21 minute read
Chronicles 4
by The Vista
Instructor recalls aftermath of
N.Y. attacks
B WMB and their picture was featured on the cover of the Dallas Morning News.
"Our job was to be with the families and to offer them emotional support," Ferrell-Lynn said.
Ferrell-Lynn described New York as having "flags everywhere, bumper stickers on the cars and the Empire State Building was illuminated at the top in red, white and blue."
"The people of New York were absolutely and profoundly shaken, but they were coping about as well as to be expected. This was familiar territory for me."
About flying New York shesaid, "when we got into New York and were about to land a sudden turn by the plane shocked me. I started thinking Oh my god where's the runway."
One thing New York City was doing to curtail the trauma was the ban on photographs around the site.
"They didn't want anyone to capitalize on their grief," FerrellLynn said.
"It was like nothing that I have seen before. It was if hell vomited." • Staff Writer A UCO adjunct professor recently visited New York for eight days and consoled some of the families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center bombing.
Deborah D. Ferrell-Lynn, adjunct political science professor, was asked to participate in the New York Outreach program because of her involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing.
"I lost my cousin Susan Ferrell in the OKC bombing and helped in the mission statement and design of the memorial," FerrellLynn said.
At the time of the Sept. II attacks the Red Cross funded Outreach program was in the process of developing a plan for dealing with terrorist acts.
"We want to make sure we can mitigate its effects," Ferrell-Lynn said.
Ferrell-Lynn was accompanied in New York by Constance Levy who lost her daughter Lakeshia Levy in the Oklahoma City bombing. The two of them had met previously after the bombing
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STRANGE STORIES FROM AROUND THE UNITED ST Teacher disciplined for dressing as terrorist for Halloween
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Associated Press
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Hempfield Area School District teacher has been disciplined for dressing up as a terrorist on Halloween.
District superintendent Wayne Doyle said disciplinary action was taken against the teacher — whom he would not identify — after several parents called to complain that the costume had upset students.
Doyle would not say what type of disciplinary action was taken or what grade or class the instructor teaches.
Doyle said he did not see the costume himself but had it described to him.
"He was dressed in a costume that I didn't feel, in these times, was appropriate," Doyle said.
Students say the teacher had a towel on his head and looked like a terrorist.
WEYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -- It was the largest baby the South Shore Hospital's maternity ward had seen in its 80-year history.
Tuesday, a Marshfield woman gave birth to a boy weighing 14 pounds, 12 ounces. The boy, named Jacob was 24 inches long.
The parents' names were not released because the mother was still in recovery, the Patriot Ledger of Quincy reported
Information on your sports, your entertainment, your friends, your home, your teachers, your school, your life.
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Thursday.
Hospital spokesman Scott Pickard said Jacob was delivered by Caesarean section. It was not the mother's first child.
The average American baby weighs 7 pounds, 8 ounces at birth, according to the American Medical Association.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Two people say they were fired from their jobs at a publishing company after showing up for work Wednesday wearing Halloween-related items, in violation of a new company policy.
A memo distributed Monday to employees of Allen Press said, "Anyone wishing to defy the instruction that Halloween will no longer be observed at Allen Press will lose their employment."
On Halloween, Justin Erickson, 26, of rural Perry, came to work at the publishing company with a jack-o'-lantern pin on his dress shirt. Crystal Roberts, 22, of rural Ottawa, wore striped orange socks and a T-shirt depicting the cartoon character Snoopy out trick-or-treating.
By the end of the day, both were out of work.
Erickson, who wanted a showdown on the issue, said he wasn't surprised at being fired, but Roberts hadn't seen Monday's warning because she didn't work the first two days of the week, and thought her outfit would pass muster.
"I was expecting it," Erickson said. "I knew it was going to happen. I stand up for my beliefs. I don't think anyone has the right to push their religious beliefs on anyone else. If they're so worried about morale, wondering why people quit all the time, this is one of those reasons."
Rand Allen, the publishing company's chief executive officer, declined to comment on the policy or the firings. But memos provided to the Lawrence JournalWorld showed that he told employees in September they wouldn't be allowed to celebrate Halloween.
Monday's e-mail message went into greater detail, saying, "Anyone wearing costumes, or modifying their appearance whether by makeup or change to their outward appearance to show defiance will have their employment terminated."
