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daymondaymondcr feedback ■v 4 Guest Opinion Images Interpreting the SHI survey To the Editor. Communication 1 believe, is a profession of image building. We, communication students, are the future image builders of the nation. It is ironical that our department is suffering from image problems. It is our duty, therefore, to organize and build a positive image for our department in this University. So communication students, let us start communicating! by the UB Rights of Conscience Group Nevertheless, SA president, Mayersohn, and, we are told. Sub Board are willing to defy the will of this huge majority. Sub Board people are attempting to bully the administration by saying that if President Ketter does not go along with their mandatory payment, they will take it as an infringement of student decision making power and in retaliation they will refuse to carry the insurance altogether. This when the Sub Board vote to make abortion coverage compulsory was only 5-4. This leadership that just barely hangs on has a lot of nerve to talk about \student power” when they are willing to ignore the great majority of students. It is really their power that they want to protect. The results of the Health Insurance Advisory survey of student opinion on our mandatory student health insurance show that 80% plus of UB students are opposed to making abortion coverage a required part of the policy. As the report concluded, “There is little sentiment among students for making abortion coverage a required part of the policy without any option.” The survey found that of those who are on the university palan 28% believe that abortion coverage should not be part of it, S2% believe that it should be optional for conscientious objectors to abortion, and only 19% believe that it should be required by all. Marquita Pikes SUNY apartheid and Africa To the Editor Several concerned students, faculty and staff in colleges and universities have expressed total disapproval of their institutions fueling the machines of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The argument that the Corporations dealing with S. Africa help to ameliorate the economic and social conditions of the oppressed is meaningless. There is an African aphorism which states that once your back is on the ground you cannot fall any longer. This is the tragic dilemma of the oppressed people in S. Africa. It is imperative to remind those Corporations that nineteen million people have been ruthlessly precluded from any political or economic process to determine their existence. In reality, as far as Apartheid is concerned, nineteen million people do not exist. They are merely a means of production to enrich the coffers of the big Corporations. Apartheid has no conscience. It is the most flagrant degradation of the human personality. An economic boycott of S. Africa is one of the most effective weapons of ending the suffering of the oppressed. The Iranian revolution has inflicted very devastating long-term repercussions on the Apartheid economy. Gasoline taxes have soared by 28 percent; stringent economic measures short of gasoline rationing have been imposed. The quantity of gas now on reserve is a national secret. But for Western Corporations which trade with S. Africa her economy would have collapsed. SUNY has contributed to the prolongation of the Apartheid regime and ultimately the plight of the oppressed people in Southern Africa. In order to get what they and the noisy, intolerant CARASA minority wants, they are wilhng to sell out the rest of us and sabotage the arrangement by which we are able to get low-cost health insurance. (This ploy could backfire, however, if President Ketter has the courage to say “no” to the mandatory payment, for the plan could then be contracted by another university corporation such as the Faculty-Student Association.) We have a curious situation here. It is the great majority of U.B. students who favor protecting the rights of individuals, and it is a small minority which is defying the majority’s will and suppressing individual rights. An unresponsive, undemocratic group in control of student government are thus showing themselves to be little more than lackeys of CARASA and the rest of the pro-compulsion crowd. These people are the first to criticize “the system,” but when they get into “the system,” they don’t hesitate to use it to repress the rights of those they disagree with. So, to Mr. Mayersohn we say: you have no mandate to keep pro-option people off Sub Board as you are trying to do. You indeed have a duty to put them on. If not, you put yourself above the will of the great majortiy. To Sub Board we say; You have a duty to consider your action and to vote in accordance with this majority. To you, the great majortiy of students at UB: We commend you for your sensitivity to individual rights. Don’t stand for this outrage any longer. Stand up and demand that your student government representatives join you in respecting the rights of conscience. The survey also covered those who waived the mandatory plan in order to determine how well the university plan’s service compares with the service students obtain from other companies. For every 7 students who are on the mandatory plan there are 10 who waive. And of those who waive, 50% believe abortion should not be part of the university plan, 37% believe it should he optional, and only 13% believe it should be required of all. Faced with these statistics, Jane Baum, the holdover Sub Board director (temporarily reappointed by SA President Joel Mayersohn until the end of the year) who has . vowed to do “everything in my power” to keep abortion coverage compulsory,, opined to the Advisory Committee that student response to the survey was not a thought out consideration of all the aspects of the question. The questions she protests took less than a minute to answer. But this issue has been one of the most thoroughly debated this campus has ever seen, and its students are not to be so patronizingly second-guessed. After a year’s controversy students certainly have thought the issue through. The survey shows that only 1% of those surveyed were not sure whether coverage for abortion procedures should be optional or required. Of those who had an opinion either way, 90% said they felt very strongly or fairly strongly about their positions. So, Jane Baum, Joel Mayersohn, Sub Board I, and CARASA have not only had their position repudiated, but it has been massively