Newspaper Page Text
Feb. 6,1997
Tomorrow’s
Weather
Light Rain
Highs in the mid 50s
Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house goes "substance free"
Daniel Stansbury
Staff Writer
Toss out the smokes, flush the
illegals, and roll away the beer
barrel-for good! Alpha Tau
Omega has decided to break the
Hollywood-depicted image of fra
ternity life and go "substance free."
According to Chan Mitchell,
president of the Alpha Tau Omega
(ATO) fraternity, the West Geor
gia chapter of ATO has decided to
make their fraternity house sub
stance free. What this means is
that no alcoholic beverages, drugs,
or tobacco products will be al
lowed in the house at all.
“Lots of people want to join a
fraternity, but are discouraged by
the image of a frat house as just a
place to go and get drunk,” said
Mitchell. “We are hoping that by
going substance free, we are open
ing the door to fraternity life for
these people.”
Consulting firm to review
six entries for new logo
Chris P. Bailey
Staff Writer
When UWG President Dr.
Beheruz Sethna announced in
early fall that the administration
was considering a change in the
university’s logo, a large num
ber of entries werereceived. Now
those entrants are beginning to
wonder what happened with their
designs.
According to Dr. B ill Rooks,
chairman of the logo committee,
those designs are still being con
sidered in an effort to decide
which symbol would best repre
sent the school. “The decision is
so important that the president
wanted a number of options open
to him,” he said.
In order to arrive at a deci
sion, Dr. Sethna assigned a logo
committee the duty of sifting
through the various proposals.
They judged the entries on the
basis of a number of questions,
including: Does the logo tell West
West Georgian
The National Headquarters for
the ATO fraternity has issued a chal
lenge to all the local chapters to
instigate a substance free policy
similar to this one.
Kevin Fineis, treasurer for the
ATO fraternity, said, “this is an at
tempt to break free from the frater
nity image. All the brothers got
together and agreed this would be
the right thing to do. We want to
show people that our fraternity is
about developing leadership quali
ties and making good grades, not
about partying and all the bad stuff
most fraternities are associated
with.”
Both fraternity leaders expect
membership to increase with the
:hange and hope that other fraterni
ties will follow suit.
‘This is an attempt to clean up
the whole fraternity image,” said
Mitchell. “Maybe the other frater
nities will realize how positive this
is and follow our example.”
Georgia’s story and does it make a
quick and lasting impression?
After narrowing the competi
tion down to six in early Decem
ber, the logo committee turned the
reins over to the Presidential Ad-,
visory Committee (PAC).
After discussing the issue, the
Faculty Senate recommended al
lowing a professional firm, Cox
and Associates, to inspect all of
the designs. The firm held six
focus groups comprised of stu
dents and alumni to help deter
mine their proposal.
Some have wondered why the
school does not keep the current
logo, the Mclntosh Stone in a red
circle, which has been the college’s
symbol since 1980. Dr. Sethna
declares that none of the designs
have been completely rejected,
including the Mclntosh Stone.
Until Cox and Associates
makes a recommendation to the
PAC, no official date has been set
for the changing of the logo.
The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house, located on Maple Street, has decided to ban all smoking and drinking
inside the house and become "substance free." Photo by Kyle Taylor.
Helmlniak holds second forum to discuss
"Homosexuality and the Bible"
Chad Long
Assistant Sports Editor
“What the Bible Really says
about Homosexuality” was the topic
of a lecture given by West Georgia
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Dr. Daniel Helminiak on Tuesday
night in the Bonner Lecture Hall. (
Helminiak is a nationally recognized
speaker and author of five books
and numerous scholarly articles.
Entering the lecture hall to a
crowd of approximately 100 people,
Helminiak was just beginning his
lecture when he was interrupted by
an obviously hostile audience
member.
Helminiak continued his lecture
and presented his argument that the
Bible does not condemn
homosexuality. He cited Paul’s
letter in Romans 1:27 and several
ambiguities involving the translation
of words from Greek to the King
James Version of the Bible.
Helminiak said that in several places
“there -are many instances of
(certain) words being used without
morally judgmental connotations
and then in other locations, the same
words are translated to include moral
judgments.”
Helminiak also argued that Paul
was using homosexuality as a ploy
to gain an audience with the Jews
and later pointed out that Paul did
not view homosexuality as an issue
worthy of argument.
Helminiak also discussed recent
evidence and research on an alleged
Biblical account, in both Luke 7:1-
10 and Matthew 8:5-13, of Jesus
healing the male lover of a Roman
Centurion. He said that the
Centurion was a wealthy older male
who specifically wanted Jesus to
heal his emotionally important
young male or slave.
Helminiak said that in first
century Rome, asexual relationship
between a wealthy older male and a
younger male servant was normal
and that “you don’t have to stretch
your imagination to get an idea of
what was going on here.” He also
noted that in both accounts Jesus
commended the faith of the
Centurion and healed the servant/
slave.
Helminiak also discussed the
historical-critical approach to
interpreting the Bible and stated
that this method is now the
preferred method among most
major denominations.
The method involves
realizing, Helminiak said, that the
Bible means what it meant when it
was written long ago. He said that
the context the Bible was written
in was much different than the
context we live in today.
Helminiak stated that when
the Bible was written, “No one
was aware of homosexuality as an
elaborate psychological state,” and
that “We are now in a period of
unprccedentedchangeand turmoil.
It’s understandable that people will
disagree.”
Helminiak also said “By
taking the Bible and putting it in
See FORUM, page 2