Presented and largely sponsored by SOLA, Society of Latino Affairs, and the Latino studies minor of Millersville University. Café Latino’s “Winter Fiesta” offered students Saturday night, Nov. 15, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. a unique alternative to usual Saturday nights, either on campus or off, to enjoy aspects of Latino culture, including, food,
dancing and music.

SOLA Vice President, Maria Gallo, said the theme for this years annual Café Latino
event would be Winter Fiesta.

DJs Alex Aguilar, and Enrique Perez, known as “DJ-Mex” from Kutztown University, played a wide assortment of both Spanish and English language music in various genres to create different moods throughout the night.  “The Latin music we played was of many genres including: Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Durangense and Cumbias.  We also played some Hip Hop.  Early on when the group of girls came out and danced the genre of music we played was Bachata and the song was “Dos Locos” by Monchy & Alexandra.” Said Aguilar.

“The event is a way to promote Latino food, music and culture on campus. To include everyone there we asked him to play everything that was currently out so everyone would dance and have a good time.  We wanted people to teach each other to dance and at the same time incorporating the Latino culture,” said  Sandra Aguilera, PR officer of SOLA.
Midway through the evening, a group of girls came to dance when the song, Dos Locos by Bachata group Monchy and Alexandra.

While the genre of Salsa is certainly known, the other genres DJ-Mex played are probably not well known in the English speaking world including: Bachata, originating in the Dominican Republic only recently rose to much larger popularity, after years as a rural musical genre derided for simplicity and lack of sophistication.

Merengue, getting its name from the dessert topping, is a faster paced genre of music and dance with origins in the Dominican Republic, also popular throughout Latino society.
Cumbias comes from Colombia, a folk music and dance, originating from African cumbe music. It started as a courtship dance and music style, later adding European instruments and becoming popular in areas outside Colombia including Argentina, Peru and the United States.

Reggaeton music is a Latin American blending of Jamaican music  with music of more traditional genres such as Merengue, Salsa and Bachata.

Part of Café Latino included a talent show with an open mike format, allowing anyone to read, sing or perform anything of talent as they pleased.  Annette Pena gave a clear, coherent performance of the poem Thoughts, Goals and Dreams showing she had prepared well to read the poem in front of a crowd.

Food always draws people to an event, thanks to the culinary talents of local restaurant Cochina Mexicana of Lancaster city and local outlets like Victoria’s Grocery and Los Fantasticos. Café Latino included a selection of ethnic dishes including arroz con granules (rice and beans), Taquitos (small fried burritos with chicken wrapped inside), a chicken and vegetable soup called caldo de pollo. It was well received by many in attendance; chicken enchiladas which are much like Taquitos, but not fried with sour cream lovingly drizzled on top were also served.  Everyone in attendance that night did not have to worry about a lack of food, as SOLA had plenty available for all to enjoy.

“I go to this event every year, and unlike most times, this year’s music was better than before. The event itself is quite the blast, and perhaps the dancing highlight is the “percolater” portion, of which a fellow by the name of ‘Urban’ is quite a ladies man, as he excels at dancing, and as of that night, singing. Consistent with Latino culture, they needed a party after the party,” said Robert Peterson, a guest at the event.

Despite the enthusiasm and dedication of SOLA in putting on Café Latino, the overall atmosphere remained somewhat apathetic, with few people partaking in the event, besides trying the food provided, and listening to the music played.

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The program, held at Stayer Hall, included a presentation by education Professor Jon Landis. Mr. Landis, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, was extremely knowledgeable of copyright laws and gave very helpful tips on how to avoid violating these laws.

Copyright laws are infringed upon daily in classrooms across the country and can end up costing districts thousands of dollars and can even cost some educators their teaching licenses. “Teachers have a right to make decisions for their students and only their students,” said prof. Landis.

Many of us can recall being rewarded in grade school with a movie the day before winter break; this in fact is very illegal unless the school owns a performance license.

On the other hand, teachers are allowed to bend some rules, such as; if a teacher records a TV special that is applicable to their curriculum, they can show it up until 10 days after the air-date. Following the 10 days, the tape must be destroyed.

