Jerry Springer to defend show at lecture series

By: Susana Rodriguez / Asst. News Director As the first stop on his 2008 college campus tour, Jerry Springer will lecture on the 17-year history of his show and its impact on pop culture as part of Student Government Council’s lecture series at Biscayne Bay Campus. “I [tour] on a regular basis and, particularly with the kind of show we try to do, I try to keep in touch with whatever the pop culture is at the time,” said Springer in a telephone interview with The Beacon. Formerly mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, Springer earned his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1968 after working toward his Bachelor’s in Political Science at Tulane University. “I remember while…

Deceitful drugs call for reform, investigation

By: Jose Martinez / Staff Writer The New York Times recently reported that a study conducted over a two-year period confirmed that a widely parescribed cholesterol drug, Zetia, which is also contained in the pill Vytorin, has no beneficial effect on combating high cholesterol. The clinical study conducted by Zetia’s manufacturer, Merck and Schering-Plough, ended in April 2006, and the results had failed to disseminate until now. Due to the alleged complexity of the data compiled it can be inferred, however, that the unrelenting media attention centering on the delay, as well as recent congressional inquiries, caused the drug companies to relent and reveal their findings. Merck and Schering-Plough formally announced its results in a…

Commemorating Dr. King via service

By: Jeanette Lopez / Contributing Writer FIU’s Center for Leadership and Service is working with Service of Peace, a Miami-Dade county wide committee, and the City of Miami to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a full day of community service on Saturday Jan. 19. CLS has chosen the holiday as one of the four service days they coordinate. The City of Miami is expecting anywhere from 800 to 1,000 volunteers for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service in different sites including Little Haiti, Bay Point Schools, Brentwood Park, Overtown and the Hope Center. FIU’s student volunteers will be divided into groups with team leaders. “It was a really great event…

Faculty Senate: Mixed Messages: Chair, Provost differ on effects of budget cuts

By: Christina Veiga /News Director Persisting budget problems and a new final exam schedule were among the items discussed at the Jan. 15 Faculty Senate meeting. The state of Florida’s budget as it relates to funding the State University System was discussed with mixed messages by Bruce Hauptli, chair of the Faculty Senate, and Ronald Berkman, executive vice president and provost of Academic Affairs. Third quarter distribution projections released by Governor Charlie Crist were low again, with the expectation that the state budget will be cut by another $2 billion in a Special Session in February, according to Hauptli. “I believe that it is likely that once the Special Sessions are over and this year’s…

Martin Luther King Jr. Festivities: Week-long celebrations honor civil rights leader

By: Evelyn Diaz / Staff Writer On Jan. 15 FIU began celebrating the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the American civil rights movement, officially commencing a week-long series of events. The 17th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration began with a youth forum and peace walk held at the Biscayne Bay Campus’ Wolfe University Center. Meanwhile, at University Park, the Black Student Union sponsored a lecture titled “In the Legend,” which reflected upon the man who struggled for racial equality and eventually changed America. Though Jan. 15 marks the beginning of the celebration, events were held throughout the week, including a showing of the film “Crash”…

19-year-old CEO speaks at MLK forum

By: Eddith Sevilla / BBC Managing Editor To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, the MLK Youth Forum and Peace Walk Committee invited media mogul Hezekiah Griggs III to speak to middle school and FIU students at the Biscayne Bay Campus. About 160 middle school students from Dade and Broward counties gathered in the Wolfe University Center’s Ballroom Jan. 15 for the forum and peace walk. “This is geared to providing a program to the young people in our community. We invited middle school students to hear a keynote, youthful speaker,” said Dorret Sawyers, director of Multicultural Programs and Services at BBC. “We tried to find someone closer in age who can be…