Debate Committee begins preparation
Students take CHARGE of Gender Awareness Week
Protestors clog the streets during IMF meeting
Kasulis leads students on a journey through the “no mind”
‘Casino Night’ for Republican state convention held at warehouse
First ever College Democrats state convention held in Louisville
Activists spark awareness with Tontine Festival
By Scott Spence
Special to the Cento
Friday, April 14, two different trends converged together on the lawn outside of Cowan: Centre students’ traditional apathy and the recent wave of activism among college students and young people nationwide. By paying attention to the news recently, one cannot help but notice a new trend of activism regarding a variety of issues. In the past several months, protesters across the country have been making headlines, attention to their causes. Several months ago, activists were successful in creating a “Battle of Seattle” at the latest meeting of the World Trade Organization. This past weekend as well, thousands gathered to make their voices heard in Washington, D.C. at the International Monetary Fund meeting. This group created such a disturbance that they shut down approximately 90 blocks of traffic, including such important areas as the White House and several Cabinet buildings. These movements, though not as organized around one issue as the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s, have brought back the image of the student activist to the American mindset.
In contrast, one of the most frequent images of the Centre College student is of one who is, on the whole, concerned simply with the next test or party, not really thinking much beyond their campus or their own future material gain. The stereotype, if one can be applied, is of a person too apathetic to really care. This was the image that the Activism Day Fair was attempting to alter. Obviously, none of the organizers were hoping for a Seattle-type situation or a miraculous change of heart all over the campus, but instead a general heightening of awareness over the campus.
Many Centre students, upon being interviewed, were very pleased at the overall variety of groups and viewpoints that were present. “I was actually a little worried that only one or two groups would be allowed to speak. Even though I did not agree with everything all of the groups said or were trying to prove, I did respect them at least for being out there,” said freshman Nate Kissel. This great variety of viewpoints was one of the main principles of the organizers of the Activism Day.
Flyers describing the event described it not as just a fair or meeting, but as a “tontine festival.” According to the flyers, a tontine festival is when various and sundry members of a group or community gather together in one location to describe matters of great importance to the community as a whole. All groups are allowed to speak and are expected to contribute to the dialouge between groups. That was the main purpose of Activism Day, to foster debate amongst the Centre College community, not just to rant and rave for attention.
Setting up booths at the lawn were several groups that have become recent fixtures in Centre College life. College political groups assisted in voter education and registration, information about issues such as ecology and the humanitarian situation in Chiapas was handed out, and a group that has become a topic of debate at Centre was also there: “The Abercrombie Hippies for Peace”. Recently criticized in this newspaper for an apparent contradiction in the brands of clothing they wore and their commitment to helping out Third World workers, the “Hippies” decided to take the criticism lightly and make a joke of it. This combination of humor and awareness was appreciated by many at the Fair, with sophomore Tara Nelson commending the group for “not taking themselves way too seriously.”
Finally, the day was wound down with a bit of music and dance at Sutcliffe Ballroom that night, with local bands letting students get some steam out from all of that “awareness raising.” Overall, the day could be counted on a success for the College, with people learning more about each other and debate across campus hopefully being raised. Freshman Travis Stannard said it best when commenting that “perhaps this proves Centre students aren’t so lazy after all.” Back to top...
Debate Committee begins preparation
By Ed Hatfield
Cento Assistant Opinions Editor
On October 5, 2000, Centre College will welcome the vice presidential candidates and the host of journalists and pundits that follow in their wake for the vice presidential debate. To do so, however, is no small task. In recent elections, debates have assumed increased significance, received greater attention and demanded more preparation.
Rest assured though, this year’s vice presidential debate is in good hands. President Roush has assembled a Debate Host Committee comprised of 34 local and state leaders to welcome the candidates. The Committee, which consists of regional elected officials, gubernatorial cabinet members, as well as members of the college community, held its first meeting on March 14 at the Norton Center for the Arts, where the debate is to take place. During the meeting, members of the Debate Steering Committee, chaired by Professor Clarence Wyatt ’77 and Richard Trollinger reported what progress has been made and what remains to be done.
According to Trollinger, the campus will need several changes in order to facilitate the debate and its subsequent media circus. Sutcliffe Gymnasium will house some 2,000 journalists and their equipment. The campus as a whole will need to be fitted with an additional 800 telephone lines and satellite booster trucks will be present to support the expected onslaught of cellular phones. Of the 1500 seats in Newlin Hall, 600 will be removed to accommodate the television cameras and crew. The remaining seats are to be split between the candidates and the Commission on Presidential Campaigns, which regrettably cannot guarantee that seats will be available to students.
