Thursday, November 17,1988
The Battalion
Page 15
United States’ median age heads
up to record high of 39 in 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ma
turing of America will raise the na
tion’s median age to Jack Benny’s
never-changing 39 by the year 2010,
the Census Bureau estimated
Wednesday.
The maturing of the post-World
War II Baby Boom generation is
combining with that group’s rela
tively small production of offspring
to raise the median to its highest
point ever.
The median age — meaning half
of Americans are older and half
younger than that mark -— touched
30 for the first time in 1950, then
slipped back as the Baby Boom low
ered the numbers.
It took until the 1980 census to hit
30 again, edged up to 31.7 as of
1986 and is expected to climb to 33.0
by 1990, 36.5 by 2000 and 39.0 by
2010, the bureau’s projected.
Whether the aging of United
States will halt at that point, as it did
jokingly for the late comedian
College groups
ask to end hype
over admittance
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two
groups representing colleges and
universities on Wednesday called
for an end to the hype over
school ratings based primarily on
how well incoming students score
on entrance exams.
The American Council on Ed
ucation and the College Board
said undue emphasis on such
rankings is causing some college-
bound youths to mistakenly think
they aren’t good enough for uni
versities with high scores and to
overlook fine schools where
scores are lower.
“Test results are only one indi
cator of the quality of incoming
students, and the quality of in
coming students . . . does not nec
essarily say anything useful about
the quality of what goes on in a
college or university,” the two
groups said in an open letter to
schools and education officials.
The organizations reiterated
their recommendation that
schools report incoming students’
test scores in ranges, such as the
highest and lowest scores of the
middle 50 percent of their fresh
man class, rather than giving an
average test result.
“The use of test score data in
isolation, as a measure of quality
with which to compare or rank-
list colleges, is a clear misuse
which should be curbed,” the let
ter said.
College Board President Don
ald M. Stewart said at a news con
ference that the letter was de
signed to diffuse some of the
hype over college guidebooks and
other reports that rank colleges
primarily on how their incoming
students fare on standardized ex
ams.
“Students should be looking at
institutions because they’re excit
ing places and they want to be
there, not because they’re No. 1
on a bloody chart,” Stewart said. “
. . . The whole teaching and
learning processes are being dis
torted.”
Robert H. Atwell, president of
the American Council on Educa
tion, said he was “very concerned
about the guidebook phenome
non.”
He said rankings by test scores
can be misleading since schools
may include different categories
of students in their averages.
For example, some leave out
athletes and other special-admit
tance groups, he said.
“You can move up and down
one of those lists . . . almost whim
sically or accidentally,” Atwell
said.
As colleges compete for dwin
dling numbers of high school
graduates, they place too much
importance on getting a good
ranking and sometimes tout high
scores even while knowing full
well the limitations of such lists,
he added.
Benny, the depends on birth and
death rates in the coming years.
The new projections are based on
the assumptions that current trends
will continue.
At that rate, despite the aging of
the population overall, the so-called
dependency ratio is expected to de
cline.
That ratio is the number of peo
ple under 18 and over 65 compared
with the number of people of work
ing age in between.
The younger and older groups
are said to depend on those working.
The 1986 ratio of 62.2 depen
dents per 100 workers is expected to
slip to 56.7 by the year 2010, with
the low birth rate reducing the num
ber of young dependents to a
greater extent than aging adds to the
older group.
While there have been reports of
increases in the total number of
births in the last few years, that is a
result of the fact that the giant Baby
Boom generation is largely in its
prime child-bearing years. The rate
of births per 1,000 remains well be
low that of the post-World War II
period.
The Census Bureau study also es
timated that the nation’s black pop
ulation will increase to 13.7 percent
by 2010.
Blacks made up 11.8 percent of
the population in the 1980 census.
The projections said the North
east continues as the oldest section of
the country by population, with the
median age for that region increas
ing from 33.6 years in 1986 to 40.3
in 2010.
The South will be second in 2010
at a median age of 38.4, up from
31.4 in 1986.
