The QC, Vol. 76, No. 09 • November 16, 1989

              QUAKER CAMPUS
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Volume LXXV1, Number 9
November 16   1989
Proposal Made For Sheltering The
Homeless Over Two Winter Months
By Caitlin Duffy
QC Staff Writer
A proposal for utilizing the club
as a homeless shelter from
December 5-January 15 was
approved by the Board of
Governors (BOG) on October 31.
The proposal was drawn up by
BOG Director of Development
Miguel Santana and campus
chaplain John Moody. BOG
requested that the proposal be
submitted to President Ash for
further approval.
Moody said that he had heard
that President Ash looked
favorably upon the idea. Ash was
unavailable for comment.
"There seemed to be
overwhelming support to go
ahead with this, but there were
concerns voiced about
scheduling events in the Club as
well as whether or not this will
extend beyond the Christmas and
Easter season," said ASWC
President Paul McManus.
"Right now we are proposing it
for this year. If it works it is likely
that it could be done again,'' said
Moody.
The housing homeless program
is in conjunction with the Whittier
Ecumenical Council, made up of
12 Whittier area churches. These
churches provide shelter for
homeless during the cold months
of the year on a four week rotation
basis. The shelters offer two hot
meals and a matress and bedding
to sleep on.
Whittier College has been
involved in this program since it
began in 1985, through students
volunteering to staff the shelters.
Their duties include: serving
food, distribution of bedding and
clean-up.
Santana, who works for the
housing homeless project,
became aware of the difficulty
that the churches were having
finding an available site for the
four weeksthis winter. "I feel that
the club would be an ideal
location for this program because
of the fact that students wil 1 be on
vacation for the majority of the
time that it would be in use," said
Santana. He also added that the
Club's accessibility to the street
and central location are other
benefits.
Club Shelter
Santana said that if the proposal
goes through, the shelter would
be open from 9 PM to 7 AM.
Students would be able to
volunteer if they wished, but the
church staff would staff the Club
during the winter break. The
shelter would be open to
approximately 60 people, all of
whom would be screened and
chosen according to a need basis.
Only those who are currently
employed, seeking work, or
disabled would be eligible due to
the lack of space.
"More and more, the
Ecumenical Council is screening
people. The city has given money
to screen people and an office.
They |the homeless] will go
through this office. This would
mean that if someone is
intoxicated, they would be turned
down. It is too disruptive. We need
to put conditions," said Moody.
—First Proposal Denied
In 1987, Moody and former
student Kent Gilbert made a
similar proposal to former
President Eugene Mills but were
denied. "We asked that the
campus chapel be made available
for a shelter, but there was some
anxiety about the safety of the
musical instruments and equipment stored there," said Moody.
Moody also stated that getting
the needed insurance was
difficult. "I don'tfeel the insurance
company did enough research on
the situation."       ,.-.    ■
On the current proposal,
Moody said, "My personal
perspective is that we have a
variety of people on campus all
Please see BOG page 3.
English Requirements Changed For
This & Next Year's Freshman Class
By Michele Apostolos
QC Staff Writer
Next years incoming freshman
will not have to fufill two semesters
of freshman english due to a
department policy change that
eliminates the second semester
writing class. The change resulted
from a faculty concensus
following a proposal from the
Educational Policies Committee
(EPA), chaired by Dr. Steve
Overturf.
Freshman Seminar first semester
and then complete a paper in their
major in their junior or senior
year," said Overturf.
English Department Chair Ann
Farmer felt that the decision, "was
not a clear decision, there was
very little unanimity in the
concensus."
"lam not happy with having the
three  unit  Freshman  Writing
"I am not happy with having three unit
fresh rranwriting requirements. I feel it should
be six units. In is unfortunate when writing is
so important that we could not handle this
another way"—Ann Farmer.
' Three meetings were held with
faculty," said Overturf, before they
approved the change. "There was
a high level of debate and a couple
of people felt pretty strongly
against this."
"The proposal eliminates the
second semester requirement for
freshman. They (1990 freshman)
will be required (under the new
policy) to take the three unit
requirement, 1 believe it should be
six units," said Farmer. "It is
unfortunate when writing is so
important that we could not
handle this another way."
"We (the faculty) have been
thinking about writing for a long
time and there has been a lot of
discussion," said English
professor Dr. Charles Adams.
The   decision   made   on
November 8 was the result of an
evaluation of the current program
that was implemented in the fall
of 1987. According to Farmer, this
evaluation was built into the
program when it was first
established.
Written and oral interviews with
faculty and students were done by
a Freshman Writing Committee. In
addition to this, two outside
evaluators from UC Davis and
Pomona College were brought in
during the fall of 1988.
A report complied by Linda
Morris from UC Davis was
submitted to EPC late last year.
"The EPC did not come to any
conclusions until early this year,"
said Overturf.
Both Overturf and Farmer
agreed that the main problem
existed in the second semester
writing course. "An unevenness
was found in the amount of writing
assignments and in the attention
given to writing and revising,"
said Farmer.
Please see ENGLISH page 3.
TWEET AWAY: Whistles were handed out to all
female on campus students in an effort to increase
student safety. All whistles were paid for by the
Residence Hall Association.
Whistles Handed Out To
Females Students By RH A
By Deborah Paul
QC Staff Writer
As a protective measure for the
females on campus due to the
two attempted assaults reported
this semester, the Residence Hall
Association (RHA) has provided
rape whistles for all girls living in
a residence hall.
"If they |females| are able to
make noise with something, then
somebody can come and help
them. Whistles really stand out in
the night," said RHA member
Araceli Gonzalez. The President
of RHA, Julie Sutton said the
recommendation came from
Ken Kelly, vice president for
student life.
Sutton said that whistles for
girls living off campus will be
distributed in their boxes by next
Wednesday. The males on
campus will not receive whistles.
' 'We felt that the girls were in the
most danger, and we assumed
that the guys could take care of
themselves," said Sutton.
The whistle initiative is part of
a continued effort to make the
campus safe. Other efforts
include increased lighting
installed by maintenance, and the
additional student-run escort
service organized by College Life
Ombudsman Mark Taylor.
However, according to Taylor,
' 'there are not enough people to
run the program."
Student Candace Kodama
agreed that the whistles are an
effective form of protection
against rape. Kodama also stated
that the plastic whistles that they
were given are better than metal
whistles because they are louder.
Freshman Christina
Monteverde said she liked the
idea and stated, "you know that
you are a little bit safer."
Monteverde said that it was fine
for students to play with the
whistles during the day, but they
should respect them at night. She
said she believed that students
were abiding by this.
Despite this, there have been
reports of students blowing
whistles out of context. RHA has
been discussing the possibility of
establishing a monetary fine for
blowing the whistles in a non-
danger situation. Resident
Advisor Mario Dinsmore said,
"We have a lot of people blowing
whistles just goofing around. If
people keep doing that, we won't
respond 1 in a real danger
situation]."
Dinsmore stated that nothing
was final. The possible fine was
only in the discussion stages. "We
know one school that has a $50
fine for such an offense, but we
don't know if it |Whittier's fine)
will be that high."
A Comparison
See Page 4.
Russian Feelings
See Page 4.
Awareness Week
See Page   5.