Page 88 - ThePhoenix1993-94

sent were the squirrels who chased According to the student who detected in 1993 when administra- By GRETA POWELL was the 'writer, editor, photogra- tors started leaving by the handful. Opl"i", .. fEdil",J"bEdllo' me through out my college years. On October 9,2014; Ireturned to I was beginning to wonder if I pher, and layout artist of the lone It all started when Director of Hous- my alma mater, WMC, for my had come on the wrong day, when I newspaper article: ing, Joanne Goldwater, left the com- twenty year college Homecoming noticed a copy of The Phoenix skit- "I am the last surviving WMC fort of WMC to become the Director reunion. I was excited about seeing tering in the wake of one of the tum- student. By the time anyone reads of Residence Life at St. Mary's Col- old friends and reminiscing about bleweeds. I successfully extracted this article, I will no longer he here, lege. A worldwide replacement those good old college days. Iknew the document from the clutches of and WMC will no longer be listed in search is still being conducted as I something was amis when I arrived. the wind, and began reading in the Barron's Guide to American Col- write this article. Then Dean David Seligman left rather unexpectedly. on campus, and had no trouble find- hopes of finding out why the campus leges and Universities. The Green Dean Joan Coley filled his position, ing a parking space not located in a was completely desolate. To my Terror will have secured his place in but then her position was left tow-away zone. I attributed it to horror, Irealized that I did not come the Westminster City Morgue. unfilled. Later that same year, Dr. good luck and timing, and decided on the wrong day. In fact, it was the And what caused this terrible Jennie Mingolelli, Vice President to tour the campus to see wbat had right day, and I was in the right tragedy? No, it was not the bubonic for Administration and Finance, left changed. place. And, no I was not dreaming. plague or a nuclear holocaust. It for the greener battlefields of As I walked through the once vi- However, Homecoming had been was a rare, insidious strand of the brant quad, I was greeted by a few cancelled when the college ceased to dreaded DEPARTURE virus, unde- Gettysburg College. were Just as the administrators randomly blowing tumbleweeds, exist in September of 2014, accord- tected by Smith House profession- afflicted by the virus, so to were the dust covered books scattered here ing to The Phoenix. article I was now als, which infected administrators, professors. At the end of the 1993- and there, and decade old alcoholic reading with ever growing trepida- professors, and students alike. 1994 academic school year, several beverage containers. Nonceably ab- tion. The effects of the virus were first professors opted for a 'terminal sab- Saving A Starfish Matters batical' . Alas, the students were not invin- cible as they thought. They too suc- cumbed to the DEPARTURE virus. Not only do the animals benefit, but tested on animals. A vivid example of By ERIC WAGNER you will too in your life. how one did make a difference is Their immune systems were weak- S,af/W,i, .. ened by the rationing of medication As I was strolling along the For instance, animals raised for food L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics (scholarships), limit one acadymyc beach I saw in the distance a girl account for 95 percent of the six billion company, whichfinally decided to per- pill and a bottle of needobysyd pills whose actions were quite strange. warm-blooded, feeling animals that are manenUy cease all animal tests after per student. Students fell prey to tbe I thought she was drunk or just stu- killed in the United States each year. public pressure. L'Orea1joins the over dreaded DEPARTURE virus in in- 500 other companies who stopped ani- pid. As I got closer to the person I Our meat-based diets cause the destruc- any ani- creasing numbers each year. As noticed she was neither. She was tion of millions of acres of virgin land mal tests or never performed they left, they took pieces of the col- picking up starfish from the beach, that are converted to grazing land and mal tests at all. lege with' them to remind them of where thousands have been cropland to feed farm animals, both in Just as cosmetic testing involving their times at WMC. The departures stranded by low tide, and was the U.S. and abroad. The biodiversity of animals is on the decline so is fur- continued just as regularly as the throwing them back, one by one, the area is forever destroyed. Raising wearing. People are beginning to rec- bells atop Big Baker Chapel chimed, animals instead of plants and grains ognize that fur is no longer fashionable until alas the bells left too. supports world famine. For example, a because of the cruelty involved, And wbat became of our inesti- plot of land can feed twelve people who whether the animal is trapped or ranch mable President, the esteemed, and eat grains but only one person for con- raised. Once again, an example of a world renowned Dr. Bob Chambers? sumption of an animal. The consump- difference being made, the U.S. largest Well, he went to WMCB (Western tion of animal products has been conclu- fur chain, Evans, closed 34 stores in the Maryland College Budapest) in a fu- sively linked with heart disease, cancer; last two years and Baltimore has seen tile effort to escape the DEPAR- diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis. the elimination of Mano Swartz plus TURE virus. Cut out eating or reduce animals in your two more minor furriers. Now, I am the lone survivor, but diet, and not only can you make a differ- So in closing, what I am basically my resistance is wearing thin. I fear ence to the animals but to yourself and trying to say is that before one is ca- it will not be much longer before I the environment as well. pable of changing the world, one has to too fall victim to this loathsome vi- Another thing one can do to save ant- change oneself and act upon it. Re- rus. So, WMC alums, when you find Cartoon By Beth Daigle mals and make a difference is instead of member, no act of kindness, no matter your vibrant and vivacious campus into the ocean. buying cosmetics and household prod- how small, is ever wasted. of old resembles the Ghost Towns of I asked why she was undertak- ucts made from slaughterhouse remains If anyone has any questions, wants the Old West, do not be alarmed, for ing such a task and she replied that or LD-50 tests, one could buy "cruelty- any information or wants to become this too shall pass." if she does not, the starfish will free" products. "Cruelty-free" cosmet- more involved with helping animals Saddened by the apparent death certainly die. Being the apathetic ics and household products are usually and at the same time people, drop me a of my glorious alma mater, I decided person I am, I scoffed and in- made of natural ingredients and are not note: mailbox #1143. to pay my respects to the crowning formed her that there are miles achievement of my time: The WMC and miles of beach and tens of Hoover Library. To my amazement, thousands of starfish and she can the library had departed, but left be- not possibly believe that what she hind was the life safety gate wbich was doing will make a difference. had obviously failed to save the last The girl paused and thought about of the WMC students. I paid hom- my observation. Then, picking up age to the gate, and then walked for- another starfish from the beach, lornly back to my car. From afar, I she told me, as she threw the star- recognized a tluttermg piece of pink fish back into the water, "It will ...;..,,,'.' paper attached to my windshield, make a difference to this one." and some of that old WMC Green The philosophy of animal ,._;:t,crror,spiritreturned. Indeed, there rights is basically similar to the ~as hope for I had been ticketed for above story. The suffering and n~t having the correct parking per- injustices of the world seem so overwhelming at times, which lead us to believe that one is pow- erless to make a difference; there- fore, we do nothing. However; people who advocate animal rights believe that the suffering of animals can be alleviated by sim- ply changing your everyday life. Cartoon By Beth Daigle