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THE RED AND BLAC
Black, white Greeks merge
News 543-1809 Advertising 543-1791
IFC President Joe Klein ini' (left) says merger not automatic
By KIM HAYS
Rrd and Mark Senior Reporter
In a unanimous vote Wednesday
night, the Interfraternity Council
passed a resolution to merge with the
Black Greek Council
However, IFC President Joe Fleming
stressed that the resolution does not
automatically make the four black
fraternities IFC members The black
fraternities must petition individually
for membership, he said
"Obviously, we can’t go and annex
any fraternity on campus into the IFC,”
Fleming said.
The IFC also introduced resolutions
for constitutional changes involving
minimum grade point averages and
minimum memberships for member
fraternities
The minimum membership
resolution, tabled until Nov. 7, requires
each fraternity to meet the mem
bership quotas of its national frater
nity
All-Greek Council Representative
Frank Auman said, "The (minimum
membership) resolution was in
troduced to facilitate the integration of
the two Greek systems.”
Auman has worked with BGC
fraternities and sororities on the im
pending merger for the last one-and-a-
half years
A'oha Phi Alpha President Irving
Dawson said, “The BGC fraternities do
not plan to merge with the IFC until the
(minimum membership) resolution
passes."
Dawson explained that if the merger
takes place before the resolution passes
in the IFC, two of the four BGC
fraternities will be on probation
automatically because of lack of
members.
Fleming said another resolution, the
consolidation resolution, will establish
a Black Greek Committee within the
IFC to supervise all.social functions of
the black fraternities.
Problems in preventing the previous
merger included differences in rush
procedures between the black and
white fraternities, and fears of conflicts
between BGC social functions, through
which BGC fraternities raise most of
their money.
The proposal’s passage is one of the
last steps in the one-and-a-half-year-
long process of preparing the IFC and
BGC for the merger.
The AGC, an advisory committee
composed of members of the BGC, IFC
and Panhellenic Council, set a spring,
1984. goal for the merger, scheduled to
go into effect this quarter.
IFC leaders have said the main
reason for the merger's delay was poor
communication and general apathy
Senate to evaluate semester system
By TOMMY TOMI.INSON
Krd aiwl Mark vnm* Reporter
In an effort to "jump the gun" on
possible administration moves to
reinstate the semester system, Arts
and Sciences Faculty Senate members
Thursday will try to compare quarter
system teaching loads with semester
system ones
"They (the administration) were a
little slippery with their initial
proposal," Peter Rice, mathematics
professor and member of the Faculty
Senate Steering Committee, said
Wednesday.
Rice said the Faculty Senate is going
to bring up the teaching load question
because it heard the University will
resurrect the semester issue
"We're just trying to get a head start
so we'll have our position on the record
early." he said
Charles James, associate dean of
Arts and Sciences, said the teaching
load in the semester system is
necessarily different than in the
quarter system
"Since the professors will be teaching
three-hour instead of five-hour classes,
and the weeks for classes will be dif
ferent. it's nearly impossible to keep
the whole thing consistent," he said
Rice said the University’s original
semester proposal required teachers to
take a heavier teaching load than under
the qua rter system
"The whole thing was unspecific, but
we gathered that we would have to be
teaching a little more," he said
"The Board of Regents already told
us we aren't going to get any more
money, so we had to be sure we are
going to teach the same amount."
James said that while the University
requires teachers to have three five-
hour classes per quarter, most teachers
do not actually teach the full load
because of research projects.
Rice agreed, saying, "people in the
biological sciences or other research-
oriented fields may only teach three
classes a year."
He added that the research con
siderations probably would be unaf
fected by the proposed switch
Although the senate has to com
mittees for this year, James said he
didn't expect anything else to be
brought up at the meeting.
"The committees just got organized
after the last meeting, so they haven't
had much of a chance to do anything,”
he said.
Rice said the meeting's length will
depend on how “fired up” senate
members are about the teaching load
resolution
“It could last two minutes, or it could
last hours," he said. "I expect it to be a
pretty interesting meeting.”
Butler benched?
