Vol. 38 No. 3, February 21, 1991

,/*<>*.?%. Break? &TS Recession $/hat one writer dampens many Jbijrigs to MCfV students' plans -'.\-,::: ' —-page'3 CIRCLE — page 5 VOLUME 38, NUMBER 3 MARIST COLLEGE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. FEBRUARY 21,1991 CSL to set Debate and dialogue guidelines and review clubs The Gulf War The Council of Student Leaders (CSL) this week is establishing a in the classroom Chartering Committee in response to an increasing number of groups requesting club status, according to " by ERIC SYLER student government. Staff Writer One month into the Persian Gulf war, the quantity of news coverage The CSL invoked a moratorium from television, radio and newspapers may have subsided — but the topic — a temporary cease of chartering is still debated in classrooms across America. new clubs — on Feb. 7 to form the new committee and evaluate the When the war erupted, many instructors were developing their class status of all student organizations. syllabi. But many are now being re-written on a daily basis as further According to Kevin Desmond, stu details are reported, an indication that many professors recognize the dent body president, the changes current events are having on world history. moratorium will last at least until Such changes are evident in Marist's curriculum, especially in the Feb. 28. history and political science classes that deal with the Middle East. Professors like Richard Atkins spend time with each class discussing In addition, CSL will evaluate the war. Atkins, also chairperson of the Division of Humanities, said the status of existing clubs and his class looks at the war in a historical context, trying to focus on the organizations, in an attempt to deeper causes of war in the Middle East. weed out very low or non In his classroom, Atkins lets the war raise the questions. He said he functioning clubs. Such clubs could keeps students abreast of new developments and relates those events to face sanctions or loss of their the past. charters, according to student Vincent Toscano, associate professor of history, talks about the war government. Desmond said but refuses to let it interrupt his curriculum. Instead he lets the discus students have been relying too sion come when it reaches the proper time in his courses. heavily on funding from the Finan He said when the war was brought up in class, the "students were cial Board and not on their own somewhat skittish talking about it." fundraising capabilities. Assistant professor Joanne Myers uses the New York Times to sup plement her class and said she is very concerned with the morality of war. The number of chartered clubs She discusses the concept of what she calls "dum-dum" wars, in which has almost doubled over the last 18 fake bullets are used in place of real ones. Once a soldier was hit, he months, Desmond said. would lay down and be considered dead with only a slight welt to show for it. This semester clubs are finding "This was tried in the Phillipean wars," she said. "But when the Navy tough competition for funding, shot at the enemy they just kept coming. Such a humane solution will despite the allocation of an addi Circle photo/Matt Martin only work if all parties agree to its use — not just the Western cultures." tional $9,000 two weeks ago by stu Senior forward Danielle Galarneau became the fifth women s Myers continued to discuss another immoral act — Saddam's use of dent government. The competition basketball player in Marist history to surpass the 1,000 point chemical weapons. Such weapons were outlawed decades ago, but coun comes, in part, from the increase plateau. Galarneau did it last week in the Red Foxes game tries such as Iraq recently have used chemical weapons. As a result, these in clubs during the last three against Mount St. Mary's. weapons stilljemain a threat to the soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf. semesters. Professor Vernon Vavrina echoed those sentiments but also added the U.S. may also be at fault. Vavrina said "while Saddam is acting illegally towards the rules-of- war with his execution squads and the torture of Allied prisoners of war, Students, staff: African American, the U.S. is continuing it's bombing runs, making the landscape of Iraq look like the face of the moon." He also mentioned the Comparative Politics of Western Europe class not black, is a statement of heritage participating in an international program to simulate running a govern ment will have to look at the war in a different light — from the point By HELEN ARROYO negative connotation. of view of the government of Belgium (the classes assigned country). Lateef Islam, transition supervisor of the prison pro Staff Writer While he said he felt the war will end in our favor, he's hopeful his gram, said he never had a problem with the term black students will learn from the experience and gain a better sense of inter While a recent survey, shows more people nation until he started learning about the culture and history national politics. wide prefer the term 'black,' Marist students and staff of the Africans. say they prefer 'African American' because it better "I noticed that the more I learned about my culture, symbolizes their heritage. about the contributions that Africans have made to The national survey of 860 African Americans all cultures of the world, the more important it became Computer flu: Getting rid found 72 percent preferred the term 'black.' That for me in the end to be known or to identify with figure has caused much discussion throughout the Africa," he said. of the electronic virus Marist community. Murray also said he sees a negativity in the term Conducted by the Joint Center for Political and black. by AMY ANSON weed — it's something you don't Economic Studies in Washington D.C., the survey also want, Murphy said. No computer "Black is a color; it relates to nothing," he said. Staff Writer is immune from a virus, as a virus found that only 15 percent favored the term But Murray said he sees a growing trend throughout African-American. While typing a ten-page paper on can be targeted for any computer. the college community towards the usage of Murphy added that personal Both staff and students were disappointed with the African-American. a word processor in the Computer results of that survey and they question its accuracy. Center one day, the words sudden computers, like the the word pro "There is a small evolution coming, where people ly crumble away and are replaced cessors in the Lowell Thomas Com Desmond Murray, assistant director of field ex are accepting the term," he said. perience, said he tends to doubt surveys. "I don't by a ball, bouncing across the munications Center computer lab Cobham said she thinks many try very hard to use screen. and the Donnelly Hall Computer know what states they targeted, or what communities African-American. they targeted," said Murray. This is no hallucination. Center are vulnerable to viruses. "When people ask me what 1 prefer I ask them, This is no game. "The more exchange of data, the Despite the results of the survey, many people prefer 'What do you think you should call me?'," added the term African-American as a statement of their It's the ping-pong virus, a com more likely the computer is to catch uncertain heritage. Cobham. puter ailment that infected the the virus," he said. Debra Waller, a junior from Brooklyn, said she Education is the key in peoples' acceptance of the Marist campus last semester. The stoned virus also infected thinks people would rather be called term African- American, according to Murray. According to Charley Murphy, Marist computers last semester. African-American. Murray said the adoption of an African studies an information center analyst at the According to Murphy, a message "From the people I've talked to, they would rather minor at Marist would help those who are uninform Computer Center, a virus is a pro reading "Your computer is ston be called African-American; it makes them feel a sense ed to educate themselves on the rich history of Africa. gram written by a person to cause ed" would appear on the screen, minor annoyances and/or serious and wipe out everything on the of pride, a sense of their heritage," said Waller. "It's going to take African-American faculty and Tara Parker, a senior from Dover Plains, N.Y., also damage, such as wiping out all the computer's drive. staff to be more committed and assist in a cultural, files saved on a disk. said the term African-American is better than black. educational evolution here," he said. Murphy says despite the threats "There is no continent or country called 'Black'," "A vmis," Murphy explained, of Ping-Pong and Stoned Viruses, But Murray also said students must also play a vital "attaches itself to the computer said Parker. "We need to understand that calling peo role in the process. ple black Americans defines not where you come from, and causes damage by deleting or but what you look like." "I think many of the African-American and Latino- corrupting files." American students here are very apathetic and are not A virus can be compared to a ...See VIRUS page 4 Others said the usage of the term black lends a aware of the world around them." THE CIRCLE, FEBRUARY 21,1991 3 THE CIRCLE ODDS & ENDS FEBRUARY 21,1991 Sizing it up New soap's writer MCCTA's fourth production, "Blue Leaves" opens tonight recreates college life by JULIE MARTIN not the first play in which pages that night and kept writing Steinmeyer has worked with some Staff Writer by MARJI FENROW until she had written about 60 members'of the cast.

Load more