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SAC intensifying efforts to readmit UGA
By JACK THREADGU.L
Red and Black Staff Writer
MILLEDGEVILLE - The Student Advisory
Council to the Board of Regents is feeling a
“growing sentiment” to allow the University
back into its membership, SAC President
Sylvester Ford said Tuesday after the board's
agenda-setting meeting.
Ford said some SAC members would come to
Athens soon to talk with University Vice Presi
dent for Student Affairs Dwight Douglas and to
invite the University to rejoin SAC. Douglas has
opposed previous SAC plans to re-enlist the
University.
The regents will meet again today at Middle
Georgia College in Cochran to take action on
proposed increases in tuition, student fees and
faculty salaries.
The University has not had a voting member
in SAC since 1978. SAC is composed of student
representatives from the state's colleges and
universities, with the members serving in an ad
visory capacity to the regents.
SAC statutes stipulate that each institution's
student body designate that institution's
representative to the council. Ford said the
statutes would have to be amended in order for
SAC to readmit the University.
In the fall of 1978, the University’s student
Senate passed a resolution asking then-Student
Government Association President Roger
Strauss to stop attending the SAC meetings At
the time, several senators said they felt SAC
was ineffective in representing student eneds
In January 1979, the Student Government
Association pulled out of SAC, and then, in April
1979, University students abolished the SGA
The University has been without an official SAC
representative since that time.
In December 1981, the regents approved an
amendment to SAC's bylaws allowing them to
“determine the criteria for the election” from a
school without a student government. At the
regents February meeting, several board
members criticized SAC’s plan to admit a
University representative on the grounds that
SAC would retain the right to dismiss the
representative, a power the association does not
have over other members.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dwight
Douglas also criticized the plan because he said
it would put the University in an unfair position.
Any new plan for representation in SAC
"shouldn't place the University at a disad
vantage," Douglas said after the February
regents meeting.
In regents business Tuesday, University
System Chancelor Vernon Crawford said he will
recommend a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase
for all faculty plus merit increases ranging
from 3.75 percent to a ceiling of 6 percent The
legislature recommended a 4.75 percent cost-of-
living increase with a 1.5 percent automatic in
crease.
Crawford said a tight state budget had limited
the size of the increase. Last September the
regents requested a 7.5 percent cost-of-living in
crease plus a 2.5 percent automatic increase
“I don't feel too badly (about the increases),
considering the circumstances,” Crawford said.
The faculty received an 11 percent increase
for fiscal 1982, and an 11.5 percent increase for
fiscal 1981. The legislature last month passed a
$548 million system appropriation, which was
$130 million less than the $678 million the
regents requested in September.
The chancellor said tuition must rise this year
due to the limited state budget and also help br
ing the students' share of their education costs
up from the 19,3 percent to 25 percent, as recom
mended by the State Committee on Public
Education.
"It’s always unpleasant to raise taxes or
fees," Crawford said, "and since the state’s not
going to raise taxes, we’re going to have to raise
fees."
The 15 percent increase would bring the
students' share to about 21 percent, Crawford
said.
SAC last summer agreed with the regents
about tuition hikes. Ford said, because it realiz
ed that increases in tuition “was the only way to
keep the University system’s financial house in
order."
“We are not opposed to the tuition increases,
but we’re not enthusiastic about them,” Ford
said, "We hope we don’t continue to get drastic
increases."
The proposed tuition for in state University
students would be $285 a quarter, and for non
residents $570 a quarter Vice Chancellor for
Fiscal Affairs Sheaiy McCoy said non-resident
fees would rise a little more than 15 percent in
order to reach a system-wide standard of non
resident fees amounting to 200 percent of the in
state matriculation fee.
The tuition increase would go into effect sum
mer quarter
State budget cuts
bode ill for some
school programs
By KEVIN SHARPS
Red and Black Stall Writer
Although one of the University's
largest public service organizations
may be hard hit by the tight state
budget, a smaller bureau may receive
most of its budget request from the
Board of Regents
Officials at the University
Cooperative Extension Service expect
their budget request to take a beating
when the regents begin allocating the
$548 million the legislature budgeted for
the University System, but officials in
the Office of Minority Business
Development are not so pessimistic.
The board had requested $687 million
from the legislature. The regents in
September 1981 requested that the
legislature give the minority business
office a 31 percent increase from its
1981-82 budget of $183,763 to $240,671.
Officials at the extension service sought
an increase in their state allocations
from $17.8 million to $21.6 million, a 16
percent increase.
