Recent Arrests at Columbia Universty Echo the Pains of Paying For College In Syracuse

This week, the New York Times reported that five students had been arrested pertaining to a drug-ring they were running. Drugs on college campuses are not really a rarity, and one could ague that college campuses are perhaps one of the easiest places to procure illicit drugs. What is interesting, however, was that two students being charged in the arrest claim to have been doing it to help pay for tuition. As college prices climb, it's not unusual for students to do whatever they can to get some money, and drug-dealing is perhaps one of the more interesting avenues to go down.

John, whose name has been changed for anonymity, is a student at Syracuse University, who for two years, sold cocaine.

"I was selling about $3,000 worth a week. Not all of that is profit, but I had a lot of money. It wasn't unusual to be sitting on multiples of thousands of dollars at some points."

John sold cocaine from his apartment, mostly, he claims, to the same fifteen or twenty customers. He drove to New York City from Syracuse every Thursday or Friday to pick up and would drive back the same day. He used different people's cars each time he went. He turned his phone off on the drive, drove the speed limit the whole time, and did everything he could to have some sort of an alibi.

"Sometimes, I would wear a suit," he says, "and claim that I had a wedding or a court date or something, if I were to get pulled over." He was very careful, he says.

"I could sell an ounce of coke in less than five hours. I used to pick up two or four at a time, and because it was the best on campus, people would buy it up right away. I think that half of Greek life got from me."

But what did he do with his money?

"It's cash, which is kind of tricky, it's not like I could suddenly dump it into something. I didn't want to put it in the bank because I know those records are looked at, so I kept it in shoeboxes in a safe in my closet. I had to find a way to use the money for things, so that year was a really exorbitant year. I took friends out to eat, bought things that were completely unnecessary, like expensive sunglasses and clothes whenever I felt like it, and I basically showered my friends with monetary affection. I was going to be going abroad, which is what I was saving for because I knew that it was expensive over there, so I slowly turned it into traveler's checks that I brought with me. I thought it was an almost understandable thing for a student going abroad to go with a few thousand dollars in traveler's checks. I got away with it."

He doesn't regret doing what he did. He admits he did a lot of cocaine in those day, and probably would have been smarter to have not done that. He said that where there's a market there's always going to be a salesman. If it wasn't him, it would be someone else, he said.

In another vein, there are less illicit and nefarious drugs being sold on campus, like marijuana. Thomas, whose name has also been changed for his anonymity, is a marijuana dealer at Syracuse University. He sells marijuana to help pay for his own habit with the drug.

"There's no money in weed," he says, "it's not like I'm trying to make money here. I just want to smoke for free. I get a nice head-stash from selling, so it's worth it. I get enough money to go to the bars, and I've always got weed." He admits that the risk is there, but it's worth it.
"I'm going to have weed anyway, you know? It's not like I'm going to stop smoking it, so why not find a way to make it free?"

Interestingly, the Columbia Students all seem to have a reputation for being good people. Despite their shortcomings with the law, they existed below a radar for some time, accruing all that cash and the plethora of drugs. They had differing intentions, according to the report, of what to do with the money, but some were doing it because they had a need, and there was a way for them to fulfill that need, with a little bit of risk.

Despite Reports and Rumors, King David's-Chipotle Deal Not Yet Complete

King David's Restaurant, a familiar Marshall Street sight for the past 36 years, has been in the Univeristy news lately with rumors floating that Chipotle, a popular Mexican food restaurant chain, would be taking over the coveted Marshall Street location.

"We haven't made a deal yet," owner Milad Hetem said. "We're almost there, but not yet. We're studying the lease agreement still, we have been since May. But no, we haven't come to an agreement."

That's good news for the loyal patrons of the middle-eastern restaurant that's been on Marshall Street since 1974 when Mr. Hetem stopped his dry-cleaning business and decided to try out owning a restaurant. What emerged from this departure has been, with the exception of Varsity and the University itself, a constant in Syracuse amid its constant change. This center of gravity has meant a lot to the University itself, adding to the culture and ethos of an updating Marshall Street.

