Maroon

              THE MAROON ESTABLISHED 1923 VOL. 75 NO. 5 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1996 Loyola University New Orleans AI Gore speaks on new jobs By ROSE FRENCH News Editor Greeted by a jazzy "When the Saints Go Marching In" and an approximate crowd of 2,000, Vice President Al Gore spoke at the Delgado Community College courtyard Wednesday. Also present were New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial and Senate candidate Mary Landrieu, whom Gore endorsed before speaking about the nsed for new jobs. Community colleges, Gore said, stand as important sources of learning which give students the skills they need to enter productive industries. These institutions, Gore said, also offer courses designed so that students will get good jobs after graduation. "Two-year colleges are playing an increasingly vital role in preparing Americans for the challenges of our changing economy," he said. Arriving in New Orleans near noon. Gore toured a technical training facility and a welding shop on the City Park campus. "I suspect some of those students I saw in action are likely to get very good jobs in ship-building," Gore said. According to a recent study he quoted, 65 percent of the jobs in New Orleans will require one or two years of training after high school. To accommodate this need. Gore added that the Clinton administration has expanded financial aid. Delgado alone will receive $20 million in aid this year, 90 percent of it from the federal level. He also elaborated on President Clinton's "Bridge to the Future" reelection theme, stressing education's importance in building that bridge. "The bridge has to be strong enough and wide enough for all Americans to be able to cross over to the next century, not just to get there but get there with good jobs." And according to Gore, the Clinton administration has already started doing this. He cited such examples as a 10.S million job increase, a 30-year low in the inflation rate and a higher number of small businesses. Gore said also that under the Clinton administration, down-sizing of government has taken place resulting in 250,000 less federal employees. Not only has the economy improved Drug incidents rise despite policy By JOE DANBORN Sports Editor The social setting at Loyola and in New Orleans as a whole is without question one of the biggest factors that draws students here. Incoming students also catch on quickly to the lax enforcement of the drinking age in the city. On the surface, some say, things appear little different this year. Despite the change in legal drinking age from 18 to 21, alcohol-related incidents at Loyola continue to rise. Underneath that skin, however, also lies an increasingly active drug scene pulsing in ways which may be beyond the administration's control. The division of Student Affairs prepared the annual Report on Drug Free Schools and Communities Act Compliance. The report states the number of students involved in alcohol-related incidents on Loyola's campus jumped 44 percent from 34 in the E95 academic year to 49 last year. The er of incidents rose from 33 to 42. more significant increase appeared with regard to drug use on campus. The numbers of drug-related incidents and students involved rose from four cases involving seven students in the 1994-95 school year to 19 cases involving 47 students last year. Robert Reed, director of Residential Life, said the conspicuous nature of marijuana is the primary reason that none of the drug cases included in the report involved anything other than marijuana. "Marijuana ... has a distinct odor to it," Reed said. "Usually the students who are caught with marijuana are the ones who are using marijuana at the time." On the other hand, "harder drugs," By AMBER SHIELDS Library shelf space scaled back 33 percent By ALLISON TEMPLET News Editor The university has decided to scale back Loyola's new library, scheduled to be under construction by the close of the fall semester, because of changes in construction costs. When the plans for the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library were put up for review last June, the cost was about $3 million more than had been budgeted when blueprints were first drawn up more than two years ago, said David Danahar, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Joseph Mansfield, vice president for Institutional Advancement, said that when the library was planned, blueprints were drawn in order to provide more shelf space than was needed. "When we got into today's costs as opposed to two years ago, that's when we discovered that the extra niceties that we were planning on in terms of shelf space could not really be kept in the plan without going way over budget," he said. Mansfield also attributed the higher costs to the fact that a larger number of construction projects are going on in New Orleans. "Construction costs vary depending upon the work available. If you have a lot of construction going on in the city, then contractors are scarce, and they're not as hungry so profit margins they build in are higher than if there's no building in the city," Mansfield said. Plans had to be reworked and SGA debates budget funding for law school organizations By NEAL FALGOUST Editorial Editor Student Government Association congress members approved more than $58,000 in budget allocations to student organizations after an hour-and-a-half long debate Tuesday evening. The approval of the budget comes two weeks after the organizations turned in their requests for funding. Much of the debate at Tuesday's meeting stemmed from the fact that the money allocated to law school organizations was disproportionately high compared to the amount given to undergraduate organizations. According to current enrollment figures and a budget provided by SGA for The Maroon, nearly twice as much was allocated to law school organizations than to undergraduate organizations — $23.47 and $12.88 per student, respectively. In the final budget, the congress awarded the law school nearly $6,000 more than was recommended by the Ways and Means Committee, while cutting about $ 1,500 each from the recommended undergraduate and graduate school allocations each. Despite this, Kevin Casey, biology junior and SGA vice president, said that the congress worked diligently in making the proper allocations. "I think it is really good that congress members were fighting for their constituents. I encourage the congress to question and debate," he said. The money, given to student organizations each semester, originates from student fee money. SGA withholds a portion of that money for its own use and then distributes the rest among the organizations requesting funding. In all, SGA had $95,392 available from the student fee money. It withheld $16,450 for salaries, office supplies and internal operations and $20,100 to cover the costs of Richard Frank grants, public relations, elections, the Presidential Contingency Fund and the University Programming Board. The remaining $58,842 was distributed among the various organizations. That is more than $ 10,000 less than last fall semester when nearly $70,000 was given out. The difference can be attributed to the drop in enrollment that has affected nearly every budget in the university. See DRUGS, Pg. 4 See LIBRARY, Pg.4 See GORE, Pg. 3 hghg I Opponents, injuries •ssjjyH J send soccer team into V. I three-game slide. SThe Beat Goes On Jason Marsalis shares family heritage of jazz and classical music. Pg.9