1985-04-03; Central Michigan Life

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Wednesday April 3.1985
1M5CML1KE
20 pages
Mount Pleasant. Mich   48859
Vol.68 No. 82
Ex-CMU employee alleges intimidation
by JACKIE BRAUN
UFE Staff Writer
A former Financial Aids employee alleges in a letter to the
President that some employees have been intimidated and had
their jobs threatened by Financial Aid administrators.
Maxine Mesbergen, former administrative secretary in the
Financial Aids office, sent to President Harold Abel a letter and
a copy of her appeal to the Personnel Department to inform
others of the problems she and others have encountered in the
Financial Aids office, she said.
"I am aware of three other staff members who have been'are
being intimidated, threatened or otherwise unfairly treated,"
Mesbergen said in the letter.
According to Mesbergen, she resigned from her position
"under duress" after only 25 working days.
Robert Walling, director of Financial Aids, and Shery 1 Spivey,
associate director of Financial Aids, declined to comment on
Mesbergen's resignation.
Another employee. Hilda Machuta, said she has been told not
to comment when asked if she had been subject to, or heard of
any harrassment taking place. She would not say who told her
not to comment.
Helen Normann, Financial Aids specialists clerk, said questions regarding Mesbergen should be directed to Walling and
that she had not been threatened or intimidated.
Mesbergen met with Russ Herron, assistant to the president,
on March 21 to discuss her letter and appeal.
The Office of the I-Yesident isn't usually involved in the appeal
process but became involved after Mesbergen wrote her letter,
according to Herron.
Herron said he intends to speak to Abel about the matter. Abel
was out of to wn when the letter was delivered to his office.
Mesbergen, who has been a secretary for approximately 30
years prior to her employment at Central, further charges in
her letter that Walling and Spivey are more interested in furthering their careers than "the competent, efficient and fair administration of the $22 million in financial aid funds which have
♦See "Financial Aid" — page 8
SGA freshmen rep| $500,000 tax plan to improve city's look
posts eliminated
by STACEY PITTS.
UFE Ass't. News Editor
Freshmen will no longer
be able to run for Student
Government Association
representatives as a result
of the newly enacted district
policy and the elimination of
fall elections.
However, freshmen still
will be able to participate in
SGA without having an official position. Elections
Director Paul Bandrowski
said.
"Freshmen will have no
official voting power, but no
longer is any actual class
going to be represented by
their class, but by geographical representation."
Bandrowski. Milford sophomore, said.
SGA will allow any freshman who wants to participate to come to the meeting
and be part of a special
freshman program, he said.
"For instance, a freshman
will come in and say "I want
to be involved with student
government.' The president
would then assign that person to an individual from
their district that's on the
board," hesaid.
"The representative will
work closely with that individual. Everything they do,
they'll involve that freshman." Bandrowski said.
"Basically it will teach them
all they need to know for the
following year."
Some of the freshmen feel
they do not have as big an
input into SGA operations as
a result or the change. Bandrowski said, but he disagrees.
•Implicitly they will have
a say. In the real world, the
situation is you don't automatically become a representative, you have to learn
first," he said.
Bandrowski said by the
time freshman elections are
finished in the fall, three-
quarters of the semester is
over with. With the new election procedures, a lot of
backtracking and going over
the same materials on the
new freshman representatives would be eliminated.
Bandrowski said another
concern expressed by members is a lack of freshmen
representation in specific
districts. He cited District 3,
which includes the Towers,
as having a high freshman
population.
"A sophomore would probably be elected from the
Towers and they'll know the
concerns of that area." he
said. "We're not trying to
address just freshmen but
total concerns (of the student body). It will be more of
a concerted effort," he said.
"There's been a special
concern because no freshmen will be on the board," he
said. "But together with the
district representative,
freshmen can adequately
address the concerns of the
entire district."
Elimination of freshmen
representatives on the SGA
Board will not affect representation, he said.
Under the new district
system, there are five districts with three representatives each and one graduate
representative. The reps are
not required to be from a
specific class standing.
bySANDRASUTTON
UFE Staff Writer
Improvements worth $500,000 to the downtown area will rework and expand past beautification efforts. City Manager Tom
Martin said.
The money will be raised through a tax increment financing
plan. The plan allows a municipality to obtain a loan for improvements and to pay it off through the increased value of the
improved area.
