Features this week...

Red Cross chapter's presence felt in Pike County

Congress must resolve campus crime reporting

TSU online grabs attention of future students

Sororities joun frats in fight against hazing

Photo Spread

Red Cross chapter's presence felt in Pike County

Leanora Lewis, Specail to the Trop

The American Red Cross has raised its presence in Pike County and nationwide. The chapter has been in existence since 1949 and implemented the most successful blood drive in Alabama.

The mission of the chapter is to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fire or any other situation that causes human suffering or creates human needs that those affected cannot alleviate without assistance.

The Pike County Chapter has 18 board of directors that oversee all operations and 300 volunteers that assist in the funding. Ninety-eight percent of funds comes from volunteers and the community. The other 2 percent comes from business sponsors. There are 31 chapters in Alabama, but assistance is available throughout all counties.

"The flood of 1937 in Ohio became the start as a volunteer in the Red Cross," said Ralph Fowee, Pike County chapter manager.

He said that his first experience motivated him physically and mentally to continue doing work for the Red Cross.

Fowee's involvement in the Red Cross carried him to the Michigan fires in 1940, San Francisco fires in 1941, Oklahoma flooding in 1945, West Virginia flooding in 1986, Hurricane Hugo in the Carolinas, Hurricane Alexander in 1993, Elba floods 1990 and Hurricane Opal in 1995.

When he moved to Troy in 1949, he immediately got involved in the Red Cross along with Sadie Jerigan, director of the Red Cross. In 1956, he along with Ned Youngblood started the blood drive in Pike County. Jernigan became afflicted with cancer, retired and left Fowee in charge of all Red Cross operations in Pike County.

Alabama experiences 12 to 14 hurricanes between July and October per year, the most violent during August and September.

"My job is to have volunteers trained and prepared for disasters, set up numerous shelters and service centers, make arrangements with vendors for needed supplies and work with local merchants," said Fowee.

If a disaster is eminent in an area that does not have a chapter, a 48-hour alert is put on as rescue workers and volunteers come from various parts to help.

Jean Gibson, a retired Red Cross volunteer and trained nurse, said her experience in the Red Cross started as a teen-ager in high school during World War II.

Her first job consisted of rolling bandages. Years later, she began donating blood at hospitals where they were known as "Pink Ladies."

"I felt good giving something back," she said. "It expanded my horizons as a volunteer, and I think all of us should give assistance in some way or another.

"I worked in many areas of the Red Cross, but my most challenging job came when I did service to military families," said Gibson. " I would be called from Washington to verify deaths to families of the military. I also arranged funerals and verified deaths from doctors then relayed the information from overseas to Washington then on to the families."

In the 1950s, many nursing homes and hospitals started organizing blood drives and teaching CPR. This became the foundation for disaster victims to get necessary blood that they needed to survive. Many volunteers started out as blood donors, but over the years there has been a decrease in participants.

"The decline of participants is due to people getting tainted blood from the Red Cross," said Jim Rolling, board member, volunteer and disc jockey for WTBF-AM Radio. "The Red Cross had been forced to screen blood as a result of people contracting AIDS. The blood program in 1960 is what got me started."

He also said the Elba floods in 1990 became the first time the Pike County chapter became closely involved in a disaster.

"It took a cooperate effort of many people," said Fowee.

In Elba, Pike County Rescue provided first aid services and Alabama Power helped victims by providing free utility along with volunteers who donated money, clothes and other necessities to get victims reestablished.

Troy State University helped Significantly by placing 500 people in the Armory and giving mattresses.

WTBF also contributed by starting activities with listeners which helped raise funds during the Elba floods and Hurricane Opal.

Hurricane Opal caused extensive damages to the trees in Pike County. But, there were only two minor injuries and two mobile homes damaged during the storm.

"The community showed their true dedication during a time of need," said Rolling. "The damage could have been worse, but the whole community made a difference with its support."

