Howard University Digital Howard @ Howard University The iH lltop: 1990-2000 The iH lltop Digital Archive 5-9-1998 The iH lltop 5-9-1998 Hilltop Staff Follow this and additional works at: https://dh.howard.edu/hilltop_902000 Recommended Citation Staff, Hilltop, "The iH lltop 5-9-1998" (1998). The Hilltop: 1990-2000. 216. https://dh.howard.edu/hilltop_902000/216 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the The iH lltop Digital Archive at Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The iH lltop: 1990-2000 by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Voice of Howard University Since 1924 I VOLUME 82, No. 1 SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1998 hilltop.howard.edu Conduct Code Law Students ' Revision Draws Urge Swygert Fierce Debate to Increase By BRIAN J. Cox and SUFIYA ABDUR-RAHMAN School Funds Hilltop Staff Writers The controversy surrounding a proposed revision By APRILL 0. TURNER of Howard University's Student Code of Conduct Hilltop Staff Writer continues to swirl, as students accuse the adminis­ tration of attempting to seize an undue amount of Frustrated by what they charge is a limiting cur­ power. riculum, dilapidated facilities and a lack of stu­ A joint committee of University administrators and dent representation on new hire search commit­ students is reviewing the code, a move which could tees, Howard University Law School students make it easier for students to be expelled from met with President H. Patrick Swygert Tuesday, school for engaging in activities or voicing opinions after two failed attempts to discuss their griev­ considered inappropriate by President H. Patrick ances. Swygert. During the 90-minute meeting, Law School Under the existing code, the dean for special stu­ student leaders urged Swygert to expand the dent services, Dean Vincent Johns, has jurisdiction school's curriculum to offer more courses bol­ over student misconduct warranting immediate dis­ stering students' preparation for the Bar Exam. ciplinary action. Students faced with disciplinary After presenting the president with a six-page action now have the right to a hearing. If the pro­ list of grievances and a video tape showing the posed changes to the code are approved by the decaying condition of the Law School's build­ board, that right may be suspended. ings, students urged Swygert to increase fund­ After students complained about the board's deci­ ing for renovations and additional maintenance sion to vote on the proposed revisions to the code staff. in July, it was ruled to postpone the vote until later Responding to the list of grievances, Swygert this year. promised that attempts will be made to resolve "It's not in the best interest of the student body to the problems, adding that more meetings vote on the student code of conduct while 90 to 95 between students and the administration will be percent of the students are on summer vacation," said held in the fall. Jonathan Hutto, outgoing Howard University "I've heard a number of issues and concerns See CONDUCT, A3 today. Obviously some of the issues are issues that need to be resolved inside the Law School. .. ," Swygert said, noting he was dis­ Smoking Rates turbed by an April 27 Legal Times article in which, an anonymous Howard Law student wrote that the only subjects he studied were dead Hillary linton to Deliver Black lawyers. Soar Among "I hear talk of shame about this Law School," Swygert said. "Shame is when... someone is quoted as saying. 'all we do at this law school Black Youth Commencement Address is learn about dead Black lawyers."' Hatchet, chief justice of the Unite "And you, the students of this school do not By TEKIAE WARREN By APRILL 0. TURNER States 11th Circuit Court o take to the streets in protest? It's shameful that Hilltop Health Writer Hilltop Staff Writer Appeals; and Gordon Parks, the cel­ you are not protesting such slander," Swygert . Researchers nationwide are puzzled by recent stud­ ebrated photographer, filmaker an added. See, LAW, A3 ies showing that smoking among African Americans First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton composer. is on the rise - especially among black youth. will deliver the I 30th Commence­ "First Lady Clinton embodies the • According to the federal government's Centers for ment Address today on the Universi­ Disease Control, the smoking rate among black strength, intellect and character tha teenagers increased by 80-percent between 1991 and ty Quadrangle, marking her third visit constitutes the American spirit," Eldridge 1997, while the smoking rate among white teenagers to Howard this year. President H. Patrick Swygert said. rose by 28-percent. The 1998 graduating class that Clin- • "She brings to Howard University In the same period, smoking rates among Latino ton will address