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Show n Members of Utah's House of Representatives are getting their first official glimpse of the new Weber College hillside campus and buildings this morning. Representatives, accompanied by several state and local officials, are here to see classrooms, laboratories, students and teachers in action. Since they were here, last two years ago, four new classroom buildings have been finished and are now occupied. Also completed are the new heating plant and a stadium with a view. Here One Hour Lawmakers will be here from 9:30 to 10:30. After a guided tour of all facilities they will be welcomed and . briefed on some of the school's most pressing problems by President William P. Miller. These will doubtless include mention of Weber's three bills now in legislative hoppers at the State Capitol for about 25 more acres of land south of here, operating expenses for the next two years and new buildings. The President will explain that urgently needed now are a new vocational building and a new gymnasium to further centralize activities on the upper campus site. It has already been pointed out often that this would bring about considerable savings to the state: (1) The Vocational Building and the Central Building could then be used to house various state functions for which the state is now paying rent; (2) the annexes and the West Central Building could be. closed and sold; (3) operational and maintenance expenses for the Moench and Gymnasium buildings would cease since those structures would revert to the L.D.S. Church. Valued Now at $400,000 Value of lower campus buildings and land, excluding, of course, the Moench and Gym buildings, has been estimated at about $400,000. Sale of all or part of this would assist materially in financing needed new construction on the upper campus. President Miller is also expected to tell legislators that on the basis of children now born, enrollments here will have risen by 1975 to a point requiring at least 25 more acres for buildings and other facilities. The present rate of res idential building in this area means "we must buy it now or never," according to Dr. Miller. After the upper campus visit, members of Utah's 60-man House will be taken by bus to the lower campus where they will be shown at first hand the state's investment in buildings and lands there. Incidentally, today is a homecoming for at least one member of the lawmaking delegation. He is Speaker of the House Charles E. Peterson, former Weber student. Other Stops Planned Before returning to Salt Lake City to resume their duties, the solons were planning to visit other state institutions in this area, probably including the Utah State Industrial School, the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, and the Utah Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Local offiicals accompanying the group during their Weber visit include members of the Ogden Chamber of Commerce, the Weber College Advisory Board, and also city and county officials. Several wives and husbands of legislators and staff members are also here. NOW HEAR THIS! Should Weber County Be Required To Help Finance College Program? (Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of pro-con discussions in Signpost of vital issues affecting Weber students as well as the general public. Today's question is: Should Weber College be supported by local as Well as state funds, as proposed recently by the governor?) PRO By Jim Freston As a student of Weber College, I find it difficult to unbiasedly express the administration's side of the dual support issue. However, as adults we all should realize that being a controversial subject, the issue has two sides and we should carefully consider both before drawing any final conclusions. Evidently, the object of the dual support system is the lowering of the state budget which, as you probably know, is considerably higher for the coming biennial than it was for the last two years. By putting Weber College on a municipal basis it would undoubtedly ease the budget situation. We find that the administration's policy is to reduce spending rather than increase taxation. In answer to the question of how successfully a college can be maintained primarily by municipal support, facts show that only a very small percentage of junior colleges throughout the nation are supported by state-wide funds, whereas the majority are on a school district or municipal basis. A prime example of a city college in action is Pasadena City College of Pasadena, California, which is just what its name implies, a city owned and supported college. This junior college is fully accredited, carries a full intercollegiate athletic program and is wholeheart edly supported by the citizens'-4rf Pasadena. : - I have used Pasadena City College as an example of a successful municipal college because it falls under the California system for junior colleges the same system our administration would like very much to follow. One popular argument against dual support and municipal ownership is that the people in our area feel that it's unfair to be taxed for the support of our own college and at the same time contribute to the state supported colleges when we can only use one of the schools. We have referred to this as "double taxation". When we speak of this "double taxation", however, we don't realize that the farmer in Smithfield has been contributing to the support of Weber College as well as to the USAC's support while his son or daughter can attend only one of the colleges. In other words, taxpayers throughout the state have been supporting Weber College while in most cases only the students of our area have (Continued on Page 2, Column 1) CON By Don Fowler The proposition we are debating was, as you know, brought up by Governor Lee in his opening address to the Utah Legislature . . . 