UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
The Student Voice Since 1903
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 5, 1999
Fall break falls through for UCO By Ercilia Zolkiewicz
StalfWriter
—Photo by Shauna Hardway
Tumbling Domino s. . The empty Domino's Pizza building was demolished last week. Domino's relocated to another building in Edmond over the summer. Its new address is 740 W. Danforth.
CO students will not be getting a fall break this year. Rumors have been spreading throughout campus as to the reason. "I think I've heard all of them," said Jerry Legere, assistant vice president of enrollment management. "Those (rumors) are all false," Legere said. "The real issue is that we were not in compliance with the state regents guidelines that establish an 800 minute requirement for each credit hour," Legere said. Secondly, he said that having fall break on a Thursday and Friday created an imbalance of instructional days. The schedule needs to have an equal number of days of the week to stay balanced, he said. "When you don't have equal
distribution of instructional days it causes problems in teaching," Legere said. "For instance, with lab schedules." Legere served as the chair of the university calendar committee that reviewed and scheduled the in-session dates for the 19992000 academic year. There were 13 committee members, one of which, was a student. The committee met in April 1998, and the schedule was approved in June 1998. "We had to ask ourselves if we were maintaining the integrity of the school and the answer was `no'," Legere said. "We thought it was a significant concern to be in compliance." The committee meets each spring to establish a schedule for three years in advance which
V See FALL BREAK, Page 7
Proposed parking garage will raise parking fees for students By Trent Dugas
Staffiefiter
T
he University of Central Oklahoma Student Association, (UCOSA) recently passed a resolution requesting a parking garage. The resolution will now head for President Webb's desk and if approved, the student body will vote on the issue. If the student body votes to raise their parking fees to finance a parking garage, then the resolution will head back to Webb for a second consideration. Student parking fees would increase from $40 to $75
annually and from $20 to $40 for each semester if the garage is built. The summer semester will also increase from $15 to $30. The resolution is a result of the parking problems that students claim plague UCO. Jason Vaughn, UCOSA deputy president pro tempore, said "Yes, we are raising our parking fee but this isn't just for us, it's also for the future. "If enrollment keeps climbing like it does, we are going to have a problem," Vaughn said. "I agree that parking is bad at times." Vaughn and Parking Services agree that the physical space on
the campus is full, as far as building a new parking lot is concerned, and cannot expand. "When I look at the campus layout, I do not see where we can go out (expand with a new parking lot) and one of my biggest complaints that I hear from students is that they do not want to make the walk." Even with the assurance from Parking Services that a parking problem does not exist because of the 400 spots available a day, Vaughn said we still need more parking. "We are going to run out of 400 parking spots and we won't have any place to go." Vaughn said. "At that point, it will
If enrollment keeps climbing like it does, we are going to have a problem. -
Jason Vaughn
UCOSA Deputy President ProTempore probably be too late and people will be parking along 2nd street." Vaughn said he hears students all over campus complaining
about parking or the walk through the parking lot. "It's everybody. It's not just people who are in UCOSA that I am hearing this from," Vaughn said. "Sitting in classes, I try to keep my ears open all the time and that's where I hear my biggest complaints." One of UCOSA's and Parking Services justifications for raising the parking fees for the garage is the comparison to other campuses. Vaughn said, compared to OU and OSU, parking fees will
V See PARKING, Page 2