The Stetson Reporter

mmmmmmm&smmmHT. '^m$^M&!&^£W&^ the reporter | We have created this special section for real content and advertisements in order to clearly distinguish them from the parody content of the first two sections of the paper. This special supplement section contains real news, features, and letters to the editor. Additionally, the advertisements that appear in this section are real, paid advertisements. We hope you enjoyed 'The Reporter's' annual lampoon edition. wed 31 mar°99 issue21 volume 111 New Res life asst. director to start in May by julie gowan | With the resignation of Lynne Gentile occurring early in the year and Nicole Kotlan leaving at the closing of the academic year, Residential Life has been looking for replacements for these now-open positions. Michaelle Finch, who is currently serving as an Area Coordinator at the University of South Florida — where she has been since 1996 — has been hired in a position that combines both Gentile's and Kotlan's positions. "Michaelle's position is titled 'assistant director of Residential Life/coordinator of Summer Conferences.' Since Gentile left Stetson, that staff position has remained vacant," said Michelle Espinosa, director of Residential Life. "While Michaelle's particular responsibilities will be different than Gentile's, she is essentially filling that particular vacancy. Her position is what in Res Life lingo is called a iive-off position." She will not live on campus and will not directly supervise any particular residence hall area or staff. Michaelle is scheduled to begin work at Stetson during the week of May 10. A definite date is still to be determined, as she is committed to her obligations at USF through the end of the academic year there. In searching „, — for someone for the „. starting her position in EKsS.":" the midd!e of May, Finch ent avenues to ad- w will assume primary vertise the va- uj responsibility for the cancy. ec management of the The position summer conference was posted m late ,.,.,.*. January through Program at Stetson. - Human Resources, _„_„ _...».„ in the Orlando Sentinel, and the Daytona Beach News-Journal. 1 also made colleagues aware of it through a network of housing officers in the state of Florida," said Espinosa. Five candidates were interviewed in addition to Finch. Student staff members and current hall directors were involved in the interview process even though she will not directly supervise student employees. "Michaelle will work closely with the 'operations' side of Residential Life (assignments, facilities, publications, and conferences) and as such will need to interact often with hall directors and RAs," said Espinosa. Espinosa said that student staff input is valuable to both Stetson's decision-making regarding a candidate and to the candidates, who are essentially interviewing Stetson at the same time. Finch participated in a full day of interviews with various Stetson community members. This included the Residential Life staff, Student Life, the Counseling Center, Career Services, Health Services, Facilities Management, and Public Safety staff. Student staff members and Vice President for Campus Life Jim Beasley were at the interviews as well. "Ultimately, Michaelle was chosen for her experience and familiarity with the area of Residential Life and the professional contributions," said Espinosa. Finch has served as an area coordinator at USF for three years, supervising a residence hall area of approximately 900 students. Prior to working for USF, Finch served as a residence hall director at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Mich, from 1992 to 1996. While in graduate school at the University of Toledo, Finch served as an assistant hall director for two years. Additionally, Michaelle has experience in summer conference programs both at Central Michigan University and in her current position at USF. Starting her position in the middle of May, Finch will assume primary responsibility for the management of the summer conference program at Stetson. This includes networking with potential conference client groups throughout the year, selecting/training/supervising summer conference staff, and coordinating the summer conference schedule with Facilities Management to address maintenance priorities in the residence halls. It is in Espinosa's hopes that Michaelle will stay with Stetson as the campus moves through the refurbishing of the residence halls and undergo the conversion process to the SCT Banner Software system which is taking place across campus. Julie Gowan is the News editor of 'The Reporter. I other COLLEGES I erin by emily eisenhauer | Last week, an audience of mostly older community members, including some Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors, was taken back to the days of the concentration camps through the reflections of "Madame F," Fania Fenelon, a musician with the Women's Orchestra at Auschwitz until her deportation to Bergen Belsen. The emotionally intense performance, a unique combination of acting, singing, piano playing, and recorded music, caused audience members to ask questions like "how could this [the Holocaust] ever have happened?" Claudia Stevens, playing the part of Madame F in the one-woman show, is the daughter of a holocaust survivor. As a musician she found a subject close to home in the strong-willed Madame F, who was forced to play music for the entertainment of her Nazi captors. Through the performance she relives the painful experiences in the camps, playing and singing the songs she performed for her Nazi captors, experiencing the ridicule of other prisoners who called her a traitor, and searching for meaning in her fight to stay alive. To the question of how one can play for murderers, Madame F answered "I use my advantage to escape death. Today we use it for success or money." Finally exhausted, she declares, "My life has no meaning; my talent has spent itself," but just after rescue by the British, near death, sings "It is not living that matters — it is singing and living, living by singing." This line could be a sort of credo for Stevens, who is very serious about her art. I had the opportunity to