostly of traditional Latin f lavors. Roast pork, picadillo and ox tail are found but are joined by other items like their top-sell-ing bourbon chicken—grilled, slightly-sweet chicken breast pieces—and mango chicken—a sort of fried chicken in mango sauce.

Located in bustling Downtown Miami there is surely an abun-dance of food choices around the Wolfson Campus, if you’re will-ing to look past the McDonalds across the street, that is.

Skip the Big Mac and take a walk a block and a half south and you’ll find Soi Asian Bistro.

Opened in August 2010 as A spin-off of Calle’ Ocho’s Mr. Yum, Soi serves up primarily Thai and Japanese delicacies, offering lunch specials in both categories for 9.95 and 10.95 respectively.

The place is small, but man-ages to feel very open and organ-ic due to its big glass doors and green-and-white decor. Two por-traits adorn the wall, paralleled by a pixelated mirror. Inverted take-out bags line the ceiling.

For starters, I tried an appetiz-er of crispy-fried calamari. The blend of crunchy and chewy tex-tures was enjoyable, as was the orange f lavored dipping sauce served alongside.

From the Japanese side of the menu, the tuna tataki consists

CG Burgers—Kendall———————————————8525 MILLS DRIVEKENDALL, FL 33183(786) 439-2560

Carribean Cafe—North———————————————13565 NW 27 AVE, OPA-LOCKA, FL 33054(305) 687-3643

Soi Asian Bistro—Wolfson———————————————134 NE SECOND AVEMIAMI, FL 33132(305) 523-3643

upscale dining experience at a burger joint.

Carrying the motto of “all-nat-ural, antibiotic-free, humanely raised beef,” I sampled several items from their menu.

The Pub Burger, a single stack hamburger with your choice of mostly free toppings—cheese and bacon are extra—is the basic burg-er. I got the burger with the works and chipotle sauce along with zuc-chini fries—the restaurant’s signa-ture fry—and a regular drink for just under $12.

The burger patty was cooked

Most meals cap off at around $8-10 dollars with a 20 oz foun-tain drink, though the big deal comes from the restaurants daily special. For $3.99 you get two sides with a chosen entree and a 20 oz drink.

During my visit I sampled the mango chicken, stewed chicken and couple of different sides.

The mango chicken was a pleasant surprise offering a tangy, sweet f lavor reminiscent of good quality Chinese take-out. The stewed chicken, a staple dish in most Hispanic homes, was a delicious home-style soup with big, meaty pieces of chicken in a f lavorful vegetable broth.

Though my entrees we’re full of f lavor, I can’t say the same

of pan-seared tuna, thinly sliced and served over a bed of stringed carrots and is accompanied by a California roll and sashimi plat-ter. Overall, the f lavor is good, but it is not very filling.

A dish from the Thai group, the pad thai, was very good. Served with your choice of pro-tein—chicken, beef, or shrimp—the meal came wrapped up in a blanket of an omelet, concealing the deliciousness inside.

Soi’s specialty, however, is in their curry dishes. Their massa-man curry was rated No. 1 curry in Miami by Miami New Times. I cant say I disagree at all. The spicy bite of the curry was mellowed well with the coconut milk and provid-ed exquisite flavor.

Although I’m not big on des-serts, the tempura cheesecake was delicious. It was mango f la-vored at the time, although I’m told it’s usually strawberry. If you should happen to feel guilty about the extra calories, just walk a couple extra laps around the block before heading back to campus.

GREGORY CASTILLO/ THE REPORTER



MARK PULASKI/ THE REPORTER

4 out of 5

3.5 out of 5

4 out of 5

well done and was a bit lackluster, but the tangy chipotle sauce made up for the missing juiciness of the meat.

The zucchini fries were a fantas-tic surprise, offering a good, crispy bite perfectly complimented by the ranch dressing. I also got to try the home-cut sweet potato fries, which were also exceptional. Of the four sides, I thought they were the best. The regular french fries were dis-appointing, almost always being too greasy and missing a much-needed bite.

