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THE CLUSTER, APRIL 28, IMP-PAGE 3
SGA takes stand: ‘no-confidence
By PAUL ALEXANDER
Edltor-ta-Chlrf
The 1988-89 Senate of the Stu
dent Government Auociation end
ed its reign April 17 with a 13-10
vote of no-confidence in President
R Kirby Godsey.
Senator-at-large Aravind Arepal-
ly and Senior Senator Rob
Sumo wiki were the aponaots of the
proposal brought to SGA nearly
3V4 monthi-after debate on the sub
ject began. Their motion, however,
which pointed out such things as
ibe $14.8 million debt, the
possibility of financial exigency be
ing declared, and the House of
Delegates' asking for Godsey to be
replaced, was the first formal mo
tion calling for SGA to take a stand.
"Rob and 1 felt that after the
House of Delegates made its deci
sions and the possibility of finan
cial exigeocy was brought up. we
needed to let the Trustees know
how the students felt," Arppally
said regarding the reasons he and
Sumowski brought up the
proposition.
"I'm real happy," he said of the
SGA vote, "but 1 just wish it would
have had more impact cn the
Trustees.”
Other points brought up in the
proposal as reasons for confidence
included: Godsey's misleading of
the Trustees, his directing the
University "in an autonomous
fashion by reducing or eliminating
the input of concerned faculty and
staff," the failed relationship bet
ween the CLA faculty and Godsey,
and the fact that “the future of
Mercer has become scverly crippl
ed from the actions of the presi
dent."
The motion formally resolved
that "the Mercer University Stu
dent Government Association,
representing the undergraduate stu
dent body, cannot support nor have
confidence in President Kirby
McKinnon
of bad communication and disorganization
One of "the screwy things" in the old
budget was an entry of tens of thousands of
dollars for baseball and soccer revenue.
Neither of those teams charges admission to
any of their games.
Another revenue cn
referred to as
Godsey.
Opposition to the measure was
first brought up by Vice President,
now President, Lynn Creech. She
expressed her coocern that SGA
was going bad-on a previous state
ment of confidence that appeared in
a special report that SGA did on the
past, present and future of the
University. The report, unanimous
ly passed by SGA, stated. "The
president should continue with his
excellent work in promoting
Mercer University in the communi
ty..."
Creech saw this new proposition
as a contradiction to the previous
ly approved statement.
Arepally replied that he was
unaware that the earlier statement
and the approval of the special
report was an affirmation of con
fidence in Godsey.
"The previous statement was a
guideline of past, present and
funird description. It was not a vote
of confidence in Godsey."
Other Senators staled the same
concert:
"(Godsey) has the right to do
these things, but that doesn't free
him from the repercussions of his
actions," said Freshman Senator
Paul Pemberton. "Legally, he did
not commit a crime, but that is not
the only way to wrong us. He has
wronged us."
Following the vote. President
Shawn Lanier stated that he was
personally against the measure.
"I do not believe in what was
done, (Godsey's) actions or the ac
tions of the Trustees," slid Lanier.
"But I’d be dishonest if I said I did
not have confidence. However, that
won't slop me from standing
behind the SGA.
“I hope that the Senate's vote
does reflect tb; (studenty body). 1
have to trust the actions of the
Senate, although it hurts."
Other happenings at the April 17
meeting included giving away a lot
of money. $2000 was given to the
Cluntr to produce two more papers
for the year. Chi Omega received
$300 for their Springiest. Alpha
Phi Alpha received $300 for a Miss
Black and Gold Scholarship
Pageant scholarship, $730 was
given to the RAs and PAs for their
Wellness Run.
It was also announced that SGA
has achieved getting student
representation on the Board of
Trustees. The president of each
SGA of each school will represent
the student body of his/her school
The Student Life Committee of the
Trustees will consist of the
chairman. Bob Steed, and two
other trustees. The chairman posi
tion on the committee will be
shared by the chairman of the
trustees and by an SGA president.
The position will rotate among the
presidents.
. ...
nnon
those kind of
little things,"
a major issue of
’ is related to a
it of three years
Mercer won its
"asbestos suit" and was
awarded a 2.4 million
dollar settlement. Mercer
put that $2.4 in the
McKinnon revenue column, spent it,
and then never collected the money. The next
year another $2.4 million was claimed as
"asbestos law suit revenue” and spent, but
•gain no money was collected This happen
ed again, for the third time, which brought
the total to $7.1 million spent on a $2.4
million settlement that was never collected.
