The Stetson Reporter

Florida's Oddest CotkgiaU fhfewspaper ]jijtej|J|c \'',-j)]|tl)i\1jlSf». iB/jV^ifcSlmil '2 > (i i>][))]] s{ii)f£:i yo)jj.;y3:iliioi'm ; .- - > It i' i:%m^m - io1f(Ol3|JteT(.8 !\! Split \y !/{(,€' - ( ', - # IJffiliuTtJVfTsB'ii.yJ; d.lll :ao^t\ucVf HIBf^ljivJ. , y o Ixffeiij^cff iNli lift" ■' ifef%%!iB Iii1\^i?rfif PMUsxIr, M|offiib \\ ¥'{oiMwo);c'' "i^yji Q FNlititrnlI ten j((fr r THE AVORLD Tanker runs aground, spills oil New York (Reuters)- The Mormac Star, a tanker loaded with Jet A fuel and #2 fuel oil, ran aground in the Atlantic Ocean about two miles from Sandy .Hook Beach, NJ, and the US Coast Guard officials said a spill had occurred. The tanker was allegedly carrying 112,000 barrels of jet fuel and 135,000 barrels of fuel oil. The Coast Guard said the contents of the leaking tanker would be transferred to a barge. The response vessel Guardian, the Coast Guard cutter Hawser, two rescue boats and a helicopter equipped with infrared radar were also on fhe scene to assist with the cleanup and rescue. Senate weighs Social Security plan Washington (Reuters)- The Senate has voted to develop proposals to shield Social Security from spending cuts under a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, as a key Democrat announced his support for the budget balance. Montana Democrat Max Baucus switched his position and said Friday he would vote for the amendment, bringing supporters within striking distance of the two-thirds majority they need to pass the plan and send it to the states for ratification. "I will support this amendment to the Constitution, but I will also try to improve it because in three critical areas I believe it falls short," Baucus said. Earlier Friday the Senate voted 87-10 to approve an amendment by Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas sending the amendment back to the Budget Committee so lawmakers can develop a nonbind- ing plan to eliminate the deficit without cutting Social Security payments or increasing taxes. Talks try to revive Mideast peace Washington (Reuters)- Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the PLO met in Washington Sunday to try to revive Middle East peace hopes amid a series of unresolved disputes that have brought progress to a standstill. . US officials hosting the one-day meeting conceded that the peace process is in trouble after a string of bloody guerrilla attacks on Israel that have led Israel to close its borders to Palestine and toughen its line in the autonomy talks. But they hope the parties will come up with new ideas and reaffirm their determination that the "enemies of peace"~meaning the Muslim guerrillas behind the attack-will not prevail. "This is a difficult period; it's a period of some stress; we always knew there would be ups and downs, and the challenge is to work through it," one official said. Although the meeting is at foreign ministers level, President Clinton will attend the start of it in a demonstration of his stake in the process that has seen dramatic advances during his presidency. The meeting, to be chaired by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, is meant to give substance to declarations of intent to work for peace that emerged from a Cairo summit Feb. 2 which brought together the leaders of the same, four parties. Israel and the PLO are trying to agree on a re- Shuttle back home Cape Canaveral, FL (Reuters)- Five astronauts and a cosmonaut landed in Florida aboard the US shuttle Discovery Saturday after eight historic days off the planet on a mission to rendezvous with Russia's space station Mr. Shuttle commander James Wetherbee, a US Navy aviator, brought Discovery down at 6:30 a.m. EST at Kennedy Space Center. Eileen Collins, the first woman shuttle pilot, was not at the controls because it is NASA's policy to have mission com- ..v. ^JLIUIUVT. Discovery and its crew—including veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Titov- were returning from what NASA described as one of the most demanding of all 67 shuttle missions to date. The flight began to merge the human space programs of the United Sates and Russia; it set the stage for future shuttles to dock at Mir to deliver passenger and equipment. Seven such missions are planned before late 1997, when the two nations aim to begin building a new $40 billion space station, with the help of Canada, Europe, and Japan. The highlight of Discovery's flight was a close encounter with the Russian space station on Monday. It also includes the first spacewalk by an African American. Financial aid u Davina Yetter Stetson Reporter- Federal financial aid has been chosen as a target for budget cuts in Congress, Stetson administrators announced last week. Campus-based student programs and interest-exempt loans would be hardest hit if the proposed cuts were to take effect Over 65 percent of Stetson students receive federal aid, and if these changes are implemented, the cost of education for students could increase an estimated 15 to 50 percent. Campus-based programs include College Work Study and Perkins Loans, which Stetson applies for and contributes to. The funding for these programs would be drastically cut, and part of the money would be reappropriated into Pell Grant programs, according to Jackie Kersh, executive director of public relations. In addition, interest-exempt loans, such as Stafford and Federal Family Education Loans, would no longer by subsidized by the government. Jack Agett, director of student financial planning, figured that the cumulative consequences of these changes could amount to a loss of nearly $20 billion over the next five years for needy college students. Approximately 65 percent of all Stetson students receive federal financial aid. The concern about these changes originated from comments made by Newt Gingrich, speaker of the house, at a meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, attended by President Douglas Lee and Chancellor Pope Duncan. Duncan explained that talk of eliminating the interest subsidy on loans was not unexpected, but proposal to reduce" campus-based programs came as a surprise to many of the university presidents at the meeting. Gingrich claimed that Pell Grant recipients should have to "do more than breathe" to receive federal funding. Upon