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Show 4 FRIDAY, MARCH 25,2005 UTAIf^fST A T ES MA N Taco Bell spared; Universities squirm after donations are linked to corporate criminals loses taste test BY KAVITA KUMAR St. Louis Post-Dispatch The campaign to remove Taco BelMrom Washington University's food court started out about the plight of tomato pickers in Florida. It ended up more about students' hankering for Chinese food. Students at several universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Chicago, successfully fought to have Taco Bell kicked off their campuses after a group representing tomato pickers in Florida called for a nationwide boycott in 2001 over wages and working conditions. Washington University students ratcheted up their own campaign last spring. Efforts included fliers on campus, "boycott Taco Bell" pins, and a "guerrilla theater" production in which students carried buckets of tomatoes around campus. In response, the university polled its 5,900 undergraduates about whether to remove the fast-food giant from the student union. About 4-5 percent wanted Taco Bell out, 32 percent wanted it in, and 22 percent had no opinion. About 16 percent of the 2,138 respondents objected to Taco Bell because of the wage issue. Nearly 40 percent said they don't mind Taco Bell but would rather have a change in cuisine especially Chinese or Thai. The student response was strong enough for university officials to decide against renewing a five-year contract for Taco Bell. Rather, Marilyn Pollack, interim director of dining sendees, hopes to negotiate a one-year contract with the chain and survey students on alternate food vendors. But Sally George, a Taco Bell spokeswoman, said she thinks a new survey of students might reap different results. The company came to an agreement ear# Her this month to pay workers an extra penny per pound of tomatoes. "We'd like to continue serving the Washington University community," said George. "We know we were a popular option on campus." Since the new wage agreement, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, representing the tomato pickers, has called off the boycott. "Obviously since we've resolved the issue with Taco Bell, we're not encouraging students to continue to boycott by any means" said Julia Perkins, a coalition staff member. To the contrary, now the coalition is holding up Taco Bell as a model and hoping others in the fast food industry will follow suit Ojiugo Uzoma is a Washington U senior and one of the founders of the Student Worker Alliance, which had been pushing to kick Taco Bell off campus. The group was the driving force behind the campus survey. Now that the national boycott has ended, Uzoma said she's not opposed to Taco Bell, as long as it holds up the bargain. She will not be devouring chalupas though. She is a vegetarian. At lunch time Monday in the university's food court, the longest line by far was for wraps. The pizza and pasta section was also popular. But Taco Bell was doing steady business. Megan Sheridan, a junior from Colorado Springs, held a burrito. "I enjoy Taco Bell, but it wouldn't kill me to see it leave " she said. "Chinese would be nice, too." BY T I M JONES Chicago Tribune COLUMBIA, Mo. - Most people breeze right by the large, goldtrimmed watercolor hanging in the small lobby of Lowry Hall. They rarely glance at, much less give a thought to, the portrait of Kenneth Lay, AB '64, MA '65, one of the more prominent graduates of the University of Missouri. Every once in a while someone notes the irony that the painting of Lay, the former chairman of Enron Corp. who faces federal charges that he lied about Enron's financial condition before the energy giant's stunning collapse in 2001, resides in the university's Honors College. "One student was very upset" said Karen Aitkens, a secretary whose office is across the hall from the painting. "He poked his head in here and said 'Is that who I think it is?' He was angry. "And then somebody walked by and gave the picture the finger" Aitkens added. These are the risks that universities run when wealthy alums return with checkbooks in hand, willing to exchange a donation for a building in their name or, in Lay's case, an endowed chair in the department of economics. The painting of Lay, smiling and relaxed in a double-breasted blue sport coat, occupies that spot in the Lowry Hall lobby because his charitable foundation donated $1.1 million to the university in 1999, two years before he lost his perch in the corporate catbird seat. That endowed chair has yet to be filled and the betting is it will remain vacant at least until after Lay's trial, which is scheduled to start in January. Some faculty members have suggested the money be returned to Lay. The university, financially challenged like many publicly funded schools, is riding out the storm. For now. "We're looking for people, and beyond that I don't think it does the economics department any good to talk about this," said Professor Michael Podgursky, the department chairman, clearly weary of the controversy involving a deep-pocketed alum who became a national symbol of corporate malfeasance. If there is any comfort for the university, it is knowing that the Columbia campus is not the only institution of higher learning that squirms in an ethical quandary. Seton Hall University, in South Orange, N.J., has Kozlowski Hall, which houses the schools of business, education and human services, psychology and the center for public "He was angry. And then somebody walked by and gave the picture the finger" Karen Aitkens service. The building is named after alumnus and former Tyco International Ltd. chairman Dennis Kozlowski, who is on trial in New York on charges of looting the company for hundreds of millions of dollars. Seton Hall also has a recreation center named after alum Robert Brennan, formerly of First Jersey Securities. Brennan was convicted of bankruptcy fraud. St. Bonaventure University, in St. Bonaventure, N.Y., is home of the Rigas Family Theater, named for John Rigas, the former chairman of the cable company Adelphia Communications. Rigas and his son Timothy were found guilty in July of conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud and stealing more than $100 million from the now-bankrupt cable company. Roads, parks, a library and a campus of a community college in Birmingham, Ala., are named for Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth who is standing trial for alleged accounting fraud. There was even a statue of Scrushy at the company's headquarters. Vandals spraypainted it with the word "thief." In Providence, R.I., Brown University's A. Alfred Taubman Center for the Study of Public Policy and American Institutions is named for Taubman, the former chairman of the auction house Sotheby's. Taubman served a year in federal prison after his conviction for pricefixing. Back in Columbia, the University of Missouri recently endured more public embarrassment over its new $75 million basketball arena, which last fall had been named for a 22year-old heiress of Wal-Mart after the young woman's parents effectively bought the naming rights for $25 million. She didn't attend the university and was later accused of cheating her way through another college. Missouri quickly changed the name of Paige Sports Arena to Mizzou Arena. Last week's criminal fraud conviction of former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers and the release of a new book on the collapse of Enron, "Conspiracy of Fools," have intensified the focus on corporate wrongdoing and the claims by Lay, Ebbers and others that they had no idea of the illegalities occurring at their respective companies. "I remember seeing it (Lay's portrait) when I took the campus tour and went to the Honors College, and I thought then that it was kind of embarrassing," Cynthia Juedemann, a freshman from New Haven, Mo., said last week. "I still think it's embarrassing." Jacob Harper, a senior from Springfield, Mo., majoring in English, said he thinks "it's kind of funny that no one really makes a big deal out of it, but I think they should." 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