; Far from the maddino crowd The senior grad section of Beaver Stadium swells with fans one-and-a-half ** hours before the kickoff at last Saturday’s West Virginia game as an unidenti fied man sits alone in reserved seats. the l^ daily Pa. pays despite federal curtailment Medicaid abortions funded on doctors' okay HARRISBURG (AP) Pennsylvania officials have tightened regulations for government financed abortions, but tax payers will continue to fund the operation for many welfare women:- - ■ Pennsylvania is one of approximately 20 states still paying for Medicaid abor tions, even though federal money for the operations was cut off pending the out come of a congressional debate on the issue. 'lnto each life... Partly sunny and mild today but becoming mostly, cloudy late this af ternoon and this evening, high 65. Cloudy with occasional rain developing tonight and continuing through tomorrow, low tonight 50 and the high tomorrow 58. Correction The Daily Collegian incorrectly re ported yesterday that the Outlaws concert will be held at Eisenhower Auditorium. The concert will be held at Rec Hall. The’Collegian also incor rectly reported that the University Concert Committee Policy Board said students would be unwilling to pay $8 or $9 to see any concert in Rec Hall. The board said gtudents*would not be willing to pay tha't amount for Gene sis. University system instruction reportedly uniform ' Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series on the relationship between the branch campuses and University Park. By COLLEEN GALLAGHER Daily Collegian Staff Writer With two-thirds of this fall’s freshmen at Commonwealth Campuses and half of the graduating seniors having begun at branch locations, the quality of off-campus instruction is a major determinant of the value of a University education. " Branch enrollments largely reflect University policy and not student preference, however, since about six out of 10 applicants to Penn State cite University Park as their first or only campus choice, according to figures supplied by Robert D. Newton, assistant director of instructional research. Dean of Commonwealth Campuses Robert G. Quinn said studies have convinced him that lower division (freshman and sophomore) instruction at branch campuses is “University quality.” ' A study by Edmond Marks, formerly of the office of in stitutional research and planning, concluded that academic standards at branch campuses and University Park “tend to be comparable," based on academic achievement of mem bers of the 1973 graduating class. J "Transfer shock" reflected in declines in grade point averages of students transferring from branches has a "short duration” for those who eventually graduate, the study said. ;; “To educate the sons and daughters of the working class,” the University remains committed to the campus system, “which is by far the largest of its kind in the country,” Quinn said. "The obvious advantage of a branch campus is to make college available so the student can stay at home," and save money, Quinn said. "Enrollment at Commonwealth Campuses this fall dropped qfrout 2'per cent, however, based on preliminary figures. Quinn said he is “sure” higher tuition costs are partly responsible. '.Tuition hikes "have been driving out the middle income ' “Everyone is waiting to see what Congress decides on,the issue. A recent Congress does,” said James R. Adams, Supreme Court ruling upheld a federal general counsel for the state. Public ban on money for abortions, but Welfare Department. ' . , • Congress is still debating how, to im -1 -The new-regulations say 1 the'state> will > pilement tW'legislation/ finance an abortion only after a doctor „ „ certifies the operation is necessary to or comes from the protect the woman’s health or life. Medicaid program, which is financed Before the new rules were im- J £y state and federal govern plemented earlier this month, the state j en government had an unrestricted policy on abortions, denied abortion money, a state could Approximately 9,900 Medicaid abortions f ,nance the operations from its own were performed last year at an tuncls estimated cost of $1.9 million. Adams said enforcement of the new rules will depend in large part on what Retirement exemption The University plans to lobby in Washington this week in an attempt to exempt tenured college professors from a congressional bill that would raise the nation’s mandatory retirement age from 65 to 70 within the next two years. The exemption would permit the University to insist on retirement at age 65. Newton 0. Cattell, University director of federal relations, said he would leave for the Capitol this morning to urge the University’s contacts in the House to press for the exemption of tenured professors from the pending bill. branch campuses students,” Quinn said. “They’re not poor enough to get aid, and not rich enough to pay.” Branch