lUe. Ciwofu/iob ^owuajoA
Volume XI, Number 1^*
The Student Newspaper of tlie University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
November 25, 1975
Student referendum on new proposed
Student Constitution to be held in December
By Michael Evans
During the first week of December,
there will be a student referendum on the
new proposed student Constitution. A
new constitution has been drafted
because the present one has not been
approved by the Chancellor. Changes
have been made to make the new
document more in compliance with the
Chancellor’s desires as well as better for
the student body as a whole.
Terry Fulbright, Chairman of the
Judicial Committee of the Student
Legislature, has headed the drive to get
the Constitution before the students for
the referendum. A number of changes
have taken place between the present
document and the proposed one.
Fulbright discussed these changes.
Article 1, concerning the Student
Fees Commission, will be “instituting
what we have already put into effect.
Under the old set-up, the Fees
Commission was set up by the Chancellor
but the students will be approving is as a
part of the Constitution this time. The
article specifies officers, the Student
Body Comptroller and certain issues such
as voting procedures, ” said Fulbright.
Article II of the proposed Student
Constitution is mainly concerned with
the various aspects of the Executive
Branch of the Student Body
Government.
The second article explains the
Executive Branch of the Student
Government. The major change,
according to Fulbright, is the elimination
of the Vice President. “The reason is that
presently all the Vice President does is
chair the Legislature. Some people
elected to the position of Vice President
in the past have not been qualified to do
the job and have not come to the
meetings. Legislature will pick its own
speaker. It was considered stupid to have
the Vice President just waiting around
for the President to leave, ” said
Fulbright.
The Legislature will pick someone
who is qualified, Fulbright feels, to fill
the position of speaker of the
Legislature.
The proposed constitution specifies
the President of the Student Body shall
have the power to freeze funds,
preferably in matters of “political
controversey” says Fulbright, adding the
Student Body Comptroller would have
the power to freeze funds for financial
reasons.
Other changes in the second article
include the addition of the Attorney
General who evolved over the years.
Again the present position was simply
placed in the constitution as it was not in
the present one. The Election and
Publicity Board is abolished. The
Election and Publicity Staff takes over
many of the responsibilities of the Board
and will be told “to run elections. They
will report violations and decide who can
run, ’’says Fulbright. Decisions of the
Election and Publicity Staff may be
appealed to the Student Court.
The apportionment of Legislature,
which has been a problem in the past, is
cleared' up by the new constitution. The
enrollment is too large and the number
year was cut to 35 members.
Still at times, it gets to be a madhouse.
U takes five minutes for a roll call vote.
The new constitution allows the
;^gislature to reapportion itself by law.
They’re not bound by some rigid
lormula. We would have had 45 members
this year if we had gone by the dd rule,”
said Fulbright.
The third article concerns the
Student Judiciary. A new court is added
which is called the Student Court. The
Student Court will serve as a review
board, screening cases with the Student
being able to appeal to the Student
Superior Court. “Hopefully, they (the
Student Superior Court) will be able to
handle parking and traffic violations for
students, ” says Fulbright.
There was basically no change in the
article on the University Program Board
according to Fulbright. The Student
Media Board article does away with the
Student Legislature representative to that
body and does not require the Student
Media Board to make their financial
reports to the Student Legislature but
rather to the Student Fees Commission.
“Colleges may set up College
Councils even in the old Constitution,
but it was'never enforced. The councils
plan student programs and usually for
the close-'knit colleges like Architecture.
It gives them the authority to do it if
they want to, ” said Fulbright.
The committee felt the need to add
the position of ombudsman to the
Student Association. Fulbright said its
purpose “is to arbitrate cases that would
not be within the Student Superior
Court’s jurisdiction per se. A person
would hear the facts and make a decision
and the decision is binding. The
ombudsman must not serve in any other
capacity. “While Student Government,
Student Media Board and the University
Program Board are basically independent,
there is some overlap.”
The new constitution makes it a
little harder for legislators to amend
and a little easier for students to amend
the document. More time is also allowed
for the amendment to get off the
ground than was allowed in the present
consliluion. The document affects the
students in that it gives the students the
right to recall and allows tliem to have
more control over the Legislature, ” says
Fulbright.
“Ratification and review does not
take place until January. People who
hold offices effected do not go out of
office unless they agree to it. There will
also be a mandatory review of the
document if it is necessary. " said
Fulbright. _
Copies of the Constitution be
picked up in the Student Government
offices in the Cone University Center
anytime the Center is open.
Hiring and paying of State Personnel
Employees complicated process
By Brad Rich
UNCC’s method for hiring and
paying SPA (State Personnel Employees)
is a complicated and intricate process.
