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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1988)
Tuesday, March 8, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3 •.‘vikUjk- .«.rU< 4 A: State and Local Senates propose standard form (j for evaluation of faculty, courses By Deborah L. West Staff Writer For the past three years, the Stu- ent and Faculty senates have been orking on developing standard fac- Ity evaluation forms. Their efforts linally have borne some fruit in the form of a questionnaire that has en proposed by a joint Student t nd Faculty Senate committee. Student Senate Speaker Jay Hays id the 17-question faculty evalua- on would help students better hoose professors. Five general questions written by Itudents would be on the Universi- wide survey. The course-instructor evaluation iommittee, chaired by Dr. Manuel avenport, a professor of philoso- hy and humanities, and Tom lack, a student senator and an in- ustrial-engineering major, is cre- ting a standardized form that _/ould allow various groups to select questions from a catalog. I “The menu approach would allow Bollege deans, department heads, faculty members and students to pick from several hundred ques tions,” Davenport said. Black said the Student Senate wants the results published. Stan dardized results available in the re serve room at the Sterling C. Evans Library would take some of the risk out of registering for classes, he said. “We hope the five questions will be broad enough to help students compare and choose professors,” he said. “We have tried to ask questions students can evaluate — ‘Are tests graded fairly?’ ‘Is information clearly presented?’ ‘Would you take the professor again?’ ” But he said fears among some of the professors that the evaluations will bring about a faculty popularity contest have no basis in fact. “We have quality faculty members who won’t change their style of tea ching to get good student reviews,” he said. “These fears are ground less.” Black said the biggest problem facing the Student Senate is getting the money to pay for publishing the results. The Academic Program Committee (APC), the council of deans, will pay for part of the statisti cal analysis, but it won’t pay to pub lish the results. “The Student Senate is responsi ble for publishing costs because the dissemination of this information is a student service,” he said. “There are a lot of hidden costs in pub lishing the results. New computers and employees are expensive.” Davenport said each department is standardizing faculty evaluations, but they all are using different forms. “Our goal is to create a uniform but flexible evaluation form,” he said. In April or May, a proposal will be presented to the faculty and student senate. If approved, a report with recommendations will go to the APC, he said. “If evaluations are in the library by May 1989, I will be happy,” Da venport said. “We have been work ing on this project for about three years.” Business Student Council Adviser R. Lynn Zimmermann said the council was one group that pushed for the dissemination of student as sessments of the business faculty. “Our efforts were successful and now a book of last semester’s evalua tions is in the library for student re view,” he said. Dr. Samuel Gillespie, assistant dean of the college of business ad ministration, said the business school is the first to have its evaluations in the library.. Gillespie said most of the faculty do not mind having the results made public. “Out of about 150 faculty mem bers, only eight or nine asked us to not make their evaluations public,” he said. “We did not put their eval uations in the library.” Personal comments are not pub lished in the evaluations, he said, al though written comments are eval uated by department heads and faculty. ^Companies dump toxic compounds into Dallas sewers ictict: DALLAS (AP) — Dangerous mounts of toxic metals, solvents nd other compounds were dumped to the city sewer system last year by 8 companies identified as major Sluters, utility records show. Dallas Water Utilities identified e companies as polluters and said ebusinesses include book printers, J'aste haulers and shampoo makers, hey range from small companies to rge, high-tech industries, jhddl Metals, suspected carcinogens, ac- i and organic compounds that [onsume free-floating oxygen in wa- r were discharged into sanitary wers that flow to the city’s two aste water treatment plants along e Trinity river, the records indi- |ate. “All of these things pose a human health danger, as well as a hazard to the fish and wildlife that inhabit the river or depend on