1977-09-09; Central Michigan Life

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Volume 59 No. 5 Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859
Fr.daytgepfti9T7
CMU, FA negotiators
say bargaining moving
byTONYDEARING
LIFE News Editor
After switching from
bargaining issues one at a time
to negotiating a package deal,
both the Faculty Association
(FA) and CMU agree they have
speeded tfteiir collective
bargaining efforts considerably
this week.
"The series this week has
been the most productive in
collective bargaining," FA team
member Ed Westin said after
Thursday's session.,
CMTJ chief negotiator John
Weatherford said although
there had not been a "heap of
progress" during Thursday's
talks, the session had been very
businesslike, and that the two
teams had finally accomplished
some work.
Westin, in part, credited the
progress in talks to the shift to
bargaining a package of issues.
At the end of Thursday's
session, the two teams had
reached agreement on three of
the issues in the package.
However, the agreements
were not initialed, because in
package   bargaining,   all   the
issues In the package must be
agreed to, and the entire
package is then initialed by the
teams.
CMU and the FA reached
agreement on the issues of
promotion calendar and change
in tenure, reappointment and
promotion policies. Tuesday,
the two had agreed to just cause.
However, Thursday's
agreements were reached early
in the session, and little
progress was made throughout
the rest of the day, as CMU
insisted   the   FA   negotiators
No poll taken
answer to issues; it considered
crucial to. its package.
Weatherford told the FA
team agreement on just cause
and change in tenure, reappointment and promotion
policies has been concession on
(See "Bargaining—" page 3)
FA drops strike talk
Believing the pace of collective bargaining has
quickened, faculty members do not favor calling a
strike against CMU, a Faculty Association (FA)
committee has discovered.
"We know what the faculty thinks, and they
don't want to talk strike," Dave Goodell, FA Job
Action Steering Committee chairperson, .said
Thursday night.
"Negotiations have speeded up this week, and
the faculty feels strike talk would be counterproductive to progress at the bargaining
table," he said.
Goodell's committee had been instructed to
conduct a secret poll or "straw vote" to determine whether the faculty would support a strike
vote after talk of a strike surfaced at an informal
FA membership meeting Sept. 1.
However, Goodell said, the straw vote has not
been taken because before it would be initiated,,
he received feedback from the faculty that it did
not want to be surveyed for strike support.
Chief FA negotiator J. Norbert Musto echoed
the sentiments of the faculty during a break in
collective bargaining Thursday night.
"In light of current progress at the bargaining
table, the FA negotiating team feels a strike vote
would be premature,'* he said. "We have ordered
the Job Action Committee not to take the straw
vote."
The FA Executive Board has called a general
membership meeting Monday, and Goodell said
unless "something comes up" before then, his
committee probably will recommend no strike
vote be taken.
"*• *«v«« .
Admiring a set of paintings by Janet Colbrin is Pam Matervich,
Mount Pleasant freshman, at the arts and crafts fair set up at the
Mardi Gras celebration to be conducted'in the downtown district.
The celebration begins today at 3 p.m. and will continue
throughout the evening (LIFE photo by John Thompson).
DBA says 'thank you' to city
Mardi Gras opens
Retired dairyman Austin* Dent, with wife Ida Maye looking on, describes life on their farm near
Barryton. Dent, 69, proudly obliged to conduct a tour of his 450-acre pasturelands. Mixing horse
sense with country wit, Dent reflected on his farming years, inserting original bits of philosophy and
wisdom (LIFE photo by Mike Thorsby).
by JANELL JOHNSON
LIFE Staff Writer
With the Mardi Gras festival
only hours away, downtown
merchants are hoping for strong
participation from students and
community members alike.
The festival, sponsored by the
Mount Pleasant Downtown
Business Association (DBA) is
scheduled downtown from 3 p.m.
until about midnight.
Among festival events, the
DBA will conduct a drawing to
award two CMU students a
tuition for 12 credit hours. The
tuitions, worth about $290 each,
will be presented in the form of a
check. The drawing will follow
the opening ceremony at 3:15
p.m.
This country wit is happy
to 'put a bug in your ear'
The drawing is being conducted to get students
acquainted with the downtown
area, according to Mark McManus, DBA president.
Students registered for the
drawing by filling out coupons
and depositing them at the
proper place of business indicated on the coupon.
The Mardi Gras festival began
last year following completion of
the downtown renovation
project. "It was our way of
saying 'thank you' to the
community and students for
putting up with us during the
renovation," John Welch, DBA
vice president, said.'
To include the University
community, the festival will
feature a "Yell Like Hell"
contest, sponsored by the CMU
Intramurals Department, at 8:30
p.m. on Main Street.
The object of the contest is "to
get students together and fired
up for Saturday's game," ac
cording to Mike Cooley of the IM
Department. The Chips will play
Eastern Michigan University
Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Perry
Shorts Stadium.
