Volume XIV, Number ^
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
October 3, 1978
Autumn set in upon the UNCC campus this past meek. The sun is setting
earlier, but that means the parties begin earlier. Above is a scene from our
campus of a typical fall sunrise. It comes as no surprise to our early risers
that the campus dot’s in fact Have a beautiful view of nature's good
features.
UNCC requests funds
By Nancy Davis
UNCC can't keep growing without
money and that was the reason the
N.C. Advisory Budget Commision
met on campus Friday, Sept. 29.
UNCC officials have a long shopping
list for new additions for the Univer
sity, but the money must first be ap
proved by the N.C. General
Assembly.
Millions of dollars were requested
by UNCC, with the largest being $6.8
million for a new physical science
building. The Kennedy Building
presently houses the chemistry and
physics classes and labs.The facilities
are cramped as this building is one of
the oldest on campus.
The second largest request was $5.8
million for an architecture building.
The Architecture Department, tuck
ed away in a part of the bookstore
building, can only accept one out of
five qualified applicants. It is now
overflowing with 200 students.
UNCC has grown in number and
size, but the structures haven't been
able to keep up with the enrollment.
With a waiting list of over 500
students trying to get in the dorms,
the university is also asking for $5.2
million for student housing and $1.5
million for a dormitory cafeteria and
amphitheater.
Included in the budget allocation is
an additional $6.4 million to cover
urgent needs. They asked $1.3 million
for more faculty, $1.1 million to pay
administrators, presently being paid
out of faculty allotments, $572,568
for library materials and $96,150 to
use in aiding minority students.
A suprise request was for $170,501
to help WFAE, the campus radio sta
tion. Last year, $26,000 was allocated
to the FM radio station out of student
fees and presently, the station is
waiting to hear from a probable
$180,000 HEW grant.
To use in removing architectural
barriers to the handicapped and im
proving campus safety features,
UNCC asked for $643,000.
The Budget Advisory Committee
has been traveling throughout the
state preparing budget recommenda
tions for all state institutions. The
budgets will come before the General
Assembly in January.
- Netos commentary
Student legislators receive salary for what?
By Nancy Davis
Ladies and gentlemen...please focus
’our attention to ring one where we
lave a student body president being
tripped of his powers bit by bit. And
Il ring two we have a panel of
justices unsure of which Judicial Act
to get started under. And in the
Renter ring, some of the world's big
gest clowns, climbing up the power
adder, busily knocking each other
ill...presenting one of the biggest
arces on this campus, the UNCC 1 Stu-
lent Legislature.
Is a three ring circus an unfair
malogy to use for student govern
ment? Perhaps it is the only analogy
lie UNCC student body can relate to
dien trying to understand student
government. When it comes right
town to it, however, there is
ealistically no reason why student
(overnment, in particular Student
legislature, should be paid any atten-
ion. There are reasons for this and
lerlectly logical explanations. Unfor-
unately, the truth hurts and while
Hany student government officials
now the answers to straighten up
hat place, there are just as many who
^nT give a flip.
rhe Student Legislature, a suppos-
d 41 member governing body,
l^cled by the students, meeting
every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., and
responsible for allocating money to
clubs and organizations is in the
center ring because they are the ones
largely responsible for the mess stu
dent government is in right now.
Presently, the Student Legislature is
ox er three weeks late in budget alloca
“Giving themselves (Legislature) a salary would
be an incentive which would be insincere.”
—Wanda Nelson, Western Carolina
tions. hasn't been able to get to new
business in at least two meetings, is
meeting with almost half the
representatives because some have
terms ended without an election being
held to fill the vacancies and several
resignations, and (now, get this) are
actually paying themselves $10 a
month to meet.
According to Jack Summerlin,
chairperson of the Student
Legislature, because the legislative
budget has not been approved, no one
has been paid yet. And even though
there was talk about giving
themselves a raise, the budget with
only the $10 a month salary didn't
pass before the Finance Committee.
Legislators have been getting paid for
several years (since 1976) for atten
ding weekly meetings and committee
meetings. If they attend, they get
paid. Four legislature meetings and
four committee meetings a month
breaks down into $1.25 per meeting.
Looking at that it doesn’t sound so
bad, but thinking about why they're
getting paid is what hurts.
It started out, Summerlin said, to
simply encourage “regular atten
dance'' of the legislative members.
'Phis $10 incentive, so to speak, has
nothing to do with performance,
merit or accomplishment. Elected of
ficials by the student body, with the
potential to be a powerful student
voice, meeting weekly to better the
student s life at UNCC, serving as a
direct line of communication to the
administration are getting paid $10 a
month if all they do is show up. They
don't have to be prepared, they don't
have to know how to use parliamen
tary procedure, they don't even have
to vote. All they have to do is sit
there, say “here" when roll is taken
and a $10 check is handed them at the
end of each month.
No other university in the Universi
ty of North Carolina system pays
their legislators. From Cullowhee to
Wilmington, I talked to an official in
every student government organiza
tion and they were just as surprised
to find a school paid their legislators
as I was to learn we were the only one.
The reasons varied, but the two main
reasons were because there wasn't
enough money in the budgets and
because they didn't know what they
could base the salary on. Most agreed
to use a salary to encourage atten
dance just didn't sound good.
However, student body officer
Charles Powell from Appalachian
State University, says he'd like to be
able to pay his student senators
(equivalent to UNCC's student
legislators). The committee chairper
sons are paid anywhere from
$15()-$30() a year, but are appointees
of the student body president, not
senate members. (UNCC pays
legislative chairpersons $10 a month,
plus the $10 for being a legislator. In
the recent budget, still unapproved
by the Finance Committee, that
figure went up from $20 a month to
$37.50 a month.) “1 think," Powell
said, “that without some sort of
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