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The Red and Black. Thursdax. March 2. IH7M
BRIAN O’SHEA
Watergate mentality
Finally the truth comes out.
Our suspicions that the Univer
sity administration is dominated
by a Watergate mentality have
bWn officially confirmed And by
none other than the administra
tion's second in command--Vice
President for Academic Affairs
Virginia Trotter
Through her statements Mon
day, in a meeting with frustrated
and disgruntled employees.
Trotter simply and eloquently
aligned herself with Nixon,
Haldeman and the rest
Trotter's policy concerning
those who disagree with the
administration is: Shut ’em up or
move 'em out. It is almost
certain that assistant library
director Richard Press, ousted
from the library last week by-
Trotter. will not be the last
dissenter to be axed
Trotter’s inability to deal fairly
and judiciously with personnel
problems in the University
library is painfully obvious. She
has ignored increasing employee
discontent for more than six
months, and now that the
situation can no longer be swept
under the rug. she has begun an
apparent purge of the library’s
most vocal dissenters.
Apparently by relieving Press
of his duties. Trotter felt that the
opposition movement would lose
much of its impetus, and the
dissenters would be effectively-
silenced. She was definitely-
mistaken.
Instead, the dissatisfied
employees have now sent letters
to several agencies and major
publications outside of the
University, informing them of
the rampant discontent.
An outraged Trotter responded
that this action on the part of the
library employees was "a
dangerous self-defeating course
for you. for the administration,
and for the University.”
And might we add. for
Virginia Trotter She is surely
aware that her job may
eventually be on the line if
publicity of library problems
escalates outside the University.
Trotter has argued that such
outside publicity will result in
"political interference" that will
cause the University to lose
academic and administrative
autonomy.
This is amusing. The adminis
tration was quite delighted for
State Sen Paul Broun, head of
the Senate Appropriations Com
mittee. to intervene earlier this
year when Arts and Sciences was
engaged in personnel conflicts.
The administration felt it was
certainly- all right for Broun to
meddle in academic affairs.
However, Trotter now says a
university that "invites outsiders
to mix in its affairs is courting
disaster.”
Trotter contends higher edu
cation has had "a long upward
struggle...building walls against
outside influence," while adding,
“let us not welcome the book
banners to our campus."
Since the only people who have
been informed of the problems in
the library were those the
Library Staff Association sent
letters to this week, we must
assume several prestigious nat
ional library associations and
publications and the Board of
Regents are “the book banners"
Trotter refers to.
And as for the bit about
“building walls, Trotter should
certainly know about that. She
has spent her entire term in
office building walls between the
administration, the library, and
the press She has sought
repeatedly to silence the library-
staff while attempting to keep
the press completely in the dark
She has rebuked the dissenting
library employees, by saying, “I
modestly suggest that none of us
has a monopoly on the right and
the truth.”
We modestly suggest that
there are some who are utterly
bankrupt in those areas
LETTERS
SGA got no reason to live
Like the people in Randy Newman’s
now legendary song the Student
Government Association has no reason to
live Until last spring, this auspicious
organization held an advisory role in the
student allocations
process Last
Wednesday, the
Senate rejected con
trol of small clubs
allocations and with
it their voice in the
administration
The history of the
Senate in recent
years has been a tragic one Despite the
efforts of a few dedicated senators, the
Senate has fallen victim to trivia buffs
and resume builders
With the exception of the allocations
issue, the present Senate, for example,
has been concerned with changing the
way they govern themselves and holding
new elections.
The meetings spent on Bulldog Beer
don't count.)
Brian O’Shea is a staff writer for the Red
and Black
Before the arrows of retaliation start
fixing it should be acknowledged that the
SGA did oppose the core curriculum
proposal, the 14-day withdrawal policy,
and the reduction cf the drop add period.
However, it must also be pointed out that
these actions could have been taken
without a Senate vote
The students were opposed to these
policies because they didn't like them,
not because the Senate voted not to like
them In fact, the term student
government is a terrible misnomer when
one considers that most governments
govern something
The SGA's executive cabinet is the
closest thing to a student-oriented
•government'' the SGA has produced,
but it too falls short The various
ministries, which include academic
affairs and consumer affairs, have
produced surveys on advising, drop-add
and withdrawals In addition, consumer
aft airs gave students discounts at eight
Athens stores in the form of the Student
Buying Power Card
However, these ministers are some
what inaccessable to the average student
and sometimes pursue special interests
The cabinet members working to exempt
fraternities and sororities from paying ad
valorum taxes is a good example, since
the issue affects only a few students.
