1.9-year decline
in SAT scores
College
By CHRISTOPHER CONNELL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON High school
seniors scored slightly higher on
the Scholastic Aptitude Test this
year, snapping a 19-year decline
that has been a persistent thorn in
the side of the nation's schools.
The College Board reported
yesterday that the rise in SAT
scores taken by 1 million college
bound students was slight a
single point in math and two points
on the verbal half of the exam
but consistent with other test
improvements.
. The scores of 467 in math and 426
in verbal remain a far cry from
the 502-478 averages that
prevailed in 1963 before the
downward spiral began. The SAT
is scored on a scale of 200 to 800.
But George H. Hanford, the
president of the College Board,
who announced the Class of 1982
results, said: "This year's rise,
however slight, combined with
last year's holding steady, is a.
welcome sign for educators,
parents and students that serious
efforts by the nation's schools and
their students to improve the
quality of education are taking
effect."
The scores had held steady at
466 in math and 424 in verbal from
1980 to 1981. The math score rose
by one point in 1969, and then
started downward again. This is
the first year that both scores
increased
The College Board, a non-profit
group that sponsors the college
entrance exam, also found other
evidence that students are hitting
the books harder:
• Scores on its achievement
tests in 15 subjects "rose 5 points
to 537, its highest level since 1976
and 10 points above 1973."
• Scores improved on a Test of
Standard Written English "for the
first time since the introduction of
the test in 1975."
• "Students took more courses
Shoppers picked the shelves of the two State College A&P stores yesterday. The two stores and one in Bellefonte are
expected to close this month, although the exact date the stores will close is not yet known.
Cheerleaders train like athletic teams
By STELLA TSAI
Collegian Staff Writer
The word "cheerleader" used to suggest a
prissy Pepsodent princess with nary a
blemish and the frailty of a toothpick. But no
more.
The physical demands of cheering at each
game are similar to those faced by athletes
participating in the events, said Lee
Giannone, director of the varsity cheerleading
and Lion's Legion squads.
"The cheerleaders have to train like any
other athletic team, but of course there's no
competition," Giannone said. "The practice is
just as rigorous and it takes as many hours.
Gone are the routine, non-physical and
redundant chanted cheers.
"Cheerleading is much like gymnastics. If
you could, imagine standing on a boy's
shoulders and doing a front flip into his arms
"If the stunts are not spotted well the
potential for very serious injury is great."
Ron•Boxall of the Lion's Legion squad
Board
in mathematics and physical
science in high school than ever
before."
• Students' grade point
average remained at 3.06, or just
above a B, for the third year in a
row, down from a high of 3.12 in
1976. Grade inflation was
suspected as a prime cause of the
higher grade averages.
Robert .G. Cameron, . the College
,Board's research director, said
the SAT score improvements jibe
with trends on other tests.
"In the last two years, there
have been reports of improved
reading scores in urban and state
assessment tests and by the
National Assessment for
Educational Progress (a federally
sponsored testing agency)," he
said. "Teachers have also been
reporting greater interest among
students in academic subjects and
achievement."
The 1 million seniors who took
the SAT represent a third of their
class, but two-thirds of those who
go directly to college.
The board, citing questionnaires
filled out by most of the students,
reported that their median family
income was $26,800, up from
$24,100 in 1981. Seventy-six percent
of the seniors planned to seek
financial aid for college.
The board said that fewer than
one in five families can pay the full
$4,400 cost of an average public
four-year college and only one in
nine can pay the full $7,300 cost of
an average private college.
' • Nearly eight percent of the
students intend to major in
computer sciences, a 38 percent
increase. "Interest has tripled
since 1978 and quintupled since
1975," the board said.
Business and commerce
remained the most popular field of
study, favored by 19 percent,
followed by health and medical, 14
percent; engineering, 13 percent;
computer sciences, 8 percent;
social sciences, 7 percent and
education, 5 percent.
•
,
the
daily
ends,
says
BEIM
stressed the importance of spotting.
"Nothing is done on the field unless
everyone can do it," he said. "You must be
spotted until it becomes like second nature."
To further enhance the Penn State
repertoire, the cheerleaders attend the
Universal Cheerleading Association camp in
Virginia during the summer to learn stunts
and new techniques, Giannone said.
The choreography of earlier partner stunts
first borrowed concepts from "Adagio," a
ballet form, he said. Now moves and lifts are
designed specifically for cheerleading.
Keeping in prime cheering condition is an
ongoing process. The cheerleaders spend
about 45 hours each week mastering their
craft, Giannone said.
Boxall said, "You're still sore even after the
first few practices. Each time you go into
practice'you think that you won't be sore the
next day anymore, but you still are."
Despite the constant repitition of stunts, the
potential of injury presides over each event.
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Palestinian and Lebanese demonstrators burn an effigy of Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin in front of the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa
Israel approves peacekeeping
By The Associated Press
The Israeli government yesterday approved
the plan to send U.S., Italian and French
peacekeepers back to Beirut, where the
confirMed death toll from a frenzy of bloodletting
in two Palestinian refugee camps climbed to 204.
With support from the Moslem leaders who
tried to block his brother's election, Maronite
Christian Amin Gemayel was chosen president of
Lebanon during a special Parliament session
held one week after President-elect Bashir
Gemayel was assassinated.
