Acanfora kicked upstairs;
to study credentials challenge
By RICH GRANT
Collegian Senior Editor
University graduate Joseph Acan
fora’s fight to teach in the public schools
did not end when Pennsylvania granted
him teaching certification Friday.
Tuesday, Acanfora was informed that
he had been reassigned from his junior
high school earth science teaching in the
Montgomery County, Md., school
district to “a temporary alternative
work assignment” with the department
of curriculum and instruction.
The letter from the deputy superin
tendent of schools stated the reassign
ment “is in no way to be considered a
punitive action."
According to the letter, the transfer
would be effected until the school board
could investigate the “challenge
regarding (Acanfora’s) teaching
credentials in the state of Pennsylvania.
Acanfora, an acknowledged
homosexual, had his teaching cer
tification held up by the question of his
“moral character.”
The problem arose when Acanfora
was named as a plaintiff in a suit against
the University filed by Homophiles of
Penn State in February. Removed from
his student teaching post at Park Forest
Junior High in State College, Acanfora
was reinstated by a court order.
. In spring and summer, a panel of six
deans and later the state secretary of
education judged whether he possessed
enough “good moral character” to be
certified as a public school teacher.
When State Education Secretary John
C. Pittenger approved his credentials,
Acanfora told his supervising principal
his background Friday.
“We (the school board) became aware
of the situation reported in the news
media this weekend,” Kenneth Muir,
school board director of the department
of information, told The Daily Collegian.
Articles on the Pennsylvania decision
appeared in the Washington Star and the
Sunday New York Times.
The decision to transfer Acanfora was
Colleges
State colleges and universities stand to
lose up to $3OO million in annual tuition
since the- passage of the 26th Amend
ment lowering the voting age to 18.
The new law extends voting rights to
approximately four million college
students and allows out-of-state students
to declare residency in their college
towns. If this happens, nonresident
tuition charges would be inapplicable for
the majority of out-of-state students.
This is the finding of a survey of nearly
400 public four-year colleges and
universities holding membership in the
National Association of State Univer
sities and Land-Grant Colleges and the
American Association of State Colleges
and Universities.
The study, conducted by Robert F.
Carbone, dean of the School of Education
at the University of Maryland, also
yielded information on the accessibility
of the ballot box to students, the extent of
student voter registration in college
towns and legal actions testing whether
the right to vote in a state confers
residency for other purposes, especially
classification as a resident student at a
Collegian
the
daily
made at a school board meeting Mon
day. Muir said the board’s personnel
department was investigating the
situation, though he did not know whom
they had spoken to.
Muir admitted the board had received
“a few letters and a couple of phone calls
that referred to the articles.” He
stressed, “Our action and decision was
taken prior to receiving those phone
calls.”
In a telephone interview, Acanfora
said he was being aided by National
Educational Association lawyers
working with the local teachers union.
“NEA lawyers sent a letter to the
deputy superintendent asking for my
immediate return,” Acanfora said. He
added if a reply was not sent back soon,
legal action might be necessary.
Calling the school board’s action
“unnecessary,” Acanfora said, “The
state of Pennsylvania just finished three
months of intensive investigation into
the matter. It’s an ill-advised action on
their part.”
According to Rick Isaacson, one of
Acanfora’s lawyers in Pennsylvania who
advised him to seek local legal help, the
upcoming school board election might
USG needs aid
The Undergraduate Student
Government requests the testimony
of all students who have been denied
voting rights by the Board of
Elections for not meeting its
residency requirements. USG will
give its support to the suit filed
against the board by the American
Civil Liberties Union scheduled for
trial on Monday in Scra'nton.
Transportation will be provided
by USG, and cars are to leave at 9
a.m. Monday from-the front of the
HUB and return that night. In
terested persons may contact the
USG office in 218 HUB.
to lose money if
state college or university.
“If adult status and voting rights for
college-age citizens, eliminate
nonresident tuition charges in public
colleges and universities, the effect on
higher education budgets will be
staggering,” Carbone said. However, he
warned against a policy that would raise
fees for all students to recover lost in
come as detrimental to the “low tuition
principle” upon which public higher
education in America has been built.
About 463-357 nonresident..students
were enrolled in the institutions sur
veyed during the fall term of 1971. The
total potential income from the tuition
differential paid by these students was
$329,090,406. This figure was deflated to
take into account part time students,
scholarship and grant holders, teaching
and research assistants and other
nonresident students who for a variety of
reasons may not pay the full differential.
