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Viewpoint
The Battalion Tuesday
Texas A&M University August 30, 1977
New hands at the tiller
The ship is fitted out, with full crew, able cap
tain and experienced officers, ready for the long
sail ahead.
That ship is Texas A&M University and it’s
preparing for the long journey ahead which will
determine its future as a an institution of learn
ing.
The last two decades have seen Texas A&M
rise from the small college it was founded to be,
to the thriving, growing university it has become.
But will Texas A&M continue that climb, to be
come a nationally-known “great institution of
learning” for all time? Or will it settle into the
mediocrity of many “up-and-coming” schools who
fizzled after a short burst of growth?
Over the last three months Texas A&M’s board
of regents has changed the positions or titles of
almost a dozen University administrators. Those
changes establish a chancellorship system over
seeing Texas A&M and the University system.
while rejuvenating the University administration
weakened by vacancies.
So now the ship has a crew full at strength, U
under Captain (President) Jarvis Miller and Ad
miral (Chancellor) Jack Williams. But the waters
the Aggie ship must cover will be anything but
smooth, with plenty of hidden obstacles. And lest
the able captain, admiral and crew be caught un
prepared, we’ll point out some of those hazards.
_ Growth at Texas A&M has over-crowded
every classroom, office and dormitory. More
buildings take time, money and planning — all
geared to maximum effective use. Ornate, expan
sive buildings shouldn’t come at the expense of
offices or classrooms.
—Deciding how the University campus will ex
pand and develop goes hand in hand with con
structing those buildings. Already the campus is
being divided into main and western parts
straddling Wellborn Rd. Commuting between
the two campuses and finding parking space any
where near the main campuses have become
major problems that won’t be easy to solve.
_ The tight-money attitude that predominated
the last session of the State Legislature threatens
to strangle the University with its purse-strings.
Expanding programs need funds the Legislature
is becoming more and more reluctant to provide.
_ Quality has been the motto at Texas A&M
most of its lifetime. But that quality is being
crowded by funds spread among more programs
and people.
_ And there is such a thing as growing too fast.
If that growth isn’t kept in check, it will literally
“wear out” Texas A&M before its time.
These are big problems, with no easy answers.
But if the new crew keeps a steady hand at the
ship’s tiller to steer her clear of those rocky
hazards, the future should hold nothing but
smooth sailing. L.R.L.
Readin’ ain’t what it used to was
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — “School days,
school days. Bloody bunch of fool days.
Reading and writing and ’rithmetic.
Taught as it is, it can hardly stick. ”
That wretched rhyme pretty well sum
marizes the way more and more parents
feel about the schooling their kids are get
ting these days. Just as almost all college
alumni believe their alma mater hit her
peak the year they graduated and has been
going downhill ever since, so most of us
doddering ancients believe the public
schools don’t teach good like they used to
should.
A prime piece of evidence for us mal
contents has been the steady 14-year de
cline in the average scores on the Scholas
tic Apitude Test (SAT), the 2 1 A-hour
monster taken annually by 1.5 million
college-bound high school juniors and
seniors.
Since 1963, the average score on verbal
skills has dropped from 478 points to 429;
mathematical skills have declined in the
same period from 502 to 470.
Since the tests are designed to function
as continuing predictors of college per
formance, and seem to be verified in prac
tice, there has been great concern that
they are measuring a real decline in the
skills and capacity of the younger genera
tion.
In response, the College Entrance Ex
amination Board chartered an advisory
commission, headed by Former Secretary
of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, to examine the
causes of this decline. Their report was re
leased last week and will fuel a great deal
of debate about what’s happening in public
education.
As the parent of three boys who have
clambered their way through the public
school system and a fourth who is struggl
ing manfully to follow in their footsteps;
and as the spouse of a woman who has, for
whatever masochistic reasons, just signed
on for a second four-year term on our local
school board, I naturally consider myself
as much an expert on education as the next
person.
Yet there are findings in the report
which affront my prejudices as much as
they may yours.
It says the decline in test scores mea
sures a real decline in skills, not just a stif
fening of the test, which I can believe. It
also says that much of this decline, particu
larly in the 1960s, can be attributed to the
rapid increase and diversification of young
people graduating from high school and
going on to college. The American educa
tion system did not prepare them all
equally well for the opportunities opened
to them, and the averages suffered.
But in the 1970s, as the mix and pro
portions of the college-bound have
stabilized, the decline in test scores has
continued. And here the study group finds
several forces to blame, ranging from the
breakdown of family stability to the
traumas of this period of American history
and the pervasiveness of television.
I am skeptical of that last claim. The
commission admits its indictment of tele
vision is “essentially subjective,” because
the research relating television-watching
and test scores “is in fact entirely inconclu
sive.”
Their main point seems to be that the
10,000 to 15,000 hours the average teen
ager has spent before a television set had
to be stolen from something, and that
something could be the development of
intellectual skills.
