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              The Maroon Loyola University New Orleans VOL. 82, NO. 9 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2003 MAROON.LOYNO.EDU Dining Services cleans up O.R. Latest inspection turns up 'no violations' in food service areas By Earl Descant Assistant news editor The health code violations that plagued Loyola's dining facilities for years seem to have disappeared. "No Violations," said a report that was filed on May 15 with the Orleans Parish Health Department. This sweeping declaration of cleanliness was earned by the main kitchen, which produces all of the food served in the Orleans Room and the Senior Commons Room. The Java Coast coffee bar in the Underground and the Smoothie King also were included in the report. According to Loyola's executive chef, Gary Zachariah, the improvements in health and safety came as a result of changes within Sodexho USA, the company that manages and operates Loyola's dining facilities. "The company, internally, has really raised the bar," he said. Zachariah said the improvements came by implementing the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, a management system that specifically targets the safe handling of food from the time it is purchased to the moment it is served. All of the managers and supervisors also undergo ServSafe training, a professional course that deals with educating the food service industry on topics such as proper refrigeration temperature, procedures for washing and sanitizing dishes and understanding the various types of food-borne illnesses. The managers and supervisors pass on this information to their employees and are recertified every two years, Zachariah said. Despite the Heath Department's findings, some people who use the Orleans Room have reservations about the cafeteria's overall cleanliness. Allen Nisbet, associate professor in the College of Music, said that the Elroy Chopin dishes out food in the Orleans Room kitchen during lunch. Latex gloves are part of the safety measures that Dining Services employees are taking to ensure that food isn't contaminated. THE UNDERGROUND MUSIC SCENE Music junior Charles Smith plays at the "Singer Songwriter Underground Showcase," which was held by the Loyola Music Business Association on Nov. 3. Student bloggers expose personal lives on Net By Lan Bui Staff writer Virtual voyeurism gains popularity with easy-to-use sites Call them Internet exhibitionists and virtual voyeurs, but students are increasingly sharing their opinions through Web logs, better known as "blogs." Blogs are online journals that serve as personal diaries and forums for discussion. Students, teachers and Internet users alike use blogs as outlets to express opinions about everyday experiences and about academic, political and social subjects. Classical studies junior Katie Jones said that blogs also help people stay connected with each other. "Most of my friends from home are scattered all over the country, even the world, and we keep in touch by reading each other's journals," she said. Jones said that blogging became a mainstream phenomenon around 2001. "They're kind of contagious," she said. "You read one of your Nobel Prize winner promotes tolerance First African to win literature award speaks at play premier By Katie Ide Assistant news editor Nobel Prize winner and Nigerian native Wole Soyinka cited tolerance as the prime virtue of Yoruba, the native Nigerian religion on which his literary works are often focused. "Never in human history has the world required such a virtue for its very survival," he said. In his lecture on Wednesday night, Soyinka focused on the relationship between the Yoruba religion and the modern world. In particular, he discussed the role of the "world religions" of Christianity and Islam and how they regarded Yoruba, which is a polytheistic religion. "Yoruba rejects the notion that monotheism reflects a higher stage in cultural development," he said. Soyinka, whose play "Camwood on the Leaves" made its American premiere at Loyola Wednesday night, became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1986, lecture coordinator and English professor Phanuel Egejuru said. "As far as the black world is concerned,...he is very significant," she said. "He made the way for others." Egejuru, who has been planning for this event since 1998, said that she asked Soyinka to come to Loyola because it was important for an American audience to know that there is such a thing as an African Nobel Prize winner. "They need to know that there is something, a culture, over there," she said. Niyi Osundare, who introduced Soyinka, agreed with Egejuru in regard to Soyinka's writing merits. In his introduction, Osundare STAFF PHOTO BY PAMELA HOWARD Wole Soyinka addresses the audience who gathered after his play Wednesday. Armed robbers hit five students By Chuck Alexander Contributing writer Five Loyola students were the victims of two separate armed robberies last week. Both robberies happened in the vicinity of bars popular with students. According to University Police, at about 11 p.m. on Oct. 29, a man and two women, all Loyola students, were returning from T.J. Quill's on Maple Street. The students were approached at the intersection of Maple and Pine streets by two black men, UP said. Both suspects were armed with chrome automatic handguns. After taking the purses of both women and discharging their weapons into the ground, the robbers got into a ~Md or silver Dodge Intrepid and drove toward Broadway Street. At about 3:45 the next morning, a man and a woman, also Loyola students, were robbed while walking toward Loyola at the 7100 Block of Freret Street, about a block away from Broadway Street, authorities said. Both students reported hearing car doors close ahead of them and seeing two black men walking toward them. "Obviously we have a problem here, and someone needs to pay more attention to it." — MELANIE RABALAIS, PSYCHOLOGY SOPHOMORE, about last week's robberies and other off-campus crimes. One of the victims said he did not feel safe as the two men passed and attempted to call someone on a cell phone, UP said. As he looked back, he saw both men running toward them. The students began to run, but they were caught from behind and knocked to the ground, according to the report. The robbers took the woman's purse. News of the robberies has left some Loyola students questioning their safety off campus. "I definitely feel more vulnerable," communications sophomore Melissa Lyons said. "I won't walk anywhere past dark." Some students have stressed that not enough is being done to deal with crime around the University area. "There's always been people who have gotten robbed going to and from bars around here," psychology sophomore Melanie Rabalais said, "but I rarely see any cops patrolling the areas between bars and campus." See HEALTH CODE, Page 3 See SOYINKA, Page 2 See BLOGGING, Page 3 See ROBBERIES, Page 3 H Benefit tar concerts | hit New Vr f J Orleans, \ D T 1p.9 LOG on. Ftno OUT Extra Web content available at maroon, loyno. edu grwrwtgwg