From what I’ve read in the Daily, it looks like four student leaders are going to be removed from their leadership positions without an open hearing before the All-University Judiciary Committee. These leaders have repeatedly asked for open hearings, but the Office of Judicial Affairs apparently feels this case is not serious enough to go before the AUJ in public.

How can they say this is not serious enough to go before the AUJ? Milton McGriff and Allan Nosworthy are GSB senators, Meron Wondwosen is president of the Black Student Alliance, and Theresa Thomas is the president of the largest Asian-American organization on campus. Booting them out of their positions is serious business because they represent large constituencies of students on campus.

The charges brought against these four all stem from an unauthorized meeting held on November 5, 1996 in Beardshear Hall. The estimated 200 people at this meeting knowingly broke university rules so they should suffer the consequences.

By having an unauthorized meeting they broke time, place and manner restrictions. Warren Madden calmly asked them to move the meeting outside and they refused. Due to this act of civil disobedience, they failed to comply with proper order.

Some question the time, place and manner restriction because they say the administration is not listening to the Movement. That may be so, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get punished for breaking the rules.

If there weren’t time, place and manner restrictions on speech, people could come in and disrupt classes and university offices all day.

One of the main reasons the AUJ proceedings should be open to the public, however, is that McGriff, Nosworthy, Wondwosen and Thomas face charges that about 30 other individuals involved in the meeting don’t face: “disruption of the rights of others on university property.” Why don’t the other 30 or so other individuals who handed in name tags so they could be charged for an act of civil disobedience face these charges as well?

Dean of Students Kathy MacKay has decided to discipline “organizers”, weeding out “symbolic” ones and finding “authentic” ones. There is nothing in the student handbook that says that a student gets extra punishment for being labeled an “organizer” by an administrator’s arbitrary decision. We need a public explanation for this kind of discrimination.

If the student leaders are removed from their positions, we’ll never receive an explanation because the judicial system is closed. The administrators who are responsible for keeping this case closed to the public should be ashamed of themselves.

THE SUPER BOWL

It’s obvious that New England will win the Super Bowl. It’s so obvious that all the babbling sports pundits will look at all kinds of variables in their game predictions but they’ll forget the crucial one: The Patriots quarterback is named Drew.

I mean, come on, do you really think a team with a starting quarterback named Drew can lose the big game? Mark my words, no team with a starting quarterback named Drew will EVER lose a Super Bowl. It’s simply not scientifically possible. That would be breaking the laws of Drewsics, a new scientific field coming soon to a land grant university near you.

Any stupid knucklehead can pick a winner, but what else does the crystal ball hold? Drew Bledsoe will throw for over 300 yards and after the game they’ll ask him: “Drew Bledsoe, you just won the Super Bowl, what are you going to do now?” In the upset of the year, Bledsoe will reply: “I’m not going to Disney World, I’ll tell you that much. I don’t know, I guess I haven’t really thought about what I’m going to do now, maybe a a couple of charity golf meets, spend some time with the family, something like that.”

“Disney World? Are you kidding? I’m boycotting Disney because of the miserable conditions faced by workers in Haiti, Thailand and other countries. These workers make only 28 cents to 35 cents an hour, or about 5 cents for every pair of Pocahontas pajamas, Mickey Mouse t-shirts and other garments which end up in Disney stores throughout the world. I’m part of the Disney/Haiti Justice Campaign which is calling on the Disney corporation to monitor the situation and refuse to do business with subcontractors who fail to meet these demands: A wage of at least $5 per day (double current rates, and adequate to meet the minimum of a Haitian family of five), a guaranteed right to collective bargaining, improved working conditions such as cafeterias and clean drinking water, and an end to indiscriminate layoffs, repressive practices and firings for union organizing. We need some world-wide labor solidarity. If capitalists can be multinational, I think the other 97 percent of humanity (people who make most of their money from wages and salaries by selling their labor) should be multinationally conscious as well.”

OK, Bledsoe probably won’t say this. But I can always dream, can’t I?

Drew Chebuhar is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Muscatine.