Freshmen expelled
after hanging black
mannequin from tree
By Christine Tatum
CPS
Administrators at Antioch College
in Ohio have expelled four first- year
students who admitted to hanging a
black mannequin by the neck from a
tree on the school's campus.
Students and school officials dis
cussed the Feb. 23 "lynching" this
week during a regularly scheduled
community meeting designed to im
prove communications on campus. At
the gathering, four male students ad
mitted they were responsible for the
incident. One student who attended
the meeting said the offenders apolo
gized profusely for their actions and
claimed to have pulled the stunt as a
joke, not as an expression of racial
hatred. About 7 percent of the 500 stu
dents on campus are minorities.
"The act of expression and its nega
tive impact on the fabric of our com
munity must be considered separately
from the intentions of those making
the expression and must be unequivo
cally condemned," said the college's
interim president, Bob Devine, in a
statement released Thursday. "This
clear violation of community stan
dards requires a swift and unambigu
ous institutional response that affirms
Popularity
African-American
Studies growing
By William Lee Western
Illinois University
CPS Correspondent
Elisabeth Mistretta is used to be
ing one of only a few white people in
some of her classes.
That's what she gets for taking
courses in African American studies
especially the ones that aren't core
requirements, she said.
Being a minority for once doesn't
seem to bother the 19-year-old sopho
more, who is minoring in Black World
Studies at Loyola University in Chi
cago.
"I've heard it before," said
Mistretta, who hopes the minor will
help her cover black communities
more effectively when she gets her
first job in journalism. "Don't minor
in it. It'll make you sound like you
have an agenda."
But that's not what Mistretta says
she has in mind unless, of course, you
consider her desire to see the world
through different sets of eyes an
agenda. She says she is simply one of
a growing number of students who are
exploring black studies to get a more
complete picture of American history.
Classmates compare stories and
discover they are long-lost brothers
By Christine Tatum
CPS
Better than anyone else sitting in
class, Roger Barren figured he un
derstood how much damage could be
done to an infant. The type of dam
age people don't necessarily remem
ber, just deal with their entire lives.
Roger Mansfield, sitting nearby,
was thinking the same thing.
Barren cracked a few jokes to ease
his growing discomfort with the dis
cussion. Mansfield, his newfound
buddy of a few weeks, played off the
wisecracks to deliver some of his
own. Their senses of humor were
nearly identical, and their timing im
peccable. Everyone said so. Some
folks even said they looked enough
alike to be brothers.
Now that would be something.
After a couple of years of living on
their own, two young men return to
their childhood homes in Michigan.
They're hired on the same day to
our core values and re-establishes our
sense of community standards, safety
and well being."
Devine also stated he will recom
mend that faculty members make
"anti-racism training" a degree re-
quirement.
The students have been ordered to
leave campus no later than noon on
Saturday. School officials are not re
leasing the students' names "out of
respect for their privacy," Antioch
spokeswoman Karen Kovach said.
Their dismissal was welcomed
news to Laurel Holliday, an alumna
who has published several books
about international racial and ethnic
relations. Holliday, did, however.
criticize her alma mater for keeping
the students' identities a secret.
"I sincerely hope you will not con
tinue to let these boys (to call them
men would be too kind!) hide behind
your pantlegs," she wrote in a letter
sent to one school official. "In my
state (Washington), they would be up
on criminal charges for a hate crime."
Despite the criticism, school offi
cials are not releasing the students
names "out of respect for their pri
vacy," Antioch spokeswoman Karen
Kovach said.
"I feel like a whole other world ex
ists that I was not aware of," she said.
"Black people know more about white
America than we probably know our
selves, but whites walk around with
blinders on."
Despite many tension-filled cam-
puses where affirmative action and
race relations are at the forefront of
discussion, some professors report a
growing interest in African American
studies. Last year, an estimated 1,000
students majored in the subject at 21
schools nationwide, no doubt an in
crease since 1968 when San Francisco
State University became the first to
offer it. Though the number of stu
dents minoring in the subject is more
difficult to track, many professors say
it's growing, too.
