Miami Hurricane, February 11, 1994

              Clinton cuts all federal funding for North-South Center
By JENNIFER RAMACH
News Editor
If President Bill Clinton's proposed 1994-95 budget is passed by Congress, UM's North-South Center will not receive any government funding. The Center received $8.7 million in funding for 1994.
"It will be a terrible blow if it went through, but I predict it will not because we have so many friends in Congress," said Dean Ambler Moss, director of the Graduate School of International Studies. "OMB and the President can propose one thing, but people in Congress have something to say too ”
Moss said many Florida representatives will help UM fight to restore the funding.
The North-South Center, located at 1500 Monza Ave., is designed to promote better relations among the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean through research and public outreach programs.
"The North-South Center’s value has increased due to issues such as independence and international drug traffic,” said UM President Edward T. Foote II.
Foote said the Office of Management and Budget sees the North-South Center as more money than can be cut under the deficit reduction plan.
"Somebody at OMB hasn’t understood,” Foote said. “We still have a lot of work to do for people to understand its importance."
Moss said the North-South Center does a lot of research the government "doesn’t get around to.
“We try to anticipate issues," Moss said. "Washington is so busy with Russia and Bosnia that other issues tend to be forgotten, but we in Miami know they are important because we are right in the middle of them. North-South issues are also important."
Moss said a study the North-South Cen-
ter is doing on the environmental impact of a free trade agreement with Venezuela is an example of work the North-South Center does.
"The government hasn't gotten to that yet, but when they do we'll have the report ready,” he said.
Moss said the University plans to hire a person to begin fundraising projects for the North-South Center. He said one candidate has already been interviewed and somebody should be hired in about a month.
In the meantime, University officials will continue the battle in Congress to have
the funds reinstated.
“Over the last decade, it has created a traditional role well-recognized in Washington and other places for its contributions,” said Cyrus Jollivette, vice president for Government Relations. "1 hope |the Center will be fundedj, but it is far to early to make that kind of judgment."
Even if Congress does not add funds to Clinton's proposed budget, Moss said the North-South Center will remain open and operating.
"It would cut us back seriously, but it will not shut us down,” Moss said.
Doug Hyde contributed to this report.
Holiday is time for love, fun
From stall reoorls
For many college students, Valentine’s Day means dinner and romantic strolls on the beach, but for freshman Ted Mierson, nothing has topped his experience in first grade.
"My teacher taped the bags around the room — with your names on them — and a girl that I liked wrote me a really cute one, and we went out off-and-on until the fifth grade,” Mierson said. “It was one of those cute Valentine’s Day experiences.”
Teardrop Robson said her best Valentine's Day was when she and her boyfriend went to Miami Beach for dinner with another couple.
"We ordered several desserts and wine and afterwards we went walking down Ocean Drive. We had cappuccino and later that night he gave me presents, flowers and a ring,” said Robson.
Many students are giving or receiving the traditional candy heart, roses or card, but unusual Valentine’s Day presents are also popular, according to some students.
“We are both too busy to think about being romantic,” explained junior Eric Beach, concerning the gift he bought his girlfriend this year. "I figured I’d see more of her if I got her a pair ofVollerblades — the gift that keeps on giving.”
Traditional is still good, though. At least senior Alicia Dixon thinks so.
"My boyfriend came and brought me the type of balloon with the bear inside of it and then we had dinner together," she said, about her best Valentine's Day ever. “It was cute and romantic."
Some UM students aren't doing anything special on Valentine’s Day because their boyfriends or girlfriends don’t live in Miami.
Freshman Joel Behrman said his girlfriend goes to the University of Missouri, so he won’t be going out.
"I’m hanging here," Behrman said. "I'm sending (my girlfriend) a package and I’m buying her a plane ticket so she’ll come down here for Spring Break.”
CSR begins move, demolition
CHRIS BERNACCHI/Photo Editor
■ RELOCATING: John Ruiz surveys cable lines in front of the new CSR trailers, where CSR will relocate to when Lane Recreation Center is demolished.
