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Show THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL• SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY• FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1995 COKIE & STEVE ROBERTS COMMENTARY The continuing saga of the great war 'Acee s is a recurring column through which members of t h e communit y may addte s topics of con cern . Today's column is by David Lee, d epartment head o f Language and Literature. 1 am writing in response to the lead article in the February 10 University fournal in which Director of the SUU Library Diana Graff wa quoted as tating " Students do abu e laterLibrary Loan" and "it ha been a twenty year battle with them (i.e. the English department)." In perfect candor, I am appalled by these quo tations after initially con iderin them to be reporting or context errors. However, I have b en told that Diana Graff has tated that he stands 100 percent behind these quotation . This is a very in teresting, if not insulting, dichotomy, as on T hursday February 9, Library Director Diana Graff and two members of her library staff met with three member of the EngHsh faculty from IO a.m . until 12:30 p.m. in a generall y cordial discussion moderated by provos t Alger. During that meeting both quoted items were discussed, but to a far different end tha1J that reported in the fournal. I bega n that meeting's discu sion with a general over view tatement regarding the student prot st of our current Inter-Library Loan p !icy and the history of the relationship of the Engli h area with the Library. I tated that during my almo t 25 year at thi institution the only complaints I had received regarding library ervice occurred this year, and with one exception tho e complaint occurred after the unposition of the 15 cent per page fee fo r Inter-Library Loan. Library Director Graff re. ponded to my statement by saying, " I have. had no complaints." Shortly therea ter Provost Alger summarized our remark , tating, "as I understand it, then , fo r 24 y ars there have been no co mplaints, t h n thi year you've received complaints ." Library D irector Graff stated, " And I've received no complamt ." Al o, during that meeting there were at least three strong denials that the word "abuse" was ever u ed by any member o the library taff at any time regarding Inter-Library Loan. I am at a total Lo s to explain how Director Graff ca n state one thing in a meeting directed by the Provo t and comple tely contradict herself on the sa me day in an interview with a [o urnal reporter. I can only speculat on rea ans and/or motiva tions for thi kind of behavior. How v r, there is a La_rger iss ue than the items Library Director Graff address d in her remark to the fournal, and that is the issue of our lib rary holdings, which was the focus of last half of Thursday's meeting. The fact is, our library holdings are inadequate foe universitylevel re earch, and they will remain so as long as current levels of funding are maintained. This is llil.l an issue of a battle between an academic depart ment and a service area, it is an issue of what constitutes library excellence on the university level. As a faculty member and administrator at SUU, I have participated in several evaluations of our university, college and department. In virtually eac h of these e valuations, my department has been stringently criticized for our inadequ ate library holdings. To give a recent example, this past fall quarter a member of the Utah State Board of Education came to my class and office as a part of our evalua tion process; in my office he roundly criticized our library holdings, but made reference to the fact that we had a few good current publications in the area of English methodology. I explained that l had donated those books to the university out of my personal library. He asked why that was neces ary, why didn't I order them from library funds, and I explain d that our library budget for the department for academic year 1994-1995 is only $4,000. He was astonished. Rather than couti.nue his harangue on our primary sources, he shifted his focus to our lack of periodicals, especially in literature and creative writing. I re ponded by saying, "You're no listening. O ur library budget for the year is $4,000. That includes books and periodicals." To state that he was dumfounded is in no way an exaggeration. There are two facets of this example I want to expand on. First, never once in re ponse to critici m of our library have I, or to my knowledge any other member of our department, faulted our library facility, staff or even the Director of the Library. Our complain t is with budget and library holdings. Second, our $4,000 library budget is not for the English faculty. That is the full yearly budget for the Department of Language and Literature, which includes English, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Humanities. For per pective, let's divide $4,000 by the 11ix area of this department. If that allotment is divided equally among the division of the department, that means each area can pend $6 6.66 on library orders. As a follow-up, let's consider how far that money will go. F r my English 476 Milton class I ordered one text. My students tell me that book, The Complete Poetry and Prose of fohn Milton, sells for $77. For $666.66 I can order eight of the e book (or their equivalent) with $50.66 remaining. That's ight books per year for the entire