Survey answers indicated that the
actual income for most institutions from
nonresident fees would be somewhere in
the range of 75 to 90 per cent of the total
potential income figure. This brought
Hard hat area
.POLLOCK ROAD, also fondly known as Pothole Alley, has
finally begun to get a new surface. Paving began yesterday,
with the section between Old Main and Bigler closed to
traffic. Work will be completed tomorrow when the in
tersections are scheduled for paving.
present a problem
Regarding the board’s decision,
Isaacson said, “I think they simply gut
reacted. The community is a con
servative one.”
Isaacson said he believed Acanfora
might settle for having his ability judged
by a review board on a monthly basis to
avoid a court case.
“Every day he’s out of contact with
students, it’s going to hurt him,”
Isaacson said.
After four weeks of teaching earth
science, Acanfora is now involved in
planning the future curriculum of the
Montgomery county schools.
Teachers end strike, prepare for classes
PHILADELPHIA (AP) After 17
days, striking teachers laid aside their
picket signs yesterday and prepared to
return to classrooms, at least until the
end of the year.
They hailed the back-to-work move
ending the longest walkout in their
history in which their slogan was,
“Teachers in Defense of Dignity.”
“People have to start looking at us like
we’re human beings,” said Bernard
Kimmins, one of the 13,000 teachers
going back under the old contract while
negotiators continue to wrestle with
terms of a new one in which the chief
issues in dispute are more money,
smaller classes, and a longer work day
in high schools.
For most of the 285,000 kids, bored in
idleness, the agreement was welcome
news for the end of a summer vacation
that lasted three weeks longer than
expected. They report on Friday mor
ning, a day after teachers go back.
The agreement was hammered out in
the office of Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, who
had appealed to the teachers to sacrifice
demands to reopen the schools.
William Jones, public information
the total actual income within the $250 to
$3OO million range.
The total potential income for
NASULGC insitutions in 1971-72 was
$237,981,732, with 297,757 nonresident
students enrolled. The potential income
for AASCU institutions was $91,108,674,
with 165,600 nonresident students
enrolled.
According to survey respondents,
students now are being allowed to
register to vote in their college com
munities in virtually every state,
assuming they meet other qualifications
and, in some states, if they also declare
intent to remain in the state.
However, estimates provided by
campus officials indicated that
registration in spring 1972 was still light.
Only 23 institutions said 70 per cent or
more of their students were registered to
vote. The highest estimate reported was
78.8 per cent at Bowling Green State
University (Ohio), based on a “random
sample poll” conducted by the student
newspaper.
In 135 other institutions, ad
ministrators estimated that from 30 to 70
Photo by Rick Davis
board
Tax rise anticipated
WASHINGTON (AP) - Either
Richard Nixon or George McGovern, as
president during the next few years,
would have to accept sizable tax in
creases or slash planned spending to
avoid big deficits, a private economic
group has concluded.
This would be true even if the economy
recovered to the full employment level
by 1974, according to the study com
missioned by the privately financed
American Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research.
The report is sharply critical also of
the sharing of federal revenues with
states and cities. Congress is on the point
of finally enacting a $3O-billion, five-year
revenue sharing program.
The report says “The federal
government may be in the process of
beggaring itself to relieve many state
and local governments from having to
finance outlays that may never be
needed.”
Projecting through 1978 the budget
effects of programs espoused by both
presidential candidates, the study ob
serves :
“The picture that emerges is a rather
grim one for the Nixon administration . .
“This outlook also presents Sen.
McGovern with a bleak starting point for
his budget decisions.”
The economists who made the study,
headed by David J. Ott of Clark
Interim bookstore plan questioned
Businesses not satisfied
By KEN CHESTER
Collegian Senior Reporter
The passage of the interim bookstore
plans has apparently not allayed the
fears of the business community, but
rather has brought warnings by local
merchants that the business is likely to
be a financial burden on the University.
News analysis
The plan to put textbook sales in
McAllister and school supplies in the
HUB has been termed a “compromise”
by at least one merchant, but their
apprehensions that the University store
will go into retail business are still very
much alive.
S. Benjamin Swanson, manager of
Keeler’s Book Store, said “1 still believe
they can’t make money in textbooks.”
He explained textbook sales are made at
a loss, so other items are sold at high
profit to make up the deficit.
