1994-10-26; Central Michigan Life

              ■ Ml     I. .,     „         .11        | | |    ■■
'Opposition arises over merger
PAGE 3
•Injured gridder released from hospital
PAGE 8
•Actor Jeff Daniels speaks at CMU
PAGE 12
Sports
•V-BALL TEAM
FALLS TO  MAC
LEADERS
Ball State
PAGE 8
Central I IFF
Michigan LI __T E
<$&.&&
VOLUME 77, NUMBER 25
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48859
© 1994 CM LIFE
(517) 774-3493
16 PAGES
Broadcasting
union back to
negotiations
with CMU
By TAMARA SNYDER
LIFE Staff Wr.ter
City might get factory outlet mall
Businessman to develop vacant land
By KRISTI GRONER
LIFE Staff Writer
The bargaining teams for the administration
and the public broadcasting union restarted negotiations Tuesday, four months after the employees'
contract expired.
The afternoon's bargaining session was the first
in a series of negotiations scheduled to last until
Friday.
The bargaining teams also will meet Nov. 21
through Nov. 23, if needed. Linda Hyde, National
Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 412 president, doubts negotiations will
be completed this week and said it is a good possibility those November dates will be needed.
The two groups met for the scheduled four hours
during the first bargaining session, said Hyde,
public information coordinator for Public Broadcasting.
The meeting went well," she said.
She said the administration gave the NABET
bargaining team the remainder of their economic
proposals.
"Now that we have all of the university's proposals we can move on," Hyde said.
During early contract discussions with the administration in July, NABET presented the majority
of its proposals, while the administration gave the
union its non-economic proposals.
The negotiation process will probably begin during the bargaining session this afternoon, Hyde
said.
The administration said before the meeting they
would not comment on the details of the first bargaining session.
The bargaining process is just beginning," said
Rae Goldsmith, director of Public Relations. "We're
just going to let the bargaining process happen."
The NABET contract expired June 30. The union
members have not received an extended contract
but that has not created a major problem for them
since most terms of employment must remain the
same.
Time conflicts and other problems have prevented the groups from meeting since late July.
Since more than half of October and 10 days in
November are committed to public radio and television fund raising, the teams had difficulty finding
days to meet.
Other factors contributing to the delay were personnel changes in the administration's bargaining
team along with an illness in the family of chief
negotiator for NABET Internationa], Don Jernigan,
who works out of Washington, D.C.
NABET is affiliated with a larger union, Communications Workers of America, which represents
employees working in telecommunications, cable
and satellite branches of communications.
The union represents 25 CMU employees, a
majority of the employees in engineering, production, programming, fund raising, public information, and marketing for public radio and television
broadcasting.
Former VP Hill mulls
future at CMU after
position elimination
By JILL BEHNKE
LIFE Staff Writer	
James Hill, former vice president for Student Affairs, plans to
decide by the end of this year whether he will return to or retire from
CMU.
Hill currently is on a year's leave of absence following the elimination
of his position in April.
"I've been spending a lot of time thinking (about the decision if
whether come back)," Hill said. Tm not in a real hurry to decide
because I am on a leave of absence."
Hill is looking at and discusssing with the university the possibilities
of either coming back to CMU as a faculty member or retiring and
moving on to "a life of leisure," he said.
In reality, Hill's idea of leisure includes "being very active, with the
possibility of doing something else such as giving a service to people or
donating my services to an organization. These are the things that are
going through my head," he said.
Hill said he has discussed with President Leonard Plachta his options
for retiring or coming back to a faculty position at CMU, where he began
working in 1970.
Plachta has set a tentative deadline of Dec. 31 for Hill's decision on his
future with the university, Hill said.
Mount Pleasant could join the ranks of commercial hubs such as Birch Run and Lansing.
The Mount Pleasant City Commission unanimously approved to sell 15 acres of city land to Arthur
Silverberg, who plans to develop it into factory
outlet stores.
The plot is located at the intersection of Broom
field and Isabella roads.
Silverberg, who is retiring from the retail business by selling Arthurs Fine Jeweler's, 1805 S.
