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The Red & Black
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia Community
INSIDE
See Mickey control the
stars in “Fantasia” and
find out where the other
stars will be this weekend
in TGIF.
8
Weather: Weekend wonderland.
Today, mostly sunny, 80s,
tonight, clear, 50s. Sat., sunny,
high In the upper 80s.
* WEEKEND EDITION * FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1990 » ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 98, ISSUE 12
Knapp supports non-discrimination
Still wary to sanction gay rights policy
By CHRISTOPHER GRIMES
Staff Writer
Although University President Charles
Knapp doesn’t support a proposed amendment
to the University’s non-discrimination policy
that would protect homosexuals, he does sup
port a University human relations statement
that would include non-discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation.
“If the University Council would propose a
human relations statement, I woula sign it,”
Knapp said in an interview Thursday. “And if
they don’t propose it, I might start it from my
end.”
By creating a human relations statement —
which exists at Emory University and the
Georgia Institute of Technology — the Univer
sity would create an internal policy that would
apply to both faculty and students.
The University Council will vote Oct. 11 on
the amendment to include homosexuals in the
University’s non-discrimination policy. The
amendment was proposed by University stu
dents Terrance Heath and Lawson Sullivan,
both members of the Athens Gay and Lesbian
Association.
Knapp said Thursday that he opposes the
amendment because it would create a “pro
tected class of people who aren’t protected by
federal or state law.”
He said the University’s ROTC program,
which can legally discriminate against homo
sexuals, wouldn’t be able to abide by the Uni
versity's policy if it were amended. Also, the
University would have to cut off relations with
businesses that recruit on campus and also dis
criminate against homosexuals.
But about 100 other universities have placed
these concerns aside and included sexual orien
tation in their institutional affirmative action
statements.
Duke University amended its non-discrimi
nation code in December 1988, said Delores
Burke, special assistant to the president at
Duke.
“It’s an internal policy,” she said, "but I don’t
know if it would hold up in court.”
William Rubenstein, director of the Lesbian
and Gay Project of the American Civil Liberties
Union, said it’s because these policies may not
hold up in court that they should be put in place
at universities.
‘The absence of federal and state laws has
been used to justify the schools not doing any
thing,” he said. “But that should be the very
reason for the school to act. It underlies the
reason that schools should enact these poli
cies.”
Currently, the only University guidelines
that include sexual orientation are in the UGA
Student Handbook under disorderly conduct.
In this policy — implemented last fall — stu
dents are prohibited from harassing other
people on the basis of “sex, race, religion, na
tional origin, handicap or sexual orientation.”
Judicial Programs Director Bill Bracewell
said these guidelines apply only “to students
harassing other people.”
Georgia Tech Huihan Relations
Positions Statement
Georgia Tech is/an educational community
comprised of individuals frorh^different eth
nic, racial, and litigious groups, of different
genders arnrf deferent sexual orientations.
P this diversity; Tech is resolved to
o the development of an integrat
Slid society in which individuals
support humaneness dnd respect
lifricnjai... The administration\ex-
each student and employee ^ill
te attitudes and behaviors which
understanding of, and sensitivity,
toward this diversity.
Shhhhh!
Clift Baker, a freshman business major, studies Astronomy on
one of the quiet upper floors of the library.
Drafter of access laws keeping silent
By DARA McLEOD
Associate News Editor
The U.S. Office of Civil Rights is
about to begin investigating allega
tions that the University hasn’t
complied with federal laws gov
erning disabled accessibility —
laws that were written, in part, by
Nik Edes, University vice presi
dent for Development.
Edes, a former staff member for
Sen. Harrison Williams, D-N.J., is
considered to have played a key
role in drafting Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The Act was intended to improve
vocational opportunities for dis
abled people. Section 504 wasn’t
included in the original legislation.
But it was added to prevent dis
crimination against disabled
people by employers and other in
stitutions.
Section 504 states, “No other
wise qualified handicapped indi
vidual...shall, solely by reason of
his handicap, be excluded from the
participation in, be denied the ben
efits of, or be subjected to discrimi
nation under any program or
activity receiving federal financial
assistance.”
Jesse High, director of the civil
rights office, said if his office finds
the University in violation of fed
eral accessibility requirements and
it is unwilling to correct the prob
lems, all federal funding wili be
canceled.
