Christian Student Fellowship coordinates activities for nationally celebrated Rez Week

By Janee Mitchell - Feature Writer

This week, Christian Student Fellowship encouraged students to pray for God to challenge students' thoughts about Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection during Rez Week, held March 21-25.

Rez Week is an event that occurs every year across the country on various college campuses. The event always coincides with the traditional Easter celebration and is organized by the various Christian groups.

UIS student organization Christian Student Fellowship said due to the limited number of Christian organizations on the UIS campus, they are the sole sponsors for Rez Week this year.

Rez week began on Monday, March 21, with random acts of kindness. CSF members and volunteers met in the Lincoln Residence Hall and proceeded to the townhouses where their primary task was to take out trash for townhouse residents.

Random acts of kindness continued on Tuesday in the cafeteria where, in celebration of Rez Week, the members emptied the trays of students dining in the cafeteria. Students were also encouraged to learn how to create pinwheels and gain responses to any of their Rez Week questions. The emptying of lunch and dinner trays and the creation of pinwheels continued through Wednesday. They also stuffed Easter eggs for delivery on Thursday.

On Thursday candy filled Easter eggs were distributed to students in the cafeteria and the evening ended with a Jewish Passover dinner lead by a Rabbi and Coram Deo. The Jewish Passover dinner was done in remembrance of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. The meal was to represent the last supper of Jesus and the disciples.

CSF held a bonfire at the UIS pond, where students learned about Jesus' experience in the Garden of Gethsemane . There was Scripture reading and singing in remembrance of Jesus.

Rez Week ended on Friday with a Good Friday service in which students were enlightened on the last weeks of Jesus' life before his crucifixion.

The Christian Council said 20 colleges and universities in 11 states participate in Rez week in a unified effort to spread the truth about Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection.

Public opinion expert discusses international opposition to U.S.

By Tom Cronin - Public Affairs Reporter

Plummeting levels of support for the United States among citizens of foreign countries has put an increasing amount of pressure on the governments of these countries to be less cooperative with American leaders in matters of foreign policy, a public opinion expert said Thursday.

Ole Holsti, the George V. Allen professor of political science at Duke University , told a crowd of UIS students and community members at Brookens Auditorium that support for the United States has declined considerably over the last three years in countries with large Muslim populations and even in countries that have traditionally been American allies. The World Affairs Council of Central Illinois sponsored the lecture, which was titled “How Foreign Countries View the U.S. ”

“I'm not arguing that we should in all cases allow American policy to be dictated by what … pollsters find abroad,” Holsti said. “But, if support from publics abroad is of any importance, and … if it's true that al Qaeda operates in more than 60 countries, how often are we going to have to rely on not only intelligence and police units abroad, but then in turn rely on tips from the public, and so on? We have, I think, a real self-interest in this.”

Holsti described four factors that are commonly used to explain why publics abroad view the United States negatively: irrational hatred and envy, misunderstandings about the United States , reductions in American public diplomacy efforts and American foreign policy itself.

In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Ambassador Edward Djerejian as the chairman of the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, a committee that had been established to study the effectiveness of the Department of State's public diplomacy efforts in Arab and Muslim regions.

When he presented his report later that year, Djerejian said that the decline in support for the United States among publics abroad was 80 percent related to policy and 20 percent related to the ways in which policies had been presented, according to Holsti.

Holsti said that an anonymous CIA official wrote in a recently published book that the United States will not be able to regain popularity abroad unless it stops supporting Israel , stops supporting dictators in the Middle East and stops trying to lower oil prices. According to Holsti, the official's argument is a drastic one, but it illustrates that the negative views of the United States abroad are primarily due to policy problems.

One policy problem that Holsti described was the American response to Turkey 's refusal to allow the Fourth Infantry Division to be stationed there prior to the war in Iraq . A member of NATO, Turkey had the highest per-capita casualty rate of the countries that contributed troops during the Korean War and was a close ally with the United States during the Gulf War, Holsti said.

The Pew Research Center conducted two surveys – the first in 2002 and the second in 2003 – and found that between 82 and 83 percent of Turks were opposed to allowing American troops to be stationed in their country. Holsti said that the Turkish Parliament opposed the American request by a close vote.

Following the vote, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, whom Holsti described as a “very smart guy,” said that the Turkish military should have taken a more active leadership role to assure that American forces could be stationed there.

“What he was doing was essentially calling for a military coup against a democratically elected government and longtime ally,” Holsti said. “Not very smart. Not surprisingly, some Turks actually took offense to that.”

According to Holsti, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003 that Cuba , Libya and Germany had been the least helpful countries in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. At the time of Rumsfeld's statement, Holsti said, German soldiers were fighting and dying alongside American troops in Afghanistan .

“Oddly enough, some Germans were offended,” he said with a hint of sarcasm. “They didn't think they belonged to the same group, particularly as Germans were fighting there.”

Disability Awareness Week showcases talents of disabled and non-disabled community members

By Janee Mitchell - Feature Writer

The Office of Disability Services continues its eight year tradition of hosting Disability Awareness Week next week on the UIS campus. Kimberly Rutherford, disability specialist, said attendees “will gain more knowledge about disabilities and perhaps gain more information on a disability that someone in their family may have.”

