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4 • The Red and Black » Tuesday, January 30, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Ketabliehed 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smlth/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Boo, hiss
Last week the University Council failed to take the
first step in what is, undoubtedly, a very long journey.
The council voted against an Intercollegiate Athletics
Committee resolution to study academic progress of the
University’s student-athletes. The study would have
concentrated on football and men’s basketball players
from 1975 to 1989.
Opposition voiced wasn’t so much against the
intent of the study, but rather its method. Some
doubted the suitability of data the study requested or
I questioned the goal of the study. Others said the
council was overreacting to a U.S. News and World
Report article which higlighted the poor graduation
performance of the 1980 championship football team’s
starting offense.
What the opposition failed to grasp was that the
proposal was only the beginning. The athletic
committee, or the University, can’t fix anything if it
doesn’t know what is wrong. The proposal would have
provided the council with a fact-finding study and a
launching pad for future efforts.
University President Charles Knapp was less than
supportive of the proposal. In a letter to the council’s
Executive Committee, he stated, “I do not believe that
the council should dignify (the Jan. 8 U.S. News cover
story) by undertaking analysis in response to it.”
It is ironic that only two days later, the same
University President announced his intentions to
create a “special task force” to study the same thing the
council’s study would have.
Knapp said his task force will conduct a more
thorough study than the council’s study would have in
a more reasonable time frame. Unfortunately, Knapp
hasn’t set a time frame or a clear objective for the task
force.
Additionally, whenever the task force completes its
study it will report directly to Knapp. Instead of an
open and collegial University Council report, Knapp
can release the portions of the study he chooses.
Fair representation
Tonight, the Student Association will consider a
proposal to elect senators by school or college instead of
by class.
Students who want fair representation on the
senate should attend tonight’s meeting at 7:30 in Phi
Kappa Hall to voice support for the proposal.
Students identify more with students in their
schools than those in their class when it comes to issues
about curriculum and registration. Under the proposed
election plan, students would only be allowed to vote
for representatives within the school of their
enrollment. Under the current election procedure,
students can vote for representatives in any class.
Students should elect their representatives, not
everyone else’s. However, the freshman election crisis
brings an exception.
Tonight the SA also will discuss appointing an
advisory board of freshmen with no voting rights to
solve the freshman election problem.
Freshman elections are a hassle, especially when
turnout is so low — 3 percent last year. The SA has
more important things to do than hold two time-
consuming elections every year. However, the SA’s
Internal Affairs committee should take care to appoint
freshmen from a variety of schools and colleges to get
an accurate representation.
Additionally, the freshman representatives should
be allowed to vote. All students are members of the SA
— including freshmen. Not allowing them to vote would
be doing a disservice to a large section of the student
population the SA represents.
STAFF
NEWS: 543-1809
FdMor: Susan Hilt *
Sparta Editor: Gone Williams
Entertainment Editor Glona Rowbothem
Associate News Editor*: Rand Pearson. Jennifer
Rampey
*ont Rage Copy Editor Clarfc Hubbard
bold* Copy Editor*: OovhJ Johneton. Margaret
We at on, Jennifer Wilkin, Robert Alula
UQA Today/Wire Editor OeniM Padilla
Qrapbtae Editor: Davit O'Keeffe
Photo Editor Peter fray
CfcM Photo*apber Wayne Jackaon
Staff Writer*: Geyi Barrett. Waiter Cod, Eltiabeth OH.
Marla Ednard*. Ann*-Man* Fanguy. CMs Grtmes,
Joel Groover. Oar* McLeod, Mich**! McLaod. Laura
Roe
Sport a Writer: Chni lancetta
Spodaf Section*/Trend* EdNer: Beth Graddy
A aetata at Special taction Trend* EdKar
Andy Roger*
EdKortal A aetata nt: Motile Bart*
ADVERTISING: 543-1791
Student Advertising Manager*
Knot) Burnham, Beverly Taylor
Advert!Png Aaalatants:
Scott Donaldson, Lori Thurman
Senior AdverlMng Representative* Sean Fagan,
Krtdwie HaluataW, Julia Reynold*
Advertising Representative* Craig Oekahemakt.
