Shuttle program
after successful
By LEE SIEGEL
AP Science Writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE,
Calif. Discovery came back from
its much-delayed debut run .
yesterday after delivering three
satellites to space, and NASA told
it customers: "Now we are back
on schedule."
The shuttle's sunrise landing on
this desert lakebed was an upbeat
end to a shakedown flight that
suffered from pre-launch problems
on the ground and troubles in orbit.
Discovery's five-man, one
woman crew accomplished all it set
out to do. The astronauts launched
the three communications satellites
and made extensive tests on a solar
array. The industry engineer who
went along on the mission to
manufacture a new drug came back
with 83 percent of the sample he
was after.
"Starting in October we will
essentially be back to launching
once a month for the rest of the
year," said Jesse W. Moore, who
heads the shuttle program for
Semesters:
One year later, University administrators call conversion from terms a success
By KIM , BOWER
Collegian Staff Writer,
One year and many , headaches later,
UniversitrofficialS consider-the.transition
froth the term system to the semester
system complete.
James R. Dungan, secretary of the
recently dissolved Calendar Conversion
Council, said although students who started
under the term system will continue
studying at the University for several
years, "(the transition) is all done as far as
I can see."
The CCC was successful at anticipating
problems caused by the conversion, helping
to make the transition' smoother, he said.
Dungan said he believes the biggest
problem encountered during the switch was
that "human beings tend to resist change."
The Calendar Transition Grievance
Committee, which was established in
March 1983 and dissolved a few weeks ago,
received no complaints, Dungan said. The
committee was established to deal with
cases of students in jeopardy of not
graduating on time because of the semester
conversion. However, the committee was to
be used only if the problem could not be
dealt with first in the student's college, he
said.
Henry J. Hermanowicz, chairman of the
CCC, said, "From what I understand, it's
been a remarkably smooth transition."
However, when such an extensive change
is made at a university the size of Penn
State, some problems are expected to be
encountered, he said.
Chernenko makes
By CAROL J. WILLIAMS
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW President
Soviet leader Konstatin Chernenko making his first public appearnace
since July.
the
daily
NASA hopes the successful flight
will mark a turnaround for the
shuttle program. Bothered by three
delays in the latest flight and three
satellite launch fiilures on previous
missions, potential customers have
been looking to the European
Ariane rocket as a vehicle to carry
their payloads to orbit.
Even the U.S. Air Foice,
expected to book one-third of all
shuttle missions, wants to buy 10
expendable launch vehicles for
military satellites.
Discovery's debut was delayed
for two months in June when a fuel
valve problem caused automatic
shutdown of the ship's engines only
four seconds before liftoff. To
please customers who had
expensive satellites awaiting
launch, NASA combined cargoes of
two flights.
"That was the purpose of doing
this combined flight," Moore said.
"I believe now we are back on
schedule."
Commander Hank Hartsfield and
pilot Michael Coats guided the 102-
ton Discovery through clear skies to
a touchdown, 10 minutes after
The change in calendar from terms to
, semesters was proposed to put an end to the
"general stop-go system" of the University
caused by having so many registration and
exam periods, Hermanowicz said. The
semester system has also alleviated the
awkward interruption of the Winter Term
during the Christmas holiday, he added.
However, Hermanowicz noted that many
students and faculty members now object to
beginning the semester before Labor Day.
He said the early start often interferes with
summer employment commitments and
vacation plans.
Hermanowicz said the term system
originated with the rationale that the
University could operate at full capacity
year-round and would make more efficient
use of facilities. Also, with four equal terms,
undergraduate students would have the
option of completing their studies in three
years instead of four, he added.
However, the University never operated
at full.capacity all year and few students
took advantage of the opportunity to finish
early, Hermanowicz said. In fact, more
students left school for a year and returned
to finish in five years, he noted.
"The expectations were reasonable ones
at the time though, I guess," he said.
Despite a lack of complaints about the
transition, John J. Coyle, assistant dean for
undergraduate programs in the College of
Business Administration, does not agree
that the transition is over.
"I think perhaps it will take one more
year to make the transition complete,"
Coyle said.