The most recent hurricane to hit Alabama was Hurricane Danny. The storm caused severe flooding, and many people were forced to leave their homes.

"The chapter has done a good job to combat disasters that have struck our community, but with all the support in the past, there is always room for improvement," said Fowee. "We need more young people willing to give their time and effort, more emergency teams, shelters and the main thing is money."

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Congress must resolve campus crime reporting

Melanie Smith, Special to the Trop

The decision about how much information about crime universities and colleges must provide the public now rests with Congress..

A bill attached to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act-called the Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act-would change current regulations regarding public access to campus crime information. One part of the ACCRA would require a daily, open police log on all campuses, private and public-and the other would open campus judicial hearings to the public when the hearing involved allegations of criminal activity.

congress is expected to begin hearings on reauthorizing the higher Education Act in 1998.

meanwhile, other laws apply.

The Campus Security Act was passed in 1990 and requires colleges to release their security policies and campus crime statistics to the public on an annual basis. And most schools use the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 to keep all campus judicial hearings and records closed to the public regardless of what the hearing is about.

Administrators say a student's criminal behavior is part of the student's "academic record" and therefore protected from public viewing by FERPA, which requires academic records to be sealed.

Some colleges fear that openly reporting crime on campuses and allowing access to judicial hearings will cause them to lose students and possibly private donations.

Many college administrators also oppose opening campus judicial hearings and records to the public. They believe the judicial hearing is an academic learning process, and they also believe that if the hearings are opened, many crimes won't get reported because students will fear their identities being revealed.

However, not all administrators agree with those positions. Some see the importance of making g these hearings and records open and students who commit crimes accountable.

"If I could legally open records of judicial hearings, I would," said Dr. Charlotte Davis-Lott, vice president of Student Affairs at TSU. "I don't see any reason to protect an accused party in a judicial hearing. i think the (FERPA) is misguided."

Organizations such as Security On Campus Inc. and the Campus Courts Task Force have long fought the battle to make public all campus crime reports and campus judicial hearings and records that involve crime.

Security on campus Inc. has lobbied for the passage of 22 state and three federal laws that resulted in safer college campuses.

"We aim to educate students and parents about crimes they don't know about on college campuses as well as teach them to better protect themselves," said Jennifer Markiewicz, of Security on Campus Inc.

The ACCRA is the latest effort to eliminate loopholes left by the Campus Security Act of 1990, she said.

If passed, ACCRA would:

--require the annual collection of campus crime statistics by the U.S. Department of Education so the accuracy of reports from colleges and universities can be verified.

--require campuses to provide the public daily campus police logs. These logs would have to include specific data about the crimes-data nor always available in some campus police logs now given to the public.

"we are trying to legislatively change the law and have colleges and administrators take responsibility for crimes that happen against students," said Markiewicz.

-eliminate closed campus disciplinary/judicial proceedings that deal with criminal misconduct.

The Campus Courts Task Force was founded in 1993. it is made up of 13 national journalism organizations and has stood behind its belief that federal law should be changed to allow public access to campus judicial hearings when they involve crimes.

"Someone accused of a crime should not get a private judicial hearing," said Gordon D. McKerral, director of Project Sunshine Alabama and vice-chair of the Campus Courts Task Force.

McKerral is an associate professor of journalism at TSU.

"The more people know about crimes on college campuses, the safer they will be. The person accused of the crime needs to be guaranteed a fair shake. And when people wrongfully accuse someone of a crime, they need to be held accountable. Likewise, if someone is guilty of committing a crime, the public should know who they are. you hear a lot from college officials about the `real world.' The system I described is the real world."

ACCRA also will cal for the enforcement of campus security provisions by the Department of Education. Any school receiving federal grants that is found in non-compliance with the law will lose 1 percent of its federal funding.

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TSU online grabs attention of future students

Tracy Lee, Features Editor

The Internet is a new source for prospective students to receive information on colleges and universities.

