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Year,8th Issue Wednesday, November 2, 1 994 _ Samford University, Birmingham, AL
Dean of business school to resign this month
Inside. . .
Page 3
Bulldogs tie
Alcorn State in
homecoming
game
Pages 4, 5
Pictures and
events from
homecoming
week
Page 8
Student defends
Computer
Services
By Kenny Byrd
Staff Reporter
Dean of the business school Rob¬
ert T. David sent a letter of resigna¬
tion yesterday to President Thomas
E. Corts, stating he would offi¬
cially step down on Nov. 15.
David, who became vice presi¬
dent and dean of the School of
Business at Samford in 1988, said
he and the administration came to a
mutual agreement.
“They (the administration) told
me that there were difficulties.” He
did not elaborate on what those
difficulties were.
“I want to leave, and no one is
urging me to stay," David said.
“Therefore, I think that’s the way
you come to a mutual agreement
“Reasons, what are the reasons?
I don’t know. I have mine; others
may have theirs. There have been
no negotiations or discussions about
them."
David said he would like to strike
out in new directions and take new
coursesof action. He said he sensed
God has opportunities for him in
the near future. “I have been filled
with positive answers to prayer.
“I’m very pleased with the
changes that have taken place here.
I think that competent faculty has
been put in place. I think that out¬
side funds have been raised for the
Robert T. David
school by the faculty primarily.”
David came to Samford in 1988
when the administration sought to
change the business school. “I’m a
change agent,” David said. “And I
was brought here to change the
business school, and that’s a con¬
tinual process.
“I haven’t been involved in any¬
thing where there isn’t a significant
resistance to change.”
John Venable, instructor in the
business school, said the school
flourished under David. He said
the beginning of the Executive
Masters of Business Administra»
tion Program is one of many no¬
table accomplishments.
Venable said he and David did
not always see eye-to-eye. “Was I
always in sync with him? No. Do I
applaud the direction in which he
was taking us? Yes. Do I think he
could have done better? Yes.”
Venable said Provost William
Hull met with the faculty to de¬
scribe the process of selecting a
new dean . He said they were told an
interim dean would be appointed
and a search committee would be
formed.
Professor Edward Felton said
David had revamped the business
curriculum to make it more in touch
with reality. He also said David
encouraged teamwork and learn¬
ing from experience.
“I don’t know of any dean who
accomplished as much as Bob has
in five years,” Felton said.
Hull released a statement about
David'S resignation, stating “Dean
David’s resignation is received with
deep appreciation for his many valu¬
able contributions to Samford.”
Hull cited the Executive M.B . A.
degree and a host of international
contacts through the Global Utili¬
ties Institute as significant new pro¬
grams under David.
Hull said in an interview that the
mutual agreement could be de¬
scribed as “discussing the situation
and coming to a mutually-agreed
decision.”
David would not say what he
planned to do after he resigned. “I
can’t say that I have firm enough
plans to make it worthwhile to go
over them at this time.”
David discussed what lyp&'of
new leadership might be looked at
for the school of business. “I think
the new leadership can definitely
be of a type of traditional academic
leadership as opposed to non-tradi-
tional, which I certainly represent. ’w
David graduated from Harvard
University in 1960 and received an
M.B. A. from the Harvard Business
School in 1965. He served as an
officer of General Signal Corpora¬
tion reporting to the Chairman and
CEO from 1965 to 1980. He is on
the boards of several area compa¬
nies.
Seniors Tony Jones
and Julianne
Anderson were
voted Homecoming
honor escort and
Homecoming queen
during halftime of
last Saturday’s
game against
Alcorn State.
Homecoming
activities are
highlighted on
pages 4 and 5.
Justice Clarence Thomas to speak
By Heather Gibson
.Co-News Editor
Clarence Thomas, an associate
justice of the Supreme Court, will
speak in the Wright CeniCF at 1 1
a.m. on Nov. 17 as a part of the
Cordell Hull Speaker’s Forum.
His topic, “Norms and
Accomodations in a Pluralistic So¬
ciety,” will cover how different
cultural and ethnic groups should
get along in a diverse mulitcullural
society, according to Anthony
Pcrone, third-year law student and
Chair of the Speaker’s Forum.