campus students pay about $lOO less tuition per year than main campus students, because they get fewer “auxiliary services,” Quinn said. Both Quinn and Chalmers G. Norris, director of the office of budget and planning, said “direct instructional expenditures” for lower division degree-seeking students at the 17 Com monwealth Campuses and Behrend College are “very close” to the amount spent on the same group at University Park. Direct instructional costs include mainly faculty and staff salaries and related academic department expenses, Norris said. About $7OO more, however, was spent on the average un dergraduate’s direct instruction at University Park mostly upper-division students than was spent on the average undergraduate at branch campuses which have mostly lower-division students, according to figures supplied by Norris. The above expenditures are based on 1975-76 “full-time equivalent” students rather than student head counts, to adjust for students receiving part-time and continuing education, "which tends to be less expensive per student,” Norris said. Norris said 1975 figures are the most recent available. Through the 1960 s and early ‘7os, when baccalaureate enrollment was expanding nationwide, the University’s fresh gian- Vol. 78, No. 66 10 pages A primary question in the abortion fun ding debate has been whether welfare women should be denied the operation Cattell said he spoke with the staff of Sen. Richard Schweiker, R-Pa., about the University’s position before the Senate voted Wednesday 87 to 6 in favor of the amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. He said he would urge Schweiker, if possible, to hold firm on his position in favor of the exemption. University President John W. Oswald sees a very important need to hire young people into the faculty, and for this reason the University supports the exemption, Cattell said. Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, D-N.Y., a University Park, Pa. 16802 Published by Students ol The Pennsylvania State University because they can’t afford it. An abortion in Pennsylvania generally costs around $l5O. Anti-abortion groups contend that tax payer money should not pay for abor tions because the operation is morally repugnant to many Americans. But feminist groups contend that abortions should be available to all women, re gardless of incotne. Although the new policy is designed to decrease the number of welfare abor tions in Pennsylvania, pro-abortion groups are most concerned on how the new regulations are interpreted. is sought former Harvard professor, said . last week on the floor of the Senate that the exemption “would have one of the most important impacts on American and in tellectual life in a long while,” according to the New York Times. Business lobbyists are seeking an exemption as well for executives and other employees whose retirement in come would be $20,000 or more a year, not counting Social Security. Cattell said some University ad ministrators could be covered by this exemption. man expansion came largely at branch campuses. This was partly because ceilings were put on freshman admission at University Park. Admissions records show freshman quotas for the main campus have been set at 4,000 per Fall Term for the past several years. Freshman limits have been set partly because waste treatment facilities for the University Park-State College region are operating near capacity, one official said. At the same time, the Academic Policy Plan of 1972 called for enrollment growth to come at branch campuses “to ensure reasonable economy of operation and richness of program offerings” there. Commonwealth Campus admissions have been below target for at least the past three years. The bulk of this year’s 2 per cent decline came from a baccalaureate enrollment drop of 710 students from last year. Enrollment problems at the branches also are caused by high student turnover. Another study by Marks in 1973 said the smaller branch campuses “are experiencing greater and more rapid turnover of their baccalaureate degree students, raising the question of whether these campuses possess sufficient instructional resources to support students for extended periods. ’ ’ Most turnover is picked up at University Park, but about 9 per cent of branch campus students withdrew from the University altogether over a typical summer. About one fourth of them, however, indicated a desire to re-apply later, the study said. The study concludes, “It seems reasonable to assume that some or all of the Commonwealth Campuses are not meeting the educational or personal goals of a number of their students.” The number of high school graduates typically used to forecast college enrollment levels will peak this year and steadily decline thereafter, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. If University enrollment decreases significantly in coming years, one