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Th» Ked and Black. Wednesday. February 22. |»7H
Flipped again
NELSON d. ROSS
Ali is still the greatest
The University’s flip-flop poli
cies on withdrawal and drop-add
have flipped again. It’s official
now; the drop-add period has
been extended back to-three
days.
The administration tried a
two-day drop-add this quarter on
an experimental basis. But after
determining that the change
didn’t work, Registrar Bruce
Shutt asked that the time be
extended again.
The return to the old system
will go into effect spring quarter.
The change doesn’t mean that
the controversy is over. Last
week, a Student Government
Association committee recom
mended to the administration
further changes in advising,
withdrawal and drop-add proce
dures.
If the administration acts on
these proposals, a much broader
revision of academic scheduling
may result.
The overall decision will affect
Allocations
Two years ago, the Student
Senate allocations committee
was flying high. Philip
Montgomery, then senate trea
surer, planned to run a tight
committee. He said he’d been
assured by Dwight Douglas, the
dean of student affairs, that the
administration wouldn’t even
call its review committee in to
modify the budget recommended
by students.
Today, the budget is totally
under Douglas’ control. He
removed the students’ influence
over the budget last year
because of the havoc wreaked by
practically everybody at the
University. The final decision
cannot effectively be made
without considering the interests
of all the affected groups.
Ultimately, the administrators
will be the ones to make the
decisions about any further
changes. They have at least
listened to the students, and
faculty members are also
voicing their opinions.
Some of the ideas put forth
might not be workable. Still, we
urge the administration not to
reject out of hand any sincere
proposal offered. We further
think the discussion on these
changes should be made in the
open forum.
That way, the members of
each group can learn of the
others’ problems. Although some
disagreement may arise from
the discussion, the occasion
presents an opportunity to forge
a greater bond of understanding
in the University community.
turnaround
Montgomery’s committee in
1976.
He offered last year to let the
senate make allocations for the
small clubs and organizations,
and he has renewed that offer
this time.
The senate rejected his pro
posal before, and student leaders
are reportedly leery of taking
him up now.
Allocations were always tumul
tous when students handled
them, but it’s unfair to exclude
, students from the process that
determines how student funds
are to be spent.
There is no joy in Mudville; the mighty
Ali has struck out
Muhammed Ali, who almost single-
handedly kept boxing alive, is no longer
the heavyweight boxing champion of the
world
For his defeat to
come at the hands of
Leon Spinks - the
man Saturday Night
Live pegged as "the
ugliest man ever to
be champion”
makes the verdict
all the harder to
accept.
Legends don't fall easily.
The fight was still in doubt in the 15th
and final round. Both men were
exhausted Ali at 36 was on the downside
of his career and Spinks at 24 had never
Nelson d. Ross is a staff writer for The
Red and Black
been past the 10th round.
Ali's plan to wear Spinks out and win
the fight in the late rounds did not work
as well as he expected.
Coming out for that last round, both
men knew Ali had to knock Spinks out to
win. It must have been a terrible
realization for them both.
Ali came out punching and managed to
stagger Spinks The crowd roared as
each man tried to gather enough strength
to stop the other’s charge
The situation seemed to favor All
Surely the champ would deliver the
finishing punch. The crowd leaned
forward to see the knockout
A weary Ali reached down into his
reserve strength for that little extra, for
that combination of spiritual and physical
strength that he had always been able to
summon. It wasn’t there
His arms would not go up After 58
professional fights and countless rounds,
his reserve was depleted
It probably shocked the hell out of him
That recognition of his own mortality will
stay with Ali much longer than the pain
of the lost championship
Despite Wednesday night, Ali will
always be the champ He is one of the
last remaining sports heroes in a time
when athletes have lost their glamour
He is one of the few "personalities” with
the right blend of flair and conviction,
ego and truth.
.Ah. what an ego. Sing praises to that
monumental ego His brashness, his
sureness of himself, perfectly balanced
his more prominent failings such as
laziness and greediness.
That combination of traits is what
made him so appealing Plus that
amazing talent, that genius that
revolutionized boxing. Before Ali. none of
the sluggers in the smokefilled rings even
dreamed of the grace it took to "float like
a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Ali took boxing out of the local
gymnasiums and put it in the living
rooms all over the world. He gave it
respectability with his presence He was
a civilized man in an uncivilized sport
Ali’s comeback after three years of
exile over his refusal to fight in Vietnam
is one of the greatest in the history of
sports
Denying him three years of competition
in his prime was about as stiff a penalty
as anyone could exact from an athlete.
But Ali came back and regained his
championship.
Like so many great athletes. Ali was
unable to quit while he was on top. So
Father Time gave Ali a gentle tug
Wednesday night. Kven so. Ali may fight
again.
