• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1991-08-29_Vol57_No03_05

Volume 57 Number 3 Voices The Western Carolinian Page 5 Thursday, August 29, 1991 Letters to the Editor Clearcutting: Not the answer for our forests John Marshall Dennis Editor-in-Chief From the Editor... Definition of a miracle- 1. Collapse of Communism 2. Childbirth 3. Sunrises 4. Sunsets 5. Passing the final exam in your analytical geometry class. 6. Finding a decent parking spot. 7. Getting to class on time. 8. Finding a job after graduation. 9. Actually graduating. 10. Not carrying a balance on your credit card. 11. Getting a hole-in-one. 12. When any luxury item breaks before the warranty runs out. 13. Freedom 14. When Milli Vanilli sing for themselves. 15. The fact that the Atlanta Braves are in first place in the National League West at the time of this editorial. Dear Editor: Something is wrong with the U.S. Forest Service leadership. They can' t manage our forests properly due to a spurious plan they adopted 25 years ago. It can be likened to a disease in its effect. Call it "clearcut- itis". Ever since they've been obsessed with denuding our forests. They promoted the spread of this infection to colleges and universities that prepare future foresters. Certain timber interests, long afflicted with this disease, have aided and supported the Forest Service leadership in its addiction and are confusing us with a 550,000,000 misinformation campaign. Their purpose: to cut the 5% left of our ancient forests at huge profits to themselves within the next 5 to 10 years, using the befuddled Forest Service leadership to gain their end. Once it was the people and the Forest Service versus timberers. Now it is timberers and Forest Service versus the people. A tide of public concern is rising to stem this disease in its devastation with powerful medication to be prescribed by Congress. Previous prescriptions have failed because the Forest Service leadership refused to swallow the medi cine that would return it to its former state of health. The Santa Claus syndrome, of practically giving away our trees, harvestedatourexpense, is also of great concern to people. In Indiana, 120,000 people signed petitions and wrote thousands of letters including congressmen and governor, calling for protection of biological diversity and regeneration of old growth. A poll of voters around the Hoosicr National Forest showed 69% are so upset they want to ban all logging. The entire congressional delegation of Illinois is demanding the Forest Service to stop being Santa Claus with below cost sales. Arkansas and Texas have asked a halt to clearcutting. South Carolina people are asking for a change in management. In North Carolina over 16,000 people and over a thousand businesses signed petitions in a short period of time to halt clearcutting. A number of Forest Service employees and supervisors, not willing to allow this disease to reach epidemic proportions, are prescribed congressional medication so that the Forest Service can survive. I must add that a number of private forest growers with large and small forests are not infected with "clearcut-itis". They are surviving low prices caused by Forest Service leadership direction. These forests are a joy to visit compared with the shambles present in our national forests. These many growers are not liquidators. They believe in a tomorrow for themselves and their children. Why can't this be true of our national forests? Grandfather and grandmother, we have the time. We love this land and want to leave it better for our children and grandchildren. We've seen the timber locusts consume our forest before. It doesn't have to happen to the last grand trees standing. Three bills in committee need support; HR 2501, HR 1969, and HR 842 to help kill the infection. Three congressmen to reach are Harold Volkmer, Ede la Garza, George Miller; House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20015. The three senators are: Dale Bumpers, Patrick Leahy and Wyche Fowler; Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20010. Even though our hands are tired and weary, won't you pick up a pen and write. Let's inspire them in Washington. Sincerely, Bob Gerry Political Forum A Weekly Sound-Off Between College Republicans and College Democrats This Week's Topic: Justify the university professors not getting a raise when the state wants to put an emphasis on education. When the history of the North Carolina's legislature through 1991 is written, it will make for abysmally poor reading. Their record on all matters, most notably education, lags far behind other states and national averages in funding as well as quality. It is also to note that while the same legislature has made education a 'lop priority", they have found every manner possible in which to avoid addressing this issue. While Western Carolina has lost several million dollars in funding and several professors over the last two years because ofthe.se budget cuts, the quality of education at Western is under threat to become insufficient to the task needed by today's student to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. So what is the legislature's response to this? They have declined to raise professors' salaries this year. Legislators in their greed to have pet pork barrel projects named after them (the Liston 8. Ramsey monstrosity comes to mind) have forsaken the future of the state in order to achieve the most important short term goal; that of re-election. What does all this mean to the college professor who must make do on the current salary? Unfortunately, given the convoluted logic of our legislators, no pay raise is the best of the slew of bad solutions to the education problem, at least in the short run. Given that most North Carolinians are not college professors, they are therefore an easy minority to pick on when it comes to denying raises. Most North Carolinians do have, or are going to have, children in primary or secondary school systems. If (this being a big "if") the money that would have been used for raises would be put back into use to help the primary and secondary school systems, perhaps it would help benefit professors in the long run by producing better educated incoming freshmen, thereby making the professors' jobs easier. This is, of course, wishful thinking at best. In a state where the well-being of a cigarette is more important than a good background in computers (Oops! Sorry, I forgot, we just raised the cigarette tax to a whopping 4 cents a pack so that now we are not the home of the 'owest taxed cigarettes in America; we're tied with Alabama for 49th.), education will continue to take a back seat to the whims of our legislators in Raleigh. Since our state has See "Republicans" Page 6 r T/te Western Carolinian Western Carolina University The Old Student Union P.O. Box 66 Cullowhee, NC 28723 John Marshall Dennis Editor-in-Chief Associate Editors Charles Baldwin - Business Jennifer Mann - News Stephanie L. Messcr - Copy and Layout Robert M. Robertson - Sports Photographer Stephanie Messcr Hunter Pape \ V Typesetters Laura L. Adams Kim Miller Office Manager Mike Greene Advisor John Moore Design & Layout Mark Ellison Douglas R Pease Writers Misha Baker Dawn Cook Jeff DeMoe Suzanne Kendall Barrett Nichols Holly Pan- Melissa Richardson Kim Shively Derek Smolik Karen Stewart Carlyle Stewart Probably the most important domestic political issue that faces both our state and our national government is the issue of education. The Democratic Party has a strong commitment to the education of America's young people. However, given the state legislature's decision to cut education spending in the latest state budget, many have questioned the Democratic Party's devotion to education in the state of North Carolina. Given this (urn of events, one must focus more attention on other state laws. The state of North Carolina has a law requiring that the state budget be balanced. Anyone who was awake last year knows that the state government had a record budget shortfall caused by a rise in spending and an unexpected fall in tax revenues. The rise in spending was precipitated by changes in federal government spending priorities forcing the state to pick up programs that the federal government dropped. On the other hand, the unexpected fall in tax revenues was caused by the recession of 1990-91. Thus, the state government was caught in an extremely tight vise with bad choices in every direction. With state law mandating a balanced budget, the legislature was forced to cut spending in every program, including education. One item that must be pointed out is the fact that the final state budget made significant changes in the cuts to education spending. There really is no justification for university professors not getting a raise; however, this situation by no means indicates a lack of state emphasis on education. Rather, the final budget cut no teaching positions in state educational facilities. This move alone took hours of hard work by our legislators. The real crux of the issue is that under tight budgetary times both corporate and governmental units must tighten their belts. Indeed, a raise for professors was not feasible last year but could be likely this year. Although this issue is an important one, it is relatively slight in the overall context of the education crisis facing the nation. With our studentsconsistently placing among the lowest scores on standardized test, one might ask what the "Education President" has done over the past three years to remedy the situation. The answer is that the President has done very little for education during his term in office. President Bush had been too busy with foreign policy concerns to turn his attention to this serious problem in America. We hear of plans for allowing parents to choose where their children go to school. But, the nation hears nothing about how to achieve higher test scores except flowery language about creating excellence in education through such flawed plans as national testing of our teachers. Our nation's teachers are not the root of the problems that are facing education in this country. Rather, a major misdirection in our national educational policy is our teacher's saiaries. These salaries are among the lowest in the world. If the President truly wishes to be known as the "Education President", he should make teacher salaries the cornerstone of our national policy. Indeed, how can we expect our teachers to truly perform at their best if we, as a nation, do not let them know that we think they are the best in the world. Rather, the first thing that we do when we see the crisis in education is blame the educators for the failings of the system. In truth, if one wishes to find the root of the education crisis, one only needs to look at the plight of the American family. Twenty or 30 years ago, the nation's children received quality time from their parents. Parents were known to read to their children and even to work on their children's homework as a family. Today, ourchildren are being ignored. They watch hours of television when they could be reading good books. In addition, their parents never take the time to ask about what happened at school. However, this statement is See "Democrats" Pace 6 Office Hours for The Western Carolinian 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday thru Friday The Western Carolinian student newspaper is located in the Old Student Union Building next to the Moore Building. Office Manager will be on duty from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and can be reached at 227-7267. J The Western Carolinian-welcomes editorial input from students, faculty, and staff on matters of public interest. Please address correspondence to: Voices P.O. Box 66 Cullowhee, NC 28723 All submissions will be considered, but The Western Carolinian reserves the right to refuse publication of offensive or otherwise unsuitable material. The Carolinian is not responsible for opinionsexpressed on the Editorial Page. Student On The Street "How has the tuition increase affected your personal budget, regarding your extra-curricular activities? n Name - Phillip Mahone Major - Criminal Justice Class - Senior Hometown - Zebulon "Huh? With the increased tuition, I find myself unable to purchase natural foods and earth-friendly products. Instead, I must buy harmful, inexpensive items that will lead to eventual genocide. Bummer." Name - Matt Crabtree Major - Criminal Justice Class - Junior Hometown - Greensboro "I've had to work more to have money to spend to accomodate for the increase in tuition." Name - John Patterson Major - Political Science Class - Junior Hometown - Orlando, Fla. "It really hasn't cut down on extracurricular activities." Name - Michael Smith Major - Criminal Justice Class - Senior Hometown - Laurinburg "I've made more money this summer than in the past, so I really didn't notice." Name - Kirby Morrow Major - Speech and Hearing Class - Sophomore Hometown - Miami, Fla. "It bites out-of-state students really bad because we have to scrape up double what the in-state students do and we get less for our money because they're taking away a lot of the extra-curricular activities. Name - Laura Cleveland Major - Environmental Health Class - Freshman Hometown - Raleigh "Yeah, it has. I have less money to spend." *.■.■*■;*' -si* Name - Christopher Allison Major - Undeclared Class - Freshman Hometown - New Jersey "I find myself going to the bank so many times now." Name - Michael Souther Major - Computer Science Class - Senior Hometown - Union Grove "Yes, it has. It cut down what I spend on the weekends for entertainment." Carolinian photos by Stephanie Messir

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1991-08-29
  • Date digitized: 2019-10-02
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.75" x 14.25"
  • Pages: 10 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1991-08-29_Vol57_No03
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library