I —Editorial Opinion
The Daily Collegian's weatherman, Leroy
Spayd, is skating on thin ice.
Last night he predicted that not only would
this foul weather continue, but a Canadian air
mass would slip south of the border to cool
daytime highs to the single digits. And because
our weatherman is never wrong, we're afraid
he must be terminated as the bearer of bad
tidings.
Perhaps he doesn't realize that a Happy
Valley winter leaves the residents somewhat
less than happy. With cabin fever comes in
creases in vandalism, alcoholism, communism,
nepotism and hedonism.
And unless you're the hardy Jean Claude
Killy type always ready for a brisk schuss
down the slopes tramping through the arctic
atmosphere can get more than a little bit
tedious.
It's time someone took some definitive ac
tion. Perhaps the University Board of Trustees
could construct a huge, heated, dome to cover
the campus God knows there are enough
engineers and hot air on the board to make such
a project feasible. Or the Collegian itself,
Taking care of business
This letter is in response to the article "Legislatures want to
change state stores," published in the Feb. 13 issue. It is truly
refreshing to see that the bureaucracy is stepping out of the
dark ages on at lease one major issue. The best thing the state
Could do is to turn over liquor sales to private firms and get out
of the wholesale business at the same time.
Doing away with the state-held monopoly and putting liquor
sales on the free market would introduce competition to the
industry. Competition in our society provides one of the
greatest incentives for efficiency. As the efficiency of the
competing firms increased, the price of liquor to the consumer
would decrease. .
The proposals have a good chance for passing the General
Assembly because they include one necessary element. The
proposals leave provisions to satisfy the egos of power-minded
bureaucrats who would otherwise lte out of a job by assigning
the state the role jobs of industry regulation and tax collection.
The only group not to benefit from the proposals would be
those employees of the state stores. Certainly some of them
Exams, grades, averages
The end is near. Shouts will echo off the walls
of the dorms containing a message that can only
be translated into frustration. Libraries will be
filled to capacity as students prepare themselves
for the final
,task. It all seems so serious and
that's appropriate, because that's just the way it
is taken.
Ten weeks of studying, attending lectures and
reading will culminate in finals period. One can
easily see the failure of our educational system
by observing this ritual that takes place at the
end of every term.
Finals may take the form of tests, projects or
papers. Regardless of the process, the objective
is the same. The objective is to evaluate the
student's progress in mastering the course
content. One cannot find fault with this
description unless one takes a closer look at the
system.
This ritual will be characterized by long hours
of continuous study. Facts will collide with each
other as your mind begins to process all of the
information. The terminology for this procedure
is known as the consuming -producing approach
to education.
Each student tries to consume as many facts
as he possibly can. The challenge of education is
to arrange this information so that at the crucial
time these facts can be produced in an
MEM
recently the object of some thermo-chemical
reactions, could be used to heat up the campus
in a literal, rather than an editorial sense.
And if we run out of newsprint, there are
always the flyers, posters and leaflets from the
upcoming Undergraduate Student Government
elections just waiting in some warehouse
somewhere.
After the promises are burned, we can start
on textbooks. For surely the calories of warmth
to be gained will have more utility than the cash
to be obtained from selling them at the local
bookstores.
More conventional fuels, such as oil, might be
burned in mass quantities to raise the tem
perature. Perhaps our good friends in Mexico
would sell us some crude if we give them back
Texas and soften our immigration laws. Or
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini could find it in
his heart to forgive us for the Shah and give us
some oil. Carter could even cut the ClA's
budget as a goodwill gesture.
The situation is critical, and unless someone
starts doing something about the weather in
stead of talking, Leroy's life is forfeit.
Letters to the Editor
would land jobs with the new firms, but no private company
could possibly afford as many idle clerks as the state presently
supports. Those unfortunate employees who could not find a
job in the private liquor stores will be cast out of the fantasy
world of civil service and into the real world of work, somthing
most of them know little about.
Just what I needed
Dear Mr. Carville,
Concerning your Feb. 13 column ( "Yes, more self help for
undergrads") excellent! It was just what I needed right
now.
examination. The consuming-producing
technique has short term benefits and long range
consequences.
