I OBSERVER Thursday, September 21, 1995 • Vol. XXVII No. 24 T1II: INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME AND SAINT MARY'S Geyer: Journalists ‘chained’ to desks By KAREN BELL Vietnam, but with Cambodia News Writer and the uprising of guerilla warfare and militia. “If you have a terrible war The perils of the job have with 2000 people trying to get reached life threatening pro­ out and 12 trying to get in, the portions today. 12 will be the foreign corre­ In fact, 1994 was the bloodi­ spondents.” est year in the profession with Georgie Anne Geyer, an au­ 115 deaths; being deliberately thor and syndicated columnist, targeted, they are more often delivered the annual Red Smith slaughtered in the most primi­ Lecture in Journalism last tive of ways with axe and knife. evening in the llesburgh Li­ Meanwhile, at home, due to brary Auditorium. financial pressures, papers Entitled, “Who Killed the were being closed or merged as Foreign Correspondent?”, the computers took over, si­ Geyer spoke of how journalists, phoning information from the often seen as a dying breed, are superhighway. becoming chained by the infor­ mation superhighway at the Epitomizing the change, expense of adventure and con­ Geyer saw the CNN coverage of text. the Gulf war as rather like a When they do “parachute" story without images. 3000 into the outside world, they journalists sent out stories, but simply capture a mere glimpse had no knowledge of the area, of the reality they can put culture or language; in essence, The Observer/Mike Ruma together in just a few hours. they had no context and their The new College of Business Administration building, pictured above, will be officially dedicated in a A native of Chicago and the stories were flat. ceremony to be held Friday. first female foreign correspon­ Now that the center of com­ dent for “The Chicago Daily munism has broken down, the News," Geyer has earned a U.S. has lost its leadership role. place in the Chicago Journalism The breakdown of the tribes COBA dedication underway Hall of Fame as well as hon­ has made the world a more orary degrees from some 20 foreign place than ever. Symposium, blessing renowned faculty and help the lawyer from Harvard Univer­ business school, both graduate sity, Franklin Sonn, the South institutions, including North­ Geyer explained that the role to celebrate buisiness western University and Saint of the correspondent is becom­ and undergraduate programs, African ambassador to the Mary’s College. ing more diplomatic, focusing building’s official rise in national rankings,” said United States, and Kenichi Traditionally, the foreign cor­ on conveying government poli­ Professor James O’Rourke, di­ Ohmae, an internationally respondent was seen as a blend cies and stance on political beginning rector of Notre Dame Center renowned business consultant for Business Communication. from Japan and head of the of Humphrey Bogart and Pope issues. By JOHN NORTON The dedication will be high­ Yokohama management John Paul II. a loyal comrade According to Geyer, our col­ News W riter__________________________ with an added streak of insani­ lective ability to know the lighted by a symposium on the group, will be the featured changing state of information speakers during the two-day ty that kept him in the job. world has diminished since the Today and tomorrow, Notre technology and communica­ event. He would be sent by a paper 1970s; she asserted that “to Dame will officially unveil one tions entitled “The Information The program begins today at to live three to six years, or know the future is to know of the finest, most technologi­ Revolution: Global Change 1:30 p.m. in the building’s Jor­ even a lifetime, in one area. what has happened before.” cally advanced business school and the New Social Order. ” dan Auditorium with Seen as a in glamorous pro­ In addition to highlighting the building in the world. The symposium will feature Branscomb. She is Harvard’s fession, he was safe alongside importance of history, she On Friday, the new College presentations from three lead­ expert on information and law the Red Cross and clergy; the stressed the need to know who of Business Administration ing figures in communications, and has written a book, “Who neutral status was seen as a we are, what we believe and complex will be officially dedi­ business and government. Owns Information?”, detailing step forward in civilized behav­ why, before we can understand cated. Anne Wells Branscomb, a ior, according to Geyer. someone else who is different. “We expect this new facility The change came, not with communications and computer see COBA/ page 4 see GEYER/ page 4 to attract even more world Senate evolves, adjusts to ensure ‘accountability’ Editor’s note: The following is the and the establishment of the Provost first of