1985-10-09; Central Michigan Life

              .t-'M   '-.-■;
«*7
>~1
•kSei
i'-^f
*? 5,
M"'y
Vol. 69 No. 18
©1985 CM UFE
16
pages
Mount Pleasant. Michigan 48859
Wednesday. October 9. 1985
Severance payment instigates changes
by TOM WICKHAM
UFE Newa Editor
The state will not penalize CMU for paying a former president
$315,388 in severance money, but action taken by the Board of
Trustee* last week could keep it from happening again.
A House subcommittee investigation, headed by Rep. Burton
Leland, D-Detroit, is expected to release its findings and recommendations next week regarding exorbitant salaries and fringe benefits for
executive officers. Thomas Lawton, aide to Leland, said.
The report, already given to CMU officials, will be presented to
officials from the state's other 43 universities and .community colleges,
he said. The report's message is geared at adminsirators and an
institution's governing board. Lawton addend.
Central plans
AIDS policy
by DEB BAKER
LIFE Copy Editor
A proposal for o University
policy on Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome has been
formulated by the University
Health Services Director in hopes
ci having implementing a policy
before a problem arises at CMU.
AIDS is caused by a virus which
is transmitted through sexual
contact, blood transfusions,
sharing of dirty hypodermic
nee-eJIe- ,md from mother to child
in lurlh, UHS Director Kd Brown
said
UHS Director Fd Brown issued
a proposal to Vice President for
Student AfTairs James Hill and
the Heatth Advisory Board to
develop an AIDS policy for the
University.
Specifically, "I believe the
University'a role should be one of
education about the disease and
not one on ethics We will not
require testing." Brown said
Brown had hoped to discuss the
AIDS is»ue with other universities
and colleges in the Mid-American
College Health Association al a
.conference Thursday and Friday
in  Kalama/oi ho^U-d by Western
Michigan University which
includes members as far south as
Tennessee.
"I think every' university will try
lo come up with what we should
do about AIDS It shouldn't be
treated any differently than any-
other disease and there should be
no suppression of information on
AIDS." Brown said
No specific part of the conference agenda is devoted to discus-
siun of AIDS but University
eifficials may gather informally to
discuss the issue. Donald
McNiilly. director of Health
Services at Western Michigan
University, said.
Hrown said he. Hill and medical
staff who attend the ronference
hopefully will come back with a
firm notion of a policy to present
to the Health Advisory Board.
The twelve members of the
board compoeifd of faculty, ataiT
and students have been asked to
study the AIDS issue in journals
and other periodicals in order to
bo informed enough to recommend
policy for the University,
Chairman Dennis Farley said.
"We discussed AIDS policy very
briefly at our la>t meeting iSept.
ISee "AIDS"—page 2
Proposal focuses
on faculty defense
by TOM WICKIIAM
LIFE NEWS Editor
Protection of faculty undergoing informal invesligatie.ns by the
University i.s the- focus e.f a proposal teeing submitted today by Faculty
Association tee H. William Dunham. asMiciate vice proveest for Faculty-
Contractual Relations
The FA Grievance Committee met Monday and formulated a
proposal tee clarify inve>tigation pr.>cedures. FA President Joyce
Henncks said Disclosure of the proposal's recommendations will !*•
made after today's meeting with Dunham, she added
Henncks said the focus ofthe rex-ommendations i> to "come up with
more protection for the faculty me-mlx-r" undergoing an informal
investigation
"It might make grievances a little less messy." she added
Dunham would not comment on the matter.
Henncks said the Grievance Committee's actum was prompted by
an informal investigation of a CMU religion instructor for allegedly
harassing a South African :-tudcnt
A grievance filed by FA in July regarding the investigation of Vern
Schubel. ended with a letter from Provo«t Jeihn Cantelon saying the
instructor had done- nothing 'to warrant anything like a formal
reprimand ~
In an earlier interview Henncks said FA is interested in how the
University defines an infeirmal and formal mve>tigation
♦See "Faculty"—page 16
News brief
An organizational meeting for ofT-campus. transfer students
will be conducted Thursday at 3 p m   in the Bovee University
Center Lake St. Clair Room
Inside Index
A study of full-time faculty
members     revealed    little      LIFE-wire page'2
opposition     to     the     new      Q&A page3
sabbatical policy. page 3     Comment page 4
urns . t Bloom County page 4
VVeaXner Entertainment page6
Considerable   cloudiness Spot Life                            page7
Wednesday,   except   partly Sports                             page 12
cloudy southeast.  Highs mid Chippewa Profile          page 12
50s  north  to the  upper 60s Chippewa Corner         page 13
south.        Mostly       cloudy Campus Recreation ...page 14
Wednesday night with chance PoliceReporU              page 15
of showers. Classifieds                    page 15
Details ofthe report will not be released until next week, he Mid.
"What we have to say will encourage boards to take their jobs
seriously," Lawton said.
Richard Miller, secretary to the Board of Trustees, said the report is
"reasonable and responsible . . . the legislature is responding to
concerns received from constituents."
"As I recall they do mention there were really two institutional
events that caused the investigation." he said. "One was the
(severance) payment to (former President Harold! Abel .. . the other
for departing administrators at Michigan Stale University."
In July, Abel received $315,388 in accrued vacation, salary and
fringe benefits in one lump sum. Legislators were miffed at the
settlement ebetween Abel and the board last October and cries for the
Interior visit
Speaking to students and faculty of CMU's Parks and Recreation Department. Donald P. Hodal.
current US Secretary of Interior, expressed views on the problems and solutions of natural
resources conservation. See related story page 5.
