The Watchman

Dear Readers,

We are currently updating the official website. In the meantime, we have provided you the articles from the January issue. Physical copies can be found available in Cunningham Library, Student Union entrance, Commuter Lounge and a variety of other campus locations. Please e-mail us at editor@isuwatch.com if you want a copy.

Sincerely,

Scott Monson

Remember in the 1960s, when it was chic to question authority and challenge the establishment?

The free speech movement at UC Berkeley, which witnessed the rise of a mass student mobilization and the first legal takeover of a campus building made headlines at the time and sparked a hippie counterculture.  Today, these aging hippies have changed their mantra to “accept authority without question.”

UC Berkeley, birthplace of the free speech movement, has permitted a rise in anti-free speech through speech codes, shouting down of conservative speakers, intimidation, threats, theft of publications, and burning of books.  The universities, including most, are teeming with restrictions on students’ freedom of speech.

Alan Charles Kors, founder of the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, said, “Such codes are a moral, educational and legal scandal in American higher education.  A nation that does not educate in liberty will not preserve it and will not even know when it is lost.”

Most universities were founded on the notion of disseminating and advancing knowledge through scholarship and inquiry.  Although such principles are recognized as central to any school’s mission, history has witnessed several lapses, such as during the late 1980s and early 1990s when universities set up speech codes and other restrictions to accommodate the growing diversity of the student body and an increasingly vocal number of students.

During the past two decades, America’s universities have largely abandoned any respect for free speech, due process and the very concept of intellectual debate.  For instance, university administrators have regularly punished students and faculty for their speech, writings and membership in campus groups.  They’ve adopted speech codes to restrict free and open discourse for students and faculty through “free speech zones” and overly board sexual harassment policies.

In November, the University of Delaware’s diversity training program was dropped after FIRE made public the details of its Orwellian program.  Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes were required to attend training sessions, floor meetings and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants.

The RAs who facilitated these meetings were taught in the diversity training manual “[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.  By this definition, people of color cannot be racists…”

Indiana State, for example, currently prohibits speech through “mail, telephone, computer messages, or any other means of communication to insult, threaten, or demean.”  So watch out online jokes, photos and comments on Internet sites like Facebook and MySpace could get you in trouble, even if our school claims to respect free speech.

The university also outlaws “jokes,” “suggestive gestures” and even asking a person on a date.

How did America’s universities with the obligation to pass on freedom and liberty to the next generation allow restrictive speech codes to proliferate?  Isn’t this a place where everyone who attends can have his or her ideas questioned?

Critical voices would be silent were student rules and regulations at Indiana State and elsewhere applied to the letter.  Speech codes would lead students to believe they cannot live with freedom or the equivalent of the First Amendment.  Anyone who tells you cannot live with freedom is definately not your friend.

Proponents of speech codes argue that restricting verbal or physical conduct creates a safe environment for learning that is free from potential hostile speech.  They also add that selective censorship, forced sensitivity training and unconstitutional bans on offensive speech are isolated incidents.

Think again.  Groups like FIRE receive thousands of complaints each year, mostly from conservative students whose universities selectively apply speech codes only to them.

They recently released a 2007 report on campus speech codes revealing that 346 schools surveyed maintain policies that clearly restrict speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Examples are not hard to find:

• Northeastern University in Boston prohibits students from using the university’s network to “[t]ransmit or make accessible material, which in the sole judgment of the University is offensive….”

• Florida Gulf Coast University prohibits “expressions deemed inappropriate.”

• At The Ohio State University, students in the residence halls are instructed: “Do not joke about differences related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, ability, socioeconomic background, etc.”

Despite this, any of the speech codes at America’s universities would likely not survive a legal challenge.

In 2005, Indiana State expunged an unconstitutional speech code from the books that restricted the display of the American flag after a student inquiry.

The policy did not apply to the university poles — it said “the display of the national, state, and other appropriate flags on the campus.” This confusion about the policy proved it was too vague and needed to be revised.