administrative source said, a decision will have to be made whether to allow the drop to cut into the under enrolled Commonwealth Campuses, or to substantially reduce the number of freshmen admitted to University Park. Photo by Martin J. Smith by Charles Millman Panama votes on U.S. pacts PANAMA CITY, Panama (UPI) The closer than expected 2-to-l national vote in favor of the new Panama Canal treaties is a signal to the U.S. Senate that Panama is not completely satisfied with terms of the agreements, a government negotiator said yesterday. More than 90 per cent of the country’s 800,000 voters went to the polls Sunday, officials repor ted. With 95 per cent of the color-coded paper ballots counted, the vote was 468,664 yes and 228,697 no. Another 12,285 ballots were spoiled, of ficials said. “A massive vote in favor wasn’t ex pected because we’re paying a price for the treaties,” negotiator Carlos Lopez Guevara told reporters. Downplaying an earlier prediction by Panama’s chief canal treaty negotiator, Romulo Escobar Bethancourt, that the treaty would win 85 per cent approval, Lopez Guevara said: “We’re sending a message to the U.S. Senate that we’re not entirely satisfied with the treaties.” U.S. officials in Panama had privately predicted a 90 per cent favorable vote. Easy as (pumpkin) pie Scott Culbertson of the State College Area Jaycees (right) helps Gary Brytczuk Jr. slide a pumpkin head on a 25-foot pole to complete a Pennsylvania pumpkin pole. The Jaycees erected the poles all over State College as part of a communi ty historical project. See related photos, page 5. Branch students usually are less academically qualified due to this system. Differences in program offerings and.sotne students’ inflexible college plans, however, mean that “at any one campus, someone with lower academic qualifications will be admitted, while a person with higher qualifications may be referred to another campus,” Newton said. Cut-off guidelines used by admissions officials are not public, but according to Newton, the “little boom” in the College of Business Administration has meant that only the most high-scoring applicants to that college are admitted to University Park. The College of the Liberal Arts, on the other hand, “can take more in the lower categories,” Newton said. About 4,000 persons, or almost 60 per cent of total acceptees, who are denied University Park admission for an average Fall ■ Term then are offered admission to a branch campus, Newton said. But only 1,500, or about 35 per cent of them, accept branch enrollment. Once a person does so, he may not transfer to University Park “until we can no longer give him ngjonal progress on his degree,” which is usually after the si/ Quinn said. / If fewer applicants were taken at University Park, a greater percentage of total applicants would be lost to other in stitutions, since more than 60 per cent of those turned down al the main campus decline a follow-up offer of admission to a branch campus', based on figures from Newton. About 40 per cent decline an offer of admission to the main campus, which Newton said is comparable to the rate of declined offers at Ivy League schools. If enrollment drops as some predict, the University will find it has "overexpanded,” and “something will have to change.” one official said. “Twenty years ago, if we really thought 60 per cent of our applicants were going to want University Park, our human and physical resources would be allocated differently,” Newton said. Admission to University Park", or another campus of first choice, is offered to prompt applicants whose high school grade point averages and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores are above the cut-off level for the college in which they seek enrollment. Gen. Omar Torrijos, Panama’s head of government, predicted Sunday the U.S. Senate also would approve the treaties, under which Panama will gain control of the canal by the year 2000. He had no im-' mediate public comment on the results of the plebiscite here. Vice President Gerardo Gonzalez, who directed the government’s 64-day cam paign to drum up support for the treaties, said some Panamanians ap parently switched their votes after Torrijos met Carter in Washington 10 days ago and reaffirmed the U.S. right to intervene militarily to safeguard the canal. Gonzalez also said in an interview that American residents of the Canal Zone in fluenced “no” votes in backward regions of Panama. He offered this as an explanation for rejection of the treaties by the Panamanian Indians on San Bias Island, who voted no and hoisted the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole during voting in the resort area. They said they feared ap proval of the treaties would scare off American tourists. sWii : -v - A-f-n ■' *4l ■•lfi M* %>*s \ ‘ T’U, Pholo by Patrick Lillie
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers