1 : 1984 HE Septembe„
Thursday Edition
Vol. 83, No. 3 Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma
Waning sales tax creates problems By MaryGaye Franklin Associate Editor If the Oklahoma Legislature does not extend the temporary 1 cent sales tax or implement some other revenue generating measure, Oklahoma schools will experience some very difficult times financially, said Larry Williams, vice president for administration. "I think now is the time for us to express our opinion and tell the elected officials our needs and make certain that they understand and recognize the fact that we need additional revenue for all education," Williams said. "Of course my concern is specifically in the area of higher education." Williams indicated that if the 1 cent sales tax, which is scheduled to expire December 31, 1985, is not continued it would mean a cut of approximately $200 million to education. "If the temporary sales tax is not extended or some alternate revenue generating measure is not taken, I think we'll have every reason to expect some very difficult budgeting years in the future," Williams stated. Williams also pointed out that even with the temporary sales tax education is marginally budgeted to its needs. He cited the decreases in state appropropriations to CSU over the last few years to illustrate the difficulties in budgeting. "During the 1982-83 school year the university had to cut out 4.41 percent ($934,928) of the budget over the previous year," Williams said. The total budget for 1982-83 was $26,548,728. The total budget includes state appropriated funds, revolving funds and grant funds. "In February of the 1983-84 fiscal year, after we were already through the summer and fall semester and half way through the spring, we were required, because of the state revenue shortfall, to make a cut in the budget of 7.18 percent ($1,554,053)." According to Williams the total budget for 1983-84 after the cuts is estimated to be $27,157,529. Williams said that in order to accommodate the large cutback in funds they made general reductions of expenses in all functional areas of the budget. These include
cuts in travel, adjunct faculty members, general supplies, contractual labor and student wages. In July the state appropriations portion of the budget was increased $206,312 from the 1982-83 amount of $20,101,589, which Williams pointed out is "no increase at all when you consider inflation." The total proposed budget for 1984-85 is $26,590,432 with 62.6 percent of the budget going to the instructional/departmental research area. This includes faculty salaries, equipment, supplies and departmental research. "We made a decision to prioritize the instructional/departmental research area when we planned the budget for this year," Williams said. "We feel that this is the most important area in which we need to maintain a high portion of the budget." A decrease was made in the budget for operation and maintenance of the physical plant from 183 percent to 17.2 percent of the total budget. Another area of the budget that suffered a cutback is the library. It was cut from 5.5 percent in 1983-84 to to 5.1 percent for the 1984-85 fiscal year. Williams explained that the money was taken from these two areas because the administration felt it was important to repriortize the funds so as to be able to provide an increase in the instructional/departmental research portion. "The library has always had strong financial support from the university and will continue to," Williams said. "But we effected a slight decrease in funds in order to increase the budget for the instructional/departmental area." William stressed the problems that the university is having because of the large decrease in state appropriations. "The university has felt the cuts very sharply," Williams declared. "We won't be able to expand academic programs that deserve expansion. We are concerned with the work load carried by the entire faculty and staff. The instructional ratio of students to professors is high and the work load that other staff carries is exceptionally high.
In this issue... CSU hosts debate workshop...page 3 Regents complete civil rights report...page 4 Movie preview... page 6 Bronchos meet Southern Colorado...page 7 Desherow looks to new season...page 8
An old fashioned cookout sponsored Wednesday night by the Student Senate was attended by Mike Redick (left), Terrance Custer, Reece Harding and Jalal Paneshfar (right).
'Welcome back week' begins
Senate offers activities By Jeff McCall This week, the Student Senate is offering a variety of activities to returning students. An old fashioned cookout held Wednesday night, north of the University Center kicked off "Welcome Back Week" and the fall semester. "The Big Chill" will be shown tonight, from 7-11 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom B, and a Video Dance to wind up the week's activities, will be held Friday night, from 8-11 p.m. in Ballroom C of the University Center. The planning of "Homecoming Week" and "Spring Fling" are also the product of the Student Senate, in addition to the weekly movies being shown throughout the semester.
Activity planning is not the only function undertaken by members of the Senate. The student senate has a task force committee which sits in on faculty meetings to present ideas from the students. In 1983, the Student Senate through long hours of negotiation with the administration, succeeded in strengthening grade appeals. Now a student who is not happy with a grade has the chance to be heard by the administration. "Our- function is to look at the campus and present ideas in form of resolution, and let the administration know what the students want," said Joe McCourry, president of the Student Senate. "We are the voice of the students."
Members of the senate are elected annually through a vote of the student body. Elections this year will be held Sept. 19, from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Polling booths will be set up in the university center. Senate candidates will be cornpeting for 15 open seats. Any student who is interested, may be on the ballot provided he is enrolled in 6 hours at Central State University and has maintained a 2.00 grade point average. A petition must be obtained at the student senate office and signed by 50 students. Funds for the Student Senate are received through the student activities funds, which is included in the cost of tuition.
New language lab installed By Traci Baucom Associate Editor Central State University's telephone operators and staff aren't the only folks on campus receiving relief from problem prone, out-of-date equipment. Over the Labor Day weekend, the foreign language department had a new, state-of-the-art, microcomputerized S-Star language lab installed. According to Dr. Mildred Lyon, chairman of the foreign language department, the previous, mechanical equipment was 19 years old and didn't always function properly. "The new system is computerized and will take us a while to learn all about it, but when we do, I
think it will be a benefit to both
the professors and the students," Lyon said. Lyon said the old system had been manually operated by the students. Each student had a large, reel-to-reel tape recorder in front of them and not only had to concentrate on their language instruction, but had to constantly check the equipment to see that it was functioning properly. "Now the student only has to think about his language skills," Lyon said. "This should be a big help to his learning process." Lyon also said the new system only recorded the students' voices, rather than the master tape and the students' voices. This, she said, would cut the amount of
time spent grading the tapes by at least half. Another beneficial function cited by Lyon is one which allows the student to cue their tape back one sentence, providing for immediate correction. "The student hears the master tape and then makes his response," Lyon said. "Then he can listen back and know immediately if his response was right or wrong. "And of course the professor can monitor each student individually and talk to a student having problems without disturbing the other students. This provides for more individual attention."