Maroon

              The MAROON Vol. 63, No. 11 Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 November 9,1984 Fill it to the brim Top: Campus coffee lovers were treated to an afternoon of gourmet coffees and jazz music Monday at Coffee Carnival Day. The Crescent City Jazz Band heightened the atmosphere. Bottom: Bruce Lee, finance major, enjoys every last drop. —Photos by Darlene Pierct\ City OKs LU plan for Dominican By Sharon Wade The City Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve Loyola's Conditional Use Plan for the purchase of St. Mary's Dominican College. The plan remains subject to the City Council's approval in mid- November. Loyola plans to purchase 4.8 acres of the six-acre Dominican campus for $11.5 million, leaving the remaining land and buildings for the Dominican Sisters to use as a residence and storage area for records. The purchase includes seven of Dominican's 11 buildings, including the 102-year-old Greenville Hall. A 1970 city ordinance requires a college campus be at least 10 acres, so the city must approve Loyola's plan to subdivide the site, which will fall below the required acreage, before the sale can be finalized. Although Loyola does not plan to increase the law school's enrollment beyond its present 650 students, local, residents contend law students have more automobiles than the undergraduate women who previously occupied the campus. The residents also fear demolition and obstruction of Greenville Hall and surrounding green space. Loyola's proposal includes an additional 36 parking spaces for a total of 101 spaces which will exceed the amount the Zoning Ordinance requires. Based on enrollment, faculty and staff, and Cahra Hall resident estimates Loyola submitted, the City Planning Commission projects an estimated 420 parking spaces will be needed during the day and 257 will be required in the evening. Based on the implementation of a two-hour Residential Permit Parking Plan that would be in affect between 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., the City Planning Commission estimates there are only 69 on-street parking spaces available that would not be included in the plan. Following several months of controversy, stemming from neighborhood residents' concerns for an increase in the campus density and parking shortage, the City Planning Commission handed Loyola the following stipulations for the purchase of the campus. •Loyola must agree to bear the cost of widening Pine Street so it can provide an additional 48 on-street parking spaces and raise the number of available spaces to approximately 224 parking spaces or 50 percent of the estimated day time parking spaced needed. •It is recommended that any increase in enrollment beyond 7SO students (not including Cabra Hall dormitiory residents) require an amendment to the Conditional Use Plan making parking provisions for the increase. •A parking facility should not be constructed on the Dominican site where there are now tennis courts. Such a facility was found to be aesthetically and financially unacceptable.SCAP implementation: confusion prime result By Michael H. Kleinschrodt A tide of confusion has overtaken the communications department following the implementation of the Standing Council on Academic Planning's recommendations recently approved by the Board of Trustees. Although there are no plans to require potential communications majors of junior or senior status to take a secondary concentration as the board approved, they will have to meet more rigorous requirements for admission into the communications degree program. According to the Loyola University Bulletin, students indicate an interest in a program of study during the initial admission process. This, however, does not constitute admission into a major degree program. Students must petition their department for acceptance into the program during the second semester of their sophomore year. According to Dr. A.L. Lorenz, communications department chairman, the requirements for acceptance into the communications program have been upgraded to increase the quality and prestige of the Loyola communications degree. To be accepted, students now need a 2.5 grade point average in introductory common curriculum courses and in the first three prerequisite communications courses. Students cannot receive any grade lower than a "C" in either. Previously, only a 2.0 grade point average and the showing of promise in the field were needed on the student's part. Sophomore Cathy Wilbert said this is causing problems for many students who wish to be part of the department. Although she has better than a 2.5 gpa, she will not be admitted into the program unless she retakes the Introduction to Mass Communications course in which she got a "D." Wilbert said she feels the new policy is unfair because it has been enacted retrogressively and is affecting students who have already been planning their academic careers under the old guidelines. She added that the policy violates university policies stating that once a student has been admitted, graduation requirements cannot be changed. However, Dr. Robert A. Preston, vice president for Academic Affairs, said the implementation is definitely not a violation of university policy. Preston said the policy cited by Wilbert refers only to those students already admitted into a specific degree program. Graduation requirements are not set until a student is formally admitted into a concentration. According to Lorenz, the new policies affect every student not yet admitted into the communications degree program, including juniors and seniors not yet admitted into the program. However, Lorenz added, the department is not out to get anybody and is reviewing each case on an individual basis to prevent overburdening upperclassmen who thought they were nearing graduation. The department recently posted a list of 142 students who had expressed interest in majoring in communications but had not yet been admitted to the concentration even after completing the required number of hours to gain junior status. According to Dee Danner, administrativeSee SCA P/page 2 See Dominican/page 2