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Tuesday, April 20. 1976
University Dally Kansan
KANSAN Comment
Opinions on this page reflect only the view of the writer.
Remove 'C' stigma
The Office of Academic Affairs released a study last week showing that from 1971 to 1975 the average GPA at the University of Kansas rose from 2.806 to 2.908. The study indicated that the KU average had risen more slowly than the average and that it actually had decreased slightly in the last two years.
The results of the study are difficult to evaluate. They may be good or they may be bad, depending on your outlook. The differences between KU's figures and the national figures are so small it may not try to determine what the trend is.
THE STUDY DOES indicate that the basic problem still remains—the vast majority of grades given at the University are A's and B's.
The "Horrors" of grade inflation have been a major topic of discussion in recent years. Many highly reputed schools in the country have come under attack. Eighty-two per cent of Harvard's class of '74 graduated cum laude or better. Yale once again is issuing F's next fall after its discovery that transcripts were less credible because F's weren't recorded and because many students failed classes rather than accepting a C or a D.
The subject of grading is difficult to grasp. George F. Will wrote in the Feb. 9 issue of Newsweek magazine that grade inflation results from and-elitism. He said anti-elitists couldn't accept the idea of education as equal." These romantics have emerged from the movement pursuing self-realization, according to Will.
"HENCE EDUCATION is less a lesson than a lesson of letting something out," he said.
The concept of self-realization is difficult to argue against, particularly for people of my generation who have used it as a crutch. Getting grade reports full of A's and B's is a real ego boost. And good grades for everyone are easy to justify when we all agree that the world is too competitive. Individuals should be allowed to develop to their own potential without the strain of feeling inferior. How can you argue against such liberal ideals?
It can be done. Amital Etzioni wrote very convincingly of the alternatives in the Oct. 10, 1975 issue of Science magazine. Grade inflation is unacceptable for both the progressive and the traditional views of education, he said.
UNDER THE PROGRESSIVE concept, the subject and audience interact in the subject or because of its interest.
value to them in the future. Etzioni, director of the Center for Policy Research at Columbia University, said that for progressives, "grading is a feedback. Feedback is what the student needs, he said, not reinforcement.
Etzioni said the traditional educator believes that to expect learning to be its own reward is to expect too much. The traditionalist says that working hard for a good grade is an important lesson to learn and one that can be applied to life. The traditionalist says that as long as personal evaluations are provided, evaluations should be based on grades, not personal evaluations, which are more subjective.
ETZIONI'S VIEW provides sound alternatives to grade inflation. The University can't look at results of the study and say there is no problem here. But you can know that we determine which of the alternatives Etzioni proposes is best for KU.
If the radical progressive approach were chosen, the whole structure of the University would be altered. The faculty would have to provide extensive feedback to students in place of evaluation by grades. This would take a great deal of pressure off the student and probably wouldn't create as many problems as might be imagined. Prospective employers would simply insist that they are stead of relying on grades. Many employers and post graduate programs conduct such testing now because grades just aren't too reliable.
IF THE TRADITIONAL approach were chosen and adhered to strictly, much of the stigma involved in a C grade would be removed because they would be much more common. Under the current system, if one has an average GPA of almost 3.00, a C has to be viewed as subbar.
Some professors at KU currently employ a strict, traditional grading system, but the enrollment in such classes often drops drastically as students discover that they'll really have to work to get above a C. There are students who don't view C's with horror, but for those who hope to gain admission to post graduate programs there is no choice. If a strifter grading standard became universal, a grade lower than a B wouldn't mean the end of the world.
The statistics do tell us something. They tell us there is a need for change, a challenge and a goal. The University needs to decide which route it will take. By John Johnston
Contributing Writer
Most people here at KU appreciate the great beauty of the campus. Another of the campuses is much darker, overlooked, however. That is its great spaciousness. Not only does spaciousness help to prevent crowding, it also gives students a sense of doing a great deal of walking.