Channels such as PBS and Discovery Channel allow educators a whole year to show one of their shows in a classroom, and some shows, such as Reading Rainbow, allow unlimited use.

Most schools try to stay away from showing movies in class, but if need be, they stress face-to-face teaching be integrated with the movie.

Mr. Landis could not have been more charismatic during his presentation, and proved to have an answer for every question.

Professor Landis has been doing presentations about copyright laws for a few years, and when asked why he does it, he simply replied, “To keep teachers safe.”

Students who attended the event will now be sure to play it safe when they graduate and become teachers themselves.

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The largest margin of victory prior to this game was 66, in the 1992-1993 season.

Four players reached double figures on the score sheet, and the defense held Columbia Union to only 29 points.

They not only set the mark for margin of victory, but they also set the school record for most points in the first half. The 60-point half surpassed the previous record of 56 set back in the 1992-1993 season.

The Lady Marauders followed up their record-setting game with a decisive victory over Lock Haven, 84-65.

Once again, Millersville pushed the ball around well, dividing up the scoring.

Junior Jenna Craig had a triple double, hauling in 12 boards and scoring 17 points.

Millersville’s backcourt also chipped in with a 16 point performance from Junior Ashley Moyer, who added to her 18 point outing in her previous game.

Senior Gladine St. Julien scored the game high, 21, and added eight rebounds. She was able to get open down low and was very efficient around the basket, going 8-for-12 from the field.

“I was happy with our defensive intensity in our second game,” Head Coach Mary Fleig said. “We are shooting well around the perimeter. We did a good job at working the ball around and getting the ball into St. Julien.”

Millersville has become accustom to these quick starts, as they have started 2-0 the last two seasons.

This marks the ninth time that Fleig has begun a season with two straight wins as head coach of the Marauders.

Freshman Gabrielle Styles goes up for a layup against Columbia Union on Saturday. Photo by Christian Shuts.

As they head into their third game of the season, Coach Fleig is content with how the season has begun on both the defensive and offensive side of the ball.

They are getting production off the bench and will need to maintain this trend over the next couple of months as conference games loom.

The team displays an unselfish style of play, and their ability to divide up the scoring has been a key to the team’s quick start.

Coach Fleig wants to keep the momentum up and continue to work harder in order to improve as the season progresses.

“There is always room for improvement no matter what the situation is,” Fleig said.

“We have a couple things to work on, but it is great for us to have six players who could be the high scorer in any game. Our unselfish play allows us to find the open person. If a team keys in on one of our players and tries to shut them down, then we just find someone else.”

At practice, despite their speedy start, the team appears to be concentrating on any improvements Fleig feels needed.

The main areas of concentration, according to Coach Fleig, pertain to how well the defensive transition game has been, and their communication skills.

She also alluded to the fact that there is room for improvement in the interior defense department.

Millersville looks to stay red hot and continue its winning ways on the road against Goldey Beacom on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The Lady Marauders have yet to lose to Goldey Beacom in two career meetings.

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Native to Peru, Torres started this venture with two chefs from Peru and Smith to create a menu of blended ethnicities.

“I’m a chef myself and I wanted to do something different and unique,” said Torres.

According to Torres, getting people away from the stereotypical idea of Latino food involving mostly tacos and burritos was one of his reasons for creating Culturas.

Culturas, the newest addition to El Serrano’s family of restaurants, is located on the second floor of El Serrano at 2151 Columbia Avenue in Lancaster, only about five minutes from Millersville University.

The architecture and décor of the restaurant provide quite an authentic Peruvian dining experience.

The maze-like corridors are reminiscent of a medieval castle; one would expect secret entrances and passageways to open at the tug of a candleholder mounted on the wall. The furnishings, many of which were flown in from Peru, also aid in facilitating an authentic experience for the restaurant’s patrons.

The menu at Culturas is very diversified. Customers are free to choose from an array of dishes such as the 12-ounce filet mignon served with sautéed baby spinach, rosemary-crusted fingerling potatoes and Diablo sauce to the Pulp al Olivo, thinly sliced octopus with a black olive sauce. There are various vegetarian dishes such as the Torrejas, a white rice cake and a vegetable rice cake with tomato, zucchini, red pepper and yellow squash, for customers who are so inclined.

