-Editorial Opinion The University's 1979-80 budget request is like a child's punching clown. Each time the clown seems down for the count, something happens and it pops back up for another round. It popped up again when the state House passed a $6.3 billion state budget which included an amendment to increase the University's appropriation to nearly $l2O million an in crease of 7.1 percent. But the University's ap propriation is not safe yet. The legislators who approved the amendment, sponsored by Rep. Gregg Cunningham (R- Centre), are to be com mended for their action, but it is hoped they will not be content to bask in the glory of this one accomplishment. More work is needed to insure the passage of a relatively intact budget before the June 30 deadline, at'which time the University would have to resort to borrowing money to meet operating costs. To do this, two obstacles No way! It is about time the University is , made aware of one of its credit assignment problems. Anyone who has taken chemistry 14 or 15 understands the mess. A one credit course is supposed to involve one third of the work of a three credit course. Math 61 and 62 are both three credit courses with which most University students can relate. So you.would expect chemistry 14 and 15 to be one third the work. No way! First, the math classes meet the equivalent of three periods per week, while these labs meet for four. The math courses may involve up to two to Vlree hours of study for each lecture.. Well, anyone who has writt?-0' up a lab report can verify that a' short lab will take two nights to complete correctly and completely, while a hard lab will, fill an entire weekend. Either way the work can range from six to nine hours. If you think this i 4 all the course involves you are wtong. Next you have to prepare for a quiz on the next lab without any class instruction. Granted the labs do not have midterms or finals; but come on now, you can't tell us that these tests make three credit courses three times harder than one credit courses. If you do, then what about English 10 and 20? They contain five papers each with no tests, but chemistry 14 and 15 contain five and seven lab reports respectively. I am not saying these labs are worth three credits, but they must be worth more than a single credit. Courses don't add up Beginning last fall, students taking the Math 61, 62, and 71 series have been subjected to a lot of unnecessary and unfair hardships. The faults to be cited here are in reference to the professors, the teaching assistants (T.A.'s) and lastly, the testing-grading procedures used by the math department. A professor last term admitted the first day of class that he had not seen the course's material in many years so we would have to help him out. As each lecture period passed, the class arty runners separate the chaff from the wheat Many say Texas will politically dominate the 1980's the way California has dominated this decade. Already Texas is playing a pivotal role in the 1980 Republican presidential sweepstakes. Choosing sides began Monday when Altoona Rep. Bud Shuster endorsed former Texas Gov. and Treasury Secretary John Connally. Shuster chairs the house Republican Policy Committee and is the first person in a House leadership position to announce support for a candidate. When Connally announced his can didacy Jan. 24, many dismissed it as doomed by his past. Starting with an association with Lyndon Johnson, moving on to oil dealings and switching political parties to become Richard Nixon's treasury secretary, Connally has acquired a reputation as a wheeler dealer. Most people only remember he was.tried in the milk fund scandal, not that an all-black jury took less than 45 minutes to acquit him. But none of this has deterred big John. He quickly qualified for federal mat ching funds by raising $25,000 in at least 20 states. Already his New Hampshire organization is said to be the best mobilized, having done one mass can vass of the state. And he is ascending in party opinion polls, with rank and file Republicans opting for his strong arm reputation in favor of what's seen as a vacillating Jimmy Carter. While Connally has made these strides, another Texan, former GOP national chairman, CIA director and China liaison George Bush has also been improving his chances in the Republican Summertime . i a But the Legislature's still uneasy race. Bush, a moderate, has tried to offer a synthesis of the best of Ronald Reagan and Mac Mathias. At 53, his age compares favorably with Reagan, and his rhetoric has been pure right-wing since he launched his campaign. The rise of Bush and Connally has changed the outlook for the 1980 race. Before it had been assumed that enough candidates for a softball marathon would grace the Republican primary ballot all trying to capitaliie on Jimmy Carter's early start four years ago. With eight announced candidates and four others waiting in the wings, Ronald Reagan had been the acknowledged front-runner. That