FIRE president David French described the policy as “ripe for abuse by administrators looking to silence viewpoints they do not like: by mere whim, permission to fly the American flag or a rainbow gay-rights flag or any other flag could conceivably be denied on the grounds of ‘offending’ someone, which would be an obvious violation of the First Amendment.”

What happens when faculty is allowed to profess their ideological briefs to unexpecting students and emphases on “tolerance” includes heckling conservative speakers?

In what is now expected on America’s universities former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales was harassed during his Nov. 19 speech at the University of Florida.  At one point, two UF students jumped on staged and stood next to Gonzales during his speech, wearing black hoods over their heads and orange jumpsuits depicting inmates in Guantanamo Bay.

This incident shows the hypocrisy of students who are taught to respect free speech, but only if their ideas is heard.  And this isn’t the first time it has happened.

Days earlier, a routine CIA informational session were suddenly disrupted on the campus of the UC Santa Barbara.  A small group of student protesters dressed as clowns ending the session by waterboarding a fellow protester and chasing a CIA recruiter to his car.  As one blogger noted, “nothing says ‘freedom’ like preventing people from giving a presentation to people who want to hear it.”

What is happening is that speech codes are restricting certain kind of constitutionally protected speech and people from the far-left are disrupting conservative speakers.  This shows that liberals cannot fairly win on ideas alone. For example, no conservative rushed on the stage when Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University.

Kors argues that America’s universities give “students a moral agenda upon arrival, subjects them to mandatory political reeducation, sends them to sensitivity training, submerges their individuality in official group identity, intrudes upon private conscience, treats them with scandalous inequality, and when it chooses, suspends or expels them.”

Freedom is gradually being undermined on America’s universities for ideological purposes and students should be made aware of it.

Last semester many ISU students had the opportunity of viewing the movie Sicko on campus. During the film Michael Moore compares the inadequacies of the American health system with the advantages of both the socialist and communist health systems. By following this formula Michael brilliantly leads the viewer to the conclusion that he desires. The viewer is supposed to come out of the film feeling that America needs either socialized health care or a similar system in America. The film however shows you only half of the story. Many of the dark sides of the European and Cuban systems are ignored.

Michael is indeed correct in that there are definitely problems with the American Health care system. What he doesn’t mention however is the over-regulation along with government mandates that do not permit the free market to work in the American health care system. Over-regulation not big HMO’s are the primary reason America’s system is seeing hard times.

Most people do not know that America has many aspects already of a universal system.

The 1986 federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act make many services available to Americans regardless of their citizenship. Americans and Illegals partake of our system all the time without paying.

It is also insinuated that America has an unfounded fear of Communism. What is not mentioned in the film are the 6 million murdered in the Ukraine and USSR by Stalin and Brezhnev. He also conveniently forgets to mention the 2 million Cambodians slain by Pol Pot. I haven’t seen a communist re-education video but Sicko gives me personally an idea of what one might have been like.

It is beyond me that some of the same people that criticize FEMA’s actions during Katrina, which denounce our actions at Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo Bay, and claim Bush lied  people died come to the conclusion that our government is capable of providing sufficient health care to eveyone in America?

Fifteen-years-old, unwed, and pregnant is not exactly the kind of stuff fairy tales are made of. However, this was my life.

I will never forget the moment it dawned on me that I may be pregnant or that long night in the hospital when my suspicions were confirmed by a brunette nurse who came over to my ER cubicle around 2 a.m. and said, “Well, hon, it looks like you are pregnant.”

Instantly, all of my options ran through my head: abortion, adoption, or keep it.
Despite growing up in a very Christian, pro-life home, I couldn’t completely rule out abortion as an option. Actually, because I grew up in a Christian home, I was even more concerned about my family finding out I was pregnant. I knew it would be a huge disappointment for them.

Not only, I thought, would I disappoint my family, but I wondered what everyone at school would think. I was only a sophomore in high school. I had seen other pregnant girls at school, and they seemed so different from me. I couldn’t believe I was going to be one of them.

