Western Front - 1988 February 2

              Please recycle The Western Front
VOL. 80, NO. 7 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA 98225 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2,1988
Department
to end major
in broadcast
By Janet Murray
staff reporter
Students no longer will have
the option of getting a broadcast
major at Western beginning fall
1990.
The speech and broadcast de­partment
is changing its name and
revising its curriculum for next
year to form a general communi­cations
department, said Peter
Elich, dean of Arts and Sciences.
Department Chairman Larry
Richardson said instead of having
the option of majoring in distinct
areas, students will major in gen­eral
communications emphasizing
a particular area.
"This isn't any big change.
This is a normal evolution and
reconstruction of curriculum,"
Richardson said.
Students who declare as
boradcast majors during the pres­ent
catalog still will receive a
broadcast degree, he said.
With the limited faculty and
funds it has, the department can­not
maintain the diversity it
wants, Elich said. With only one
broadcast faculty member, he said
the department can no longer of­fer
a distinct broadcast program.
Richardson, who will make
the course changes, said he will
not really eliminate courses, but
reconstruct or combine them so
they are more effective. He said
he also will add courses in mass
communications to use the ex­pertise
of two new faculty mem­bers.
The broadcast department
has five full-time faculty and three
Jesse Tuisley
Balancing carefully, an acrobatic mountainbiker pauses atop
Committee sets
search criteria
By Janet Murray
staff members.
He said he would not say what
specific changes he was making
until he presents the proposal to
the humanities chairmen in about
a month.
Elich said he believes the new
curriculum, "built around a more
traditional, conservative pro­gram,"
will stabilize the depart­ment
and give students a more
solid grounding in communica­tions
than what the speech and
broadcast department has offered.
"They may not have some of
the labels they want on their de­gree,"
Elich said, "but what good
is a label if you don't have the ex­perience
to back it up?"
Elich said the humanities
chairs will meet and consider the
preliminary proposal. The College
of Arts and Sciences Curriculum
Committee will make the final de-cision
about the curriculum
change. The changes will be ready
in time to be printed in the new
catalog this spring, he said.
staffreporter-
The Presidential Search Com­mittee
Friday established seven
criteria it will use to preliminarily
screen presidential applicants' let­ters
and resumes.
The criteria were gleaned
from a report written by Bruce
Alton, senior associate of the
Presidential Search Consultation
Service (PSCS). The committee
hired PSCS to advise it in its
search.
Alton wrote the report after
he and his associate, Ronald
Stead, visited Western in January
and solicited comments from
Western administrators, faculty,
staff, students and the community,
the report's introduction states.
The report lists 10 qualifica­tions
Western's next president
should have to best serve the uni­versity.
The committee chose seven of
those qualifications Friday to use
to begin screening the applicants.
Members will look for the fol­lowing
qualifications in applicants'
letters and resumes:
* external relations -- the
ability to relate to and raise funds
from all levels of governments
and agencies, local and global
communities, industry and
alumni;
* affirmative action — a
proven record of recruiting and
retaining women and minorities
to meaningful positions;
* organizational management
- the ability to work with others
structuring an organization and its
people most efficiently, with
demonstrated experience manag­ing
an organizational budget;
* program planning ~ the
ability to establish programs and
ways of reviewing them, such as
how well resources are allocated,
the university's purpose is fulfilled
and faculty are recruited.
* commitment to mission — by
education, experience and
philosphy, a commitment to the
role and mission of Western as an
undergraduate teaching university
and awareness of issues concern­ing
higher education;
* board relationship — experi­ence
or potential to work well
with a lay governing board by
keeping them informed;
* academic credential — good
•academic credentials and reputa­tion.
Martha Choe, committee
chair, appointed five members to
form a subcommittee to consider
the applications received by Feb.
8. The other committee members
then will review the applications
still in consideration, although
Choe said they are encouraged to
look at the rejected applications
to see if they disagree with the
subcommittee's decision.
At its next meeting March 4,
the committee will decide upon
12-15 candidates whose references
it will check. Each committee
member will bring a list of eight
applicants he or she believes will
be a qualified semi-finalist, Choe
said.
The anatomy of a loaded dispute: armed officers
By David Cuillier
special to The Front
When officer Jerry Becker cut through
wiry brambles and August night air in pur­suit
of a car prowler, he heard a Bellingham
police dog yelp.
Upon reaching the bleeding dog, Bec­ker
saw a man fleeing from the brush.
Later, the suspect in custody told police he
would have stabbed Becker if the dog
hadn't been there first.
The incident prompted the officers to
ask for guns in September. Without guns,
they say they can't perform their duties.
"Sometimes it's like a castrated bull,"
Becker said. "You don't have all the equip­ment."
Most faculty, however, want to keep a
gun-free atmosphere at Western. The Fac­ulty
Senate also recommends the police be
downgraded to a security force.
The Board of Trustees is scheduled to
weigh both sides of the gun issue Thursday.
A decision could be made immediately or
postponed until March.
Officers will present comparative facts
and examples of dangerous incidents to
convince the board that guns are vital for
police safety and morale.
"If they don't support the proposal then
they don't care about me," Becker said.
"Morale would go down, and I would prob­ably
go somewhere else."
Some officers agree morale is low in the
department. Three other of the 11 commis­sioned
officers said they will quit if the de­partment
isn't provided guns.
Other state officers support Western's
gun proposal. Four of the other five state
universities have armed police. The Ever­green
State College has an unarmed police
Please see related story on p.3
department.
Western Police Chief Pete Peterson
said other officers don't understand why
Western isn't armed.
"I've never been chided for being un­armed,
but I've been pitied. You tell them
you are unarmed, and when they're done
laughing, they'll tell you why they are
armed," Peterson said.
To many of the officers, anxieties of
being unarmed come from dangerous inci­dents.
Campus police cite incidents on other
state campuses where armed police have
prevented injuries.
Western's Lt. Chuck Page said officers
have been attacked with knives, a cable
hook and by pistol-packing criminals. But
batons, hand-to-hand combat and mace,
have kept officers from serious injury.
See COPS on p.5
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