was the picture in late February a year before New Hampshire. In the interim, Bush and Connally have out organized Reagan, who only two weeks ago opened his own campaign com mittee in New Hampshire. In a straw poll taken of delegates attending a dinner in lowa two weeks ago, Bush easily defeated all corners with half the vote. Reagan was a distant third. lowa is another important state that will con duct preference caucuses the night after the Super Bowl next year and provide which work hand in hand have to be overcome. One is the potentially dangerous situation which has arisen with the party line attitude taken by legislators over the tax issue. Two years ago the Democrats introduced and passed a temporary .2 per cent personal income tax hike and 1 percent increase in the corporate net income tax. But time and elections have dulled the Democrat's memories of their fight for passage. The temporary tax measure was to revert to its ,original levels of 2 percent and 9.5 percent respectively at the end of the fiscal year. When it is clearly necessary to make this temporary tax a permanent one in order to keep state related schools afloat . financially, the Democrats are balking while the Republicans are lobbying for passage of the bill. As expected, these attitudes were carried over into the predominantly democratic state Senate, which rejected grew smaller and smaller as students migrated to other lec ture classes. Meanwhile, those that stayed were for all practical purposes handicapped at test time because they really had not learned anything. Between this one professor's lack of teaching ability and the purple sweater that he wore every day, he rightfully received no respect from the students, as was made apparent by the low marks he received on his evaluations by the students. Still, he is maintained in the math department. • Turning to the T.A.'s, many of them can barely speak the English language. Of those that do, it is rare to find one that has any ability to teach. Presently, I have a T.A. who is never prepared for his recitation classes. He comes in, laughs off his ignorance, makes a fool of himself, and we pay the price by doing poorly ,en exams., T.A.'s are supposed to serve the purpose of claiiifg .up's'any problems encountered during lectures, not enhance them. Peilhaps T.A.'s' Should have to take some tests before they can be T.A.'s. Today, all one needs is a bachelors degree in the respective fields. Important qualifications are not checked. Finally, there is an attitude taken by the math department that only a certain number of students can get As. If at any time too many students appear to be getting 'A' averages, a "killer test" is given to lower the averages. What insanity! So what if instead of 'X' number of people getting an 'A' there are `X' plus 15? I propose that evaluations of professors be taken more seriously. Second, if a larger than normal number of students are going to receive As, let them after all, they might deserve them. Third, T.A.'s should be tested before they start their paying jobs, and also, they should be evaluated by the students. Name withheld upon request May 9 Peter Koppel 3rd-chemistry May 7 Deposit for the future I am writing in regard to the grading of English courses here at the University. Although I've only been here a year, I have already come to one conclusion: writing courses should be pass-fail. An experience a friend of mine went through made me decide. _ /2e._•.,,, ,4t4,ge-,_. the budget and sent it to a six member House-Senate conference committee. And suddenly the other obstacle surfaced the time factor. The conference committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans for the first time in five years. If these members continue to vote along party lines, a state financial crises could result. The University is already in a financial hole. If it is forced to borrow money to meet daily costs, the hole threatens to become an abyss. • It would seem logical and advantageous from all points of view to pass the budget expediently. In the past the legislature has not seen fit to do this, creating serious deficits to write on a sup posedly clean slate. It is necessary for intensive lobbying efforts by . members of both parties. Cooperation and compromise among the six-member committee is essential to beat the time clock. Letters to the Editor the earliest indication of trends It may be that just as Jimmy, Carter's early success in 1976 quickly weeded-out a crowded field, Bush and Connally already may have narrowed the GOP odds. With Bush and Connally operatives already afoot in New Hampshire and lowa, Reagan may be asking himself whether he has waited too long to of ficially launch his own effort. The importance of all this talk about the minority party nomination is the fact • that the Democrats themselves may conduct what could be a destructive primary fight. As President Carter continues to flounder, the urge becomes greater