The Stetson Reporter

''!. ' Florida's Odkst Coikgiate fkfempayer JLjCofbit icmii ibi? %?'>" C&xg ill rl ro f nl ''oil liln.C }^tfym%m icfoimilJlfrilfn.^ iclnic; IiTfta if I fees "* (fed ( %>ffe;1T^ofiXe{c (dp ttlnxc" %gf 0®o ftflf !#?C!^ft©l |il||fe/ffMft' liMUiMk ffe<e %4kmm jiiow. l^mjH.ffl'inltYf THE Cult linked to nerve gas attacks in Japan TOKYO (Reuters) - About 20,000 Japanese police were mobilized in Tokyo after the leader of a doomsday cult linked to subway nerve gas attacks last month warned of a more horrifying disaster that would hit Saturday. But there were no reports of what could be described as a "disaster," a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said.5 Police units, with some personnel in bulletproof vests, spread through the city of 12 million people to "contain" possible terrorist attacks, police said. Biological warfare experts were on standby. Shoko Asahara, the leader of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect), prophesied that Saturday would bring a catastrophe to Tokyo worse than the earthquake in Kobe in January. As police helicopters circled the capital, police tightened security on public transport, department stores and stadiums while making spot cheeks on cars. ■ Rumors that drinking water could be poisoned by lethal chemicals prompted some nervous residents to rush to convenience stores for bottles of water. Guards were on duty at major subway stations, while loudspeakers warned passengers not to touch any suspicious packages left on trains or at stations. In a sign of nervousness gripping the country, two major shopping centers closed in response to Asahara's apocalyptic prediction. - In more than three weeks of daily raids on the sect's sprawling complex at the foot of Mount Fuji west of Tokyo, police have confiscated hundreds of tons of chemicals, including all the ingredients of the nerve gas sarin. Police said they had arrested more than 100 sect members since the subway attack, on charges including abduction, illegal confinement and traffic offenses. ButJhey have not openly linked the group to the subway attack, which killed 11 people and injured more than 5,000. The sect has denied any connection with the subway attack or the March 30 shooting of the national police chief. Train collides with bus in Egypt, killing 45 QUWEISNA, Egypt (Reuters) - A mainline train smashed into a bus packed with textile workers on their way to a Nile Delta factory Saturday, killing at least 44 people and injuring 45, a police general said. "It was horrible. The bus started moving and for the next few seconds all I saw was my friends scattered all over the line," said Ghada Mohamed, 25, on of the survivors. - ■ . Police Maj. Gen. Mohamed Khidr, assistant interior minister for the central Delta region, told reporters that the 44 confirmed dead included at least eight traveling on the roof of the train — a common practice in Egypt. The bus belonged to the Misr Menoufia Spinning and Weaving Co. and had collected workers from the nearby town of Shibin al-Koum to take them to the factory in Quweisna. Smaller accidents at level crossings are frequent in Egypt. ; Colditz commemorates castle liberation COLDITZ, Germany (Reuters) - Colditz commemorated Saturday the 50th anniversary of the liberation of its castle, famed for its escape-happy Allied officers, but also recalled the horrors of a Nazi labor camp nearby. Mayor Manfred Heinz unveiled a memorial stone in the Niklolai Church cemetery to mark the mass grave of slave workers at a satellite of the Nazis' notorious Buchenwald camp. "Colditz Castle was not the worst place in the town during the war," Heinz said. "Hungarians, Romanians, Poles and Russians were murdered in the slave labor camp." War veterans from the United States, Britain, France and the Netherlands laid wreaths at the plaque — the town's first memorial to the slave laborers. Only one Allied veteran of the castle, retired Capt. Thomas Elliott, now 78, attended the commemoration. Elliott, using a telescope he'd made himself, was the first to spot U.S. tanks approaching the town April 16,1945. As with other Allied officers, Elliott had escaped from several Nazi prison camps before finally being sent to Colditz, an allegedly escape-proof "Sonderlager" or special camp for high-ranking officers and multiple-escapers. In the event, the 16th century castle on a cliff overlooking the town, proved secure but not impenetrable. In some 300 escape attempts, 31 officers got out. -..',' The concentration camp held about 1,000 prisoners, including some 450 Jews, who worked in an arms factory and a sandpit. iGA bends rules in an attempt to downsize Davina Yetter - The Stetson Reporter_ A motion to suspend the rules of the Student Government Association constitution- in order to downsize the senate was