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St. Mary’s College of Maryland St. Mary’s campus weekly • 52nd year, No. 15 February 27, 2001 • St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 Racial slur hurts community JEREMY CHISHOLM managing editor “Nigger association meeting next Monday. Bring your own lynch.” On Friday, February 16, at around 10 p.m., these words were found scrawled on the whiteboard outside the Black Student Union (BSU) office, and amidst their shock and outrage, students are left wondering how this could happen at St. Mary’s. Students, however, have overcome their initial reaction of shock, and are beginning to develop and articulate responses to this event. “How could somebody do this without getting caught?” said Mike Rhodes, one of the students who originally found the message. Said BSU president Rhoda Dixon, “It began to infuriate me as I thought about all the contributions that black students make on campus, their sincerity and diligence, in academics, athletics, and community service.” Public Safety is investigating the incident, but has not yet brought- charges against any individual. The response to this attack has been varied in its intensity and depth, but uniform in its condemnation of the attack as cowardly, base, and wholly unacceptable. Some members of the community have expressed the opinion that there will always be obnoxious drunks to scrawl graffiti, and that not much can be done to stop them. However, the student body at least has been strong in its push for an active response to the attack. Said Dixon, “The majority of the community does not feel this way, but I do think it was very intentional, the handwriting was legible, this was not just some drunk [attack]. You can’t minimize the issue; this was a direct attack against a specific group, not a random act on a Friday night.” The only member of the Administration who has formally made a public statement about the incident is Vice President and Dean of the College Michael Freeman. Last week he sent out an all-campus e-mail to inform the community of the incident and to issue a condemnation of it. Student response to the incident has been swift, strong, and broadly based. The incident was addressed at the SGA meeting last Tuesday. At the meeting, attended by many students, Dean Freeman, and Assitant Dean of Residence Life Joanne Goldwater, students voiced their anger at the attack. Ideas were also expressed as to what an appropriate response from the student body at large, the SGA, and the administration should be.L ast Thursday, following the SGA meeting, an organizational meeting was held in Library 321. The room was packed with a diverse group of students. At this meeting, various ideas were voiced and discussed for plans to address the incident. Students spoke of the need for a strong and swift response, and also expressed the desire to make a lasting impression. Groundwork was laid for a rally, a march, and other programs designed to express solidarity in condemning the assault. Committees were formed to head up each of these initiatives. The meeting has been perceived as a positive step in the right direction. Said Dixon, “Student response thus far has been on the right track—it was encouraging to see such a diverse group of people.” The following Friday, SGA president Constantin Kostenko organized a committee to address the issue from an SGA standpoint, to consider policy protocol developments. The SGA had previously passed a resolution at the start of the semester, in response to an incident of vandalism last semester, to address “hate crimes.” Many students have argued that, especially after a second attack, the SGA should push for the implementation of new standards and policies at various levels of College organization. Most have focused on new protocols for RAs to follow in the event of a “hate crime.” RAs would be trained in how to respond to incidents of vandalism that bear a message of “hate.” Snow Day at St Mary ’sir Students and faculty enjoyed an afternoon off on Thursday. The College closed at noon, in anticipation of the coming snow storm. Here, a group of students make the most of the opportunity for a late-winter frolic in the freshly-fallen snow. photo by Brian Sutherland “My biggest concern is that students don’t know how to immediately address the issue,” said Dixon, who is also an RA in Queen Anne Hall, A more controversial policy development has not as of yet received much attention. Several members of the community have suggested that perhaps we need a new speech code, and that the use of some words should be punishable by College sanction. “Perpetrators should be punished for their actions, and also their words, because their words were racially motivated; the intentions were directed towards a specific group, black members of the community,” said Dixon. As plans advance for an organized public response to the incident, students are hopeful, but also aware that this is not an issue which can be dealt with overnight. Said Dixon, “I don’t know if the community realizes that this is a journey; we are moving towards reconciliation and unity, but we’re not there yet. We need to be careful that we don’t become prideful in how we perceive our community and glamorize it.” Said Brandon Jones, the student who recorded the offensive graffiti on video, “Changing the people who did this, that’s what the effort should be aimed at.” —Shawn Milleville contributed to this report. Students discuss smoking in the residence halls at SGA meeting SHAWN MILLEVILLE editor-in-chief The issue of smoking in the residence halls was discussed last Tuesday at the SGA meeting, with Assistant Dean of Residence Life Joanne Goldwater attending the meeting. The issue being discussed was the possible banning of smoking from all current residence halls. Most of the students there to discuss the issue were smokers protesting this idea. Smoking in the residence halls became an issue after the mold in the Calvert basement was discovered. As reported in the Feb. 6 issue of The Point News (“Mold found in Calvert; cleanup a work in progress”), the problem was discovered when renovations on the basement were growing mold a few days after new dry wall was put in place. The mold has caused the need for the basement offices in Calvert to be evacuated so that repairs on the mold problem can be made. While the basement is being fixed the staff in the basement will be moved to offices being built in Anne Arundel in the