About The Red and Black (Athens, Ga.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1990)
in big in season opener — 8 ° student newspaper serving the University of Georgia Community , INSIDE The Storm Orphans are rowdy and cutting with new album “Living in a Wasted Union.” Weather: Get ready to do something under the covers. Today, decreasing clouds, 50s, tonight, clear, low near 30, Fri., sunny, high in the upper 50s. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1990 • ATHENS, GEORGIA • VOLUME 98, ISSUE 39 Repent, for the end is near Brother Jed preaches to a group of students Wednesday at the free speech platform next to Memorial Hall. He began drawing a crowd around noon, which grew to about 150 by the afternoon. Recession to hit retailers Forecast of Christmas season sales not merry By GWINN BRUNS Staff Writer Bargain hunters beware. You may not be the only people looking for bargain bams, sales and lower prices this Christmas, as the United States and Georgia move into a mild recession. According to a study by the Uni versity's Selig Center for Economic Growth, Christmas retail sales will increase by 4.2 percent — about half the rate of last year’s increase, which reached 8 percent. Jeff Humphreys, director of the economic forecast, said there are a number of reasons for the decline in sales. ‘The most important reason has been the collapse in consumer con fidence," he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty out there, and it’s largely linked to the Middle East.” The Conference Board’s index, “a man on the street index of con sumer confidence,” showed that consumer confidence fell from 84.7 to 61.3 in October, he said. People are concerned about their job security, Humphreys said. The savings and loan crisis, high in terest rates, inflation and higher gas prices must also be taken into account. “The timing was unfortunate for the Christmas shopping season,” he said. “But people’s salaries and wages aren’t keeping up with infla tion.” Consumers are going to be looking for bargains and practical gifts such as sweaters, socks and makeup, Humphreys said. And homemade gifts probably will be popular. "I think the big department stores are going to suffer, because people are going to go to the dis count stores,” he said. “Certainly in Athens they will, because people are being offered more opportuni ties for discount shopping.” Becky Barfield, head of the misses department at TJ Maxx. said the Athens store is doing much better than anticipated. “We had great sales Thanks giving weekend," she said. “We’re an off-price store and there hasn’t been much competition. I think people are saying ‘well, if I can get it cheaper here, then why not?’ " Humphreys said that large dis count stores like TJ Maxx will do well despite the recession. And others will benefit. ‘I think downtown is relatively healthy right now, maybe because it’s a college town.' — Lee Pilgrim Owner of Almanac Specialty stores and stores with high-priced items definitely will see the lack of consumer confidence when profits are low, he said. Some stores already are holding pre- Christmas sales. “I think a lot of retailers are going to be in for a surprise, for ex ample, when they try and re plenish inventories,” he said. Many retailers, especially small stores, forget to take inflation into account when tallying profits, he said. There was an 8 percent increase in holiday sales in 1989. But when inflation was accounted for there Holiday Sales in (i>c*orgia (in billions of dollars) SOURCE: University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth Stephen Morotkl/The Red and Black was an increase of only 3.1 percent. Once sales are adjusted for infla tion this year, there actually will be a decrease of 1.4 percent. Lee Pilgrim, owner of Almanac, said that people have been laughing at her because she’s been so optimistic about Christmas sales. Almanac hasn’t been afTected by the recession, she said. But sales representatives told her that At lanta stores are having problems. “I think downtown is relatively healthy right now,” Pilgrim said. “Maybe because it’s a college town.” Jim McCullough, manager of Sears, isn’t os optimistic. He said that Sears hasn’t had any problems so far, but he expects that the store will be increasing sale opportunities. “We think it’s going to be very competitive this year because there are a lot of concerns about the economy,” McCullough said. “We expect a very aggressive campaign to this competitive situation.” What are consumers going to do? One downtown shopper summed it up — “I’ll look for better bar gains, spend less money and look for sales.” Teach For America may touch campus By LYNN BARFIELD Staff Writer Carrie Dieterle and April Brooks never thought about being educators and preparing young people for the future, but a new social service program radically changed their thoughts about teaching. ‘The education situation in this country is something that everyone should be concerned about,” Dieterle said. The two University students want to form a campus chapter of Teach For America so tal ented University students will also change their minds. TFA is a national corps of dedicated college graduates who are recruited to teach in urban and rural areas that suffer from teacher short ages. Brooks, a senior political science m^jor, said she first learned about TFA last year in a mag azine article about Wendy Kopp, a 1989 grad uate of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Kopp decided she didn’t want to go directly into law school and came up with the idea of TFA. “She came at the perfect time with the per fect idea," Brooks said. “(TFA) matches the need for teachers in this country, and it helps college students who aren’t ready to go on the job hunt.” Brooks said she is like most college students — disillusioned by the 1980s and the “me” gen eration that sow college education as the way to get a six-figure salary. Brooks colled the Manhattan TFA office, the home of a board of advisers made up of teachers and educators around the country, and said that she was interested in being a TFA liaison for the University. Brooks then attended an August conference in Austin, Texas, where she met with TFA par ticipants and learned of another University student, Dieterle, a senior public relations major interested in TFA. Dieterle heard of the program while at a leadership conference attended by TFA founder Kopp. The program places its participants in areas hurt by teacher shortages. Most of the areas have a large or increasing minority population. Brooks said the program is trying to recruit more blacks ond Hispanics to teach in these areas. Brooks attended school in Atlanta in an area with a large minority population. Having dealt with people of different races and backgrounds, she hopes this experience will