Kent Vettrus, Mark Zenk, Jeff Dixen and Tom Wadsworth
In program
looks toward expansion
By Bob Fitch
News editor
A faculty committee is study-ing
several options of expanding
the international education op-portunites
for Augustana
students. Dr. Endre Gastony,
advisor for the study abroad
program, said that the commit-tee
is particularly concerned
with study options in Scan-danavia.
Gastony said, "Students can
study in England, France and
Germany, but they have few
options in Scandanavia. We
want to give it equal representa-tion
because so many people at
Augustana are of that
background."
Gastony said that four op-tions
of program expansion are
being looked at. The first is to
change the present Higher
Education Consortium for Ur-ban
Affairs to include both
semesters and to include general
Scandanavia culture rather than
just urban affairs.
The second choice is to
develop a programn of intensive
language training for students
and to send them to the Univer-sity
of Oslo.
"Another option is
Denmark's Internation Study
Program'," Gastony said. "This
would be characterized by a
general liberal arts program
with an emphasis on interna-tional
business.
Dr. Endre Gastony
"Finally, we are looking at
adopting summer study in Nor-way.
This will probably go
ahead with no trouble,"
Gastony said.
Gastony is coordinating this
expansion of international
educational opportunities with
the faculty committee and Dr.
Gary Olson, Dean of Academic
Services. Olson conducted a
survey of students which found
strong support for summer
study in Norway which would
be led by an Augustana instruc-tor.
Gastony said many faculty
members have traveled in this
area and would gladly lead
groups to Norway.
"All is still in the planning
stage. We need the proper ap-proval
from the faculty and ad-ministration.
We will prbably
go ahead with two of the four
Gastony said.
Augustana Mirror Thursday
Jan. 12, 1984
Volume 67
Number 12
Appeal decision to president
Students question punishment
By Torn Hayes
Editor
Complaints of unfairness and
discrimination have been made
by four Augustana students in
connection with disciplinary ac-tion
imposed upon them by
Dean of Student Services A.
Richard Petersen.
Juniors Jeff Dixen, Kent Vet-trus,
Tom Wadsworth and
Mark Zenk claim that punish-ment
they received in connec-tion
with an incident last month
was "excessive and inap-propriate."
The four have appealed
Petersen's decision to President
Nelsen. Nelsen said yesterday
that he could not comment on
the issue at this time because it
would be "morally and ethically
inappropriate" since he is cur-rently
involved in making a
decision. He said that a final
decision on the appeal would be
made by early next week.
Petersen said that he is not in
the position to comment on the
case or the complaints surroun-ding
his decision.
The incident at issue took
place in early December. Accor-ding
to testimony submitted at a
hearing for the four men, a
Pallestinian student attending
the Midwest Institute had been
making negative and
derogatory remarks about the
United States. He also expressed
joy at the killing of the Marines
in the Beruit bombing.
"He was going around saying
such things as 'screw America',
only in not such nice language,"
said Dixen.
On Dec. 5, the four had been
watching television accounts of
the Beruit bombing. 'We were
all very upset and angered at
this time," Dixen said.
One of the four, Tom
Wadsworth, had trained with
the Marines this past summer.
The four men made a series of
phone calls containing "ridicule,
degradations, intimidation and
threats," according to testimony
at the hearing.
Not all of the calls were
"prank" according to one
member of the group. 'We
tryed to ask him why he was
saying the things he was saying
when he was going to school in
the U.S. and using our educa-tional
system. We didn't feel he
should be saying the kinds of
things he was saying. We said
he should keep his mouth shut if
he plans on being in this coun-try,"
said Zenk.
"As it turned out, we had got-ten
the wrong number and so
we were talking to the wrong
guy." said Wadsworth. The
man they called by mistake was
Imad Baiyasi. That same night,
the calls were traced to the
rooms from which they had
been made.
Baiyasi filed a complaint
against the four. 'We wrote a
letter of apology to the man that
we thought we had been calling.
'We told him that we realized
we shouldn't have gone about it
over the phone, we should have
confronted him face to face and
talked to him about it. We ask-ed
if we could see him about it
sometime. That was when we
discovered that we had gotten a
hold of the wrong person," said
Zenk.