a two part series examining Advisory Committee (PAC), which the relevance and conflict of the S*HI now has ten elected faculty members. Faculty Senate. Today, The Observer b)ate According to current Chair of the looks at the Senate's creation and the Faculty Senate Father Richard role its members think it plays. if16 McBrien, Conway played a key role in i# “securing important benefits for the By GWENDOLYN NORGLE the administration, according to faculty.” Assistant News Editor Conway, a 28-year veteran of the While the need for the Faculty Senate. Senate may have remained the same While having a stronger voice in “I was the last survivor” of the orig­ over the past quarter century, many academic affairs and governance of inal Senate, he said. Conway served of its goals have become more clearly the University may have been the five terms as the Senate’s chair at defined. necessity that mothered the invention five different times: 1977, ‘78, ‘91, The Senate’s “primary purpose” is of the Faculty Senate, its roles and ‘92 and ‘93. “accountability,” according to responsibilities have become more When it was created in 1967, McBrien, who has been the Senate’s clearly defined in recent years. “there was no vehicle for calling a chair since September of 1993 and The Faculty Senate “was set up meeting,” Conway said. “And we who is currently in his third term. originally to have faculty input in elected pro tempore officers.” Accountability, he said at the academic ideas in the University,” This past year, Conway was not re­ Senate’s first meeting this year, in­ according to Father Theodore elected to the Senate, however, dur­ cludes the preservation of “the acad­ Hesburgh, Notre Dame president ing each of his years as chair, “the emic integrity and future of the em eritus. role of governance and the possibility University,” while honoring its “claim The Senate was established to give of unionizing was an issue,” Conway to Catholicity.” faculty more input in the governance said. Two other important issues At the meeting, McBrien asked the of the University, according to dealt with by the Senate during Senate for its most “constructive and Associate Professor of finance Paul Conway’s years of involvement effective participation in the life and Conway, a founding father of the included the University’s policies of goverance of Notre Dame.” Senate. sexual harassment and gender in­ The Senate is not just a tenure and The Senate was meant to serve as a clusive language. advisory group, McBrien said recent­ substitute for the American The work of the Senate since its ly. “One common criticism from the The Observer/Brandon Candura Association for University Professors creation has included the discussion faculty’s point of view is that the Richard McBrien, a professor of theology at the (AAUP). The administration preferred of health benefits and the rules for Faculty Senate is just a debating soci- University* enters his third year as Chairperson of the the Senate to this union-like organi­ promotion and tenure, the establish­ Faculty Senate. zation, which was not sanctioned by ment of a budget priorities committee see SENATE/page 4 page 2 The Observer • INSIDE Thursday, September 21, 1995 Inside Column WORLD AT A GLANCE Bill gives taxpayer increased strength against IRS WASHINGTON An open A “taxpayer bill of rights” moving through Congress Taxpayer “Bill of Rights” would give Americans new weapons in their battles with the Internal Revenue Service, but the agency everyone letter to loves to hate would remain a mighty Goliath to the tax­ payer’s David. Accountants, analysts and other experts on tax enforcement praised the bipartisan bill Wednesday as a step in the right direction in ensuring Highlights from the Notre Dame Taxpayer Bill of Rights, individual taxpayers don’t get overwhelmed by the IRS’s 115,000-person bureaucracy. But, they said, it won’t approved by the Ways and Means Committee: alter one hard fact: The onus is still on taxpayers. In the men eyes of the IRS, they still would have to prove that their */ Raises the limit on civil suits against the IRS from tax returns are correct. The bill, written by the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee under Rep. , $100,000 to $1 million. Dear Esteemed Male •J Makes it easier to recover Amy Schmidt Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., is tucked into a much larger Students of the Notre attorney fees when IRS Assistant News Editor tax measure approved Tuesday by the full committee. In , actions are unjustified. Dame Community, turn, it will be folded into massive tax- and spending-cut ' - / Waives interest charged I am writing to you in legislation going to the House floor next month. “It will taxpayers when a delay an effort to address a very serious and timely have a big impact,” Johnson said.