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International News

Mass Death Sentence in Egypt

An Egyptian court on Monday, February 1st 2015, sentenced 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death. The court proceedings were held over the killing of 11 police officers in the violence that had engulfed Egypt after the 2013 dismissal of the former Islamist president, President Mohammed Morsi.

The attack took place after Egyptian military forces cracked down on Islamist supporters of Morsi in July 2013. Egyptian security forces descended onto two pro-Morsi camps in July and August 2013, killing hundreds.

JoePoyfairAt the end of July and beginning of August 2013, hundreds of demonstrators were killed by Egyptian security forces. The Human Rights Watch said that this mass killing of protesters “probably amounts to crimes against humanity,” thus creating an international outcry that was quickly quieted by the Egyptian government.

The United Nations has called the trials “unprecedented.” Amnesty International’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said in a statement in response to Monday’s verdict.  “The death sentences are yet another example of the bias of the Egyptian criminal justice system.”

Sahraoui further stated that “issuing mass death sentences whenever the case involves the killing of police officers now appears to be near-routine policy, regardless of facts and with no attempt to establish individual responsibility.”

The original trial saw 377 people sentenced to life in prison in absentia, while not present at the event being referred to.  Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said it would be wrong to impose the capital punishment “when there are serious doubts hanging over the fairness of the trial which disregarded international law.”

The Egyptian court did not put 183 individuals to death lightly. The Egyptian government has been attempting to fight against terrorism in Egypt. Muslim extremism has seen an increase in central Egypt in the past decade, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been fighting against these extremists.

Egypt’s current government, led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has called for a ‘religious revolution’ and asked Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism. President el-Sisi has launched a war against terrorism, focusing particularly on the countries Sinai region, where an extremist group recently pledged allegiance to ISIS.

In an act of counter extremism, Egyptian authorities cracked down in 2013 on former supporters of Morsi, a longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government had officially declared a terrorist organization in December 2013

In a speech on New Year’s Day, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for a “religious revolution” in Islam that would displace violent jihad from the center of Muslim discourse. “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people should want to kill the rest of the world’s population, [which] is 7 billion people, so that they themselves may live?” President el-Sisi asked.

“We have to think hard about what we are facing,” President el-Sisi said. “It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing, and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible.”

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News

Obama Proposes Free Community College

Last week in the State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama outlined America’s College Promise, a plan to “lower the cost of community college — to zero.”

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the proposal aims to waive tuition for community college students who maintain a minimum 2.5 GPA and “make steady progress toward completing their program.” The plan applies to both half-time and full-time students and includes certificate, associate, and bachelor’s degrees. The plan would cost the federal government an estimated $60-billion over ten years, which would cover 75% of projected costs, while participating states would be asked to fund the other 25%.

358209_Obama-Community-College.18Dr. Linda Mills Woolsey, Dean of the College, who said she has “mixed feelings” about the plan, described it as a “well-intentioned” attempt to “meet a projected education gap” and to “make sure that there’s access to education for people from all economic backgrounds.” Woolsey said doing this solely through the community college system, however, encourages the mass-production of education,“we’re imagining a kind of Henry Ford type way to get students through their first couple years of education.”

Eric Currie, Vice President for Enrollment Management, said while initially the plan might “create a challenging moment” for Houghton, the already existing “great transfer processes” Houghton has with community colleges will be an important asset. Currie said Houghton is likely to continue to prioritize the continued development of online programs and of the Buffalo campus of Houghton, both of which more closely meet the needs of the demographic of students primarily targeted by America’s College Promise.

President Shirley Mullen said her primary concern is the current prominence of cost in the dialogue about higher education would make it “easy for the idea of a free two-year college to just be too tempting for students for whom that really isn’t the best option and not the only option,” and usually the rhetoric about cost “underestimates the impact of [four year] education on even one’s financial resources over the long haul.” She described a sadness in the potential loss, not just for Houghton, but for all students pursuing higher education if the proposal draws students away from four-year learning communities that in general provide “a more coherent education overall.” However, Mullen also said, “we would like to have more transfer students” as they often bring a greater appreciation for Houghton and a more focused drive. Currently, transfer students make up 18% of incoming students and 15% of the student body.

Currie said while he supports anything that will bring education to more people, he would have liked to see the government offer to pay two years of tuition for eligible students at any college that was able to meet a given price cap. “I would say challenge us all to rise to the occasion. Not just community colleges,” said Currie. “Challenge whoever is willing to go and make it happen…I think that that edifies some of the best things about our society which is innovation, entrepreneurship…and the kind of take charge personality, and yet still meeting people’s needs.”

