Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / April 22, 1975, edition 1 / Page 5
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April 22, 1975 Maintenance Employee Responds By RANDY Catoe I am writing to express my concern as a former student and as a member of the maintenance department over what I perceive to be innaccurate information and inadequate perspective in Jon Hiratsuka's recent article concerning the maintenance department. The title of that article, "Why Things Never Seem to Get Fixed", implied to me that a piece of investigative reporting would follow, an article which would atempt to analyze situations in which things had not been fixed. Such an investigation, one would expect, would present all discernible factors in order to illuminate weaknesses and limitations in the system by means of which Guilford Gollege endeavors to maintain its facilties. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Rather the article might best be interpreted as an atempt to register student frustration with the process of requesting and receiving dorm repairs. Ths article is, in fact, an editorial which omits impor tant details and commits itself to a view point too narrow to view the college as a system of which the maintenance department is only one ■component . A confusion results that lumps the system's other components into a more anonymous entity, "the college," removing them from scrutiny while the weaknesses, failures and limitations of the system are attributed solely to the maintenance department. In order to appreciate ths system it is necessary to realize that decisons regard ing improvements and expen diture of funds are made by the business manager and represent a necessary comp romise between high cost and maximum personal conven ience. Hiratsuka's account of the heating problem in Shore Hall, however, neglects to explain that new heat controls have been on order for six weeks, after the purchase was approved earlier this year by the business manger. Nor did last week's article contend with the effect of students on the system. In Bryan Hall, where thermo stats were locked at 68 degrees F. this year, signifi cant damage has resulted from attempts by students to break off the tabs that restrict heat adjustment. That build ing's bathroom fans are now being replaced by a new model obtained by the pur chasing agent for the college. Hot water for residents of English Hall, although still limited, is nevertheless more abundant now than four years ago when I lived there. Since that time electric water heaters have replaced the pipe which did carry hot water from a tank located in the old boiler room near Bryan Hall. At that time English competed for hot water with Mary Hobbs, Shore and the Gymnasium. Under the old system hot water first reahed English ten minutes after the first faucet was opened each morning and was soon exhausted. Contrary to what is printed in last week's article, the hot water temperature in English is now set at 165 degrees F. and has been all year with the exception of a one week period two months ago when the water temperature thermo stats were cut back to 20 degrees in an attempt to conserve energy. If students • prone to "conclude that maintenance is either inidifferent or incom petent" because of the lack of feed back on requests for repairs, there is a counterpart for this attidue on the part of maintenance department em ployees. Coninual repair of student-damaged equipment and facilities engenders the opinion that dorm residents are either irresponsible or too self-absorbed to consider the consequences of their actions. Neither attitude is healthy for the operation of the college, nor are the situations out of which they arise-. I am not convinced, however, that the conflict is as great as the article indicates. Several other questions present themselves in this Accomodate Freshpeople New students are coming!! Faculty, administration, and staff are needed to accomo date freshpeople and transfer students in their homes on Sunday, August 25, 1975 from 7 p.m. until around 9 p.m. If you would like to take part in thi, please contact Dick Woodward or Paula Swon guer, both Bryan D-12, Extension 43. The Guilfordian light-. Hiratsuka claims that "several students have repor ted unpleasant personal en counters with Keene. Some claimed he seemed indifferent to student concerns." Yet he fails to report whether any students reported evidence to the contrary. He also neglects to mention that last summer the entire maintenance de partment, comprised largely of students, walked off the job in support of Ron Keene has the contract negotiations he desired failed to materialize. There are limits to the system by which things get fixed and, as in all endeavors, mistakes are made.Yet in most cases the limits are imposed by economic factors. The reorganization of the work order (pink slip) system to enable students to directly and effectively communicate with the maintenance department is now being considered by Ron Keene, Jim Newlin t George Schotz, Bob White and this year's housing staff. HJpefully money will be allocated and a person will be hired to communications before next fall. Carver Recital Sheila Carver, wife of Dr. James Carver (Biology) will present her first area recital at Harrison Auditorium on the A&T University campus at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, April 26. Sheila is on the faculty of the Department of Music at A&T. A native of New Mexico, she received her Bachelor of Music from Eastern New Mexico University and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of lowa. Her background includes many performances as recitalist, oratorio soloist, and several operatic roles. She has sung with the Santa Fe Opera. St. Louis Municipal Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. Most recently she was the soprano soloist in Dr. Jack Jarrett's "Missa in Tempore Morte" at UNC/G. A dramatic Soprano, Sheila will sing a formal program including selection from Purcell, Strauss, Debussy, Granados and Verdi. The accompaniment for the pro gram will provided by A&T student Mrs. Beulah Graham. The program promises to be a thrilling evening of sound. Gay Alliance Year's Evaluation It is now very close to the end of the school year, and we of the Guilford Gay Alliance feel, 1 think, very proud of what we have accomplished and very pleased with the response that we have gotten from the campus community. At this juncture we would like to report briefly what we have done, particu larly as it is the role of small interest groups such as ours to work to the benefit of the entire campus. In addition to the friend ships that have grown up between us from the discus sions we have had in our group, we have also made ourselves available to outside discussion. We met with people on Women's Day, and have appeared in Bob White's and Raleigh Bailey's Sociology classes, all with very positive results. We have also held several coffeehouses, noted for their relaxed atmosphere and for the attept to sweeten coffee with honey once we ran out of sugar (not so good). We have helped arrange a caravan of people to attend a conference on Counseling and the Homosexual in Atlanta, and sent several representa tives from Guilford. We have created a cross-listing of all books on homosexuality avail able in Greensboro area college and public libraries, and have sent this to all area libraries, and to counseling services. We have helped Gay People's Alternatives of Greensboro publish their newsletter. We have joined the National Gay Task Force and the National Gay Student center. We have ordered over SIOO worth of books to supplement the library's collection (many of them out-of-print), and Page 5 have ordered several periodi cals - some of them national newspapers, other scholarly professional journals. We have researched on news coverage of homosex uality in North Carolina dn made a file of clippings which we have given to the library. We hope next year to continue the coffeehouse, and we are hoping to be able to purchase a complete microfilm record of the Advocate ("Newspaper of the Homo phile Community"), which is the most complete record of reform efforts over the past five or six eyars, also for the library. In the end, meeting each other and being able to enter into discussion with the college community at large have been the most memor able experiences. We are very pleased with this year, and have high hopes for the next. jj
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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April 22, 1975, edition 1
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