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Viewpoint The Battalion Wednesday Texas A&M University May 16, 1979 University images in need of a boost By PATRICIA McCORMACK United Press International Higher education, which in the United States refers to what goes on in colleges and universities, has troubles. Among the most serious are an erosion of public confidence plus some unethical be havior, such as exploitation of graduate as sistants and grade inflation. Then, too, more than a few “education consumers,” which means students and their parents who are spending up to $8,000 a year for tuition, room and board, complain that, among other things, the schools aren’t providing much guidance on career matters. And some bitterness is evident over gaps between what’s promised in the school catalog and what’s delivered in the class room. A braintrust of leaders from industry, education, government and other walks of life, meeting for four days at the 56th American Assembly of Columbia Univer sity, recently paid attention to such criti cism as they picked apart higher education. They attacked what one described as “the soft underbelly of higher education” and came up with suggestions to help higher education restore its integrity — and they called for prompt action. The Assembly meets twice a year. It was set up by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Co lumbia in 1950. Nonpartisan, it publishes proceedings to illuminate issues of United States policy. The Assembly’s higher education partic ipants reached general agreement on many points, including: —A cerain malaise affects higher educa tion. The public believes that there is waste in its universities and colleges; they hear of tenure and conclude it has become a job security device for both the incompetent and competent. —There have been breaches of ethical conduct, including: plagiarism by both stu dents arid faculty; exploitation by faculty and administrators of graduate students and teaching assistants; “double-dipping” by academic professionals from several grant sources for the same labors per formed; undisclosed selling of identical scholarly works to more than one publica tion; grade inflation and unwarranted rec ommendations for students; and the injus- tified imposition of prerequisites. The Assembly’s proposals to restore in tegrity included: —E!ach institution should be explicit about the standards of ethical behavior ex pected of its trustees, administrators, fac ulty, staff and students. —In the face of declining enrollments, institutions must plan and implement, in dividually and cooperatively, actions to re duce the size and cost of their operations — and do it without jeopardizing academic quality and access. —Universities and colleges must be con cerned with the declining quality of grade school and high school education. —Better links are needed between high school and college programs — and an up grading of entrance requirements, plus remedial work for students with deficien cies. But college crediits should not be given for remedial courses. —Because unionization is frequently de structive of the collegiality and academic standards essential to institutional integ rity, faculty should, wherever possible, di rect their efforts toward achieving effective participation in institutional governance by other means. —Colleges and universities should not misrepresent their course offerings, the job prospects for graduates, the participation of senior faculty in regular instruction, their facilities, or other aspects of academic pro grams. —If it is to remain ethically sensitive toward students, each institution must prevent the exploitation or favored treat ment of students who, for example, partici pate in the performing arts, in intercol legiate competition, or in faculty-student research. —Universities should provide more ef fective personal academic, and career counseling. : —The integrity of higher education could be threatened by centralized control. For that reason, establishment of a national department of education, as currently pro posed, could not enhance integrity and could diminish it. Among the participants in the higher education “think tank” at the American As sembly’s headquarters’s Arden House, Harriman, N.Y., were: — University presidents:' Richard M. Cyert, of Carnegie-Mellon, Pittsburgh; Willard F. Enteman, of Bowdoin College; Sister M. Coleman Nee, I.H.M., Marywood College, Scranton, Pa.; Elizabeth T. Kennan, Mt. Holyoke Col lege; Lt. Gen. Kenneth L. Tallman, superintendent, U.S. Air Force Academy; Wesley W. Posvar, University of Pittburgh. —From Congress and government: Rep. Millicent Fenwick, R.-N.J.; Alfred B. Fitt, general counsel, Congressional Budget Of fice; George B. Weathersby, Commis sioner for Higher Education, State of In diana; Rep. John Brademas, D.-Ind., the majority whip of the House of Representa tives. —From industry and education organi zations: Clifford D. Anderson, vice presi dent, J.C. Penney Company; Winfred L. Godwin, president. Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta; Charles Fran- kel. Chairman of the Board, National Humanities Center, North Carolina. Take a look, America British campaign techniques superior By DAVID S. BRODER LONDON — In a matter of five weeks, the British have disposed of the chore of conducting a national election campaign, a task which seems to take two years at the minimum in the United States. Thanks to a provision for free television time for the parties and a ban on paid political ads on the airwaves, they have done so at a fraction of the cost of an American presidential elec tion. In addition to brevity and economy, the British election system appears to a first time observer to offer certain other advan tages over the American model. On one hand, the campaigning is more personal and local here than in the United States. On the other, the issues are presented in a more coherent national pattern. Most of these advantages are the by product of a parliamentary system based on reasonably strong party structures. But that system has its own built-in disadvan tages as well. An organization called the National Committee for Electoral Reform, headed by Lord Harlech, the former am bassador to Washington, has been taking out large newspaper ads charging that the “present voting system ... is unfair, unrep resentative, anachronistic and thoroughly undemocratic. ” The headline on the ad proclaims: “Here Are Two-Thirds of the Election Results.” The ad lists the winning party in 402 of the 635 constituencies, each of which elects one member to the House of Commons. Because “only the marginals matter,” the Harlech committee argues that voters in those 400 or more safe constituencies are effectively irrelevant to the campaign. There are other problems as well. The theoretical danger that critics of our elec toral college system allege against it is more than a theoretical danger in the parlia mentary system. Twice in the last 30 years, the British election system has made a win ner a loser. Labor won more votes than the Conservatives in 1951, but the Tories gained more seats and took power. In Feb ruary 1974, exactly the reverse happened. The goal of the Harlech committee is to substitute proportional representation for the present system. That would be a boon to the third-place Liberals, who win far more votes than seats. But it risks forcing coalition governments much of the time. Meantime, there are other anomalies of modern politics which seem as much be yond the reach of the British system as they do of ours. “Media events” by party leaders are just as silly here as they are at home. The sight of Jim Callaghan stalking down a supermarket aisle to show his concern is about as irrelevant — and as eagerly photo graphed — as similar television gimmicks in a presidential campaign. Where the British system does excel is in making a campaign simultaneously a cohe rent national referendum and a local con test with a high degree of personal in volvement. Most of the campaigning is done, liter ally, on the voters doorstep, with canvass teams of local party volunteers and candi date “walkabouts,” or door-to-door tours. No one is exempt from the discipline and demands of this local campaigning. Last weekend, in Plymouth, I watched British Foreign Secretary David Owen stand for almost two hours on a chilly after noon in a downtown park, answering pointed questions from constituents, on topics ranging from Rhodesia to the Com mon Market to the closed shop, welfare fraud, servicemen’s pay increases and his own action in crossing a civil-servants’ pic ket line. Owen told one particularly persis tent interrogator on Rhodesia that “You’re being a pain in the ass,” but he stayed until the questioning was finished. At the same time this intensely personal dialogue is occuring, there is enough disci pline in the national parties to permit real understanding and debate on the issues. The party manifestoes, or platforms, carry weight; they limit and define the positions local candidates may take. The party positions are debated at rival press conferences, by government minis ters and their “shadow cabinet” opposites, every weekday morning in London. And, with a relatively short campaign, the public and private television networks do exten sive news treatments of issues and cam paigns — in 40-minute time blocs — every evening, in addition to the free time they make available to the parties for their own programs. The result is an election in which the personal popularity of the party leaders — where Callaghan has a clear advantage — can be weighed by the voters against their expressed preference for the Tory position on most of the major issues. One recent poll showed, for example, that 66 percent of the voters knew the To ries advocated income tax reductions fi nanced from reduced government spend ing, while only 15 percent thought that was a Labor position. Even higher proportions of voters understood the party differences on issues of limiting trade union power and cutting off welfare benefits to strikers’ families. American politics would be improved if we could find similarly effective devices for getting issue-content into our protracted campaigns. (c)The Washington Post Company A Californian’s look at the gas crunch By JACK V. FOX United Press International LOS ANGELES — The headlines tell about the gasoline shortage and the lines waiting at filling stations but if you read the fine print the story is really about the American automobile. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has around eight million people. If there is one common denominator among them it is their dependence on cars. People in Southern California drive to work on a freeway system that is a miracle of highway engineering. We drive to the beaches, the mountains, the deserts, the ballgames. We drive our kids to school. We drive to the supermarkets and discount stores and dry cleaners. We drive to friends’ homes 40 miles away for an evening. We drive to our doctors, our movie theaters, our restuarants. We drive our dogs to a park. We drive bumper to bumper on Hol lywood Boulevard and Van Nuys and Broadway for no reason other than just to drive. We drive to the racetracks, the golf courses. We swarm the shopping centers at Christmastime so that it drives the joy out of the season. And on New Year’s day one experience of driving to the Rose Bowl is enough for a lifetime. We drive to Palm Springs and Las Vegas and Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach and Lake Arrowhead and Yosemite and San Francisco. Our parking lots have splotched Los Angeles into a cement wasteland. And we are driving 7 percent more this year than we did last. If the people who live in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, De troit, Houston, Kansas City, New York, Philadelphia or Washington, think they have seen a traffic jam, they should see Los Angeles on a summer Sunday evening when the residents stream back into town. There are 16,000 service stations in California, almost half of them in the Los Angeles area. So in these past 10 days when the gasoline well began to run dry a panic hit Los Angeles. It was ironic in a way. Down around Long Beach the grasshopper pumps were pulling from an oil field ranking second in the continental United States only behind Texas. The offshore wells dot the horizon and massive tankers sail past the shoreline loaded with Alaskan oil because there is no refinery capacity here to handle the crude. The “horror stories” of violence in the lines were true. But they were one small facet of the big picture and it was perhaps even more scary. It was estimated that if Southern Califor nians would buy only two less gallons of gasoline a week the “crisis” would moderate. But voluntary conservation wasn’t the prevailing mood. Rather the mood was generally one of these: —The giant gasoline companies were the villains and there would be plenty once gas hit $1 a gallon. —The federal government was at fault for shortchanging California. —The filling station operators were to blame for staying open only a couple of hours a day and closing altogether on weekends. —It was all a giant conspiracy. ' The odd-even license plate rationing plan may begin to have an effect by rjext week but as of Saturday the lines were longer than ever. And so far Southern Californians haven’t taken a good look at themselves and their driving habits. Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev visited the United States in 1957 and at one point on his tour he arrived at the airport in Pittsburgh. On the 15-mile drive into town his cavalcade threaded through literally tens of thousands of people who had driven out and parked along the highway for a sight of him. Khrushchev was asked if he was not im pressed by the display of affluence on the part of the American “common man. ” “I think they would have been smarter to take a bus, ” he said. v/£ oT WaiTCY; of 005 indeed » «»’ dear) le+V go to Mex/can place, Pern^x Top of the News CAMPUS Services pending for Walker Services are pending in Hempstead for Texas A&M Universit) veterinary student Stuart Walker of Houston. Walker is the 13tli student fatality of the 1978-79 academic year. He was traveling alone in his car on FM 359 near Hempstead when the accident occurred Silver Taps will be held in September. Football ticket applications due The deadline for football season ticket orders to be submitted for priority seating in June 1, 1979. Ticket applications or further infor mation on football tickets is available from the Athletic Ticket Office at 845-2311 or in G. Rollie White Coliseum Room 110. The deadline for turning in baseball tickets from rained-out games for refunds is May 25. STATE Fbis grach >n a steam >ne of the Coast Guard to investigate deaf/is ? Coast Guard officers in Galveston charged with determining why eight men died in the collapse of an oil drilling platform have scheduled a preliminary hearing for Tuesday “to see what will be presented” and a formal hearing Wednesday. Meanwhile, Atlantic Pacific, owners of the rig, filed a federal court petition seeking exon eration from damage claims in the accident, or, alternatively, limita tion of damages to $1.25 million — the insured value of