Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 1982)
I on/Page 12 )er 15,1| Serving the University community Vol. 76 No. 55 USPS 045360 12 Pages buttle lands access /X fully gible at tin sason. iling 204jl tli quartet lointsintki the game a 21.-20 wl United Press International EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, talif. — Four astronauts flew the ■pace shuttle to a smooth landing at '■awn today from a $250 million mis- ffion that proved the Columbia can igaunch satellites but raised questions ■bout its spacewalking gear. I The winged space freighter broke ■trough thin clouds and touched ■own at 8:33 a.m. for a flawless con clusion to its fifth orbital flight. I Vance Brand, Robert Overmyer, Boseph Allen and William Lenoir Bnded just eight minutes after the Bun rose over the Mojave Desert 60 miles north of Los Angeles. I “Hey, Roy, are we down now?” ),Bsked co-pilot Overmyer, suggesting °Bielanding was so smooth he couldn’t peel it. I “Absolutely, it was beautiful, and |ou certainly lived up to your motto is flight,” replied Roy Bridges in ouston Control. “Welcome home.” Bridges was referring to the “We Jeliver” motto the astronauts |dopted during their satellite laun- ling operations. The Columbia, which now has aveled more than 10 million miles in lace, was directed to the 15,000- lot-long concrete runway used for b July 4 landing because the'long, road, normally dry lakebed runways tere muddy from recent rains. It came to a stop right in the mid- lie of the runway, with plenty of un- sed rollout space ahead of them. The ship, protected from the fiery Je-entry heat by a layer of glassy in sul.ition tiles, slowed from more than ' rSy 'leld’ 000 mph t() the landin g s P eed <)f J 111 /, fen airliner in less than an hour, hearing 5 astronauts pre- lared for the trip home when they closed the ship’s big payload bay doors at 4:31 a.m. for the re-entry back into the atmosphere. Closure of the 60-foot-long doors was a key step in landing preparations and took on even greater significance after Monday’s space walk cancella tion. If the doors had failed to close, Lenoir would have had to walk in space to close them, wearing a space- suit that was not working normally. But — “They are closed and but toned up,” Overmyer reported. The five-day, 2.1-million-mile flight was the fifth mission of the Col umbia in 19 months and the last for nearly a year. The $1.2 billion ship will be modified at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch next Oct. 30, when it will carry a big European-built laboratory module called Spacelab and a six-man crew. Columbia set out on its initial oper ational mission when it took off from Cape Canaveral Thursday. It laun ched the first of two commercial com munications satellites eight hours la ter and deployed the second Friday. Those dual launchings were the primary objective of the mission and they demonstrated the Columbia can serve both as a space freighter and a stable launching platform high above the Earth. The one big disappointment was the cancellation of a planned two- man, 3!/2-hour space walk Monday because of troubles with the $2 mil lion spacesuits the astronauts were to wear outside. Project officials said it was possible one could be added to a 1983 mission to test the suits and rehearse satellite repair operations. staff photo by Irene Mees Readin’ and ridin’ Dungeons and Dragons can be obsessive, so much so that its devotees can’t put it down. In fact, freshman Mike Kana of El Campo reads the rules of the fantasy role-playing game even while riding his bicycle. Kana is an electrical engineering major. College Station, Texas Tuesday, November 16, 1982 Rudder Exhibit Hall, usually deserted, wasn’t empty Monday morning, as shown in this photo, shot through a wide-angle lens. Pre-registration started, and so did the crowding inside — and outside — Rudder. Students above are waiting to turn in their card packets. Pre-registration continues through Friday. A&M grades not inflated: deans GPRs rise as SAT falls by Kathleen Hart Battalion Reporter College diplomas may mean less than they once did because of grade inflation — higher grades for lower quality work — which decreases the value and reliability of a grade. But Dr. Terry . Shoup, assistant dean of the College of Engineering, says Texas A&M University doesn’t have a major grade inflation problem. “We’ve always strived for a high level of excellence in our programs, and it’s possible that while the grades may be easier to get, our programs may have gotten more difficult so the net effect is the same,” he said. Scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test have declined consistently for 15 years — rising slightly this year for the first time. But grades here have risen during the same 15-year period, which many University officials trans late to mean grades are being in flated. Dr. Rand Watson, associate dean of the College of Science, said grade in flation occurs because some profes sors grade on a curve that changes with the quality of the students. Dr. Bryan Cole, associate dean of the College of Education, said grad ing curves are outdated quickly by changing technology, changing en vironments and an increase in the amount of information to which peo ple are exposed. If grades rise at an institution, it’s because “the folks that we have com ing here are much better prepared than they have been in the past,” Cole said. Higher admission standards have been aimed at increasing the number of better-prepared students here. Standards for honor graduates also have been raised. A student must have a grade point ratio of 3.5 to 3.699 to graduate cum laude. Before the change in May, cum laude gradu ates needed a GPR of 3.25 to 3.699. Dr. Charles McCandless, interim vice president for academic affairs, said grade inflation didn’t cause the changes; students asked for them. “I think there was concern that there might be a demeaning of the coin,” he said. “That if there were too many students graduating with hon ors, then graduating with honors be came less meaningful.” Other standards also have been raised. The