Joy Denton, Kristin Gluda. Laura Hudgena, Rick
Huggins, Greg Kalli*. Leigh Riff*. Brad Rost. Sally
Young
Aaatetant Editorial fhod. Manager: Cnatma Feindt
Assistant Advertising Prod. Manager: Marlene
Martin
Production Staff Andy Ard. Laura Friednch, Androa
Manaour, Lonn Marsh, Eiiubeth MauU. Laura Millar,
Stacy Stenberg. Michelle Wegert
General Manager Harry Montevideo
Advertising Director: Robin Stoner
OMco Manager Mary Straub
Production Manager Judy Jordan
Classifieda/Wscepttonlat: Beverty Vaughn
CredH Manager Chuck Lyons
Clerical: Joanna Horton. Lesley Wachtol
The Rad and Stack it published Tuesday through
Friday dunrg the regular school year and each
Thursday during summer quarter, with the exception*
of holiday* and Siam pc nod* by The Red and Black
Publishing Company Inc. a nonprofit campus
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reserved Reprints by permission of the editors
■ QUOTABLE
"We're disappointed because he was such a great player. His
leaving hurts our football team and he will be sorely missed." —
Ray Goff, head football coach on tailback Rodney Hampton's de
cision to enter the NFL draft.
Islam becoming the new U.S. enemy
With the demise of Communism throughout
Eastern Europe, paranoid Americans have
begun a search for a new public enemy to
Western democracy. Iranian demonstrators
shouting “Death to America” and calling the
United States “the Great Satan," not to men
tion hundreds of terrorist acts and threats
against the United States by Moslems who
claim to be religiously motivated are likely to
manifest themselves in a chilling way.
Is Islam the new threat to Western values? Is
the reassertion of Islam as one of the world’s
most powerful political and social forces also
going to assert the religion as the new
movement devoted to the destruction of
Western civilization?
While some Moslem clerics teach that the
killing of religious infidels is righteous, and
that to martyr oneself will be rewarded with
eternal paradise, it is important to note that
these extremists make up a small minority of
the world’s 900 million Moslems.
Incidents such as the bombing of Pan Am
flight 103 and last years death threats against
author Salmon Rusndie paint an unsightly pic
ture of the Islamic people. Many Americans,
having abandoned the spectre of Communism
ns a force to be feared and fought, are now be
ginning to consider the Islamic religion a new
Molly
Mednikow
enemy. With the Soviet Union seeming less and
less like the “Evil Empire," doesn’t Iran or
Libya make a plausible substitute?
The tendency of many Americans may be to
write off the entire Islamic population — nearly
20 percent of the world population — as reli
giously driven fanatics wno are reknowned for
their cruel treatment and oppression of non-Is-
lamic people, and even of each other.
What must be pointed out is that the radical
fundamentalists we hear about so often in the
news aren’t representative of the Islamic
people. Religious extremists receive all the
credit and publicity when hijackings and sui
cide bombings take place, but this is often the
press’s mechanism for making sense of other
wise senseless occurrences.
The Islamic religion, like Judaism and Chris
tianity, teaches of one’s moral responsibility for
one’s actions. The people who commit terrorist
acts against humankind are rarely doing so out
of a sense of religious and moral obligation. The
Palestinian terrorists written so often about in
the U.S. press are usually of secular rather
than fundamentalist origins. In fact, some of
the leading radicals in the Palestinian terrorist
movements are Christian rather than Moslem.
The principle point is that Islam as a whole
shouldn’t be judged negatively because of fun
damentalist beliefs and Islamic fundamenta
lism as a whole shouldn’t be judged because of
insurgent fundamentalism. Terrorism is ter
rorism, plain and simple. Terrorism carried out
on the basis of one’s religious beliefs shouldn’t
be judged or reacted to any differently.
While it is true that there nre Islamic people
who make the elimination of Western democ
racy and values a central focus of their lives, it
is essential that the target of our fear and crit
icism be these people and their radical beliefs,
not their religion.
Molly Mednikow is a Student Association sen
ator and a guest columnist for The Red a rut
Black.
Forum: Student Association
■ FORUM
D The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must include the name,
address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please include student classifi
cation and major other appropriate Identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request Letters can be sent by U.S. mail or brought in person to The Red
and Black's offices at 123 N. Jackon St, Athens, Ga.
It being reelection year within
the House of Representatives,
many consituent-pleasing bills are
hitting the floor. The overall theme
of these bills is in accordance with
President Bush’s “war on drugs”
campaign. While something of this
nature most definitely would seem
to benefit society, it does bear fur
ther looking into — particularly by
college students.
One of these bills would require
automatic suspension of one year
for a student receiving a drug-re
lated conviction, and expulsion on
the second offense. Other bills
facing the House are ones targeted
at keeping underage drinkers to
tally out of the bar scene and a bill
which states that any organization
condoning the consumption of al
cohol by those under age be ex
pelled from the University system.
The writers of these bills believe
that we will take no initiative
against this prejudice and not let
ourselves be heard. We need to
prove these legislatures wrong.
These are your rights, your night
life and your associations that the
House is attempting to tamper
with. Call your representatives;
write your representatives; get in
volved with groups on campus al
ready taking action against these
unfair bills. Do something now to
show that we are concerned voting
constituents as well.
