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■ Preview of Georgia-Auburn basketball game — 6
The Red & Black
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia Community
INSIDE
A book review of “It’s
Always Something,”
which is about Gilda
Radner’s life.
3
Weather: Wednesday, sunny,
high in the mid-60s. Wednesday
night, partly cloudy, low In the
mld-40s. Thursday, rain chance
40 percent, high in the mid-60s.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1990 » ATHENS, GEORGIA » VOLUME 97, ISSUE 54
Drug bills moving to
committee debate
Two proposed drug bills, revised in
accordance with SA recommenda
tions, will go to the House of Rep
resentatives University System
Committee today, Rep. Bob Lane,
D-Statesboro, said.
Revised versions of the bills
were approved Monday by a Uni
versity System subcommittee,
Lane said. The full committee may
ammend or make changes in the
bill before its sent to the House
floor for a vote.
SA President Mark Schisler said
he’s pleased the senators re
sponded to the SA’s advice.
‘These legislative bills really put
the ball in SA’s court and we had to
respond to it,” he said. “Consid
ering the timing of it and our inex
perience at working with the
House and Senate, I think we’ve
done really well.”
House Bill 1231 originally called
for the suspension or expulsion of
any student convicted on drug
charges. The revised version calls
for a minimum one-year suspen
sion or expulsion of students con
victed of felony, but not
misdemeanor charges, Lane said.
Lane said the bill also has been
revised so each school’s judiciary
system would administer the sus
pension or expulsion procedures
only after a student is found guilty.
In addition, the bill now applies
to all private colleges and universi
ties receiving state funds, rather
than just institutions under the
University System of Georgia.
House Bill 1225 originally called
for the expulsion of any university
organization that “condones” the il
legal use of drugs or alcohol. The
revised version calls for the expul
sion of any university organization
which “knowingly permits” the il
legal use of drugs. The word al
cohol was eliminated from the bill,
as the SA requested.
Rep. Thomas Buck, D-Columbus
and University System Committee
chair, made some of these changes
after meeting with SA President
Mark Schisler.
A third proposed bill prohibiting
anyone under 21 from entering
bars, will be discussed Monday at
the Senate Consumer Affairs Com
mittee meeting. Three members of
Young Democrats attended the
committee meeting last week to ex-
ress their opposition, however the
ill didn’t come up on the agenda.
Phil Smith, senior political sci
ence major, said representatives
from Young Democrats plan to at
tend Monday’s committee meeting.
Mark Schisler: Pleased
(Ga.) senators responded
“It worries me that a lot of stu
dents are ignorant about this.
We’ve got to enlist the aid of stu
dents before it gets to the Senate
floor,” Smith said. “People don’t re
alize what this means to Athens.”
Storytellers needed
By JOEL GROOVER
Staff Writer
Delta Sigma Theta sorority will sign up storytellers today for “School
America,” a national program designed to fight illiteracy.
The program, launched in coordination with the pro-literacy Barbara
Bush Foundation, is designed to help kids read better and to get them in
terested in learning.
Bernadette Clarke, chairwoman of the program at the University,
said the sorority members will register volunteers at the main library
today from 1 to 3 p.m. and at Athens Regional Library from 4 to 6 p.m.
The volunteers pledge to read at least one story a week to a child of
their choice.
Clarke, a senior drama major, said the program will continue for at
least one year. To increase participation, Delta Sigma Theta has asked
members of other fraternities and sororities to volunteer as readers.
Floretta Johnson, a member of the sorority’s alumnae chapter —
which is participating as well — said anyone can volunteer.
Sorority members will ask whoever comes in the library today to sign
up, she said, but registration sheets will be available at the main library
and at Athens Regional Library for people who want to volunteer later.
Johnson said School America will reach children through church
groups and programs at the Athens Regional Library.
Delta Sigma Theta also plans to sponsor registration drives
throughout the year to involve more children in the program.
A national sorority with 750 chapters, Delta Sigma Theta was chosen
as the main organization to work with the Barbara Bush Foundation on a
national literacy drive.
Delta Sigma Theta has about 30 undergraduate members here and at
least 40 active members in the University alumnae chapter.
Student leaders need
to be paid,
By JENNIFER RAMPEY
Associate News Editor
For 35 hours a week, Rob Nelson
delivers pizzas for Rocky’s Pizzeria
and works as a clerk at the Georgia
Museum of Art. That’s to help pay
his bills.
For another 30 to 35 hours a
week, the senior 20th-century cul
ture major works as the non-paid
president of the University Union
and as a student representative to
the University Council. That’s be
cause he wants to get involved, and
he plans to spend his life working
on a university campus.