space that was the old campus bookstore. When Dr. Ebenezer Israel, the St. Mary’s County Health officer, came to inspect the mold in Calvert, he expressed concern with the ventilation systems in not only Calvert but in the other residence halls on campus. The age of the buildings and the lack of recent renovations were a concern to Dr. Israel, and he recommended that smoking should be banned immediately from all the residence halls due to the poor air ventilation system. Goldwater reminded students before the discussion began that “Smoking is not permitted in any state-owned building; however, we have made the exception for our students in the residence halls.” She also said that the townhouses would not fall under this rule because each townhouse has its own air conditioning and heating system. She also made the assumption that smoking in the new suite-style residence hall would be okay because the new building would have the properly needed ventilation system. Once the discussion was opened to the students, many people had different things to say. Many students questioned the need for such a ban when the windows could be left open with a fan on. Other students made recommendations such as having smoking-only halls or residence halls. Some students were adamant about being able to smoke in the dorms either because of the amount they pay to go here or the fact that they are making an informed decision to smoke. On the other side, there were also some non-smokers there who took part in the discussion. While most of the non-smokers did not care either way about the issue, a few were very obstinate in their .opinion that smoking in the residence halls is a problem. In the end, Goldwater was happy to hear all students’ opinions because she was “not comfortable just saying ‘thou shall not [smoke in residence halls]’.” While the future of the issue is still up in the airrightnow, SGA vice president and third-year student Lauren Dunnock told students at the meeting that “It’s up to the students; if you guys are really upset about this, we won’t do it.” Inside ------- •NEWS...............................................................2 FEATURES.....................................................3 HUMOR..........................................!................4 A&E................................................................., 5 OPINION........... ......................................... 6-7 SPORTS...........................................................8 F lying S aucers on C ampus An old campus tradition is being revived this spring, and you’ll want to keep your eyes open. Page three. 13 133 # @ # ! !@ AND ALL . THAT ! % @ @ # Humor editor Matt Pembleton shares the love on Page four. § H ateful W ords Students speak out about the vandalism of the BSU office message board. Pages six and seven.
Object Description
Title | Point News, 2001 February 27 |
Date | 2001-02-27 |
Year | 2001 |
Masthead | Point News |
Geographic Coverage | United States -- Maryland -- Saint Marys City |
Subject | St. Mary's College of Maryland - Newspapers |
Type | Text |
Technical Metadata | Digitized at 400 dpi true optical resolution / 256-color grayscale to uncompressed TIFF master files using i2S CopiBook HD 600. Searchable PDF derivatives shown here are downscaled to 150 dpi / Medium quality. |
Repository | St. Mary's College of Maryland Archives ( http://www.smcm.edu/archives/ ) |
Rights | St. Mary's College of Maryland retains all rights to the digital images presented on this website. The SMCM Archives website is intended for educational and research purposes only. |
Date Digital | 2012-05-18 |
Digitized by | Creekside Digital |
File Name | 2001-02-27.pdf |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
FullText | St. Mary’s College of Maryland St. Mary’s campus weekly • 52nd year, No. 15 February 27, 2001 • St. Mary’s City, MD 20686 Racial slur hurts community JEREMY CHISHOLM managing editor “Nigger association meeting next Monday. Bring your own lynch.” On Friday, February 16, at around 10 p.m., these words were found scrawled on the whiteboard outside the Black Student Union (BSU) office, and amidst their shock and outrage, students are left wondering how this could happen at St. Mary’s. Students, however, have overcome their initial reaction of shock, and are beginning to develop and articulate responses to this event. “How could somebody do this without getting caught?” said Mike Rhodes, one of the students who originally found the message. Said BSU president Rhoda Dixon, “It began to infuriate me as I thought about all the contributions that black students make on campus, their sincerity and diligence, in academics, athletics, and community service.” Public Safety is investigating the incident, but has not yet brought- charges against any individual. The response to this attack has been varied in its intensity and depth, but uniform in its condemnation of the attack as cowardly, base, and wholly unacceptable. Some members of the community have expressed the opinion that there will always be obnoxious drunks to scrawl graffiti, and that not much can be done to stop them. However, the student body at least has been strong in its push for an active response to the attack. Said Dixon, “The majority of the community does not feel this way, but I do think it was very intentional, the handwriting was legible, this was not just some drunk [attack]. You can’t minimize the issue; this was a direct attack against a specific group, not a random act on a Friday night.” The only member of the Administration who has formally made a public statement about the incident is Vice President and Dean of the College Michael Freeman. Last week he sent out an all-campus e-mail to inform the community of the incident and to issue a condemnation of it. Student response to the incident has been swift, strong, and broadly based. The incident was addressed at the SGA meeting last Tuesday. At the meeting, attended by many students, Dean Freeman, and Assitant Dean of Residence Life Joanne Goldwater, students voiced their anger at the attack. Ideas were also expressed as to what an appropriate response from the student body at large, the SGA, and the administration should be.L ast Thursday, following the SGA meeting, an organizational meeting was held in Library 321. The room was packed with a diverse group of students. At this meeting, various ideas were voiced and discussed for plans to address the incident. Students spoke of the need for a strong