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The Red and Black
Athens, Ga. Thursday, February A, 1902 Voi.83, Mo.57 An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community News 543-1809 Advertising 543-1791
UGA admissions committee
lowers freshmen enrollment
By EVE MAJOR
and CHUCK REECE
K«*d and Mark Staff Hritrrs
The University Council's admissions com
mittee Wednesday set a goal of enrolling ap
proximately 3,000 freshmen this fall quarter,
400 less than were enrolled last fall.
The University administration is still mak
ing plans that will enable the 13 schools and
colleges to better accommodate those
students, said Registrar Bruce Shutt.
Shut! said the administration is making ar
rangements to provide more sections of
classes that freshmen are required to take
Admissions Director M.O. Phelps said at the
meeting that "the biggest drawback" of hav
ing large numbers of freshmen is matching
students with classes But he added that the
problems caused in scheduling and housing by
last fall’s enrollment crunch did not appear to
have affected the number of freshmen who
returned winter quarter.
As of Feb. 1, applications for freshman ad
mission had jumped 15.3 percent compared to
the same time last year, with 6,127 applica
tions received. Some 5,313 applications had
been received Feb. 1,1981
Of those 6,127 applicants, 4,243 had been ac
cepted by Feb 1, an increase of 7 percent from
last year at that time.
Phelps said at the meeting that 373 ap
plicants were in a holding category These ap
plicants are people who did not meet the
University’s minimum admissions standards
of a Scholastic Aptitude Test of 900 and a high
school average of B. The admissions commit
tee reviews those applicants who fail to meet
the minimum standards on a case-by-case
basis.
The 4,243 applicants who have already been
accepted are not an accurate guage of how
many people will actually enroll. That figure
is based on the show rate — the percentage of
those accepted who decide to attend.
Show rates normally drop as admissions
standards become more stringent because
people who can meet higher standards usually
have a wider range of schools from which to
choose.
Phelps said at the meeting that standards
must be “somewhat more selective than last
year’s" in order to keep freshman enrollment
down to the 3,000 to 3,200 level that the admis
sions committee wants.
Although the University administration is
currently working on ways to accommodate
the freshmen who will enroll this fall, the
enrollment crunch felt by several academic
departments last fall and ihis quarter may not
ease greatly this spring, Shutt said.
“The spring quarter timetable must be ad
justed because there are not enough seats (in
classes),” Shutt said.
Shutt said earlier this week that a motion
made at the December University Registra
tion Advisory Committee meeting by J Reid
Parker, an associate forestry professor,
brought much attention to the overcrowding
problem caused by increased enrollment.
In that meetng, Parker moved “that
because of the increasing number of students
who are unable to register for classes they re
quire, the University should at this point either
control enrollment to match available
resources of increase resources to enable
academic departments to handle demand."
Stmlt photo/.Sum VNniton
Committee members Carry Jone (I.), Dwight Douglas set enrollment quota
Athens escapes seriousflooding problems
Staff photo/t urttw t ok
The mighty, muddy Oconee: 17 feet and rising
From staff and wire reports
Although heavy rains caused flooding
in some areas of North Georgia, Athens
apparently came through the storm
relatively unscathed
The National Weather Service station
at the Athens Airport said that although
flood warnings are still in effect for the
Oconee River, flash flood warnings
were canceled Wednesday morning at
11:10. The North Oconee River is ex
pected to crest at 17 feet early today.
The river reaches the flood at 19 feet,
but at 17 feet there could be minor
flooding in low-lying areas, the service
said. The Middle Oconee River, which
reaches the flood stage at 18 feet, is ex
pected to crest at 16 feet this afternoon
A service spokesman said 3 46 inches
fell on Athens Tuesday and Wednesday
That is not a record rainfall, he said,
“just a good heavy rain."
The forecast today calls for a 40 per
cent chance of rain for the Athens area.
Richard Rosser, civil defense direc
tor for Athens and Clarke County, said
he had heard of no serious flooding pro
blems. Rosser said he looked at low
areas near the Oconee River and found
the water "pretty much within its chan
nels We shouldn't have any problem,"
he said
“We haven’t had too many com
plaints of streets flooding," said Gary
Duck of the Athens Streets Depart
ment Duck said the only flooding he
had heard of were of catch basins,
which collect water that runs off the
streets.
