Student arrested for possession of drugs
20-year-old apprehended after tip from U.S. Customs agent

By Matt Jones
Staff Reporter

A 20-year-old man is no longer enrolled in classes at TCU and has been evicted from his fraternity house after he was arrested on campus last week and charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.
William Stuart Oliver of Monroe, La., was arrested Sept. 12 by Fort Worth Police, who confiscated 542 tablets of Valium, two to four ounces of marijuana and a 5 and a 1/2 inch double-bladed knife. About $1,000 was also found in a small locked box in his room.

Oliver was released from Tarrant County Jail the same day. Jail officials declined to release information regarding his release, bail or charges.

Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs, said the results of disciplinary proceedings against students are not released. However, Mills confirmed Oliver is no longer a TCU student.

“The young man has been arrested and he has been charged,” Mills said. “He is not in a position where he can deal drugs on the campus.”

David Roberts, president of Kappa Sigma fraternity, said under university action, Oliver was evicted from Tomlinson Hall and is no longer a member of the fraternity.

“This whole situation is a (personal) matter between a student and the university and (between) the person and the fraternity,” Roberts said. “The discipline of a member is a private matter.”

Police said they received a tip from U.S. Customs agent Elmore Armstrong at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, who discovered a package containing Valium shipped from Bangkok, Thailand, and addressed to Oliver.

On the morning of Sept. 12, FWPD officers, along with Armstrong, U.S. Postal Inspector Bill Vavoni and Campus Police, were stationed in and around the TCU Post Office. Acting as a TCU postal worker, Inspector Vavoni called Oliver to notify him of the package’s arrival, according to the FWPD incident report.

Oliver was arrested after leaving the post office and opening the package at a trash can in front of the Student Center, the report stated.

Mills said the penalties for drug possession could include expulsion.

The police report said Oliver voluntarily allowed officers to search his 1997 GMC pickup truck and his room in Tomlinson Hall. During the search, police found the knife in his vehicle and marijuana in his room, the report stated. Det. Kelly Ham of Campus Police said possession of a double-bladed knife is prohibited on campus.

Mills said Oliver, who was a third-year student, will be dealt with appropriately.

“With 7,000 students, it is likely at one time or another that someone will be engaged in an unlawful act,” he said.

Mills said it is believed that Oliver is staying in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with relatives.
The U.S. district attorney’s office could not be reached for comment.

Matt Jones
Matthewsjones@hotmail.com

Holocaust survivor to give speech
Wiesel tells survival story; travels to witness

By Kristina Iodice
staff reporter

Called a messenger to humanity, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel shies away from the accolades entitled to a Nobel Peace Laureate.

“I’m a teacher; I’m a witness; and that’s enough,” he said in a phone interview from Boston University.
Wiesel will speak at 8 p.m. today at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum as part of the Gates of Chai lectureship series. The topic for the evening, “The Seduction and Dangers of Fanaticism” was selected by the university, Wiesel said. He has spoken on the subject before.

“Fanaticism is always dangerous,” Wiesel said. “It implies a certain kind of knowledge.”

Born in Sighet, Romania in 1928, young Wiesel and his family were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1944. He never saw his mother and younger sister again. Wiesel and his father were eventually transported to Buchenwald, where his father died just three months before their camp was liberated.

Wiesel went to France, attended school and became a journalist. It was later that he decided to write about his experiences in the concentration camps.

“I needed a job then,” he said.

Wiesel has written more than 40 books, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

The Jewish people are historically known as the “people of the book,” Wiesel said. He has always been a writer. Yet different people may get very different things out of his books.

“My work is to write, your work is to interpret,” he said.

He eventually decided to break his silence about the Holocaust. The result was Night, which has been translated into more than 30 languages.

“Truth can be preserved by silence,” he said. “But it can be a very strange truth.”

He said silence was not the proper way to handle the story of the Holocaust. He said if he has a message, it is in his works.

Wiesel has received more than 100 honorary degrees from institutions of higher learning. Currently, he is a professor in both the religion department and the philosophy department at Boston University.

John Silber, chancellor at Boston University, recruited Wiesel as a professor. There is a real pressure to get into Wiesel’s classes, he said. Every student he speaks with calls Wiesel’s class the experience of a lifetime, he said.

“He has a wonderful way of expressing ideas,” Silber said. “He has a real understanding of students.”
Some of Wiesel’s stories are very beautiful, some are sad and others are inspiring, he said. Wiesel really wants to increase the knowledge of people and students, he said.

“You will find yourself in the presence of one of the world’s greatest storytellers,” he said.

Curt Schleier, a freelance journalist, interviewed Wiesel recently. He said he has never met someone who moved him so much.

“He is a person so pure of spirit, so righteous that I was — and I’m loathe to admit this — near tears during our conversation,” Schleier said. “He is kind and gentle and forgiving.”

Schleier described Wiesel as a mensch, a Yiddish word literally meaning man. Mensch also means an admirable and good person, Schleier said.

“If someone does a good deed, an act of kindness, one could say he’s a mensch,” he said. “By that definition, Wiesel is a mensch to the 10th power.”

Wiesel has spoken on behalf of Soviet Jews, prisoners in former Yugoslavia, famine victims in Africa and Cambodian refugees. He said he travels to teach or for human rights missions. He travels to witness, he said.

There are enough reasons to think it is a hopeless world, and as part of the world, people must humanize it, he said. The greatest threat is indifference, he said.

