The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 8, 1983 Page: 2 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 22 x 15 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
wis x i:
The North Texas Dally
' mmtt
Page 2
Thursday, September 8,1983
Editorials
Occupancy tax
The Denton City Council Tuesday decided to raise the
city’s hotel/motel occupancy tax rate from 4 to 6 percent
and to give the increased revenue to the Denton Greater
Arts Council and the Denton County Historical Commission.
Before the council’s action, 75 percent of city tax rev-
enue went to the Chamber of Commerce and Denton’s
tourist bureau, where, presumably, the money was used
to promote tourism.
Increased tourism in Denton leads to more customers
for hotels and motels. The other 25 percent was allocated
to the Greater Denton Arts Council and the Denton County
Historical Commission.
Of the portion of taxes allocated to cultural concerns,
40 percent was given to the historical commission and 60
percent was given to the arts council.
Now, however, hotel and motel owners will have to
pay 6 percent taxes on revenues, without any additional
benefit. This leads, inevitably, to higher prices on rooms,
which cannot be conducive to promoting tourism.
One segment of Denton’s business society is beng sin-
gled out to pay for increased Denton cultural activities, a
move that infuriates many in that segment.
The arts council and historical commission are impor-
tant parts of Denton’s cultural life, providing valuable
services to the community. However, their activities should
not be funded by taxes on hotel rooms. Hotel rooms arc
used by visitors to the city, and therefore Denton's cul-
tural activities will be funded by people who were simply
passing through Denton.
A desirable goal of occupancy taxes is to promote tour-
ism in the city, because hotel and motel owners depend
on tourists to keep their businesses profitable.
The hotels and motels in Denton provide jobs for many
residents. The Ramada Inn alone pays $65,000 a month
in salaries. Also, food and liquor sales in Denton would
certainly drop if tourists shy away from Denton and rela-
tively high room rates.
Although an improved cultural life in Denton could bring
more visitors to the city, it’s realistic to believe that Denton’s
cultural activities will only catch the attention of the city’s
residents. People passing through town should not have
to finance activities that will benefit Denton residents.
Raising the tax rate ultimately means higher room rates.
Higher rates could mean a drop in Denton’s occupancy
rate, which has remained steady for the last five years.
NT has a stake in the increase as well, as increased rates
could hurt the business at Sheraton-North Texas Ho-
tel/Conference Center, which should open in two years.
If Denton begins losing customers at hotels and mo-
tels, tax revenues will likewise drop, and the arts council
and historical commission could conceivably lose funding.
V
-V
-v>
The occupancy tax currently provides the arts council
and historical commission with $40,000 funding annual-
ly. The city council might find that its eagerness to pro-
vide for the arts council and historical commission will
be stymied by a fewer number of occupied rooms in Denton
hotels.
WSWf
HM*L
rarar
P€Pf. OF INTERIOR.
4
!**TM TtMS MM
Proper response
Letters
The U.S. government's mild sanctions against the So-
viet Union for downing a Korean Air Lines 747 jumbo
jet are characteristic of a nation that relies on diplomacy
before exerting military force, just as the Soviets’ actions
are in keeping with what can be expected from a gov-
ernment bent on forcing its will upon others.
The restraint President Reagan displayed has left the
Soviets in a defensive position even their most persistent
rhetoric cannot alter.
Reagan is suspending talks with the Soviets on a cul-
tural exchange agreement and the establishment of two
consulates, one in each country, and is canceling a trans-
portation cooperation agreement. He also called on allies
to suspend landing rights for Aeroflot, the Soviet national
airline.
The retaliatory stance the United States has assumed
throws the Soviet propagandists off-balance: with nothing
to throw their ideological weight against, Tass and
Pravda can only swing wildly.
The U.S. government’s generally steady and culm re-
lease of details contrasts sharply against the Soviets' piece-
meal explanation of the event, which is riddled with con-
tradictions and lapses in logic.
