Western Front - 1991 May 17

              The Western Front Friday May 17,1991/Volume 83, Number 40 Western Washington University please recycle
Fulani says American political system is failing
By Chris Schneidmlller
staff reporter
The Persian Gulf War was an
example of the United States' attack
on colored people, Dr. Lenora B.
Fulani said in her speech "From
Bellingham to Baghdad: The War
Against People of Color," on Tues­day
night.
While African-Americansoldiers
make up only 21 percent of the U.S.
forces, they accounted for 58 percent
of the soldiers on the front lines, said
Fulani, who is the New Alliance
Party's candidate for president in
1992.
"We would either be dead there
or we would take out the Iraqis,"
Fulani said. "The effect is the same,"
she said. "People of color are killed."
Fulani discussed what she called
the "genocide" against communities
of color.
"There are serious moves in the
country to do in working-class people
of color," she said.
Police brutality is another form
of the war on people of color, Fulani
said. The videotape of Los Angeles
Administration stresses
'wait and see' on budget
By Scott M. Ayers
staff reporter
Two weeks ago Governor Booth Gardner sent the state legislature home
without a budget, leaving the fate of many Western academic departments and
professors in limbo.
When the legislature reconvenes in early June, the budget agreed upon will
affect courses offered in the next two years and to what professors will be
teaching them.
"It's safe to say at this point we don't know what will happen, it's all
contingent upon the legislature," said Robert Sylvester, dean of the College of
Fine and Performing Arts. "The administration is stressing a wait-and-see
attitude."
But while Western's administration is not jumping to conclusions, all signs
from Olympia point to a reduction in Western's budget somewhere between the
senate's proposed .88 percent and the house's 3.35 percent decrease. And the
university is preparing contingency plans to reduce faculty and services.
"If we had a carry-forward budget, which is current costs plus inflation, all
of our faculty positions would be filled," said College of Arts and Sciences Dean
Peter Elich. "What we are doing at the present is postponing final commitments
on certain positions," he said.
In late April, the administration proposed freezing hiring for 35 tenure track
positions, currently open. Nineteen of these positions were in the Arts and
Sciences, six were in the Woodring College of Education, and the others were
scattered throughout the university.
Many of these positions, although considered open for new faculty who
would work toward tenure, are filled by part-time and one-year full-time
professors. If these positions were lost, the number of courses offered would be
cut.
Reaction to the administration's freeze proposal was negative and immedi­ate.
The summary of the Deans and Chairs (DAC) meeting of April 30, sent by
Elich to department chairs and program directors in the College of Arts and
Sciences contained comments from those attending the meeting, some of which
were highly critical of the administration proposal.
"Why is it that when lots of funds are available the academic area gets only
a small amount, but when dollars have to be recaptured the first place to be
affected is the academic area?" stated a portion of the summary.
The summary also stated that all department chairs interested in drafting a
letter to President Kenneth Mortimer are asked to meet.
"The chairs did make a statement based on information that was in error,"
Elich said. "It was made at a time when the chairs were not yet aware of the
$300,000 the president freed up, after that the chairs decided to pause, wait and
ask for more information on the current situation and how money has been
divided up in the past"
Face-to-face meetings with the administration in budget meetings last week
seemed to have eased tensions somewhat as the administration freed up
$300,000 more of next year's budget outlay for use in filling faculty positions.
The move was made to keep cuts from hitting any one department too hard.
Originally, thehistory department was to have four positions held open, the most
for any one department on campus, but the extra money has allowed Elich the
opportunity to try and fill two-and-a-half of those.
Still, many other positions on campus cannot currently be filled and waiting
for the legislature to reconvene and come up with final numbers may cost
Western some top-notch teachers, Elich said.
"The major problem with the whole situation is the timing is very bad," he
said. "We've got some very good people who really can't stay around much
longer and wait They may have other options and not want to wait to make their
decisions."
Sylvester agreed. "The longer onehas to wait, the smaller thevacancy pool,"
he said. "We (the college of fine and performing arts) are very fortunate to have
developed pools of people we can readily call on in different areas of expertise."
