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Monday, December 3, 1973
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Case of Shrewdness
Good politicians are masters of finesse. Sen, Bob Dole, R-Kan., demonstrated his political shrewdness Wednesday night with a touch of Mark Twin-like one-upmanship against Dole's probable opponent for re-election in 1974, Gov. Robert Docking.
Docking had held a press conference in Wichita to bemoan the woes of Wichita's private aircraft industry in light of President Obama's campaign guidelines, which would severely limit allocations for private planes.
At first, it seemed that Docking had scored a big victory over Dole. The press conference was carried by at least two of the three national network news programs that evening. But, before the evening was over, the governor of White House and announced to the people of Kansas that Nixon was "reconsidering" the plans for rationing fuel for private planes.
Dole had destroyed Docking's media performance. Docking was left-faced—a convicted cynic, a bearer of ill tidings. Dole, on the other hand, was the idealistic prophet of hope.
Dole obviously scored a victory with Kansas voters; no one likes a cynic. But more than that, Dole hadn't just talked about the crisis, he had taken substantial action to correct it.
All Docking could do was grouse and condemn. Then again, condemnation has been the trademark of Docking's political career.
In his first election, Docking
accused his opponent, Gov. William H. Avery, who had built up a $96 million budgetary surplus, of fiscal irresponsibility and of traveling too much. Docking, however, has traveled more than any other Kansas governor, and Avery's large surplus evaporated early in Docking's tenure.
In the next election, a deepvoiced announcer from St. Louis and a couple of catchy tunes won the election for Docking. His opponent, former K-State basketball coach, was a determined team that point out Docking's shortcomings, but Harmon was a better forward than campaigner.
Two years later, Docking conducted a smear campaign against Atty. Gen. Kent Frizzell. Several stories about an alleged scandal in Frizzell's office appeared just before the election. The stories, of course, later proved to be greatly exaggerated.
A year ago, Docking's announcer accused State Rep. Morris Kay, the Republican's most recent sacrifice, of outspending Docking during the campaign. But when reports were released in January, they showed that Docking had outspent Kay by a wide margin.
After four failures, Kansas Republicans finally seem to have found someone who can beat Docking at his own expense. Is it why Docking is reluctant to announce his intentions to run against Dole.
—Eric Meyer
Teacher-Evaluation Changes Urged
Reader Responds
To the Editor:
I propose a fairly radical change in the approach we take to the problem of obtaining valid and useful student evaluations of teachers and courses. The problem is important because student evaluations are often subject to significant change in process and are also available for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on their strengths and weaknesses as teachers. It also provides students a direct channel of influence in academic affairs. My proposals are based on a combination of assessments and considerations. They are:
—the present system is likely to fall into disuse because of lack of student interest, lack of faculty interest and the inherent risk of failure in the system—lack of reliability and validity.
—Immediate post-experience evaluation is not necessarily the best or even the most important factor in hiring.
strument, no matter how inadequate, just because it exists.
We do not want to use a research income up for promotion or tenure decisions, people who wished to have an evaluation for the purpose of obtaining feedback for the improvement of their instruction and, perhaps, an additional random set so that over a five year period everyone would receive some kind of evaluation of teaching and course development.
-Careful, random sample surveys are much better than poorly conducted 100 per cent censuses for obtaining valid information on any subject.
—Many factors other than characteristics of the response object influence judgments made on paper and pencil questionnaires or computer-controlled controls, straight line comparisons are invalid.
Our present Curriculum and Instruction Survey costs too much for value received in relation to other possible uses for the same funds.
Students are increasingly bored with filling out the forms. The potential value is rapidly decreasing. Every course and every semester should not be evaluated every semester.
Mv proposals are as follows:
Each year a specific set of faculty members will be selected for a systemic student evaluation. This selected list would consist of all those people who were likely to
- Through the University's automatic data processing system, a complete listing of all students who had enrolled in one of the selected faculty member's classes during the recent one or two years would be adjusted. The number of students would be selected. Sample size could be adjusted to balance cost and sampling error.