Mr. Hetem, now 76 years old, has grown his family and his business around this location, and a few years ago opened a stand-alone restaurant in Fayetteville. He admits he prefers a location that stands alone, because Marshall Street is terrible for parking and he feels that a location that was the restaurant's alone, with a parking lot, would be good for business, like in Fayetteville. He owns the building on Marshall Street, and though it's sad to think of being elsewhere, business-wise, leasing the location makes sense.

His profits on Marshall Street have gotten smaller in the past few years as most people are paying with credit and debit these days, he says. The charges that credit card companies impose on businesses add up over time and it's quite different from the cash-heavy business he used to see in the early days of King David's.

Estimates vary that between 80 and 90% of undergraduates carry credit cards. In an $827 billion revolving credit-debit market, a market that only became viable in the late 1980s when credit card companies opened exponentially higher numbers of cards each year, credit has become a necessity to business. Today, there are more than 610 million credit cards in the United States alone, and their prevalence has affected many small businesses who now have to pay fees to get their payments processed. With supplier costs rising and credit charges increasing, small businesses feel the pinch as the market shifts to adapt to these new trends.

Hetem loves the business, though. He loves to make food, to see the same people, to have a relationship with an area as diverse as the University. Sometimes, however, businessmen have to make business savvy choices, and negotiating a lease with an outside source is smart. He laments that Chipotle would come in and remodel the whole building, erasing the 36-year familiarity of the location.

"I would prefer a smaller business with a similar menu," he said. "My customers don't want Chipotle to come in." But come in it may, depending on negotiations of said lease.

But don't worry, he assures people, King David's will still be a part of Syracuse. "I'm not closing the business, I'm just moving."

Unrelated Food For Thought

With Congress split, unless there is a drastic change in the rapport of the Legislative Branch, the next two years will be a giant waste of time, money, and sanity. If this country continues to be run by a stalemate government, we're all doomed. Or you all are, because I'm moving to Chile.

Now, this may get too political, seeing as how I'm so far left I've come around to the right with a shotgun, the Declaration of Independence, and a life-sized poster of Thomas Jefferson that I use to get me "amped up," but I hate Congress. I do. They're all a bunch of idiots, getting paid off by lobbyists and doing absolutely nothing. They never work together, and they get paid entirely too much money for the job that they're actually doing. They are all self-serving, methodical capitalists sent from hell to destroy America. That's a hyperbole, for the record. They have so much power but they all use it to serve themselves and smear each other.

I think that Congress should be a no-pay job. The taxpayers should pay for everything that they do (travel, groceries, etc), but there should be an oversight committee to prevent them from misspending. Their spouses should have to keep their day jobs, and their kids should need student loans. Like teachers, they should get sick days and vacation time. They are public servants after all, and should be treated as such- they should take public transportation to work, but taxes should buy their Metrocard or Bus Pass, and they should be allowed to invest as they see fit and maybe something like a $20,000 personal expense account (used for vacation, abortions). All business conducted should be paid for by the people. We should not pay for things not involved in changing policy and affecting our lives.

Congress should be full of real people, not politicians. That's what I'd like. I really think it was designed to be that way, I mean look at the power it has, and the way it's set up to be a proper representation of a canvass of America.

The news coverage of the election was horrible. "In depth" was a term my friend Howie used to describe it. "Total crap," I said. The conversations that I had with the four other pothead college kids I was watching the elections with were equally, if not more, enlightening than the coverage on CNN and MSNBC (and don't get me started on Fox News...). In fact, we were discussing what Congress really has the power to do, debating as such a conversation would suggest, when CNN decided to have the same conversation. I think our's was more stimulating, interesting, and compelling. It's all well and good, but none of us are passing ourselves off as "experts," we are self-proclaimed idiots. Either this country needs more experts who can articulate themselves on television, or we need to cover the elections differently, as a media.

On CNN, amid all the really pretty graphics and interactive information, there was a lack of actual coverage. The two things that pissed me off most were:

1. Paul Begala steering the conversation into the direction of: "You can see a lot of rising stars out there tonight," and CNN actually having a conversation about it. These people are politicians, not baseball players. There is no rookie of the year, and to elevate them to such a high status is a big disservice to America. Leave that conversation out of coverage. Pundits should not be on television, or at least a news channel. They're entertainers, not newscasters. You should have to seek out their opinion, not be force-fed it. I don't care what side of the "aisle" they lean, because I don't believe in aisles, sides or political parties; I believe in united states. United being the operative word.

