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Rage I
The Ked and Hlack. Tuesda>. K**biuar> 21. I97H
Coal conundrum
President Jimmy Carter since
last winter has been pushing
Congress to come to grips with
the nation’s critical energy
problem.
Carter wants the U.S. to
reduce its dependence on im
ported oil and turn to a fuel
bountifully available in this
country-coal.
The United States has coal
enough to last for 200 years, the
president has repeatedly em
phasized. That may be true, but
if you can’t get it out of the
ground, it won't do you much
good.
The nation is now approaching
its 80th day of a coal-miners'
strike. The long strike has
slowed activities throughout the
country, and in some areas the
shortage is now critical.
As of yesterday, the govern
ment was still pondering the
problem. The choices before the
government were basically
three-invoke the Taft-Hartley
Act to order the striking miners
back to work, submit the
labor-management dispute to
binding arbitration or order a
temporary government takeover
of the mines to protect the
nation's well-being.
In other words, the govern
ment must say: We need the
coal Therefore you must provide
it It matters not what the
miners or the mine operators
want or need. Their desires are
not relevant.
This raises an interesting
question: If their lives and
activities belong to us because
we need them, then who owns
our lives? Presumably, those
who need us and our productive
ability.
Who, then, can assert the
ultimate right to demand any
thing of anyone? Presumably,
those who produce nothing.
It's an interesting philo
sophical position to hold.
Gift of the heart
Here's something that folks
here at the University can be
proud of-the annual winter blood
drive here is the biggest in the
Southeast and one of the biggest
in the nation.
The blood drive's big turnout is
something to be proud of. There
is a strong community spirit
attached to the program, and
people in the University com
munity are always strongly
encouraged by their friends to
take part.
We think it’s great. Although
students generally don’t take
part in political issues of the
area, here at blood drive time,
they take the chance the show
they care.
We encourage everyone who
can to participate. The drive is
going on this week at Memorial
Hall.
If you have the flu or if you’re
on medication, you may be
deferred from giving. Chances
are, you’ll also have to wait in a
long line before you get your
turn on the table. But there’s a
sense of satisfaction in providing
someone with what may be the
gift of life.
flf THE RED AND BLACK
Steve Bills, editor
Gregg Steinle, Ed Stamper,
Executive editor Business manager
Hope Dlugozima. copy editor; Matt Prichard, campus editor; Tom Barton, city
editor; Yvonne Williams, state editor; Ed Grisamore. feature editor; William
Haines, entertainment editor, David Westin, sports editor; David Crosby, photo
editor; Vincent Papsidero, assistant copy editor; Joel Burke. Katheryn Hayes,
Skip Huleti. assistant campus editors, Mike Roberts, assistant city editor;
Michelle Kilbourne, assistant state editor: Geraldine Romano, assistant feature
editor. Bob Ingram, assistant sports editor; Charlie Register, assistant photo
editor. Louise Lanier, wire editor, Tammy Savage, editorial assistant; Debbie
Osteen, graphics coordinator; Debbie Blevins, production manager.
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LETTERS
ELLEN MATTINGLY
Advising: A faculty view
The recent survey indicating pervasive
discontent with undergraduate advising
on this campus should come as no
surprise to anyone who is on speaking
terms with even one undergraduate
During the nine years I’ve been at the
University. I've seen the situation
deteriorate to barely functional levels in
the College of Arts and Sciences; it
seems clear from the survey that other
colleges also have some problems.
I believe, however, that merely
reiterating that a problem exists will not
do much to solve it. Furthermore, the
suggestions made by the students for
improvement reflect their concerned but
limited perceptions of the situation;
unfortunately, the problem is very
complex and calls for a major change in
the point of view of the administration.
Unless and until such a miracle occurs,
the students will continue to suffer inept
advising.
Dr. Ellen Mattingly is an associate
professor in the Department of Zoology
The advising problem in Arts and
Sciences has several distinct com
ponents; I shall list them in the order
that it seem to me they have an
increasing effect on the student.
