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Intramural roundball showdown at Coliseum — 8
The Red & Black
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia Community
THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1990 • ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 97, ISSUE 75
a
INSIDE
A review of ‘The Hunt for
Red October” starring
you-know-who as Soviet
Captain Marko Ramius.
Weather: Mostly cloudy today, 20
percent chance rain, high in windy
low 50s. Tonight, 40 percent
chance rain, mid-40s. Friday, 40
percent chance rain, mid-60s.
Semester system better, Knapp tells SA
By MARLA EDWARDS
Staff Writer
University President Charles Knapp
told Student Association senators he fa
vored the semester system over the Uni
versity's quarter system.
Knapp, in a meeting with SA Tuesday,
said the recent semester system feasi
bility study initiated by the Executive
Committee of the University Council has
gone to the Educational Affairs Com
mittee of the state Senate for consider
ation.
“It’s the kind of issue that’s going to re
quire a broad-based consensus on
campus,” Knapp said.
Students, however, voted for the
quarter system in favor of semesters by
211 votes in an unofficial poll held Feb. 20
to 21. Students voting in the poll totaled
1,421.
The feasibility report Knapp men
tioned didn’t include the results of the
unofficial student poll.
Knapp said he favored the semester
system because he thinks it’s better from
a teaching standpoint and because it
would save time by eliminating a week of
finals and one period of registration and
drop-add.
Also, he said the University’s grad
uating seniors are at a competitive disad
vantage in the iob market because they
graduate later than schools under the se
mester system.
Knapp also told the SA it should en
ergize efforts to work with the Georgia
Legislature next year. He commended the
effectiveness of the SA’s efforts in lob
bying for changes in proposed drug bills
this quarter.
Knapp said legislators at a state Ca
pitol meeting he attended this quarter
were impressed by the chance to hear
from students who are affected by the
bills.
“I could’ve gone in and made the some
points and it wouldn’t have been nearly
as effective,” he said.
Knapp said he’d like to see the SA
lobby the Legislature on issues affecting
the University, such as funding.
He also commended other SA projects,
such as the initiation of the escort van
service.
Fielding questions from the SA senate
floor, Knapp also discussed issues such us
projected enrollment figures for the Uni
versity.
Although there may be a decline in
freshman enrollment in the fall, in
creased enrollment pressure is expected
over the next decade, he said.
He said he’d like to see the number of
students at the University remain steady
at around 27,000 to let facilities and fac
ulty catch up with enrollment.
In other business, the SA:
• Approved a proposal by graduate
Sen. Neil Thom that will force senators to
spend 50 minutes each week in the SA of
fice.
‘It’s the kind of issue that’s
going to require a broad-
based consensus on
campus.’
— Charles Knapp,
University president
• Heard plans from junior Sen. Todd
King that involve running a survey to
gather student input for an SA vote on
whether smoking should be banned in the
library’s study lounge.
Gingrich
probe
dropped
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The House
ethics committee decided
Wednesday to drop its investiga
tion of Republican Whip Newt Gin
grich but will criticize his failure to
disclose the purchase of a home,
the lawmaker who filed the com
plaint against him said.
The ethics committee has re
solved the Gingrich matter by de
ciding not to investigate further,
but by deciding to admonish Gin
grich” for not reporting his pur
chase of a home with his daughter,
said Rep. Bill Alexander, D-Ark.
A House source, speaking only
on condition he not be identified,
provided the same information
about the committee decision on
the Georgia Republican.
The panel — formally the Com
mittee on Standards of Official
Conduct — met behind closed doors
Wednesday but made no an
nouncement.
Gingrich’s case has generated
keen interest because he filed the
ethics complaint that triggered the
investigation — and eventual res
ignation last year —■ of former
Speaker Jim Wright.
A Chicago law firm hired to pro
vide the committee advice on the
Gingrich case reportedly told the
panel late last year that there was
insufficient evidence to pursue the
investigation.
Alexander, who filed two sepa
rate complaints against Gingrich,
called the committee action “a
practical resolution of the Gingrich
matter. Futher disciplinary actions
against Mr. Gingrich are therefore
not needed at the present time.”
Gingrich spokesman Tony
Blankley said his boss would not
immediately comment on the com
mittee decision because there had
been no formal notification from
the panel.
In a complaint filed with the
committee last October, Alexander
said that Gingrich failed to make
the required disclosure of the pur
chase of the home with his
daughter in Fulton County, Ga. in
June 1986.
The complaint said that Gin
grich’s annual financial disclosure
forms beginning in 1986 failed to
report the home purchase, failed to
list the property as an asset and
failed to list the $77,800 mortgage
as a liability.
Alexander triggered the Gin
grich probe last April with a com
plaint that the No. 2-ranking
House Republican violated vio
lated House rules and federal cam
paign finance laws in the operation
of a limited partnership created in
1984. The “COS Limited Part
nership” promoted “Window of Op
portunity,” a book written by
Gingrich and two others.
The partnership was made up of
21 individuals who each put up $6.-
000 to promote the book. Gingrich
was not an investor, but his wife, a
co-author, was paid more than
$10,000 for running the operation.
The complaint contended the
$105,000 raised by the partnership
could be considered income to Gin
grich, in violation of House limits
on members’ outside earnings, or it
could constitute a gift to Gingrich,
in violation of House rules that
prohibit members from accepting
gifts worth more than $100 from
anyone with a direct interest in
legislation.
The second complaint, filed in
October, charged Gingrich with a
long list of alleged campaign fi
nance and financial disclosure vio
lations.
Having a ball
Will Hall, a freshman English major, enjoys the weather by playing a
little recreational volleyball In the Myers Quad.
Historic designation denied
Hull-Snelling House still for sale
By LANCE HELMS
Staff Writer
The historic Hull-Snelling
House will still go to the highest
bidder after the Athens City
Council voted against resolutions
that would have forced the owners
to take it off the open market.
The council was tied 5 to 5 at its
Tuesday night meeting over two
motions — one designating Hull
Street a historic district and the
other designating the Hull-Snel
ling House a historic landmark.
Mayor Dwain Chambers cast tie
breaking votes against both mea
sures.
An effort by the downtown Hol
iday Inn to have the house rezoned
as commercial property failed, so
the house is still zoned as resi
dential property. Neither its
owner, the Christian College of
Georgia, nor the hotel have plans
to reapply anytime in the future.
Christian College had planned
to sell the 147-year-old house to
the Holiday Inn, which wanted to
demolish the house and use the
land for a parking lot.
Morris Wood, president of the
college, said the hotel began solic
iting the house in 1982. But the
college didn’t determine a need to
sell the house until July 1989, after
it hired a full-time academic dean
and started a two-year graduate
program, he said.
It now faces $3,500 a month in
interest payments.
“We’re operating a deficit budget
right now,” Wood said.
In view of the recent public
outcry over the proposed sale to
Holiday Inn, the college is willing
to allow time for other offers to be
made, he said.
‘We still have a valid contract
with Holiday Inn,” Wood said.
“They hove said that if somebody
else wanted to buy the property to
preserve it, they would step back
and let them have it.”
The Rev. Ray Austin, chairman
of the college’s board of trustees,
echoed Wood’s sentiment.
“If you want to save the Hull-
Snelling building, do it,” Austin
said. "It’s available. But please
don’t try to tell us what to do with
it, because it’s ours. If you want to
save it, buy it."
Council member Carolyn Rey
nolds voted for the historical desig
nation. She said saving the house
holds significance for people who
come to Athens to learn about his
tory.
“If you go to Texas, you want to
see the Alamo,” she said. “If you go
to Hawaii, you want to see the
U.S.S. Saratoga and how they
lived."
Council member Gwen O’Looney
9aid Acacia fraternity is the only
potential buyer she knows of that
wants to maintain the house. She
said the house is overvalued be
cause it’s wanted for commercial
use.
Acacia member Dave Wilson
said, The price is kind of steep. It’s
hard competing against a major
corporation.”
Acacia President Ron McCarthy
said they consider the house an op
tion but have to wait until Satur
day’s alumni house board meeting
for approval to consider the Hull-
Snelling House. The board is
leasing the present Acacia house
Mayor Dwain Chambers:
Cast tie-breaking votes
from the former tenants, Zeta Beta
Tau.
O’Looney said, The city owns 44
buildings; over 30 of them are his
torical. I would much rather be
spending money on that house. It’s
needed to maintain the ‘classic’
feeling.
“I believe historical preservation
is very economically feasible," she
said. “It’s a real leap for individual
Americans to recognize private
property as a community responsi
bility."
The Rev. Archibald Killian, as
sociate pastor of First United Af
rican Methodist Episcopal Church,
said he can’t see what’s historical
about the house.
“All I see down there is a house
that is about to fall down," Killian
said at the meeting. “We are here
arguing about a house that is abso
lutely no good — it’s a blight on the
neighborhood.”
New group to aid graduate student environment
By ANNE-MARIE FANGUY
Staff Writer
The newly formed Graduate Student As
sociation has plans to provide a greater
voice for the graduate students at the Uni
versity.
The group’s faculty adviser, Douglas
Bachtel, said more graduate student rep
resentation is important “because graduate
students play a vital role in terms of tea
ching and research” at the University.
Ouida Meier, a graduate student in zo
ology and temporary administrative facili
tator for the association, said a proposed
constitution for the association was udopted
recently that will allow it to be recognized
as an official campus organization.
As stated in the constitution, the purpose
of the association will be:
• To serve as a liaison between the grad
uate student body and the University com
munity.
• To provide an effective voice for all
graduate students by investigating issues
and making recommendations to proper au
thorities.
• To improve interdepartmental commu
nication among graduate students.
• To appoint representatives to Univer
sity councils, commissions or committees
that solicit the opinion of graduate stu
dents.
• To improve the quality of graduate and
undergraduate education.
• To promote an academic and cultural
atmosphere in the University community.
• To increase the status of graduate stu
dents on campus and lobby for privileges
and rights pertaining to them.
The association is eligible for interim
funds from Student Affairs, Meier said
More funds will be available after a strict,
yearly budget is submitted, she said.
University President Charles Knapp re
sponded positively to the association at a
graduate student lunch Monday, Meier
said.
Edwin Ashurst, who earned a master of
fine arts at the University and is a doctoral
student in theater history and criticism,
helped form the association.
“We’ve tried to stress we’re not a govern
ment,” he said.
The association would serve to commu
nicate to graduate students the resources,
funds and fellowships available to them, he
said.
The association plans to prepare an
orientation handbook for graduate students
to provide referral numbers for off-campus
housing and answer questions on Univer
sity policy, among other things, he said.
“If there’s a student having problems
with family housing, we can tell him who he
needs to talk to and what he’ll need to have
prepared before talking to that person,"
Ashurst said.
Another function is to increase the status
of graduate students and to lobby for priv
ileges and rights, he said.
“Graduate student issues will eventually
boil down to undergraduate interests. The
better it gets at the University for graduate
students, the better it will get for every
body," Ashurst said.
There will be a meeting April 11 at 7 p.m.
in Room 328 of the graduate studies
building for all graduate students inter
ested in the association.
Watergate tough guy speaks out
By STEVEN M. SEARS
Staff Writer
Watergate conspirator G.
Gordon Liddy seems proud of his
role in Watergate, even after the
five years spent in nine prisons.
Liddy, who spoke at the Tate
Student Center Tuesday, said he
resents the media tagging the
Iran-Contra Affair “Irangate" be
cause it diminishes his role in his
tory. He joked about his license
plate, which reads H20gate, irri
tating Washington, D.C., politicos.
George Gordon Battle Liddy re
mains an enigma to many people.
While in prison he used his covert
operations skills, which were ac
quired in the federal government,
to wiretap the warden’s office,
according to Lidd/s autobiography
“Will." Before the Watergate
scandal, he volunteered to be as
sassinated and he volunteered to
be an assassin.
Liddy attempted to assassinate
what he opined as Washington’s
liberal politics during a speech
sponsored by the Ideas and Issues
division of University Union.
"With respect to Washington,
you must understand they don’t
speak English,” he said. “You have
to be able to speak liberal.”
The audience of more than 800
applauded every time Liddy took a
shot at liberal politics.
Liddy said the political mindset
in Washington is that any unplea
sant reality must be denied.
An example, he said, was that
there “are no poor in Washington.
TTiey do not recognize that.” It is
the “underprivileged.”
Liddy vehemently attacked
what he labeled congressional in
competence as he swaggered across
the stage holding a microphone.
He said congressional hearings
occur after members of Congress
have privately interviewed wit
nesses. The interviews are private,
he said, because congressmen ask
uestions that make them look ri-
iculous. When the interviews are
public the congressmen don’t ask
the question that made them look
foolish.
‘This is how they protect them
selves from you,” he said, “so you
don’t see how stupid they are.”
To curb congressional incompe
tence, Liddy suggested that con
gressional terms be limited.
“Now Congress has so loaded the
dice, stacked the deck,” he said,
“that it’s now impossible to beat an
incumbent unless you find them in
bed with a 14-year-old, or if they’re
from Massachusseta, with a 14-
year-old boy.”
Liddy criticized government
handling of the Exxon oil spill.
He said the government pros
ecuted Exxon for violations of the
Migratory Bird Act and hazardous
cargo laws because the government
believes Exxon deliberatly dumped
oil into the water to kill the birds.
“Friends, it’s getting more and
6. Gordon Liddy: Ex-presidential aide seems proud of his
prominent role in Watergate scandal
more bizarre in the land of Oz,”
Liddy said.
Hobby Outten, a senior anthro
pology major, said he enjoyed
Liddy’s speech.
“G. Gordon Liddy is an inspira
tion,” he said. “He is a true Amer
ican.”