Basketball
Preview Iss.
The
Preview Iss.
VOLUME 22 NUMBER 8
St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Student Activity
Fee Examined
November 18, 1983
By David Saunier
Today, Friday November
18th, the Student Associa
tion Cabinet and Senate im
plement one of three courses
of action as regards the pro
posed increase of the Student
Activity Fee.
It is technically possible
that yesterday (Thurs., Nov.
17) the Senate and the
Cabinet were unable to agree
on one of the proposals.
Then the Cabinet could pur
sue one option and the
Senate another, yet this is
highly unlikely viewing how
the Senate and Cabinet have
interacted in the past. For at
least the past four (4) years
the Cabinet and Senate have
through cooperation, flex
ibility, or simple united opi
nion been able to reach a
concensus on almost
everything that they have
jointly considered.
Assuming that the Cabinet
and Senate have agreed on
the SAF question, they have
either made no proposal,
because they felt the student
response in the surveys was
inadequate to provide a basis
for proposing change, or
they have proposed a ten or
fifteen dollar increase in the
Student Activity Fee, feeling
that they have sufficient stu
dent backing to make such a
proposal.
The proposal is essentially
a tax increase on the students
by their government to
generate additional revenues.
All these revenues are to be
allocated by students
towards their own clubs,
organizations, and activities.
The students, through a
survey, were to pursue a ten
dollar increase in the Student
Activity Fee, a fifteen dollar
increase, or not to propose
any changes at all. Because it
was an increase in what
students would have to pay
the Student Association did
not make any decisions
without first making sure
that the students had been
consulted and that a majority
of the students were in agree
ment with the action taken.
At present students pay a
Student Activity Fee of
roughly $65 per student. The !
SAF multiplied by the Full
Time Equivalency figure
(which is number of four
courese taken) determines
what the Student Association
Budget actually is. The FTE
is always below the number
of students enrolled because
not all students take four
courses.
The Student Association,
which receives $50 of the $65
in the SAF with the other $15
going to the “Lamp and
Shield” and the Lance,
received $34,000 this year.
Ride Sharing Made Easy
By Beth Davison
In searching for a ride
home over the Thanksgiving
holiday, students may want
to check into “The Ride
Board,” which is located on
the bulletin board by the post
office. According to David
Saunier, “The Ride Board”
sponsored by the Student
Goveriunent Association, “is
a way in which students seek
ing rides can get together in
an organized fashion to save
money and time.”
There are two purposes of
the board: to bring people
together who live in the same
region that are willing to split
•^t and to organize rides to
and from the airports, bus or
train stations.
Prices of St. Andrews
transportation for an in
dividual are $50.00 to the
Charlotte or Raleigh airport.
$25.00 for the Fayettville air
port, $15.00 to the Hamlet
train station, and $2.00 for
the Laurinburg bus station.
Kenneth McCombs states,
“If five people can come
together to share a ride to the
Fayettville airport then the
cost can be reduced to $5.00
a piece.”
Applications will be
distributed for those needing
the school transportation ser
vice. There will be a schedul
ed meeting to organize when
people will be leaving arid
returning. Only two vans will
leave in one day. However,
McCombs saids, “Services
cannot be provided for
anyone wanting to leave
before the designated
break.”
Also, information will be
posted concerning rides and
meetings so that “The Ride
Board” will become a per
manent service for students.
This figure was arrived at by
multiplying $50 by this year’s
FTE of 680. The Student
Association, which funds all
the clubs and organizations
on campus, feels that this
$34,000 is not enough to fit
student needs.
According to the Student
Association there are several
reasons for an increase in the
SAF. One is that student
buying power has decreased
drastically over the past five
years alone through the rise
in prices. While inflation
keeps prices rising the SAF
has been remaining constant.
The Student Assoication
contends, using general infla
tion statistics for the past five
years, that $50 students
spend today can only pur
chase 70% of what it could in
1979. Hence students suffer a
30% drop in purchasing
power over just the last five
year. Student Association of
ficers also contend that
students’ interests and 'ac
tivities are on the increase yet
the financial resources are
not expanding with these in
terests.
The Student Association
Senate and Cabinet also
would like to play a more
direct and active role in cam
pus life but budget pressures
in the past have made it too
difficult for the Cabinet and
Senate to leave themselves
with enough money to play
this type of role. The average
total request for funds from
all clubs and organizations
for the past three years has
been around $50,000 with the
Student Senate having
around $34,000 to allocate
each year. Clubs and
organizations have been
generally good about reduc
ing their budget requests and
the Student Association feels
that all possible ways of cut
ting waste have been used
and that in order to balance
the budget the Senate must
deny funds that would be us
ed for creative and jjroduc-
tive events and.-activities.
If in fact the Student
Association does make a pro
posal for an increase in the
Student Association portion
of the Student Activity Fee
the Administrative Council if
acting responsibly and
responsively should approve
of such an increase and sup
port its adoption to the
Board of Trustees. Assuming
that the Student Association
continued on page 4
Scene of this year’s Computer Problems
Computer System Crashes
By George Robbins
The fact that the computer
age is upon us has become in
creasingly evident to the ad
ministration and the students
over the past few weeks since
our computer had been
down. Almost everything
that the administration does
needs to be run through the
computer. Some of these
functions, like the payrolls,
had to be done by hand while
others that were not as
urgent have been put off un
til the computer becomes ful
ly operative again. For the
students this meant that there
were no printouts of mid
term grades. It has also ef
fected the computer classes
because they did not have ac
cess to the terminals.
The breakdown was an
unusually long one because
so many things went wrong
at the same time. The pro
blems started with three dif
ferent head crashes within a
period of eight hours. It is
uncommon to see more than
one head crash at a time. One
of the crashes occurred while
the back-up for a damaged
disk pack was mounted. This
meant that the pack had to
be sent off to see if any of the
information could be retriev
ed. Fifty percent of the data
was saved.
While the disk pack was
being worked on, jJl four of
the disk divers were experien
cing hardware problems. A
maintainance man was called
in from the computer com
pany to help get the drives
working. As the problem of
time became more acute the
company supplied two
specialists to help get the job
done as quick as possible.
Finally at about two a.m. on
Tuesday morning things were
pulled together and the
system was operating again.
This was due to the corr-
dinated effort of the com
puter center staff and the
team sent by the company.
The system is covered under
a maintainance contract
otherwise it would have cost
the school around ten thou
sand dollars. Now the biggest
thing remaining to do is to
rewrite the programs that
were lost. The administration
showed great confidence in
our computer program by
hiring two Computer Science
majors to help write these
programs.
The cause of the head
crashes is dust getting into
the disk drives. The dust
came off of the rough edges
of the sheet rock that was in
stalled during the renovation
of the compter center over
the summer. When air from
the ventilation system was
blown across the edges
microscopic particles were
knocked loose into the air.
They eventually found their
way into the drives.
To keep the situation from
happening again several
things were done. First, the
computer room that houses
the CPU was cleaned three
times. Second, all the rough
edges of the sheet rock were
taped. Third, a sticky fila
ment was installed to catch
the extremly small particles
of dust. Hopefully, all of
these measures in place it will
be a long time before the St.
Andrews beads crush again.