NATIONAL CAMPUS NEWSI.I.II•=O.II..Mii
EBR ARY 18 2000 THE BEHREND N
Students boycotting South Carolina
beaches over flag controversy
by Katrice Franklin
Knight-Ridder Tribune
February 11, 2000
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va
Carolina's Confederate flag contro
versy is bringing hundreds of college
students to Virginia Beach's resort
strip this spring.
More than 1,000 Duke University
college students plan to plant them
selves on the Beach's Oceanfront in
May for their annual end-of-the-year,
post-finals party.
The 18- to 21-year-olds are chang
ing their party plans to give the boot
to one of Virginia Beach's top com
petitors Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The university's NAACP chapter
is challenging all students to avoid
South Carolina's shore and join with
the national chapter's efforts to boy
cott the state for refusing to remove
the Confederate flag from its state
capitol.
While the students are not the cus
tomers that Virginia Beach usually
targets 25- to 44-year-olds with
families and annual incomes of more
than $45,000 Beach leaders and
hotel owners said they welcome the
young people. They might not spend
a lot and pump up the city's tourism
dollars. But they're worth far more
than the money they'll contribute to
the economy. They signify a differ
ent image than the one created by
events in 1989.
High price offered
raises ethical questions
by Marilee Enge
Knight-Ridder Tribune
February 09, 2000
SAN JOSE, Calif. An infertile
couple seeking an athletic young
woman to donate her eggs is offering
$lOO,OOO an amount thought to be
the highest price yet in the escalating
market for donor ova.
The offer, which was made in an
advertisement in the Stanford Daily
student newspaper, again raises ques
tions about the ethics of paying large
sums to women who meet certain
physical and intellectual criteria.
The highest known previous price
for donor eggs was $50,000, offered
last year by an infertile couple seek
ing a tall, athletic top student with and Stanford. We have Ph.D. candi
high SAT scores at a number of prey- dates at USC. We've got people who
tigious schools, including Stanford. are drop-dead gorgeous and have
But the latest over shocked even vet-
Louisa Tromel, director of Families I University master's degrees. -
eran fertility practitioners. 2000 in Newport Beach, Calif., said Five- and six-figure donor fees
"That's the highest asking price for the family did not want to speak pub- strike Smith as coercive and cold.
licly. "I can't make any comments," "Suddenly it's about buying eggs
donor eggs that I've heard," said
Shelley Smith, director of the Egg
she said. ate a commercial transaction, rather rather than a woman wanting to cre-
The practice of using donated eggs than a medical one, said Margaret ate a dream for somebody
i else."
Donor Program, a center in Los
• An-
A n t-d iscrimina t ion ex h i b i t uses
vivid demonstrations
by Lynn Franey
Knight Ridder Newspapers
February 10, 2000
WARRENSBURG, Mo. Blind
folded participants are divided into
groups by eye color. Some are forced
to kneel, others to stand with their
hands against a wall. Two tormen
tors yell at them, scaring them with a
shouted "bang" to symbolize the
shooting of another member of the
group.
This is the introduction audiences
get at Central Missouri State
University's Beyond Words 2000
anti-discrimination museum.
The purpose of the first skit is to
give museum-goers a taste of the fear
and lack of control felt by Jewish vic
tims of the Holocaust.
In other exhibits, the museum gets
audiences to consider the feelings of
the disabled, elderly, teenagers, non-
Christians, ethnic minorities, and
multiracial families, as well as homo
sexuals
"I hope this opens people's eyes to
the things people say that they think
are normal but that really hurt
people," said Heather Kinion, a Cen
tral Missouri State student who is in
some of the museum's skits. In one
role, she plays a white woman with a
biracial child.
This is the fifth year for the
A decade ago, Greekfest, a college quite a turnaround in my view."
party of more than 100,000 black stu- Jimmy H. Capps, president of the
South
dents at the beginning of the school
year, turned into riots, arrests and
claims of police brutality.
The Labor Day weekend melee
triggered racial complaints and ac
cusations that the city did not em
brace black college students. The
riots also tarnished the Beach's repu
tation among college students at
many schools.