“Every time I go in there it seems that the menu has changed since the last time,” said Andrew Kuster, banquet chef for Franklin and Marshall College. “He really seems to have a knack for pairing different flavors.”

“Our flavors are completely unique because no one has them,” said Torres.

According to the Culturas menu, “Tapas is not a particular type of food. Anything can be tapas- paella, croquettes, ham and cheese on toast, truly anything. As long as it is small and served with your drink, it is tapas.”

“It’s a unique way of doing it,” said Torres.

Tapas allows customers to taste more than one dish.

Smith’s culinary repertoire is essentially European fused with aspects of Caribbean, Thai, and South American cuisine.

“Tapas is the perfect medium for me to display my talents; it’s really a big tasting menu put together by the chef,” said Smith.

According to Smith, the average customer orders about four or five plates at each meal so they are certainly exposed to a number of different foods and methods for preparing them.

Smith has been a part of the food service industry for nine and one half years and received his formal training from York Technical Institute. He also spent four months studying under Chef James King of Ocean Grill, which is located on Amelia Island in Florida.

“You can pretty much be a drone as you go through school, but eventually there’s that one chef that gives you a spark; for me it was Chef James King,” said Smith.

The kitchen in Culturas is known as an open-air kitchen which allows customers to hear, see and smell what is going on inside while their food is being prepared.

“It’s basically a showcase for our guests,” said Smith.

Smith said that his demeanor in the kitchen is relatively laid back, and the only time he gets aggravated is when the food doesn’t appear on the customer’s table on time.

Catering Sous Chef for Franklin and Marshall College George Hasara Jr., a friend and colleague of Smith’s who has worked with him in the kitchen, said that Smith seems to maintain an even balance between professionalism and levity. But when the pressure is on, he is very fast and his demeanor becomes incredibly stern.

The quality of Smith’s cuisine is actually responsible for a modest fan- following which has developed over the past few months.

“The food’s incredible and the plating, atmosphere, and service would make you think you ought to be paying much more for what you’re receiving,” said Derek Boyer, a frequent patron of Culturas.

Smith is now anticipating a trip to Spain so he can learn some new techniques in order to increase the scope of his culinary knowledge. There is no doubt that it will be his customers who benefit.

While some MU students have had the good fortune to hear about Culturas and sample its cuisine, many students have not due to it not being well-known.

“Most Millersville students don’t know about us because we’re not as well established,” said Joshua Becker, manager of Culturas.

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We are told that these evaluations are very important, since it can make or break whether a professor is promoted or considered for tenure.

Students fill out these short and simple questionnaires, rating both the class and the professor. There is also the option to answer some open-ended questions to give additional feedback.

Being a sophomore, I’ve had my share of really good and really bad professors. Some of them I don’t know how they even passed an interview, while others I wish I could take for every class. I’m sure that other students would love to know who I’m talking about, and what their peers have to say.

Now, this kind of thing already happens through word of mouth, and from the popular “Rate My Professor” website. However, most of this information is usually skewed, since students tend to only complain about the really bad ones, or (less often) praise the great ones.

What if we could see the real opinions of every student? What if that information was published? I feel that students would feel a lot more prepared and likely perform better.

Think about this: Two professors teach the same class. Professor A uses lots of handouts and grades homework. Professor B has few handouts and doesn’t grade homework. For some students there might not be a difference, but for me, I know that if I have a professor who will grade my homework, I will most certainly do it. Where as if I know it’s not graded, I might slack off.

Now, I know one of the reasons that the administration probably does not want to release these results is for fear that students would all try to take the “popular” professor for a class, somehow causing problems. Or maybe it’s because they don’t want to somehow hurt professors’ feelings. Or maybe it’s in the professors’ contracts? (I couldn’t see anything in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement that professors are part of.)

Whatever the reason, I feel that students should be able to hear what others are saying. Student evaluations should be published and available to students, for better or worse.