Konstantin U. Chernenko yesterday
made his first public appearance
since July, at a ceremony honoring
Soviet cosmonauts. His long
olle • iari
is looking up
Discovery flight
sunrise. The spaceplane orbited
Earth 96 times and chalked up 2.5
million miles during the six-day, 56
minute flight.
"Only in America can things like
this happen," said Hartsfield,
ending his second shuttle flight, as
he and the others boarded two
planes for the trip back to Houston,
home base for the astronauts.
To Coats, the Discovery flight
was "the experience of a lifetime";
mission specialist Richard Mullane
said it was "absolutely a great
thrill"; and McDonnell Douglas
engineer Charles Walker, the first
paying passenger on a shuttle, said
he had "a tremendous opportunity
to see what we as humanity can do
out there."
Said Steve Hawley:
"The word that summarizes how
I feel today is pride . . . I'm proud
to be part of an organization like
NASA that can make it all happen,
I'm especially proud to be a
member of this crew, and I'm proud
to be a citizen of a nation that can do
an event like this and make it
happen in front'of everybody in the
world."
Instructors are still getting used to
semesters and so are the juniors and seniors
who started under terms, he said.
Coyle said the semester system caused a
50 percent reduation in student scheduling
opportunities in his college.
Under the term system, half of the
freshmen entering the college could be
scheduled for entrance level courses during
the Fall Term and half during the Winter
Term. But now all freshmen must take the
courses during the Fall Semester or they
cannot declare a major, Coyle noted.
`From what I understand,
it's been a remarkably
smooth transition'
The internship program also had to be
changed under semesters, he said. In
accounting, students now intern during the
first half of the Spring Semester and take
three accelerated courses when they return
to the University the second half of the
semester, Coyle said. Before the switch,
students participated in internships during
Winter Term.
Spring Semester went much smoother
than last fall, he said.
Coyle said it has been difficult again this
fall to get students into classes, but that was
public appearance
absence from public view had
provoked rumors he was seriously
ill.
But the 72-year-old Soviet
president was shown on Soviet
television at a Kremlin ceremony to
honor three cosmonauts and in a
brief speech he renewed Soviet
calls for a ban on space weapons.
The official Soviet news agency
Tass reported Chernenko's
participation in the ceremony and
several hours later Soviet television
broadcast film of the Kremlin
event. Tass also released still
photographs of the ceremony.
Western reporters in Moscow
were not invited to the ceremony.
The Associated Press and other
Western news organizations asked
the Foreign Ministry Press
Department if they could attend but
were told there were "no
arrangements for foreign
journalists to be accredited to such
an event."
The Press Department, which
handles relations with foreign
correspondents, declined to
confirm that the ceremony was to
take place.
On television's evening news
program, Chernenko was shown
walking into the Kremlin Palace
slowly but steadily. He appeared
And Judy Resnik, the second
American woman in space, said she
felt privileged to be part of the
NASA program.
"We enjoyed ourselves," she
said. "We worked very hard to do a
job for all of you."
NASA requires all shuttles to land
on the wide-open lakebed here on
their first mission for an extra
margin of safety. Starting with the
next flight in October, most shuttles
will return to a runway near the
launch pad at Cape Canaveral in
Florida, to avoid the cross-country
trip on the back of a 747.
Mission Control wakened the
astronauts 90 minutes early from
their last sleep in space when flight
controllers detected a leak in a set
of tanks that supply oxygen for the
cabin pressure and power-
producing fuel cells. Hartsfield
solved the problem by switching to
a backup system.
A worry of much longer duration
was a stubborn hunk of ice that
formed on two valves that dump
excess water and waste from the
shuttle. ,
Henry J. Hermanowicz,
chairman of the Calendar
Conversion Council
slightly tanned and was wearing
spectacles. The Soviet leader held
the pages of his five-minute , speech
close to his face and read in a soft,
clear voice.
Chernenko, known to suffer
breathing difficulties, was said by a
Foreign Ministry official on
Monday to be carrying out his
duties. But he had not been seen in
public since July 13, when he was
photographed in the Kremlin
greeting U.N. Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar.
