Maroon

              l.oyohi University NenD Orleans THE MAROON VOL. 81, NO FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2002 MAROON.LOYNO.EDU Quigley seeks peace in Mid-East By Nicole Haase News Editor While the Loyola community is settling into the mid semester slump. Bill Quigley, Loyola School of Law professor and head of its Poverty Law Center, will be in Iraq searching for a peaceful solution to contention between that country and the United States. He is part of a six-person group traveling to Iraq for ten days in September. The trip is being organized by Voices in the Wilderness. Quigley, who has been a candidate for the Louisiana Supreme Court, announced his intentions in a speech following his acceptance of a Loyola faculty senate award for community service at the faculty and staff convocation on Aug. 18. Quigley said he sees a U.S. invasion in Iraq as a seeming inevitability and feels that too many people are choosing military action as the solution to the problem. He began asking questions of colleagues and researching alternatives. When asked about his motivation for the trip, Quigley said, "There didn't seem to be a lot of discussion of alternatives in Congress. I am very concerned when I hear the president and Congress talk about sending tens of thousands of young men and women over there ... on very short notice to shoot at people and have people shoot at them. I think it's worth some time and effort to try and explore other avenues." According to James Klebba, dean of the law school, Quigley has never been afraid to go out and make a difference, and this case is no exception. Though Quigley admits that there is risk involved in the trip, he says he hopes the risk is minimal and that he feels the possible outcomes far outweigh any fear he has. He met the VITW group while representing a Franciscan priest this summer, he said. The priest was arrested while protesting at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.. The priest had planned on making the trip to Iraq, but was convicted and cannot go. out with the old In with th4e new By Mary Chauvin Editor In Chief The day after graduation in May, after the residence halls and classrooms were empty and most of the area's college students had migrated to their parents' houses for the summer, a construction crew invaded campus to take on the job of remodeling the Orleans Room entirely within the summer break. Through a $1.2 million grant from Sodexho, the company that provides food service for the university, the cafeteria received a complete makeover. According to John Monica, director of Loyola Dining Services, work on the remodeling job began the day after graduation and lasted until Aug. 19, a week before classes began. Though changing the face of the OR was a big summer project in itself, with only a threemonth window of opportunity, it may have been complicated by the fact that the university still was responsible for feeding summer school students, students attending summer orientation, summer camp attendees and conventioneers. According to Chris Cameron, director of the Danna Center and Student Activities, conference guests ate from a buffet-style food line in the St. Charles room while the dining room was under construction. Cameron said that the prices the professional groups paid for food during the summer were higher than normal because all of the meals offered were all-you-can eat buffet meals rather than the a-la-carte meals usually offered at lunch in the OR. He also said that food prices are always higher for professional groups so that the school can charge students slightly less. Cameron said that summer session faculty, staff and students ate their meals in the Underground. According to Monica, preparing food during the summer was as much of an adventure as finding places to serve it. Monica said that he had originally been under the impression that during most of the remodeling, his staff would be able to use the kitchen in the OR. But when the workers arrived, they realized it would not be possible to keep the OR kitchen in working order during construction. Monica said the staff made due by using equipment in Pizza Hut and putting an extra oven in the Smoothie King area. He also said that the loss of the OR kitchen for the summer kind of "blindsided" him, but that despite the interruptions caused by the work, the OR staff and the contractors had a good working relationship. When the cooks were finally able to return to the OR kitchen, they were greeted by a more comfortable working environment. FILE PHOTO BY COURTNEY ( . ' STAFF PHOTO BY CHARLES COSTELLO Class of 2006 biggest, brightest in Loyola history By David Bianco Contributing writer The 2002-2003 academic year began frustratingly enough for several freshmen and staff members, as the class of 2006 overwhelmed Loyola's housing resources. According to an Aug. 19 university news release, the newest class is not only the smartest in the school's history, it is also the biggest - 903 students. That's a 4 percent increase over last year's record-sized class. The influx of students has strained the residence halls so much that six students didn't have a room in which to live, and had to double up with their resident assistants. So why has the university accepted more freshmen than can be housed? The answer is a complicated one. Debbie Stieffel, dean of admissions, says that there is no way of knowing how many freshmen will attend in the fall. Students are accepted at Loyola based upon GPA, extra-curricular activities and test scores. "We meet with Residential Life around six times before a class comes to Loyola. ...The communication between (Residential Life and Admissions) is very important," says Stieffel. But even if a student signs a housing contract and intent to enroll, he may decide to attend another university at the eleventh hour. In fact, it is common for a university to accept more students than it has places for, to allow for students who will eventually transfer or simply change their minds. The Admissions Office and Residential Life work together to decide how many students to accept for the coming year - usually around 850. This decision is based on the likelihood of a student attending once accepted, which is decided by looking at financial aid and individual feedback. In the past several years, the admissions process at the university has changed significantly. Five years ago, Loyola was a much more regional school and welcomed most of its students from the New Orleans metropolitan area and the rest of the state. Population growth in Louisiana was minimal, however, and was projected to fall. To maintain numbers, the Admissions Office was forced to begin recruiting from outsidethe region. "We had to go national," said Stieffel, who reports that about 60 percent to 70 percent of new students are from outside New Orleans. "Since 1996, we have doubled our application pool, and Loyola has gone from admitting 90 percent of applicants to 68 percent." News like this is important to the growth and prestige of the university and means a See QUIGLEY, Page 4 See OR, Page 4 See FRESHMEN, Page 4 , •' - -^r neighborhood drinking , p-^mafton"lo^^du about to kick off