Protesters should take their demands to the students
Wow, there are students at
this University who are
alive and socially sensi
tive. They proved it a week ago.
In the wake of the recent sit-in
at Johnson Hall, I’m sure many
people are realizing their strong
feelings about racism, sexual ha
rassment and free speech. Each
one of these issues is a major part
of the entire debate fueled by a
hate e-mail in a planning, public
policy and management class.
Student protesters are right
when they say the University
does not do enough to make stu
dents of color feel welcome and
safe on campus. True, faculty and
staff ought to go through some
sort of racial sensitivity seminars.
Many classrooms where modem
political issues are discussed lack
the implicit restrictions on such
phrases that fueled the entire e
mail debate in the PPPM class.
Students should be unhappy
that any student feels comfortable
at this University making racist
remarks.
Students should be angry noth
ing ever gets done about it. But
tell the truth: Is the administra
tion solely to blame for the gener
al apathy toward racism on this
campus? Doesn’t the University
include students?
From what I have read, student
protesters seem to be most angry
with the lack of immediate reso
lution to these issues on our cam
pus and the abundance of bureau
cracy in the University’s
administration.
I was under the impression
that bureaucracy is the main
function of something under the
name of “administration.” That’s
its role. They enforce the rules by
which we live. They deal with the
paperwork and committees that
are part of a system. So why are
students blaming the administra
tion for a lack of speed? Why are
students willing to crucify Uni
versity President Dave Frohn
may er for being a bureaucrat?
That’s what he gets paid to do.
A more reasonable thing to be
upset about is the process that was
set up to deal with these prob
lems. The process I refer to is the
Student Conduct Code and the
ways by which we punish offend
ers. If I am not mistaken, students
were an integral part in setting up
those policies and processes.
Students sat on committees,
students rallied for support, stu
dents even
Commentary
CoraL students con
tinue to do
* those things
to make the
Student Conduct Code better. So
tell me again: Why is the Univer
sity administration being blamed
for a lack of an immediate solu
tion when we didn’t ask for one
from the very beginning?
Following the Johnson Hall sit
in, students helped set up a very
time-consuming process to deal
with problems and issues such as
sexual harassment and threats of
violence. Hence, never-ending
bureaucracy.
These issues affect people in
the most immediate of ways. We
set up this process to be fair and to
involve everyone.
In this case, however, protest
ers are demanding an immediate
solution. And because it fits their
needs now, some students feel
justified in demanding that
Frohnmayer ignore the process
students asked for.
Speaking of never-ending bu
reaucracy, what are long-term
goals if not an invitation to it?
ASUO State Affairs Coordinator
Matt Swanson was quoted in the
Emerald (ODE, May 26) as saying,
“Bureaucracy as a whole is unre
sponsive. Demands and needs get
diluted through the process. ”
Well, it certainly is poetic that
students sent demands through
bureaucracy, again. Will they ever
learn? MEChA did. They finally
asked students, through a vote, to
support a boycott of Gardenburger.
Student groups get money each
year from the student population
when they ask for it at elections. I
know elections seem far away, but
how soon do you think $1 million
is going to come from the Universi
ty budget for multicultural groups?
The same protesters explicitly
demanding quick resolutions just
implicitly asked for more time
consuming processes. Moreover,
they took the process of change
out of student hands and placed it
in the hands of the administration
they’re angry with.
If what I’ve read in the papers is
correct, the man accused of send
ing threatening e-mail deserves to
be brought up on charges of vio
lating the Student Conduct Code,
and he needs to go through the
process it prescribes.
Students need to stop using
Frohnmayerandthe University ad
ministration as scapegoats for the
issues that affect students the most.
Cora L. Bennett is majoring in Eng
lish and political science.
JNATO strikes Milosevic’s villa; surge in rape cases reported
ay naiarma uratovac
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — NATO war
planes attacked Slobodan Milosevic’s villa and
other targets across Yugoslavia on Tuesday,
and the military alliance approved a revised
plan for an enlarged peacekeeping ground
force in Kosovo as soon as Serb troops depart.
