There are many changes being discussed this semester and the proposal to change academic standards is the most controversial issue so far. Students and faculty believe the rush to implement the recommendation of raising admission standards is not fair to the university.

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Faculty Senate of SUBR discussed several issues concerning the increase of admission standards because the board of supervisors want the change to be implemented, according to the previous board meeting held last Friday; however, the Faculty Senate must fi rst approve of the changes.

The SUBR Faculty Senate unanimously decided to reject the policy of raising admission standards and requirements until further research is

conducted. A committee will be developed by faculty members to conduct extensive research.

“Kassie Freeman’s duty is to make sure that the board procedures are followed. By allowing the intended informational item of increasing admission standards, which was listed on the agenda as an action item during the previous board meeting, clearly illustrates another reason why we lack confi dence of her current position,” said Faculty Senate President Sudhir Trivedi.

“I’m not certain at this point. I’m at a neutral line now, so I don’t want to infl uence anyone on this issue,” continued Trivedi.

Chancellor Kofi Lomotey was in attendance to discuss his position on the topic. According to the admission proposal distributed during the meeting, Southern University has been an open admission institution, which allowed everyone an opportunity to matriculate

through a 4-year university. The problem that SU faces today is on average, 30 percent of our students graduate after 6 years and the fi rst year retention rate is 68.3 percent.

“We had a freshman class this year of approximately 1,200 students collectively those students had over 2,700 D’s and F’s,” informed Lomotey.

In addition, our past fall semester records show we had a 25 percent in total population with GPAs below 2.0. We can’t put the whole blame on our students. We must take part of the blame as well. I don’t believe we have enough resources to help those under prepared students at this point,” expressed Lomotey.

“Who is against raising admission standards? Nobody, asked Diola Bagayoko, professor of physics and member of the senate.

Earlier this week students from various organizations of Southern University and Louisiana State University came together during the legislative sessions to sit in and make the presence of the student body known to the House of Representatives and the Senators of Louisiana.

They were concerned about the 22 recommendations made by the Postseconday Education Review Commission. Students were not able to speak before the Representatives and Senators, due to class schedules.

“Our reason for being here is to make our presence known. We feel it is important for us to speak for the students as a student. Even if we don’t have the opportunity to verbally speak, our presence speaks

volumes,” said Nykeshia Bryer junior criminal justice major, NAACP member and native of Greensburg, La.

PERC, also known as the Tucker Commission, has caused a lot of controversy in recent news, but it has been in the works for more than a decade. The introduction of the 22 recommendations is a small and close step to the implementation of the changes to higher education statewide.

“It’s a plan that they have been put into action at least 10 years ago. I believe the ultimate goal is to eradicate HBCUs, ” said Shelia Bowers senior English liberal arts major, SGA director of finance and native of Monroe.

Alumni were present as well and concerned with these issues as well.

“The Alumni Association President needs to get more alumni involved. We will not

benefit from the one board concept because the identity of SU will be diminished,” said Arrneska Bentley, and SU alumna and native of Baton Rouge.

“How can you make a change to higher education without

making changes to primary and secondary education? If those systems are poor, then you are not going to have enough students who will qualify for the basic admission standards. So when you raise the admission requirements of

entering into a 4 year college in Louisiana, with a poor secondary education system you automatically know that they will not be capable of enrolling into these institutions of higher education,” expressed Bowers.

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physics professor diola Bagayoko discussed his concerns over plans to raise admission standards at southern University during a recent Faculty senate meeting.

photo By trevor James/diGest file photo

southern University students gather on the steps of the capitol monday to have a chance to be heard by top state officials during the state’s legislative session.

photo By NormaN J. dotsoN Jr./diGest

FRIDAY, APRIL 2 , 2010WWW.SOUTHERNDIGEST.COM VOL. 55, ISSUE 12

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Faculty discusses pending changesBy Billy WashiNGtoNdigest a&e editor

and graduate students to join. Students must be in the upper 35 percent of their class, have a grade-point average of “B” or better and 20 semester hours in social science courses.

