Local News

St. Cloud State smacked with $1 million suit settlement

A class-action settlement waiting approval by a federal judge would cost Minnesota more than $1 million and require an overhaul of St. Cloud State University’s affirmative action office and its hiring and promotion of faculty.

The proposed settlement, the nation’s first based on anti-Semitism at a state university, would also require the university to open a center for Jewish Studies on campus.

For me there is a vindication … a moral victory, former history professor at St. Cloud State Arie Zmora said. Now the issue is to hold these people in a position of authority accountable.

Zmora is one of three professors who sued the university last year, alleging anti-Semitism. The lawsuit alleges that department administrators disparaged classes taught by Jewish faculty and that the university paid Jewish faculty less, denied them promotions and didn’t give them full credit for previous teaching experience.

St. Cloud State is Minn.’s second-largest public university.

University president Roy Saigo said that he deeply regrets anti-Semitic acts that occurred on campus. He added later that we will not tolerate these kinds of behaviors in the future.

However, the university refuses to admit guilt. Two of the three individuals named in the lawsuit, including a dean, still work at the university.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order to ensure that Jewish faculty and students face no more hostility. As part of the settlement, the court would have jurisdiction over the university for one year.

Complaints of racism on St. Cloud’s campus, comprised of 18,401 students, have been raised for over a decade.

National News

Bush doubts humans influence global warming

The Bush administration released a plan Tuesday for researching climate change and its causes over the next five years. Critics claim the plan is a move to delay the toughest decision on global warming until after President Bush leaves office.

The plan calls for more accurate projections of the potential economic impacts of climate—policy changes and gives the White House more control over the research efforts of more than twelve federal agencies.

For many climate experts, the administration’s latest strategy re–opens questions most scientists considered already settled. It ignores the Environmental Protection Agency’s published findings in 2000 from a ten-year federal assessment of potential impacts of climate change around the United States.

The research plan says that people are clearly agents of environmental change but that the degree to which human activities are causing changes such as global warming are unclear.

John Marburger, the President’s science-and-technology adviser, said Bush wants to know more about how much human impact on climate is too much rather than rush to decisions that could bankrupt the U.S. economy.

Jane Bloomfield, a senior scientist for Environmental Defense, said: The plan would be a great plan if it were written ten years ago. But we have moved on since then.

International News

Greenland elections lean towards independence move

The winners of Greenland’s general elections both advocate greater independence from Denmark. Voter turnout this year of Greenland’s 39,000 voters was 75 percent.

The ruling Siumut party and Inuit Atagatigiit (Inuit Brotherhood) got more than 50 percent of the vote and will have a majority in the parliament of the sparsely-populated Arctic island if they can form a coalition.

They are also likely to demand a renegotiation of agreement with the U.S. concerning American bases on the island.

The Democrats, a new party that focuses on strengthening Greenland’s economy before any move toward independence, also fared well in the election.

Siumut had been in power for the past 23 years and is believed to favor the Inuit Brotherhood over the Democrats as candidates for a possible coalition.

The new leader, Hans Enoksen, is pro-independence, so may cooperate with the Inuit Brotherhood, but scandals over government salaries have come between the two parties. The founder of the Democrats has been excluded from the Siumut … they will form an alliance with anyone, a government official said.

The Inuit Brotherhood wants a 2005 referendum to determine what level of independence Greenland should seek.

It is currently unclear who will become Greenland’s new head of state after the vote for the 31-seat parliament. Premier Jonathan Motzfeldt has not stepped down and could form a new government, although the Siumut party is a bit divided about independence.

While all parties seek independence, the difference lies on whether or not social and economic problems should be corrected first. Currently Greenland has a cradle-to-grave system of social benefits and annually receives $375 million from Denmark.

Pro-independence politicians claim that by raising the rent on the U.S.’s air base they will raise the money needed to operate independently. The base has raised concerns about a planned increase in ballistic missile defense that will place Greenland in the firing line of any future conflict.

Greenland is classified as a self-governing dependency and has been ruled by Denmark since 1721. The Danes still control Greenland’s foreign affairs.

Thousands demonstrate in Haiti

On Tuesday, Dec. 3, police fired tear gas to break up demonstrations across the country by thousands of antigovernment protesters, as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s supporters wielded whips and hurled rocks.

Protesters called for immediate elections and better living conditions. They paraded through streets demanding an end to Aristide’s government and justice in the death of journalist Brignol Lindor who was hacked to death a year ago by Aristide supporters.

I came to shout ‘Down with Aristide ’ said 12-year-old david Merisier. We can’t eat. We can’t go to school. We’re tired of Aristide.

Pressure has been mounting on Aristide’s government, which has been stymied by a lack of international aid and investment and growing poverty. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2005.

Classes were canceled and businesses were closed for protests, which took place on the one-year anniversary of Lindor’s killing outside Petit-Goave, Haiti.

Lindor was slain after he allowed opposition politicians on his talk show. Yesterday many of the same opposition leaders spoke on the radio calling for justice.

Lindor’s death is something that has affected the national consciousness of Haiti, Arbrun Alizy, director of Radio Echo, which Lindor once ran, said. There still has not been any justice.

This government accepts no form of dissent. That’s what is called a dictatorship, opposition politician Rene Theodore said.