UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanas
editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
September 28,1979
Class manuals needed
The Student Senate voted Wednesday for course awareness at the University of Kansas and decided to constructive to increase that awareness.
The vote came in the form of a resolution to fund and produce a course evaluation manual. With funding now available through the Senate's internal budget, student senators hope they can get the manual out by next semester.
Campus-wide course and faculty evaluations had been hampered by the lack of funding and personnel. With the Senate's decision to provide both to get the project underway, all of the faculty training is finally beginning to turn to action.
ONLY 40 PERCENT of KU's instructors are evaluated by a student evaluation. But the sentiment among them seems to be in favor of an evaluation.
The problem with matching the faculty interest with faculty participation in the evaluations has resulted from a lack of funding and personnel. But the main problem was a failure to the fairness of the current evaluation.
Evelyn Swartz, professor of curriculum and instruction, says that the currently used nine-question Curriculum and Instruction Survey has been revised by the instructor's personal style. Other faculty members have expressed a concern
that it evaluates the personality of the instructor more than other elements of the course.
The concern about the fairness of the evaluation was well taken by the Senate. Members of the Senate Academic Affairs Committee have said that additional funding could improve the survey.
INDEED, IF the funding and the time put in by the Senate is to be useful at all, the evaluation must be a good indication of what the student will find in that course. If it does not do that, then the Senate, the faculty and the entire student body might just as well start over.
The approval by the Senate of the Student Course Evaluation Manual will mean that instructors can publish the results of their evaluations in a manual available to students, perhaps by next semester.
Manuals of this type have been produced nationwide. They can be a useful service to the student in finding out more about a course before going through the enrollment hassle only to find the class is not what was expected.
But a manual of this type can also be destructive if it serves only to reiterate student comments on a teacher's personality.
If the Senate takes care in preparing the evaluation, the manual next spring can be everything they have for years hoped it could be.
Israel must resolve its internal problems
With the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement early this year, Israel was able to cause the tension with one of its major enemies.
And now, recognition the battle for recognition by Arab countries is still not over and continued conflict seems certain, Israel can begin to turn to solving its internal problems that have long been undermined by the burdens of continual war.
But how does a country that has been living with war since its inception more than 30 years ago live with peace? And what effects will peace have on the economy, the government and the nation's attitudes? I answered that they are indeed faced with the task of tackling those questions.
However, those questions are difficult to answer, and the solutions Israel finds will surely involve thousands of people and perhaps even the fate of the nation.
Weak trade relations, sagging relations with long-time friends, high inflation, a rise in unemployment, and an energy shortage are obstacles that the Israeli government must now contend
Israel government officials apparently realize the importance of establishing trade relations with other countries by strengthening them in relation to it as a tool to help strengthen their weak economy and to help establish solid foreign relations with other countries that they can rely on for aid, both economically and politically.
High inflation is one of the more serious problems facing the government. Israel is an island country, and any Western country—about 45 percent, or less than the government is exerting its control. It has been unsuccessful because the Israeli people continue to demand scarce material goods and labor.
Government officials hope that by cutting some of the government expenditures for infrastructure, industries will be used to strengthen industry in the country and create new jobs to reduce unemployment.
The government spends about 30 percent of the gross national product on the
John
COLUMNIST fischer
military. If this expenditure could be cut in half, many of Israel's social problems could be relieved.
But, with peace come the problem of full-time soldiers returning to the cities seeking employment. The job market already full, undoubtedly this will lead to an increase.
The country also is suffering from a continuing energy shortage because of an increasing demand for oil to sell to Israel. Although the United States help by selling some of its oil to the countries that it does not meet its demands. In the meantime, this could create problems of public discontent.
But perhaps one of the biggest problems that has been created by the people said to its efforts and avoids the creation of resurrectionist groups that could lead to violence and terrorism and that lacks understanding.
Factionalism between Israelis, Arab and Jew, could develop. In the past, the Arab have been passive about their condition. They are typically poorer and, therefore, the source of cheap labor. Arabs make up a majority of the laborers in Israel's construction industry.
But with new development and technology, improved education and better healthcare, the demand equal rights and more involvement in the land they saw taken from them by the state will be greater.
But if it cannot, and it ignores the cries of the people, civil unrest could result. And what makes such a threat so awake is the fact that civil unrest can lead to a civil war because Israel especially susceptible to foreign aggression, which of which could be the dissolution of Israel.
If the government can deal with the various groups and resolve some of the country's problems, government officials feel they will be able to maintain peace.
The two students who up on stage Monday night with Raiph Nader and identified themselves as members of the John Birch Society are marked men.