There is an international initiation fee $40 and an additional local chapter fee of $10. If you are interested in joining Pi Gamma Mu pick up an application from Dr. Shawn Comminey, Louisiana Epsilon Chapter Adviser, in Room 429 of Higgins Hall.

Css semiNarsThe Center for Student

Success is offering three seminars at Stewart Hall’s Lawless Auditorium in the upcoming days.

CSS will offer its “Effective Test Taking Skills” Tuesday at 2 p.m. Participants will learn how to better test takers.

CSS’s “Getting the Most out of Your Textbook” seminar is slated for Thursday at 3 p.m. This seminar is designed to teach students how to develop new reading techniques to improve comprehension and reduce the need to re-read subject material.

Billiards toUrNameNtRegistration is under

way for the Smith-Brown Memorial Union’s billiards tournament, which will be held April 7 from 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m. at LaCumba’s Playpen.

peer tUtoriNGPeer tutoring is available

in the Center for Student Success in Stewart Hall Room 107. Available hours are 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays. Follow the Center for Student Success on Twitter to see exciting upcoming events: www.twitter.com/jaguar_nation.

Baptist stUdeNt UNioNWant to become a

member of the Baptist Student Union? Want to fellowship with other students during the week? Need a place to worship? Need a place to attend for bible study, special events and trips? Need a quiet place to study? Need a place to relax and watch television?

Join the T.J. Jemison Baptist Student Union, located at 724 Harding Blvd., across from LaCumba’s Den and the tennis courts. For more information, call 225.774.8924.

los JaGUares latiNosLos Jaguares Latinos,

Southern University’s Spanish Club, meets Wednesdays at 3 p.m. in Room 320 of T.T. Allain Hall. If you are unable to attend the meetings but still like to participate, please send your name, contact number and valid e-mail address to SouthernUSpanishClub@gmail.com

pi Gamma mUPi Gamma Mu, the

international honor society in social sciences, is inviting juniors, seniors

fiNaNCial aid alertThe Financial Aid

Office is requesting that students apply for financial aid early. Complete your FAFSA as soon as possible for the 2010-11 award year. Students must file a FAFSA annually for eligibility consideration. SUBR’s school code is 002025. Please visit www.fafsa.ed.gov to complete a FAFSA online. Students and parents should apply for PINs at www.pin.ed.gov. Your PIN will serve as your electronic signature to process the FAFSA.

The preferred deadline for Summer 2010 and Fall 2010 has passed. The final loan deadline for Summer 2010 is June 11.

For more information, contact the financial aid office at 225.771.2790.

Beep meetiNGsBEEP Meetings are held

every Tuesday at 11 a.m. in T.T. Allain Room 222. These meetings are open to all majors. For more information contact Toni Jackson at 225.771.5640 ext. 222 or at subeep@subr.edu.

Awards and prizes will be presented to first-, second- and third-place winners.

The registration fee is $5 per person and the deadline to register is Monday.

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L e t y o u r v o i c eb e h e a r d !

S e n d a . . .L e t t e r t o t h e e d i t o r

“Community colleges are full and Louisiana doesn’t have the means to build more colleges. Somebody better wake up and see that the blacks in this state are being systematically lynched financially and educationally to death and no one seems to understand the significance of this maligned system, expressed Bagayoko.

The student involvement of learning information pertaining to the increasing of admission standards are improving among the student body. Majority of students are opposed to the standards.

“The faculty needs to see the analytical research that identifies why students are leaving before we implement these new academic standards,” said Demetrius Sumner, sophomore SGA senator.

The Department of Psychology hosted a Drug and Alcohol Awareness town hall meeting Tuesday to inform students about the dangers of drug and alcohol use.

“This informational is for getting statistics on drinking and driving, and also drug related incidences,” said Baton Rouge native, senior psychology major, Naomi Washington.

“Hopefully students will get a better understanding of the negative effects of drinking and driving and on using drugs and alcohol,” continued Washington.

Mr. Durward Craig, Mental Health Counselor at Southern University’s counseling center, was the first to speak. He began by reading results of recent studies that stated nearly 2,000 people aged 18-24 die in drug and/or alcohol related accidents a year.