“Supreme Court justices very
rarely speak,” he said. ‘This (speak¬
ing engagement) is a result of a
three-year process combining the
Clarence
Thomas
efforts of previous chairs of the
forum. Professor Bill Ellison (of
the Law School) and the SGA.”
Justice Thomas was nominated
by President Bush in 1991 as an
associate justice of the Supreme
Court, and he took his seat in Octo¬
ber of that year. His appointment
follows a public career including
such positions as assistant secre¬
tary for civil rights, chairman of the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportu¬
nity Commission and judge of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Dis¬
trict of Columbia Circuit.
Justice Thomas graduated cum
laude from Holy Cross C^lege and
received a Juris Doctorate from
Yale Law School in 1974.
No question-and-answer session
will follow the speech. All ques¬
tions for Justice Thomas will be
posed beforehand.
C-SPAN Live and CNN will be
covering the event.
Questions regarding Justice
Thomas’ visit should be directed
toward the Cordell Hull Speaker’s
Forum at ext. 2829.
Lack of assistants cited as
major computer lab problem
By Alina Coppens
Staff Reporter
Samford’s state -of-the-art com¬
puter labs are not functioning in a
state-of-the-art manner, as was
noted in the first part of this series
on computer lab problems, last
week. The reasons are as difficult
to identify as the solutions.
Part of the problem is that too
few lab assistants have been em¬
ployed.
Three weeks ago, Steve Merrill,
who formerly coordinated com¬
puter lab staffing, said that Com¬
puter Services had 22 computer lab
assistants working. Normally in a
semester, 4 1 lab assistants are em¬
ployed. The computer labs arc only
open if a lab assistant can work
during those hours.
Avonell Watson, manager of
Computer Services, told the stu¬
dent Senate in a meeting Tuesday
that Computer Services posted job
notices both in and outside com¬
puter labs and at the office of finan¬
cial aid. At this point, not enough
students have applied for the avail¬
able positions.
At a regularly scheduled meet¬
ing, the Senate invited Watson to
answer questions about the com¬
puter labs on campus.
Dennis Self, director of Com¬
puter Services, told the Senate at
the same meeting that Computer
Services has a couple of things they
might be able to do to attract more
lab assistants, such as raise the pay
for lab assistants or hire outside of
the university.
Self realizes that students arc
anxious because computer labs are
not open 24 hours a day. He prom¬
ised by mid November to have at
least one lab open 24 hours a day.
He is hoping there will be an
increase in lab assistants by that
time.
Another part of this problem is
funding forthccomputcr labs. Com¬
puter Services’ budget is prepared
a year in advance. At that time last
year, they did noLSft aside monies
to be used to offs^lgS^jqQ^®
ware and software that have re¬
sulted because of theft.
When money that is not bud¬
geted for theft is spent to replace
stolen keyboards, hard drives and
memory chips, Merrill said, less
money is left to update computer
labs.
A third part of the problem deals
with communication between stu¬
dents and Computer Services’ staff.
Some students feel that Computer
Services doesn’t respond quickly
enough to the problems in com¬
puter labs, while Computer Ser¬
vices has said many students don’t
report problems.
Instead of calling Computer Ser¬
vices, Merrill said, many times stu¬
dents move either to a computer
that is working in a lab or they
move to another lab altogether.
Watson said, “Calls are not made
and the problems may haVe been
around for half a day before they
arc found out. The main thing they
could do is to tell us of a problem
when they encounter the problem.”
He said that Computer Services
tries to gel around the lack of calls
to report problems by having lab
assistants and the lab manager do
weekly checks of computer labs’
hardware and software. ' •
The staff of Computer Services
is trying to solve, these problems, •
and other organizations are search-
ing for solutions.
To further communications be¬
tween Computer Services, students
and faculty, Eric Motley, president
of the Senate, formed a subcom¬
mittee to look at problems involv¬
ing computers.
The Senate subcommittee is
chaired by David Reeves, who will
report to the Senate next Tuesday
on who will be working with him
on the subcommittee. It will de¬
velop a comprehensive profile of
students’ concerns. It will also
meet with faculty representatives
to discuss concerns.
"The Senate will stay on top of
this until we feel that some new
changcsand actions are being made
uwwerstiy4?terary
