Western Front - 1972 November 3

              Senate approves Flora report
Secret report sent to trustees
A secret report studying the faculty's
no-confidence vote against college president
Charles J. Flora was presented to the Board of
Trustees yesterday by the All-College Senate.
The board voted to take the report under
consideration during a closed-door, executive
session.
The report is the result of a request by the
trustees asking the senate to investigate the
circumstances leading to the May 26
no-confidence vote.
Edwin Clapp of the English faculty chaired a
special committee appointed to conduct the
investigation. The report was compiled from
questionnaires sent to all faculty members. The
senate had forwarded the report after discussing it
in an executive session Monday.
The closed-door meeting lasted an hour and a
half before the senators agreed to vote on the
report.
During a short recess at the end of the
executive session the student senators held a brief
caucus. All student senators at the meeting voted
against accepting the report.
Senator Willard Brown of the physics faculty
was the only non-student to vote against the
report. He has said earlier in the meeting that he
would vote against the report if the question of
keeping it a secret had not been settled when the
vote was taken. The question was still open when
the senate voted.
The roll call vote listed 17 senators for the
report, 12 against it, one abstention and four
members absent.
In an effort to reject the report, student
senators moved that senate rules be suspended and
a two-thirds majority be required for approval of
the report. The parliamentary maneuver failed
when the students failed to get enough votes for
the rules suspension.
Following the vote to forward the report the
senate debated a motion that it should release the
report to the public.
Senators agreed that the report would not be
made public until after the trustees had been given
a chance to act on it.
The motion to release the report was tabled by
the senate until "not later than the second meeting
in December."
Kennedy
the - western front western Washington state college
IOC
Vol. 65
No. 10
FRIDAY
November 3,1972
Bellingham, Wash.
Evans and Rosellini on campus
Evans:
Students-faculty split
over committee's report
by RODGER PAINTER
Student and faculty senators of the All-College
Senate split in their vote to approve a report on
the reasons behind the faculty vote of no
confidence in college president Charles J. Flora,
and a student member has resigned from the
special investigating committee in protest of the
report
Calling the report a "travesty of justice," Jim
Kennedy, a student member of the senate
committee, submitted his resignation, to
committee chairman Edwin Clapp Wednesday.
The report has not been made public and was
scheduled to be considered by the Board of Trustees at its meeting
yesterday.
The unanimous student vote against the report came after the
students held a caucus during a break. However, the faculty, staff and
administrative senators, with one exception, endorsed the report and
sent it to the trustees.
In his letter of resignation Kennedy said, "I believe that the
editorial tone of the report does not do justice to the objectivity
required for a report of this nature.
'I do not mean to question the integrity of the group nor any of
its members. Neither do I question the validity of the data. However,!
(Cont. onpg. 12)
Early-release delayed
by JOHN BREWINGTON
The concept of a prisoner early-release program for Western was
endorsed by the All-College Senate Wednesday evening and sent on to
the Board of Trustees for action.
However, the Board of Trustees put the early-release program on
its agenda for Nov. 16. The board decided at its meeting yesterday
that the program needed more discussion and public feedback.
Under the proposed program, at least six felons would be housed
on-campus and attend classes under the supervision of a live-in parole
officer.
With approval by the Board of Trustees, a three-member board
consisting of appointees from Whatcom Community College, the
Bellingham Technical Institute and Western would study the problems
involved and preside over the program once initiated.
In unanimously endorsing the concept of such a program at
Western the senate asked that it be consulted prior to the
implementation of the program.
Discussion in senate chambers centered on costs, housing,
academic concerns and the power of review.
Acting Provost William Bultmann pointed out that college agencies
had already been set up to cover costs, housing and academia and
(Cont. on pg. 12)
r
"Wow are you going to legalize
marijuana when the legislature
won't even let you have a drink at IS?'
Rosellini:
There are a lot of jobs,
but people won't take them.
You just look in the newspaper/
Dan Evans Albert Rosellini
inside...
McGooern is campus favorite
A Soc/Anth class polled 1,062 Western
students and found that 62 per cent favor George
McGovem. See pg. 2
Open house and homecoming
Dedication of the new $3 million library
addition highlights the weekend's activities. See
PS- 9.
Runners try for title
: Western's cross-country team will compete as
the favorites in this weekend's EVCO
championship. Seepg. 11.
Western's average is above-average
JL
Editor's note: This is the second of a five-part
series dealing with the curricular problems at
Western.
by KATHISANDBOE
The average student at Western is getting
excellent or above average grades, but this is not
due to a rise in the quality of students.
A report by a committee on curricular
problems at Western feels it is due to a decline in
Western's academic standards. The committee
found that 60 per cent of the students are getting
excellent or above average grades.
This rise in grades has caused one faculty
member to comment that "we must get more
academic backbone into our program . . . we must
raise our grading standards."
The committee looked at a report of the grade
spread for 1970-71 which found that 26.5 per cent
of the grades given were A's and B's. It also found
that these "percentages have been steadily
increasing over the last few years.
The committee also noted that there has been a
rise in the grade point average of entering
freshmen and said "this reflects declining
secondary school standards rather than better
students. Quality must fall as quantity rises, and
the increasing percentage of young people
attending college today surely includes more
marginal students."
A survey of students by the committee also
brought out the comment that, "at the present
time it is nearly impossible to flunk out of
Western." Research is now being done by Tim
Douglas, assistant dean of students for academic
(Cont. onpg. 12)