The Carolinian [April 1, 2002]

              TAJ
THE CAROLINIAN
SGA Elections Open With Debate, Controversy
Debate tensions over
race, sexuality reveal
divisions within within
SGA, students
Joe Wilbur
Edilor-In-Chief
This week's debate intro-duced
students to this year's candi-dates
for SGA president and vice -
but it also revealed deep divisions
within the SGA. and on UNCG's
campus. Many written questions
from the audience dealt with bias and
discrimination - from long standing
concerns about racial representation
to the current controversy over
PRIDE, UNCG's gay and lesbian
group, receiving SGA funds.
When questions were taken
from the audience the evening took
an uncomfortable turn. John Russell.
Carolinian columnist and former
PRIDE delegate, used the opportuni-ty
to accuse presidential candidate
Lacey Diggs of closet homophobia.
"I was at a PRIDE meeting
last week where you were campaign-ing,"
said Russell. "And I was won-dering
how you can justify going
after the queer vote when I have it on
good authority that you associate
with people who use the term "fag'
rather loosely."
The question was ruled out
of order by parliamentarian John
Rouse, the debate was halted and
order called for by vice president
Carisa Stanley, who acted as modera-tor.
Diggs offered to defend herself
but was not allowed to respond as she
was told to disregard the question.
"You never know when that
sort of thing is going to happen until
it's too
late," said Stanley, who called the
line of questioning "completely inap-propriate."
"I was very surprised that it
happened," said vice presidential
candidate Chris Young. "It might
have been a good question if he'd
only reworded it."
Young said he thought
Russell's assertion was centered on
Diggs' involvement with the Sigma
Sigma Sigma sorority.
"I'm assuming that he said
that because she's a social Greek,"
said Young. "I'm not sure if it's just
because she's a Greek or because
she's very active, but
I'm just hoping that he's not classify-ing
all Greeks that way, because it
would
be sad of him to discriminate that
way."
Diggs' reputation was fur-ther
sullied by pointed questions
from the audience about the whether
a president should drink or attend
functions where other students break
the law. The suggestion was that as
compared to her opponent. Diggs
was until to represent the SGA.
"I think that you don't stop
being president when you leave your
SGA meeting," said Mary Tracey.
Diggs' opponent for the presidency.
"I believe that you represent the SGA
24 hours. That's why I don't take any
substances that are illegal. That
would include alcohol, because I'm
not yet 21."
Another point of tensiop is
the vice presidential race. Rumors
abound on campus that the battle will
determined along racial lines. The
SGA's structure has the vice presi-dent
running full body meetings and
making important rulings as to how
the group can operate - effectively
making it the group's most important
seat. Despite the gravity of the deci-sion
many delegates are doubtful that
finance chair Chris Young, a white
male, can defeat African American
Brandy Probst.
"Chris is more qualified, has
more charisma and he's campaigning
harder," said one delegate who asked
not to be named. "But Brandy will
Continued on page 8
Jessica Gruen, The Carolinian
This week's SGA debate introduced the campus to the candidates, and to controversies over race and sexuality.
From left to right: Vice presidential candidates Chris Young. Brandy Probst. Presidential candidates Mary Tracey.
Lacey Diggs.
Faculty Retention a growing problem
Low salaries prompting professors and staff to leave - and it's getting worse
Stephen Cook
Staff Writer
As an army of construction
workers erect UNCG's new science
building the University's administra-tion
is Hghting rival institutions for
faculty to fill its halls and class-rooms.
The problem of faculty
retention has grown steadily in the
past few years and the recent budget
cuts have only made things worse.
"We're losing faculty to
other institutions for better salaries,
better benefits, and better working
conditions." said Chancellor Patricia
Sullivan.
Sullivan said the issue of
faculty has two fronts: addressing the
faculty who are leaving and paying
the faculty appropriately for their
work.
"I'm worried about support-ing
faculty at the level [reflective of
the quality work they do.|"
"IFaculty Retention! is a
huge problem for business schools
(all over the state)."" said Dr. James
K. Weeks. Dean of the Bryan School
of Business.
Weeks said he sees a seri-ous
problem arising, with salary
issues accounting for many of the
faculty losses in the Bryan School of
Business.
"We try to have competitive
salaries," said Weeks. "Without com-petitive
salaries (it's difficult to
attract quality faculty|. That's what
the tuition increase was all about."
Weeks said competitive
salaries arc the schools best defense
against faculty losses.
"We don't have any leeway
with the benefits package." said
Weeks. The benefits package is
decided by the state, (unfortunately
North Carolina's benefits package is
not very competitive). You pay more
and you get less. The main thing is
keeping salaries up with the market
place."
Dr. Walter H. Beale. Dean
of the College of Arts and Sciences
was reluctant even to talk about prob-lems
with faculty retention, declining
to comment on the problem altogeth-er.
"Salaries aren't very com-petitive
here; that's probably why
there is a problem." said Dr. Lisa
Holmes. Law professor.
Holmes is leaving UNCG's
political science department for the
University of Vermont next semester.
Holmes said the compensation for
the workload a typical faculty mem-ber
faces contributes to the problem
of retention.
"My understanding was that
retention has not been as much a
problem in the past [but is a growing
problem now.)" said Holmes. "One
the problem is that people have to
work very hard to succeed and they
Continued on page 2
OWRR helps fight student waste
Piles ofpaper and pounds of food are wasted everyday - but not for long
Elizabeth Fenn
Staff Writer
Ever wonder where all the
extra food from the CAF goes? The
Office of Waste Reduction and
Recycling is using simple but cre-ative
ways to reduce the amount of
waste produced in the CAF and other
buildings across campus.
