November 7,1985 Page Two April symposium on women and minorities continues to take shape by Marge Tomczak Collegian Contributing Writer Dr. Diana Hume George, Associate Professor of English and Faculty director of the spring literary symposium spoke excited ly of its keynote speaker. “Maya Angelou is a nationally known writer and lecturer who can set a room of listeners on metaphorical fire.” George has every reason to be excited about the 1986 conference which will be held April 19 and 20, at Behrend. She said, “When the Roundtable Society members were planning the 1984 con ference, they- were looking for ward to future symposia and their topics. Various ideas were kicked around, one of them being issues on women and blacks. “This somewhat unfinished business was presented to the cur rent members of the Roundtable zibo continued from page 1 tionship between the two cities we can get more cooperation and ex change between the colleges and the universities of the two cities,” he said. “With the support of both mayors I think the coopera tion later on between the colleges of the two cities will prosper. Mr. Mayor Wang Tao and I are in terested in this college,” he continued. After that closing remark he presented Lilley with the tradi tional gift of a ceramic plate. After breakfast the delegates, facing a tight schedule, toured on ly the Hammermill/Zurn Building. However, the Chinese were very impressed by what they saw. They were also surprised to see that colleges would have com puters that students could use because they do not have such things in their own factories. Before the breakfast Lilley ex plained the Chinese’s interest in education and what it would mean for Behrend. “Because of the vast changes in China right now... they are very interested in education. And any knowledge of American Institutions is very valuable to them,” Lilley said. He remarked Don’t look now Puzzle page 9 Society and they decided to run with it. I hope that the subject of the conference is controversial enough to wake up some sleepers around here,” George said. “It is ironic, I have had in terests in womens’ rights for most of my adult life. In the past I have taught classes in composition, research and grammar. The topic of this symposium allows me to be able to use my own ideas in not only teaching and research, but personal agenda. I hope the sym posium will provide an awareness at a time of apathy.” Coincidentally George is cur rently teaching a women writers course and she said, “I have sens ed that to a lot of people this old news is either dead or solved, and it is really alive and unsolved. There has been a quiet resurgence of interest in issues that concern continued on page 3 that in the years to come there might be a few students from Zibo attending Penn State but stressed the short term benefits of building up good relationship with China. Mayor Louis Tullio described what the short term benefits would be. The sister city agree ment is “an exchange of cultural, educational, manufacturing, and industry information. What we are trying to do is build up a friendship and trade because we have about thirty companies that do business with China and on the export they get billions of dollars,” Tullio said. One of these companies is AMSCO; the American Sterilizer Co. Chairman Henry Fish, who went to China with Governor Dick Thornburg in 1980 and with Erie’s delegation this past spring, outlined his companies interest in Zibo. “What we’re focusing on of course is the technology part of it and they are very interested in learning the kinds of things that we have to teach them about designing and manufacturing hospital equipment, which we would expect they would build over there and use in their hospitals,” Fish said. “Once they get up the speed on the quality and units they manufacture and they seek inter national markets which they very well might in under-developed countries, then we could probably also be of help to them -in distributing or marketing those outside of the People’s Republic into under-developed areas,” he continued. Today the Chinese are building sterilizers like those produced by AMSCO from 1965 to 1979. LIAS can he utilized far students ease LIAS, the Library Information Access System, is an on-line, elec tronic catalog that replaces the traditional card catalogs that have served Penn State for over a hun dred years. A LIAS terminal pro vides access to the collections in Pattee, all branch libraries at University Park, and libraries of the Commonwealth Education System, Behrend College, and King of Prussia Graduate Center. LIAS terminals are located in the Behrend Library. LIAS contains information about most of the materials in the Libraries. Although some types of materials are not yet accessible through LIAS (most maps and government documents, for ex ample), it is growing every day with the addition of new informa tion. Eventually, LIAS will be the most comprehensive single catalog the Libraries have ever Faculty-Senate may “up-grade” revised undergrad grading scale by Mark Wuerthele Collegian Staff Writer A revised undergraduate grading system that will be put into effect in Fall 1987 may have futher changes. A motion will be voted on at the University Facul ty Senate meeting on Nov. 12 to implement an A plus, C-, D plus and D-. This will produce quite a change from that of the five possibilities in the cur rent grading scale. A total of 13 grades could be obtained. If the above mentioned changes are not passed, the partial plus-minus scale will still be implemented University wide. Dr. Roland Larson, mathematics professor at Behrend feels that a possible distribu tion of grades could be as follows: 93-100....... A 90-92 A -87-89 B plus 83-86 B 80-82 .B -77-79 C plus 70-76 C 60-69 C -0-59 F It will be left up to instructors for other percentage breakdowns. Fish remarked on Zibo’s technology advancement by say ing, “Right now we are five to ten years ahead of them in technology. We would expect that we will come out, probably in the next several years, with another advancement, and then eventually they will probably go into something like that.” “So I would say within ten had. It will contain records for books, journals, theses and disser tations, music, rare books, microforms, government publica tions and maps, from the oldest to the newest. What does LIAS do for you? It is more than just a catalog because it has many features not in card catalogs. For example, the system tells you not only whether the library has a particular title, but also where the book is located and if it is available for you to use. LIAS also makes it possible to browse the Libraries’ holdings without going to the shelves. LIAS is a “user friend ly,’’interactive system. Just by us ing the system, you will learn how it works. To find records in LIAS, you do not need to specify whether you are looking for a ti tle, author, or subject. Since LIAS displays multiple listings, If the addition is accepted, it is not yet known whether the four point system will change. Doug Gerow, President of the Student Government Association believes. that the four point system should not be changed. “Most corporations hire on a four point system. If Penn State were to change to a 4.33, it would cause confusion amongst employers.” Larson, on the other hand, feels that a 4.33 would have to be implemented to accomodate for the A plus. Larson believes that overall GPA’s will drop slightly due to the change. “It will make it tougher on the good students and help those that are average students,” Larson said. He feels that the average student will try a little harder to get a B plus or C plus rather than just a B or C. Larson also feels that it may hurt the good students because in many cases the average A student is actually an A- student. This scale will reveal the difference between the two by a decrease of .33 in grade points. Overall it is not yet known whether the new grading scale will be an advantage or disadvantage. The Faculty Senate Committee thinks that it will be an incentive for students to work harder and improve their academic performance. Many students are for the change yet others feel that the current system is adequate. In retrospect, the partial plus-minus system will begin in Fall 1987. The effects on students will be left unanswered until then. years if they do what they really want to do and can afford it and everything keeps together they will probably be very close to us,” Fish concluded. In the midst of China’s great change they are seeking Western ideas and technology. Visits like these between sister cities'will play an important role in future Chinese-U.S. relations. news you will see more things at one time than you can by flipping card by card through a catalog drawer, and it is easier to select an item. The on-line catalog is com plemented by its own back-up system-computer output microfiche (COM). The COM catalog in combination with the card catalog, provides an alter nate form of bibliographic access. For more information about LIAS, consult the pocket guide available at all terminals. It lists the basic commands and tells you how to use the system. Remember, as with any com puterized system, LIAS is con stantly improving and changing. The Library staff is always ready to help you. So please, come in and ask, “What’s new?” Taken from Penn State Libraries: A Users Guide Lilley emphasized the impor tance of these brief encounters. “One enters into these activities really not knowing what the long term benefit is. The short term benefit is that we build up good relationships between these coun tries. But long term it’s hard to know, so you make short term in vestments hoping for long term returns.”
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