1995-04-27

              Kiss the Cook

P.O. Box 1866

Saint John's University

Collegeville, MN 56321

The Record

Non-profit organization

US Postage paid

Saint John's University

Volume CVIII, Number 5

Official Student Newspaper Since 1887

April 27, 1995

New Asian Studies Minor?

By Louise McCarthy

Editorial Staff Writer Research compiled by Maria Plonski

The proposal for the creation of an Asian Studies minor is nearing its realization.

The proposal, broughtbefore the New Course and Core Designation subcommittee on September 8 of this school year, was approved by the Joint Faculty Assemblies on Wednesday April 19 and will be proposed to the Coordinate Academic Affairs Committee of the CSB Board of Trustees and the SJU Board of Regents on May 4th and 5th.

The minor, previously offered along with a major during the 1970's, would harness present resources for its requirements, with possibilities for further growth in the future, adding courses and faculty.

"What we're doing is corralling existing courses and existing faculty and existing programs and resources," explains Richard Bohr, associate professor of history. "We hope that in future years we can build our curriculum so that we can become more and more proficient in South Asia."

Classes required for the minor are interdisciplinary, focusing mainly on history, with options in art, government, language and philosophy. The course requirements focus on the fundamentals and dynamics of the East and Southeast Asian traditions as well

as its indoctrination into contemporary western society .

"We talk so much about global awareness and clearly Asia is a major part," said Sister Carol Berg, OSB, "and not to give attention to it wouldbe a major flawin our programs."

Berg, one of the proponents of the proposal, previously taught survey courses on China and Japan.

The proposal stems from what its supporters see as an increased importance of Asia in the modern world and a need for American capability to interact with Asian cultures and markets.

"What we want for the students of St. Ben's and St. John's is to provide them with an understanding of the importance of Asia with the ability to think about how to develop careers with Asia and to give them the liberal arts understanding and the cultural background and the languages which they then can combine with their career training whether it's in business or management or teaching, or wherever their career path may take them, so that they can, not only themselves, be effective in Asia but also to help the U.S. be competitive in Asia," Bohr continues.

With the role of Asian countries in modern SEE MINOR PAGE 4

JEC restructures positions

By Maria Plonski

StaffWriter

The Joint Events Council recently restructured it's constitution and modified its current chair and committee positions for the 1995-96 year. The restructuring was made in an effort to evenly distribute programming and administrative responsibilities to the whole council.

Co-chair, Melissa Borchardt said, "We took all of the things within the programs that the JEC does and redistributed them in an effort to even out the work load between the positions. In the past there have been some positions that have had more work to do consistently throughout the year than other positions. It was a big rearrangement."

Co-chair John May, adds that this was done to "better allocate resources and responsibilities in the JEC."

Almost every position was changed or modified to fit next year's goal of providing a variety of activities for the CSB/SJU campuses. Included in this was the reduction from two to one representative from each school's Senate.

Many chair positions have also been renamed as a result and all now have commit-

tees.

"We now have eight committees on JEC whereas before we had three. We're trying to involve more students in what is happening on campus and have more input and ideas for programming," said Borchardt.

Through an application and all-weekend interview process, the new JECboardmem-bers and committees for 1995-96 were announced yesterday and will assume their duties after Pinestock.

Present JEC St. Ben's Senate Representative, Heather Rogers, expressed that by redistributing these duties, the structure of the JEC is clearer and more defined.

For example, the Movie/Speaker agent position was absolved into a Films chair, and the speaker portion of the position was combined with aspects of the current Coffeehouse committee, such as hypnotists, for the Expressive Arts committee.

The Coffeehouse committee underwent major restructuring. Including the Expressive Art's committee, the Coffeehouse committee became the Spotlight committee, bringing in comedians and smaller musical

SEE JEC PAGE 4

Michele Specht and Ryan Marquart perform in the Forum theater's production of "The Threepenny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht. The satirical musical, directed by Kaarin S. Johnston, opened last weekend and will continue its run through April 29. (photo by Reggie Aligada)

Political prankturns sour

By Ben Knuth

Editorial StaffWriter

What started out Tuesday as a comic idea developed into an unappreciated prank. A group of loosely organized students attended the College Republican's meeting to elect Emily Dahm chairperson of the CRs.

"As a collective group, we thought it would be pretty funny," Jason Wool wine, CR member, said. Wool wine thought of the idea with Dann Boland, Emily Dahm and DaveGatz, all sophomores.

"We were thinking of funny things we could do," Gatz sai d. "We found out that they were having their elections, and wouldn't it be funny if Emily was voted the chairperson?"

Dahm, an unexpected candidate, is a well-known College Democrat and writes a liberal column for the school newspaper.

"We began recruiting people in the refectory," Boland said. Approximately 40 guests

attended the meeting. There were 25 regular members there.

"The whole point was to nominate her and that she would have enough votes, but then she would withdraw her nomination for the vote," Boland said.

The floor was opened to nominations by CR chairperson John Schwalbach. When Gatz and Boland attempted to nominate CRmem-bers for the secretary position, the CR members told them that were not allowed to.

"We're an affiliate of the [Republican National Committee]," Chad Erickson said, former state College Republican chair, "in order to vote, you have to sign one of these," as he waved a voter registration card.

"If you have to be a part of the national committee," Dahm retorted, "what happens to those students who are just interested in

SEE PRANK PAGE 4