Persistent demands by the United States, Japan and South
Korea that the Soviets allow entry of non-Soviet search
vessels into the waters around Sakhalin Island have been
rebuffed. The Soviets' reluctance to permit search-und-
reseue efforts can do their image no good.
Had Reagan stressed harsher retaliation against the So-
viet Union, he would have nsked accusations of saber
rattling and opportunism. But the president has left no
such vulnerable areas for detractors to pounce upon with
charges of undue militarism.
The U.S. government’s cull to allies to launch their
own retaliations against the Soviets serves two purposes:
the allies' actions will be additional punishment to the
Soviets, and the United States can see in clear light which
allies place principles and loyalties on a higher plane than
profits and a fawning allegiance to the Kremlin. The last
two times the United States asked for such measures were
alter the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the commence-
ment of martial law in Poland. These events found the
United States less than overwhelmed by allies’ support of
its imposed sanctions. The allies now have a chance to
fully display their position internationally, if they haven't
already. Canada announced a 60-day suspension of Aeroflot
landings on Tuesday.
Since the president has placed the diplomatic ball in
the Soviets' court, now is a good time to analyze Soviet
Premier Yuri Andropov’s ability to control the Soviet sys-
tem in a diplomatic crisis.
The president's reserve in placing sanctions on the So-
viets accentuates even more sharply the nature of their
actions. Nothing can compensate for the passengers’ deaths,
but the United States may have won one of the Cold War’s
more crucial battles.
Union meant for students
Other returning students may have shared
with me a sense of irony at paying our fees
while reading in The Daily that NT is
looking about the Union Building for a fac-
ulty lounge.
It’s ironic because, unlike other buildings,
the Union is ours—paid for by bonds let
against student fees, supported by other stu-
dent fees and entrusted to the university to
be administered for the use of the students.
NT's current administration has shown
little reluctance to lavish money on itself:
it's certainly time it tossed the teachers a
bone. But it is not appropriate that the bone
be stolen from the soup pot of student serv-
ices.
A diligent student press, a responsive stu-
dent government and—dare I say it?—a re-
sponsible Union staff should all be work-
ing hard to protect services we receive for
our money.
Richard Davy
2009 Colonial
Denton, Texas 76201
Teachers deserve equality
glad to see ineresed public interest in pub-
lic education.
I am an example of the many teachers who
are leaving the profession for some of the
same reasons. Salaries are definitely impor-
tant to people, or why would more than
20,000 students be enrolled at NT in order
to improve their job opportunities ?
When citizens realize that teaching can-
not be experienced to any real degree from
the student’s side of the desk, the situation
will improve. Teachers must know their sub-
ject matter forward and backward. They
also must be able to explain it many dif-
ferent ways, so that many different types
of students can leant.
Therefore, before a person is critical of
public school teaching, I believe he or she
should teach for at least one week in a pub-
lic elementary or secondary school. Your
editorial cartoonist of Sept. 2 would be a
good person to start off this practice.
Most teachers are working hard to pro-
vide the best opportunities for their students
to achieve their personal goals. Teachers
ask only for understanding, adequate pay,
good working conditions and constructive
suggestions from the public.
Rules concern cyclist
As a concerned student who relies upon
cycling as a means of transportation, I would
like to address some of the issues raised
about bikes on campus in The NT Daily.
First, the bicycle problem will not be
solved by banning bicycles from campus.
Hundreds of students and many faculty
members ride bieylces, making such a pro-
posal clearly unenforcable. The bicycle is
a legitimate, efficient, and ecologically
proper means of transportation.
Therefore, rather than trying to discour-
age cycling (as seems to be the case when
one considers the recent statements about
banning bicycles, as well as the woefully
inadequate number of bike racks on cam-
pus) the NT administration should take a
more positive approach by attempting to
accommodate cyclists.
These measures are also of benefit to
mobility-impaired individuals.! urge the NT
administration to seriously consider im-
plementing the construction of a system of
bike trails across and around the NT campus.
