Clarion 1998-03-11 Vol. 73 No. 10

              Arts&Entertainment:page 111    Sports:
Bethel's music scene:
A glimpse at the bands behind the posters in the halls
Royalettes Dance
Team
Dancers place third
at nationals.
Issue:
page 8
Marriage at Bethel
Students feel pressure to find the perfect
person in four years
Wednesday, March 11,1998
NEWSPAPER OF BETHEL COLLEGE
Volume 73 * Numbery
Faculty votes to block Bethel's internet
By Joanne Nystrom
Co-Editor-in-Chief
i
Faculty voted at their
March 3 faculty meeting in favor of the proposal to block
pornographic and gambling
materials' from Bethel's
internet, after a motion to postpone it for further discussion
feU short, 17-15.
. This decision serves as a
recommendation to Provost
Jay Barnes, who said he supports the proposal. "It's a question of implementation at this
point," he said.
"What we're doing is mak
ing it less convenient for vendors to push this stuff at stu-
"What we're proposing to
block is access to
inappropriate resources
through a channel that
Bethel pays for."
Bill Doyle
Academic Computing
Services Advisory
Committee
dents in residence halls who
[would] accidentally stumble
on it or who would make a
choice to look at it and then
get trapped," said Bill Doyle
of the Academic Computing
Services Advisory Committee
(ACSAC) which created the
proposal. "We hope that we're
also providing some assistance to students who are already trapped."
While some applaud the
decision, others are more hesitant to endorse it.
This kind of "rigging" of
the internet concerned Professor Marion Larson at the faculty meeting. "I think we're
making decisions for students
that they need to make."
She added that it was difficult to "stumble" onto the sites,
because internet users have to
click past a description and often another home page before
the actual pornography appears on the screen.
"We're not saying students
can't get access to these things
if they want to exercise their
freedom, because they can do
it in other ways," said Doyle.
"What we're proposing to
block is access to the inappropriate resources through a
Computer blocking
continued on page 3
"We need more room "
Housing problems cry for solutions
Clarion/ Photo by Matt Lang
First-year student Tim Yoder watches TV in his crowded Nelson
room. The new dorm in 1999 should relieve housing concerns.
By Shannon Donbroski
Staff Writer
The new dorm, to be completed by the fall of 1999, will
not be built in time to relieve
the frustration presently felt
by students as they apply for
next year's housing.
"All of my roommates in
our townhouse this year want
to stay together, and we knew
it was unlikely to get another
townhouse for the fall," said
sophomore Melissa Johnson.
"We decided to not even deal
with the housing problems
and find an apartment off-
campus."
The perceived problem
among sophomores and juniors is limited upperclass housing. Many sophomores also
feel forced to look off-campus
for housing due to the four-occupant limit at Fountain Terrace.
Housing Coordinator Sarah
Benson chose not to comment
on housing concerns at this
time because she said they are
difficult to address until housing applications are turned in
and numbers are calculated.
"We need to be more in-
.. Housing
continued on page 2
The Academic
Computing Services Advisory
Committee's Recommendation of
Web Site Blocking
(in part):
Whereas:
Internet access
can enhance a college education in our
information intensive age.
Internet access
can also bring an entirely new "environment" onto our campus and especially
into residence halls,
components of
which are not in
keeping with the
mission of Bethel
College or our Covenant/or Life Together
(e.g. pornography
and gambling).
We the members
of ACSAC recommend that access be
blocked at Bethel's
internet gateway to
all obscene, pornographic, and gambling internet materials.
Brushaber signs statement of Christianity and Culture
By Kara Miller
Staff Writer
Bethel College and Seminary President George K.
Brushaber was one of the religious dignitaries who signed
a declaration calling Christians to active participation in
American culture.
"The statement is a call for
a much more articulate, forceful participation by Christian
believers in the debates of
public policy from which we
have too often hidden ourselves," said Brushaber. "This
is intended to offer a word of
affirmation and correction; a
redirection of our country and
our society."
The statement, entitled
"We Hold These Truths: A
Statement of Christian Con
science and Citizenship" was
published last October in the
'First
First printed in "First Things" October 1997
"...Let no one mistake this statement as an instance of special pleading for Christians or
even for religious people more generally. Our purpose is to revitalize a polity in which all
the people of 'we the people' are full participants. Let no one fear this call for our fellow
Christians to more vibrantly exercise their citizenship responsibilities. We reject the idea
that ours should be declared a 'Christian' nation. We do not seek a sacred public square but
a civil public square. We strongly affirm the separation of church and state, which must
never be interpreted as the separation of religion from public life. Knowing that the protection of minorities is secure only when such protections are supported by the majority, we
urge Christians to renewed opposition to every form of invidious prejudice or discrimination; In the civil public square we must all respectfully engage one another in civil friendship as we deliberate and decide how we ought to order our life together.
...We are agreed that—whether the question be protection of the unborn, providing for
the poor, restoring the family, or racial justice—we can and must bring law and public
policy into greater harmony with the 'laws of nature and of nature's God.'"
0
Christian   journal,
Things."
The editors of "First
Things" stated, '"We Hold
These Truths' represents an
unprecedented range of Christian leadership addressing together a question of great public moment."
"We Hold These Truths" is
built on the foundation constructed by the Declaration of
Independence over 200 years
ago. Challenging the reign of
laws and courts over public
life, it encourages Christians to
actively claim responsibility
Brushaber
continued on page 2