“This program is about awareness, increasing awareness,” he said.

He also revealed that, 70 percent of college students engage in sexual activity while high or drunk, 90 percent of

campus rapes occur while one or both individuals are intoxicated, and 60 percent of college females with STDs contracted the disease while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“In the eyes of the law, judgment impaired consent is not consent. There is no, ‘I was drunk’, or ‘I didn’t know what I was doing’”, said Craig.

“We have to take responsibility, it starts with us. I believe people do the best they can with what they got,” he continued. “You don’t hear me being anti-alcohol use, that’s kind of unrealistic; however, if you are going to do it, understand as much as you can about it, he added.

Also, according to studies the average college student spends $900 per year on drugs or alcohol, while spending about $450 on books. As a result of drug and alcohol use, many students report poor academic progress.

Reverend Willie Laws, minister at the Wesley Foundation, recounted the time when his happy go lucky sister-in-law was diagniosed with cirrhosis of the liver as a result of drinking habits she developed early in life. He went on to tell students that as a result of this

chronic disease she slipped into a coma. According to Reverend Laws, his sister-in-law was in a coma for a month before the family gathered around her bed and asked for guidance to make the right decision regarding her life. Shortly after, she woke up.

“Tell me about God, said the Reverend. He wanted students to learn from his sister in law’s story. One thing lead’s to another,” he said.

Southern University Police Chief Michael Morris, informed students of tactics being used on campus to crack down on contraband. According to Morris, during the Fall semester undercover agents helped towards the apprehension of drug sellers and smugglers on campus.

Last semester, according to Morris, undercover agents were informed about drugs being sent to the SU Post Office for a female on campus. The package was being sent from California, and contained a large amount of marijuana. Once the package arrived the post office informed deputies and sent the substance found in the package to a lab to be tested. They replaced the shipped marijuana with a placebo.

Upon receiving results from the lab, which confirmed that the substance was marijuana, they called the recipient of the package to retrieve it. She denied that the package was for her, but later sent a male to retrieve the package.

After the male suspect got the package from the post office, SUPD followed him back to the female suspect where both were later apprehended and taken into custody. Upon further investigation, officials discovered that the young lady wasn’t a current student at the university.

She was later charged with a federal offense, for smuggling drugs and he was charged with possession with the intent to distribute. Despite occurring situations, according to Morris, crime has dropped 52 percent on campus.

He warned that undercover agents are on campus, and have produce great results.

“We see you no matter where you are, if you are doing it, then we know,” assured Morris regarding the possession of contrabands on campus. According to Morris, the university has no tolerance of drugs and alcohol use.

Forum stresses drug, alcohol awarenessBy mary davisdigest managing editor

By philip elliottassociated press Writer

Page 4 - Friday, April 2, 2010

state & nationwww.southerndigest.com

in this 2008 file photo, the chevron genesis oil rig platform in the gulf of mexico near new orleans, La. is shown. reversing a ban on oil drilling off most U.s. shores, president Barack obama on Wednesday announced an expansive new policy that could put new oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern atlantic coastline, the eastern gulf of mexico and part of alaska.

file photo By mary altaffer/ap photo

WASHINGTON — Reversing a ban on oil drilling off most U.S. shores, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced an expansive new policy that could put new oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska.

Speaking at Andrews air base outside Washington, Obama said, “This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly.” He addressed the expected outcry from disappointed environmentalists by saying he had studied the issue for more than a year and concluded it was the right call given the nation’s voracious thirst for energy and the need to produce jobs and keep American businesses competitive.

“We’re announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect America’s natural resources,” Obama said,

standing in front of a Navy F-18 fighter scheduled to fly on Earth Day with a half-biomass fuel mix.

The president said his decision is part of a broader strategy that also includes expanding the production of nuclear power and clean energy sources, to “move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy.”

“The only way this transition will succeed is if it strengthens our economy in the short term and the long run,” the president said. “To fail to recognize this reality would be a mistake.”