is comprised of more not only her world vision, but Cleaver, teenagers rose by 34-percent. than 2,000 students, bringing the total Wliat's more, the smoking rate among all black men message of excellence and achieve­ in the same period nearly doubled, wliile the rate of number of alumni to roughly 85,000. ment." smoking among black women rose by 58-percent, the Five people will receive honorary Clinton, a native of Chicago, is Dead at 62 CDC said. degrees during the commencement graduate of Wellesley College an Traditionally, African-Americans have smoked con­ ceremony: Kenneth Chenault, presi­ Yale University Law School. Since siderably less than other ethnic groups. dent and CEO of the American According to the CDC's figures, more black youth 1995, Clinton has written a weekly are smoking more than just cigarettes. Many black Express Company; Ann M. Fudge, nationally syndicated column, By Jason T. Smith and Rafiah Davis .Y,OUth are clioosing to smoke both cigarettes and mar­ executive vice president of Kraft titled: "Talking It Over." In 1996, she Hilltop Staff Writers IJUana. Foods and president of its Maxwell published. "It Takes A Village an THC is the active ingredient in marijuana respon­ House and Post Divisions; Edmund Other Lessons Children Teach Us." His is the story of a black boy born into the sible for the "high" the drug induces. These brain sen­ 1930s segregated South, who developed a fierce sations are caused by a cliemical in the brain called Gordon, professor emeritus at Yale "dopamine." University; the Honorable Joseph appetite for reading, became a convict, joined the "Smoking boosts the high of weed," said one fresh­ Nation of Islam and followed Malcom X when man interior desi)?n major who would only identify he left the organization in 1965. His rise to power himself as "John. in the Black Panther Party empowered Blacks "I started by gradually smoking one cigarette after Comedy Magazine in the Works at HU across the country and struck fear in the hearts I'd eat, and one 1n the morning. But now I know I'm of the nation's elite - both Black and White. addicted," he added. ' Plan Calls for Course in Black Comedy ' According to the CDC, roughly 6 000 young Jleo­ Eldridge Cleaver, the former minister of the ple smoke for the first time each day, and more than Black Panther Party-turned-born-again Christian half of them become regular smokers as a result. expanding the program from and Republican political hopeful, died last week Sophomore film major Jermaine Thomas said he By JASON T. SMITH the journalism department of undisclosed causes. Cleaver was 62. tried a cigarette once when he was 13 or 14-years-old Hilltop Staff Writer to the department of radio, His 1968 book, "Soul on Ice," deeply shaped the and hated it.. He said he d_oesn't condone youth smok­ television and film. ing because 1t poses a serious threat to an individual's intellectual world's understanding of the Black health. If negotiations between comedian Chris Rock and School "We also suggested that we Revolution. More acutely, "Soul on Ice" told, in "I have asthma, and smoking just never appealed of Communications officials hold, Howard University will produce a comedy program unfiltered detail, the black male's struggle for sur­ to me," Thomas said. become the first historically Black college to produce a for WHUT-TV, which would Others.students say they began smoking merely out vival in America. The book-which was penned comedy magazine satirizing life and politics from an urban be directed and written by while Cleaver was confined to the Folsom State of cur1os1ty. perspective. students in the Radio, Tele­ "Just trying it once can get you addicted," Charles Prison, where he was serving time on a rape con­ said. "I starteo smoking because I wanted to see how Months after Rock announced his plans for the magazine, vision and Film depart­ viction - became an instant best-seller. the smoke would come out of my nose." a three-member School of Communications team of pro­ ment," Barlow said. "We consulted some of the students "People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, A fact sheet published annually by the American fessors have sent Rock a detailed outline projecting the cost on that and they thought that it would be a great idea." Lung Association reports that in 1994, 27-percent of Jr., Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver were the of production. Although officials are remaining tight-lipped about the visual point-people for elevation in a racist soci­ African Americans smoked. The same report found Under the proposal, the School of Communications that 47,000 African Americans die each year from cost of the plan, early estimates call for Rock to pay at least ety," said Alvin Thornton, chairman of the polit­ smoking-related illnesses.