Western Front - 1985 October 25

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N FRONT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1985 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA VOL. 77, NO. 47
TENURE?
Speech professor
loses his position
His students
petition dean
By Carol MacPherson
Despite several hundred stu­dents
who have signed petitions
asking the administration to
reverse its decision, more than
likely Dan Rothwell of Western's
speech department will not be
back to teach next year.
A decision not to re-allocate
his current non-tenure-track
position to tenure-track is why
Rothwell will not be retained.
Rothwell has been teaching at
Western for six years, under two
separate three-year contract.
Western adheres to a policy set
by the American Association of
Professors that guarantees a pro­fessor
tenure after seven years of
employment at a university.
Tenure gives a professor a
permanent position with a uni­versity,
rather than having a con­tract
that must be renewed
annually.
The question remains about
what will happen to Rothwell's
position—whether it will be elim­inated
or left as a non-tenure-track
position to be filled by
another person.
"I'm not prepared to say which
alternative will take place," Elich
said, adding that no non-tenure
positions within the college
would be re-allocated to tenure-track
at this time.
Of the five teaching positions
in the speech department, Roth­well's
is the only one that is non­tenure.
If his position was
changed to tenure-track, Roth­well
would have to compete
nationally for the job. He had to
compete nationally in 1980 and
again in 1983 for his current
position. t
Elich said his decision was
made because of need to restruc­ture
the College of Arts and
Sciences and not because of
budgetary reasons.
"It is necessary to cut back to
meet heavy demands in new
areas in the future. We're trying
to identify the kind of structure
• See SPEECH, p. 16
Financial aid is
target for cuts
By Keven Graves
Pell grants, college work-r
study and Supplemental Educa­tion
Opportunity Grants are
targets for "significant reduc­tions".,
in the balanced-budget
plan recently passed by the U.S.
Senate and currently before the
House, Western's Director of
Student Financial Aid Ron Mar­tinez
said.
The plan was one of the issues
discussed at last week's Washing­ton
Financial Aid Administra­tor's
Fall Conference in Seattle,
which Martinez attended.
Martinez said he was surprised
how easily the proposal passed
the Senate, adding it has been
difficult to obtain any specifics
on the amount of cuts financial
aid would suffer.
The proposed balanced-budget
plan would gradually
reduce the national deficit until it
reaches zero in 1991 by cutting
both defense and domestic
spending.
"There are a lot of questions
that are not answered," said
Andy Anderson, an aid to Con­gressman
Al Swift. He. said the
proposal uses "vague language"
and even Senate members prob­ably
couldn't answer many of
those questions right now.
The proposal is being studied
in a house conference committee.
"I don't think anybody can tell
you how that will finally come
down," Anderson said.
Martinez said, "I don't have a
real strong opinion," on the
financial aid reductions, but
"Anything that affects student
aid is just not acceptable. I don't
think it is the area they should be
cutting."
"Moving at a much slower
pace," Martinez said, is Con­gress'
review of the Student
Financial Aid Higher Education
Act of 1965, which expired ear­lier
this year.
"Technically there is no stu­dent
aid legislation on the books
now," he said.
The financial aid act is being
studied for possible changes or
even abolition in favor of a new
act.
"I don't think we will see any­thing
except reauthorization,"
Martinez said.
He said two possible changes
• See BUDGET, p. 16 ~
TIM C HOVANAK
Let's clean some stuff
Insurance skyrockets
By Keven Graves and
Tricia Meriwether
Many Western departments
were notified last week that
much of the property and
equipment contained in their
offices technically is no longer
covered by insurance.
Director of General Services
Bill Stolcis said current insu­rance
market conditions forced
the university to accept a higher
blanket deductible when it
renewed its property insurance
this year. Universities through­out
the United States expe­rienced
similar increases.
The deductible increased from
$100 to $100,000 on items listed
under a "specialty coverage,"
said Diane Peterson, a general
services staff member.
"Technically, those items
(typewriters, office equipment,
etc.), previously under 'miscel­laneous,'
are not covered," she
said.
"We are trying to search out
some other methods of coverage
to cover just these miscellaneous
items," Stolcis said.
Western will stay with its cur­rent
insurer, the Insurance Com­pany
of North America, he said.
"Campus buildings still are
covered, for about $60 million,"
Peterson said, explaining that
this amounts for about 80 per­cent
of housing and dining's total
value. She said the deductible on
campus buildings also increased
from $5,000 to $100,000.
• See INSURANCE, p. 16
Thieves snag computer
from Fairhaven SAGA
By Tim Mahoney
Two-and-a-half years' worth
of work by Fairhaven Dining
Room Manager Randy Drake
was stolen Saturday night as
burglars took $3,250 of his per­sonal
computer and diskette files
from his office in the Fairhaven
administration building.
The burglars forced their way
in through one of the outside
doors leading to a hallway. They
tried to break into the Fairhaven
dining-room kitchen but could
not get in, Food Service Man­ager
Rick Waldt said.
Instead, the burglars broke
into a storeroom where Drake's
office was located and stole.
Drake's Morrow personal com­puter,
all of his diskettes and
backup diskettes.
Waldt said the worst part
about the burglary was Drake
had had two-and-a-half years of
work, comprised of all his busi­ness
and personal records and
correspondence, stolen from
him.
"That was a real jerky thing to
do," Waldt said of the theft of the
diskettes. "Of course, stealing it
is a pretty jerky thing in the first
place."
Drake said he happened to be
duplicating some of his files and
had left the backup disks in his
office.
"I just happened to have those
there at the wrong time," he said.
Also in the storeroom where
the computer was kept were
paper products, decorations,
office records and catering supp­lies,
Waldt said. None of those
were stolen.
Both Waldt and Drake dis­counted
the possibility that a
disgruntled employee might have
wanted the personal computer
and files.
Drake said the only personnel
records kept on his computer
were basic information such as
phone numbers, Social Security
numbers and addresses of Fair­haven
dining room employees.
Waldt said Drake's relation
with his employees was "very
positive."
Drake said the theft would
have no effect on service at the
Fairhaven dining complex, but
he said managing it would take a
little more time and force him to
use the food service computer in
the High Street Hall office.
The computer is insured
against theft, but the loss of the
files isn't, which is the most frus­trating
thing for Drake.
"I just wish I had those files
back," he said.
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