1997_12 The Daily Collegian December 1997

              Snubbed
Lindy Vivas and the Bulldog volleyball
team will not attend the NCAA
tournament despite 20+ wins, page 8.
ttLM
Dl   H 6 f   ^ California State University, Fresno
aily Collegian
Weather
Sunny
high 60/low 45
Volume 108, No. 66
http://wwW.csufresno.edu/Collegian
December 1,1997
New journalism chair faces challenges
By Derek Walter
The Daily Collegian
Professor Greg Lewis has a
number of challenges facing him as
he begins serving as interim chair
of the department of mass commu¬
nication and journalism today.
Lewis, who's been teaching at
Fresno State for 17 years, said the
post is a "big hole to fill"
He was selected by Vida
Samien, the acting dean of the
School of Arts and Humanities, to
replace John Zelezny, who left the
position to take over as vice presi¬
dent of university relations.
Lewis' selection came after the
department's faculty voted to rec¬
ommend him to Samien.
He said Zelezny's contribution
to the department will be missed.
"We wish him well in his new
position and it's going to be an ex¬
citing challenge for him." he said.
"But at the same time we're losing
a very capable instructor."
Since Zelezny was hired to teach
public relations and media law.
Affirmative action
scrutinized in Carolina
By Taylor Batten
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News
Services
RALEIGH. N.C". — University
of North Carolina system President
Molly Broad has ordered a
systemwide review of affirmative-
action programs that will change or
abolish those based strictly on race.
Broad promises that the review
will change the way racial minori¬
ties are given special treatment by
UNC schools, and it could elimi¬
nate some race-based admissions
policies and scholarships in place
on the campuses for 25 years.
Her action is a response to a se-
' ries of successful legal challenges
to college admissions policies
across the country.
"I would be amazed if we did
not" make changes in affirmative
action policies, Broad said Monday.
"I don't know of any university in
the country that wouldn't benefit
from doing what we are doing (to
avoid a court fight).
Across the Carolinas, some
changes already are being made. At
UNC Charlotte, race will not be a
factor in admissions decisions for
the first time in at least 16 years.
Racial preferences had raised the
percentage of UNCC students who
are black to 15.9 percent. School
officials expect the new policy to
result in about 100 fewer black stu¬
dents in the next freshman class, out
of an average black first-year en¬
rollment of about 320.
Also at UNCC, two scholarships
awarded annually to black students
will be withheld unless the racial
preference is removed. "Folks who
have found those programs in the
past worked well are reluctant to see
them given up," Broad said. "On
the other hand, if they are not con¬
sistent with the law of the land, it's
our responsibility to make them
consistent.
Broad's review was sparked by
successful legal challenges in at
least three other states that are
chomping away at the legality of
race-based admissions, scholar¬
ships and hiring.
This month, the U.S. Supreme .
Court let stand California's Propo¬
sition 209, which bans racial pref¬
erences in college admissions. And
last year, two appellate courts
banned race-based admissions and
scholarships in Texas and Mary¬
land.
Those decisions are undermin¬
ing the ruling upon which UNC has
based its affirmative action policies
— a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court de¬
cision in University of California
vs. Bakke. The court ruled that uni¬
versities could give preferences to
racial minorities as long as they did
not set quotas.
The Cahfomia, Texas and Mary¬
land decisions, along with new
challenges in Michigan and Wash¬
ington state, spurred Broad to root
out policies that might be struck
down. That, she figures, might keep
the UNC system out of court in the
first place. •
"Having watched what happens
and the kind of paralysis that oc¬
curs in a university where legal
challenges have stopped them in
their tracks, my goal is for the Uni¬
versity of North Carolina to make
refinements and modifications (on
our own) and not as a consequence
of finding ourselves in some legal
challenge," said Broad, who came
here from the California State Uni¬
versity system this summer.
Elsewhere, the elimination of
race-based admissions has brought
sudden and dramatic change. Black
enrollment dropped fr.om 31 to
Please see ACTION, page 6.
finding a replacement will be diffi¬
cult. Zelezny even used his own
textbook, "Communication Law:
Liberties, Restraints, and the Mod¬
ern Media," to teach public rela¬
tions.
Lewis said the likely solution is
to find part-time instructors to teach
the classes. However, part-timers
are not likely to have the expertise
on the subject that Zelezny had,
Lewis said.
Along with trying to fill
Zelezny's classes, Lewis will likely
cut his class load in half to serve as
department chair. Lewis teaches
photojournalism and serves as the
advisor to Insight, the department's
student-run newspaper.
Lewis said he will evaluate the
situation with his classes, but he
will "more than likely" continue to
serve as Insight's advisor.
Lewis said along with filling the
gaps, he hopes to continue many of
the projects that Zelezny was work¬
ing on.
"Zelezny had started several -
good ideas and we hope to pursue
them further," he said.
One of those projects is seeking
an endowed chair in journalism
from a national foundation. Lewis
said he will be refining the appli¬
cation for that position.
Also happening in the spring
semester, the department hosts the
Journalism Association of Commu¬
nity Colleges' annual convention,
as well as a competition for valley
high school journalism students
Trouble in
Tarkland
Photos by Ryan Weber — 77k- Daily Collegian
Fresno State men's basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian (right) announces Chris Herren's (left)
temporary withdrawal from the basketball team at a press conference on Tuesday. Herren then
checked into an out-of-state substance abuse treatment center.
Secret Service agents don't find
'joke' Chelsea column funny
By Greg Frost
Reuter
SAN FRANCISCO — Secret
Service agents searched a Univer¬
sity of California student's home
after he wrote a newspaper column
that depicted violent images of first
daughter Chelsea Clinton, the stu¬
dent said last week.
Guy Branuin. a student at the
University of California at Berke¬
ley and a columnist for the Daily
Cal newspaper, mentioned Presi¬
dent Clinton's daughter in a piece
last week that preceded the 100th
"Big Game" — a much-hyped foot¬
ball matchup between his school
and rival Stanford University.
In the column, Branum sum¬
moned students to "show your spirit
on Chelsea's bloody carcass" — a
reference to the first daughter, who
attends college at Stanford.
That and other suggestive lan¬
guage prompted two Secret Service
agents to search Branum's apart¬
ment. The agents' search came
shortly before First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton addressed students
at the Berkeley campus.
"They went through my stuff.
They were brow-beating me about
writing the column," the 22-year-
old senior said. "They told me to
be careful in the future."
Branum said the piece was de¬
signed to spice up school spirit
ahead of Saturday's Big Game, but
that people had misinterpreted its
meaning.
He said he had received a vari¬
ety of e-mail messages from around
the country.
"I've gotten everything from
hale mail to a lot of e-mail support¬
ing me," Branum said. "Today I got
one that said I should be castrated.
"It was intended for Big Game
week — for an educated audience
that could figure out it was a joke,"
he said.
University officials said federal
agents had acted appropriately.
"The Secret Service takes all
threats seriously, even if they're in
jest. They have a responsibility for
the health and safety of the presi¬
dent and his family." said Jesus
Mena, a university spokesman.
Chelsea Clinton's arrival in Sep¬
tember at Stanford was the subject
of massive attention by local and
national media. Stanford Universitv
student reporter Jesse Oxfeld was
fired earlier this year for writing
about Chelsea in the Stanford Daily,
which adopted a polity of not writ¬
ing about the first daughter unless
she does something newsworthy.
The Daily Cal has since apolo¬
gized for Branum\ column, which
also provided the supposed location
of the dormitory where Chelsea
Please see CARCASS, page 6