Maroon

              THE MAROON "For a Greater Loyola ESTABLISHED 1923 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1998 VOL. 77 NO. 6 Loyola University ■ New Orleans Honor code passes student referendum 158 to 118 By LARRY GRAHAM Life & Times Editor Because the voters approved the honor code in a recent vote, the next step is approval by the Student Affairs Policy Advisory Committee and members of the board of trustees. If they pass it, the code will be brought in front of the entire board of trustees and will be revised during the spring semester. The honor code passed in a referendum submitted by SGA by a vote of 158-118 on Oct 8. According to J.T. Hannan, political science senior and SGA president, the code was designed with the intention of decreasing cheating, as well as putting more power into students' hands. It was originally written last fail by Kevin Casey, class of 1998 and former SGA president, but the code's principle dates back a few years. It was originally submitted to SGA in a memo by the Task Force for Building Community on Nov. 20,1996. "The idea goes back to the Reed administration, but Kevin really took it on as his quest to get it implemented," Hannan said. "He did an amazing job." To send it to a referendum for student approval, SGA passed the code by a vote of 15-1 on Sept 5. Though only one person voted "no," some representatives had qualms about the code after the initial vote, including Daryll Manning, communications sophomore and SGA Arts and Sciences representative. "The honor code has a few problems with it; it's kind of tricky the way it's set up. You can get reported for anything," he said. "The honor code should basically cover academics only, not things outside of the classroom." The code states that students caught cheating will be disciplined by their peers. Students who witness a break in the code and fail to report it, will also be disciplined. Some students, such as Brook Sutton, general music senior, think this would be unfair. "Overall, 1 don't like it because it puts people in sticky positions," he said. "I just don't think I could rat on my friend." The concept of penalty for witnessing an offense is a main concern among some students. This issue appears to divert attention away from the code. LOYOLA ETHICS POLICY ❖ EXISTING POLICY: No offical ethics or honor code has been published in the Student Handbook, but it does have several chapters pertaining to student behavior and disciplinary procedures. ❖ PROPOSED POLICY: "As our ultimate goal is the development ol personal potential, every student ol Loyola University New Orleans pledges to retrain Irom cheating, stealing and lying in all matters. All students pledge to report to the university any cases of dishonesty they observe or become aware ot at Loyola; failure to do so will be a violation in and of itsett. Each student pledges to give full support to the spirit, values and practice of the Code. Any offense toward the University Code ol Honor warrants immediate disiplinary action." Students react to slaying of gay Wyoming student By ROBERT TREADWAY Staff writer Shock and alarm spread across the nation's college campuses 4ast week after Matthew Shepard, a gay student from the University of Wyoming, died Oct. 12 of injuries received in a brutal beating the week before. According to The Chicago Tribune, Russell Henderson, 21, and Aaron McKinney, 22, allegedly lured the 21-year-old political science major from a Laramie, Wyo., bar, then robbed, pistol-whipped and beat him. They tied Shepard to a fence and left him outside in extremely low temperatures for more than 18 hours until mountain bikers found him. Shepard was comatose for five days before he died. Doctors said his skull was so badly fractured they could not operate. Henderson and McKinney have been charged with firstdegree murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. Their girlfriends, Chasity Pasley, 20, and Kristen Price, 18, were charged with being accessories after the fact. Price told The Denver Post the men didn't set out to kill Shepard but wanted to get back at him for making passes at McKinney in front of his friends at the bar the night of the beating. Shepard's death has served as a foundation for debate over hate-crime legislation. Louisiana and 20 other states have hate-crime laws that include protection on the basis of sexual orientation. According to Louisiana law, hate crime is an offense directed against individuals "by reason of their actual or perceived race, age, gender, religion, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or ancestry." The U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier hate crime law claiming it was narrow and violated "symbolic expression," that is a citizen's right to think and express his or her beliefs. "No matter how distasteful, ideas are not punishable in this country," Sherry Alexander, assistant communications professor, said. According to an article in the Oct. 14 issue of The rimes- Picayune, the Supreme Court ruled Oct 13 that hate crimes may incur stiffer penalties than those provided under state law. In the same issue, it states U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno is seeking ways to include a hate-crime bill in the budget bill being debated now on Capitol Hill to "close the gap in the law" concerning hate crimes directed at gays and lesbians. Kendrick Johnson, political science junior and president of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Outreach at Loyola said more legislation would discourage hate crimes. "This is a homophobic country. When bashing occurs without Retention, enrollment numbers slightly increased this year While enrollment numbers are slightly up from last year, this fall's retention percentage is 88.8 percent, according to John Sears, director of Institutional Research. Loyola is still trying to make up for the low enrollment of the fall 1996 class, the smallest class at Loyola. However, Loyola admitted two larger classes in fall of 1997 and fall of 1998. Nan Massingill, dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management, said the university is planning to have a larger class in fall 1999. The retention problem at Loyola is one that pesters every university. Sears said. The university's attempt to combat die problem is in the new University Task Force on Student Retention, which will analyze different areas of Loyola and make suggestions. Sex crimes hit close to home, spur victims to educate others By ELIZABETH KEENAN Editor in Chief It was Christmas Day 1997, just after a party at a friend's house. Charlotte Jett, history senior, hadn't gone home for the holidays — she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend and his family. The party ran late, and Charlotte was returning alone to her Uptown apartment. She got out of her car and walked to the front door. As she got there, a man grabbed her from behind. He dragged her to an open, floor-level basement, keeping his arm around her neck. He showed her a knife and demanded money. Charlotte didn't have any, but she gave him her pearl earrings. He wasn't satisfied. He raped her. Not Just Other People For hundreds of thousands of women each year, rape is a fact of life. Some are raped by strangers. Some are raped by men they know. According to the U. S. Department of Justice's 1996 statistics, a woman is raped every two minutes r in the United States. That year, the department recorded that 307,000 women and 32,130 men were the victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. And these are just reported rapes. Cecilia Sun, counselor for the Counseling, Career Development and Placement Center, said only about 10 percent of rape victims, women or men, actually go to the police. "The first reaction is often, 'Rape is something that happens to other people,'" she said. "There's also an unwillingness to be a statistic or a police file. If you label it rape, then you're being identified as a victim." College students should be particularly concerned about rape. Sun added. Sex! ~7| at Cf, Loyola Part 4 of 4 STAFF PHOTO BY SARAH BARNETT Marchers light candles during Take Back the Night. The candles symbolize those who have been victims of violence. The route went from the horseshoe to Tulane's Pocket Park. BOUNCING NUMBERS The head count from fall 1997 to fall 1998 shows a drop between the fall and spring semesters and the rebound from transfer students the next fall I ■ I Net gain: 93 Class of 1999 624 547 717 Net loss: 27 Class of 2000 SBB 504 561 I I I Net loss: 17 Class of 2001 800 655 783 See CODE, Pg 3 See RAPE, Pg. 4 See KILL, Pg. 5 HftffiEhkßTfl NEWS SGA allocates $59,000 to student organizations. im[ Page M SPORTS Frosh runners offer fresh outlook. Page? Darien Ford fights in the name of the Lord. lPV«i' Page 10