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4 • The Red and Black • Friday. September 29. 1989
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Httablithed IH93—Incorporated ItUtO
.\n mdeftrndent ttudent neutpaper not u/fHutted with the Umvemty of Georgia
Keith Phillips/Editor-in-Chief
Charlene Smith/Managing Editor
Jack Stenger/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
SA essay
The Student Association is again mired in self-
consuming problems. After starting the year off right
by securing a safety escort van, the organization is
slipping back into strife.
For instance, here’s what the organization
accomplished at its last meeting.
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QUOTABLE
"I am frustrated and disgruntled by the present course of the
SA."
— Erstwhile SA Sen. Cale Conley's resignation letter, tendered
because of "personal and policy" differences with the SA.
Mary Beth Hartlage made up her mind.
Almost from the day she became vice president,
Hartlage has been at the center of a controversy. She
earned a prestigious internship with U.S. Sen. Sam
Nunn and since then, her indecision about whether to
accept this post has created a quandary for her. To turn
down the internship would be saying no to a great
opportunity To accept the internship would mean
leaving her position before it ends in spring quarter, a
violation of provisions of the SA constitution. The
constitution dictates SA members must remain full
time students throughout the term of office.
It's a tough decision.
The Hartlage question lasted the remainder of
spring quarter up until Tuesday when she solved her
parliamentary Rubik’s Cube. She will remain SA vice
president and take the internship.
It’s still uncertain whether she will violate the
constitution. SA spring elections might be held during
winter quarter (contingent on more constitutional
finagling) in which case she could fulfill the duties of
her position. And, no, she can’t be blamed for wanting
both her SA position and the internship.
But if the SA vice president is this cavalier about
the length of her term, can students take SA seriously?
As it stands, her decision could leave the SA
without a vice president (or with an interim one)
during spring quarter and the spring elections. The
whole Hartlage question has needlessly confused
students and sidetracked the organization.
But at least she’s made up her mind. Junior Sen.
John Piedrahita, who also was offered an internship
with Nunn’s office, has yet to announce what he’ll do.
Leadership means making tough choices, not
protracted equivocating.
Freshman Flections
With her announcement, Hartlage cleared one issue.
But the SA promptly replaced it with another. The SA
voted to change its constitution. Among the changes,
which must be approved by a student referendum, is a
provision that would eliminate the election for
freshman senators. In its place, the SA would select
non-voting freshman representatives.
Why? The freshman elections are too inconvenient
and too expensive, SA President Mark Schisler claims.
In addition, some senators said a few weeks at the
beginning of fall quarter aren’t enough time for
properly run the campaign, and SA members’ time
could be better spent on other projects.
However, the SA exists for one reason: to be the
elected voice of the student body. If current SA
members find electing representatives too difficult a
task, they shouldn’t have run in the first place.
Spare Us
And finally, Piedrahita — with the support of Schisler
— tried to convince the other senators that the SA
would be better off without a certain consitutional
provision. This provision puts the SA’s existence up for
to yes or no vote every four years and is the most
effective way students can hold it accountable.
Fortunately, wiser heads than Schisler’s and
Piedrahita’s prevailed and a decisive majority quickly
voted against Piedrahita. To those senators, Thank
you.
That vote is a good sign. Let's hope that wiser heads
continue to prevail and the SA can get on with its real
purpose.
The real picture of college in the ’60s
The twentieth anniversary of Woodatock was
celebrated this summer in television programs
that highlighted the musjc, dress and high
ck
spirits of its participants. The networks pack
aged the colorful event as an emblem of the
1960s, to appeal to those of us aged 40 to 60
who recall with fondness the days of our youth,
when our feet didn’t hurt, our glasses weren’t
subdivided, and our pharmacists didn’t know
us by our first names.
I would like to share some memories I have of
college then. But my most vivid memories are
not of music festivals or marijuana parties.
They are of classes in which all the ideas I had
Betty Jean
Craige
brought to college from home were agressively
o disc
challenged by professors unafraid to discuss re
ligion or politics, classes which continued after
the bell because some of us were too disturbed
to stop talking and listening.