Moreover, the college has already secured 23,000 motel rooms in the area to accommodate the influx of people. That said, Danville residents can expect their population to swell from 18,000 to roughly 31,000 people for a few days. Bearing this in mind, committee officials are making arrangements with State Police to manage the increased flow of traffic, which will no doubt be complicated by the 30 to 40 television trucks vying for parking spaces in and around the Norton Center.
Clearly, hosting a national debate is no small undertaking. The college, however, is prepared for the challenge and expects to benefit immensely from the national attention. According to President Roush, the benefits will be twofold. The debate he says, will not only, “turn the eyes of the country to Centre for an evening,” but also, “serve as an educational opportunity for the Centre community and all of Central Kentucky to take part in the political process.”
Indeed, the debate is an excellent opportunity for students and townspeople alike to take part in the presidential campaigns. In the coming months, students will be made aware of the capacities in which they can take part. Back to top...
By Amanda L. Richardson
Cento News Editor
Danville’s Advocate-Messenger is making its presence known on campus with the donation of three new yellow newspaper boxes. Two of the boxes are in Cowan and one is at the Grille. The boxes provide daily newspapers from the Advocate in exchange for an on-your-honor donation to Centre’s Habitat for Humanity program. The boxes also have the unique feature of an additional space to put used newspapers for recycling.
An idea put into action by the Advocate’s Marketing Director, Stewart Arnold, the newspaper boxes are intended to spark the interest of students, keeping them up to date on world news. Managing Editor John Nelson said the Advocate wants to, “get students to pick up the paper.”
The Advocate covers a great deal of news from campus, including sports, convos and special events. With the Advocate on campus, students can stay keep up with the happenings of the Danville community that so often involve our campus.
Nelson foresees the program continuing, “as long as Centre will let it.” Expansion of the program is also a possibility, and would involve more boxes in more places on campus. Back to top...
Students take CHARGE of Gender Awareness Week
By Ashley Vinsel
Special to the Cento
During the week of April 10-14, Centre’s wave of activism continued to rise as Gender Equality Week came to campus in full force. CHARGE, Centre Helping to Achieve Respect and Gender Equality, brought speaker Marcia Guenzler-Stevens from the University of Maryland to kick the week off on Monday. The actors and actresses in the parody skit of Centre’s gender issues were a hit. After the laughs died down, a message could be taken from Guenzler-Stevens: Centre is not alone in our gripes about how “weird” campus life is. The skit was a hilarious way to get the attention of students, and the meaning was clear. Hearing people actually talking about gender issues at Centre was a welcome surprise for many people, including Jamie Etherton ‘03. Concerning the issue, she said, “Since I’ve been here, I believe that gender relations have been improving, and this week emphasized it for me.”
Dr. Beaudoin and Dr. Hartmann-Mahmud gave a program during lunch Tuesday about the actual differences in biological makeup that create these differences between males and females. The combination of the messages regarding biology and society was a powerful one.
Just as powerful was the stunning performance by Yolantha Harrison-Pace at the Warehouse on Wednesday night of “A Wing-Plucked Butterfly: A Victim Speaks.” The faces of the audience wore stunned expressions as her performance included parts of her journal written when she was married to an abusive husband. The reality of the problems women face could not have been painted any clearer or more beautifully than by this performance.
The week ended on a high note with the Actvism Day and Tontine festivities. Many student groups participated, including CHARGE, in order to raise awareness on campus to many political issues that students face today. CHARGE and the other sponsors of the week reached out to the members of Centre’s community and the students seemed to understand the message. CHARGE may not have all the solutions to the problems between the genders, but the Gender Awareness Week is the first step in attaining a campus where gender equality thrives. Back to top...
Protestors clog the streets during IMF meeting
By Thom Kelly
Cento News Columnist
World finance officials closed out the most tumultuous meetings in the history of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Monday with renewed pledges to hasten debt relief for poor countries and increase support for fighting the AIDS epidemic.
A final statement from the Development Committee, which sets policy for the World Bank, disagreed with the thousands of protesters who had thronged the streets by describing the multilateral lenders as “a powerful force” for good in the global economy.
The demonstrators had complained during a week of escalating protests that World Bank policies made poor countries even poorer and that the bank and the IMF were not doing enough to aid debtor states or curb the epidemic of AIDS.