I looked up abortion clinics online, found one here in Louisville, and called to find out more information. The lady on the phone asked, “Do you want to have an abortion?”

I answered, “Yes.”

To this day, and probably for the rest of my life, I will remember what it felt like to hear myself answer yes to that question. It felt like a hundred bricks were pressing on my heart.

Then the lady at the clinic went on to tell me the procedure would cost $600 and that they only perform abortions on Saturday mornings.

Yet, I never went to that clinic, and I never had that abortion. Instead, I confessed to my family that I was pregnant and despite their sadness, they were loving and compassionate. I’m positive that teenage pregnancy wasn’t something my parents would have planned for their daughter, but in reality, it was their daughter’s life and they loved me through it.

Just last night I watched the movie “Bella.” At the beginning, the narrator states, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” This made me smile.

I never planned for my life to go the way it has. I never planned to become a mother at such a young age—but I also never knew I’d be so happy that I did.
The famous author, C.S. Lewis, often used the phrase, “surprised by joy,” and I believe that phrase could be the theme of every teenage mother’s life.
Getting pregnant at 15 and raising my son has not been an easy experience. Although I have had amazing support from family members on both sides, it has still been the source of many struggles and tears. However, it has also been the source of countless joys and laughter.

Of course, there are some difficult days when I am frustrated and just wish I could have a so-called “normal life.” But it is times like these that my son, Jonathan, tells me he loves me, learns to count to a higher number than he could before,
tells me a new joke he has memorized, or learns how to write a new letter of the alphabet, and once again, I am surprised by joy.

You can’t always plan your life or understand it. Teenage pregnancy is definitely one of those things you don’t plan for or understand.

If you are struggling as a young mother or father, you’re the family member of a young parent, or you are pregnant now, I want assure you that although things may seem hopeless at the moment and you may feel that your life is ruined, you are wrong.

Every day I look at my son, and I thank God that I did not abort him.
No matter how tough raising a child can be as a teenager, you will be amazed by how often you find yourself “surprised by joy.”

Ms. Wilkins is a pre-law student at Indiana University-Southeast and ambassador for the Leadership Institute. She recently joined the U.S. Army.

After much controversy Duke Bennett was sworn in this month as the mayor of Terre Haute.  He’s the first Republican to become mayor since Leland Larrison in 1967.

He defeated Democrat incumbent Kevin Burke by 110 votes.  Official recount results from a court appointed commission had Bennett receiving 6,054 votes to Burke’s 4,944.  Burke asked for a recount when the election night results showed the margin of victory as less than one percent.

Burke also challenged Bennett’s eligibility for candidacy based on Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts the political activities of individuals who handle federal money, including Head Start.  Bennett was the director of operations at Hamilton Center, which operates an Early Head Start program.

He argued that Bennett’s role with Hamilton Center’s Early Head Start program prevented Bennett from becoming the mayor.  But a Vigo County judge ruled Bennett was no longer a candidate and could not be affected by Indiana law.

“I think the most important is don’t forget how you got there,” said Duke Bennett after being sworn in on Jan. 1 at Ivy Tech’s auditorium.  “In my case it has been a desire to serve the citizens of this community and doing what is right.  I can never be something that somebody else wants me to be.  I will always be who I am.”

Bennett said he would make the tough decisions and do what is right for the Terre Haute community.  ”I am not going to make decisions based on trying to get another four years.  And that is what happens to so many people.”

“The only way we can move Terre Haute forward is together.  We can’t do it by a mayor.  We can’t do it by a city council.  We can’t sit back and wait for someone to lead us.  We need to follow right along and lead the way ourselves,” Bennett said.
Bennett said Terre Haute was a French word for high ground and should work to live up to it.

“It is what we have always heard and we need to make it that way.  The election is over.  It is time for the politics to stop.  It is time for all the ugly parts to go and melt away and do the things that is right for everybody as a member of this community.  And you can be assured I will do that,” Bennett said.

