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4 • The Red and Black • Wednesday, March 14. 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
EatabluKed 1893— Incorporated 1980
An uultptndtni itudtni vu tpaptr not affilutUd wtlA iKt Umotrwtfy of Gtorgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-irvChief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Robert Todd/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Honeymoon’s over
Well, it looks like University President Charles
Knapp is going to stick around for awhile. Whether he
was really still in the running for the University of
Virginia presidency or his interview just didn’t go too
well, reaction is mixed to his staying.
He sure was in a hurry to announce his decision. He
said he hadn’t been offered the job, but was still one of
the top three candidates. Less than an hour after
Knapp’s Friday press conference, Virginia officials
announced their decision, John Casteen, University of
Connecticut president.
Knapp had informed Virginia officials of his
decision that morning. If Knapp had already been ruled
out of the competition, it was nice of them to give him
time to save his career before they announced the new
president.
It is hard to believe that Knapp would turn down
such a prestigious job, and, if he thought he was going
to get it, it’s even harder to believe he would pull out of
the race.
Knapp also says he won’t put himself, his family or
the University through this again. That’s a nice thing
to say. But Knapp wasn’t very open about the UVA
search until someone blew the whistle. There’s no
reason to think he would be open about any future
offers.
Of course, it does speak highly of Knapp and the
University that he was seriously considered for such a
prestigious post.
Knapp is a politician and he handled this incident
as a politician would, by saving face and his career.
Time will tell how alumni and other monetary friends
of the University will react to his decision.
Alumni Society President Louis Sohn and the
foundation Board of Trustees Chair John Bailey issued
statements of support for Knapp, as did University
System Chancellor H. Dean Propst.
If Knapp is serious about taking the University to
new heights, it’s time to get to work. Knapp has a lot of
good ideas, but it seems that they stay ideas and there’s
never much action behind his words. Instead of
progressive action, the University gets a task force
which advises him of the situation.
At his inaugural address in 1987, Knapp promised
to launch a meyor capital campaign within the year.
Two and a half years later, the Third Century
Campaign hasn’t begun, and it has shrunk from a $200
million to a $90 million endeavor. Two weeks ago,
Knapp committed himself to finding every means
possible of increasing faculty salaries. However, he
plans to waste $1 million on the development of the
SPACECENTER. Two years ago, Knapp placated an
angry group of handicapped students with promises of
a commitment to them. But the Memorial Hall
renovations installed stairs, not an elevator.
When Knapp took the job as University president,
he knew what he was getting into. The Georgia
Legislature has historically been as cheap as a K-Mart
suit, but previous University presidents have managed
to get funding from the Capitol. It’s up to Knapp to do
the same.
In announcing his decision to stay at the
University, Knapp cited statements of support from
faculty, alumni, regents and state legislators. Where
were these supporters during the legislative session
when funding to increase faculty and staff salaries was
cut from the budget?
If alumni buy Knapp’s explanation for withdrawing
his application, they may support him more. However,
this could have been a test of Knapp’s loyalty to
Georgia. As such, he dropped the ball by seriously
considering the Virginia move. If life is so great in
Georgia, he shouldn’t have gone so far into the
application process hoping no one would find out about
it.
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■ QUOTABLE
"I think with the membership we got today, we could be one of
the — if not the — largest student organizations on campus." —
Hugh Crumley, an organizer of UGA National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Hiding from the dark behind religion
Basing one’s spiritual beliefs solely on The
Bible is folly. It is an interesting work of litera
ture with some commendable concepts, but the
written word is a creation of man, not God.
Every culture since preliterate times has be
lieved it succeeded at defining the spiritual
world through divine inspiration. The myths in
the Bible are a continuation of centuries of
man’s need for the spiritual. The ancient
Greeks believed in Zeus much the same way as
present-day people believe in Jesus. Zeus was
equally real, and like Jesus he affected people’s
lives as though his existence was beyond ques
tion. The Muse, daughter of Zeus, was thought
to have inspired song and poetry. Since she was
a goddess, her inspiration was of a divine na
ture. Like the poetry of the Greeks, The Bible is
held by many to be divinely inspired. Both of
these notions are equally ill-founded.
Anyone who uses the Bible to define reality
fails to recognize the function of religion. It
functions to alleviate the need for answers of
the spiritually unknown. Man can never truly
know if God exists, if there is life after death
and we can only speculate as to what our spiri
tual purpose is. Having a book believed to be
the word of God gives comfort to those who need
these answers.
A child hiding under bedsheets to protect
himself from darkness is like those who believe
in the Bible. The child finds a false comfort in
the belief that covers make him safe from what
Steven
Sacco
lurks in the unknown of darkness. Adults know
that cloth cannot protect anyone from things
that do not exist, yet many use the Bible in the
same way. The Bible defines evil as the work of
the devil. Shrouding oneself within it for pro
tection from the devil and from reposing eter
nally in his kingdom of fire offers as much
protection as the child’s blankets. Literature
saves nobody from myths that are adult ver
sions of a childs imagination.
All cultures have their own equivalent of the
Bible. They believe in its validity and insist
their "Bible” is correct while all others are false.
These books produce many divisions of man
kind according to their literature. Religious
dogma brings few people together and forces
many apart. People are inherently spiritual
equals, yet religious factions deny this with
gusto. They do not accept that all religions fric
tion are alike, nor do they recognize the fact
that all “divinely inspired” literature is the
same book only in differing forms.
They are all equivalent in that they fulfill the
universal need in humans for spiritual an
swers. To each of these groups, all outside them
believe in a false God and false dogma. If all
groups could relinquish their respective mytho
logical books, common spiritual ground incom-
passing everyone would be easier to attain.
