Western Front - 1982 May 21

              Irate AS cries 'foul' on search
By LLOYD PRITCHETT
and MARK CARLSON
Reacting to the tight secrecy sur­rounding
Western's search for a
new president, student leaders this
week demanded an open hearing
to air their grievances about the
selection process.
The hearing should be called "as
soon as possible" and should
include all members of Western's
Board of Trustees and the Presi­dential
Search Committee, student
officers said.
The demands, formulated by
Western's Associated Students
Board of Directors, are contained
in a letter dispatched Wednesday
to Trustees Chairman Curtis
Dalrymple.
AS Board members would
reveal little else about the contents
of the letter, but they are known to
be especially critical of the search
team's practice of conducting its
meetings in secret, in possible vio­lation
of state law.
Meanwhile, the AS Board's own
meeting would jeopardize the stu­dent
group's "attorney-client"
relationship.
The board allegedly is consider­ing
legal action against the
trustees.
But Washington's Open Public
apparently did not meet those
criteria.
James Hauth, an assistant
attorney general specializing in
open meetings laws, Wednesday
said he thinks the AS Board's
grounds for barring the public
AS board members come out against latest Olscamp tuition proposal
—see page 2
action was under a cloud of suspi­cion
because its call for an open
hearing was formulated at a series
of secret sessions, also in apparent
violation of state law.
Lame-duck AS President Greg
Sobel excused the board's clandes­tine
sessions, however, saying
board members were discussing
"legal matters" and that an open
Meetings Act contains no exemp­tion
for discussing legal matters
and the AS Board has no attorney.
Although case law has estab­lished
that a public agency may
close meetings to preserve the con­fidentiality
of its attorney-client
relationship, one state legal expert
said the AS Board's secret session
from its meetings were extremely
shaky.
"I wouldn't regard it (the
grounds) as very valid at all," he
told The Front Wednesday. "If
you apply the attorney-client rela­tionship
exemption to any matter
where an attorney is not present,
you might as well tear up the-open
meetings act."
In addition, the AS Board did
not give the media 24 hours
advance notice of the executive
session, as is required by state law.
The AS Board is protesting the
closure of the initial meeting of the
search committee May 6, in which
two student appointees to that
group, were dropped.
In closing that meeting to the
public and press, search panel
chairman Gordon Sandison cited a
clause in the open meetings act that
permits secret sessions to discuss
sensitive personnel matters.
Sandison said the panel would
discuss qualities desirable in the
next president, adding the trustees
had decided such qualities vould
not affect the public.
Sandison's decision was backed
(continued on page 2j Western Front WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VOL. 74, NO. 33 FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1982
Forum lambasts Reagan's policies
By TRACY ALEXANDER
and TODD WILSON
Of all the programs and institu­tions
under the Washington Legis­lature's
budget knife this year,
higher education was the most
seriously wounded, said Mary Kay
Becker (D-Bellingham), who
opened the four-day "Reagan and
Education" series Tuesday.
Besides Becker, the Tuesday
forum featured Dennis Murphy of
the economics department and
Workers pour concrete Wednesday for the shaft of a new eleva­tor
in the Viking Union. Construction, which began in February,
is nearlng completion.
Fairhaven's Constance Faulkner.
Only Murphy spoke favorably of
the Reagan administration's fiscal
program, saying supply-side eco­nomics
will take many months to
begin working.
At Wednesday's session, a panel
of 11 speakers, including Maurice
Foisy of policital science, Upward
Bound Director Derrick Harrison
and Associated Students Vice
President for External Affairs
Jamie ^Seletz, all denounced the
effects of the Reagan budget on
minorities in higher education.
Foisy, speaking about the
administration's educational poli­cies,
described them as "militaristic
and anti-democratic."
Becker spoke Tuesday on the
recent Washington legislative ses­sion.
Blaming the state's congres­sional
leaders for the region's
financial embarrassment, she
focused attention on tax laws she
referred to as inadequate.
Her discussion also criticized the
trade-off of penitentiaries against
education! "We are trying to turn
out first-class prisoners while our
colleges are declining," she said.
She praised the Washington
Student Lobby drive and told the
audience, "Make them (legislators)
aware of issues from a student's
point of view before they are
elected." •-••-- -
Discussing supply-side theory,
Faulkner said Reaganomics will
fail because it is based on inaccu­rate
assumptions about the market
economy.
Murphy disagreed, saying it will
take more than 18 months for the
administration's plans to take
effect.
In the Wedne*sday forum, the 11
(continued on page 2)
Mary Kay Becker
Excess sports violence
must stop, lawyer says
By JEFF KRAMER
Athletes engaging in excessive violence should be
prosecuted under criminal law, a nationally known
attorney said Tuesday.
Speaking to an attentive crowd in the Performing
Arts Center, Main Auditorium, Richard Horrow,
Chairman of the American Bar Association Task
Force on Sports Violence, said that "violent behavior
not reasonably related to the competitive role of
sport" has reached intolerable levels.
Horrow is the initiator of House Resolution 7903,
which, if passed, would force playersto serve a man­datory
year in prison or pay a $5000 fine if they exhibit
excessive violence while participating in an athletic
event.
"I'm not some lunatic trying to stamp out competi­tive
sports with some garbage senate bill," Horrow
said. "I'm a jock. I play sports."
Horrow is, however, trying to stamp out a rash of
what he believes are inappropriate penalties for play­ers
who "step out of the role of a sportsman and into
the role of a criminal."
Breaking up his lectures with several film clips of
players attacking each other and fans, Horrow leveled
criticism at the entire athletic establishment, particu­larly
professional hockey. He blasted athletes,
coaches, owners, league commissioners and the court
system for failing to step in and deal with the problem.
The judicial system, he noted, typically has avoided
treating sports violence as it would street violence
because specific legislation is lacking.
Horrow says HR 7903 will fill the void.
The measure is not written to prohibit plays such as
the one that paralyzed New England Patriot Darryl
Stingley in August of 1978. Stingley was struck down
by Oakland Raider defensive back Jack Tatum while
reaching for an overthrown pass.
Though Horrow said the incident was unfortunate,
he deemed it within the guidelines of the game, saying,
"any receiver who runs a pass route over the middle
runs the risk of such an injury."
HR 7903 would, however, crack down on reckless
acts of violence that are beyond the scope of sport,
mainly cheap shots and fighting.
"Players have enough to worry about during the
game without having to worry about a cheap shot
(continued on page 2)
Inside:
Campus pulls
for disabled
—page 3
'A new mood'
in South Africa
—page 8