Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 24

Page Twenty-four Section A ffibf Arizona Dailo Star- Tucson, Thursday, November 28, 1991 -NATION Declining enrollments forcing cuts in private college programs, faculty mnct nrnnminced in that reeion. and the recession has The Associated Press "Clearly this is a problem. If privates can't get support, they'll have to finance research out of their hides. And that's a long-term concern that we haven't been able to resolve," said Richard Rosser, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Uni-vers'ties. Several college presidents also admitted yesterday that many institutions enjoyed heady expansions during the 1980s but paid too little attention to their long-term educational missions.

"There was a blurring of purpose in the '80s, and we are going to have to get more muscular in what we do," said Robert H. Edwards, president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, now struggling to cut programs by 10 percent to close a $1 million budget gap. Bowdoin, Syracuse University, Smith College, Yale University, Allegheny College and Stanford are among a growing number of schools where real or threatened deficits are forcing cuts in programs and staff. Northeastern schools have been hardest hit, said Rosser. The decline in the number of 18-year-olds is Bridgeport's.

But 26 department chairmen wrote a letter to administrators this month threatening to resign their leadership posts if the Ivy League university cuts arts and sciences spending. Columbia faces a budget deficit estimated at up to $30 million. In a statement yesterday, Columbia spokesman Fred Knubel insisted that no budgetary decisions had been reached. He said such decisions would be adopted "only after full review and discussion among the faculty and deans." Bridgeport's and Columbia's money woes mirror those at public and private colleges across the country this year. But private institutions are especially vulnerable because of their heavy reliance on tuition at a time when students' families are increasingly strapped and need more financial aid.

Compounding the economic difficulties, private schools have suffered blows to their collective image with recent federal investigations into possible collusion on student aid levels, and accusations of waste and mis-allocation of federal research funds by several colleges, notably Stanford University. cut alumni giving, while increasing demands for student aid. Daniel Sullivan, president of Allegheny College in Meadville, said the recession has meant his school must cut operating costs by $2 million to help offset "an incredible increase in the demand for financial aid." Student aid provided by the school rose nearly 50 percent in just the last year, from $6.6 million a year ago to $9.6 million this school year. Syracuse University is drafting a four-year plan to save $28 million by consolidating or eliminating academic programs and cutting as many as 500 faculty and staff members, said Robert Hill, vice president of public relations. Syracuse's applicant pool is expected to decline by about 15 percent to 20 percent owing to a drop in the number of 18-year-olds, Hill said.

As a result, the school, one of the nation's largest private institutions, anticipates a decline of 2,500 students from current levels of 11,495 undergraduates. The University of Bridgeport is nearly broke and is cutting of its liberal arts programs. Top faculty members at Columbia University have threatened to quit their posts over possible budget cuts. Those are but two- of, many private colleges across the country swamped in red ink. survival was on the line yesterday as officials of the 64-year-old college sought court permission to use $2.5 million in restricted endowment funds to meet a payroll and continue operating through early January.

The cuts will eliminate many of Bridgeport's liberal arts classes and followed the Connecticut university trustees' unanimous rejection last month of a $50 million takeover offer from an arm of the Rev. Sun Myung Mood's Unification Church. yesterday, Bridgeport's law school dean was fired for trying to have his school secede from the university because of its financial troubles. Columbia's money woes don't approach those of $1499 SAVE ON TRADITIONAL PLAIDS FLANNELS 1 -f 1 i Editions by Van Heusen plaid sport shirts in polyester cotton or the comforting warmth of cotton flannel in Winterweights by Van Heusen. S-M-L-XL.

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In Men's Sportshirts. -i I T'l AJ It- I JjA In Men's Sportshirts. I I 1 Hi' 7 i 1 A i Legalized-pot drive claims ecology goal Texas protesters stage smbke-ins, hunger strikes By Karen Potter 1991 Fort Worth Star-Telegram SAN MARCOS, Texas Some say they're overaged hippies stranded in a trrrie warp. "BUt' protesters in this Central Texas' college town say they've found a' 1990s reason for the 1960s cause of legalizing marijuana: They say it will save the Earth. They began making their point in the spring in a series of smoke-ins at the San Marcos police station and the Hays County Jail complex.

Yesterday, one of them began the 14th day of a jailhouse hunger strike arid is'petitioning Gov. Ann Richards to listen to his arguments why mari-jufin-j or hemp, the term they like to use', could be the planet's last best hope. "We tell older people we're not living in the '60s. You're all living in the '50s," said another of the group, Jeff Stefanoff, 39, who will go to trial Monday for lighting up a joint in front of law enforcement officials in the.spring. Stefanoff wears John Lennon-styie' wire-rim glasses, a full, graying beard and thinning above-the-collar hair.

The construction worker and former 'veterinary officer in the military said he has been smoking marijuana for nearly a quarter of a cen-turystarting when he was 14. Stefanoff is known by his nickname "Zeal," which refers to his fervent "dedication to causes dating back to the '60s and '70s. But some of his colleagues are too young to have taken part. Jailed hunger striker Joe Gaddy, 30, doesn't like to be called a hippie. a YUCKEE young, unemployed.

college kid, economically endangered," Gaddy said in a telephone interview from the jailhouse infirmary, where he is under medical observation. Hunger pangs went away after the first three days, and Gaddy said he is feeling OK except that he weakens easily. By Gaddy's calculations, he haS 4ost 10 pounds, down to about 17ir Gaddy and the others stress that they undertook their show of civil disobedience for environmental and not recreational purposes. Gaddy and Stefanoff said they will smoke- marijuana regardless of whether it is legalized. They contend that the hemp plant could provide a bounty of environment-saving uses from fuel to paper if its' Cultivation were legal.

Hunger strike explained "This is a hunger strike until Ann Richards will at least give me the time; Of day, saying OK, I realize you're riot trying to change the drug laws because she has made a firm stand against all drugs," Gaddy said. "It's political suicide for her to talk about it anyway." When he walked into the lobby of the San Marcos police station in the spring; and blew a mouthful of marijuana smoke into a records clerk's face to precipitate his arrest, Gaddy didn'tcount on spending a good chunk of the fall behind bars. Although most people arrested on a first offense of possessing a marijuana cigarette get probation, Gaddy received a four-month jail sentence near the maximum of five months from a county court-at-law judge. The timing may have been significant His trial was the same week as national Red Ribbon Week, which honors tortured and slain Drug Enforcement Administration official Enrique Camarena. Gaddy wrote Richards a letter yesterday saying he is literally "starving to be heard" and asked her for a pardon.

Including pages of information about the supposed uses of hemp from powering Henry Ford's first car to plastics Gaddy concluded the letter, "environmentally yours." mTn i niTi-f i -Ytirf v- -t WmwI i ummmmmtem. writ iA, I. -4 vrf.sk.'!..' ti.d ALL STORES CLOSED TODAY, shop a.m. tsm ldoo p.m. Friday FCEYg FOLEY'S 51 VISA Si Br.