Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1985)
Sully’s Symposium I Middle East peace Miss Texas A&M to speak Wednesday I Reagan says Saudi influence needed Page 4 1 Page 6 Battalion IVol. 80 No. 94 USPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, February 12, 1985 aperton angry about nominated regents MIKLSAM its seventl inst Soutli' ■nd, 7-2, Associated Press AUSTIN — Sen. Kent Caperton, : D-Bryan, said Monday he is so mad t Gov. Mark White for ignoring im in appointing two members to he Texas A&M Board of Regents hat he may try to block their confir- aation. Caperton, whose district includes |A&M, said he had campaigned for hite and had sided with him on ajor legislation. He said he had Iso backed White in a previous con- roversy over the regents because he thought White would be fair in deal ing with Caperton’s district and the state. “Gov. White, I respectively sug gest that you will need to find some one else to carry your legislation in the future in the Senate, and that you find somebody else to champion your cause down here on this floor.” Janis Monger in White’s press of fice said the governor wotdd not comment. Caperton said White had ignored his advice Friday in appointing John Mobley of Austin and L. Lowry Mays of San Antonio to the board. White also reappointed Royce Wisenbaker of Tyler to the board, but Caperton said Monday, “I have no reservations about Mr. Wisen baker.” I “That trust, in my opinion, was Bnisplaced,” Caperton said in a Sen ate speech, and he added: ft He said at least one of the new ap- ointees should be returned to hite. Asked which one, Caperton Appointed regents wait! approval by Texas Senate By SARAH OATES Stuff Writer Two men appointed by Gov. Mark White to the Texas A&M Board of Regents said Monday they were “surprised” by White’s decision. White announced his choices Friday. White named three Texas busi nessmen. all former students, to fill positions on the board. The ferred ate nominating must be a John 1 Austin-based and Mobley Co., a services and m named Mobley, 54-year-old presi dent of Mobley Industries and an A&M graduate. Caperton said he had made “one specific recommendation” to White for the board but did not name the person in his speech. Asked at a news conference if he had been referring to Don Mauro of Bryan, 35-year-old former law part ner of Caperton’s and a cousin of State Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, the senator replied, “He was one of the names that I discussed, yeah.” Caperton said his was not an iso lated incident, that he had heard “grumbling” from other senators whose views were being ignored by the governor. “Consultation apparently to Mark White means that you bring the sen ator in after the decision has been made, and you say, ‘This is what I’ve decided. What are you going to do about it?’” Caperton said. “Well, we’ll just see what we can do about it.” Mobley’s home senator is Gonzalo* Barrientos, D-Austin, and Mays’ sen ator is Glenn Kothmann, D-San An tonio, and Caperton was asked if he would ask them to use their position to block the appointments. “I don’t want to get senators in trouble with their constituents, and my anger and dismay is more to wards Mark White than it is towards any individual appointees, so I did not ask either Gonzalo or Sen. Koth mann to invoke senatorial courtesy on either of those appointees,” Ca perton said. “I do feel that a principle is at stake here, and I think it would be totally appropriate in a symbolic way to send at least one of those appoint ments back to the governor.” New secretary >m>, says students must sacrifice Associated Press WASHINGTON — President leagan’s budget cuts may force some students to give up their ste reos, cars and beacli vacations to pay for college, said William J. Bennett, the new secretary of education. Bennett acknowledged that elimi- lating loans and grants for more than 1 million college students vould force some families who are already sacrificing To tighten the aelt even further.” But he suggested that other stu- B dents will simply have to forego lux uries. I He likened it to a “divestiture of ertain sorts: stereo divestiture, au tomobile divestiture, three-weeks-at- the-beach divestiture.” | “I do not mean to suggest this will be the case in all circumstances, but it will, like the rain, fall on the just and unjust alike,” said the former philosophy professor. Bennett, at his first news confer ence, also said the belt-tightening could make people more cautious about spending $20,000 on a college education. He cited a new report from the Vssociation of American Colleges that concludes the bachelor’s degree has lost much of its value. “More of us might start thinking about that ($20,000 investment) with the same sort of care we think about when we buy a car: kick the tires and drive it around the block,” said Ben nett. ■ “That kind of greater scrutiny and deliberateness on the part of the consumer — ‘What am I getting for my money here, Mr. Chancellor?’ — wouldn’t be a bad thing, either,” said the former National Endowment for the Humanities chairman. " Bennett said the reaction to Rea gan’s proposed budget cuts for the lj|1986-87 school year have been out of line.” way ; ■ John Brademas, president of New York University, charged Sunday they amounted to “a declaration of war on middle-income America.” Reagan asked Congress last week to deny guaranteed student loans to all students from families with ad- | justed gross incomes above $32,500; to eliminate grants, work-study jobs and other aid for those with incomes above $25,000; and to limit to $4,000 a year the maximum federal help any student can draw. =» Battali' ^alland^ grapn Bennett said the government should target its help on students ;“who might not otherwise get to col- ^ lege at all,” rather than giving some the choice to choose expensive pri vate institutions. Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ No Wax Shine Dale Adams, a freshman aerospace engineer from Houston, applies lacquer to the combat boots of the fish drill team. Lac quer is glossy, and so it’s used instead of shoe wax. The boots are being prepared for an upcoming performance during Mardi Gras. Faculty Senate resolution supports fund-raising efforts By KIRSTEN DIETZ Staff Writer At Monday’s Faculty Senate meet ing, the senate showed support for Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen and President Frank E. Vandiver’s ef forts to secure funding for Texas A&M and heard discussions on a core curriculum report. The senate approved an executive committee resolution encouraging the Board of Regents to support Hansen and Vandiver’s efforts. 