Israel pulled more of its troops out of west
Beirut, which it seized last Wednesday in what it
called a peacekeeping move following Bashir
Gemayel's murder in a bomb blast the day
before.
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Photo by David Garrett
Because cheerleading physically taxes
squad members and increases their risk of
injury, cheerleaders must be covered by the
University's athletic insurance policy. Each
cheerleader must also be examined by a
physician.
"At this time, we have not had any serious
injuries," Jones, assistant athletic director.
"The most serious was a cheerleader who
sustained a sprained ankle."
When a stunt inflicts back strain or pulled
muscles, the cheerleader is sent to the same
physicians that care for the varsity sport
players
The risk multiplies when cheerleaders
develop and perform the popular pyramids,
Giannone said. The concentration of weight
may require a cheerleader to hold more than
300 pounds at one time.
"Pyramids three to four people high, that
the students see can get quite dangerous,"
Giannone said. "To hold that steady and make
that look sharp is quite challenging.
But the Israelis kept an overnight curfew in
force in predominantly Moslem west Beirut for a
third night.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin's Cabinet,
after a 5 1 / 2 -hour meeting in Jerusalem,
announced that it endorsed reconstitution of the'
U.S.-French-Italian force that left Beirut earlier
this month after evacuation of the main body of
PLO guerrillas.
Italy announced it will increase its contribution
this time from 500 to 1,000 troopers, with the
United States expected to send 800 Marines and
France, 950 paratroopers, for a combined force of
2,750.
U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger
said the Marines of the 32nd Amphibious Unit,
who had been on liberty in Naples, Italy, would be
back in Beirut by as early as tomorrow. The
Shoppers ravage A&Ps
Closing date of stores still uncertain
By MARY STEPHENS
Collegian Staff Writer
As the last-minute bargain hunters search the near
empty shelves of A&P food stores, the local managers
are still unsure of their stores specific closing dates. •
Not much remained on the shelves of the North
Atherton Street A&P store yesterday as it continued a
50 percent-off sale along with other area A&P stores.
No fresh produce or meat products are being sold. In
fact, little was left besides medicine, toiletries, canned
goods and bug killers.
Both State College A&P stores and one in Bellefonte
are expected to close this month with 40 other stores
and a warehouse in its Altoona division. However A&P
officials in the main office were unavailable for
comment for specific closing dates.
A North Atherton store employee, who did not want
his name printed said, "We are working on a day-to
day basis until the merchandise is sold."
A spokesman from the Bellefonte store who also did
not want to be identified, said he would know when A&P
would close the store when, "They tell me to lock the
fc•
.
• 1.• •
yesterday. About 200 of the marchers protested last week's massacre of
Palestinian refugees.
"People need to realize the time and
difficulty that goes into putting on the
program that they see."
Another Penn State football sideline
tradition, the blanket toss, expends more
energy and effort than its frolicking
appearance could imply, Giannone said.
The cheerleaders who toss the Nittany Lion
mascot with the navy blue blanket must rely
soley on hand strength. Each practice session
includes 150 practice throws.
And high temperatures pose a special
danger for Dave Dailey, the fur-clad Nittany
Lion mascot.
"The potential for overheating is there,"
Dailey said. "I just have to be in good
condition and I drink plenty of fluids."
Boxall said, "(Cheerleading) is really
physical and requires a lot of conditioning.
You've got to be in shape.
"Most everybody on either squad played •
football or were gymnasts exceptional
athletes. It seems they played all-star sports."
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1982 •
Vol. 83, No. 43 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
t/
;4.~. s., ~~_
French Defense Ministry said an advance
contingent of 350 paratroopers would arrive in
Beirut by sea from Cyprus tomorrow. The
Italians gave no timetable, but said their troops
would be airlifted to Lebanon.
Weinberger said the Marines, who had been in
Beirut from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, would have a
"very limited" mission.
He said they would not act as a police force or
patrol Beirut, and he expected they would be
withdrawn if there was any combat.
Israeli Cabinet Secretary Dan Meridor said the
government also called for a committee of five
nations Israel, Lebanon, the United States,
Italy and France "to ensure that in the new
circumstance, the bloody terror will not be
renewed."
Also, please see LEBANESE, Page 6
door."
Yesterday afternoon sales were mild compared to
what it had been earlier, said North Atherton A&P
store manager Donna Goss. "There's not much left."
Customers said they were sorry to see the stores
close.
- Cynthia Page (graduate-geochemistry) said
although she did not shop the A&P regularly, she will
miss its convenient hours.
Darla McCauley of Howard said she shops the
Bellefonte store and will miss having two grocery
stores in Bellefonte.
Lois Gillepsie of Howard said she shopped the A&P
because she liked the fruit department.
"Everything with the A&P has been fine," she said
McCauley said she has a friend who works at the
Westerly Parkway store who will lose her job.
"I'm sorry to see them go from that aspect," she
said.
The decision to close the stores followed a 305-270
vote defeating acceptance of concessions by union
members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union Local 590 on Aug. 18.
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AP Laserpholo
plan
inside
• Nominations for four exec
utive positions of the Graduate
Student Association opened at
last'night's GSA meeting.. Page 4
• On-campus preaching is
tolerated as long as it doesn't
disturb class • Page 16
weather
Continued cloudy with occasion
al showers today, tonight and
tomorrow. Today's high will be
61, tonights low 49. Partial clear
ing tomorrow with a high near
60. —by Craig Wagner
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