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Pali** I
The Rrd and Klatk Thursday. January 25. 1979
Shakey bandwagon
President Carter's proposed
budget has renewed the “guns
and butter” battle which has
been going on for years between
leading liberals and conserva
tives.
The middle of the road budget
has neither appeased conserva
tives who say the cuts aren't
drastic enough nor pleased the
liberals who claim Carter is
forgetting the poor, the sick and
the minorities
By cutting federal spending in
such areas as welfare. Carter
hopes to slow down the fastly
accelerating inflation rate But
he plans to raise the defense
budget by three percent—a move
which has further angered the
liberals.
By recommending cuts in the
"social services" areas and
expanding the defense budget
Carter hopes to gain the support
of what he sees as an
ever-growing amount of citizens
who think government spending
must be halted. Carter is
gambling that taxpayers are
tired of increasing tax burdens
and are ready for the federal
government to recede a little.
The President is probably-
reading the signals right. All
ovei the U.S. more and more
people seem to be revolting
against federal control. It’s not
that they’re against any sort of
welfare but rather, they would
like to see it reduced.
It's too early to determine
whether the trend will continue
or whether it will lead to slashed
welfare budgets by the individual
states. But for now Carter seems
to be jumping on a still
somewhat shaky bandwagon that
may take the lead in the end.
Letters
‘We salute the Iranians’
TO THE EDITOR
We salute the Iranian people for having
succeeded in driving from power the
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
The friendship between the American
people and the Iranian people will grow
only if our government refrains from
condoning a military coup as a solution to
popular opposition to the Bakhtiar
government. In this regard, the
American government should publicly
state that such an alternative, requiring
as it would the use of American supplied
arms and aircraft, is unacceptable and
not in the interest of either our own or
the Iranian people It should state further
that such a government could not and
would not receive recognition by this
country
We believe the fall of the Shah is a
turning point in the long history of the
Iranian struggle for self-determination,
and we believe further that its lesson for
our government is clear don’t interfere
in such struggles, be they in Iran. Chile,
the Philippines. South Africa, or
elsewhere Only then will Americans be
regarded as friends by the people of
these countries
JACK LEV1NG
‘Am insulted
by cartoon
TO THE EDITOR:
I was personally insulted by Doug
Tyler's sick attempt at humor in January
23rd’s Red and Black.
The cartoon of Dallas Cowboy tight end
Jackie Smith hanging himself from a
goalpost after Super Bowl XIII is a
perfect example of the attitude which has
helped destroy the pure spirit of
controlled competition and sport in
America.
When the day comes that we are
unable to laugh at our own humanness in
competition, let’s change the name from
sport to war.
More vividly than anyone else. Smith
knows he blew a touchdown which might
have produced a different NFL champion
hut cheap shots like Tyler’s are uncalled
for I demand either a( a printed apology
or b< a picture in tomorrow's Red and
Black of an artist stabbing himself with a
charcoal pencil after blowing a cartoon.
PETE FOLEY
Former sports editor—The Red and Black
‘Police officers
were helpful’
TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing this letter to personally
commend two officers of the University
Police Dept These two officers are Lt.
John Cleveland and Officer Ernie Austin.
About a month ago a friend of mine was
involved in an accident while on campus.
He was not from this area and did not
know anyone. These two men were not
only police officers but were friends to
my friend. I think its high time someone
commended the police instead of
criticizing them, for now I can personally
say that my feelings toward them have
changed and so should yours. Just try
and imagine where we would be without
them.
LINDA ATKINSON
WELL, WIEN HE COMES IN,
MRS. m, AM IF HEDJOIN
ME AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR A
STATE DINNER IWR1N6 VICE
PREMIER TENS H§1A°-P1N0„
Regents ’ test garbage
Mark Shavin
This could be the most important
column you'll ever read Take the word
of an unbiased writer It is important to
the 536 of you who failed the Regents'
Rising Junior Exam last quarter and to
the 25-35 percent of you who are expected
to fail it when you take it this quarter or
during subsequent quarters
But take heart It isn't ail your fault In
my opinion, the test is garbage intended
to placate the collective conscience of a
Board of Regents which refuses to take
truly worthwhile steps toward insuring
your acquisition of basic skills in reading
and writing. Steps that might require
more than policy revision Steps that
might require a little more insight and
innovation than has been demonstrated in
the past.