the platform, One leg of the 115-foot-long jack-up rig Ranger I collapsed Thursday night, plunging the platform and 34 workers into the sea. The bodies of seven of the missing were not recovered. n 3 injured preventing explosion Crewmen on a burning towboat off of Freeport prevented a possi ble explosion Tuesday by unhooking a 279-foot barge loaded with highly flammable benzene, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Three crewmen were injured, including one doused with diesel fuel that caught fire. Harry said sparks from a generator ignited diesel fuel on the Jennifer Cummins as it towed the barge on the Old Brazos River at Freeport about 12:30 a.m. He said the towboat was run aground and the fire extinguished a short while later. [ In a tim Bryan Scho discouragin IJjrhe trus Stated that sumption o But, bee; tricity in It 1978 the di ison to 1 ased c Mile repo compared t iDr. C. E district had Kt an add The savii began five NATION NRC to monitor striking plant lew idu The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent an inspector to monitor operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Veraon, Vt., during its strike by 65 employees. Technicians at the plant walked off the job at midnight Monday in a contract dispute, leaving the state’s lone nuclear facility to be run by supervisory personnel. Management officials have said they can run the plant themselves with as few as five people during a strike. Wisner said the NRC will check to see that the management officials are qualified, but stressed the regulatory agency will not directly supervise operation of the plant. The striking employes include maintenance personnel, electri cians and other technical workers. Texas A&J m of engint Be, believe l;is a caref ■S, including afionship w Page will o t this week it since ann intment. He will hea Firemen exposed to radiation Eighteen persons in Beatty.Nev., including 12 members of a vol unteer fire department, will undergo medical examinations after being exposed to radiation from a tractor-trailer loaded with contain ers of low-level radioactive waste which exploded and burned at a desert dumping ground 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Beatty Fire Chief Bill Sullivan said the unidentified driver saw smoke com ing from his cargo 5 a.m. Monday and drove his truck through a chain marking the entrance of the dump site, unhooked the trailer and drove 10 miles to Beatty to report the fire. Six employees of the Nuclear Energy Co., wearing garbedine overalls, foot covers and masks entered the truck to fight the fire. Members of the fire de partment, none of whom entered the trailer, did not wear masks. The smoldering cargo was dumped into a 35-foot deep trench and workers using bulldzoers covered it with five feet of earth. Moore said on-site readings revealed the firefighters received “very low exposure. He said company and state officials were investigating whether the mate rial was improperly shipped. WORLD Khomeni: ‘anyone' can kill Shah The chief of Iran’s central Islamic court Tuesday indirectly invited the Palestine Liberation Organization to execute the exiled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, now living in the Bahamas. Sheikh Sadegh Khalkhali addressed a crowd of 30,000 people in Tehran. “Not everyone who takes the road to terrorism is a terrorist, but (he) is an agent of the sentence (of death) handed down by the Islamic revolu tionary court,” Khalkhali said. He said, quoting a “message from (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini,” that anyone, Iranian or Palestinian, Moslem or non-Moslem or even from the Bahamas, was free to exe cute Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. gineering e 000 student; | doctoral 1 3re than c cM s SO.OOC T think we emise that t change,” s rsity profe gineering c s of exampl “A college :ulty interac e-to-one ba vantageous arked. “The dustry chan istry helps ty abreast. He believe ould be exp d local govt Me commc search, coi nia native lois distingo iblished, th isis of com rticipants. “Good con dustry and ge turns oul both, when ocess,” Pag in therefore bt contact. ‘•The studei e tremendo; professor do t means th holar and is It brings en aching, aloi WEATHER Sunny and warm, fair and mild with a high in the low to mid 80’s and a low in the high 60’s. Winds will be southerly at 8-14 mph. - The Battalion LETTERS POLICY Letters to the-vditor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. 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Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Karen News Editor Debbiel Sports Editor SeUj City Editor Hi Campus Editor Keitk Staff Writers Robin Ift&u Regina Moehlman, Kevin Higgii% Photo Editor • Glajejl Photographer Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of V Regents. The Battalion is a non-pro^ supporting enterprise operated by t as a university and community Editorial policy is determined by Gl \ can cl forget V week< counti which the re V books much withO To Houston Dallas-Ft. Waco Austin Students Reservati 112 Na Wiaccapt ■sr A <
