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16—The Daily Collegian Thursday, April 8. 1982
Assembly restructure suggested
By CAROLYN PIUCCI
Collegian Staff Writer
The president of the Undergraduate Student Government's
Academic Assembly said he plans to propose a total restructuring
of the assembly in an attempt to give more services to
undergraduates at the University.
Chris Hopwood said he will present proposals to solve both
internal and external assembly problems at the April 21
meeting, and he will also ask for input from assembly members
on the proposals.
' "Everything is up for grabs, including the name — not for
cosmetic reasons but for a new direction to give students who
will be served," Hopwood said.
"If we are changing everything we might as well change the
name because students identify with a name, and it says
something about the organization," he said.
In order to best serve the students, Hopwood said,"the
internal problems need to solved first before we can look
outward."
The assembly is too flexible right now in its policies concerning
transition from old to new officers, committee responsibilites
and other duties, Hopwood said. The new assembly will
need more stucture and guidelines, he said.
"Next year the assembly will be intensely student oriented;
we will still be issue oriented, but we need more attention on
students," he said.
The assembly needs to offer more services to students,
Hopwood said, so they can identify with the assembly and with
what it can do for them. In order to have more projects to serve
students, the assembly also needs to increase its resource base,
he said.
To have such an increase the assembly needs to be recognized
as legislative body in USG, rather than a department of
USG, Hopwood said. The assembly should have its own allotment
of USG funds rather than asking the USG senate for
money, he said.
"Basically it is an identity issue. I do not feel we should have
to go before the USG senate because we are also a legislative
body," Hopwood said.
The proposals, Hopwood said, should not scare any students,
but should instead awaken students to the fact that the assembly
has changed.
In other business, assembly members accepted a proposal
allowing student council presidents of the 10 colleges to appoint
a full-time representative to the assembly.
Professor speaks on Guatemalan killings
By CARRIE STONE
Collegian Staff Writer
American foreign policy in Guatemala should have been
established in the 50s, a University professor said last night.
"Time is running out if it hasn't already run out," Charles D.
Ameringer, professor of Latin American history, told members
of Americans for Democratic Action.
The Guatemalan government turned back to the right wing
after the Central Intelligence Agency overthrew it in 1954,
Ameringer said. If the CIA was going to intervene against the
left, it should also intervene against the right, he said.
Also.Rios Montt , the general who has taken over in Guatemala,
may be able to moderate the established order, Ameringer
said.
Reuben Sairs, a member of Friends of Central American
Liberty, said he thinks Montt may be able to slow down the
indiscriminate killings, but he does not see any substantial
change in the near future.
However, trying to find information about what is happening
in Guatemala is difficult, Sairs said.
"There seems to be a real blackout at work here," he said.
Montt spent the last four years teaching in a church school,
but Sairs said that will not necessarily make the situation any
better.
"I refuse to recognize any military takeover as a progressive
force," he said.
Sairs said his personal interest in Guatemala began with a
friend who had escaped the death squads. His friend was a
Pentecostal Christian and refused to join the squads. As a
result, they tried three times to kill him.
The killings don't happen "wild west style;" people who are
leaders are chosen by the government for assassination, he
said.
Anyone — it does not matter if they say they are communists
or Sunday school teachers — may be seen as a potential threat
to the government, Sairs said.
Amnesty International has not been able to find any political
prisoners in Guatemala because most do not live through the
arrest, he said.
"We think of assassination of political leaders," Ameringer
said.
He said in Guatemala, however, murder is used on all levels
as a political device.
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