The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 77, Issue 26 - April 21, 1999

Features World watches as ethnic liquidation continues in Kosovo. Page 12 A&E A review and interview for ‘Elections.’ Page 16 * Sports Golf takes fourth in final tournament. Page 22 L о s A n g e l e s LOYOLAN April 21, 1999 L O Y O L A M A R Y M О U N T XJ N I V E R S I T Y Volume 77, No. 26 Colin Named 1998 - 1999 Valedictorian ■ Academic Awards: Tbp seniors in four col¬ leges honored at annual convocation. by Jasmine Marshall News Editor LMUs class of 1999 began the emotional process of leaving with a celebration of students' academ¬ ic accomplishments at the annual academic awards convocation on PAT HORTON/ UNIVERSITY REUNIONS Ernesto Colin, 1999 Valedictorian. Thursday, April 15 in St. Robert's Auditorium. Dr. Joseph Jabbra, academic vice president, opened the cere¬ mony. “I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our hon- orees, parents, friends, faculty and staff to this academic awards convocation for the class of 1999," he said. “We are gaffiifed here to honor the class of 1999 of Loyola Marymount University’s most outstanding students for both Awards: page 5 Racial Slur Closes Zebra Cart by Roy Rufo Jr. Asst. News Editor & Deaunte Thompson Staff Writer Despite LMU’s attempt to create an environment of racial harmony, this past week a female African-American stu¬ dent claims that she experienced an intolerable act of racial harassment by an employee of the Zebra Coffee Co. cart. The incident occurred on Tuesday, April 13 at approxi¬ mately 12:23 p.m. at the coffee cart in front of Foley Pond, where Danielle Starks, a junior African-American studies major, says she was served a watered- down cappuccino blend. Unsatisfied with the drink, Starks asked the employee either to make a new one or to give her a refund. The employee refused to comply with either request, and followed the refusal with a series of racial slurs directed at Starks. After the incident, Starks immediately left the scene and expressed her concerns to the student representatives at ASLMU. Starks claimed that ASLMU then referred her to the depart¬ ment of student life, where they felt the sit¬ uation would be handled more sufficiently. Once again, Starks was directed to another office, this time to the office of student affairs, where she was told to speak with Dr. Beth Stoddard, associate dean of student affairs. Dr. Stoddard then told her to go to Patrick Naessens, director of judiciary affairs, who took her to .speak with a Marriott representative. A Marriott repre¬ sentative could not be found, so Naessens obtained the number of Brian Freeman, an LMU alumnus and the owner of the Zebra GREG ШМАС0 / LOYOLAN Tables are all that remain where the Zebra Coffee Co. cart used to be, after a mutual decision by the administration and the company owner removed the cart, following a racial slur directed at a student by an employee. Coffee Co. cart. Naessens spoke to Freeman, who later expressed his apologies and disappointment with the entire situa¬ tion. Freeman claims that the employee did not follow proper procedure. “Our policy is e to always give the refund or to replace the drink. This is also an issue of great concern to me. The employee was not following the company policy." Besides the overt act of racism, the inci¬ dent was even more aggravated when Starks approached various departments on campus in order to confront the issue of harassment, but was left feeling unsatisfied. “This is ridiculous," said Starks. “I should not have been passed around from office to office in order to have this matter resolved. LMU students should have some sort of con¬ flict resolution center where students can go to be heard. [Not once was] I directed to any policy which tells students what to do and where to go to have issues like this resolved." Despite all the confusion, Dr. Lane Bove, vice president for student affairs, said, “Everyone in the division knows that if there is a racial incident on campus, it comes to the office of student affairs. We become the Zebra Cart: page 4 GREG CLIMACO / LOYOLAN A student attempts to register outside the registrar's office on the first floor of St. Robert's Hall The ROAR system has been crippled recently. ROAR System Whimpers ■ Registration: . Students experience frustration at process hampered by bugs in updated system. by Sharon King S taff Writer As the year comes to an end, students have an array of responsibilities to worry about. Not only do they have to study for finals, but they also have to worry about registering for next semester. -Students have discov¬ ered problems with the ROAR system, as it has failed to pro¬ vide an adequate registration service. The telephone ROAR system has caused confusion and delays in student registration for next fall. The problems con¬ cern mainly continuing stu¬ dents, especially next year's senior class. Many students have been unable to register for classes because the system does not recognize their personal identification number or will not accept the number of classes entered. Robert Nitsos, assistant uni¬ versity registrar, noted that the problem grew out of a planned renovation of the ROAR system. “The problems occurred because we were changing the software for the student records system and as a result were forced into changing the regis¬ tration systen^,” Nitsos said. “This led to a couple of differ¬ ences in requirements, the biggest hang-up being the change to a six-digit pin number from a four-digit pin number for continuing students. The sys¬ tem we implemented meant that continuing students need¬ ed to add two zeros to their existing four-digit pin number. If they still experience prob¬ lems, they can contact the regis¬ trar's office and their pin num¬ ber can be reset." ROAR: page 3 INDEX News 1 Campus News 6 Perspective 8 Features 12 Arts & Entertainment 14 Classified 20 Sports 24 On t h e Web: www.lmu.edu/stuaff/loyolan