Maroon

              THELOYOLA MAROON VOLUME 68, NO. 4 LOYOLA UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70118 SEPTEMBER 15, 1989 Loyola group will rally for housing By Kevin Shank News Editor When hundreds of thousands of Americans come together at the nation's capital to voice concern about the problem of homelessness, Loyola students, faculty and staff will be there. A'group of about SO students met in B obet 107 Tuesday to discuss plans for the journey to the Housing Now! rally in Washington D.C. Oct. 7. The Loyola faction will join other groups in Washington to demand that the government end all homelessness, fund the creation of affordable housing and restore funds for federal housing programs.Singer Rita Coolidge, who is on the national board for Housing Now!, addressed the Loyola group and offered her support for their decision to attend the rally. The group, calling themselves Housing Now! Loyola, first met Aug. 29 to begin planning the trip. Among those campus organizations leading the effort are the Loyola University Community Action Program and the Loyola University Sociology Students Organization. Andrea Izzo, education senior and vice chairperson for special affairs for LUCAP, said more than SO students had already expressed interest in joining the pilgrimage to the Capitol. Izzo said Housing Now! Loyola encourages all students to get involved and realistically hopes to have as many as 75 students go to Washington. "[Loyola is] about social justice, and if there were ever a social justice issue, it's this one," Dennis Kalob, instructor of sociology, said. "We are simply saying 'end homelessness, build affordable housing, bring dignity to people,," he said. "That is what I think Loyola is about, and so that is why I think faculty, staff and students need to get involved. "It's showing support for the homeless, it's showing support for those who are powerless. It's showing support for all the good things Loyola stands for." Charlie Brown, communications senior and president of LUSSO, said he hopes the rally will provide students with an opportunity to empathize with the homeless. "Things have been given to us — it's time for us to turn around, examine our situation and see what the situation of other people is," he said. "People need to say, 'Look we know what the problem is here, we need to do something about it,"' Izzo said. Kalob said the group went to the Faculty Senate at its Sept. 7 meeting to ask for its support of the group's trip. Kalob, who wrote the motion proposed by Dr. Sally Seaman, associate professor of sociology, said the motion fell under new business at the meeting, therefore preventing any action on it from taking place until the next senate meeting Oct. 5, Photo by Thorn Scott Celebrity plea — Singer Rita Coolidge, with Ted Quant, director of human relations, speaks to students about homelessness Tuesday in Bobet Hall. New admissions application offers more insight By Christie Fox Stqffwriter "If you could travel through time and interview any historical figure, whom would you choose and why?" This question greeted students applying for admission to Loyola for the 1989 fall semester. The approach is vastly different from the one-page application completed by incoming students prior to this fall. . "We needed more information to make good decisions about students," Nan Massingill, director of Admissions, said. "As a selective institution, we look at more than just numbers," she said, adding that a student's grade point average, test scores and class rank play a large role in the selection process. The new application provides more insight into a student's scholastic career, including activities and a recommendation from a faculty member. "We don't care what you think on an issue, we want to know that you think" Massingill said. The scholarship application, which was previously a separate application, is now incorporated into the new admissions application. The application sends a clear message that Loyola is serious about academics and is interested in the person as a whole, Massingill said. The students who apply to Loyola now must be interested enough to give some thought and to answer "simple yet penetrating questions," she said. Although the admissions office receivedreceived thousands more applications in the fall of 1988 than this semester, 1,800 of those applications were incomplete. Of those applications submitted this fall with the new application, only 76 applications were received incomplete, she said. John Sears, director of Institutional Research, said that there are 6% new freshmen,freshmen, compared with 739 last fall. "The students who made Loyola strong as a center for learning were always here and are still coming. [But] there is a group of marginal students — not serious students — that are no longer applying to the university,,, Massingill said. Those students who three years ago Soviet expert praises new openness By John Davis Assistant News Editor Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's plan for reform is "an overriding goal to save the Soviet economy," Herbert Hausmaninger, a University of Vienna law professor, said Monday night at the Law School lecture hall. Hausmaninger spoke to a crowd of 100 members of the Inns of Court, a group made up of professional lawyers, professors and law students of New Orleans. "It'snot only aproccss of reform,butof revolution," he said. He not only described Gorbachev as a leader whose political skills are "way ahead of those in the rest of the party," but he also compared him to another Soviet "Glasnost is more than a clever public relations ploy. There is a great chance for perestroiha to succeed.,, —Herbert Hausmaninger revolutionary, Peter the Great, who introduced the country to western ideas. "The time was right for Gorbachev to introduce reforms," Hausmaninger said. "Glasnost is more than a clever public relations ploy. There is a great chance for perestroika to succeed," he said. However, he said, Gorbachev has a "closing window of opportunity" in which to show results. He must focus on delivering consumer goods to Soviet citizens before he can be considered a success. Hausmaninger tied the success of Gorbachev's plans to both economic and political reform. He said Boris N. Yeltsin, Communist Party renegade, and other Soviet visitors will benefit from their trips to the United States by learning more about democracy See Housing/page 5 See Admi—io—/page 7 See HauMiuminger/page 7 Inside This Week Crescent City sounds V| See Life & Times / page 11