The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 55, Issue 6 - October 10, 1977

VoL55,No.6 Loyola Marymount University October 10, 1977 Schmitz attacks Canal treaty in open forum THE PANAMA CANAL TREATY sparked a lively debate among the three panelists who spoke last Thursday in the Huesman Faculty Lounge. Speakers (from I to r) include John Schmitz, former U.S. Congressman; Dr. E. Badford Burns, UCLA historian, and Dr. Carlos Wilson, director of LMU’s Latin American Studies program. (Loyolan photo by David Tanaka) Law students to finalize budget Final budget allocations for the Loyola Law School’s Student Bar Association will be decided this Wednesday, October 12, for the day division, and Wednesday, Oc¬ tober 19, for the evening division, A joint meeting composed of members from both the day and evening sessions was held on September 28, to hear requests from the various student organiza¬ tions. However, because of the number of requests presented, the two SB A’ s were unable to arrive at a final budget plan. According to Pam Jackson, pres¬ ident of the evening division SB A, Loyola is one of the few schools to have a completely separate student organization for both day and evening students. Students attending both sessions are assessed a $9 fee which goes to the respective SBA budget. The day division’s budget this year is approximately $6,000, according to its president Mike Newman. The evening division has around $3,500 Jackson reported. Despite this, organizations re¬ quested from $200 to over $2 ,000. It became apparent early in the meeting that the funds requested would far exceed the funds avail¬ able. Because of the limited budget, the groups were informed that only their most essental needs could be funded. Throughout the meeting, many, groups emphasized the need for funding of job placement services. Other areas of emphasis included funds for supplementary educa¬ tional services for minority stu¬ dents, tutoring for first year law students, and funds for minority student recruiting efforts. Among the groups requesting funding, La Raza, the Mexican- American student organization re¬ quested funding for the continua¬ tion and expansion of their publica¬ tion, Justicia...O? and for in¬ creased recruiting efforts designed to attract Mexican- American stu¬ dents to the Law School. BALSA, the Black American Law Student’s Association requested funding for their publication, The BALSA Advocate, and for the publication of a pamphlet designed to help students become aware of their rights as tenants. The Gay Law Students group re¬ quested funding for a series of films and for various publishing costs. Kevin Davis elected to NAACP Board by Michelle Vranizan Kevin Davis, an LMU junior, was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at their annual conven¬ tion held last July in St. Louis. Davis’s one-year term will begin this January. Davis, 20, has been active in the NAACP Youth Council since his high school years in Sacramento. He has attended NAACP national conventions for the past three years. Last summer he was nominated to represent the Western Region states as a youth member of the National Board of Directors. The NAACP National Board of Directors is comprised of approxi¬ mately 45 members representing seven different regions. There are seven youth members on the board. The group meets three times annually in New York City. They discuss policy, programs and resolutions for the upcoming year. “The board is just like any board of directors of a large company or corporation,” Davis explained. Besides his position on the Board, Davis is the NAACP Wes¬ tern Region Youth Chairman. He is responsible for the administration and leadership of youth activities in the area. Typical youth activities include membership drives and initiating programs. The job is voluntary, but travel expenses to New York City are paid. The NAACP is currently in the process of re-building its Los Angeles area chapter. The chap¬ ter’s charter was reactivated last April. Since then, youth and col¬ lege chapters have been opened. Chapters have recently been esta¬ blished at Stanford University and at the University of California at Davis. “In high school, I wanted to be involved in what was going on socially,” Davis said. He has attended national conventions in Washington D.C., Memphis and St. Louis. “The St. Louis convention was very important,” Davis commen¬ ted. “Benjamin Hook, the first Black commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, was elected as the new Director of the NAACP. Hook has an up-to-date attitude about the goals and work of the organization.” Davis attributed his continued involvement with the NAACP to a “developing commitment to the organization. Things weren’t being done right. Changes had to be made. What the NAACP is for and has