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Official student newspaper of Saint John's University, Collegevllle, Minnesota
March 16,1989/Volumo 102/Number 3
Freshmen expelled for shooting incident
By Robert Speltz
Assistant News Editor
Despite an appeal to the SJU Appeals Board, three SJU freshmen were forced to disenroll from the university for possession and discharge of an air-pellet pistol, said Roman Paur, OSB, SJU vice president for student affairs.
Paur's actions stem from an incident which occurred on the evening of February 18, when two of the three students aimed and repeatedly discharged an air-pellet at an intercampus bus from their Mary Hall dorm room. Paur said no one was seriously injured by the pellets.
Apparently, the pellet pistol was owned by a student not on campus at the time of the incident. However, this student brought the pistol to campus after Thanksgiving vacation; he and his roommate admitted to shooting the weapon many times through their Mary Hall dorm room window for target practice.
J-Book policy states that "no firearm or illegal weapon of any kind is to be kept in any on-campus residence including dormitories. .. Violation incurs automatic sanction of immediate eviction, no
appeal."
Under counsel, Paur concluded that the owner of the pistol and his roommate were subject to eviction since the two both knew about the pistol, kept it in the room, and used it for target practice. It was
determined that the third student (who shot at the i bus but had never used it before February 18) had j no prior knowledge of the gun's existence. Still, i however, Paur added that all three students were in | violationofthestudentassaultpolicy, which states I that an SJU student is subject to immediate sus- j pension for assaulting other SJU students.
Three weeks ago the situation was further compli-j cated when the three students agreed to appeal I Paur's ruling. Paur asserts that Brett Loeb, SJU \ junior and chair of the SJU Appeals Board urged j them to do soa move which Paur cited as a conflict of interest between the board and the complain-tants,
Loeb told The Record that Paur and Cletus Con-iiors, OSB, director of SJU Residential Programs, ! "misled the students involved in leading them to i believe that they could not appeal. I did not encourage them to appeal, but I did tell them their rights. (Paur) interpreted their rights in a different way than I did and after a while, admitted that he was wrong. At first he said none of them could appeal. Later he said one of them could appeal." All three did appeal.
This move surprised Paur who felt the incident j was an obvious violation of the current SJU fire- j arms policy. In a March 6 letter to Loeb, Paur j defended his decision to expel the three students.
"Thisbehavior, inmy judgement.. .is an alarming
Students
continued on page 3
Be bop a lula
Mothers and sons danced the night away to the sounds of New VintageaX the Mother-Son dinner dance last Saturday night in the Old Gym at SJU. Theannual event, sponsored by the SJU Knightsof Columbus, drewclose
to 150 COUpleS. (Photo by Patrick Dreizehnter)
Progress reported in art center, Engel planning
By Steve Perry StaffWriter
An array of upgrades to academic, social, and athletic facilities at SJU will begin this spring. In the coming months Engel Hall will receive a $ 15 million facelift, ground will be broken for an SJU art center west of Tommy, and the outdoor tennis courts will be replaced.
EngelHall
The Engel project calls for a complete redesigning of the 80-year-old building, according to SJU corporate treasurer Gordon Tavis, OSB. The ground and third floors will each contain four large classrooms, while first and second floors will provide almost 40 offices for faculty members and departmental secretaries. Restrooms, a second stairway, an elevator, new windows, and air conditioning will also be added.
Engel was originally a science building when it was built in 1910. Since then it has become the home of SJlTs social science departments. In recent years a shortage of faculty office space forced the addition of numerous cramped, offices along short, winding corridors.
The new renovations will completely transform the building's interior to bring offices up to decent size standards, and make the most efficient use of space on each floor, stated Tavis. "This is part of
Seven professional-quality courts will soon replace the existing tennis complex at SJU. The $213,000 project is scheduled for completion early this summer and will feature lights, bleachers, and a practice court. (Photo by Lance
Swanke)
an ongoing project to create new academic space The Engel project is linked to the new $ 1.7 million to relieve overcrowding," explained SJU presi- SJU art center, scheduled to begin this summer, dent Hilary Thimmesh, OSB. Last fall Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, SJU dean of the
Art Center
Improvements
continued on page 5
SJU Profs walk out of forum
ByMattMcKinney StaffWriter
Two SJU professors walked out of a panel discussion on Christian Humanism recently in response to statements made by a third professor about homosexuality.
BillMuldoon, SJU associate professor of chemistry, became irate when remarks he described as "counterproductive to debate" were made by Stephen Worland, Clemens professor of economics and the liberal arts, during the March 2 panel discussion. Muldoonrespondedby telling Worland his remarks were "inhuman" and walked off the panel. Chuck Rodell, SJU associate professor of biology, also objected to Worland's statements and followed Muldoon off the panel.
In a recent interview with The Record, Muldoon said he lost his temper during the incident, "I would like to publicly apologize for losing my temper. Although it was a poor tactic, leaving was probably wiser than staying under the circumstances. As I remember it," Muldoon continued, "Worland said that homosexuals were 'troubled' and implied that they were not acting in a reasonable manner. I am vehemently opposed to that type of thinking about the human condition. I don'i think it is worthwhile to debate when someone has such preconceived judgements."
Walkout
continued on page 5
