Miami Hurricane, February 24, 1989

              New beginnings
The African Student Union is reorganizing at UM — after a four-year absence.
News — page 4
All aboard
South Florida’s Tri-Rail offers a free ride from Miami to West Palm Beach.
Accent — page 8
Eat your heart out SI
Wendy Williams, an Olympic diver and bronze medalist, is featured in today’s sports section.
Sports — page 10
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Volume 66, Number 37
University of Miami
Friday, Feb. 24,1989
UM mixed on Rushdie
Satanic Verses sparks debate
By OLYMPIA ROSS
Stall Writer
For Munzar Al-Marhoon, 25, the questions raised by Salman Rushdie's novel. The Satanic Verses, are futile.
The growing debate over censorship is a waste of time, he said. So is the concern for Rushdie's protection against death threats issued by Iran's religious leader, Ayatollah Rudhollah Khomeini.
Al-Marhoon said tha whole matter boils down to one simple premise: "Rushdie's fate is up to God.”
The opinion expressed by Al-Marhoon, a freshman majoring in computer science, also represents the views of other Moslem students at the University of Miami.
"The book is insulting to our religion |Islam|,” Al-Marhoon said. “He is insulting the prophet. The Moelem-Americans have a right to stand up for their religion.”
"Rushdie is telling lies,” said Abdullah Bahajaj, 24, a sophomore maioring in electrical engineering. “He should get hard punishment for this."
Al-Marhoon said he agrees Rushdie should be held responsible for his actions, but he disagrees with Khomeini's execution order.
“The best thing to do is to stop publishing the book in America," Al-Marhoon said. "Avoid the problem and send it hack to England."
But while some Moslems would rather not see the United States involved in the issue, other Americans believe the United States should take a more active role in support of Rushdie and The Satanic Verses.
“In defense of freedom of speech, it would seem an appropriate thing for an American university to offer him | Rushdie| a position. If we are going to be the ‘Great Satan’ let's go all the way,” said Dr. Patrick A. McCarthy, the director of graduate studies for UM’s English department.
McCarthy, a Joyce scholar and a spokesperson against censorship, is especially troubled by the decision of Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble bookstores to remove The Satanic Verses from their shelves.
"I think there are certain groups like university libraries and newspapers that have a vested interest in freedom of expression. Booksellers fall into precisely the same category,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy also called for a boycott of these bookstores until they return Rushdie's book to their shelves.
“If you want to let one group get away with intimidating you, you're opening up the floodgates," he said. "My sentiment is that it is not primarily a religious question, but a question of inter-
‘The book is insulting to our religion (Islam)... “He |Rushdie) is insulting the prophet. The Moslem-Americans have a right to stand up for their religion.’
Munzar Al-Marhoon, frashman,
nal politics in Iran.”
Lisa Cooper, 22, a senior majoring in public relations, said the issue is in fact generated by religious beliefs.
"I think these people are truly incensed, and they believe killing this man will solve the problem,” Cooper said. "But it will just make them look like a bunch of terrorists."
Indeed, Americans often equate the acts of the Shiite Moslems with the sentiments of the entire
Islamic faith, said Dr. Steven Sapp, a professor of religious studies who teaches the Islam section of a survey course on world religions.
“It is Important for people In this country to realize that Islam is a much larger religion than that represented by the Ayatollah Khomeini," Sapp said.
Sapp said the branch of Moslems Khomeini leads, the Shiites, represents only 15 percent of all Moslems.
Sapp also attempted to shed some light for non-Moslems as to why The Satanic Verses has ere ated such a furor.
"The view is that the book blasphemes this prophet who was so important to the Islamic faith," he said. "One of the fundamental beliefs of Islam is that Mohammed is the final Prophet of God.”
Despite such explanations, many American students will probably never understand the reaction.
"There are books everywhere that people don't like,” said Rac-quel Osborne, 19, a junior majoring in advertising. ‘It's only a book."
"We’ve got pom movies and all kinds of things for sale over here. All the fuss over one book is ignorant,” said Leighton Condell, 21, a junior majoring in marketing. “They are always doing something stupid over there in Iran. They're on the news every night.”
Ahmed Al-Ibraham, 24, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, said the publicity over The Satanic Verses has gone a bit too far. “They should limit the propaganda." he said. “Now everyone wants to read it, even me."
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UM ’s Alex Fernandez pitches Sunday against Seton Hall. The Hurricanes play this weekend in Austin against arch-rival Texas.
Faculty: Evaluations need work
By LESLIE CASIMIR
Staff Writer
Many University of Miami faculty members say Student Government missed the real issue when it demanded faculty evaluations be made mandatory.
The SG Senate recently passed a resolution calling for mandatory evaluations of all faculty members, except those who have been at the University for less than two semesters.
The legislation was a response to recent Faculty Senate legislation which gave faculty members the option of not releasing their evaluations.
SG’s demands have some faculty members confused.
“I don't know what the issue Is,” said Dr. Robert Levine, chairperson of the history department.
Levine said the real problem is
not the number of professors who publish evaluations, but the content in the evaluations.
“I’d like to see the evaluations more sophisticated," Levine said. "Everybody should be evaluated, but the present vehicle is not satisfactory.”