it,” said Ken Kramer of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. The club has lobbied for more ag gressive regulation of toxins in pub- fic water. There is no way to determine ex act health risks, Kramer said. Effects of most of the chemicals might not be evident for several years. Dumping of excessive industrial pollutants into the sewers thwarts the city’s efforts to improve sewage treatment, Randy Goss, deputy di rector of Dallas Water Utilities, said. “If there’s an excess, the plant can’t treat it and it goes right on out into the environment,” Goss told the Dallas Morning News. Authorities require companies producing waste matter that in cludes toxic chemicals to treat and dilute those chemicals before send ing them to municipal sewage treat ment plants. Any violations are punishable by fines of up to $2,000 a day. The city collected nearly $95,000 in fines last year from among the 252 industries regulated under the program. Identified as significant polluters were companies where violations of treatment standards were found in more than 20 percent of the city’s in spections. Officials of all 18 companies in volved told the Morning News they were cleaning up their operations. “I want my kids and grandkids to be able to fish in the Trinity,” said Richard D. “Doug” Crownover, president of Identification Plates Inc. of the Oak Cliff neighborhood. “I have an interest in following the regulations.” Utility records show the company had excessive discharges of metals on nine of 34 days when inspectors checked. An environmental consultant has been hired and production proce dures tightened, he said. With 63 days of violations, Na tional Waste Disposal Inc., a grease- trap cleaning and waste-hauling company, topped the city’s list of major polluters. Chemicals found in cluded arsenic, barium, copper, cy anide, zinc, ethyl benzene and va rious solvents, records said. ‘Black’ budget brings billions to D-FW area DALLAS (AP) — Projects in the Pentagon’s so-called “black’ budget, which includes billions of dollars worth of defense contracts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, have disappeared from public view, officials said. Area projects veiled from pub lic scrutiny include a bomber that will use radar-evading “stealth” technology, new military attack planes with advanced electronics and an array of electronic devices used in spying. Some of the area contractors’ projects are so sensitive that they are above even “top secret” classi fication, the Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. The Pentagon restricts the number of people with access to such projects and blacks out their costs in the defense budget, earn ing them designation as “black” or “special access.” Such programs remain mostly hidden from the scrutiny of tax payers and members of Gongress, officials said. The Defense Department cites national security reasons in de clining to reveal the exact num ber and dollar value of black pro grams. Military analysts and budget watchers estimate, however, that between $24 billion and $35 bil lion of the $299.5 billion re quested by the Defense Depart ment for fiscal 1989 are for hidden projects. The Pentagon doesn’t confirm the existence of the blackest pro grams, which never make it into the budget. Defense Department officials say they don’t know exactly how much black work is performed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Michael D. Davis, a defense analyst at Lovett, Mitchell, Webb & Garrison Inc. in Houston, says that “every defense contractor has at least some classified work.” “The question is how much,” he said Texas took in $8.65 billion in total defense contracts in fiscal 1987, fourth in the Defense De partment’s contract rankings by state — behind New York, Cali fornia and Massachusetts. Most analysts agreed that the state’s ranking in black programs probably would correspond to its standing in total defense con tracts. Defense contractors refuse to talk about black programs, saying they must keep a low profile. The programs are so secret that people who work on them can’t talk about their jobs at all outside their offices. “We don’t discuss that we have special access programs,” said Paul E. Hyatt, group security manager for Texas Instruments Inc.’s Defense Systems and Elec tronics Group. General Dynamics’ Fort Worth Division and McDonnell Douglas Corp. are developing prototypes of the U.S. Navy’s top-secret ad vanced tactical aircraft, or AT A. The combat fighter reportedly will use “stealth” technology that makes it difficult to spot on radar screens. The General Dynamics divi