“Indifference means a kind of death,” he said. “A death of the heart, of the mind and of the soul.”
Wiesel also said indifference is worse than hate.

“Hate is something alien,” he said. “Hate you can stop. Indifference seeps in.”

The world is becoming numb because people are exposed to so much violence, but numbness can be fought by education, Wiesel said. Things would change if people became sensitive to others, he said.

“The other is not the enemy,” he said. “The other is a companion, a friend.”

Kristina Iodice
k.k.iodice@student.tcu.edu

Poetry in music
Chorale performs Mulholland’s pieces

By Wendy Meyer
staff reporter

The TCU Concert Chorale sang the words of poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley at Monday night’s concert in Ed Landreth Auditorium while James Mulholland, composer of the pieces, watched from the audience.

Performing exclusively the poetic compositions of Mulholland, the concert featured pianist Janet Pummill, the TCU Concert Chorale and the Fort Worth Choral Union, and was conducted by Ronald Shirey, professor of music. Soprano Amy Pummill sang and Brinton Smith played the cello.

“Music adds a new dimension,” said Mulholland, who has published over 300 songs that are mostly musical interpretations and scores for poetry. “It helps us understand the poetry.”

The concert included Mulholland’s musical compositions of John Dryden’s “Ode to Music,” Shelley’s “Hail to Thee, Blithe Spirit” and “Beauty” by Keats. Other poetic compositions by Mulholland include “Keramos” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “If Love is What the Rose Is” by Algernon Charles Swinburne.

“You all were so divine,” Mulholland told the choir after their performance. “You did me proud and made me look good.”
Only 10 years old when he composed his first piece of music, Mulholland is one of the most performed choral composers today, Shirey said.

“We chose Mulholland for this concert because we wanted to be in the vanguard of those performing his music,” Shirey said.

Shirey said the music department arranged for Mulholland to come to their performance at last spring’s National American Choral Directors’ Association.

“They performed beautifully and the audience responded well,” Shirey said.

Janet Pummill and Amy Pummill also performed four songs composed by Mulholland, set to poetry by anonymous authors.Janet Pummill said she received the pieces in May and fell in love with them right away. The third piece she played Monday was based on a choral piece written by Mulholland that she played at a national convention in 1996.

The pieces from Monday are still in the process of being published, and Monday was the first public performance of them.

“It was very special to me because of the fact that the composer was in the audience and he remembered my performance from four years ago,” Pummill said. “I thoroughly enjoyed performing his music.”

Janet Pummill said Mulholland is inspiring because he is passionate about what he does.

Mulholland, with 17 commissions last year, said he has no less than 100 favorite poems, and nothing excites him more than finding a new anthology of poetry, or a new hymnal.

Writing for the better part of four hours a day, Mulholland said he has never written something he is not 100 percent pleased with.

“I write for myself and to myself,” Mulholland said. “If anyone likes it, fine. If anyone doesn’t like it, that’s fine, too.”

Wendy Meyer
w.m.meyer@student.tcu.edu

Walker teaches dedication
New Lt. Col. brings 21 years of leadership to ROTC

By Elise Rambaud
staff reporter

Every Friday, Lt. Col. Gregory Walker, the new commander of the TCU Air Force ROTC detachment, teaches a class to one student.

Cadet Sean Cleland, a sophomore computer science major, couldn’t enroll in the regularly scheduled section of required sophomore Air Force history because of a conflict in his class schedule. Cleland’s conflict was solved when Walker opened an additional section of Aerospace Studies 200.

“Being the only person in class keeps you on your toes,” Cleland said. “I have to be completely prepared for class. If Colonel Walker asks a question, I’m the only one there to answer it.”

Though Walker has set objectives for the class, Cleland said he is able to learn the material at a pace that is comfortable to him. The individual instruction allows him to ask questions more frequently and, as a result, he has a better grasp of the material, he said.

“(The Air Force) wants to emphasize the importance of academic achievement,” Walker said. “We want our cadets to do well in their other classes so we try to accommodate any academic conflicts.”

Walker brings 21 years of Air Force leadership experience to the TCU ROTC cadets, but this is his first assignment in commanding an ROTC unit.

“I enjoy the training environment and I felt that I could draw from my experiences to contribute to the development of Air Force officers,” Walker said.

From 1998 to July, Walker commanded the largest training squadron in the Air Force at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. Over 1,400 enlisted trainees and 500 permanent party individuals were under Walker’s command.

“My responsibilities to train future officers at TCU differ only in that it is on a smaller scale,” Walker said.
When he arrived at TCU, Walker said he discovered that TCU and the Air Force advocate many of the same values, such as diversity and integrity.

“My objective for TCU Air Force ROTC is to continue to shape and mold quality, dedicated and loyal officers and provide a linkage of future leaders to the nation,” Walker said.

Monica Dziubinski, a senior business management major and the student wing commander, said Walker shows the cadets that he values professionalism but also encourages them to have fun in the corps.

“Colonel Walker is very approachable to cadets,” Dziubinski said. “He attends our leadership labs and he has an open-door policy to offer academic and career advice. Personally, he has helped me make leadership decisions concerning the cadets of our ROTC unit.

“His prior active duty experience and his background in aircraft maintenance are valuable to cadets. Any experience from officers of different career fields can be applicable to cadet’s career decisions,” she said.

Originally from Chicago, Walker earned a bachelor’s degree in fine and applied arts at Eastern Illinois University and a master’s degree of public administration at Troy State University in Alabama.

Walker has been stationed throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia.

Elise Rambaud

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