The office, located in Atlanta, is
a division of the U.S. Department
of Education.
Federal funds include research
grants and federal student aid
such as Pell Grants and Stafford
Loans.
High said most public institu
tions are willing to make cuts
wherever necessary to correct the
problem — rather than face a loss
of federal funds.
But the Dekalb County Public
School System is now facing a loss
of federal funds for refusing to co
operate with a similar investiga
tion into accessibility by High’s
office, he said.
Michelle Stevens, a disabled
graduate student who filed the
complaint against the University,
said she is surprised that Edes
hasn’t spoken up about campus ac
cessibility — especially in light of
statements Edes made previously
about the legislation.
Edes was quoted in the book,
"From Good Will to Civil Rights,”
ns saying the staff members re
sponsible for drafting Section 504
were the “Martin Luther Kings of
the disability movements on Ca-
f iitol Hill and in the government.”
ie went on to say, "the movement
was stimulated by a very few indi
viduals who were in the legislative
branch.”
Stevens said Edes’ statements
indicate he had a genuine interest
in the issue of disability rights at
the time.
“But something obviously has
changed him between now and
1973,” she said.
"He’s at a high enough level at
the University that he could influ
ence (University President
Charles) Knapp,” she said. "He
could have said he wanted to raise
new funds to promote accessibility
— funds that wouldn’t be affected
by budget cuts.”
Edes, contacted at the American
Film Institute in Los Angeles, de
clined to comment on the com
plaint against the University or on
Stevens’ allegations.
“I support the efforts under
taken by Charles Knapp and his
administration,” he said.
When asked if he felt the Uni
versity has made a reasonable ef
fort to conform to the standards he
helped draft, Edes wouldn’t com
ment.
Edes, who informed Knapp in
August of his resignation effective
Oct. 31., has accepted a position at
the American Film Institute.
Stevens said the $1.2 million the
University has spent on accessi
bility in the last decade amounts to
only $120,000 a year, which she de
scribed as “just squat.”
‘To take federal money and not
obey federal law is hypocritical at
best — and fraudulent at worst,”
she said.
Problems Stevens cites in her
complaint include several build
ings and restrooms labeled acces
sible that don’t meet accessibility
standards, a need for braille r<x>m
numbers on all classroom doors,
poor access to student services and
activities, failure to recruit dis
abled employees and inaccessi
bility in some academic programs.
High said his office will first
begin investigating records on the
University’s efforts to meet accessi
bility requirements. He said the in
vestigation won’t begin now due to
budget cuts, but should be done in
four to five months.
It’s a ‘no-frills’ society
Business dean shares images of Soviet life
Tr»cy iUnb«rf/Th« Red and HMCK
Al Niemi: The Soviet Union’s economy is in peril after the
quagmire of the Cold War arms race.
By LYNN BARFIELD
Staff Writer
It’s a long journey from Athens
to Moscow. But Albert Niemi expe
rienced the journey — and loved it.
Niemi, dean of the University’s
School of Business Administration,
visited the Soviet Union for nine
days in June to establish a lead
ership exchange program between
professors from the University and
the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences.
Niemi describes the country and
its people as a "no-frills society”
whose economy is in desperate
need of change.
“It’s in shambles,” Niemi said of
the Soviet economy, which he said
has failed partly because the So
viets devoted too much time to the
arms race that evolved during the
Reagun era.
"The Soviets were so caught up
in the arms race, they devoted all
their resources to providing
materials of war — building mis
siles, bombs, tanks. They totally
destroyed their economy," he said.
Niemi said Ronald Reagan
might not have intended to detour
the Soviet government’s intentions
with the Star Wars Initiative when
he took office in 1980, but the basic
structure of their economy has suf
fered because of it.
Niemi said the failure is ap
parent in everything he saw while
walking through Soviet cities.
Apartment buildings, hospitals, of
fice buildings, roads, bridges and
virtually everything else is suf
fering from decay.
“It looks like nothing has been
built in the Soviet Union in the
past 25 or 30 years,” he said.
Niemi said the key to restruc
turing the Soviet economy will be
to motivate the people by giving
them individual entrepreneurship.
The citizens have been given
things by “Big Brother” for too long
and have never questioned the
style of government, he said.
But Niemi found adjusting to So
viet culture to be a big change from
day-to-day life in the United
States.
