The Reporter

Wednesday, January 14, 1998 r> FORUM; Unacademic sex majors are cause for concern. Column, 4 a Volume 110, Issue 14 2-3a 4a" i .5a;; j 6a i ii#|y* http://the-reporter.home.ml.org Titanic raises questions about fact versus fiction in film. Life, page 5a Stetson University, DeLand, Florida If there is one thing that can be said about fall 1997 with absolute certainty, it's that this university was an interesting place to be. News happened. All over the place. One of my initial fears was that our writing staff—students enrolled at a relatively small university in a small town—would have to do a great deal of searching for news. The news, I must say, did a pretty good job of coming to us,. This semester was filled with the usual employee resignations, announcements about the university's standing in U.S. News and World Report, investigations into scholarship scams and telephone services, updates about the capital improvements recently made to the university, and typical stories covering Greenfeather and rush. The semester was also filled with unusual events: the resignation of the vice president of business and finance, a surprise decision to move a fraternity into the lower half of Nemec Epsilon, attempted mari- juana sales in Smith Hall, and The Reporter's decision to'print a highly controversial letter by a racist. Here's a recapitulation of the events By JEFF HAMRICK Photos by Paul Davis which affected our lives at this university over the past semester. . Enjoy.it. And prepare for anothor eemes- — ter of hard-core, in-your-face, truth-seeking news coverage from the all-new Reporter. Points of departure Numerous professional staff members announced their retirements or resignations this semester. In fact, at times students wondered if there was a conspiring group of employees waiting to make a mass exodus from the university. Al Wehrle announced his retirement from his second career as the university registrar. Employed here since 1977, Wehrle's biggest complaint about his job was the fact that he has no office window. Wehrle plans on "slow[ing] down a little bit" after retiring, playing golf, fishing, and spending time with his grandchildren. Anita Beck, the executive secretary of Vice President for Campus Life and Enrollment Management James Beasley, announced her retirement last month. Beck has served as Beasley's executive secretary for over seven years and now plans to volunteer for seven months in the forest service of North Carolina. Called "faithful" and "loyal" by Beasley, Beck said she intends to dedicate the rest of her life to volunteerism. Gary Maris, Dean ofthe College of Arts and Sciences, announced that he would step down after serving in the position for the past twelve years. Maris will retain his teaching position after taking a sabbatical in the fall of 1999. The recipient of a McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching said that his departure would create "a good opportunity to revisit a lot of questions and to raise new questions." Former Assistant Director of Residential Life Michael Almeida resigned as well, recreating a pervasive employment vacuum in the department of residential life which had existed there until the hiring of Aurelio Valente. Almeida left to begin employment with the Walt Disney Company, where he is now gaining management experience for a career which shall eventually include "both college students and Disney." The resignation of Ann Y. Graham, former vice president of business and finance, set off a series of shock waves at the beginning of October. Graham said that she was leaving to explore new employment opportunities. Many believe that the former Tupperware employee was encouraged to resign in the wake of her controversial "restructuring" of the university's business and finance department. This "restructuring" involved the firing of several employees at the end of the spring 1997 semester. See YEAR, page 3a Change0 The building, which houses wellness facilities and Student Life offices, will open on Jan. 20. By JEFF HAMRICK News Editor The Hollis Center, the university's highly touted mental, spiritual, and physical wellness facility, did not open immediately upon the arrival of students after the break, as originally planned. Instead, the center will open on Jan. 20 amidst opening ceremonies and fanfare. According to the DeLand Department of Building and Inspections, the Hollis Center has not yet received its certificate of occupancy, which signals final approval ofthe facility. It does have a temporary c.o., however, which permits usage by Student Life staff, according to David Noyes, director of facilities management. Final approval is expected this week. He said "there are no delays" from a construction standpoint. Because of the arrival of the basketball backstops and the laying of the floor, Noyes thought it best "to wail until after Martin Luther King Day" next Monday. "We could have occupied the building [Monday] if we had pressed," but officials saw no real need, he said. The movement of office materials and equipment was delayed by poor weather over the break, according to Darald Stubbs, the director of student life and the Hollis Center. "The gym floor had to be cured in a very specific humidity and the weather prevented that," Stubbs said. StudentLife staff began moving from the Carlton Union Building to the Hollis Center over the break. Weather was also to blame to difficulties in moving the office ofthe registrar to the old student lounge over the winter break. Nearly 65 students will staff the center. Stubbs said that 'The game rooms will be run by attendants, there will be juice bar attendants, aerobic and fitness instructors, life guards, and our usual work study students who now have a workroom." Some of the new student employees of the Hollis Center will be paid through work- study programs and others are cash labor workers. Stubbs said that "every student will be first-aid certified, and the fitness and aerobics instructors will be both CPR and first-aid certified." Student workers arrived early to be trained. In the future, he said, student employees at the Hollis Center would return two days early to acclimate to the facilities and become aware ofthe day-to-day operation of the building. The center was largely made possible due to donations from Mark and Lynn Hollis. Stubbs said that "with just occupying the administrative unit, we have not run into any problems yet" with the operation of the new facility. "CIT has gotten our computers up and running. The major problem is that we have just not had the time to do all of the things we wanted to do." Stubbs said that the facilities were "build to meet the needs of college students" and that the building has so far been "free of any type of failures of malfunctions." "The building has a real classy feel to it," Stubbs said. "We are excited about the grand opening on the 20th, which will just be for the Stetson community." Stubbs noted that identification cards will be required to gain access to the facilities. "That mainly to maintain the integrity ofthe facilities for the community. We just want to make sure that all ofthe students who want to use the facilities can." "I think that once the building opens up students will be thoroughly, just thoroughly impressed," said Stubbs. "We cannot wait to share these opportunities with the students." Books, books, and