and swift response, and also expressed the desire to make a lasting impression. Groundwork was laid for a rally, a march, and other programs designed to express solidarity in condemning the assault. Committees were formed to head up each of these initiatives. The meeting has been perceived as a positive step in the right direction. Said Dixon, “Student response thus far has been on the right track—it was encouraging to see such a diverse group of people.” The following Friday, SGA president Constantin Kostenko organized a committee to address the issue from an SGA standpoint, to consider policy protocol developments. The SGA had previously passed a resolution at the start of the semester, in response to an incident of vandalism last semester, to address “hate crimes.” Many students have argued that, especially after a second attack, the SGA should push for the implementation of new standards and policies at various levels of College organization. Most have focused on new protocols for RAs to follow in the event of a “hate crime.” RAs would be trained in how to respond to incidents of vandalism that bear a message of “hate.” Snow Day at St Mary ’sir Students and faculty enjoyed an afternoon off on Thursday. The College closed at noon, in anticipation of the coming snow storm. Here, a group of students make the most of the opportunity for a late-winter frolic in the freshly-fallen snow. photo by Brian Sutherland “My biggest concern is that students don’t know how to immediately address the issue,” said Dixon, who is also an RA in Queen Anne Hall, A more controversial policy development has not as of yet received much attention. Several members of the community have suggested that perhaps we need a new speech code, and that the use of some words should be punishable by College sanction. “Perpetrators should be punished for their actions, and also their words, because their words were racially motivated; the intentions were directed towards a specific group, black members of the community,” said Dixon. As plans advance for an organized public response to the incident, students are hopeful, but also aware that this is not an issue which can be dealt with overnight. Said Dixon, “I don’t know if the community realizes that this is a journey; we are moving towards reconciliation and unity, but we’re not there yet. We need to be careful that we don’t become prideful in how we perceive our community and glamorize it.” Said Brandon Jones, the student who recorded the offensive graffiti on video, “Changing the people who did this, that’s what the effort should be aimed at.” —Shawn Milleville contributed to this report. Students discuss smoking in the residence halls at SGA meeting SHAWN MILLEVILLE editor-in-chief The issue of smoking in the residence halls was discussed last Tuesday at the SGA meeting, with Assistant Dean of Residence Life Joanne Goldwater attending the meeting. The issue being discussed was the possible banning of smoking from all current residence halls. Most of the students there to discuss the issue were smokers protesting this idea. Smoking in the residence halls became an issue after the mold in the Calvert basement was discovered. As reported in the Feb. 6 issue of The Point News (“Mold found in Calvert; cleanup a work in progress”), the problem was discovered when renovations on the basement were growing mold a few days after new dry wall was put in place. The mold has caused the need for the basement offices in Calvert to be evacuated so that repairs on the mold problem can be made. While the basement is being fixed the staff in the basement will be moved to offices being built in Anne Arundel in the space that was the old campus bookstore. When Dr. Ebenezer Israel, the St. Mary’s County Health officer, came to inspect the mold in Calvert, he expressed concern with the ventilation systems in not only Calvert but in the other residence halls on campus. The age of the buildings and the lack of recent renovations were a concern to Dr. Israel, and he recommended that smoking should be banned immediately from all the residence halls due to the poor air ventilation system. Goldwater reminded students before the discussion began that “Smoking is not permitted in any state-owned building; however, we have made the exception for our students in the residence halls.” She also said that the townhouses would not fall under this rule because each townhouse has its own air conditioning and heating system. She also made the assumption that smoking in the new suite-style residence hall would be okay because the new building would have the properly needed ventilation system. Once the discussion was opened to the students, many people had different things to say. Many students questioned the need for such a ban when the windows could be left open with a fan on. Other students made recommendations such as having smoking-only halls or residence halls. Some students were adamant about being able to smoke in the dorms either because of the amount they pay to go here or the fact that they are making an informed decision to smoke. On the other side, there were also some non-smokers there who took part in the discussion. While most of the non-smokers did not care either way about the issue, a few were very obstinate in their .opinion that smoking in the residence halls is a problem. In the end, Goldwater was happy to hear all students’ opinions because she was “not comfortable just saying ‘thou shall not [smoke in residence halls]’.” While the future of the issue is still up in the airrightnow, SGA vice president and third-year student Lauren Dunnock told students at the meeting that “It’s up to the students; if you guys are really upset about this, we won’t do it.” Inside ------- •NEWS...............................................................2 FEATURES.....................................................3 HUMOR..........................................!................4 A&E................................................................., 5 OPINION........... ......................................... 6-7 SPORTS...........................................................8 F lying S aucers on C ampus An old campus tradition is being revived this spring, and you’ll want to keep your eyes open. Page three. 13 133 # @ # ! !@ AND ALL . THAT ! % @ @ # Humor editor Matt Pembleton shares the love on Page four. § H ateful W ords Students speak out about the vandalism of the BSU office message board. Pages six and seven. |