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4 » The Red and Black « Tuesday. April 28. 1992
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Established in 1893 - Incorporated 1980
An independent student newspaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Lance Helms/Editor in Chief
Angela Hornsby/Managing Editor
Constantin K. Curran/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Give the mandate
At 47 percent,
Georgia has one of the
lowest voter turnout
rates in the nation. And
in light of that, some
last month questioned
our desire to pre-empt
the Super Tuesday pri
maries by a week.
But the state’s low
voter participation looks like a model of civic involve
ment compared to the 8 percent turnout last year for
SGA elections.
Of the 24,948 students eligible to vote last spring,
1,885 voted. The current president and vice president
won by 28 votes - an incredibly slim margin that indi
cates just how much a single vote counts.
If you’ve ever doubted your ability to make a differ
ence, now’s a good time to experience some good old-
fashioned voter empowerment. Take time to evaluate
the platforms of the SGA candidates and vote your con
science today.
What hangs in the balance is the student body’s
ability to take back some of the power the University
administration appropriated long ago in the absence of
real student leadership. If we are to truly influence
matters such as student activities fee hikes and alloca
tions, SGA will need a mandate from us - in the form
of high student voter turnout. There is no alternative.
The student activities fee increase was approved by
16 SGA members even though a survey showed 81 per
cent of the student body opposed it. Sixteen students
amounts to .000641 percent of the students who voted
last spring. By not participating in SGA elections, we
silently affirm the concentration of that power among
those who have every right not to feel responsive.
With John Bradberry and Shawna Hirata, we have
a rare opportunity to substantially diversify the make
up of SGA, improve student safety, make the
University a top-notch environmental citizen and es
tablish ties between the student body and local govern
ment.
Bradberry, who joined Students for Environmental
Awareness last quarter to campaign against the west
campus parking deck, has proven his ability to net
work with other student leaders and take the interests
of the student body to heart.
Bradberry and Hirata clearly understand the need
for students to more closely identify with their repre
sentatives. They propose to radically restructure the
SGA membership by setting aside seats for student
representatives from the 13 schools and colleges, from
housing units and from other student organizations.
Indeed, the federal government has repeatedly
found that at-large elections discriminate against mi
norities, and legislatures across the nation are elected
by district voting.
Wendy Griffin and Rob Gordon promise to give SGA
a higher public profile, increase student/faculty inter
action and work with the city to establish a new
Milledge Avenue bus route.
Bradberry says his status as the sole non-Greek
candidate indicates “balance between Greek and non-
Greek.” But because Greeks are only 25 percent of the
student body, true Greek/non-Greek balance would
mean having three non-Greeks for each Greek member.
Rather, a vote for Bradberry would destroy the
myth of “Greek block voting” - namely, that Greek or
ganizations vote monolithically and destroy indepen
dent candidates’ chances. True balance among student
voters would give the Bradberry/Hirata ticket a decid
ed edge. Get out and prove ’em right.
STAFF
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■ QUOTABLE
"She's running a Why ask why?' campaign, with no new is
sues, no new ideas and no experience - just close your eyes
and vote for me.’ — SGA presidential candidate
John Bradberry on his opponent, Wendy Griffin.
SGA could help students get fair treatment
Certainly some believe student government
is nothing more than a forum for resume
padding egomaniacs. You are wrong if you be
lieve that. To learn just how wrong you are, go
over to the library and read the last 20 years of
The Red and Black. You’ll see that student gov
ernment has always worked to help students.
When student government has failed, it has
been because certain interest groups wanted it
to fail.
Here’s the big picture:
The University is state-funded to the tune of
hundreds of millions of dollars and it serves
three interest groups: administrators, faculty
and students. These groups want different
things. Administrators desire staffers and
building programs which enhance their status
and power. Faculty want better pay and seek to
enhance their stature by publishing the results
of their research. Students, of course, want to
learn, graduate, and find good jobs in the pri
vate or academic marketplace.
These groups compete for the same re
sources. While a professor may wish to devote
his time strictly to research, a student wants
more professors teaching so he would have
smaller classes and thus better odds of gradu
ating.
Student interests do not always conflict with
those of the administration and faculty, but
they often do and students usually lose. Many
indicators now show that student interests are
being served to the least extent ever in the his
tory of the University.
