Maroon

              THE LOYOLA MAROON VOLUME 66. NO. 21 LOYOLA UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70118 MARCH 24,1988 Panel examines statutory limits to privacy right By Robb Kenney and Andrew Nolan Staff writers Panelists at a Loyola Student Bar Association symposium March 16 discussed constitutional limits on an individual's right to privacy in light of recent Supreme Court decisions. The symposium, held in the Law School's appellate court room, featured Michael Hardwick, the defendant in the landmark court ruling Bowers vs. Hardwick, and George Weaver, the attorney who originally prosecuted Hardwick in Georgia. Discussion centered around the case involving Hardwick, who was arrested on sodomy charges two years ago. The controversy began when a Georgia policeman entered Hardwick's bedroom and found him committing an act of sodomy with another man. The officer arrested Hardwick for violating a Georgia statute prohibiting sodomy, but these charges were later dropped. Hardwick claimed the policeman had no right to be in his room; the officer said Hardwick's roommate had let him in. Hardwick then took his fight to court, claiming the Georgia statute violated his right to privacy. The Supreme Court upheld the statute in a 5-4 decision. In addition to Hardwick and Weaver, the panel included Dan Rosen, professor of law and moderator of the event, Kathy Wilde, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, and Kevin Boshea, chief of screening for the New Orleans Obscenity Task Force. Boshea told he crowd of New Orleans residents he would not prosecute an individual in circumstances Photos by Mary Degnan SMALL FRY FRIVOLITY-Faculty and alumni sponsored a Family Fun Day Saturday in the Residential Quad. A few of the attractions included a spacewalk (above) and a clown who amused children on the merry-goround.SGA considers candidacy changes By Amy Porche Staff writer The Student Government Association discussed possible constitutional changes that would allow the candidacy of two students presently unable to run for SGA president under existing guidelines at its meeting Tuesday night In her report, Michele Barrere, SGA llj NO MAROON [I The Maroon will not publish next week because of Spring Break. Publication will resume April 8. president, directed attention to a ruling made by the Court of Review which stated that Mary Casente, law school student, would be eligible to run for SGA president in the upcoming election despite her law school grade point average, which is below 2.5. The SGA constitution states that a candidate for president must have a "Loyola University" GPA above 2.5. The Court of Review ruled that this phrasing would allow Casente to run because she does have a cumulative (undergraduate and graduate) GPA above 2.5. Barrere also discussed changes involving the eligibility of freshmen to run for the offices of president, college presidents and representatives. Barrere said it has been tradition that freshmen ran only for freshman representative positions. However, a freshman is planning to run for SGA president in the upcoming election, she said. "We are eliminating an entire class of students," Barrere said. "Freshmen should be able to run. Otherwise you're excluding a voice." Barrere said she will present the proposed changes to the Court of Review for consideration. Barrere fdtpressed her concern over the possible outcome of this proposal. "Whichever way I go on this, I will come out the bad guy," Barrere said. "I've had to ask myself what is best for the SGA." "I think it would be better if we get this done before freshman elections in the fall," Barrcre said. In other business, congress funded projects of Veera Venkatosh, Erin L. Bronck, Rita Kuhnell and Nyla R. Jolly, who had requested money for the SGAallocated Richard Frank Grants. Craig Kelly, business representative and author of the proposal, told the congress that approximately $1,100 remained after the allocations. The surplus was the result of acrossthe-board cuts and students' lack of awareness of the availability of the funds, he said. Congress also discussed a request for donations to the New Orleans Symphony, made by David P. Swanzy, dean of Music. See Privacy/page 5 rwwr