Party to mark end of CSR activities
By CHRIS CLARK
Hurricane Staff Writer
Campus Sports and Recreation is hosting a party that’s going to bring the house down — literally.
In what is being called the “Last Blast Before the Blast,” CSR and Student Activities are sponsoring a farewell party for the soon-to-be-demol-ished Lane Recreation Center.
The party kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday and will run to 3 a.m., and will feature games, raffles, live entertainment including a DJ, modem and country line dancing and intramural tournaments. The Badminton and Floor Hockey Clubs, along with modern dance group Thunder will perform.
The "Wreck the Rec" party will signal the end of the long history of the Lane Recreation Center. Monday, CSR employees will start moving aerobics and weightlifting equipment out of the building and into nine portable modular units located across
from Apartments 45A and I). The apartments will serve as the offices for CSR for the next 18 months, when the Wellness Center is scheduled to be completed.
Director of Women’s Intramurals Rhonda DuBord said the modular units should be open and available to students by Tuesday night. They will include a tiled aerobics floor and a carpeted weight room.
Demolition will begin in early March, said CSR director Norman Parsons. It could be delayed by a month or longer, however, if the Turner Construction Company, contracted for the job, finds that costs may exceed original expectations.
The Lane Recreation Center’s inside and outside basketball courts, the racquetball courts, the CSR offices, and the storage shed will all be torn down to make room for the new Smathers Wellness Center.
Speaker disputes Muslim stereotype
By ZULIMA ROSENOW
Hurricane Start Writer
Nearly 200 people came to hear Iman Siraj Wahaj, a Muslim leader from Brooklyn, New York, who was invited by the Pakistani Student Association, spoke at UM on Monday about dispelling Muslim stereotypes.
Wahaj said the term Islamic Fundamentalism is a catch phrase used to elicit a response from those who hear it.
"If you mean Muslims who are terrorists, then say that. But to label a broad rush of fundamentalism and not even explain it, is to fit all Muslims into the same bag, and that’s what's being done. [American mass media] know what they’re doing,” Wahaj said.
“You have fundamentalists among Jews, fundamentalists among Christians, but that’s not so often used. What is often used, and I think maliciously, intentionally, is Islamic Fundamentalists. I think that they purposefully don’t define it, so that they can use it whenever they want to."
“So that term is derogatory really, and it doesn’t depict what we are at all," Wahaj said. “I think it’s unfair to call us Islamic Fundamentalists, just call us Muslims."
Wahaj said he believes there are three entities in America that perceive Islam as a threat: the government, the media and big business.
He said the American government is afraid of the political and economic implications of a strong unification of Muslims in the country.
"(The government! looks at things as dollars and cents — control,” he said.
He said in the event that Muslims unite
and have enough power in America to exert significant political control, “Whatever we do should be within the guidelines of the law. See, Muslims who just want to practice Islam, they can go to a place where they simply practice Islam,” he said.
"But if we’re in this country then we abide by the laws. That doesn’t go against our religion, we don’t care to impose our religion on anyone. But we will be citizens like anyone else. |We] have the right to affect the government in a legal manner like anyone else.”
Juan Tamayo, foreign news editor for The Miami Herald, said the use of the term "fundamentalist” applied to any religion, is used “to try and make a difference between a pious believer in his religion and a person who steps into the political field.”
"When you refer to a person as a fundamentalist, it has a negative ring to it whether it’s a Jew, or a Muslim or a Catholic,” Tamayo said. “So we try to be careful in applying it.”
Wahaj encouraged the audience to be accepting of Muslims of different origins.
“In Islam there are no boundaries of nations, really,” he said. “We are all, in fact, brothers.”
He said that males should not look down on females or whites on blacks, or blacks on whites, or Arabs on non-Arabs, because Allah created everyone.
"If you want to have a standard greatness, if you want to be somebody, if you want to think that you’re better than someone else, I'll give you a standard of bettemess or greatness. That standard is righteousness and God-consciousness,” he said.
AMY LEIS/Assistant Photo
■ STEREOTYPES: Iman Siraj Siraj Wahaj, a Muslim leader, spoke to students Monday in the Flamingo Ballroom.