Early Fee Payment. No one has yet
been able to explain to me the custom
extant on this campus that requires such
early payment of fees Many much larger
and (mirable dictu) more reputable
universities give the students a specific
period of time at the beginning of the
quarter in which to pay for the courses in
which he is enrolled
I personally know of students who had
to work during the entire month of
December, for example, to get enough
money together to enroll in January. I
believe that a major adjustment in the
fee payment schedule might do much to
alleviate the quagmire we see each
quarter at late registration.
Registration for courses. This is one of
the biggest boondoggles on this campus.
We hear frequently about the major
investment we've made in computer
facilities Why is it not possible to put a
terminal in New College so that at the
least, registrations could be run tnrough
daily” Not only could the student find out
quickly if he has signed up for courses
that are closed already, but the harried
advisors would have access to computer
printouts.
There is nothing so frustrating as to
sign up some bright eyed freshman for
Math 101. English 101. and History ill
when you know perfectly well the odds
are high that all three are already closed.
Termination of Dr. Staff. Somehow I
hope that Staff is the first to get the axe
this \ear I well realize that the large
English and history courses and perhaps
Math 100 may need to be scheduled
anonymously The situation, on the other
hand, becomes absolutely critical for the
BS student when he reaches analytical
geometry-calculus and physics.
There are times when we advisors
would sell our souls (and possibly our
chances for promotion) to find out which
periods X and Y are teaching Phy sics 137
or how to get a student into Ms Z's Math
253
There are. as we all know, some real
losers teaching on this campus and many
of us advisors have come to the
conclusion that some departments use
the anonymity of “staff** to lure
unsuspecting enrollments for them
Devious advisors, of course, quickly
learn to play the game. I used to supply
my advisees with little lists of instructors
to be avoided. If they arrived at class to
find they had drawn one. they were
advised to drop the class post haste and
shift to a previously decided alternate
plan.
This of course creates havoc the first
week of class, but getting into medical
school, vet medicine, or even nursing or
physical therapy requires single minded
dedication and leaves little room for
lousy teaching and undeserved poor
grades.
Undergraduate advising. Frankly, even
in these three difficulties could be
remedied, the major problem would
remain Those of us who teach 400 level
courses see daily the results of the
inadequate advising that occurs at all
levels in Arts and Sciences. I see the
situation arising from three separate
sources:
The lower level-upper level division
There is a concept firmly embedded in
the minds of the A&S administration that
the average student wanders blithely
about the campus for two years with no
idea of what he wants to do with his life
The fact that, for example. 99 9 percent
of the BS students want to be doctors or
veterinarians (the pre-money curricu
lum>. and the other 0.1 percent plan to be
scuba-diving marine biologists seems
somehow irrelevant. The result of the
skewed view of reality is the formation of
a stable of faculty called nebulously AB
and BS advisors.
They are encouraged to pretend that in
the last quarter of the sophomore year,
the uncommitted student suddenly
perceives, probably in a blinding flash of
light like Saul on the road to Tarsus, his
life's ambition and is then ready to
declare a major. For BS students this
procrastination can be truly catastrophic.
Many of the students' most serious
problems could be avoided completely if
those freshmen who come in to Athens
knowing quite well what they want to do
could be sent directly to the department
they are interested in for advisement
Furthermore, we need to eradicate this
fiction that there are pre-med and pre-vet
(pre-dent, pre law, and so on) majors As
a former dean of the vet school remarked
once to a group of hopefuls; "No one has
ever made a living as a pre-vet." But a
student who has spent his first two years
guided by some cowboy from the vet
school may find, when he suddenly
reaches his junior year and decides to
major in micro or zoology, that not only
is he missing some math courses he must
have for his degree but also that all those
crip courses in chicken science and hay
bailing cannot be used in his major
It’s pretty rough to have to go back in
your senior year to pick up the second
quarter of calculus when your freshman
advisor assured you at the end of Math
101 that you would never have to think of
math again
No redress for grievances! I recall the
boy I saw in the spring of his freshman
vear He has been put by some
addlepated advisor into Physics 127 and
Math 101 in the fall quarter The fact that
Math 101 was a prerequisite for Physics
127. and that he had not exempted Math
100 on admission to the University surely
was related to the fact that iie failed
phvsics and got a “D" in math.
As it turned out. this boy was from the
back of beyond in Georgia and was not
that bad a student once he got squared
away but any hopes he had for medical
school were seriously damaged by his
first quarter's grades.
