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