Newspaper Page Text
Ill
THE RED AND BLACK
VOLUME 84, NUMBER 46
Georgia's only collegiate daily newspaper
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. ATHENS, GEORGIA 1060?
r=n
Inside
New round ball
star. For more,
see p.6.
LICRARIE3
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1977
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Photo by DAVID CROSBY
It’s hard to keep a secret like the International Gift Bazaar away from anybody, let
alone Santa The bazaar, which features gifts from all over the world, gets under way
this morning and will continue until 3 p m Thursday. The lighting of the Christmas
tree will take place tonight at 7 p.m and you can get your picture taken with this jolly
old man today and tomorrow
Judiciary confirmations resolved
by ad hoc investigating committee
By MATT PRICHARD
Campus editor
Three justices of the student judiciary whose
confirmations had been in question were actually
confirmed by the Student Senate last March, according
to the final report of the inter-branch ad hoc
investigating committee
The confirmations of Main Court Justice Keevin
Griffin and Residence Court Justice Doug Dickson were
questioned when Senate Judicial Committee Chairman
Mark SegUra said the justices, who were appointed by
former student body President J Tom Morgan, never
received the senate’s confirmation.
Main Court Justice Bill Broker, whose confirmation
the committee also determined, was apparently one of
the other two justices Segura said had not been
confirmed but whose names he did not mention.
Before the end of his administration in March,
Morgan had appointed several justices, according to
Segura's earlier statements. Some of the appointees
were confirmed by the senate, but the remainder were
to be voted on at the last senate meeting before
Morgan's term expired. Segura had said.
THE APPOINTEES could not be presented for a vote
since Morgan did not attend the meeting, he had said.
Then Chief Justice Robert Mumford allowed the
justices to begin serving their terms and told Segura not
to worry about the confirmation. Segura said
However, the report states that all appointees that
were on Morgan's list were confirmed at one of the last
three winter quarter senate meetings, including those
who were not present.
"Roger Hunt, a member of the Judicial Council,
tes'ified that he was present at a Senate meeting held in
Peabody Auditorium near the end of winter quarter of
this past year." according to the report.
DIKING THE meeting, the candidates were
questioned as a group and voted on as such, according
to Hunt’s testimony.
"Hunt testified that he could not be sure but that he
believed that the three justices in question were on that
list," the committee report continued
"It was made clear that they had to be present in
order to be confirmed. I don't see by what perversion of
thought they thought they could be confirmed (without
attending)," Segura said recently.
"Chuck Graham, now Chief Justice of the Student
Judiciary, testified that appearance before the Senate is
not a constitutional requirement for confirmation. A
justice may be confirmed in absentia." the report
states.
TO THIS. Segura responded. "They are taking the
easy way out. I had no idea that the people on the list
that were not there would be confirmed. It is what
amounts to common law that (a person) to be appointed
in as important a post as a justice has to be present to
at least answer a token question.
"I have serious doubts that if the senate confirmed
them that they did so by knowing what they did
"If the senate accepts this decision, thev accept the
idea that they hardly have to confirm appointments at
all." Segura said
The three justices had apparently assumed they had
been confirmed Broker said that he had seen his name
posted as having been confirmed and was informed
orally of his confirmation Dickson said that he was
informed of his confirmation by the'Student Judiciary
secretary, who apparently had checked with the Student
Government Association (SGA) office
GRIFFIN' SAID he asked Chuck Graham, then a
member of the Judicial Council in charge of the Main
Courts, to find out about his confirmation.
Graham checked with Segura, who stated that he
could check and if Griffin was not confirmed he would
give Graham a call. Griffin testified When no call came
after nearly two weeks. Graham and Griffin assumed
Griffin was confirmed, the report stated.
"I don't recall that I don't doubt that it happened, but
it just slipped my mind." Segura said.
Confusion as to whether or not they had been
confirmed followed a report they had not been.
Accusations then began to be hurled as to who was
responsible for seeing to the confirmation.