With its highest-ever enrollment and tu
ition, the University now has fewer teachers
than a decade ago. A University committee re
port noted that enrollment jumped 30 percent
while the number of teachers declined 4 per-
Scott
Starling
cent. Classrooms have been converted to house
the legions of administrative helpers who have
replaced the professors. Presently, only about a
third of students graduate in the traditional
four years. Only a little over half ever receive a
degree.
The University constantly brags about the
high SAT scores of the students it accepts and
then blames those same students when they
don’t graduate. It’s not the students’ fault. Over
the last ten years, the University’s budget more
than doubled. This money was not spent hiring
more teachers or doing the kinds of things
which would get students out the door in four
years. Remember when Charles Knapp wanted
to spend over $7,000 to cut down a tree in his
yard?
The University last week approved a new
promotion policy requiring all professors to re
search and publish. Professors concentrating
on teaching will find themselves fired if they
persist.
You might think that it’s good that all
teachers do research. But many researchers
never teach. Those who do are often too over
worked to do a good job teaching. One
University chemist has taught only two cours
es in the last four years. Part of his research is
helping the Air Force find a better rocket fuel.
This does not help a freshman chemistry stu
dent who is trying to learn the periodic table.
The recently amended University strategic
plan now states that in the future, the number
of teachers will decline. The report, which not
ed the previous decade-long decline in teaching,
was given “very little emphasis” in the new
plan. That’s not my quote, but one from Rick
Jones, the University professor who authored
the critical report.
Dean John Kozak, a student supporter,
recently resigned. That’s really bad for stu
dents because he oversaw the massive Franklin
College of Arts and Sciences and had been
pushing for more money to bolster teaching.
The University’s second-in-command, Vice
President William Prokasy, weighed in on the
teaching versus research controversy in a Red
and Black article by stating that he didn’t feel
the University had “gone too far" toward re
search. As dean at the University of Illinois,
Prokasy was quoted by the school paper saying,
“Faculty are brought here to do research. If
they don’t want to do research, they can go to
another institution."
It is imperative that students ask that more
of the budget be spent to meet their needs.
Students must unify and speak with one voice.
If not, students will not have the collective pow
er to succeed in the hard-nosed bargaining over
the allocation of the education dollar. Student
government could be the “Silver Bullet" which
places student welfare back on the list of
University concerns.
Scott Starling is University alumnus who lives
in Athens.
Drug use not society’s biggest social ailment
ABC’s allegation that presidential candidate
Jerry Brown had drug parties in the ’70s as
California’s governor raises several perplexing
issues. First, is the charge true, and did Brown
lie about it? As disturbing as four former securi
ty guards’ testimony is, the Golden State dis
missed such accounts in light of Brown’s friends,
neighbors, and associates backing the governor
in this controversy. He got his nickname “Gov.
Moonbeam” for alleged far-sighted thinking, not
any chemical intake. All who know him say
Brown’s an ascetic who rarely even drinks.
Accordingly, the news media gave limited play to
this story (ABC even quickly backed away).
Another issue raised is the press’ potential to
destroy a man’s reputation with anonymous
sources spouting lies. While most reports are re
sponsible, this latest foray into sleaze journalism
by a serious news outlet is another reminder of
how fast and far the mainstream press has sunk
to shamelessly satiate the public’s growing toler
ance for prurience in the guise of “the public's
right to know.”
How relevant should one’s former drug use be
to his eligibility to govern? Only the most anally
retentive would disqualify you for any past such
dalliance, and recent elections prove that admit
ting youthful drug experimentation has little im
pact. The 1990 re-elections of U.S. Sens. Al Gore
(D-Tenn.) and Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) and U.S.
Rep. Newt Gingrich (D-Ga.) confirm this, as does
Clarence Thomas’ seat on the Supreme Court.
Beyond the pale for many voters is a candi
date’s lying or dissembling concerning drug us
age. For example, Democratic presidential nom-
Douglas
Young
inee Bill Clinton’s admission of smoking grass at
Oxford didn’t hurt him. It was his long-standing
answer to the “Have you ever?" query with the
lawyerly claim that he never violated U.S. drug
laws, his absurd comment that he heard it was
okay to do pot in the dorms, and the laughable
line about not inhaling that confirmed him as
“Slick Willie.”
Obviously taboo is a politician’s recent illicit
drug use (D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, for in
stance). But a real dilemma occurs if a politician
is accused of having used illegal drugs in middle
age or tolerated them in his presence long ago
while holding public office - as charged against
Brown and U.S. Sen. Charles Robb (D-Va.).