Tass on July 15 said Chernenko
had left Moscow for his summer
vacation. But when his absence
stretched toward two months, there
was speculation in Moscow and in
Western capitals that the Soviet
leader was seriously ill.
On television, Chernenko
appeared normal, but toward the
end of the ceremony he appeared to
be breathing rapidly.
Rumors that Chernenko's
absence signaled declining health
probably arose in part due to the
secrecy that surrounded the illness
of the late Soviet leader Yuri V.
Andropov. Andropov wasn't seen in
public for nearly six months before
he died in February, but official
documents regularly carried his
name.
Michael Coats, pilot of the Discovery, greets his 11-year-old daughter Laura
yesterday as the crew returned to Houston.
partly because of the new computer system
"It was difficult to solve the problems
(with scheduling)," he said. "With the
(Academic Information System) it was
hard to pinpoint where the difficulties
were."
John J. Romano, associate dean for
undergraduate studies in the College of The
Liberal Arts, said most of the transitions in
that college are in place now with no major
problems.
"I think the problems by and large were
minimal," he said.
He said that it was necessary to adjust to
the 50-minute class periods and that course
adjustments were made by faculty
members during the year leading up to the
transition.
The faculty is still fine-tuning courses, but
that is always being done and will continue
in the future, Romano said.
"The semester works. We knew the
semester would work," he said.
However, questions have been raised
about conducting the first day of classes on
the Friday before Labor Day, he added.
"It's an odd calendar arrangement from
an academic point of view. It needs to be
looked at," he said.
William H. Gotolski, assistant dean for
resident instruction in the College of
Engineering, said the transition in that
college went smoothly, except for some
changes in course numbers and curricula.
It was necessary to study the curricula
before the transition, but modifications are
always being made to keep up with
advances in technology, he said.
inside
• Skyrocketing costs and a growing deficit have prompted the Graduate
Student Association to re-evaluate its graduate student health insurance
program, the GSA president said Page 2
• Mental Health Clinic to open soon Page 8
• The University Student Executive Committee will announce its official
position on the proposed building of laboratories at Buckhout Gardens at
6:30 tonight in 227 HUB, the USEC chairman said Page 8
• Franco Harris, only 363 yards shy of breaking Jim liiown's NFL career
rushing record, reached an agreement for a contract with the Seattle
Seahawks yesterday, just two days after the Seahawks lost star running
back Curt Warner with a severe knee injury Page 9
• The head of the University's department of nursing has resigned
effective Sept. 1, the dean of the College of Human Development said
Tuesday Page 14
• The University's search for a new vice president for development and
University relations is progressing very well, University President Bryce
Jordan said yesterday Page 14
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weather
Mostly sunny today with a high near 70. Clear and cool tonight. Low of 48.
Sunny tomorrow and a bit warmer with a high of 75. Fair tomorrow night
with a low of 50 by Andy Sekura
Thursday, Sept. 6, 1984
Vol. 85, No. 41 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1984 Collegian Inc.
Gene M. Love, associate dean for resident
education in the College of Agriculture, said
his college did not experience many
problems during the conversion.
However, many departments did have to
rework their curricula and solve problems
with space limitations in laboratories, he
said. For example, courses using growth
chambers had to be rearranged to
accommodate more students.
"The term system made better use of
limited resources," Love said.
He said he believes the semester system
is better than the term system because
learning is spread out over a longer period
of time and class periods are shorter.
Some students have complained that it is
more difficult to carry 16 credits over a
longer period than it is to take 10 credits in a
shorter period of time. However, not all
students feel that way, Love noted.
Greg Ewing (senior-industrial
engineering) is one student who is not happy
with the change.
"You have too many classes now. Even
though it's spread out a little more, it's still
hard to keep track ) ." he said.
Ewing added he also missed deer hunting
season last year because of the switch.
Charlene Hitchings (junior-rehabilitation
education) does not agree with Ewing.
"I like it better with the two semesters
instead of the terms," she said.
Hitchings said her term breaks did not
coincide with the breaks of many of her
friends at home who attend colleges using a
semester system.
AP Laserpholo