more books THE BOOKSTORE: Students search among thousands of books for the right picks last Sunday. The university bookstore has altered its hours to meet student demand at the beginning of this semester. Photo by PAUL DAVIS n © By THE EDITORIAL BOARD of The Reporter On Nov. 19, The Reporter published a letter sent to us by a man in Pennsylvania. The letter contained racist, offensive and anti- Semitic remarks. After serious consideration the editorial board, composed of the senior staff of The Reporter, decided to print the letter. We based our decision on the following ideas. First, we recognize his right of free speech. No matter how inflammatory or offensive his speech is, he has the right to express his ideas under the principles of the first amendment. It is not The Reporter's policy to consider materials for our Forum section on the basis of the opinion expressed therein. We unequivocally believe in uncensored speech and we consider only the legal implications of opinions expressed within our Forum pages. While the letter's contents are certainly considered hate speech, we believe, in the words of the American Civil Liberties Union, that "speech that deeply offends our morality or is hostile to our way of life warrants the same ...protection as other speech because the right of free speech is indivisible: When one of us is denied this right, all of us are denied. Where racist, sexist and homophobic speech is concerned, the ACLU believes that more speech —not less—is the hest revenge. This is particularly true at universities, whose mission is to facilitate learning through open debate and study, and to en lighten." Second, many members of the Stetson community come from or are in privileged positions which do not require them to recognize racism or think about discrimination on a daily basis. Others, certainly, have experienced racism all their lives. We thought that the letter would be revealing for members of the former group—those people who think racism is little more than myth. We also hoped that the letter would generate dialogue in the newspaper and in the community about racism and religious prejudice. While multicultural diversity is something this university touts, there is a notable degree of separation between people of different races and religionson campus. Because of the nature of the letter, we preceded it with an editor's note. We also wrote an editorial which expanded on our rationale and condemned the writer's views. No member of The Reporter staff agreed with the content ofthe letter. In fact, we all think it is repulsive. The letter did generate dialogue, but not about racism- Many students, staff, and administrators \vere outraged that we printed the letter. Some felt threatened by the letter. Others wondered why The Reporter would print racist propaganda from an unknown man in Pennsylvania- Eventually, several members of The Reporter's staff met with approximately 50 minority students and staff members. Vice President for Caflipns Life Jim Beasley presided over the meeting. We, the members of the editorial board, apologize for our errors in dealing with the letter and most importantly, apologize for any emotional pain that we caused. It is never our intention to maliciously inflict harm. However, we do not apologize for our intentions, nor do we think our rationale is poorly founded. We do apologize for the way we dealt with the letter. We made a number of mistakes concerning the publishing of the letter, and we regret those errors. The headline was large and sensational. An unnecessary teaser appeared at the top of the front page of the paper. We failed to have the foresight to recognize the effect the letter would later have on members ofthe community. In retrospect, a better way to accomplish our goals and acknowledge the letter would have been to print an editorial in which we would have quoted from the letter, not printing it in its entirety. In the editorial, we would have condemned the views and encouraged dialogue about racism. The printing of the letter has raised many questions about the newspaper, and how it is managed. Specifically, many people wonder how it was possible that the letter ever got published. Even though we are funded by the university—like SGA, CSA, and a host of other organizations—we are an autonomous body. We, not our adviser and certainly not the administration, make decisions about what to print. No one approves the paper before it is printed, a practice called prior review that is condemned as unethical by a number of student press organizations. The Reporter will fight any attempts to infringe upon its right to establish its own editorial policies. Without these policies, The Reporter would be litde more than a voice for the interests of university officials. The Re- porter unequivocally reaffirms its right to seek out the truth in news and opinion. We reject any notion that we must coddle or protect our readers from certain information or ideas. In the final analysis, it will be in everybody's best interests—including students, faculty, and even the administration—if this newspaper remains student-oriented and student- controlled. It is, after all, the student newspaper. In order to acknowledge our responsibility, facilitate better communication with our readers and to provide bur staff with better resources that might help us make better judgements in the future, we are implementing the following initiatives immediately. First, we are creating an advisory board which will meet periodically with The Reporter's editorial board to provide feedback. This board will be composed of three students, two faculty members, two staff members, and three professional journalists from the Central Florida area. Any student or staff members interested in serving on the board should send e.mail to [email protected]. inside FORUM: View from the diving board into the pool of life isn't great, 4a LIFE: Higher education results in poverty. Column, 5a Second, we are naming Dr. Michael Raymond as our faculty adviser. His extensive background in journalism (including many years as adviser to this paper) is unmatched at Stetson and will be a tremendous asset to our staff. He will serve alongside Associate Director of Student Life Wendy Donna, our current adviser, who will remain as staff adviser. Wendy's skills have benefited us immensely, and she has been an excellent liaison and advocate. Raymond's journalism expertise and experience will complement her efforts. Third, we will be inviting an outside expert to come here and consult with all groups. This person will help us look at this complex . issue from a different perspective. Some of us went through diversity training during fall orientation; this will complement that training and give us a better understanding of the is-. sue and make us a stronger community. Finally, we will develop a mission statement for The Reporter. Doing so will give our readers a clearly defined understanding of who we are and what we do. Again, we apologize to those people hurt by the letter we published. Every person at Stetson comes from a different background and has completely different life experiences. No one can purport to know exactly what someone else will think or how they will react. Only through open debate and dialogue can we all strive to better understand each other. SPORTS: Men's basketball moves to 3-0 in TAAC, 6a