College of Engineering re cently raised the minimum require ments students need to enroll in junior- and senior-level courses. Dr. Candida Lutes, associate dean of students for the College of Liberal Arts, said standards for honor gradu ates and enrollment in upper-level courses must be high or the “really good students are penalized because graduate schools and employers can’t tell them from the mediocre stu dents.” For many employers and graduate schools, individual grades may not be as important as the general trend of a student’s grades. Louis J. Van Pelt, director of the Texas A&M Placement Center, said some students even draw graphs for prospective employers showing a general increase in their grades throughout their college career. The student’s GPR often is com pared with the average GPR for the school in which the student is enrolled because some grades can be above av erage at some schools and below aver age at others, Van Pelt said. Dr. William Ward, associate dean of the College of Medicine, said the medical school often looks at the number of Q-drops a person has. Those drops often indicate that a stu dent is trying to manipulate the sys tem to get an A instead of a B in a class, he said. Van Pelt said extracurricular activi ties also are considered by employers and graduate Schools, but grades make the difference. “One could expect a higher likeli hood of employer offers versus inter views as his grade point average goes up, but that’s a generalization because not every candidate is right for every job any more than every job is right for every candidate,” he said. “A per son can generate a flush (rejection) letter with a 2.0 or a 4.0.” Lutes said employers and graduate schools are “going to be a little bit leery of someone who manages to scrape through with a 2.0.” But if a person can “land that first job, even with lousy grades, and if fie can do well in that job, then he has undone the damage of low grades,” she said. Shoup said grades often are the only measurable indicator available. Watson said such factors as bad teachers, illness and emotional prob lems average out over a student’s col lege career, and the overall record are reliable when judging the academic ability of a student. “We try to hire good people and we constantly evaluate their teaching abi lities,” he said. “These procedures assure that the grading system will be more or less uniform, consistent and fair.” Walesa visits friends, dodges press United Press International GDANSK, Poland — Former Solidarity chief Lech Walesa, welcomed home by jubilant suppor ters and tearful family members after 11 montfis of martial law internment, left his apartment Monday to meet with friends and former union advisers. Family sources said Walesa dodged reporters by ducking into other buildings in the big high-rise suburb where he lives, leaving home to visit his former chauffeur, Miatek Wacfiowski, who is ailing in a Gdansk hospital. Walesa returned to his six-room apartment to meet with reporters, flanked by former Solidarity advisers Andrzej Wielowiejski and Wladyslaw Sila Nowicki, as well as his family priest, Rev. Henryk Jankowski. Mrs. Walesa said her husband told her he had been held in Warsaw for more than a day after his release while he was lectured by Polish officials on martial law. The former union chief had dropped from sight for more than 24 hours after officials announced he left the government lodge in remote Arlamowo on the southeast border. Walesa, who arrived home Sunday, did not try to explain the absence. But he said the final order for his release was not signed until Sunday night. Polish authorities, in an official PAP news agency report on Walesa’s return, stressed that he was a private person now and suggested they would not allow him to take up a political role. But Walesa, in a speech Sunday from his apart ment window to a crowd of thousands of Poles chanting his name, insisted, “We shall win. “We will need strength,” Walesa said, his fingers raised in a V-for-victory sign. “We won’t be down on our knees.” But he never mentioned Solidarity, the trade union he led until it was banned by parliament Oct. 8. Nuke plant ‘whistle-blower’ fired three times this year United Press International DALLAS — A man who says he is being blacklisted by the nuclear in dustry because he reports safety viola tions was fired from his third job this year at a nuclear power plant. The third firing, like the previous two, has been ruled illegal by the U.S. Department of Labor. A spokesman for the Labor De partment said Monday that Charles A. Atchison was dismissed in violation of the federal law designed to protect “whistleblowers.” Atchison was fired from the Com anche Peak nuclear power plant near Glen Rose on April 12 and from the Waterford III nuclear power plant near Taft, La., hours after he was hired on Sept. 27. In both cases, the Labor Depart ment ruled the firings were a result of testimony Atchison gave to a federal board about alleged safety problems at Comanche Peak. Atchison told the U.S. Atomic Safe ty and Licensing Board about sup posed safety defects at the controver sial Texas plant. The third firing happened in Au gust by Mercury of Northwood Inc., a subcontractor at the Louisiana plant. The Labor Department has also ruled that the firing was illegal because it was in punishment for Atchison’s tes timony. Atchison said he was fired from his Comanche Peakjob for reporting too many pipe welding flaws. “They’re essentially trying to black ball him from the nuclear industry,” said Atchison’s lawyer, J. Marshall Gilmore. “It’s a situation where a guy is being blackballed for doing a good job.” All three companies have denied charges of wrongdoing. The three also fiave appealed the rulings by the Labor Department. inside Around town ... 4 Classified ... 6 Local ...3 National ... 6 Opinions . . ... 2 Sports .•••..• . . . 9 State ... 4 What’s up ... 6 forecast Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain. Highs in the 60s, with southeast winds near 10 mph. Cloudy tonight with a 40 percent chance of rain. Low tonight in the upper 50s.