Maroon

              The MAROON 01. 65, No. 8 Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 October 24, 1986 McGovern: Reagan missed chance at talks By Rene Sanchez Staff writer President Reagan blundered when he chose not to use the Strategic Defense Initiative as a bargaining chip at the recent Iceland summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former Sen. George McGovern said Tuesday night. McGovern, speaking to about 250 people inside Roussel Performance Hall on campus, said the United States should have agreed to limit work on the space-based missile defense system — popularly known as "Stars Wars" — to laboratory research for 10 years. In exchange for that demand, Gorbachev had offered to eliminate half of the Soviet Union's nuclear missiles. McGovern said that when SDI was first proposed it had two purposes: to reduce the threat of nuclear war by intercepting Soviet missiles from space, and to be used as a bargaining chip during superpower negotiations. "What could we want more than a reduction in the number of Soviet missiles?" asked McGovern, who was the Democratic party's nominee for president in 1972. "It was a beautiful opportunity to use SDI as a bargaining chip. We weren't giving up a single thing by agreeing to confine that system to laboratory research." McGovern described the Reagan administration's tactics in Iceland as the latest in a long chain of poor foreign policy decisions. Since President Reagan took office, McGovern said, American foreign policy has been confusing, contradictory, or ineffective. Reagan is much more interested in dismantling what he perceives to be the welfare state in America than he is in shaping a consistent, conscientious foreign policy, McGovern explained. "I don't detect a real keen desire to get on top of key questions in important parts of the world," he said. McGovern chose three topics to illustrate his criticism of American foreign policy under Reagan: terrorism, Nicaragua and arms control. The Reagan administration has only fought fire with fire to combat terrorists, McGovern said, and consequently has elevated "minor irritants" such as So blue. . . R.L. Burnside and John Nerenherg, a New Orleans blues duet, perform in the activities quad Tuesday during the first Brown Bag Concert of the semester. t'liolo h\ Wary Fundamentalism: a religious reaction to American crises By Katie Duffy Editorial Editor To some Americans, fundamentalism is a joke. Television evangelists tell believers to send their check and be saved. People in wheelchairs suddenly walk. There are hymns and smiles and Bible-toting people telling wide-eyed worshipers how great it is to be Born Again on the Christian Broadcasting Network.There are Liberty and Oral Roberts universities, campuses that offer round-the-clock Bible study, but prohibit MTV viewing. To others, fundamentalism is a threat — a growing sect of politically conscious religious fanatics who intensely preach their morality while ignoring and condemning the political views of others. Neither of these two stereotypes is completely true, stressed Dr. Daniel P. Sheridan, associate professor of religious studies. Different groups of conservative Protestants have been grouped together because of their beliefs on some issues and have been labeled fundamentalists, he said. In general, fundamentalists are perceived by the masses to be strict Christians who support school prayer and censorship of questionable material in textbooks, Sheridan explained. They are strongly opposed to abortion and teaching evolution in public schools. Even though Sheridan said he disagreed with some fundamentalist doctrines, he said he thinks Americans should treat fundamentalists seriously and without prejudice. "They are reacting to a serious problem in America," Sheridan said. "1 respect them for that." Religion in America has become trivialized, Sheridan said, meaning that it has become a private, voluntary, Sunday-only affair. "If religion is the center of someone's life, this rubs the establishment the wrong way," he said. Dr. James Watson, associate professor of philosophy, said he believes that the fundamentalist movement in America has grown because of a deepseeded alienation within the country's culture. Fundamentalists are attempting to recapture power and control over their lives, he said. "It would make sense to me that a large group of Faculty shortages projected for '96 By Mary Caffrey News Editor College administrators already facing immediate faculty shortages in professional fields such as business must now prepare for an across-the-board shortage of professors, according to a national study. A three-year study on America's college professors, American Professors: A National Resource Imperiled, estimates that as many as 500,000 new positions will be available during the next 25 years. Even more alarming than the number of projected openings is the lack of a general awareness about the extent of the oncoming problem, according to the report's authors, Howard R. Bowen and Jack H. [§»cond In « wtat 1 This is the second story in a three-part series on faculty shortages, both across the nation and at Loyola. This week's story deals with widespread faculty shortages projected for the late part of the 20th century. Schuster, both of Claremont Graduate School in California. Dr. William Eidson, dean of Loyola's College of Arts and Sciences, said that he was aware of the approaching shortage, but that there was still a lack of specific information about it. Bowen and Schuster suggested one reason for the See McGovern/page 7 See Fundamentalism/page 7 See Shortages /page 6 Charting sex on campus, page 11