That conclusion does a gross injustice to
the capacity of youths to waste time, with
or without the magic screen. My eldest
son, who was six years old before we could
afford a television set, frittered away as
much time as any of his television-
nurtured younger brothers. He emerged
at least as academically indolent as those of
his siblings who had Howdy Doody avail
able from the moment they first peered out
of their cribs.
As for traumas, national and personal,
my kids, like yours, have had their share.
But it seems a bit pat to me to blame their
shortcomings on Vietnam, Watergate or
even the frequent absences from home of
their gypsy journalist father.
Closer to the heart of the matter, my
prejudices tell me, is the finding that
academic standards are declining in the
teaching of English.
“Our firmest conclusion,” says the
panel, “is that the critical factors in the
relationship between curricular change
and the SAT scores are that less thoughtful
and critical reading is now being de
manded and done and that careful writing
has apparently about gone out of style.
We suspect strongly that expressing
something clearly and correctly — espe
cially in writing — is thinking’s sternest
discipline. A recent study by the National
Association of Educational Progress of the
numbers of writing assignments given a
group of llth-grade students shows that in
a six-week period, more than half of them
were asked to write three or fewer pa
pers. . . 13 per cent, none. ”
Our strong conviction is that concern
about declining SAT verbal scores can
profitably be concentrated on seeing to it
that young people do more reading that
enhances vocabulary and enlarges knowl
edge and experience, and more writing
that makes fledgling ideas test and
strengthen their wings. ”
Right on. That’s the message this parent
will carry to the next PTA meeting.
(c) 1977, The Washington Post Company
Wine-loving French
By FRANCOIS DUPUIS
International Writers Service
PARIS — The French like to claim in
justifying their drinking habits that “we
may always be slightly inebriated, but
we re never really drunk.” There are seri
ous flaws, however, in that argument.
It is true that blind reeling drunkenness
is far less visible here than it is in the
Soviet Union or in parts of the United
States. Nevertheless, the French lead the
world in alcohol intake, consuming
roughly twice as much per head as Ameri
cans.
Moreover, France has the world’s high
est mortality rate for cirrhosis of the liver
and the highest rate of hospital admissions
for delirium tremens. Therefore, it is fair
to conclude that this is a country with an
alcohol problem. And it is a problem being
largely ignored by the government.
Back in the mid-1950s, when he was
prime minister, Pierre Mendes-France
tried to alter attitudes himself by sipping
milk rather than wine with his meals.
He also created a commission that rec
ommended, after much study, that seden
tary workers drink no more than a pint of
wine daily and that manual laborers limit
their consumption to a pint and a half.
But the Mendes-France campaign
against alcohol, which was largely treated
as a joke, lasted only a short time. The
French continue to drink to such an extent
that liquor stores in France outnumber
bakeries three to one.
This is partly because wine and alcohol
production here constitutes a major indus
try that not only accounts for the liveli
hood of some 3.5 million people but also
furnishes the government with important
tax revenues. The export of wines and
brandies is also a key element in the
French trade picture.
So the French are inclined to regard the
defense of the alcohol business as a na
tional duty. In their view, actions that
curb wine consumption are construed as a
form of economic treason.
Add to this the mythology that has
grown up about wine over the years. The
celebrated battle of Verdun druing World
War I would have been lost, it is said, had
not French troops been amply provided
with red wine. There is also the notion
that water is impure, and of course, the
French have been raised on the adage that
“a meal without wine is like a day without
the sun.”
It is worth emphasizing that many of the
French attitudes toward drinking are a
Letter to the editor
Don’t forget Taiwan
Editor:
The attached letter is a copy of corre
spondence sent to 16 members of the Se
nate Foreign Relations Committee in
Washington, D.C.
Senator Frank Church:
We are deeply troubled by the Carter
Administration’s present efforts to estab
lish formal diplomatic ties with the re
pressive communist regime in Red China.
Our reasons are as follows:
1) The 16 million free Chinese in Taiwan
have been our steady allies for over 30
years. We have a treaty to protect them in
the event of armed aggression. If we abro
gate the treaty with Taiwan, how can we
hope to maintain our credibility with re
spect to other treaties which we maintain
in the Pacific and Europe?
2) This venture by President Carter is
openly contradictory to his stand on
human rights. How do we further the
cause of freedom if we withdraw active
support for one of the few stable, demo
cratic nations in Asia?
3) If increased trade is our motive, this
is an illusion. (See the attached article
from Forbes magazine, March 1, 1977.) In
this article the point is made that the Red
Chinese desperately want U.S. know
how, but have little to sell in return.
Neither will they borrow to finance deficit
purchases. It seems that this game which
is euphemistically called “normalization
is a one-way street.
We call for a pragmatic foreign policy
based upon strengthening our ties with
our allies as we are beginning to do- in
South America, and supporting the rights
and freedoms of oppressed people as we
are doing in Africa. Please clarify your
stand on this issue, and represent our
views before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
—Mark Krautmann
Jolly Krautmann
paying the price
holdover from the days when France was
an agricultural society. In those days,
peasants who worked in the fields from
dawn until dusk could consume three or
four bottles of wine daily without showing
ill effects. That habit hardly suits urban
employes, but they continue to drink
heavily.
