Newspaper Page Text
February 26, 1985/The Maroon Tiger/Section A
Page 8
Georgia State Tries
Telephone Registration
by Gregory Powell
News Editor
Georgia State University’s
students will register by
telephone Spring Quarter.
The touch-tone
telephone/voice response
registration system will be tested
on one-hundred of GSU's stu
dent body next fall.
According to GSU’s Registrar
Dr. James E. Greene, if the Spring
Quarter is successful, the college
will be the second college in the
United States to adopt this
system.
"Our real incentive with this
program is to provide a service to
the students," stated Greene.
The registrar’s office will select
the experimental group from the
various colleges which form the
university. Selection will be
based on classification and loca
tion.
Following extensive research
on the project—which will allow
more than thirty students
register simultaneously—
Greene feels secure that the
system will be a success.
The key to the registration
process will be preparation,
believes Greene. Students must
have a class bulletin handy and
several optional schedules
before them, in case classes they
select are closed.
The actual process is simple.
After making an appointment,
students will dial the system
number, enter a computer
course number and an iden
tification number. At the end of
the call the courses will be
confirmed, and fee due dates
will be stated. Within a few days a
print out will be mailed to
students.
If successful, the Summer
Quarter will involve more
students. Brigham Young Un
iversity (BYU) introduced this
process in January 1984.
The one problem admits
Greene is that where BYU is on
the semester plan, Georgia State
is on a quarter system.
Science, Technology Conference
Features Key worth, Wiesner
Students Invited To Apply
Graduate and undergraduate
students interested in the grow
ing impact of science and
technology on society will have
an opportunity to meet some of
the world’s leading scientists and
technologists in June.
Student Pugwash, a rapidly
growing student-run forum
organization, will convene its
fourth biennial International
Conference, “Science,
Technology and Individual
Responsibility” at Princeton Un
iversity, June 23-29, 1985. Ninety
outstanding students from all
disciplines and from around the
world will be invited to spend
the week considering critical
issues ranging from agricultural
genetic engineering to space-
based weapons with eminent
government officials, in
dustrialists, scientists, and
humanists. The senior par
ticipants in the Conference in
clude:
•Dr. George Keyworth, Presi
dent Reagan’s Science Advisor
•Dr. Jerome Wiesner, Science
Advisor to Presidents Kennedy
and Johnson
•John Rollwagen, Chairman
and Chief Executive, Cray Com
puter Corp.
•Professor Victor Weisskopf,
Physicist, Writer and Philosopher
and more than thirty other
respected experts.
Students are selected for the
Conference through a com
petitive application process;
each application must include a
draft abstract and outline for an
original paper. The best of the
student papers are published by
Student Pugwash after the Con
ference. The paper must pertain
to one of the topics of the small
working groups which meet
each day of the week-long Con
ference.
These topics are:
1) Individual Rights in the
Information Age
2) Setting Priorities for
Agricultural Genetic
Engineering
3) Making Choices About the
Military Uses of Space
4) Energy and Poverty: The
Effects of Emerging Energy
Strategies
5) Toxics in the World’s
Workplaces: Values and Ap
propriate Risks-
Leaders of academia, govern
ment, and industry will join these
USC Hackers Now Offering
Instant Degrees
Federal Agents Investigate Alleged Scheme
For Selling Fake Computer Transcripts
LOS ANGELES — Student
hackers infiltrated computerized
files at the U niversity of Southern
California to change grades and
create phony degrees purchased
for up to $25,000 each, federal
investigators have announced.
Drug Enforcement Ad
ministration agents in Louisville,
Ky., said they learned of the
scheme during a drug investiga
tion into a former USC student.
Jerry Snyder, head of the
DEA's Louisville office, said it was
not known how many fake
degrees were sold, but that the
price of a doctoral degree was as
high as $25,000.
The Los Angeles Times
reported that the USC com
puterized transcript system ap
parently was compromised by
students working with someone
in the records office — buying
degrees or grade changes with
cash or cocaine.
Phony degrees may have been
created by changing legitimate
transcripts already in the USC
computer, the newspaper
quoted a source as saying. If
someone wanted a chemistry
degree, for example, students
would search the computer files
for a legitimate transcript of
someone who had graduated in
chemistry.
