UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 10, Page 6
November 7, 1991
University training video to be used in hotel industry
By Sue Swyers Moncure

     A program videotaped at the University last week will be
beamed, via satellite, to more than 200 colleges from coast to
coast at 2 p.m., Nov. 18.
     Sponsored by the University of Delaware's Hotel, Restaurant
and Institutional Management (HRIM) Program and the Marriott
Foundation, the broadcast of "Valuing Diversity" is a first for
education in the hospitality field and is a public service for
other college-based hospitality programs in the country and for the
industry, according to Paul Wise, HRIM program director, who
coordinated the project.
     The broadcast consists of five vignettes, enacted by members
of the University's Professional Theatre Training Program and
filmed in the television production studio in East Hall.  The
themes are based on typical minority-related employment challenges
of entering and succeeding in the hospitality industry.
     After each previously taped vignette was shown, a panel of
three minority students and four industry representatives discussed
the issues brought forth with moderator Jacob Herring of Creative
Cultural Changes Inc. This portion of the program also was taped in
the Instructional Technology Center at Newark Hall.
     The first vignette on service versus servitude was a
discussion between a young, black hotel manager and a black female
employee. The manager had just carried up a woman's baggage to her
room because, at the moment, no one else was available. The woman
thought it was demeaning and the young man thought he was just
helping out, even though it was not his job.
     The panelists then discussed their views, with some saying
that the young woman was right. Others found the young woman's
attitude too rigid.
     One black industry panelist, Herman Cain, president and chief
executive officer of Godfather's Pizza, drew on his own experience
as he rose through the ranks to head the company. "Focus on your
responsibility rather than your job and put that responsibility
above the task," he advised.
     According to Wise, the video can be used in a number of ways.
Permission has been granted to participating institutions to tape
the video. The program can be shown in its entirety or the
vignettes can be used alone to stimulate discussion in the
classroom and later compared to the discussion of the panelists.
The program also can be used in hospitality industry programs to
heighten awareness of minority concerns and as a basis of
discussion in workshops.
     Panelists included Charlene Ngo, a sophomore in the HRIM
program, Eliseo Rios from the Cornell University School of Hotel
Administration and Jason Egerton from Bethune-Cookman College.
     Professional representatives were Cain; George Koenig, vice
president of human resources, Marriott Education Services; Gene
Monteagudo, director of the Hospitality Hispanic Institute, Conrad
Hilton College; Jimmie Paschall, director of employee relations and
staff services, Marriott Host/Travel Plazas; and Christine
Shimasaki, director of sales, San Diego Marriott Hotel.
     In addition to the panelists, an audience of students and
professionals was present, including faculty and students from
Delaware State College's hospitality program.