Maroon

              The MAROON Vol. 65, No. 1 Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 August 29, 1986 Curran decision stifling, Fagin says By Rene Sanchez Staff Writer The Vatican's decision last week to stop the Rev. Charles E. Curran of Catholic University of America from teaching theology because of some of his moral views will have no immediate impact on Loyola faculty, the religious superior of Loyola's Jesuit community said Wednesday. The decision, however, will likely stifle theological thinking around the world, the Rev. Gerald M. Fagin, S.J., said. "There's a concern that a decision like that one could spread," Fagin said. "But the implications are not immediate." Curran, who has taught theology for two decades at Catholic Univerity, was ousted by the university's president after pressure from Vatican leadership. After years of controversial debate with Curran, Vatican leaders believed it was necessary to censor him. Curran has endorsed the morality of contraception and has said he believes that divorce, abortion and pro-marital sex should sometimes be permitted. Curran's views on sexual morality are supported by a majority of Catholics in America, according to two recent nation-wide polls. A Gallup Poll taken this past spring revealed that 59 percent of American Catholics believed that pre-marital sex was acceptable. And in a 1985 New York Times/CBS News poll, 68 percent of American Catholics favored the use of contraception and 73 percent favored remarriage for divorced persons. Almost four out of every five Catholics said that they believed they could remain "good Catholics" even if they disagreed with official church doctrine on these issues. The Vatican believed that disciplining Curran would serve as an important symbolic gesture to reaffirm its strict orthodoxy, Fagin said. "At this time, Rome is very concerned about the question of orthodoxy,"orthodoxy," he said. "But this move doesn't achieve any good. It's unfortunate to take someone who is a responsible theologian and silence him." The Loyola faculty overwhelmingly shared Fagin's view in an informal Maroon survey. More than 75 percent of the 37 faculty members who responded said that a Catholic university should not allow the Vatican to dictate what views its faculty can teach, with many saying that to do so would cripple academic freedom on campus. Since Curran was removed, How many students are hooked? By Michelle Slocum Managing Editor ROKEr "Iwant to live." —a student response to a Maroon survey asking why the national focus on cocaine's dangers has been a deterrent. About one-fourth of Loyola students surveyed in a Maroon poll said they had tried cocaine at least once. More than half said they were occasional or regular users of the drug. "There's a lot of use of it and it's easy to get," said one psychology junior who took the survey. The student, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has never tried cocaine, but has been around it. Cocaine sellers are all around campus, he said: in classrooms, the Wolf Den, at parties. About 18 percent of the 292 students who participated in a The Maroon survey conducted during registration said that cocaine is easy to find on campus. The student said the people who use cocaine are not the people one would expect to use drugs. "New Wave people don't have the money and most of them don't get into it," he said. "It's your fraternities or upper level society people - those who have money. "It's a non-caring attitude of what drugs can do to them," he said. "The attitude is that if something does happen, it was fun while they were doing it." □ □ □ Cocaine has become the drug of choice in the United States. It's used by lawyers, doctors, executives, liouswives, athletes. And students. The cocaine i eiaitu deaths of University of Maryland basketbal star Len Bias and Cleveland Browns defensive back Don Rogers thisummer focuseu even more national attention to the drug. A recent government-sponsoreu study showed that nearly one out of every three college students tries cocaine by the time thev graduate. Last April, the New Orleans Police Department arrested 4i people, including two Loyola students and one suspended student in the culmination of a 10-month drug investigation aimec at • egc students and other young adults There are several reasons win people take illicit drugs. Dennis Kalob, sociology instructor, said. The first is simple: boredom. The person might feel that there is nothing enjoyable in his life and so —Photo by Mary Degnan Commuters center saved, shuttle gone By Lisa Francis Assistant Managing Editor Commuter services are still available despite reports last spring that the Center for Commuter Services would close, Vincent P. Knipfing, vice president for Student Affairs, said. The center was reorganized in June and Stephanie Quade, Coordinator for Program and Commuter Services, will take over commuter service programs. She supervises the Commuter Resource Center and the Commuter Assistance Program and is also the program adviser to the Loyola Union. The shuttle service from campus to the Audubon Park Batture that began last fall has been discontinued, and the city has extended residential permit parking from two hours to three hours on the streets nearest campus, Knipfing said. The shuttle service was cancelled by the university's Administrative Council in June because of its high cost and low ridership, Knipfing said. The shuttle between Loyola's main campus and the Broadway Campus will remain in operation. The city's residential permit parking program was extended temporarily, from Aug. 1 through May 31, at the request of the university and in recognition of Loyola's committment to build a parking garage. The university paid approximately $3,000 for stickers to put on the parking signs on Calhoun and Palmer Streets, bounded by Willow and St. Charles Ave. to change them from two to three hours. Until the Parking Garage is completed, some parking alternatives for commuters are car pooling, riding the street car, and parking in nonrestricted zones, Quade said. Because of university budget cuts, See Curran/page 9 See Parking/page 9 See Cocaine/page 9