7'he resolution said the state legis lature’s proposed budget reductions would severely set hack many pro grams that have achieved or are on the threshold of excellence, and that there is a misconception that “fat” is present in the University’s budget. The Legislative Board Budget (LBB) calls for a 20 percent reduc tion in Texas A&M’s budget. The resolution contends the bud get can not be considered “fat” be cause the University is short more than 900,000 square feet of building space, according to a state formula. Also, the LBB recommends faculty salaries be cut 24 percent, the equiv alent of about 420 faculty members. “A reduction of that staggering size cannot and should not be con ceived of as ‘fat’,” the explanation re ads. The resolution passed after a roll call vote, in which all senate mem bers present approved it, except for one abstention. Sen. Jon Bond asked the results of the vote be sent with the resolution to Vandiver to show the senate’s strong support for the president and the Chancellor. The senate also heard discussion on the academic affairs committee’s interim report on a core curriculum at A&M. The report recommends each stu dent take six hours of speech and writing skills, mathematical/logical reasoning, cultural heritage and so cial science and eight hours of sci ence. This is in addition to the State re quirements of six hours of both American history and political sci ence and the University requirement of four hours of physical education. Also, the report recommends each student take one course in com puter science, unless they have com pleted at least one course prior to entering the University or can dem onstrate proficiency on an examina tion. The report also proposes each student complete two semesters of a foreign language unless they have taken two semesters in high school or can demonstrate proficiency in a second language. The senate was advised to listen to opinions from a wide variety of peo ple in their respective colleges — such as constituents, department heads and faculty — before changes are made in the proposed curric ulum. Committee head Sen. Sam Black said, “I don’t feel the proposal is all things to all people and to do so would be virtually impossible.” In other business, Sen. Ethel Tsutsui, chairman of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Uni versity, read a resolution the com mittee passed stating: “Be it resolved that, the Commit tee on the Status of Women at Texas A&M University strongly urges the acceptance of the Attorney General’s decision not to appeal the ruling of the Federal District Court on the participation of women in previously all-male units on this campus; Be it resolvhd that, the Committee on the Status of Women regrets the statements of opposition to the rul ing and requests that the ruling be accepted as policy.” Tsutsui also said the committee is concerned with eliminating all sexist language in University publications, documents and forms. The report stated that some of the language “implies that women do not exist on campus.” The committee also will send out a questionnaire to faculty members, pending approval of the senate’s ex ecutive committee, concerning per ceptions of the faculty with regard to various sex equity issues at A&M. The senate also approved a reso lution by the academic affairs com mittee to set up guidelines to stan dardize and clarify course descriptions regarding prerequisites. According to the prerequisite sub committee, this will help students know what to expect in the courses and what knowledge the student is assumed to know prior to the course. After March 4, any course de scription not meeting the established guidelines of the resolution would be sent back to the appropriate re porting committee for modification or amendment on the senate floor. The resolution allows for flexibil ity by providing that a course de scription can pass if it can be justi fied as “informative and sensible.” Also, the Faculty Senate approved several course withdrawals and course description changes. Evaluating the professor evaluotions Feedback needs careful treatment Editor’s Note: This is the second article of a two-part series concern ing faculty evaluations. By REBECCA ADAIR Reporter The relationship between profes sors and students is a delicate and complex mixture. And the amount and success of that interaction can depend on many factors. Student evaluations of instructors are an imperfect way of allowing feedback. But the student question naires are only one way to make ac curate faculty evaluations. Teachers are measured in four areas: teaching, research, service and publication. Dr. Glenn Johnson, professor of educational curriculum and instruc tion and the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, says many people do consider one area as most important, but he insists a balance is necessary. Teaching and teachers must be evaluated separately, Johnson says. Any time a student learns, in the classroom or in the office, teaching occurs, he says. In 1983 Johnson participated in a conference on “Quality Teaching in a Technical Society.” Johnson’s pre sentation, “Faculty Evaluation — The Great Debate,” eventually led to a published article. In the article Johnson wrote: “Fa culty are continuously evaluated in some form or other — regardless of how unsophisticated the procedures and techniques may be.” . To. be beneficial, Johnson says evaluation systems should be de signed around the department’s spe cific characteristics and uses for the evaluations. Johnson says faculty evaluators at universities which are strong in re search should remember that an outstanding teacher may not be a great researcher, but may over a pe riod of time build up a good teach ing record. Along the same lines, Johnson says, a great researcher may be just an average teacher. All four evalua- tion areas for a teacher can never be expected to show equal yearly re sults, he says. A&M has no single set of criteria to evaluate faculty, Johnson says. “I have a great fear of some group getting the controls and dictating how the evaluations are to be done,” Johnson says. “This would destroy innovation, creativity and risk-tak ing. You’ve got to stumble and bum ble around a little to do anything worthwhile.” Johnson says he favors a Univer sity-wide evaluation form, but the form must not force comparability. He says student questionnaires should be prepared considering many variables: the type of course, student level, class size, classroom lo cation, facilities, course objectives and the difficulty of subject matter. Dr. William Peters, professor and head of Educational Curriculum and Instruction, says, students and other faculty were displeased with his department’s evaluation form. A committee was formed last year to consider revision, and its proposal has since been adopted. The depart ment now uses two forms, an optio nal evaluation at midterm and a mandatory evaluation at the end of the semester. The first form seeks student feed back on the course itself, allowing See Feedback, page 5