Oregon Daily
TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 30. 1993
EUGENE. OREGON
VOLUME 95. ISSUE 63
Maine fraternity
thrives despite
no-alcohol rule
□ Sigma Chi house overcomes odds
to rebuild chapter with new policy
ORONO, Maine (AP) — Gone are the days when the
Sigma Chi fraternity house was a dark, empty place with
broken windows, holes in graffiti-splattered walls and
the stale smell of old l»er.
Tyler Batteese,the lone student who lived then) with
the chapter adviser, drew smirks from partying fraterni
ties as he tried to rebuild the chapter with a key house
rule: no booze.
But a funny thing has happened. The hrewless chap
ter house, now renovated, is flourishing.
"The Animal House days are over," said Blake Fryer,
a senior speech communications major. “We're getting
back to what fraternities were meant to !>e."
The message has not been lost on a University of
Maine campus where alcohol continues to be a chief
source of entertainment through long northern winters
Amid seven sororities and 13 fraternities, which have an
average membership of 30. Sigma Chi has grown to 18
members with a 14-member pledge class this full.
"We're very enthused and positive," Fryer said. "This
is a definite wave of the future. There's no way a frater
nity based on alcohol abuse and hazing tan survive.”
Members adhere to a strict policy of no alcohol in the
chapter house, although members are not barred from
Turn to ALCOHOL Page 3
Artistic Moment
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Chad Shepard, a freshman tine arts major, works on a drawing project Monday at the EMU
Sex act policy questions academic liberty
Class offers
mentor plan
□Alumni will meet with
students for career aid
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Students now can learn about
career possibilities by talking with
University alumni and earn college
credit at the same time in a class
that debuts next term.
The Alumni Mentor Program
offers four classes — for chemistry,
English and marketing majors, and
a general section for all majors — in
Turn to MENTOR. Page 4
□ Teachers say policy is
form of censorship
IOWA CITY. Iowa (AF) — Students
complained about sexually graphic mate
rial shown in University of Iowa class
rooms. Now faculty members are
complaining that an order to warn stu
dents about steamy subjects is censor
ship.
The Iowa Board of Regents, which
oversees the University of Iowa, imposed
a policy last month requiring teachers to
tell students when they are about to see
"explicit representations of human sex
ual acts."
The policy stems from complaints over
a film shown in a German class in Sep
tember 1991 The movie. Taxi zum Klo.
or Taxi to the Bathroom, was billed as an
erotic comedy and a landmark in gay
film miking
Complaints from students, parents,
alumni and legislators flooded the
school, forcing university President
Hunter Rawlings to issue a public apolo
gy
Administrators told faculty in the Col
lege of Liberal Arts to be aware of stu
dents' sensibilities and tell them ahead of
time about any material that might be
objectionable.
Then, last February, art teaching assis
tant Megan O'Connell showed a local
artists' eight-minute video to 160 stu
dents at her weekly colloquium. The
video contained three scenes, totaling
about 15 seconds, of men engaging in oral
sex.
That's when the regents ordered the
University of Iowa, Iowa State University
and the University of Northern Iowa to
establish policies to worn students.
"We don't like it," Rawlings said of the
policy. "It gives us a certain unique
ness in American higher education that I
think none of us savors."
The policy is unsound, awkward and
an embarrassment to the school, said
Robert O'Neil, founding director of the
Thomas (efferson Center for the Protec
tion of Free Expression at the University
of Virginia.
"I don't think there's any question that
it reflects u kind of outlook, a climate
which is not as sympathetic to academic
freedom and free inquiry as Iowa's tradi
tions would suggest,” O'Neil said.
Regents' President Marvin Berenstein
said the policy is really nothing more
than a courtesy to students. The warnings
Turn to POLICY Page 3
Family chosen to build new house
□ Ross family raises walls
on Habitat for Humanity home
By Mika OLeary
For rhe Oregon Daily Emerald
Randy Ross has lived in Eugene for 20 years
and is finally seeing his dream of owning his
own home come true.
As the snowflakes fell last week, the Ross fam
ily ceremonially raised the first wall of the now
home. It was made possible by the work of Habi
tat for Humanity: a glottal charitable organization
that builds low-income housing.
In the past 17 years. Habitat for Humanity has
built 25,000 homes in 41 countries. The local
chapter has built four homes in Springfield dur
ing the last three years. Habitat homes in the
United States generally cost $35,000 to build.
The Ross' four-bedroom, 12.000-square-foot
home will be built through a community-wide
partnership. Tire family agrees to pay a no-inter
est loan for the cost of the house, as well as help
build the home with the help of dozens of Habi
tat volunteers.
The Ross family was approved to receive a
Habitat home two years ago. But because they
didn't want to movo their children out of Eugene
schools, they passed up two Habitat homes that
were built in Springfield in the hopes that a
Eugene site might be found. The Ross* home is
the first Habitat home to be built in Eugene.
Gerry Keenan, the Habitat for Humanity Area
Chapter president, said Habitat has wanted to
build a home in Eugene for years, but wasn't able
Turn to HABITAT, Page 4
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Tho Roaa family atanda In front of thoir tutura homo