The memo didn't explain reasons for the policy.
Erickson, a mail proof specialist at the company for 2 1/2 years, sent a company-wide e-mail on Oct. 4 questioning the noHalloween policy. He said he was reprimanded for it, but still got an "excellent" rating on his annual job evaluation that he received on Tuesday.
Erickson said he normally wears a T-shirt and jeans or slacks to work. But on Wednesday he wore a dress shirt, slacks and tie — with a blinking jack-o-lantern pin attached to his shirt pocket.
He said Allen told him at midmorning that he "no longer worked for the company." Erickson said he didn't ask why, and Allen didn't specifically say it was because of the pin.
Roberts had worked for the See STRANGE, Page 15
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STRANGE: Boy suspended for wearing costume resembling vagina to high school continued from page 14
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W2VPS 'PI ZZA ' Expires 2/20/2002 Carry-Out Only company as a manuscript processor for about 15 months. She said she missed work Monday and Tuesday because of back pains. stemming from an auto accident on Friday.
Although she knew about the nocostume policy, she said she was not aware of the warning sent out on Monday.
"I think it's really unfair," she said. "I was intentionally trying to avoid conflict. The guidelines were as long as it was normal clothing, and T-shirt and sandals are normal clothing to me. I didn't wear face paint, wigs or. masks. I thought I was safe. If they didn't want us to wear orange or black or a shirt that said Halloween, they should've said that."
Roberts said that her supervisor, Susan Metzger, informed her Tuesday afternoon that she'd been fired, indicating that her clothing was the reason for the termination.
Roberts said she plans to talk to an attorney before planning her next career move. Erickson, who had been working part-time as a cook, said the restaurant agreed to hire him full-time.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A teen-age boy got into trouble at his high school after wearing a Halloween costume resembling a vagina.
Christian Silbereis' classmates at Community High School apparently were less offended by the costume, which was fashioned from a pink cape, than the school administrators who suspended him Wednesday for the rest of the week.
The outfit took first place at the school's costume contest, where students selected the winners.
"It's anatomically correct," Silbereis told The Ann Arbor News, lifting up the cape to reveal a T-shirt bearing a rendering of a fetus.
The 17-year-old senior said he feels bad if the costume offended anyone but wondered why it would.
"It's just another body part," he said. "They teach us about it in school."
Silbereis said his mother, Rosalyn Tulip, a midwife, created the costume last year and wore it to a party. When Silbereis asked if he could wear the outfit to school Wednesday, Tulip cautioned him that it might make some people uncomfortable.
She also, however, said she would support such a decision because it is a positive way for people to talk about their bodies, Tulip said. "It's not about me being a pervert" or trying to make people angry, Silbereis said, adding that he respects women and their bodies.
Miriam Shabazz, 16, a junior at the high school, criticized the suspension.
"There's nothing inappropriate about what's given all of us life," she said. Maggie Jewett, the school's assistant dean, said staff members were outraged at the costume and felt demeaned by it.
Silbereis said he took off the costume in his fourth hour of classes after Jewett came into his class and told him to either remove it or go home. He pulled it back on, however, for the contest and received wild applause from students who declared him the winner.
"If I won, that means most of the school was down with it," he said. • After the contest, Jewett told Silbereis that he was suspended for the rest of the week, he said.
Jewett declined to comment further to the newspaper, saying student disciplinary action is confidential. The school referred a call Thursday about the matter to school district spokeswoman Deborah Small, who did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Tulip said she is proud of her son but feels that he shouldn't have put the costume back on after agreeing to remove it. She also doesn't question the school's decision to suspend her son and has no plans to fight it.
CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — A man trying to get his hunting dog accustomed to the sound of shotgun blasts on Tuesday gave his friend a scare instead — by accidentally shooting him in the foot.
Jeremiah Ancel, 21, of Carbondale, was treated at a local hospital for a gunshot wound to the right foot.
Ancel and two friends were trying to train the dog by using a rag duck and firing blank rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun. The gun began sliding from the grip of one of Ancel's friends, and as the man reached to grab it, he accidentally pulled the trigger guard.
The gun fired, striking Ancel in the big toe, and wadding from the blank round struck Ancel's foot.
