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Prof says there’s hope
for liberal arts grads
by PATRICIA McCORMACK
United Press Internationa]
Where does a poetry major, class of 1980, go
to look for a job?
A history major? An anthropology major?
Or even a star-gazer — a college grad who
majored in astronomy?
Their college degrees, the most expensive in
history, don’t “buy” jobs with blue ribbons
around them — the kind their classmates who
majored in engineering, computers, business
or science find at the end of the academic trail.
“A liberal arts graduate,” Frank Endicott
said, “checks out banks, insurance companies,
retail stores — and other places where there’s
not too much concern over what a person ma
jored in.”
Endicott said it isn’t that the banks and such
are looking for poet laureates or someone to
make, astrological forecasts. It’s just that they
have jobs for bright persons who know how to
analyze, communicate, get along with people
and are willing to learn.
And that kind of person usually is a liberal
Reader wants
more letters
Editor:
I have been faithfully picking up the Batt for
three weeks now breathlessly awaiting a letter
to the Editor, but so far, nothing. You would
think that at a school this size, with an enroll
ment exceeding 11,000 during the summer,
one letter would be published.
But no, letters to the editor are hard to come
by it seems. Is it the controversy you are scared
of? Are you not publishing pro-wear-your-
jeans-if-you’re-gay letters? Does Highway 6 not
run both ways any more? I realize most Greeks
go home during the summer but with record
enrollment isn’t anyone complaining about
them? Is everyone satisfied with the Commons
food? Why doesn’t someone gripe about the fish
walking across the MSC grass? Isn’t anyone
upset that the racquetball courts are reserved
by 8:15 a.m? Does no one care that you can’t
park your bike in front of the Commons? Is no
one distraught that the Cow Hop is closed on
Sundays? Is GTE not screwing up someone’s
telephone?
Are people just not writing or are you, mem
bers of The Battalion staff, not publishing?
C’mon Ags — let’s have a little hurrah. Make
the Batt more interesting!
Colleen Barnett ’81
Editor’s note: The Battalion has received ex
actly two letters to the editor so far this sum
mer. One ran yesterday; yours is the second. It
is our policy to print all responsibly written,
signed letters and opinions, no matter how
much we may disagree with the author. We
invite any Texas A&M student to submit a
letter at any time.
arts graduate, Endicott said.
The emeritus professor of education at
Northwestern University and architect of the
highly-touted Endicott Report on jobs for new
college graduates, said:
“Liberal arts graduates must work harder at
getting a job, must be willing to accept a job
that they probably never thought of — and one
that includes on-the-job training.”
Endicott, of Evanston, Ill., talked about the
harder job hustle for liberal arts majors in con
nection with his final report on the job scene for
the class of 1980. It is his 34th annual report on
jobs for new graduates, a field in which he is
considered peerless.
Despite the national economic forecasts, 120
national employers surveyed for the newest re
port said they are not planning any general
cutbacks in employment of June college grads.
Endicott found the firms hiring 10 peypejut
above that for the class of 1979 at the bachelor’s
level; up nine percent at the master’s. In
another job survey, the College Placement
Council found hiring running eight percent
ahead of last year. That survey covered 550
employers.
“This means that the firms are hiring in total
more college graduates this year than they
hired a year ago,” Endicott said.
As usual in recent job surveys for new college
grads, pickin’s are slimmest for liberal arts
grads — in terms of numbers of jobs available
and in starting salaries.
The fledgling poets and such, for example,
start in their nonpoetry and such jobs at around
$13,000 a year, compared to some $20,000 and
up for classmates hired in fields seeking holders
of “hot” — in demand — degrees.
So is a liberal arts degree a waste of money
and time? The bill, at private universities
ranges from $6,000 to around $10,000 an
academic year now. Times four years, the total
that poetry major’s degree cn cost from
$24,000 to $40,000.
Is it nutty for parents to stand still and not
even start to tear their hair when offspring opts
for liberal arts — be it star-gazing, poetry,
anthropology, history or some other field not
likely to be listed in the employment opportu
nities in this or any other newspaper?
No, it is not nutty, Endicott says. There’s
more to measuring a person’s success or failure
than the beginning paycheck, he said.
“I say to parents to wait 10 years before they
make a judgment about their liberal arts gradu
ates,” he said.
“The English major was never meant to find
a job with a ribbon around it lettered E-n-g-l-i-
s-h.
