S-UGIAN 100" YEARS
April 1887-April 1987
Axed Reagan a
By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. Former national
security adviser John M. Poindexter, follow
ing the lead of Lt. Col. Oliver North, invoked
his Fifth Amendment right against self-in
crimination yesterday and refused to testify
before a Senate panel about the diversion of
Iranian arms sale profits to Nicaraguan
rebels.
Members of the Senate Intelligence Com
mittee said discussions have begun over the
possibility of securing testimony from North
and Poindexter by granting them immunity
from prosecution.
A committee source said it would be cor
rect to infer that both North and Poindexter
had asked for immunity.
But Chairman David Durenberger, R-
Minn., and other committee members said no
decisions had been made and it is only a
distant possibility at this point that the panel
will seek immunity for anyone.
Durenberger did say, however, that the
committee will expand its investigation and
seek testimony from members of President
Reagan’s'Cabinet.
Poindexter, a Navy vice admiral, was in
the committee’s eavesdrop-proof hearing
room for more than an hour yesterday.
His attorney, Richard Beckler, told report
ers later that while Poindexter wanted to
cooperate with the committee and “wishes to
fulfill every request the president has made,”
PSU
named
in suit
By MARTY IRVIN
Collegian Staff Writer
The University has been named in a
$lO,OOO lawsuit involving a former
Altoona campus student who became
a paraplegic after injuries suffered in
an alcohol-related accident at the
Commonwealth campus two years
ago.
The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S.
District Court in Pittsburgh by Maria
Hensley, 20, and her mother, Joyce
Jones, both of Riverhead, N.Y.
Hensley was involved in a car crash
near the Altoona campus shortly af
ter midnight on Nov. 27,1984.
According to the suit, the crash left
Hensley a paraplegic. The suit also
stated that the Sigma Psi Delta fra
ternity at the Altoona campus served
alcohol to Hensley, who was then a
freshman, at a party held outside the
Altoona campus grounds.
Altoona police said Hensley lost
control of her vehicle and struck a
utility pole while driving to her resi
dence hall after the party. Her car
flipped over an embankment and
landed in the parking lot of Altoona
campus’ east wing dorms, according
to police reports.
Hensley had a blood-alcohol con
tent of .13 at the time of the crash,
according to the suit. A blood-alcohol
content of .10 is considered legally
drunk.
Vince Lackner, a Pittsburgh attor
ney representing Hensley and Jones,
said a similar suit was filed in the
U.S. District Court in eastern New
York in January but was dismissed
voluntarily by the plaintiffs in March.
The University’s Office of Public
Information had no comment on the
pending litigation.
Mark Faulkner, a lawyer with the
University’s law firm of McQuaide,
Blasko, Schwartz, Fleming and
Faulkner Inc., said his office “has not
yet received a copy of the lawsuit,”
but will defend the University.
thursdav
The access road off Bigler Road
between the University poultry
farms and Nittany Apartments
will be closed indefinitely begin
ning this morning and will be
open only to people parking in
the Nittany- Silver Lot and an
adjacent student lot.
People driving toward the In
door Sports Complex, ice skat
ing rink, tennis club and East
Area Lockers must use McKean
Road, which will be opened at 8
this morning.
The road is being closed for
construction of a steamline.
weather
Today, windy and cold with oc
casional snow flurries. High 35.
the
daily
he nonetheless advised him to take the Fifth
Amendment because other investigations are
looming, including a possible criminal inves
tigation by an independent counsel.,
• Saudi link uncovered.
• GOP tries to back
Reagan.
• Half want Reagan
resignation.
• Weinberger criticizes
advisers.
North, who was fired from his National
Security Council post, appeared before the
Senate panel on Monday and also invoked the
Fifth Amendment. Attorney General Edwin
Meese 111 has identified North as the only
person who knew precisely about the diver
sion of funds.
Meese said Poindexter knew something
about it, but didn’t try to stop it. Poindexter
resigned as national security adviser after
the disclosure.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes
said Reagan’s instruction to his former aides
was “they should tell everything, consistent
/ ;v-.
Locked in combat
Penn State wrestler James Martin helps the Lion grapplers achieve victory Steve Martin before a crowd of 7,646 supportive home rooters at Rec Hall
over No. 1 ranked lowa with his win in this match with Hawkeye matman last night. Please see story on Page 10.