Obama made no secret of the fact that one factor in his decision was attracting Republican support for a sweeping climate change bill that has languished in Congress. “Drill, baby, drill” was a mantra of the GOP during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“While our politics has remained entrenched along worn divides, the ground has shifted beneath our feet,” the president said. “Around the world, countries are seeking an

edge in the global marketplace by investing in new ways of producing and saving energy.”

But Obama also has long been up front about his support for expanding offshore drilling — as well as other energy sources less popular with die-hard environmentalists. In his State of the Union speech, he said he wanted the United States to build a new generation of nuclear power plans, invest in new coal technologies and make “tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.”

The plan modifies a ban that for more than 20 years has limited drilling along coastal areas other than the Gulf of Mexico. It allows new oil drilling off Virginia’s shoreline and considers it for a large chunk of the Atlantic seaboard.

Obama’s blueprint would allow Interior to go ahead with oil and gas leases on tracts 50 miles off the coast of Virginia. Those leases had been approved for development but were held up by a court challenge and a departmental review.

Obama clears way for oil drilling off US coasts

The Mississippi State Bulldogs got the best of Lanaya Jenkins early in the 4-1 victory over the Southern University women’s softball team.

“We played kind of passive,” said head coach Nancy Marshall. “We’ve been competing with people, its just consistently holding on.”

The Bulldogs (20-16) never trailed in the contest in Starkville, Miss. MSU scored single runs in the first, third and

fourth innings to build a 3-0 lead.“They kept us off-balance,” said

Marshall. “They kept us from getting anything going.”

SU broke the Bulldogs’ shutout bid in the sixth inning. Center fielder Victoria Stewart hit her fourth home run of the season to post SU’s only run.

Jenkins (5-9) threw a complete game for Southern (5-23). Jenkins allowed seven hits and four runs (three earned), with four strikeouts and a walk.

“Jenkins didn’t let them do what they wanted to do, she did a great job,” Marshall

said. “The defense was behind her.”SU plays host to the Grambling State

Tigers this weekend when it returns to Southwestern Athletic Conference play in a three-game series.

The series begins Friday with a 2 p.m. single game. The teams return to action Saturday for a doubleheader scheduled to begin at noon.

“ I honestly believe we’re going to go up there and be aggressive, and once we get these three wins under or belt,” Marshall said. “It’s going to help change our focus.”

Whether it was inexperience or simply an inability to ignite frustration, the women’s basketball team was on the losing end of its championship campaign.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champions exited the fi rst-round of the women’s NCAA tournament 95-39 at the hands of No. 1-ranked Connecticut.

“It was an experience,” said assistant coach Carlos Funchess. “Just to make it to the NCAAs is a great achievement.”

The only thing that went right for SU was its 2-0 lead 26 seconds into the game, but after

that it was a very aggressive Huskies team that extended their winning streak of 73 games.

Making its fourth appearance in the tournament since the 2006 season—suffering to a 96-27 loss to Duke—SU appeared ready to face the ultimate challenge of upset.

The 2010 second-team All-SWAC performer Hannah Kador was held to only 10 points and four rebounds. Senior forward Ashley Augerson added seven points while junior Jamie Floyd scored six points.

SU fi nished the season with a 23-9 overall record. The 39-point total game output by SU was the second lowest number of points scored of the season. Southern lost 62-35 to Florida earlier in the season.

The Jaguars fi nished the game shooting 15-of-65 (23.1 percent) from the fi eld. UConn scored 34 points in the paint and 20 points from the 14 SU turnovers and blocked seven SU shots, three by 6-foot-4 All-American center Tina Charles.

Charles also controlled the paint Tuesday night in UConn’s 90-50 regional fi nal win over Florida State, tallying 22 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks for the Huskies. The defending national champions moved on to their eighth Final Four appearance since 2000 and extended their winning streak to 76 games.

Defending the crown“We have already started

working towards our goals

for next year,” said Funchess. “The young ladies have already started lifting weights, doing some conditioning, and doing some agility drills, but we are already prepared for next year.”

The outlook for Southern next season is that the Jaguars return the strength of their roster with nearly the entire team intact.