SG rejects expanding freshman forgiveness
By USA J. HURIASH
Associate News Editor
Student Government voted Wednesday not to expand a general repeat rule, which would allow any student to retake a class in which they received a “D” or “E.”
The University repeat rule, called freshman forgiveness, currently applies only to freshman. Under freshman forgiveness, students with fewer than 30 credits may retake a class and only have the second grade count on their grade point average. Still, the first grade would appear on the student’s permanent record.
SG’s bill called for any student to be allowed to repeat any two courses in which they received a “D” or "E” within 12 months after the end of that semester.
The bill failed in a 9-14-4 vote.
The bill said no course may be repeated more than once under this rule unless a student were to withdraw before the final UM set withdrawal date. The initial grade was to remain on the students transcripts but the GPA computation would be readjusted. Students would be limited to retaking only two classes.
Business School Senator and bill sponsor Carmen Fanego said she is disappointed the bill did not pass.
"Sometimes a grade you get doesn't reflect how much you studied or | reflect | the grade you deserve,” she said.
Fanego said she hopes students will contact their senators by 5 p.m. today and ask them to put it on a referendum for the March election.
SG President Adam August said he supported the passage of the bill.
"It won't hurt the academic reputation and students (should receive] personal attention for special circumstances at a private university,” August said, referring to events of illness or family death. "It's justified if it helps out a few people who are trying hard to do right and get an education.”
John Masterson, vice provost, said the UM Faculty Senate would be willing to consider passing the expansion of the repeat rule to include all students. He said he feels it would not lower academic quality of the University.
"I don’t think that it needs to be something we’re going to shout
from the mountain tops, but (I) recognize students make mistakes,” he said.
Commuter South Senator Paul Masongsong did not vote for the bill.
"I'm concerned with what students think of the academics,” he said. "It makes me mad when students give no respect to the school. If this passes, I'm going to make a motion to change [UM’s] name to Hurricane High School."
Joe Maled, Apartment Area senator, said allowing all students to repeat failed courses would not be beneficial to UM’s academic reputation.
“Everyone has	problems—
that’s just the way it is,” he said. "This would lower the general image the students have of our own university.”
Tn other SG notes:
• August said he will file for SG presidency by Friday, the filing deadline. He said his vice president will be junior and new SG Vice President Mary Doyle and the treasurer will be junior Demetric Ford, a member of United Black Students and the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee.
■	As of Wednesday, Herb Harman, Jonathan Becker and Jeff Brooks officially filed for the SG presidency. Amy Leis filed for treasurer and Raymond Wheeldon filed for vice president. Adilia Quintana filed for the School of Communications Senator, Jose Concepcion filed for the College of Arts and Sciences Senator, Lionel Douglas filed for the College of Arts and Science Senator and Melinda Kay filed for the School of Business Senator.
■	Senior Brian Olin was ratified as elections commissioner by the Senate on Wednesday for his second term. The vote was 21-0-4.
■	Sophomore Adam Perlman was ratified as elections commissioner by the Senate on Wednesday. The vote was 17-3-4.
■	First semester senior Scott Carter was ratified as commuter central senator by the Senate on Wednesday. The vote was 26-0-2.
■	Freshman Karen Ell was ratified as an associate justice of the Supreme Court by the Senate on Wednesday. The vote was 25-0-4.
This Issue...
■	CURTAIN CALL: UM
baseball team celebrates Danny Buxbaum's home run Tuesday night in the Hurricane's victory over FIU. See Sports, page 8.
■	TRUE LOVE?: Is
Valentine's Day a tragedy or triumph - two columnists disagree
See Opinion, page 4.
■ COACH: UM
basketball Coach Leonard Hamilton takes some rough punches from Hurricane columnist.
See Sports, page 8.
■	MUSIC REVIEW:
Woodstock performer Melanie is back with a new album after a ten-year hiatus.
See Accent, page 6.
■	See what the stars hold for you. Check out your horoscope.
See Accent, page 6.