Point News, 1993 April 13

              St. Mary’s student weekly • Volume 80, No. 9 April 13,1993 • St. Mary’s City, MD 20686
President Tarik Abdel-Monem and Vice-President Katherine Cheng
formed the club to provide a vehicle for an East Asian forum.
East Asia studies club
conducts first meeting
JUSTIN BRODY
staff writer
On Wednesday, March 31st, the
East Asia studies club held their first
meeting. The organization’s charter
states that the club’s primary purpose
is “To provide a vehicle for inter-cultural
forum based in East Asian
Cultures and Languages.” The club
was initiated by faculty members
Meng-Hua Ye, Jing Li, Bruce Wilson,
Henry Rosemont and student Kate
Cheng.
The meeting was called to intro­duce
the campus to the club and elect
officers. The election resulted in the
appointment of Tariq Abdel-Monem
as President; Kate Cheng as Vice Presi­dent;
Todd Gordon as Treasurer, and
Nikki Vergara as Secretary. The votes
were all unanimous.
Asked about his interest in the club,
President Tariq Abdel-Monemreplied
that his main interest was the study of
MARGARET LOPEZ
staff writer
Next week Scott Zervitz, Tim
Clarke, and Matt Webster will battle
for the position of SGA president in the
SGAelectionstobeconductedonApril
19 and 20 in Upper Charles Hall.
Scott Zervitz will be a senior next
semester, and is currently the SGA
vice-president. Zervitz has attended
St. Mary’s for three years, and has
accomplished several goals. He was
the President of the Jewish Organiza­tion
known as Hillel, and was the
President of P.G. Hall Council.
“I want to improve the SGA. SGA
“thenormalization of affairs with Viet­nam.”
He also expressed a hope that
the club would be successful and con­tinual,
stating that “There is and there
always will be Asian American stu­dents.
I hope that this is still here ten
years from now. As long as there’s an
interest, this club should exist.”
“People at the collegiate level tend
to see East and West as opposite or
complementary. I think that a better
understanding of East Asian culture
can help us understand ourselves,”
commented Vice-President Kate
Cheng.
Secretary Nikki Vergara and club-member
Essence Pierce discussed
plans for the club, “The club is exited
tohostavariety of activities scheduled
for next Fall. Such activities will
include a Chinese Moon Festival, a
Karoake Sing-A-Long Night, a ping-pong
tournament, a trip to a Chinese
Museum in Washington, D.C., and
speakers on East Asian culture”
Scott Zervitz, candidate for SGA
President, is running on the
platform of SGA experience.
should be ^student’s lobbying branch
between the faculty and the adminis­tration.
It should be the voice of the
students. SGA must represent the
students.”
If elected, Zervitz plans on making
some changes in the current format of
their meetings, “I also want to change
the format for the SGA meetings, for
example shorten the meetings.” He
plans on starting each and every SGA
meeting off with a “student speak-
Student Union committee
continues search for design ideas
TIM CLARKE
staff writer
The Student Union Building Com­mittee
has traveled to two more schools
inPennsylvaniato continue their search
for design ideas for the new building
to be constructed in the future at St.
Mary’s.
Members of the Committee, which
include College Vice President John
Underwood, Director of Facilities
Charles Jackson, Dean of Students
Charlene H. Cole, Director of Student
Activities Kenneth Holmes, and stu­dent
Alison Haworth (’94), Katrina
Overton (’95), and Tim Clarke (’95),
met with students and administrators
at Muhlenberg College Lafayette Col­lege.
This last trip concludes the part
of the process on gathering ideas from
other institutions and learning about
the process of developing a meaning­ful
college Union. Now, the commit­tee
is hoping for some real student
input from home.
Part of the process of programming
the use of the renovated Charles Hall
includes utilizing the results of the
Charles Hall Survey, completed by
students, faculty and staff in March. In
this case, the word programming is
meant to say that the Committee is
going to try and decide what types of
rooms the College is looking to in­clude,
and how much space would be
ideal for those rooms.