returning from the NAICU meeting, Lee and Duncan joined forces with other universities in taking measures to. fight this method of thought. The Alliance to Save Student Aid, organized by the NAICU, has developed a plan for colleges and universities to follow in the hopes of fighting the system. ASSAhasset see FINANCIAL AID, pg 2 one glitch causes major problems Mike Demko The Stetson Reporter. AT&T has been having some sort of technical problem with their international phone service on Stetson's campus. For the past 13 months, any Stetson students who made calls outside of the country were not charged for those calls.; Having found the problem, AT&T now wishes to back-bill those students for the calls that were not previously billed. AT&T normally bills Stetson stu- > dents through a collection service called ACUS. When a long distance; phone call is made, it is processed through AT&T. The data is sent .to ACUS, which in turn sends Out bills to the students. In this particular case, when an international call was made, the data was processed, but never reached the ACUS service to be billed. Therefore, the students never saw the calls on their bills. ' The District Manager for Public Relations for AT&T, Randy Berridge, could not state the specific nature of the problem because of the delicate nature of the situation between AT&T and the students. As of now, the two parties have not been able to come to an agreeable compromise. However, Mr. Berridge was confident that an agreement fair to AT&T as well as the students involved would be reached. He stated, "That work is going on right now> between AT&T and members of the administration there at [Stetson]. At this point, it's not certain whether those negotiations will take a couple of more days or a couple of more weeks." Dave Gould, the resident assis tant at the Foreign Language House, held a meeting with his residents in October to express his concern with the possibility of AT&T taking action against any resident taking advantage of the international phone service. Although he feels a kinship with his residents, Gould feels that "it's not an RA's responsibility to dictate how people use the phones. RA's should be aware of things, but we're just not in a position to dictate how residents use different facilities." He stated that the lack of billing became widely known over the course of the fall se- ... mester. ,, - A few students involved, who wish to remain anonymous, expressed their views on the situation. One student recollected that "during the first two days we were here, I signed a contract with AT&T. Basically the instructions were, you have a credit limit of $150 a month. If you go over that, AT&T would cut off the , lines." Another stated that "the limit was there to protect us. [AT&T] was supposed to come and tell us what was going on. On the contrary, all of a sudden, they act like it's our fault for their technical difficulties." Both students-admitted to taking advantage of the problem. But most of the students involved feel that their charges for the problematic period should be paid at the rate of $150 per month, in accordance with the agreement signed at the beginning of the year. Stetson administrators seek an equitable compromise that will be agreeable to both parties, which may be possible if both sides meet and discuss the situation. |§|§|onefBa^ §t|:|§:l^ Mtijg;^ |l|@ftje|:^ ^Stetson Room EI . iMM|Slfl|i|N|iMi|H#|| photo by Sean Richter Shane Cadden and Dana Faircloth receive their crowns after being named god and goddess of the fourth annual Residential Life Formal Saturday at the DeLand Holiday Inn. lish orof essors Morris, Gillespie retire % «* Kelly Guldi Stetson Reporter- photo by Steve Nicks Dr. Brian Gillespie announced his retirement from the English department. Dr. Morris could not be reached for a photograph. When I recently asked Dr. Brian Gillespie what he would say if given the opportunity to address the youth of today, he responded, "Take responsibility for your own education. Your teachers can't teach you anything; you have to learn it." i have taken to heart the advice that Dr. Gillespie, who retires this year after thirty years at Stetson, gave me. I took the opportunity to learn from what he and another retiring English professor, Dr. Ann Morris, have to say. They confirm what I have long suspected, that the information and skills we acquire in our classes are only a portion of the educational experience. Extracurricular and social activities can, of course, compliment academic studies, but there is much to be learned from those who have lived through the changes that shaped our world into what it is today. I have chosen, as Dr. Gillespie said, to take full responsibility for my own education. Since they both ended up as professors of English, it is not sur- prising that both Dr, Gillespie and Dr. Morris inherited a love of books and reading at an early age. "One of the happy things about childhood," Dr. Gillespie told me, "was that I had a grandmother who lived with me, who read to me, and I think that was important—to have an acquaintance with books even before you're able to read yourself." Dr. Morris "read all the time," she says. Morris' mother, an English teacher, gave her a love of books and art. Each of the professors grew up in a world that was, as Dr. Gillespiesaid, "a lot more limited in many ways...a lot more simple." Books were part of this simplicity. Today we have more technologically advanced ways of writ ing and communicating. Dr. Morris discussed a book she and Maggie Dunn, an instructor at UCF, recently published called The Composite Novel: The Short Story Cyde in Transition. She. mentions the Internet as a way of illustrating the idea of composite books (literary works composed of shorter texts). The Internet is an example of many different writers contributing to an activity that is social and literary. The model of the Internet provided a basis for Dr. Morris' description of some of the changes.our culture has experienced in her lifetime. An impor- . tant one is the shift from hierarchical to cooperative decision making. - "People are recognizing a tremendous need to work together," said Dr. Morris, total- quality management, an industry buzz word today, is an idea see RETIRE, pg 10