Laura Bourg
SA senator
William Parry
SA senator
PE vote disappointing
Student Association or Association
Against Students? After their vote
to keep mandatory physical educa
tion requirements in the curric
ulum for all majors, I'm inclined to
believe the latter. 1 only hope the
University Council’s Curriculum
Committee will be more consid
erate of students’ needs.
There are many flaws in the cur
rent PE program. If you’re not a ju
nior or a senior, don’t expect to get
a PE class during registration,
there are too few classes offered to
supply the huge demand. Also, sev
eral courses, such as roller skating
and bowling, are located off-
campus far away from University
bus stops. How are students
without cars or other transporta
tion supposed to get to class?
Stanley Brassie, physical educa
tion department head, said the
SPACECENTER (a shameful ex
ample of media hype) will alleviate
students’ registration problems.
Not in my academic lifetime it
won’t. It hasn’t even gotten
funding yet, much less started con
struction.
The SPACECENTER (a
shameful example of
media hype) will
alleviate students’
registration problems.
Not in my academic
lifetime it won’t.
The idea that college students
should be physically as well as
mentally fit is a commendable one,
but steps must be taken to make
this idea a functional reality. The
last thing any senior wants to do is
to be completing his or her PE re
quirement in his or her final
quarter rather than entering the
job market.
Katharine Anderson
sophomore, broadcast Journalism
Carter bashing
Geoffrey Dillard, in a letter on
Jan 18, took exception with Luke
Boggs’ less-than-flattering por
trayal of James Carter. Dillard ap
pears to have become confused on a
number of points. No matter how
great a “man” Carter may be, as
President he was ill-suited and in
competent. Carter’s “visions of a
better world” achieved little more
than opening the gateway for the
high mark of communist expansion
in the 20th century. Carter’s “vi
sion” served only to expand the
power of those countries whose pol
icies were most opposed to ex
tending human rights. We may
respect Jimmy Carter for what he
has done since leaving the White
House, but to labor under the as
sumption that his presidency was
anything less than a failure is to
blind ourselves to the truth. Dil
lard has allowed his obvious dislike
for Ronald Reagan to translate into
a warped revisionist view of the
late 1970s.
Deron Ray Hicks
senior, art
Reagan praising
In his Jan. 18 letter, Geoffrey
Dillard fails to mention many of
the real contributions made by
President Ronald Reagan during
his two terms, such as the fol
lowing:
• The creation of 18.7 million
new jobs, over half of which paid
more than $20,000 a year, and the
lowest rate of unemployment in 15
years.
• A new record for peacetime
economic growth, a streak of
growth that is now in its 86th con
secutive month, five months longer
than the wartime growth of World
War II.
• The vast creation of wealth —
some $30 trillion worth of goods
and services, also a world record.
• The dramatic reduction of top
personal income tax rates, from 70
percent to 28 percent.
Brook Whitmire
senior, broadcast news
Cruel not to fix
I am responding to the cartoon
in the Jan. 24 issue of The Red and
Black which speaks out against
spaying and neutering animals.
The cartoonist, Chuck Jordan,
states that such operations make
peta “cruel and mean and hell to
live with.” As president of Home
Finders for Unwanted Animals, I
would like to say what is cruel and
mean — the thousands of dogs and
cats that are run over each year,
starve to death or are put to sleep
in the pound because they were
discarded litters. Cruel ana mean
is also letting an animal breed to
the point it stays pregnant or is
nursing all its life. Come on — ani
mals don’t do this by choice but by
instinct. Dogs and cats are far from
being on the endangered species
list.
As for spaying and neutering
making a pet hell to live with, I
have found through much experi
ence that quite the opposite is true.
Some of the best pets I’ve ever seen
have been fixed. Such ignorance is
responsible for the countless num
bers of domestic nnimals who die
needlessly each yenr after a life of
suffering.
Nancy J. Evans
senior, English
Time not worth it
This morning the sight of a
young lady standing beside her red
Honda sports car with its freshly
redesigned front fender made me
wonder if our students, faculty and
staff have seriously considered
some practical aspects of the
physics of moving bodies. As an ex
ample, let’s consider the two-mile
section of College Station Road be
tween East Campus and Barnett
Shoals roads. If one drives an av
erage speed of 40 mph, the trip will
take three minutes, averaging 50
mph approximately 2.5 minutes.
Of course by cutting in and out of
traffic and occasionally “putting
the pedal to the metal," one could
possibly raise the average to 60
mph and reduce the driving time to
two mintues.
Time is valuable. These 30 to 60-
second segments of time saved can
become useful for something really
practical and productive. Of
course, right front fenders for
Hondas are valuable also.
Bv the way, it doesn’t bother me
at all if someone is 30 to 60 seconds
late for my lecture. It does bother
me if they don’t show and tell me
later that their Honda had to be
towed to the body shop.
Robert L. Bailey
professor, forest resources