One of the reasons Troy State University went on the web was to give perspective students a chance to view what TSU has to offer.

Several areas of the university are on the web for students to see.

"This is a great tool to draw in perspective students," said Ron Pierce, director of Auxiliary Services. "It is a great way to draw attention to the university."

Admissions has put an admissions application on the Internet.

"It is more convenient for students to apply over the Internet," said James Hutto, dean of Enrollment Services. "It is an easier and faster process.

"It cuts down on mailing cost for the university because we do not pay for the outgoing application."

Hutto said this application process is more personalized because perspective students receive an e-mail when their application is received.

The application fee is paid after the university sends a reminder card to the student of things that are still needed for admissions, he said.

"There have been over 400 applications received from the online site," Hutto said. "The amount of international applications has increased because of the online site.

"It gives international students more opportunity to be exposed to TSU. This gives us the opportunity to work with more students who would not traditionally have heard of TSU."

Along with Admissions, Housing has gone online to attract students.

Housing put up web pages that allow perspective students to view dorms and to apply for housing.

Herbert Reeves, director of Housing, said they are presently updating their pages.

"We will be adding pictures and floor plans of the dorms," said Reeves. "We will be making the website more interactive by putting pictures of various areas of the dorm.

"Perspective students will be able to go from a picture of the outside of the dorm, to the lobby, to the hall and finally into the rooms."

Reeves said Housing has received permission from several students to photograph their rooms with a digital camera. Housing will also be adding more room dimensions to the site.

"People want to know exactly how much room they are going to have," he said. "People will come to the website and see exactly what is available to them."

Along with the new room photos and dimensions, students are able to apply for housing over the Internet.

"Instead of having to wait for housing to receive the application in the mail, perspective students will be able to send the application to us over the Internet," he said. "It will speed up the process.

"The Housing office will then send the student a letter that we received the application and request that they send the application fee into the office."

Reeves said Housing received over 100 applications from perspective students last year.

He said it has been especially beneficial to international students.

Along with Housing, other departments have gone online to attract students.

The TSU bookstore has an online version of its catalog.

"The catalog is in its beginning stages," said Eddie Jennings, coordinator of marketing for the University Store. "The full catalog has been up for a couple of months. We are working on getting a new catalog and it will be online soon."

Jennings said the catalog offers a wide variety of merchandise for alumni and perspective students. Customers are able to send orders on secure lines.

Jennings said that customers can promote TSU by wearing merchandise bought online. He also said that it is an excellent recruiting tool for the university.

"It provides a connection to the university for students," he said. "It provides something visual and tangible for entering students."

Jennings said he believes the TSU homepage is one of the most impressive sites for college campuses.

On the TSU homepage, parents now have a way to give students money on their Trojan cards.

"We decided to give parents a convenience," said Greg Price, CIS coordinator. "Parents were asking how they could add money to their children's Trojan cards.

Until now they had to send a chick which would take several days to credit the account. Now the account can be credited within hours."

Some people are skeptical about sending credit card information over the Internet, he said.

"We now have an encrypted site where only we can unencrypt it," Price said.

He said TSU had to apply for an official site certificate. Once TSU received this certificate, it was placed on the web site. Even if the web site is copied and placed elsewhere on the web, the encryption cannot be copied.

"If someone were to copy the site, the person sending money would be notified that it was not the official TSU homepage," Price said.

Not only can perspective students get information on colleges, they can find information on scholarships.

A new company, FastWEB, gives students the opportunity to find scholarships that they may qualify for.

Jason Harris, a coordinator at FastWEB, said students are looking for a good way to find information on scholarships.

"The FastWEB site has over a million scholarships that students may qualify for," he said. "When they come to the site they fill out a questionnaire about personal information. It ranges from heritage to religion to academics.

"It only takes a few minutes for someone to see their results. Most of the time it can be anywhere from six to 12 scholarships. "

FastWEB updates its information on a daily basis and e-mails students if any new scholarships become available for them based on the questionnaire.

