The Pen
November 1998
Falcon
Speak Out!
Should
President
Bill Clinton
be impeached?
Timothy Bias
Sophomore
“Clinton, should not be im
peached, even though he did not
handle the situation appropri-
Tasha Allen
Sophomore
“No, because his personal life
has not affect his job as the presi
dent. Overall, he is a dynamic
man to be reckoned with. ”
Steven Diggs
Senior
“No, he should not, because it
is not affecting his job. His per
sonal affairs should not be a pub
lic issue and should have been
kept out of the public eye. ”
Ryan Robinson
Senior
ately in the beginning, he did in
the end. He apologized and the
blood is now off his hand. ”
(Compiled by Pebbles Garrett)
‘Four letter word*
takes over classroom
Have you ever gone to a class and had a professor
who felt as if he or she could say whatever they
wanted?
They constantly use languages that are in my opin
ion unnecessary in helping me understand the course
in which they teach.
If I have to go to class and act pro
cessional, then so should those who
call themselves professors.
If you are like me, then you can
probably do without the profanity
used in the classroom setting.
I have one teacher, who uses pro
fane language habitually during
class.
One day he said to the class that
he doesn’t use profanity to be offen
sive, but only because it expresses his
point better.
Well, that certainly was an intelli
gent answer. Hello, have you ever
heard of a THESAURUS?
Now it would seem to me that
if he wants to express a thought
or an idea that he would at least be able
to do so in a manner that is suitable
for a classroom envionment.
Teachers that I have had in the past suggested that I
should build my vocabulary, but I definitely don’t
think that is what they had in mind.
Just in case you are a teacher who is wondering if I
Jocqueline Protho
Guest Columnist
am talking about you, then you must be guilty.
I want to let you “guilty” teachers know, that not
everyone in your classes use profanity. Some of you
instructors think that nothing is wrong with the way
you speak in your classes, but don’t assume that it is
okay because you are the teacher
and I am the student.
Respect me and the other stu
dents who are in your classes to
learn something other than how
not to act. Be more considerate
in the choice of words that you
speak, because you might be of
fensive to others.
Here is a little piece of advice in
case you find that you can’t help
yourself
In order to make sure that you
don’t offend anyone, it would be
wise if you would keep the street
' speech where it belongs. In the
street!
Now on a positive note, I gen
erally think that all of you who
are instructors are very good at
your jobs. Just remember, you
are in positions as mentors to me as well as other
young adults. Don’t let me leave St. Augustine’s
College with the idea that the only way that I can
use to get a point across is if I use a nice “four letter
word.”
Every generation has its own
struggle in a world such as this
From U-Wire
Things aren’t the way they used to
be. Have you ever heard that from
grandam, grandpa, a teacher, a par
ent of your roommate? They sit
down and complain about how un
disciplined kids are today and how
much harder it was to live back in
the ‘50s, ‘30s, 19th or I4th centu
ries. It’s true that things aren’t the
way they used to be. They’ve
changed. They haven’t always
changed for the better, but they’ve
changed.
People since the beginning of his
tory have been complaining about
how bad things are in their current
time and how they must have once
been better.
The Garden of Eden is probably
the most powerful and well-known
version of this idea. Long ago, there
was a perfect place where man coex
isted with God in perfect harmony
with nature. But something hap
pened, and now we live in this
screwed up place. So let’s get really
upset about how we aren’t in para
dise anymore and construct some
really draconian laws so that we can
make ourselves good enough to get
back to it. (I’ve oversimplified, but
you catch the gist.)
I don’t mean to say that the Gar
den of Eden is a somehow a point
less story — in fact I think quite the
opposite — but it has this “back in
the day” or “since the world I live in
now sucks so much, it must have been
better before” quality to it. Why must
things have been so much better be
fore?
Life and history haven’t ever taught
us (unless you’ve been asleep) that at
one time everything was perfect and
now it’s the pit of despair. No. There
are good times and bad times, and we
just have to live through them.