talk with Claudia Stevens further as she was winding down after the performance that "still terrifies [her]." A definite artist; thoughtful, well-spoken, practiced, and quite unlike the female-Albert Einstein-like persona of her character, she very graciously shared with me her thoughts on her art. EI: Tell me about the interdisciplinary nature of your work. CS; I've been interested in how music and speech are analogues for each other — they can do similar things syntactically apart from the expressive aspect. Music has its own syntax, like a language. My performance is based on my abilities; my background is a pianist, but it wasn't quite enough to fulfil my musical ability. I wanted to sing. So I had to create a repertoire that would justify that. There's a reason for singing and playing in the meaning of this piece itself. You can tell a story of extreme versatility — tell it by doing it. Are piano, singing, and acting equal players in your performance? Whenever you combine language with music, music is always relegated to the background, because speech-words are what we recognize most particularly. Some say that the visual is the most important — I don't know. WITH Claudia Stevens talks about the creation of and reaction to her one-woman9 Holocaust-focused show that'still terrifies'even her. To me the word is the most important, the piano is the bedrock. The visual is an outgrowth of speaking those words and sounds. I don't really practice acting—I practice coordinating playing, speaking, and singing. The character arose spontaneously. You obviously feel strongly about this subject [the Holocaust] —I'd like to know your thoughts about art as activism. Was is the art which determined the subject, or did the subject prompt you to create this art? That's hard to determine...! don't think that art really has a particular message or didactic purpose necessarily — it's mostly about itself. It can't really be about freedom, about resistance to oppression. If you want to resist oppression you make a sign. Music is about It's own structures and substances and the way they relate to each other. The feelings you have are byproducts of that. I'm always very skeptical of art that sets out to be political. It has to be its own message or it's not art. Are there any reactions to your performance by individuals or entire audiences that stick out in your memory? I remember individuals who come up to me afterwards and say, "How did you know it was like that?" They feel as if I've gotten to the heart of something. That's particularly gratifying. But more often than not, these are people who respond to the artistic aspect- otherwise, why not just see a documentary? I believe that by showing a small section of this huge catastrophe it's possible to understand at least something. No one can really understand all the horror. Emily Eisenhauer is a senior majoring in life. "I don't think that art really has a particular message or didactic purpose necessarily — it's mostly about itself. It can't really be about freedom, about resistance to oppression." — Claudia Stevens University of Florida student arrested for intentionally spreading HIV BY LAWRENCE WISE (U-WIRE) | Why? Just days after one of its members was arrested, U of Florida at Gainesville's gay community is faced with that question. Why, gay men and women are asking in shocked tones, would someone intentionally spread the HIV virus? And why didn't his partners insist on practicing safe sex? Police on Thursday arrested UF engineering graduate student Dwayne William Cole, 26, 519 NW 13th Terrace, after a man told police Cole had sex with him without revealing his HIV status, Gainesville police spokesman Lt. Peter Backhaus said. "When anybody does this, all I can think of is 'Why?'" said UF business administration junior Pablo De La Llama, a former officer of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Student Union. "Now we have to find out who's been affected and who's been infected." Florida law states it is illegal for HIV-positive people to not inform their sex partners about their condition. Multiple violations amount to a first-degree felony. Police believe Cole, released Friday on a $25,000 bond, slept with at least 13 people without telling them about his HIV status. Cole, an employee in UF's College of Health Related Professions, told police he had sex with more than 13 people after finding out he is HIV positive, and that many of the encounters were unprotected. The implications of those actions are scaring area leaders in the fight to help people dying of AIDS and prevent its spread. "We're 20 years into this epidemic and' 13 people went to bed with him without protecting themselves," said Michael Kubisek, director of the Gainesville Area AIDS program, anger evident in the voice of a man who has buried 66 of his friends in the last 18 years because of the virus. "They think that they're invincible and that they're not going to get it." Cole's victim, an adult male, told police he had oral and anal sex with Cole before finding out Cole is HIV positive. Gainesville attorney George Schaefer, who has defended homosexual victims of hate crimes, said there have been local cases in which the State Attorney's Office added the charge of spreading HIV onto other charges. But he could not recall any cases of a person arrested on the single charge of intentionally spreading HIV. The younger gay community is reaching out to its members, some of whom already have expressed fear that they or their partners may have a sexual connection to Cole, who did not return phone calls. "Right now, we're not really reacting to what he did. We're reacting to the needs of the community," LGBSU spokeswoman Sarah Clarke said. "We're trying to get the help (students) need — whether it is free, anonymous testing, or counseling." Chris Darling, manager of the gay-owned and operated University Club, 18 E. University Ave., said many of his patrons have been discussing Cole and the charges. "HIV is everywhere. Maybe it was seen like that in the beginning, but it is not anymore," Darling said. Lawrence Wise writes for the Independent Florida Alligator at the University of Florida.