As a high school teacher for six years
and now a graduate student at NT, 1 am
Lyle French
3400 Joyce Lane Apt. No. 170
Denton, Texas 76201
Bruce Winegar
NT Box 9043
Denton, Texas 76203
Violin note strikes chord of campus memories
T walked around campus last night, re-
X membering.
1 was bom in Denton. Except for four
years I spent out West, 1 have lived here
my entire life. 1 was a member of the last
graduating class of NT Lab Elementary
School. Had NT’s junior high and high
school not closed, I would have attended
NT from kindergarten to bachelor’s degree.
You could say that NT and I grew up
together
So last night as I was walking around
the campus, for no reason other than to be
walking and enjoying the coolness of dusk,
I wandered by the old elementary school
and other childhood haunts and wondered
at the changes—changes that 1 had hardly
noticed.
Strange how changes go unnoticed when
you watch them happen. Strange that some-
times something stirs your consciousness,
and you see all the changes that have been
wrought right under your nose.
looking at the newest part of the Music
Building, when I heard from somewhere
in the Music Practice Building North some-
one miss the note. It reminded me of when
I aspired to play music. That had been in
the old music building, a shabby building
of water-stained ceilings, w arped floors and
mildewy odor.
That building was replaced by this big
brick of a Music Building.
That thought spurred me on to other
recollections
When I was in elementary school, streets
partitioned the campus. Avenue A extended
from Wooten Hall to the Language Build-
ing. Sidewalks and flowers are there now.
The PE Builing now sits in the middle of
what was part of Avenue D. Chestnut Street
was not a parking lot for visitors to the
Administration Buliding but was a street
extending from Avenue C to Avenue A.
Avenue B intersected Chestnut Street in front
of the Administration Building.
Highland Street and Avenue C. The paint
is peeling off of the rotting trim. The
breezeway that separated first-through-
third grades from fourth-through-twelfth
grades now houses machinery of some kind.
The cafeteria was about 25 yards north
of the school, about where the Intermedia
Theater is now . The lawn that was the play-
ground, between the school and the cafe-
demonstrations against the Vietnam War in
the ’60s, and we elementary school chil-
dren were evacuated.
THE RUNNING paths and pitcher’s
mound of our kickball diamond in front of
the old school are plush grass now. The
mulberry tree that was second base has
grown. The only other tree on the lawn is
Robert Shelton
library stands where we used to play flag
football. The track that was around the field
is gone now, except for a short section that
is used by vehicles sevieing the library.
The current Information Sciences Library
was the only library the university had then.
The old shop building east of Crumley
Hall is a parking lot. Zekes, the hamburger
joint across Highland Street from Lab School
where we played pinball before walking
home, is also a parking lot.
Kerr Hull sits where old frame houses
once stood. One of them belonged to my
grandparents.
WHA I STIRRED my consciousness last
night, rather raked my consciousness, was
a very flat note from an unseen violin.
I was walking down Avenue C and wal
TF1E ELEMENTARY school is now of-
fice space for the division of recreation and
leisure studies of the School of Education
The building is on the northeast corner of
teria. is still there. Time has healed the
ravages inflicted by cavorting children. Grass
has covered the wounds our dangling feet
scratched into the ground as we rode the
swings.
Somewhere near the cafeteria, 1 can't re-
member where exactly, the ROTC build-
ing was. 1 remember it only because it was
fire bombed at the height of the student
one that my sixth-grade class planted to
commemorate the closing of Lab School.
The tree still stands, but the dedication
plaque is gone. Someone stole it, apparently.
The black pole to which it was attached is
twisted where the plaque was wrenched off.
The old Lab Gym is still used, unbe-
lievably—it was old when I went to PE
and Boy Scout meetings in it as a kid. The
WOOTEN HALL did not exist when 1
was in grade school. The Speech Building
was being built and on summer afternoons,
when my friends and 1 had all the fun pos-
sible at the NT pool, we would sneak into
it and play hide and seek. We would hide
on the catwalk above the stage in the Uni-
versity Theater. We would hide in the or-
chestra pit, in the lighting booth and on
the roof, at the time the highest roof on
campus.