help her if she’s selected to participate in the TFA corps. “If you are a white teacher in a predomina tely black area, you are going to need to get out in the community and meet these kids’ parents and get the message across that you want to help,” she said. Dieterle grew up in an upper-middle class area of Fulton County and said she feels that, like many young teens, she didn’t worry about how other people lived. At the University she realized that tne world contained other people with other problems. “I felt like I was in a little bubble that was my world until I came to college," she said. If she is chosen as a TFA participant, Di eterle wants to work where she can learn more about different cultures. Both women said they hope students with different majors come to the first TFA meeting today at 4 p.m. in Room 144 of the Tate Student Center. Brooks said the program is open to stu dents who are talented in other fields but who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to teach. “We don’t want to step on education majors’ toes, we want to work with them,” Brooks said. Dieterle said the program now has 500 mem bers in New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, Baton Rouge, La., rural North Carolina and Georgia. Kopp visited Wheeler County when the program first began. Dieterle and Brooks said TFA is very compet itive because the best graduates from the best schools apply. Other schools involved include Cornell Uni versity, Yale University, Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. “I want Georgia to be on that list because we have the students to make a great group,” Brooks said. Dieterle said applicants go through a selec tion process that includes two interviews, written essays and a sample teaching demon stration. ^ Corps members attend a training instimte at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for eight weeks to learn curriculum planning, classroom management and decision making. “Members are not thrown into this cold- turkey style,” Brooks said. Dieterle said she hopes children who are taught by a corps member will learn more than she did from her past instructors because the graduates are young and eager to teach. “Why didn’t our teacher tell us there was more out there? I would like to get the chance to do that for someone," she said. Behind closed doors The Red and Black barred from hearing The Red and Black was denied access to a Student Judiciary Orga- nizational Court hearing Wednesday. An editor and reporter at tempted to sit in on the hearing which convened in the Academic Building. Brad Roundtree, student defender advocate of the judiciary, said the meeting was closed. The Red and Black asked to have a statement put on the court’s record but was denied. Arthur Leed, Student Affairs legal adviser, said The Red and Black couldn’t attend the meeting due to stipulations of the Family Education and Privacy Act of 1974 — commonly referred to as the Buckley Amendment. Leed made no further comment. Student Affairs Director Wil liam Bracewell was unavailable for comment. Mark Goodman, an attorney for the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., said the Buckley Amendment applies only to the records of individual stu dents. “I don’t see any violation of Buckley,” he said. “In fact, it looks as if the student court has violated the state open meetings law.” Editor-in-Chief Robert Todd said The Red and Black will appeal the case through the vice president of Legal Affairs. If this action doesn’t produce any results, he said, the case will be pursued through the Georgia Press Association. “We don’t think Buckley applies here,” he said. “We don’t have any problem with Student Judiciary — it’s a good organization. But the University would be better served and the Organizational Court would gain some credibility if it were opened.” — Patrick Flanigan Leadership UGA inspired by chair Bill Bracewell: Program opening doors for students. By KRISTA HARRIS Campus Correspondent Bill Bracewell believes in to morrow. As chairman of the steering committee for the 1990-91 Lead ership UGA program, he said he wants to help enhance student leadership and ensure students’ roles as future leaders. Leadership UGA provides a forum for student leaders to “know, learn and share informa tion with outside resource people and each other in ways not other wise provided on campus,” according to this year’s applica tion. Bracewell said he was inspired with the idea for such a program alter tagging along to his wife’s Leadership Georgia meetings. Similar to the University’s pro gram, Leadership Georgia allows business, political and commu nity leaders from throughout the state to meet and share informa tion, he said. Bracewell brought the idea to the University and gained funding from the Richard B. Rus sell Foundation for the first pro gram in 1985. The Russell Foundation provides most of the program’s funds. “You can come to the Univer sity of Georgia and stay for four years and no one will know you were here," Bracewell said. The program attempts to rec ognize those students who have distinguished themselves. Applicants don’t need a long resume, he said, but their activ ities must indicate their position os a leader within the University community. Community involvement and volunteerism distinguish the American system of government, Bracewell said. He said this will ingness to give time to benefit others and the crucial role leaders play in the process are part of the program’s basis. “I enjoyed meeting the other campus leaders,” said Thomas Stubbs, a senior political science major who participated in lost year’s program. He said he saw the program’s greatest benefit to be the contacts made available to students, rather than the en hancement of leadership skills. Stubbs said his definition of leadership as the “ability to ma nipulate and coerce” is different from other participants. Bracewell said this sort of di versification of opinion is impor tant to the program ond something which is stnved for in icking applicants. He said earing an Arab and a black com pare their respective views of dis crimination in society during a group interview proved to him the importance of bringing dif ferent students together. The issues discussed during the program vary from year to year. Last year’s program cov ered health enre, education, media and cross-cultural rela tions in today’s society. Students visited the Cable News Network Center in Atlanta and met with executives during thd media workshop. Bracewell said past partici pants recommend topics for fu ture programs ond the applicants ore given an opportunity to make suggestions. Applications for the program are available in Room 210 of the Academic Building. The deadline to return them is Dec. 6. 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