Minority dorm students
receive peer counseling
to help with problems
B> MELISSA CONRAD
Rr4 Mack < Mrtrltatllng Hriirr
Minority students living in the
University’s Georgian Area residence
halls now have peer counselors trained
to meet their unique needs - Minority
Assistants — better known as MAs
"The housing department has had a
concern for several years to have a
program seen as a positive ex
perience," said Jan Grimes, of the
Georgian Area office
The low percentage of minority
students at the University sometimes
causes adjustment problems, Grimes
said Housing is one part of this dif
ficulty For example, some white
students don’t want to have black
roommates, and vice versa
Two of the goals of the MA program
are to provide peer counselors in such
situations and to try to improve in
terracial interaction. Grimes said
"We try to act as a liaison." Minority
Assistant Jackie Bryant said
Other goals of the Minority Assistant
Program, as outlined in an in
formational brochure, are to develop
programs to address the needs of
minority students and to serve as
resource agents for students and staff
la matters of minority students' con
cern
The MAs have been involved in ex
tensive meetings discussing ways to
increase awareness of their program,
Bryant said
Minority Assistant Program Coor
dinator Deb Terrell said there have
been some problems resulting from
insufficient advance planning
"We're getting off to a slow start,”
Terrell said
Bryant said the program has in
volved primarily public relations work
so far She is currently getting to know
the students in Reed Community.
"You don't always have to have some
issue to address to talk to someone.”
Bryant said
Minority Assistants do not have the
same responsibilities as Resident
Assistants. Bryant explained The MAs
are primarily peer counselors RAs
have only one duty night a week, and
MAs are on duty twice a week "It takes
a lot of time,” Bryant said
"We have an increase in the number
of black RAs," Grimes said
Putting the responsibilities
associated with the Minority Assistant
Program on black RAs would make
their workload much greater than that
of white RAs, she said Thus the MA
position is separate
Bob Harris, the Georgian Area
coordinator said that although the
duties of RAs and MAs are different,
they recieve the same pay for the same
workload
“Our intention was to balance it as
much as we could," Harris said, adding
that when he and the professional staff
of the Georgian residency area came up
with the idea for MAs, they weren't
sure of the scope of the MAs' duties
The Minority Assistant Program has
not been implemented in the Colonial
Area residence halls, according to
Robert Huss, the area coordinator of
Russell Hall
"We have not discussed that par
ticular approach for meeting minority
needs," Huss said
He said that the percentage of blacks
living in the Colonial Area is higher
than in the Georgian Area The
Minority Assistant Program is one of
the ways the Georgian Area meets the
needs of minority residents in the Hill,
Myers and Reed Communities, Huss
said.
Bryant said she thought she would
have benefited from having an MA her
freshman year “There were a lot of
things I didn't know," she said Now she
makes a conscious effort to concentrate
on helping freshmen, she said
Some of the results of the program
which Bryant said she hopes to see in
the future are an increase in minority
participation in all campus
organizations and consideration of
minority interests in the dorms Bryant
said that last year in Payne Hall there
was a bulletin board devoted to sun
tanning tips, which are not relevant to
minority students
In an effort to increase awareness of
the Minority Assistant Program and to
promote minority involvement in
campus activities, the MAs are spon
soring a Minority Involvement Mixer
tonight at 7 in North Myers Lobby. This
informal gathering will provide
minority students living in the
Georgian Area a chance to meet the
MAs and to obtain information about
various campus organizations
Georgia's rrcord-hreaking placeklcker
Kevin Butler was injurrd in a freak
accident at practice Wednesday and
was Immediately taken to team or
thopedist William Mulherin for
examination. The extent of the Injury
will not he known until sometime today.
The injury occurred during a routine
kickoff drill. According to head coach
Vince Dooley , two players ran together
and one bounced off and fell into
Butler's knee. Head trainer Warren
Morris said he didn't think there was
any critical ligament damage done. He
added that it may only be a bruise or
sprained ligaments. For now. Doolry Is
operating under the assumption that
Butler will not be able to play against
Kentucky this Saturday. Instead, senior
placeklcker Rusty Gillespie will step
forward and assume the kicking
chores. The Marietta native's only
yarslty experience came this past
Saturday against Vanderbilt when he
kicked off after Butler’s 51-yard field
goal which broke Herschel Walker's all-
time Southeastern Conference scoring
record.
