San Francisco Foghorn

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Thirteen USF Students Travel to Belize to Educate Elementary School Students
CHELSEA STERLING
News Editor
Instead of parking themselves on the
couch and consuming an unhealthy
amount of television, thirteen USF
students traveled to Belize with University Ministry during winter break to work
at a local school. Kique Bazan, associate
director of University Ministry, said that
the students traveled with two leaders to
assist teachers at Sacred Heart, which is a
Catholic school in Belize with about seven
hundred and forty students.
In addition to teaching classes and
leading a camp before school begins, the
USF students brought donated computers from the university to establish a computer lab. Bazan explained that "we always
bring something with us. It has to be an
exchange where we learn something".
Although Belize is a resort area, Dan-
griga, the town in southern Belize where
the school is located, "does not get much
of the tourism money" reported Fr John
Savart S.J. He claims that one "can tell by
the houses" that hundreds of citizens are
unable to provide their chddren with even
the basic necessities. For many of these
children, Sacred Heart is not only a place
to learn, but a place to eat. Unlike other
developed countries, Belize does not have
a public education system. The schools are
run by churches of various religions and
religious denominations.
University Ministry has been traveling with students to Belize for five years.
There are two parts to the trip.   Before
Kathryn Bohan/Foghorn
Junior Britt McNany assists Belizean students at Sacred Heart Elementary School with their school work during her recent immersion trip sponsored by University Ministry. The school benefitted from the USF students' hands-on approach to education.
school starts, the USF students run a camp
for about seventy five kids that combines
sports and academics. Fr.John Savart
pointed out that the purpose is to "create
a learning environment that is fun and
engaging." During the next ten days, the
students'responsibilities are to prepare lessons and assist the teachers. The children
speak English, so the USF students have
no trouble communicating with them.
The differences between education in
America and education in Central American countries, like Belize, are reflected by
the contributions of USF students. Savart
remarked that "USF students have a different kind of education that is more hands-
on and they bring that to Belize." Students
from USF also improve their education
by learning about the culture. Kate Bo-
han, a junior dual majoring in psychology
and education, that went to Belize both
as a student and as a student leader, said
"I loved being immersed in the country's
rich culture and seeing how it influences
just about everything they do, they are very
proud of where they come from." This can
best be seen in the show that the students
perform in at the end of the trip, which
includes dances and songs from their native culture.
University Ministry also offers Immersion trips to New Orleans, Peru and
Nicaragua. These trips allow students to
experience the school's mission of reaching out to others and tackling social justice
issues. Bohan encourages students to go
on an Immersion trip because "it is a great
opportunity to see a different way of life."
USF Takes Steps Toward Going Green
AUDREY SHERMAN
StaffWriter
USF produces more compost and
recyclable waste than garbage.
From offering biodegradable containers at Bon Appetit to incorporating
green features in new buildings, USF is
taking steps to reduce its impact on the environment. Becoming more eco-friendly
is not only a matter of combating global
warming, it also fits in with the school's
mission of social justice. Melinda ^Stone,
media studies professor, offers hope, "there
is a crisis going on and it is one of the first
in history that is man-made, but it is also
the first one that could be solved. Maybe
we created global warming, we didn't do it
intentionally but we can shift it as well."
By serving locally grown food and trying to eliminate trash, Manager of Bon
Appetit Holly Winslow said that "we are
dedicated to helping the environment for
many reasons including social justice, environment wellness, personal well being as
well as looking at the future of our world."
When the city of San Francisco called
for increased composting, the university
stepped up to the challenge. After having a consultant come in to help get everything up and running, it was a matter of
getting both the employees and students
on board.
"It was pretty easy with the Bon Appetit kitchen staff because many of them had
worked in other parts of the city where the
restaurants were already composting and
they were actually surprised that we weren't
already doing it," said USF's Director of
Environmental Services Joe Murphy.
Trying to change the behavior of thousands of people was very hard at first, said
Recycling Manager Ryan Mack. The chal-
Tatsuya Kawauchi/Foghorn
Students exiting the cafeteria are faced with the option of composting, recycling or discarding
trash to be sent to the landfill. Unbeknownst to most students, the only things in the cafeteria that
cannot be composted or recycled are the packets of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise.
lenge was to get the students to even recognize what could be tossed into the compost. Presently about 80 percent of what is
going into the trash is compost. "We realized that people have about three seconds
to make their decision of where things go.
Nobody wants to read (the signs) so that
is why we recently went to pictures," said
Murphy. He reminds students, "if it ever
lived it can be composted."
Another problem is educating incoming students. "Each year we get a new crop
of students who either do it differently or
not at all," said Murphy. The hard work
paid off when USF finished in fifth place
in Recycle Mania, a nation-wide contest
judging universities on how much waste is
recycled per capita.
Started in 1989 by a group of students
who got. tired of seeing the university
throwing everything away, the USF recycling program now has over 200 bins on
campus.
The recycling program is working to
reduce the impact on the environment
and the school's checkbooks said Murphy.
GREEN: Continued on page 2
Extreme Weather Impacts Campus
ALLISON MCCANN
StaffWriter
_
Classes are back in session, and the
gardeners and facilities management crew have gone to great
lengths in attempt to restore the campus to
its usual pristine condition, but the storm
that hit the Bay Area in early January definitely left its mark.
Assistant vice president of facilities
management Mike London said the storm
was the worst that has hit USF in 13 years.
The winds caused 10 trees on campus to
fall, one of which even crushed a car in the
Lone Mountain parking lot. Two more
trees were severely damaged. Bits of the
damaged trees littered not only the campus, but the inside of buildings as well.
Wade Wilson, a resident advisor in Phelan . ? .*
Hall, said the lobby of •*•'.,     .   ■
McLaren was covered       -.'-.-   '
in leaves and branches.
"The  door was  open
and the hall was covered in debris," he said.
The storm took its
toll on some residents
of Phelan Hall.    The
occupants of room 654
were  forced  to  move
into a room down the
hall when their ceiling
began to leak. The water  dripped  through
the closet, and caused
damage to the walls
and   some   of   their
clothing. Wilson said
the building managers were afraid of water dripping inside the walls and causing
further damage to the rest of the building.
Though Wilson was not aware of a mold
problem, sophomore Joe Montana, who
Alexandra Villegas/Foghorn
The extreme wind and rain that hit San
Francisco throughout January made many
students prefer to stay indoors.
lives in a room neighboring 654, believed
otherwise. "The whole hall smells really
gross and mddewy," Montana said.
The wall along the, right side of the hall
outside room 654 did appear to have been
damaged. The dry wall was ripped off, the
paint had stripped and there was a good
sized hole in the bottom corner. Inside the
room, a large fan was blowing to help dry
out the walls and carpet.
Ashley Gonzalez, also a resident advisor in Phelan, said that Phelan was without power for blocks of two to three hours
for three days. Gonzalez also noted damage throughout the city. "I was on my way
out of town and there were trees down all
over the Presidio, and branches and leaves
everywhere," she said.
The storm also affected technology at
USF.  Leo Pereira, di-
'      , rector of communica
tions and networking
services at ITS said
that all networks were
down between upper and lower campus,
causing computers and
Internet not to function. The outages and
downed networks led
to especially big problems for the residents
of Fromm Hall, who
were unable to even
enter their building,
which require them
to swipe their USF
ID cards to enter. "If
the power and networks are down, the
electromagnetic locks
on the front doors of
the building won't open because there is
nothing to enable the locks to work," said
Walter Petruska, information security officer and director of security services.
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Eddie Sutton comes
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program and reach his q_^
800th win milestone     §3
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