“The purpose of a liberal arts education is to
grow intellectually, to open channels, to learn
more about all kinds of things — science, math,
history, foreign language.
Endicott said just being a philosophy or a
history major doesn’t mean a person took four
years of only one subject. He said the smart
liberal arts majors take some math and
economics and, if possible, a computer course
— “to have that magic word ‘computer’ on the
resume.”
The Battalion
u s p s
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Dillard Stone
City Editor Becky Swanson
Sports Editor Richard Oliver
News Editor Lynn Blanco
Staff Writers. . Uschi Michel-Howell, Debbie Nelson,
Cathy Saathoff, Scot K. Meyer, Jon Heidtke
Kurt Allen
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photo Editor Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Photographer Marsha Hoehn
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The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper op
erated as a community service to Texas A&M University and
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those of the editor or the author, and do not necessarily repre
sent the opinions of Texas A&M University administrators or
faculty members, or of the Board of Regents.
Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter
should be directed to the editor.
045 360
LETTERS POUCY
Letters to the Editor should not exceed300 words in length, and
are subject to being cut if they are longer. The editorial staff
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Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, and are not
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Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843.
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Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
June 19, 1980
U. S. dropping while Soviets mount lead
Equations rate world power
by JIM ANDERSON
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Ray Cline, who is to the
world of strategic thinkers what Jimmy the
Greek is to gamblers, is out with his new morn
ing line.
The news is that the United States is down,
the Soviets are up, and keep your eye on Brazil,
moving up fast through the pack.
Cline, a former deputy director of the CIA
and now director of the Georgetown Institute of
Strategic Studies, has published his third
annual world power assessment. It is an
attempt to put the relative power of the world’s
nations into numbers, and to rank them accord
ingly.
Power, as Cline defines it, is the result of a
complex equation that involves military and
economic strength, a coherent national strategy
and (with all due respect to G. Gordon Liddy)
something called “will.”
Thus, even though the United States, in
Cline’s formula, starts out with a larger military
and economic base than the Soviet Union, that
advantage is diminished by the lack of a cohe
rent global strategy and a somewhat weaker
national will than the Soviets.
Although the mathematical equations differ
slightly from year to year in Cline’s three annual
surveys, he has the United States dropping
farther behind the Soviet Union in the latest
survey (304 to 458) than in the previous year
(421 to 523).
Cline writes, “The striking fact emerging
from these tables is that national purpose and
national will will make a critical difference in
the relative power of nations.”
“A totalitarian system has many shortcom
ings and its suppression of individual freedom
and initiative cripples the development of a
high level of achievement within a society.
Nevertheless, the fact that the U.S.S.R. has a
coherent strategy and a tightly controlled popu
lation multiplies the brute power it projects
into the international arena. ”
Using that logic, Cline places Brazil (which
has a strong central government moving toward
liberalization) No. 3 in the world power list.
The fifth largest industrial power in the world,
Brazil has jumped ahead of China, Germany
and Japan in Cline’s annual surveys. In his first
list, published three years ago, Brazil ranked
sixth.
This is the list of the first 10 powers in Cline’s
most recent list. (The numbers in parentheses
are the quotients of Cline’s complex equations.
They give an indication of the relative
strengths, in Cline’s judgment):
1. Soviet Union (458)
2. United States (304)
3. Brazil (137)
4. West Germany (116)
5. Japan (108)
6. Australia (88)
7. China (83)
8. France (74)
9. United Kingdom (68)
10. Canada (61)
He ranks 77 nations, ending with Jamaica,
Albania and Portugal, all ranked with one point
each.
Cline makes allowance for the fact that na
tions generally do not act alone, but as parts of
alliance or groups. The Soviet Union and its
Warsaw Pact allies add up to a total of534 points
in Cline’s assessment. The United States®:
NATO partners, when combined, add up:
total of 751 points, assuming they act
in a coherent and effective way.
In terms of national will, Cline ranks!:
the highest (0.9 on a scale of 1) with!:
Germany and Japan (0.8) coming close
The United States gets a barely passing!
Cline’s scale of national will.
Israel, in terms of a coherent natii
strategy, ranks highest (with 0.9onascaiei
with totalitarian governments such asCul
North Korea ranking high with 0.8. Thelli
States, in Cline’s view, gets the equivalent
failing grade, 0.3, one of the lowest ii
listing.
