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Debaters finish third in national tournament
West Georgia debaters
finished third among the
nation s top 62 colleges and
universities in the National
Debate Tournament at Ken
tucky, April 20-23.
Paul Weathington, Carrollton
sophomore, and Randy Evans,
Warner Robins junior, took the
team to its highest finish ever in
the tournament.
This was the seventh con
secutive year that West Georgia
has been invited and is the first
time that the team reached the
elimination rounds (top 16),
GIST telephone network
designed to save money
BY MICHEAL BYRD
During Jimmy Carter’s
tenure as governor of Georgia
many programs, including
telecommunications, under
went reorganization and con
solidation. After a study was
made on the telecom
munications, problem of
telephone service the GIST
system was designed as a
means of decreasing the budget
and improving service.
GIST stands for Georgia
Interactive Statewide Com
munications. According to
Harris Holmes, acting director
of personnel and auxiliary
enterprises, at West Georgia
the system provides three
features. It is designed to
reduce the “terrific expense”
involved in communications
processes, necessary in state
organizations, by consolidating
equipment. The system allows
state employees to make long
distance calls without going
through the means available to
the private citizen. And third,
by using an averaging system
on long-distance calls, the users
of the system are “supposed to
get a cheaper rate.”
One of the biggest advantages
of the system, which was put
into operation four years ago, is
the ease of operation on local
calls, especially on-campus
communications. Before the
GIST system, all calls on
campus were handled by an
operator at the campus swit
chboard. Now, the caller dials
the last three digits, and the call
is processed through the central
system located in the basement
of the school of business
building.
The central switchboard
needs no operator and has more
than 400 extensions serving
departments and offices of the
college. More than 20 lines on
the switchboard carry calls off
campus. If the automated
searching device cannot find an
open line for an out-going call,
the user will get a busy signal.
This is supposedly a very rare
occurrence. The number of
lines is adjusted periodically,
according to need, by the state
network in Atlanta.
According to Holmes, all
phones in the West Georgia
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1039 Dixie Sr. CARROLL TON
according to Dr. Chester
Gibson, debate coach.
Harvard, which defeated
West Georgia, 2-1 in the semi
finals, went on to take the
tournament championship. The
West Georgians had defeated
Harvard earlier in preliminary
rounds.
West Georgia got through the
preliminaries with a 6-2 record,
including wins over Harvard,
Massachusetts, Wisconsin,
Boston, Eastern Illinois, and
Southwest Louisiana. Losses
were to Redlands and Wayne
system don’t have long-distance
capability. These lines are
rented from the state. The new
system is an improvement in
one respect, according to
Holmes, because “we
desperately needed some new
equipment.”
Funds for telephone service
for each department on campus
are allocated yearly, and are
based on the number of phones
per department. However, each
department is billed on the calls
made per month. A unique
system is used to compute the
charge for the long-distance
phone service: one out of every
five calls are “monitored.” The
rate for these monitored calls is
then multiplied by five to
determine the “average” rate
for each department.
Use of the GIST phone line is
restricted to state business
only. State operations eligible
for GIST line service are
colleges and universities,
governmental agencies such as
the offices of state legislators
and local and state departments
of transportation, education,
defense, natural resources,
among others. The system also
serves local and state law en
forcement departments, as well
as prison systems and the
Georgia Bureau of
Investigation.
According to the most recent
GIST directory, savings
through use of the system from
the last half of 1977 and the first
half of 1978 have totalled
19,385,994. The average length
of a phone call on the network is
5.2 minutes, with the average
cost per call being 63 cents.
Thirty-nine cities are now
served by the system in the
state of Georgia.
. . . If you have lost your driver's license be
cause of a D.U.I. conviction, you might be eli
gible for re-instatement without SR22 insur
ance. Call West Georgia D.U.I. School.
258-2211
State. West Georgia later
defeated Redlands in the oc
tafinal round.
In the quarterfinals, West
Georgia won the coin toss and
chose to debate the affirmative
side against Georgetown. They
took a 5-0 victory, but weren’t
as fortunate with the coin toss
against Harvard in the
semifinals and had to take the
negative side.
In the Harvard semifinal
round, the auditorium was filled
to capacity and they witnessed
a grueling two-hour match with
the judges taking a full hour to
make the split decision.
Z-6 bids
complete
A food contractor for Z-6 for
the 1979-80 fiscal year will be
chosen within the next two
weeks, according to Dr. Bruce
Lyon, dean of student services.
Lyon said that eight con
tractors have already made
presentations and bids. West
Georgia President Maurice
Townsend will make the
decision with consultation and
recommendations from a
seven-member reviewing
committee and a group of 12
students.
The reviewing committee
consists of Lyon, Vice President
John Lewis, Tracy Stallings,
director of college relations,
Ken Batchelor, director of
fiscal affairs, Harris Holmes,
director of auxiliary en
terprises, Bill Fite, assistant
director of auxiliary en
terprises, and Dr. James Wash,
director of instructional and
research services.
According to Lyon, the
students selected were
recommended by residence life
and the student government
association. The students will
meet with Townsend next week
to offer suggestions concerning
food service on campus.
Asked if meal tickets will go
up next year, Lyon said, “There
is always the possibility of a
(meal ticket) increase, but
we’re hoping that it will not be
necessary or that the increase
will be a nominal one.”
He added that a decision on
the possible increase will not be
made until sometime next
month, after a contractor has
been chosen by the school.
ARA is the present contractor
at Z-6.
The 1978-79 debate topic was:
RESOLVED: That the federal
government should implement
a program to guarantee em
ployment opportunities to all
citizens in the labor force.
Northwestern, defending
national champions, came in
second, and Kansas rounded out
the top four.
The only other southeastern
team to make the top 16 was
Alabama.
Gibson said, “I wish that
West Georgia students and
faculty could have been at the
Awards Assembly when Randy
and Paul were awarded the
third place trophy.
“The audience stood and
cheered for several minutes,
and I looked on with a great
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Paul and Randy Evans,
Warner Robins junior, led West Georgia to third place in the nation
in debate last weekend, finishing behind perennial champions
Harvard and Northwestern.
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feeling of satisfaction that two
students from our school were
held in such esteem by debaters
and coaches from major
schools throughout the nation.”
Weathington commented to
the audience that "this one is
for our coach who has gone
seven years without having a
team in the elimination rounds
at this tournament.”
Evans commented that “the
long hours in the library and the
grueling drives will be a little
easier now because w* have
experienced a thrill that comes
to very few debating teams. We
also plan to be back next year
and we will look forward to
another encounter with the
team from Harvard.”
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