The protesters, operating under the umbrella group Mobilization for Global Justice, say the world financial system has left millions destitute in developing countries.
Last December, mass protests in Seattle resulted in the cancellation of the opening session of the World Trade Organization. The demonstrators included environmentalists, anti-free trade lobbyists and human rights activists. They accuse the World Bank and IMF of burdening poor countries with crushing debt payments, unsafe food, environmental destruction and sweatshops.
Washington Police commanders had a nightmare scenario in mind–protestors, like those in Seattle last fall, rampaging and destroying property, police reacting and perhaps overreacting with tear gas–when they drafted a plan to prevent criminal activity without muzzling social activism.
Prior to the protests targeting World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, more than 1,500 police went through crowd control training. The city bought body armor to protect its officers from the rocks, bottles and sticks that injured Seattle police in December.
During Monday’s confrontations, some protesters donned gas masks while others attempted to throw themselves at police vehicles. District of Columbia police brought in some National Guard troops to assist in handling Monday’s crowds. At one intersection, helmeted police fired pepper spray to disperse demonstrators who were trying to storm barricades. The use of tear gas on Monday–the first known incident of police doing so since the protests began Saturday–was a mistake, officials said. An officer is said to have thrown a tear gas canister, thinking it was a smoke device. Some protesters reported injuries resulting from scuffles with police and accused them of being more aggressive than warranted.
The estimated cost for the equipment, overtime, and support services could top $5 million, officials said–a figure equivalent to an appropriation Congress provided for Seattle to pay for security for last fall’s WTO meetings.
Police drew praise from business leaders, even though disruptions left many offices nearly inaccessible from Friday through Monday and cost nearby restaurants and shops a day’s business. Many federal workers followed the advice of superiors and took Monday off after weekend demonstrations in Washington that led to several hundred arrests.
The demonstrations ended with a negotiated mass arrest of 1,300 people, injuring no one. Most of those arrested Monday were taken into custody 15 at a time–as part of the negotiated surrender to police–which allowed the protesters to cross the barricades to make their point. Back to top...
Kasulis leads students on a journey through the “no mind”
By Amanda Richardson
Cento News Editor
On April 12, Dr. Tom Kasulis spoke to students about the many components that make up the self, using an analogy of the Mississippi River.
“Zen and Creativity” was the topic of Dr. Tom Kasulis’ speech April 12 in Weiseger Theatre. The internationally respected scholar has four degrees in philosophy and four single-spaced pages of journal articles and other contributions he has made to his field. Kasulis has expertise in many aspects of philosophy, including the Asian philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
At the convo, Kasulis first explored the concept of creativity. He asked the audience to choose a letter of the alphabet without thinking about their choice, just letting the letter appear. He then posed the question of whether or not one’s choice of letter was the result of learning or if its creation in the mind was spontaneous. He explored the American concept of creativity and the way we protect our own creations through copyrights, trademarks and the patent.
An introduction to the origins of Buddhism followed. Key concepts and philosophies of the religion were introduced, preparing the audience for the next topic; Zen Buddhism:
Shobogenzo Genjokoan, Zen Master Eihei Dogen wrote,
To study Buddhism is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be at one with the ten thousand phenomena.
To be at one with the ten thou-
sand phenomena
is to free one’s body and mind and those of others.
This poem describes some of the very basic foundations of the philosophy of Zen. Zen Buddhism studies the self or, to put it a better way, the non-self. Zen thought involves looking at one’s self in terms of all of the components which make up the self (e.g. the environment, other people, experiences or lack of experiences.) Kasulis used the example of the Mississippi River as an entity, which in actuality is many entities in one. He explained that the Mississippi River is just a name, which we use to refer to the water, tributaries and pollution that follow a southern course and empty into the Gulf of Mexico.
Kasulis then explored how the Zen view of creativity follows this same philosophy. A Zen Buddhist sees a painting as a work in progress, not just paint on a surface or as a finished object. The painting involves the artist, the audience, the medium, the actual subject and the artist’s rendering, as well as multitude of other components. A Zen mind believes that the painting does not exist without the other elements. The Zen mind itself is the same; it exists only because of all of the other ingredients that compose it. Thus, the Zen mind is no mind, but rather a culmination of all things. Back to top...
