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THE WEST GEORGIAN. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3,1982
Opinion
Unfair Audit
West Georgia got its hand slapped
recently while trying to give its
students a break
Students here who are having
academic problems are allowed three
quarters to improve their grade point
average But, auditors working for
Congress believe two quarters are
sufficient and begrudge the financial
aid dollars which finance that third
quarter
The two/three quarter decision is
left, under the law, to the descretion of
the individual institution. Although
West Georgia’s other financial aid
policies met with approval from the
auditors, they chose to include the col
lege in a report to Congress on abuses
of federal aid programs.
Ironically an auditor with the
Education Department found no pro
blem with the choice during his visit
just prior to the Government Accoun
ting Office audit, but the GAO
representatives chose to use a policy
which is decided by the institution to
accuse West Georgia of abuse.
We question the value of this audit
when the final report does not identify
institutions with their respective
"abuses", instead all the abuses are
listed followed by a list of institutioas
audited.
Congrats to Kaiser, Pate
At last week’s Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame banquet, little old West
Georgia College upstaged the state's
major names, with two of our athletic
mentors gamering awards. Bobby
Fate, for his outstanding
inent in coaching the revived football
program to national prominence,
was awarded college coach of the
year. Roger Kaiser, as athletic direc
tor for all West Georgia sports, con
tinued his award winning ways, and
was honored as sports executive of
the year.
It took nearly a quarter of a cen
tury for West Georgia to build a winn-
o
Have you ever noticed how most
people associate together according
to their majors? Better yet, have you
ever noticed tliat you can figure out
people’s major just by observing cer
tain rather humorous characteristics
and idiosycrasies that derive directly
from the interests they have chosen to
pursue at college? I>et me give you a
few examples:
Take computer science majors.
Please take computer science ma
jors! You can always recognize them
because they’re the' ones that traipse
about with those puzzling, multi
colored cubes, twisting tliem violently
as they curse them But, after a few
day's diligence (and they don’t use the
book) they've conquered the mystery
of the cubical quandary. They have
even been known to dissect Rubik’s
million dollar mishap just to examine
the workings then they put it back
together, just to do it again.
You can always pick out computer
brains at the video games They're
the ones w ith white knuckles wrapped
around the knobs ... they’ve been
there suice yesterday, spent enough
quarters to guarantee sure odds in a
slot machine ami have an ac
cumulated score too long to fit on the
screen
The topics of their conversations
run amuck w ith computer jargon The
first time 1 heard a com-sci whiz
speak of the packaging soft-ware, I
thought he was talking about fondling
women.
No matter what oddities you see in
these people though, they've got to be
nice folks. .After all, the dean always
lets them come back from academic
probation
Or drama people. Actors How
Dramatic! They’re the only people 1
know that snore with Shakespearean
intonations. It shows dedication: and,
after all. they are the ones that lift
smiles upon our faces, or pull tears
from our eyes. Just don't ever marry
an actor - after all, just look at
Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney,
Richard Burton and Eddie Fisher
And just think, two of those guys have
drunk from the same watering hole.
Have you ever seen a racing, red
light flashing fire engine with so
meone chasing madly behind it with
pen in one hand, extended like a
The GAO auditors took the coward’s
way out. If an mstutition is guilty of
abuse, let it be identified and then
stand up to the charges. But, don’t in
volve innocent institutions in such a
report just because they were unlucky
enough to be selected for the audit in
the first place.
Thanks President Townsend, for op
ting to leave the retention policy as it
stands Students get only a few breaks
now days, so every one is precious
Alternatives
If you’re counting on financial aid
to get you through your remaining
college years, stop and think again If
President Ronald Reagan gets his
way, federal student aid money will
be cut in half and you, like thousands
of other people, may be out of a col
lege education
Conditions have gotten to the point
that the average American family
cannot afford a college education for
a child And, how can that child ex
pect any better future without that
precious degree. A sheepskin is no
longer just a valuable asset but a re
quirement for many jobs.
If you plan on continuing your
education we suggest that you get
yourself a job at the local bar and
grill or jeans shop and start saving.
You’re going to need it!
ing football team. Pate did so with
some 100 freshmen, and the pro
spects look good to repeat with some
100 sophomores. It was more than a
yeoman’s task, but Pate proved more
than capable.
Kaiser is the buck stops here’ man
for all Brave athletics. As Athletic
Director, Kaiser oversees the smooth
and competitive activities of over a
dozen intercollegiate sports.
The West Georgian warmly offers
congratulations on jobs well done and
hopes for more of the same from both
Pate and Kaiser.
