After 31 years Sammy Frazier continues to clean University dining halls
After 31 years Sammy Frazier continues to clean University dining halls
ANISA SUMLAR
Staff Writer
In a time when jobs are fleeting and dreams are often forgotten, Sammy Frazier stands apart.
While students all around him are investing time and money in pursuit of the ideal job, Sammy sweeps.
When these students enter the work force, full of expectations, Sammy sweeps.
And when these same students change jobs an average of eight to 10 times, still Sammy sweeps.
In fact, for 31 years Sammy has been sweeping the dining room, picking up trays and cleaning up after students at Auburn, first in a kitchen on Magnolia Avenue, then at Terrell Dining Hall and now at War Eagle Cafeteria.
And, defying statistics that say the average person spends only six and a half years at a job, that is what he continues to do.
Head bent in concentration, 50-year-old Sammy pauses in his sweeping long enough to address a fellow worker.
"Those tables outside - don't worry about them. I've got them," he said, resuming his task.
This is his dining room, and he takes pride in seeing it in order. Anything less isn't acceptable.
"You're supposed to do a good job. It makes the place look better, cleaner," Sammy said.
It isn't complicated - not much about Sammy is. Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., he pushes his broom and trolley. In the evening, he returns to the house he shares with his mother to "rest up" for the next day.
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He never thinks of changing jobs.
"I like it all right," Sammy said of his job.
And it is this attitude that makes Sammy different from other workers.
Though he doesn't have a degree - his formal education ended in the sixth grade - Sammy has found something that many graduates and professionals spend a lifetime looking for - contentment.
Given a choice of jobs, "lightweight cleaning, about what I do here," is what he would want to do, he said.
And whether he is cleaning tables or cleaning trays, there is almost always a hint of a smile on his face.
"That's just my way, I reckon," he said, grinning.
His smile, shy at first, appears whenever he makes eye contact with students. It doesn't bother him that, leaving their trays and trash scattered on tables, they create more work for him.
"That's my job," he said.
But there was a time when the thought of having a job like he has today seemed strange to Sammy. In those days, the field was all he knew, Sammy said.
"Back at that time, I didn't care too much about a job like this," he said.
Back then, before tractors plowed fields and machines picked cotton, Sammy worked with his family planting and harvesting cotton. Lining up in rows of three, the kids picked cotton before selling it by the bale.
"It ain't fast, but you've just gotta get them hands moving," Sammy said.
During the holidays, when at least some of Sammy's seven brothers and sisters try to make it back to their mother's house, they laugh about those "old times," he said, although not everything about those days was lighthearted.
His father was shot to death when Sammy was too young to remember much about him.
"It was sort of rough back in those days, but I've come a long way since then," Sammy said. Taking a break from sweeping, he concentrates on the meal before him - two hot dogs with ketchup, two packs of peanut butter crackers and an apple.
He doesn't like hot dogs, he said, but that's all that's left by the time he takes a break. At noon, when students fill the cafeteria, things are "wide open," and he doesn't have time to eat.
Now the cafeteria is almost deserted.
This is a scene often repeated since Sammy first began working at Auburn in October 1965, after finding out about the job through a friend.
"I got started here working, and they liked the way I worked," Sammy said. So he stayed.
The boss he worked for in 1965 has since died, but Joseph Hill, manager of the food services complex and former supervisor of War Eagle Cafeteria, remembers Sammy as loyal and hard working.
"He takes pride in what he does," Hill said. "He's a good worker."
He also tries to help students whenever he can, Hill said. If a student left an umbrella on a table, Sammy would keep an eye on it. If the student didn't return for it, Sammy would bring it to the office so the student would know where to find it.
Eva Patterson, a long-time friend of Sammy, said he helps people because, "He's just an all-around nice person. He knows how to treat people. He'll help you if he can. He has cut my grass a whole lot of times."
Mowing grass is just another thing Sammy finds little pleasure in, but "it's gotta be cut," he said.
Patterson is probably closer to Sammy than anyone else at the University, but there is a lot about him even she doesn't know.
"He's not a hard person to get to know," she said. "He's just a very quiet person."
One subject he doesn't say much about is his marriage. Though he never divorced, he and his wife have been separated for a "pretty good while," Sammy said.
The couple didn't have children, but it's not something that worries him, Sammy said.
Mostly he just finds satisfaction in his work and in trying to be nice to people.
"I always try to treat people nice. If you treat people nice, they'll recognize you, but if you don't, they won't recognize you," he said.
One way he tries to be nice is by always talking to people, he said.
Patterson said Sammy is always talking to students, and, when students finish eating, he takes their tray "out of their hands."
But for Sammy, that is just part of the job.
"Everybody is called to different places," he said. And the cafeteria is where Sammy said he feels he was called to.
He'll probably retire here, he said, although he isn't making any promises.
"It works on you," he said of being on his feet all day. "You get a certain age, and things start breaking down."
His break is over now. It's time to get back to work.
So while others pursue degrees, Sammy continues to sweep.