Elich said Arts and Sciences is not so lucky. "It may be hard for us to find
adequate replacements for some really good people if they are lost."
This concern has led Elich to factor in the possibility of losing good
professors into his decisions on where the 19 positions in arts and sciences would
be frozen. A decision, he stresses, that was made by him and not the adminis­tration.
"Which 19 positions put onhold was determined by me," he said. "I decided,
with council, the places we should leave them on hold."
Although all involved are hoping for a reprieve from the legislature, they
also worry about how proposed cuts would effect students.
"We are deeply concerned with minimizing the negative impact on stu­dents,"
Elich said describing the most likely impacts. "The impact on students
will largely be fewer small-section classes, like small specialty sections in
majors. We will definitely see larger classes."
police beating Rodney King has
brought the issue to the forefront, but
the problem has been there for a long
time.
"I can't tell you how many funer­als
I've gone to of black kids killed by
cops," Fulani said. She talked about
her own son, who has been chased,
had guns pulled on him, and been
arrested by police officers for "tag­ging,"
a form of graffiti.
Fulani said the legal system seems
to work against people of color; one
in four African-Americans spends
time in jail during their lives. Several
cities, including Seattle, have passed
anti-loitering laws in areas inhabited
by people of color ..Fulani calls these
kinds of laws fascism.
"Fascism in America is going to
come in very subtle, very absurd and
See FULANI, p. 4
Students gaining more influence
By Ftenee Brewer
staff reporter
Student input is beginning
to gain more clout within
Western's policy-making pro­cess,
Associated Students
President Mark Aaserud said.
While the Interim Cam­pus
Audit Report released Feb.
15 stated, "student leaders
complain about 'an incredible
lack of respect for students by
the administration and a num­ber
of faculty,"' Aaserud said
he feels the AS Board and stu­dents
have gained more influ­ence
within the administration
in the past year.
Though he complains that
sometimes "issues that affect
students don't go by my desk,"
Aaserud said he feels good
progress has been made to­ward
greater influence on
Western by the AS and stu­dents
in general.
"I think there's been an
increase in the credibility of
the student voice," Aaserud
said.
One early student success
was convincing the Board of
Trustees to make the recent
measles immunization policy
applicable to faculty and staff
as well as students. At first, the
policy would expel students
who hadn't been immunized,
but would require faculty and
staff to avoid work for three
weeks if they contracted the
disease, Aaserud said. Aaserud
said he argued for the current
policy, which requires every­one
on campus under 33 to
provide proof of immuniza­tion,
on the grounds that "a
measle germ doesn't care if
you have tenure or not"
However, Aaserud said he
has often encountered an atti- '
tude within the administration
that students at Western are merely passing through
anddon'tneed to be consulted for long-rangeoecisions.
"On paper we (students) are supposed to have
equal voice as faculty (indecision-making)," Aaserud
said. "In reality, we're not seen as equal."
Aaserud said at the first Board of Trustees meet­ing
he attended, the faculty representative reported on
the development of teaching evaluations and a griev­ance
policy. When Aaserud asked about the level of
student input into the process, the faculty member
replied it wasn't really a student issue. Aaserud has a
different perspective.
"You need to include those most affected by a
decision in the process of that decision," he said.
Western President Kenneth Mortimer said he has
received complaints from some students about the
lack of respect they receive on committees but hasn't
witnessed this behavior at meetings he has attended.
Tyler Anderson/The WMtem Front
Associated Students President Mark Aaserud says that students are
gaining more political clout with Western administrators.
Mortimer and the AS Board will discuss the allegations
of lack of respect for students at the next few meetings
together, Mortimer said.
"Dr. Mortimer and fhave a good working relation­ship.
... We don't always agree, but we're honest with
each other," Aaserud said. "I just keep working on
changing his mind."
The cause of most apparent exclusion of student
voices is glitches in the system, Mortimer said. For
example, students are not being nominated to commit­tees;
or too few are nominated, so none make it through
the screening process; or committee meetings are
scheduled during class times so student members find
it difficult to attend.
Mortimer said students were on the presidential
See STUDENT VOICE, p. 3
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