However, in light of past budget
reductions, E. Walter Wilson,
operations director of the Cooperative
Extension Service, is expecting the
service to receive a great deal less than
was requested
“The extension service has seen
financial trouble in the past," Wilson
said. “We’re always fighting debt. We
have had to alter programs for several
years.”
Aside from the 10 percent increase
the extension service requested for
utility cost increases, officials were
looking forward to receiving funds to
improve and expand their services,
Wilson said
“An improvement level of funds is
always suggested, but rarely
received," Wilson said.
Much of the initial budget request
was earmarked for adding new staff
members, including more county
agents to help Georgia farmers in
agricultural production, Wilson said.
Although the extension service is
subsidized in part by private, state and
federal grants and contracts, it needs a
hefty budget increase in order to func
tion efficiently, Wilson said.
"We are only expecting to receive a
current-level budget increase," Wilson
said.
Current-level increases do not allow
the creation of new positions. Costs are
adjusted only for the increase in costs
of utilities, and many times do not even
cover that, Wilson said
Lequita Booth, director of the Office
of Minority Business Development,
said the office may not receive the
amount it requested.
A large portion of the budget of the
minority business office was allocated
for pay increases, utility cost increases
and opening a new office in Augusta,
said Jack Davis, administrator for the
Small Business Development Center.
The programs’ decreased budget is
the result of the huge reductions in
money allocated for state facilities as a
whole, said Duane Riner, press
secretary for Gov. George Busbee.
However, the regents may be a little
more sympathetic to the Minority
Business Development Center's need
for funding because legislators have
become concerned about the lack of
active programs promoting minority
business, Riner said.
In his Jan 14 budget message to the
legislature, Busbee had recommended
that the minority business center's
budget be increased to $240,171, just
$500 short of the regents' request.
And more than likely, regents
members will take Busbee's recom
mendations into consideration when
they determine the University’s
budget, said Julius Bishop, regents’
board member.
The program was supported by
legislators "to increase the mobility of
minority business in Georgia,” Riner
said. “Also, very little has been done in
the past in the way of a practical move
to promote minority business."
Staff photo/Mam Walton
'Beam me up, Scotty ’
No, this man is not bring driven upward to an alien spacecraft, and he's not
practicing for a game of volleyball, either. Rather, Charlie Arnold, a graduate
student in business administration, was leaping for a Frisbee Tuesday afternoon at
Legion Field when our photographer took this picture. From the looks of things,
Arnold might want to get another partner to throw to him, or he might have to
trade in those running shoes for a pair of stilts.
Haig heads home
after Argentines
reject peace plan
By t'nllrd Pre»» Intrrnattonal
Argentina Tuesday rejected a U S.
peace plan involving three-power
administration of the Falkland Islands
and Secretary of State Alexander Haig
flew home. Argentina for the first time
reportedly detected British submarines
near the islands to enforce the
blockade.
Haig abruptly postponed a second
trip to Buenos Aires and flew back from
Ixindon to inform President Reagan of
the outcome of his two-day talks with
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and
her top ministers.
In Buenos Aires, diplomatic sources
said Argentina flatly rejected a peace
plan proposed by Ilaig under which the
Falklands would be jointly ad
ministered by Washington, Ixtndon and
Buenos Aires until the dispute was
settled.
The sources said Argentina told Haig
not to return to Buenos Aires because
Britain was still unwilling to accept
Argentine sovereignty over the islands,
a British colony since 1833
The diplomatic sources in Buenos
Aires said Argentina was seeking full
sovereignty over the islands but was
willing to allow the administration of
the islands to be supervised by in
ternational observers.
Britain said it wanted a peaceful
solution, but warned its naval force
would continue steaming towards the
Falklands unless the Argentine in
vasion force was withdrawn from the
islands
The diplomatic stalemate brought the
two nations closer to war, although no
clashes had been reported at sea since
Britain began a naval blockade of the
South Atlantic islands late Sunday
Argentine air force sources said they
detected several British submarines in
the South Atlantic near the islands, an
Argentine news agency reported
It was the first reported Argentine
contact with British vessels since
Britain imposed a war zone 200 nautical
miles around the islands, seized by
Argentina April 2.
The report did not say if the sub
marines were spotted within the war
zone
Britain reportedly has sent four
nuclear-powered attack submarines
armed with torpedoes to the Falklands
to enforce the blockade. No Argentine
ship has yet challenged it.
The news agency quoted air force
sources as saying several submarines
were detected by "sonar-buoys" near
the islands, 450 miles off the Argentine
mainland.
Argentina placed its 15-ship fleet on
alert and massed key naval units in
Bahia Blanca, 425 miles south of
Buenos Aires, but did not send any
vessels out to sea to challenge the
British blockade
Britain's 40-ship battle fleet was
reported a week away from the
Falklands.