A Jackson County Sheriff's Department investigation determined the incident was an accident.
It was unclear whether the dog learned a lesson.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Two teen-agers talked their way into handcuffs by way of an accidental cell phone call to 911.
Dispatchers listened to a giggle-punctuated, 20-minute discussion between the 19- and 18-year-old young men, including an alleged boast of a planned armed robbery.
The pair allegedly were smoking marijuana around noon Monday in their Hutchinson apartment when someone either sat on or hit a cell phone, said Hutchinson Police Detective Sgt. Clay Rothe.
The blow triggered a call to Reno County dispatchers.
"Someday you're going to come home and wonder all your life where this bag of money came from," one of the teens said on tape, amid much giggling.
"I'll never tell," he went on. "I will have robbed the Taco Bell and gotten away with it." That got dispatchers' attention.
The two then decided to head to a music store. On the way, dispatchers were treated to a drive-time conversation split between giggling, loud music and worry about being stopped in a car with no turn signals. "I just don't see what the big deal is, I mean, what if I was wearing an elbow costume? That's part of the body. Would they suspend me then?"
—Christian Silbereis 17-year-old suspended for wearing vagina costume
"The dispatcher was able to tell about exactly when they arrived at Hastings because the loud thumping music stopped," Rothe said. "They could hear the phone jiggling around, and then country music. You could sort of assume their music tastes didn't switch that abruptly."
The pair's concern about the police proved well-founded, when Hutchinson police officers Lee Ann Campbell and Ernie Underwood arrived at the store.
Rothe said the young men allowed police to search them; marijuana was allegedly found on both.
Plus a cell phone, still connected to 911.
"Officer Campbell just pulled the thing out of (one of the teen's) pocket and told the dispatcher they were on the scene," Rothe said.
The pair faces possible misdemeanor marijuana charges. No charges had been filed Wednesday morning, and an assistant Reno County District attorney said the office would review police records to determine if there are grounds for charges. •
Log on to www.thevistaordine.com 24 hours a day for campus news or to sound off on current issues.
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AROUND CAMPUS Sorority hosts poetry night with Linda Everett Moye
BY TOB1 JILL DICKSON Student Writer I he women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority hosted a Poetry Night with guest Linda Everett Moye at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, at the Commons Clubhouse.
Moye, a writer and poet, gave a reading and offered attendees insight on how to copyright and publish their own work.
Moye is a self-published writer and has written three books.
"I believe poetry is a gift," Moye said.
She read poems from two of her books From A Delta's Heart and The Courage to Say It. Moye's third book, Imagine This, is a children's book that encourages the use of imagination.
"I believe in taking the negative and turning it into positive," she said.
One student offered her reaction to Moye's poetry. "It was moving, inspirational and educational," said junior business communication student Lahoma Dade.
Moye pledged Delta Sigma Theta in 1973 at Virginia State University and has a law degree from St. Mary's University. She is in the process of completing a novel inspired by the discovery of a Pharaoh's queen.
Moye's works can be located online at www.bn.com or at www.poetry.com , where students can submit their own poetry. •
Miss UCO scholarship pageant entries now being accepted
BY JERA STONE Student Writer he 2002 Miss UCO Scholarship Pageant board of directors is accepting applications now through Nov. 16 in the Campus Life office.
The 26th annual Miss UCO pageant will take place at Mitchell Hall Theater on Jan. 26, 2002 said
Pageant Coordinator Jarrett Jobe.
"The purpose of the pageant is to give women an opportunity to compete in a pageant that is preliminary to the Miss Oklahoma.
It also provides a scholarship opportunity for school," Jobe said. The duties of the Miss UCO include representing UCO at the state pageant, working on critical issues addressed in her platform and promoting UCO.
Contestants can also win other awards such as director's award, talent award and swimsuit award, said Pageant Director Winston Banta, a UCO alumni on the pageant board of directors for 19 years.
Last year's winner, Alyssa Baldwin, a music theater major, went on to finish in the top 10 at the Miss Oklahoma Pageant. She also received the rookie of the year award along with the newcomer talent award.
Baldwin said the scholarships she won in both pageants were enough to pay the rest of her college tuitions. "It really helped me to have more confidence especially in speaking in front of other people."