Short term benefits can be found in an ar
tificial symbol, known as a grade. Students
should be informed of the tong range con
sequences by including the warning on each
examination, that "test taking may be hazar
dous to your mind."
Mark Jackson
Research has indicated that factual material
is quickly learned and quickly forgotten once the
student leaves the confines of the school walls.
This testing procedure tends to turn students
away from the learning process. The emphasis
on the retention of factual material also serves to
take the place of the acquisition of educational
skills, such as thinking, reasoning and decision
making.
if this procedure is so useless then why do
students take it so seriously? The answer can be
found in a divine inscription passed down from
generation to generation. It is the inscription of a
grade.
ii 3%;
It.
Save
Leroy
...,,,-- - Shelley L. Folsom
Ird-division' of undergraduate studies
Feb. 15
The Colleen Gallagher story
oid
The final • confessions of a paran
I put up all the Josh signs in Willard.
I habitually screw up Collegian notes:
of minority and leftist organizations:
Sometimes I even throw them out.
I started the Pinchot Hall elevator fire ti:
and broke the Lion's ear.
Every now and then I dress up as Mrs;c4
Oswald and have one of my friend
chauffeur me around to the
dressers, just so I can report about:
administrative waste.
Yes, I'm paranoml. But unlike The:;:
Daily Collegian, certain black and gay,
leaders, and the boys in Old Main. I can;4;
take it.
•
Colleen Gallagher is a 12th-term'
journalism major and is faculty 4
administration beat coordinator of Thel s :
Daily Collegian,
I've always been rather paranoid
When I was little I believed my family
could read my thoughts but just weren't
leeting on so I wouldn't stop thinking. I
used to kick and scream at bedtime
because I thought that when I went to
sleep all kinds of fun and intrigue would
begin. My first romantic fantasy was
that the paper boy would save me from
my mother, who was a witch in disguise.
But now that I'm graduating, I realize
such thinking is childish and nar
cissistic. Still, I think in these last four
years some people have been out to get
me.
Like, I've never really forgiven Froth
magazine for trying to ruin my
reputation as a cracker-jack reporter by
Joanne Blacoe
Btl►-education
Feb, 13
Our educators evaluate our performance
through the use of a grade. In most cases, this
grade reflects how well the student has con
formed to the system and not how well he has
profited from the learning experience. Con
formity means that the student has consented to
let the educator lead him down the road to
education. During this journey, the student is
told what he has to learn and how much time he
has to learn it. If the student chooses not to follow
these directions he will lose his way, and then
will have to find a new path.
Grades are multiplied, divided, added and
subtracted until finally, you end up with a
cumulative average. It is this grade point
average that helps to open the door of em
ployment. Our educators have told us that, "to
get a good job you need a good education." Good
education can be defined as good grades. Only
when we conform will we be able to obtain the
key of good grades.
To obtain good grades the student will engage
in a strategic planning session at the end of this
term. Each one of us will have to decide how to
allocate our time so that we can arrive at the
best possible grade point average. This indicates
that students learn, not for the sake of learning,
but merely for the purpose of receiving a certain
ABC
Over the past four or five terms it has come to my attention
that the University's current grading system is unrepresen
tative of the students' actual grade point averages. If a student
makes a 'B' by one point he is given a 3.0 where a 2.5 or a 2.6
wOuld'be'a better indication of his grade.•Likewise, - if•another
student missed an 'A' by one point, he is given a 3.0 also, where
a better indication of his grade would be a 3.4 or a 3.5, With the
current grading system both students would get a grade of 3.0.
For one student it's a gift, while for the other it's a penalty.
With such ambiguity in our current grading system, it's no
wonder that a person's cumulative grade point average isn't
as highly regarded as it should be. I believe that if grades were
awarded on a scale of B-, B, B-1-, A-, etc., it would be a better
expression of how a student was really doing. This way
students would have to earn their grades and a greater em
phasis could be placed on a student's grade point average.