‘Casino Night’ for Republican state convention held at warehouse
By Diana Davidson
Special to the Cento
The Centre College Republicans hosted the seventh annual convention for the Kentucky Federation of College Republican’s (KFCR) on Saturday April 15, 2000. The campus was ablaze with activity as College Republicans from all over the state came to Centre. The weekend began with a party and political spoof in the Warehouse on Friday night titled “Paul Patton’s Casino Night” dedicated to Gov. Patton and his attempts to legalize gambling. College Republican’s danced and gambled the night away.
On Saturday, the convention began with several speakers including State Senate President David Williams, Congressman Ernie Fletcher, State Representative Candidate Mike Harmon, and Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Ellen Williams. Senator Williams stated “We’ve [Republicans] changed the culture of the state this session–this is important business we’re involved in. There is a new Republican Party in Frankfort and in Kentucky”
Ellen Williams commented “I really think the Republicans kept the state government out of our pockets this legislative session”
The day ended with the election of new KFCR officers: Chairman Tommy Druen ’00, Centre College; First Vice-Chairman Vincent Fields, University of Kentucky; Second Vice-Chairman James Baggett, Cambellsville; Heather Norris, Eastern Kentucky University; Treasurer Diana Davidson ’02, Centre College. Chairman Todd Harding ’00 stated: “I’ve been to four conventions as part of college Republican organizations, and the Centre College convention is by far the best convention I’ve ever attended. That can be attributed to their great leadership and I know that Tommy will do as great of a job in the state as he did at Centre.”
The KFCR consists of eighteen chapters at colleges and universities across the Commonwealth of Kentucky with a membership exceeding 1,800 students, Centre having the largest membership with over 300 members. The KFCR is Kentucky’s largest political youth organization.
Druen, Centre College Republican Chairman said, “This is going to be an exciting year, not just for the Centre College Republicans, but College Republicans across the state with important elections at the presidential, congressional, and state legislative levels.”
Harding, outgoing State Chairman, helped found the Centre College Republicans and went on to serve a record breaking two years as KFCR Chairman while attending four state conventions. Chairman Harding has played an integral role in expanding the growth of the state organization. Through his leadership Centre has been visited by many talented speakers, including Marlin Fitzwater and Senator Howard Baker, which helped bring greater honor to the KFCR, Centre College Republicans and the college. Before relinquishing his office, Harding was recognized by his peers and Ellen Williams for his outstanding work. He was presented with an autographed copy of George W. Bush’s autobiography and a limited edition Waterford crystal elephant given only to a limited few by the Republican National Committee. Druen stated, “If this year’s KFCR officers are only half as dedicated and successful as Todd Harding is, the future should bring wonderful things to our organization. Chairman Harding has built an unprecedented foundation and the KFCR owes a deeper debt of gratitude to him than it could ever begin to repay.” Back to top...
First ever College Democrats state convention held in Louisville
By Lara McCoy and
Mazie Kukachka
Special to the Cento
On Saturday, April 15, College Democrats of Kentucky held their first ever state convention in Louisville. Students from eight colleges across the state met to discuss issues affecting Democrats in Kentucky. The day began with a job that led to the afternoon speakers. Governor Paul Patton was the keynote speaker, but candidates for state elected offices also addressed the crowd.
The events of April 15 were the culmination of the dedicated efforts of two state officials, Nikki Patton and Jonathan Miller, and Shannon Pratt, the first state president. In order to recognize the importance of the labor movement within the Democratic Party, this convention was held at a United Auto Workers union hall.
At the end of the meeting, the executive board for the 2000-2001 year was elected. State offices are held by students from schools across the state, including Mazie Kukachka ’01 who was elected as the External Communications Director.
Scotty Baesler, 6th District Congressional Candidate, spoke at Saturday’s convention, reprising his appearance on Centre’s campus the day before in support of the Tontine Festival. Baesler was one of several Democrat speakers who made an appearance at the Tontine Festival on April 14, which also marked the beginning of the Centre College Democrat’s second voter registration drive of the year. The Democrats registered a number of students at the Tontine Festival and will continue their efforts Saturday, April 22.
Following Baesler and the Democrat speakers, Lindsay Mullaney had organized a state-wide College Democrat Band Party, with the Kincaid Family Farm taking the stage in Sutcliffe Ballroom.
“I think that it is really great and exciting to see the activism growing on campus. It makes me really proud to be from Centre because Scotty Baesler and Governor Patton have told me how exceptional they think Centre because of its involvement and overall activity,” says Mullaney. With active involvement in our local chapter, in the state federation and at National Convention, the Centre College Democrats hope to remain an active and dynamic organization on campus and in the Kentucky. Back to top...