Proudly serving the college community since 1973 The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Monday,February 19,2001 Volume 60 Number 5 Student speaks out about hate crimes Resident claims to have been a Farris cited in their open letter. "I would have come forward sooner," victim of bias crimes at Stockton Connolly said, "but I was encouraged by some people to not come out in the public Shaun Reilly with it as much as I would have liked to, in order to The Argo preserve my safety and possibly help the investiga- In recent weeks a number of rumors have been tion into the crime. However, I feel that it is impor- circulating around the Richard Stockton College tant for everyone on campus to find out about the campus about the occurances of hate crimes. things that happened. We have this illusion that we In late November Stockton College President have a great community and nothing ever goes photo by Dan Grate Vera King Farris issued a memo to all residental wrong at Stockton. But things like this do happen On Feb. 13 college President Vera King Farris addressed a large group of and people should be made aware of them." graduating seniors in the upper G-wing lounge. The topic of disscussion students and faculty asserting the college's policy was the location of the upcoming spring graduation.. against hate crimes and in the February 12th issue The events that Connolly are reffering to involve of The Argo several members of the Stockton facul- a series of harrasing letters, threats of possible vio- ty and community submitted an open letter to the lence, and intimidation beginning in late October. Graduation debate college regarding their lack of toleration for bias According to Connolly the first incedent that crimes that may have taken place. These two took place was the writing of anti-homosexual instances seemed to come as a surprise to most peo- remarks on her marker-board in the dorms. She said spurs controversy ple at Stockton, but to Belinda Connolly, a senior that she gave it little thought and simply erased the psychology major, the public statements come as a comments. natural off shoot of issues she has been dealing with Things got a little more serious for Connolly in Farris hears concerns over since early in the fall. late November when she alleges that someone Connolly, the president of Somewhere Under the threw something at her car windshield cracking the the location of comencement Rainbow: Stockton's Gay/Straight Alliance, claims glass. The vandals then ransacked her unlocked car, to have been subjected to a number of bias crimes littering it with trash and left behind a note that Kristin English over the course of the first semester. She is also one allegedly hinted at violence if she and her club did The Agro of the cases in which the faculty and President not leave campus. Acording to Connolly the note Attention seniors graduating in May 2001, do you know where your graduation is? No one seems to be in agreement as to where (bias crime continued on pg. 5) to hold this very important ceremony. On Tuesday, February 13th, the administration and the Student Senate held a meeting to discuss the issue surrounding the Spring 2001 graduation ceremony. The RSC student dies in car crash faculty and administration have budgeted and planned for an Shaun Reilly and into Newberry's lane. indoor graduation at the new Sports Center. This has been planned The Argo Wild reported that whiteness since last spring and was apparently verbally agreed upon by the On Tuesday, February 13th said that neither car was speeding students and President Vera King Farris. Shannon Newberry, a 23-year- and the whiteness report that However, now it seems there is a discrepancy as to where the old graduate student at Stockton Rassmann's truck did not seem to ceremony will be held. The alleged agreement between Farris and College, was fatally wounded in jerk out of control. Preliminary the Spring 2000 graduates stated that the graduation ceremony a car accident in Mullica investigations did not reveal the would take place in the newly built $17 million Sports Center. Township near the intersection of presence of drugs or alcohol. However, it seems the students did not take into account all the fac- route 30 and Wharton Park Newberry, who was returning tors involved in making the decision last year to agree on an indoor Boulevard. According to to Stockton from Hammonton, ceremony. Corporal James Wild, of the was transported to Kessler The meeting purpose was "to provide facts for everyone to make Mullica Township Police depart- Memorial Hospital and then an informed decision," according to Dean Eileen Conrad. She said ment, Newberry was traveling medivacced to Cooper Medical that they want to "even the playing field." eastbound on Rt. 30 in the pass- Center in Camden. The accident The biggest concern the graduates have with having