2. In the three or so hours of watching, I never once learned what any of the newly elected Senators or Representatives actually campaigned on. In three hours, I only heard a bunch of people discuss the same things over and over again, without ever going into actual depth. Explaining someone's credentials isn't coverage, it's recitation of a resumé. I still cannot tell you what any of the people who got elected last night are planning to do with their new power. And for a branch of government that can declare war, raise taxes, enact laws, monitor and survey us, I'd like to be a little better informed.

With that said, let me be more explicit: I am upset that I have no idea what this election really means. It's not that I'm not intelligent enough to know, or to research it. I'd just like to know who is really running a third this country right now, because I have no idea what anyone's agenda is, other than to undo everything that's already been done in the past two years (which is nothing, I think).

If Congress was filled with people like you and me (which it very well may be now, but the coverage did nothing to enlighten us as to the fact), they'd know what this country is like a little better. I'm not talking that TEA party crap of "I'm you," I'm talking people that are really like me, or you.

Instead, we've got people who spend $160 million of their own money to get elected, and still fail (can I just point out that I read this in a newspaper, never heard it on the coverage last night?). What an excessive amount of money. The fact that people have that much money to spend on their own campaign shows how disconnected from the rest of America they truly are. That's like taking the GDP of 3/4 of Africa (I actually have no idea what the GDP of 3/4 of Africa is) and putting it towards a pair of shoes, or any other necessary but finitely enjoyed thing in one's life. Meg Whitman may have lost, but massive amounts of money were spent on getting some of these people into office. Don't people see that curtailing excess of government starts with electing candidates who are, themselves, not excessive? Of course, that then opens the debate for what is excess...

Tipping Norms Varied in the University Area

To tip or not to tip, for many, that is never the question. In the United States, a 15-20% gratuity for food services is commonplace, but worldwide, the act of tipping is varied. According to the University's Center for International Services, Syracuse University currently represents all 50 states and over 115 countries. This blend of different cultures and norms varies the way people tip. To those who work in the service industry and rely on tips, this is at times harrowing.

For Allen Terry, a graduate student in the E. A. Link School of Engineering at Syracuse University and delivery driver for Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, he definitely notices the differences between people, though he's quick to say it's not necessarily a cultural issue, but perhaps a socio-economic issue. He argues that with people, especially freshman out on their own for the first time, it comes down to whether the person has ever worked a day in their life.

"Sometimes you can just tell if they have money or not, but most freshman don't tip unless they've already had a job. The kids who are on their parents money don't usually tip, and you can tell who they are," he says. But he laments, and admits that all he's really doing is delivering sandwiches. "If we were delivering something complicated I would expect the tips to be more frequent and better, but we're just selling subs. I know we try to get there in less than ten minutes, but regulars come to expect that and so it becomes less impressive to them, I guess, unless they've worked in a similar job before in which case they're more understanding." But does the service itself actually matter in tipping?

According to a study by Cornell University's Michael Lynn, a professor of economics who did his Master's thesis on the behavior of consumers and tipping, argues that service very rarely affects the tip. His study found that "tip percentages are only weakly related to customers' ratings of service quality in restaurant settings." Interestingly, it appears that restaurant tips are not a good measure of customer satisfaction.

Lynn's study also suggests that tipping is more expected in countries whose populations are based on the possibility of bettering oneself. If a metaphorical ladder exists, people seem to tip, and servers and deliverers seem to work harder to get them.

Terry agrees. "From what I've seen, some Asian students are awful with tipping. They seem to be under this impression that its supposed to be handed to them, like they won't even come down to the lobby in an apartment complex to meet us, we have to go to them. European people tip pretty well, but it depends on who it is," he says.

Josh 'Flower' Sharp, a bartender and manager at Chuck's, says that he has a guy who comes in often and runs up very high tabs, in the area of $100-150, and he never leaves a tip. Obviously he works, and he has money, but he doesn't tip. Flower serves him all of the drinks that can run up a tab that high, but the man never leaves a tip. "It's always like, 'Thanks, but those drinks don't pay my bills,'" he says. Flower says that a dollar per drink or a 10-20% tip on a tab is totally acceptable. "But not everyone does it."