been for the last 60-70 years is insuring civil rights for everyone. We are for a democratic society; to make it easier for people to live. I’ve developed a commitment. I want to take part in history in the making.” Davis, a Communication Arts major, is in the process of changing to a major in Political Science. His involvement with the NAACP, especially since his visit to Wash¬ ington, has increased his interest in politics and government, he com¬ mented. Davis plans to go on to law school, possibly to Georgetown University. He would like to work for the FCC and ultimately for a major television network. Davis is also active at LMU. He is the Vice President of the BSFA and hosts a late night radio show on KXLU-FM. He also works as an instructional aide at Orville Wright Junior High School. ' By signing the Panama Canal treaty, the United States senate would be giving Panama away to a Marxist government, according to John Schmitz, former U.S. con¬ gressman and state senator from Orange County, who spoke last Thursday in the Huesman Faculty Lounge. Other speakers at the forum, sponsored by the Student Develop¬ ment Center, included Dr. Brad¬ ford Burns, a Latin American historian at UCLA, and Dr. Carlos Wilson, director of the Latin Amer¬ ican Studies program at LMU and former Panamanian citizen. Rev. Ernest Sweeney, SJ, asso¬ ciate professor of History who moderated the discussion, began by quoting an article from Time magazine. “At stake \ are two treaties; one would give the Canal to Panama by the end of the century; the other would enable the United States to guarantee the Canal’s neutrality, keeping it open to all the world’s shipping, even after the year 2000. Both agree¬ ments require approval by the senate.” Burns argued in favor of the treaty which Would give the Canal to Panama. He reasoned that in order for Panama to improve the life of its people, it must be able to control its own resources. “What would happen in his¬ tory,” Burns asked, “if somewhere back, when we were a fledgling nation, if we had signed away our rights to the Mississippi River and permitted the Germans to control the river, so that every time I traveled from California to New York I had to travel through what was essentially foreign territory? “I could be arrested in that terri¬ tory by the German court under a German law, and put in a German jail. I don’t think this would set too well with the people of the United States. We wouldn’t look kindly on a foreign nation controlling a belt across the tenter of our own country.” Panama finds itself divided in half, according to Bums. He stated that the United States should show the world that it can come to an understanding with a small and impoverished nation. Schmitz, who opposed the new treaty, asked, “What if we go to war against the Soviet Union? What about Soviet submarines going through the Panama Canal? During World War II could you imagine German submarines going through the Panama Canal? “Now we are forced by this •protocol to guarantee the neutrality and to allow free passage. We have to defend it but not for ourselves, but so even our enemies could go through it.” Schmitz also noted that if the new treaty takes effect the United States could not build any other canal between the two oceans until the year 2000, without the approval of Panama. “I have been opposed to the treaty because it’s part of the general appeasement that we have been doing,” Schmitz said. “We can brush it over as being nice to third world people, but the cruel reality of international politics is that little nations do not love you, but they do respect you, and they do not respect people who give away their property.” Schmitz discussed the Vietnam war, stating that 75 per cent of the armaments shipped to Vietnam moved through the Panama Canal. Wilson commented on Schmitz’s referral to appeasement by the United States by saying, “It is justice, it is not appeasement. And professor Schmitz is very con- ( Continued on Page 3) Inside Growing up fat ............. Page 6 Ever been 5’5” and weighed 185? Believe it or not, Loyolan Features editor Lillian Suffolk did when she was 13. Although a depressing glimpse of what it is like to be different and alone as a child, Lillian’s story offers humorous insights, harrowing experiences, and some hope for overweight people everywhere. Music . . . Page 8 Entertainment editor Cary Darling reviews the progress of The Babys, an English group that is the latest in a long line of blues-rock imports currently stirring things up in America. He also talks about their new album, Broken Heart. Divorce. . . . . . Page 10 Former features writer Frank X. Fiedler returns with a review of LMU associate professor of English Carolyn See’s new novel, Mothers, Daughters, and examines the melancholy world of the divorced she portrays.