Cline admits that his rankings are onl
good as his judgment about such abstract
ters as national will and determination
“other observers may come to differentcoi
sions and mark the cards accordingly.”
It is, he said, “a game that any number
play,” but his three years of rankingsbi
steady erosion of U.S. power to infln
events in the world.
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United Press International
You’re fair game for home-improvement
swindlers — if you can’t recognize their most
commonly used selling schemes.
There are four commonly used schemes,
according to Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia.
They work so well that they are used year after
year with slight variations. Here they are:
The “reco” scheme:
“Reco” — that’s short for recommendation
(also called referral selling) — is one of the most
common home-improvement swindles. The
“reco” artist holds out a promise of easy money
if you’ll act as a company representative. But, of
course, you need something to demonstrate.
That’s where the product comes in, for which
you always pay an inflated price and never see a
penny in return.
Despite variations, “reco” selling has charac
teristics that will help you spot it. They usually
occur in the following sequence:
The salesman appears at your door unsoli
cited, or after a phone call for an appointment.
He seldom introduces himself as a salesman.
Instead, he’s a “survey-taker” or he’s been re
commended by a neighbor.
He brings up an important but obvious issue,
for example, that early fire detection is impor
tant for your family’s safety. The company he
represents, he will say, never sells products,
but has been authorized to make free installa
tions in a few homes for demonstration pur
poses. “However, the law prohibits my com
pany from making an outright gift” is a pitch
often used.
He’ll then ask that you serve as a company
representative, making demonstrations and re
ferring customers. You’ll receive commissions
and will eventually own the item “free and
clear.”
The final pitch is to get you to sign papers
before you have time to think.
The model home scheme:
This sales pitch is similar to “reco. ” Again, it
lures you with a promise of something for no
thing — in this case, something for the exterior
of the home (“free” siding, “free” storms and
screens, etc.) As with “reco,” the price you end
up paying is much more than what you’d pay for
the same product sold legitimately. However,
the promise of commissions for allowing the
company to use your home as a “model” makes
it seems foolish to pass up the deal.
Often within minutes after you’ve signed the
contract, a truck loaded with supplies drives up
and work commences. Why so fast? The law
says no contract can legally bind you unless
some work is done.
Bait and switch:
One of the most deceptive of all swindles,
bait and switch hides behind a mask of respecta
bility. Bait advertising, which offers products at
unbelieveably low prices, is found everywhere
and millions fall for it.
Here’s what to look for in bait and switch:
The bait: ads offering products at fantastically
low prices. Then belittling of the advertised
product by the salesman. Then the switch —
demonstration of a better item you can buy for
“below its original price. ” And the ever-present
guarantee and paper shuffling to get your signa
ture quickly.
The “special price ” pitch:
Workmen appear at your door offering to
repair your home at amazingly low prices — in
fact, pretty much what you want to pay. Their
products vary, but are of low quality and often
“repairs don’t last. They are itinerant, wort
an area for a few days, and then leaving tow
fast. If they do give a telephone number, it’s
answering service.
Sometimes the workman will sayhewasi
turning to his shop and noticed yourroofnefl >gfor the s
repair. He says he can do it at a bargain
since it was his last job of the day and'll#
dump all that good material in the truck
Here are ways to protect yourself against!'
home improvement swindler:
— Your best bet is to say “no, thanks’
salesman appearing unsolicited at your door io re (h an ;
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his pitch is interesting, however, tell him)'
want to meet him at his company’s ol
there’s anything legitimate about the
tion, he’ll have an office and you verifyh
reputation with the local Better
Bureau or Chamber of Commerce.
Don’t fall for phony credentials. If the
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says he’s an “official”, let him wait outsidewU j 00 ^ g uy S S
you call the police or a responsible town ages' dversity >
to have his claim checked out.
— Never sign anything immediately, nonk
ter how attractive the deal seems. Give yours
plenty of time to think it over.
— If you’ve signed a contract, but
later you’ve been swindled, don’t let worM
do any work. Once work is done, even partial
you’re legally obligated to pay.
— If you’re prepared to sign a contract, mi
sure it stipulates that succeeding parties}
whom the contract is sold will be
responsible for all guarantees and
— Read everything thoroughly
ing. If you don’t understand something,
sign. If a job is going to cost hundreds of dollar
let a lawyer examine the paper work. Don’t"'*!
until you’re in trouble.
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