Newspaper Page Text
Goff’s Dawgs tee off to first victory
The Red & Black
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia Community
Tuesday, September 19,1989 • ATHENS, GEORCIA • VOLUME 97, ISSUE 1
INSIDE
More than 100 days later,
students aren’t forgetting
^ the Tiananmen Square
massacre.
12
Weather: A 20 percent chance of
rain this afternoon, high in the
upper 70s. Tonight, more clouds
and things cool off to the low 60s.
Wed. a 50 percent chance of
showers.
TKE cuts
pledging
By JOEL GROOVER
Staff Writer
In an effort to rid itself of the
darkest tradition in the Greek
system, Tau Kappa Epsilon frater
nity has made some fundamental
changes this year in the way it ini
tiates new members.
However, some members of the
University’s TKE chapter said the
changes could create problems.
TKE voted at a national conven
tion this summer to eliminate
“hazing” — the practice of ha
rassing pledges — by cutting short
its traditional 10- to 12-week ini
tiation period, said Tim Goff, rush
chairman of the University’s TKE
chapter.
At most fraternities, would-be
members must endure this period,
during which “Hell Week” and
other forms of hazing usually take
place, before being accepted as
brothers — full-fledged members
— he said.
After rush, TKE pledges now
face a two-week period of initiation
before being accepted as brothers,
Goff said.
Rush is the week-long period
when aspiring members visit fra
ternities and sororities to decide
which to join.
Under the new system, hazing
will be “totally cut,” Goff said. “It
emphasizes rush more and you go
through a series of interviews.”
This year, TKE and Zeta Beta
Tau became the first Greek organi
zations to ban lengthy pledge pe
riods, he said. ZBT doesn’t have a
chapter at the University.
Andy Jeffries, a sophomore busi
ness major who pledged TKE last
week, said he agrees with the anti
hazing policy.
However, he said two weeks
might not be enough time for
pledges to learn the ways of the
fraternity.
Goff said the shorter period
would create other problems.
With only two weeks to get to
know all the pledges, deciding
which ones fit the image of the fra
ternity will be difficult, he said.
“You have to make sure you get
all the guys you want during rush,”
Goff said. “We have such a short
rush period it’s going to be hard to
implement it here.”
Please See FRATERNITY, Page 3A
Wayiw Jackaon/The Rad and Black
Strike up the band
Back to school and ready for the football season, on their musical skills. Let's hope they can play
members of the Red Coat Marching Band brush up cheerful notes after the next ten games, too.
GSC gets university status
By MARK SHEFTALL
Staff Writer
University President Charles
Knapp said a South Georgia uni
versity is a good idea, but the
Board of Regents must make sure
that special funding money con
tinues to be distributed to other
Georgia schools, in “a fair and equi
table manner.”
Knapp said he also will keep an
eye out to make sure that courses
aren’t offered at Georgia Southern
University in areas that already
are served better by the Univer
sity.
The board voted on Sept. 13 to
elevate Georgia Southern College
to university status by July 1,
1990.
Regents Spokesman Michael
Baxter said Tuesday that Georgia
Southern will become a university
serving southeastern Georgia and
will be the first university in the
state designed to serve the specific
needs of a particular region.
Currently, there are two types of
universities in the state: Those
such as the University that are
comprehensive and serve the gen
eral interests of the state and those
such as the Georgia Institute of
Technology that serve special
needs.
Baxter said Georgia Southern
will aim its research efforts at spe
cific regional problems and will
offer doctoral programs to address
area needs.
Tom Jackson, University public
information director, said the Uni
versity isn’t opposed to a regional
university in South Georgia as long
as it doesn’t hurt the interests of
other state schools.
Baxter said the money to up
grade Georgia Southern from col
lege to university status will come
from the Georgia General Assem
bly’s Special Funding Initiative.
This year the regents asked the
legislature for $32 million in SFI
funds, and it isn’t yet clear how
much of the money Georgia
Southern will need, Baxter said.
Georgia Southern President
Nicholas Henry estimated in July
that it would take about $12 mil
lion — in addition to the college’s
budget — to make the school a uni
versity.
Jackson said University enroll
ment won’t be affected by the new
university since not many students
here come from Southeast Georgia.
Baxter said the regents also
agreed, in principle, to go ahead
with plans to make Valdosta State
College the state’s second regional
university.
July 1, 1992 is the target date for
that move, but exactly when it be
comes a university will depend on
factors including a higher reten
tion rate and a higher four-year
graduation rate.