The individuals in the samples of 30 would be approached with open-ended as well as fixed-response questionnaires and the members of the sample could be interviewed as appropriate. The information about the course or the instructor could be differentiated much more and made appropriate to unique circumstances.
—Meaningful and tailor-made feedback on each instructor could then be made available to promotion and tenure committees and to the individual instructors.
Let us say that at the most 150 faculty members would be evaluated once a year. At the rate of 30 students for each instructor, the scheme would mean about 4,500 questionnaires and interviews. Demographic and background data could be obtained on each respondent so that control analyses could be carried out.
Howard Baumgartel
The cost of this scheme would be a fraction of the cost of the present scheme. Student and faculty interest could remain high. More valid random sample data would be available. Models are available for the analysis and reporting of data obtained in previous experiments, issues and problems of college-level teaching and learning could be addressed.
Howard Baumgartner Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Press Lacks Pro-Nixon Opinions
By PATRICK OWENS
Newsday
You've read about the energy shortage, the meat shortage, the money shortage, the food shortage.
Let me tell you about a shortage that is driving some of the nation's editors near to distraction. This is the great pro-Nixon-onion shortage.
Truth is that literate Americans ready to rise to the President's defense are scarce as hers' teeth. I asked Harrison Salisbury, who runs the nation's opinion supermarket, the op-ed page of the New York Times, if the shortage did not approach crisis proportions.
suggestions. He said, 'Jesus, we are having the same problem.'"
"That is absolutely true," Salisbury responded. "I called up Pat Buchanan (the Presidential speechwriter) about two weeks ago and told them we were having one hell of a time getting it done, but who wanted to support the President's position. I wondered if he might have any
THE TIMES, LIKE NEWSDAY, has been driven to the recruitment of agent guns of the Nazi regime.
NEWBOLD NOYES, the Star-News's editor, acknowledges that the shortage exists. But he professes to be unfazed by it. "It's not our fault that nobody's defending Nixon now," Noyes says. "We're not either. We've taken the position that the President should not resign because that would leave the situation too much in the air. We have
The Washington Star-News, long a bastion of conservatism (and therefore of Nixonum) has been particularly hard hit. It is one of the few publications available daily in Washington, relying primarily on its own and syndicated columnists. Of late, its conservatives have been dropping away from the President like the Morro Castle's crew heading for the life-
Even James Jackson Kilpatrick, the Murray Kempton of conservative Southern polemic journalism, was moved the other day to suggest that impeachment might be the best way forward. Impachment to clear the air. I gathered.
urged that the Congress should look into the issue of payment issue, and see how far it takes them.
"As long as the news columns are balanced, in the sense that they report his side of the thing fully, I don't feel any responsibility for trying to make sure that the commentary is all balanced up," Noyes said.
Salisbury of the Times denies that balance is the goal of his editorial page.
"It is the function of the paper to present to its readers all of the viewpoints it considers important," Salisbury said, But "we reject the concept of balance. . . Our idea is to bring in all kinds of views. We don't add them up every morning to see what side is ahead. . . We deliberately seek out views and judgments which are not to be found in our own perspective. We propose toward more conservative views and more radical left-wing views, and individual views that are different from those you usually hear."
WITH THIS AS his perceived charter, Salisbury considers it vital to publish prose in both Buchanan and Aram Baskhian JR., another speechwriter. Last week, the Times
up-ed page offered a Presidential defense by William Leibm, the publisher of the Manchester Union Leader and perhaps the most influential newspaper publisher of a sizable American daily.
"Thus, with the spectre of President Nixon's resignation or impeachment, you are faced with a question of whether your vote in November, 1972, should now be thrown out and who have created this situation, and how they tried to pick our president," Loeb wrote.
Newday, which sees things pretty much as Salisbury sees them, hasn't got around to publishing Loeb yet. But it has given houseroom to Baskin, is importing Buchanan to few pence for its pages and has recurred Clare Boothe Lace to save a few words.
