DKL

WHOSE RIGHTS ARE LEFT?

A University of Denver gay and lesbian contingent recently proclaimed their Auraria campus one of the country’s few safe havens for lesbian and gay students.

Karen Bensen, coordinator of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Trans-Student Services(GLBTSS), which opened its doors in 1993, explained in an Advocate article that the group has made Denver area campuses safer for those of alternative lifestyles by increasing public awareness of their needs.

The most effective step was setting up a speakers bureau, which trains "student volunteers and schedules speaking engagements for campus classes and events."

In October, designated as GLBTSS awareness month, the group has apparently stepped up the quality and quantity of its events to include a talk by Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw, along with a film showing of Out in the Past, co-sponsored with the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network. Other events during the school year will draw high school students and a contingent from a local youth homeless
shelter.

Benson credits the success of these events to community support by some 900 "allies," half of whom she says are straight. The high degree of response to this group has given Benson and Company new hope. Their next project: a spinoff group for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people of color."

MINORITY ENROLLMENT DEFIES PREDICTIONS

Despite the newly enacted ban on racial preferences and quotas in admissions policies in the California state university system—and not withstanding the draconian predictions of affirmative action advocates—black enrollment jumped significantly this year at Berkeley’s prestigious law school. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Berkeley only had one black student entering law school last year. This year, the "number of entering students from under-represented minority groups has more than doubled, from 15 in 1997 to 35 in 1998. Of the 35, nine are black."

However, school officials attributed the increase to "aggressive recruiting and more flexible admissions strategies that de-emphasize scores on standardized tests." Moreover, Berkeley’s law dean Herma Hill said that while this year’s increase was "gratifying," the number of under-represented students only made up 13 percent of the incoming class. She said that steps should be taken to approximate the 20 percent figure attained in 1996, the last year before the new affirmative action ban took effect.

BODY BUILDING, 101

Terry Todd, a beefy, 335 lb. grad student at the U. of Texas, Austin, shocked some fellow students when he lumbered into a philosophy class and sat down. For the first few weeks, he recalls that a somewhat disdainful attitude prevailed in class, i.e., "Shouldn’t you be down the hall moving a piano?"

When the strongman started speaking up during a class discussion of The Critique of Pure Reason, his classmates did a double-take. Was this "some sort of dancing bear?"

Today, Terry and his wife Jan, named the world’s strongest woman in 1970, no longer feel like freaks in academia. According to Lingua Franca, the avant-garde couple are spearheading an academic trend in "the history and culture of weight lifting and body-building." In fact, they are currently supervising the university’s groundbreaking Todd-McLean Physical Culture Collection, described as a "treasure trove of muscle photos, fitness magazines, and workout books."

Of course, some feminist scholars are putting their own spin on the current body-building phenomenon. SUNY Binghamton’s Leslie Heywood, an assistant professor of English and competitive power lifter, has written a couple of strength-training books, urging women to lift weights "in the name of feminism, ‘the better to get big, feel our muscles, our power, our terrible, wonderful, monstrous strengths.’"

In her view, pumping iron is the path to "fighting patriarchy and healing the wounds of abuse."

Other purveyors of body-building include Samuel Wilson Fuessell. His memoir, Autobiography of an Unlikely Bodybuilder, describing how he built physical strength to cope with the rigors of living in Manhattan, has apparently developed a cult following.

It also inspired critiques from people like Novid Parsi, who noted in Moore’s Building Bodies, "If Sam thinks that his homophobic, panicky displays of straight masculinity can assure all his readers, and especially himself, that he’s not one of them, then I want to argue, partly through my infectiously faggoty identification with Sam, that the ‘them’ is indeed ‘us’ and that...Sam is not alone in protesting too much."

THE RULES, PART II

Two Georgetown University coeds who caused quite a stir last year by publishing a politically incorrect guide to behavior are at it again, according to The Washington Times.

Dawn Scheirer and Bryanna Hocking, authors of "The Guide: A Little Beige Book for Today’s Miss G," just finished a sequel to their infamous tome. Seven new writers joined the effort, including two men!

The release of last year’s edition sparked a campus uproar. Not only did the Georgetown Hoya paper critique the book, but Dawn Scheirer’s roommates "disavowed any connection to her, while Miss Hocking says she was harassed by her dorm floormates for much of the school year."

This year, the authors are rooming together.

"At least we can come home and talk about politics and not get our heads bitten off," says Miss Hocking.

The two women say that even their natural allies in Christian conservative groups are lukewarm toward their efforts. Apparently, the fear factor precludes their supporting people who carry so much negative baggage.

Fortunately, the new guidebook, featuring chats with female biggies like former United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and CNBC financial analyst Maria Bartiromo, was underwritten by the Independent Women’s Forum for about
$5000.

Newspaper and television publicity surrounding the controversial book has sparked interest in producing other such politically incorrect booklets at campuses like Yale University and Smith College.

CRIME PAYS?

"Crime Legislation could Be Problematic," screams the headline in the September 8 edition of Michigan State’s State News. A new bill proposed in Congress would strip students of their federal financial aid if they’re convicted of selling or possessing drugs.

"To do that," the story goes on, "college police departments would be required to keep track of offenses committed by students both on and off campus—something local law enforcement officials say is nearly impossible." However, the campus police, students, and administrators fail to account for the fact that only students who are actually convicted of a crime will face loss of their financial aid.

What really seems to be the concern is that students (and administrators, who are the real beneficiaries of the federal student welfare) feel that they are entitled to federal financial aid and that for the government to insist that students spend their college experience learning rather than using and trafficking narcotics as a condition of receipt of the aid is an invasion of their privacy.

SAD PRIORITIES

Contrary to public perception, the vast majority of students at UC-Berkeley (and, of course, every other university) are not political activists. Thus, imagine the dismay of poor tutition-paying John Q. Student if he were to show up to his Math 101 class and finds the door shut with a note posted saying, "class canceled: professor protesting."

That is exactly what will happen on October 21-22 when professors across the University of California system stage a massive walk-out in protest of Proposition 209, the voter-passed initiative ending racial preferences in admissions.

As silly as today’s perpetually-protesting student activists can be, at least it’s their (or their parents’) own tuition dollars that they’re wasting. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for this fall’s faculty festivities. Evidently, professors aren’t concerned.

"Professors need to respond to the passing 209 and make clear that the decision to remove affirmative action is wrong," says UCLA professor Rafael Perez-Torres. With surely-unintended irony, he added, "Politicizing the issue has harmed the educational mission we are responsible for."