The Midwest will mature from
31.6 to 38.8 and the West will go
from 31.0 to 37.4, the study pro
jected.
Florida, a retirement haven, will
remain the state with the highest me
dian age and Utah will still be the
youngest state, according to the pro
jections.
Virginia students
trust honor system
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP)
— A 75 percent vote against recal
ling the University of Virginia’s
honor committee chairman, accused
of plagiarism, showed confidence
for the school’s 146-year-old honor
system, a student said Wednesday.
Dan Philpott, who organized a
group called Students for the Pres
ervation of Trust in support of
honor chairman J. Brady Lum, a se
nior from Houston, Texas, said it
was important for Lum to win by a
large margin to show that students
still had faith in the honor system
that cleared Lum of plagiarism
charges.
About 40 percent of the under
graduate student body turned out
for the recall vote. About 25 percent,
or 892 students voted to recall Lum,
while 75 percent, or 2,673 students,
voted to have him keep his position.
Lum was accused of plagiarism
earlier this year by a staff member of
the University Journal, a student
newspaper. The paper refused to
print a letter Lum wrote for its spe
cial summer edition because of pas
sages that closely resembled parts of
a letter written a year earlier by the
previous honor chairman as well as
phrases borrowed from a professor’s
1984 speech.
Lum said that he had read the
speech five months earlier and the
words must have stuck in his head.
He and his supporters argued that
using his predecessor’s letter to the
paper was like using a form letter
and did not constitute plagiarism.
The letter was intended to intro
duce incoming students to the
school’s honor code.
Turn’s conduct was investigated
twice by the honor committee, which
cleared him of any honor violation.
A group of students calling them
selves Students for Honor gathered
close to 900 signatures calling for a
recall election in conjunction with
this week’s student council elections.
“I don’t think anybody likes to see
the honor system splashed across the
front pages of the newspapers,” said
Mark Kehoe, a leader of the recall
movement. “I know I didn’t. But I
thought to save the system from fur
ther damage, Brady should be re
called.”
Residents return, start cleaning
after cotton fire devastates town
ALTUS, Okla. (AP) — As giant mounds of cot
ton smoldered in the distance, residents of a 20-
block-area of Altus moved back in Wednesday to
see what a devastating cotton fire had left of their
homes and businesses.
“Fire came and took everything,” said Jose
Cresencios Briones, whose house and storage
shed were reduced to ashes by the fire that began
in a storage field Tuesday and quickly spread to
houses and businesses on the south side of the
city.
Briones worked at a local cotton processing
lant and also ran a landscaping business. The
laze destroyed the plant and his dozen lawn-
mowers. He .said his property was partially in
sured, but he did not know where he would work
or how he would house his wife and five chil
dren.
“There’s nothing left to do but wait,” he said,
staring blankly at the remains.
Winds gusting to 65 mph carried burning bits
of newly harvested cotton through the city Tues
day afternoon, destroying at least 25 homes and
four businesses. Eighteen people were treated at
Jackson County Memorial Hospital for minor in
juries, and 400 were evacuated from their
homes.
Bob Dantzler, who owns a plant that processes
leftover cotton into usable products, said plastic
tarps that covered the cotton modules stored in
the nearby field sounded like rifie fire as they
snapped in the wind.
“It’s a flammable product,” Dantzler said.
“What we’ve got here is a worst-case scenario.”
Dantzler did not own any of the burned cot
ton. “We had a big wind, a lot of cotton, and it
(the cotton) was extremely dry,” he said.
“I can’t imagine anyone thinking up a scenario
like this, where there would be a fire break out in
a field of cotton modules when the wind is blow
ing 60 miles per hour,” Gov. Henry Bellmon said
after a 30-minute tour of the area Wednesday
morning.
“It sounds like a scene out of a horror movie.”
The fire did not sweep through the low-in
come neighborhood on the south side of Altus, a
town of about 23,000. Instead, the burning
pieces of cotton targeted some homes but not
others.