The Mount Pleasant City Commission decided at its regular
meeting Monday night to have a public hearing on the issue at its
April 15 meeting.
"I don't want to mislead the public that this is to completely
re-do the old improvements. I think a lot of people believe this It
isn't true." Martin said.
"We're basically going along with the project that was started
in the late '70s," Martin said.
In 1977 and 1978. the city of Mount Pleasant took measures to
beautify the downtown area. Some of these past improvements
will be re-vamped or removed under the new plan.
Cement pillars lining Broadway were installed during the
1978 project. They will be removed at a cost of $14,000
The size of planter boxes lining Isabella Bank and Trust at
University and Broadway will be reduced.
The cost of the reduction in size is est imated at $9,000
Martin said the past efforts have helped in making the area
more attractive to patrons of downtown merchants.
"The downtown merchants did identify some irritants however." Martin said.
They thought the pillars, divider and planter were traffic
hazards, Martin said
A major part of the plan is for acquisition and construction of
parking lots Of the improvement money, $297,000 is set aside
for this.
"We've got a healthy downtown that's been growing more and
more. Because the downtown is doing so well, we need more
parking," Martin said. "Thisisaniceproblemtohave."
Assistant City Manager Dave Pasquale said people he had
talked with said a major problem downtown was lack of parking
space.
♦See "City" — page 8
Placement officials call
job market 'the best'
by ROBIN KELLY
UFE News Editor
The job market for this year's May graduates is better than
ever according to several Central Placement officials and the
Michigan State University placement director.
Jack Shingleton. director of Placement Services at MSU. said
last week the upcoming job market is the best in recent years.
Central placement officials echoed Shingleton's optimism.
"I do think that certainly the prospects for employment for
college graduates is much better than in recent years." Mike
Carey, associate director of Placement at Central, said.
He said the increasing number of jobs is directly linked to the
economy.
Carey's specific responsibilities include placement services
for K-12 teachers and higher education positions. He said there
is a 40 percent increase in the number of teaching positions
listed with his office this year.
"On-campus recruiting used to be the primary way for districts to recruit teachers, then as time got tougher fewer and
|See "Placement" — page 8
Academic Advising Day is today from 2 to 5
p.m. in the Bovee University Center Ballroom
Students can get information on majors,
minors, careers and fall scheduling. Counselors will be on hand to assist students.
City official
Icy stare
During the CMU baseball game Tuesday afternoon at Alumni Field. Urilla
Brittenham, of Clio, wrapped herself in an afghan to stay warm. Brittenham
said she came to watch her son, Garth Brittenham, pitch for Saginaw Valley
State College.
CX 1*1 mmm Hmmtmy
401  students still
have   outstanding
University debts and
face withdrawal.
page 3
The Union
Township supervisor
Wednesday is expected to address
allegations made
against him.
page 3
The Cuban world
class wrestling team
arrived  in  Mount
Pleasant Monday,
page 14
partial
beer ban
byCRAIGCOLGAN
UFE Staff Writer
A Mount Pleasant City Commissioner claims a plan to ban
sales of bottled and keg beer
during finals week has "100
percent cooperation" of local
party stores, but store owners
and managers say thev arc
hesitant.
Commissioner Pat Doyle, on
the recommendation of a group
of student and city leaders, has
recommended to local party
store owners they not stock
and sell bottled beer and beer
in kegs during May 6 through
11
Doyle said he heard 'extensive" complaints from citizens
and police after last year's End
of the World party about damage and injury from bottle-
throwing.
"Any time there's glass at
large parties, there can be a lot
of problems." Doyle said. "And
when there's large amounts of
beer, there's excessive
drunkeness."
"I've talked to people from
the majority of the local party
stores, and I've gotten 100 percent cooperation. They liked
the idea, and said they would
cooperate."
Chris Bailey, co-owner of
Cheers Party Store. 102 Pickard, said. "We don't sell that
many kegs but 1 wouldn't want
to deny bottled beer to
anyone."
Nancy Sneary. an employee
of the Town Market, 125 E
Broadway, said she wondered
if other stores would comply.
"Somebody  was in three
weeks ago and asked if we
would not sell bottled quarts
and kegs," she said. "He asked
♦See "Kegs" —page 8
Cloudy with little if
any temperature
change. Temperatures in the low to mid
30s.