University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 1984 Page: 3 of 10
ten pages : ill. ; page 23 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
UNIVERSITY PRESS September 7,1984*3
-fair-
Comment
Gentry Hall/Discrimination/Bad Taste
Viewpoint-
Gentry Hall needs
repairs made now
Returning residents at Gen-
try Hall hoped to come back
to school this fall to find the
maintenance problems that
plagued the dorm last spring
solved. But hoping was
useless.
There were, of course, the
minor incidents that always
happened—trees needing to
be trimmed or a broken fire
alarm going off in F wing.
Sometimes, the lack of cable
television also added to the
general discontent, but these
still were not enough to make
residents irate.
Then, the C wing residents
moved in, only to find their
first floor lounge flooded from
an upstairs ruptured water
pipe. Water had leaked down
the stairs and walls to ruin
carpet, several pieces of fur-
niture and paint and
wallpaper on the walls.
However, the sorority occu-
pying the wing has insurance
that will cover the loss and
damage to the furnishings.
Jesse Castete, director of
university housing and food
service, said Lamar would
supply paint, wallpaper and
ceiling tiles to repair the
lounge.
Incidents affecting the rest
of the dorm also arose. On
Aug. 12, the day after the new
head resident, Billie Rowzey,
moved in, the air-conditioning
system went out. This has
since been repaired in all but
F wing and the central
lounge. To alleviate the heat
in the central lounge, a new
unit is being installed, but F
wing residents are still suffer-
ing.
Another problem lingering
from last semester is hot
water—or rather the lack of it.
After being repaired
numerous times in the spring,
the hot water boiler broke
again on Aug. I3. Although on-
ly two years old, Castete said,
the boiler stopped
callibrating, shortly after the
warranty expired.
Perhaps some special at-
tention should be given to the
problems with this dorm and
a concerted effort made to
get these problems under
control.
U.S. should protest
South Africa move
Since South Africa has
established a new system of
government that is still ex-
tremely discriminatory, the
United States is obligated to
voice objections to this viola-
tion of human rights.
The changes in government
there feature a revision from a
ceremonial presidency with a
Westminster-model parlia-
ment (in which only whites
sat) to an executive president
with potentially authoritarian
rule, assisted by a three-
chamber legislature.
After 74 years with rule by
the previous system, South
Africa has now taken a step in
the right direction. However,
they have far to go. The prime
minister, Pieter W. Botha, will
serve as the first executive
president.
The tricameral parliament
will consist of represen-
tatives from the white, Col-
ored (people of mixed des-
cent) and Asian population.
There are 160 seats for
whites, 80 seats for Coloreds
and 40 seats for Asians.
America’s response to the
situation should focus on
relaying the message that the
progress made by the
establishment of a new
governmental system is not
enough for the removal of
discrimination.
Once again a trade em-
bargo should be considered
as a means of showing
American displeasure.
Granted, this may harm U.S.
interests by limiting the
minerals we can acquire
through South African expor-
tation.
Also, the closing of
American businesses located
within the country should be
considered as an alternative.
This could possibly worsen
the plight of blacks by taking
away equal job opportunities,
but existence of businesses
in South Africa looks like sup-
port for apartheid—govern-
mental policy of absolute
racial segregation.
A return to the strict arms
embargo that excludes sales
of all U.S. goods to the
military and police should
replace Reagan’s “construc-
tive engagement," less
restrictive in arms negotia-
tions.
None of these suggestions
are new, but Reagan’s ad-
ministration needs to con-
sider the rights of South
African citizens before it con-
centrates, as it has, on an
alliance against Soviet and
Cuban influence in the area.
Action needs to be taken
now to show South Africa
that it is moving toward better
human rights, but such small
steps won’t satisfy American
standards of justice and
fairness.
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Editor .........
Managing Editor
Copy Editor ____
Sporto Editor____
Photo Editor ...
