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4 • The Red and Black • Thursday, October 4, 1990
OPINIONS
■ QUOTABLE
“This is the party your parents warned you not to attend.
- The slogan on a t-shirt worn by Mark Cooper while addressing
the CitTcouncil Tuesday night in favor of ^tending™
The Red & Black
Established 189 J—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of (leur/iia
Robert Todd/Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Rampey/Managing Editor
David Johnston/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Move forward
“Creating and sustaining the climate of acceptance,
cooperation and understanding which must exist on
this campus is the responsibility of us all — each
student, each faculty and staff member. Each member
of the University community enjoys the same rights and
privileges and any infringement on human dignity
violates our fundamental purpose. I call upon all
members of the University community to join me in
condemning prejudice in all its forms, and to work for a
University which honors the worth and integrity of
every individual"
— University President Charles Knapp
Can you say hypocrite? The University
administration sure can. This passage is from a signed
opinion column by President Charles Knapp which ran
in The Red and Black on June 5,1990. The column was
a response to several incidents on campus which
appeared to be racially motivated.
Since becoming president, Knapp has worked hard
to recruit minority faculty and to strengthen the
University’s minority programs. These efforts have
been welcome, effective and praiseworthy.
In light of his previous actions and rhetoric,
Knapp’s assertion that the University can’t amend its
non-discrimination policy to protect homosexuals is
repugnant.
The administration
claims homosexuals
can’t be included in the
non-discrimination
policy because they
currently don't have
such protection onthe
state and federal levels.
That’s ludicrous.
Does this mean the
Knapp administration
would have turned its
back on blacks in the
1950s when they didn’t
have such protection
from “the state and
federal levels?” Or is Knapp blowing smoke?
It is an insult to the University community that the
administration chooses to take such a giant leap
backward toward discrimination and away from civil
rights. A sad era has fallen on us when we, the flagship
university of the state, sink so low while other state
schools move forward.
The University has the responsibility not to
discriminate against any group, regardless of state and
federal policy.
Sexual orientation has no bearing on a person’s
professional or academic ability.
The Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory
University have both recently amended their non
discrimination policies to include sexual orientation.
Georgia Southern University has a similar proposal on
its agenda.
The University, with a more diverse student body
than any of these schools, should be the leader in this
progressive movement. Instead, our administration
chooses to close its mind and regress.
As Knapp called on all members of the University
community to condemn prejudice, we call on him and
the University Council to do so themselves. An
individual’s civil rights are inalienable and sacred,
lot’s hope Knapp hasn’t forgotten that this principle
applies to everyone.
Charles Knapp
STAFF
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0 faddy
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A V/ood-chucK:
Timid, rodent-like creature;
Avoids executive decision-
making because it doesn’t
have much oCa brain.
A W3ULD-BUT-WON'T- CHUCK:
Timid, rbdent;like universi^
doesn’t like controversy.
Include
homosexuality
in the non-
discrimination
policy? -
Not lairy
likely,
Conference change could benefit UGA
To say that the University is associated with
some academically mediocre schools by virtue
of its membership in the Southeastern Confer
ence is an understatement. The mindset re
flected in statements recently made by Auburn
University officials that they don’t want the
sch(x>l to become the “Harvard of the South"
doesn’t help to rescue SEC schools from that
image.
Not to say that the University is academi
cally fitter than its brethren SEC schools, but
at least Charles Knapp has made the commit
ment and taken steps to improve this school’s
standing in the academic community.
But the University community’s flippant dis
missal of a call to leave the SEC and join a con
ference better suited to Knapp’s academic
vision is distressing and reprehensible to say
the least.
Prompted by recent expansion of the SEC,
banking and finance department chair James
Verbrugge urged the University leave the con
ference. “We are only adding to the mediocre
universities in the SEC, most of which, except
for the University of Florida and Vanderbilt,
have lower national academic visions than we
do,” Verbrugge wrote in a letter to the Univer
sity Council. “As a result, we suffer from guilt
by association.
‘We are already viewed as a Toot ball’ school
outside the region,” the letter reads. “Let’s not
magnify this to a larger degree by making a de
cision based solely on athletic revenue, none of
which goes to the academic side of the Univer
sity.”
Immediately after the letter was made
public, the Bulldog faithful deemed the sugges-
Hector
Vargas
tion as blasphemous. “(T)o say I would be
against such an idea would be an understate
ment,” Athletic Director Vince Dooley said.
Tom Jackson, public information director,
went on to say, “I don’t think there was any se
rious consideration to this proposal. We’re long
time members of the SEC and very proud of
that affiliation.”
One must wonder why a proposal that is con
sistent with Knapp’s plan to create an academi
cally well-respected university would be so
summarily dismissed. Verbrugge’s argument
that decisions at the University are based more
on implications to athletic revenues than aca
demic concerns is a possible answer.
And one need only look to surveys of the na
tion’s top academic institutions to establish the
validity of Verbrugge’s claim that membership
in the ACC would be better for the University.
U.S. News and World Report’s 1989 ranking
of the top 25 national universities includes
three ACC schools, Duke at No. 5, UNC-Chapel
Hill at No. 18 and Virginia at No. 21. The SEC’s
only showing was Vanderbilt at No. 24.
Wake Forest University was named the
South’s top academic school (outside of those al
ready listed in the national Top 25). No SEC
school was listed in the region’s best nor as an
up-and-coming institution.
The magazine’s rankings for 1990 will hit
newsstands Monday. For SEC schools to even
come close to matching the showing of ACC
schools in the rankings would be a miracle of
astronomical proportions.