The needs of the people are not just financial. Woolsey said she embraces the social good of widely-available free education, but is not sure “it will do what we want it to do if in the process we lose the richness and variety of higher education.”  Woolsey said, “These small private colleges and even some of the midsized, private Christian colleges offer an education that’s more varied, sometimes more creative, and certainly more focused on the individual.”

Though at this point it seems highly unlikely that the proposal will make it through congress any time soon, Currie said, “Whether it’s President Obama or the next President or the President after that, I think that something like this is going to come through…it’s on the radar in the federal government and in the state governments that they feel that they really want to have an impact on this issue, and I think they feel it’s important.”

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News

SGA Restructures as Council

 

The Houghton Student Government Association (SGA) has eliminated senator positions in an effort to build a more efficient representative system. This new Council supplants the Senate. It comes as a reaction to the low enrollment that Houghton has seen over the past few years and decreased participation in the SGA.

Senior, Wynn Horton, executive officer of committees, explains, “Two years ago the Senate and Cabinet of the SGA were the two separate bodies that made up the SGA. This meant each class had 3 representatives, there were 8 general representatives, and then the additional Cabinet members. Last year, we attempted to more accurately represent the ‘representative districts’ on campus by adjusting to a system of dorm and academic department reps.

“After spending most of last year with numerous vacancies and poor efficiency in the Senate structure, they voted to attempt another restructuring – this time much smaller and more consolidated than before. This idea would eliminate the separate Senate and Cabinet structures and create an Executive Council comprised of six generally elected executive officers, four class-elected representatives, a vice president, and a president.”

AnthonyBurdo_SGAThe intent of this restructuring is to increase competition for positions by reducing the supply to match demand. A smaller council will be able to work more effectively because it will not have as much of a need for structural decorum. Members will be able to more easily work out solutions to class issues as well as make decisions on club funding and committees.

While eliminating the senatorial positions, the SGA has created several new and focused positions for the Council. This group oversees all classes through their respective class presidents as well as by direct means. As it stands, it consists of 12 positions: general president and vice President, one president for each class, as well as executive officers of finance, committees, spiritual life, communications, non-traditional students, and student life. Each class president oversees a class cabinet that works to help individual years and puts on class-wide events. The Council also oversees five council committees and 13 committees led by the SGA and the college.

Horton described the role of the SGA in coming years, “As the college grows and determines what form it shall take in the world of higher education, the student government must be prepared to assist in these changes as best they can. It was generally thought to be in the best interest to condense the empty positions and strengthen what remained. Structures will, as the college will, change with time. We can only hope that for now, we have made the decisions that will be the best for not only this student body, but for many to come.”

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SGA Proposes Major Structural Changes

After years of running on its current two-party system, the Student Government Association (SGA) voted Wednesday night to eliminate its Senate positions and will be passing the motion onto the student body for approval.

sgaSerious conversations about changes in structure began after SGA expanded its senate from 19 to 24 members at the end of the 2012-2013 academic year. The expansion, which was intended to draw in students from previously unrepresented or underrepresented disciplines on campus, resulted instead in a large number of empty seats. “I think that was a time for us to watch and see how student government went,” said Greg Bish, director of student programs. “I think that was the beginning of this conversation about what student government is effective in doing right now. That conversation has initiated coming up with options.”

With input from Bish as well as Robert Pool, vice president for student life, SGA originally worked with three potential models for next year’s government structure. The first option was a resumption of the current model with a senate reduced to 12 members, while the second under consideration called for a model with no cabinet or Senate. Rather, cabinet and senate work would be accomplished by committees populated by class cabinet members.

A third model, the model currently under consideration by SGA, involved an elimination of the student senate and the instatement of one class representative per graduating class. Under the second model, the cabinet would also be altered from six positions to eight, removing the speaker of the Senate; bringing in an executive officer of student life, an officer of committees, and an officer representing nontraditional students; and replacing the chaplain position with an executive officer of spiritual life. Class cabinets will have their senator positions removed and are encouraged to downsize further.

“My role is asking them ask the good questions,” explained Bish, “but it’s their role to figure out how to restructure.” He added, “The CCCU [Council for Christian Colleges and Universities] has a Listserv and there are people that are constantly asking these questions. They ask what everybody is doing at their schools. We’re not the only ones going through this.”

According to Bish, important questions revolve around the current purpose of student government on the Houghton campus. “Last year, the perception of the role of the student government was that it was to protect the students from the administration, and that is a very old model versus partnering together to put student input into the student experience, which is the organic model that students want.”