Elsewhere in South America, Bolivia
said it would send its air force to fight
on behalf of Argentina if war broke out
and in Lima, Peru, hundreds of youths
lined up at the Argentine Embassy to
volunteer for military service
Before returning to Washington, Haig
met with Thatcher and Foreign
Secretary Sir Francis Pym, ending two
days of talks on the U S. peace
proposals
Haig told reporters he postponed his
trip to Buenos Aires because "dif
ficulties developed to change those
plans.”
"We have now received some new
ideas,” he said, "and while the parties
are considering those ideas, it will
provide an opportunity for me to report
to President Reagan before going on to
Buenos Aires shortly."
The British naval armada conducted
war drills as it steamed toward the
South Atlantic islands, and the com
mander of the Argentine fleet gave his
crews a farewell speech in preparation
for a possible armed challenge to the
British naval blockade of the
Falklands.
Used-car dealers oppose more regulations
Freddie Massey
By JOHN O'BRIEN
Krd and Hlark < onlrtbuttnK Writer
Freddie Massey has been a used-car dealer
in Athens for 28 years He sold the first cars off
his lot to Athens families in 1954, and he's been
selling to the same families ever since
"Crooks just don't last in this business," he
says “Dissatisfied customers run them out "
But in the last five years or so, Massey has
himself been forced to make his customers a
little less than satisfied
Because of an increase in the number of
Federal Trade Gwmmission regulations on used
cars, he had tolfire a full- time lawyer and a
certified public accountant to keep him up on
the latest laws and to make sure his business
didn’t go under Their salaries, along with the
costs of the increased number of inspections he
had to make, jacked up the price of his cars
And now there's another FTC proposal
before Congress that, Massey says, could push
him over the edge
The FTC rule would require used-car dealers
to tell consumers about any defects in the cars
they sell The dealer would be required to list
all the defects on a windshield sticker
The proposed rule is not a new one It's gone
before Congress every year for the last four
years, and each time was voted down by more
than 200 congressmen, including Georgia Reps
Newt Gingrich. R-Carrolton. Larry McDonald.
D-Marietta; Ed Jenkins, D- Jasper and Doug
Barnard, D- Augusta
But this time the congressmen are getting
some opposition from consumer affairs activist
Ralph Nader
In a letter to the Atlanta Constitution, Nader
accused the congressmen of voting just to
please campaign contributors, in this case the
National Automobile Dealers Association. The
NADA contributed $600,000 to 180 of the 216 con
gressmen who voted against the bill last year
In his letter, Nader said Gingrich received
$1,500 from the NADA, McDonald $2,200,
Jenkins $2,300, and Barnard $3,400
Richard Matysiak, chief automotive in
vestigator for the Georgia Office of Consumer
Affairs, agrees with Nader's accusations
“We have these disclosure statements on
other consumer goods, like washing
machines," says Matysiak, "but the
automobile lobbyists in Washington are so
powerful that this rule may never get passed "
But the Georgia congressmen say contribu
tions have nothing to do with their decision on
whether to vote against the regulation. "The
trouble with the thing is it’s so vaguely worded
that no one would get much legal protection —
neither the dealer nor the consumer," says
David John, a spokesman for Barnard “The
campaign contribution from the NADA had
nothing to do with this issue ''
And a McDonald aide says, "Mr Nader is
crazy if he thinks that amount of money is go
ing to persuade almost the entire congress to
vote against this thing . ”
"America has clearly agreed that federal
regulation is not needed in all areas," Gingrich
said in a written statement. “People would
rather have an open market — they showed
that by electing President Reagan What we
need is a stronger morality, not another
government regulation."
Massey, a former president of the Georgia
Independet Automobile Dealers Association,
says that even without a stronger morality —
that is, less dishonesty in the used-car business
— the proposal is unnecessary.
"We've already established a peaceful, inex
pensive solution to the problem of the dishonest
car dealer," he says. "The G1ADA has set up a
Used Car Consumer Action Panel that takes
the dealer and the dissatisfied consumer to an
arbitrator who determines who's in the wrong
without chargng high lawyer’s fees."
Massey's biggest complaint about the FTC
proposal is that it would cost him an average of
$500 to fully inspect every car — which he says
he would have to do or risk being sued — yet the
cost would not improve the value of the car one
bit.
“It’s impossible to know the life history of
every car," he says. "And the things the FTC
rule would want inspected are so picky, we'd
literally have to take very car completely
apart, then put it back together again before we
could sell it."
Please See CARS. Page 3