This seemed to me so blatantly unjust
that I sent him to see some general
factotum in the advising office who
patiently explained to him that those poor
grades were his own fault since the
catalogue clearly says that Math 101 is a
prerequisite for Physics 127. Now 1 ask
you!
It s bad enough that the kids must
suffer such incompetents; there must be
a way of remedying this kind of injustice
when thp blame clearly belongs to the
University. Charles Darby and I used to
fantasize about the glorious day when the
progeny of some top notch Atlanta
lawyer would get ripped off like this; I
imagine that a few well placed
educational malpractice suits would do
more to remedy the advising mess than
any number of surveys of student
opinion.
Addlepated Advisors - Breathes there
an undergraduate with soul so dead that
he has not wondered where they dig up
some of the lower level advisors in Arts
and Sciences? There are. in point of fact,
some very serious advisors; their
schedules are always filled and then
some. I knew a few whose schedules
were filled at the end of the first week of
advising while others used the long
empty hours to chat. read, or wander
over to the Varsity for coffee.
Those who advise in the lower level in
Arts and Sciences do receive an
additional stipend of $1000 for three
quarters. This program will therefore
tend to attract one group of faculty who
are strapped financially and would do
almost anything, even undergraduate
advising, for money.
Occasionally a department will not
have even one destitute faculty member
and so must look at option No 2. If he
absolutely can't do research, his teaching
is so hopeless that his classes never
make, or the department suspects a
budding alcoholic problem, he is a sure
candiate for the advising program.
Some departments do take the
undergraduate advising seriously and try
to find competent faculty to take part in
the program But frankly, undergraduate
advising is the kiss of death, not only to
one’s hopes for promotion, but frequently
even to a decent annual raise. The
financially strapped pay dearly for that
$1000 stipend.
The students must realize that
continuation in the advising program
requires genuine dedication and real
sacrifice on the part of faculty since no
one ever asks you if you’re competent or
not, no one counts all those letters of
recommendation so blithely requested,
and the general assumption is that if you
are an advisor, you don’t have sense
enough to do anything else. In plain
English, this is not an academically
respectable job.
Since someone will certainly ask, I
wasn’t destitute, I’m an excellent
teacher, I genuinely enjoy under
graduates, and I got into the lower level
advising program originally because my
department (zoology) has a longstanding
and serious commitment to quality
undergraduate education.
I finally quit when it became quite
clear that the whole weight of the
University upper echelon administration
is stacked against the students and
there’s very little that any individual can
do. Frankly, I found the whole scene
impossibly depressing The students are
the ones whose lives are being affected,
and in entirely too many cases, ruined;
they are the ones who must change the
situation, because it’s clear that the
faculty, in Arts and Sciences at any rate,
are helpless.
I'n TELLING YOU FR0BUSH IF I DON'T GET ANY
DATES THIS SPRING AFTER ALL I HAVE PUT MY BODY
THROUGH, I AIN’T DOING A THING NEXT YEM.SEE H0U
THEY LIKE- THAT' ,
\
‘My faults do not absolve Kissinger’
TO THE EDITOR:
Being as famous for my tact as Henry
Kissinger is for his peace efforts, I feel
called upon to answer for my part in
whal has been called (though presumably
without self righteousness I "the disgrace-
ful acts of Friday." In so doing. 1 intend
to ignore the various ad hominem
excursions made against me. The faults
of my character may make for
fascinating subject matter, but they do
nothing to absolve Kissinger of cul
pability in the matters mentioned.
Kay Boyle once said that "there are
times when courtesy becomes a
dangerous shield from the violence of
reality.” It was a firm belief that I was
faced with such a time that guided my
actions at the microphone
If I seemed rude in addressing
Kissinger, it was only because I know of
no polite way of accusing someone of
betraying the American people It does
not follow from that, however, that the
accusation should not have been made’
My detractors have an obligation to
prove mv allegations unfounded only-
then can they denounce my behavior as
unwarranted (I find it interesting, for
example, that there were people who
were not aware that India had fought a
war with Pakistan in 1971. but who were
willing to swear definitively that
Kissinger did nothing wrong as regards
his policy toward that war.)