“We have a lot of experience coming back,” Funchess said. “We’re going to be even more hungry than this past year.”

The offseason is here now, and recruiting begins.

“We’re just trying to get some good young freshman, some players that can play multiple positions — inside, outside, and try to build from there,” Funchess said.

Friday, April 2, 2010 - Page 5

SPORTSwww.southerndigest.com

By jUstIn WootenDIGEST SPORTS WRITER

Southern’s Hannah Kador, center, shares a laugh with teammates Tiffany Foster, left, and Tenesha Brown during practice prior to playing connecticut in the first round of the NcAA Tournament. The SWAc champions could open next season with most of its roster intact.

photo By jason hIrsChFeld/ap photo

The Southern University baseball team is showing signs of life after taking its lumps to open the season, winning six of its last nine games after starting the season 1-6.

The Jaguars (7-9, 5-1 South-western Athletic Conference) now look to add to their win total this weekend at Lee-Hines Field as the defending SWAC champions play host to Texas Southern (13-14, 4-2) in a key three-game Western Division series.

The series, which begins with a noon doubleheader Saturday and ends with a 1 p.m. single game Sunday, kicks off a stretch where the Jags will play 10 of their next 12 out of 17 games at Lee-Hines.

“They like to play small ball,” head coach Roger Cador said. “It (the homestand) is an advantage right now. Historically, some of these teams have given us trouble.”

All-SWAC pitcher Jarrett Maloy (1-0, 5.70 ERA) will start for the Jagaurs in the Saturday afternoon game while Kyle Wahl (2-2, 6.49 ERA) will start in the evening game. T.J. Pryer (1-1, 6.53 ERA) will start Sunday’s game.

“Feels good to be the weekend pitcher, it gives me time to rest and prepare myself mentally,” Maloy said. “I’m going to have to stay ahead of the count and limit my walks. That will lead to quick innings and that will keep the defense off their toes.”

Catcher David Nolting, a Baton Rouge Community College transfer, is getting most of the time at catcher replacing Michael Thomas. The Boston Red Sox drafted Thomas in the 12th round of last summer’s amateur draft.

Nolting enters the weekend tied for sixth in the conference in batting average with reigning SWAC player of the week Frazier Hall (.386). The duo are also tied for eighth in the league in on-base percentage (.471).

“He (Nolting) has to get better on both sides of the ball,” Cador said. “He’s done a pretty good job, but he needs to provide more leadership. He’s a really smart hitter, he throws really well out of the box and he’s beginning to know his pitchers.

Meanwhile, Hall earned the SWAC’s top weekly offensive honor by hitting .529 (9-of-17) with four runs scored, fi ve RBI and fi ve doubles as Southern won four out of fi ve games last week.

Jaguars to host TSU

SU women look ahead to 2010-11 By morrIs dIllardDIGEST SPORTS WRITER

Mississippi State too much for Lady JagsBy morrIs dIllardDIGEST SPORTS WRITER

www.southerndigest.comPage 6 - Friday, April 2, 2010

The Tucker or PERC Commission, SACS, QEP, etc …

How many of you know what any of this means? A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know either.

Even though I’m in the NAACP and we have done numerous things to educate and aware you all (the students) about what’s going, I never took any of it seriously.

I am the kind of person who doesn’t really take this kind of stuff seriously until something is really about to happen. In my mind I’m thinking “oh yeah, nothing is going to happen to Southern. It’s staying right where it is.”

But after researching the Tucker/PERC (Postsecondary Education Reivew Commission) final report — available online at www.laperc.org — I realized that there is a chance that Southern could merge with the state’s other four-year

public institutions into one system. Yes, one of the recommendations of the Tucker Commission is calling for four-year public universities in Louisiana to be ONE! Yes, that includes LSU as well.

There are some of that think nothing will happen to them because they play a particular sport or have an academic scholarship. Well, it’s NOT okay because programs such as engineering, nursing, law and agriculture might disappear from SU. We will be sharing basically everything —

including the funding pot.If it becomes just one

system and another school needs money for their science building, do you think they will allocate Southern funds to give pay raises to people who already don’t do their job and those who are actually deserving of a raise or coaches who are just looking for some extra cash?