This fact leads him to distrust the
policy statement passed by the Board of
Trustees stating a retail outlet is against
director for the school board, said the
teachers, if they ratified the agreement,
would not get a raise in pay until the new
contract is finally worked out. They
would return to work at the same pay
scale as last year.
The teachers, whose salaries range
from $8,900 to $17,000, originally had
asked for a 34 per cent wage boost. The
board, $52 million in debt, had offered a
nominal $3OO increase only to teachers at
top scale.
“In effect,” said Jones, “the school
board gave in on its demands for a
longer work day and the size of classes,
while the union gave in on its salary
demands and its right to strike after six
weeks. Now they can’t strike until Dec.
31.”
The issue that had prevented an
earlier agreement to go back to work
under last year's terms was stalled by
the so-called “lead teachers” issue.
The union had wanted to retain the $2
million package under which lead
teachers are paid $5OO more for spending
40 per cent of their time instructing other
teachers, but the school board which
is $52 million in debt said it no longer
students
per cent of the students were registered.
In the largest cluster of institutions
182 colleges and universities it was
thought that fewer then 30 per cent of the
students had officially been listed as
voters.
Carbone made clear, however, that
the figures were only rough estimates
and would not take into account voter
registration activities conducted during
the summer or scheduled for the fall.
The central question for colleges and
universities is whether or not
nonresident students will use their new
status as registered voters in a state as a
basis for seeking reclassification as
resident students. About half of the in
stitutions responding to the survey
reported that they had at least had
“office inquiries” related to
reclassification, but all were not based
solely on status as voters.
Although respondents noted that in
general these requests have been
denied, reports of legislative and legal
actions indicate that the question will
finally be determined in the courtroom.
The general reason cited for denying
Thursday, September 28, 1972
University Park Pennsylvania Vol. 73, No. 36 8 pages
Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University
University, say the tiscai cruncn would
continue through 1977. They add:
“To balance McGovern’s spending
plans with revenues would require tax
increases, including those the candidate
himself has proposed, ranging from 24 to
37 per cent higher than the projected
revenues the existing system would have
produced.
“To balance the Nixon budget in 1975-
77 would require tax increases on the
order of 2 to 7 per cent of such revenues;
thereafter tax cuts would be possible.”
For Nixon to achieve his aim of a
budget balanced under full employment
conditions and at the same time fund
existing programs and new ones he has
proposed would require $2l bullion more
taxes in 1975, $l3 billion in 1976 and $6
billion in 1977, the report says.
Raising such sums through the income
tax would require hikes of 11 per cent in
1975, 6 per cent in 1976 and 3 per cent in
1977, it figures.
McGovern already has proposed
reforms that he says would raise taxes
an estimated $22 billion in 1975 by closing
what he calls loopholes.
The economists express doubt that the
yield would be that large, but accept the
figure as a basis of their projection.
Even with this increased yield, the
report says, projections of the
McGovern proposals show deficits of $2O
billion in 1975, $ll billion in 1976, $3
billion in 1977 and surpluses thereafter.
the expressed wishes of the students,
faculty and administration.
“These assurances aren’t enough at
this point,” Swanson said. Once money
was lost in textbooks, he said the
University might go into other sales
later to make up the loss.
“We’re looking for specific assurances
the University won’t go into retail
business,” he said, adding, “The policy
statement is not restrictive enough.”
Jerry Gruhn, manager of the Student
Book Store, agreed the University Book
Store will be a losing effort. He cited the
example of the bookstore at Brown
University, where private bookstores
compete with the University. “That
store has been a financial detriment to
the university,” be said, “and the one
here will be worse.”
His apprehensions about the
possibility of another retail store have
not vanished. “Until we know what they
have in mind, it is hard to make a
statement,” Gruhn said.
The interim store, termed a com
promise by Swanson has not yet reduced
opposition to the plan for a new facility
applied. The board also contended it was
not in the budget for this year and the
board could not agree to anything that
would increase the budget.
Jones said the two sides will negotiate
the issue along with the other con
tractual items.
The negotiators emerged from the
meeting in Rizzo’s office and announced
the “memorandum of understanding,”
which they said would enable the
teachers to return to work under terms
of the old contract.
John Ryan, the union’s chief
negotiator, said he would urge the
teachers to ratify the agreement.
The memorandum will remain in
effect until Dec. 31 while talks go on. The
negotiators are to make progress
reports to Jamieson every 10 days, Ryan
said.
Should no agreement be made by
then, however, the teachers could walk
out again, he added.
