Sioux Falls, S.D.
Volume 84, Issue 7 Thursday, Apr. 11, 1996
Norio-conscious people come rogetner aunng U.N. uay last ran. U.N.
Day, like the Peace Prize Forum, is another of the ways in which
Augustana promotes world peace. Photo by Susan B. Musoke
Unopposed candidacy raises concerns
BY PATRICIA J. RIES
MIRROR GUEST WRrIER
Declining interest in student government
was not a factor in the lack of candidates par-ticipating
in the Augustana Student
Association spring election held in March.
Staff and students raised concerns because
no one challenged candidates Paul Krueger
and Andy Alberts in their bid for ASA president
and vice president. Initially, petitions were
submitted for candidacy, but as the election
grew near, one by one, the competition dropped
off.
'There's a tendency to have a drop off after a
good year of leadership," said Jim Bies, dean of
Student Services. "Poor leadership draws
incumbents from everywhere because they
believe they can do a better job than their com-petitors."
Bies does not believe the lack of candidates is
a result of growing apathy on campus, but
rather that the students have more options of
leadership positions to choose from in organi-zations
that are not related to student govern-ment,
such as GREEN and Viking Days Chairs.
'There are a number of increasing student
leadership positions available on campus,"
Bies said. "Students are picking and choosing
the positions carefully in order to meet the
time, performance, and training demands."
"People are not dropping out," said ASA
President-Elect Paul Krueger, "just going differ-ent
ways. There are (currently) as many as 35
organizations on campus for students to
choose from." It is not uncommon, Krueger
says, for a student to participate in an organi-zation
for a period of time and then move on to
something different.
Krueger admits that the time restraints and
demands of ASA are not for everyone. Students
are busy with jobs, internships, families and
academic demands, all of which restrict the
amount of time available for other commit-ments,
such as leadership positions.
Krueger plans to promote the importance of
ASA and the power it has on campus.
"We have a great deal of 'say' about what is
going on, and we are very important to the
administration, faculty and staff," said
Krueger.
In all, Krueger feels that ASA is going well,
and has set his sights on improving publicity
and media coverage of ASA activities, strength-ening
the senate as a whole, addressing diver-sity
issues and getting more students involved
on campus.
Former ASA vice-president Andrew Buntrock
votes in the ASA election last March.
Photo by Susan B. Musoke
Augustana to host 1997 Peace Prize Forum
BY EMILY COLE
MIRROR GUEST WnnER
On March 7-8, 1997,
Augustana College will be host to
an estimated 2,000 people with
one common goal: striving for
peace.
"Striving For Peace: Science
and Ethics in International
Affairs" was chosen as the theme
of the two-day Ninth Annual
Peace Prize Forum, which will
take place at Augustana next
year.
the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize
laureates are two of the potential
four plenary speakers who have
accepted invitations to attend
the upcoming forum. The other
speakers are yet to be deter-mined.
In 1995, the Nobel Peace Prize
went to the Pugwash
Conferences on Science and
World Affairs, a nuclear disar-mament
group, and Joseph
Rotblat, physicist and founder of
the Pugwash Conferences.
Rotblat and Francesco
Calogero, secretary general of
the Pugwash Conferences, have
agreed to speak at the forum.
Rotblat and the foundation are
being honored for their 40-year
effort to diminish the part played
by nuclear arms in international
politics.
The theme was decided in part
because of the 1995 Peace Prize
laureates and their roles in sci-ence
and technology, and also
because of the fact that ethics
and technology advancements
have progressively come into
contact with each other. The
executive committee set the
planning process in motion by
deciding the theme last
November.
The committee is made up of
presidents from each of the five
consortium ELCA colleges
(Augsburg, Minneapolis, MN;
Augustana, Sioux Falls, SD;
Concordia, • Moorhead, MN;
Luther, Decorah, IA; and St.
Olaf, Northfield, MN) that par-ticipate
in hosting the annual
forum, and also of former
ambassadors and church repre-sentatives
from Minneapolis.
According to information
obtained at the 1996 Peace
Prize Forum, the annual event
is held in cooperation with the
Norwegian Nobel Institute in
Oslo, Norway, and was created to
offer an opportunity for Nobel
Peace Prize laureates, diplomats,
scholars and the general public
to take part in a dialogue on the
underlying causes and manifes-tations
of conflict and war in
modern society, and on the
dynamics of peacemaking.
The forums also strive to make
an educational contribution to
world peace by providing oppor-tunities
for further study of
peace issues and publicly com-municating
the outcomes and
discussions of each forum.
Brad Heegel, director of public
events at Augustana, is the cam-pus
coordinator of next year's
forum and head of both the
multi-disciplinary administra-tion
an student planning com-mittees.
Students came away from the
1996 forum at Luther College
eager to participate in 1997.
First-year student Wendy
Lothert said, "I learned so much
at this year's Peace Prize Forum.
I'm really looking forward to
being a part of it again next
year," Lothert said that she
enjoyed the small group semi-nars
the most.
One of the seminars I went to
focused on United States militia
groups," Lothert said. "It was
really eye-opening!"
Heegel said that he feels a
need for strong student partici-pation.
He hopes that students
will brainstorm for new and
unique ideas that would make
this particular forum stand out
in participants' minds.
"We want to make sure that
[the forum] has an
Augustana/South Dakota
'imprint," Heegel said.
The typical format of past
Peace Prize Forums will be fol-lowed,
but Heegel said that mod-ifications
could be made to make
it even more enjoyable. the ple-nary
speakers, Saturday work-shops,
interfaith service and stu-dents'
opportunities to interact
with the laureates would remain
the same.
Some proposed changes
include setting up a moderated
discussion between two or three
laureates on the same stage and
the possibility of a Native
American pow-wow Saturday
evening. Potential appearances
by Senate Minority Leader Tom
I Continued on Page 8 I
Open community leads
to increase in thievery
BY LAURA DVORAK
MIRROR GUEST WRITER
College officials say that
Augustana's open community
is inviting thievery on campus.
Director of campus safety,
Dave Seyfried said that there
has been a rash of thefts
across campus, mainly in
Bergsaker Hall.
Money, Jewelry and other
valuable belongings have been
disappearing because, officials
say, students are not taking
responsibility for themselves.
Seyfried said that most of the
20 reported thefts that have
occurred on campus since
September of 1995 were
caused by room doors in the
residence halls being left
unlocked; about 90 percent of
the doors were left wide open,
inviting thieves. He also said
that none of the thefts in the
residence halls were in rooms
that were forcefully broken into
and entered.
Jean Jackson, Bergsaker
Hall director, said she believes
that the general attitude of the
students is, unfortunately, the
main contributor to the prob-lem.
"They believe their environ-ment
is a very safe place to be,"
Jackson said. She added that
because students form an
"immediate bond of trust" with
their neighbors, believing that
their neighbors cannot harm
them.
Senior Preston Arndt, who
has fallen victim to theft, said,
"Even though we have an open
community, the only thing you
see [of other people] is what's
on the outside."
Director of Residence Life
Tracy Riddle said she believes
that the issue of crime on resi-dence
halls is not the problem.
'The issue has been the stu-dent
part of responsibility,"
Riddle said. She added that the
authorities on campus cannot
force students to prevent
crime.
"There needs to be some
partnership in dealing with
those issues," Riddle said. She
also mentioned that the college
can continually work on edu-cating
students about their lax
mentality to do their part in
curbing the theft problem in
residence halls.
However, not much can be
done to stop these thefts with-out
student action. In April,
Jackson will implement a
reward program in her building
for those students who lock
their doors.
I Continued on page 8 I