Mission St., said he hopes to have the stores running by 1996
"It will take time to develop the land and get
corporate sponsors for the stores," Silverberg said.
The market is good for it. All the big retailers
keep coming here," Silverberg said. "Outlet malls
LIFE Pnoto Jason W-mbsgani
BUDDING
ARTIST
Kelly rhom, Rochester Hills senior, delicately renders a still life for
her painting class Tuesday evening in Wightman Hall.
are the thing going in the country."
City commissioners approved the land purchase,
but said they did not know how the land would be
used. According to the agenda summary, the property committee reviewed the proposal and recommended the deal. Silverberg did not speak at the
meeting.
Silverberg described Mount Pleasant as a college
town with good potential. He said the outlet mall
will cause people who travel on US-27 to stop and
shop in Mount Pleasant.
See OUTLET Page 6	
Commission
OKs 8 budget
cuts due to
lower millage
By KRISTI GRONER
LIFE  Staff Writer 	
In an effort to maintain a balanced budget and a
reduced millage, the Mount Pleasant City Commission approved eight budget cuts Monday and is
considering nine others, five of which concern public
safety budget requests.
The proposed $252,730 in budget cuts for 1995 are
woocooory because commissioners decreased - the
millage rate from 15.26 in 1994 to 14.6 in 1995. The
decrease followed a transfer of funding for 9-1-1
from city and county taxes to a charge on phone
bills.
City commissioners agreed in May to decrease the
millage if the change in 9-1-1 billing was approved
by the voters in August.
Now commissioners are faced with complying
with their previous decision. To keep the balanced
budget and the reduced millage, commissioners
must approve 17 budget cuts, said City Manager
Paul Preston.
Commissioners began reviewing the 17 items
that were removed from the budget to keep it
balanced and discussed what items, if any, should
be placed back in the budget.
These are things that could be lived without,"
City Commissioner William Sublette said.
Of the 17 items, commissioners eliminated eight
of them from the budget. These items include:
■ restroom improvements at Chipp-A-Waters
park for $40,000.
■ an upgraded computer for the recreation director for $1,700 to better serve his needs.
■ the first step in replacing fencing at the cemetery totaling $1,700.
■ Total Quality Management training for decision makers at a $10,000 cost.
■ purchasing rather than leasing a copier for
Department of Public Works for $6,000.
■ hospital insurance for $5,000. Rick Sanborn,
city clerk, said the insurance currently in the
budget is sufficient.
■ a city newsletter for $5,200, which would have
See BUDGET Page 16	
14* J}r*-fsJ
ImT-m                  __wfy  *
Deans receive faculty
recommendations for
program rankings
LIFE Photo Jason WVambsgans
James Hill, former vice president for Student Affairs
Of course, he said, his decision depends on negotiations with university over a faculty position or the terms of his retirement should he take
that option.
"I hope the university will be fair on these conditions."
Hill taught methods classes on teaching physical education and
coached both wrestling and track from 1970 to 1975. In 1975, he became
acting dean of students and in 1976 was made permanent dean of
students. In 1979, his position became vice president for Student
Affairs, which he occupied for 15 years.
See HILL Page 6	
By BRAD MONASTIERE
LIFE Copy Editor	
Faculty members have begun
submitting their rankings of
departmental programs to their
various college deans as part of
Phase II academic program
review.
John Haeger, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and
Terry Arndt, dean of the College
of Business Administration, have
received lists from faculty members in each of their respective
departments.
Arndt said he was pleased with
the response he got from faculty
members in the meeting he had
with the department chairs Monday.
"We had an excellent meeting,"
he said. The (department)chairs
and faculty did an outstanding
job at presenting and evaluating
all the programs to me."
The next step in the program
review process is for the college
deans to consider the faculty's
ranking of the different programs
and present their findings to
interim Provost Richard Davenport by Nov. 15.
Haeger said he will meet with
Davenport Thursday to get some
response to the College of Arts
and Science's version of its rankings.
*T had my department chairs
send in the rankings by last Friday," he said. "Not all of then-
were in on time, but I have all the
material now."
Haeger said his job now will be
See REVIEW Page 13