Mark Shavin is a senior in the School of
Journalism
The story of the Regents' Exam begins
in spring, 1971, when the first such exam
was administered in experimental form
The Regents were unconvinced that a
course by course aggregate of these
abilities would result from continued
exercising of these skills in the*
classroom. Admittedly, this is a very real
possibility at a multiple-choice-oriented
university where such skills are seldom
exercised.
Passing the exam became a require
ment for graduation across the Univer
sity System of Georgia in November.
1972. Administered quarterly, the test
consists of two parts, each requiring an
hour or less for completion Students
must pass both the reading and writing
sections, and those who fail, usually fail
the essay portion The Regents are
considering adding a math section which
could only result in more failures since
the student will have more opportunities
to flunk.
In November, 1978, the Board of
Regents decided to shorten the amount of
time that undergraduates seeking a
degree will have for passing the test
while continuing in college-credit courses.
If the student has accumulated 105
quarter-credit hours (excluding physical
education activity courses and R O T C.)
and has not passed the exam, he may
either take only remedial courses until he
passes or drop out (presumably to work
on the fundamentals on his own) and stay
out until he passes Regardless of which
course of action he chooses, the
consequences of this policy on the
university are bound to be traumatic.
Part of your tuition will now be
directed toward funding remedial pro
grams that once only had to accomodate
Special Studies students. The money that
once went into improving academe within
your major or specialty will now be
routed to supporting the high schools that
the Regents feel universities should
provide So prepare yourself to pay more
and receive less
University of Georgia Regents' Testing
Program Coordinator Dean Dwight
Douglas makes an interesting point when
he notes: “The minimal competency
necessary to pass the Regents' Testing
Program at an institution such as
Georgia could be accomodated by the
admissions process " This would avoid
sticky problems like determining whether
or not a student enrolled only in remedial
courses is in good standing. Problems
that have implications for Financial Aid
students and on federal regulations
concerning athletics at the University.
The Regents’ concern with basic
competence is commendable, but their
efforts are misdirected The test is not
the solution to the problem Remedial
courses are not the solution to the
problem. Remedial courses only aggra
vate the problem—the problem being
instructor incompetence in the core
English courses—by sapping money
away from the very courses -again the
core English courses—which should
prevent the problem in the first place.
The Regents should recognize the exam
for what it is—a potentially useful
indication of instructor competency—and
turn their attention to improving the core
English courses They could even rename
the test the Rising Teacher Exam and
use it as a basis for granting tenure.
As things stand now. only the student
seems to suffer. At first told he is
competent as evidenced by his satisfac
tory grade report, he is later judged
imeompetent and is saddled with a
burden he never expected And he isn’t
presented with another opportunity to
evaluate his instructor If the instructor
suffers at all. he suffers only the
knowledge that the Regents have little
confidence in his teaching ability
Quite possibly, the problem stems not
from student or teacher inadequacies,
but from very real problems built into
the test itself that. thus, account for the
large number of failures across the
University System of Georgia The
November. 1978. System Summary,
published by the Office of the Board of
Regents, reports “Between the 1971-72
academic year and the 1977-78 academic
year, students' success in passing the
Regents’ Test ranged from 55.6 percent
to 68 2 percent for first time examinees
and from 34.6 percent to 47 6 percent for
repeater examinees.’’
The debate over whether the problem
is one of testing or educating obviously
won’t be resolved here But the fact that
the Regents don’t demand remediation
upon first failure suggests a certain
reluctance to place all support behind the
exam. Further, administrators admit
quite freely that chances for success are
considerably higher if the student takes
the exam shortly after completing the
core English courses And this suggests
that whatever competency is attained in
the core courses, is quite often only
temporary
At any rate, the recent revisions
become effective July I. 1979, giving
those students who have accumulated
close to 105 quarter-credit hours and have
not passed the exam, only two
opportunities to fail it before they are
prohibited from taking any further
college-credit courses.