attempted at an April 3 meeting, according to SGA officials. The violation of the constitution was proposed in the hopes of "pushing through" an amendment to eliminate the positions of all organization representatives at the Monday night assembly, said one senator. • The motion proposed suspending the procedures stated in the constitution regarding amendments. The action would have allowed SGA to pass the debated amendment at the April 11 meeting without publicizing the change to the senators' constituents. ' The recommendation, which SGA President Mike Holbein required unanimous consent to pass, was opposed by between one to five senators, according to various- sources, of the 35 senators .in attendance. The vote was made by a voice vote; the results were not recorded. . The motion was offered during the open discussion of the senate meeting, which was not operated under normal parliamentary procedure rules..SGA Advisor Nancy Jones said that motions are not normally made during open discussions. - ' Holbein stated that "nobody needs to know about it; it didn't pass anyways." "If the motion passed, I would have made a comment," said Jones, "but I had an underlying instinct that there was no consensus, and I didn't think they would vote without thinking it through." The action resulted from discussion of the amount of "dead weight" of the senate, according to Senator David Gould, who dissented the motion. Although the senator agreed that some changes needed to be made, he said he believes that "you can't just fool around with the constitution like that." One debated suggestion was proposed by Holbein, who oversaw the discussion. It proposed a senate . consisting of two senators per residence hall, one representative for each class, two Greek housing senators, and five commuter representatives. "The senate is too large and inefficient," stated Holbein. The proposed downsizing could reduce the senate's capacity by over 75 percent. Other suggestions included dropping the requirement for orga nizations to have a senator in order to receive SAFAC funding and having three organization representatives total. No consensus was reached as far as which plan to endorse. The motion to downsize SGA was favored by Rachel Ward, president-elect of SGA. "It adds prestige to the position, and ifs much clearer about who's on senate." Ward plans to pursue the motion next year. The proceedings were not halted for their unconstitutional procedures. SGA had not had a parliamentarian, responsible for ensuring constitutional practice, in the last two years, according to Andy Whittaker, SGA vice president and president of the senate. SGA passed several amendments during a retreat two years ago without following constitutional procedures in order to expedite the process, according to Jones. SGA election results announced Student government elections were last week and the 1995-96 president and vice president were elected. Rachel Ward was elected president for next year and Lindsey Brown was voted vice president in the elections held last Wednesday. A total of 431 students voted in the election. The final result was 330 to 101 in Ward's and Brown's favor. The pair will assume office at the beginning of the 1995-96 academic year. New recycling program, planned David Young The Stetson Reporter^ ilPiillili^ Photo by Nancy Brill Members of Religious Life Council re-enacted the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in front of Hulley Tower this week. Following an unsuccessful recycling program begun this past year, a new program is now being organized, campus officials announced. The program used this past year, called commingling, resulted in excessive costs to the university and the dumping of recyclable goods in area landfills, according to Facilities Management (formerly known as Physical Plant). In order to comply with county recycling ordinances, arrangements are currently being made to establish a new. campus recycling program, Manager of Campus Services David Rigsby said in an interview last week. For the new program, cardboard would continue to be re-, cycled, and trash containers would be placed in residence halls, offices and other campus buildings to collect aluminum cans and paper products, said Recycling Supervisor Norm Pryor. Facilities Management hopes "to have everything in place, and to be hauling recycled goods" by June, Pryor said. In the commingling program, which began last spring, various types of recyclable items were to be hauled together to a recycling center in Orlando, where they would be sorted into groups by hand, Pryor said. However, Pryor added, if the recycling center found the items to be "contaminated"--containing, or be- < ing covered by, excessive amounts of food or other urtrecyclable materials- -then it refused to accept the items