The memories are of public lectures by
speakers whose viewe I’d never encountered be
fore — representatives of the Communist
Party, representatives of the Pentagon, reli
gious leaders, Vietnam veterans opposing the
war, Vietnam veteran* supporting the war.
They are of “teochins,* in which not only vis
iting scholars but my own professors engaged
in vigorous public debate over issues that mat
tered to everybody What I gained from all this
was a conviction that intellectual work entails
the continual criticism of what we call "received
opinion,” the ideas that most people assume to
be true. And intellectual work involves social
responsibility.
To be critical of received opinion does not
necessarily mean to be a Democrat rather than
a Republican; nor does it mean to march in the
streets. It means to think carefully and fear
lessly, to try to figure out the social and moral
implications of whatever we read or hear. It
means to recognize that any knowledge we
have has been made by particular individuals
in particular circumstances with particular va
lues and interests, and that there is no reason
to assume that past knowledge is necessarily
correct. It means to be alert to prejudices.
If we really wish to educate ourselves, there-
gnt to become acquainted not only
fore, we ougn
with infiuencial writers of the past but also
with thinkers and writers of our day whose
ideas challenge the status quo. We need to
know what constitutes our culture’s beliefs, and
we need to develop the intellectual ability to
analyze these beliefs, to criticize them, and —
when necessary — to reject them
How can we make the University of Georgia
more intellectually exciting? One way, of
course, is to invite more inquisitive speakers to
campus, speakers willing to scrutinize and crit
icize recieved opinion, speakers of differing
viewpoints from all over the world. An addi
tional way is to invite some of our own talented
faculty to oarticipute in interd’ticiplinary dis
cussions of questions having national and in
ternational import. Students can initiate these
activities.
I fear that in the 1980s, despite all the ap
parent nostalgia for the images of the 1960s,
the college campus has ceased to be the forum
for vigourous public debate that it once was.
Though we are fortunate that no foreign war
disrupts our academic pursuits now, our so
ciety, with its enormous social problems, reeds
for its educated members to think aloud.
Betty Jean Craige if a comparative literature
professor. She wan invited to write a column for
the quarter as part of a Red and Black effort to
bring more faculty t'oices to our readers.
Library workers work hard
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A reply to Mr Richard Stenger:
1 have resisted the urge to utilize
those neat little keys on my type
writer that only comic strip charac
ters know how to pronounce in my
comment to you.
I work in the main library and
some 46 hours of my week are
spent within these walls — more if
you count how often I arrive early,
stay late, and cut lunch short be
cause there’s work to be done.
Someone should explain to you
how much work goes into ordering,
receiving, maintaining, circu
lating, mending, cataloging,
shelving and providing access to a
collection of nearly three million
pieces. No we’re not Princeton Li
brary. But you don’t attend there
anyway, now do you?
1 work on Saturdays and I’ve
never seen the Dawgs play, except
for the peek I’ve taken ot the sta
dium out of the 7th floor window.
And I’m here Sundays, too; I know
how upset you and your pals would
be if I didn't turn off my T.V. and fi
nally go to work.
And this comment you have
about funding for security and staff
for later hours — how about my
pay? After taxes, teacher's retire
ment, health insurance and
parking deductions it comes to a
few cents more than minimum
wage. How about funding for that?
Am I not worth it? Maybe we
should put King Stenger and his
entourage on the payroll instead —
as library funding advisors!
In a survey ana with statistics
from late night hours, the library
administration found no justifica
tion, no overwhelming demand to
stay open.
Surely you know that taking
cheap snots is no way to make a
might just figure out how to pro
nounce those little !$*%!f!’s.
Jennifer Hellriegol
Library Assistant
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and pnnts them in the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to edttjng for length, style and li
belous material Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must include the name,
address and daytime telephone number of the wnter. Please include student classifi
cation and major other appropnate identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request Letters can be sent by U.S mail or brought in person to The
Red and Black s offices at 123 N. Jackon St , Athens. Ga
Stenger’s right
I want to express my agreement
with Richard Stenper’s editorial
concerning reasonable late night li
brary hours. He raised some valid
uestions for the SA to consider,
tey were so valid, I asked an SA
Our bunnies give bad image
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senator those very Questions. The
pad
senator hadn't rend the column.
