Western Front - 1988 April 12

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Features
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double concern
for environment
p.7
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The Western Front Please recycle
VOL. 80, NO. 18 2$ WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA TUESDAY, APRIL 12,1988
^^^^^^v^A<-i<fy^fA-y Rep. Swift discusses
presidential theories
By David Kuester
staff reporter
Picture Perfect Mike Gwynn
As the sun peeks through the clouds across Bellingham Bay, Naoto Fujiki, a first year English
student from Japan, gets ready to snap a picture of the city.
AS considers permanent recvcler
By Michael Wagar
staff reporter
A proposed $12,188 coordinator position for the
Associated Students Recycle Center likely will take
away a student job, but fulfill the AS bylaw's first
priority of providing quality programs.
Jeff Chandler, AS vice president of Internal Af­fairs,
said previous high turnover of student man­agers
at the center resulted in repeated mistakes be­cause
of a lack of continuity.
He said he also believed the responsibilities of
scheduling, people management and administrative
procedures required too much time and commitment
for a full-time student.
When the student coordinator resigned on the
last day of summer quarter last year, no one within
the center wanted the extra responsibility of the
coordinator's position.
The $600 quarterly salary was not enough incen­tive
for the time commitment needed.
Jim Madison, a Huxley graduate and former Re­cycle
Center worker, saw the need, submitted his
resume and was hired. The original intent of the AS
Board of Directors was to hire him as a fill-in for the
first quarter only, Chandler said.
John Gray, AS director at-large to the University
Service Council, said the numbers alone should
prove Madison has turned the program around and
the appearance of the center also is more profes­sional.
Madison said when he took the job, the center
needed to be organized.
"In the past, people came in and did whatever
they wanted to do. There are a lot of dirty jobs
around here, and they usually didn't get done," he
said.
"When I started in September, there was 10,000
pounds of crushed glass stacked all over the parking
lot. That is no way to run a recycling center,"
Madison said.
Madison attributes a $500 monthly savings of em­ployee
wages to specified time limits on assigned
jobs.
For the first time in four years the center is show­ing
a profit, Chandler said, and at the same time
providing a better experience for the student
workers. In order to present an efficient and first-class
program Chandler said a permanent position
was needed.
The position would pay about $725 per month
plus medical benifits.
Deviating from the topic ad­vertised,
"Issues Concerning
Washington State," Al Swift, D-Bellingham,
lectured last Thurs­day
in the Viking Union on what
could have been titled, "How to
Pick a President 101".
Swift discussed eight charac­teristics
to consider when choos­ing
a president: charisma, leader­ship,
communication, experience,
issues, ideology, vision and, what
Swift referred to as the "SOB fac­tor."
Referring to George Bush's
"wimp" image and the portrayal
of the Democratic hopefuls as
"the seven dwarfs," Swift said,
"Everyone seems to have belittled
the entire slate of candidates of
both parties as somehow simply
not measuring up. But I'm not
sure anyone can tell you what it is
they expect them to measure up
to.!:
Swift discounted the impor­tance
of charisma as a quality that
makes a good president and put
forth a concept of charisma as
"something that tends to come, in
part, with the nomination and
comes in full measure with getting
elected to the presidency.
"Charisma is not, as I think
some people feel, something that
most candidates bring with them,"
Swift said.
Another presidential quality
he discussed was leadership. Swift
questioned what true leadership is
and should be.
"Leadership is very often a
matter of being willing to use your
influence with people to get them
to move in a direction. All too
often, what we define as leader­ship
is that they agree with us.
Certainly, I don't remember any­body
standing up saying Walter
Mondale showed real leadership
by saying that we need a tax in­crease."
Swift said leadership is not
only that the candidate agrees
with people, but has the courage
to make unpopular decisions if it's
in the best interest of the nation.
On the issue of government
experience, Swift criticized people
who would elect a candidate with
no experience in government.
"I've always been puzzled by
the fact that it's very hard to find
an American that would take his
automobile to somebody who
knew nothing about the internal
combustion engine, that would
take his or her toothache to a
veterinarian, who would go to a
concert performed by people who
didn't know anything about music,
but seem to have a habit of elect­ing
people who know nothing
about governments."
Swift used Evan Mecham,
Arizona's impeached governor, as
an example of what can happen
when someone with no experience
is elected.
Swift said the candidates posi­tions
on issues are important, but
it's hard to know what candidates
are saying because the media
won't report it.
Swift also was critical of
people for not paying attention to
the issues.
"Is it actually that we get
bored when they really begin to
talk about issues? Maybe we need
to examine ourselves a bit," Swift
said.
"If you watched the debates,
you had some idea of what they
are saying except, even the
debates, when they're dividing 60
minutes between seven candi-see
SWIFT, p.10
Volunteers lack AS support
Associated Students President Dan
Wood recommended elimination of the
Volunteer Center and the Community
Liaison Office to the AS Board of Direc­tors
April 6.
"It doesn't make sense to expand the
resources to do tasks already being done by
other programs. It's not efficient," Wood
said.
The Volunteer Center originally was
founded to place volunteers in AS offices
but this year volunteers were placed in
community organizations and, according to
the center's records, no volunteers were
placed in any AS programs.
The center placed a total of seven
people during fall and winter quarters of
1987-88, said Melanie Lederer, Volunteer
Center coordinator.
"The Center could have been more suc­cessful
if there was additional personnel to
work the program," Lederer said.
Lederer said she requested funds for an
assistant coordinator for 1987-88, but it was
not recommended by the AS budget com­mittee.
No request has been submitted for an
assistant coordinator for the 1988-89 aca­demic
year as it is possible the program
may be eliminated before then.
"If the Volunteer Center does not
receive additional personnel and the cor­responding
budget allocations, then
elimination of the Center would be ap­propriate,"
Lederer said.
If the center is eliminated, students who
wish to volunteer could go to the Multi­cultural
Service Center or the Volunteer
Center of Red Cross to be place with an or­ganization,
she said.
Wood also recommended elimination
of the Community Affairs Liaison Office,
saying the responsibilities of that office can
be handled by the vice president for Ex­ternal
Affairs.
In the event that both programs were
eliminated, the net savings to the AS would
be $5,125.
•SiiBiililiBiiB^Bi^B^B
crowd again, and the public address sy&-.
as part of a $1 million renovation pro­ject
acting Physical Plant Director
hind replacing the existing gym ceiling
ceiling materials and replacing them
also is slated for this summer. The
summer
sewer pipe that runs beneath the gym
pipe became clogged, causing sewage
building. A. city inspection revealed sed-
^ili^he|I^isp*e^tibn • • aIso fwealed th*! i
pipe had warped beneath the building.
This has aided in the sediment build-up
entire sewage system may need cleaning