Newspaper Page Text
Pag** 1
The Red and Black. Tuesday. October H, 1971
JIMMY JOHNSON
THE OPINIONS OF
THE RED AND BLACK
Stamp
Since the Food Stamp program
was opened to University stu
dents this year, there have
apparently been quite a few
students misusing the program.
In fact, the incidence of false
information given on Food Stamp
applications seems to be so high
statewide that audits are being
made and some fraud cases have
already been uncovered.
We realize that students often
have a hard time making ends
meet and that Food Stamps may
appear to be an easy solution.
But there are other ways of
increasing budgets, such as part
time jobs and loans.
Illegal use of the Food Stamp
program only places a heavier
burden on other taxpayers, in
cluding fellow students.
The Food Stamp program,
which operates under the state
Department of Family and Chil
dren Services, is a legitimate
attempt by the government to
help those people who are unable
Poor
Hang down your head Coach
Dooley. Hang down your head
and cry. You took your Bulldogs
to Clemson and instead of eating
Tiger steak you got mauled.
The beating the 'Dogs took is
particularly painful because it
was the first time in 19 years
that the Clemson cats have out-
scored us.
Now Coach, we understand you
said before the season that we
might be just an ordinary team
this year, but the defense isn’t
even ordinary.
With a 2-2 record the Bulldogs
still have a chance to pull a
decent record out of what has
been a disappointing season so
far. We know that the recuperat
ing abilities of the 'Dogs have in
the past been expectional, and
abuses
to cope with high prices due to
their inability to find jobs or
other such problems.
When students who are sup
ported by their parents and live
in expensive apartments try to
make use to of the program, they
are obviously violating the
program’s principles.
Nevertheless, there are stu
dents who are self-supporting.
Many are also supporting a
family as well.
For these students, who are
working to meet both the cost of
living and the cost of being in
school. Food Stamps are neces
sary and deserved aid.
We are glad that the program
has been opened to these stu
dents.
The Food Stamp program is
basically a good one if its guide
lines are followed and can offer
valuable help to people who
really need it. And students, like
everyone else, should respect the
principles that keep the program
viable.
Vince
with Ole Miss coming to town
this weekend, they had better be.
A loss to the Rebels would mark
the first time a Vince Dooley
coached Georgia team has dip
ped below .500 since the first
game of Dooley’s first sea
son.
That’s something we’re not
exactly looking forward to with
bated breath. We hope that for
the 'Dogs second SEC encounter
of the season this weekend, they
are able to bandage themselves
up and be a little more ready
than they were last Saturday.
The game this weekend could
be the turning point in the sea
son. A loss could crush all hopes
for a good year while a win could
get things started back in the
right direction.
Bookstore system beatable'
1r
A general feeling of helplessness in the
course of human events and individual
lives has been slowly growing in our
society since the advent of mass produc
tion systems
The inability of hu
mans to control
events is often pic
tured as a takeover
by machines which
either seem to have
minds of their own
or as machines
which control hu
mans because hu
mans relinquish control of the machines.
Such descriptions of machine over man
usually deal with catasrophic events
(notably such movies as “Failsafe").
However, most of us are not entrusted
with the authority to make such decisions
and the inability to cope with machines,
mechanization and systemization strikes
on a more mundane level
The level, for instance, of getting the
right order from the mail order catalouge
people in Muncie. Or the level of taking
courses you want or need when you need
or want them Or the level of getting a
fair deal from Housing Department. Food
Services, the Library or University
Bookstore
If you don’t have a story about the
trials of dealing with systems or ma
chines at the University, it is a sure
indication you have not been here more
than a few weeks.
Dealing with University Bookstore (es
pecially during book rush) is guaranteed
to reduce the less hardened to insignifi
cant statistics and develop severe cases
of facelessness-in-the-crowd syndrome.
The crush and impersonal operation
during book rush can hardly be avoided
(in fact, if you use a little sense about the
matter, you can avoid long lines and
waits) but other dealings with bookstore
systems serve to disillusion those few
who still hold to the belief that individuals
can still reason with other individuals for
the good of all concerned
Most members of the University Com
munity. when trying to return an unwant
ed and unused piece of merchandise (a
book from a class dropped after the book
purchase, for instance) simply give up
and shout “Rip-off" at the top of their
lungs when the smiling clerk at the book
buy back counter refuses the book or
offers a paltry 50 percent refund.
The friendly book store folks aren’t
amoral capitalists leaching the student
body for every cent they can take. They
are trying to run an .iterprise which will
operate in the black — and business,
folks, is business.
