THE -11rxrirAzik March 1, 1983
Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma
Vol. 81, No. 40
Student legislature fights drinking age hike
Vista photo by Daniel Smith
Todd Felker, a CSU student, protested against James Watt, Secretary of the Interior, as he spoke to 2,500 members at the Oklahoma Republican convention at the Capitol Saturday.
By Mark Spears Staff Writer The Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature (OIL) has approved a bill in their bi-annual meeting, held earlier this month, that will allow the beer drinking age in Oklahoma to remain at 18, also at the end of their weeklong meeting the OIL was accused of taking a keg of beer bribe from the Adolph Coors Company. The OIL is a legislative body comprised of student leaders from college campuses across the state. In their bi-annual sessions they discuss, pass or reject legislation covering issues such as foreign policy, student rights and the recent tuition hikes by the Oklahoma Board of Regents. The Oklahoma State Legislature is at this time considering a bill that would raise the age for drinking 3.2 beer to 21, but House Speaker Dan Draper said that he is willing to make a compromise that would allow cities to set their own age limits for drinking within certain limititations. Under Draper's proposal, the state legislature could set a statewide age limit of either 19 or 21 and the cities could raise or lower the minimum. But this could be dogded simply by driving out of the city limits. "I don't think you can do it (set an age limit) on a municipal level because of the point that was brought up that you can go right outside the city limits and drink, so thats not going to get you anywhere either," commented Susan Witt, delegation chair from CSU and the committee coordinator. David Riggs, D-Sand Springs, said that the cornpromise to let cities have their own age limit would
create the problem of having young people drive to other cities with less restrictive drinking laws to drink. They would then have to drive home. "I think they (legislature) are going about it in the wrong way. They should aim for awareness and stiffer drunk driving penalties," said Witt. "I also think that they need to spend all of that money for education on responsible drinking, not just for age, because age will get you nowhere." The OIL was accused of taking a bribe, from Coors, of a keg of beer. Coors also does not what the legel drinking age changed to 21. Sources reported that in past years Coors has donated a keg of beer to the student legislature, but they refused to do so this year because of the law change controversy. The OIL holds a party at the end of their weeklong meeting and it was reported that OIL Senate Pro Tempore Mark Edmonson convinced the OIL Alumni Committee to donate the keg of beer to this party. "The alumni has in the past bought a keg of beer for a party at the end of the weeklong meetings. The alumni committee bought a keg this year and there was no donation from Coors, and we have the receipt to prove it," said Witt. "There was no bribe, but I can see how people's immediate reactions would go that way. It's not true (the rumor of the bribe), and I'm a little bit offended that they would go ahead and place it in the paper (all Oklahoma papers), in that way, without checking all of the sources," said Witt. "They (accusers of the bribe) put a bad reflection on an organization that has a lot of potential and does a lot of good things," commented Witt.
Opinions voiced
Students to evaluate advisors
By Terri L. Carpenter For the first time, students are not only going to be able to evaluate instructors, they will be able to evaluate their advisors also. Starting this semester, students will be able to express their opinions, positive or negative, about advisors and the help they have received. "This is something we have been working on for a long time and its purpose is to get feedback from students," said Donna J. Guinn, academic advisement coordinator. "It is something that is potentially very beneficial." Robert E. Austin, academic advisor, said that it will give the advisors feedback. Although he realizes there will be some negative remarks, Austin feels they can be used constructively. Austin is the academic advisor for computer science, funeral service, health, physical education and recreation, industrial education and military science. Calvin Fairbanks, academic advisor. said that it is a positive
merit. Fairbanks is the academic advisor for special education, general studies, applied health and public school nurses. "This is something that we developed, hoping to get feedback from the students that will help us in improving the advisement center. We know that there are a lot of areas that need improvement and we can't recognize those things unless we do have appropriate feedback from the students," said Elizabeth A. Black, academic advisor for nursing, science, medical technology, home economics, pre-engineering and medically related preprofessional programs. Joyce Navarre, academic advisor for business, who was on the committee that helped develop the instrument, feels like this is going to be a very positive thing for the advisement center. She said the advisors feel like they needed something and that the students could give them some kind of feedback on how they could better serve the student's needs. "If there are problem areas we
felt like if we could locate these, we could develop different ways of improving these areas," said Navarre. "I think it is going to be a very, very good thing for us, as well as the students." Gloria Auth, academic advisor for business, feels like this is a positive step in trying to uncover the problems in the area of advisement and help to improve them. In all the years that she has been here, Linda Mathews, academic advisor for psychology, elementary education, early childhood education and library science, says the evaluation instrument is one of the most positive tools she has seen. Dr. Gail E. Balman, academic
advisor, had no comment, because he believed it was too early to tell about the evaluations. Balman is the academic advisor for social studies, geography, history, political science, economics, sociology and criminal justice, pre-law, journalism and oral communication. The teaching faculty apparently hasn't been informed about the advisement evaluation tool since several commented that they knew nothing about it. Anne Lynch, president of the Faculty Senate, hadn't even been informed about it, but she said that she was very pleased with it on hearing about it. "This is one of the best aues-
tionnaires that I have seen. I don't think they (the advisors) are going to like the answers that they get," said Joe McCourry, president of Student Senate. "I think they are going to have to make some major changes after they start getting these in, because, I think, the students are kind of disgusted with the advisement program as it stands now. I hope this will bring about some good changes." He also said that he thought it was a good form, and he was glad to see that they had put it out. The advisement evaluation will not only be for students to voice complaints, but also, for them to "pat their advisor on the back" for doing a good job.
In this issue... Dames' wardrobe reviewed...page 3 SDX eats chili with Gov. Nigh...page 4 Music festival summary...page 6 Track looks for crown...page 7 Wrestlers look for third title...page 8
Vista photo by Theresa Gabrish
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The 38th Annual Music Festival, sponsored by the music department, had a turnout of about 8,000 music students of 76 high schools and mid-high schools Friday and Saturday, here. See page 6 for related story.