The first opportunity expires tomor
row—the deadline for signing up for the
winter quarter Regents' Exam
Doing our fair share
Jack Strauss
In its second annual Study of American
Opinion, U.S. News and World Report
last year reported that the federal
bureaucracy ranked 23rd for integrity
and at the bottom of a list of elements of
government and other national institu
tions for the way it gets its job done
Lord Macaulay wrote in 1830 that
"nothing is so galling to a people ..as a
paternal or. in other.words, a meddling
government, a government which tells
them what to read and say and eat and
drink and wear."
Jack Strauss is a second year student in
the School of Law
Throughout history we see examples of
people crying out against bureaucracy
and excessive government involvement
Each year we Americans grow more
frustrated with bureaucratic bungling
But why does all the talk seem to
produce so little results 0 The answer lies
within our own perceptions of the role of
government
We all have certain expectations about
government. A Harris poll which came
out before the U.S. News study found
only 38 percent of the people polled
agreed with the statement: "the best
government is the government that
governs least.” Another survey discov
ered that 75 percent of the people
believed government should regulate
major companies, industries, and institu
tions so they would not take advantage of
the public
Most of us would agree that
government regulations are neeued to
force honest business practices, insure
goods of adequate quality, utility, and
safety; and provide access to informa
tion. We also seem to feel that
government action is needed to encour
age competition, keep people from killing
themselves, help the poor and sick,
bolster a faltering economy, and control
the selfish desires of individuals More
often than not we see no alternative but
government action
Unfortunately, our attitude about
government has blinded us to alterna
tives. Our expectations prevent us from
seeking resources elsewhere or within
ourselves These expectations can be
placed within one of two categories: an
expectation-demand cycle or a group I
call misplaced expectations.
The expectation—demand cycle begins
when government officials try to meet
public or private demands If the
demands are met, those who like the
results will then raise their expectations
because of the government's responsive
ness This leads to more bureaucracy and
more demands, which when met once
again, increase expectations accordingly.
The expectation—demand cycle becomes
an endless spiral of government
intrusion Frequently the spiral whirls
out of control because the good intentions
which began the cycle led to unrealistic
or frivilous demands. The cycle can also
spin downward when a bureaucrat loses
perspective of his job.
Misplaced expectations begin with good
intentions too (for example, the Federal
Trade Commission's recommendation
that controls be imposed on children’s
advertising has a worthy purpose but the
propriety of government regulation in
this area is questionable.) When we
expect government to do for us what
should not be done at all or what
someone else should do, a misplaced
expectation has arisen Sixty-eight
percent of those taking part in the U.S.
News survey believed that regulation was
needed to maintain safe working
conditions while 58 percent thought of
regulation as the best way to ensure safe
products
We should not have to rely on
government to keep companies from
exposing their employees and customers
to carcinogens Our expectations and
demands should be focused on business
itself. Consumers have the leverage in
their buying power to force changes in
business much easier than government
could do and without the loss of freedoms
resulting from regulations But unless we
can make some changes in our attitudes,
realistically we will probably have to
depend on government to keep business
in line.
It is important that the realism of
regulation should not interfere with the
ultimate goal of a responsible society
That goal cannot be achieved with new
management techniques, sophisticated
replacement systems, or more bureau
cracy. Other national institutions have
problems equally as serious as those of
the government And in the final analysis
all institutions are composed of
individuals with their own attitudes. It is
with ourselves where change should
begin We must examine our own
attitudes and expectations
For if we complain about the way
government helps others but continue to
demand our own fair share," then we
have no right to expect the bureaucracy
to grow smaller And if we expect
government to police the irresponsible
behavior of others yet persist in our own
irresponsible conduct, then we can only
expect the bureaucracy to grow in
inefficiency and arrogance while our
personal freedoms are whittled away
fj Red and ‘Black
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