By Alexis Weston
HAMPTON, VA — You’re at your university’s cafeteria getting a quick lunch before heading to class. You make a salad and top it with balsamic vinaigrette to maintain a healthy diet. You sit and begin eating when you notice something moving on your plate.
Janise Cook, a sophomore education major with a psychology minor from Woodbridge, Virginia, watched that suspicious movement fly away. A few weeks later, an ant crawled away from another balsamic covered salad she made at the Hampton University cafeteria.
“Now I refuse to eat the salads,” Cook said.
The state of the cafeteria, catered by Gourmet Services Inc., has been a hot topic for Hampton University students. Statements such as “I’m paying $40,000 for this?” are heard in the cafeteria nearly every day.
However, this problem runs much deeper than dissatisfaction and stories of intrusive insects among the student body. According to a Hampton University cafeteria employee, the eating establishment consistently fails inspections.
Records kept on healthspace.com, a website that publishes health inspection results, show that five of the past six inspections resulted in at least one critical/priority violation.
“You can’t really beat the health system because the health system is like, they go by temps,” the HU cafeteria employee said. “And if it’s not right, you’re not supposed to put it out.”
A Dec. 7 health inspection noted that the cafeteria was missing a tip-sensitive food thermometer on the “third floor food preparation and service area,” and Nov. 17, diced chicken, spring mix salad and waffle batter were all at inappropriate temperatures, according to healthspace.com.
“With each occasion, Gourmet Services’ staff has been professional and courteous in all respects,” Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey said on the Gourmet Services website.
The cafeteria employee said, “[They] keep hiring people that don’t wanna keep up and wanna get it together when the health people come, you know what I’m saying? They do dumb shit. They do shit backwards.”
Also, Nelson White, a third-year, five-year MBA major from Oakland, California, said, “Sometimes the staff serve food without gloves and without hair nets.”
In the Dec. 7 inspection, it was noted that employees were “observed working in the food service area without proper beard restraints.”
White also said, “I shouldn’t find bugs in my salad. And there would be bugs in the bread.”
The Dec. 7 inspection revealed that “observed methods are not being used to control pests (phorid flies) in the main dish room.”
A photo of unknown origin was passed around multiple Hampton University student-run group chats in the Fall 2017 semester. It depicts some type of food that looks similar to a pie crust, in a small tin foil container with three small insects crawling in it.
“Guess what I found on my food in the café,” the caption read.
At the bottom, there is a Hampton University geofilter (a filter used on Snapchat that is only available in specific locations).
One of the more troubling trends in these health inspections is that the majority of the violations are repeat offenses. The Dec. 7 inspection revealed nine repeat violations, including the hair restraints and temperature issues.
“That shit like your car,” the Hampton University employee said. “Your car need a oil change. If you don’t maintain it, what do you think is gonna happen? If you don’t change the oil in your car, you’re gonna blow the engine, right? So it’s the same thing.”
By Alexis Weston
HAMPTON, VA— The Muslim Student Association (MSA) has finally been promised a prayer room after a year of requests and discussions with multiple members of administration, including Reverend Dr. Haggins, Dr. Barbara L. Inman, and Mr. Anzell N. Harrell Jr.
They have not been told exactly which room, but know it will be in Phenix Hall, according to Mas’uud Washington, a junior biology pre-medicine major from East Orange, New Jersey and a member of the MSA’s Executive Board.
“Exciting...but not quite finished,” said Washington. “There’s still no room right now for me to go and pray if I wanted to.”
Tuesday, Rev. Dr. Haggins said she had arranged for the room with the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Dr. Malone-Colon.
“Thank you for agreeing to allow the Muslim Student Association (MSA) to use and empty classroom for prayer,” said Haggins in an email with Dr. Barbara L. Inman and Dr. Malone-Colon.
Being guaranteed a prayer room has been a long process, “It felt like there were a ton of meetings,” Washington said
Haggins said she had difficulty accommodating them because Clarke Hall is not quiet because of choir practice and the Chapel contains visual depictions of deities, something considered offensive in the Muslim faith).
Haggins said she thought the matter had been resolved.