County Engineer George Chandler
said his office had received only two
drainage complaints from residents,
and one of those was due to a basketball
caught in a pipe
The rain caused only minor damages
to University buildings, said Vance
Cecil, associate director of the Physical
Plant. “We had a little leak here and a
little leak there," he said
Cecil said the old Landscape Ar
chitecture building was flooded on the
ground floor, but, "It wasn't anything
that wouldn’t have happened with a
smaller rain." Seepage was also
reported in the veterinary medicine
building, he said
The University and Clarke County
police departments said they had
received no reports of accidents
Wednesday The Athens police reported
no weather-related accidents.
Other areas of the state, however,
were not so fortunate.
The storm dumped more than seven
inches of rain on some parts of north
Georgia in 24 hours and forced
residents Wednesday to flee flood-
waters in Rome, Cedartown,
Douglasville and Atlanta.
Flash flood warnings were posted for
areas near four Georgia rivers — the
Chattahoochee, Sweetwater Creek,
Oostawaula and Etowah — that are ex
pected to crest as high as 30 feet by this
afternoon as swollen tributaries and
runoff from the drenching
thunderstorms drain into them
Four-wheel driver vehicles were used
to evacuate about 10 families from a
Bar owners seek extension
on Saturday drinking hours
By LAURA OTTO
Kc4 and Black Staff Whirr
Local residents may be able to drink
at their favorite restaurant or nightspot
an extra hour on .Saturdays if an Athens
City Council recommendation is ap
proved by the Clarke County Commis
sion and the state legislature
The county commission, which must
approve the measure before the state
will act, is expected to vote in favor of
the recommendation at next Tuesday's
regular meeting
Both the city and the county have
made the request in the past but never
in the same year; thus, the general
assembly has not acted on the proposal,
Commissoner George Bullock said.
The resolution was passed last year
and we have the same members, so I
expect it so pass,*’ Bullock said.
The council voted 6-3 Tuesday night
in favor of recommending the
legislature extend the hours that
alcoholic beverages can be served in
restaurants and bars in Athens The
Athens Restaurant and Bar Owners
Association requested that the council
vote on the provision which would allow
serving hours to end Sundays at 1 a m
instead of midnight on Saturday
The city council also voted
unanimously to formally dissolve the
Athens-Clarke County Charter Com
mission and officially encourage all
citizens to vote in the upcoming
referendum Feb 16
The charter commission finished its
job of drafting the plans for the con
solidated government in December,
said commission chairman Clark Ivey
"Once the charter was approved by
the US. Justice Department, which
happened on Dec. 13, our business was
officially over,” Ivey said.
The council n'so app-oved Coun
cilman Lew ia Shropshire a resolution
encouraging state legislators to help
state and federal day-care programs
whose funds are dwindling to become
self sufficient by allowing the parents
involved to contribute to the program.
The state Department of Human
Resources currently sets a weekly fee
for participants of the programs ac
cording to their ability to pay The Title
XX child care regulations, which went
into effect Jan. 15, including a sliding
fee scale ranging from 50 cents to $35,
but the money goes to the state instead
of the local government and does not in
clude a provision for voluntary con
tributions.
Shropshire said the proposed amend
ment would help "return federal pro
grams to the state and local levels" as
directed by the president in his State of
the Union message last week.
A water rate adjustment passed by
the council will be given to residents
whose water bills increased 50 percent
due to burst pipes during the freeze last
month, but the adjustment will not
become a permanent city ordinance
Council woman Nancy Denson called
the weather unusual” and said there is
no need to make the policy a permanent
one
The Finance Committee will handle
the weather-related accidents as the
need arises, said Shropshire, the com
mittee chairman.