Since last spring, the Senate has
refused to compromise over the
allocations process on two occasions The
Senate showed incompetency two years
ago when it bungled the allocations
process and Dean of Student Services
Dwight Douglas was forced to take over
Douglas set up his own allocations
committee last spring and asked
members of the Senate allocations
committee to serve as members. Letting
pride get the best of them, all but two
senators refused to serve These two
senators were branded traitors by their
colleagues and almost lost their seats in
the battle which ensued
The Senate branded Douglas as a
threat to student freedom when in fact he
had merely threatened some of the
senator's egos Since last spring, many
senators have vowed to regain their role
in the allocations process, only to ruin
their chances last week by rejecting
another Douglas compromise
Neither Douglas nor anyone else in the
administration is going to lose any sleep
if the students have a voice in the
administration or not The slip-shod
manner in which the Senate handled
allocations and their subsequent refusals
to cooperate gives the administration
license to exclude students from the
policy making process Student represen
tatives are useless unless they have some
power
Since the Senate no longer has a voice
in student allocations its most important
task is to justify its own existence
This is where the trivia buffs come into
play One of the most heated debates to
stumble across the Senate floor this year
was a $1000 allocation sending t^e
senators to leadership camp in balmy
central Georgia
These aspiring leaders hoped to find
something to lead when they returned,
however, after deciding the weekend
picnic would be too costly, they voted to
stay at home and spent only $750 This
important issue is second only to the
induction of new members land, of
course, throwing out the old) on a list of
the Senate’s key issues for the year
Obviously, the Student Government
'the one which doesn't govern) needs to
be revamped However, any change in
the government will have to be approved
by the Senate
The Senate will soon consider a
proposal which would replace that body
with a nine-man governing board The>
will probably reject this proposal, hold
new elections this spring, and continue as
usual When this happens, the new
Senators will vow to regain a role in the
allocations process, propose new ways to
govern themselves, reject any attempts
by the administration to bring them back
into allocations, and then elect new
members, ad infinitum
While they are doing all of these
important things, many senators will
probably scratch their heads in wonder
as the students walk around singing. We
don’t want no SGA people round here "
ueuj ?/A>6rtct
MrtCHwes t/lT too
‘Irresponsible condemnation of concern’
TO TIG EDITOR:
As a member of the committee that
investigated the problems of the
University library during the summer
and fall. 1 have respected the
confidentiality imposed upon that com
mittee However. I now feel impelled to
make public my concern for and
disapproval of the way the matter has
been handled We were told that we were
neither to whitewash nor to crucify
anyone in our investigation, it now seems
evident that the present result is a
combination of both these alternatives
The treatment of Mr Press with the
subsequent shifting of Mr Pease, the
denial of the existence of a written
report, after numerous previous refer
ences to such a report 'whether that
report should be made public is another
matter*, the fa.lure to show the
committee what was actually reported as
its conclusions, the refusal of responsible
people to talk intelligently and honestly
with the press I resent having been put
bx my silence into a position of seeming
to condone these actions
It is not surprising that many members
of the library staff have felt it necessary
to go to outside sources for help, internal
help has been slow coming and then
comes in the form of irresponsible
condemnation of the sincere concern of
conscientious, presumably intelligent
people
Anyone familiar at all with the
problems of our library problems which
directly affect our total program, and are
therefore a legitimate concern of every
student, teacher, and staff member of
the University knows that a solution will
not be easy and will certainly not please
everyone (or perhaps please anyone
entirely); and because the library does
belong, in a real and vital way. to the
entire University community, every
member of which has an interest in its
effective operation, the library staff and
the University as a whole deserve to see
some reason in actions taken and deserve
better than a peremptory command to
observe a passive quiesence while their
superiors "work things out'' in private
JANE APPLEBY
English Department
‘Movie crowd
impolite animals’
TO THE EDITOR:
For the four years I have been at the
University. I have seen and enjoyed
many movies at SPJ This past weekend,
however. I was present at one of the most
impolite, animalistic scenes I have ever
witnessed while waiting to purchase a
ticket Several people who arrived early
for a midnight show stood around
shivering for over an hour to be assured
of a good seat Perhaps 20 minutes before
midnight, masses of folks started
Letters policy
Letters to the editor
should:
Include name, address and
phone number of contributor.