Disability Awareness Week will be held April 4 through April 8. Events will include various workshops discussing disability awareness issues and adaptive technology. The Office of Disability Services will also host a mini-fair on Tuesday, April 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The mini-fair will discuss services on campus as well as those provided by other community organizations.

Disability Awareness Week will also be hosting a group style version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and the Eighth Annual Wheelchair Basketball Game. The Office of Disability Services said the UIUC Whiz Kids are coming to UIS to face the UIS Wheelies. The UIUC Whiz Kids are comprised of disabled persons and the UIS Wheelies will also be comprised of disabled persons, students, faculty and staff.

Karla Carwile, Director of the Office of Disability Services said, “Disability Awareness should not be a one week thing, it should happen all year long.” She also said there are not always opportunities to bring disability awareness and that Disability Awareness Week encourages students to see how disabled persons can be just as good as their peers by showcasing the talents and abilities of disabled persons.

Carwile said the wheelchair basketball game will further showcase the abilities of the disabled, providing empowerment. The game is a big part of Disability Awareness Week and Carwile said the community members rally around. Kevin Gamble will be coaching the UIS Wheelies.

Carwile said every year the Office of Disability Services tries to improve Disability Awareness Week and make it better than the year before. This year, there will be more of a focus on adaptive technology and other programs for disabled persons. Chrisa Potthast, adaptive technology disability specialist, reiterates the focus on technology and guarantees that students can expect to see more prizes.

Carwile said, “It is unfortunate that we can only highlight them [disabled persons] once a year.” Carwile also said that Disability Awareness Week will provide empowerment to both disabled students and non-disabled students.

Students can also expect to see UIS alumni Miss Wheelchair 2004 during the mini-fair and the wheelchair basketball game. Carwile said seeing Miss Wheelchair 2004 will show students, both disabled and non that, “people with disabilities are making a tremendous impact just like everyone else…Awareness will be created in a different level.”

Disability Awareness Week will begin on April 4 with an overview of adaptive technologies, and end on April 8 with the Eighth Annual Wheelchair Basketball Game, which will be held at 6 p.m.

Further information on Disability Awareness Week can be received from the Office of Disability Services at 217-206-6666.

Irish debate champions clash with UIS speech team members on Schiavo case

By Tom Cronin - Public Affairs Reporter

As part of the 2005 Tour of America, two debate champions from Ireland representing a mock government contended that they would not have “pulled the plug” from 41-year-old Terri Schiavo in a debate with members of the UIS Speech and Debate Team last week.

Saira Malik makes a point during the debate.

Frank Kennedy and Ross McGuire, both undergraduate students at University College Dublin, were chosen among participants at a recent debate competition hosted by the Irish Times to represent their country in the American tour. Taking the position of a mock government in a parliamentary debate, they argued that “this house would not have pulled the plug” on March 23 in the Lincoln Residence Hall Great Room.

Representing the government's opposition were UIS speech team members Saira Malik, a senior economics and communication double major, and Nels Dale, a senior political studies and communication double major. Thomas Bartl, UIS instructor and director of forensics and oral communication, announced the topic at the beginning of the debate and then gave both teams 15 minutes to prepare their arguments and rebuttals.

Kennedy, the mock prime minister, said that the wishes of Schiavo's parents to keep their daughter alive outweigh the principle of “pulling the plug” when a person is in a permanent vegetative state. On March 18, doctors removed Schiavo's feeding tube, which had been keeping her alive for more than 15 years. According to the Associated Press, Schiavo's condition was unclear yesterday as her father, Bob Schindler, continued his plea to have the feeding tube re-inserted.

Speaking a member of the opposition, Dale said that Schiavo did not fill out a living will, but had told her husband in the past that she would not wish to live in a permanent vegetative state. He added that Schiavo's husband, Michael, has the right to decide whether Terri should continue to live in a vegetative state, and this right has been upheld in decisions by the state courts.

McGuire, who spoke as a member of the government, said that there should be a default position of life in cases in which there is dissention among family members about whether to “pull the plug” from equipment keeping a person in a vegetative state alive.

“[In Ireland ], society has stepped in and said that we place a value on life that is actually irrevocable, even by those who are closest,” McGuire said. “And it's that principle of a default position of being pro-life instead of pro-choice – words that carry an awful lot of weight in America and an awful lot of weight in Ireland , as well – and those are not words that we use lightly.”

Malik, who spoke as the leader of the opposition, said that it is the opinion of medical professionals that Schiavo is in an “irreversible state of vegetation.” Media reports have suggested that Schiavo has flinched and smiled in response to certain stimuli, but Malik said that these reports have distorted the reality that Schiavo's responses have been explained as involuntary muscle activity.

According to Dale, the decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube was a quality-of-life issue, and it was about respecting her personal wishes.

“While it might be … emotionally appealing to the family members to keep Terri alive – at least having some brain activity for a certain extent – essentially what it's basically doing is prolonging a death that Terri has expressed in her past that she didn't want.”

CSF coordinates activities for nationally celebrated Rez Week

Public opinion expert discusses international opposition to U.S.

Disability Awareness Week showcases talents of disabled and non-disabled members

Irish debate champions clash with UIS speech team members on Schiavo case