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              Loyola University New Orleans THE MAROON Established 1923 • "For a Greater Loyola" VOL 78 NO. 23 http://maroon.loyno.edu FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2000 College cancels training courses By Marcy McCall Staff writer Loyola is shutting down its lucrative computer-training program. City College accepted its final class yesterday for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers and Oracle database system certifications. But after classes end in October, students wanting advanced training will have to look beyond Loyola. The Center for Professional Development, a division of City College, specializes in continuing education and professional training, said Alan Sparks, Institute of Technology director. The logistics of the program forced the courses to be taught off campus. "The students needed to be able to reconfigure systems. That could've caused problems for the university system at large," Sparks said. Sparks said that while the certification was one of the finest in the city, the program is being closed because the overhead required for an off-campus facility was too high. Sparks said even though the programs brought in a profit for the university, another reason the overhead was extremely high was that the staff members were paid generous salaries. "Those folks don't come cheap," Sparks said. "They're paid $85 per hour in their fields. The school pays them over $100 an hour." Despite the expense, the programs still brought a profit to the university, Sparks said. The program caters to "nontraditional" students, according to Marcel Dumestre, dean of City College. Muslim students content in traditions By Jessica Collier Contributing writer A woman's eye view Last Friday was the second day of the year 1421. That's according to the Islamic calendar, based on the lunar year. It's also something that few at Loyola know about. Perhaps the most prominent resource for the local Islamic community is the New Orleans Islamic Center. Even in the middle of a workday, the center draws a congregation for daily services. Men arriving from work, untie their shoes and climb the single flight of stairs from the main entrance on the street. Shoes are not permitted in the mosque; the hallway outside the congregational room is lined with rickety wooden shoe racks. An adjoining room is equipped with showers for cleansing before service. Islam is based on complete submission to Allah, the creator. A balance is said to be maintained through both physical and spiritual purity. Thus, one may not enter a mosque or touch the Koran, the Islamic holy book, without first cleansing the body. Nine Muslim students attend Loyola. Asad Ahsan is a chemistry sophomore originally from Pakistan who attended Catholic high school in New Orleans. "I try to learn what (the Catholics) say but not practice it," said Ahsan. Ahsan said he attends service at a mosque once or twice a month, and Waheeda Saif, English writing junior, said she tries to pray five times a day. Women in Islam are exempt from attending services or praying in groups. "You can sit in your car and pray. I've gone into empty classrooms to pray. Granted, most of the time I don't know which way I'm facing," she said. "It's a very simple religion. The word Islam itself means peace." Two women who show up for the Friday afternoon service at the New Orleans Islamic Center include a 12- year-old girl and a young woman in a red DPS apron. The little girl wears long robes over a black T-shirt and both have scarves wrapped around their heads. They walk quickly and discreetly into a walled-off corner of the mosque. Completely set apart from the large, airy room where the men worship, the A-feet-by-10-feet space for women is hidden by fake wood paneling and an entrance STAFF PHOTO BY LASHA HARDEN At the New Orleans Islamic Center, women are required to sit behind a white sheet during services. Men are allowed full participation. Frustrated Adeleke leaves Loyola due to lack of support By Elizabeth Stuart Staff writer Tunde Adeleke, associate history professor, resigned after nine years of teaching at Loyola. Adeleke said his main reason for leaving is that he does not feel the African Studies program will grow because it does not receive enough institutional support. "Loyola has not shown any interest in minority programs," he said. Adeleke, director of the Africana Studies minor, said he is frustrated with the lack of support he's received. "It is at very best minimal. What I see is a purely cosmetic attempt to satisfy affirmative action." Yet he said he has received some support from the College of Arts and Sciences. "Dr. Frank Scully has been very supportive within the means available to him," he said. Scully, dean of Arts and Sciences, could not be reached for comment. Adeleke said some of Loyola's actions have shown the university lagging behind other universities in throwing support behind the Africana Studies program and other programs. "They have a lot of money for other projects: palm trees, beauty. The academic importance is marginalized," he said. He said this lagging behind in minority studies support hurts the retention of minority students. Robert Rowland, history and classics professor and former dean of Arts and Sciences, started here in 1991, the same time as Adeleke. He said he agrees that the minority programs are undersupported across the board. "I don't think it's any singling out of African studies or any other studies ... the budget has not been sufficiently robust to able the university to do as much as it would like to do and certainly not as much as it needs to do in supporting a number of areas," he said. Rowland said the increase of support has been slow but steady. "It's just a matter of perhaps people losing patience with the slowness of the progress. ... But I can see we are infinitely better off." Some of the steps for more diversity issues include the creation of the diversity committee and the addition of a course focusing on a cultural, ethnic, environmental and gender requirement for the college of Arts and Sciences, which went into effect fall 1996. However, Adeleke said that the university's removal of the affirmative action clause from the See COMPUTERS, Pg. 5 See MUSLIM, I'g. 5 See RESIGNATION, Pg. 6 WHAT'S iNSinF  mmmmm SLIDING IN :Pp„rPueoracin9no'ava|id JQ HOME * D Men's volleyball getting off | DVisitors swarm to fruity fest, Sound Bytes ___ Homosexual Crackheads: The Sequel What goes on behind the closed doors at Tulane University. Visit us at http://maroon.loyno.edu