The first step in the
disciplinary process was a
meeting with Petersen. 'We
waived our rights to the student
judicial process because it was
finals week and we didn't have
time to go though all of that,"
said Vettrus.
After a hearing involving
representitives of Midwest In-stitute
and Residence Life of-ficials,
Petersen pronounced his
decision.
In his decision Petersen plac-ed
the four on Disciplinary Pro-bation
with the following
restrictions and requirements.
First, the men were suspended
from Augustana during Interim.
They were also removed from
the residence hall system for one
year, as well as restricted from
visiting Granskou for one year.
The men also have been asked
to plan and implement two ac-tivities
to "promote better
understanding and relationships
between international students
enrolled at Augustana and
Augustana students."
All four men expressed con-cern
that the housing restric-tions
have nothing to do with
the incident. They believe that
the incident was used as a_ n ex-cuse
for campus officials to get
them off campus.
The men also assert that
because the incident involved a
Midwest student, it was made
into a racial issue. 'We are not
against the Midwest institute.
We have received a lot of sup-port
from friends who are
Midwest students. It was just
this one guy," said Zenk.
In his letter, Petersen said "In
weighing my decision, I have
vacillate,c1 between the max-imum
and minimum sanctions
which I believe are available to
me in this matter."
Petersen went on to say that
he decided to "sin on the side of
grace and issue what I consider
to be minimal but yet just and
fair sanctions in the case."
Baiyasi has finished his train-ing
at the Midwest Institute.
When reached at South Dakota
State, he said that he could'nt
comment on the severity of the
punishment.
Subcommittee sees disparity
in affirmative action policies
By Brenda Wade
Entertainment editor
There are problems with af-firmative
action policies at
Augustana, according to fin-dings
by a subcommittee of the
Task Force on the Status of
Women.
Affirmative action is an
employment program designed
to remedy discriminating prac-tices
in hiring minority groups,
correcting past discrimination,
and preventing future
discrimination.
Janet Gullickson, associate
director of financial and task
force subcommittee member,
said, 'We would not have
recommended the actions we
did, had there not been a pro-blem.
There are problems, but
they are problems that I think,
in many cases, have been with
us over the years." Gullickson
said the problems are not un-common
but are the types of
problems present throughout
history.
The task force got a memo
last spring from 30 faculty, ad-ministrators,
and support staff
asking for investigations into
discrimination against women
in a variety of areas, primarily
hiring, promotion, firing,
tenure, and salary practices.
The task force, which serves
the college president, was given
permission to pursue the in-vestigation.
A subcommittee
was made up of Gullickson,
Harriet Scott, and Shirley
Stenseth.
Gullickson said Augustana
had an affirmative action policy
previous to the complaint. "It's
quite thorough. It details a lot
of affirmative action steps that
should be taken. It's really quite
comprehensive," she said. 'We
have a fairly good policy on the
books."
Janet Gullickson
Salary is the most obvious
area of discrimination,
Gullickson says. "Overall,
Augustana salaries are
atrocious. They're embarassing.
Women's salaries are even more
embarassing," she said. Com-parisons
were made between
male and female salaries on the
basis of degree and years of ser-vice.
Because salary information at
Augustana is private,
Gullickson says it breeds suspi-cion
and possibly inequality.
The task force recommends
making salary information
available to employees.
Gullickson said not every
woman is being discriminated
against, but many do receive
less pay than a male in the same
position. Problems in the area
of salaries, tenures, and promo-tions
are not always easy to
determine, she said.
"It's insidious. It's not an ob-vious
thing," she said. The
possibility may be that a
woman is looked at as being less
committed than a man,
Gullickson said.
Recommendations by the
subcommittee consist of pro-posals
that need immediate im-plementation,
implementation
within one year, and implemen-tation
within three years.
'We felt we had to be very
clear in pointing out what
should be Augustana's direc-tion,"
she said. "It's terribly im-portant
to take the initiative."
One proposal requests the ap-pointment
of a woman on a
half-time basis as the affir-mative
action officer to be given
the responsibilities of monitor-ing
the implementation of the
recommendations and develop-ing
programs.
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