Of the other menu items I tried, the steak sub was delicious but a bit too small for it’s $8 asking price. The other types of burgers I tried included kobe, bison and lamb, and were between $7.95 and $9.50.

Except for the lamb, which was served with their special home made tzatziki sauce: a Greek yo-gurt-based sauce, the kobe and bi-son really didn’t warrant the steep price increase over the regular burger.

Overall, I’m a fan of CG burgers. The ability to choose what I want on my burger along with the over-all variety of the menu will keep me coming back for more.

thing for my sides. The arroz moro—a seasoned rice and bean dish—lacked f lavor and I mostly left it behind, as well as the con-gri—another version of the rice dish—which shared the same fault as the moro.

All in all, the restaurant offers a significant value to students looking to grab a quick, mon-strous portion of home-style Ca-ribbean f lavors. Service is fast, food is cheap and they even of-fer 29¢ coladas, a popular potent dose of Cuban coffee for students needing an extra buzz to get through their classes.

MARK PULASKI/ THE REPORTER

IN AN EFFORT TO BRING YOU ALTERNATIVES TO CAFETERIA FOOD, WE BRING YOU CULINARY REVIEWS OF RESTAURANTS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO CAMPUS. ALL LOCATIONS OFFERED MEAL OPTIONS FOR UNDER $15.

Visit us online for recurring restaurant reviews: www.mdc.edu/thereporter

PAD THAI

FILET MIGNON STEAK SUB

TUNA TATAKI

STEWED CHICKEN WITH CONGRI

GRILLED SEASONED CHICKEN

THE REPORTER AUG. 1, 2011 | A&E 13


STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

MDC Student Stars In New Western Film

COURTESY OF WILD DOGS PRODUCTIONS

Wild Wild West: North campus student Eric Zaldivar (right) starred alongside spaghetti-western veteran Dan van Husen in the new release The Scarlet Worm.

Eric Zaldivar—24-year-old film major at the North Campus—acts, co-produces, and serves as stuntman in the low-budget Western The Scarlet Worm.

By Mark [email protected]

// A&EMark Pulaski, A&E Editor // T (305) 237-1254 // B [email protected]

Since he was young boy growing up in Miami, 24-year-old Eric Zaldi-var knew he wanted to entertain people.

“While other little boys wanted to be policemen or firemen, I was interested in operating Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disney World,” he said.

At age 12, after watching the Nor-mandy Beach invasion scene in Sav-ing Private Ryan, he set a new career goal for himself: to be a filmmaker.

Ever since, most of his time has been spent making his own short films and watching plenty of mov-ies, which he credits with being the best film school of all.

In his latest venture, the North Campus film major goes beyond

the simple home-made shorts and brings something to the big screen—The Scarlet Worm.

The film is a small-budget West-ern that follows the story of an ag-ing assassin named Print (Aaron Stielstra) who is obsessed with the theatrics involved in his killings. In his latest assignment, he is tasked with the assassination of a brothel owner—played by Dan van Hu-sen—who performs cruel abortions on his ‘employees’.

Zaldivar plays Gus, the son of the brothel owner, who serves as a “sympathetic villain” unsure of what to make of his father’s actions.

In addition to his acting credit, he also served as a co-producer, sec-ond unit director, and stuntman, often sacrificing his body to achieve the desired results on film.

The director of The Scarlet Worm, Michael Fredianelli, said Zaldivar was a “vital asset” to the project.

“I enjoyed working with [Zaldi-var] because he definitely has a strong passion for the Western genre and it shows in his work,” Fre-

dianelli said via e-mail. “He put a lot of heart into the production.”

Zaldivar also managed to secure most of the funds for the film with the help of MDC film professor Mario Beguiristain, who had great hope in the quality of the script and the capabilities of his student.

“He is a promising talent,” said Beguiristain. “He’s a naturally-born director and has good vision for ac-tion scenes.”

Zaldivar aspires to continue on his current path, building more contacts in the film industry and creating his cinematic art.

