1983_12 The Daily Collegian December 1983

              CSU, Fre»no
Thwreday, Dec. 1,1983
The Daily Collegian
77
Clarkson: Cheerily painting Christmas cheer
The bookstore was crowded early
Monday afternoon with students buy¬
ing term project supplies and test forms,
and others who were browsing through
the Christmas displays. In the busiest
section, the cash registers on the main
level, a few people stopped and watched
a young man who was not apart of the
hustle and buttle.
Dan Clarkson paid them no mind. He
was enjoying himself, painting white
snowflakes here and there on the win¬
dows.
"I think it's a lot of fun," he said, as he
mixed a little blue paint in with the
white. He then took a two-inch roller
and made snow along the bottom sills.
"Hey," called out an acquaintance of
Clarkson, "How much you making to
do this?"
Turning bis head a little from his
work, Ctarksbii replied, "Nothing. I'm
jusi doing h for fan/" That was not the
whole truth.
Clarkson is a professional Christmas
window painter, and has been for "about
four years now," he-said. He is also a
sophomore electrical engineering major,
which, he said, "has nothing to do with
Christmas windows."
He also paints advertisements.
He begins work on local store win¬
dows, such as Radio Shack, at 7 each
morning. U doesn't take him. very long,
he said, but it used to. His prices vary:
he generally gets S35 for a display
He laid down the roller and absently
raised an index finger to his mouth in
thought. After regarding the empty snow-
field on the window for a moment, he
picked up his pencil and began Sketch¬
ing lightly on the glass. There was some
green and black paint on one side of his
mouth.
The acquaintance had left, but he had
been replaced by a woman and her son,
and two other students, who were quietly
watching. The mother was whispering
He said H takes him about seven
hours to complete the 10 windows on
the CSUF campus.
His designs arc originals. "Bears arc
my specialty," he said, beginning a
sketch near the eastern-most entrance in
the bookstore. "I see expressions and
postures in magazines.ind that's where
I get ideas." he added, drawing a single
large circle in one comer of the window
"That's a basketball." he said with a
smile. "I try to tie each window design in
with what the businesses do." he said.
"They like that."
Clarkson explained he had just drawn
a showbear, which would be dribblinga
basketball. "You know. Red Wave
stuff."
Clarkson admitted he would like to
do more sacred scenes, such as the
Nativity scene on the bookstores lower-
level entrance. "1 like to bring people
back to the reality of what Christmas is
. all about," he said. "1 do the cartoons
because that* what tseee ptcyte go
for."
He will paint 120 windows this Christ¬
inas season. "I've had to turn away a few
requests this year," be said. He usually
about six windows during the week. IS
weekends. But Thanksgiving vacation
unusually busy: Ha painted 35.
He painted the dining hall scene dur¬
ing a rain storm Thursday. ~7nt «mw,
almost blew me away," he said with a
laugh.
The bookstore scenes are on the in¬
side* of the glass, designed to be read
from the inside, because last year the
washed the pictures, done in water-
Dan Clarkson paints a Kennel Bookstore window.
answers to her son's questions, "1 think was going to be Santa. "He will be hold-
he's going to paint Santa Claus. what do ing a wreath." Clarkson said, gesturing   *° uWe P»'m- <** «• "**»* P"*"1** <*
you think?" with a paint-coated finger to his work.    eo,or-
The thin pencil line left a lot to the As he was last year, Clarkson was        Once again his audience had moved
imagination, but it was all Clarkson contracted to paint several window dis-   on and was quickly replaced. A man
needed to get him going. Picking up the plays on campus. His favorite this year
roller again, he filled in the places that turned out to be a scene of some bears
would need to be white. Yes, he said, it having a snowball fight. That can be
~   Business school suffers from 'strained' relations
The ongoing university investigation
of the Dean of the School of Business
and Administrative Sciences has once
again focused attention on what some
have labeled the "strained" relationship
between the administration and a school
that has operated under six deans in the
last 10 years.
The investigation of Dean Gene E.
Burton, who was charged last week with
submitting scholarly papers under the
names of faculty members who had not
written them, could result in the first
major rift between the school and the
administration during Burton's three-
year deanship.
The charges, which appeared in a
Fresno Bee article, were made by un¬
named business professors.
But according to several of those
close to the situation, including some
former deans, differences between the
school and the administration should
come as no great surprise.
"There are always internal conflicts,"
said former dean Irwin Weinstock, who
headed up the school from 1973 to 1976.
"There's room for a lot of conflict."
Supporting his argument, Weinstock
said, is the fact that since Claude E.
Elias retired as dean in 1972, the bus¬
iness school has been headed up by
three "permanent" deans and two
"acting" deans. That turnover rate is the
highest among all schools on campus.
"It's been a long time since IVe been
in the dean's shot*." Weinstock said,
"but there are frequent problems."
Burton himself, however, would not
comment on the problems or the fre¬
quency of dean turnovers, saying that a
response would be "inappropriate"
while there is an investigation going on.
Former Acting Dean Kelly Black,
however, agreed that the relationship
between the school and the admini¬
stration is a strained one.
"Things have Improved somewhat
since I was there (in 1979-80), but there s
still a disparity," said Black, who now
teaches courses in computer science.
"There are still lots of problems."
The problems. Black said, stem large¬
ly from the university's denial of re¬
sources essential to the business school.
The school, with 3,500 students, is the
university's largest.
The resulting pleas of. various deans
for rncwfuitoniiJBWe harmed the idatjon-
ship with the administration consider¬
ably, he said.
"The problem is seen in the light that
we have been the.fastest growingschool
for 10 years," Buick said. "There was no
problem as long at the pie was growing,
but then things tuned going the other
"When you try to get a bigger piece of
a shrinking pie you're in trouble."
Problems first surfaced, according to
Weinstock, during the tenure of William
A. Buzkk, who served'as dean from
1976 to 1979. It was a breakdown in the
relationship between Buzkk and Pres¬
ident Norman Baxter that led to Buzkk s
being asked to resign, Weinstock said.
According to Black, who replaced
Buiick, the breakdown was triggered by
a disagreement over the future of the
proposed business building. Although
"He had one hundred business pro¬
fessors against him," Black said. "I was
considered a traitor every time I went
over to Joyal or Thomas (the two
administration buildings)."
Both Weinstock and Black said,
however, that the firing of Baxter im¬
proved the situation greatly.
"Now there's a much better relation¬
ship between the deans and the central
administration," Weinstock said."
"It ha* most definitely improved,"
Black agreed. "Things have improved a
great deal — 900 percent."
Still, both said, problems remain.
According to Weinstock, "pressure
points" unique to the rttattoasbip be¬
gone into the planning for the new
building. Baxter decided that the ad¬
dition was unnecessary, a position that
Black contended eventually cost Baxter
htsjob.
. "It (B.uricks resignation) had a lot to
do with personality, but that watat
nearly as important as   '
There aw aaaar chief pressure points
in the relationship," he said. "It's a very
difficult job."
The resignation of Bow* did little to
ease the situation, however, according
to. Black. Continued pjgaevre free*
Baiter turned much of the batiam
faculty against the president, be said.
financial retourcsi. Waiaatock said, the
dean of the school aauat cater to the
entire basinets coratnuntry a* well as bis
large fccafty. Akuv the h   '
tion from two different