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              The Maroon VOL. 75 NO. 3 ESTABLISHED 1923 Loyola University New Orleans FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1996 New garage will replace lots for faculty and staff By CHRISTINE LABOURDETTE Copy Editor With the opening of the West Road parking garage in the third week of October, Loyola University will lose three major parking lots. At that time, the Monroe, Miller and Buddig parking lots will close. To make up for the loss of these parking spaces, which were mostly faculty and staff spots, the first four floors of the new garage will be open only to faculty and staff. The fifth floor of the garage will be open to students at all times of the day, while the lower levels will be available to them after 4 p.m. Once the garage is open, the campus should gain 100 parking spaces, said Ray Garofalo Jr., director of the Loyola express card office. Garofalo said the new garage is an improvement for Loyola. "We' 11 have more parking spaces, and to me, that's our basic need right now," he said. Psychology professor Kim Ernst agreed. "[Parking] is really not that bad," she said. "I've been on other campuses where it's been much worse, but maybe the garage will help some problems." One major difference between the West Road garage and the Freret Street garage will be the absence of gates and Residential Life looks for staff By ELIZABETH KEENAN Managing Editor Alex Becking, assistant director for residential development, will leave Loyola on Sept. 20 for the University of Connecticut. Becking's departure will leave Residential Life with only one of three assistant director positions filled. "I've enjoyed it a lot," he said. "I like the students, I like the people I work with. ... But this job is really the only thing I would leave for." Becking, assistant director at Cabra Hall since 1994, moved to his present job in July after Kristin Fourroux resigned. Robert Reed, director of Residential Life, said that the lack of assistant directors will not affect the quality of residents' experiences. 'This is not unusual," he said. "This is the second time we've had two assistant directors gone at the same time." Assistant directors usually spend no more than three or four years in one job. Reed said, because it is a starting level position. "They are not dissatisfied with Loyola, and they're not dissatisfied with Residential Life," he said. 'They're just moving ahead in their careers." Becking first applied for the job of residence hall director at the University of Connecticut last year, but was not offered the job offer until Aug. 8, the day before resident assistants returned to campus. The offer in Connecticut gives him the chance to work at a larger university and to return to his home state. "I just didn't know if I would ever have that opportunity again," Becking said. Becking said that he would have felt like he was leaving Residential Life in a bind if he accepted the job in Connecticut immediately. "I told them [University of Connecticut] I couldn't leave until the 20th [of September]," he said. "If they were OK with that, then so was 1.... I was concerned about how it would affect Loyola. Theoretically, I could have left it at that, but I didn't want to." Residential Life will first fill the position at Cabra Hall, Reed said. In July, Residential Life advertised locally for the Cabra position and has received eight applications for the job. According to Reed, Residential Life will set up interviews at the end of September with two or three of the applicants. After the interviews, Reed will recommend a candidate to Vincent Knipfing, vice president for Student Affairs. "It is not a decision where I could go By BETHMcGOVERN Residential Life staff members have made adjustments to meet recent changes in personnel. Religious studies professor helps out in Freemen standoff By SARAH SPARKS Contributing writer When the remaining Freemen surrendered to federal and state authorities in Montana last June, many believed that they were merely an isolated bunch of right-wing crazies bent on avenging themselves on a government that had taken their land. But Catherine Wessinger, chairwoman of the American Academy of Religion's New Religious Movements Group and religious studies professor at Loyola, thought differently. Wessinger, at Los Angeles Center for vhe Study of the History of Religions and Phil Arnold of the Reunion Institute in Houston, helped the FBI agents involved handle the Freemen standoff, and prevent a repeat of the recent incidents at Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge, Mont. Wessinger said that the Freemen incident was not the work of a small political group or cult. Instead, it was a branching out of the secessionist movement that encompasses at least 30 states and involves thousands of people. All are driven to bring about a "second American Revolution" bent on destroying the "satanic and illegitimate" federal government, she said. Besides Freemen, these groups have been known as Christian patriots. Militia and Constitutionalists. jhfnmhj A&S alters required curriculum By DOMINIC MASSA Staff writer Students new to the College of Arts and Sciences now have another curriculum requirement to consider. The addition to the curriculum is a cultural/ethnic/environmental/gender issues course requirement. It affects students who entered the college this semester. Claire Paolini, associate dean of arts and sciences, compared it to the existing "check-off" requirements for two premodern courses within the college's advanced common curriculum courses. She explained that it may be fulfilled with either common curriculum or departmental courses, and it will not mean the loss of an elective or the addition of more hours. Further simplifying the process, she said, the course selected may be used for both the new requirement and a course in the common curriculum, adjunct, general electives, major or minor areas. Some examples of the 55 courses offered to fulfill the requirement are: Human Ecology, Afro-American Literature Since 1900, Russian Civilization, Sociology of Gender and American Women Journalists. Paolini said the idea for the requirement originated with the Dean's Student Advisory Council. The council is composed of student representatives from each of the college's departments. The proposal explains the offerings as those which "focus on the conservation of the environment 0r... exposes the student to ethnic — or gender-based issues not explored at the introductory level." The recommendation, made by DSAC during the 1994-95 academic year, also stated, "This requirement intellectually challenges the student to think critically about social injustices stemming from ethnic or environmental issues, the See PARKING, Pg 4 See BECKING, Pg. 4 See WESSINGER, Pg. 4 See COURSES, Pg.s Pg. 3 nmjfh I ,-.. I Crumbling Walls Pg. li