"We have courses in music, art, lit
erature, dance, history and sociology,"
said Howard McCluskey, chairman of
Indiana University's African Ameri
can studies department. "Students
won't find all of that if they major
simply in English."
Nor will they necessarily get a
chance to view society through black
eyes - something many professors say
they hope will help cool the country's
work the same late-night shift at the
same nursing home. Then they learn
they're long-lost siblings. What are
the chances of that happening? So
slim, Barren and Mansfield later said,
that they couldn't possibly have rec
ognized each other when they met.
"I was only two years old, wander
ing around the streets of Detroit wear
ing nothing but a diaper when I was
found," 23-year-old Barren told his
nursing assistant skills class at
Washtenaw Community College in
late January. His parents were alco
holics who didn't seem to care what
happened to him when the authorities
took him away, he said. He was
adopted at the age of four.
His story startled 21-year-old
Mansfield, who suffered as an infant
from fetal alcohol syndrome. His par
ents had abandoned him without food
or water when he was little more than
a year old. Police found him malnour
ished, dehydrated and lying on a mat
tress. The left side of his head was flat
National Campus News Thursday, March 5, 1998 The Behrend College Collegian - Page 5
Campus briefs from across the
nation and around the world
Not Enough Black
Coaches Study Finds
College Press Service CHICAGO
The percentage of black coaches of
college basketball and football teams
is running far behind the percentage
of black athletes who participate in
those sports and the percentage of
black head coaches who lead those
sports for professional leagues, a new
study indicates.
The study, conducted by Northeast
ern University's Center for the Study
of Sport and Society, revealed that in
nearly every category, college sports
programs are worse about hiring mi
nority coaches than are professional
programs.
During the 1995-96 season, 61 per
cent of men's basketball players at
Division I schools in the National
Collegiate Athletic Association were
black, compared with 17.3 percent of
head coaches. At the same time, 52
percent of football players and 4.7
percent of coaches were black.
The study also found that only 4.2
percent of the 7,101 head coaches for
men's teams in the NCAA are black,
and that only 7.1 percent of the 6,8881
head coaches of women's teams are
black.
"Those statistics are pretty hard to
defend," NCAA Executive Director
Cedric Dempsey reportedly told the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
"We've done a horrendous job."
The center has released an annual
report on hiring practices by profes
sional teams for nine years. This is the
oft-heated racial divide
"It brings to mind the O.J. Simpson
case," said Russell Adams, head of
African American studies at Howard
University. "(Whites) did not know
how we saw justice in terms of race
relations in this country. Until we all
see (justice) in the same way, there
will be a need to have continual edu
cation."
Some people challenge the major's
usefulness when it's time to go job
hunting after college, but many pro
fessors say their students are market
able for a variety of reasons. Gradu
ates tend to head off to law school or
get jobs in teaching and public policy
making fields where they can right the
wrongs highlighted during their stud
ies, said Percy Hintzen, chairman of
the African American studies depart
ment at the University of California-
Berkeley, one of only two schools to
offer a Ph.D. in the subject.
"If someone wants to be a doctor
or an attorney (or a) city planner and
not understand the realities of the in
ner-city, (they) would be totally dys
functional," he said. "AAS is not only
an intellectual discipline. It deals with
race relations, and I think that some
one with an AAS degree entering into
any job situation would be good."
By why major in African American
studies especially in an age when
tened from lying on it so long.
Their stories weren't the same, but
similar enough for the pair to pursue
the discussion during a short break.
Barren told Mansfield his birth name
had been "Fletcher."
Mansfield's mouth dropped.
"You're not going to believe this,"
he said. "But mine was, too."
Barren's heart skipped a beat. Just
another joke, right? Mansfield was
always telling jokes. That's what he
liked about him. That's why they
clicked the moment they met, right?