In my best Katt Williams impression, I say “don’t worry, I’ll wait.” Yeah, not gonna happen.

Now about SACS, which stands for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. They visit universities every few years to see how the university is doing. They check on all the departments to see if everything is running smoothly.

They also require each university to have a QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan). This plan is to help better the

university. Southern’s QEP is “The Write Path to Success.” So, for all of you who don’t like writing papers, you might want to get over that being that our QEP is about writing.

If you don’t believe me, find one of those business cards floating around with the QEP on it.

So I am urging all of YOU, students, staff, faculty and everyone with ties to Southern University to get involved and contact your representative and tell them how you feel about this.

They won’t know how you feel unless you tell them, so you have to let them know. E-mail, write letters, call, or better yet – be proactive and go down to the State Capitol and attend the Legislative Session.

The session ends July 1. Whatever is going to happen to Southern, and the rest of the systems in Louisiana, is going to happen soon. The time to act is now, Jaguar Nation!

SUBMISSIONS POLICYThe Southern DIGEST welcomes letters from readers commenting on current issues and other matters of general interest to the SU family and public. We set aside this space to publish these letters for others to enjoy. This newspaper is not responsible for individual opinions expressed on its editorial and opinion pages. The Southern DIGEST reserves the right to edit any contributions and or reject them without notification. Authors are encouraged to limit the length of submissions to 300 words. Letters should not include libelous statements. Offensive and personal attacks will not be permitted. The DIGEST will not print “open letters” addressed to someone else. All contributions must be type written, signed and must include the author’s address and phone number. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Southern University students should include their majors, hometowns and year in school. When referring to specific DIGEST articles, please include the date and title. All materials should be directed to the editor in chief of The Southern DIGEST, P.O. Box 10180, Baton Rouge, La. 70813. Materials may be delivered by hand to the DIGEST office located in Suite 1064 Harris Hall or can be e-mail to digest@subr.edu.

EdItOrIAL POLICYStaff editorials represent the opinions of the author and the majority opinion of the Southern DIGEST Student Editorial Board, which is comprised of the student staff of editors and columnists. The Southern DIGEST provides an open forum to educate, inform and enlighten the students, faculty and staff at Southern University, Baton Rouge, La.

Friday, April 2, 2010 - Page 7

VIEWPOINTSwww.southerndigest.com

1. Who went to the State Capitol on Monday?

2. Who rode the Shuttle bus there?

3. Who almost fell out of their seat during a turn?

4. Did you get a complimentary bag of chips?

5. Who’s mad that SU had spring break last week?

6. Who came up with that bright idea?

7. Did they know that Easter was the next week and students have to go BACK home?

8. How much gas have you wasted because of one person’s bright idea?

9. Who’s seafood is better: Tony’s or LTK?

10. When does that snowball stand on campus open?

11. Who woke up extra early on Monday to register for classes only to find out that JagNet won’t be open until later in the week?

12. Who didn’t do their job and open classes?

13. Did anyone complain to the Ombudsman about this?

14. Isn’t that his job?15. When exactly is SACS

coming?16. Is that why people are

answering their phone?17. Is that why the grass is

cut?18. Is that why they kicked

students out of the dorm?19. Does anyone know what

our QEP is?20. Don’t you hate it when

you smell someone before you actually see them?

20 Questions

I’M JUSt ASKING StAtEMENt

I’M JUST ASKING is for entertainment purposes only. These remarks do not represent the opinions of the DIGEST staff, Southern University or the Office of Student Media Services.

L e t y o u r v o i c eb e h e a r d !

S e n d a . . .L e t t e r t o t h e e d i t o r

BREANNA PAUL

SU: know your acronyms!

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — The first black leader in the 106-year history of the University of the Free State started his tenure last year with a surprise.

In his inaugural speech, rector Jonathan Jansen declared that the university would drop its criminal case against four white students accused of making a video where four black janitors eat a stew apparently spiked with urine. Jansen also offered two of the students who had been expelled the chance to resume their studies — the other two had graduated.

