(Andrew Cutraro via Wikimedia Commons)
Details are vague, but according to a press release published this afternoon (included after the jump), Vice President Joe Biden will make a campaign stop in Gambier on Tuesday, Oct. 30 for a “grassroots” event. Biden will also pay a visit to Wooster, Ohio.
(kenyon.edu)
After 10 years, seven buildings and 3,597 graduates, President S. Georgia Nugent announced on Monday that she will be stepping down at the close of the 2012-2013 academic year. Interviewed shortly after her announcement, she said it was a decision three years in the making. “I just kind of had a philosophical feeling that 10 years is a good amount of time to lead an organization,” Nugent told the Thrill. “My idea was that any leader comes with strengths and biases and blind spots and they do what they can do best and … after about 10 years … it makes sense for the organization to have different leadership.”
President S. Georgia Nugent issued her first statement on the College’s proposed contract with Sodexo today. (via princeton.edu)
This afternoon, President S. Georgia Nugent made her first official statement on the College’s plan to outsource its maintenance management to Sodexo. In a long Q&A, Nugent attempted to dispel the rumors which have been circulating in the week since the College’s announcement. Here’s what you need to know:
What is Sodexo?
The French firm, which was founded in 1966, is “the leading provider of integrated food and facilities management services in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico” serving “10 million consumers in 6,000 locations every day,” and they employ nearly 380,000 people in 80 countries, according to company publicity materials.
In an interview with The Thrill this morning, Nugent cited the organization’s size as one of its chief appeals. “The size and range of Sodexo means that they have a very broad base of experience and resources. I believe they contract with approximately 800 colleges and universities in America. And so if part of what you’re trying to do is gain access to broader experience and resources, that kind of reach is an advantage.”
What is the proposal?
When United Electrical Workers, Machine and Radio Workers of America (UE) Local 712, Kenyon’s maintenance union, entered contract negotiations on June 5, they were informed that the College was in the final stages of signing a partnership with Sodexo that would give that firm managerial control over Kenyon’s maintenance operations. Nugent cautioned, however, that “one fact that is sometimes being overlooked in this discussion is that we are employing [Sodexo]; they’re not employing us. If we are not happy with the services or the practices of that organization, we won’t continue to employ them.”
Will anyone lose his or her job?
“The contract specifies that no positions will be lost,” Nugent said.
Yesterday, the Collegian spoke with Robert Smith, president of UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) Local 712, Kenyon’s maintenance union. Here’s some of what he had to say about the College’s decision, his union’s reaction and their upcoming negotiations:
We hadn’t heard any rumors. We were never approached by the company saying they were thinking about doing this or anything. It was just kind of dumped in our lap.
A lot of our guys have been here for a long time, and they’re just sickened by it. Sickened to the point that you have a problem putting one foot in front of the other.
It’s just shocking to me that they would even invite a company like that on campus to give them a quote in the first place.
This weekend, two senior thesis shows are going up on top of all the other events crowding the Kenyon calendar. Since The Receptionist goes up for a second time tonight, we’re giving you a peek into what a Thursday-night audience member thought of the show so you can make your decisions about what to do with your Saturday.
There’s a cast of characters who don’t get credit in the program for The Receptionist, the short and often funny senior thesis of Caroline Black, Ellie Shepley and Alyssa White. These unseen characters are painted in the negative by Black, who plays the title character and spends much of the show at the reception desk of a nondescript office answering calls with a pitch-perfect curtly chipper voice. We hear her end of conversations with her teacup-collecting husband, a co-worker’s narcissistic ex and an anarchist on the heels of a one-night stand with a glorified pool boy.
At times, the phone feels like a crutch. The ringing interrupts onstage relationships between the characters. But the gimmick also preserves the anonymity of the office place, and Black’s dynamic acting and good timing develop a real world on the other line.
There are good moments throughout this hour-long play. Continue reading
The Kenyon Thrill 