But the bookstore does have the
systems and mechanizations which can
reduce not only its customers, but its
staff, to soulless androids.
Those systems can be overcome,
though. If one searches, a person can be
found at the bookstore (or practically any
other place where systems and machines
are rapidly replacing the human mind).
I proved my thesis yesterday by
searching Athens’ only textbook dealer
until I found someone who would do
something besides babble about regula
tions and forms — I, insignificant, a
nine-digit number in the vastness that is
the University, found a thinking being in
the bookstore and got a fair deal.
On trying to return a textbook (unused,
unworn and unbreathed upon) from a
class from which I had withdrawn. I was
told by various persons that no books
were being returned, my book was not
going to be used winter quarter and that
I should come back in about six weeks.
I refused to believe the systemitized.
programmed responses and refused to be
stuck with a product I did not need.
The best way to deal with any system
is to run through its channels. I asked the
instructor of the class from which I had
withdrawn if the book will be used
winter. (It will be.)
I had the bookstore system by the only
legitimate excuse it has for refusing to
give a refund for a book. The instructor
gave me a note indicating the book's
usefulness for the next quarter.
I returned to the bookstore and
marched through levels of command
until I found the lady who handles book
buy back.
While I made my case I could see the
system guidelines running through her
head, her first response was a rejection
— After all. she didn't have any forms
saying the book was to be used.
But the incredible sense of giving a
refund for a book which could be resold
finally overrode guidelines
She gave me a note clearing the clerk
to give me a 50 percent refund.
A paltry 50 percent refund on a book I
hadn’t even breathed on! The system
seemed determined to defeat me •
But I reached the basically kind lady
by appealing to her humanity and sense
of fair play without stepping on her
business sense The book was unmuti *
lated and untarnished by human hands!
And most of all, resaleable without loss.
She sighed and relinquished — I could
hear cogs groaning in the back offices — •
I got my money back.
It can be done. Joe Average can be an
individual without wreking havoc upon
the world. One only need take a moment*
to search out the thinking beings who
exist secluded behind the barriers of
systems and machines.
leller$E3elters
Current SGA absurdities continuation of race'
TO THE EDITOR:
I've been sitting by and waiting
patiently for someone to respond to the
current absurdities of J Rivers Walsh
and the Molly Moo-Cow gang Now. by
default, perhaps. 1 feel compelled to
comment
Actually, the "current" absurdities are
nothing more than a continuation of. and
an elaboration upon, the machinations we
were privileged to witness during the
spring quarter last year Lacking any
comprehensive, coordinated set of propo
sals whereby "student government"
would benefit students rather than the
University administration, and apparent
ly unwilling or unable to formulate such
proposals. Walsh and the ONWARD elite
concentrated their efforts upon imaginary
evils of the then-current SGA administra
tion
By attacking these imaginary evils
with sufficient vigor and by refusing to
off*»r constructive alternatives to behavior
which they condemned, they were able to
avoid disclosing that, basically, they had
nothing to offer but negativism. In the
short run it was a successful tactic
Apparently following the old adage that
one docs not change a winning game,
Walsh is now attempting to conceal his
own lack of direction and his own
inability to provide constructive leader
ship b> his verbal castigation of Dottie
Lee and Paula Cheatham, two individuals
w ho do not share his handicap but who do
share among themselves a concern for
their fellow students
He docs so by invoking the facade of
partisan politics, despite a lack of any
political affiliation on the part of Lee He
decries the fact that “people in Coalition
will do anything they can to discredit"
him. ignoring the fact that such actions
are totally unnecessary* Yet. interesting
ly enough, he does nothing to put his own
house in order
We have seen ONWARD's selective
myopia operative in last spring s SGA
allocations, in the extremely high absen
tee rate of their elected representatives
and. most recently, in their postponement
of the election of a treasurer of the
Student Senate until a qualified candidate
could be located and enlisted within their
ranks.
Are we to believe that these actions
reflect an interest in and concern with
the welfare of all university students?
Similarly, are we to believe that Walsh’s
current tantrums reflect anything other
than his own bewilderment’’
JIM CORNISH
Tdentimot
inefficient'
TO TIIK KDITOK:
Last Wednesday's lied and Black
pointed out another blatant inefficient use
of money that is so common here at the
University
Fourty-two thousand dollars seems like
a lot of money to spend on electronic
identification machines just so the food
service can prevent two or three culprits
a day from using someone else s card
and thereby getting a free meal
Is the loss that the food service suffers
from these "criminals' that substantial?