for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy to accept the hosannas raised to him and to challenge the sitting president. Despite Sen. Kennedy's aura, the battle for the party nomination would be a fractious fight for the party, leaving the Democratic nominee weakened for the fall campaign. The rise of moderate elements in the Republican party would position the GOP to take advantage of conservative undercurrents dominating political thought now. So seven months before the whole ball of wax gets rolling, the odds and the characters of the game have been changed. As Bud Shuster said, the race could be decided before the first ballot is cast in New Hampshire. And his action endorsing John Connally may be a clar ion to party leaders to jump on the band wagon anyone's bandwagon before it leaves the station. Brian Golden is an 11th-term broad cast-journalism major. SAY, NAVelsiti We MC BeFoßefol AT AN EXXON STATioN in FOUR YEARS Aeon, AT TW, coRNeR OF 114iRD AND EL. CAMINO IZOVALes She handed in her first English 20 paper to her teacher, who condemned it and gave it a C minus. She decided to change sections and handed the same paper in to her new teacher. He gave her an A minus and praised it. This is an indication that writing ability is judged mostly by personal tastes. How can writing ability actually be graded? Who is to say what is good or bad? If English courses were made pass-fail, perhaps some standards could be set to determine who would pass and who would fail. Correct grammar and organization might . be criteria for the passing student, while teachers could collaborate on failing requirements. In my opinion, this is a good solution to the problem of the grading of written work. That's whose laws This is in response to the letter from Dennis Bauer on May 4 concerning "whose laws" are in effect in the Commonwealth. The people who reside here have laws to protect their freedoms and rights and to define socially unacceptable behavior. I am sure that the majority of our state's voting society considers smoking pot and public drinking deviant and undesirable actions. The legal drinking age line has to be drawn somewhere and judging from many other states' raising the age, back to 20 or 21, Pennsylvania will not lower its age soon. All of the laws that Congress and the state House pass have some contingents of people who are opposed to them. But if courts cannot make legal decisions or pcilice cannot enforce the laws; chaos will result. Laws are not made to please individuals or small factions' diverse whims, but must cater to society's needs as a whole. If substantial numbers of voters dislike a law enough, they can get it changed. But there are not enough voters in the 18-21 year old age bracket to affect the law lowering the drinking age. Not enough wealthy interest groups back lobbying for pot reform legislation. The laws are written to be tough on the books, but their enforcement is often lax under certain situations. 100 OLD S. Moses 3rd-business administration Mar'9 TOO SLICK Z''.q.l'7 ,, !') ' I‘ I was on the HUB lawn Saturday and Sunday and did -Sol; witness any storm troopers violently enforcing the laws which myself and a small handful of other students were pleasantry' disregarding. My support to the people who were unfortunate to have been caught. -1. dtxollegisn Wednesday, June 6, 1979 Page 2 Harry Glenn Editor (, BOARD OF EDITORS: Editorial Editor, Gina Carroll; News Editoc,': Jon Saraceno; Copy Editors, Bob Corvine, Paula Froke, Bet i'. Rosenfeld; Photo Editor, Sherrie Weiner; Sports Editor, Jerry Micco; Arts-Features Editor, Jim Zarroli; Graphics Editor, Mark Van Dine. '. . . LETTERS POLICY: The Daily Collegian encourages comments 'on;• news coverage, editorial policy and campus and off-campus affair s.i: Letters should be typewritten, doubled spaced, signed by no more than( N two persons and not longer than 30 lines. Students' letters should-in-; elude the name, term and major of the writer. The editorial editor reserves the right to edit letters, and to reject i letters if they are libelous orsdo not conform to standards of good taste. f Letters should be brought to the Collegian office (12G Carnegie i Building; University Park, Pa. 16802) in person so proper identification' of the writer can be made, although names will be withheld on request. • ,• • COMPLAINTS: News complaints should be presented to the editiir) A Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the / business manager. If the complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, , grievances may be filed with the Accuracy and Fair Play Committepof, Collegian Inc. Information on filing grievances is available film GerW Lynn Hamilton, executive secretary, Collegian Inc. TOO DULL dhfMiawom.: 41111"; Marjie Sehlessinger Business Manager! DigYIWZ Arsgfr / / TWO FACED ' ) .:: 7 :1,1 T 9 . ' :i Mark Casperd 9th-managent6o , • May-P..4 0'1979 Collebien Intl': , • 1 .41 l' ' t . tl : i
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