“Depending on when Valdosta
State meets its requirements, it
could become a university some
time before or after 1992,” Baxter
said.
Regents approve SPACENTER funding
By MARK SHEFTAU.
Staff Writer
The Board of Regents passed a
proposal at its Sept. 13 meeting of
fering a new funding method for
the University’s $35 million
SPA<’ENTER, and it compiled lists
of several capital projects at other
state institutions.
The proposal suggests that the
SPACENTER be funded through
general obligation bonds instead of
revenue financing.
General obligation bonds are
sold by the state and have the tax
authority of the state behind them,
said Roger Mosshart, assistant
vice chancellor for Fiscal Affairs.
Originally the SPACENTER
was to be paid for through revenue
financing, but State Attorney Gen
eral Michael Bowers ruled the
state didn’t have the constitutional
authority to participate in revenue
financing.
Mosshart said revenue financing
means a project’s state funding is
paid back through the revenues
earned by the facility itself.
University President Charles
Knapp said that normally the
state’s funds are repaid upon the
completion of a project, but a gen
eral obligation bond must be paid
back immediately, in which case
the SPACENTER bonds would be
paid back while the project is still
in progress.
Knnpp said he intends to stick
by his promise not to raise student
athletic fees until 1992, and this
means the initial construction of
the SPACENTER — which is set to
begin in the fall of 1990 — will
have to be financed through ath
letic department and auxiliary
funds.
‘This means that money which
might normally be devoted to, say,
the renovation of o dorm would in
stead be used for the SPACE
NTER,” Knapp said.
The amendment would allow the
regents to sell bonds and would
make revenue financing practi
cable.
Also at their Sept. 13 meeting,
the regents decided to submit three
capital priority lists to the legis
lature.
One list contains 21 prioritized
capital projects from around the
state which can be funded through
normal capital funding grants from
the legislature. The University has
two items on this list. An $18 mil
lion fine arts facility is no. 17, and
a $40 million Comprehensive An
imal facility is no. 21.
Tom Jackson, University public
information director, said these
projects probably will not be fi
nanced through normal capital
funding means in the near future.
Last year the legislature provided
$16 million in capital funds.
The second list submitted by the
regents to the legislature contains
a number of unprioritized projects
which could be funded through
general obligation bonds. The
SPACENTER is on that list.
The third list is of all the capital
projects that the regents feel are
needed around the state at various
institutions. It is unprioritized and
project costs aren’t estimated.
Game prayer
could spark
new lawsuit
By NEAL CALLAHAN
Staff Writer
The University may face a law
suit from offended students after
continuing its pre-game prayer tra
dition Saturday despite the
warning of a “legal risk” from the
state’s attorney generals’ office.
University President Charles
Knapp decided to continue a tradi
tion of pre-game prayer at the foot
ball team’s season opener against
Baylor, saying the fans support it.
In a Friday afternoon press con
ference, Knapp and Atnletic Di
rector Vince Dooley said they
didn’t feel that a university con
ducting prayer before a game
would be in violation of a federal
court ruling banning prayers be
fore high school games.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused
to review the case in the spring,
letting the the lower court’s ruling
stand.
When asked at the press confer
ence how the University could sep
arate itself from the high school
ruling, Knapp said, “I don’t usually
have to explain to my students how
a university is different from a
high school."
Knapp said the University
would instruct its lawyers to ask
for a declaratory judgment from
the courts to settle the matter but
the judgment could take time.
Until the time of the ruling, the
prayers will continue, he said.
“We are going to go ahead with
the prayer. It has become a tradi
tion that is important to the fans,”
he said. “Vince wants to do it. I
want to do it. And the fans want to
do it.”
But Hilary Chiz, executive di
rector of the American Civil Liber
ties Union, said Monday some fans
may not want to do it.
There have already been stu
dents who have asked to be plain
tiffs in a case against the
University and lawyers have of
fered to represent them, Chiz said.
She wouldn’t specify the number of
students or their names.
“We are just doing our home
work right now to make sure that if
we do this case, we do it with a
winner," Chiz said.
‘The circumstances in this case
are the same as in the Douglas
County case so we think that we
will go ahead.
“I am deeply disappointed that
the president of the premier uni
versity in Georgia would make
such a blatantly political decision.
I would also like to know where the
regents were and why they did not
give leadership in the matter.”
Knapp asked the University
System Board of Regents for advice
but the board failed to offer any
guidance.