I’m writing this in the journalism editing
lab, in the basement of the General Aca-
demic Building. (If the Computing Center
on the fifth floor ol the GAB is the brain
ol NT , then what does that make The Dai-
ly?) Twenty-five feet above me was "Peo-
ple's Park." The park was basically just a
large copse of trees surrounding a rock foun-
tain. It was a gathering place for the dope-
smoking-Frisbec-throwing hippies of the ’60s
and a site of frequent political demonstra-
tions. I m sure that is why the administra-
tion decided to put a building here.
The journalism department was in the
Journalism Building next to Matthews Hall.
The old University Union Building, called
the UB then, looked like the Business Build-
ing except it was more square. When they
built the new Union, they just built around
the old one. You can still see the old sec-
tion sticking out of the top of the Union.
In the UB. the basement was the game
room. It had a pool table and a couple of
pinball machines. The second floor housed
the Post Olficc. I he third floor contained
the snack bar. I never ventured to the fourth
floor that I remember. The Union made
me uneasy as a child—too many strange
college students in the Union, I used to
think. Funny, some things never change.
The North Texas Daily
67th Year
North Texas State University Denton, Texas
Printed by the North Texas Slate University Printing Office
Southwestern Journalism Congress
Angela Payne, entertainments editor
Gina Junk, photographer
Susan Thomas, photographer
Bob Ward, photographer
Beth Stallard. photographer
Lori Bice, ad representative
Susan Susat. ad representative
Billy Smith, sports editor
G Nelson Greenfield, cartoonist
Jetf Hill, cartoonist
Casey Shaw, cartoonist
Margaret Branshaw, ad representative
Rick Cox, ad representative
Philip Carter, illustrator
Letter Policy
\lrniher ol the
rtSSf K tdftiO
f oi teciare
PM *SS
PACEMAKER 6 TIMES
ALL-AMERICAN 76 TIMES
RALPH GAUER, editor
SUE BRISTOL, advertising manager
The North Texas Daily, student newspaper of North Texas State University, is
published daily, Tuesday through Friday, during the fall and spring semesters.
The Daily is published weekly during the summer semesters. The Daily is not
printed during review and examination periods, or during vacations. The
Daily is a non-profit newspaper providing information, commentary and enter-
tainment for the NTSU community. It serves as a laboratory educational
experience for students in reporting, writing, editing, advertising and photo-
graphy classes within the journalism department. Students receive grades
according to the quality of work done for the newspaper.
The North Texas Daily welcomes letters from readers. Letters must be signed
and include the writer’s address and telephone number. Letters must be
concise and logical, and are subject to editing for space and libel. Letters
should be sent to Box 5278, NT Station, Denton, Texas 76203.
Signed commentaries, cartoons and readers' letters reflect the opinions of the
authors and should not be confused with the editorial statements of The North
Texas Daily. Opinions appearing on this page do not necessarily reflect those
of the North Texas State University student body, faculty, staff, administration
or regents.
Comments
Trent Eades. managing editor
Jacque Johnson, news editor
Beth Fulton, staff writer
Libby McMahon, staff writer
Joe Stafford, entertainments editor
Denise Kohn, editorials editor
Brent Linker, editorials editor
John McLean, news assistant
Carole Jansen, news assistant
Robert Shelton, sports editor
SUBSCRIPTION RATE—$12 annually or $6 per long semester and $2
per summer session.
Box 5278, NT Station, Denton, Texas 76203
Questions or comments concerning advertisement in The Daily should be
directed to Sue Bristol, advertising manager, at 565-2851. Queries involvinq
news stories, sports or features should be directed to the respective paqe
editor, at 565-2353. Comments to the editor, Ralph Gauer, may be given
at 565-3571.
A -I
-i .
*4
4
I
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 8, 1983, newspaper, September 8, 1983; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth722929/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.