"I really wanted to believe we were
brothers right then and there," Barren
said. "I knew there was something in
Roger that was a lot like the some
thing in me that I've never been able
to explain to anyone else, but I didn't
want to get my hopes up. I just thought
I would never know exactly where I
came from."
Not knowing whose blood courses
through their veins always bothered
Barren and Mansfield. They were re-
first year the study included college
athletics. The latest study did not in
clude historically black colleges, a
measure taken to avoid skewing re
sults.
Howard University
Found Liable For
Assault
College Press Service WASHING
TON A federal jury found Howard
University and one of its former cam
pus security guards liable for an as
sault on a Jewish man who protested
the appearance of a controversial
speaker at the university in 1994.
Under district-court orders, the uni
versity and retired guard Robert Cyrus
must pay Rabbi Avi Weiss $5,000 for
the suffering he endured while being
surrounded and threatened by an an
gry crowd who had gathered to hear
Khalid Abdul Muhammad speak on
campus. Muhammed, a former
spokesman for the Nation of Islam,
has been widely condemned for his
anti-Semitic remarks.
Weiss claimed the crowd shouted
and spat on him. He alleged that Cyrus
ignored the crowd and ordered him
to leave because he was "causing a
riot." Weiss said Cyrus grabbed his
signs and threw them on the ground
when he refused to leave.
Cyrus disputed the rabbi's account,
claiming that he calmed the crowd and
protected Weiss from serious harm.
However, the jury decided that
Cyrus' actions were unjustified and
unreasonable.
computer technicians out of college
can land big bucks? Many students
say they simply want to know their
culture better.
"When I came into contact with
people who were immersed in that
study, my eyes were opened," said
Gloria Purifoy, a 25-year-old gradu
ate student at Western Illinois Univer
sity. "I decided no one can look down
on me because I know myself.
"I also learned to become proud of
the things that we've been taught to
look down upon, such as my fea
tures," she added, pointing to her dark
skin and tightly braided hair.
Such awakenings aren't restricted
to black students.
"White students should take Afri
can American studies for their own
knowledge and to learn about the very
important role of Africans (played in)
American history," said 23-year-old
Richard Culotta, a white junior at
Western Illinois majoring in tourism
and recreational park administration.
"I found African American studies
more relevant to society than many
other courses."
Added Mistretta: "Unfortunately
we (take a class) for something that
should be included in American his
tory. Black history is a little footnote
and should be integrated into U.S.
history better than it is."
bellious teens who stirred up trouble
because they were always angry. An
gry that their biological parents
shunned them. Angry that they
couldn't give a detailed family medi
cal history to their doctors. Angry that
they didn't even know why they
tanned so easily each summer.
The frustration got the best of them
on several occasions. At 15, Barren
landed in a juvenile detention center
for breaking and entering, assault and
battery and truancy. When Mansfield
turned 15, his parents sent him to
boarding school because they feared
he was heading down a similar path.
"I had no idea so much damage
could be done before a child was 18
months old," said Ronnie Skrycki,
Mansfield's adoptive mother. "As he
grew up, it always seemed like we
were dealing with the result without
knowing the cause."
Heart pounding and hands shaking,
Mansfield raced home after the class,
grabbed his adoption records and
The university released a statement
saying only that it had not violated the
District of Columbia's Code of Hu
man Rights and that it had not vio
lated Weiss's First Amendment or
civil rights.
School officials declined further
comment
Students Demand the
Renaming of College
Dormitory
College Press Service
BLACKSBURG, Va. Much to the
dismay of several students, Claudius
Lee's name won't be stripped from the
halls of a Virginia Tech dormitory.
Several students are eager for the
building to be rid of Lee's name be
cause they suspect the former profes
sor— who was also an alumnus of the
school was tied to the Ku Klux Klan.
Students working on a history as
signment stumbled across an 1896
yearbook that lists what appears to
have been the membership roster of a
campus chapter of the Klan. Lee, the
yearbook's editor, was described as
"Father of Terror" and the group's
leader. In 1968, the school named the
dormitory after Lee, who had worked
there as an engineering professor for
50 years.