Jansen’s controversial move rippled across a country that is still struggling to unify, 16 years after Nelson Mandela won its first all-race elections. Some blacks were outraged, including the local head of the African National Congress Youth League, who accused Jansen of racism.

But Jansen said he was trying to start a conversation, and that racism cannot be resolved in the courts. Human rights lawyer Mothusi Lepheane, who has been advising the janitors, said he understood.

“Where should they go?” the lawyer said of the students. “We don’t have a camp or university for racists. Bring them back, let them learn how to live with others.”

And retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, often seen as South Africa’s measured, moral voice, said Jansen was setting an example for the nation.

“Revenge and retribution are easy,” Tutu said. “Forgiveness is not for sissies.”

The furor points to the complexity of Jansen’s mandate: To integrate a university in South Africa’s conservative heartland, where blacks are still ushered to the back of restaurants. The university, virtually all white a generation ago, is now 60 percent black. But black and white students largely live and learn separately. And when Jansen took over, white students begged him, “Please don’t force us to integrate.”

He will. Jansen says preparing students for a future in a multiracial country means insisting: “If you want to study here, then you’re going to have to learn to live together.”

___

A University of the Free State residence is more than just a dormitory. What’s known here as a “rez” is closer to a U.S. fraternity or sorority, but with even more influence. Students take rooms in the residences where their parents once lived. They follow initiation rites that have been passed down for generations.

One residence was named for Hendrick Verwoerd, South Africa’s prime minister from 1958-1966, a period during which apartheid was entrenched and black rights decimated. The name was not changed until

2006, to Armentum, Latin for a herd of large animals such as elephants, the house’s mascot.

Most of the white students come from the surrounding province. They were nurtured in all-white schools and all-white churches in isolated farming communities where everyone spoke Afrikaans, the language of the descendants of early Dutch settlers. For more than a century, what was once known as the Orange Free State was an independent Afrikaner republic.

Lawyer Lepheane said that in 2005, one of his first cases in Bloemfontein involved a liquor store with separate entrances for blacks and whites. Half a decade later, a black Bloemfontein car dealer brought Lepheane a case where white colleagues had replaced a picture of him in a newspaper ad with that of a monkey.

In 2006, the Free State administration before Jansen’s bowed to pressure and called for residences to be integrated. That’s when the now-infamous video was made. It ends with the janitors being invited to move into the residence, and then an Afrikaans phrase appears in supertitles: “This is what we really think of racial integration.”

Jansen was brought in to try integration again. He announced that the new groups going into every residence would be half black and half white. But because those already living in the residences were not affected, the houses remain largely segregated.

Jansen has already stopped one residence from forcing first-year students to bow before the statue of a residence founder.

“There you have black students bowing to a white guy they have no connection to,” he said. “There are traditions that are not shared and are offensive.”

Jansen’s work day often begins at 7 a.m. with an hour devoted to students who drop

by his ground floor office with their concerns. Twice a month, Jansen sets up a few chairs on the campus lawns or hallways of a classroom building for more chats with students.

Colleagues say if they have a date to walk to a university event with him, they allow plenty of time to cross campus because of his habit of stopping to engage students.

It’s a stroll through a segregated landscape. Here, a dozen black students go over class notes on the lawn. There, white students chat in the campus cafe.

The divide is also economic. While many of the white students drive their own cars to campus, the black students are alighting from buses.

___

At 53, Jansen grew up in a South Africa where racism reached levels of brutality unknown to most Free State students today.

As a teenager, Jansen would leave Cape Town to visit his grandparents in the rural Western Cape. On one visit, his grandmother sent him to buy a loaf of bread. As he walked to the store, he was clipped on the heel by a brick a white boy threw from a yard.

Jansen rushed at the boy, only to find the father, an off-duty police officer, was at home. Jansen was forced into a car, and beaten on the way to the police station. An aunt came to plead for him, and he eventually was released.

Jansen’s family had property in that country town confiscated under apartheid laws around the time he was born.

