L . · .The.ll
OUISVI e Cardinal
October 15, 2002
News
Pulitzer Prize-winning
photojournalist speaks at
U ofL,page 6.
Focus
Ekstrom Librmy revamps
website, page 8.
Sports
Basketball legend Pervis
Ellison kicks off Matinee
Madness, page 11.
Opinion
What ever happened to
stonewashedjeans shorts and
tight-rolled pants? page 14.
Inside
NEWS ................. ....... Page 1
FOCUS ........... .... ........ Page 8
SPORTS ..................... Page 10
OPINION ... ............... Page 14
CAMPUS BRIEFS ..... Page 2
HOROSCOPES ........ Page 18
COMICS ................... Page 18
www.louisvillecardinal. com The Independent Student Newspaper
A new hope for ACCESS?
Photo by Maria Gaffney
SGA President Chris Marlin, ACCESS supporters Monica Linton and Shawn Vickery, and former SGA President
Jason French addressed an ACCESS-sponsoredforum discussion on Tuesday in Davidson Hall.
Forum, Senate vote reveal "open­mindedness"
to center director King
By Stephen George
News Editor
The Adult Commuter Center­Evening
Student Services center
held a student forum last Tuesday
in conjunction with a pivotal Stu­dent
Government Association Sen­ate
meeting to continue debate
over the value of the center in the
face of its possible closure.
Students, faculty, staff, and
several SGA senators discussed the
function and purpose of the AC­CESS
center with :a panel com­posed
of SGA President Chris
Marlin and ACCESS supporters
Monica Linton, a senior political
science and women's studies ma­jor;
physical therapy graduate stu-dent
Shawn Vickery, and former
SGA President Jason French.
French has been present through­out
the debates as a historical per­spective
on SGA's original inten- ·
tions in funding the ACCESS cen­ter.
Under French's presidency, a
three-dollar per-student per-se­mester
fee was added to tuition so
that SGA could afford to fund the
center, which currently has
roughly a $93,000 budget. Discus­sion
over whether the fee was in-tended
"primarily" or solely for
funding ACCESS has been a re­cent
issue.
"The fee was put in place to
fund ACCESS," French said,
countering Marlin's contention
that money from the fee was not
solely intended to fund the center.
"If we're going to take the AC­CESS
center away from the stu­dents
who fund it, the fee should
be given back to them."
The SGA platform on the is­sue
has been thus far that if the
services offered by ACCESS are
to continue to blossom, alternate
funding must be developed to ac­count
for SGA's lack of funding
ability.
"The services could be
transitioned into a university­funded
location," Marlin said, cit­ing
an SGA concept that ACCESS
could be integrated into the
REACH program, which receives
its funding from the university.
"There are some duplications of
services" between REACH and
ACCESS, Marlin said. "I see an
excellent opportunity over there.
I've had some discussions with
them. They believe, initially, that
the potential is there." ·
Marlin also gave what is pos­sibly
the most definitive statement
on the situation thus far. "The
name ACCESS will probably dis­solve,"
he said. "Focus will be
placed on REACH."
Just hours following the forum,
See ACCESS page 3
Raucous senate meeting~ yields. minimal results
By Stephen George
News Editor
In an uncharacteristically long
and raucous meeting of the Stu­dent
Senate last Tuesday, ten­sions
ran high and little progress
was made concerning the
senate's new business, namely
the Multicultural Programming
Fund and ACCESS.
The Multicultural Program­ming
Fund, a new proposal by
SGA President Chris Marlin,
would disperse funds from both
SGA and the university president
to ethnically diverse student
groups and Recognized Student
Organizations (RSOs). The fund
is based on the African Ameri­can
Programming Fund, which
was initiated in 1999 and in­tended
to provide $20,000 di­rectly
to recognized African
American organizations for
events, such as speeches, that
would further promote diversity
on campus.
The African American Pro­gramming
raged. A motion was passed to
create a committee, composed
two-thirds by African American
representatives and one-third by
senate finance committee mem­Fund
has ----------------
bers, to
meet with
President
Ramsey
and dis­cuss
the
been inac­cessible
for
the past two
months due
"Chris Marlin is a racist.
This is supremacy. "
to attempts
at restructur­ing
account­ability
for
the money:
$10,000 from SGA and $10,000
from the university president.
Under the new proposal, de­cisions
regarding SGA's portion
of the funding would be in the
hands of the senate finance com­mittee,
an issue that has the Af­rican
American community out-
-Curtis Nelson,
A & S Senator
new pro­posal.
"It ' s
irrational
for Afri­can
Americans to have to come
and get approval from a body
that cannot sympathize with
them culturally," arts and sci­ences
senator Curtis Nelson said
at the meeting, which eventually
escalated to a screaming match
between representatives of the
African American community
and SGA.
Several senators expressed
doubts in addressing the issue at
the meeting, a sentiment that was
originally conveyed by Marlin
on the advice of acting President
James Ramsey. The main course
of reason was that the senate
lacked the necessary information
to properly discuss the issue at
the time.
"Here we are figuring out
whether or not you or the presi­dent
have enough information to
discuss this fund," former SGA
Executive Vice President Stacy
Brooks said. "You only care
about controlling the money.
You only care about controlling
the interested party's ability to
use the money."
As tensions in the packed
See SENATE page 3