The Griffin: volume 68, issue 11 - Dec. 5, 1997

              Gadflies sting the flank of Maintenance Department Actions taken to cleanse infested restrooms P.R. Pro visits Canisius Witty columnists Melissa Lang and Mollie Strasser will make you smile in "The Lighter Side." by Rebecca Diina Griffin News Reporter Finally, movie reviews have returned to The Griffin. Dean L. Ramirez reviews Chasing Amy, while Jen Gorczynski talks about Anastasia. PHOTO BY KAREN HELGESON Maintenance promises that fly- infested bathrooms will be sanitized soon. Physical Plant director Paul Myers was allegedly spotted at the site on Tuesday afternoon, apparently taking matters into his own hands, according to student correspondence. "I guess he was in there actually cleaning out the pipes himself," mar- "It's like they come right out of the drains," complained one student. "Is there fruit in [the drains] or something? They're like little fruit flies! They're getting into the club rooms, too." Little relief has been gained, however, with many female students still recounting terrible tales of the winged little vexations.The problem has not gone unnoticed by the Canisius College Maintenance Department. Several students have reported seeing college janitors making frequent trips to the restrooms, apparently spraying some sort of insecticide. Senior Kevin Jones concurred. "I drown them in the sink," he related. "They're all over the girls' bathroom," stated sophomore Jennifer Gorczynski. "It's gross." If you have visited the bathrooms in the basement of the Student Center lately, you may have noticed their infestation with tiny, black, fly-looking insects.dent programs]," stated Mahan. "Although I tour the buildings every Wednesday morning, this is something that I have never seen before." The flies were thought to be coming out of the bathroom floor drains, a suspicion that was confirmed upon further inspection. "We investigated yesterday [Dec. 2], and found food in the floor drain," Mahan narrated. veled a sophomore who wished to remain anonymous . "He was wearing a suit. He looked kind of mad." According to Canisius College housekeeping manager Marty Mahan, the mysterious bugs are ordinary fruit flies, and the infestation should be cleared up in the near future. "The problem was reported on Dec. 1 by Esther Northman [director of international stu- See Fruitflies, page 2 The women's basketball team is off to a rough start after dropping four consecutive games. Sports Editor Jen Kasprzak has the recap. Surprise, Surprise! Mike MacDonald and his young core of players have got the men's basketball team off to a stellar 3-1 start. Chris Brownesy reports.News 1-5 Editorial 4 Viewpoints 6-7 Features 8-11 Gobbledeygook 12 Sports 13-16 See Murray, page 4 While he was here, Murray met with College President Rev. Vincent M. Cooke, S.J., John Hurley, Vice President for College Relations, and several other administrators. Murray also met with Griffin Editor-in-Chief Chris Devine to gain a student's perspective of the College. The pur- Murray is known for his "damage control" abilities through advertising and public relations. He was involved with creating the marketing strategy for Tylenol after their poisoning scare. Murray's visit to Canisius comes at a time when there is a definite need to improve the College's image and attract more students to the school. On November 20th and 21st, the campus was visited by Jerry Murray, who has been retained by the College to develop a comprehensive, integrated marketing strategy for the improvement of the College. Murray, an alumnus from the class of 1968, is known for his success as a high-powered public relations expert. He currently owns his own Chicago-based company, Murray Communications Group, which specializes in "Public Relations and Reputation Management." Volume LXVIII Number 11 December 5, 1997 The Big Four is No More! "Serving the Canisius Community Since 1933" by Chris Devine Griffin Editor in Chief INDEX INSIDE See Big Four Page 3 by Karen Helgeson Griffin News Editor Page 9 Page 10 Page 13 Page 16 What it really amounts to is the self-interest of each of the institutions. They want to play their home games on their home court for essentially two reasons. First, So the Big Four is down to one double-header this year. In future years, though, the double header may not even exist because St. Bonaventure will only play Canisius in the MMA and they don't want to give up one of their home games with UB or Niagara and UB and Niagara don't want to lose a home game. hasn't panned out according to the way the people at the arena wanted it to, even though the good intentions were there. Starr concurred, "I certainly sympathize with them and their goal, and they certainly did try to put it together." The fact is, the Big Four just "What has happened is that it [the Big Four] has pretty well disintegrated or hasn't fufilled its expectations," said Dr. Daniel P. Starr, director of athletics. "The grand design originally for a Big Four idea was to have each of the four institutions play at least four games in the arena. But that never got off the ground. That was just asking too much." St. Bonaventure, Niagara and the University of Buffalo (UB) have refused to sign a three year contract that would commit the teams to play a certain number of games in the Marine Midland Arena (MMA). The Big Four is no more—to an extent. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARINE MIDLAND ARENA Playing at MMA is simply too costly for most schools desiring to make a profit due to home-court advantage. THETiRIFFIN