Pool made comparisons with SGA’s previous performance. “Last year, I would say there was quite a bit more dialogue and proposals for change and legislation,” he said. “This year it seems to, for whatever reason, not have been as active. It ebbs and flows.”

One recent issue involving student dialogue concerned an SGA-drafted resolution addressing the vandalism of the Shades of Black exhibit, which was intended to serve as a condemnation of the action on behalf of Houghton students. The organization voted to withhold the document from distribution amongst the student body, opting instead to share the statement with President Mullen and her staff, Bish, Pool, and Dean Mills Woolsey so as to refrain from “inciting further conflict” over the issue.

SGA President Ben Hardy explained the implications of the vote, saying, “I think it’s indicative of the system we have right now not being functional because senators don’t feel that they speak for the student body enough to tell the student body what they said, and that’s a really big problem. That alone is indication that something needs to change, whether it’s the membership or the structure.”

“To be honest, it perplexes me why they would create a resolution and not share it with the student body,” added Pool. “We try to model Christ in many ways to minimize conflict, but sometimes the greatest strides and growth happen with conflict, with civil conflict, with civil discourse, and creating a resolution is civil discourse.”

As part of an effort to uphold transparency and include civil discourse via student input, SGA held a meeting Wednesday night for members to vote on the new government structure for next year from the two approved options. However, non-member student presence was minimal. “I don’t think students take advantage of the things which are there which allow transparency,” said Hardy. “Senate meetings are open—anyone can come to Senate, anyone can talk at Senate. However, because [we have] an inefficient system, people don’t really feel like it’s necessarily worth their time.”

Final voting on the new system resulted in 19 in support of the new structure with two against. Non-member students will be able to vote in an online poll, choosing to approve or reject the new structure, starting from Friday afternoon to Wednesday before campus closing time.

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News

Federal Government Shuts Down

On September 30 this week, at the stroke of midnight, the federal government shut down.

This circumstance is not new to American history. The United States has gone through many partial and full government shutdowns, the most recent occasion taking place in 1995-1996 when Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House and President Clinton was in office. This latest incident, however, involved not only a disagreement between Republicans and Democrats on how to best fund the government, but revealed a growing rift within the GOP as well.

Courtesy of cnn.com
Courtesy of cnn.com

In short, Congress was supposed to approve a budget by 11:59 p.m. on September 30, but failed to do so. This was because Congress could not agree on appropriations bills required. In fact, congressional leaders had seen this trouble coming for a few weeks. As time was beginning to run out, House Republicans proposed a temporary budget plan (what is called a “stopgap measure”) that would give them more time to create a full one. However this plan was created to appeal directly to the hardliners of the party and their conservative base by calling for the defunding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also called Obamacare), the new healthcare plan that was due to take place on October 1, both in exchange for keeping the government running for a few more months. Democrats were overwhelmingly opposed to defunding ACA, as this is President Obama’s keystone legislation, and refused to pass the stopgap measure unless this was stripped from it. In the end, the debate continued and both the House and the Senate voted several more times, but nothing was passed and no agreement was ever reached. The government thus shut down after the due date on October 1.

So what does a government shutdown actually mean? It means that although not all government functions will cease to operate, there will be significant cuts and furloughs across all federal agencies. In sum, according to the Washington Post, an estimated 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed without pay and almost every agency from the Education Department to the FDA will be reduced in some way. National parks, Smithsonian museums, and national monuments will also be closed. Meanwhile, various other government programs, such as the WIC program, will be running on reserve funding, until the government can resolve the budget issue.

The longest that the US has experienced a government shutdown has been three weeks. In normal circumstances, the party that is undergoing the most fallout and political pressure as a result of the shutdown will begin to offer concessions. Many speculate, however, that the high level of partisanship and congressional gridlock experienced in D.C. these past few years (and recent weeks) will protract negotiations. Neither side seems willing to budge and, meanwhile, Republicans seem to be caught in a moment of disunity between the more conservative members of the party and the more moderate members which should add an extra complexity to the negotiations.

Of course, not all federal functions have disappeared. Functions that relate to the well-being of citizens and the security of the country are still being allowed to continue. For example, air traffic controllers will continue working, Social Security checks will continue to be delivered to the elderly, veterans’ hospitals will remain open, and operations like border patrol will remain in place.

Americans on the whole do not approve of the shutdown, with most placing the majority of the blame at the Republicans’ feet. Whether this will be enough to galvanize political leaders to come to a compromise, however, is anyone’s guess.