Segura had replied that the charges were invalid,
since the committee had no quorum requirement He
said that the committee members were just careless
about attendance
Neither Raeside nor Hancock could be reached for
comment
Unrest led to
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B> KATHERYN HAYES
# Assistant campus editor
Salary discrepancies and lack of communication with the
administration were major problems cited by the Georgia
Retardation Center (GRC) instructors who resigned last year
from the Division of Exceptional Children in the College of
Education
It was reported in the Nov 10 issue of The Red and Black that
the nine faculty members who resigned from the Division of
Exceptional Children said they left because of problems in the
division Five of these faculty members were instructors at the
GRC on College Station Road
The former instructors, who asked not be named, were hired
by the Division of Exceptional Children to teach at the GRC in
the area of mental retardation, according to Dr. Jane Rhoden,
head of the GRC.
Administrative and budgetary control of GRC’s mental
.. retardation program, which was handled by the division last
year, was transferred completely to the GRC Sept. 1, Rhoden
said.
This administrative change was "part of the problem.”
according to some of the instructors "People were going to be
moved from the division without being consulted No one knew
what was going on or where they stood." one former instructor
said.
THE GRC sponsored jointly by the University and the
ueorgia Department of Human Resources, is a training center
where instructors and University students work with the
mentally retarded and developmentally disabled. Services are
offered to Northeast Georgia children through programs offered
in conjunction with schools and colleges in the University,
according to Rhoden
The GKC’s 12 instructors are administratively under the
GRC. but only those from the Division of Exceptional Children
are included in the (SRC's budget, the instructors from other
schools, such as Home Economics, are still under their
University department for salary purposes. Rhoden said.
The complete transfer of the mental retardation program
from the division to the GRC was made for greater
administrative efficiency. Rhoden said It eliminated the
problem of "Too many supervisors." she said
According to Kathryn Blake, chairman of the Division of
Exceptional Children, the mental retardation program was
"unmanageable" before the change was made
HOWEVER. WHILE the instructors who resigned agreed they
had "Too many supervisors." some suggested the
' administrative change may have been a "camouflage.” It may
have been an attempt by the division to separate itself from the
problems of those GRC instructors who resigned, the
resignations
instructors said.
Besides the five GRC instructors, four other faculty members
resigned from the division last year. Three of the faculty
members said they resigned because of problems with the
division administration such as salary inequities and lack of
contribution to decisions. One confirmed the problems with
faculty unrest but refused to comment
Certain division faculty members who asked not to be named
said, since the GRC resignations brings the total number of
resignations in the division last year to approximately 30 per
cent of the faculty, the administration may have separated
itself from the GRC to camouflage problems with faculty
unrest.
Several current faculty members said they were considering
leaving the division because "morale is very low. Salary
inequities, decisions made by the division chairman under the
guise of consensus and vindictive assignments’’ of some
instructors to weekend and off-campus classes were some of the
reasons given for the morale problem
"The major reason I resigned was salary." according to one
former GRC’ instructor. "We were given no merit raise and no
reason why." Other former GRC instructors cited the absence
of merit raises as a major reason for their resignation.
ONLY ONE GRC instructor received a merit raise last year,
according to Rhoden. That instructor’s salary had been lower
than what it should neve been for the length of service and was
raised for equalization purposes. An "equalization" process,
implemented by Blake in the Division of Exceptional Children,
has been used in several salary changes. The "equalization"
process had been a subject of controversy and division among
faculty members
According to the former instructors, no criterion for merit
raises were set forth. “We had no way to get merit raises." one
said
Faculty members of the GRC are now working to set up a set
of standards to be used for decisions on merit raises. Rhoden
said The administration will make a decision based on the
faculty's recommendation she said
Rhoden attributed the instructor's misunderstanding of salary
policies to a "problem in communication" at the time the
instructors were hired.
Another problem mentioned by the instructors was a bad
working atmosphere. "We were made to feel like second-class
professionals," an instructor said
SHE EXPLAINED that the instructors were hired as faculty
members of the division and were expected to attend faculty
meetings However, the meetings were held at times when the
instructors were in classes “We had no influence in decision
making." she said.
Feathered friends fly to roost
noisy, smelly problem
Birds bring
By TOM BARTON
City editor
When the swallows return to Capis
trano in the spring, the people there
celebrate with festivals and songs When
the starlings and blackbirds return to an
area in northeast Athens, the neighbors
there get out their shotguns.
For several years now, thousands upon
thousands of birds have been roosting in
a wooded area off Laudor Drive in the
Forest Heights subdivision And the
residents there say it is getting worse
"They’re noisy and they stink." said
Terry McElroy, whose house borders the
blackbird roost "After they leave in the
morning, it smells like a baby's hamper
full of dirty diapers around here."