Charles Hall is currently around
twenty thousand square feet, and other
unions the Committee saw were as
much as three times the size of Charles
Hall. The Survey will be key in help­ing
determine the need of the College
Community for the newbuilding. Most
important were the services requested
by both students and faculty.
The most requested services in­cluded:
*pub, game rooms, lounge
areas, a Campus Store, *Post Office,
♦ATM Machine, staff lounge, a large
multi-purpose room, * expanded snack
bar, TV room, ““meeting spaces for
See UNION, Page 2
out,” which would invite students to
express their opinions for the first 20
minutes of the meeting. “I also want
to create a whole unit, and lose the
inside bickering. I want teamwork. I
would like to fix the bad image of the
SGA,”Zervitz declared.“I would also
like to have SGA issue a paper on
what we would be dealing with in the
upcoming meetings.” These papers
would be distributed around campus,
according to Zervitz.
This year Zervitz has been working
with SGA and the administration con­cerning
a new student union; within
12-18 months a blueprint should be
drawn up for a new student union
which wouldbecompletedin3-5 years.
Zervitzwould like to continue his work
with the administration next year.
Zervitz feels that he knows a good
deal of the campus, and that he can
receive divergent points of view on
certain topics. “Before voting on any­thing,
I like to talk to the people that
are involved in my decision before
hand,”he explained.
Zervitz already knows what he in­tends
to accomplish immediately if he
were to accept office, “To create a
Health and Safety Committee which
would be headed by two Queen Anne
senators.” He explained that this com­mittee
would deal with any issue con­cerning
either the healthcenter or pub­lic
safety.
Tim Clarke is the current President
of TV-6 and another candidate for the
office of SGA President. Clarke has
spent four semesters at SMC, and will
be a junior next semester.
“I am the one who brought channel
20 to campus. The money used to get
channel 20 was my money, money
from TV-6.” Clarke is one of the
driving forces for cable andreal televi­sion
stations here at St. Mary’s. “I put
together a petition to convince the
administration that students at SMC
are willing to spend money to pay for
cable.”
Clarke is currently on a committee
to renovate Charles Hall in the near
future (3-5 years) and a committee to
improve the rec rooms in the dormito­ries.
Clarke plans onremaining active
in these sort of activities if elected to
the position of SGA President
“There are many senatorial
refoims[I would like to make]. A
senator would have to have at least
two resolutions a semester [concern­ing
something relevant to SMC.] The
senators would be asked to talk to five
of theirconstituents and get their input
[on a specific issue] and then write
that down. They would then bring
their constituent’s ideas to the meet­ings.”
There would be an addition in the
number of “counsel’s” with Clarice
being elected, because he has many
ideas on important group meetings. “I
would create apresident counsel. This
is a counsel of all current club presi­dents
to discuss their leadership skills,
have mutual problem solving, share
Tim Clarke, another candidate, is
relying on the successful develop­ment
of his campus entertainment
programs to bring in the votes.
information, and to get clubs to join in
on the activities offered by other clubs.”
In addition to the President’s Coun­sel
would come the First Year Coun­sel.
This group is ,” a counsel of 8-12
first year SMC students to work with
upper class SGA executives, in order
to work them into the system.” This
counsel would train the first year stu­dents,
and give them SGA experience
to build upon for their futures. The
members of this group would be se­lected
through an application process.
One concern of Clarke’s is that,
“students need focus. SGA should be
afocus for students to promote student
input, student concerns, and to allow
students to officially work with the
administration on key issues, such as
cable, parking, etc..”
See SGA, Page 2
INSIDE
A super-special news-extra: Townhouse and Science
BuildingConstruction Update
Don’t be a Butthead!
Walt gets serious in a discussion of values
Movie God gives a positive review of “The Player55
Lots o’ Comics
Sports: Nothing out of the ordinary
Race between candidates for SGA
President heats up as election nears