"This is a positive sign," said Oral
Lambert, the Beach's chief of opera
tions, when asked about the Duke
students. "This is an indication that
Virginia Beach is not looked upon as
being negative. That's the image that
many people want to stir up. This is
geles. "It's double [the previous
record]."
A Southern California recruiting
service called Families 2000 has
placed the full-page ads for the past
few weeks, said Peter Castorena, di
rector of marketing for the Stanford
Daily. The service, Which says on its
Web site that it was founded by Chris
tian women who struggled with infer
tility, placed similar ads in Stanford's
student newspaper last year,
Castorena said.
"Give the Gift of Love and Life,"
the advertisement reads. "Very Spe
cial Egg Donor Needed." The notice
goes on to say that the donor must be
under 30, Caucasian, and an athlete,
and adds: "Proven college level ath
letic ability preferred."
In addition to the $lOO,OOO com
pensation, "all expenses will be paid."
university's Museum of Oppression,
which won the regional 1998 Inno
vative Program Award from the Na
tional Association of Student Person
nel Administrators.
About 1,500 people go through the
museum during the week it is open in
February each year, said Beth
Tankersley, head of the university's
Office of Community Awareness. Her
"This is a good way to have students
evaluate their attitudes. It makes them
realize that attitudes are buried very
deeply."
office works with student and com
munity groups to present the museum.
In the ballroom of the University
Union, tour groups move from station
to station. At one, they watch a vid
eotape of a black woman saying sar
castically that black people want to
be undereducated, underemployed,
and disliked. At another, they hear
an audiotape of a man berating a
woman, blaming her for his violence
toward her. At a third, a student
speaks from the perspective of a Jew
Beach Hotel and Motel Association,
said he's thrilled about the business.
"We're not that busy in the middle
of May, and we want to rent hotel
rooms," Capps said.
Twenty-year-old Duke student
Kameron Matthews, who is leading
the effort to bring the students to Vir
ginia Beach, said she had never heard
of Greekfest and is not concerned.
All Duke students want is to tan on
the beach and go to the clubs and
bars. And for that, the Beach's re
sort strip is ideal, Matthews said.
About 13 of the university's orga
nizations have agreed to abandon
Myrtle Beach. The travel time is
for donor's eggs
and sperm to conceive a child is well
established, but the astronomical
prices offered by wealthy couples cre-
"If you have
money you can
have this ideal
child. It renders
children an article
of commerce as
well."
-Margaret McLean,
professor of ethics,
Santa Clara
made to feel like an outcast during the
Christmas season.
In past years, the museum has fo
cused on historical discrimination,
such as the Holocaust and slavery.
But this year's museum focuses on
contemporary examples of prejudice,
with posted newspaper articles detail
ing recent hate crimes and a wall map
pinpointing several hundred hate
-Dawne Buchanan,
education instructor,
Central Missouri State
groups, including Ku Klux Klan chap
ters, Christian Identity factions, and
several black separatist organizations.
Tammy Long, executive director of
the Greater Warrensburg Chamber of
Commerce & Visitors Center, brought
chamber staff to the museum Mon
day morning, February 7. She was
surprised to learn that hate groups
exist today, especially the 17 identi
fied in Missouri.
"This brought things into perspec
tive in the year 2000. We can relate
roughly the same distance from
Durham, N.C., to Myrtle Beach, she
said.
"It's also got the same atmo
sphere,- Matthews said.
Ash Ward, president of the Myrtle
Beach Chamber of Commerce, said
the strip has no record of the students
ever coming. But of the scheduled
591 groups that planned to travel to
Myrtle Beach this year, 26 have can
celed. Ward estimates a loss of about
$933,000, or nearly one-half of I per
cent of the nearly $2OO million a year
that Myrtle Beach collects from the
tourism market.
"Duke University is a top-notch
school," said Beach hotel owner
Robert Vakos. "I can't image those
kids being real hell-raisers coming
out of there. Are they going to jeop
ardize their lives by trying to do
something stupid'? I doubt it. -
James Ricketts, director of the
Beach's Department of Convention
and Visitor Development, said the
city has also made an effort to learn
how to deal with youth. Several city
leaders attended a youth conference
in Atlanta last year with officials
from places like Myrtle Beach and
Atlanta to talk about the behavior
"The Beach is open to anybody,'
Ricketts said. "Our visitation is
made up of a number of ethnic
groups, single to married, to senior
citizens to young folks."