One such program is done
in conjunction with Dining Services
to reduce the amount of food wasted
by the cafeteria through a food reuse
program.
"Basically it was started two
years ago but it kinda slacked off,"
said Angie Shot w el I. an intern for the
OWRR. "I started it up again this
semester. We take food from the
cafeteria to Urban Ministry every
Friday and it comes out to be about
90 to 130 pounds every week."
But UNCG isn't giving
away table scraps, said one OWRR
employee. "None of it's been put out;
it's just what they made too much of.
As soon as it is served it becomes a
health risk to donate it," said Amy
Armbruster. "It's all prepared foods;
a lot of bread, a lot of casseroles."
Greensboro Urban Ministry is a
faith-based outreach program in
Greensboro that provides food to
many who may not have any other
means of getting food.
Everything that is
prepared but not put out for students
to eat is saved up during the week
and stored in a refrigerator until
Friday. Sometimes there isn't very
much because "often they'll [reuse
it) there [in the cafeteria). If they
have leftover bread, they'll make
bread pudding or stuffing. If they
have leftover broccoli they'll put it in
a casserole." said Armbruster.
"They really are very good
at reusing in the cafeteria and not
wasting because it really is expensive
for them to dispose of their waste and
the food costs so much," she said.
Still, Armbruster says a lot
of the CAF waste is the students'
fault. "People take whole hamburg-ers
and through it away with out tak-ing
a bite, whole apples, you could
take that with you. It's sort of like
your mom told you, 'eat all your
food, there arc people starving in
Ethiopia.' Well, there are people in
Greensboro that need food."
The program got restarted
again when Keefe Harrison, the head
of the OWRR, suggested it as a proj-ect
to Shotwell. "But it was really
Angie |Shotwell] who's done all the
leg work and lit a fire under the cafe-teria
to make it happen." said
Armbruster. "So far we've given
some 500 pounds of food since
February." said Shotwell. "Urban
Ministry sometimes freezes it; some-times
they use it that night."
The OWRR has been the
saving grace of the Greensboro land-fill
in another way recently. Time
Warner Cable had been sending a bill
for zero dollars and zero cents to
every student on campus and to
everywhere else on campus where
there is a cable outlet.
Over 2.000 bills were com-ing
to the post office in the Atrium
who then sent them to Housing and
Residence Life. Shotwell talked to
Time Warner Cable and stopped the
bills from being printed and mailed.
"1 made a few phone calls and talked
to a lady in billing who. I was sur-prised,
didn't know anything about
it," said Shotwell.
Shotwell says the cable
company was glad to stop the billing,
since it was costing them $400 a
month just for postage. The OWRR
estimates this has saved over one ton
of waste from the landfill.
Debate introduces stu-dents
to presidential,
vice presidential can-didates,
platforms
Joe Wilbur
Editor-in-Chief
The first debate of the SGA
election season was held this week,
marking the beginning of the SGA's
renewed commitment to elections.
The debate, held at the SGA's week-ly
full body meeting, featured presi-dential
contenders Mary Tracey. cur-rently
the legislative chair, and treas-urer
Lacey Diggs. Sharing the spot-light
were vice presidential candi-dates
finance chair Chris Young and
former publicity and elections chair
Brandy Probst. SGA election guide-lines
prevent any two candidates
from running together on a ticket.
"We separated the debate
into two parts." said SGA vice pres-ident
Carisa Stanley, who acted as
moderator. "The first part was ques-tions
on paper submitted from the
audience. The second was actual
questions from the audience, which
we gave an hour for."
Written questions came
from the SGA's executive board as
well as the audience, and the candi-dates
began by stating their goals
and platforms.
"To me it's all about commitment,
involvement and empowerment."
Diggs told the audience. "As soon as
we have a good bond within the
SGA. we can go out and begin to
empower the community."
Diggs, a senior, is currently
SGA Treasurer. She is a double
major in Accounting and Financial
Economics and is active member of
Sigma Sigma Sigma. Diggs said as
president her main concern would be
fielding student concerns.
"I want to deal with ongo-ing
student concerns, like parking
and tuition," Diggs said. "But 1 also
want to take on new concerns, like
student health care. That's some-thing
I hear a lot about and I wonder
if we're getting the best of every-thing
on that."
Diggs' opponent. Mary
Tracey. is a junior and currently
chair of the legislative committee.
Tracey is an economics major who
said she'll concentrate on drawing
new and diverse groups of students
into SGA.
"I think delegates from all
areas of campus should be appoint-ed."
said Tracey.
"Not just from groups that are bud-geted.
We have to make everyone
feel like this is their SGA too."
Tracey suggested a lot more
SGA social events and said she
wants to open SGA executive board
meetings to students and the press,
making the SGA more
accessible and accountable.
"The accessibility, account-ability
and diversity of student gov-ernment
are what I'm all about." said
Tracey.
Though they admit the
debate hit a few speed bumps (see
"Debate Reveals SGA Divisions."
Pg. 1), SGA members said the event
was a step in the right direction.
"I think it went well overall," said
Stanley after the event. "It's some-thing
we've got to get back to, to get
the people out voting and caring
about elections again. It's important
that they realize that this is their
SGA."
In the face of student apa-thy
and low voter turnout the SGA is
taking a more active role in the elec-tion
process this year, organizing
more debates and expanding polling
from 2 days to 7 in various spots all
over campus.
"I don't think the polls have
ever reached this many people
before," said Young. "Last year we
only had something pathetic like 500
people vote over two days. They're
Continued on page 2
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