Point News, 1990 November 14

              Accident prompts
evaluation of van use
By Aaron Garnett
staff writer
Acting Dean of Students Veil
Hayes is currently not approving
any requests for Maryland state
vehicles to be driven out-of-state by
students, though all requests that
have already been approved are still
effective. A request may still be
approved if it is deemed necessary
and important, and the driver is to be
a staff or faculty member. Dean
Hayes has contacted the office of
the Maryland State Attorney Gen­eral
to determine the extent to which
the state's automotive insurance
covers state cars and vans driven by
St. Mary's College students.
Although any student may
receive authorization to drive a state
vehicle though Public Safety, the
Dean of Students must approve the
release of each state vehicle used in
conjunction with a student activity.
In regard to the policy of allowing
students to drive state vehicles on
long-distance trips, Hayes states "The
whole process h as kind of concerned
me." Hayes' recent actions are
prompted by an accident in Con­necticut
involving a state van driven
by the Crew team, in which there
were several injuries. "There has
never been a personal injury up to
this time," remarks Hayes. As well
as contacting the Attorney General,
Hayes is forming a task force to
review the policy by which students
are approved to drive state vehicles.
The Attorney General will
inform Hayes whether the state's
insurance covers all students, or just
those who are college employees. If
some drivers are not covered, the
task force may decide to have those
students sign a waiver before they
are allowed to drive a state vehicle.
The task force will also ex­amine
possible abuse of state vans.
"We don't really want to affect the
programming that the students en­joy
through the use of state vehicles
. . . I think at this point [the policy]
is a little too lax, though," Hayes
stated.
MD examining possibility of
merging SMC with Historic City
Student protesters call for Herring's resignation
Demonstrators feel Judicial Board procedures need to be evaluated
Administration says students would receive "firstpriority "
Vroom. Vroom. This baby's got a big block V8.
PHOTO BY AARON GARNETT
By Phil March
staff writer
Protesting students hung this likeness (?) of Herring.
PHOTO BY AARON GARNETT
A group of students gathered
outside Lower Charles Hall around 4
pm last Thursday, November 8, call­ing
for the resignation of Dorchester
Residence Hall Coordinator, senior
Chuck Herring. Nearly 50 students
gathered though it is unclear which
students were involved in the demon­stration
and which were onlookers.
The students, the majority of which
reside off campus, paraded from Dorch­ester
circle yelling chants while one
student beat on a drum. An effigy,
presumably of Herring, was hung from
the library's antenna tower. Soon after
confronting Herring with their con­cerns
the crowd peacefully dissipated.
Vocal students felt that Her­ring's
behavior two weeks earlier after
a breathalizer demonstration warranted
his resignation or, at the least, a Judi­cial
Board hearing. They claimed he
"hit" Dorchester resident Benyam Asefa
and broke a window at Dorchester
Hall. Some demonstrators also ex­pressed
discontent with present Judi­cial
Board procedures and with the
fact that Residence Life staff are not
required to appear before the same
board as other students.
On Thursday, October 18, Her­ring
participated in a Sheriffs presen­tation
on the effects of alcohol. As part
of the program Herring consumed a
pint of Jim Bean and, before leaving
the function, blew a .14 blood alcohol
content during a breathalizer demon­stration.
According to Herring, he re­turned
to his dorm at the end of the
program. Herring says he may have
touched the Asefa on the shoulder in
greeting, but "was not violent by any
stretch of the means." He admits to
accidentally breaking a study window
rapping on it to get the attention of
students inside.
Asefa says he was intimidated
by Herring but does not feel he was
assaulted or that Herring's intentions
were ill-natured. Herring paid for the
damages, apologized to Asefa ver­bally,
and posted a written apology on
each restroom door in Dorchester Hall
thenextmoming. He also wrote up an
incident report on himself and submit­ted
himself to his superior, Residence
Life Coordinator Ken Winegrad.
Students representing the dem­onstrators
felt that, had Herring not
been a member of the Residence Life
staff he would have been brought before
the Judicial Board and been more
strongly reprimanded.
A petition calling for Herring's
resignation is being compiled.
By Andrea Egger
staff writer
Due to sweeping cuts in the
state budget, the Governor's office is
looking into a possible merger of St.
Mary's College with Historic SL Mary's
City.
State budget analysts have dis­cussed
the "feasibility" of a unifica­tion
with representatives of both the
college and the St. Mary's City Com­mission
during the past few weeks,
according to Chris Cihlar of the St.
Mary's College Public Information
Office. The analyst's report is expected
to be filed later this month for review
by the state Secretary of Budget and
Fiscal Planning who may then take it
to the Governor to determine the next
step.
Cihlar suggested some possible
results of the review. "One, the report
will show that it's a bad idea. Forget it
. . . Two, this needs further study
before a recommendation can be made
. . . Three, it looks like a pretty good
idea, so far, let's proceed with the next
step." She refused to speculate on the
odds of any of these things occurring,
however.
If the merger is deemed eco­nomically
efficient, a lengthy bureau­cratic
process will ensue. As Cihlar
remarked, "It's not going to happen
overnight." She also emphasized that
the unification would not affect the
college budget (savings are expected
in the combining of service areas such
as management, security and mainte­nance),
and that student programs would
always take "first priority" in budget
considerations.
Mary Janssen, of the Historic
St. Mary's City Rescue Coalition, was
quoted in The Enterprise with reserva­tions
about the consolidation. "The
track record of the college is perfectly
terrible. They don't seem to care about
history . . . they develop without re­gard
to what is underneath the ground
... We will lose [HSMC] if the college
takes over."
Cihlar, who knows Janssen "quite
well," commented on this.
"The sensitivity of the college is
considerably different than it was 2,3,
5 or 10 years ago toward these issues.
Part of [the change] was due to the
controversy over the location of the
new science building and part of it was
the celebration of our 150th anniver­sary
last year . . . We became reac­quainted
with our roots. In fact, the
reason [SMC] exists on this spot today
is because it's in St. Mary's City, and
we were founded by the legislature as
a living monument to the important
things that happened here. If you say
that often enough, you start to inter­nalize
it. I have it from Dr. Lewis, Dr.
Underwood and the Board of Trustees
that the college is definitely commit­ted
to protecting the historical signifi­cance
of this place." She added, "Those
are words. You have to judge people
by their actions."
FILE PHOTO
This building looks much like the original State House of 1676.