IN HIS NEWSDAY PIECE, Bakkian said: "In the coming weeks, as Judge Sirita listens to the tapes and weighs the other evidence of the Watergate case, the questions on the minds of many sincere citizens with no political bias and a real concern for the truth can and should be answered."
"HE SAID I COULD HAVE HIS RATION COUPONS!"
Kids Hate Own Toys
By JUDITH MARTIN The Washington Post
Bv JUDITH MARTIN
It is almost Christmas. One must buy toys for the children.
WASHINGTON—As tight as money is, multitudes of people are about to go out and squander heaps of it on junk which they will bring them and theirs nothing but grief.
Why is not clear. Who is it, after all, who really likes tov?
Not children, certainly. What children like is your Scotch Tape, your scissors, your typewriter, your new shoes, your razor and your automobile. Second choice is any of the things belonging to a sibling, especially if the sibling is trying to hold onto the other end of it.
If you want to drain all innocent pleasure from those playthings, try giving the children toy or real versions of their very own. That will be the end of that.
ADULTS HATE TOYS just as much, if they only admit it. What gets in the way is that they're not good at it.
that there is a submarket of toys aimed especially at vulnerable adults:
No-color, natural finish, abstractly designed navinian toys which go with the furniture.
—Obsolete toys, such as electric trains, delight new generations which have never seen trains in their lives and have been brought home. If the shuffle is not running, we stay home.
BUT REAL TOYS are things which any adult can recognize immediately as his natural enemy. They have hundreds of scales, and they are printed on tissue paper. Or they have hundreds of little pieces which are not supposed to be put together, but are supposed to be scattered all over the house if they is unplayable and the house is unlivable.
—Useless toys, such as old-fashioned dolls with china faces which are given into the custody of children who are admonished not to play with them.
That seems to be about all his boss can ask for at the moment.
Oil, Coal Not Alone
They make noise; either they can be clanged together, or they burst, or they have long strings which set them talking in high, squeaky voices when you pull.
Editors would, understandably, like fresher sweat from a purer source. That is why Salisbury's staff is busy scanning the 10,000 to 12,000 editor articles The Times receives in the mail every year, looking for the pro-Nixion piece that offers relatively fresh ideas and readability. These are rare, Salisbury says.
Every paper in the country seems to be combing its incoming mail for letters in support of the President. These tend to be scarce; too a lot of them seem to have been used in the election of his own impulse. Salisbury he suspects that many of them are "inspired."
World Is Full of Potential Energy Reserves
By DONALD BREMNER The Los Angeles Times
I believe in balance in a 'newspaper's' opinion columns and must sympathize with the quest by people at Newday and the press on this issue. Our other papers for Presidential apollols.
Not all of these alternative forms are easily converted to warm a house, move a vehicle or turn a machine. Nor are they necessarily cheap. But they are available, generally clean and could be developed to hold up and陪 off the dwindling supply of fossil fuels.
So much of the power in modern society comes from burning some form of oil or coal that it is easy to forget that the world is full of potential energy in other forms.
But it seems to me important also for readers to know that the pro-Nixon opinion shortage exists. Thin and scarce as the President's defenses may seem in the newspapers, they are in actuality thinner still.
A good many journals that are busy giving the President what-for have been busy, too, trying to find someone with a good word for him. It is doubtful whether any president in American history has ever been so short of literate defenders.
**SOLAR--Energy reaching the earth from the sun each year has been calculated as equivalent to the energy released from its heat, and the amount times the world's estimated coal reserves. The supply is infinite and free, but the difficulties in harnessing it are that it is vastly diffused, and cut off at night or on sunrise. Because of its height, it is more one of costs than of technology.**
Here are some alternative sources of energy, apart from oil, natural gas, coal.
On a small scale, rafts to heat water in homes, raising it to perhaps 125 degrees fahrenheit, leaving only 20 or 30 degrees to be added by a gas or electric heater, which would do the whole job when sunlight was unavailable. Airplane carriers and California years ago, and are in use today in Israel, Australia and Japan.
Similarly, homes and commercial buildings could be heated-at least partially by solar heat trapped by roof panels, and even cooled by solar air conditioning using the absorption-refrigeration process, eventually saving perhaps half of the
energy now used for heating and cooling buildings, which together account for 20 per cent of total energy use.
HYDROGEN- Touted as an ideal future fuel, hydrogen burns cleanly and is abundant in nature, most importantly in water. It is highly efficient in liquid or gas form, and as safe to use as gasoline or natural gas. Hydrogen is also used in factories, and for gasoline in the engines of cars and trucks, with engine modifications. When burned, it produces no
Cost of the equipment to harness the free sunlight is expected to range from a few hundred dollars for a large water heater to over $10,000 for a heating-cooling system for a home. Savings on fuel over the years would pay for the equipment, which could be purchased by the building owner, or installed and leased to him by a utility company as telephones
pollutants, only steam, which returns to the atmosphere and is recycled naturally with
GEOTHERMAL"—"Earth heat" from the geysers of northern California generates electricity for the Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and trapped steam in other areas could be similarly used. Italy has had a geothermal power plant since 1904, and Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada have also opened operatings. Disposal of waste waters and air pollution from release of noxious gases can be a problem.
METHIANE—Clean-burning methan gas, the chief component of natural gas, is produced in nature by the bacterial decay of vegetable matter and animal waste in the absence of air. Soil from pig-manure pit, for clean, odor-free kitchen cooking, and one British car owner has used pig-mannure methane to run his car for 17 years. (He figures that 100 gallons of manure yields methane equal to eight gallons of wheat.) This makes fine fertilizer afterward. Such small-scale use might be impractical in the United States, but large municipal sanitation plants could be equipped to produce methane, whose carbonization estimated at roughly equal to present natural gas consumption in this country.
THEY TURN ICKY. If you think there’s nothing like coming across a puckered old crone of a balloon in a forgotten closet, take a look at the surface of clay. Of bubble gum, for that pattern.
**WIND** - Windmills that used to pump water and generate electricity on farms fell as idral electricification spread. More efficient windmills now could be used to electrolyse water, producing storable energy, thus offsetting the wind's unpredictability.
SEA GRADIENT—Temperature differences between warm surface water and near-freezing deep ocean water could be used to generate power by means of great submerged heat engines. One proposed system would use the temperature difference to generate the heaters, the electricity being carried ashore by cables. Another system envisions using the power to electrolyze water to form hydrogen for use ashore.
They come with wheels, and either the wheels fall off, in which case the house looks like a wrecking establishment, or they stay on the ground, whose house becomes a wrecking establishment.
TIDES—Water at high tide runs through turbines to enter an artificial basin or dyed-off bay, then out through turbines again when the tide goes out. Energy flow is intermittent as the tide changes. The turbine in northern France generates electricity from a plant, but only a few places have the required high rise in tide.
But large-scale production of hydrogen requires enormous amounts of power—probably electricity used in electrolysis to produce hydrogen, the gas released oxygen. Thus, an abundant supply of nuclear, solar or some other form of energy would be needed for a hydrogen-based economy, in which this fuel would be delivered through transmission and clean use of energy.
They have eyes or heads that come off, according to a well-known principle that just when dolls begin to revolt grown-ups with their macadam looks, children start to love them. Or else they come with parts missing and the children want to know if they're bait funny. (The question may not be answerable, but you can think of an answer?)
HYDROELECTRIC—Power dams generate clean power, but dammed rivers spread out and inundate valuable land. Sedimentation can be a problem in the river and tributaries, and siltation often limits the dam's life expectancy. Shoatage of new sites limits the potential for more power dams.
But the redeeming quality of all these things is that they don't last. With any luck, you can have a clean-sweeping and Happy New Year.
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