Maroon

              THE MAROON ESTABLISHED 1923 VOL. 74 NO. 20 Loyola University New Orleans FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1996 Students march on state capitol By SARAH WALKER Assistant News Editor A statue of Huey P. Long gazed on with stone eyes from the state capitol grounds as the fever of angst and disagreement filled Baton Rouge's thick, humid air on March 29. The loud clatter of protesters' footsteps rang throughout Louisiana's capitol. Several of the picketers' signs conveyed messages such as, "It's age discrimination!," "As adults we deserve adult privileges!" and "Equal rights for all adults, 18 and 21!" Raging protesters picketed on the steps of the state capitol over the controversial legal drinking age. Almost 200 people, mostly Louisiana State University students, gathered to protest the current drinking age which remains at 21. All in attendance felt that the legal drinking age should be 18. Neil Benson, a 19-year-old LSU management sophomore said, "We came to speak our minds and demand equal rights for all adults." The protesters' intentions were to attract the attention of Gov. Mike Foster and to voice their opinions concerning what they see as age discrimination. Benson said he hopes that the state will make what he sees as the appropriate moral decision by setting the legal drinking age at 18. At 18. one assumes adult responsibih.:es, therefore 18-year-olds should also be granted adult privileges, Benson said. "We care about what's going »» on. Robert Owen, a 19-year-old LSU marketing sophomore, expressed concern over what he considered the flagrant age discrimination exhibited by state legislators. "They're throwing our rights around," Owen said. Benson and Owen were the driving force behind the rally. They have loosely organized a group of protesters who seek to influence Foster and Attorney General By SARAH WALKER Protesters wait on the capitol steps for organizers to return from a conference with Gov. Mike Foster. Lanouette speaks on the bomb By DABNEY SHURUNG Contributing writer Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki triggered the Cold War and introduced a worldwide fear of nuclear holocaust. But the decision to drop the bombs was not that of President Harry Truman, according to William Lanouette, one of the leading experts on nuclear energy. Instead, General Leslie Groves, the military director for the Manhattan Project (a United States government research project that lasted from 1942- 1945 to produce the first atomic bomb) and James Byrnes, Truman's secretary of state made the call. Lanouette gave a lecture entitled, "Why We Dropped the Bomb," to a group of approximately 40 people in the Honors Center at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, March Lanouette (center) speaks to faculty as Kenneth Keulman, religious studies professor, listens. 24, which discussed those and other events that led to the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The program was sponsored by the honors program, the Biever Lecture Series and the Faculty Seminar on Biography. Lanouette said that, contrary to popular opinion, Truman had no knowledge of the creation of the atom bomb until two weeks after his presidential inauguration. According to Lanouette, the bomb was By DAN OBARSKI Georgetown confronts changes in curriculum By JENNY JOHNSON Business Manager Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton. These three men became the center of controversy last semester at Georgetown University after the English Department dropped the requirement that English majors take at least two of these "major authors" before graduating. The deletion of the requirement was one of a few changes in curriculum decided upon, not by the administration, but by the English department. A third of the faculty opposed the changes. Some members of the Washington, D.C., university praised the decision as a move to diversify the courses offered and to provide students greater freedom to choose classes, while opponents charge Georgetown with being more concerned with political correctness than with teaching students about authors considered to be classics. One professor called the changes a reaction against "dead white men." While there have been no additions or deletions of specific courses, the new curriculum will require students to choose one of three areas of concentration: the traditional historical approach to literature, a cultural approach to literature or an emphasis on writing. The students are no longer required to take Chaucer, Shakespeare or Milton to graduate, although those classes will still be offered. English majors will have to take two courses outside their concentration as well Abuse of remissions curtailed By ROSE FRENCH Assistant News Editor Students who participate in the university tuition waiver program may have cause for alarm this semester if their previous grade point averages and academic profiles are not up to par with the revisions Norman Roussell, vice president for Administration, has recommended. In a speech addressed to University Faculty Senate members on March 7, Roussell outlined his recommended revisions to Loyola's tuition remission policy. Under the current program, university employees, as well as dependent children of faculty or staff, receive a 100 percent tuition exemption. To curtail many of the abuses which have occurred under this benefit, Roussell proposed setting higher standards and expectations for students in the program. These students must now meet requirements not included in the previous policy — the same requirements met by other students. Students must earn a minimum 2.0 GPA each semester and maintain "reasonable progress." The policy allows students a maximum of 175 hours in which a degree must be earned. If program participants fail to meet these new standards, Roussell said, they will be placed on probation and allowed one semester to meet eligibility requirements. Many of the abuses Roussell mentioned during the presentation directly stem from the students' "lack of direction." Some students in the program frequently take a large amount of courses but do not complete them, creating a long string of failures, withdrawals and incompletes, permanently recorded on their transcripts, he said. This policy "is supposed to benefit employees and move them toward a position where they would be enhanced educationally," Roussell said. "In the policy itself, it didn't provide limits or expected levels of performance on the part of the people receiving remissions." See TUITION, Pg. 3 See PROTEST, Pg. 3 See ENGLISH, Pg. 5 See BOMB, Pg. 4 crusades Hp Loyola Baseball goes one for one against Mobile. 11 Sacred Threads Professor gets his hands The Maroon will not appear next week because of the Easter break. We will resume publication on April 12.