“I think my grandfather went blind because they took his land away to give to white people,” Jansen said.

Jansen himself was angry.“I was angry with Mandela when

he talked truth and reconciliation.

Steve Biko made a lot more sense to me than Mandela for a long time,” he said, referring to the black consciousness activist who was tortured to death by police in 1977.

Jansen said he learned to forgive when working with white students as dean of education at another Afrikaner bastion, the University of Pretoria. In the end, he came to embrace Mandela’s argument that retribution would only lead to bloodshed and destroy the country.

In a country that is 80 percent black, simple demographics say South Africa’s future leaders will be drawn from among Jansen’s black students. He hopes to teach them that forgiveness and generosity aren’t just personal choices, but a duty of black leaders in a fledgling democracy.

It is a message that could easily be drowned out in today’s South Africa. A prominent member of the governing African National Congress recently led students at another university in a rendition of an anti-apartheid era song about killing whites. And Afrikaner media and rights group keep up a relentless chorus of their own about crime and corruption that has clear, if coded, racial overtones.

___

Whether Jansen is pushing fast and hard enough for change is a matter of debate on campus. As he sat with friends at a picnic table on campus, Nande Ngxwana, a 20-year-old black student in his second year at the university, said he understood the rector’s impulse to reach out to whites.

“Can you blame a person for being racist?” he said. “I feel racism is something that was instilled in you. You grow up with it.”

But his friend Lwandile Magoda, also 20, said whites shouldn’t be excused for their racism.

“It gets to a point when you’re, like,

18, you have to think for yourself.”Jansen said he understands

that black Free State students are rankled by the lack of blacks in senior positions in a faculty that is a third white.

Jansen said one of his first acts as rector was to ask for a list of deans about to retire. There were 17, and he determined 15 would be replaced by women and blacks. But pushing whites out to make room for blacks more quickly would only repeat the mistakes of the past, when whites advanced at the expense of other groups, Jansen said.

Language is also a loaded issue: During apartheid, black students were forced to learn Afrikaans, the language of the white oppressor.

In his inaugural address, Jansen pledged to “open discussion on ways in which we can get every white student to learn Sesotho ... and every black student to learn Afrikaans, and all our students to learn to write and speak English competently.”

Every course at the university is now offered in both Afrikaans and English. The result is that whites are isolated in the Afrikaans classes, and blacks in the English ones.

In her five years at Free State, Sune Geldenhuys, a 23-year-old white medical student, has rarely shared a class with a black student. But when students worked with patients in a black neighborhood this year, she had to turn to black students for translations. Geldenhuys said she could imagine returning to Free State to teach one day.

“The way things are going, I think it’s going to be different,” she said. “I hope in a good way.”

Black law student Thopelo Chacha, also 23, has joined a relatively new group of black and white students training to give advice to other students about AIDS and safe sex. Chacha said he could even imagine counseling a white student about those sensitive topics.

“I have to be part of the transformation,” Chacha said.

Jansen is invited by groups around the country to explain what he is doing at Free State, or to talk about his new book, “Knowledge in the Blood”, about his experiences as dean of education at the University or Pretoria. He also writes a weekly column for a Johannesburg newspaper addressing race, politics and education.

Jansen says — and his staff attests — that he spends 12 hours a day on campus, and another six at off-campus activities, many of them involving mingling with students.

One of them, Marzanne Lombard, a 21-year-old white third-year marketing student, left a predominantly white residence this year to move into an all-black one. Jansen visits Welwitchia House often, once bringing flowers to the young women, Lombard said.

“When we walk out of here, we’ll have so much more to be proud of than hanging on to old traditions,” Lombard said.

www.southerndigest.comPage 8 - Friday, April 2, 2010

By donna BrysonASSOcIATED PRESS WRITER

In this combo made with photos taken March 5, South Africa University of the Free State administrator Jonathan Jansen is photographed in his office in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Jansen’s mandate is to integrate a university where many white students don’t want to be integrated, and he is being closely watched across a country still struggling to unify.

photo By jerome delay/ ap photo

Black rector stirs once-white S. African school