'In view of the great difficulty the state has in supporting its educational commitments, at present" the transfer to state-local support should be effected, in the interest of economy. But I want to know whose economy. Granted, the transfer, when and if made, would show a saving on the state's books, but there certainly would be no savings to the taxpayer especially in the districts served by the college. To illustrate, as it stands now the University of Utah, the A. C. and thhe Branch A. C. provide lower level (or junior college) education to 64 of the students of the state. Weber, along with Snow, Carbon and Dixie provide for the other 36 If the state-local support were1 instituted it would turn out that the people in the districts around Weber and the other three schools would be paying taxes to support their school and at the same time be paying taxes for the support of the U. and the A. C. There is further "economy". The only source of local support would be property taxes. If the transfer were made the support now given by the general fund would be dropped and the burden thrown on the property taxes. In Ogden, at present, the property tax is already 72 mills and under the proposed transfer the levy would be raised 6 to 7 mills. Everyone pays into this general fund through taxes on gas, margarine, cigarettes, liquor, etc. Thus we would be getting nothing for our money. But, we will get a double tax burden. State taxes will be the same, but property taxes will go up in this area as we pay for our schools and the rest of the state's education also, while they would not be paying for ours. Another side of this economy would be the costs of setting up and maintaining new school boards, taxing districts, bond issues, board elections, etc. A refutation of the foregoing statements would seem to be "but since Weber is a community col lege let the community support it." Statistically this is true; 88 of the students at Weber are from adjacent communities At the same time 86 of the lower division students at the U. are from (Continued on Page 2, Column 2) VOLUME XVIII JANUARY 26, 1955, OGDEN, UTAH NUMBER 7 Friendship Banquet Will Honor 'Friendliest Girl' Every year the friendship among the girls going to Weber is expressed by their annual friendship banquet. All girls on the campus are invited. This year Chanodo social club is in charge of the event, with Carol Anderson acting as chairman. The banquet will be held February 2, at the Peacock Room, costing two dollars a plate. Formal dress will be in order. A popularity vote for the friendliest girl at college will be conducted some days before, and the winning girl will be announced at the banquet. Last year Noma Allen was selected as "Friendly Girl of '54". The friendship banquet has been an annual affair since 1940, when Mrs. Clarisse Hall decided that it would bring the girls social clubs closer, and put an end to the bitter feelings and rivalry among the girls. We, the Associated Women Students of Weber, are proud to say that a situation of this kind no longer exists. As students striving to build a bigger and better Weber we know that this is one of the stones that will make our foundation solid. English Pianist Will Perform Clifford Curzon, internationally famous English pianist ,will be the soloist with the concert series production Feb. 1, at 8:15 in the Ogden High School auditorium. Mr. Curzon has been in demand for concert appearances in America since his first appearances in 1939, after which, the war prevented his playing until 1947. Most of his appearances have been held in Europe since then. The Ogden Community-Weber College concert series, which sponsors the concert series, is a member of a national organization obtaining such artists and lecturers for appearances. Heads Delegation , " v h ? ''-M il W H V N Y wT . -my Another former Weber College student who's making his mark in the world is Utah's Speaker of the House of Representatives Charles E. Peterson, who was here from 1931 to 1933. Today, he's leading the- state's legislative delegation visiting here. Utah's Speaker of the House Maintained 'A' Average at Veber During 1931-33 There've been plenty of changes made here since Utah's Speaker of the House Charles E. Peterson was a student at Weber from 1931 to 1933. In those days the whole college was crowded into the Moench Building on Jefferson and the Gymnasium Building on 25th Street. The student body numbered about 1,030 cumulative compared with 4,797 last year nearly a five-fold gain in a little more than 20 years. But Not Forgotten Speaker Peterson probably thinks this is all forgotten now, but he maintained an A average in a pretty formidable array of subjects, which included such courses as economics, English, college algebra, accounting, physics, geology, zoology, physiology, psychology and commercial law. In those days some of his teachers, who are still here, by the way, could have been Miss Marian T. Read, Charles Osmond, Ralph Gray, Leland H. Monson and Guy Hurst. Of course, his registration and other school records were kept by Mrs. Clarisse Hall. Brother Is Rolfe His brother, Rolfe, is also a former Weber student, being president of the student body in 1939-40, and now a well-known radio and television personality in Utah and the Intermountain West. The Speaker currently lives in Provo with his wife, the former Harriet Robison, also originally of Ogden, and four children Charles E., Jr., 19; Joan, 15; Kent, 10, and Steven, 6. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Peterson, reside in Ogden at 323 30th Street. |