repudiated. The most negative aspect of American foreign policy on Africa is that it has been obsessed with containing Communism in the continent. Millions of Africans are not tickled about East/West confrontation. In recent years, a number of African leaders have proclaimed their willingness to seek aid even from the devil to eradicate the internal colonialism in S. Africa. One of the tragic ironies of American foreign policy is that despite the fact that millions of dollars in aid have been donated to some African countries, the prestige of America in Africa today is at its lowest ebb since the Kennedy days. This disenchantment and mistrust stems from the fact that Africans have serious misgivings about the handling of the Apartheid question. SUNY can play a significant role to improve, the relations as other universities such as Michigan State, Yale,..Columbia, University of Wisconsin and University of Massachusetts have done in recent years. Instead of supporting a regime which oppresses Africans — Blacks and Whites, SUNY should establish strong links with emerging universities in Africa. Exchange and research programs in collaboration with African universities will elevate the standard of living of the people and enhance the prestige of SUNY abroad. There are hundreds of Africans studying in numerous SUNY campuses and the continuation of funds to the' South African regime which we adamantly oppose is not only a shocking embarassment to us but it also questions the validity of the fundamental philosophy of the State University of New York. Let each become all that he is capable of being. The funds channeled to S. Africa deprive millions of oppressed people from becoming what they are capable of being. It is our fervent wish that SUNY Chancellor, Presidents and Board of Trustees will emulate the example of the universities cited above and rescind all financial transactions with Apartheid and promote meaningful* and constructive cooperation with African universities and institutions. Such steps will indicate that America’s vested interests in Africa are genuine and dispel the notion that its ultimate objective is to contain Communism as Dr. Henry Kissinger made us believe. Guerrilla activities to topple Apartheid have intensified.. The struggle in Zimbabwe and Namibia are in their concluding phases. There is every indication that once these countries are free the guerrilla war will escalate. Diplomacy has failed. Economic boycott it the last hurdle. We hope that SUNY will stop dragging its feet and contribute its quota to the extinction of an obnoxious, ill-fated regime which has been ostracized by men and women of goodwill, advocates of peace, human dignity, universal brotherhood and equality in the international community. Peerless peer advisement To the Editor. continue individual projects under an advisor’s guidance. Some of the proposed projects fire the improvement of faculty advisement, the development of workshops for undecided majors, and the coordination of advisement activities with other offices and organizations in an effort to make the university a more functional whole. It is important to add that not only does the academic community gain from the Peer Advisement Program, but the students involved reap many personal benefits as well. It is a rare opportunity for students to be able |o become a part of a dynamic interchange of' new ideas, and to participate constructively in making U.B. a better place for us and for our successors. From the standpoint of practical benefits, the student has the chance to meet administrators, make contacts, and to acquire I am taking this opportunity to commend to the University community the Peer Advisement Program, and to encourage the participation and support of faculty and students alike. Peer Advisement is the use of trained and experienced upper-level students to assist the professional staff of the D.U.E. Academic Advisement Office. Under the leadership of June P. Blatt, Senior Academic Advisor for D.U.E., the task of developing a comprehensive training program was undertaken, and implemented successfully this spring. Fifteen selected students were instructed,in the techniques of communication and in the information and resources of the University. Ten of these were chosen to participate in the Summer Orientation Program in stipended positions. The training program will be repeated in the fall for current freshmen and sophomores accepted into the program. skills which will assist him or her in finding a place in the world outside. AH of these benefits are more than compensatory - for the considerable time commitment which must be made to the program. I urge the faculty and administrators to support and explore the potential which the Peer Advisement Program has to offer in solving some of the problems which face an attrition-ridden University of Buffalo. And I encourage any interested freshmen or sophomores to contact June Blatt, at the D.U.E. Academic Advisement Office, 20S Squire Hall, 831-3631, for more information regarding recruitment for next semester. The value of the Peer Advisement program we hope will be the improvement of academic life at U.B. While we augment the services of D.U.E. advisement quantitatively, we hope that we can effect qualitative change as well. For instance, as part of our preparation for summer orientation, each peer advisor has focused on. one of the goals of the orientation process, and has studied and developed new methods of making the summer experience a more positive and enriching one for freshmen. In the fall, the trained peers will be available to talk with students at the D.U.E. advisement locations and will Lauren S. Shugartt Student Coordinator, Peer Advisement Let 200frisbees fly To the Editor: only *900.00!! To the people who worked as liquor controllers, beer servers, and clean-up, you did a top notch job. Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, another “Blast” will take place, again sponsored by Sub-Board and Student Association, and this time, NYPIRG, I want 200 frisbees!! I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for making the “Squire-Fest” on April 20 a big success. Everyone realizes the amount of work that was involved, but, at least to me, that’s trivial when the end result produces such a good time. It also goes to show what can be accomplished when two large organizations work efficiently together... being that the total cost for the day was Allen Clifford Sub-Board I, Inc. A frican Graduate Students Association
