University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

Page 27 text:

Dukakis-appointed forty member committee, replacing them with anti-ERA, anti-abortion conservatives. But in April, Governor King was scheduled to meet students at UMass. The Costs of Quality Education , a panel discussion spon- sored by the UMass School of Education was a part of the week ' s education forum. Howev- er, the Governor made his journey to North- ampton instead, to visit Leed ' s Dam. King was quoted as saying he feared that he might have a pie or other debris thrown at him and his staff. The majority of students at the University feel that the Governor is much too conserva- tive in his view, thereby affecting the quality of education. After all, if the University of Massachusetts is managed by the State, should not the State take pride in its facilities and not cater to the private universities in the area? This is one question the Governor and his administration should look into, for if the Governor says, Everything I ' m for, the peo- ple are for, then the Governor should re- evaluate his position on several issues and not just the issues of his close business asso- ciates. Mark Curelop The Duke ' King Calls the Shots Of all the news events during the 1978-79 year, none sparked as much interest on the UMass campus as the raise of the legal drinking age. What began as campaign promise of Governor Edward King turned into a reality as the bill to raise the drinking age quietly appeared in the Boston Statehouse. Students across the state quickly mobilized to protect their common form of entertain- ment. Various measures were intro- duced that would have raised the age from 18 to 19, or from 18 to 19, then to 20 and then to 21. In the midst of the controversy, four teen- age girls were killed in a town out- side of Boston when the car one of them was driving crashed. The alco- hol level in the 17-year-old driver ' s blood was the highest ever recorded in the state, as proponents of the raise were quick to point out. Fac- tors in the incident that were conve- niently ignored were that the girl ' s older sister bought the excessive amounts of liquor and that the girl had been stopped for drunk driving once before, but had her license re- stored. Persons against the increase said it is the parent ' s responsibility to monitor the behavior of their chil- dren, and the state ' s responsibility to create stiffer penalties for drunk driving and provide more education about alcohol use and abuse. The controversy reached a zenith when the perpetrator of the bill. King, was invited to speak on cam- pus during an educational forum. At the last minute the governor opted to visit a dam in Northampton in- stead, because, he told a reporter. Remember Who in ' 82 Boston, March 8 — Gov. King holds up drinking age bill after signing it into law at the Statehouse. The bill raised the drinking age in Massachusetts to 20-years-old, effective in April. We didn ' t want to get pie on our suits. Demonstrations on campus and in Boston proved fruitless, and on April 16, 1979, a 20-year-old drinking age went into effect. The effect on traffic fatalities, which the increase was supposed to prevent, was not known but the increase had obvious effect on campus bars. Splits between low- er and upper classmen were predict- ed, as well as increased drinking in the dormitories. Under-age students left campus in May thinking of ways to obtain fake I.D.s The photo speaks for itself. 23

Page 26 text:

■feoston Red Sox 1978 The record shows that the Boston Red Sox lost the pen- nant in 1978. Numerous rea- sons could account for their failure. Some will think, at one time or another, that the Sep- tember Slide was caused by 1) the manager, 2) lack of hitting, 3) lack of consistent pitching, 4) Hobson ' s Horrors, 5) injur- ies, 6) the absence of the mir- acle worker Bernie Carbo, 7) pressure from outside sources or, 8) the New York Yankees, who happened to play better ball when it counted most. For the first half of the sea- son the Sox played extremely well. The pitching staff which had been subject to daily spec- ulation in pre-season by the media carried the team. And the hitters exceeded every- one ' s expectations, led by Jim Rice. At the All-Star break the Sox were in a commanding lead. Since no team had ever come back and won a pennant after being down eight games at the break, the Red Sox seemed the heirs to this year ' s flag. But after the All-Star game, strange creatures could be seen in uniform. Practically overnight the manager turned gerbil, the first baseman bal- looned out fo proportion from a diet of pepperoni pizzas, and a Spaceman crashed into the Boston bullpen, which, from that day on, was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Along with these additions a contagious myopia spread through the team. It seemed everyone was affected. Not only did it affect the Sox ' field- ing and batting, but the myste- rious disease blinded the Sox off the field when they read the American League standings. They couldn ' t see the Yankees slowly creeping, gaining ground on them. The culmination of all this came on October 2. The Yan- kees edged the Sox in the standings, and the scramble was on. Art Simas Carl Yastrzemski, Edward King, and Senator Kennedy State Elections He was liberal. He was honest. He mastered the state fiscal crisis. He also lost. Michael Dukakis was the only incumbent governor of the state of Massachusetts in recent history to lose an election in office. Edward J. King, formerly of the Massachusetts Port Author- ity, defeated the former governor in the Democratic primaries in November and went on to win the state election in November against Francis W. Hatch of Beverly. Discovering a $450 million deficit, he in- creased sales and income taxes after promis- ing not to increase taxes during his campaign. The state employees were not granted a pay raise, and social services were trimmed by the governor, upsetting the liberals of the state. Edward Broke ' s renomination for the Unit- ed States Senate against Avi Nelson of Brook- line, a local radio personality, created a prob- lem for incumbent governor Dukakis. Brooke ran into trouble with his own party over his support of the Panama Canal Treaty, his posi- tive position for federally financed abortions for poor women, and the divorce suit with his ex-wife Regina. Liberal Democrats supported the incumbent senator while opposing Nel- son, who was in favor of anti-bussing and anti- taxing legislation. A total of 30,000 people voted in the G.O.P. primary, many of them Democrats who switched their party to support Brooke. In all, approximately 270,000 people voted in the 1979 primary election. Though Brooke won over Nelson in a 6 percent margin, Brooke lost to U.S. Representative Paul Tsongas from Lowell in the general election. Since the Democrats who supported Brooke left the party, the support for Dukakis was heavily damaged. Former mayor of Cam- bridge. Barbara Ackerman received 2% of the vote, Dukakis 47%, and King 51%. Francis W. Hatch of Beverly won the prima- ry election over Edward F. King in the Republi- can election, only to be defeated by King in the general election. Hatch received 208,387 votes to King ' s 247,660 votes. The former football player scored better in some Massa- chusetts areas, but was behind where the Democrats were strong four years ago, espe- cially in Western Massachusetts and the Five College area. Since Proposition 13 had passed a few months earlier in California, the conservative ideals in America blossomed, with Massachu- setts in the front lines. King ordered a hiring freeze on all public agencies, including UMass. The guidelines specified that no posi- tions, transfers, or reinstatements, as well as initial openings. The University had a committment to the students to hire more faculty when necessary for discussion classes, and the students em- phasized their rights to receive a proper edu- cation. The freeze was owed to agency bud- get cuts. During the opening months of King ' s ad- ministration, several of his major decisions backfired. Four men appointed by King were forced to resign. One was tied to the Mafia, another dealt with Union funds, causing a conflict of interest. A third associated with a lawyer convicted of fraud and arson, while the fourth was forced to resign due to fraudu- lent degrees from prestigious European uni- versities when he was actually a high school drop out. Twice, the Governor shot down a 6% in- crease in cost of living funds to AFDC families (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), only to pass an overdue increase of 7% in August of 1979. During King ' s moves toward the AFDC increase, the Governor ' s Commis- sion on the Status of Women voiced opposi- tion to King ' s measure on the cost of living increase. King turned around and fired the 22

Page 28 text:

Mid-Air Crash A light plane flown by a student pilot collided with a commercial jet- liner 3,000 feet above San Diego ' s Lindberg Field September 25th, sending both crafts crashing into a fesidential area, it was America ' s worst air disaster. One hundred and fifty people were killed, including all 136 people aboard the Pacific Southwest Air- lines jet, the student pilot of the Cessna 172, his instructor, and 13 people on the ground. The planes collided about 9 a.m. PDT and plunged to the ground, smashing through a dozen homes in a quiet residential neighborhood five miles from the airport. Courtesy of United Press International A naming Pacific Southwest Airways Boeing 727 plunges toward the ground, moments before crashing into a residential area of San Diego, Calif The jetliner and a student pilot ' s rented plane collided in a ball of fire, with the collision and crash killing at least 150 persons. Pool picture by Frank Johnson of the Washington Post via Wide World Photos. Guyana The vat of death sits on a plank walkway at the People ' s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, vith the bodies of some of the more than 900 victims of the murder-suicide plot on the ground. The vat contained an ade drink laced with cyanide. In what was possibly the largest recorded mass suicide in history, 913 members of the People ' s Tem- ple, a religious cult, followed the or- ders of would-be messiah Reverend Jim Jones and drank from a vat con- taining cyanide laced Kool-Ade. Jones, who shot himself after his followers drank the poison both will- ingly and unwillingly, apparently felt threatened by the visit of Congress- man Leo J. Ryan to Guyana. Ryan was investigating reports of abuses of cult members. Ryan and four companions were ambushed and killed as they attempted to leave Jonestown. Jones had promised his followers a close big family that transcended both race and class barriers and lived in a celebration of God while working to transform society. Jones and his family lived in the South American jungle on a com- mune, where they raised most of their food themselves. Jones was alleged to have abused many cult members sexually, men- tally and physically. Some cult mern- bers who refused to drink the poison were held as it was poured down their throats or shot to death. The incident spurned a rash of books on the atrocity as well as new investigations into existing cults and articles on the psychology behind cults. 24