FastWEB puts students in touch with scholarships that are not easily found, he said.

Most of the FastWEB customers are college students and are found at college financial aid offices, he said. They hope to branch out to high school seniors.

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Sororities join frats in fight against hazing

Joey Mullins, Special to the Trop

The hazing problem in college fraternities gets well documented, and laws exist that try to prevent it.

But how big a problem is hazing in college sororities, and what is being done about it?

"I never understood how some people can tell someone `you're a great (person),' and then turn around and treat them like dirt," said William R. Bracewell, associate vice president and director of judicial programs at the University of Georgia. He was talking about hazing problems that have plagued the Greek systems for years.

hazing in social fraternities and sororities is certainly nothing new in today's society, but it goes back even further than most people would think that it does.

A student handbook given out by the University of Paris in 1340 warned against hazing of freshmen. It stated no one, no matter what position he held, could take any money from anyone because for his class or anything else, except for roommates or as a voluntary gift. It also said any student who had anything done to him because of his class was to report it to a dean or member of the faculty, and they would then make the names of the guilty known to the public.

So, while what hazing is considered to be may have changed considerably over the years, it has been around for hundreds of years.

Though fraternities have received the brunt of the attention from universities, lawmakers and the media, hazing affects sororities too.

An article published in the June 20 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Bracewell's office barred the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority from recruitment on the University of Georgia campus for one year as a result of hazing potential members. The sorority will regain its recruiting privileges beginning fall 1998.

In the article, it was reported that three pledges of Delta Sigma Theta complained of being hazed. They said that during the pledge period they had been pushed into a shower fully clothed and had been cursed at repeatedly by members of the sorority.

Bracewell said that the sorority's violation of the rules of both the university and the sorority was unacceptable.

"We have a low threshold for that sort of thing, and we just don't tolerate it," said Bracewell.

Denison University in Granville, Ohio, had a similar incident involving one of its sororities.

The June 20 edition of The Chronicle reported that Denison's chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority was punished in the spring for an incident involving new member.

"There were hazing activities that tool place after bid day," said Ed Lenane, coordinator of leadership in student organizations at Denison. Lenane said that the incident took place in a sorotiy member's dorm room.

"New members were given bottles of alcohol with symbols of the organization on them," Lenane said. "A member got very ill from the alcohol.

"The chapter cannot recruit, and is basically shut down for two years."

One of the main reasons fraternity problems get more publicity than those of sororities is that fraternities tend to haze their pledges with physical violence while sororities use more mental abuse.

A survey of Greek advisers conducted by Dr. Debbie Shaw of Auburn University showed that 20 percent of the respondents said that the problems reported to them from sororities wee considered mental abuse, while only 2 percent of the people responding said hazing was physical.

"Most of the reports that we get as far as sororities go are the humiliating and demeaning sort of thing," said Bracewell.

Barbara Patterson, director of Student Involvement and Leadership at Troy State university, agreed with Bracewell's assessment of sorority hazing. She is familiar with the problem, Patterson said two TSU sororities are now on probation for hazing and a third is being investigated.

"I think that there is a perception out there that there is more mental hazing in sororities," said Patterson.

The changing definition of hazing has proven to be another obstacle i the attempt to fight hazing. Activities that at one time might have been thought of as just having fun are now considered hazing.

The change has been brought on by activities getting out of hand. Bracewell said that for a while some people were losing their lives because of hazing acts that were very dangerous. He also said that these tragedies caused a lot of people to take a second look at the situation.

"Our perceptions of what hazing is has changed a lot," Patterson said. She said that some activities that went on at colleges 10 years ago and were thought of as just people having fun are now considered hazing.

Patterson said that it is not easy to get some people to understand that some of these activities are in fact considered hazing.

"It is hard to get people to understand that something that they think is just harmless fun is thought of as hazing by the sororities and fraternities," Patterson said.

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Photo Spread

Mike Thompson , Photographer

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