No doubt they have heard and will suffer wirescracks and snickers because they marched on stage and were publicly enunciated in their attempt to match wits with Nader.
Their failure on stage was not caused by any shortcoming in public-speaking ability or lack of allegiance to such a manipulative organization that helped crumble their audience.
Bircher-Nader episode a charade
THE JOHN Birch Society is notorious for its patriotic slogan-yelling and its anti-redo doctrine. It's also well-known for distorting facts to make them better fit its argument.
For example, many media outlets by Tax Reform Immediately (TRIM), The John Birch Society finances the publication of that pamphlet and is responsible for its release.
The TRIM pamphlet, published individually for each state, lists recorded votes of representatives on all appropriations bills. Each "no" vote is heralded as a move to save the taxpayers money and cut back bureaucracy essential to the job that is resoundingly criticized because, TRIM it contributes to the tax burden on voters.
without. Cars are more likely to spin out of control on pooily-maintained highways. Planes are more likely to collide if no one direct traffic at airports. And the coasts, if the John Birch Society is worried about the safety of people, why does it object to Coast Guard patrols?
SINCE ITS founding in 1958 by Robert Welch, the group has been known for its zealous anti-Commission doctrines. In fact, the anti-rid objective has well overshadowed the other goals: abolition of graduate income taxes, repeal of social protection and displacement of various high government offences and an end to basing for integration.
And it is herbertical anti-Communist attitude that leads to automatic ridicule and laughter from crowds such as the one that came to hear Naldar Nader's lecture.
There are probably things John Birch Society members would not like to do
BUT, THE TRIM pamphlet doesn't tell its readers what the bulls are appropriating money for. For example, one bill is said to be $100,000 in federal compensation for internal expenses, but in reality that money paid for other things, including highway repair, air traffic control and other services.
Nader contributed to the ridicule by nading the two members, urging them to attend the stage and toying with them. Although all three were involved in allowing the John Birch Society its chance
at the Lectern, he clearly had the advantage.
IS QUESTIONABLE that such a con-
tention may arise from the lecture. Although Nader repeatedly re-formed the rights to *r* free expression, he did little more than pay hp service to the college.
It ended as a charade—Nader charging the Birchers with not believing in free speech and changing their chance to express their beliefs, and the Birchers, saying Nader would not let them tell their truths while staunchly supporting the half-truths and twisted facts that their
Neither Nader nor the John Birch Society members were much of an example of what the First Amendment means.
But the two students and the other Birch Society members who joined them are to be recommended for going on stage. Next time they may not be so eager to express their views, but they will die the laughter and scorn their views provoke, will all be the worse for their silence.
Mary Horik Managing Editor Nancy Dressler Business Manager Anne Lunger Editorial Editor Tim Shearer Associate Campus Editor Phil Garcia Assistant Campus Editor Lori Campbell Assistant Managing Editor Bill Franks Sports Editor Tony Pilla Business Manager Cynthia Ray Retail Sales Manager Vincent Collom National Sales Manager Carl Nelson Marketing Manager Chelsea Crump Founder Assistant Classified Manager Allen Rohmann Accounts Manager Alen Rohmann Staff Photographer Kerd Geller General Manager Advertising Advisor Susan Chow
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melissa COLUMNIST thompson
KANSAN
H-bomb "secret" not a secret in 1939
To the Editor
It must have been hard for John Logan to see the point of the Press Connection's article, because he missed it. The point it made, the secret it exposed, was that the public的科学 American, Gerald Fiel, writes, "All data needed to make the atomic and hydrogen bombs were in the public domain." The government didn't create the secret until the Atomic Energy Act of 1948, wherein it restricts all data concerning atomic energy.
The press should therefore disseminate such information. If, to the layman, the information is gobblegook, the press should make it clear. Why? Because the public is ignorant of secrecy around all things nuclear. The public is in ignorance and fear, and knowledge is in the hands of an elite. But democracy depends on an informed public. This is why a war is proliferation, perhaps Einstein said it best, “… there is no secret and no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world.” The public has a right, you know; you should know that, Mr. Logan.
John Retherford
Lawrence senior
Birchers not given forum at Nader talk
To the Editor
Although I agreed in part with certain points that Nader made concerning the unwarranted involvement of the federal government in the energy industry, I wish to make a statement pertaining to the format of interaction between Nader and several students at the University of Chicago, which most people in attendance probably have not fully considered.
I feel that the article that appeared on the news website of The Wall Street Journal dealing with Ralph Nader's energy-related speech Monday did not adequately describe the situation that occurred before Nader's release.
