Newspaper Page Text
O ' —>
Q. /
THE RED AND BLACK
WEATHER
Today’s forecast calls for
increasing cloudiness with
a high in the middle 70’s.
VOLUME 81, NUMBER 93
Georgia's only collegiate daily newspaper
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. ATHENS. GEORGIA 30602
TUESDAY. APRIL 8, 1*75
arties express
views of forums
By BUDDY WALLER
and JIM GALLOW AY
| FOCUS will seek to establish a close
working relationship with the University
administration if elected, FOCUS presi-
■dential candidate Preston Lewis said
1 Thursday.
I “We will work in close harmony and
' establish a close rapport with administra
tors, the Board of Regents and the
• General Assembly,” Lewis said during
one of two Student Government Associa
tion (SGA) election forums in Russell and
Payne.
Representatives from Coalition, Pot
People s Party (PPP), and the Union of
■the American People (UAP) also partici
pated in the forum.
i* Scott Thurman, UAP presidential can*
didatc. said, “Only two viewpoints are
" represented in this year’s election — the
> Coalition-FOCUS viewpoint of represent-
i ing homosexuals and black militants, and
the UAP viewpoint. UAP is the only
representative of the majority element
If; student.
“IF REDCOAT Band Director Roger
Dane/ persists in refusing to allow his
fr musicians to play ‘Dixie’” at University
i athletic events, UAP "will just hire a
. new band," Thurman said.
Coalition offers “the best program for
| student government that’s ever been
, devised," according to presidential candi
date Jodie O’Connell.
Included in Coalition's 1975 platform is
a proposal to establish an SGA fund as
’ seed money for contributions toward a
1 new University Union building. O’Connell
said
Coalition has also proposed a program
in which 10 percent of a student’s
' activities fee would be sent to an
organization of the student’s choice.
“This way you would personally decide
where at least part of your money is
* going." he added
Under the PPP system of "total
referendum." the SGA president will
“change from a mere representative of
• special interest groups to a representa
tive of the majority," PPP presidential
candidate Neal Horsley said.
The “total referendum" mechanism of
* placing issues of student concern to a
campuswide vote at the beginning of
each quarter will “create the realization
of the democratic process.” according to
4 Horsley.
LEWIS DENIED that he had voted four
, times in the Student Senate against
« holding the Nov 14 “Dixie" referendum.
Oak-Oconee
construction
starts today
Students coming into campus by the
| Oak-Oconee route should be cautious of
Ihe extensive construction work that will
be going on along the boulevard
, i This week, the Georgia Department of
Transportation I DOT I w orkers will begin
moving in heavy equipment to widen
Ihose streets and to make improvements
, on the bridge over the Oconee River
Charlie Heard, office manager of the
Athens DOT office, said that traffic will
be restricted until next fall "at the
« earliest ."
Gerald Tolbert, resident engineer for
DOT. said that no detours will be
established during the construction phase
, of the project. One lane will be open to
motorists at all times during the work.
claiming that he had only voted against it
twice.
He said that he tried to act as a
representative of black students on the
issue, since there we re no black student
senators at the time, and “I thought
black sentiments should be alleviated in
some way."
Lewis later informed The Red and
Black that if he wins the SGA presidency,
he will try to set up a conference between
himself, Dancz. and black students to
devise some conditions under which
“Dixie” might be played.
Also, Lewis claimed no knowledge of
alleged ballot-stuffing of student elections
on the part of his former party,
ONWARD, but added, “Em grateful to
the people who stuffed "
O'Connell defended Coalition's plank on
having a campus bus service at night
spots such as The B&L Warehouse and
The Station as costing student riders only
ten cents.
IN ADDITION, O’Connell attacked
UAP’s proposal of abolishing the student
senate as “extremely objectionable. It's
an insane crazy quilt that they (UAP)
continually bring up at every meeting.
“It gives the executive branch dictator
ial power It gives them complete power
to pack the Student Judiciary," O'Connell
said.
When a student asked if UAP "visual
ized the ‘majority student' as something
out of 'Gone With the Wind,’" UAP
members and supporters began loudly
whistling, clapping, and stomping, and
one waved a Confederate flag.
In order for “total referendum" to
work a majority of students must vote.
Horsley said.
“Elected executive representatives
could be contractually obligated to sup
port with the majority However, if
students don't participate, student go
vernment does not function for the voters
but for those in government,” he said.
Custom upheld
by judiciary
Photo by ROBERT PUSEY
Fred Astaire?
University President Fred C. Davison is shown above dancing with student Lynn
Plankenhorn at the recent dance marathon held to raise funds for combatting
epilepsy and mental retardation Davison kicked off the event Friday night, and
shook hands w ith each couple participating in the marathon He returned Saturday
suitably attired for dancing, and after several pleas from Plankenhorn. consented
to display his foxy fox trot. Plankenhorn said that she enjoyed the dance and that
Davison was a good partner. (See related story and pictures, page 5.)
