The Daily Collegian Monday, Jan. 8, 1979
Penn State quarterback Chuck
Fusina, who fell short in the quest
for No. 1 and for the Reisman.
=Collegian year-in-review
Student apathy:
Task Force fails, USG structure still unchange•
By BRUCE BECKER
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
A referendum that would have
changed tfie — itrueture — of ' stuilent
'government was defeated Spring Term
.because , it failed to receive the 40 per
cent turnout needed to amend the con
'stitution of the Undergraduate Student
Government.
The results of the University Task
:Force on Student Representation's
.referendum caused the Executive
'Council of USG to amend the constitution
,so that only a 25 percent turnout would
'Lie needed in future referendums.
The referendum, which was approved
iby 63 percent of the undergraduate
:students who voted, marked the end of
Almost two years of work by the body
'which was charged by Vice President for
,Student' Affairs Raymond 0. Murphy
with investigating new avenues and
'approaches to student government.
A central council consisting of
Costs, overcrowding plagued dorm dwellers
By AMY SMITH
,Daily Collegian Staff Writer
Living in residence halls during the 1977-78 academic
'year proved difficult for many students who were faced
with overcrowding, contract cancellations and tuition
; and room and board increases.
The housing situation on campus looked dim last
spring when 15,000 contract requests were received by
March 17. Only 12,800 spaces were available.
The overabundance of housing requests during
Spring Term resulted in the University's cancellation of
1,200 contracts. Only 40 of those students were assigned
to doubles in Nittany Halls or triples in other halls on
campus.
, To accommodate as many students as possible, dorm
rooms became cramped for space. Housing added bunk
beds and extra desks to many dorms.
In the spring of 1978, three students 'filed a class ac
tion suit on behalf of 11,000 students for partial refund of
room and board due to a shortened Winter Term.
The University awarded students an $8.40 refund for
the five days classes were interrupted, but the refund
did not go far when room and board charges were in
creased Fall Term.
The Board of Trustees approved a $l9 per term in-
Scandal almost led to resignations of ARHS heads
By SHARON RUPERT
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
The Association of Residence Hall
Students asked for the resignations of
President Jeff Glazier and Vice
President Steve Matt on Oct. 3 in the
wake of accusations of various abuses of
funds and privileges in residence hall
government. However, both Glazier and
Matt have thus far remained in office.
, ARHS asked for the resignations a few
weeks after an investigation by Daily
Collegian reporters examined alleged
indescretions by ARHS officials. These
included alleged abuses of movie co-op
funds and proceeds efrom a projector
sale, the Student Travel Organiaation's
'financial woes, a floating meal ticket
and alleged misuse of funds for a
Fa ces'7B
representatives from all major student
government organizations was the
major proposal of the groitp,T.l§k force
members feltthat organizing everybody
into one centralized body would both
streamline student government and
make it easier for the administration to
gather student input.
The referendum was held during
registration and the first two days of
classes Spring Term.
Opponents of the proposal encouraged
students not to vote in the referendum so
thpt it would not receive the necessary 40
percent turnout.
Their plan succeeded as voter turnout
was high during registration, but fell off
dramatically when it was held 'in the
HUB during classes. About 5,900
students voted at registration, but only a
total of 6,075, or 23 percent of the un
dergraduate student body, voted in all.
Of those who did vote, 3,367 voted for
crease in room and board charges, to change the total
fee from $1,509 to $1,566.
Tuition went up, 410, but a term early. The board
approved a tuition increase of $35 per term and raised
tuition from $1,263 to $1,318 per year in January.
For 700 students assigned to temporary housing, Fall
Term began on the wrong foot.
By Sept. 20, 200 of those students had been placed in
permanent spaces.
Students found they had to take responsibility for
cleaning their own rooms beginning in September. In
order to prevent an increase in room and board
charges, the housekeeping staff discontinued cleaning
student rooms twice a term and limited housekeeping to
holiday breaks.
Housing proved to be a problem for many students
when the University refused to open the dorms for
students returning from Thanksgiving break early to
attend the Pitt-Penn State game.
But the University considered student appeal and
decided to open the dorms and charge students $2.25 per
day. .
Student protest helped reverse the University
decision and the dorms were opened at the kickoff of the
game, free of charge.
summer Arts Festival party
Glazier was cleared Summer Term of
charges that he misused ARHS funds by
the University Office of Conduct Stan
dards. Former movie co-op co-chairman
Bill Buerschinger, who also was called
before the board, was disciplined by the
University. Buerschinger refused to
comment on the charges brought against
him, although Glazier said, "I assume
they were essentially the same."
On Feb. 16, Buerschinger was asked to
resign as co-chairman at a closed ARHS
meeting because he failed to promptly
deposit movie receipts in the Associated
Student Activities office, the
organization "Which keeps the books of
most student organizations. ASA policy
requires that movie receipts be
Director of University Safety David E.