The Fine Line
By Hal Partridge
flagpole to the sky, and a pad in the
other hand tucked away like a half
back cradling a football'’ Well that’s a
journalism major. He’s on the trail of
the Big Story. No doubt he will get it,
too. They’re dogged individuals. And
like a watchdog he’ll hound a crooked
official until this reporter sinks his
teeth into the true story Or at least
until he can make it true
A certain breed inspires downright
pity in me. It’s those pithy, mundane
geology types. They have to amble
about daily with mud on the knees of
their jeans from where they’ve been
kneeling down all day digging around
in the dirt. And for thus simple foible,
this sunple breach of social etiquette,
I hear others berate them with harsh
insults like, "what, da’ ya’ have rocks
in yar head or sumthin’? Afterall,
these geology folks are just sunple,
deeply emotional children of the ear
th, who enjoy a good stone every now
and then They’re just on a different
stratum than the rest of us that’s
all.
Even criminology students who
work for public safety can be iden
tified in a plain clothes crowd. You
can recognize them ’cause they wear
impenetrably dark. teardrop
sunglasses hiding their investigative
eyes, and sport glaring black, patent
leather shoes w ith ebony laces.
They also skulk behind bushes and
pounce on stunned passersby smoking
cigarettes. They snatch the burning
Virginia cylinder out the passersby’s
hand, quickly whip it up to his nose,
barely taking a whiff, sneeze violent
ly, and sternly sneer: "What is this”’’
"Well, it’s a Marlboro Extra-light
Menthol One-Hundred Extra-long
Double Wider in a hard pack. Ya'
want one?” (Incidentally, this guy’s
probably a writer).
"No, I was just chicken, er, I mean
checkin'.”
Well, actually, the guys and gals in
blue aren't that bad; and afterall,
they protect us from the city police,
dogs tinkling on our tires, Maurice
Townsend parking improperly, non
moving vehicles, dogs tinkling in our
beer ... and a ... ah ... ahm ... and ...
amh ... come to think of it. one saved
me from a hundred snowblind
maniacs catapulting snowballs at my
a
k
Have you been by Row Hall lately?
If you’ve been walking to classes that
way, chances are you’ve noticed the
flying fruits and vegetables coming
out of the second and third floor win
dows.
If you thought all that debris tie hind
Row was perhaps an indication that
campus sanitation workers were
about to go on strike or that we had
some how managed to lie on the route
of a pretty messy bunch of garbage
collectors, you are certainly wrong
It seems some of the athletes living
in Row can’t get enough sports these
days. They've invented a few of their
own-like bombarding passing
students with tomatoes, oranges,
sesame seed buns, and even
watermelons. And, I was wondering
why fruit was such a hot item at Z-6
this quarter
In case you didn’t know it, Row is
the residence hall on campus where
school athletes stay.
The school decided to experiment
with placing all the athletes in one
dorm, largely because the football
team was in its early development
stages. At least that’s what the ad-
As I sludged wearily through the
puddles that were gently lapping at
the base of the library steps on my
way to class last week, my super
acute sense of perception picked up on
something strange and disturbing on
the frowning faces of my fellow
students. This expression of despair
and hopelessness went far beyond
your average damn-this-cold-wet
winter-quarter-day look" that had
been plaguing several of my compa
nions all through February'. No This
was something altogether different.
How Do You Clique?
car in front of the student center a
couple months ago. Thanks, fella'. By
the way, how’s that bruise on your
rear?
Well let’s see what else of interest
have we here on campus ui the way of
peculiarities that can be traced to cer
tain groups of people ... there are a lot
to choose from ... we’ve got fraternity
boys, sorority girls, football players,
psych students, business students,
make-believe macho men, girls with
skyward noses
Oh my God !! A crowd of people are
clamoring outside my office w indow
Letters
Lice
The Editor:
Is it true? Or, have you not heard
the treacherous rumor about the inva
sion of the anoplura? Yes indeed
folks, you could have very well been
attacked and not even be aware of it.
Think about it; are you a victim.’
There are already several students of
this college who wish that they were
not. If you still do not understand w hat
I am try ing to tell you. well it's this
simple Within the past week, there
have already been four dorms
sprayed for anaplura or what is more
commonly known by you and I as lice.
Just think about it: has your head
been itching an excessive amount
lately? Well, if it has you better head
for the infirmary before the nits t lice
eggs) that have been laid in your hair
hatch into many more of those typhus
fever causing pests.