The time-money balancing act
confronting Nelson is faced by
other students leaders as well, and
Bill Porter: Student activ
ities director
some are beginning to question
whether the University should pro
vide monetary compensation for
their time and efforts.
Student Association President
Mark Schisler said receiving a
salary for his campus position
would "certainly help’ because his
position is a full-time job which
prevents him from taking a paying
job.
Schisler said he has substantial
expenses relating to his SA activ
ities and he ends up paying them
out of his own pocket. He said he
spends hundreds of dollars a
quarter on parking fees at the Tate
Student Center because he must
attend many meetings. In addition,
he spends a lot of money on long
distance phone calls related to the
position.
some say
Working as a campus
leader takes a lot of
time and they have
difficulty making ends
meet while fulfilling
leadership roles, Porter
said.
Tom Cochran, assistant to the
vice president for Student Affairs,
said a group of student leaders
have met to discuss student-leader
benefits. At some point, they may
ask the administration to address
the issue.
Currently, the University
doesn’t allocate fees for compensa
tion of student leaders, Cochran
said.
Dwight Douglas, vice president
for Student Affairs, said he soon
will appoint a committee to study
the possibility of student-leader
salaries. He has already appointed
Richard Reiff, director of Interna
tional Services and Programs, to
head the committee.
Douglas will then report this
spring to a committee which han
dles the distribution of student ac
tivity fees.
Bill Porter, Student Activities
director, said “More and more stu
dents who are in leadership roles
are feeling that, in some ways, it’s
a hardship to be in those roles.”
Working as a campus leader
takes a lot of time and they have
difficulty making ends meet while
fulfilling leadership roles, Porter
said.
Leader positions might attract
more students if the leaders re
ceived compensation for their ef
fort, he said.
At Stephen F. Austin State Uni
versity in Texas, where Porter was
dean of students before he came to
he University, student leaders
were compensated through the stu
dent activity fee, Porter said.
Schisler said a hierarchy of orga
nizations should be established on
campus. Groups like SA, Commu-
niversity and the Black Affairs
Council have more of a campus
wide effect than the canoe club
might.
Porter said, “There is no way you
can adequately compensate a stu
dent leader. I think we are at the
point where some organizations
lose people.”
As the world turns
Actually, it isn’t turning in this picture of the globe located in the geography, ge
ology, speech building. Who knows where these students will be journeying to?
Most schools similar to the Univ.
compensate their student leaders
By JENNIFER RAMPEY
Staff Writer
The University — which doesn’t
pay its student leaders — is in the
minority compared to similar
schools, said Bill Porter, director of
Student Activities.
Here, University student organi
zations are funded in most part by
the student activity fee, but none of
that money currently is used to pay
student leaders, Porter said.
Dwight Douglas, vice president
for Student Affairs, said, “If you es
tablish a category for spending
money that you previously didn’t
have, something will have to be cut
or you will need more money.”
In the mid-1970s, about six lead
ership positions received salaries
through tuition fees at the Univer
sity, Douglas said. But the last
time the issue of leader salaries
came up, it was voted out.
Kathleen Benzaquin, associate
dean of students at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
said certain student leaders there
are compensated through the stu
dent activity fee.
During the 1989-1990 year, the
student-body president received
$1,600. The treasurer, student con
gress chair and the student at
torney general each received
$1,200, she said.
The Union Board president re
ceived $1,200, although not all the
funding for that position came
from student activity fees, Benza
quin said.
“It’s really low funding for the
time they put in,” she said.
Kathleen Randall, University of
Alabama’s director of Student Life
and Student Government Associa
tion adviser, said the student-body
treasurer and the lower officers in
the student government receive
$200 a month for year-long ap-
ointments. The president receives
300 each month.
Student leaders have received
monetary compensation at Ala
bama since at least 1970, Randall
said.
Scott Thomas, student body
Student leaders have
received monetary
compensation at
Alabama since at least
1970.
treasurer at the University of
Florida, said officers there are sup
ported through the activity and
service fee.
The president and treasurer
each receive $4,500 a year and the
vice president receives $2,800 a
year, Thomas said.
The president also is allowed a
lobby and travel budget. The lobby
budget, $31,500, is money used at
the president’s discretion for stu
dent representation, Thomas said.
The president and president pro
tern in the student senate receive
$1,400 a year and the honor court
chancellor of the judicial branch re
ceives $1,500.
Romanian government breaks into two separate groups
The Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania — The National Salvation Front
government bowed to the clamor from the opposition
Tuesday and announced it had split into two groups, one to
govern Romania and the other to take part in coming elec
tions.
In a further concession, senior Front member Silviu
Brucan said the Front would propose that a coalition gov
ernment be formed until the planned May 20 elections — in
effect agreeing to share the power it assumed during the
December revolution that toppled Communist dictator Nic-
olae Ceausescu.
A transcript of Brucan’s comments to selected reporters
was made available to The Associated Press.
Both decisions were clearly meant to appease increas
ingly strident attacks directed against the Front. Opposi
tion groups accuse it of reneging on its word to run
Romania only until the elections, of refusing to share its ac
cess to news media and other misuse of power.
Foes of the Front argue that a self-declared interim gov
ernment should not contest elections it will stage itself.
Weekend demonstrations demanded that the government
resign.
On Tuesday, Brucan, a member of the Front’s National
Council, declared:
“We believe it is illegal for the front to hold political
power and take part in elections at the same time.
'That is why we have split into a provisional National
Council, to hold legislative power on the one hand, and the
National Salvation Front, which is to take part in the elec
tions as a political organization, on the other.”
In other developments Tuesday, a military tribunal was
told that Ceausescu’s defense minister, Vasile Milea, was
not killed on Ceausescu’s orders, but killed himself rather
than give orders to fire on anti-Ceaucescu demonstrators.
Milea has become a hero of the Romanian revolution for
trying to keep the army from firing on unarmed demonstra
tors, as ordered by Ceausescu.
His death helped turn army units against Ceausescu in
the popular uprising that ended the dictator’s brutal 24-
year rule.
At the trial of four top Ceausescu associates, Col. Cor-
neliu Pircalabescu testified that Milea asked him to tell his
Ceausescu s defense minister was not
killed on Ceausescu’s orders, but killed
himself rather than give orders to fire on
anti-Ceaucescu demonstrators.
wife and children he couldn’t order defenseless demonstra
tors killed. Minutes later, he shot himself in the heart, said
Pircalabescu, head of the civilian reserve force.
Pircalabescu is not a defendant in the trial.
His testimony, some of the most moving in the three-day
trial, contradicted an account Monday by defendant Emil
Bobu that the dictator ordered the general’s assassination
for opposing the order to shoot. Bobu was the No. 3 official
in the Ceausescu government.
The trial, which began Saturday, was adjourned until
Thursday.
Bus transit
fee may rise
to 50 cents
By GAYL BARRETT
Staff Writer
The transportation fee which
each student pays as part of tuition
may go up 50 cents a quarter be
cause of increasing student
ridership of Athens Transit System
buses coupled with decreased
funding, ATS Director Tim Lett
said.
Since 1977, University students
have been allowed to ride city
buses for free by simply presenting
their fees-paid card. The ATS bus
fare is included in the $24.50
transportation fee which students
pay each quarter.
Ridership increasing
Within the past year, University
ridership has increased more than
300 percent, Lett said. This rider
increase lowers the average cost
per ride. University students are
now averaging 29 cents a ride in
comparison to the regular 60 cents
box fare.
Box-fare revenue accounts for
only a small part of the ATS in
come. Federal and local funds
make up the bulk of the ATS
budget, Lett said
Funding cut
However, the federal funding for
ATS has been cut from $560,000 to
$480,000 for the next fiscal year
beginning in July. The local Athens
community is expected to compen
sate for the loss through city and
county taxes.
In order to keep up with the
growing number of passengers,
Lett said it is necessary to raise the
fee.
Since 1977, University
students have been
allowed to ride city
buses for free by simply
presenting their fees-
paid card.
“We don’t want the student to
have to take the whole brunt of the
problem,” he said “But we do feel
that, in light of the situation, an in
crease in fees has to be made."
Dwight Douglas, vice president
for Student Affairs, said he will re
view the ATS proposal and present
it to the president and vice presi
dent of the Student Association.
Few universities include city bus
fare as part of the tuition/transpor
tation fee. Out of the $24.50
charge, only $2 of it goes toward
ATS, Business Administrator Jo
seph Broadhurst said. The re
mainder of the fees goes toward the
campus transit system and com
muter parking.
Few increases
The 1977 alliance between the
city and campue transit systems
was a result of a student refer
endum, which requested that a
portion of the transportation fee
cover ATS costs. The city, the-Uni-
versity and the students agreed to
a tl fee. Since then, the price has
only increased twice — 60 cents in
1981 and 50 cents in 1985.