Western Front - 1988 June 3

              The Western Front Please recycle*
VOL. 80, NO. 34 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA FRIDAY, JUNE 3,1988
Rumored choice
for president
worries faculty
By Shanna Gowenlock
staff reporter
A rumor circulating among
the faculty has some members
worried the Board of Trustees
may choose presidential candidate
William E. Davis even though
they believe candidates Peter E.
W a g n e r and K e n n e t h P.
Mortimer would each make a bet­ter
president because of their uni­versity
teaching experience.
A faculty member, who
wished to remain anonymous, told
The Front a presidential search
committee member told him last
week the board was leaning
toward choosing Davis, even
though the board hadn't formally
met to make the final decision.
In a Wednesday telephone in-terview,
trustee Craig Cole
refuted the rumor saying, "The
rumor is absolutely false.
"It's very, very premature to
make any speculation. I could not
tell you who the leading candi­dates
are. It's an open question,"
he said.
Another faculty member who
also declined to be identified said
a search committee member told
him Davis was not the top choice
for at least 14 of the 15 search
committee members.
In a Wednesday telephone in­terview,
the search committee
member in question said the fac­ulty
member's statement was true
and had occurred during a casual
conversation.
Hugh Fleetwood, chairman of
the philosophy department, said
of the rumor, "I've heard that
story myself. I'm not sure where I
heard it, though," he said.
One factor influencing some
faculty members' support of presi­dential
finalists Wagner of Utah
State University and Mortimer of
The Pennsylvania State University
may be that their qualifications
are better because both have been
teachers at the university level.
Dennis Murphy, of the college
of business and economics and
the presidential search committee,
said he had no comment on
whether he believed a large num­ber
of the faculty fear the trustees
will choose Davis.
"I have no comment, except
to say that all faculty who met any
of the candidates were invited to
submit comments about them,"
Murphy said.
In a telephone interview from
his home in Eugene, Ore., Davis
said, while his actual classroom
teaching is limited to high school,
he believes he is sensitive to the
concerns of university faculty.
Davis added he worked closely
with faculties at Idaho State Uni­versity
and University of New
Mexico during his presidency at
both institutions.
Davis said as chancellor for
the Oregon State System of High­er
Education, he is somewhat
removed from university faculty
because his job entails interacting
mainly with university presidents
and the higher education board.
Davis said he has consulted
with faculty advisory committees
and has worked closely with mem­bers
of faculty senates, adding the
establishment of centers of ex­cellence
at four Oregon univer­sities
during his five-and-a-half
year stint as chancellor is an ex­ample
of faculty-administration
cooperation.
"You can't work in an aca­demic
setting and not be attuned
to the needs of the faculty. In es­sence
you utilize the faculty. The
academic ideas really flow from
faculty. They're the ones on the
firing line; they're the ones who
have the expertise in their area,"
he said.
Western student
tions and Western ,
"Taps" on his trumpet during a Memorial Day ceremony
McDonald Parkway. Members from local veterans1 organiza-so
were on hand for the half-hour event.
Presidential search now
up to Board of Trustees
Western's presidential search now is in the hands
of the Board of Trustees.
The board, which met Thursday afternoon to dis­cuss
the finalists for Western's next president, was
still in session at press time.
On Wednesday, Trustee Craig Cole said he and
other trustees would be reading university and com­munity
evaluation forms before meeting for the
closed-session deliberations.
"I suspect we'll be seeing a diversity of opinion,"
Cole said of the comment sheets, which university
and Bellingham community members filled out to
share their impressions of the candidates with board
members.
Search committee secretary Bev Jones said be­cause
the committee's job essentially is finished, com­mittee
members who are not trustees will not be al­lowed
to see the comment sheets.
"It's basically so that people would feel confident
in saying what they felt was the positive, negative, the
good and bad or any special concerns they might
have had regarding the candidates," Jones said.
Martha Choe said although the actual figures
haven't been tallied, she believes the presidential
search will cost Western between $50,000 and
$60,000.
Choe said she and other search committee mem­bers
devoted an extensive amount of time looking for
Western's future president.
"I stopped counting at 250 hours," she said,
referring to the time she has spent in connection with
the search.
Governor is out of touch, Republican candidate claims
By Jane Henry
staff reporter
With a few barbs directed at Gov.
Booth Gardner, Sen. Bob Williams (R-Longview)
spoke Tuesday at Western as
part of his "grass-roots" campaign.
If Williams wins his bid for the Repub­lican
nomination for governor against King
County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Ma-leng,
he will run against Gardner in the fall.
"We have a governor that's a tremen­dous
ambassador ... a tremendous cheer­leader.
But in the constitutional sense of
what a governor is, he falls short. We need
a governor that's going to pay attention to
detail, to what's going on in this state."
He said his experience in the legislature
and as a financial analyst for Weyerhaeuser
gives him the skills to understand the legis­lative
budget and the skills needed to work
as an effective governor for Washington.
"I would represent all 39 counties in
Washington. Too much is geared toward
central Puget Sound," he said.
The youth will make the difference in
his campaign, as they "have many good
ideas that this state needs," he said. "For
those of you who are freshman and
sophomores, the forecast for jobs isn't too
good. And it's even bleaker for high school
dropouts. So when we look ahead into the
future, we don't see that we have a gov­ernor
that has plans."
Williams' plans for Washington include:
•increasing trade with the Far East and
the Pacific Rim countries;
Bob Williams sees youth as important
in his bid for governor's seat.
•continuing the war on drugs by sup­porting
tougher sentences for offenders and
meeting with local police chiefs regularly;
•cutting down on the top-heavy admin­istration
in government organizations such
as the Department of Social and Health
Services (DSHS);
•encouraging a stronger education pro­gram
by requiring college professors to
teach more and encourage community col­lege
growth. Providing better quality educa­tion
in the public schools and eliminating
remedial teaching.
Williams was joined by Jim Youngsman
and Clee Richardson, who are campaigning
for seats in the Legislature.
The meeting was sponsored by the Col­lege
Republicans.