Walking more than just a chore
Unfortunately, walking isn't appreciated as it should be. It is
I MIGHT never have realized walking had so much to offer if I hadn't been forced into doing so much of it this semester. I live on 14th at the very bottom of the hill and I need days I walk up the hill and over to the middle of campus for my 8:30 class in Flint. Then I
By John Hickey Contributing Writer
trinsically valuable but is always seen as a mode of transporting oneself.
for the most part subordinated to a secondary status such as going to class, going home or going to the Union. Thus, the activity of walking doesn't become manifest as in-
in Smith, across from the Union. Then I return hom down the hill for an afternoon break before I go back up the hill and clear across campus for my 4 m. class in Learned
By the time I get home at 5:30, I've walked several miles just going to class. At the first of the semester, I considered all that walking a burden. As long as it was just a part of going to class, then if could only have value if a particular class had more students to walk than separated the act of walking from the burdensome concept of going to class, walking became enjoyable in itself.
walk back down the hill on my way over to Summerfield for my 9:30 class, then up and down the hill again to get home for a two-hour lunch break. I then climb the hill again for my class
AFTER ALL, we do have a beautiful campus to walk across. But the secret lies in exploiting the several possible ways to walk to suit one's schedule and mood. First there is the enjoy-the scenery method. It involves spring days when the trees and flowers are in bloom. Besides the buildings and grounds of the
campus there are, of course,
other students to observe. One
can say hello to one's friends, or
they react to being spubbed.
...
For the athletically inclined,
there is vigorous walking. A brisk piece all the way up a steep
climb to sure to stretch the lag
muscle on each knee in breathy deeply. Going down
stairs in a kind of conditional fall
is also exciting and good for the
knees, but it requires practice
balance to avoid the embri-
nagement of falling on one's
face.
Another variation is the free floating walk. After walking over the same route for a few times, you can intention to direction, landmarks or scenery. Allowing the mind to drift onto any subject it chooses or no subject at all causes the walk to go by in a flash.
ONE OF MY favorite techniques consists of solving some problem or considering an
ideas as I walk along. When I start walking over to Learned, for example, I decide to see whether I can develop an idea for a column for the Kansan. That's the way the idea for this column was born. I was taught through a darmalent activities of college life when I suddenly hit upon the phenomenon of walking.
I'm not saying that walking can't be uncomfortable, inconvenient and tiring, expensive and time-consuming. But looking at my college career, I notice that some of my best and worst times have been walking across campus. I once went to a college where I walked down the hill on 14th.
I seemed for an instant to be able to stand outside of time and look at my possibilities. Since then that hill has had a special name. I remember how loud I could be sorry they built the campus on top of it or wish there was a ski lift on it, no matter what my friends may say.
Dykes details budget process
To the Editor:
After reading the articles in the April 12 edition of the Kansan about the Legislature's action on the University of Kansas' budget requests, I thought additional comment about the process by which the board is approved might be helpful.
WASHINGTON — Television news is a succession of deus ex machina bolts from the blue, and no news is more so than foreign news. The Peron family has come and gone in Argentina, and those handsome, authoritative voices on the tube
THE GOVERNOR'SBUDGET recommendations are then transmitted to the Legislature, where, as Jim Cobb pointed out in his article, the university's requests are addressed by the Means Committee, the full Senate, and then usually by a bicameral conference committee and the full membership
(1) As I'm sure you know, the University's budget requests must pass three levels of review after decisions about what to request have been made on campus First, the Board of Education sets salary and other operating expenditure increase recommendations, and considers proposals for new and improved programs. After the Regents have approved a certain level of funding, the University's budget is to be to the Governor and the Budget Division, where additional review takes place.
Foreign news is baffling
THE BEST STORY is China. Even what has come to be routine China coverage is hilariously mystifying, confusing and illogical pictures of touring American politicians with Mao Tse-
Lately, however, the names of one or two individuals have been added to the story. References are made to an old geezer. Soliman somebody or another, who is the president of the country, but who is in flight or hiding or under siege because some of those armed men whose pictures we see don't like him. Why? We know they are the armed men? What the hell is going on over there?