The new clientele for alcohol are young
people, who appear to be turning more
and more to drink as a substitute for drugs.
These young people are not apprentice
laborers who toss back their glasses of
wine at cafe counters to impress their
friends. They are middle-class boys and
girls who make drinking the object of their
evening.
The attraction of drinking, as one stu
dent explained it is that alcohol is available
and legal, and kids can get their “kicks”
without fear of being busted by the police,
who take a severe view of narcotics.
None of this suggests that the French
consider themselves in the midst of an al
coholic crisis. They are merely in the
midst of a permanent alcoholic haze that
has become part of their life.
(Dupuis writes on social issues for the
Nouvel Ohservateru, the French weekly.)
Slouch by Jim Earle
WELCOME TO
TEXAS AAM
CLASS o'* 81
Top of the News)
Campus
n
Student aide positions open 50 pih
Thirty positions for Student Government executive assistants are ontir
now open. For information and applications phone 845-3051 orco« ivitl' <
by the Student Government office, 216C MSC. Interviews will be
held Aug. 29-Sept. 2 by appointment only.
fling to live with job
is andthe Southwest check in todai
Police learning
Police officers from Texas andthe Southwest check in today forllej
20th Police-Community Relations Institute at Texas A&M Univerf
sity. Stress reduction workshops will be held, as well as sessionsoi
stress awareness and stress reduction techniques. “The programs
designed to provide the police officer with training and tools to help
them live comfortably with their roles, ” Chief Ira E. Scott said. Scoll
heads the Law Enforcement and Security Training Division ofll* fh e
Texas Engineering Extension Service, which co-sponsors the prj elffo
gram. eIlt
y-
Alt!
State
Hill gets tough on nursing homes
ney General John Hill said Monday his office will invi
ieci;
Attorney General John Hill said Monday his office will investigate d, 1
any further alleged patient abuse at nursing homes and warned pri- )ha:
vate operators to voluntarily comply with state nursing care
standards. Hill was referring to action his office took against a Dallas ds
nursing home, which became the first home in Texas to be pladwnti
into state receivership due to charges of abuse and mistreatment of it pildre
patients.
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Terrorists bomb power station
Terrorist bombs and fire at a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. subsla
tion knocked out power to 6,016 homes early Monday in Sausalito,
Calif., police said. A spokesman for the electric company saidexplo
sive devices were placed on transformers, causing an explosion and
fire to break out inside the station. The fire was extinguished quidl)
and PG&E crews restored service to most of the homes within abonl
three hours.
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Walkers rally for support of ERA
Comedienne Lily Tomlin and actress Jean Stapleton led about 250
persons on a 12-mile walk Saturday to show support for the Equal
Rights Amendment. The walk from Venice, Calif, to Santa Monica
and back was to raise money for the drive to get ERA passed. Only35
states have ratified the amendment, which needs to be passed by38
states.
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Elvis autograph brings high price
A Texas home builder who admired Elvis Presley has traded a
parcel of land for a Presley signature “just to get the autograph off the
market. ” The autograph was offered at auction Saturday by Paul
Gunther, 33, who placed it on the block to spruce up a weekend
garage sale. The only bid came by telegram from Dan Murphy, 35,at I
Amarillo, Tex., who later telephoned to confirm his offer of a lot on i
LBJ Lake near Austin or a piece of land north of Dallas. “I did it just
to get the autograph off the market,” Murphy said. “It’s sad that a
person’s autograph would go on the market, and of all people, Elvis
Presley’s. ”
155?
World
Last chance for African peace?
U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and Britain’s foreign secretary
briefed South African Prime Minister John Vorster Monday on a
proposal said to be Rhodesia’s last chance for peace. Young and
British Foreign Secretary David Owen were seeking Vorster’s crucial
endorsement of the Anglo-American plan for a peaceful shift to blacl
majority rule in Rhodesia. South African Foreign Minister Roelol
Botha also attended the meeting which was held in Pretoria, South
Africa.
Mideast peace talks underway
Egyptian and Libyan officials met for three hours Sunday in talks
aimed at easing tensions raised by a six-day conflict last month on the
desert border between the two countries, government sources said.
The sources described the meeting as “preliminary” and said it was
“mainly to discuss matters related to the situation between the two
countries.” Both sides reportedly agreed the contacts should con
tinue.
Earthquake kills two
An earthejuake killed two persons on Atauro Island, East Timor,
Saturday and left five others seriously injured, the Antara news
agency reported Monday. The Jakarta Geophysical Service said the
quake registered 6.7 on the Richter Scale and caused several build
ings to crack. The tremors were felt in Dili, capital of East Timor, but
there were no reports of damage or casualties.
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Editor janaf 1 ]
Managing Editor Mary Alice
News Editor BillBrl
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Reporters JulirSj
Clemia Whitley, Darrell Lanford, Carol Mrifyl
lent Publications Board. Bob C Ropfn.Oi
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ts; Rebel Rice. Director of S hi dm I ftM
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