1981-02-23; Central Michigan Life

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Central Michigan LIFE
Vol. 62 No. 61
©  1981 CM LIFE
Mount Pleasant, Mich. 48859
16 pages
Monday, Feb. 23,1981
CMU volunteers cherish
Special '0' experience
by SHIRLEY SZELKOWSKI
LIFE Staff Writer
CEDAB—Not everyone would take off three
days of school or work and travel nearly 200 miles
to work with mentally impaired athletes.
But a group from Mount Pleasant, including
approximately 120 CMU students, did just that.
The occasion was the 198.1 Michigan Winter
Special Olympic Games at Sugarloaf Mountain
Resort Wednesday through Friday.
Many more students wanted to go but had to be
turned down due to limited housing facilities,
according to State Director John Walsh.
"I think it's fantastic," said Jeannine Cwizdak,
Westland sophomore. "I'd pay to come up here."
"I get a lot of personal satisfaction," explained
Marty Derda. "There's so much joy and love
here."
The Livonia senior, a three-year veteran of the
games, was the volunteer coordinator for the 55
Central students who worked in the competitive
events. Other volunteers dressed as animal and
cartoon characters, worked in special events and
hugged and encouraged the competitors.
But in some cases, it was the athletes who gave
the encouragement.
"They're so giving," commented Deb Ver-
schueren, Hart freshman. "Sometimes one will
stop in the middle of the race to help another one.
"They have super personalities and almost
more endurance because of their handicaps," she
continued.
What the athletes lack in ability, they make up
(See"Volunteer"—page 15)
Student loses round
in parking ticket case
by TERRY FOSTER
LIFE Staff Writer
James Kearney had
something to fight for. The
Mount Pleasant junior thought
he could take the bull by the
horns and win. But so far he is
losing.
CMU took Kearney to court to
collect $400 in parking tickets he
received    between    July    and
December of 1980. Forty of the
44 citations were issued outside
of his Washington Apartment.
Kearney's request to dismiss
the case against him was denied
in Isabella County's 76th
District Court last week. He
asked for the dismissal on
grounds the University had
waited too long to file its briefs.
Now the burden is on Kearney
to present his case before the
court in 30 days or pay the fines.
However, Kearney  has  no intentions of paying the money.
"I'm telling the judge, and
telling the University that I am
not paying that money,"
Kearney said. "They will have to
find me in contempt of court. I
know they will not throw me in
jail. If they throw me in jail, then
I am leaving this country,
because they would be saying I
cannot park outside of my own
{See "K*«ney"—p«*e 2)
Faculty grievance policy
faces Senate revision
by JANET HASTINGS
LIFE Staff Writer
CM UFE/Stevan C. Jessmon
10-year-old Hame* Pankey of Pontiac holds on to a new friend during the closing ceremony of the
1981 Michigan Winter Special Olympics Friday.
Academic Senate will begin Tuesday what
could be a time-consuming task, as it attempts to
approve the revision of the faculty grievance
policy, Senate Chairman Wayne Kiefer said.
The current policy has been in operation since
1970.
"Whenever you write a policy and work with it
a number of years you begin to see where it can
be improved," Kiefer said.
A 1979 Senate ad hoc committee drew up a
revised version, attempting to improve some of
the weak areas in the present grievance policy,
Kiefer said.
'    The grievance policy provides guidelines for
faculty who wish to have a decision concerning
.reappointment,  tenure,  promotion  and  salary
reviewed and reassessed.
The Senate passed the committee's version in
May of 1979 and sent it on to the Board of
(See "A-Senate"—page 15)
Black athletes experience racial tension here
(Editor's Note: In a continuing series about blacks at CMU, LIFE
Staff Writer Tom Henry today focuses on athletes.)
The pressure Robert Jackson feels on a football field goes beyond
testing his ability to cover a wide receiver.
Likewise, Mike Robinson's crunching slam-dunks don't relieve all
his tension at basketball games.
Jackson and Robinson compete in two different varsity sports,
but have something in common —the pressure of being a black
athlete at a campus which has a 95 percent white student body.
And it's a pressure with lingering effects.
"If a black athlete comes up here and he's not a superstar, he
doesn't get the chance of a white athlete with the same ability,"
Jackson said.
"You're always being watched," he continued. "If you're black and
you step out of line or blow a play, someone's quick to let you know
about it."
Jackson says he senses racial tension on and off the football field,
although remarks or gestures often are not explicit.
"You're going to have some guys from hick towns, and deep down
inside them you can tell are feelings of indifference toward you.
"But things are normally pretty cool when you're with them in
The Black in
Maroon and Gold:
Athletics
;£4L-..       /
the locker room or on the field. Their prejudice doesn't surface until
they're with their own group of people, but you can tell it's there by
looking at them," he added.
Jackson said he believes the amount of racial tension on the team
has never been excessive, and has decreased gradually since he
donned his maroon and gold uniform for the first time four years
ago.
"We realize we're all on the team for one thing, and that's to play
football," he added.
There are 13 blacks who played football this year, half of the 26
black athletes at CMU.
According to statistics combined from the Registrar's Office and
the Athletic Department, about one of every 10 blacks at CMU
belongs to a varsity team.
Jackson, a native of Allendale, said he didn't have a difficult
adjustment period when he left high school because he came from a
predominantly white neighborhood.
That's not the case for Mike Robinson, CMU's 6'9" 240 lb. center.
Robinson attended an all-black high school in Chicago before
enrolling at a community college in one of the Windy City's suburbs,
"In the early going, it was overwhelming," Robinson recalls. "I
experienced moments of inferiority because there were classes
offered I was never exposed to.
"I felt like quitting and going home sometimes, but I pushed
myself," he added.
He transferred to the University of Michigan, where his brother,
(See "Blacks"—page 15)
In Brief
Photo identification cards for transfer
students may be picked up today from 1 to 4
p.m* at the Warriner Hall ticket office.
Campus
LIFE captures the
spirit of the 1981
Michigan Winter
Special Olympics on
film.
page 16
Sports
It was the Harvey
Knuckles show in Rose
Arena Saturday afternoon as CMU
dropped a 73-70
decision to the Toledo
Rockets in men's hoop
action.
page 11
Index
Arts and Leisure 6
Classifieds.  15
Comment .4
Doonesbury  4
Horoscope  15
Off the Wire 2
Sports 11
Spotlife  15
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