Still the question remains - what earns a tip? Terry and Lynn agree that tips depend on the quality of service, and that 15-20% is a fair gratuity. "If the service is great," Terry says, "I'll even go higher, like 30% for a waiter who was really attentive."

And, just for fun, here is Quentin Tarrantino's take on this (warning, it's explicit):

As Corn Prices Increase, so Do Virtually All Costs

A recent estimation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) expected this year's harvest to be 3 percent smaller than last year's record-setting harvest. Global demand is increased because of recent problems worldwide, most notably Russia's intense heat and the American Corn Belt's extremely rainy season this year. Prices are set to increase because of the demand, and as corn prices increase, so do lots of other costs from meat to gasoline.

According to the USDA's website, the 2010 Consumer Price Index (CPI) is set to increase a marginal .5 to 1.5 percent in the coming year. The costs at the grocery store are projected to increase within the .5 to 1.5 percent margin, but restaurant (food-away-from-home) foods are expected to rise between 1 and 2 percent. While this is the smallest increase since 1992, it still will affect average consumers' daily lives in multiple ways.

Basically, when you buy a piece of meat, even at the grocery store, you are also paying for the food that was used to raise that piece of meat, and everything involved in its slaughter, etc. Globally, cattle are generally raised on corn and other grains, and when the prices for those commodities increase, so does the cost of raising that cattle to the point of slaughter. Farms do not try for only beef profits, but seek farm-wide net profits. As it becomes more expensive, rather than increasing beef four dollars per pound to make up the losses, they increase, for instance, the prices of several types of vegetables in smaller increments to even out. As profits increase for farms, government subsidies decrease, and consumers foot the cost. At the grocery store, consumers see small increases on lots of different purchases, and the entire bill inflates.

“We can live with high commodity prices for a period without seeing much impact at the retail level, but if that persists for several months or a couple of years, then it eventually has to get passed on” to consumers, Darrel Good, an emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois, told the New York Times.

Dr. Good was referring to impacts on retail that exist outside of agriculture. Many people look past the fact that corn is not only a food, but also used for fuel. Ethanol, and its increasing presence in the oil industry, is a derivative of corn used for making biofuels. Current government mandates imposed upon oil companies to encourage the use of ethanol, assure corn's strength, and the market is expected to remain strong. However, as ethanol markets continue in high demand, the demand for all corn use increases, shrinking the amount of corn used for food and livestock, and prices are again re-evaluated. Once more, consumers are ignored and small businesses, who rely on these prices and commodities, suffer.

The most staggering aspect of the corn industry's recent estimations and price hikes, is that it really will affect all of our lives in one way or another. Gasoline prices alone can change everyone's life, as most shipments are made by ground, at least at a local level, and as shipment costs increase, so do in-store prices. When such important and trickle-down prone markets like corn seem volatile, commodity traders get scared, and consumers pay for it.

Capitalizing on Augie's Closing, Jreck Subs Hopes to Attract some of the Same Business

Augie’s, once the spot for cheap ($1, and towards its demise, $1.25) pizza on Syracuse University’s campus, closed last year, leaving drunk students wandering home from the bars on campus wondering where to eat (fear not, noble reader, their appetites were satiated, for Marshall street has a lot of other restaurants open late).

“Their one dollar slices were my fuel to get me back to Euclid from the bars,” Meghan Cressy Nelson, a senior policy studies major said. A year later, many students are left without what was once a staple of Syracuse University.

In tough economic times, small businesses have a hard time allocating funds and starting, or in Augie’s case, maintaining, successful businesses. Large corporations who seem to be able to weather these economic storms, seemingly unaffected by tough economic situations, capitalize on closings of small businesses owned locally. In its 2009 report to the president, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reported that average unincorporated self-employment fell from 10.4 million to 10.1 million over a year, and averaged around 9.6.million by November of 2008. Incorporated self-employment remained steady around 5.8 million, on average.

Jreck Subs, with its new location on Marshall Street sandwiched between Jimmy John’s Sandwiches and a new start-up, Sliders, is hoping to capitalize on the prime real-estate that once belonged to the beloved Augie’s, an oasis of sorts for the fiscally concerned drunk college student for its tenure on campus.

