Western Front - 1985 February 15

              WESTERN FRONT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1985 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA VOL. 77, NO. 10
Gardner budget to help?
Western on short end of funding stick
By Charlie Siderius
Western's administrators say
they hope Gov. Booth Gardner's
budget, which is scheduled to be
released today, will reverse a
trend and give more money to
Western and less to the state's
two other regional universities.
Western President G. Robert
Ross said he hopes the gover­nor's
revised budget allots a
greater amount of money to
Western than did former-
Governor John Spellman's. The
increased amount of funds
would be used to balance the
funding gap that has existed
between Western and the other
regional universities in the past
year.
In the 1984-85 academic year,
Western received $4,706 per stu­dent
for its general fund. Central
received $873 per student more,
and Eastern received $317 more
per student.
In the proposed, I985.-86 Spel-.
lman budget,' Western would
have received $4,908 per student
for its general liind. Central
would have received $710 more
per student and Eastern would
have received $590 more per
student.
The general fund figure is
obtained by dividing the univer­sity's
general fund by the number
of full-time students. The general
fund pays for computers, librar­ies
and instruction.
Vice President for Academic
Affairs Paul Ford said the prob­lem
started about 13 years ago
when budgets were cut at the
regional universities. At that
time, Western's administration
chose to take the cuts in compu­ter
programming and adminstra-tive
support instead of in
instruction.
Eastern and Central took cuts
in their instruction programs and
when it came time to restore
funds, both had their instruc­tional
programs fully restored.
At the same time, Western's cut
progra;ns remained under­funded
and the difference has
never been corrected, Ford said.
"We saved our library, and we
saved our instruction program
but at the cost of academic com­puting
and administrative sup­port;"
Ford saidff r"
"The question is this: Is it the
policy of the state of Washington
to fund students at one regional
university at a considerably
lo.wer level than at the other two
regional universities? It's a policy
question," Ford said.
EVERGREEN EASTERN CENTRAL
WEST1*A) * CHR IS BALDWIN
next month and then will have to
After Gardner's budget is
released today. Western's admin­istration
hopes to make the
Legislature more aware of the
inequalities existing between
Western and the state's other
regional universities and The
Evergreen State College so the
money will be doled out equally,
Ford said.
Gardner's proposed budget
will have to pass the Legislature
be approved by Gardner again to
become legal.
Ford said Western's adminis­tration
will continue to pursue
equal funding for Western even if
Gardner's budget does not
increase Western's funds.
J
Bookstore collars thieves
*%&>»*.
Airborne CHARLIE SIDERIUS
Catching some "airtime" on the slopes of Mount Baker is the
founder of Western's Ski to Die Club, Mark McGuane — see
story p. 6.
By Jeffrey Andrews
Shoplifters planning to get their
next "five-finger discount" at the
Associated Student's Bookstore"
better beware.
With shoplifting losses totaling
about $22,000 last year, bookstore
manager George Elliott said he
plans to do something about the
problem, which has been around
for at least the 17 years he's been at
Western.
Security workers placed at the
bookstore's entrance and
throughout the store, have col­lared
10 potential shoplifters since
the end of September.
Those caught shoplifting are
prosecuted, Elliott said, and most
are fined between $150 and $300.
"Most of the time we won't see
that person (someone caught sho­plifting)
ag^in," he said. "They get
caught taking a 79-cent pen, get
fined $150 and it just isn't worth
it."
The biggest chunk of losses,
about $18,000, comes from the
textbook department, Elliott said.
And it's not always the case that a
person walks out with textbooks.
Other scams have been used.
The Front contacted the book­store
after an anonymous caller
phoned and said he has observed
students walking into the book­store
with a receipt from a book
purchase, perhaps earlier that day,
and grabbing another load of
books from the shelves to return
for money.
The caller, who refused to iden­tify
himself, said he believes stu­dents
are getting about $50 to $60
at a time for returning books that
they didn't buy.
The caller also said he has called
Western Auditor John McBee to
tell him of the problem, but no
action has been taken.
Elliott said he's been notified by
McBee and others about the
caller's concern, but that the prob­lem
isn't as bad as the caller
believes.
"He's making out like everyone's
ripping us off," Elliott said. "And
that's just not true."
Elliott said he first learned of the
problem about five years ago while
sitting in the Viking Union Coffee-shop
and overhearing people talk
about it.
Another scam students used,
•Elliott said, was during buy-back
week. Students would get new
books off the shelf and try to sell
them as used, he said.
This won't happen anymore, he
said, because the bookstore,
doesn't sell new text books during
buy-back week any longer.
Preventing the problem is a
costly one for the bookstore.
During "rush week," the first
week of each quarter, Elliott said,
he will hire approximately nine
more people.
Elliott once tried having cashiers
stamp each textbook as it was
bought, but that system was
unworkable and costly, he said.
Elliott said he knows of only one
way to completely eliminate rip-offs,
but it would be costly and
inconvenient. This system, called
"clerk-service," means that stu­dents
would line up at a counter,
and give their book order to a
clerk, who would retrieve that
order. After the order was filled,
the student would be escorted to
the door.
No matter what is done, how­ever,
"someone's always going to
beat the system," Elliott said.
"It's the students who suffer
(from rip-offs)," Elliott said.
If losses for shoplifting and
other scams were lowered, the stu­dents
could get a larger discount
on books, he said.
Quote of the week
open up a can of dog food because they have nothing else to eat,
I think, 'That's one can of dog food more than those people (in
•— Bellingham resident Norma Devecca, discussing why she is