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Aldo yells at a “member” of the audience, Devyn Heinbaugh, for following him around all over the place. He escorts her from the room only to have her storm back in for more. After placating her with promises of meeting up later, she leaves and Aldo continues his narration, using her as the perfect example of why women are crazy.

“I liked my character. What more can I say. I liked him and the audience liked him. End of story,” said Hudacs.

Italian American Reconciliation is about Aldo trying to keep his best friend, Huey Bonfigliano, played by Ralph DeStefano, from going back to his horrible ex-wife, Janice.
“My character, Huey, transforms through the show as a man on the edge of completely breaking down and committing suicide to being carefree simply because of love,” said DeStefano.

“I used memories and feelings from old break ups to help show how I might feel in the same situation and found it was very different from what Huey did. But anyway, I am extremely happy I had the chance to be in a full scale production for University Theater and hope to do it again,” added Destefano.

Janice, played by Linda Rae Krov, divorced Huey three years ago. She had made his life a living hell, refusing to cook anything fit for a dog, actually shooting and killing his dog and trying to shoot him.

After years of abuse, Huey finally gave her what she wanted, a divorce. However, three years later he is still pining for her, even though he has a good life and is dating a nice girl named Teresa, played by Leann Hart.

“I loved my character, Teresa. When I first read through the play I thought, hey, I’m only in one scene this should be a piece of cake. However, there was much more to Teresa than I thought,” said Hart.

“She is a very kind person, but she is also very strong and is not going to take any crap from Huey. During my scene it was difficult working through the emotions and trying to figure out the ups and downs, like where she would break down and where she would stick up for herself, being angry at Huey, being pissed at Aldo as soon as he walks in the door and so forth.”

Throughout the play, Teresa is pining for Huey, Huey is pining for Janice; it almost appears that Janice is pining for Aldo, and Aldo is just pining for a woman who is not going to try to kill him.

The only vaguely sane character in Italian American Reconciliation is Aunt May, played by Chelsea Senic. She appears to have the best advice for the younger characters in the play, while attesting to knowing nothing.

Eventually Huey gets things worked out with Janice and though he does not actually end up with her, he finds that he does get his life back. Italian American Reconciliation is set in three scenes. We see Huey’s apartment, Pop’s Soup House and the rear of Janice’s house.

All the actors in the play did very well and were able to both be funny while portraying the more sad, insane aspects of love. The time and effort put into the play was obvious and the audience was not left disappointed. Italian American Reconciliation was written by John Patrick Shanley and was directed by Millersville University’s Tony Elliot.
“We were really lucky to have such a great cast and crew. I really enjoyed working with everyone, and it would not be what it was without everyone’s hard work,” said Senic.

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Receiving an increase of 6.5 percent, the highest percentage approved by PASSHE, Millersville University’s President Francine McNairy’s yearly wage will be $211,610.

According to Kenn Marshall of PASSHE, raises ranged from 2percent to 6.5 percent for university presidents.

Pay raises were approved in April prior to the request made by Governor Ed Rendell (D) to make budget cuts.

Pay increases were determined by the Board of Governors after examining universities on system accountability, student retention rates, graduation rates, and operational efficiency.

“The pay increases are about $145,000 out of a $1.4 billion budget,” Marshall said.

Governor Ed Rendell’s request for a 4.25 percent budget cut has not had an effect on the pay increase for McNairy.

“This University has a history of being a good stewart of money,” VP of Finance and Administration, Roger Bruszewski said. “The cabinet has done an excellent job of foreseeing problems.”

According to Bruszewski, out of a $101,655,431 budget for personnel, fixed and discretionary expenditures, money for budget cuts will only be taken from discretionary operations.

Money placed in the financial reserve for next year are being cut from the Total discretionary Oper/Capital/Trnfrs budget. This puts off cosmetic renovations to facilities and delays buying furniture and office equipment. Funds for President McNairy’s pay raise were taken from the Total Personnel budget and were planned in April. Courtesty Roger Breszewski.

The University has already recalled a 2.5 percent inflation increase while reducing three percent across the board in the operating budget.

According to Bruszewski, nearly 1,600 students are hired each year by the University and a two-third surplus in student pay has been taken for the budget reserve.