Virginia Tech President Paul
Torgerson appointed a committee to
investigate Lee's background. The
group concluded that it is unlikely that
the yearbook listing represented genu
ine Klan activity. It also noted that the
Klan had been dormant in Virginia 25
Colorado
Senate passes
anti-hazing bill
By Jessica Gleich,
The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News
DENVER—College fraternity
pledges can rest easy. A Boulder
County legislator's bill to ban hazing
is advancing in the Colorado Senate.
The Senate gave preliminary ap
proval by a 26-9 vote Tuesday to
SBIO6, sponsored by Sen. Terry
Phillips, D-Louisville, which prohib
its "any forced activity that recklessly
or knowingly endangers the emo
tional or physical health or safety of
another person" during a student or
gang initiation.
"We're not talking about just play
ful pushing around," said Sen. Sally
called Barren's mother. The details
matched too well to be coincidental,
they decided.
"There was a section that described
our parents' physical characteristics,
and it was the same right down to their
education, skin tone and weight,"
Barren said. "Roger and I were
adopted from the same agency. There
were 10 siblings total, and all their
birthdates were the same. We both had
a sister who died of congenital heart
failure when she was 3 months old.
"We haven't taken DNA tests yet,
but we really don't have to," he con
tinued. "I'm convinced."
So is Mansfield.
"It's great because we are best
friends and brothers, too," he said.
"I'm still in shock about it. I haven't
gotten all emotional because it really
hasn't hit me yet. You hear about
things like this on TV, but how many
people do you know have actually had
it happen to them?"
years before and 10 years after the
yearbook was published.
"Our dilemma today is how to
weigh the reprehensible judgment of
an undergraduate over 100 years ago
against the long and meritorious pro
fessional life that followed those
years," Torgerson said in a statement.
"I do not believe that institutions can
reconcile regrettable aspects of our
histories by trying to change the
record left to us in the past."
Islamic Practices Stifled
at Istanbul University
College Press Service ISTANBUL,
Turkey About 2,000 students at
Istanbul University in Turkey protest
school policies designed to eliminate
Islamic practices on campus, the As
sociated Press reported.
Students chanting "Our education
rights can't be taken away" took to
the city's streets on Feb. 24 after uni
versity president Kemal Alemdaroglu
asked police to bar bearded men and
women with their heads covered from
campus, the AP reported. Public dis
plays of Islamic traditions have been
widely discouraged since the pro-Is
lamic Welfare Party fell from power
•
in July.
The ban isn't the only step the uni
versity has taken to rid itself of Is
lamic displays. In October, the school
barred female students from register
ing for classes if the photographs on
their student IDs showed them with
their heads covered.
Hopper, R-Jefferson County. "We're
talking about some really cruel
things."
Phillips said similar legislation in
New Hampshire reduced the number
of student hazing incidents by 30 per
cent.
His bill was prompted by incidents
"We're not talking
about just playful
pushing around,"
Sally Hopper
Colorado State Senator
of fatal consumption of alcohol and
exposure to the elements at college
and university campuses in Colorado.
SBIO6 makes it a crime to force
alcohol or drugs on a pledge, or to
deprive him or her of sleep or free
dom of movement from captivity.
Brutality from whipping, beating or
branding while exposing someone to
the elements would be covered by the
bill.
In addition to physical danger, the
bill would prohibit acts that cause se
vere emotional distress.
Senate Majority Leader Jeff Wells,
R-Colorado Springs, amended the bill
to exclude ROTC military calisthen
ics or sports team exercise from the
definition of hazing.
Phillips also narrowed the anti-haz
ing rule to cover only student organi
zations or criminal associations, such
as gangs.
Illegal hazing would be a Class 3
misdemeanor punishable by a fine of
$5O to $750 and up to six months in
jail.
Upon final Senate approval, ex
pected today, the bill will move to the
House, where it will be carried by
Rep. Dorothy Gotlieb, R-Denver.