Now that you have been fully warn
ed, probably not in time however, I
will endeavor to speak my piece! If
the administration has been notified
about this rapidly spreading epidemic
of annoy ing pests for over an entire
week now. then why haven’t they
taken some measures to prevent it
from spreading any further than it
has. other than merely spraying a
pesticide for them when it is evident
that they are spreading faster than
The Difference is Worth Knowinq
By Mark McCloud, Editor
Fruit Flies at WGC
ministration claims. However, those
who were around last year nught sug
gest other activities such as distur
bances in local restaurants, fighting
in bars, and increased vandalism on
campus as the real reason they were
put together in an attempt to control
their high-spirited activities-or at
last keep it in one place
However, some administrators
have said there has been little trouble
with discipline in Row this year Be
ing the target of thrown produce is not
the only assault students have been
encountering on the way to class
There have also been complaints that
females have been subject to some
rather crude verbal epithets.
Perhaps, this sadistic, macho type
was chic back in the days of the Nean
(lrathal Man, but I don't think it still is
today. I’m sure most of the campus
ladies don't mind the wolf whistles
and can good-naturedly put up with
some of the hooting, but the obscene
name calling is simply too much
Some of the problems that have
resulted from housing all athletes
were envisioned and predicted right
In Style
By Jeff Styles
Something dismal yet terrifying.
Carefully hidden yet obviously pain
ful. Something bothersome as hell yet
unavoidable. The problem with my
friends and companions was that dire
malady that has spelled doom for
many an unprepared freshman and
overconfident senior alike. They were
all suffering from
(gasp). Finalphobia
Finaiphobia. The very word us
enough to send a cascade of shudders
running down the spine of even the
strongest student No one can escape
It seems ... yes, I can hear them
grumbling about something it
seems someone has been reading over
my shoulder through the window
while I’ve been typing ... the noise has
now risen to an angry din ... now
they’re try ing to break down the office
door ... my God. they might just get
through ... well that's all from me for
now l’m going to make a mad dash
for the door. Oh crap, 1 better grab my
typewriter first... alright, I'm gone
see ya' next month to tell ya’ about
everybody else
they can be destroyed.
My conclusion is that the ad
ministration doesn’t have to worry
about coming in contact with them
because they are never around the
students or where the student ac
tivities take place. Or better yet, they
don't have to worry because most of
them do not have the hair on their
heads for the louse to infest any way !
Rodney T. Barron
Money Needed
The Editor:
I totally agree with you that the
debate team deserves a big, hearty
pat on the back. They have done a
good job throughout the years. But,
let's look at the budget they are given.
The debate team receives a sum of
$15,000. This is an outrageous amount.
They fly to Boston and other places
where we as athletes must ride in
vans which break down at least twice
along the way. Athletes are given
$3.50 for meal money. Have you ever
tried to get a good nutritional meal for
that amount.
The debate team can go out and
recruit top debaters, but can the track
team do this? No, they can t. The
track team has one scholarship to
divide among 30 runners. How can
you expect the track team to compete
against Georgia. Auburn and Florida
State? How can you get the top run
from the beginning. Some pretty con
vincing arguments against the idea of
putting the athletes in one dorm were
made by Michael Byrd, editor of the
West Georgian last year Byrd said
that with the creation of an athletic
dorm athletes would be missing out on
the valuable elements of the college
experience. Byrd's mast serious con
tention was that "athletes could too
easily pass through this college en
vironment having taken too little from
the school of HOW TO RELATE IN
THE REAL WORLD.” Knowing
Byrd, he would have rather been pro
ven wrong.
He also suggested that when more
of the mature players on the football
team emerged as leaders, their
behavior would exemplify the true
spirit of college athletics. Well, it's a
year later, I wonder what they are
waiting for A campus vote? True
leaders would inspire better behavior
than what's coming out of Row right
now
Some students have voiced plans for
vengeance against the athletes in the
form of counter-attacks. Some
already have. These are the same
Final phobia
it. No jock can outrun it. No
philosophy major can reason with it.
It will find its way into your dreams
and seep into every aspect of your life.
Even though they are usually quickly
covered up and kept from the eyes of
the students, not a quarter goes by
when some* luckless undergraduate
does not succumb to the manic
depression that can set in while suf
fering from thus unspeakable illness.
Few indeed remember that fateful
day in 1977 when an entire fraternity
came down with a collective case of
Finalphobia and, at a bizzare ritual
behind the old long Branch, drank
from a pony keg laced with arsenic.
(The attempted suicide failed when
word of the keg got around to the cam
pus and so many people showed up
that nobody could receive a lethal
dose.)
