Betty Asbury, who is often referred to as Miss Berry by just about everyone, recently started crying at the St. Bede’s Episcopal Chapel, which is located on the campus. As she was crying, she started to say, “Lord, I done lost my job. What am I to do? I done lost everything.” Asbury received notification that she was being dismissed from her position earlier on in the month, on October 10^th to be exact.

She received news of the dismissal because a man walked past her on the cashier she was working at in the Stanford Dining Hall without paying. Miss Betty says that she does not think the man was a student at all and that instead, he is working at the BankUnited Center. Chartwells is the company in charge of the vast majority of the food services for the University of Miami and they are the company that employed Betty Asbury, a single mom, several years ago.

Asbury, who has fifteen years of experience working behind a cashier, says that she did not notice that the man walked directly past her because at that very moment, she had been ringing a customer up and that same customer walked in with the man who walked past her register. When a supervisor and a manager confronted her in the office, she let them know that she clearly made a mistake.

Asbury said, “I said, ‘You know, I apologize. It was a human mistake and I overlooked someone who went through without paying. I really love my job, and I want to keep my job – write me up and I’ll make sure it won’t happen again.” The entry to receive breakfast would have only cost the man who walked past the register a total of $6.80.

Asbury says that she never received a write up in the past and that she received positive evaluations whenever she was evaluated for her position at the Hecht/Stanford Dining Hall in the past. Even her pay was increased for her good work and commitment, as she was now receiving $9.58 an hour as of August. The pay increase for her good performance was something Asbury was appreciative of, even though she still needs two of her paychecks to afford her monthly mortgage payments.

A senior at the university, Dylan Beasley, defended Miss Betty and said, “Just last week, another worker told me that the University of Miami is a beautiful place and it should be treated as such by all the employers and employees.” He also said, “Miss Betty was one of the reasons why this campus was beautiful, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students can attest to that.”