The Griffin: volume 67, issue 08 - Nov. 1, 1996

              Canisius students rally Thursday afternoon in front of Christ the King Chapel to oppose last week's attacks. Nearly 250 students echoed those sentiments as they braved the chilly breeze to hold a rally in support yesterday afternoon. Signs with the words "We Want Our Campus Back" and "Violence Sucks" were held while chants of "One, two, three, four, we won't t.akfi it anymore,five, six, seven, eight, stop the violence!stop the hate!" David Birch, profes-sor of the political science department, one of the first speakers at the rally, said, "One of our students has a bumper sticker, 'Mean People Suck."' The crowd used the phrase as its chant to champion their message.  feels as a result of these attacks on our students." Two female Canisius students were assaulted on campus at the end of last week, making them the third and fourth attacks against Canisius women in the last six . months. Many college studentsand administ^ rators are outragedover the recent assults. Informationwas released Monday morning regarding the attacks in a memo released by Dr. Thomas E. Miller, vice president of Student Affairs. Miller stated that, "I'd like to articulate the tremendous sense of frustration and outrage that I sense our campus community See Attacks page 2 Photo by ASHLEY DORCEL Y USA senate responds to attacks at meeting by Julie Goodpaster Griffin News Reporter 'The only way to have security is to have a secure environment. The only way to develop a secure environ- A: "Being that Halloween is here, we want to keep things under better control that they have been in the past, but it takes student involvement," said Barker, "Students need to emphasize self-protection, as well as protection of their friends. We need to do away with apathy and start helping each other. Q: It seems that there is always something tragic happening near Halloween — two years ago a student was beaten with a bat and last year a student was shot in the shoulder — what can students do to break this trend that seems to be developing? -• A: 'There is no indication that the attacks made were a direct result of homophobia, like last year," said Barker. Philliben supported him in saying, "This time there was no mention of homosexuality." However, a verbal harassment incident was reported on Tuesday in which the word "dike" was used, said Philliben. Q: Were the attacks related to the attacks that occurred in the spring? "Crime, because of the strong campus community at Canisius, affects all of us," said Matt Watters. "We shouldn't have to fear being on campus - we need to combat violence with all the resources necessary to keep it from happening again" Many questions have been raised on the Canisius College campus since the attacks on two female students on Thursday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Oct. 25. At the Undergraduate Student Association (USA) meeting on Tuesday, many questions were addressed by John Barker, the director of public safety, Katharine Philliben, the acting dean of students and director of Residence Life, and Maria Wichlac, Sexual Programming Committee Chair. Q: Will forums be set up in which students can discuss Q: What do you think the rally will demonstrate? A: "Hopefully the rally will show that there isn't just one or a few people who stand up against violence, but that there are hundreds who stand against it and who stand to their beliefs," said Wichlac. "I am relatively sure that these are targeted acts of violence toward the two people and their friends. I am convinced that these aren't just random acts," he added. 'If a student feels that they may be 'at risk,' they can contact either public safety or the office of Residence Life, said Philliben. A: "Students who we consider 'at risk' are those who are friends, roommates or acquaintances of the students who were attacked. They are students who have commonalties with the students," Barker said. Q: Who is considered "at risk?" What can a student do if they feel that they are "at risk?" The administration has identified a group of students who may be "at risk" for attacks, and mandatory floor meetings for campus housing and off-campus housing were scheduled to start on Wednesday. "The investigation has been put into the hands of the Buffalo Police Department and two full-time detectives," said Barker. A: According to Wichlac, ROTC is scheduling defense seminars as soon as next week. The director of Academic Affairs has met with professors to discuss the fact sheet that has been distributed and has asked that they go over it with each of their classes. Q: What has been done since the attacks and what can students expect? We could put up surveillance and other extreme security measures, but that would be acting out of fear, according to Barker. What we need to do is act within the student body to form both individual as well as overall security. ment is within human nature and how we interact with each other," he added. If any students feel that that they might be at risk or if they are concerned about their personal safety or the safety of a friend, they can talk to any administrator on campus, said Barker. A: The rally is a first step in combating the violence, the second step is offering students who feel they are "at risk" a security shuttle as well as escort and transportation services to wherever the student needs to go, said Philliben. "We are also going to be adding more blue lights on campus so that they will be more accessible in the event of an emergency," said Barker. Q: What is being done to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again? It is also a strong possibility in the future to put flyers under the windshield wiper of each on every car parked in campus lots, said Barker, the problem we had in this incident was that by Friday afternoon there were very few cars to "tag." A mass e-mail was attempted on Friday, according to Barker, but there were difficulties because of the amount of people that were to receive the mail. They are working out the flaws. A: Flyers were put in student mailboxes, in Old Main in various places, in the campus apartments, cafeteria, snack bar, commuter newsletter and there was media coverage from local news stations. Q: How can we get emergency information out to all of the students, both commuters and residents, as quickly as possible? violence and hate crimes on campus? A: According to Wichlac, in about a month or two, a forum will be set up to educate people on the situation. "We cannot rewind and erase sexism, racism or homophobia from a person's mind once it is in their head. All we can do is educate them and hope that people will understand," she said, "Right now, we just wan to take the approach that violence will not be tolerated on this campus." Noise, noise, NOISE!!! (see page 5) Losing clouds (see page 12) Registration runaround(see page 7) by Mark Ciemcioch and Chris Devine Griffin Managing Editor and Griffin Sports Editor VOLUME LXVII, NUMBER 8 Violence strikes campus again FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1996 The Grifiin Serving the Canisius Community Since 1933 "It's sad, it's frustrating, it's deeply dissapointing that we have what appears to be someone in the college community who is willing to act with such ;ontempt for personal welfare of others and hatred so as to intentionally do such harm." —Dr. Thomas Miller Vice President of Student Affairs