The "asbestos suit" is now in appeals and
may never be collected.
Mr McKinnon supports the trustees' deci
sion to dose down the Cecil B. Day College
of Arts and Sciences for many reasons. One
of his defenses for the close was chat the com
petition in the Northeast Atlanta Liberal Arts
College market was too tough to withstand.
'My home is almost within walking
distance of the Northeast campus. And I've
been in the higher education consulting
b »rness with Pete Marwick for. I'd say. 11
yean. 1 know the market pretty well in
Atlanta. What's happened is that a number
of other institutions, pamcularty stale institu-
'***• are growing and expanding very raoid-
iy"
"(Geotgia Stale. UGA-Carneiville, and
fkKalb College) are competing for the same
Undents as the CAS would be but they do
* u one-fifth the coat and that makes it a lit
he difficult to compete in that market "
enrollment projections have also been
looted as a rationalization for shutting down
h* CAS. although it has been running its
bud *« m the black for years.
"Tile total enrollment at CAS (spring 89)
**» 747 people combined: full and part time
students. Out of that, 206 are ealssified as
seniors with only 117 juniors. So there will
be an immediate reduction of enrollment in
the fall of next year, assuming, and this is
tough to say, that our present seniors
graduate and our present juniors move up to
senior status. With a commuter based school
like this you can't make dial prediction easily
or with a lot of accuracy."
chance to be a pretty strong, high quality pro
gram. he said "it is no reflection on the facul
ty or students or anyone else at CAS, but it
is based on the fact—the economic condi
tions. We didn't thnk it had a chance of sur
viving. If you go ahead and let it operate for
two or three or four more years essentially
all it is going'io do is drain some of those
resources that we could be applying in other
Basically, we were faced with one or two choices:
we could let it struggle out there and ultimately
die on the vine or we could go ahead and cut our
losses. ”
—Robert McKinnon,
Senior Vice President
of Financial Affairs
When asked about the $280,000 and aieas.”
$671,000 of endowment funds that were
transferred to the Southern School of Phar
macy and the President’s Contingency fund,
respectively, Mr. McKinnon could only
comment on one of the tranfers.
“Ido recognize the history of the transfer
to the pharmacy (school), but that is innac-
curstc. That never happened. It was approv
ed by the Select Commission and the Board
of Trustees that approved the •Select Com
mission Report, but it was never actually
done. The pharmacy never picked up that
revenue. The other one-the transfer to or
from the presidents contingency fund,
whichever you said-I’m not familiar with that
Mr. McKinnon added that the budget cuts
made on the CAS would have made their
recovery improbable if not impossible. “I
can't speak for the other but in my view once
those reductions hit—they would have hit
next year—I don’t think we would have
Continued from page 1
recovered. I think that the probability of in
creasing CAS enrollment back to the level
it has been is just not good given the com
petitive conditions in the market in whi£h it
competes. \
Basically, we were faced with one or two
choices: we could let it struggle out there and
ultimately die on the vine or we could go
ahead and cut our foasea.*’ .
The announcement of the 7% tuition in
crease is no* a broken promise to the students
according to McKinnon. “When the trustees
directed in January that we look at a target
of 4% it was just that—a target. And going
back and looking at the way the numbers
came together, we just couldn’t get there—
couldn’t hold it that low."
McKinnon's plan for Mercer’s recovery
may be stated simply although it is very com
plex. He intends to focus on turning the
University around on three main issues. He
plans to drastically reduce spending and says
that discretionary spending is already in
much better control; he is counting on the
revenue from land sales; and with the addi
tion of Bill Miller to the Mercer administfa
tion, is going to place a great emphasis
enrollment management.
The decision to close the CAS was. accor
ding to McKinnon, long term. There will be
no short term profit resulting from its sale.
“In fact in this year coming up we will pro
bably lose money as a result of the clos
ing... In the long term we'll probably save
10-12 million (over the next several years)
that will have to be spent-will not be discre
tionary."
The closing of the CAS was based on a
strong ecohoixuc foundation, according to
McKinnon. “The decision was made to con
centrate undergraduate education on the
Macon campus where we thought it had the
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