ЧЬг
Samford Crimson
79тн
Year, 11th Issue _ Wednesday, November 23, 1994 _ Samford University, Birmingham, AL
Inside. . .
Page 2
Basketball team
prepares for
upcoming season
Page 4
Reader doesn't
want to conform
World
&
Ration
NATO air strike
SARAJEVO, Bosnia (AP)
— Bosnia's government said
Monday's NATO air strike
didn't hurt the Serbs enough.
Officials said Serbs will
keep firing artillery and tank
rounds across the border into
a "safe haven" in northwest¬
ern Bosnia
U.N. and NATO military
Qfficials said thay deliberately
tried to limit the damage and
avoid casualties.
Medicare cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Worried physicians are seek¬
ing to head off a new round of
cuts in Medicare.
Leaders of organized medi¬
cine testified today before a
panel that advises Congress
on physician pay .They noted
that Medicare is a tempting
target for budget-cutters from
both parties.
A new round of cuts could
leave Medicare paying just 34
percent of private payments
by 2004.
Gambling?
MOBILE (AP) — Gover¬
nor-elect Fob James has stated
his opposition to gambling.
His spokesman said Monday
he doesn't see James working
to allow it to happen in Ala¬
bama.
Last week, the Alabama
Baptist S late Convention gave
unanimous approval to an
anti-gambling resolution.
CONVOS
Nov. 23
Thanksgiving Communion,
sponsored by Student Minis¬
tries
Nov. 28
James Barnette, Minister to
the University
Nov. 29
Hanging of the Green, 7 p.m.
Nov. 30
Lowell Vann, chair of the art
department
Ethics, legal education among Thomas' concerns
By Wes Fulton
Staff Editor
“I go various places around the
country speaking, and this is the
biggest glass of water I’ve ever
seen,” JusticeClarence Thomas told
a packed audience at the Wright
Center last Thursday. “Now that’s '
Southern hospitality.”
Justice Thomas’s speech Thurs¬
day capped off the first half of the
1994-95 Cordell Hull Speaker's
Forum. After opening his speech
with a few observations on differ¬
ences between the North and South
and life at the Supreme Court, Tho¬
mas addressed the decline of legal
education in America, encourag¬
ing students to “make the law bet¬
ter than it was before.”
“Roscoe Brown once defined
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas addresses a
diverse audience, which included students, faculty and
local professionals, at the Wright Center last Thursday.
Student choirs to present
Handel's Messiah
By Rebecca S. Day rio and staged productions and
Staff Reporter _ will be the soprano soloist for
this production.
The Christmas portion of Gran Wilson will perform as
Handel’s Messiah will be pre- the tenor soloist. He has per-
sented in the Wright Center on formed worldwide with organi-
Tucsday, Dec. 6. zations such as the Australian
The performance will begin Opera, the Netherlands Opera,
at 8 p.m. and will feature the A the Seattle Opera, and various
Cappclla Chou and the Univer- others,
sity Chorale as well as several A 1976graduateof Samford,
world-class soloists, said L. Wilson is a former student of
Gene Black, music professor. Professor Russell Hedger, who
The orchestra for the event wi 11 retire from Samford in May.
will include former members of Wilson presently lives in Balti-
the Alabama Symphony Orcbes- more,Md-
traas well as Samford student The bass soloist for the event
musicians. Black will direct the is Timothy Johnson, whogradn-
oratorio. ated from Samford in 1986 with
“This is an opportunity for a master’s degree in music. His
the university and the comma- wife, Sharon Moore Johnson,
nity to be introduced to Sherrie who will be the featured alto
Lawhon and also to feature three soloist, received a master’s de-
ofour graduates who have gone gree in music from Samford in
on to excel in the field of vocal 1989.
performance,” Black said. The Johnsons live in Decatur
Lawhon joined the School of and perform opera worldwide.
Musk this year as a member of Black said the presentation is
the voice faculty, replacing a wonderful opportunity for the
Eleanor Ousiey, who retired at university to be exposed to this
the end of last year. Lawhon has choral classic, and he encour-
performed extensively in orato- ages studentsupportof tbeevem.
the legal profession as *a group of
men pursuing a common calling in
the spirit of public service.’” Tho¬
mas began. “I believe some of our
nation’s top law schools have lost
sight of this vision ... they no longer
teach that law is an art, a craft, and
not an adjunct to fancy careers or a
means of political and social revo¬
lution.”
Thomas advocated a return to
traditional legal education, and criti¬
cized the shift towards less rigor¬
ous modes of instuction.
“It’s time for our law schools to
return to the legal method and legal
reasoning, and refocus on our mis¬
sion in this profession: To serve a
master greater than ourselves —
the Law.”
“Introductory classes are taught
in large lecture classes, with little
dialogue between professor and stu¬
dent, while specialized classes,
heavy in theory, are conducted in
small seminars. While this system
may be less terrifying to students, it
comes at a steep price. Students
lose their training in reasoning ...
they never learn the principles and
structures underlying the rules that
make up the law.”
Stressing that these trends have
consequences for both the legal
profession and society at large,
Thomas lamented that “we have
come to see law as a means, not an
end.”
The solution to this problem is
to be found in a return to the "grand
manner” of legal education and a
restoration of a sense of purpose
and mission to the legal profession.
“We should get back to law as law,
and not as a tool to achieve political
and policy ends.”
Thomas also spoke briefly on
the subject of ethics, challenging
students to stand up for what they
believe in. “Is it unethical to be a
coward?” he asked. “Do we have a
moral obligation to stand against
the world for what we believe? If
not, we’re simply conceding to
ourselves and to others that there is
a price on our beliefs, a price on our
values — that they’re not necessar¬
ily priceless.”
“Is cowardice ethical? Is it right?
I dare say, no it isn’t. As Elmer
Davis reportedly said, ‘The Repub¬
lic is not established by cowards,
and cowards will not preserve it.’”
Thomas concluded his speech
by answering a series of questions
submitted beforehand by audience
members. Thomas reserved his
strongest words for a question deal¬
ing with uniformity among blacks,
which Thomas said was one of his
pet peeves.
“1 have a real problem (when
blacks persevere and succeed
against the odds through all the
difficulties, whether it’s discrimi¬
nation, lack of income, lack of con¬
fidence, and when they succeed
then someone comes back and says
to that person, ‘You’re no longer
black.'
"Because of your success, you
are now evicted from the race. Be¬
cause of your education, you are
now evicted from the race. Because
of your diction, you are now evicted.
Well, that’s nonsense. Nobody else
gets evicted from any other race.”
“Don’t agree with me and don’t
agree with the other guy just be¬
cause he has the same pigmenta¬
tion," he said, provoking a thunder¬
ous ovation from the crowd.
Females first admitted to
Samford 100 years ago
By Melanie Gooden
Staff Reporter
“In the 1880s, women attending
college was thought to be a fad. I
guess everyone thought wrong,”
said Elizabeth Wells, Special Col¬
lection Coordinator for Davis Li¬
brary.
In the fall of 1 894, Howard Col¬
lege became a co-educational insti¬
tution. Annie Judge and Eugenia
Weatherly were Howard’s first fe¬
male students.
J udge was the f rst female gradu¬
ate of Howard College in 1896.
“She was
seen as an ex¬
tremist. She
entered a for¬
merly male in¬
stitution, went
on to act on the
stage in New
Orleans, mar¬
ried and di¬
vorced and
then remarried.
All of these things were unusual for
her time,” Wells said.
“Annie lived an interesting fife,”
Wells said. Judge became an au¬
thor and had several books pub¬
lished in the early 1920s.
Weatherly graduated from
Howard College in 1898. She was
a distinguished (honor) graduate
with three specialties: science, Latin
and Greek. Weatherly later studied
and taught law.
In Septemberof
1Щ*41о\уагё
College formally opened its doors
to women. “After Judge and
Weatherly graduated from the col¬
lege there was a space of time where
the school had no female students.
In 1913, 15 women were enrolled
in the freshman class,” Wells said.
“When I began to research the
history of women at Howard Col¬
lege, 1 began to see what a vision
these individuals had for the uni¬
versity. Women were involved and
successful at Howard College be¬
fore they were allowed to vote,”
Wells said.
“There have been many impor¬
tant and successful women who
have made great contributions to
the university,”
she said.
In 1894, the
total enroll¬
ment of
Howard Col¬
lege was 166,
and two of
those were fe¬
male. Sam-
ford’s under¬
graduate en¬
rollment this
year is 3,236.
2,009 of those students are female.
“After 100 years the women
outnumber the men on this cam¬
pus. That’s real progress,” Wells
said.
“We have taken time to honor
the history of women at Samford,
but we need not say this is what the
men have done and this is what the
women have done at Samford.”
“But rather we should say that ,
we have all worked together to make
our campus a better place.”