A new wave of refugees — as many as
150,000—were reported bound for Macedo
nia, and a U.N. report detailed in graphic fash
ion “a significant upsurge” in sexual violence
against ethnic Albanian women in Kosovo
since NATO airstrikes began two months ago.
The U.N. Population Fund, which sent re
productive health kits to Kosovo in April
that included “morning after” pills for rape
victims, said the report was the first attempt
by a United Nations organization to verify
the accounts by refugee women.
Reports of rape as a tool of war and sexual
violence against ethnic Albanian women
have been circulating for months, but psy
chologist Dominique Serrano-Fitamant said
“new women arriving from Kosovo indicate
that the violence is increasing.”
According to the accounts of 35 women
she interviewed, “any resistance is met with
threats of being burned alive,” Serrano-Fita
mant said. Kosovo men who tried to inter
vene were killed on the spot, she was told.
The trauma led some women to describe
themselves as being forever “dead” to their
families because of the stigma of being raped
and violated in Muslim society, she said.
Aid officials, meanwhile, pushed for tent
cities to be expanded in Macedonia. In
neighboring Albania, NATO began moving
thousands of refugees away from camps too
close to the dangerous border with Kosovo.
NATO strikes also were reported Tuesday
on military barracks, fuel depots and other
targets in central Serbia. Loud detonations
shook the Kosovo capital, Pristina, late Tues
day, signaling new attacks.
The state-run Tanjug news agency said a
5-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was injured
when a missile struck a neighborhood in
Vucitm in northern Kosovo. Five projectiles
also reportedly downed a power line, cutting
off electricity in the province’s west.
The deputy chairman of the municipal
government of Srbica, 25 miles northwest of
Pristina, and his driver were injured Tues
day in an ambush staged by “Albanian ter
rorists,” or the Kosovo Liberation Army, the
private Beta news agency said. Beta said the
two Serbs were recovering at a hospital but
gave no further details.
Three ethnic Albanians were arrested
Tuesday on espionage charges in Kosovo,
while five more on the run were charged on
similar counts, Tanjug reported. The three
arrested are suspected of collecting informa
tion on the Yugoslav army and police troops
in the province and giving it to NATO.
At NATO headquarters in Belgium, the al
liance’s top policymaking body, the North
Atlantic Council, approved an updated plan
for the ground force intended to head into
Kosovo once Serb forces leave.
NATO generals now must decide exactly
how many troops will be needed, but the
NATO-led force — earlier envisioned as
28,000-strong — is expected to number
about 50,000. The United States would like
ly supply 7,000 to 8,000 troops.
“This force... will speak softly, by which I
mean that it will be friendly to everybody ...
but it will have very sharp teeth as well as very
big teeth if anybody should try to oppose it
carrying out its mandate or to threaten its per
sonnel,” said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea.
Poor weather hampered NATO’s military
operation Tuesday, but jets struck the Yu
goslav leader’s villa just west of Belgrade for
the third time as well as artillery locations
and a logistics support base.
Jets also fired at Mount Cer, 60 miles west
of Belgrade, where a key communications
transmitter is located; at the Batajnica mili
tary airport northwest of Belgrade; and in the
suburb Rakovica, site of a large underground
military complex, state media reported.
As many as five missiles slammed into an
unspecified target near the resort town Su
tomore on the coast of Montenegro, the re
bellious junior republic in Yugoslavia that
has pro-Western leadership.
Refugees continued pouring out of Koso
vo. U.N. aid workers said in the past three
days, 22,000 ethnic Albanian refugees have
fled to Macedonia, the most since the first
week of May.
Food for Thought
Luncheon
W)
> May 26th
V
Sexua
11:30-12:30
Ben Linder Room, EMU
Relationships &
Communication
Presenter: Judy Sonnenberg, Psy.D.,
Clinical Psychologist,
University Counseling Center
Mon this brought to y»« ^
I Assault Awareness Month
a&apj
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