Skip Hulett, in his article (Feb. 15). has
me accusing Kissinger (and, indeed, he
all but denies the accusations') of things
which Kissinger has never denied doing
At the same time he ignores some of the
most important aspects of my charges.
Hulett has some interesting notions,
some of which are worthy of response.
For example, he seems to hold that no
one who fled Germany to escape Hitler
could be guilty of war crimes-an
interesting idea which, if true, could well
lead to a new form of innoculation
However, rather than engage in a long
and fruitless comparison between fact
and fancy, it might be preferable simply
to describe what actually happened and
allow those who are in the habit of doing
such things lo decide for themselves
The question I asked was necessarily a
general one. both because it was meant
to encompass a host of atrocities and also
because (yes, I admit it) it was designed
to transmit a political message of its
own. The question was worded, however,
to allow for unlimited specicifity, and. I
might add, it was not Kissinger who
objected to the dialogue that ensued, but
rather various members of the audience
who apparently thought the good doctor
should be protected from the likes of me.
Feeling reasonably certain that Kissinger
does not bear any lasting scars from the
encounter, I make no apologies for my
behavior
For those who would still object that I
was too general, l can only add that, as
things turned out, my questions were
somewhat more specific than Kissinger's
answers For those who are of the
opinion that I outstayed my welcome at
the microphone. I would point out that it
was Kissinger, and not I. who solicited a
more specific dialogue And finally, for
those who thought I prevented more
"serious" questions from being asked. 1
would point out that mine was one of the
few questions asked which could not have
been answered by a reasonably attentive
reading of Newsweek. One auestioner, for
example, asked Kissinger his opinion on
the Panama Canal treaties, which should
be common knowledge. Another asked
his opinion of Anwar Sadat I noticed in a
newspaper of that week that Kissinger
had nominated Sadat for the Nobel Peace
Prize, I would have hazarded a guess,
therefore, that Kissinger thinks rather
highly of Sadat. I do not give these
examples to assert Ihe impropriety of the
questions involved, but rather to
demonstrate the relative propriety of my
own question.
My question did bring results which my
critics have not felt obliged to comment
upon For example, as pertains to the
Indo-Pakistani conflict. Kissinger proved
himself to be a liar at least once over
When Jack Anderson first broke the story
of the Nixon administration's "tilt’'
toward Pakiitan, Kissinger vehemently
denied that presidential policy called for
anything but complete neutrality In
answering my question, however, he
expressed his pride that his official
favoritism toward Pakiitan had helped
"open the door" to China. It is also
interesting that Kissinger seems lo
regard this diplomatic coup as justifying
his complicity in the murder of over a
million Bengalis
As regards the well-noted "war
Crimea" accusation, some points need to
be made. First, this was not meant to be
an “analogy.” as Hulett took it, but
rather a serious charge that Kissinger
was guilty of war crimes. Second, this
was not, as some took it. an emotional
outburst, but rather a logical progression
which I will gladly repeat here
As I reminded Kissinger, we hanged
Germans at Nuremburg for destroying
civilian populations. In so doing, we
claimed to be upholding a law in
existence since time immemorial and
applicable to all human beings-not just
to German or Japanese leaders
I defy anyone with a knowledge of the
subject to deny that the policy Kissinger
directed in Vietnam called for a
systematic destruction of civilian popu
lations. (U is only to be presumed that
when American generals set about
bombing Vietnam “into the stone age”
the civilian population was included in
the proposal.) )ndeed, there was
probably more evidence to support my
charge than there was to convict most of
the Germans we hanged at Nuremburg
vrc.ciar me page uiai was devoted t
my condemnation-and lest I outstay m
welcome tor the second time in
week!-I regrettably cannot be as specifi
as I would like here. However, I woul
invite those whose love of countr
exceeds their love of authority t
investigate the matters I raised at th
Kusinger lecture. It they would like
will gladly discuss the subjects with the'
in some detail. (Contrary to local legem
I rarely bite and when I do it is almoi
never fatal.) If a fair inquiry is given
think it will be found that Kissinger hj
committed affronts to "public manners
which I - not even in my wildei
impertinances - could never aspire I
duplicate p
ED GREEN