The name and ID number of
that student would be deleted
and data on the student buying
the degree substituted. The
phony transcript would then be
filed in the computer, replacing
the legimate degree, the source
told the newspaper.
The allegations represent the
second time that accusations of
illegal tampering with the
prestigious university’s com
puter have surfaced since Oc
tober. Twenty-one USC students
were already under investigation
for allegedly paying to have
unauthorized grade changes
made on their computerized
transcripts. Another nine have
now been notified they are
under investigation, the univer
sity said.
"Our investigation has widen
ed beyond grade changes,” USC
Vice Provost Sylvia Manning told
the newspaper. “We are now
investigating the possibility that
someone may have created
entire transcripts as well."
Drug Enforcement Ad
ministration agents in Louisville,
Ky., said they learned of the
scheme during a drug investiga
tion into a former USC student.
Visiting UNCF Distinguished
Scholar—Dr. William Knox
By Christopher Stanard
Staff Writer
Dr. William Knox, a chemist
with a wealth of knowledge and
experience, has joined us here at
Morehouse as visiting United
Negro College Fund (U.N.C.F.)
Distinguished Scholar.
Knox, a native of New Bed
ford, Massachusettes, has an
extraordinary educational and
professional history. A black
man, he received his B.S. in
chemistry from Harvard in 1925,
and later both his masters degree
and Ph.D. in chemistry from
M.l.T. This would be a commen
dable feat for anyone of any race
even today, but for a black man
back in the 1920’s, this was almost
unheard of. In fact, Knox was a
pioneer of sorts; he was one of
the first Black chemistry Ph.D.’s
in the country. This feat took not
only intelligence, but tremen
dous character, perserverance,
and dedication. He had to over
come, not only the academic and
financial hurdles, but also the
wall of racism barring his way as
well.
Racism followed him after he
finished his education, narrow
ing his teaching to black colleges
like J.C. Smith University in
Charlotte, N.C., and preventing
him from working in industry.
Much changed with World War
II, which opened up doors for
Knox, allowing him to work on
the famous Manhattan Project,
conducting research which led
to the first atomic bomb. After
the war, Eastman Kodak hired
him to work in Rochester, N.Y.
There he faced another
problem: housing discrimina
tion. The only way he was able to
get a house was by having a white
friend buy one for him.
Today, however, knox sees the
situation for blacks being vastly
improved, so much so that he
envies Morehouse Men. "You
have the opportunity to go into
any field you want to and get a
job in it,” he stated. He advises
Morehouse students to take
advantage of the victories and
gains of the past. “The door is
now open for you. It is your
responsibility to ourselves and
our communit
Today, however, Knox sees
the situation for blacks being
vastly improved, so much so that
he envies Morehouse Men.
"You have the opportunity to go
into field you want to and get a
job in it,” he stated. He advises
Morehouse students to take
advantage of the victories and
gains of the past. “The door is
now open for you. It is your
responsibility to open it wider,
Knox emphasized. Simply put,
he advised black students to
have a responsibility to ourselves
and our community while op
portunities and conditions con
tinue to improve.”
Knox sees the key to fulfilling
our responsibility in education.
In order to succeed, he en
couraged students to realize that
your are competing with not
only other black American
college students, but also with
people in our age group from all
over the world. This necessitates
that you think of ourselves as
humans first and blacks second,
for you lack the luxury of living in
an all-black world. You must
choose excellence on par with
the best in the world and work
for it.
groups throughout the week.
The 1983 Student Pugwash Inter
national Conference drew
students from 22 countries on
five continents.
The Conference is supported
by grants from the National
Science Foundation and other
sponsors. All room and board
costs for the Conference are paid
by Student Pugwash; student
frayej posts can also be sup
ported in cases of need. Students
from every discipline are
welcome to apply. Applications
are available from:
Conference Director
Student Pugwash (USA)
505B 2nd St., NE
Washington, DC 20002
Student Pugwash, founded in
1979, takes its name from the
village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia,
where eminent scientists and
world leaders ,met in 1957 to
consider the role of science in
world affairs. The senior
Pugwash Conferences, which
have been held each year since
1957, were inspired by Bertrand
Russell and Albert Einstein’s
"Pugwash Manifesto,” which
called upon all citizens to fulfill
their moral obligations ot use
science and technology respon
sibly. Student Pugwash is a non
profit, non-partisan educational
organization that does not adopt
a political position on any issue.