Perhaps caught off guard by the vehement
opposition to this proposal, Verbrugge with
drew the letter from the council’s consideration
and refuses further comment on the issue.
For him to remain silent on the issue,
though, is detrimental to the University and for
Knapp to not even consider the issue questions
his commitment to exploring every possible
means to making this an academically superior
university. As we learned so painfully just five
short years ago, there is more to this University
than athletics. Indeed, instrumental to Knapp’s
rise to the presidency here was his commitment
to rigorous academic standards.
Few would deny that the University’s
relationship with the SEC has, for the most
part, been a good one — at least athletically.
But the questions lie as to the academic liablity
SEC membership entails, questions that should
not be ignored or dismissed out of hand.
Leaving the SEC, whether to join another
conference or become an independent, would be
a big step, not to be taken lightly. In the long
run, though, it might be the best thing for the
University.
Hector Vargas is a first year law student.
Super Thunder is potentially hazardous
In 1990, it’s a necessary evil that some must
prey on other’s fears to earn a living. There is a
difference, however, between jumping on a
business opportunity and needlessly exploiting
the fears of others.
Arriving on campus this week was the
“Super Thunder," a hand-held self-defense
weapon which discharges 75,000 volts of elec
tricity through an attacker’s body. The shock
causes loss of muscle control for up to 15 min
utes, but no loss of consiousness.
The hand-held lightning bolts are being
hawked right along with jewelry, hot dogs and
newspaper subscriptions on Baldwin Street —
the main street of the University.
Some police departments nationwide hnve
equipped their uniformed patrol officers with
stun guns. They assert, as do the marketers of
the weapons, that they are easy to use and less
dnngerous than mace, the chemical deterrent
used to temporarily blind and interrupt the
breathing of nn attacker.
The police departments require that the offi
cers undergo training in the use of stun guns.
Some even require officers to shock each other
once with the device so they will know firs
thand its effects.
No such training is required for civilian users
of the powerful weapon.
Possibly the nature of the stun gun, a small
plastic weapon powered by a battery and
looking like an electric shaver, is modern
enough that it does not evoke fear in people
passing by a street vendor selling the devices.
Perhaps when we think electricity, we think
“modern convenience.” We don’t see the results
Chris
Clonts
O -
of such a weapon in the wrong hands.
The literature distributed by salesman Mark
Rothery, along with his verbal pitch, states that
the hand-held human cattle prod is useful not
only against rapists, attackers, etc., but also
“belligerent drunks, aggressive hoodlums and
violent bullies.”
A 210-pound monster spills beer down my
back one too many times while shouting ‘ War
Eagle." That is a belligerent drunk. It would be
outrageous to immediately sentence that
person to a temporary minor-league electric
chair. Though it has not happened yet, the pos
sibility exists that serious injury could result if
the victim is wearing a pacemaker or has heart
problems.
The weapons may be too easy and too conve
nient to use. Zapping the muscle control out of
an obnoxious inebriate is not a civil course of
action. It is doubtful that, if armed with a knife
or mace even a small club, one would slash,
spray or beat such a person if confronted.
The people who have weapons should be fully
aware of their power and the consequences of
their use. No weapon is a security blanket al
lowing someone to go anywhere they want any
time they want. Certainly weapons are not
convenient ways of getting out of all uncomfort
able sityations.
That such weapons exist is not reprehen
sible. There is a need, however disturbing, for
light, compact tools of self-defense.
The avaiator-sunglasses clad salesman on
Baldwin Street peddling this $55 human cattle
prod said he is targeting women in his sales
pitches, even laughing while saying “Everyone
needs one because we live in a civilized world.”
“Civilized” enough that on a college campus,
where minds are allegedly expanded in the
hope of understanding others in society, a 20th
century traveling salesman is hawking a
weapon designed to temporarily paralyze
people.
Certainly a street-vendor’s license would not
be given for a stand selling knives.
There is no fascination with knives. Knives
create major damage. Lacerated tissue and un
contained bleeding, both external and internal.
People are afraid of knives.
Tnis kind of belligerent fear and thoughts of
violent self-protection have their place: Gun
shops and hunting stores.
These thoughts and the weapons which they
lead to, as well as the salesmen hawking them,
do not belong on the University campus.
Chris Clonts is an inside copy editor for The Red
and Black.
Berta on target: U.S. must deal with emerging world order
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and pnnts them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous matenal. Letters should be typed, aoublespaced and must include the name,
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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.
In response to Valerie Berta’s
column on October 3rd, I would
like to offer my applause. The
United States is at the forefront of
many important world issues, yet
many people fail to recognize any
connections to their everyday lives.
Understandably, we are all
joined together in our desires for
nn expedient end to the crisis in
the Middle East. Our mutual sup
port in this situation stems from
the fact that this situation pokes at
every one of us, everyday. In many
other realms of foreign policy, how
ever, such a tangible connection
eludes many, and their importance
goes largely unnoticed.
With such dramatic changes as
the unification of Germany and
Capitalism’s “triumph" over world
Communism now reality, the
United States is in excellent posi
tion to seize these events a* oppor
tunities to advance the quality of
life for it* citizens, as well as
others.
When these countries turn to us
for help, they do so not as patients
seeking a cure from an all-knowing
medic, but rather as friends in
search of support and assistance
from someone who will empathize
with their problems and help in al
leviating them.
Only when we learn of the atti
tudes, attributes and past experi
ences of other cultures can we
begin to establish an active part
nership in advancing the interests
of the world’s people as a whole.
World prosperity and peace begin
with acknowledgement of our coha
bitants as equals.
Jeff Johansson
Junior, political science