“In a world where everybody in my line of work wants to be the next Michael Bay, my goal is the simplest: I just want to make small, meaning-ful pictures that bring something new to the landscape of film his-tory,” Zaldivar said.

The Scarlet Worm will make it’s theatrical debut in select California theatres on August 27, and will be available on Blu-ray on August 16 through unearthedfilms.com.

Even though the Miami Interna-tional Film Festival is roughly six months away, filmmakers all across the globe are beginning to submit their latest cinematic endeavors.

MIFF, sponsored by Miami Dade College, has officially placed a call for entries on their site. Becoming more efficiently equipped, not to mention environmentally friendly, they aim to have all submissions sent through the Withoutabox Se-cure Online Screener. Potential contestants submitting via this pro-gressive form will be granted prior-ity viewing.

Festival Director Jaie Laplante has expressed his gratitude and excite-ment for the 2012 MIFF.

The Wolfson family has donated $2 million to the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus.

The donation will help with the preservation and digitization of more then 40 thousand hours of footage.

The archives currently have 35 thousand hours on tapes like Be-tacam and U-matic and 23 million feet of film .

According to Rene Ramos, the di-rector of the archive, the department

MIFF Now Accepting Submissions for 2012

Wolfson Family Donates $2M to MDC Film Archives

–Jessica Medina

–Akeem Brunson

For more information visitwww.miamifilmfestival.com

For more information contactT 305 375-1505B [email protected]

“We had a superb response from audiences and filmmakers alike on our 2011 edition,” Laplante said. “The fact that we have been able to win the support of the Knight Foun-dation for our new cash award struc-ture in the Ibero-American Compe-tition will ensure the cream of the crop in Spanish-language cinema in 2012.”

With a variety of categories from features, documentaries, shorts, and experimental cinema, the 2012 edi-tion of MIFF aims to continue put-ting Miami on the map among major film festivals, possibly on it’s way to being mentioned alongside Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance.

has already begun the digitization of the footage, but the process would be lengthy with the current outdated equipment.

“With what we have now it would take years,” said Ramos. “I would probably be retired before we’re done.”

The donation will fund new equip-ment to help expedite the project.

Once complete, the footage will placed in an online database.

COURTESY OF WILD DOGS PRODUCTIONS

Promising: Zaldivar starred in The Scarlet Worm, but also served as co-producer, second unit producer and stuntman.

14th Street Rock: Hollywood gives North Miami Ave and 14th street an 80’s flashback as a star studded cast films an adaptation of the 2006 Chris D’Arienzo hit Broadway musical Rock of Ages.

AKEEM BRUNSON / THE REPORTER

• Quality Curriculum/Strong Phonics Program • Qualified & Caring Staff • Mandatory Uniforms • Spacious Classrooms and Playground • 3 Wholesome Meals Included • We Accept CDS and Private Pay Students. • FREE VPK - 4 years old by September 1st

Enrolling NOW! Daycare Children Ages: Infant to

5 years

14 FORUM | AUG. 1, 2011 THE REPORTER


“So, what school do you go to?” Many who live in South Florida

proudly answer, the University of Miami or Florida International University, and those visiting dur-ing the summer boast the Uni-versity of Florida or Florida State University, but those that attend Miami Dade College don’t always seem as eager to answer.

Usually the MDC student will shrug and mumble, “Dade...,” while the UF student responds, “It’s okay you can transfer here soon.”

This needs to change.Miami Dade College is the

largest college in the nation. The school has more than 174,000 stu-

Love, love, love, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. The arduous biological task of mate

hunting has been simplified by the genius of mankind.

Sayonara self-help books, over-priced ineffective therapy and bar hopping. With the effortless click and scroll of their digital rat, an individual is granted instant access to their very own twenty-first century version of the watering hole, all whilst in the comfort of their own domicile, and more than likely sporting their favor-ite pair of over-sized Yoda pajamas.