FOR SCHOOLS
Increased aid needed
By KATHY HOGAN
Associate news editor
Editor’s note: This is the last in a series
of articles on the deteriorating quality of
public school education in the South and
Ihe rest of the nation.
An increased level of financial support
for public education is one of the most
basic solutions to solving the problem of
the declining quality to today’s public
school education
If indeed, educational quality is in
trouble, (and not all educators agree that
it is) then clearly, state and federal
financial support must increase in order
to implement other necessary solutions to
the problem.
"My contention is that investment in
education is the only way of ever lifting
education quality up by the bootstraps."
the Dean of the College of Education, Dr.
Joseph Williams, said in a recent inter
view.
For some years, the socio-economic
factors of this region have been one of
the most widely distinguishable causes
for the gap between schools in the North
and the South
In 1970 the per capita income in the
South was estimated to be only 81.5 per
cent of the rest of the nation.
Capsule news
Mead to speak
Anthropologist Margaret Mead will speak today in the Reed Quandrangle The
rain location for the address is Memorial Hall, and in case of rain, only persons
with tickets will be allowed in the event Mead's topic will be "Changing Roles of
Men and Women," and her appearance is sponsored by the tdiversity Union
Ag careers day
Representatives of several agribusinesses will present information on employment
opportunities for agriculture students at today's Ag Careers Day. scheduled to
begin at 3 p m at the Ag Engineering Center
In addition, according to Williams, the
socio-economic status of the state of
Georgia as a whole ranks in the lower
quartile in comparison to the rest of the
country.
"ONE OF the major factors overlooked
by a lot of people when they compare
scores test by area is that fact that many
regions compare quite differently be
cause of their population bases," Willi
ams said
"The population of Georgia as com
pared to the Rocky Mountain region is
quite different, and this is not because of
News analysis
the black or white population, but rather
it is in relation to the socio-economic
status of the populations you are dealing
with."
Williams added that since Georgia's
socio-economic status ranked below other
regions in the nation that it would be.
"extremely unlikely that educational
attainments of this population would be
at the same level as the national norm "
"If the attainment were at the same
level, it would mean that we were doing a
far superior job to other parts of the
country, in relation to these factors,"
Williams asserted
Another area which Williams feels
needs the added support of the public is
in the field of teacher education "Com
pared with the other professions, teacher
education is vastly under financed in the
nation as a whole. Williams said
“THIS IS entirely illogical, he added,
"because the ability to diagnose learning
disabilities in a human being is far more
involved than diagnosing physical disabil
ities And society is willing to spend 10
times on a person's physical well being
than on his mental development ."
The improvement and development of
better teacher training is also a solution
offered by Dr David Butts of the Science
Education department here at the Uni
versity.
Butts, who advocates a "hands-on" ap
proach to teaching science said that a
By KATHY HOGAN
and EDIE MCLAURIN
Bill Smith, chief justice of the Judicial
Council has ruled that student senators
will be elected with a plurality of votes,
adhering to past procedure in the matter,
following a petition by Elections Commit
tee Chairman Jay Blackburn
Blackburn petitioned the council Fri
day for a ruling on the method of electing
student senators after it was discovered
that no specific method is provided for in
the Student Body Constitution
The oniy guideline the SGA elections
code gives for determining the winner is
a statement that "student senators shall
be elected from the following schools and
colleges in accordance with Article I,
Section B. paragraph one and two of the
Student Body Constitution."
The article mentioned in the constitu
tion states only apportionment require
ments for representatives to the senate
and the provision that senators must be
regularly enrolled in the school or college
from which he is elected.
BLACKBURN'S PETITION asked for a
ruling on whether the senators must be
elected by a plurality or a majority of the
votes cast.
Blackburn's petition requested that the
Judicial Council consider two arguments.
The first was that in the absence of a
specifically stated criterion, and until the
Student Body Constitution can be amend
ed. the rule of custom should prevail
"Rule of custom" is defined in the
petition as being "in prior Student Senate
elections, those candidates receiving the
largest plurality of votes cast have been
certified by the Elections Committee as
the winners of those elections
The second argument stated that “the
Student Body Constitution was amended
in 1973 to require that the senate body
officers be elected by a majority of votes
cast."
"If the Student Senate had at thgt time,
or at any time since, deemed the
customary practice of electing student
senators unsatisfactory or contrary to the
best interests of the student body, it
would have, and surely would have
amended the constitution to require the
elections of student senators by a
majority vote," the petition continued.
SMITH'S RULING called these argu
ments "persuasive." The ruling further
added that the procedure of electing
senators called for election by plurality.