Friends and family deal with gays
Editor's Note: This is the second in a three-part
series on gay and lesbian students at the Universi
ty. Today's article addresses roommate and fami
ly reactions to gay and lesbian students.
By ERIC SCHMIDT
Collegian Staff Writer
Ken Meyers (senior-geography) went through 10
roommates in four semesters while he lived in the
dorms. Of the 10, he only got along with three. One
roommate lasted about 15 minutes, he said.
“He came in and totally flipped out,” Meyers
said, “then ran to the coordinator and got his room
switched.”
Meyer’s roommate problems stemmed from his
sexual preference he is open about his homosex
uality.
Roommate problems are a concern that most
gay and lesbian students face at the University.
Heidi, a sophomore who asked that her full name
not be used, said her roommates found out that she
was a lesbian last semester.
They totally shut her off and refused to even
speak to her, she said.
“It wasn’t really harassment, but it was very
uncomfortable, and it was where I lived,” Heidi
said.
Although Heidi tried to talk to her roommates
about her sexuality, they refused to listen, she
said.
“Bill,” a senior whoasked that his real name not
be used, realized that he was gay when he was a
sophomore; he then told his roommate and his
roommate’s girlfriend about it.
Collegian
ide si
with the advice of their private counsel.”
Both Durenberger and Vice Chairman Pat
rick Leahy said they do not believe the
refusal of the two key figures in the investiga
tion to testify would create a major hole in the
mosaic the panel is piecing together.
“There are an awful lot of significant
witnesses,” Leahy said. “We will piece to
gether what we need to know with or without
them.”
Durenberger added: “North didn’t do any
thing by himself. Everything he did in this
entire caper had to have a response. If we can
get everybody at the other end of all those
phone calls and plane trips, we can find out
what went on.”
Meanwhile, one committee member, Sen.
Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., urged President
Reagan to “come clean with the American
people” or face Watergate-style investiga
tions and news leaks that could paralyze the
government and destroy his administration.
He said he was positive that Reagan had
authorized the Iran and Contra connections
and believed that Vice President George
Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz
and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberg
er knew about it as well.
Page 3
All have denied any knowledge about the
diversion of funds until it was disclosed by
Meese last week.
Durenberger accused Hollings of breaking
the committee’s rules of secrecy.
“Sen. Hollings has to decide whether he’s
going to be a member of this committee or
Both were extremely positive and supportive
about it, he said.
In his junior year, however, Bill was living with
two other “extremely homophobic” people whom
he did not tell.
“I figured I had to live there,” Bill said, “and it
would be better not to open up yet.”
Bill made no efforts to hide his sexual prefer
ence, he said, but never brought the topic up for
discussion. He is currently living with a gay
roommate.
It is common for gay students to live together,
Heidi said. Consequently, non-gay students and
gay students rarely have the chance to interact
with each other.
“There needs to be an awareness on campus
that there are gays here,” Heidi said, “... that
and (the fact) that we are a very important part of
the University.”
Gay students also have difficulty talking about
their sexual preference with their parents.
Heidi recently told her mother that she is a
lesbian, she said, and it has made life at home
easier for her because she no longer has to lead a
double life.
“I’d go out to the bars then I’d come home and
be a good little girl,” Heidi said, “but it got to the
point where I couldn’t do that anymore. And I
don’t like keeping things from my mother.”
Tracy Alderman, president of the Lesbian Gay
Student Alliance, said she told her mother she was
a lesbian while they were driving in the family car.
“I just came home out of the blue one weekend
and I was driving along with my mother,” Alder-
lent about Iran deal
.7 '' „ x" Z
1 >' ’ 5,,.
'•m-
John Poindexter.
get off the committee, because that’s a viola
tion of the rules,” he said.
Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., who will chair
the committee with the opening of the 100th
Congress next year, has said the panel should
turn over all of its finding to the single
.4' ■ -X"'
man said. “I said ‘Mom, I have a problem.’ She
asked me what it was and I told her ‘Mom, I’m
gay.’
“She pulled the car over we were on a side
street and looked at me like ‘are you serious?’ ”
She said her mother was very supportive but
added, “she still hopes I’ll get married and have
kids some day.”
Alderman has revealed her homosexuality to
one of her two brothers and is not certain if her
father knows, she said. The brother who does know
has been very supportive, she added.
Meyers said both of his parents have made an
effort to understand his homosexuality.
