Western Front - 1990 January 30

              So, you're
a WHIMP?
Sports,
page 12
The future
of music
Features,
page 8
TUESDAY
WEATHER
Partly cloudy with a chance of showers
through Friday. Highs in the 4os.
The Western Front
January 30,1990/Volume 82, Number 5 Western Washington University please recycle
AS program sponsors boycott
Coke target of anti-apartheid campaign
By Vicki Stevens
staff reporter
Chad Goller, Associated Students
social issues coordinator, organized
a week-long boycott of Coca-Cola
that started yesterday to stop Coke
distribution in South Africa.
"Coke contributes money to the
apartheid regime in South Africa,"
Goller said.
But Coke said it is no longer
directly tied to South Africa.
Goller said he hopes to get Coke
removed from the college campus,
but he is not sure if it is feasible.
He said he wants Western offi­cials,
including Kay Rich, director of
university residences and President
Kenneth Mortimer, to look at the
possibilities of removing Coke from
the campus and substituting a differ­ent
soft drink.
Lucinda Headrick of the Ameri­can
Friends Service Committee in
Atlanta, Ga.,—the organization that
organized the nationwide boycott—
said though Pepsi still has holdings
in South Africa, Coke was chosen for
the anti-apartheid boycott because it
is the most well-known.
Pepsi is also sold on Western's
campus.
Apartheid is the South African
policy of oppression and control of
28 million blacks — who have no
political representation — by a mi­nority
of 4.9 million whites. Apart­heid
has come under fire from many
human rights groups in the last 10
years.
Goller claims Coke's 1986 dis­investment
plan to remove its inter­ests
from South Africa was simply a
public relations move to avoid con­flict
with anti-apartheid groups. He
said he hopes to inform Western
students of the Coca-Cola company's
policies in South Africa.
To protest Coke's continued
monetary interests in South Africa,
Goller wants to encourage a boycott
of Coke products to put an economic
strain on the company.
Dick Montag, a part-owner and
manager of the Bellingham Coke
bottler and distributor, said the boy­cott
would be ineffective in the goals
it is trying to achieve.
"If they have a problem with the
individual bottler, then that is who
they should boycott," he said. "They
should go after the bottler in South
Africa — not an independent bottler
in Bellingham."
Montag said because he is an
independent bottler, which means he
has the franchise rights to buy Coke
syrup from the company and distrib­ute
Coke in Whatcom County. The
only relationship he has with the
See Coke on page 4
Teachers campaign
for higher salaries
lliiiiir;
Chili Cookof
a mouth full
related story on
David J. Sienko/The Western Frbnt
r during the 7th Annual
By Deven Bellingar
staff reporter
The Washington Education
Association (WEA) launched a
statewide campaign Jan. 22 entitled
"Good teachers can't work for
peanuts," aimed at raising public
awareness of critical teacher salary
issues that are threatening the qual­ity
of the state's education system.
"Once a national leader in sala­ries
for public school teachers,
Washington has been declining
dramatically since 1980," WEA
President Carla Nuxoll said.
"Just 10 years ago, our teach­ers
were the fourth highest paid in
the nation. Today, our salaries have
fallen to 21st and for the first time
ever are below the national aver­age,"
she said.
Lawrence Marrs, dean of the
Woodring College of Education,
said quite a few teachers have left
the public school system for higher
paying jobs elsewhere, but there
has been more people entering the
system in the past four or five years.
"Our kids are getting short­changed
when yvc lose experienced
teachers to better paying jobs in
business or to teaching positions in
other states," Nuxoll said. "Wash­ington
students should not be forced
to settle for an education that falls
Runners, bikers, walkers expected in march
embarrassingly short of what this
state used to offer.". .
WEA members are distribut­ing
information about education
funding issues to citizens across
the state and are emphasizing their
point by handing out bags of pea­nuts
that note: "Good teachers can't
work for peanuts!"
The campaign also includes print
and broadcast advertisements,
posters and other materials that stress
the importance of quality compen­sation
for a quality educational
system.
"If you annualize the salary of
teachers (over 12 months), it is
comparable to other professions.
But I firmly agree that teachers
should be paid more," Marrs said.
He said there will be an in­creasing
number of teachers needed
over the next decade because of
retirements. It appears the salary
issue has not diminished the amount
of teachers entering the profession,
he added.
"Now is an excellent time to
leave Western with an education
degree. The majority of our stu­dents
are finding jobs at one level
or another (in education)," Marrs
said.
Western's education program
stresses the intellectual activity of
See Rally on page 3
University students plan rally in Olympia
By Sue LaPalm
staff reporter
In an effort to make their voices heard by
state legislators in Olympia, concerned stu­dents
from around the state will participate in
Descend Olympia and present their agendas to
legislators.
Descend Olympia is a chance for students
to take an active role in the future of their
education by talking directly to legislators,
said Pamela Kruse, Western's Washington
Student Lobby Chairperson and chairperson of
the event.
Representatives from the University of
Washington, Washington State University,
Eastern Washington University, Western and
Central Washington univeristies will begin the
rally toward Olympia from UW's campus on
Thursday with a run from Seattle to Olympia.
The runners will carry batons symbolizing
their schools' legislative agendas.
Runners will run to Fife, where they will
spend the night. The next morning bicyclists
will finish the trek from Fife to Olympia. Once
in Olympia, all of the students will congregate
about a half a mile from the Capital Building,
and then jog or bicycle to the capital steps.
Only about five people are planning to
attend from Western, so far. However, more
are expected to attend from the other universi­ties
to help make an impact in Olympia.
Associated Students President Kent Thoelke
said the purpose of the yearly event is "im­pressing
to the legislature that the voice of the
students is alive and well and needs to be
listened to."
Western's legislative agenda, sponsored
by the Associated Students Board of Directors,
includes: supporting a set percentage fee of
each students tuition for building fees; a gradu­ate
program that would establish two graduate
fellowships at regional universities and be­tween
four and six at research universities;
more student input into how money from their
tuition should be used for services and activity
fees; financial aid legislation raising the per­centage
of the amount of appropriations to
state financial aid programs; and support from
the legislature for minority retention and re­cruitment
programs.