“It would be like saying a student is to work 100 hours a semester and they only end up working 80 hours,” Bruszewski said. “It’s extra money that’s just sitting there.”

While undergraduate admissions have remained the same, admission for graduate students has been at a greater increase, leaving more money in tuition funds than anticipated.

Cosmetic renovations for the University facilities have been delayed, saving approximately $100,000.

About one-third of the funding from budget cuts are from permanent funds, while the other two-thirds comes from added revenue, like the salary savings from student employees.

“If the budget cut is not permanent we don’t want to recall all the money we’ve set aside,” Breszewski said.

A hiring freeze has not been placed on MU, and with approximately 80 open faculty and administrative positions open the University still plans on finding replacements for them.

When the budget is approved in March 2009, Breszewski plans to look at several areas where the economy could take a hit on University finances.

By Jan. 2010 he anticipates a 40 percent projection for utilities and approximately $1.9 million will be spent on efficiency for the 85 percent of the campus that runs on electricity.

“The last place we want this to have an impact is in the quality of classes,” Breszewski said. “Ninety-six percent of our students are Pa. residents and we are going to avoid making it more difficult for them to afford an education.”

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With the country’s fat asses in couches, eating Doritos and watching Celebrity Wrestling, the rest of the country was embracing the onslaught of slander from both sides like hungry pigs to a trough.

Hopefully the open-minded combed through the blatant lies to come together with an intelligent consensus, and to vote for the better candidate.

I am still pondering whether Obama won this election or if the Republican Brain Trust, headed by the sinister Karl Rove who has as cold a heart as Norman Bates does towards his cheap Motel occupants, finally collapsed.

The collapse is due in part to the last eight grueling years of President Bush and the list of GOP candidates that see to spell out the sign of the apocalypse. Mike Huckabee is a clear sign that this campaign season was getting strange.

My interest towards this election brought me to discover, at great lengths, the policies each candidate seemed to encompass.

But instead, all I was given was Huckabee’s main supporter, the ex-Texas Ranger and round house kick extraordinaire, Chuck Norris. Huckabee became lovesick over Norris.

At this point I almost want to question the existence of life and I even consider immigrating to China to see where all our jobs have relocated.

Like a pack of hungry sharks hinting at the scent of blood, we were thrown useless story after useless story, and we took to it ferociously.

Most of these illusory stories involved bogus claims of terrorist interaction between Obama and William Ayers, and the ignorance of many Right wingers to think that Obama was a Muslim extremist.

I could only imagine the reaction of the right-wing nut-jobs, as the news announced Obama the winner.

Their worst fear just occurred, and now they head to their fallout shelters to wait out Obama’s first term to be over.

The GOP came to an agreement and backed John McCain. I respect John McCain and his heroic war record, but the Republican candidate questioned my intelligence when we were blessed with the ever growing saga of the 1984 Miss Alaska runner-up and former Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin.

Her credibility as a legitimate politician brought a wave of negative smear campaigns from the left that resulted in the country fixated on the most terrible symbol for women’s suffrage in U.S. history.

I took Sarah Palin as a simple- minded, over-enthusiastic Christian, who was supposed to infatuate the Feminists of the Hillary Clinton camp to vote republican. Even so, she brought hardcore republicans out of the woodwork to infuse hate and racism at each rally.

There were gnashing your teeth slurs like “Kill Him” and the infamous misrepresentation of Obama’s religion when that poor old woman, who seemed to accidently walk into the town meeting, grabbed a microphone and terrified everyone into thinking Obama was a Muslim, and who cares if he was a Muslim. It is a shame, the ignorance of the people.

It ended on Nov. 4, 2008. We made history. We have hope again. We have a new image. That image is one in which the Republicans could not have legitimately or morally represented throughout the world.

We now have two years of breathing room until we are once again spoon fed the relentless bullshit that government brings to the people of this great nation.

An old African proverb says “when lions receive historians, only then will they become heroes”.

It brings me hope to think of how far we have come as a nation to elect a African-American man into the most powerful office in the world after years of slavery and the civil rights movement.

A new history can be written. Hopefully dignity and honor can be restored to this government, and slander from both entities will cease to exist.

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