“I thought that they had gotten a room because nobody came back to me,” Haggins said, sitting cross-legged in her chair.
Haggins promised to follow up this time. “Now that I know, I’ll get back out there and see if I can help them.”
Members of the MSA spoke with Dr. Inman, Vice President for Administrative Services, who in the end was helpful.
“I discussed this with Rev. Dr. Haggins today,” Inman said in an email Monday. “She is actively working on securing a space on campus for prayer. She will work directly [with] the MSA officers.”
Washington recalled that Harrell, the Director of Student Activities, discussed using a room in the Student Center with them, but there were no rooms that would work. “There are events that go on in all of these rooms, so it would be hard to have it solely as a prayer room.”
The Administrative Assistant of Mr. Harrell’s office, Calandra M. Harris, said Monday that Harrell had no authority to assign a prayer room.
The prayer room is important, Washington said, because, “You come to this beautiful campus, surrounded on three sides by water, and it’s very Christian based, which isn’t a problem, and as a freshman you have no car. As a Muslim coming here as a freshman, there’s nothing that you can attach to spiritually other than what you come with. It can make you feel very spiritually isolated.”
The MSA is now looking towards the future.
“We let the general body know. We’ll probably have a celebratory function for it,” Washington said. “We’ll probably start having Friday sermons where someone will give a talk and uplift the Muslim community on campus.”
By Alexis Weston
HAMPTON, VA— On Tuesday November 7, 2016 Donald Trump shattered all expectations by being elected President of the United States of America. Mr. Trump’s (yes, Mr. This man is not my president and I refuse to address him as such) controversial inauguration was held on January 20, 2017 and he was officially sworn in to his elected position.
This inauguration is one that leaves HBCUs in a state of limbo. Even with a black man in office and our very own President William R. Harvey as Chairman of President Barack Obama's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, HBCU enrollment and funding has significantly declined over the past eight years.
With a man like Mr. Trump in office and Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education nominee, I cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel for black institutions and educators.
Many people are considering Talladega’s decision to perform an insult to the black community, with some going so far as to call them coons. This leaves Talladega College in an awkward position. How will this affect their enrollment? What black millennial would want to attend a school that supported the modern face of bigotry, oppression, and fascism? We’ll have to see what happens in the fall, but it seems like this will cause their enrollment numbers to drop.
With all of this said, I was shocked to discover that Talladega College, a fellow HBCU, would perform at Mr. Trump’s inauguration. I, and the rest of my peers, were even more shocked that President William R. Harvey, a Talladega alumnus, was supporting them ideologically and, if need be, monetarily.
President Harvey went on to write an article for CNN.com defending his decision to support Talladega’s show for Mr. Trump titled Why Talladega band belongs at Donald Trump's inauguration. In the article he says that Talladega being asked to play is an honor and that the inauguration is a, “peaceful transition of power, a hallmark of America's democracy.”
Let me stop you right there. Our country was not built on peace. This government was not created by a smooth transition from British to American rule. This country was built on colonization. This country was built on the blood of indigenous peoples and African people stolen from their homes. America has been involved in a war for the lifespan of most of your student body. This country was built on violence.
“Peaceful transition,” has nothing to do with our country or its history. That quote was used to manipulate readers into mindless patriotism. The America that I know does not know peace.
He echoes the same idea in his direct letter to Dr. Billy Hawkins, president of Talladega College, by saying, “it is an honor to be invited to the inauguration of any President of the United States.” The problem is that this is not any “President.” This is Donald Trump. This is the man that called Mexicans rapists. This is the man the grabs pussies in his free time. This is the man that thinks that stop and frisk, an undeniably racist law, should be reinstated nationally. This is the man that Black folk across the nation did not vote for. This is the man who told Black Lives Matter protesters to go back to Africa.
The student body of Hampton University is now in a difficult position. How could we support a man that makes it clear that he does not support us? While he may believe that Talladega playing at the inauguration is not an endorsement of Donald Trump, it is clear that the masses think otherwise. If President Harvey wants to play the game of respectability politics, he can do it all he wants. But I refuse to support it. Donald Trump is not my President. And at this point, I don’t think that William R. Harvey is, either.