Stormer and Undergraduate Student Gov
ernment Vice President Tony Cortese during
USG hearings on Stormer's proposal to arm
the Campus Police.
Reaction among task force members
varied. Co-chairman Steve DiOrio, who
was president of the Interfraternity
Council, Said that while he was disap
pointed about the turnout, he was
"pleasantly surprised by the results."
"I think it's a strong indication that
the students feel there- is a need for
change," DiOrio said.
The other co-chairman, director of the
deposited by 5 p.m. the working day
following the movie.
In the Collegian's series of articles,
Buerschinger was also accused of
misusing a floating meal ticket which
enabled him to eat in any dining hall
area even though he was no longer a
member of ARHS. Only ARHS Council
and Executive Council members, RHAB
members and the movie chairman are
entitled to that privilege. Lignelli issued
the meal ticket at the request of Glazier
and Matt.
Another student leader accused of
wrongdoing in the Collegian series was
movie co-op chairman John J. Osswald,
who allegedly deposited $4OO worth of
movie profits into his personal bank
account, a violation of ASA policy.
Pholo by Ed Glantz
the proposal while only 1,972 voted
against it. The simple majority needed
to make the change in the constitution
was exceeded but not enough students
voted.
USG Supreme Court Chief Justice
Harry Leider said he was "very
dissapointed" in the turnout.
"We made it as easy as possible for the
students to vote," Leider said. "We gave
them every chance to exercise their
option as to what kind of student
government they wanted. But most of
them chose not to.
Up and down the political ladder:
Gregg Cunningham, far right, used
door-to-door campaigning, some
conservative viewpoints and Dick
Thornburgh's coattails to become
state representative from the Centre
Region. Joseph Ammerman, right,
however, failed in his bid for re
election. He ran an uphill campaign
after suffering a serious hip injury
in an automobile accident last
summer
Associated Student Activities office,
Melvyn S. Klein expressed no disap
pointment in the results.
"Our primary goal was to develop a
set of recommendations and submit
them. And we've done that," Klein said.
The task force then had the option of
trying to get the proposal passed by the
Executive Council, but chose not to.
During Fall Term, the council discussed
lowering the required turnout for a
referendum to 20 percent, but the two
thirds of council organizations which
would be needed to lower the percentage
could not be obtained.
Subsequently, the council was able to
gain approval to lower the percentage to
25 percent.
While there is not now any plan to form
a new group to try to change student
government, the council and Murphy are
still discussing what possible action may
be taken.
About 3,000 students took advantage of the open dorm
situation, which cost the University about $2,000. •
In December, the University changed the dorm
assignment policy to a first come, first served basis.
Now students who request the same room they
presently are assigned to will not be guaranteed space.
The year was not without provisions made by the
University to make dorm living a little more like home: -
The beginning of 1978 brought with it 6,800 new
telephones in dorm rooms. Students are now able to
take advantage of less costly direct dialing rates.
The University is now considering installing
refrigerators in dorm rooms as permanent fixtures.
Installment would begin no earlier than the Fall Term
1979 and would increase room and board by $3O for three
terms.
The future dorm situation may continue in the same
vein.
Tuition and room and board may follow precedent
and rise. The Board of Trustees has raised room and
board every year for the past 10 years.
Crowding will always be a problem, but depending on
next year's admission, there may be fewer converted
double and triple dorm rooms. -
Buerschinger and Osswald also
allegedly gave about $3OO to former
ARHS Publicity Director Mary Anne
Eves to pay her rent. Eves did not return
the phone calls from Daily Collegian
reporters, but a source said all the
money was returned after it was
discovered missing.
In addition, , two former area
presidents, Centre Halls' Kelly Hause
and South Halls' Mary Spyridakis, failed
to turn in budgets for the 1978-79
academic year, leaving their areas
without money. Both areas have since
been alloted money from . ASA,
Spyridakis is presently ARHS secretary.
Also in the Collegian series, Hause was
accused of violating Centre Halls'
constitution by selling two movie
Union workers
strike 40
By JIM ZARROLI
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
The strike that had been threatened on
more than one previous occasion finally
hit the University last year. At one
minute past midnight on July 'l,
Teamsters Local 8, representing the
University's 2,600 technical service
employees, went on strike.
That strike, which made the Team
sters headline news all summer, was not
concluded until 40 days later. In the
meantime, the University community
had to do without many of the basic
services it had taken for granted.
Buildings closed promptly at 5 p.m.
Routine maintenance service was
suspended. University employees even
had to take outyash.thecnqeyes, -
Proliablk; the'eftedt felt nibit 'str'ongly 1
by students, faculty and townspeople
was the moving of the annual Central
Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts off
campus and onto Allen Street.
If the strike was a test of the
University's mettle, it received
something in the neighborhood of a B
plus. For the community did survive a
long period of doing-without, whatever
the individual hardships. Granted, many
had seen the strike coming, and had
prepared for it. But the strike did not
bring chaos, and when it was finished,
workers returned to their jobs and
construction work had not been seriously
held up. In the activity-filled days before
Fall Term began, the strike quickly
became a memory.