Surely not enough to merit spending
$42,000 on equipment which to me is
useless, inefficient, inconvenient and
impractical
The money for these machines could
very easily have been used to expand
existing facilities in order to speed food
lines and provide the meal plan students
<who shell out up to $223 to participate!
with something that would benefit them
It must have been very dismaying to
those students to discover that the money
they pay is being used to stop maybe one
or two poor, starving students who just
happen to have a friend on the meal plan
whose meal card photo vaguely resem
bles him. instead of trying to provide
better food and faster service
If the food service would like to provide
better service and is open to suggestions
as they say they are then let them get
rid of those grossly inefficient, cold
metallic monsters i which are an insult to
the intelligence of students, who are
treated similar to criminals undergoing
finger printing and booking at the local
precinct i and replace them with a warm.
sympathetic human being who would
make a more rigorous check of students
meal cards.
For surely, the only people who would
be able to use the same meal card and
get away with, would be identical twins,
who are a great minority at the
University
It is time that the food service
recognized the fact that no matter what
kind of a fancy, complicated, expensive,
computerized system is used, there will
always be someone smart enough or
desperate enough to outsmart it and that
these kinds of losses should be expected
It is evident that someone in the food
service hierarchy does not care for the
students' needs and has let some slick
salesman talk him into buying something
very unnecessary
NAMF. WITHHELD
Consideration
more important'
TO THE EDITOR:
Surel> anyone as tradition-minded as
Mi Copenhaver considers himself to be
would recognize a higher and longer
standing tradition than ringing a bell
consideration
The long standing University tradi
tion' deserved to be pre-empted by the
music department concert, particularly
in view ol the lad that there was no
other place the concert could lie held.
Copenliaver’s ringing the bell when he
knew a concert was in progress was the
rudest and most inconsiderate action he
could have done.
Ills remark that he would ring the bell
whether arrested or not reflects a smart
aleck attitude rather than a sincere
concern for tradition.
FAT KNIGIIT
Costly system
failing to work'
TO THE EDITOR:
I'd like to comment on the campus food
service
I have all praise for every facet of the
meal plan except the Identimats. it
seems to me that their purpose is to
provide a more accurate means of
identifying meal plan participants, as
opposed to a photo id. 01 whatever
existed in the past
But once a person gets three or four
red lights (which is possible whether its
your own card or borrowed), they seem
to be admitted out of mercy or pity,
usually without checking signatures on
the back of the cards to a students i d
Thus a very costly system fails to serve
its purpose while creating an extra
inconvenience, that is the long linf*s
outside of the mess hall while there is
almost no line at the serving lines (in
Bolton i
I suspect that the food service person
nel are just as disenchanted as the
students, but something should be done*
If the machines are faulty, they should be
repaired by or returned to the manufac
turer. If they are in perfect working
order, then maybe we need more of
them to expedite entrance.
Or maybe we need a new five hour
credit course: "Identimats Hand Place
ment, 101.” *
MICHAEL LACHOWSKI
Ticket detail
used too much
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to congratulate the
University Traffic Safety Department on
the excellent job they have been doing
They were faced with the monumental
decision of taking officers off of the all
important ticket detail and instead hav
ing them patrol main campus. Typical of
University administration, they rose tb
the problem
Instead of preventing the several near ■
fatalities that almost took place because '
of drivers who chose to ignore the signs
closing off portion of the campus during
class hours, the Safety Department
decided to count all the greenback?
generated by the infamous ticket squad
Fortunately though, while we students
arc busily dodging cars on main campus,
we can at least have the peace of mind
knowing that our fearless police force is
diligently protecting our parking lots
from those dastardly students who, out of
sheer depravation ishould be despera
tion), have parked their cars in any
available space.
In any case, if anyone has misunder
stood this letter. 1 am suggesting that the
campus police stop their ridiculous litter
campaign on the windows of parked cars
and attempt to deal with the mow
serious traffic violations first.
fnTHE RED AND BLACK
Joyce Murdoch, editor
Eddie Brock
Business manager
Leslie Thornton
Executive editor
Deborah Blum and Betsy Neal, news editors. Steve Fox and Edie McLaurin.
associate news editors; Ed Kimble, city editor. Carolyn Tatum, state editor
Miriam Pace, feature editor; Nancy Rogers, associate feature editor; David
Breslauer. photography editor; Rick Franzman. sports editor; Steve Burns and
Bill Eichenberger. associate sports editors; Ed Parker, wire editor: Allyn
Roland, copy editor; Brad McColl. art director; Stacy B McDaniel, production
manager
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