Western Front - 1978 April 4

              WESTERN FRONT
Fairhaven calm: new dean, new quarter
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 19781
WESTERN FRONT Vol. 70, No. 36
by LAURIE DUNHAM
Boxes of books sit next to
empty shelves. Fairhaven's
new dean is still settling in.
He is Philip Ager. Until his
appointment March 20, Ager
was chairman of Western's
music department. Now he is
the man who must see that
Fairhaven meets the adminis­tration's
recommendations.
The recommendations in­clude
changes in the college's
curriculum, rotation of Fair­haven
faculty with Western
and a reduction in the college's
cost.
Ager helped create these
recommendations. He was a
member of the Ford Committee,
appointed early fall quarter to
Klipsuns
disappear
by SUE TAYLOR
Klipsun, Western's bi-quar-terly
magazine, distributed one
of its most controversial issues
Friday. Or, rather, tried to.
Only 45 minutes after stacks
of Klipsun's "lampoon" issue
were dropped in distribution
areas, Klipsun editor Michael
Vouri discovered 10 shopping
bags full of Klipsuns in the
dumpster behind the Viking
Union.
Vouri said 1,200 of the 2,000
issues printed were found in
the dumpster.
"It's a despicable thing for
anyone to do," Vouri said, "I
didn't think anyone would [be
so offended to ) go so far as
this." .§
Vouri said he expected some §
students to be offended by the £
magazine. But he said he hoped <§
after reading the issue and see- ^j
ing the satire in it, these stu- £j
dents "would have a nice laugh ^
with us." -^
Vouri discovered the stacks •§
were disappearing half an hour j§
after he had put out the first
stacks in the VU. He left a stack
in the Humanities Building and
went up to the third floor.
When he came back five min­utes
later, the Klipsuns were
gone.
"It was a sunny Friday after­noon
and hardly anyone was
around. It looked suspicious,"
Vouri said.
Then Vouri checked the
dumpster behind the VU. "I
don't know why I went to that
dumpster, but I just knew they
were going to be there," he
said.
At press time, no one was
sure who could have taken the
magazines and thrown them
away. Vouri said the job prob­ably
was an organized effort,
judging by the fact that more
than half of the magazines dis­tributed
were confiscated.
The magazines were collect­ed
in identical paper bags, sim­ilar
to those found in the Stu­dent
Co-op Bookstore.
"Whoever did it must be so
frightened and insecure that
rather than live with another
view they have to destroy it,"
Vouri said.
Pete Steffens, Klipsun advis­er,
said it was "horrible" to
throw away something paid for
with student funds.
This issue of Klipsun cost
$2,100 to print.
examine problems at Fair­haven.
This action resulted
from a no-confidence vote by
Fairhaven faculty and staff in
Dean Joseph Bettis. Bettis will
remain at Fairhaven this quar­ter
as a faculty member.
James Talbot, vice president
for academic affairs, said Ager
was selected from among six or
seven candidates. Ager, 47, is a
1948 Western graduate. He has
taught at Western since 1965.
Talbot said Ager was chosen
because of his experience as
music department chairman
and his interest in alternative
education.
Ager said he thinks the
recommendations can be met.
"If I didn't, I wouldn't have
accepted the job," he said.
Ager said, however, "I don't
view the recommendations as
an ax over my head." He said
he doesn't agree with them
entirely, and some might have a
"reverse effect." The faculty
rotation was the only one he
would cite as being potentially
harmful.
"Many of the recommend­ations
have real merit and go a
long way toward solving the
problem," he said. "It is the
way in which they are imple­mented
that can cause diffi­culties.
"One of my functions is to
ease the process of achieving
these recommendations."
Ager said he wants to estab­lish
a more positive image of
Fairhaven. The differences
between Fairhaven and West­ern
often are identified in
extremes that are not necess­arily
true, he said. The result­ing
stereotypes of Western and
Fairhaven students aren't con-
Continued on page 2
HUNG UP ON THE BOTTLE? — Alcoholics Anonymous says 9
million Americans are addicted to drinking. The Bellingham AA
chapter offers assistance to people who say they have a drink­ing
problem, an obsession some people think they can't control.
Story on page 3.
Ballot drive to eliminate veto power underway
by CHRIS JARVIS
A drive to get five percent
of Western's students to sign a
petition to authorize placement
of an initiative on the April 26
Associated Students run-off
and special election ballot is
underway.
The initiative would elimin­ate
the AS Board of Directors'
absolute veto power over the
decisions of the five councils
under the board.
These councils affect
almost all non-academic bus­iness
of Western students.
The initiative, if passed
would require two-thirds ap­proval
of the Board of Directors
to veto any decisions of the
councils.
The councils that would be
affected by the initiative are
the Activities, Faculties, Rec­reation,
Services and Bookstore
councils.
Kelly Turner, the initiative's
main supporter, said the initia­tive
is necessary to "diversify
the powers" within the Assoc­iated
Students so "more people
will have control."
Turner is also the manager of
the Outdoor Equipment Rental
Shop.
Mike Smith, Activities Coun­cil
chairman, said difficulties
between the board and the Ac­tivities
Council over the financ­ing
of the Women's Week
celebration winter ^ quarter
illustrated the need for the
initiative.
The board asked the Activ­ities
Council to make cuts in the
Women's Center's original re­quest
because of its expertise in
Inside Financial aid
Flying high
Frosh high jumper, Levko Klos, sets lofty
standards. See Sports, page 17.
U.S. Congress considers easing college ex­penses,
but have yet to decide which of two
bills will do the trick. Story on page 9.
Fairhaven frogs
Is nothing sacred? StinshoJT stalks one of
the first signs of spring — frogs. See page 3.
activities programming, Smith
said. After the reduced request
was resubmitted to the board,
it increased the request to a
level that the council thought
was unjustified, Smith said.
Smith said he felt the decis­ions
of the council were not
being taken seriously by the
board.
Sam Thompson, chairman of
the Services Council, said the
initiative "sounds practical to
me" and "councils should have
the power to allocate the funds
that they have the way they see
fit."
The initiative petition effort
must gain the required signa­tures
by April 12 to get the
issue on the April 26 ballot
according to the ASWWU Elec­tion
Code.
Turner said he anticipates no
problems in getting the neces­sary
signatures and hopes to
obtain 800 names to assure
getting the required five per­cent,
in case of invalid signa­tures.
Members of the Board of
Directors were unavailable for
comment on the initiative.