1978-08-28; Central Michigan Life

              pww
mm
nam
nnp«
■,I-PJUH,JI!«-
JS-W.WW*"pJp
awpyfaai
I fflkhl
i
Volume 60 No. 1
Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859
•f5a*:ir*i::::i£^^
Monday, August 28,1978
wamtrgyxKanss^ssa
CMU: undercurrent of hope
by TONY DEARING
LIFE Editor
The students have returned, some 16,000
of them, and they've rudely snapped this
University back to life after a long, sleepy
summer.
The dorms, the academic buildings, the
bookstores, they're all teeming. You would
hardly know even a few days ago CMU was
dead still and the Warriner chimes could be
heard almost everywhere on campus.
The faculty, they're here too, fresh from a
quiet summer away from the grind and
ready to get back up in front of a classroom
to share something they know and love with
sometimes interested audiences.
In the same way, the administrators, who
never really get away from CMU during the
summer, are shaking off the dog days and
preparing themselves for the cast of
thousands they must spend the next nine
months being both responsive and
responsible to.
And everyone at CMU is continuously
awaiting the dawning of 1978-79 like they
were watching an early-hour sunrise on a
clear summer day.
They all know no matter how blue the sky
looks all the way to the horizon, no matter
how much hope and optimism they are filled
with at the beginning of a new school year,
thunder clouds can come rolling in anytime
and rain on their parade.
Over the past few years, CMU hasn't had
an easy road. A lot of good things have
happened to the University, but more often
than not the good has been overshadowed
by looming controversy and turmoil.
Still, 1978-79 brings with it a fresh start,
and across campus, there runs an undercurrent of hope.
Maybe, just maybe, 1978-79 will be the
year when the crisis in higher education
won't seem quite so critical.
Climbing costs, changing student
demands, declining, enrollments, retrenchment", and* the ever-changing role of
universities are all challenges CMU must
face as higher education approaches a new
decade.
But at CMU, a lot of the elements are
right to make this year a reprieve from the
turbulence—a year when students can
spend their time learning, faculty can spend
their time teaching and administrators can
spend their time administering.
For a lot of reasons, in 1978-79 the optimism and good will eternally brought on
by a hew school year doesn't necessarily
have to fade to disillusionment and disappointment as summer fades to fall, and fall
to winter.
The biggest plus for CMU this year is its
healthy budget. As money makes the world
go 'round, so does the budget make CMU go
'round.
After years of being underfunded by' the
state, CMU officials say they finally got
their fair share this year. The result is a $42
million budget—up about $4 million more
than last year—which President Harold
^Abel says he "feels very comfortable with."
Last year, Abel gave a long oratory at a
Board of Trustees meeting detailing why he
thought many of CMU's problems were the
result of being under-budgeted. If he was
right, a lot of potential problems this year
should have already been nipped in the bud.
Of course, at a university as complex as
CMU, the budget is never the whole story.
There would have to be a lot of other contributing factors to make 1978-79 one of the
best school years in a long, long time.
And whether you are a student, faculty
member or administrator, there are a lot of
little pieces which together could make for
you an exciting picture for 1978-79.
Students have as much to look forward to
as anybody. After all, they are attending one
of the most popular universities in the state.
Although final figures are not yet' in, it
appears CMU will easily maintain last year's
enrollment level.
Whatever the University is doing, it
continues to do it right because when high
school seniors begin thinking college, CMU
is One of the first schools they consider.
(See "Campus mood—" page 9A)
-CM UFEPHOTO BY PETER LUKE
The day. sunny with blue skies. The place. Perry Shorts
Stadium. Expressing the exuberance of the new school year by
tossing the old Frisbee around, Mike Howell, Plymouth senior,
leaps high to snare the flying saucer while Larry Grawburg,
Burton senior, comes up fast from behind. Although Frisbee
tossing is not under consideration for varsity sport status, the
two appear to be playing as though it were.
""->.
i
— Contrary to
popular belief,
college students
are not only "light-
fingered" shoppers. See Section B
for story.    *
 ) ■■
^
—Roy Kramer ends
his 73-year-old
reign as CMU's
head coach to
accept position
elsewhere. See
Section C for story.
J
<CTtp™°T«Jp"w.^-i3"WE*-ii
^Aa^a_rir>ii_r.tt^ „._._._ ..i,.,..i. V|i|^. t i|lf<|-^
mJi
__>._____!_
""■ -'-^■iifjjin
11.