World friction will only get worse as the pop
ulation grows and the number in each religious
division increases. There will be more and more
people who believe anyone who thinks differ
ently than they do is unknowingly living in sin.
When surrounded by sinners, the logical thing
to do is separate yourself or eradicate them.
The Bible says that homosexuals are sinners.
I heard one good man of God recite directly
from the Bible 26 reasons why all homosexuals
should be stoned to death. This righteous
Christian offered to cast the first stone. It is
this type of ignorance that blind faith in “God’s
word” often creates. If God does exist, He/She
would not inspire literature that could produce
separatism or hatred.
Somebody must be right, and it certainly is
not those whose dogma mandates that different
beliefs are wrong.
Steven D. Sacco it a columnist for The Red and
Black.
The secrets to a successful interview
I thought going through rush was the moet
demoralizing, degrading and ridiculous experi
ence I would ever have — until I began inter
viewing for jobs.
“So how are you enjoying rush so far?” was
the dumbest question I’d ever heard until one
interviewer queried: “If you were a car, what
kind would you be?”
But Td prepared myself for such inanities by
going to all those little How To Get A Job
workshops offered by the J-School. At one such
workshop, the speaker warned us we might be
asked things like, *Ifyou were ice cream, what
flavor would you be?”
It’s a tactic interviewers use to test your cre
ativity and ability to remain calm at tense mo
ments, he explained.
So when the interviewer asked what kind of
car I would be, I responded calmly, “Chocolate.”
The questions, however, aren’t the worst
part of interviewing. The worst part is dressing
for it. Basically, the rule is: If you're a man,
dress like a man.
I have never, to my knowledge, been a man.
Fortunately, the rule has a codicil, added about
three or four years ago when women’s suffrage
really began (however weakly): If you’re a
woman, dress like a man.
In rush, they let you wear anything as long
as it costs a lot.
Call me a rebel, but after sitting through one
interview wearing enough grey flannel to choke
Lawrence Taylor (and, in fact, resembling that
particular linebacker), I said, "No more.” 1 wore
a dress, dammit.
And I must say the interviewer seemed to
like it.
"That pretty blue dress sure does make your
Elizabeth
Graddy
eyes look big and blue,” he said. I figure he'll
offer me either a job or his hand in marriage
pretty soon.
Actually, dressing like a man isn’t enough if
you want to look employable (and ward off
would-be suitors). You really have to look the
part physically.
Knowing that, I started worrying about my
hair, which is long and curly — not exactly the
tresses of a Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein.
Since I didn't want to be mistaken for a girl or
anything, I considered cutting it off. But my
boyfriend at the time told me, in no uncertain
terms, that he’d ditch me if I cut my hair.
Hey, hey, hey, Tm not that much of a femi
nist.
I opted for the alternative of wearing my hair
in a “bun.” Yes, it's even more sinister than it
sounds. For those of you with weak stomachs,
I’ll just say a bun involves pulling your hair
back so tightly your eyes stretch wider, then se
curing it to your scalp with a process similar to
stapling. (In rush, you could wear your hair any
way you wanted as long as it involved a big
bow.)
By my third interview, I thought I pretty
much had it all down — clothes, hair, canned
yet natural-sounding answers to anticipated
questions. Td also gone over the three Es moet
interviewers look for: energy, enthusiasm and
eagerness.
As I strolled down the sidewalk to the J-
School, I spotted my interviewer coming from
the opposite direction. I was confident, even a
little smug. He looked up. I smiled coolly. He
nodded his head.
And at that moment, my 3-inch heel caught a
crack in the concrete. I skidded, not ungrace
fully, down the gradient. Somehow I managed
to stay on my feet and off my behind. I knew he
had seen my faux pas: What to do? What to do?
The words of that workshop speaker came
rushing back, “If you find yourself in a bad situ
ation with an interviewer, take a deep breath
and figure out how to turn it to your advan
tage."
I took a deep Breath and, in mid-Bkid, lept
forward, chin held high, arms outstretched. In
rapid succession, I executed two somersaults, a
cartwheel and a round-off to land feet together
before him.
I grabbed his hand and pumped it up and
down. “Hello, I’m interviewing with you,” I
said. “My name is Elizabeth Graddy, but you
can just call me Miss Energetic Enthusiasm.”
He grinned; I’d won him over. Maybe I
should have tried some gymnastics during
rush.
Elisabeth Graddy it a columnist for The Red
and Black.
A unified University platform
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and Black's offices et 123 N. Jackon St, Athens, Ga.
I left the Athene City Council
meeting Tuesday night with a
growing feeling of pride. The
reason was the students and fac
ulty of the University.
During the public hearing por
tion of the meeting, the main topic
of debate was the designation of
the Hull-Snelling house as a his
toric landmark. During the
hearing many people affiliated
with the University, ranging from
undergraduates to faculty, stepped
forward to voice their support for
the designation.
Even though the designation
was defeated in a close (6-6) vote,
the image of a unified University
voice left a distinct impression on
the mayor and council. As one
council member remarked to me af
terwards, ‘It is so good to see stu
dents concerned with eomething
besides dance hall hours’
I hope that this issue will serve
to spur others into getting involved
in city issues which they feel are
important. If we continue to pre
sent a unified front to the leaders
of Athens, and show them we are
indeed interested in more than
“dance hall hours,” we can fully re
alize our potential ae a powerful
faction within Athene ana Clarke
County.
Dean Robinson
UQA Athens City Council llsoon
Smoke ban stinks
With regards to the elimination
of smoking in the main library stu
dent lounge, I am glad to see that
our Student Association is fol
lowing in our legislature's foot-
eteps of infringing upon our basic
individual human rights.
Long live communism.
Uoyd Carver
senior, economics