Western Front - 1977 December 2

              Western
Western Washington University Vol. 70 No. 18 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1977
Trustees consider governance proposal
by SANDY CATT
Plans to alter Western's gov­ernance
system were intro­duced
to the Board of Trustees
at yesterday's meeting in Ever­ett.
University President Paul
Olscamp presented the trustees
with plans from the Faculty
Council of the All-University
Senate (AUS) and the AS Board
of Directors.
The plans were completed
following Olscamp's Oct. 26 let­ter
to campus leaders suggest­ing
the abolition of the AUS
because of faculty dissatisfac­tion.
Almost half of the faculty
voted in an election to decide
whether to abolish the AUS and
form an interim committee to a
new governance structure. The
faculty was in favor, 162-24.
"They feel the senate is not
working and should be dis­solved,
but what does the
faculty have in,the meantime?"
Ajit Rupaal, Faculty Council
vice president, said.
Students, staff and adminis­trators
provide alternative gov­ernance
bodies to serve in a
transition period while faculty
members do not, according to
the Faculty Council proposal.
The faculty recommended the
Board of Trustees authorize i h e .
Faculty Council to form the In­terim
Academic Senate (IAS) as
the transitional body. The sen­ate
would draft a revised con­stitution
for a faculty senate by
next May.
The IAS would consist of cur­rent
faculty senators elected by
departments. Under the pro­posal,
the IAS would oversee
the Academic Coordinating
Committee, the Business and
Finance Committee and the
Long-Range Planning Commit­tee.
It would require the Stu­dent
Publications Council to
report to the University Ser-
Inside:
Solstice
Today, the Front is featur­ing
"Solstice," a special
magazine insert with every­thing
from interviews with a
department store Santa
Claus and Ray N. Deer, to a
feature on Bellingham's
, hockey team.
Wage rage?
Western students might
not receive the federal mini­mum
wage increase next
year. See page 2 and the
lead editorial on page 4.
Sports bloops
Sports editor Bruce Stins-hoff
takes a look at some of
this quarter's best sports
bioops. See page 18.
Free art
Another sculpture has
been donated to Western,
this one free of charge. Its
name? "No Charge." See the
.story on page 11. >
vices Council (USC). It would
advise the USC to consult with
the AS Board of Directors and
report to the vice president for
student affairs.
All the AUS's other commis­sions
and councils would re­main
intact under the faculty's
proposal, but the IAS could
overturn recommendations by a
two-thirds vote.
Olscamp's previous suggest­ions
and the Faculty Council
proposal are alike except the
president would not be an ex-officio
member of the interim
committee, in the Faculty
Council's plan. "Some faculty
members feel he is the 'presi­dent'
and they can not speak
openly when he is present,"
Rupaal said.
Other Olscamp suggestions
which the Faculty Council
omitted from its recommenda­tion
were having the Business
and Finance Council report to
the vice president for business
affairs and granting the AS
Board of Directors authoriza-
Cont'd on page 9
o
SNOW JOB — While most students were travelling home for Thanksgiving weekend Nov. 23, snow was falling at Western. A
deserted Red Square is shown here with about two inches on the groun d. The snow was washed away that night.
Chamber of Commerce study predicts
population growth, Western disagrees
by ANGELO BRUSCAS
Western's student enroll­ment
might grow to 20,000 by
the year 2,000, according to a
recent Bellingham Chamber of
Commerce study projecting a
substantial population increase
for Whatcom County in the next
20 years.
Western's planning depart­ment,
however, is projecting a
stabilized student enrollment or
a possible decrease regardless
of growth in the surrounding
community.
The study, called "Scenario
One," predicts Bellingham will
grow to approximately 110,000
people due to expected in­creases
in Canadian migration,
development of industry and
international trade.
As a result of Bellingham's
growth, the scenario projects
Western will double in size and
become "an even larger con­tributor
to the community's
economy, as well as its cultural
life."
Western Director of Planning
H. A. "Barney" Goltz said he
doesn't believe the scenario for
two reasons:
First, the community will not
have a sufficient cross section
of college-age people necessary
to produce such a large in­crease
in student population.
In addition, Western's policy
on growth is controlled by the
university itself and is not
directly related to the popula­tion
of the surrounding commu­nity.
"Our current projections
show no growth in student
enrollment within the next 10
years," Goltz said. "This is
based on assumptions that the
college-age population will
be less inclined to enroll in the
future," he said.
Goltz said it is impossible for
Western to grow larger than
15,000 students because an en­vironmental
impact statement
limits construction of new fa­culties.
"You simply cannot expand
the number of faculties to meet
such a large expansion of stu­dents,"
Goltz said.
"Scenario One" was com­piled
by eight members of the
Bellingham Chamber of Com­merce,
including two Western
faculty members: Howard Mit­chell,
professor of economics,
and Gerard Rutan, professor of
political science.
Mitchell said student enroll­ment
projections for the study
were based on the history of
Western's growth in the last 20
years and its importance to the
future of the community.
"The university is a resource
that is important as a base for
the community's industrial
growth," Mitchell said. "As
industry expands in Whatcom
County, trained managerial
and technical people can be
provided through programs at
Western."
- Goltz explained that Western
would be able to provide the
trained graduates necessary to
fill future positions without
growing beyond its limits.
"We have to project a growth
pattern to meet the demands of
the community as well as the
limits of the university," Goltz
said.
"The price we would have to
pay for an increase of more
than. 15,000 students is simply
not worth it," he said.