Naunder painted a very good picture for consumer advocacy and a very negative one for the Birch Society. As a member of the Naunder group, we have our right to free speech in that we were
with certain aspects of his career as a consumer advocate. Even though I think Mr. Lohan is an honest public by those invited to join Nader, this invitation did not provide an entirely objective forum to answer the specific issues at hand.
critically all who were in attendance to critically evaluate Nader's stance on specific issues in an atmosphere that lacks an international charge of Monday evening's sneech.
AS THE only speaker on the program, Nader had full control of the situation and answered all questions with no answers and as he desired and thus "silence" those who were questioned. I recognize that during his presentation it was important to note the context of such interaction, but I feel that those in attendance were entitled to a more thorough analysis of the questions that Nader provided.
Larry Erickson Lawrence Graduate Student
Larry Erickson
This opportunity is presently available to our students, faculty and programs of the John Birch Society through the various information and action meetings and film shows which the Society has produced.
NADER CHOSE to defame those who presented material that was in disagreement with his goals and aims to reduce to absorbates the issues raised in this material, and to specify statements contained within the pamphlet. This is a prime example of Nader's style; one of emotional appeal, rather than one of adherence to the princi- pals of truth, according to specifying to specific questions with specific answer in an atmosphere of objectivity).
I question Nader's sincerity in his supposed attempts to defend consumers from the dangers of the COVID-19 contend that Nader's activities tend to increase federal control over our lives, rather than helping consumers.
Pro-nuclear stance needs examination
To the Editor:
David Preston's column on Sept. 12 takes typical criticism of his handling the criticisms of the political power while attempting to ridicule its opponents. One wonderment if it is as tired with writing about political powers as David Preston.
The truth of the matter is that nuclear
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
So far, most of the debate centers around the contention of environmental and health risks.
Prost argues that the Three Mile Island "accident" has been hinned way out of proportion because the effect on the health of the nearby population was negligible.
He claims other developing technologies (transportation, coal, etc.) were far more dangerous. Yet the potential harm of a fire or explosion on the harm of any other type of industrial accident. A melt down (China Syndrome) of the core could spread very large amounts of radiation—approaching lethal dosages—to a nearby region, contaminating the land for decades.
power is a complex issue. It should be viewed only as an alternative strategy to an increased energy supply. If the hazards it is faced with are significant, an alternative strategy should be followed.
And before too many people claim that Three Mile Island proved that the safety systems work, consider this from Science News. The core covered core for 50-60 minutes and partially uncovered for 10 hours. The core was so badly damaged that it resembled an 'inverted pyramid' and 'fuel fragments blocked the flow of the path for the cooling water.'
Does 7 percent reserve prove that the safety system works? What would another 10 minutes of exposure have done?
But the problems of nuclear power do not end here. Nuclear-powered electrical plants may be the safest part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The milling of uranium are to produce 'yellow cake' leads to radioactive waste. These tailings have been sold to construction companies and have found their way into new projects. Further refinery releases radiation.
As for the operational release of low-level radiation, there are conflicting reports as to whether the health hazards of the IMMEDIATE health hazards exist. The problem is that we have no conclusive evidence on the long-term effects. Until the debate is settled, how wise it is to take the precautions.
As the lifespan of the containers is considerably less than that of the contents, disposal gets to be a very tricky problem. The container disposal signal safety record is not reassuring.
And we have at the present no safe long-term disposal of the copious amounts of highly radioactive nuclear wastes.
Preston does correctly point out that coated plants spout more radiation than do nuclear plants during the operational phase, and during the whole mining-to-waste process.
It is a mistake for both pre- and anti-nuclear people to be forced into either camp because of the political polarization in energy crisis is the result of a long-term commitment to massive energy conservation, and necessarily be which of the harmful choices should we pick, but rather do we have the nuclear option?
Scott Spellerberg Lawrence graduate student
Front page photos refreshing, realistic
To the Editor:
I'm writing in regard to the letter to the editor on Sept. 24 on misplaced photos in the Kansan. Tell me, what kind of pictures do those two students want?
The pictures on the front page of Kansan have been high quality, enjoyable pictures. They show what students at KU are doing—playing tennis, reading the UDK and so on.
It is a shame we don't have enough fires,
protests or car wrecks to make some people happy,
but personally I like to see students hyainge and enjoying life.
Maybe we do not have many pictures of "celebrities"—but be truthful—if they were in Lawrence they would be on the front page.
The students at KU are getting "news for the big people." If those students looked at the classroom, they would be similar to the Kansas's, involving local people—like children playing in the snow or
Maybe some people find these pictures "cutey or trivial" but I find them refreshing.
Kelly Gibson Moline, Ill., senior