for recycling, and they then had to be hauled to a landfill. Rigsby said of the recyclable items sent from Stetson that "every load was being turned down." As a result, the hauling fee of $117 per load,'plus $25 per ton hauled, would have to be paid twice, once to transport the items to the recycling center and once to haul them, to a landfill, Rigsby said. Pryor said that Facilities Management had not expected so many unrecyclable items to be thrown away with recyclable ones; particularly in dormitories. "But we found out...a fof of people were taking food back in the dorm, and that was contaminating [recyclable items]," Pryor said. For the new program, two new companies, Browning and Ferris Industries and Southeast Recycling Corporation, will handle hauling and recycling duties, respectively, according, to the officials. BFI representatives recently "did a walk-through of various dorms, office buildings, classrooms...most of the places that generate waste" in order to determine which recyclable goods should be included in the new program, Pryor said. ! Cardboard, paper, and aluminum were selected for recycling because "those are the most generated," and because they are easier to sort than plastic goods, Pryor said. He said it RECYCLING cont. on page 2 Weapons found during search -at Smith Hall Rooms in Smith HaU were opened to the "plain view" of public safety officers during Spring Break. Two students living in the Upper Eight section found items that violated Stetson regulations missing from their rooms after Captain Jose Mercado of Public Safety confiscated them during a room search., . . A Buck knife and iwo Stetson road cones Captain Mercado described as being in "plain view" were first reported by a. Public Safety Officer who found them on 'March 11 during a routine hallway security check. ' ■ ' Subsequent communication between Residential Life and Public Safety prompted approval for Mercado to conduct a search of the rooms of residents Ryan Bennett and Ryan Stefanski for the items on March 15. Bennett and Stefanski were accused by Public Safety of leaving their doors unlocked. However, both hall mates recalled locking their doors before leaving on March 10. • Commenting on the warning he received from Residential Life following the room search, Bennett said, "Basically I was just angry because it [the knife] was not in plain view." He added that "it obviously was not [in plain view] if my door was closed and locked." . _ —* Freshman Ryan Stefanski, who questioned the discovery of orange road cones that rested on his bedpost partially covered by a jacket added, "It just does not really feel right that they would,come in here when we are not around and just look around for anything." Head Resident Renee Parker attributed the misunderstanding to the contractors who opened all rooms in upper eight in the process of re-carpeting the hallway: "They closed the doors at the end of the day and did not check to see if they were locked," she said. Director of Residential Life and Judicial Affairs Dave Bergen denied having any prior knowledge of a room search conducted in Smith Hall or of any articles confiscated, but he acknowledged that "all of the rooms were opened in Upper Eight in order for them to lay the carpet- Residents of Smith Hall had no recourse against room entry because- those students gave up their renter's rights provided by laws in the State of Florida after signing the 1994-95 Housing Agreement, according to Stetson business professor and former attorney Richard Pearce. Unlike a rental agreement, the contract produced by Residential Life was described by Pearce "as. some sort of agreement to let you use their housing; Then it is not a rental situation, and-they have a. right to set up rules and regulations by which you will live under their housing agreement." Connections, the Campus Life Handbook for 1994-95, contains a six line entry concerning room entry that states, "Members of Residen tial and Student Life staffs reserve the right to enter a student's room if there is reasonable cause to believe the safety and/or welfare of the occupant(s) or physical property of the University is in jeopardy/' Captain Mercado stated, "The items were in plain view and I confiscated them ." When asked if any university guidelines existed for securing a closed, unlocked door when the resident was not present, he answered, "Officers assure the room is secure." - Justifying the explanation of procedures listed in the handbook regarding weapons and room entry as being adequate, Bergen said, "Nobody can expect a handbook to be all specific to everything, because if so the handbook would read like Webster's Dictionary, it would be . three inches thick." Pearce explained that Residential Life exerdsed their right "to maintain SEARCH cont. on page 2