Legends don't fall easily and
Wednesday night was no exception
I don’t know about anywhere else but
at 152 Johnson Drive we participated in
that damn fight. Especially in the last
few grueling rounds
When it was over we were stunned.
“There’s no justice." my roommate said
He’s in Law School.
We paced the house uttering slow, soft
expletives. Expletives, hell! We were
cussing!
Why? Because Ali made us believe. He
made us feel we had an important stake
in how he did
Not many individuals in sports can
really achieve that level of identification
Not many people in life do that either.
We tried to name the heroes we had
left but stopped when we realized we
were naming contemporary musicians
What kind of heroes are they? So much
for the 1970s.
Besides. Dylan is a wife beater
We took it pretty hard. Even a woman
couldn't console us. we decided.
Well...maybe
In the end we turned off all the lights
and drank beer until we fell asleep
‘Core plan cannot—should not—work’
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR:
A system wide core curriculum means:
-That individual colleges no longer
control their curriculum. The danger
reaches far beyond the proposal
concerning core curriculum. it establish
es the right of the University System of
Georgia to decide issues concerning
curriculum-issues traditonally and logi
cally left up to individual faculties.
-That the reputation of every college
and university in this system is
jeopardized Georgia ranks very near the
bottom in education. As ling as our
colleges remain diverse and unique they
may be judged individually. Is it prudent
to invite observers to think all colleges in
the system are the same by giving them
reason to believe they are?
--That diverse colleges and univer-
sities -with very different goals and
needs--bo required to instruct the same
material. What is basic and necessary to
a pre-med student is far from the same
as what an engineering student needs to
continue his course of study
- That all colleges spend the first two
years of their students’ time instructing
the same thing-even if the talents of
their faculty and the facilities of their
campus are capable of providing much
more Students choose the school they
attend by what it can provide them with
in return, not what the other schools can.
Students have a right to expect
everything the school has to offer, every
quarter they are enrolled.
-That administrative expediency be
comes the determining factor of decisions
in the University System of Georgia,
subordinating academic excellence
The University System is considering
the adoption of a system-wide core
curriculum The plan cannot-and should
not-work.
The plan now consists of a 90-hour
course of study which any accredited
high school should be able to provide.
Any 90-hour course required to be taken
in the first two years of college is a bad
one.
First, fewer upperclassmen will be in
core classes, which will reduce the
amount of outside information introduced
into class discussions.
Second, there won’t be underclassmen
in upper-level courses, making the
freshman and sophomore class in
colleges as interesting and full of choices
as high school.
The concept of a system-wide core
curriculum ignores the reason that we
make up a system of individual colleges
and universities, and not one super-
university of Georgia. The colleges and
universities of this state are unique
Their students have different needs and
goals; their faculties have different
strengths and weaknesses; their facilities
offer different opportunities, and their
policies reflect different philosophies
A college without the ability to provide
what the others can simply can’t do it,
but the system’s opinion can already bp
expressed through the accreditation
process. On the other hand, a college
which can provide much more than some
of the others is obligated to provide it; its
students have the right to expect it to
provide it; and the system does not have
the right to prevent them from providing
it.
Individual schools alone are capable of
deciding what they can provide and of
deciding what their program should
require. It is their responsibility and
their right to determine their own
curriculum It is not just the core
curriculum that is at stake here, but
rather the issue of who controls the
whole curriculum This action threatens
to establish the University System’s right
to control the internal framework and
policy of each state college and
university.
DAVID SliELLEDY
‘Workshop only
partial remedy’
TO THE EDITOR:
Your editorial, "The advising pro
blem,” (Feb. 16) calls attention to a
situation of considerable importance to
many students Perhaps a lack of good
academic advising and counselling does
exist in many parts of this University.
I want to point out a student
responsibility of importance to many
academic advisors As an academic
advisor here for at least 15 years. I am
confident the students themselves can
alleviate a lot of the advising problems
and can improve the drop-add and
withdrawal situation.
The proposal mentioned in your
editorial for a "mandatory advising
workshop for advisors” has merits, no
doubt. But a workshop of this sort is at
best only a partial remedy.
Allow me to rearrange two words in
one of your comments to make my point:
"Many (advisees) seem to have little
idea about degree requirements and little
interest in (advisor's) desires.”
It is the responsibility of each student,
I think, to develop a plan of study, not an
advisor’s job-although the advisor may
assist. It would be helpful to advisors if
more students read a little more
carefully the curriculum requirements
already published, if students studied a
little better the availability of courses
and alternatives before meeting with an
advisor, and if each student learned to
pre-plan the work ahead a little more
particularly.
Advising is a time-consuming task and
an expensive service for the University.
