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Vol. XLVIII, No. 12 The U of L Stude~t Newspaper November 5, 1976
""L"'". • - •
Photog1raph by Mike Heitz
Dana Walker, candidate from the Busine~ School, was crowned Homecoming Queen
for 1976 Saturday, at halftime of the U of L-Tulsa game. She was crowned, in the rain,
by Dr. James G. Miller (right), U of L president. Ms. Walker was awa!l'ded the queeri's
trophy by P. Stephan Phelps (center), SGA President.
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Dorm councils regroup
by Janet L. Ulrich
The University's resident dorm coun­cils
have undergone some extensive
changes in their governments this year.
According to Associate Dean of Stu­dents
Harold Adams, the reorganization
could be better terms as reconstruction.
"We have tried to put together a good
council with a sound basis." He added
that the council's main objective is to
propose changes that are needed within
each separate dorm.
"The councils are kind of a direct
· route to me; they're a real asset in finding
out the problems of the students. The
residents are more apt to talk to their
representative than members of my staff.
The reps are students who live in the
dorms , whereas my staff just has to work
organizing the program," said Adams.
The dorms use the money that has
been allocated to them through the uni­versity's
general budget to organize their
general social and service programs.
Dan Livingston, president of the dorm
council at Unitas Towers hopes to pro­mote
more activities that involve resident
students. He said, "We need to get some
activities that will keep a few people here
on campus on the weekends. Since
nothing's usually happening, the dorms
become deserted on Fridays, Saturdays,
and Sundays."
livingston also mentioned the immedi­ate
need of a study lounge in the Tower.
"There are some big renovations that
need to be made. We need somewhere to
study, other than our own rooms. The
way it looks now, the construction for
the lounge probably won't happen this
year, but we're trying to push the addi­tion
through housing now."
Student claims damage by towing
Joy Maxberry, president of Threkeld
Hall, has been asking for furniture for
Threkeld's study lounge. "We've got a
place to study, but those rooms really
need to be furnished adequately. And
since our constitution has been approved
by the SGA, we might be able to work a
little more efficiently on those problems
that are bothering us ." So far , Threkeld's
council, which is composed of two hall
reps from every floor, a secretary and a
treasurer, have ordered vending machines
and ironing boards which will be installed
in the study lounges by next semester.
by Rick Yetter
Having your car towed away at U of L
could cost you more than the combined
price of a parking permit, ticket, and
towing fee.
This semester, some students are find­ing
their cars have been damaged when
towed away. The problems most often
reported involve mechanical difficulties in
the cars' transmission and steering mech­anisms,
and damage to the cars' exterior
finish.
Students are claiming the damage to
their vehicles has resulted from improper
towing techniques used by the wrecker
service. "Reported incidents where tow­ing
resulted in damage to vehicles are
few," said Assistant Director of Public
Safety Bob Wood. "We don't claim that
towing never causes damage to some
types of vehicles, but the number of
reported incidents which are actually
v~rified are very few."
But when cars are damaged , it may be
difficult to find out who is responsible
for making an adequate adjustment.
Pam Lawson , a graduate student in the
School of Education, claimed her 1975
Ford Granada had been damaged by
being improperly towed. Upon claiming
her vehicle at the Public Safety holding
area, she became aware that the car's
steering and automatic transmission
"failed to operate the same way it did
earlier that day."
Lawson said that when the car's trans­mission
was placed in the "park" position
and the engine started , the car immedi­ately
started moving in reverse. Public
Safety was notified of the damage and
they informed Lawson that Downtown
Texaco, the wrecker service that had
towed her car, "had insurance to cover
any damage due to towing."
Lawson then contacted Downtown
Texaco and told them about the mechani-
. cal problems her car had developed since
being towed. A representative of Down­town
Texaco then came to U of L to
assess the damage. Having fmished exam­ining
the automobile, lawson said that
the mechanic told her that the problem
had been caused as a direct result of the
towing operation. Downtown Texaco
• then repaired her car.
Lawson said the n!pairs made by
Downtown Texaco did not completely
correct the problem, and wanted to take
her car to an authorized Ford Motor
Company repair center. She then wanted
Downtown Texaco to pay for the repair
service an authorized Ford mechanic
would make. Lawson said that she spoke
with Marvis Preston, manager of Down­town
Texaco, about such an arrangement
and Preston refused saying that if the
problem was still there then Downtown
Texaco would repair it for her. "When we
can do the repairs , we aren't going to pay
Ford Motor Company to do them,"
Preston said.
Preston denies that :any meeting be­tween
himself and Lawson ever tood
place, and that any problem connected
with her car as a resul1t of having been
towed by his wrecker Stervice, was sa tis­factorily
corrected.
The Department of Public Safety has
no facilities for the operation of a wreck­er
service. They must call for an inde­pendent
wrecker servic~! · to come onto
Public Safety in selecting a wrecker ser­vice
includes getting the best service for
the price, 24 hour towing capability, fast
response time, and a number of wreckers
available for service at any given time.
Wood said that Downtown Texaco met
all of these requirements.
RE. Todd, director of purchasing for
U of L, said "that to his knowledge there
exists no formal written contract between
the university and Downtown Texaco."
The towing service the Department of
Public Safety utilizes is not bid out by
the university in a formal procedure.
"Rather," Wood said, "there exists a
· verbal agreement between Public Safety
and Downtown Texaco."
"We've basically been listening to
everyone's complaints, and everyone
seems to think that aside from the reno­vations,
we need to promote more activi­ties
where the girls and the boys of the
dorm could meet each other," Maxberry
said. She also said, "Sunday night we had
a dance, and the guys were complaining
about not knowing the girls. We're going
• to see if we can't do something about
that problem soon."
campus and tow the vehicle to a holding Photograph by Michael Brohm
lot behind Miller Hall. U of L students live under the threat of having their mode of transportation towed
Criteria used by tht~ Department of away. Recently, some students have had their autos damaged because of towing.