Vida Newspaper, Volume 2, Issue 3 - November 1974

IT’S NOT OVER YET! LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY M.E.Ch.A. DEPARTMENT OF CHICflNO STUDIES NOVEMBER, 1974 VOL. II N0 3 A- R. A. UPDATE Рог Omstancia Lechuga Last semester’s food service demonstration resulted in sever¬ al interesting developments. Terry Fox, ARA’S Food Service Director, whose policies and cre¬ dentials came under fire, mov¬ ed suddenly back to New Mex¬ ico. Supposedly, the move was made because he wasn’t happy here in California. Not far be¬ hind Mr. Fox, was Mr. Arroyo, his former assistant Director of Food Service here at LMU, who also moved to New Mexico. Seemingly, alls well that ends well. But, ‘not so.’ Prior to his departure and immediately fol¬ lowing the food demonstration, Fox fired Edna Santiel, the former night manager of the Lair, Santiel was charged with talking on the phone too much, using abusive language and playing cards. Santiel was pre¬ sented with these charges in the form of a reprimand which she was asked to sign. She re¬ fused, knowing she was not re¬ quired to sign anything she didn’t agree with. So she was fired. It has been VIDA’s contention that Edna Santiel was fired, not because of some phony trumped up charges, but because she was one of the sources of informa¬ tion regarding the unsanitary preparation of food and the poor nutritional quality of meals serv¬ ed to students both in the dining hall and in the Lair. Edna San¬ tiel merely reaffirmed informa¬ tion we had received about ARA from the former Assitant Direc¬ tor and dietician who resigned because Terry Fox refused to upgrade food quality and diver¬ sify the meals. After her firing Edna Santiel was refused unemployment be¬ nefits due to the nature of the charges against her. Santiel ap¬ pealed her ease to the State Unemployment Hearings Officer. Over the course of the summer, four lengthy hearings were held with testimony by both ARA and witnesses in behalf of Edna San¬ tiel. Even at this point, ARA still saw fit to deny Santiel unemployment benefits by con¬ testing her appeal. VIDA Editor Mauricio Hernandez and myself both testified on behalf of Edna Santiel at these hearings. Coun¬ sel for ARA made some clumsy efforts to discredit the authen¬ ticity of student demands to up¬ grade LMU food service by pointing out that the demon¬ stration had minority backing. This argument by ARA’s coun¬ sel showed not only his incom- petancy, but also how little he knows about minority students. This shouldn’t surprise us. Nevertheless, ARA seems to have underestimated ohr ability to know the difference between good and bad food. Petitions were signed by over 600 LMU students of all races, creeds and color, who know bad food when they get it. These petitions were in turn submitted in evidence to the hearing officer. Threat of perjury statements from Terry Fox and Felix Arroyo via New Mexico were denied admittance as evidence because of the que- (Continued on Page Two) .tutor Mercy Solorzcmo is one of 23 Loyola М|*з)гуШ(0'Ш1| University students involved in the La Causa Tutorial Program. Festejar Todos Рог Cecilia Herndndez Festejar todos! La Causa Tu¬ torial Program is 5 years old! This year, under the directorship of Manuel Martinez, La Causa was launched with a bang at the beginning of the semester. Although relatively young, the 5 year old tutorial program has a long history. Back in 1969 the idea of La Causa was given birth by a small group of Chica- nos. Starting with about 12 tu¬ tors, the tutorial program dealt only with Venice High School. In 1970, La Causa Youth Center, funded by Loyola University, was established on Washington Blvd. Thus, the Youth Center provided a place to conduct after school tutoring and other community activities. But this did not last. A year later, Loyo¬ la cut the center’s $22,000 bud¬ get in half. This tragedy, how¬ ever, did not lessen the enthu¬ siasm of Chieanos on campus. When this happened they decided to tutor in the classroom under the supervision of the teacher. The result of this was shown by the fuller sense of achievement and worth felt by both tutor and (Continued on Page Five)