,ATISTA
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THE November 15, 1984 Vol. 83, No. 21
Thursday Edition
Central State University, Edmond, Oklahoma
Senate election leads to run-off By Curtis Killman A scheduled runoff election will be needed to decide who will be the next president of the Student Senate since none of the three can-
didates running received a majority of the votes required to win. John Buttry and Ed Howell, the top two vote getters in the race for president receiving 42.1 and 40.7
Freedom symposium poses diverse concepts By Traci Baucom Associate Editor The Philosophy Club presented a symposium entitled "Human Freedom: What Degree?" Wednesday for students and faculty in the L.A. Auditorium. In order to be thorough, Scott Birdwell, president of the club explained, the topic needed to be treated by many disciplines. To achieve this goal, the club invited professors from five departments to discuss human freedom as it related to their specific field. Professors who participated were Dr. Bill Caire, biology; Dr. David Chance, psychology; Dr. Bill Parker, sociology; Dr. John George, political science; and Dr. Clarence Parker, philosophy. Caire discussed the degree to which genetics determine behavior and consciousness of the individual. He explained the concept of sociobiology, the biological study of social behavior. "Any species' social behavior follows programs laid down in the species' genes, written there by natural selection," Caire said. "The question I'm posing today is whether or not we have any genetic freedom." Caire gave the audience the basic assumptions of sociobiology—that physical features as well as behavior are genetically controlled. Caire said the answer to the final question—Is an individual free?—would be "no" to the strict sociobiologist. Dr. David Chance spoke next and addressed the concept of freedom from a psychologists' point of view. "There are two kinds of psychologists, in terms of what their starting assumptions are about human nature," Chance said. "There are those
psychologists who say that all behavior is strictly determined, that we have no freedom whatsoever—the whole issue of freedom is nonexistent. "There is another group of pschologists who say we're somewhat free to make choices about our lives, we have some degree of choice." Dr. Bill Parker addressed human freedom from a sociologists' point of view. "What we're concerned with in this question of human freedom, is to what extent does the individual, through his socialization process, develop certain attitudes, values and beliefs that cause him to make certain kinds of choices that he makes within his life," Parker said." Dr. John George spoke from the political scientists' point of view regarding the state of freedom around the world. "Fewer than one-third of the countries on the planet are what we would call free. A little more than a third are what we call partly free and somewhat more than that are we what we would call "unfree." He based his numbers on the ideas of political rights and civil liberties. Dr. Clarence Parker concluded the symposium by giving the philosophical view of human freedom, asking the question—Could I have done otherwise, without there being any changes made in the condition, the circumstance or the understanding of the circumstance? Determinists, he said, say every event has a cause and all things in the universe are goverened by causal laws. The theory of free will, on the other hand, says given again the same condition, humans can will to do otherwise than what they did do.
In this issue... Placement office inteview schedule...page 3 Professor recalls WWII Germany...page 4 Fashion classes offer hands on experience...page 6 CSU meets Eastern New Mexico...page 8 N
percent of the votes respectively, were forced into a runoff election on Nov. 28. The final figures, which were received after 11 p.m., three hours after the polls closed, show John Buttry with 154 votes, Ed Howell with 149 and Bill Smith 63 or 17.2 percent of the votes cast in the race. The total number of students casting votes was 366, represen-
ting 2.8 percent of the 13,102 who enrolled for the fall semester. Last year 607 students voted in the Fall 1983 election, or 4.6 percent. In the other races, Ike Nsiegbe defeated Mark K. Beutler to win the vice president's seat by a vote margin of 179-173. The secretary-treasurer's office was won by Debbie McClaren, who out-tallied opponent Kevin
"Skip" O'Hare by gathering 212 of the 353 votes cast in that race for a 60.1 percent majority. The ballot question to amend the student constitution, creating a legislative, executive and judicial branch, passed by the required two-thirds majority with 67.8 percent of those voting in favor of the amendment. The question generated 329 votes, with 223 voting yes and 106 voting no.
Vista photo by Daniel Smith
The Human Freedom Symposium, sponsored by the Philosophy Club, featured (left to right) Dr. Clarence Parker, Dr. John George, Dr. Bill Parker, Dr. David Chance and Dr. Bill Caire.
Music faculty deny student's request to speak at meeting By Mark Beutler Associate Editor The music faculty in a decision two weeks ago denied a student a request to speak at a music faculty meeting on grounds that the subject on which the student intended to speak was a "closed issue." The student had a petition boasting 66 signatures that designated him as their spokesman. Steve Barrett, a music major, circulated a petition asking that he be allowed to address the music faculty meeting in opposition to the faculty's hiring of two parttime instructors, rather than one full-time instructor. The instructors were hired for the woodwind section as the position was left vacant when Dr. Sisson retired at the end of the spring semester. "They hired Randy Klein and Guy Burkhart. Mr. Klein is only here on Monday and Mr. Burkhart is a principle at Kerr junior high in Del City. He is only available from 4:30-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday," Barrett said. Dr. Clarence Garder, chairman of the music department, said "all we have is 15 students in the
woodwind section. Steve wanted a full-time instructor, but we would need 48 students to hire a full-time instructor." "I don't think there are any instructors in the state better than Mr. Klein and Mr. Burkhart," Garder added. Barrett said "I talked to Dr. Garder Wednesday. He said I could have five minutes to speak. Then Thursday he said he had talked to other faculty members and they said it was a closed issue. He also said that there was no room on the agenda. "I asked who the other faculty members were and he said it was `none of my business,"' Barrett added. "We have an agenda for the faculty meetings," Garder said. "The faculty saw his name and they sail if he was going to speak, that they didn't need to be there," Garder added. According to Garder, there are 24 members of the music faculty. However, Garder did not say how many members did not want Barrett to speak. "No one else has complained to me except Steve," Garder said. "He has visited with the ad-
ministration two or three times. He is trying to accomplish something which is his opinion." "Some of the students who signed the petition were not music majors. Part of the students said they signed because Steve said it needed to look like a big crowd," Garder said. "I'm going to school to become a music educator," Barrett said. "We need to have one guy here everyday instead of just two days a week," Barrett added. However, Garder sees the issue as being closed. "I'm sorry he keeps pursuing this," Garder said. "It's as if Mondale would keep saying 'let's have a recount."'
Thanksgiving Break Thanksgiving break will begin at 5:00 p.m., Nov. 21. Wednesday evening classes will be cancelled.