The committee debated the issue for more than an hour before a 2-1 vote by the committee passed the issue for consideration by the full board.

In a break from t he normal operating procedure, the Trustees allowed several members of the audience to address the committee during the early meetings.

Tom Bingham, SGA president, and Greg Walker, editor of The Auburn Plainsman, both spoke in support of quarters.

W alker also presented the results of The Plainsman's student survey to the board along with large manila envelopes full of ballots.

Bingham said two of the biggest worries among students are increased class size and decreased course diversity as a resul t of the change.

Muse addressed these concerns by saying there won't be a drastic increase in average class size.

Parks said administrators have studied the University of Tennessee's transition to semesters and hope to avoid some of the problems Ten nessee had.

Parks said Tennessee experienced an increase in class size because they reduced their faculty's teaching load. Because Auburn has no plans for such a reduction, Parks said, classes shouldn't grow.

Barron, however, questioned the ability of lab classes to adapt to the change.

"The labs are not equipped to handle a one-half larger size class," he said. "You can't stretch a lab."

John Grover, University senate chair and professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures, said there should be little trouble adapting to semesters because the longer terms allow for more flexibility in scheduling student lab times.

However, with the restructuring of the curriculum, some classes will be lost and diversity will decrease.

"There will be a n apparent loss of diversity," Parks said. "But there will be more time to work and incorporate new material into courses."

In this way, he said, the University should retain some diversity in instruction.

Let there be light

MIGUEL TRIVINO/Photo Staff

DAVID HEALY & GREG WALKER

Staff Writers

Samford Hall, which once appeared at night as an almost condemned, diml y lit shell of a building at the entrance of campus, now stands as a symbol of the Auburn tradition and as bright as the city itself, surrounded by a newly landscaped park and encompassed by floodlights.

In a speech Friday night, on one of the coldest nights this year, University President William V. Muse and Trustee Jimmy Samford announced with the flip of a light switch that the Samford Hall and Samford Park renovation is now complete.

Muse told an audience of about 200 that the renovation to the 1 08-year-old building began about two years ago and the re-landscaping started about a year ago, after Hurricane Opal ravished the surrounding area.

"Because of the vision, determination, hard work and generosity of the Auburn people, a site of great des truction one year ago has turned into a place of high achievement today," Muse said.

Opal brought down several trees in front of Samford Hall and the adjacent Langdon Hall, but Muse said Opal also helped take down some trees which would have been remove d anyway. The hurricane did not do any significant damage to Samford Hall.

This renovation plan w as part of a five-phase plan that Jim Ferguson, vice president for administrative services estimated to cost about $500,000.

Phases one through three were completed a few years ago and included the relandscaping of the area in front of Biggin, Hargis an d Langdon Halls southward from Toomer's corner.

Phases four and five were just completed and included the building renovation as well as an addition of portals at the entrance of campus.

The $160,000 portals are archways complete with eagle statues an d are located at either corner of Thach Avenue and College Street between the Ralph Brown Draughon Library and Samford Hall.

Jimmy Samford, great-grandson of the former Alabama Gov. William J. Samford for whom the red brick building is named, told the c rowd the portals have a significant meaning to Auburn.

"Because Samford Hall symbolizes the past and Ralph B. Draughon Library symbolizes our opening to the future, the new portals are our linkage between the past and the future," Samford said.

Muse told the crowd the original idea for the renovations came from Felix Cochran, a deceased Auburn alumnus, in the mid '80s. Cochran also originated the idea of the portals and helped fund both projects.

At the end of his speech, Samford was to ask for the lights to be turned on and the hall be lit for the first time, but halfway through his speech the lights were turned on prematurely.

"Well, due to the wonders of modern technology, the lights have already been turned on," Samford said. "Samford Hall ha s been lit and will remain lit. Enjoy this building and this evening."

Auburn transit system mirrors Emory University

STEPHANIE DAVIS

Assistant Campus Editor

The com plaints of frustrated students about parking and tickets have not been ignored. Soon parking will be made easier and a new form of transportation will be offered.

The Board of Trustees voted Friday on the acquisition of a campus area transit system and a new parking lot to ease the stress of parking on campus.

Jim Ferguson, vice president for administrative services, said, "As we studied the problem, we felt there needed to be an integrated solution and there was not one thing that would solve the p roblem alone."

"We feel the campus area transit is a vital component of an integrated solution," he said.

The system will start off relatively small, and as students become more comfortable and realize it is a reliable form of transportation the sy stem will grow, Ferguson said.

A company has not been picked yet to negotiate a contract, but Ferguson said he expects a choice will be made soon. He said he hopes a company will be selected by the first of the year.

It takes approximately four mont hs for the company to get their equipment together. This will give them enough time before the pilot program is started in the summer of 1997, he said.