In other business, the council approv
ed with no public discussion the ap
plication by Milner Ball, a University
law professor, to rezone the top floor of
225 N. Lumpkin St from central
business district to planned shopping
center, which will allow him to
renovate it for a residence
The structure, which is next to the
Georgia Theater, will continue to house
offices on the bottom floor
The rezoning approval may set a
precedent for people who want to live
downtown
Observer goes bi-weekly
By DEBORAHSHARP
Kfd and Black Stall Writer
In an effort to improve community news coverage and
boost advertising revenues, the Athens Observer will
begin publishing twice a week Wednesdays and Fridays
— beginning March 17 The Observer now publishes a
paper every Thursday
The expanded format will be well received by readers
and subscribers, said Observer president and general
manager Chuck Searcy
"This will make us even more competitive with the
dailies and other media With two papers a week, maybe
they won't have to rely on the Daily News or the Banner
Herald," he said
"Community service has always been our number one
goal." Searcy said "While we expect some increases in
ad revenue, we re not deluding ourselves to think we are
going to double our income by doubling our frequency "
Although there will likely tie some overlap, the two
papers will have different focuses. Searcy said
The Wednesday paper will be more concerned with
business, economic and "hard news", Searcy said The
"Close-IJp. feature spotlighting Athenians, will also be
re-instituted
The Friday paper will be oriented toward leisure time,
with entertainment and sports coverage as well as calen
dar and television listings The Friday paper will be
geared more toward student interests than the paper is
now, Searcy said
“We used to have strong ties with the University," he
said, "and we’ve drifted away in the past " He said they
plan to provide a guide to entertainment and week-end ac
tivities for students, and also to increase coverage of the
University itself
The change in publication frequency has been talked
about for some time. Searcy said Initially, discussion had
centered on changing to a daily or four day-a-wcck for
mat "We couldn't get over the apprehension of becoming
another typical daily newspaper," he said
The twice weekly format "will give us one more shot at
breaking or developing stories." he said In the past, the
paper has had to cut or leave out community news and in
formation because of space limitations
Marietta subdivision near the
Chatahoochee said local Civil Defense
spokeswoman Marian Ray,
“The water is up to the door and is
already about halfway over some
cars," said Kenneth Drooker before the
rescue teams arrived about 11a.m.
Small groups of people were also
evacuated from low lying areas near
rivers that threatened to rush over their
banks within the next two days as well.
Testimony links
Williams with
Cater, Payne
Two witnesses testified Wednesday
they saw Wayne Williams with his two
alleged victims on the last day they
were seen alive, and one said Williams
was holding hands with one of the
victims.
Robert Henry, a nursery worker,
testified he saw Williams and Nathaniel
Cater emerge from a downtown theater
“holding hands" just hours before
Williams was stopped near the Chat
tahoochee River — about a mile from
where Catcr's body washed up two days
later.
The second witness, A B Dean, said
he saw Williams near the same river
with Jimmy Ray Payne last April 22 —
the last day Payne was seen alive His
body was pulled from the river five
days later But his testimony was left in
some doubt after defense attorney Al
Binder trapped him into misidentifying
an investigator.
Following the two bombshells on
what was expected to be the next-to-the-
last day of the prosecution's case, a
witness testified out of the presence of
the jury that Williams often referred to
young blacks as "niggers " Defense
attorney Al Binder objected to the
testimony and Cooper recessed for the
day.
Prosecutor Jack Mallard said he
wanted to present the testimony in an
effort to show Williams' “motive and
bent of mind toward his own race and
certain elements of it.” He said he had
other witnesses to testify on the same
subject
Williams, a 23-year-old black
freelance photographer and would be
talent scout, is on trial for the murders
of Cater, 27, and Payne, 21, two of 28
young blacks found slain in Atlanta
over a 22-month period
Dean, an 80-year-old man who had
trouble hearing the attorneys'
questions, said soon after Payne's body
was discovered, he clipped a photo of
the victim from a newspaper and
showed it to the two county sheriffs as
the man he had seen near the river
He said he followed that up after
Williams was arrested by clipping a
picture of the suspect and identifying it
to one of the sheriffs as the second man
he had seen He said Williams and
Payne were talking to a taxi driver
when he spotted them.
A day after the first sighting. Dean
said, he came back by the river on the
way to work and saw Williams again - -
but this time alone
Under cross-examination. Binder had
his chief investigator, Durwood Myers,
stand, and asked Dean if Myers had
come to interview him during the
summer
Dean said he had, described what
Myers was wearing, and then Binder
snapped shut his trap — two other men,
not Myers, had been to interview Dean.
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