The flames missed the trailer of Bill Tackett,
but razed that of his neighbor 15 feet away.
“Lucky,” Tackett said. “I’m telling you, I’m
lucky. It could have been worse. Because of the
smoke, the firemen couldn’t get around to all of
the houses.”
Aside from the stiff winds, the thick smoke
made battling the blaze difficult.
“We couldn’t see a hand or foot in front of our
face,” said firefighter Eddie Williamson, who
helped fight the blaze and evacuate residents.
“We had to feel from house to house.”
Police Chief Jim Hughes said the destroyed
cotton was probably worth about $3 million. He
added that about 100 homes were damaged by
smoke, but did not have an estimate of monetary
damages.
City administrator Joe Courtney said several
teams including Civil Defense, the Red Cross and
city workers were going over damages Wednes
day.
“We’ll have to put all those numbers (esti
mates) together and that’ll tell us if we qualify for
federal assistance,” he said. Tuesday night,
Courtney had said the city would seek whatever
help it could find.”
Bellmon said a Civil Defense team would come
to the city later Wednesday for a more thorough
damage inspection.
“If we need more people on it, then we’ll get
DHS (Department of Human Services) or others
involved,” he said.
Courtney said the cause of fire had not been
determined.
City officials said local residents were donating
goods, and, by early afternoon, $4,000 in cash
donations had been collected.
Elephant Walk 1988
Monday, November 21 st at 1 p.m.
Photo Systems Party Pics alonfi the way
.. .and Pictures at Bonfire with the Baby
Elephant fCome early to avoid the rushJI
Bring your Money or your Plastic.
Package A-$8.00 (2 5x7.4 wallets) Party Pics-$2.50 each
Package B-$12.00 f2 8x10.4wallets) Posters-$ 19.95 f!6x24)
Call Now For
an Appointment!
$29 00
ROUTINE
CLEANING,
X-RAYS and
EXAM
(Ftofl. $54 l«M
$25 cmH dltoount)
CarePlusN>fti
Dental Centers
Bryan
Jim Arents, DOS
Karen Arents, DOS
1103 E. Villa Maria
268-1407
College Station
Dan Lawson, DDS
Cassie Overley, DDS
1712 S.W. Parkway
696-9578
Need to increase your organization's
membership in the Spring?
MSC OPEN HOUSE II
MSC Open House II will expose
your organization to thousands
of interested students wanting to
get involved.
Now Is the time to sign your organization up!
Where: 216 MSC - Student Programs Oflflce- 845-1515
When: Register Nov. 7-Dec. 4-$20.00
Late registration: Dec. 5-Dec. 22-$25.00
Who: Any recognized student organization
** If you want to sit in the same secUon with your organizaUon's category
(sports, religious,academic, etc..) you must register by December 15,1988.
D.U
Open House II will be January 21
1989 from 4pm - 8pm.
The Department of History
of
Texas A&M University
invites you to the ninth annual
J. Milton Nance Lecture in Texas History
entitled
Lady Bird Johnson and Beautification
by Lewis L. Gould
Thursday, November 17, 1988, at 8:00 p.m.
Room 701 J. Earl Rudder Conference Center
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Reception following
£*Ic*vnHLij_
Tvzsssms
Coffeehouse
Friday, November 18
8:00 p.m. Rumour's
Featuring
Acoustic guitars, comedians
Cajun stories, and a few added surprises
So, be there
It 'CC be. groovy and hey--it's
The University of
Texas Medical
Branch
The School of Allied Health Sciences at Galveston
Health Careers Symposium - November 17th - 4:30pm
Rudder Tower Room 302
*Physical Therapy
* Medical Technology
*Health Information Management
*Occupational Therapy
*Health Care Administration
^Physician’s Assistant
Come and Learn About the Different Health Professions offered by
UTMB, School of Allied Health Professions. Our programs require 2
years of prerequisites (approximately 65 hours) and two years of study
at the Galveston campus. There are seven hospitals (1,050 in-patient
beds, 89 outpatient clinics) located on the UTMB campus.