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The Red & Black
An independent student newspaper serviny the University of (leoryia Community
Thursday, August 3, 1989 > ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 96, ISSUE 127
INSIDE
Athens football in
summer? The state’s top
athletes in basketball,
baseball and football hit
the city for all-star games.
10
Shakespeare Weather Shall we
compare thee to a summer's day
starting the weekend with highs in
the lower 90s?
UGA staff outraged over insurance hike
By NEAL CALLAHAN
Staff Writer
PART 1 OF 2
Next year’s 4 percent standard for Uni
versity raises along with the 25 percent
increase in insurance premiums has
many University staff members up in
arms, although few will publicly admit it.
While more than 20 staff members re
ported they were upset at University
salary policy, some saying that their pay
increase doesn’t cover the insurance hike,
only a few would comment without o
guarantee of anonymity for fear of admin
istrative reprisals.
Myra Moore, a receptionist in the ad
missions office, said tne 25 percent in*
crease in the University insurance
premium is the principle complaint
among the staff members. She said that u
$178 a year increase may not hurt an ad
ministrator making over $100,000, but it
is very painful to a staffer making $10,-
000 or $12,000 a year and trying to raise a
family.
'They told us that the increase was due
to the large settlements being awarded,”
she said.
T was on the least expensive plan be
cause I only have myself and my bus
band, but what about those people with
large families who need the more expen
sive plans but don’t get the higher sala
ries? If the increase is unnfforduble to us
it must be devastating to them," she said
Carlton James, director of administra
tive personnel services, said that the in
crease in insurance premiums was
$177.60 a year for the minumum family
coverage and $104 40 a year for personal
coverage, and that the average pay in
crease wus 4 percent. So a person making
$10,000 a year was given an nverage $400
a year increase.
"I have not had any complaints from
anyone that received less of u raise than
the insurance increase, but if anyone is in
that situation I would be happy to meet
with them and look into the matter to see
what we could do,” he said.
John Pedraza, student affairs advisor,
If you sat around the lunch
table on an average day,
you would hear a more than
average amount of
complaining.’
—Myra Moore,
receptionist
said no official grievances had been filed
in his department and that no one has
come directly to him, but he has heard of
unhappy staff members.
‘There are usually unhappy people
when there is an unusual situation where
the insurance premiums are more than
the salary increases," he said.
The Campus Robin Hood, an under
ground newsletter that claims to be
written by faculty members, said that the
4 percent standard for raises is abused by
the administration More than 4 percent
can be awarded if the productivity of that
staff member warrants more This
amount is decided by the staffer’s super
visor. The Robin Hood said the adminis
trators gave greater increases for
themselves then they did for those classi
Tied as staff
The newsletter said some staffers were
given even less than the 4 percent raise,
and the administration was an example
of the rich getting richer and the poor get
ting poorer
It also said that William Prokasy, vice
president for Academic Affairs, was given
a raise of $26,000 Prokasy said that this
resulted from a mistake in the Univer
sity’s budget report, and he was only
given a 6 percent raise of $7,000 to a
salary of $118,000.
A review of the University’s budget
showed that while some administrators
will receive an 11 percent raise next year,
that percentage was generally consistent
with the staff from that department.
However, it was not consistent in dollar
amount A percentage consistency al
lowed some administrators to go from
$104,800 to $111,000 as is the case with
Allen Barber, vice president for Business
and Finance, while secretaries in his de
partment, like Wanda Collins, will go
from $11,749 to $12,969
Moore said there is a general feeling, at
least in her department, that the staff at
the University isn’t paid very well, but
very few people would be willing to make
an official grievance or go on tne record
for fear of reprisal.
Tf you sat around the lunch table on an
average day, you would hear a more than
average amount of complaining. How
ever, there is a real bond of silence among
the staff to say anything anti-University,"
she said.
“Everybody was really glad that 1 was
going to speak to the paper, but when I
asked them to come along they all said no,
and possibly in a kidding manner said
'that would be our jobs’," Moore said
Next week, salary compression and the
possibility of a staff union.
Council votes against
widening Baxter Street
By JULIE GARDNER
Staff Writer
The Athens City Council voted
Tuesday night against widening
Baxter Street and against allowing
convenience stores to sell beer,
wine and food together
The council voted 9-1 to reject
the proposal to widen the Baxter
Street and Milledge Avenue inter
section to allow for left-turn lanes.
Speakers protesting the proposal
said it would cause* the loss of 19
trees and the destruction of two
historic properties, the Scudder
House and the Alpha Gamma
Delta House.
Council member Gwen O’Looney
said, The most important thing a
city can do is maintain its inner-
city residential zone.”
She said Athens isn’t going to
gut out the city’s core the way At
lanta has.
Council member Linny Bailey,
who cast the only favorable vote,
said, "When you are a growing
town you are going to have to com
promise sometime.”
Jim Corley, Clarke County tra
ffic engineer, was asked to study
the intersection. He said there
were 40 accidents at the Baxter
and Milledge intersection in 1988,
more than any other intersection
in Clarke County. Corley said that
18 of the 40 could have been pre
vented if Baxter Street had sepa
rate left-turn lanes.
O’Looney said, "Most of the acci
dents were a result of a disregard
for the signal at the intersection
and not because the road needed
widening.”
Bailey said, "1 looked at it from a
public saftey standpoint. It is the
worst intersection in Clarke
County and there was no other al
tentative to solve the problem the
intersection creates.”
He said he didn’t think the
houses at the intersection would be
adversely affected by the widening
of the street and that the loss of
trees at the intersection would be
better than a loss of life due to an
accident.
The council also voted 7-2, with
one member abstaining, to deny
the finance committee recommen
dation to allow convenience stores
within the city limits to sell beer
and wine with food.
