The Stetson Reporter

E allery Features Contemporary Sculpture *»« Page 6 Volume 104, Issue 8 "Florida's Oldest Collegiate Newspaper"- Stetson University DeLand, Florida November 59 1991 SA Allocates Funds By Robert Bullock Reporter Editor Over fifteen thousand dollars from the student activity fee was allocated to twenty student organizations by the Student Association Executive Cabinet in a meeting held October 16 in the CUB. The allocations, approved last week by the Dean of Campus Life, were made by the S.A. Vice Presidents for Senate, Programming, Publications, Judiciary, Religious Life, Greek Life, Residential Life, and Athletics/Intra- murals. Thirty-one organizations made requests totaling $57,249.54. However, only $15,000 was available to be allocated. The following organizations received the following amounts: Judiciary Council, $250; Student Association, $800, College Bowl, $435; SUB Concerts, $2500; SUB Special Events, $600; SUB Rafters, $500; The Reporter, $1200; Peer Educators, $1000; Volleyball Club, $400; Crew, $1800; Mad Hatters Glee Club, $300;T/ie Hatter, $1500; AKPsi, $600; Religions Life Council, $200; Society for the Advancement of Management, $258: Fellowship of Christian Athletes, $250; Homecoming, 1125; Alpha Chi Omega, $125; Alcohol Awareness Committee, $200; Phi Alpha Delta, $1000. The moneys awarded must be spent before the spring allocations are made in January. Any organization which is recognized by the University and is in good standing in the Student Association may make a request, however requests must be for specific programs and those programs must benefit the whole student body. BCCI Buster Visits By Derek Ashworth Staff Writer "The collapse of BCCI is the most astonishing multinational fraud in the history of modem finance." These were the opening remarks of Jack Blum, a Washington attorney and former U.S. Senate investigator who played a key role in bringing the BCCI mess to the American public's eye. Visiting the Stetson campus last week, Blum addressed students, faculty, and guests as part of Stetson's Pre-Law Day. Blum explained that the scandal over the Bank of Credit and Commerce International includes historic dimensions of bribery, corruption, money laundering, gun running, drug smuggling, terrorism, and nearly $5 billion in lost or stolen assets in more than 70 different countries. Not to be left out, the United States is among the nations touched by the scandal, including members of both political parties. Additionally, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has been linked to having had involvement with BCCI. BCCI had been established by Pakistani financier, Agha Hasan Abedi in 1972, creating the first multinational bank of the Third World. However, with little regulatory supervision, the bank became involved in numerous "activities" other than those involved in international banking. Blum noted the cleverness of Pakistani bankers who had "artistically" created books to give the See BCCI page 5 Get To Know Nader By Sandra Maltby By now we have probably all seen the posters around campus advertising tomorrow night's appearance of Ralph Nader as part of the Artists and Lecturers series. However it appears that many students have no idea who he is or just why we should take time out of our busy schedules to listen to him. Ralph Nader is the most,well- known consumer advocate in the country. When he first took on General Motors, one of the world's largest corporations in the mid-sixties, it seemed to be nothing short of David facing Goliath. Granted Nader was a Harvard Law School graduate, but he'd only been practicing law seven years and was still unknown when his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, came out. The book attacked the safety of the Chevrolet Corvair, a move which prompted GM officials to hire private investigators to discredit Nader. Ultimately, the attempt backfired as" the issue came before Congress, the GM chairman was forced to publicly apologize, and book sales soared. More importantly, the Corvair was taken off the road, and a new era of corporate accountability arose. Nader went on to hire dozens of young people to investigate and report incidents of government regulations being overlooked or being altogether inadequate. The group, centered in Washington D.C. and coming to be known as Nader's Raiders, overturned stone after stone to expose problems found in both large corporations and government agencies. As a direct result, bills were. i i 1* t'«.AO.Jfc passed creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. His disciples have taken on almost any and all aspects of business and finance with a negative influence on consumers. Nader continued to write many books over the years, and worked to set up numerous public interest groups. Examples include the Center for Study of Responsive Law, which serves as his headquarters, and Public Citizen, a lobby with 50,000 members whose Health Research Group -works agpinst smoking, unnecessary surgery, drug advertising, etc. Overall, he has a varying degree of control over almost thirty non-profit organizations with combined revenues of nearly $80 million and assets around $23 million. This has led some critics to charge that Nader's consortium of public interest groups has become a sort of corporation itself, complete with the same amount red tape and secrecy that he so often criticizes. Despite a period away from See NADER page 5