Bill Treadway, Vigo County Republican chair believes his party is a big tent, including all walks of life and it is reflective in Mayor Bennett.  “I can say from knowing him for over 20 years all of them very active.  He is going to be a fantastic mayor.  He is not going to be a Republican.  He is going to be mayor of Terre Haute, Indiana.

The Watchman has obtained copies of faculty, administration and other staff salaries at Indiana State via Indianapolis Star’s database of more than 75,000 state government and public university employees.  The database reveals some interesting insights into where ISU places their priorities.

As expected, Indiana State president is ISU’s highest paid employee, earning nearly $228,000.  Second to Network Financial Institute executive director Elizabeth A. Coit, earn $206,000 annually.

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jack Maynard earn $172,031 annually.  Associate Vice President English, earns $110,014 and Associate Vice President Schmid, earns $110,014.

Vice President for Business Affairs Gregg Floyd, earn $157,636 and Vice President Ramey of Student Affairs Thomas Romey, earn $119,012.

Men’s head basketball coach Kevin McKenna, earns $170,000. Mr. McKenna has three assistants, who earn a total of $150,000 per year.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Thomas Sauer, who oversees the ISU’s various academic departments, earns $157,500. Dean of College of Business Nancy Merritt, earns $170,000.

The highest paid professors include Steve Pontius of the Geography Department, who earns $127,649. Following Mr. Pontius are: Charles Amlaner of Biology, $104,854; Steven Lamb of Analytical, $104,276; Jeffrey Harper of Management Information Systems, $101,277.00; and Robert Guell of Economics, $100,702.

About 250 ISU employees are paid below $25,000.  The lowest paid includes Elementary, Early Childhood and Special Education secretary Yvonne Huffman, earns $20,514 after working 10 years; Criminology office assistant Linda Everly, earns $20,592 after working 8 years; and Psychology Graduate Admission secretary Cari Riggs, earns $20,787 after nearly 8 years.

Interested in what your ISU professors or underappreciated secretaries gets paid?

Visit the Indianapolis Star’s database which is complied of salaries for state government and university employees.  The database includes workers’ names, state agency or university at which they work, their titles or positions, hiring date, and most current salaries.

The Web site is indystar.com/data/government/statepay.shtml.

One of America’s most gifted sportswriters paid a visit to Indiana State recently when Frank Deford, a veteran sportswriter and NPR commentator, gave a lecture on Nov. 19.

His message topic was about the hype and hoopla of sports as a part of the 2007-2008 University Speakers Series.

“Where ever I have been in the world in Indiana, India or Indonesia,” Deford said.  “The two things I hear the people always say is that we have the most beautiful women in the world and the best sports fan.”

Deford then talked about a recent Sports Illustrated article, where 81 percent of golfers interviewed preferred shooting par than spending a night with a beautiful woman.  It is this admiration of sports he explains is why people are conflicted with the issue of drugs.

“It is so hard to imagination that something so powerfully deceitful could affect the games we love so.  Of course our emotions are thrown when we suspect somebody on our team is on drugs.  When our favorite guy shows up in spring training with 48 pounds of muscle and a head twice the size as you remember it last fall.  We are inclined to say ‘gee he really took care of himself,’” Deford said.

He says that college sports is full of corruption with television contracts, championships and high dollar coach salaries.  “Amateurism is like communism it may look good on paper but it simply doesn’t work.”

Deford went on to tell his audience the two great myths in American sports are next year soccer will catch on and administrators will clean up college sports.

His best experience in sportswriting was when he reported from Cameroon during the World Cup in 1990.  “If you had two dollars you can go into a bar and buy a beer and watch the game there.  And that is where I was when Cameroon scored the first goal and this short fat lady standing next to me grab me and started dancing with me.  My photographer took that picture and that is the only sports photograph that I keep in my office.”

Deford finished his speech by talking about how sports unifies the world.

“Sports, for all its abuses and some I have cited her tonight. Sports is truly a unifying element. Like it or not it may ever well be the lingua franca of the world,” Deford said.