"The candidates are not paired off to
run for particular seats; rather, the
top vote getters out of the group will be
deemed elected. This procedure requires
election by a plurality; to require a.
majority would be cumbersome, unfeasi
ble and unmanageable," the ruling
stated.
Campus parties
report spending
"careful program of training teachers in
the hands-on method of teaching," would
be very helpful in solving the problem of
decreasing scientific comprehension in
children today.
In addition to increased laboratory
time for children at the junior and senior
high school levels, Butts said he would
like to see more co-ordination between
high school and college teachers as to
curriculum content and preparation for
college level science courses
"I WOULD like to see all teachers
emphasize the meanings of words used in
their courses and textbooks more," Dr.
George Mason said
Mason, who is director of the Reading
Education division said that "perhaps
television is a solution," to the problem
of falling reading levels.
"If you can't lick them, join them and
make them go your way," Mason advo
cated "Education serves the American
people, and they always want education
to get better, but when it comes to footing
the bill, they don't want to pay for it,”
and they don't want to give up television,
Mason said
Mason too called for a change in
methods of teacher training, along with
improvements in course textbook content.
"THE PUBLISHING industry has a
tremendous impact on what’s taught in
our schools." Mason said "A change in
teacher training if not accompanied by
changes in the publishing of educational
material leads us nowhere,” he added
Saying (hat one of the major reasons
that standardized test scores have been
faling for the past few years is due to the
increasing number of middle and lower
class children Williams re-emphasized
the fact that children who have had
social, cultural and educational advan
tages would naturally tend to score
higher on tests
"But scores don't mean that a system
is less efficient when you see that you are
dealing with more of a total population."
in these past few years. Williams said.
"You don't remake an entire social
level overnight. " to bring it up to
standards. ' Williams stated "It takes
many years to overcome the deprivations
"visited upon a portion of the population,
and an increase in the level of support
is the only wav to accomplish this.
By JOHN HAB1CH
Assistant news editor
As of last Wednesday. Coalition was the
campus political party which had spent
the most toward tomorrow's Student
Government Association (SGA) elections,
according to results released by SGA
Elections Committee Chairman Jay
Blackburn. The Root Hound Party had
the least expenditures up to that date
Koot Hound had spent nothing, and had
a cash-on-hand balance of 63 cents
Independent candidate Marc Classman
had also made no expenditures toward
his campaign, reporting in a statement to
the elections committee, “(I) have a
campaign budget of $0 00 and intend to
spend no money on the campaign, nor
will I accept any contributions "
According to the SGA reports, Coalition
had spent $473 32; the Union of the
American People (UAP) spent $300 30;
FOCUS, $81.67; and the Pot People's
Party, $35.35.
"Although we don't expect anyone to go
over the $750 limit, the figures as
presently compiled do not include all of
the expenditures made to date," Black
burn said, pointing out that "some radio
announcements and other expenditures"
have been made since last week's party
reports were filed
FOR INSTANCE, Coalition has paid
Voting machine-
how it works
This year, for the first time, automatic voting machines will be used in the
Student Government Association (SGA) elections
Students voting in the election will have the opportunity to vote for president,
executive and administrative vice presidents of SGA, Student Senate representa
tives from their schools, and University Council representatives
Following are the procedures for voting in tomorrow's election:
1 Present student identification with current fee card to poll worker
2 Sign green card provided by poll worker
3 Enter voting booth
4 Present green card to poll worker at voting booth
’>. Move the red handle to the right and leave it there
6 Turn the pointers downward over the names of the candidates for every office
7 Turn a pointer over the "Yes" or "No" of the Legion Pool funding question
8 Leave the pointers down
9 Move the red handle to the left
and reported an expense of $170 for radio
air time on WRFC FOCUS has reported
payment of $75 to the same station, but
that amount includes only the portion of
FOCUS' bill to WRFC that has been
already paid And UAP. which is also
advertising on local radio, has not yet
reported its expense for that purpose,
having made the expenditure since last
week's filing date
The reports, although still incomplete,
do offer some insight as to the methods
an sources of fund-raising of the various
parties
FOCUS collected a large percentage of
its campaign fund by charging dues of
one dollar to party members, PPP
received most of what it has spent from
its presidential candidate, Neal Horsley
UAP generally received the largest
individual donations, from non-students
who "came to us," according to UAP
Campaign Manager John L. Roddy Jr.
"They read about us in the papers,"
Roddy said, noting that the majority of
contributors to his party were recent
graduates of the University.
Coalition solicited donations averaging
$10 from each of that party's candidates
for SGA office to finance their campaign.
A full report of each party's sources of
funding and expenses will be printed
upon the filing of the final campaign ex
penditure and contribution form at the
SGA elections committee office