In its third week, Jreck has seen successes. They considered their opening 6:00 PM on September 21st, in time for the opening football game against Maine, a solid opening.

“We were a little late to catch the movement crowd, but we had a good after game response, and Sunday was much better than anticipated; our weekday traffic has been continuous,” Chief Operating Officer Gary Baker said.

Jreck is offering late night hours on weekends to attract the same crowd that Augie’s once considered its bread and butter. “The late night crowd is more than we thought,” Baker said. Tricia Swartz, Jreck’s Director of Finance, was well aware of the crowd that Augie’s attracted and hopes that the sub shop can act as a surrogate for the drunken masses.

“We are hoping to make Jreck Subs a staple here at SU,” she said.

With prices averaging between $3.99 and $4.99, the seemingly impossible affordability (read: beloved fiscal irresponsiblity) of Augie’s is gone. The location is the same, the convenience is there, but what’s missing is that junky food that you were usually too drunk to notice was sub-par. Instead, it’s replaced by slightly more expensive, quality food. There is something more clinical about the place that once housed dollar slices and free scowls, but, again, you’ll be too drunk to notice.

Funk n' Waffles, Unconventional Waffle House, Uses Unconventional Means to Survive

Tucked behind Marshall Street in a narrow alleyway, Funk N' Waffles, the university area's sole waffle and music shop, is a thriving business started by former Syracuse University student Adam Gold, originally of Wycoff, New Jersey. After winning third place in an on-campus business start-up competition, Gold took an idea that started as a series of parties (featuring funk music, and you guessed it, waffles) one step above and started a business that has been successful since its inception, due largely in part to his ability to make it work. He works 40 hours a week, along with his business partner, and still finds time to play full time in his band, Sophistafunk, who play three to four nights a week.

Syracuse University senior Ben Addonizio says of the business, "It's great if you're into exotic waffles with salmon on them, or funk music. It's definitely a unique place, and has a cult following of sorts. It's definitely interesting that they sell music, because we don't have a music store on campus, but then again, they sell vinyls, so it has something else about it."

Gold admits that while a lot of his customers, some 65-75% he estimated, are return customers, the business really dies in the summertime. They offer live music all year round, but when the students go away, much of his business evaporates.

"We lose money in the summertime, for sure," he said. He blames the location for that, but admits that the business is not at the point where it could move yet. "We have to prove that this business model works. We have to prove that we, my business partner and I, don't have to be here 40 hours a week, before we can trust other managers to run the place while we go and open another. Sure I would love to be able to open a new place, but we're not there yet."

Funk N' Waffles does not advertise. They attract customers through word of mouth. Quality goods and quality service keep them coming back. "Everybody can say that they have the best coffee in town," Gold admits, "but to have a group of people tell you to come here when you ask them where to get the best coffee in town, that's what works best."

The success of the business is, of course, not without its own compromises. "This weekend, I had a show to play in New York, and so I had to leave at twelve. I left my four employees here to deal with the mess of Parent's Weekend. I'm surprised none of them quit." Gold said that his employees are what help this business work. While originally he hired students, they were seasonal part-time workers, so they would work about 10 hours per week. He now employs about five full-time employees.

This time last year, the business was losing money, initially blamed on the economy. He has found now that simply measuring everything has started to cut their margins. "Last year seemed hard, so we made changes like weighing everything just to make sure our portions are correct, like we no longer just grab a handful of walnuts. That's the biggest change, and it's been working. It's a standard practice, but we're new to it. We knew it was standard practice, but we didn't realize it was so successful until we realized we'd cut our margins by something like 8%."

"I make much more money playing music now," he admits, "like so much more than this business. I can make in one night what I make in a week making waffles." He attributes this to his booking agent, the number of shows that they are playing, and that the band has become more focused and determined following a year of playing festivals with large acts last year. The band's funds and the business' funds are kept separate, but he admits that the business does come first and it needs to thrive.

How does he keep up with all of this, you may be asking. With three shows in three different cities this weekend, an album coming out, and the standard flow of business over the next few months, all Gold has to say as he throws his hands behind his head, "I'm busy as hell."