Jamieson, who became involved when
two suits were filed on behalf of the
city’s pupils to get schools back in
session, said he performed “no special
vote locally
requests for reclassification has been
that university criteria for establishing
residency are not based on being a
registered voter in the state. However,
several universities are in a vulnerable
position in this regard because, in the
past, being a registered voter in the state
has been one of the conditions for ear
ning resident status. These institutions
hope to win court decisions that will
allow them to use other criteria for out
of-state tuition classification.
A new California state law mandated
March 4, 1972 as the date when
Californians 18 years of age or older
were to be considered as adults for
virtually all purposes. This has been
interpreted to mean that, as of that date,
18-year-old students could commence
the durational residence requirement
(one year) in order to establish legal
residence for tuition purposes at state
colleges and universities. Completion of
the one-year requirement, plus evidence
of intent to remain in the state, will
enable students to achieve
reclassification as residents.
The one-year durational requirement
To cover the deficits through tax in
creases, it says, surtaxes of 8 per cent in
1975, 4 per cent in 1976 and 1 per cent in
1977 would be needed in addition to the
present McGovern proposals.
Of the sharing of federal revenues with
the states and local governments,
supported by both candidates, the report
says:
“The federal government is ap
parently in the process of impoverishing
itself while putting the states and local
governments as a group in a position of
relative affluence.”
Beginning in early 1971, the report
says, the state and local government
sector has been running increasing
surpluses, now at the annual rate of
about $l5 billion.
It adds there has been a “marked
lessening of the fiscal strain this sector
has experienced over the past decade or
so,” even though individual units still
may be in trouble.
On the spending side, the projections
show McGovern’s programs costing
$84.5 billion more than Nixon's by 1975,
$107.7 billion more by 1978. The report
notes these increases would not
necessarily be inflationary if they
were covered by taxes.
It says McGovern overestimated by $9
billion the savings his proposed defense
cuts could make by 1975. The report puts
the reduction at $2l billion instead of $3O
bjllion.
to be considered in a few years pending
review of data collected by the interim
store. Gruhn and Swanson both said
they will oppose plans for a new store at
any given time in the future
“I can’t see where the student is going
to benefit by a new facility,” Swanson
said. He noted the Administration has
admitted there will be no discount in
prices.
“We have had very few complaints
about our service,” Swanson continued.
The most common gripe he said, was in
the used book re-purchase, but “I don’t
know what the new store will provide.”
Nevertheless, he said, “If an operation
was put up with restrictions, it could be
compatible with the businessmen in the
area.”
Swanson expected the State College
Area Chamber of Commerce will con
tinue to work on the problem. Charles L.
Mong, executive director of the
chamber, would not comment for the
group until after its meeting today. A
statement is expected concerning their
official position on the question.
magic" to get the tentative agreement.
"I just put them in a room and told
them they would not leave until an
agreement was reached," he said.
The teachers walked out the day after
Labor Day.
The main issues were working con
ditions. The board demanded an in
crease in the high school day from five
hours to five hours, 40 minutes.
It also wanted to assign teachers by
actual attendance rather than class
enrollment, a move that would phase out
some 485 teaching positions.
The union balked at both.
Ryan said the agreement provides for
a two-week period in which the board
will restore its old teachers’ rosters.
“During the two-week period,” the
memorandum said, “the teachers will
not be required to work a longer school
day, nor after October 4 will they be
required to perform non-teaching duties.
Approximately 187 nonteaching
assistant positions which were
eliminated in August 1972 will be filled
immediately.”
Ryan said, however, these issues will
be subject to further bargaining.
for earning residency for tuition pur
poses in Minnesota was upheld in a U.S.
Supreme Court decision. However, laws
that create irrebuttable presumption of
nonresidence, preventing nonresident
students from being reclassified while in
continuous attendance at a state in
stitution, will apparently be abolished.
Carbone concluded that state colleges
and universities should begin searching
for realistic alternatives to nonresident
tuition while there is still time.
“If nonresident tuition is declared
illegal, it is likely that the institutional
response will be to increase the fees of
all students to cover lost income,” he
stated. “Clearly, this expediency would
strike a telling blow to the ‘low tuition
principle’ upon which public higher
education in America has been built.”
Weather
Today will be mild with occasional
sunshine this afternoon, high 67. Rain
tonight, low 61. Humid and warmer on
Friday with occasional rain, high 76.