Night after night we have been told that "right-wing Phalangists" and "left-wing Moslems" are fighting terrible pitched battles for the Holiday Inn, the Sheraton, the Quality Court and the Marriott. We are shown pictures of skirmishes at
CURRENTLY THE longestrunning, most baffling foreign news story concerns Lebanon.
Published at the University of Kansas weekly newsletter. A second semester course is required periodically. Second-course postage paid at Lawrenceville, $15 for a summer or $18 in Dallas County and $40 in Pasadena. First-course postage $12 for a summer, $14 for a semester, paid through the student activity fees.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
From time to time, though, television news attempts to throw itself onto a continuing news story about some situation in another land that may last for weeks and months. into that exact event, and English pound sterling and the Portuguese revolution where, you may recall, the seldom-if ever-interviewed Communists were threatening to effect a Russian-backed coup d'état for months until one day they would be as if they had been vaporized.
By Nicholas von Hoffman
(C) King Features
haven't yet suggested how, how come or why. Election returns from Bangkok and Cuban expeditionary forces in the dark heart of Africa are reported to us rather like comets or cancer cures, something to be applied for the moment and forgotten.
Business Manager
Roxy Parris
Readers Respond
Editor Carl Young
tung, who either doesn't have or don't wear his dentures. We are shown defrocked President Obama in a wheelchair chairman of the powerful joint congressional committee on poultry reform, shaking hands with the revered, if palied, old chairman who is slobbering about his wife and politician's wide lapels. The confident American correspondent informs us that Bilge-daddy was awakened at the meeting to go to this summer meeting. It is a hilarious honor.
Then we cut to the network's State Department expert who gives us the news that U.S. government Sinologists don't believe that the continuing battle between the defunct Chinese general and the dead American is serious effect on our relations with Peking. Stay turned to this channel for developments.
THE DEVELOPMENTS for next day are that 800,000 students have rioted in downtown Peking and that former
That's the routine news. Then there are the upheavals, Behind Chancellor or Cronkite they show a slide of the map of China—always in red but only once in blue—the sickle—and announce that the prime minister, veteran supreme party committee member Egg Foo Young, has been replaced and the acting prime minister, Eddie Park. It is explained that Egg Foo Young's fall is a slap in the face of the faction led by former prime minister and friend of the West, En-Chai Lel. Background information we are told Chou rose to power when the late Marshal Won Ton's plane was shot down while he was returning from Russia with a nuclear-armed atom bomb which he planned to use to seize Hankow.
The following day the news is even more exciting. Duck Teng (pronounced Dung on the air), former vice-president of Beirut, be made the new prime minister. The semi-official Peking newspaper, Red Gas, has said editorially that this will not interfere with participation in the forthcoming Montreal Olympics
prime minister Egg Foo Young has been demoted to be a trolley-car conductor, although he will retain his job as minister. He is also the State Department expert who explains that our government believes Egg Foo Young isn't out of it yet and could still stage a comeback as the head of the government. Mr. Obama's capital obstacle is the Chairman who, although he holds no position in the government, we are carefully informed, runs China and who, for reasons Marxist dialectic, has this power and revolutions against himself.
Throughout this long process, one that covers nearly a full year, the University's requests scrutiny, revision, and occasionally deletion. Such was the case for the budget requests for Fiscal Year 1977. Several requests that were forwarded to Regents and Regents for program improvements or additions were reduced in size or cut completely. Subsequently, the Governor revised or did not approve the program requests. The Legislature then reviewed the requests over nearly a three-month period, recommended increases in some areas, changed others, and funding at request levels in yet other categories.