And then, of course, there was the
case of Shelton "Cram" Fairfax who
locked himself into one of the library's
study rooms for an incredible 73 hours
during finaLs week in spring quarter
1974. For a little over two solid days
"Crain” worked feverishly on two
separate term projects, one in
Spanish and another ui accounting. Of
course, he missed the deadline for
both by several hours and the moun
tain of paperwork that he had produc
ed was useless. But Shelton did
develop the capability to bore the hell
out of anyone in two different
languages.
However, Finalphobia does not
always take such a severe form
Many well-known doctors argue that
ners around the country without any
money. Your top athletes aren’t finan
cially well-off. You can't lure an
athlete with a nice looking campus.
You need money.
1 can't believe The West Georgian
compared athletics and the debate
team. If they keep raising the debate
team budget, we’ll have to celebrate
homecoming at a debate tournament.
Name Withheld
Upon Request
Seats Available
To the editor:
What one calls fun is his own
business. But habit is a great deadner,
even when it appears to be the fun
and the hassle-of college. It is
deadening if it forces an individual to
stick to the tried and true, to avoid
risk, to not venture to break the pat
tern of sameness...the games, the
rituals, parties...
"Nothing to be done," said one West
Georgia student last week.
Let's go," said his friend.
"Yes, Let's go."
But they do not move.
The two students were Mike Osment
and David Neale. Or. rather, they
were Vladimir and Estrogen, two
clownish vagabonds in the Samuel
Beckett masterpiece of modem
theatre Wa i ting for Godot The play is
about the rigidity , stubbornness,
foolishness and ignorance of most
students who flock to the stadium
and the gym to cheer the boys on. I
wonder if the I'boys" realize what
thev are doing-alienating their own
fans. They are really screwing up a
good thing-the spirit that school pride
is built on.
Of course, it's probably just a few,
(I repeat a few), of the athletes who
haven't grown up yet and are suffer
ing from a case of arrested develop
ment But they are steadfastly
damaging the image of the football
team, as w ell as other athletic teams
on campus. These jerks are building
an offensive reputation that may
eventually tarnish all athletes on
campus, w hether they participated in
the foolishness or not.
This newspaper is very proud of the
athletic teams on campus. We still
are However, this sour conduct is not
the behavior of true champions. True
champions act like champions off the
field, too. If it keeps up, perhaps some
students will make their displeasure
known at game tune After all, who
wants to support a bunch of second
and third graders.
the most serious cases are those that
do not readily make themselves ap
parent until it is too late. And, they
plead with college students to take the
disease seriously and to try and learn
to recognize its symptoms.
1. General fatigue. Caused by wor
rying, excessive studying, and
massive alcohol and drug ingestion
while trying to forget about the
fatigue in the first place.
2. Discoloration and trembling of
the outer extremities. Caused by over
doses of caffeine and junk foods and
by beating typewriters, calculators,
etc...into pieces during violent fits of
frustration and rage.
3. Sunken eyes and wrinkled brow.
Caused by reading for long periods of
time, squinting at miles of microfilm,
and wild hysterical sobbing. (When
the atmosphere conditions are right,
one can sit at a particular place in
love Valley and catch the moans and
wails of flunking students from three
different dorms. An eerie spectacle
indeed.)
There are other, minor, symptoms
of Finalphobia that we could go into if
only there was enough space. But this
brief description of the disease and its
effects should be enough to make
many students aware of its presence
at West Georgia. Don't be caught off
guard. Drink plenty of fluids (16 oz.
Bud’s preferably), get plenty of rest
i somewhere deep in the Florida Keys,
if you can swing it), and try not to take
over five hours every quarter, and
you should be able to ride out the
epidemic.
people. In my frustration I think I am
beginning to understand what he was
talking about. This play, along with
two of Tennessee Williams' best have
been offered in repertory to the West
Georgia College Community by a
group of extremely dedicated,
talented students-and practically no
one has come.
Why don't Vladimir and Estrogen
go? Why don’t students at West
Georgia go to see these outstandingly
performed dramas'' Obviously they
don't want to. Why not 0 It’s safer not
to. It’s easier.
Maybe they don’t know where the
theatre is located on campus? (A
crow flying from the library to Melson
Hall would fly over it.) Play too
obscure 0 Difficult 0 What isn't that’s
worthwhile 0 )
Or maybe there is no reason at all-
Nothing to be done. Such is life.”
However, it does seem a pity when an
opportunity arises and so mans let it
go to waste. Those folks who did at
tend apparently had a good time judg
ing from their responses, laughter,
applause.
For any who might have an interest,
Waiting for Godot is performed
tonight and Friday night; The Glass
Menagerie, Thursday night; and
Summer and Smoke, Saturday night
all at 8 P.M. Seats are available. To
those who come: thank you.
Sincerely,
Dr. J. Olive Link.
Director of Theatre