...Donna Foster
— Linda Eckols
—Elaine Raab
Rhonda Omberg
.....David Cruz
Wire Editor ....................Stacye Steele
Advertizing Manager..........Lisa Hoffpauir
Marketing Representative......Elaine Butler
Cartoonist ..................Mike Kennaugh
Staff Writers____Jorah Burrow, Joy Chandler,
David Diaz, Steven Elliott,
Georganne Faulkner, James Harper,
Pam Hendricks, Veronica Hugger,
Lyra Katena, Kelly Kin to, David Manning,
Lillian Morgan, Alan Pace, Ronnie Perkins
Holly Richie, Terry Trimble
Sports Assistants............Dorothy Gentry,
Anthony Majors, Richard Yancey
Photographers................Jan Couvillon,
Bryant Maraist
Advertising Assistants..........Carl Keating,
Margene Lenamon
Graphics ____Darrin LeBlanc, Avril Williams
Typesetters ......Karen Dwyer, Ingrid Faulk
Circulation......Cynthia Brown, Becky Faulk
Office Assistants................Sonja Butler,
Ann Chandler
*
Production Manager
Gloria Post'
Assistant Director of Student Publications
Jill Scoggins
Director of Student Publications
Howard Perkins
Publisher
Student Publications Board
George McLaughlin, Chairman
The University Press is the official student
newspaper of Lamar University, and
publishes every Wednesday and Friday during
long semesters, excluding holidays and
Wednesdays immediately following holidays.
Offices are located at P.O. Box 10056, 200
Setzer Student Center, University Station,
Beaumont, Texas 77710.
Opinions expressed in editorials and col-
umns are those of the student management of
the newspaper. These opinions are not
necessarily those of the university administra-
tion.
Ethics of relationships not addressed
By MAXWELL GLEN
and CODY SHEARER
Field Newspaper Syndicate
WASHINGTON—If movies are
barometers of popular culture, two
examples from the spring have
tested public sympathies concerning
relationships between students and
their professors. The films are
“Educating Rita” and “Terms of
Endearment.” In each of them, with
some caveats, the verdict is “it’s
OK.”
Teacher falls in love, more or less,
with student. Student, more or less,
reciprocates. Their relationship, as
a matter of professional ethics, isn’t
questioned (penalties are paid in
other ways).
As Bernice Sandler, an expert on
sexual harassment on college cam-
puses at the American Association
of Colleges, points out, the myth of
the teacher’s pet is nothing new to
Hollywood.
But Sandler adds that it receives
positive reinforcement when the
facts carry a much different
message: Lecherous professors still
plague too many campuses, and too
many universities have yet to grap-
ple effectively with the problem.
It has been seven years since the
first litigated case of sexual harass-
ment, Alexander vs Yale University,
rocked the academic establishment.
Though the complaint, filed under
Title IX of the 1972 Education Act
amendments, ultimately failed on
appeal in 1980, it prompted a U.S.
district court to rule that “academic
advancement conditioned upon sex-
ual demands constitutes sex
discrimination in education....”
Since then, most college ad-
ministrators and faculties have at-
tempted to translate law into school
policy. Seminars have been held;
rules have been written. And
teachers and teaching assistants at
assorted institutions have been
disciplined accordingly.
Yet only three schools—Harvard
University, Hampshire College and
the University of California at
Berkeley—have actually forbidden
sexual relationships between
students and faculty members. (One
other, the University of Minnesota,
is considering a conditional prohibi-
tion.)
By contrast, some institutions
haven’t even drawn up policies on
the matter, waiting instead, Sandler
charges, for cases to unfold.
Differences in the ways colleges
and universities have dealt with sex-
ual harassment reflect, in part, the
nature of the issue. It has many
forms, ranging from leers to
physical assaults, that are subject to
varying interpretations throughout
the country. Although on some cam-
puses the evidence has been suffi-
cient to bring about major ad-
ministrative reforms, op others it
has been too scant to fuel more than
a general statement of principles.