However, the senator did say if I
wanted action to be taken I had to
come to the either the SA meetings
or office I can express my views to
my U.S. senator without attending
a session of Congress; why is this
not the case with the SA?
I did approach this SA senator
after his meeting and he had some
pat answers to debunk Stenger’s
editorial.
Hey, HeP Sure, the state of
Georgia has its share of country
folk, but did Playboy have to make
UGA’s women look like Daisy Duke
clones?
opportunities for students to pray
and practice their religious prefer-
has
Although seeing Catherine Bach
obnbly
I prefer to study at night and I’m
f the '
an avid user of the library Macin
tosh lab. It’s ridiculous that a lab
which ie so popular doesn’t have
later hours. My senator addressed
these concerns rather angrily. He
said that for a campus of 27,000
students, only 10 or 20 students
using the lab’s late night hours
didn’t justify the cost. So I made
the comment that 20 students is 10
percent of the number of people
who elected him.
nude was probably many a young
kid’s dream, Playboy could have
done the shots in more typical set
tings but with less of a “Come
hither, Roscoe" look. That’s Roecoe
P. Coltrain, right?
I’m glad the women posed for
Playboy, but the Oct. issue sends a
signal to students at other univer
sities that Georgia’s women are ba
sically educated bumpkins — just
talk to friends at other schools
about the issue and you’ll hear
what I mean. Srch messages out
live the college years and will
follow both sexes of University
graduates into the workplace. The
women aren’t an embarrassment,
the stereotyping definitely is. Hef,
you forgot to get a picture of Ros-
coe’s dog, Flash.
ences The University has 13 regis
tered religious organizations, nnd
surely there are enough churches
in a one-mile radius of the down
town area to please even the most
faithful
In conclusion, I should hope that
this issue is now closed and we can
move toward other, more impor
tant issues such ns working to
gether toward being a world class
university
Casey Curran
senior, exercise and sports sci
ence
Williams shines
leap i
valid point and that simple com-
BN
muniention of your specific needs
« y<
to those who’ll listen would be
more appropriate.
You may have dug your grave
with library personnel. I believe 1
speak on behalf of all the libraries
when I say calling someone who
works long and hard a “lazi-bra
rian" is no way to win votes.
I noticed your picture wasn’t
P rinted along with your ed*tonal,
t’s just as well. If one of the "lazi-
branans" recognized you, they
He said he'd asked the SA if
complaints were voiced about the
discontinuance of the late night
hours in the library and that no
one reported any complaints. I con
sider Richard Stenger complaint
number one and mvself complaint
number two. Don’t let the SA over
look student need! I am asking
every person to contact the Stu
dent Association at 642-8584. Let
the SA know student needs should
come first! I am sure the answering
machine will take your call.
Howard K. Brown
junior, broadcast news
Thanks Dr. Knapp
Gen© Williams should be con
gratulated for his “Good Friends"
column.
H# separated the rhetoric of race
relations from the issue and ad
dressed the matter as one of
human relations. Williams has fo
cused on the all-too-often-over
looked educational opportunity of
learning from interaction with
people of diverse back grounds and
cultures.
Thank you Charles Knapp and
all University officials for making
the significant decision to not say a
public prayer before football
lx*n Davis
Alumnus
pn _
games. You undoubtedly would
have faced an expensive law suit
The real world
Kim Keheley
enior, criminal justice
and the prayer would’ve shown a
blatant disregard for the law
Although football may be impor
tant to a lot of students and the
multitudes of alumni, it is still but
a game A game that, for all prac
tical purposes, has nothing to do
with prayer. There are plenty of
Isn’t the SA neat? Resignations,
in-fighting and attempts to expand
their power indefinitely. College
really is like real life.
Je(T Wohl
senior, journalism