His half-brother is also gay, Meyers said, so his
father had dealt with the experience before. This
time, he said, his father’s reaction was not to
disown him like his half-brother. His father has
even taken some steps to locate Meyer’s half
brother whom he has not contacted in 10 years. .
However, Bill’s parents did not react so support
ively, he said.
Since his parents are Catholic, they have
adopted the church’s stance on the issue which he
said is: “It’s not your fault that you’re gay, but you
still should never be sexually active.”
He has tried many times to get his parents to
read books about homosexuality, Bill said, or to
discuss the issue with him, but they refuse to do so.
“(My parents) treat it as a handicap like Down’s
syndrome,” Bill said, “a handicap that I was born
with and they can’t do anything about. My moth
er’s attitude is that ‘I deal with it by not dealing
with it,’ ” Bill said.
Thursday, Dec. 4,1986
Vol. 87, No. 100 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1986 Collegian Inc.
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AP Laserphoto
/ ~
Collegian Photo/ John S. Zeedick
supercommittee expected to be created to
take over the investigation.
But Durenberger said the committee, still
in GOP hands, will complete its work “before
David Boren becomes chairman” because its
task is “not to be politicized.”
He said that the panel could finish its
investigation as early as next week.
On the immunity issue, Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, D-N.Y., said, “Those things are
discussed.
But Durenberger indicated the possibility
was, at least for now, not very high.
Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine, said grant
ing immunity to witnesses was not being
considered seriously at this time. “I think it
would be very premature,” he said.
Hollings, too, said he would oppose grant
ing North or Poindexter immunity. '
“The more we investigate the more we are
going to be on a diversion and the more we
are going to paralyze the government for the
next six months,” Hollings said.
He said Reagan should grant his former
aides executive privilege to prevent them
from testifying before Congress and admit
that he had authorized their actions.
“We need the president to come right on top
of the table and come clean with the Ameri
can people,” Hollings said.
He said he was positive that Reagan knew
about the affair but admitted that he was
basing his contention on “circumstantial
evidence” and news reports, not on testimony
taken by the committee.
Hazing
concern
in past
Editor's Note: This is the first of a
two-part series on hazing practices
by fraternities. Today's article deals
with hazing in the 1950 s and '6os, and
tomorrow's will address hazing in the
1980 s.
By VICTORIA PETTIES
Collegian Staff Writer
The death of Thomas Clark, a
freshman pledge at the Massachu
setts Institute of Technology in 1956,
sparked concern about hazing prac
tices here at Penn State in the 19505.
The MIT freshman was found at the
bottom of a reservoir a week after he
had been taken into the country and
told to find his way back to campus, a
common fraternity hazing practice
then.
Reports at that time said that Clark
had evidently mistaken the reservoir
for a field, tried to cross it in the dark
and fell in.
Fraternity hazing practices re
ceived attention both here at the
University and nationally during the
1950 s and ’6os.
According to a 1956 Philadelphia
Inquirer article, various hazing prac
tices during the three decades prior
to the 1950 s increased because “the
pull of fraternities has become so
great in modern undergraduate cir
cles that victims are willing to submit
to humiliation and torture in many
cases in order to be accepted into full
fledged membership.”
The article said none of the stunts,
which often included beatings and
subjecting members to weird and
humorless practical jokes, were
meant to be harmful and some had
been performed for so long without
accidents occurring that they had
become traditional.
In the 19505, hazing incidents were
considered isolated but years earlier,
pledges sustained serious injuries or
died performing the same rituals.
Abandoning a prospective brother
far from the campus to make his way
home without money or directions, as
was done in the MIT hazing incident,
is one of the oldest forms of hazing
known.
Kenneth Nelson, University profes
sor emeritus in accounting, said that
hazing was not a problem in the 1960 s
at the University.
“Hazing was definitely not talked
about (in the 19605) as much as it is
talked about today,” said Nelson, a
University fraternity adviser for 31
years. “I do not recall hazing ever
being an issue here.”
However, Lee Upcraft, vice presi
dent for Counseling and Health Serv
ices, said hazing at the University
was more prevalent in the 1960 s than
today “partly because it was general
ly accepted.”
Fraternities are under more pres
sure not to haze due to the recent
wave of anti-hazing legislation, Up
craft said, adding: “fraternities have
toned down hazing today.”
The day after the MIT hazing
incident, Penn State’s dean of
Please see HAZING, Page 16