friday, oct. 9, 1992
vol. xxxix no. 5
cabrini college, radnor, pa 19087
Students express concern over verbal abuse policy byKelly Adams co-news editor In the United States of America, it is now illegal for public institutions to ban speech that is inflammatory because of its racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted content. This ruling was handed down in June of this year because the First Amendment prevents the government from "silencing speech based on its content," as stated in the Court's decision. This case reached the Supreme Court after a white teen-ager, accused of bu ming a cross on the front lawn of the lone black family in a mostly white neighborhood, challenged the local hate-speech law. The teen-ager argued that the law violated his right to free speech. The Minnesota State Supreme Court upheld the ordinance. The supreme Court of the United States did not. What does this mean to Cabrini College? President Antoinette Iadarola said. "This college will not tolerate harassment or verbal abuse as it relates to racist, sexist or class issues.According to a July I study in the Chronicle of Higher Education, private colleges and universities, such as Cabrini, have more authority to monitor speech at their cam-
puses, so the decision should have little effect on their speech codes. According to Robert Bonfiglio, vice president of student services, the ruling will not change anything at Cabrini in the immediate future. Bonfiglio said that the present verbal abuse policy, which mandates expulsion only after four documented offenses, was.written by students, for students. "This is the policy students wanted to have," Bonfiglio said. Bonfiglio said that if students want to amend the present policy that they should pursue it through Student Government Association. Bonfiglio spoke of the college's mission. Bonfiglio said, "Would Mother Cabrini want us to have a policy that says it's OK to say hateful and punishing things to other people with no consequence?". Senior Jeri Rayon also spoke of the college's mission. Rayon said, "I don't know if this school will ever fulfill its mission if students aren't willing to accept cultural diversity." Rayon expressed dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court·s ruling m; ---Wetl as with-ei!biiru•s-present verbal abuse policy. "Community service should not be a punishment. it should be a given." Junior Priscilla Fuentes said shl" values free speech but was saddened
by the Supreme Court's ruling "It's a shame that people can abuse it ... when they want to insult or abuse someoneelse." LikeRayon,Fuentes said that offenders should be held accountable for their conduct, but Fuentes did not know exactly what those consequences should be. Resident Director Scott Dorsey, adviser to the Ethnic Student Association (ESA) - formerly the Black Student alliance - said that he was not surprised by the Supreme Court's ruling. Dorsey said that he was concerned about the Civil Rights movement "backlash" and fears that the work of the movement will be undone. Dorsey said he felt that the present verbal abuse policy should be more stringent,with fewer verbalwarnings. Dorsey, like Rayon and Fuentes, was the target of racial slurs while at Cabrini. Dorsey, Rayon and Iadarola all encouraged education as a means of preventing such incidents in Cabrini's future. Dorsey said that the ESA wiUmeet every Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Services Conference Room
mWWle,l:G.enter-<!Hdencouragedall concerned students to attend.
Undercover investigation possible on campus by Kimberly M. Haban editor-in-chief The Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement (LCB) has sent a letter to Dr. Robert Bonfiglio, vice president of student affairs stating that it is their priority to enforce the underage drinking laws in Pennsylvania. The letter stated the bureau is now undertaking a new program in the interdiction of alcohol abuse by minors on and near college and university campuses throughout Pennsylvania. Requests were made of the administration and security force in assisting the bureau with this program which the letter stated was to be "quite in depth and extensive." Bonfiglio said he has not been notified of any officers on campus, but he said Director of Security Richard Kralle was notified by a local law enforcement officer. Kralle said he was not contacted by anyone.
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Bonfiglio said "We did not contact the LCB. Wedidnotaskthemtocomehere. We are doing a reasonable job controlling underage drinking." Neither the bureau or Radnor police are required to let someone know they are coming on campus. According to Kralle an undercover officer could be on campus at anytime without anyone knowing it. A reliable source said Delaware County is being targeted by the LCB to arrest underage drinkers. According to this source if there was an undercover officer on campus this may be their operating procedure. If the officer was a male he would most likely become friendly with a female who knew a lot about the school and about what events were taking place on and around campus. Once this friendship is established the
agent would be able to become friendly with the women's friends and would have easy access to parties or events happening on or off campus. However, the agent may not arrest people immediately. The source said the LCB may not want to arrest just five people at a small party. According to the source they may wait for the big kill where they could arrest 20 underage drinkers. Twenty arrests are 20 different incidents under the agents' belts which makes their statistics look good the source said. Considering it is an election year it is also a budget year. The source said that means, the better the LCB 's statistics are the better their chance of getting a bigger budget. Also, according to the source, if the LCB said they were going to crack down Radnor police will also crack down on
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underage drinking. Local police do not want the LCB to catch something they do not because that makes their department look like they are doing a poor job. If an undercover agent does bust a party three things could happen to the underage drinker. If the person is under 18 years old his or her parents would be notified and the person would receive a citation, a fine and lose their drivers license for three months. In the case that the underager is over 18 years old he or she could get arrested, brought into the police station, photographed, given a citation and a fine and have their license suspended for three months. If the officer does not opt for taking people to the station he could write up citations at the scene. Those offenders would still receive a fine and lose their license for three months.
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