Posing another predicament is a leader who was
once addicted, since that paints the specter of a
potentially addictive personality exercising great
power. TTiis made the 1972 Democratic presi
dential nominee, George McGovern, dump his
initial running mate, recovering alcoholic Tom
Eagleton, and similarly almost sank Ann
Richards’ bid to win Texas’ governorship in *90.
The furor over public officials’ past chemical
conduct mirrors our societal ambiguity as gener
ations’ and individuals’ conflicting drug histories,
as well as our culture’s glaring hypocrisy on
drugs, make this an issue fraught with contra
dictions. It can be a scandal if a candidate
smoked dope in his 20s, yet it is non-news if he’s
a life-long imbiber of more dangerous - albeit so
cially sanctioned by the ruling classes - recre
ational drugs such as alcohol, cigarettes and
“mother’s little helpers” like valium.
While marijuana kills no one, alcohol causes
97,500 annual U.S. deaths, $15 billion in yearly
health care costs and well over $100 billion in
lost productivity each year, says the National
Council on Alcoholism. Indeed, The Economist
notes alcohol “is responsible for 25 times more
deaths than all the illegal addictive drugs — co
caine, heroin and crack - put together.”
Columnist George Will reminds us that tobacco
kills 430,000 Americans a year at an annual cost
of $52 billion in health care, insurance and lost
productivity.” And recent research confirms the
deadly dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke.
Many laugh at the hype over our politicians’
drug pasts when next to an article condemning a
candidate’s former pot habit is another ad for liv
er poison or cancer sticks. We need a consistent
standard when judging our leaders’ chemical
records that rises above hypocrisy to reflect
sound values rooted in rational health consider
ations and tempered with a little more humility.
Douglas Young is a doctoral candidate in politi
cal science.
Skip the vote
Today is SGA election day and,
if history repeats itself, a low voter
turnout can be expected. Why?
Because students do not care what
SGA does.
I have been at the University
since 1985 and have never believed
that SGA was a worthwhile orga
nization. I see SGA as an organi
zation that cares little except for
its budget and the titles the mem
bers get to put on their resumes.
Where is this all important stu
dent voice coming from? Not the
students. I am writing to urge stu
dents to consider their vote tomor
row carefully and to vote only if
they strongly believe the candidate
has all students’ best interests at
heart.
Dawn Williams
Graduate, music education
■ FORUM
■ The Red and Black welcomes let
ters to the editor and prints them as
space permits. All letters are subject
to editing for length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be
typed, doublespaced and must in
clude the name, address and day
time telephone number of the writer.
Please include student classifica
tion. major and other appropriate
identification. Names may be omit
ted with a valid reason upon re
quest. Send letters by U.S. mail or
bring them in person to The Red and
Black s offices at 123 N. Jackson
St.. Athens. Georgia 30601.
Story contained errors
I picked up on a number of er
rors of fact in (Monday’s) front
page article on the 1983 Donna
Lynn Allen murder and the 1987
murders by Clinton Bankston.
The car was parked at Candler
Hall. Miss Allen was actually just
behind the Academic Building. She
fell just where the sidewalk meets
the little parking area at the back
right-hand door of the Academic
Building.
The man convicted in the five
1987 murders is Clinton Bankston
Jr. Glen and Rachel Sutton were
killed in their home. The other
three victims were killed at their
home on Carr’s Hill some weeks
later, two in the house and one out
side.
Tom Jackson
Public Information director
Think before speaking
I was waiting in my car for an
open parking space. When a space
was finally available, the car be
hind me cut me off and parked in
the empty spot. While turning my
car around, I saw a truck about to
leave the parking lot.
A Caucasian girl began to move
her vehicle toward the space. I
rushed toward her in an attempt to
cut her off and was successful.
I proceeded to park my car when
I heard her yell some profanities.
In the midst of it, I heard “... them
Japanese ... home." Needless to
say, I was quite upset. Even more
upsetting was the fact that she did
not have the right country - Korea.
Perhaps I would not be writing
this letter if she had the correct
country. After all, she could have
used terms like “them rice bowls’
or them slant-eyed." In the future,
I ask people to think before they
open their mouths.
Se-Hoon Oh
Graduate, art
I