area of En Ji h literature, methodology and creative writing with $50 additional for erials. That is the is ue of our departmental attitude toward the SUU library. And that attitude has nothing to do with the nonsense of 20-year battles and "abuse of Inter-Library Loan. 11 Finally, Language and Literature faculty were exposed to a very in tere ting set of figures during the two and one hall hour meeting, and they are as follows: our actual library budget for academic year 1994-95 is $41 ,000. However, $37,000 of that money mu t be used as electron ic upkeep on the mandated but fi naneially non-supported "information highway" in the current thrust by PAC's for increased use of technology in higher education (and, as we are quickly learning, technological ed ucation is neither particularly efficient or inexpensive) . Bottom line: less than 10 percent of available budget is being spent on an artificially conceived and advertised panacea that is in the process of becoming a black hole in our University system. Walt Kelly's Pogo was notorious for sending Brother Gator over the hill to scout the enemy prior to the great battle. Brother Gator always returned with the following report: "I has found the enemy and he is us." On Thursday Feb.ruary 9, 1995, several students engaged in a very admirable-and in my mind-successful protest of current college and university library policies across the state of Utah. To miss the point of that demonstration and reduce their effort to finger pointing, accusation and denial undermines everything this university should stand for. I L.........=....--.- - - - = = = 1 Aborting R epu bl•Jean unity • NORTH CONWAY, N.H. - When Republican leader think about 1996, one of their war t nightm.w f cu es n voter like Bill and Judith Barry. Loyal Republican I the Barry' were attending the Lincoln Day dinner sponsored by the Carroll County GOP. A reporter ask d their reaction to Ralph R ed , the Christian Coalition leader who warned Republican la t week to nominate onJy down-the-line, anti-abortion candidates on th ir national ticket next year. "It made me feel ick," said Bill Barry, "it's too personal a decision." Added Judith: "l had college classmate who died &om back street abortions." The Last thing Republican leader want is for abortion to become a major issue in 1996 . It was delib erat ely kept ut of th e Republican Contract With America - too volatile and divisive. But the nomination of Dr. Henry Foster as Surgeon General changed all that. The truth is, anti-abortion forces have been chafing for months under the iron-fisted leadership of congressional Republicans determined to focus on the economic priorities highlighted by the contract. They were an important factor in the Republican sweep - so important that the party gave $175,000 to that National Right ,...,......,_.....,_ _ _ _ ____ to Life Committee to get their supporters to the polls. But after the election they were told to shut up and sit tight. o when it wa revealed that Dr. Foster had performed everal dozen, the prolife force aw th e ir c hanc e to recapture the potli ht. But that' not the only problem for GOP . Se n . Arlen Specter of to Penn ylvania i . running for the Re ublican nomination in large part to raise the vi ibili ty of pro· choice Republicans and oppose the growing influence of th e Religiou Right. He won strong app lau e ._______________...... when he told the Carroll Coun ty dinner that government shoulJ get "off of your backs and out of your bedr oms. 11 One of the Republicans who cheered Specter wa Pri cilia Griffin, a small-busine owner, who called the ri e of the Religious Right "a very cary thing." Specter put hi finger on why abortion is such a devilish i ue for the GOP: It reflect a harp division between two forms of conservatism. On one hand there is the Goldwater tradition invoked by Specter - which was inspired by the frontier and blends with a streak of New England libertarianism. In this view, conservatives should oppose all forms of government intrusion into private lives, including sex lives. That strand i very different £r m the orthodoxy of fundamentalist Protestants like Ralph Reed and conservative Roman CathoHcs like Pat Buchanan, who espou e the use of government to impose values on ociety. The domination of this second approach at the Republican convention in 1992 helped drive swing voters away from the GOP ticket. Since then, Republican leaders have tried desperately to keep the crack in party ranks patched together. Party chairman Haley Barbour talks repeatedly about the need for a "big tent" that encompasses many divergent views. And it was no accident that Barbour chose New Jersey governor Christine Whitman, a prochoice woman, to respond to Clinton' State of the Union address. Because Republicans ran so well last fall with white males, their continuing weakness with women was largely overlooked. GOP's adamant anti-abortion stance is an important factor in alienating well-educated, suburban women. One of the important question going into 1996•i s this: Will the GOP really be a big tent , welcoming all views? Or will it be a fortress, barring the ga te to non-believers? The answer could help decide the votes of people like Bill and Judith 13arry. leadm want is for abortion become a major issue in 1996.' Cokie Roberts is a commentator for ABC's MWorld News Tomght" and UThis Week With David Brinkley." Steven V. Roberts is a senior writer for "U. S. News and World Report." |