McLean, a professor of ethics at Santa
Clara University.
"There are standards for what is a
worthwhile child. That troubles me
greatly," she said. "If you have money
you can have this ideal child. It ren
ders children an article of commerce
as well."
Fertility clinics on the West Coast
pay egg donors a standard fee of
$3,500, according to Smith. She said
many of her donors are "real humani
tarians' seeking to help infertile
couples, and she rejects potential do
nors who are just interested in the
money.
wonder, with these fees, why
they have to do that," she said. "We
have girls from Wellesley and Smith
to things that people say today that
they don't consider racist but really
aren't good comments to be making,"
Long said.
One white student, visiting Monday
with her communication class, told
her classmates that the exhibits rein
forced her belief in equality, an atti
tude she adopted after growing up
with a racist father who wouldn't let
her watch The Cosby Show or any
other television shows that featured
black characters.
Dawne Buchanan, an education in
structor at Central Missouri State,
brought her class to see the museum
Monday, Feb. 7. Two white univer
sity students said the exhibits made
them rethink their prejudice against
immigrants who don't speak English.
"This is a good way to have stu
dents evaluate their attitudes,"
Buchanan said. "It makes them real
ize that attitudes are buried very
deeply."
This year's theme is knocking
down the wall of discrimination by
replacing words of hate and acts of
harassment with expressions of love,
peace, acceptance, and unity.
In the final exhibit, a television
plays tips for creating a harmonious
world: "Remember what it feels like
to be different," "Don't hold back
compliments," "Stretch your cultural
comfort zone."
Congress looking for
way to slow increases
in college tuition
by Tony Pugh
Knight-Ridder Tribune
February 1 , 2000
WASHINGTON -- Flush with money
from smart investments, administra
tors at Williams College last month did
the unthinkable: they froze the
school's annual tuition for the first
time in more than 40 years, albeit at
$31,520.
That was a rarity among prestigious
private schools. Officials at the col
lege in Williamstown. Mass., hope the
price freeze will engender good will
and attract more top-notch sons and
daughters of money-conscious par
ents.
But experts say that's unlikely,
mainly because of an attitude preva
lent among the wealthy, which holds
that a school charging less than its
competitors must not be as good. So
the Harvards and Princetons of the
world continue to hike tuition each
year, with little adverse impact on their
ability to attract superior students.
That so-called "luxury mentality" is
just one of many factors that have
driven tuition to unprecedented
heights over the last 20 years, analysts
say. This year the average combined
cost of tuition and fees at public four
year institutions is $3,356; it is
$15,380 at private ones.
Average tuition for a full-time resi
dent undergraduate student rose 44
percent from 1990 to 1996, according
to the General Accounting Office. In
the same period, the cost of living, as
measured by the consumer price in
dex, rose only 15.4 percent, and me
dian household income rose a mere
13.8 percent.
One result of skyrocketing tuition
is that college has become all but
inaffordable for most low-income
families and many middle-class ones,
forcing both to borrow heavily, and
often crushing students with debt for
decades.
No one is quite sure why education
costs have grown so much faster than
inflation
The National Commission on the
Cost of Higher Education essentially
threw up its hands with its final report
in 1998, noting that colleges and uni
versities have made little effort to ex
plain their finances. "As a result, there
Leaders of student strike
held without bail
by Tracey Eaton
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
February 08, 2000
MEXICO CITY The leaders of a
strike that shut down Mexico's oldest
and largest university for nearly 10
months were ordered held without
bail Monday, February 7, as authori
ties debated what to do with more than
700 jailed protesters.
To Mexican authorities, many of
them are hoodlums, accused of such
serious crimes as "terrorism" and
"sabotage."
But to supporters, they're "politi
cal prisoners," angry urban rebels in
a less than democratic nation run by
the same political machine since
1929.
"Let our rage explode in the hands
of our oppressors!" one strike sup
porter declared in a message posted
on the World Wide Web.