‘The state taxpayers will have to
pay for the defense of this possibly
unconstitutional decision made on
political grounds,” Chiz said.
Ralph Goldberg, the lawyer who
represented the student in the
Douglas County case, said, “I am
sure that if this ruling came down
against Georgia Tech, Knapp
would say the University is dif
ferent from Tech too. My advice to
Knapp is to read the writing on the
wall.”
Dooley said he* personally be-
Please See PRAYER, Page 9A
Cash gifts drop in ’89
By ROBERT TODD
Associate News Editor
The University’s fund-raising ef
forts aren’t keeping pace with
other Southern universities, but of
ficials are optimistic about the fu
ture.
According to the University’s
Giving Report released this
summer, total cash gifts in fiscal
1989 fell 5 percent from $21,713,-
000 in fiscal 1988 to $20,628,000 in
1989. However, The Chronicle of
Higher Education reported earlier
this month that gifts to colleges
and universities are on the rise na
tionally.
Use of the money is sometimes
specified by the donor. Some funds
are labeled unrestricted and can be
used in any way University offi
cials see fit, said Tom Jackson,
University public information di
rector.
Budget Director Bob Bugbee
said gifts to the University aren’t
part of the University’s operating
budget.
The Council for Aid to Education
predicts, nationally, giving will be
up this year although the total fig
ures for 1988-89 aren’t complete
yet. In comparison, fiscal 1988 saw
a national decline of 3.5 percent in
contributions, according to the
Chronicle.
Jackson said fluctuations in
cash gifts are normal and that gifts
to the University rose in fiscal
1988.
‘The important thing is that the
number of contributors and the
new pledges are up,” Jackson said.
‘The cash giving is collected from
previous year’s pledges. We’re con
cerned with the future, not the
past.”
Compared to other institutions
in the region, the University didn’t
fare too well with fund raising last
year.
Laura Zipperer, associate di
rector of development at the
Georgia Institute of Technology,
said Tech gifts fell this year be
cause of a one-time gift of $37 mil
lion received in fiscal 1988. If that
single gift is excluded from the
1988 totals, Georgia Tech’s gifts in
creased 2 percent last year.
Zipperer said Tech’s fund
raising efforts weren’t seriously af
fected by the stock market problem
Please See FUNDS Page 12A
Freshman Vince Zappa: Moves into residence hall
High standards shrink freshman class
Howard Fora/The Rod and Black
Residence halls
face vacancies
By JACK STENGER
Staff Writer
For the first time in seven years,
the freshman enrollment is smaller
than the year before because of
higher admission standards.
And while this trend will make
some classrooms less crowded this
fall, it also could mean University
Housing will have to deal with
something it haven’t 9een in a long
time: Residence hall vacancies.
The faculty admissions com
mittee, at the urging of University
President Charles Knapp, raised
University standards in order to
reach a projected target of 3,350
freshmen for fall quarter. This
target number would mean 398
fewer freshmen this fall than fall
1988, when 3,748 enrolled.
Numerous factors go into the ad
missions process, but basically the
standard went from a 2.0 pre
dicted-college grade point average
for fall 1988 to a 2.2 predicted av
erage for this fall, said Delmer
Dunn, a faculty admissions com
mittee member.
The predicted college average is
based on an applicant’s high school
GPA and verbal and math scores
on the Scholastic Aptitude Test,
John Albright, associate admis
sions director, said.
David Coker, an executive assis
tant to Knapp, said the standards
were raised to match classroom
space with student enrollment
numbers.
But hitting the target number of
3,350 isn’t assured, Albright said.
Because not every student ad
mitted to the University enrolls,
it’s difficult to determine how
many freshmen there will be.
The 1988 University Fact Book
shows only 47 percent of the rising
college freshmen the University ac
cepted last fall enrolled here.
Dunn, a political science pro
fessor, said early indications based
on summer orientation registra
tion show the freshman class will
be smaller.
But fewer students might mean
more vacancies in residence halls
that traditionally house freshmen,
said Jerry Studdard, assistant to
the housing director.
Housing department figures
spanning the last five years show
fall quarter has always meant
more students than spaces.
In fall 1988, there were 6,154
residence hall beds, not including
McWhorter Hall. For the same
quarter, there were 56 overflow
spaces, where students were
housed in residence-hall study
lounges until bed spaces opened up
by students dropping out of school
or moving off campus.
Please See FRESHMAN, Page 8A