This isn’t to suggest that only the
strongest prohibitions have brought
results. Once a campus administra-
tion has gone on record against sex-
ual harassment, Sandler says, com-
plaints have usually dropped by
around 80 percent.
Instead, what bothers some col-
legiate officials is the reluctance
with which administrators and
faculties have redressed abusive
behavior by some of their own. Billie
Wright Dzeich, co-author of “The
Lecherous Professor: Sexual
Harassment on Campus,” has told
us that “an institution will only go as
far as it has to go.” The extent of its
effort, she adds, depends on the
amount of public pressure applied.
But secrecy is inherent in the
decision-making procedures of most
schools. As student complaints are
kept confidential, so are the names
of and actions taken against abusive
faculty members. For example,
were it not for a leak to the campus
newspaper, Harvard’s most recent-
ly publicized case of sexual harass-
ment (filed against a professor of
government) might never have
become public knowledge.
Likewise, according to the student
newspaper at the University of
South Florida, administration of-
ficials there withdrew a job offer to a
former Michigan State University
professor upon discovering, without
any help from MSU, that he had
been fired after a history of sexually
harassing women students.
Given academia’s reluctance to
publicize faculty misconduct, the
news and entertainment media may
determine the outcome of measures
taken on campus in recent years. If
the surveys cited by Sandler, Dzeich
and others are still accurate, 20 to 30
percent of all women who enter col-
lege can expect to be sexually
harassed in some way. Public,
awareness can give confidence to
those who desire to do something
about it.
But when filmmakers and
newspeople make the problem seem
insignificant, college officials may
be prone to follow suit.
Vreeland maintains bad taste always in vogue
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON (UPI)-Far too
many of life’s little pleasures either
go unrecognized or fall into
disesteem.
For example, you seldom find
anyone who is willing to say a good
word for bad taste. So it is nice that
someone of international stature is
ready to stand up and be counted.
In her autobiography, fashion ex-
pert Diana Vreeland professes that
she is “a great believer” in
vulgarity—“if it’s got vitality.”
“A little bad taste is like a splash
of paprika,” she writes. “We all
need a splash of bad taste. No taste
is what I’m against.”
Exactly. That is the point I’ve
been making for years. Especially
where new fashions are concerned.
Many of the garments I’ve seen in-
troduced at style shows were in ex-
quisitely poor taste. It takes a ge-
nuine flair for indecorum to design
such apparel.
The reason inelegance in design
has been so underrated stems, I’m
convinced, from the fact that the
world’s fashion center is Paris.
People tend to regard anything
French as cultivated and refined. It
was, after all, the language that
gave us Uie word “couturier.” If we
can’t pronounce it properly, we
naturally assume it’s in vogue.
But French, I remind you, is also
the language that gave us the word
“gaucherie.”
As already indicated, I’ve been
promoting bad taste for a long time,
but with little success. Lowbrow in-
telligence has never caught on big,
particularly among the voters. So, in
elections, we go on rewarding pro-
priety out of all proportion to its real
worth.
Bad taste in politics is likely to be
bad-mouthed, as some critics are
now putting down Sen. Gary Hart’s
Kennedy imitations.
Well, now. Let me just say this
about that. There is no drollery that
doesn’t enrage somebody.
A candidate may with relative im-
punity poke fun at board subjects,
like bureaucrats, the national debt
and so on. But lower the witticism to
the point where it can be applied to
individual public servants and
you’ve got trouble right here in
River City.
Tastelessness is something else, of
course. Any bon mot that is so bland
as to be without any taste what-
soever—good or bad—richly
deserves ail the odium it; might at-
tract.
Right on, Ms. Vreeland. Anyone
whose sensibilities are offended by a
candidate jocularly quoting a line
from a television commercial
perhaps should stay home on elec-
tion day and answer the phone. It
might be a pop-taker calling.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View 10 places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Foster, Donna. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 1984, newspaper, September 7, 1984; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth499598/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.