VMI Cadet. Septmber 11, 1987

              Jack'em Up J J . Go Twelfth Man
Qlfae 1 A (Eabet America's Last Independent College Newspaper
VOLUME L X X V I 11 Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, September n , 1987 N U M B E R 3
Visiting History
Professor
by: R. BrianMcCormack
This semester a new history
course was added, only for the
Fall of '87. The history course,
entitled Hi 490-Cold War
Diplomacy, taught by visiting
professor Dr. Norman A.
Graebner.
Dr. Graebner comes to VMI
prior to his nineteen years at
UVa, where he retired. Pro-fessor
Graebner also taught at
the University of Illinois and
Iowa State University.
Dr. Graebner's educational
background began at
Milwaukee State Teachers Col-lege
(now University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee) where
he received his B.A. From there
Professor Graebner went on to
receive his Masters at the
University of Oklahoma and
finally a Ph.D. at the University
of Chicago.
Professor Graebner has lec-tured
at some 200 colleges and
universities in the United
States, Western Europe, and
Far East. After 39 years of col-lege
teaching, and class sizes
averaging between 200-500
students, Professor Graebner
considers his HI 490 class exc-cptionaly
small, with the one
and only section consisting of
approximately sixty-five
cadets. By Institute standards
sixty-five cadets per class is a
monsterous number when com-pared
to an idealistic class size
of 20 cadets. Professor
Gcaeluier, turned down the Air
Force Academy to teach at
VMI, the reason being that VMI
is only an hour away from his
home in dlharlottesville. For the
same reason, next semester
Professor Graebner will teach
the same history course at
William and Mary.
General Committee
Initiates Changes
by: Ned Cox
The 1987-88 General Commit-tee
(GO has implimented two
new policies which should make
the GC more efficient and more
fair. These policies are the new
Executive Committee (EC) set-up
and the list of penalties.
Last year, there were pro-blems
at EC meetings when-ever
a tie arose because it gave
the first class President two
votes. In order to change this in-justice,
another first classmen
has been added to the EC. By
having an additional member,
the first class retains its votes
while, at the same time, allow-ing
the first class president to
remain neutral. Now if there is
a tie, the first class president
breaks the tie by casting his
first (and only) vote, thus
eliminating the two vote stan-dard
that has been used in
previous years.
At the end of last semester,
the class officers of '88, '89, and
'90 met and decided upon a list
of penalties. This list was made
in the hopes of eliminating
favoritism towards classmates
and inconsistent penalties. In
the old system, when a cadet
came up to the GC, there were
no guidelines to limit his penal-ty.
With this list of penalties,
there is already a predetermin-ed
range for penalties the cadet
can possibly receive. With this
list, inconsistent penalties and
favoritism towards classmates
will become a thing of the past.
These two policy changes will
ake this year's GC more effec-tive
and more consistent, thus
resulting in better meetings.
The first meeting of the year
proved the system works, as it
went smoother and faster than
meetings last year.
by: Chris Engel
Last week the Corps had a
check formation for a lecture on
Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome. The speaker was
Doctor Richard P. Keeling, the
Director of Student Health at
the University of Virginia.
Although most people would
think that a lecture about AIDS
would be useless here at VMI,
they are wrong. What was oace
considered strictly a gay or
drug users problem is fast
becoming a universal danger,
threatening people of all
classes, creeds, and
backgrounds. The Center for
Disease Control in Atlanta
predicts that more people will
die of AIDS in 1991, than died in
the Vietnam war. With
statistics like that, everyone
should worry, even those of us
who think "It'll never happen to
me." That's the same thing tHat
the 423 reported AIDS victims
in Virginia said too!
To best protect yourself
against this disease you need to
know how it works. AIDS is
caused by the Human Immuno-
Deficiency Virus (HIV). This
virus enters your blood stream
Aids
and attacks the cells which con-trol
the production of an-tibodies,
the cells which attack
and kill dangerous bacteria and
viruses. This leaves the body's
natural defenses down and
allows lethal diseases to occur.
At this point there is no cure
for AIDS, but as the saying goes
"an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure." This
can be taken almost literally in
this case, because the use of
condoms during sex can effec-tively
prevent the transmission
of AIDS via intercourse. The
virus exists in high concentra-tion
in male semen and female
cervical secretions, and the
barrier of latex prevents the
virus from entering the body in
this manner.
Another way in which AIDS
can be contracted is by tainted
blood entering your body. This
can be done by kissing someone
who has the virus and has either
open sores in their mouth or has
recently brushed or flossed vi-qorusly
enough to cause
bleeding, however slight. The
virus doesn't survive more than
a few milliseconds in non-living
blood, or blood which has exited
a body. In other words, you
can't catch AIDS from som-eone's
dried blood. You also
cannot catch it from someones
dried vomitus; the acid content
of the stomach destroys the
virus.
Should you catch AIDS,it
wouldn't even be detectable by
the test for three months after
the time of contraction, and if
you don't get checked up
regularly you won't know you
have it for five to seven years!
Dr. Keeling suggests that if and
when you go to get an AIDS
checkup you attend one of the
free anonymous clinics which
the government has set up in
Richmond, Charlottesville
Roanoke, D.C. and Norfolk.
Dr. Keeling's advice for the
corps is to stay healthy; a
strong body has a significantly
greater chance of resisting the
virus than a body with an
already strained or weakened
immune system. Also, his most
practical advice to the audience
here was to use condoms when
engaging in intercourse of any
kind. It definately could be the
difference between life or
death.
Virginia Program At Oxford
by: Paul R.Canada
The Virginia Program at Ox-ford
is a six week summer ses-sion
in which the participant
receives six credit hours upon
successful completion of two
classes: English literature and
English history. Both courses
cover the Elizabethan era to the
mid-17th century.
Eight VMI cadets (Coleman
Lawrence, Tom McKee, Mike
Mezzacca, Chris Mitchell, John
Paul, Sam Tate, Sam Thorpe,
and Paul Canada) along with
students from W&L, Sweet
Briar College, Mary Baldwin
College, UVa., and Roanoke
College attended V.P.O. '87 at
St. Anne's College of Oxford
University. Weekly tutorials
and daily lectures on relevant
subjects were supplemented by
group excursions to various
plays and historical sites. When
asked his evaluation of the pro-gram,
Sam "Dishpan hands"
Thorpe replied: " I feel as if I've
grown culturally and socially,
as well as academically." In ad-dition
to the two planned group
trips, most participants took in-dividual
excursions to places
such as Bath, Brighton Beach,
Edinburg, Wales and London.
Perhaps the most significant
difference in the classes at VMI
and Oxford was the tutorial
teaching system. Every week,
students would report to their
instructors with a paper for one
class and preparations for the
other. The teachers would have
a one-on-three skill session with
students. This method allows
for good communication and in-tense
learning periods. When
asked his impressions of the
tutorial style, John "Who has
time to study?" Paul, VMI '89,
whose cultural interludes were
never far between, merely
replied "Killer, brah!"
However, the V.P.O. '87 con-stituency
soon learned that Ox-ford
wasn't all work and no
play. With over 300 pubs to
chose from in greater Oxford,
the next libation was never
more than a hop, skip, and a
jump away. The program's
favorite day-to-day pub
(continued on page 6)