In his visit to a department
store, Niemi said the items in the
store were homogeneous beyond
belief.
‘The store had only two styles of
suits — one solid brown and the
other tweedy gray," Niemi said.
‘They carried only two shirts in the
colors of white and blue. They had
only one kind of gray shoe.”
In a Soviet grocery store, he
said, the items have no name
brands or manufacturers’ labels.
"A stick of butter is wrapped in
white paper and just says ‘butter’
on the outside,” he said.
Most Americans couldn’t
imagine a day of life without a car,
but Niemi said in the Soviet Union,
no one owns a car and most citizens
use public transportation to get
around.
Niemi said he rode in a personal
automobile only once his entire trip
— when he rode in the cab of a pro
fessor’s cousin.
‘The standard of living is so low
that hardly anyone can afford an
automobile, ” Niemi said.
He said most people in the So
viet Union are lower class, except
for the high-positioned members of
the Communist Party Govern
ment.
Even though the climate may be
bitter and drab, Niemi said it
doesn’t reflect the attitude of the
people of the Soviet Union.
“The individuals are very warm
and personal in their homes, be
cause they have only their family
to concentrate on,” he said.
He said it’s not unusual for a
man to hug his son because the So
viet people have very little else in
life except their families to bring
them happiness.
Niemi speaks with enthusiasm
when he talks about the Univer
sity’s plans to host a delegation of
Soviet professors in March or
April. The scholars will be here to
learn about teaching business to
Soviet students.
“Hopefully, they will learn about
our business curriculum and take
that back with them,” he said.
Niemi will then be a part of a
mini-seminar that travels back to
the Soviet Union in the spring to
teach scholars there about how to
raise capital for their fledgling
economy.
‘They will learn the nuts and
bolts about the American
economy,” he said.
Out-of-state criteria
add to voting puzzle
By DANA WHITE
Staff Writer
“It is a question of domicile,
not residence,” said County At
torney John Ray Nicholson in an
Oct. 2 memo to the Clnrke
County Board of Elections con
cerning voter registration of Uni
versity students.
Adding to the confusion sur
rounding registration require
ments is the University System
Board of Regents’ criteria for de
termining in-state tuition qual
ifications.
“Unfortunately, the Board of
Regents uses voter registration
as one of its criteria for deter
mining domicile for the purpose
of qualifying for in-state tu
ition...,” the memo read.
According to Nicholson’s
memo, establishing domicile
means living in the county with
the “mental intent for Clarke
County to be your primary resi
dence."
The memo also said being a
resident of the county "does not
entitle one to vote in Clarke
County.”
There is a lack of under
standing of the law, said Dot
Barrett, Board of Elections chair.
Out-of-state students are
being told at orientation that reg
istering to vote in Clarke County
would make them eligible for in
state tuition costs, she said.
Barrett said they always know
when orientation is because
people stand in line to register to
vote.
Paul Hardy, an attorney with
the Carl Vinson Institute of Gov
ernment, said mental intent isn’t
defined and no one has at
tempted to define it.
In the memo, Nicholson said
there have been questions raised
about students who register to
vote for purposes of avoiding out-
of-state tuition instead of for the
purpose of voting.
The problem created by stu
dents registering for the purpose
of tuition is keeping up with all
the records and having the BOE
go through the purging process
when many people have no inten
tion of voting, he said.
Barrett said purging is done
every two years. The BOE mails
notices to all registered voters
who have not voted in three
years, giving them the opportu
nity to remain on the voter list or
have their names dropped.
Nicholson’s memo stated the
regents will not change voter reg
istration ns part of the criteria
for in-state tuition. He said attor
neys at the State Attorney Gen
eral’s office were given notice of
the BOE’s record-keeping
problem caused by people regis
tering to vote for tuition pur
poses.
“I’m not personally aware of
any request for advice or com
plaints concerning the registra
tion of students at the University
of Georgia,” Mike Hobbs, senior
assistant attorney general, said.
Nicholson said, “I think the
Board of Elections has made a
sincere effort to do their job and
has not tried to discourage stu
dents from registering to vote.”
Barrett said when someone
registers to vote, they aren’t
asked if they are a student. She
said the only people who aren’t
allowed to register are high
school seniors from other coun
ties who try to register to estab
lish in state residency.