As it stands now, City Clerk
Jean Spratlin said, the stores
aren’t allowed to put beer and wine
with other food in the store She
said alcohol and other purchases
must be made in separate trans
actions and there must be a solid
partition separating beer and wine
from the other items in the store.
O’Looney, who voted against the
recommendation, said, "I’m really
‘The most important
thing a city can do is
maintain its inner-city
residential zone.’
—Gwen O’Looney
not for that, but the legislation
came out of the finance committee
not fully prepared.”
She said tne legislation ox it wax
presented would negatively affect
the independently-owned liquor
stores. “Tne ‘mom and pop’ stores
would be wiped out if this legis
lation had been passed,” O’Looney
said.
She said she would support a
proposal that would allow conve
nience stores to sell beer and wine
with food if there were consider
ations that would keep it from in
terfering with the growth of the
small businesses.
Three stipulations O’Looney rec
ommended were making the start
up date for the legislation January
1, lowering the price for liquor li
censes and raising the prices for li
censes for beer and wine.
Council member Cardee Kilpa
trick said she voted for the finance
committee recommendation be
cause it really wouldn’t make that
much difference from the way
things are now.
“In the city now, we have stores
that sell food on one side and beer
nnd wine on the other It wouldn’t
be much different if they were able
to sell them together," Kilpatrick
said.
University promotes fire safety video
Here are some lasting remnants ot a few twisted minds. Their owners
long gone, these deserted bicycles at Russell Hall can only wait until,
in Just a couple of months, a new onslaught of brighteyed students
park their trusty ten-speeds in the rack, to become victims of the
same fate. Maybe the bikes will get sent to the island of the forgotten
toys.
University chapel damaged by fire
By A.J. TAHTINEN
Staff Writer
The University will promote fire
safety in residence halls with u
new video that has already drawn
national interest, the video’s di
rector suid.
Bart Reynolds of the Univer
sity's Instructional Resource
Center said the 20 minute video,
"How Fast It Burned," is aimed at
informing, not preaching to, stu
dents of the dangers of residence
hall fires.
Reynolds, the director and pro
ducer of the video, said that to his
knowledge, the National Safety
Council is recommending and
pushing the video to become part of
fire-safety programs on campuses
nationwide.
The video premiered on campus
last Thursday for housing adminis
tration and public safety per
sonnel.
Gene Lune, assistant director of
housing, said that from-his experi
ence in housing he thinks “many
other schools around the nation
will really be excited about using
(the video) in their programs.”
Lune, who is in charge of the
high-rise residence halls, said the
full-time staff, if they haven’t seen
the video vet, will see it by the be
ginning of fall quarter.
"Well probably use it in our (res
ident assistant) training as well as
continuing to provide RA training
in other fire safety issues
“I think it would really be useful
for students to see the video "
Frank Edwards, University fire
safety officer, said he would like to
see tne video used as part of the
orientation program.
Edwards, who came up with the
idea of a fire safety video, applied
for and received a $20,000 grant
from a Washington, D.C , agency
earlier this year He then con
Wheels of misfortune
believe the fire wus caused by
an electrical malfunction in the
control room, Dendy said.
The fire wax reported to the
Clarke County Fire Department
about 1 u.m. Tuesday, ne said.
The fire department had the
fire under control within 10
minutes, he said.
Wayne Dill, manager of the
services department of Physical
Plant, said it was the heroic ac
tion of Custodian Lucille
Johnson who detected the
flumes and called the fire de
partment.
Johnson works from 5 p m to
2 a.m. with a custodial team
cleaning buildings on North
Campus, Dill said
The chapel was built in 1832
nnd houses an oil painting of the
interior of Saint Peter’s Cathe
dral in Rome by George Cooke.
Dendy said the chapel, one of
the first Greek Revival struc
tures in Athens, is used for
speeches, muscinl performances
and similar eventa
trncted the IRC to produce and di
rect it.
Edwards said he wanted to con
centrate on reducing vandalism of
fire safety equipment in residence
halls, which he thinks is the big
gest problem.
Reynolds said that since most of
the vandalism is done by males,
they wanted to make the video ap
pealing to males and contracted a
female graduate drama student,
Tonray Ho, to be a "hostess” for the
video.
“In most of the fire videos I’ve
seen, they have these big, burly fire
marshals talking about fire
safety," he said "We wanted to re
late this to the students *
In this video, the hostess hope
fully con keep the male students’
attention, Reynolds said
Edwards said that as part of the
video, the film crew built a simu
lated dorm room with lofts, cans of
beer, a refrigerator, a television
and clothes in a building used by
the Clarke County Fire Depart
ment for training purposes The
fire was then started by dropping a
candle from a birthday cake into a
trash can, just like it could realisti
cally happen, he said.
It took three minutes for the
room to be completely ablaze At
the three-minute mark,the oxygen
and other gases in the room ignited
from the intense heat, Edwards
said.
The crew measured the temper
ature at 30-second intervals, and
in the first 30 seconds it had
reached 150 degrees, which will
bum the lungs, he said.
Simulated room took 3-minutes to burn
, •* 03
University chapel
By ELIZABETH GRADDY
Staff Writer
Cost estimates for repairing
the University chapel, which
was damaged by a fire early
Tuesday morning, aren’t avail
able yet, Larry Dendy, assistant
to the director for public infor
mation, said Wednesday.
The chapel already had been
slated for renovation later in the
year, so the architects will take
the damage into account, Dendy
said.
Connie Sampson, assistant
chief of University Police, said
the damage was basically con
fined to the electrical control
room in the southwest corner of
the chapel, where it started
The damage was not exten
sive, Sampson said.
Dendy said a window in the
electrical control room wax
blown out, wiring was burned
and the blaze reached the uttic
before it was extinguished
University fire safety officials