The next speaker event is former FBI special agent and bestseller author John Douglas on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in Tilson Auditorium.

After a few months of uncertainty, the Indiana State Sycamores hired Trent Miles, a longtime assistant of Tyrone Willingham to succeed Dennis Raetz, who led the final seven games after Lou West was fired as head coach.

Former ISU assistant coach Shannon Jackson, whose experience helped in the development of Tennessee Titans player Richard Harris, has been hired as defensive coordinator for the Sycamores.

Miles is a native of Terre Haute and played at Indiana State as a wide receiver, where former Sycamore coach Dennis Raetz 1983 and 1984 teams successfully advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs. He served as the Washington running back coach last season and helped rushing back Louis Rankin to tally 1,294 yards rushing in a season.

One of the 12 candidates interviewed by Indiana State officials after West was dismissed, Miles was top on the list and set the standard high with 17 years of experience at the collegiate level.

“It is with great pride and anticipation that we have named Trent Miles as head coach of the Sycamore Football program,” Prettyman said. “Coach Miles brings a wealth of experience having worked in some of the most respected programs in the nation, alongside some of the most respected coaches in the nation. Coach Miles started his coaching career at ISU and has now returned as head coach. Please join me as we welcome coach Miles and his family, wife Bridget, and daughters Kaylee and Anna back home to Indiana State University.”

In Terre Haute, he will inherit a below par Sycamore squad going 1-32 overall and 1-19 conference games starting in 2005. Miles will also be responsible for the continued task of pulling the Sycamores out of the bottom of the Gateway conference. The Sycamores most recent winning season was 6-5 under Reatz in 1996.

“It is a privilege and honor to come home. I am very thrilled about this opportunity and I want you know while we’re here we’re going to develop young men that are extremely dedicated to the best they can be,” said Miles. “Not just on the football field but in the classroom, in the community. And definitely on the football field.”

Miles said he is dedicated to developing young athletic men into positions where they will succeed in life. “It is not about winning some games. It is about doing things the right way.”

“We expect to win from this moment right now,” said Miles. “Because I get tired sitting around watching SportsCenter and seeing the yellow tickertape at the bottom and always seeing Indiana State in white. That has to change. We got to get in yellow.”

Miles has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Indiana State in 1987. He was born July 29, 1963, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Former Indiana State Sycamore basketball star Robert Heaton, who made the game winning shot sending the Sycamores to the Final Four, is running for the District 43 seat in Indiana House of Representatives.

Heaton, 51, a 1980 graduate from Indiana State and owner of a local insurance company called Heaton Financial Service.  He is best known as the “Miracle Man” for his game winning shots against New Mexico State and Arkansas.  Heaton’s half court shot against New Mexico State in 1979 season sent the game into overtime as the Sycamores eventually won and kept their unblemished record alive.
He is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Vern Tincher in 2008 election.  Tincher was first elected in 1982 and has served 22 years nonconsecutively in the Indiana House of Representatives.

“The Wabash Valley has given me so much and has been good to me over the years,” said Heaton at the Hilton Garden Inn two weeks after the municipal election.  “And now it is my intention to give back to the community.  This morning I announce my candidacy for state representative in Indiana House District 46.”

“I’ve lived in this district for over 30 years.  If the Indiana General Assembly is a citizen legislature, then I certainty fill qualified.  I am not a professional politician, I did not major in political science and my involvement in politics since graduating from college has been confined to helping Ed Pease to the Indiana Senate and United States Congress,” Heaton said.

Heaton said he was moved by his late father who showed him a way to give back to the community.  “About 40 years ago he ran for County Commissioner in Clay County.  I remember him as a young boy he wasn’t a politician, but he was passionate about getting things done and felt like he had to run.”

“I seek to serve and to be a representative committed to learning the issues, hearing the opposing views of constituents, advocating for the people of Vigo, Owen, Clay and Monroe Counties and to my best to ensure Indiana serves its citizens well,” Heaton said.