THE YZ~Tg January 24, 1984
Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma
Vol. 82, No. 30
Sailor heads west in search of gold
Robert Berg and crew sail Gorilla My Dreams at the pre-Olympic trials in Long Beach, Ca. Berg hopes to sail this model, a 27 foot three-man Soling keel boat, for the United States at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
By Traci Baucom Associate Editor Robert D. Berg, CSU business finance major, wants, like many before him, to travel to California in search of gold. But, unlike others before him, his ambition is to gain a particular, internationally-sought breed of gold—the Olympic kind. Berg is a sailor, a world class sailor, who hopes to sail for the United States this summer in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He has been training for Los Angeles since he was 10 years-old. "I decided two years ago that if I was going to continue competitive sailing at that current level, I needed to find something that was going to give me a feeling of accomplishment," Berg explained. Berg then talked to some people in Texas that were putting together an Olympic sailing team. As the Olympics began to look better and better to him, Berg started to look into the six categories of sailboats considered to be Olympic class. He purchased a 1977 Abbott Boats, Ltd., Soling sailboat in Milwaukee named Gorilla My Dreams. He and his crew—John Crawford, a University of Oklahoma accounting major and Pat Wellington, district sales manager for GTE Sprint Communications—then began to train at the Oklahoma City Boat Club on Lake Hefner. - After sailing in a few regattas, the United States Olympic Yachting Committee chose Berg and his crew for the United States Olympic Yachting team. According to Berg, being chosen for the Olympic Yachting team does not mean that he gets to compete in the Olympics, it just means that he is given the opportunity to compete in several events that normally wouldn't have been open to him. Being chosen for the team made Berg and his crew eligible to sail in See SAILING page 3
Tax increase gathers momentum By Matthew Driskill Editor At a meeting of educators and lay people from across the state
Friday, Governor George Nigh tried out some of his tax ideas and received support from most of the educators there, including Bill
Lillard, president of CSU. Lillard explained there seemed to be strong support for a tax increase this legislative session and
Williams named vice president By Terri Carpenter Larry B. Williams has been approved as the new vice president for administration at CSU, by the Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges at their regular meeting Friday. Williams will replace Alvin Acorn who will retire Feb. 1. Williams has been assistant vice president for administration since 1980 and is director of personnel services at CSU. In addition to his new position, Willliams will also continue as personnel director "in an effort to save money for the university, for an undetermined period of time." The university is under a hiring freeze and Williams said this is one of the reasons why his old
position won't be immediately filled. Willliams said the legislature will probably take some positive action towards getting more money for the university by the next fiscal year which begins in July. Williams said CSU is not in as bad a financial situation as some universities in Oklahoma. He attributes this to Alcorn's good planning. Although some faculty members have said that Williams was hand-picked by Alcorn, his predecessor, he said he definitely was not hand-picked. "Being involved in charge of personnel for the university, I have been involved in a lot of
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In this issue... KBLZ blitzes Edmond...page 4 Senate approves salary delay...page 5 Edmond Weekly premiers Feb. 1...page 6 Tracksters take 6 in opening meet...page 7 Grapplers place 10 in tourney...page 8
screening processes for a lot of positions. There frequently are concerns or accusations that the process does not work fairly. Perhaps it doesn't, but we feel that it does. "I feel that it is a good process...We have to go through the process of advertising and trying to establish the broadest possible base of applicants that we can get so that we can get the best person for the job," Williams said. "Whoever is picked as the successful applicant for any position, the charge could go out that they were hand-picked." Williams said he is "estatic" and "extremely pleased" that he has been "given the opportunity to serve the university in this position." Williams said he thinks he is well-qualified or he would not have applied for the position. "Central State University is very important to me. I have been connected with it for many years and I would not want to be in a position where I couldn't handle it," commented Williams. Williams, who has been in administrative postions at CSU since 1969, received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from CSU and is working toward his doctorate at OU.
said the Speaker of the House seemed to think he could garner enough votes within the next week or two to pass such a measure. "As I understand it, a one cent tax increase could raise as much as $200 million," Lillard said. "It appears there seems to be a movement underfoot to go for a one cent sales tax increase, either temporary or permanent, during this session of the legislature and then some of the money could even be raised and received before June 30." Lillard said he supports the tax increase because of the different ways the budget cuts have affected CSU. "I very definitly support the increase," Lillard said. "I've se what the cuts have done to CSU—we've had to cut back on travel—had to cut student workers from 20 hours to 15—cut sections from the schedule—cutting back on summer school. Very definitly I support the tax increase." Lillard also said he hopes the tax increase would be permanent in order to avoid budget shortfalls in the future. "This way, if the increase is permanent, that eliminates the need to go back every year and repass it," Lillard said. "Also, anytime the people want to, they can go back and eliminate it. It just has that advantage of not having to go back every year or 18 months and facr another crisis. Lillard said another of the reasons behind the meeting was to discuss the ways the different educators could win support for
the increase from their constituents. Lillard said some of the other groups represented at the meeting spoke up about the budget cuts and how they were facing severe hardships from the state's financial difficulties. "Various representatives spoke up about how they would win support for the tax increase, either permanent of temporary. They also talked about eliminating the sales tax exemptions which would also help," Lillard said. "All the people seemed supportive of the increase because they've all been participating in drastic cutbacks," Lillard said. "There were people representing high tech firms such as the president of the Fife Corperation who spoke in favor of a tax increase-the president of the A&M Board of Regents who spoke in favor of it-representatives from OU spoke in favor of it-as well as people representing disabled and handicapped who spoke in favor of the increase," Lillard said. "All in all, the group was very supportive. I think there was one farm group who was against the increase," Lillard said. Lillard said other members of the group included representatives from the PTA, the Cooperative Council of School Administrators, high tech representatives and many others who made up a cross-section of the education leaders across Oklahoma. "It was just a real strong show of supprt for a tax increase rather than to keep going downhill," Lillard said.