Western Front - 1973 February 27

              the - western front western Washington state college
Vol. 65
No. 31
TUESDAY
February 27, 1973
Ten Cents
Bellingham, Washington
Recycling site
would employ
handicapped
see page 2
Sauer report says Flora must change
Cites good,
bad sides
of president
by STEPHANIE SMITH
College President Charles J. Flora got
a passing grade in external affairs, but is
failing to deal with Western's internal
problems effectively, according to the
Sauer committee report released Friday.
The" Sauer Committee, which is
officially called the Faculty Council
C o m m i t t e e to Evaluate the
Administration, was appointed this fall
to do an in-depth report on the
structure of the administration and the
e f f e c t i v e n e s s of individual
•administrators. Part of the report was
released to the All-College Senate and
the public after Thursday's Faculty
Council meeting.
Part of the report will remain
confidential.
In commissioning and releasing the
report, the Faculty Council "does not
want to play political football,"
Faculty Council Secretary Art Kimmel
said, but does want change very
much.
The report said Flora is reasonably
effective in dealing with outside
agencies, such as the legislature and the
Council on Higher Education.
Flora got a bad rating on his
handling of internal affairs from both
the faculty and the Sauer committee.
The report blames the faculty's
discontent on the difference between
faculty expectations about their role
and importance in college governance
and the way Western is really run.
President Flora sees himself as "the
primary policy making force" of the
college, while the faculty believes the
committees and councils on campus
should have the final say in some policy
matters, the report said.
The input Flora gets from the
various groups on campus is "totally
subject to his review and interpretation
. . . any decision by any committee or
council on this campus is only final and
binding when .and if the President finds
the decision' acceptable, or to his
liking," according to the report.
The key recommendations of the
SAUER GRIPES-John Sauer of psychology (left) headed a
faculty committee that gave President Charles Flora (right) a
passing grade in handling outsiders but flunked him in his
handling of internal affairs.
report were sent to the All College
Senate and made public after
Thursday's Faculty Council meeting. An
additional part of the report, including
the complete evaluation of President
Flora and a summary of a faculty
questionnaire on the administration,
will be sent to the Board of Trustees.
If Flora ignores the proposals the
Board of Trustees can act on them. But
if the Board rejects the report, there is
no higher authority.
Rejection of the entire report "will
be a disaster for the institution,"
Faculty Council Chairman Knute
Skinner said Friday.
The 'report lists two plans of action
for the faulty. One plan assumes that
the suggestions for administrative
reorganization in the Sauer report will
be accepted by Flora. One assumes he
will reject them.
If Flora wants to meet the
expectations of the faculty by accepting
the Sauer Report he should:
-stop relying on the small group of
senior deans known as the "six-pack"
and install a Vice President for
Academic Affairs,
—let the Vice President for Academic
Affairs take care of curricular matters,
-have the Dean of Graduate School
and the Dean for Research and Grants
report directly and only to the
Academic Vice President, while the
Dean of Students and Business Manager
continue to report to the president.
-clarify the status of the ctuster
colleges, in terms of their importance to
the college,
-assess the All-College Senate,
-poll the faculty to determine which
body will represent faculty concerns.
If the report is ignored, the Sauer
committee recommends that the faculty
seek "some means of direct
representation to the Board of
T r u s t e e s , " presumably collective
bargaining.
The Board of Trustees should pay
"particular attention to the occurrence
of clearly maladaptive and disruptive
activities" which the committee feels
Flora could commit if present policies
are continued.
The Sauer Committee Report also
evaluated the Dean of the Graduate
School, Dean of Arts and Sciences,
Dean for Research and Grants, and the
Dean of Students. Most of these
administrators have indicated that they
w i l l f o l l o w the r e p o r t 's
recommendations.
The Sauer Report is another result of
growing faculty unrest on campus. The
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
plan to ask the Board of Trustees to
recognize them as the faculty bargaining
agent. Sy Schwartz of the education
department (and an AFT member)
listed faculty grievances in a letter in
FAST, the faculty-staff newsletter.
Artist twirls'Dial'
"I don't really know what
the world is all about, but I have
the audacity—or naivete—to
invent a system, as anyone'can,
that shows how the world
works."
Allan Kaprow, artist, critic and
inventor of the happening, was
speaking to an audience of 50
people Friday night, discussing
the happening called "Dial" that
he had organized and carried out
that afternoon.
About 30 people, most of
them Western students, had
participated in "Dial", and
another 20 experienced "Scales"
after Kaprow's talk.
"Dial" directed four teams to
a total of 16 telephone booths in
Bellingham, where a relay of
calls was set up. As each call
came into a booth, a person
marked the position of the
shadow of a nearby telephone
pole, and then marked another
[continued pg. 3]
Inside...
A.A.—Fellowship and friends
Fellowship with friends and strangers, tied together
by the common bond of a disease and a belief in
God, makes Alcoholics Anonymous an effective
community organization. See pg. 6.
Responsive radio at Fairhaven
Seeing a "crisis" in the information system, some
Fairhaven students use portable equipment to
squeeze through a loophole in the FCC rules. See
pg. 3.
EYEWITNESSED-Western's low-pollution car,
the Viking I, was back in the news last week
when it appeared in the capitoI's south foyer on
Friday. The car was also filmed by the KIRO
Eyewitness News Team in Red Square.
Designed and built by WWSC students, the car.
is not only a low pollution vehicle but also is easy
to repair, maneuver and has a crash worthy body.
Seatbelts are mandatory in the Viking I because
they wrap around the passengers as the doors
close.
Portions of the car's design have attracted
interest by General Motors and the 1973 Corvette
borrowed the bumper design.