Equipped with numerous catego-ries –ranging from behavioral, habit-ual and recreational – online dating draws on the premise that if a mate is what you seek, then pay and you shall receive. Overflowing with conve-niently located singles, who happen to participate in the same activities you do, subscribe to your ideals, mor-als, religious and political views, all within the bounds of your zip-code, all for a cost (after all, we do live in a

MANUEL PALOU / THE REPORTER

Get Off That Stuff Man!

This summer, Los Angeles co-caine dealers ran into a bit of a prob-lem when their buyers skin became blackened in certain areas, and in some instances fell off.

Speculations indicate the cause could be traced to the impact the recession has had on drug-dealers, forcing them to cut their drugs with levamisole, a chemical used to de-worm live stock.

Others speculate drug dealers thought they were selling cocaine to cows. No official statement has been released yet from the black market.

Casey Anthony Walks

“The OJ of our time”, as everyone is calling this case. But how guilty was OJ? Well, according to the American judicial system and the evidence he was in fact, in the words of a Black Sabbath song, “Guilty as Hell.”

An ex hausted age-old stor y of betrayal, a crime of passion, wasn’t it? Nonetheless, he walked. Ms.Anthony on the other hand walked free from a case no one understood. She was indeed the prime and conspicuous suspect in the case involving her murdered 2-year-old daughter.

The “I didn’t notice my daughter was gone” excuse only gave the

public more reason to find her guilty in their minds. Guilty of at least child neglect, An-thony was acquitted on mur-der charges and found guilty of only lying to investigators.

Chris Hansen: To Catch A Cheater

The popular TV host of the show “To catch a predator” Chris Hansen was caught on camera sharing a ro-mantic evening with a lovely young woman by the National Enquirer.

The woman was not his wife. There is quite a bit to say about this story, but I think the scenario speaks for itself.

CDC Warns Of Zombie Apocalypse

On May 16, 2011 the Center for Disease Control released an online announcement telling the general public to be ready for a possible Zombie apocalypse.

Now I’m a huge zombie fan, I’ve played all the video games from the Resident Evil series to the Left 4 Dead series, and you know what I noticed? People in those games had

no freaking idea what a zombie was, nor did they know

how to deal with them (head shots people, remember it).

A f ter some re-search, I found out that the CDC wasn’t actually telling peo-ple to be ready for a zombie invasion, but they were using zom-bies as a clever public-ity stunt to inform the

masses to be ready for hurricane season and

other natural disasters. I for one applaud the CDC for

using their head on this one.

Carmaggedon

I m a g i n e for a moment how many times a week you use the 826, or the Palmetto for those of you who don’t read signs. Now imagine that Miami-Dade County closed it for 53 hours to in-stall a carpool lane.

That is exactly what happened this July in Los Angeles. No, Los Angeles didn’t shut down the Pal-metto, they shut down what is wide-ly considered the busiest freeway in LA, the 405.

You’d think this would cause mass chaos, but it didn’t. Now as much as I love my city, and I do, I really have no hope of this ever hap-pening, mainly because at the end of the 53 hours there would have been more accidents on 8th St, Bird Road, and Kendall Drive combined, than happen on the Palmetto in a month.

At this point all I ask is that they finish I-95. We all know that the I stands for incomplete, but come on people, finish it already.

— Rafael Tur

— Rafael Tur

— Rafael Tur

— Elias Cruz

— Elias Cruz

MDC PRIDE

ONLINE DATING

Shark Pride

Online Dating: A Gift or A Curse?

A call to all Miami Dade College students to stand tall and proud for the institution they attend, and the great education they receive.

A concise look at the evolution of online dating, and what it means to the young generation seeking a partner, or just friendly company.


By Stteffanny [email protected]

dents, and eight campuses across Miami-Dade County. It offers eight bachelor degree programs in ad-dition to many associate and vo-cational degrees. Yes, that means you can graduate from MDC with a four-year-degree like you can at any university.