THE NEXT NIGHT the news is that a heretofore unknown fact has staged an orderly rebellion of people in Shanghai, and wall posters have appeared in Peking demanding the death of Egg Foo Young. It being unclear whether this is Mao Tsetung overthrowing himself with Russia, all three networks interview China scholars from John Hopkins and Harvard. These savants make several important points, the first of which is that they expected it to be that viewers are that viewers would wise count Duck out even if they execute him. Posthumous political power is very important in China. Most of the major offices in the Chinese government are held by dead Some again, professor? His ancestor worship, Charlie Chan.
THE TABLE that compared requests with legislative approval showed in the left hand column the items the Regents recommended, not the items requested by the University. As university's original requests were not reported.
(2) It is important that recognition be given to the time and effort members of the College provide a workable budget for the College of Health Sciences and Hospital. Several key supplemental appropriations for the were authorized, including;
—An increase of $1,130,000 in the Hospital revenue expenditure ceiling.
—A $730,000 appropriation to offset the loss of Federal capitation grant funds.
—An increase of $125,000 in the student fee expenditure limitation.
FOR FY 77, appropriations and authorizations include:
—An additional 32.8 unclassified and 57 classified positions to meet enrollment demands on health care services.
-$600,000 to offset Federal capitation grant losses.
—$225,000 to pay overtime to nurses, as necessary.
—$88,578 to support the regional perinatal care program.
- Authorization for expenditure of up to $25,000 to retain private counsel in medical mall practice suits.
Additionally, the Legislature appropriated $850,000 for FY 77 and $1,650,000 for FY 78 to meet radiation therapy faculty needs.
IN SUMMARIZING this point, I want to emphasize that special attention was given this year to the fiscal needs of the College of Health Sciences and Medicine, which should enhance and facilitate our programs of health care education and service.
(3) I want to emphasize our appreciation for the thoughtful consideration our requests have received at all levels and our assistance we received and assistance we received from our alumni and friends.
Literally hundreds of letters were written and contacts made by alumni and friends of the University to persuade legislators of the University's wishes. Would such a support the University received would have been impossible.
But despite the strong, active support of many people, the University did not receive all the feedback mentioned in the first point of this letter, reductions were made at all levels of review. But the fact that the university in the University were kept fully informed. The result is a budget
which, although it does not contain everything that had been requested, is sufficient to enable the University to make use of our facilities for teaching, research, and service—and on all of its campuses. Over the past three years, we have received increases totaling 28 per cent in unclassified salaries and more than one per cent in other operating expense appropriations.
ADDITIONALLY, the largest construction program in the
history of the University is now under way, made possible by generous support by our Governor and the Legislature.
In closing, I want to express appreciation for the coverage the Kansan has provided as our team completed the approval process. I wanted to add this additional information so the University community would understand fully the impact which our budget is approved.
Archie R. Dykes Chancellor
To the Editor:
Only Senate record in absence column
I was personally opposed to the subsidy and expected it to be defeated anyway. But that's not the question. The only question that was answered was that a majority of the Student Senate wasn't even willing to put its opinion on the public record.
The question of an athletic ticket subsidy was decided in the worst of all possible ways by the Student Senate last Thursday. The student council showed up to discuss it. No quorum, no meeting, no action.
AFTER ALL, what might happen if constituents knew how their senators voted, that they remembered that information at the next election? As unlikely as that chain of events is, the Student Senate didn't even notice the possibility of its occurrence.
What's worse, it wasn't just any old issue that the Senate was to have considered. Old, yes; but still not just your
say-yay, run-of-the-mill question.) It was a bill that would have had an effect on every student and could have helped students who buy season football and basketball tickets.
THOSE OF us who represent Oliver Hall took a straw poll on the subsidy question after doing our best to give them both sides of the issue. Sixty-three per cent were for it, 37 per cent against. That doesn't prove that a majority of students on campus feel subsidy, but it does mean that a large number of students were totally ignored by an absent Student Senate.
These senators were elected to represent their constituents. Yet more than half of the senators represented only themselves that night, and the only record you'll ever be able to see are actions in the absence column of the Student Senate Record.
Steve Leben
Student Senator