McElroy said the birds begin to gather
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in the four-acre thicket about 15 minutes
before sunset As darkness approaches,
the sky comes alive with birds, swirling
and darting, like a segment from Alfred
Hitchcock's movie The Birds
After spending the night, the birds feed
in neighborhood yards, he said.
"We have permi% to shoot the birds
with shotguns, and sometimes it sounds
like a war out there I’ve killed between
GO and 70 birds feeding in my backyard
with just one shot. But it doesn't seem to
do any good "
He added that the shotguns haven't
been used in about a month, because
some of the neighbors were afraid of
where the stray shots might go A permit
to shoot off fireworks in the area to scare
the birds away was denied. McElroy
said.
"But it's getting out of hand now, and
something’s got to be done," he said.
Biologist Len Walker, of the U S Fish
and Wildlife Service office in Athens, said
the nature of the blackbird group is to
find a common roosting site for the
winter.
"They begin to congregate in the late
summer and then form larger roosts as
the weather gets colder," Walker said
"No one really knows for sure why they
do it though "
Walker, who has examined many
roosting areas in the state, said the
roosts can range in size from 10.000 birds
to a huge R million bird roost near
Rebecca. Ga
See BIRDS, p. 2
Graveyard shift brings out ‘mole people’
Photo by GEORGE SIC AY
Woodrow Plrtle pumps the night away
By PATRICIA TEMPLETON
They call themselves the mole people
If they are not careful they can go days
without seeing the sun They are used to
being the only customers at the grocery-
store. receiving prompt service at the
gas station, and to driving on nearly
deserted streets They are the people who
keep the city going when almost
everyone else is asleep, the people who
work and are out during the graveyard
shift.
• • •
It is a little after midnight on a Monday
morning and things are quiet at the
emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital
It's not always that way though,
according to the nurse and the
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
who work the 11 p.m -7 a m. shift
"We get a lot of strange people in here
during this shift I saw one guy one time
at 3 a m He had a big knot on his.
forehead. I asked him how he got it and
he said he didn't know I asked him how
long he had had it and he said about a
year. It wasn't hurting hirn or anything,
he just suddenly wanted to know what it
was," the nurse said
"A lot of the people who come in during
this time of night are people who are
lonely and just want to talk They’re
awake at night and we re here We can't
refuse to serve them." she said
The emergency room has regular late
night visitors. "We re on first name basis
with five or six patients When they come
in it’s "Hello. Walter How are you doing
Walter? What’s wrong with you
tonight? "
"Basically they always have the same
ailment, only it might shift from their
arms to their legs or from the right side
to the left side Some of the doctors have
quit giving medication to some of these
people If you just look at them and talk
to them they’re okay." the nurse said.
• • •
"YOU MEET SOME real nice people;
you meet some stinkers." says Woodrow
Pirtle, who runs the all night Hess station
from 11 p.m. to 7 a m.
"One guy was going to whup me up last
night He had a $20 dollar bill and wanted
$1 worth of gas You have to have the
correct change to buy gas after 11 That's
where you get your problems He said
he'd whup me if I didn’t let him buy the
gas. but those are my orders, and you got
to follow orders. I don’t get too scared."
Pirtle said.
"And football weekends Oh God. when
those people start rolling in here, you
talk about drunks Them people like to
run me nuts ”
"One night this drunk came out here
and he fell down I told him he’d have to
get out of here before I called the
manager He said. ‘To hell with you,' and
1 called the police on him," Pirtle said.
Why does Pirtle work these hours,
putting up with drunks and people who
want to "whup up on him?” "Well. I’m
retired and I live by myself. I got tired of
watching tv. and needed something to do
I started working part time at first, but
now it’s full time. I guesg it’s a good
job," he said.
• • •
AT THREE O'CLOCK on a Monday
morning at Kroger's. Athens' only all
night grocery store, the muzak is ’urned
off and a local radio station is on the
radio "Something unusual happens
around here every night. Last night we
had someone come in with four foot long
flippers and goggles on. People just kind
of stumble in and stumble out,” said
stock boy Mike Smith.
Most of the store’s late night customers
See MOLE PEOPLE, p. S