The strikers occupied Mexico
City's National Autonomous Univer
sity of Mexico, or UNAM, in April
after university officials proposed
raising the yearly tuition from a few
cents to about $l4O.
The dispute simmered for months.
Then at dawn Sunday, Feb. 6, 2,662
federal police officers swept in and
re-took the campus, arresting hun
dreds of strikers.
By Monday, Feb. 7, Mexico's at
torney general's office was reporting
that it would formally charge 745
people, including 83 minors. Some
officials continued calling for le
niency as authorities set up a hotline
for relatives wanting to know the sta
tus of those arrested.
Three top leaders of the protest,
Alejandro "El Mosh" Echavarria,
Alberto "The Devil" Pacheco, and
Mario "The Cat" Flavio Benitez, were
ordered held without bail on Monday,
Feb. 7.
Their supporters said the charges
against them ranging from terror-
is no readily available information
about college costs and prices nor
is there a common national reporting
standard for either," the commission
report said.
But academia's veil of secrecy may
be lifting slowly under growing pres
sure for accountability.
The Senate Governmental Affairs. ,
Committee examined the trend of ris
ing college costs at hearings Wednes
day and Thursday. February 9 and 10. -
College administrators, professors and a
other education experts acknowledged'
their failure to justify tuition hikes, and
sonic recommended steps to take, but
no one had a definitive answer on why'
college costs keep rising so fast.
The colleges' own bills are driven •
by expensive factors such as comply
ing with regulations, recruiting fac
ulty, acquiring technology and build—.
ing facilities. All are partly to blame, 's
said William Troutt, president of,
Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.,'.
and chairman of the National Asso
ciation of Independent Colleges ands'
Universities.
Costs per student soared 57 percent
at four-year public institutions from
1987 to 1996, and 69 percent at pri
vate schools, Troutt said.
Most four-year institutions will con- .
tinue to see annual increases, "prob
ably at rates averaging as much as one. •
or two points over inflation," said Wil
liam Massey, a professor at Stanford
University and a prominent education ,
consultant.
Meanwhile, a uniform system for
reporting an institution's costs,.prices,
and subsidies is being developed by
the National Association of College
and University Business Officers. A
task force of experts has been work
ing longer than a year to devise a stan
dard disclosure format, said Gregory
Fusco, the consultant heading the
project.
Many tuition-paying parents voice
frustration and confusion over a re
lated phenomenon: why, they won
der, does tuition keep going up even
as federal student financial aid tops
$4l billion a year?
"We appear to he pouring more
money into the system only to have it
mopped up by tuition increases," said
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
ism and inciting a riot to sabotage and
destruction of public property were ,
"invented" and groundless accusa-.
"Is it terrorism to defend free pub- . :
lie education in a country with 100
million poor?" read a statement
posted on the strikers' Internet site.
"Please, don't believe what the me
dia say. Take to the streets and raise
your voice."
Few heeded that call Monday, Feb.
7, in Mexico City. The streets were ,
quiet as about 200 strike supporters ~
met privately to decide what to do .
next.
There was no immediate word on
when the university would re-open.
Authorities began cleaning up the
campus Monday, Feb. 7, and began ,
assessing the damage. Mexican
newspapers showed photos of class
rooms
and hallways littered with bro
ken chairs, equipment, and stray dogs.
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who is vy
ing for the Presidency in Mexico's
July 2 election, criticized Sunday's
raid of the campus, saying authorities
ought to be addressing the root causes
of such conflicts.
Cardenas and other left-leaning
politicians contend that as long as ,
power is so heavily concentrated in
one party the governing Institu
tional Revolutionary Party, or PRI
there will be political tension and the
potential for violence in Mexico.
For the strikers, the dispute may
have begun over the proposed tuition '
increase, but it quickly grew larger
than that. It became a protest against
the PRI, free markets, and political"
corruption. •
Yet the strike never had widespread
public support. University officials
in January held a straw poll to test the y
support for a plan to negotiate with
the strikers and re-open the school:'
More than 90 percent of about
150,000 students who voted in the'
poll backed the plan.