Levine said evaluations do not reveal if the course was innovative and do not consider how much time the professor put into preparing for the class.
"No one gets credit,” he said. "There should be ways of measuring how creative and up-to-date the professor is.”
William McElrath, assistant dean for the undergraduate School of Business, said students had not expressed concern about evaluations either before or after the Faculty Senate's decision.
He said SG and the Faculty Sen-
ate are making "much to do about nothing."
Although Levine said the present evaluation system needs improvement, he added they are useful in helping him determine pay raises for faculty.
“I personally encourage, as chairman, evaluations to our faculty," he said.
Dr. Lemuel Schofield, associate dean of the School of Communication, said there is not a simple answer to the problem with faculty evaluations.
“It would be nice if there were," Schofield said. "There is a better way to do these evaluations, but the question now is how to doit.”
Associate Dean for the School of Business Dr. Janies Foley said, "I think the faculty needs to ask the right questions.”
According to Dr. George Alexandrakis, chairperson of the Faculty Senate, the UM Board of Trustees has final authority on all University policy, but delegates some authority to the Faculty Senate. In this case. Alexandrakis said, the Faculty Senate had the authority to make the release of evaluations optional.
"Evaluations were never compulsory," Alexandrakis said.
However, almost every professor handed in his evaluations anyway, he said.
"With this legislation, we are able to treat the evaluations in a reasonable way," he said.
Dr. William Hipp, dean of the School of Music, said he was not sure if it was a good idea for SG to challenge the Faculty Senate.
"It [faculty evaluations! should remain an option," Hipp said.
Internationals overcome language barriers
By CINTHIA MANZANO
Staf1 Writer
Homesick, estranged and alone.
No, this is not an ad for the personals. This is how some international students feel when they arrive at the University of Miami.
Approximately 1,568 international students from over
100 di f ferent countries contri bute to UM's image as a global university. But language barriers, feelings of isolation and other problems make adjustment a difficult process for some.
According to Laura Morgan, director of international student and scholar services, an obstacle for many internationals at UM is learning the English language.
Many must first go through an intensive English program.
Jamal Aldousari, a senior from Kuwait, said he experienced difficulty at first in the United States because of the language barrier.
“I did not know any English for the first four or five months," Aldousari said.
Mahmoud Aljuwaisen, also
from Kuwait, said in addition to learning English, he had to adjust to a new way of life.
The students come to the University for various reasons and have many different views on campus life.
Mitu Hussain is a freshman who moved from Sierra Leone in
Please see page 2/FOREIGN
SG: Give students Whitten priority
By ROBERT MILLER
Stall Writer
The Student Government Senate approved a bill Wednesday asking University of Miami officials to give UM students priority in using Whitten University Center facilities.
According to C. Dean Furman, speaker pro tempore of the senate and author of the bill, many students do not use the center because they often must wait for young people not affiliated with UM to finish using the pool tables and video games.
Furman said UM students should not have to wait while high school students and others not associated with the University monopolize the facilities.
Junior Senator Ken DeMoor agreed
"When UM students are waiting in line behind high school students to use the cen-
ter that bothers me,” DeMoor said.
The bill, however, was not passed without debate.
John Machado, senator for the Federation of Cuban Students, said the University Center already has a policy in place which should be given time to work.
"The bill is too vague. It seems to me that it will be awfully tough to enforce what you want to do here,” Machado said.
According to DeMoor, "We paid the fee to build the building, we pay the fees to maintain it, and dammit, we should be able to use it.”
Marc Oster, speaker of the senate, said in clarification that SG was simply asking the University Center to use the bill to help students and that the bill would leave specific guidelines up to the Center.
A curfew for non-UM students and ID checks were suggested by members of SG,
but were not part of the resolution.
Also at the meeting two senators were ratified and sworn in. Caren Appel, a freshman, was sworn in as communication senator, and Kerrie Exely, a junior, was confirmed as the new engineering senator.
After being reinstated as secretary of the senate last Friday, Max Adams stood up during open forum to speak about his return.
Adams said he hoped he and SG would be able to put the quarreling aside and get back to work. He added he and Oster are friends and will stay friends.
“If I rubbed you | Oster | the wrong way ... I apologize," Adams said.
Adams said he had learned a lot about himself and SG from recent events. He said if one feels wronged by the system one can fight it.
UM fills petitions for official tags
The University of Miami is well on its way toward having official Florida state license plates with the University's logo.
UM has collected more than the 10,000 signatures required by the state for production of the plates and is now waiting on state verification of the signatures, according to Bunny Anika, special events coordinator of the Alumni Association.
The Alumni Association, with the help of Student Government, has collected 14,000 signatures since the fall, Anika said.
Once the signatures are verified, the design for the plate«
must be approved. Anika said the entire approval process could take from three months to a year.
“It all depends on how long it takes them | the Florida Department of Transportation | to verify 10,000 signatures," she said.
The proposed design of the plates, which will co6t $25 more than a regular plate, includes UM’s “fighting Ibis” and "University of Miami" in green lettering.
According to Anika, all profits from the sale of the plates will go toward a University scholarship fund.
— AMY ELLIS
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