the ceremo- ing lane when 18-year-old driver occurred at approximately 5:30 ny inside is that they are limited to six tickets per graduate. Some James Rassmann, of Egg Harbor p.m., less than four hours after graduates have more than six guests they would like to invite to the Township, began to inexplicably another fatal accident less than photo by Shaun Reilly ceremony. They want to insure they have all the guests they want The accident ocurred at this spot drift across the median (Big Blue continued on pg. 2) near the intersection of Rt. 30 and (Graduation continued on page 5) Police purchase defibrillator Wharton Park Blvd at 5:30 Tuesday. Argo staff reports a portable, external defibrillator On December 1, 2000, the or ventricular fibrillation, is the Richard Stockton College most common cause of sudden Campus Police Department death according to the American placed into service its first Heart Association. Through a Automatic External Defibrillator state grant program, the Campus or AED. Chief Thomas Kinzer Police obtained the AED device noted that the Campus Police and began to train and certify Department recognized the officers in its use. Campus important of these devices in the Police Officers have been trained care of the persons who suffer utilizing the Heartsaver AED sudden, cardiac arrest. The AED, (Police continued on pg. 5) Page 2 February 19, 2001 The Argo Compiled by Argo staffers lirll and Nation from reports and wire ser- Weekly Government now THE ARGO Weather available on net The Richard Stockton Tuesday College of New Jersey New legislation sponsored by The resolution would post the fol- Pomona, New Jersey Partly Cloudy Senators John McCain and Patrick lowing information on the Web: 08240 hi 41 Leahy seeks to make — Disclosure reports filed by Phone (609) 652-4560 Congressional Research Service lobbyists working to influence the lo 25 (CRS) reports, Senate gifts disclo- Congress, including gifts given to Fax (609) 748-5565 sure reports, as well as lobbying Senators and staff as well as who The ARGO is not an official pub- reports publicly available on the the lobbyists are employed by; lication of The Richard Stockton College, but is published indepen- Internet. — Congressional Research dently by students at Stockton Wednesday "Getting information about gov- Service reports and issue briefs, as College. ernment operations is already too well as authorization and appropri- Mostly Cloudy difficult for concerned citizens and ations CO-EDITORS-IN -CHIEF journalists. The McCain-Leahy res- CRS has a budget of $73.4 mil- Shaun Reilly hi 52 olution is a simple and inexpensive lion to produce reports of interest Dan Grote lo 31 way for the Senate to fulfill its duty and importance to U.S. citizens. ASSISTANT EDITOR of protecting our democracy from Currently, the reports are only Emily Wray political corruption," said Danielle available to Members of Congress COPY EDITORS Brian, Executive Director of the and their staff at no cost. Kristen English, Joshua Project On Government Oversight Raclaw Thursday SPORTS COPY EDITORS Jason Feit, Lee Pickell Sunny Garfinkel named COMICS EDITOR hi 41 Michelle McLaughlin m m lo 29 WEB EDITOR M the director of IWG Tim Oliver CALENDAR EDITOR U.S. Archivist John Carlin named Steven Garfinkel will successfully Amanda Stites Information Security Oversight build on this foundation. I am very AD & BUSINESS Office (ISOO) Director Steven pleased that he agreed to bring his MANAGER Friday Garfinkel chair of the Nazi War valuable in-depth knowledge of Tara Guide Crimes and Japanese Imperial declassification issues to the task." STAFF WRITERS Cloudy Government Records Interagency Garfinkel will continue with Chick Yeager, Emma Redmer, Working Group (IWG). He is ISOO, where he has served as hi 40 Jeff Hebron, Jayson Adams, replacing Dr. Michael J. Kurtz who Director since 1980. In this position, Rebecca Myers, Amy Cancel, lo 30 after more than two years with the he is responsible to the President for Eleana Moore, Jessica Stine, IWG stepped down from the posi- policy oversight of the Government- Matt Chiappardi, Jasmin tion to continue his work as wide security classification system Grasso, James Kummel, Steve Assistant Archivist for Records and the National Industrial Security Gallagher, Tamika McNair Services. Program. Garfinkel led the drafting Carlin said, "Under the leadership of the current legal foundations for of Michael Kurtz, the IWG has the security classification and indus- Printed by AFL Printers directed twelve Federal agencies in trial security systems. Under the largest U.S. effort ever to declas- Executive Order 12958, executive sify records on a single-subject. In branch agencies have declassified Briefs less than two years, the group has almost one billion pages of perma- The above people are the only already overseen the declassification nently valuable records.