According to Don Currie, Director of
Personnel, new positions must be
budgeted in advance. For example, when
the new McEniry Building was being
built, the Personnel Department
budgeted for several positions, which
were reviewed and approved. These
people, including maintenance workers
and others, were then on duty by the
time the building opened.
Each person hired must have a job
description made out by the person who
is going to need, his services. For each
position, a minimum of three people are
reviewed with the ultimate choice being
made again by the person who needs the
applicant.
Starting pay depends primarily on
the grade classification of the position. A
grade 49 employee, for example, receives
a basic starting salary of $4,764 while a
grade 79 employee (of which there is
only one on campus) starts at $18,780.
Raises may be made in several different
ways. For the first two years, raises are
practically automatic, then a merit
system is used. Each year the State
allocates two-thirds of the money needed
Standing committee chairmen
selected for Senate
By Michael Evans
In a special session os the University
Senate held November 20, the body
elected officers of the Senate and
standing committee chairmen and settled
the status of the body’s Executive
Committee.
Barry Jenkins, Dr. Gaines Liner and
Doug Lerner were chosen to head the
standing committee. Jenkins, a fourth
year Architecture student with three
years experience on the University
Senate was selected to head the
University Planning Committee. Dr.
Liner, an economics professor, accepted
the chair of the Finance Committee.
Liner is a first year member of the
Senate, but no members of the Finance
Committee fron the year before are still
on the Senate. Lerner is a second year
Physics student also in his first year on
the University Senate. He was chosen to
head the Juman Relations committe. All
three standing committee chairmen were
chosen by acclamation. Bill Marchant of
the College of Architecture was elected
to act as secretary for the body.
The body decided to allow the
make-up of the Executive Committee to
consist of the following; the president of
the Senate, the secretary of the Senate,
the President of the faculty, and
president of the student body, the
president of the the staff and the
chairmen of each of the standing
committees. The staff, as it does not yet
have a president, is allowed to have a
representative on the Committee until
such time as a president can be elected.
The members of the Senate fron the staff
chose Gene Meachem as their
representative.
After the formation of the Executive
Committee, the Senate immediately gave
the committee two problems to work on.
First, a number of ambiguities were
noticed by some senators in the present
constitution and secondly, the
assignment of staffered terms ( both
one-year and two-year) for senators were
both assigned to the Executive
corrimittee for consideration.
During the discussion period, some
mention was made of the Senate body
being once removed from the Chancellor
as Earl Backman has been named the
Chancellor’s liaison to the Senate.
Marchant said the Senate could now take
an opposite view of the Chancellor since
he is no longer a member of the body.
Marchant said, “ Being once removed
brings about a democratic process. We
are no longer lackeys of the process.”
to give each person in the merit range a
raise. Tiiis results in not everyone in (he
merit range receiving a raise each year,
but almost guarantees an eventual raise
for the employee who does his job well.
Another way a raise can be obtained
is through promotion within the
University. When a position becomes
open in the systen, all employees are
allowed to apply for it. Says Currie, “Wc
generally advertise on campus at least
one week before taking any other
recruitment action.” This would include
advertising with the area newspapers.
A change in an employee’s job
description can also obtain him a raise. If
an employer realizes that he is
overloading an employee, he may ask for
the employee’s job description to be
reviewed. This seems to be a fairly
common occurrence, especially in a
growing University such as UNCC, when
a person hired as a secretary actually
becomes an administrative assistant.
Currie also feels UNCC has excellent
fringe benefits. The program, which can
amount to as much as 26 to 27% of an
employee’s total salary, includes
Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield Insurance,
Disability Pay, an excellent retirement
plan, and in the first year, ten days
vacation, ten days sick leave and ten paid
holidays. Also included in the program
arc Workman’s Compensation,
Unemployment insurance and group life
and accident insurance plans.
Currie also said the University is an
equal opportunity employer, and under
the guidlines of the Title IX Program,
hopes to have a grievance procedure
specifically for charges of sex
discrimination in university programs.
Another interesting aspect of the
Personnel Department is the new rule
pertaining to privacy of employee’s
records. The new law, which will go into
effect on February 1st, 1976, will make
it impossible for people to see an
employee’s personal records without a
good and legitimate reason. Currie feels
the new law is a definite improvement on
the present policy which makes all
employee’s records open to the public
scrutiny. Said Currie, “I don’t feel that a
person’s credit Union or insurance status
should be able to be seen by just
anyone.” Certainly then, this would seem
to be a step in the right direction.