“Kids today have no worries.” A
man once told me that we kids don’t
try hard enough. We don’t put in the
elbow grease that his generation did
and we sure aren’t as smart. He said
that all that kids are interested in were
drugs and sex. We have no interest in
personal integrity, community value
or morality. We haven’t had a Great
Depression or a World War to be
drafted into. I agreed with him on
those points. How could I not?
But what he had failed to recognize
is that we have had to grow up in the
wreckage of his generation just as he
had to grow up in the wreckage of his
parents’ generation. Has he had to
grow up in a world with AIDS, ter
rorism and light-speed technological
progress? No.
An older gentlemen also told me
that “The ‘A’ is not worth as much as
it used to be.” He said that children
today aren’t learning as much as they
used to. “Really?” I said. Today we
no longer learn Virgil, Homer and
Plato. We aren’t learning history as
well as we used to. Our reading com
prehension is lower than his
generation’s was. Is that our fault
or the fault of our teachers? Nei
ther. The statement is bull.
In a world of extraordinarilay
fast-paced progress, we learn how
to operate computers, take intro
ductory classes in physis and as
tronomy that are more in-depth
than our parents’ classes were.
The “A” hasn’t had to be deval
ued, we’ve just had to learn differ
ent things.
So, for all of you people out
there who are so convinced that
we live in a world of educational
and moral deficency that has aban
doned its history of paradise, think
again.
What mistakes did you make
when you were young. Did you
ever vandalize? Get drunk? Have
pre-martial sex? Flunk a test? Dis
respect an elder? I bet you did.
Maybe you didn’t use the means
that we have today, but in essence
you did the same things.
Things are very much the same.
We still struggle. The things that
we struggle with today have dif
ferent faces on the surface, but
they are very much the same.
They are grief, pain, fear, anxiety
and hopelessness.
So don’t go running around tell
ing us that the world is so much
easier than it was because you
haven’t grown up in this one.
You’ve made it. And we’ll make
one too.
By Shontia Taylor
Guest Columnist
End to the
long lines in
Financial Aid
I have been working in the
Financial Aid Office (FAO) here
at St. Augustine’s College for the
past three years as a work study
student.
The FAO, is an office where
students go to receive aid for the
semester which includes: several
grants, SEOG, and the William
D. Ford Stafford Loan. These
types of aid are offered to only
those students who qualify.
. Many of you students think
the FAO is often time unfair and
bias. During registration the fi
nancial aid line always seem to
be the longest out of the rest,
and the weird process of coun
selors seeing students seem more
unbearable as well.
When a student finally reaches
a counselor they expect all their
aid to be ready and waiting with
a stroke of a pen, knowing that
the counselor will make the im
possible, possible. NOT!, bet
ter luck next semester.
Who is to blame for you pay
ing those outrageous prices
at the agreement office?
Who is at fault, because you
have to stand in long lines at
registration?
Are the counselors who work
so hard and diligently at send
ing you letter after letter, hold
flagging you in the cafeteria, and
even chasing you down them
selves for you to get your paper
work in order to blame. I don’t
think so. The blame is put all
on you my reticent pal. If you
do your homework then we in
the FAO will take care of you.
Now, just to give you some
information on what is needing
so that the counselors here don’t
have to listen to another sob
story, because we’ve just about
heard them all.
For every school year one has
to complete a new institutional
application along with the Free
Application For Federal Student
Aid (FAFSA). Those students
who are not US citizens would
need to complete an interna
tional application and don’t for
get your parents tax informa
tion.
What many of you students
fail to realize is that, financial aid
is here to help the students who
want to help themselves. Also,
aid is on a first come first serve
basis. So if you snooze, you will
definitely loose.
Take advantage of the various
workshops that are offered
throughout the year, and apply
for aid as soon as possible; NOT
DURING REGISTRATION!
If everyone will do their part
then the line that everyone com
plains about will be obsolete.