Ferguson said the pilot program will be used to test the system and make sure everything is going to work smoothly.

"During this time we will finalize our plans on the routes and on the bus stops and make sure there are no bottlenecks in the system any where.

"We hope to be in full operation by the fall quarter of 1997," he said.

There will be a total of six buses which will hold around 21 passengers each.

It is estimated the campus area transit system will consist initially of three routes.

There will be an internal campus route, a West Magnolia Avenue loop route and a Wire Road/Opelika Road route.

It is anticipated the routes will operate between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday year-round. They will not operate on Sundays or official holidays.

Ferguson said the transit system is student-oriented and will co st no more than $12 a quarter per student. Bus passes will be sold to faculty and staff who wish to use the system.

People other than faculty, staff and students will not be allowed to use the transit system.

At the board meeting, Student Government Association President Tom Bingham said, "Students will support anything that will solve the parking problem."

Along with the new transit system, students will find it easier to park on campus with the construction of a new parking lot where Max Morris Drill Field is now located.

"It will be a reconfiguration of the existing parking near Max Morris and will include the area west of Donahue," Ferguson said.

It is estimated that 1,125 new spaces will be added bringing the total parking spaces in th at location to approximately 2,890.

The cost of this project is estimated at $5.8 million. This includes construction cost, fees and contingencies.

"To pay for this, we are going to sell bonds and retire them through a parking fee increase," he said .

Ferguson said the increase will not go into affect until the project is completed, which will probably be 1998.

Rhonald M. Jenkins, professor of aerospace engineering and chairman of the traffic and zoning committee, said there will be a briefing Tuesday where Ferguson will share the decisions of the Trustees with the parking committee.

Columnist predicts future of politics

NORA HOLZMAN

Copy Editor

In front of a filled auditorium at the Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, political columnist, commentator and author David S. Broder predicted that, "barring a national emergency, we will move steadily toward a balanced budget in the early years of t he next century."

Broder said the president can't abandon the goal of a balanced budget, and the Republicans can't afford another shutdown.

"The Republicans will win the macro argument, the big argument," he said. "But the president will probably ge t to set the spending priorities within that budget, which means that, within those overall fiscal constraints, he will probably have enough budget to protect programs on education and the environment."

The Nov. 5 election marks the first time in histo ry that the country elected a Democratic president and a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives.

Broder said Clinton will be operating under a double set of constraints Ñ first, politically because he can't do anything large without Republican approval, and second, financially because Congress will hold him to his commitment to balance the budget.

"Given the fact that we are almost politically two nations now, and given the geographical and cultural differences between the presid ent's constituency and the Republican Congressional constituency, I think we should not be surprised to see that it's once again going to be very difficult for Washington politicians to satisfy the demands to work together on the nation's problems," Brode r said.

He said the vote showed two strongly opposed constituencies in the nation.

Clinton supporters tended to be mostly female, Catholic, single people with moderate to liberal views who are satisfied with the economy and less concerned about cha racter issues. Those who voted for a Republican Congress tended to be male, wealthy, white and pessimistic about the economy.

Broder said this election showed a movement in the positions of the political parties.

"From '52 to '60 and from '68 to '9 2, the Democratic Party had its base on Capitol Hill, and the Republicans were in the White House. The view offered by the politicians, and by some journalists, was that this was because the American voters trusted the Republicans," Broder said.

Now, however, the situation has been reversed.

"Now the Democrats control the White House and the Republicans control Congress. There's no coincidence that that came after the end of the Cold War," Broder said.

Former president George Bush focused on en ding the Cold War, and now that it's over, the country has turned to Clinton because people's priorities have shifted, he said.

"When the Cold War ended, I think the American people kind of rubbed their eyes, looked around, focused on Washington, and s aid, 'What in the world are all those people doing in Washington, and why they were spending all that money?'" he said.

"So we have had a reversal of roles. The president is there to take care of what are now the big things, and the Republicans are th ere to deal with the secondary but still important task of whittling away at this big government and getting rid of the deficit," Broder said.

"It may look like the status quo election, but if you look inside that election, you can see enormous, almost unbelievable changes taking place in our politics."

Broder is the national political correspondent for The Washington Post, and his lecture in Auburn kicked off the 30-year anniversary of the Franklin Lectures in the Science and Humanities.

The Pu litzer Prize-winning commentator writes a twice-weekly column that is syndicated to more than 300 newspapers nationwide, including The Montgomery Advertiser, The Birmingham News, The Anniston Star and The Mobile Press-Register.

Broder has been covering national politics for more than 40 years. He is the author or co-author of six books and is a regular commentator on CNN's "Inside Politics." He also makes regular appearances on NBC's "Meet the Press" and "Washington Week in Review."