Western Front - 1983 February 1

              Heating the night life/7 — Dancers face IPRC report/11
The Wfestern Front continues
report/4,5*6
Vol. 75, No. 8 Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash. Tuesday, February 1, 1983
Chairmen lash out at IPRC report
^ ^ — ^ — ^ — ^ — porcj consi^ej-g testimony
Photo by Blair Kooistra
James Davis, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, listens to testimony.
Staff surprised, frustrated
with non-academic report
By Nori Shirouzu
Reaction to the Non-Academic
Committee's report calling for
reduction and elimination of
programs ranged from surprise
to disbelief.
Four eliminations and four
reductions on Western's admi­nistrative
structure proposed by
the committee were presented
Friday to Western's public
through the staff and faculty pub­lication
FAST.
The committee recommended
that four positions in the Wilson
Library administration be consol­idated
into two positions; no
administration and classified
staff have a full-year contract,
except University President G.
Robert Ross, and the office of bus­iness
service, the position of vice
provost for academic administra­tion,
director of general service
and the Center of Higher Educa­tion
be abolished.
The committee presented its
final recommendation (which
also includes 12 enhancements
in the university administration)
to Acting Vice President for Aca­demic
Affairs Paul Ford for
further study.
Ford, who requested the
review of non-academic pro­grams,
declined to comment on
the report Wednesday until the
hearings scheduled for Feb. 8
through 10 are concluded.
Ruby Gunderson of Wilson
Library's circulation department,
one of the positions recom­mended
for consolidation, said,
"I am not even an administrator
. . . I don't understand why the
whole thing got started." She
expressed frustration over the
incompleteness of the recom­mendation,
saying "the commit­tee
should study it a little more."
Associate Director for Techni­cal
Service and Library Systems
Dan Mather said he was sur­prised
to see the recommenda­tion
and is working on a "written
response" to Ford. He declined to
comment further.
Associate Director for Public
Service Robert Cross also
declined to comment, and the
library's Director Robert Lawyer
wasn't available for comment.
Lester Lee of the financial sys­tems
division of the Controller's
Office is one of those who will see
their full-year contracts reduced
to 11 months if the proposal is
adopted. He said he doubts that
the recommendation is going to
be approved.
"There are many (administra-
• See STAFF/page 3
By Don Jenkins
Department chairmen from
the natural and social science
departments made their pitch to
Acting Vice President of Aca­demic
Affairs Paul Ford Thursday
and Friday afternoons.
On Thursday eight chairmen
from the natural science depart­ments
of the College of Arts and
Sciences spoke to Ford about the
Instructional Program Review
Committee's recommendations.
Ford will consider the IPRC
report and testimony from West­ern
departments before making
his recommendations to Presi­dent
G. Robert Ross.
About 20 faculty members
attended the Thursday meeting
in Old Main 100-L. Ford took
notes as faculty shot facts and
figures at the vice provost in sup­port
of their disciplines.
Ajit Rupaal, chairman of phy­sics/
astronomy, said "I find it
very hard to find anything good
about this report."
Rupaal said the committee was
supposed to look at the long-range
future of Western, but they
did exactly the opposite. And in
the end, the committee "pro­duced
a very bad report,'' he said.
Hugh Fleetwood of the philo­sophy
department agreed the
report should have said more
about the future of the university,
but the Gelder committee did say,
by implication, something about
the mission of Western by what
they chose to cut out, he said.
Mark Wicholas, chairman of
the chemistry department, critic­ized
the report because "it
doesn't at all speak to quality."
Edwin Brown, chairman of the
geology department, asked Ford
why so little mention of a
department's quality appeared in
the report.
Ford admitted "almost no allu­sions
to quality" were in the IPRC
report, but he said he had read all
the quality reports submitted to
the committee by the departments.
Asked if he thought quality was
an important criteria in consider­ing
faculty cuts, Ford said, "I
think it is."
Wicholas said that in the long
run, "Western is going to make it
on quality."
Western is the only school in
Washington accredited by the
American Chemistry Society,
Wicholas said, but that distinc­tion
could be jeopardized by
budget cuts.
Defending the cost of operating
lab courses, he said teaching
science without labs was like
teaching history without maps.
"Ifyou fund us like humanities,
we instruct like humanities, with
out labs," Wicholas said.
Gerald Kraft, the chairman of
the biology department,
defended the cost of his depart­ment
by saying it wasn't costly
compared to Centrals and
Eastern's.
He said he found the IPRC's
idea that one lab course would
suffice for a general education to
be "deplorable.''
Kraft said business administra­tion
can be taught anywhere, but
a biology program needs an area
that can provide natural labora­tories.
Western is ideally located
for studying biology, he said.
Richard Levin, the chairman of
math/computer science, and
Clyde Hackler, the chairman of
technology, two departments
picked for expansion, sat next to
each other and said little during
the discussion. That prompted
the Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences, James W. Davis,
who moderated the meeting, to
remark, "Those that received
additions are relatively quiet."
Levin did urge other depart­ments
to talk about areas of
potential growth in their depart­ments
and explore ways to attract
students to prevent the predicted
10 percent drop in enrollment
next quarter.
Ford's meeting Friday with the
chairman from the social science
departments was an hour shorter
than the hour and a half meeting
Thursday.
James Hitchman, acting
chairman of geography and
regional planning, said his
department is willing to cut back
to 7.5 full-time equivalent faculty
positions. The department could
still do a good job, he said,
although any more cuts would
cripple the program.
The geography and regional
planning faculty is, however,
• See FORD/page 3
Student work-study cut first, HEP proposal says
By Lori Fox
If a proposal made by the Higher Education Personnel
(HEP) Board is approved in March, many students' work-study
positions could be threatened during a layeff.
The proposal states that no classified staff person will
be laid off until student employees doing the same job are
laid off first.
Kathleen Sahlhoff, student employment coordinator,
said this would directly affect most work-study and
institutionally-funded student employment, although
students working less than 19 hours are supposed to be
exempt from HEP Board rulings.
Since work-study is supported by federal and state
funds, approximately $10 million in Washington state,
money appropriated to the public institutions could be
threatened, according to a memo from Sahlhoff to
Evelyn Whitney, HEP Board chairperson.
Sahlhoff said she also sees university enrollment dec­lining,
since many students depend on campus
employment to work through school.
Research supported by Sahlhoff also has shown that
students employed on campus have a better chance of
staying in school and finishing their degree and that
student employability after graduation is enhanced by
their job experience on campus.
The board proposal is a result of an appeal to layoff
action at Seattle Community College. It is concerned that
during fiscal crisis, classified staff personnel would be
laid off and replaced by student employees at lesser pay
rates.
Sahlhoff emphasized that the proposal is unnecessary
since work-study regulations already state that a univer­sity
cannot use federal funds to displace classified
employees.
"That kind of thing is wrong and inappropriate; we
would never consider that," Sahlhoff said. "If the system
is being abused, we need to enforce the regulations we
already have. But we don't need this proposal."
HEP instituted a study of unclassified student staff at
the University of Washington and Washington State Uni­versity.
The results are not yet known.
Associated Students will "continue to totally oppose it
as written," Leonard Brevik, vice president for external
affairs, said. AS president Mark Murphy and Brevik testi­fied
at the initial HEP meeting on Oct. 22 at Eastern
Washington University. They said they're watching any
action made by the HEP Board.
Sahlhoff said she is uncertain what could be done if the
proposal is accepted. A compromise could be made by
creating positions that would not compete with classified
staff positions.
"I'm not sure what we could do," Sahlhoff said.