More importantly, college is not about where you go, but what you make of it. A basic undergraduate at the University of Miami pays $1,600 per credit hour, while a MDC student pays $78.84 a credit. That is a $1,521.16 difference. In the end, what differentiates college students is the amount of work and passion they put into their studies to make themselves better. Those that mess around at MDC, subsequently staying here for the next 10 years, will find themselves spending as much money as if they had attended UM. However, those that take advantage of what MDC has to offer, from sports to clubs and specialized courses, will find themselves forever proud of being a Shark.

So, the next time you are at a social engagement with other col-lege students, don’t blow it when they ask you what school you at-tend. Be as proud as ever that you attend the largest college in the nation. And with that, answer nice and loud, “I attend Miami Dade College.”

capitalistic economy).Online dating is nothing more than

the ultimate option a single individual dreads when a dry spell has reached its peak: The Blind Date. Companies like Match.com, eHarmony and Plen-ty of Fish, are simply the futuristic ad-aptation of the incessant friend who knows the “perfect” gal/guy, with the sole advantage that (more than likely) a terribly old picture of the potential suitor in his/her prime is exposed prior to the date itself. All the while, retaining the compatibility and per-sonal characteristics information and only revealing said information after compensation has been received.

After prolonged consideration some dare jump into the abyss of cy-berspace matchmaking in the hopes of resurfacing, worst case scenario, with a friend. And whilst some are fortunate, others, if not most, do not share the same results. Nonetheless, dating in itself is complex, intricate, puzzling. Until the human mind is re-coded with a full proof, one hundred percent success rate, optimal mate seeking operating system, we will have to resort to whatever means, be it online or speed dating, to fulfill our evolutionary and biological purpose.

Screen Name: SexyStud69

Summer RecapRANTING RALPH AND ECLECTIC ELIAS BLURB ABOUT THE SUMMER’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL AND TALKED ABOUT EVENTS.

THE REPORTER AUG. 1, 2011 | FORUM 15


“I had heard about it, but I didn’t know the details. It’s more money that we have to pay, but at least it’s not such a large sum. I’m not happy with it because we are in the worst economy we could be in right now, but it’s a one time payment and I know my car will be safe in the parking lot.”

Heriberto Serrano, Kendall Campus, 19,Mechanical Engineering

“I didn’t know about the fees, but I don’t feel very good about it. It’s always been free. I guess I just got used to it that way.”

Jerica Hernandez, Wolfson Campus, 20, Photography

“I actually did know about the parking fees, and I first thought, ‘What about the people that take the bus?’ I’m an international student, it’s already expensive for me, but at the same time I do understand because I know my car is safe here.” Piere Fletch, Kendall Campus,22, Architecture

With the new parking fees silently implemented into student’s tuition for this coming fall, we asked fellow peers if they know why their tuition rose, and how they felt about it. —By Reporter StaffVOICE OF THE PEOPLE

// FORUMJessica Medina, Forum Editor // T (305) 237-1254 // B [email protected]

The Reporter is the free biweekly student newspaper at Miami Dade College. All content is produced by MDC students.The opinions in this newspaper do not necessarily represent those of the administration, faculty, or the student body.

Bureaus ———————————North Campus BureauB 11380 NW 27th Ave. Room 4209 Miami, FL 33167T (305) 237-1254—————————————————Kendall Campus BureauB 11011 SW 104th St. Room M239 Miami, FL 33176T (305) 237-2157—————————————————Wolfson Campus BureauB 300 NE Second Ave. Suite 1610 Miami, FL 33132T (305) 237-3368

Editorial Board ———————————Monique O. MadanEditor-in-Chief

Lazaro GamioManaging Editor

Melissa AdanKendall Campus Bureau Chief, Briefing Editor

Mark PulaskiWolfson Campus Bureau Chief, A&E Editor

Jessica MedinaForum Editor

Art Department———————————Manuel PalouArt Director

Gregory CastilloPhoto Editor

Akeem BrunsonMultimedia Producer

Issue Staff———————————Isabelle Anadon, Igor Argibay, Alain Bichotte, Zayda Costa, Stteffanny Cott, Elias Cruz, Brittany Esquijarosa, Morena Guerrero, Monica Kelly, Sergio O’Day, Richard Pizarro, Jose Prado, Jael Teme, Rafael Tur, Bianca Vargas