For 'the duration of the strike,
however, tensions seemed to run high.
Many people quickly lost sympathy for
the picketers, who they claimed ob
structed traffic • and even sprinkled
picketing road sites with nails. As
negotiations dragged on without
resolution, accusations got more and
more frequent and • bad feelings con
tinued to intensify.
One factor that had an effect on the
frustrating negotiating process, at least
by some estimates, was a challenge by
Council 83 of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees
over which union would represent the
technical service employees. An election
to decide the issue was scheduled for
mid-July.
Several days before the expiration of
the worker's contract, University
Provost Edward D. Eddy even claimed
the two unions were using the University
and the threat of a strike to further their
own causes: "One obviously doesn't
want to bargain before an election, and
the other is anxious to gain control," he
said. "Asa result, Penn State is the
victim of a contest in which it is not a
contestant."
But the Teamsters' defeat of the
projectors and a switch-over system to
Buerschinger, then-STO president,
without, the consent of Centre Halls'
council.
Hause said the equipment was not
working properly and was of no further
value to Centre Halls, but Centre Halls
Movie Chairman Tom Hartman said the
equipment was still operable. ,
STO had its charter revoked in
November by the Undergraduate
Student Government Supreme Court
because it did not have a minimum of 12
members and did not make an attempt
to fulfill the purpose stated in the
organiUtion's charter. The organization
had sponsored just one trip, which was a
financial disaster.
ARHS also was accused of over-
Photo by Andy Gumberg
Photo by Lynn Dudinsky
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Photo by Ock Wa / ci
Left, former USG President Grant Ackerm .
and Mike Stinson, USG liaison, picket A.W.Ljk:
Sons rental offices. Above, former OTitl
president Jeremy Abrams. IN
W,, 1
-, i,
days
AFSCME challenge they beat thew
opponents by receiving more than,,g,
percent of the votes cast didn't end
,t,h9
strike. Negotiations reopened severp,l4
days later for the first time since Ain
22, but ended after only eight hoursi of
talks. 13i
More accusations were made. On July
26, the University learned that Loc.qlkB
president Jane Pikovsky had written.to
U.S. Secretary of Health, Education ang
Welfare Joseph Califano charging than
the University was illegally using work
study students to do 'union work. The
University and three contractors one
of which was working, on additionsito
Beaver Stadium that many feared would
not be completed by football seasork , --- v ,
had alreadyflted unfair labp'r n praCtiber
with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations
Board charging that the picketers were
interrupting work at construction'sites:-4
Despite those claims that the electiog
had produced the strike, Teamster of
ficials maintained all along that wag,
were the key issue. A contract rejected
by union members several days before
the strike began offered the workers TiV
increase of 20 to 34 cents per hour. Thds6
figures, which represented an average
increase of 4.87 percent, were coif ,
siderably less, Teamster officials noted!:
than the 6 percent increase offered by V'
the University the year before.
The strike was particularly hard AI
many of the picketers. "It throws your
life into an uproar," one worker noted;
"because you're never sure what you
going to do from day to day." i ,
Even country and western singer,
Loretta Lynn was affected by the strilm
Lynn, who arrived in her tour bus July 28
for a concert in Eisenhower Auditorium,
found herself confronted by Pikovsky,
who attempted to get the singer .to c,lll
off her concert in support of the strike?& it
Waiting for Lynn, whose autobiography
'
was entitled "Coal Miner's Daughter,"
to arrive, Pikovsky wore a t-shirt upciii
which she had written "I am a ccidf
miner's daughter too." Lynn perforaed
as scheduled.
But it was the rallies that shoWed 64,
University community what the
Teamsters were made of. One locig
march across campus by the picketerp,
ended up in a rally on the steps of qlq,
Main, with 400 workers chanting, "We
want (University President John W s ) {
Oswald, we want a contract."
I tlg
As the strike dragged into Augusts
many supposed that it wouldn't end,
before fall, when more students, and
even football-season revenues, could be
made to see the effects of the strike. Ectit
a tentative contract was finally reachAd
on Aug. 5, and a final contract wad,,
agreed upon several days later.
spending for a summer Arts Festival
party that ended up costing $608.121
instead of $425, as originally planned to
ARHS Summer President Marina
Murphy, Glazier and Michael LeepeN
vice president of the Organization for
Town Independent Students. ,The cps ‘ ii to
was to be split between Leeper apt
ARIIS. !tin
Leeper said he paid $212.50 from lii
personal money to pay for the party and
that no money was taken from OVA
funds. Funds for the party were handlnct
by Summer Treasurer Tom Andresf i c., , ,
who is presently serving in the I.IIS.
Navy. Matt has , contacted Andrew
concerning the party, but so far Matt kph
not released the information he h,a4
received from Andress. . 91 1
Photo by David March
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