Re brief; to the point.
showing up and lining up not only at the
rear of the line, but at the front and
middle also!
Unbelievably, the line grew to four and
five wide in front of us Boos and hisses
greeted the "line cutters "
Some were shamed into some
demonstration of class and went to the
rear while others just brazened it out.
knowing that they could get away with it
I opened my mailbox the other day and
in it was a bill from the electrical utility
Right on time as always At this time of
the year, it is always best to open this
particular bill immediately after drinking
10 beers in 10
minutes It works
for me. anyway
Burp
The electric bill
for my roommate
and me this month
is S130. $80 more
than last month The
bad part of the
situation is that the amount of paymen'
due really didn't surprise me IJnfor
tuna tel y. I guess I’ve learned to accept it
Shame, shame, shame, as Gomer would
say
You can call the utility's office and
gripe and bitch all you want, but it won't
do any good The best thing to do is pay
it. unless you can shower next door and
study by candle light Ah. these
progressive Ernes we live in!
When it is time to pay the bill you can
go down to the office on Prince Avenue
Just look for the building that has sodded
green grass in the front, even in this
winter weather Where do they get the
money for such niceties, i wonder 0 1
thought they used all of their leftover
money for developing new sources of
energy
1 approached some of these people and
was told that a friend had "saved” them
• and their five friends) a place near the
front of the line
Granted, midnight showings of Elesh
Gordon and Reefer Madness attract a
party crowd, but partying and being
totally oblivious to other peoples' rights
and feedings do not necessarily have to go
together. The ticket sellers were of
Once inside the building, you walk
across a lobby big enough to hold
practice for a soccer team Pele would
love this, but he's retired now That's the
breaks
Steve Burgess i» a sports writer for the
Red and Black
One of the bills not too long ago
included a slip of paper that told of the
many ways to conserve electricity:
Don't use the dishwasher unless you
are washing a full load. We haven't used
the dishwasher much in the first place,
only twice since September It’s
becoming increasingly cheaper to yse
paper plates and plastic utensils
Restrict the use of unnecessary
appliances There goes the hot lather
machine in the bathroom and the lava
lamp in the living room. 1 will miss the
lava lamp, and I only need to shave twice
a month, so I’ll keep the hot lather Too
bad for you guys who are stuck with the
"floating heads ”
•Keep your thermostat set at 68 degrees
and seal all cracks that cause heat loss
This is something that I can live with, but
70 degrees i« much more comfortable At
night, they suggest 65 degrees or lower
The time has come to wear flannel
janiies like the three year-olds, no matter
what Playboy says is "in " Put the
electric blanket in the closet The teddy
course powerless to control the situation
and were virtually stampeded into the
carpet when they did open the doors I
think this is a good instance of the
decline and fall of Southern etiquette, and
would remind those folks responsible only
to do unto others as they would have
others do unto them
WARREN AI.HEE
bear with a built-in hot water bottle'’
Forget it.
Coal supplies down at Plant Power are
also depleting, making matters worse
We are lucky, compared to other areas
such as the Midwest, where coal amounts
are almost nil It's real bad in Frostbite.
Indiana
What I can’t understand is how one
company developed a monopoly over
electricity in the first place If enough
people complained through the proper
channels, maybe the government would
get involved Wait. I forgot that two dogs
eat more than one. and we pay for the
Jim Dandy
Someone needs to develop a meter that
is mini in size so you could put it in the
hall by the thermostat To hell with
Kilowatt Hours, let it record how much
is used in dollars and cents It could be
offered in digital or electronic form,
whatever is best for your decor It should
not use much electricity, either
I composed a short rhyme to
summarize my feeling
They have the powrr
We’ve got the soul.
But the real guys with power
Are the ones with the coal.
If the coal remains short
Then oil could be drafted.
Hot »h*y'|| find «
To make sure we get shafted
Everybody say Amen
ffi THE RED AND BLACK
Yvonne Williams, editor
Matt Pritchard, Ed Stamper,
Executive editor Business manager
Hope Dlugozima copy editor Matt Prichard, campus editor. Tom Barton, city
editor. Yvonne Williams, state editor. Ed Grisamore, feature editor. William
Haines, entertainment editor. David Westin, sports editor. David Crosby, photo
editor. Vincent Papsidero. assistant copy editor. Joel Burke. Katheryn Hayes.
Skip Hulett. assistant campus editors Mike Roberts, assistant city editor.
Michelle Kilbourne. 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
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Power bill shocking arrival