All contestants will have at least one week of rehearsals prior to the pageant. The pageant consists of four categories: interview, swimsuit, talent and eveningwear.
"First I want them to have fun, and enjoy the experience, and to learn from it." Banta said.
He hopes all contestants will learn about the system, and know that they can earn money for college by entering other pageants in the future.
UCO students interested in entering the pageant can pick up the applications at the Student Activities office in the Nigh University Center room 424, or call 974-2363. • Log on to www. thevistaonline com 24 hours a day for campus news or to sound off on current issues.
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Love Letters Increased use of part time profs draws concerns
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Colleges and universities are increasing their use of nontenured and part-time professors, drawing criticism that they are lowering educational quality while charging more for tuition that already costs tens of thousands of dollars.
The University of Connecticut and the state's community colleges have sharply increased their use of part-time professors.
Nearly 34 percent of classes at UConn are taught by part-time instructors, compared to 22 percent in 1989. Part-time professors teach about 37 percent of classes at Connecticut community colleges, up from 18 percent in 1989, according to the state Department of Higher Education.
The Connecticut State University system has kept steady use of part-timers over the years, with about one-fifth of classes being taught by non-tenured instructors. "This is all I do ... my only
The practice has led part-time job," said John Mueller, 49, an
educators to organize rallies and demonstrations across the country adjunct history professor who splits time between Central and
this week in protest of working the University of Hartford,
conditions.
"It's threatening teaching five courses he estimates will net
the quality of higher education," said "The overuse and him about $27,000 this year.
Richard Moser of the abuse of adjuncts Mueller and other
American Association of has been higher teachers had hoped to be hired full-time when
University Professors. "The overuse and abuse of education's dirty little secret for large numbers of faculty members retired over the past two
adjuncts has been higher education's the past 25 decades. Instead, they have watched colleges
dirty little secret for the past 25 years." years." and universities make more use of non
At Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, 25 part-time history professors share four desks, a
—Richard Moser
American
Association of
University .
(AAUP) Professors
tenured faculty and part-time adjuncts.
Higher education officials say the main reason they have been using more part-timers
coffeepot and the dream of fulltime jobs. They also travel from campus to campus to fill their work schedules, which has led colleagues to call them "road scholars" or "frequent fliers." is to save money. They also say there are other advantages, such as exposing students to instructors who have direct experience in business and industry.
But professors say universities
NOTICE
Workers from the UCO , Grounds Depatment will be spraying pre-emergent and post-emergent chemicals on campus lawns Nov. 9-10.
Students, faculty and staff are advised that the chemicals give off a strong odor. For more information call the Grounds Department at 974-2401. •
from UCO Grounds Dept.
should be providing more fulltime professors to students who often pay $10,000 to $20,000 a year or more in tuition. Critics say part-time instructors are less likely to do scholarly research and have less time for students outside of class.
Nationwide, about 43 percent of the teaching force are part-time instructors, up from 33 percent in 1987, according to a study by the American Federation of Teachers. The average pay for part-timers nationally is about 40 cents on the dollar compared with wages for full-time professors teaching comparable courses, the teachers' federation says. Most part-timers earn less than $3,000 a class, or about $20,000 per year, and many work without fringe benefits.
Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven is one school that is trying to buck the trend. The university has added a dozen full-time English and math professors since last year. •
to begin Nov. 9
BY SUMMER PRATT
Student Writer A Broadway Tonight production, Love Letters, starring Betsy Palmer and Tom Troupe, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at Mitchell Hall Theatre.
Palmer played Jason's mother in Friday the 13th and Troupe was a .regular on Who's the Boss as Father Marconi.
Playwright A.R. Gurney's Love Letters follows the lifetime correspondence between lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and artist Melissa Gardner.
Susan Reger, a writer for the President's office said part of the charm of the production is that it's impromptu.
"The production only has the two people and they've both done it before," Reger said.
"It's not rehearsed; they just do a quick run through, just to check lighting. It's very spontaneous."
Tickets will cost between $25 and $35. For reservations and ticket information, call 974- 3375. •
The Association of Information Technology Professionals welcomes:
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Dr. Mitchell, researcher, writer and consultant on the subject of executive crisis will be presenting: "Executives Who Crash and the Company They Keep"
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