When a student shows little ambition for
choosing subjects, or a major, when a
student doesn’t know what the next step
can be, then some advisors are equally
ambivalent and likewise disinterested.
Advisors are here, ideally, to guide
students through a curriculum, to
prevent stumbles and mistakes, to
explain choices, but not to plan individual
programs of study. Plenty of good advice
is available on campus if curious
students would only seek it.
A great many drop-add-withdrawals
could be avoided if those students who
frequently get caught in that web would
accept more personal repsonsibilities for
navigating an academic channel through
this University.
I would suggest that Student
Government Association consider finan
cing some student supervised workshops
on program planning If peer advising
were used to enhance, or improve,
faculty advising, maybe student respon
sibilities for choosing appropriate classes
would be better accepted and maybe
fewer drop-add-withdrawals would oc
cur. Experience is the best teacher, and
a lot of experienced seniors would make
excellent peer advisors.
Let's learn to do more for ourselves
rather than deper.d on the big-daddy
University to require some faculty
members to go to an advisor’s workshop.
G.L. PLUMMER
Academic Advisor. Honors Program
sr.d Professor. Botany Department
‘Appreciation
for fine people’
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing to express my deepest
appreciation for all the fine people who
assisted in making the Student
Government Association Ad-Hoc
Committee on Academic Improvement a
worthwhile endeavor. My special thanks
must first appropriately go to Gretchen
York, Joan Dawson, Claire Cornwell, and
Ann Morris. Their endless assistance
made much of the final report a reality.
Secondly, I applaud and commend the
efforts of Gregg Jocoy, who with his
perserverance and determination, kept
the committee together and patient in
regard to their goals. Finally, I
graciously thank all those who may have
assisted in any way with the workings of
the committee these last few weeks.
Thanks again.
G. GRANT RAESIDE
C’hrm. Committee for Academic
Improvement
Administrative Vice President SGA
‘Will R&B go
back to 5 days?’
TO THE EDITOR:
Would you please inform the student
population as to the reason!s) that the
daily Red and Black does not come out
on Monday? I remember from spring
1977 that the students voted to
discontinue the publication of a summer
newspaper to be able to have a weekly,
five-day newspaper for fall, winter and
spring quarters.
After calling The R&B office about this
matter, I was informed that "there were
some type of money problems" and
starting this quarter (winter ’78) the
R&B had to go back to four days per
week. Does this mean that the R&B will
again be published in the summer 0 Will
it go back to five days?
You (the R&B> are habitually finding
fault with other organizations, groups,
clubs, etc. for misuse of funds or
misappropriation of funds - maybe -
"those who live in glass houses shouldn't
throw stones.”
BEVERLY J. KOZLOW8KI
EDITOR’S REPLY: It’s true. The Red
and Black planned last spring not to
have a 1977 summer paper and to
produce a five-day paper this year.
We explained this in the first paper of
winter quarter on Jan. 5, hut for the
benefit of those who missed it. we'll
restate briefly what happened:
Last spring. The Rtd 1*4 lil.uk
presented to the University's student
activity fee allocation committee a
proposed budget that asked for less
money than the previous year and
promised expanded coverage, through
Monday editions. The cost figures we
used were necessarily estimates.
Two problems arose during fall
quarter, which was the first time The
Ked and Black had ever tried a five-day
schedule. First, some of our estimates
turned out to be wrong. Second, because
of a change in our accounting
procedures, we were forced to take a
writedown In our net worth. So the
balance sheet showed a $10,700 operating
loss at the end of fall quarter.
Because of these budgetary problems.
The Red and Black received perdiission
from the Board of Student t orn muni-
cations to cut back to a four dav
publishing schedule for winter quarter.
We will again review our financial
position at the end of this quarter. If the
situation has improved, we mav return to
the five-day schedule spring quarter
Current plans also call for a
resumption of the summer paper this
ffi THE RED AND BLACK
Steve Bills, editor
Gregg Steinle, Ed Stamper,
Executive editor Business manager
Hope Dlugoxima copy editor; Matt Prichard, campus editor; Tom Barton, city
editor, Yvonne Williams, state editor; Ed Gnsamore. feature editor William
Haines, entertainment editor; David Westin. sports editor; David Crosby, photo
editor, Vincent Papsidero, assistant copy editor; Joel Burke, Kalheryn Hayes
2“P W Hulett assonant campus editors; Mike Roberts, assistant city editor!
Michelle Kilboume. assistant state editor; Geraldine Romano, assistant feature
editor, Bob Ingram, assistant sports editor, Charlie Register, assistant photo
editor; Louise Lanier, wire editor; Tammy Savage, editorial assistant Debbie
Osteen, graphics coordinator; Debbie Blevins, production manager
Ibr Red and Black, student nrwspaprr o( the
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