No electrical devices or
mechanical aides may be used in
the contest. However, anything
one person can carry, such as
bells or whistles, is acceptable.
Winners will be judged by
five judges on a decibel meter
reading, originality, spirit and
overall presentation.
According to Cooley, contest
winners will receive recognition
at the football game.
Last year, approximately 600
students, divided into seven
groups, participated in the "Yell
Like Hell" contest.
"We're expecting more
participation this year, now that
people know about the event,"
Cooley said. "We want students
to come out and have a good
time."
(See "Mardi Gras- " page 6)
byPETEENGARDIO
LIFE Staff Writer
"Set right down," he eagerly
offers two reporters, while
collecting his thoughts. "So
you're from Normal, eh? Or is it
Central College now?"
A listening audience of two is
a welcome opportunity for
Austin Dent to express his
homespun, yet profound,
opinions.
Dent, self-educated physicist,
historian, storyteller, ecologist,
theologian, agriculturist and
country wit, is always more than
happy to expound on pertinent
subjects for anyone within
earshot.
And if asked, the retired
dairyman from Barryton may
even elaborate on his intricate
concepts of the hippie culture ("I
UFE features
football guide
Today* the CM LIFE! football
"guide features pictures and
information about Saturday's
game between CMU -and
Eastern Michigan' University.
Read the special tabloid section
stick up for them") or the
"gestapo" motives of big
government.
Dent obliged to conduct a
motor tour of his rolling and
scenic 450-acre farm, which he
has worked for most of his 69
years.
Driving over* rambling
pastureland, Dent proudly'
pointed to his field of reed
canary grass, which he says he
was the first in the country to
plant. "This is some of the best
cattle-grazing land in the
world," he noted.
He proceeded to present his
twisting stream, which he has •
dammed up with logs and stones
to form a fishing and swimming
hole for visitors.
Around the bend is his
current project: .the clearing a
rock-cluttered section ' so
canoeists can pass through. *•
"We've got & law on this river
which goes back to the lumbering days, which says you
have to leave the river open,"
Dent explained.
But in no way is Dent's
ingenuity limited to agriculture.
Once he "learned a feller" to
read road signs so he could get
his driver's license, Dent said, as
he stopped the car for emphasis.,
The man "lived for hunting"
so Dent taught him to associate
letters with sounds in wildlife
names. "At the test, he took his
time, but he pronounced each
word," he said as he turned off
the motor. "They couldn't do
nothing as long as he read the
words." This led him to the point
of the tale.
"Let me put one bug in your
ear," he said as the motor tour
neared completion. "You can do
anything as long as you have
faith."      '
.Back in his home, Dent
presented his mechanical
dexterity, showing evidence of
typical horse-sense which has
motivated American ingenuity.
One contraption was a
powered meat grinder made
from an old Chevrolet transmission and a hand grinder.
Previously the transmission had
been Used to power an electricity-conducting windmill, he
said.
Always out to impress, one
more .demonstration seemed in
order.
"Close the door, Dinah," he
directed.
Dinah, a small white spaniel,
nudged the door shut with'her
snout.' Under   Dent's   verbal
instruction, Dinah demonstrated,
her   repertoire   of  tricks,   including flicking the light switch'
on   with   her   nose   and   a
dramatization   of   her   escape
from a mean porcupine.
"I   learned   her   a   lot   of
English," Dent said.
—Proposed housing code changes-
page 3
—Bluegrass festival begins-page 5
—Poquette signs with Pistons—page
10
—injuries  plague   Chip  gridders—
pag&73
Discrimination case
'closed'— MDCR
The reverse discrimination case levied against     graduate of the University of Michigan School of
CMU in January now is officially closed for lack of    Law. Neither of these claims could,be verified,
icial
evidence, according to a Michigan Department of
Civil Rights (MDCR) spokesperson.
The ,MDCR found no merit in charges of
discrimination on the basis of sex and race filed
by Paul Weisbord, an unsuccessful administrative job candidate* Justice Moore* deputy
director of the MDCR enforcement division, said
Thursday.
Weisbord was one of about 140 applicants for
the new position of CMU affirmative action officer.
One of the requirements lor the post was actual
experience in civil rights, which Weisbord
clainted he had, Weisbord also claimed he was a
aw.
Moore said.
"The case has been closed for lack of evidence,"
Moore said. Investigators from the MDCR
Lansing division recommended in June the
charge be dropped for that reason.
James Turner now is CMU's affirmative action
officer. The position was not filled when
Weisbord made the charge, -
Any decision by the MDCR may be appealed at
the circuit court level.
According to Moore, Weisbord also has
charged a Michigan State University sorority
with discrimination on the basis of sex when he
was denied employment. '
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