And when others begin a job and then move to a new one, Sammy continues to sweep.
And, occasionally, he stops to give someone a smile - one that seems to say that all of life's questions aren't answered by a slip of paper.
He may not have a title -"Worker I, Food Service War Eagle Cafeteria" is how the directory describes him - but to Sammy, it doesn't matter.
While other people run around looking for happiness in education, jobs and possessions, he has learned that contentment is found in the simple things in life.
And that is why as buildings are erected around him and faces change before him, Sammy continues to sweep.
University purchases old KA house
WENDY LAWRENCE
Assistant Copy Editor
The University recently purchased the former Kappa Alpha fraternity house, located on the corner of Samford Avenue and South College Street.
The house was owned by the Nu Social Society, the fraternity's house corporation, in a long-term lease interest agreement, Jim Ferguson, vice president of administrative services, said.
The University owned the land the house occupies, and it purchased the house for $105,000.
"After the KAs abandoned the property, it became an eyesore and a concern of liability for the University because of the condition of the house," Ferguson said.
The University is not sure what it will ultimately do with the property.
"An outside engineering firm from Birmingham, Ala., is currently conducting a feasibility study of the property," Ferguson said.
The study will determine if the structure is fundamentally sound and can be renovated or if it is unsafe and should be razed.
Ferguson said the study should be complete in 30-60 days.
"It would be premature at this time to speculate on how the house would be utilized until the study is completed," Ferguson said.
Ferguson said if the structure is sound, the University will "utilize it for future University use."
SGA letters to address legislators
SUSAN LEWIS
Staff Writer
With the University losing $13.5 million in state funding last year and an expected $7.5 million this year, Senate Government Association President Tom Bingham has decided the SGA Senate should get involved in the fight to stop budget cuts.
"I tried to find a way that would directly impact people. I wanted to write letters that were different from what the legislature has seen before," Bingham said.
"I have constructed a plan that will reach all corners of our state and our elected officials," Bingham wrote in a statement.
A prioritization of academic and administrative programs began in 1994 aimed at making the University more efficient. Enacted in 1995, part of this streamlining effort is a retirement incentive option intended to help the University cope with last year's budget cuts.
"In 1995, Auburn received a 7.5 percent budget cut. Auburn got level funding in 1996, but most SEC schools got a double-digit increase because of inflation," Bingham said.
"I graduate next quarter and I still have not been able to take business writing. Freshmen cannot get the classes that they need because Auburn doesn't have the money to open additional sections. The administration has been cut, and I do not think that Auburn can continue to take budget cuts and not suffer," he said.
With this plan, Bingham is asking each senator, as well as the executive officers, Cabinet and Freshman Forum to write three letters. These letters will be addressed to Gov. Fob James, an assigned state senator and that senator's hometown newspaper.
All of the letters will be combined in a scrapbook that will be presented to James.
In order to encourage participation in the letter-writing campaign, which Bingham has titled Operation Make a Difference, he created a bulletin board displaying the names of the people who have written letters and those who have not.
"You can't force someone to write a letter if they don't want to do it, so this is Tom's way of encouraging them," SGA Vice President Laura Palmer said.
"Tom chose this way to reach state senators because with so many letters with specific arguments, they will really listen," Palmer said.
"The senate has expressed interest in the campaign," she said. "I definitely saw good expressions (on their faces)."
Amy Argo, a junior and senator in the School of Pharmacy said, "I think that Tom's idea is great. With all of us writing letters, the government will see how strongly we feel about this."
Will Stegall, a sophomore and senator in the School of Business, said, "Tom is doing his best to get politicians where it hurts. Every senator will hear from someone in his district.
"This plan gets us involved in what is happening to Auburn," Stegall said. "I did not realize how bad the situation actually was until I saw the statistics that Tom has compiled."
Bingham has provided every person involved in the campaign with a packet including statistics about state funding and the names and addresses of state senators and their local newspapers.
"I think this will give us a much stronger student voice," Bingham said.
Palmer said, "This is Tom's baby. The executive officers have supported him, but he has done all of the work."
The timing of the letter writing campaign is also important.
Buddy Mitchell, executive director of governmental affairs, said, "The education fund budget will go before the House on Feb. 26. The budget will come up for a final vote on May 19, the final day of the session."
Bingham intends for the letters to reach legislators during this critical time.
"This is a time when letters could make a difference," Mitchell said.
Bingham said he also wants to extend this campaign to the entire student body.
"Students know how important this is. I think that this idea will be very well received among the students," Argo said.
According to the SGA student survey last November, 55.6 percent of students believe Auburn's current level of funding is insufficient.
The survey also found 64.7 percent of students surveyed would not vote for a candidate that supported cutting the state apportioned funding of Alabama higher education.
Palmer said, "My opinion is that the most powerful way to get things done is to publicize them. We are holding public officials responsible through the media."
Interested students can obtain the addresses of state senators and their hometown newspapers at the SGA office in 332 Foy Union.