Maroon

              Thge Loyola  MAROON October 31,1991 Volume 70 No. 9 Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 Candlelight march reclaims the night By Chris Raphael and Abby Krai Staff Writers Students and faculty from Loyola and Tulane campuses "took back the night" with a peaceful vengeance last Thursday in a candlelight march to protest and raise awareness of violence against women. According to some women, it was the first time they felt safe walking around campus anywhere during the nighttime this year. Starting from Tulane's Pocket Park, approximately 300 marchers paraded down Freret Street to St. Charles Avenue, shouting "Sisters united will never be defeated" and "Take your hands off my body." Ending up at Loyola's horseshoe, the demonstrators placed a Venus symbol, draped in tissue splattered with red substance symbolizing blood, in front of the Jesus statue outside Marquette Hall. The march, the first of its kind, was organized and paid for by several organizations from Loyola and Tulane universities, including Loyola's Sexual Aggression Committee, the Women's Issues Organization, the Loyola University Community Action Program (LUCAP), City College Women, and Alpha Chi Omega. The marchers wore green arm bands representing their refusal to surrender their agenda and their hope that fear of violence would no longer rule their lives. In an opening address from the Pocket Park, Dr. Rebecca Mark, English professor at Tulane, proclaimed the march a "night of echoes and shadows." "I hear the echoes of my friends and lovers who have been raped in the night undercover, in the day in their beds by boyfriends, and in their homes by fathers," she said. "I hear the echoes of my black sisters under slavery... terrified of the footsteps which mean yes, once again the white master is entering their cabin — entering against their will, their lives, entering by force and violence, raping, wrenching,wrenching, tearing their bodies. I hear their silent screams... right here on plantation land. " "We take back the power... to walk when we want, where we want, with whom we want," she concluded. Several other women also addressed the crowd, painfully reliving the violence they had been subjugated to and convincing other women to seek help for battery, rape, and other violent crimes. "Being in a destructive relationship is like an open wound; it just continues to fester and it never heals," said Denise Gremillion, an employee in Loyola's admissions office. "The LUCAP promotes literacy among local poor By Lisa Burns Assistant News Editor The small parking area at the Our Lady of Lourdes Social Service Center buzzed with the excitement of children's laughter as if it were recess, and playtime was due to end at any moment. Then the children began to point in the direction of a small white van approaching the curb. No celebrities got out, or at least none that would be easily recognizable. lastead, a small groupof college students hurriedly jumped from the van and greeted the enthusiastic kids with as much fervor as was be ingdisplaycd before them. This was school, and these children were ready and willing to learn. They range from grades two through five and are part of a program to improve student literacy sponsored by Loyola students. After-school tutoring is a part of the Loyola University Community Action Program (LUCAP), which sponsors similar programs ai St. Monica Social Service Center and Sophie B. Wright Middle School. Tutoring is given in reading, writing, and math to poor children who are at risk of failure in school due to poor student-teacher relations or domestic problems. Sister Anita, director of the Our Lady of Lourdes center, believes that Loyola's partici pation in the program will help to attain the goal of creating closer relationships between students and teachers. "1 feel it's a fantastic program reachingout to students who don't have role models, and the Loyola students are role models who really relate to these children." Sister Anita admits that the program, which is in its first semester at Lourdes, still has a lot of kinks. She said the relationships between tutors and children are excellent, but she believes that the tutors could use more direction in areas to Eager to learn — Lyonel, a participant in LUCAP's student literarcy program at Our Lady of Lourdes Social Service Center, is surprisingly more than happy to hand in his homework. /Photo by Greer Gattuso Religous Studies: a profile of scholastic distinction By (irej; Lacour Staff writer Dr. Daniel Sheridan, associate professor of religious studies, sat in his office last Tuesday afternoon against a backdrop of the instruments of his trade: books on Christianity, ancient Indian religion, comparative religion, and academic life, all stacked on a huge bookshelf towering behind his desk. Asked if he saw a conflict between the intellectual concerns of his department and those of faith, he paused and thought. "No," he finally said, "the two are eminently compatible." There are within the operations of Loyola's religious studies department several examples like this, in which seeming academic enemies become partners. Intellectual and academic concerns do not interfere with students' faith but enhance it, say professors. Faculty are politically and socially liberal, Dr. James Gaffney, department chairperson and professor of religious studies, says, but they are nonetheless disturbed by the "political correctness" movement sweeping campuses. Three seniorreligious stud ies faculty were adamant in their lack of support of the Rev. George Lundy, S.J., senior vice president and dean of Faculties, last year, but each insists they were so out of concern for Lundy and Loyola, not rancor. Eminent compatibility. Strange bedfellows. "There's a definite de-emphasis," Gaffney said of his department, "on party-line Catholic orthodoxy." "Sound academically" Gaffney stressed his view of the importance of "pluralism" in any academic study of religion."The notion is that, particularly for an undergraduate in a country like the United States, what's needed is an awareness of various religious traditions. These people of various faiths are the people we have to live with, and we should be able to approach them with intelligenceSee Women's night /page 3 See LUCAP/page 3 See Religious studies /page 4 - Seepjrigef^.fl.^