Computer program facing crisis
Depai-tment head attempts
to cope with student glut
By RUSTY CARTM1LL
Red and Mark \«Mtrlatr Nmx Kdltnr
Although it posted some of its worst
numbers ever this fall, including a
record 103-to-I student/faculty ratio,
the University’s computer science
program should improve greatly
during the next three years, ac
cording to the program’s new
department head
Robert Robinson became head of
the new Department of Computer
Science in August, completing the
planned breakup of the Department of
Statistics and Computer Science
Robinson inherits a program which
now has a record 954 majors for eight
full-time and two part-time faculty
members
"We need more equipment, more
faculty, and a way of controlling
student numbers,” Robinson said. "If
we're to be successful in hiring people
we have to offer decent salaries and
decent teaching loads.”
Robinson said he wants to double
the number of faculty members in the
department in the next three years
and get teaching loads down to the
national average But the University
must compete against other
universities and hire from a very
limited pool of available instructors
“The plan is to hire three (faculty
members) into new positions each
year for the next five years," he said
However, the computer science
department will not have the money
to hire anyone until at least next year,
said Arts and Sciences Associate
Dean Charles James James added
that the normal operating budgets in
both the statistics and the computer
science departments don’t even fund
all the current positions
"They don't have enough in those
departments to operate," James said
“The president has helped out some
and the dean has helped out some "
James explained that the College of
Arts and Sciences is already diverting
surplus funds from other depart
ments, such as salary savings when
faculty members leave, into statistics
and computer science
“Any major additions (in the
number of faculty i will be made next
year," James said "We'll start our
recruiting this year."
While gaining new faculty members
is a major goal of the new depart
ment, keeping them once they're
hired is also a major concern, ac
cording to current and former
department members High faculty
turnover was one of the problems
cited in the 1983 report of the Com
mittee to Improve Computer Science
The committee was formed when it
was revealed in Spring 1983 that two
of the computer program's then-six
faculty members were leaving.
Sam Wagstaff, now an associate
professor of computer science at
Purdue University, was one of the two
faculty members
“I left because I got a much better
job here,” Wagstaff said in a
telephone interview. “I got a higher
salary, less teaching load, more in
teresting classes to teach and fewer
students.”
Wagstaff said that class sizes at
Purdue are usually limited to 40
students, but most have 10 to 20 This
is far fewer than the loads he had at
the University, he said.
"Some of them (classes) were up to
120," he said. "The smallest I had was
45, but there was only one of those ”
Because of the high turnover and
teaching overloads limiting faculty
research, University computer
science faculty members are at a
disadvantage when applying for
tenure, according to Wagstaff.
"At Georgia the teaching load is so
high it is extremely difficult for the
young faculty members to write
papers," Wagstaff said. “Therefore
the people at Georgia will seem to be
not worthy of getting tenure when
really it’s because they don’t have
time to write papers
"On the other hand, Georgia has
had a hard time attracting faculty
members because of high teaching
loads," Wagstaff added "There is
some danger that the whole computer
science department might collapse "
Of the current eight full-time
faculty members in computer
science, only one has tenure, ac
cording to Robinson and James The
next tenure recommendations will be
acted on in December, James said
Also cited in last year's Committee
to Improve Computer Science Report
were few upper-level course of
ferings Robinson said that 450 of the
934 majors are at upper levels of
study He added that he will be for
ming committees to recommend new
course offerings in possible areas
such as artificial intelligence,
supercomputers and computer net
works.
"There's a number of things that
are standard at other state univer
sities that we don’t have," Robinson
said “We’ll start putting through new
course proposals this year
"In the future we hope to set up
proper master's and Ph D programs
in computer science," Robinson
added "We hope a proper master's
program is two years away and a
Ph D. is four years."
While plans are being made to help
higher level students, another
problem area is handling non-majors,
according to Robinson Previously
these students had to take the same
200-level classes as computer science
majors, but this fall the department
added a new class, CSC 101, to ac
comodate them
John McLendon, a senior computer
science major, is chairman of the
University's 50-member student
chapter of the Association for Com
puting Machinery
McLendon, who chaired the
Committee to Improve Computer
Science, said the new department and
department head have alleviated
much of the tension between students
and the administration.
"1 think the report was generated
out of frustration, but the frustration
level has gone down a good bit," he
said.
One answer to the crowding
problem, McLendon said, may be to
follow the lead of other schools such
as the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and restrict access to
computer science programs or fur
ther toughen so-called "weeder"
classes
Robinson said that, even though
other computer science programs he
had taught at were better off than the
University's, he accepted the
department head position because he
thinks the University’s program has a
great potential to grow
Said McLendon: "Things are
working out, things are getting better
There is some danger that the whole com
puter science department might collapse.’
— Sam Wagstaff