Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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EHK V . LXV NO.47 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, COLUMBIA. S.C. 29208 FEB. 14, 1974 Decision On Green Street Imminent BY TOMMY FOWLER A two-yeir long battle to clh Green St. is about to come to head, according to Jay Smith, USC student government offic and a long-standi proponent of the closing. Smit h said with the completior I 'i cens construction and Exp(cted coipletion of work Sumter, a decision will co soon from the Columbia City Cot concerning the closing of Green lie added that from speculat of construction workers, and oti people associated with t issue. there seemed to be a feelii that Green would be closed the very near future, possil by the first of March. Smith s; he got the same impressions fr( othei city cmployces and Iicials. The original request was to cl< the street for a trial period of c mjonth, but Smith was not sure this closing would be temporary permllanent. There was soi speculation that if this one moi trial period is successful, Gret would be closed for the rest of I Grier BY FRANK I)ELOACIIE As of 12 noon yesterday, ombudsman became an en separate from the university l counsel which becomes a separ. full-time job also. Phillip M. Grier, univers ombudsman and counsel si 1971, is now~ full-time univer: legal counsel. "You can't be a more happy than I am," Gi said. 'From the start Presid Jones and I understood that dual post shouldn't be permane We expected to make a changc approximately two years." According to Grier, a r organization of the ombudsn office will be implemented. team of ombudspersons will working together now. With resignation, there will be th student ombudspeople left. It be up to them and Rita McKin to decide who will be on the te how many will be on the team how the team will functio Usually the student budspersons compile a list candidates acceptable to them the position. They submit this to the president and he picks num ber of om budsperso necessary fr 'in t hat list. I larrison Heller. Eileen Be and( .Joe. McC'ulloch are the ti' rem a ininug omb ludspersons. CJulloch is the only student budsman being p)aid now. Uni the n1ew system, all c budspersons 'ouIld possib)ly be p as part -t ime'('l emplayees. "T'he te(amn' approach wilIt m; the omnbudsperson a full -ti me se a A ial ng of he on ncil on ier he lg school year. Smith said. in Columbia City Manager, yly Gra\don Olive, said he had lid received a request from USC Vice )m President for Business Affairs, of- I larold Brunton, to close Green by t he first of March for a trial ise period. Olive said no definite date ne had been set, as of yet, to close the if street. or Olive explained before Green ne would be closed, council would ith wait for construction of Sumter to n be completed so that traffic could he nmoat h out into the new routes. He S USC 'J4 to make the whole. I think that the ombudsperson is a full-time job. the There is a vacancy in the office of tity ombudsman now, but the office of gal ombudsman is not vacant. There ite, will always be somebody here to help the university family member ity who needs help," Grier said. rice Grier said, ''When I was ;ity nominated for the job, ad bit ministration experience was ex 'ier pressly sought. This was a tran ent sitional approach for the two jobs the ( ambudsperson and counsel ) to see nt. how they would grow. Jones and I ij har an und:rstanding that if a conflict came up, I would tell him ew and take only one side. The person ian voicing the complaint would also A be advised as to my position on the be imatter." his "Right now there is too much ree possibly of a conflict in the two will jobs. Both the jobs have grown so ney much that they deserve separate m, positions. I've been asking for this and change since last semester. But 1. when the whole system of >m preregistration camle up, our of proposals just got delayed a for month," Grier said. list In a report to President Thomas the F. Jones, the present om ns, budspeople (Grier, Barry Rosen, Berl in, IHellher anud MicCul loch) rin cited a nlumiber of problems that ree pr'om pted them to) suggest the Mc change. First, they felt that the >m om budsperson office is presently dler identified too strongly with one m. man, G;rier'. They' felt that being aid under' ''Grier's repiutational shadlow"'' afftected I he efforts of all ike oither st aff. job) Second, the ombundspeople felt me thait assistants serin~ itg at thle 'There are going to h lanes in the area so I have Green Street a.s said that this was the only way a study could be made to deter iinc if congestion on Green would ease up or not. Smith said when the council does im'Ct to consider the matter, after completion of Sumter . he an Iicipates a favorable vote from council and is hopeful for the trial closiI . "There are going to be plenty of t rafI ic lanes in the area so there is no use to have Green as a vehicular lane,'' Smith explained. Tu ilans have been proposed >b ConI request of the official om budperson and not designated by the president cannot receive the personal support necessary for their job. Finally, the om budspeople recognized their tendency to become "gun shy". UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY I MIike Grier 's office door after his transition from ombul)ldsmfani- counisel. Wednesday' becamjle (Caroli e plenty of traffic 'here is no use to a rehicular lane.' Jay Smith Ior the closing of the center throughfare, Smith said. I. ('lose Green from Sumter or l'ickens, or: 2. ('lose Green from the in Iersection of Main Street to the intersection of Pickens. Bsoth proposals have allowances Ior parking in the lots around the lRussell House. Smith described the closing of Green Street as a method of returning to "the old university coinmunity idea." He feels con tinued traffic use of Green lict' R( They were afraid that too many failures would cause an attitude of disillusionment. They felt that these problems are directly related to the heavy identification of the office with a single person. "This office has done a hell of a OMBUDSMAN A --before and solelv. The University holding of Grier been a sour' na's counsel moths. nh destroys this feeling of unity. lie said he thought support for the plan was still strong and growng. Going to the city council is the smartest thing we've done," Smith said after comparing progress made toward the closing with council's aid with that made through campus channels. Smith said an informal poll had been taken to try to determine the student support of the Green Street issue. lie explained a survey was made from the number of close Green Street T-shirts sold and the distribution of bumper stickers supporting the closing plan. Also community and en vironmentalist support has in creased Smith said. He said when the plan was introduced last spring. support of the closing by l"ive Points merchants was split about 50-50. Now he estimates a 66 :1 mnargin in favor of the Green Street closing. Sinith said now is a good time to push the proposal because of up coming city council elections in !Ilarch. moved lot. We've served 600 to 800 people over the two years I've been here. More than 80 per cent have been satisfied in their complaints and the others didn't have legitimate complaints. We want to keep this office strong for the next person.'' 'mu conflict of interest that his the two jobs created has ce of discontent in recent oto by nrceN..roc