Manolo BarcoMedia AdviserB [email protected] NORTH.........................(305) 237-1255T KENDALL......................(305) 237-2323T WOLFSON....................(305) 237-3477

Letters To The Editor———————————The Reporter welcomes letters to the editor. All submissions should be 300 words or less and must be typed. Writers must include their full name, contact number, campus, student number, and e-mail ad-dress. Faculty and staff should include the title, department, and extension. All letters are subject to editing for purposes of brevity and clarity. Letters can be sent via e-mail to [email protected], with the subject “letter to the editor.”

Advertising———————————Kirsten RinconAdvertising ManagerB [email protected] (305) 237-7657

VOX POPULI

Recently, Miami Dade College students checked their emails and were informed that Gov. Rick Scott vetoed roughly $10 million “in appropriations for classroom, laboratories, new infrastructure and site improvements at MDC’s campuses.”

The Hialeah Campus was espe-cially devastated by the news as $6.7 million of those funds were sorely needed to expand the tiny campus.

Overall, Scott vetoed roughly $170 million from higher educa-tion. Yet, interestingly enough, his priorities include “creating a world-class education system.”

Folks, it’s obvious, if you want a world-class education you have to sacrifice college students. We need to prepare these lambs to be-come sheep, and the only way to do this is to force them into jobs, not careers.

This leads to another “fantas-tic” priority on Scott’s list, “make Florida the number one state for job creation.” What better way to create jobs than by forcing tu-

BUDGET CUTS

Recent Spending Cuts Slice Through MDC Budget

ition rates to rise, causing college students to take less credits, thus having more free time to find jobs. This man must be a genius. Scott should be on Capitol Hill fixing the budget deficit.

By now some of you have no-ticed your tuition has risen per credit hour, and parking fees will also be implemented. Recently disclosed, MDC students will au-tomatically have a three dollar per credit hour parking fee added

An in depth analysis at the recent budget cuts specifically aimed at Miami Dade College, how they affect students, and how is truly to blame.

By Jessica [email protected]

to their tuition total per semes-ter. While kicking and screaming may be a plausible reaction after all these added rates, remember MDC is a public institution and all other state funded universities are subject to parking fees. Slowly but surely, MDC is working to-ward more parking spaces for its growing student body with its ever dwindling budget.

For the lucky thousands that pay for their education out of

pocket, even the slightest price hike on their courses will build up anger. But where is that harnessed anger channeled to? Is Miami Dade College truly at fault for be-ing put in a position like this? In 2007, MDC lost $21.6 million dol-lars in state funding and an ad-ditional $27 million in matching funds. In 2009, MDC lost another $29 million taht was to be allo-cated toward for instruction. It is no surprise the college staff has decreased and there are now more part-timers.

Which brings us full circle to Scott’s most imperative point of all, “hold government account-able.” Why yes, I will hold gov-ernment accountable for the de-cisions public funded education is forced to take at the expense of their students. After all, what is education really worth when we are trying to create jobs, not careers. It’s time for government to be held accountable, but most importantly, its time for students to hold themselves accountable for the decisions the government makes. Collectively, we choose who speaks for us, but we might as well do so blindly if we don’t do it at all.

In the words of the wise Alan Moore, “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of their people.”

Before we begin to point fingers at the messenger, take a look in the mirror and sincerely ask that person if they did anything to con-tribute to the problem. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. All we have is our voice amplified by our vote, so speak up college students. The governor hasn’t heard you yet.

ILLUSTRATION BY SEBASTIAN RESTREPO / THE REPORTER

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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT MIAMI DADE COLLEGE

The Reporter, Vol. 2, Issue 1

Documents

fulltime faculty members

lack of fulltime faculty

news page

parttime faculty members

mdc students

fulltime professors

new parking fee

fall new feemiami dade