sion, Lockheed Corp. and Boeing Military Airplane Co. have joined to compete for the Air Force’s ad vanced tactical fighter, or ATT, an unclassified program that is partially black. The companies and the com peting team of Northrop Corp. and McDonnell Douglas have won $691 million in contracts for the early phases of the project. WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM We are a group of faculty who are united by their (common experience that Jesus Christ provides intellectually and spirtually satisfying answers to life’s most important questions. We are available to students and faculty who mighflike to discuss such questions with us. We are FACULTY FRIENDS. Richard M. Alexander Mechanical Engineering Richard K. Anderson Economics George Bates Biochemistry Michael Baye Economics Sue Beall Health & Rhys. Ed. James R. Boone Mathematics Chris Borman Education Jon Botsford Engineering Technology Walter L. Bradley Mechanical Engineering Maynard Bratlien Educational Administration James Brooks Oceanography Scott Brown Veterinary Physiology Camille Bunting Health & Rhys. Ed. Jon Burke Economics John Burnett Marketing Jack Campbell Educational Curriculum Andy Chan Electrical Engineering Siu Chin Physics Mark Christensen Biology David Church Physics Larry Claborn Veterinary Physiology Dan Colunga Computer Science Jerome Congleton Industrial Engineering L. Roy Cornwell Mechanical Engineering Harry Coyle Civil Engineering James W. Craig, Jr. Architecture Stephen Crouse Health & Phys. Ed. Joyce S. Davis Pathology & Lab. Med. Michael Davis Medical Physiology R. R. Davison Chemical Engineering Maurice Dennis Safety Education Kenneth R. Dirks Medical Pathology Linus J. Dowell Health & Phys. Ed. John A. Epling Construction Science David A. Erlandson Educational Admin. Louis Everett Mechanical Engineering Roger Fay Oceanography Dana Forgione Accounting Carl Gabbard Health & Phys. Ed. E. Dean Gage Veterinary Medicine Sue Geller Clarence Hough Denise Magnuson Mathematics Mechanical Engineering Biochemistry Emma Gibbons John W. Huff Stephen McDaniel Health & Phys. Ed. Veterinary Microbiology Marketing Bob Gillette Economics T. Rick Irvin Veterinary Anatomy John A. McIntyre Physics Lynn Gillette Glenn A. Miller Economics Mike E. James, Jr. Civil Engineering Health & Phys. Ed. Ramon E. Goforth Jeff Miller Mechanical Engineering Robert K. James Educational Curriculum Accounting Harold Goodwin Stephen M. Morgan Agricultural Economics David Jansson Computer Science Wayne Greene Animal Science Mechanical Engineering Phillips. Noe Electrical Engineering Randall Jean Michael Greenwald Electrical Engineering Dennis L. O’Neal Speech Comm. & Th. Arts Walter F. Juliff Mechanical Engineering James Griffin Veterinary Cont. Ed. John Painter Economics Electrical Engineering Richard Griffin Mechanical Engineering Jimmy T. Keeton Animal Science A.D. Patton Electrical Engineering Tim Gronberg Peggy Kopec Robert H. Pender Economics Health & Phys. Ed. Health & Phys. Ed. Robert Gustafson Merwyn Kothmann Kenneth R. Pierce Mathematics Range Science Veterinary Pathology Paul Harms Alvin Larke, Jr. Agriculture Ed. Leonard Ponder Animal Science Health & Phys. Ed. Patricia Harris English Language Institute Terry Larsen Environmental Design Alvin A. Price Veterinary Medicine Roy Hartman Engineering Technology Warren M. Heffington Ray Laster Mechanical Engineering Robin Redfield Mechanical Engineering Debra K. Reed Mechanical Engineering Dallas N. Little Finance Otto Helweg Civil Engineering W. Robert Reed Agricultural Engineering Mac Lively Economics Don R. Herring Computer Science David Rhode Agriculture Ed. Mechanical Engineering Richard T. Hise Lee Lowery Civil Engineering Hayes E. Ross, Jr. Marketing Civil Engineering Louis Hodges Recreation and Parks Jack H. Lunsford Chemistry Fred Ruppel Agricultural Economics Harry Hogan Theodore S. Maffitt Don Russell Mechanical Engineering Architecture Electrical Engineering Wayne Sampson Human Anatomy Don Saylak Civil Engineering Richard A. Schapery Civil Engineering Roger Schultz Speech Comm. & Th. Arts Peter Sharpe Industrial Engineering D. Dwayne Simpson Psychology Darrel I. Smith Educational Psych. Jerome H. Smith Medical Pathology L. Murphy Smith Accounting Terry Spencer Geophysics Donald A. Sweeney Urban & Regional Planning Wei Kang Tsai Electrical Engineering Dan Turner Mechanical Engineering Steven Turnipseed Architecture Karan Watson Electrical Engineering Carson E. Watt Recreation & Parks Steven N. Wiggins Economics James Wild Biochemistry James E. Womack Veterinary Pathology Ralph Wurbs Civil Engineering Wayne Wylie Health and Phys. Ed.