Writing proposals passed
by .JOANNA ROKAS
LIFE Staff Writer
Stueie-nt-. will have to complete an .tdvanced
composition ceeiirse befeere gradualiem and University Program cla^e> will re-quire a substantial
amount of writing as the re-sult of an Academic
Senate decision Tuesday.
The changes will go into efTe-ct for freshmen
enrolling during the 19Mfi-M7 -ihcxi] year. Academic-
Senate Chairwemian Pamela Weaver ;>aid
Stude-nt* will Ix- required to take the advanced
compe»it ion il.e-s. KN'Cf 201 "Expository Writing."
in their Miphomeere or junior year.
The- requirement will Ix- met by a grade of "C" or
legislature to penalize Central were made, Lawton said.
The only leverage the legislature has with CMU is through state
appropriations," he said. However, CMU's state appropriation made it
through virtually unscathed.
'We felt the students of CMU should not be virtimired by the actions
of one man (Abel)," Lawton added.
He said measures approved and discussed by the board last Friday
hopefully will stop future payments as large as Abel's.
Those items the board reviewed include:
—Executive officers are classified into one group with University
administrators called Senior Officers.
—The board tabled a measure to reduce the maximum accrued
 aSre "Severmnce"—page 16
Machine
removal
affect
unknown
by KIM FOULKES
LIFE Staff Writer
The effects of vending machine
removal from Park Library on the
number of students who study
there has not yet been determined, according to library
officials
Twice a year, once in the fall
and once in the spring, we do a
survey and actually count the
number of people that come to the
library," Barton l*essin, assistant
director of Academic Services,
said.
The survey will be conducted
next week and the results will be
tabulated the following week.
"Right now 1 don't know if there
are more or less people coming to
the library; I won't be able to
compare the number of people to
laat jra*»r until I ffex tha r*aulta of
the survey back." I>essin said.
Despite not being able to determine if there are less people in the
library. I.essin suid the
atmosphere has changed since the
vending machine removal.
"Maybe it's not as fun. but it's a
lietter place to study and that's
what we're here for," I,essin said.
Tbe concern of many CMU
students, however, * not where
others are studying, but where the
most productive place for them as
individuals to study is
"I do more .intense studying at
the library; there is a quieter
atmosphere and more respect
than in tbe dorms," Michelle Culp.
Indian River junior, said.
Several students agreed study
habits are haseii on individual
prefere-nce with no one factor
influencing everyone
•See "Library"—page 16
teetter in an Knglish 201 course focused on humanities, social sciences, natural sciences or within a
^pecl^lc department.
"Writing Across the University I*rogTam" will be
implemented afler the addition of an amendment
The original proposal stated that "substantial
writing." which means 50 percent of a course grade,
would In- required of all University Program courses
except those in l.ilirary Science
The words "substantial writing" were changed to
a "significant amount of meaningful writing" and
courses in Group III) will not be exempted Instead,
decisions will be made later about which classes
might   be   excluded   because   they   require   public
ISee -Writing**—page 2
CMU sets high honors provisions
by BETH MENCJE
LIFE StafT Writer
It is po>>iMe t<> graduate- cum
laude- from ("Ml." ye-t never make
the- >e-nie-ste r honors li-t
Tee l«- h-te-d. a CMC undergraduate >tudent rnu>t carry 12 lmurs
of graded e>n-campu-. work, earn al
least a '.\ .r> grade point average
and In- in the top 1(1 percent eif the
cla>» for the M-nie->ter.
A i-enior during the winter l'JeS5
.•~eme->te-r had to earn at least a
• J 71 gpa to make- the honors li.-t.
Marge Kau. Student AfTairs Office
executive- aide. >aid
"Even though you geit a 3 ,10 as a
senior, vou still didn't .qualify for
the honors 11~.t because you needed
a 3 71 or In-tler." Rau said
Tee graduate cum laude. seniors
must have at le-a>t a cumulative
3 .10 gpa
To make the honors list for
winter iyw.1 juniors needed a
semester average of 3 63. sophomores had to earn u 3 fil gpa and
freshman needed a 3 50, Rau said
A survey of other Michigan
universities revealed they have
lower grade point requirements
" Eastern Michigan University
publishes both a p3rt-time and
full-time -student honors list.
Academics Records Secretary
Margaret Dull, said. A 30 gpa is
required to make either list, she
said.
Ferris State College requires a
3 2.1 gpa to make the honors list
"with distinction." a college official
said A 3 5 is needed to earn "high
di>tinction" and a 3 75 signifies
"highest distinction "
Northern Michigan University
requries students to earn a 3 25
gpa. Registrar Harry Rajala said
For the winter 1985 semester 25
percent of the students made the
honors list. Raj a I a said.
Grand Valley State College,
Michigan Slate University.
Western Michigan University,
Michigan Technological University and the University of
Michigan all require a 3 5 gpa to
make the honors list, various
university officials said
Students nt Wayne State
I'niversity must earn a 36 gpa
and have no withdrawals,
re-peated courses or incompletes
during the semester to make the
honors list, Shirtey Miars, statistician to the Registrar, said
Before the CMU policy was
changed in the early 1970s, a 3 0
gpa was require?d to make the
"scholastic achievement list".
Associate Registrar Ron Finch,
said
"A committee took a look at it.
With the enrollment, one out of
four (students) made the list,
which did not make it very exclusive." Glenn Starner, director of
the Office of Student Life said.
The Academic Senate decoded to
adopt the name "honors list" when
it   enacted  the  current   require-
•.See "Honors"—page 16
(Grade point <*verage|
Wayne I
MSU
UM
MTU
SVSC
WMU
NMU
Ferris
EMU
■ >'
CSt 101Tm,