Also, this system would make students study harder because
they couldn't be content with just barely making a grade
anymore.
parodying me as "Colleen Gullible" in
The Daily Collusion. And I was truly
hurt when I met a new University ad
ministrator for the first time and he
remarked with a straight face, "Oh,
you're Miss Gallagher? Nice to meet you
I think."
Colleen Gallagher
I really was starting to get unsociably
nervous when I was writing about the
infamous Oct. 5 gun incident. One time
after a rather harrowing telephone in
terview with an official involved, the
editor had to untie the knot I had twisted
my hmhs into and slap me a few times to
who really needs them?'
IF 11-Ime WERE EVIDEkcE
of otoVE OF TEACHING, ° '
WE comp BE WO EFFECTIVE •
rIF I . I , IERS WERE EVIDEAcg
oF LOVE OF LEARNII4W
I Couto BE mokE EFfecTIVE
grade. Once a satisfactory grade is ensured, the
learning process ceases.
At the end of this term our professors will sit
down and determine our grades. Many of our
educators will evaluate us by placing our scores
on a graph. This system is called the bell shaped
curve. According to the principle of this graph, a
certain percentage of students will get 'A's, 'B's
and so on down the line. The absurdity of this
system is that our teachers will fail a certain
number of us because we have not been able to
compete with our classmates. It is very clearly,
"the survival of the fittest."
Our educators have attempted to give grades
some meaning by providing us with a definition
for each symbol. The logic of the language of
grades is open to question when you realize that
an 89 is definited as good and a 90as excellent.
In further assessing the value of grades the
following needs to be understood; Grades play
role but are not the sole determining force in
your future. Employers, and graduate schools
alike both look at a number, of factors when
considering an applicant. A number of studies
have alluded to the fact that "there is evidence
that educational achievement has no consistent
relationship to later job performance and
productivity."
"t&A
convince me the campus police didn't
have a contract out on me.
But I've gotten over all that now. What
the hell? I'm graduating and I feel
magnanimous and untouchable. In fact,
I feel so relieved that I'd like to un
burden my heart of a few mistakes and
misgivings so I'll be able to leave with
my head held high and my personal
dignity intact. In short, 1 wish to confess.
I was the one who fired the gun in
Grange Building on Oct. 5 and not that
poor officer who, by the way, I hear has
been exiled to Alaska.
And, yes, I took out the racist want
ads. Honest, I just wanted to get back at
some of my uppity colleagues who never
seem to get into all the trouble I do.
..!.
1 realize that this system would hurt the students who just
barely make a grade, but more importantly it would be an
to those students who are being penalized by an inaccuraie....,
grading system. What's more important, a few students'.:,
feelings or fairness in grading policies?
=Collegian
Dave Skidmore l
Judy Stivason,l
Editor Business Managet7. , 4
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Vicki 1\1'4)1111c
In the next week each of us will beginit .
preparing for finals.
The only way to remain sane during this perioOt
is to realize that this is simply a venture of ab= . l,.:
surdity. Grades are merely a pat on the hack. ilvf:
pat on the back that we have learned to rely oq•
all our lives. Only when we begin to reward:
ourselVes from within will the system provOli:
valuable to us.
•:•11
This does not mean that the fault of oa;x
educational system can be found in ourselvesii^ r
The failure of the system is deeply imbedded
our institutions of learning. It will take time NO:
reform the present system and until that time wq,.'c
must be able to adjust to the weaknesses of thiCt
institution.
Whenever I begin to lose my sanity duringo
finals I recall a scene from the movie "Pape
Chase," In this instance the cinema does provid& i §
us with a true picture of reality. The picture ends,.4l
.with a 'law, student, • whose struggle ,has beelq .
depicted throughout the filni, folding his grades
into an airplane and setting this aircraft on 0,
course for the ocean. An apparent irrational acl,:,c
becomes perfectly logical when we understand; '
that the value of learning cannot be found id q
1 .
grades and exams.
Mark Jackson is an llth-term secondary;:
education major.
e-wg#wi'
' '' tr
Jeff Nlaillett
Bth-ttianagenici4„
Felirf
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