79тн
Year, 12th Issue
Wednesday, December 7, 1994_ Samford University, Birmingham, AL
Inside. .
Page 4
See related
basketball stories
Page 5
Samford students
aren't dating each
other
Page 7
Christmas in
Bubbaland
NAFTA expansion
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The North American Free
Trade Agreement is just the
beginning. The Clinton ad¬
ministration hopes to estab¬
lish a free -trade zone across
all of the Americas by no later
than the year 2005.
Latin and Caribbean coun¬
tries have been pressing for a
free-trade zone.
But U.S. officials were re¬
luctant to move on it before
Congress approved a global
trade pact, which was ap¬
proved last week.
Certified GOP win
MOBILE (AP) — A fed¬
eral judge has ordered the sec¬
retary of state to certify re¬
sults of the Nov. 8 general
election without counting dis¬
puted absentee ballots.
The ruling by District
Judge Alex Howard of Mo¬
bile is a victory for
Repubicans, and would make
GOP candidate Perry Hooper
the new chief justice. Demo¬
crats are expected to appeal.
CONVOS
Dec. 7
Dr. Myralyn Allgood, Profes¬
sor/Chair of World Languages
Department
■■■
$4 million not taken
from Samford budget
ASBC to continue to award allowance
By Kenny Byrd
Staff Reporter
The Alabama Southern Baptist
Convention met in Mobile and
voted against efforts to cut off their
$4 million annual allowance to
Samford.
Rev. Fred Lackey, pastor of First
Baptist Church of Athens and a
Samford graduate, was elected
president. He received 1 ,258 votes
to beat Rev. Earl Potts, former state
convention executive secretary,
who received 1,113 votes.
The ASBC voted on a report to
allow a study committee to negoti¬
ate with Samford’s trustee board,
in hopes that Samford will recon¬
sider its decision to select its own
trustees.
Professor Mark Baggett said the
measure was approved by a large
margin of the convention.
Baggeu said a “safe zone” agree¬
ment was made in which the com¬
mittee and Samford officials can
negotiate without either side losing
their legal rights. In other words,
the convention will retain the right
to sue Samford.
Baggett said there is a group of
90 pastors, calling themselves Pas¬
tors to Protect Samford, who hired
a lawyer and urged the committee
to take more decisive actions. They
also sent letters to messengers urg¬
ing them to do the same at the
convention.
Religion professor Fisher
Humphreys said that he was grate¬
ful that the Alabama Baptist Con¬
vention had decided to keep a rela¬
tionship with the university.
“It is a university that the Con¬
vention can be proud of,”
Humphreys said. “1 hope that the
relationship will continue as it is
now for years to come.”
The convention was held in
Mobile, and 3,135 people were
present
Greg Mausz/Photographer
A new VieW — The law library, which
features a three-story lobby, will open in January.
Corts not selected by Baylor regents; stays at Samford
о
By Heather Gibson
Co-News Editor
After not being selected
ю
re¬
place Baylor University’s retiring
president, it appears that Thomas
E. Corts will remain Samford’s
president even though he has sub¬
mitted a letter of resignation.
According to the Birmingham
Post-Herald, Corts sent a letter of
resignation to the Board of Trust¬
ees just before traveling to Waco,
Texas, to await the desicion from
Baylor’s Board of Regents as to
whether he would be accepted as
Baylor's new president.
But, as far as Chairman A.
Gerow Hodges of Samford’s board
is concerned, “I did not officially
acknowledge receipt of a letter of
resignation, and I don’t believe a
resignation is effective until it is
accepted.”
Baylor’sBoardofRegents’ two-
day meeting broke up Nov. 18 with¬
out a decision concerning who
would become Baylor’s new presi¬
dent.
But, said one Baylor regent,
Corts was not accepted because her
“investigation pointed up some
things that didn’t fit with Baylor.”
A Baylor search committee had
recommended Cons, according to
the Nov. 20 issue of the Birming¬
ham News.
Nancy Thurmond, who has been
on Baylor’s board since 1990 said
“a real fear of a fundamentalist
takeover” prompted her opposition
to hiring Corts.
^Anything associated with fun¬
damentalism is a threat to Texas
Baptists,” she said.
Also, “Corts is neither a Baylor
graduate nor a Texas native — fac¬
tors some regents said were cru¬
cial,” according to the Nov. 24 is¬
sue of the Alabama Baptist.
Hiring a president requires sup¬
port of a majority of the 38-mem¬
ber board, according to the Associ¬
ated Baptist Press.
Hodges said,” I understand that
Dr. Corts was asked to leave the
door open to further consideration
by Baylor. It would not surprise me
if the Baylor folks would come to
their senses and make another try at
him, but I believe that would be
futile.”
Corts could not be reached for
comment on Monday.
Hodges said, “As far as we are
concerned, Dr. Corts was and is
president of Samford University,
as before.”
Kimberly
Parchment,
22, dies of
leukemia
By Katherine Tollison
Staff Editor
Second-year pharmacy school
student Kimberly Parchment died
Thursday, five weeks after being
diagnosed with leukemia.
Parchment transferred to
Samford in the spring of 1993 to
attain her doctor of pharmacy de¬
gree. She completed two years of
pre-pharmacy classes at Austin
Peay State University in Clarksville,
Tenn.
Parchment, 22 years old, began
“feeling sick during the week of
Homecoming. She was running a
really high fever, but she really
wanted to go to the football game.
I had to take her home after the first
quarter because she was sick,” said
Lori Walden, a second-year phar¬
macy studentand Parchment’s best
friend.
Walden said that the week of
Nov. 1, Parchment felt too ill to
attend classes. Her parents drove to
Birmingham from her hometown,
Cumberland City, Tenn., to take
Kimberly
Parchment
her to a doctor Nov. 4,
“She was hospitalized in Nash¬
ville, Tenn., the next week and di¬
agnosed with leukemia. The doc¬
tors began chemotherapy on the
11th and it lasted for a week,”
Walden said.
Susan Alverson, assistant dean
for student affairs in the pharmacy
school, said,'“After Kim finished
the first round of c hemo, she seemed
to be doing well.
“She was in good spirits. She
wanted to thank all the students and
faculty who sent flowers and bal¬
loons.”
Alverson said students and fac¬
ulty raised money so that
Parchment’s family could stay in
Nashville with her. Some students
drove to and from Nashville every
day when Parchment was hospital¬
ized.
Walden said, “Kim was so nice.
She would do anything for any¬
body, and she was the best friend
anyone could ever have. She was
always in a good mood."
Professor David Foreman was
Please see Parchment, page 2
Grade inflation trend seen in
several schools at Samford
By Kenny Byrd
Staff Reporter
In the 1 993 Fall term , 93 percent
of the grades given by the School of
Education were As and Bs, said
Academic Affairs Dean Martha
Cox.
She said that Samford as a whole
has some grade inflation.
Cox said, “The data shows’ that
we are certainly not grading on the
normal curve, based on the number
of As and Bs. I have not discovered
the ‘why’ of that.”
Cox said that Samford gave
20,353 grades in the fall of 1993.
Of those, 7,219 were As, which
was 35 percent of the total grades.
Cox said the results were com¬
piled following an inquiry by a
Crimson reporter. She said she had
already planned on compiling the
data. Cox would not give the Crim¬
son the data because of its sensitiv¬
ity.
“I can give the results,” Cox
said. “I just did not want to give out
the hard copy because of the way
the report was written and the way
that it has been put on the printed
page.
“Because of the way it’s coded
and the way some 6Dth$ «embsto»-;
are mentioned, antr Some 6Mheu
grades that are on there, it takes a
degree of explanation.”
Cox said the School of Educa¬
tion gave 2,244 grades. Of those,
1,510 were As, which equalled 67
percent, and 587 were Bs, or 26
percenL One hundred twenty-five
Cs were given, six Ds and 16 Fs.
The School of Arts and Sciences
gave 9,257 grades. Of those 2,786
were As, which equalled 30 per¬
cent, 3,693 were Bs, or 40 percent.
This means a total of 70 percent of
the total grades were As and Bs.
Also, 2,033 Cs were given, 527 Ds
and 228 Fs.
The School of Business gave
1,514 grades. Of those, 437, or 29
percent, were As, and 677, or 45
percent, were Bs. Also, 301 Cs were
given, 75 Ds and 24 Fs.
Cox said the high grades did not
take her by surprise. “It was not
alarming to me because I had seen
it before and knew that the percent¬
age of As given was what I would
consider high.”
She said it was especially high
in the School of Education because
it is* specialized school. She said
that the School of Pharmacy grades
tend to be high, as well as the School
of Music.
lease see (Hades. Dago 3
