North Carolina Newspapers

1 y 'lily-"" ii""" u.' t Wcrm end cloudy It will be partly cloudy and warm today with the high In the upper 70s and the low in the mid 50s. Chance of rain is 20 percent today and 30 percent tonight. . Fall fashions ; Is the Annie Hall look still in? Is the pink and khaki stereotype fair? For these . and other fashion answers, see the fall fashion Norlb Carolina Collection "NONPROFIT ORSj Serving the students and the University community since 1893 U S POSTAGE PAID CCPISS U1IC Campus Volume 86, Issue No. 38 Wednesday, October 4. 1978, Chapel Hill, North Carolina rsiskdlcTDwini ami h f 1 Z 4 o O " A - dtepa intern imt 5 7 By EDDIE MARKS Staff Writer A crackdown on high grade-point averages will involve nine departments in addition to the Deapartment of Political Science, said Samuel R. , Williamson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Williamson said last week he had asked officials of the" political science department to try to lower the grade point averages of its st"dents. Williamson said he issued similar instructions to the American studies, comparative literature, dramatic arts, music, physical education, RTVMP, sociology and speech communications departments. Officials of the Department of Romance Languages also were asked to attempt to lower grade-point averages in the Spanish curriculum, he said. The grade-point crackdown was instituted by a request from UNC Provost J. Charles Morrow, Williamson said. "This is nothing new, Williamson said. "Dr. Morrow is constantly monitoring the grade-point averages in every department. He called my attention to it when he noticed that the grade averages in these departments were higher than in other departments. - "Every institution has to look at this kind of problem. The department heads will have to discuss their philosophy of grading with the faculty. The new plus minus grading system should help the situation a little. Morrow said the problem has been building up for several years. "I've been concerned about this for a long time, he said. "For a long time we've had too many As and Bs. 1 1E1RA. gets by couldn't see any real improvement, so 1 asked Dean Williamson for help. An improved student body and relaxed policies have contributed to the problem. Morrow said. ' "1 think that over the years the quality of the students has improved,. Morrow said. "But I've heard some professors say that if they had given the same tests 25 years ago that students are making As on today, the students would have made a C. "I think that means the students aren't being challenged. 1 think that if we are to provide an appropriate challenge, there should be some change in the, level of material.. The material shouldn't stay the same. "Another problem is that some professors don't give low grades because they don't want to discourage the students. I don't think that's fair to the real A and B students. Grade inflation has made grade-point averages carry less weight in graduate school admissions. Morrow said. "High grades are becoming more meaningless. If you talk to the people who review graduate school applications, they've become really cynical about grades. The mediocre student looks the same on paper as the outstanding student." Arthur Housman, chairperson of the Department of Dramatic Arts, said he also has noticed a problem with grade inflation over the past, several years. "It's not brand new to us," Housman said. "We noticed four years ago that students in our department tended to have more As and Bs than students in other departments. We've been working on the question since I've been chairman. "One of the results is that people are beginning to realize they can't walk,away from our popular courses like Drama 15 with an easy A or B any more." Departments such as dramatic arts tend to have high grade averages because they attract talented students. Housman said. "Particularly in our department, the students have a higher than average special talent or they wouldn't be drama majors to begin with. We have to wrestle with the problem of whether to grade these students in relation to other drama majors or to the student body as a whole. "Graduate schools are judging the reputation of the department more than the student's grade-point average. A student graduating from East Texas Timbuktu University with a 4.0 average might not have as a good a chance as a student with a 3.0 average from Ohio State." Krishan Namboodiri, chairperson of the sociology department, said visiting faculty also contribute to the problem. "Visiting faculty tend to have more liberal grading policies than our continuing faculty," Namboodiri said. "This was our major problem over the past two semesters. " "I'm going to talk to the TAs and faculty about the problem. We'll insist that they pay more attention to grading and take it seriously. I'm going to step on their toes." Frank M . Duffey, chairperson of the Department of Romace Languages, said grade inflation has given more weight to the results of standardized tests. "As far as I know, no one has found an effective way to cope with the problem," Duffey said. "On the grounds of good old academic integrity, I think it is important that we do everything we can to revise our practices so that when a student gets a B, it really means something." mm s 4 DTHAnn McLaughlin Street concert Lee Specktor strums the day away on Franklin Street pre Senate tests Fill up Jordan Lake first? Came Creek oippoiieiite say WASHINGTON (APF-Suppprteh of an extension of time for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment won two preliminary victories in the Senate on Tuesday but concede they will face a tougher test in a crucial vote today. The senators first rejected, by a vote of 64-26, an amendment to recognize the action of four states that have rescinded their ratification of the ERA. The amendment also would-have allowed other states to do the same iathe future. The Senate then turned down, by a vote of 58-33, an amendment that would have required a two-thirds vote of both houses before the extension could be approved. Defeat of this amendment means the extension needs only a simple majority, as in the House, to clear the Senate. Both amendments were offered by Sen. William Scott, R-Va. The Senate will vote today on an amendment by Sen. Jake Gam, R-Utah, which would allow future votes to rescind approval of the ERA, but would not validate the four rescission votes already taken. A spokesperson for Gam said he was not dismayed by the defeat of the Scott rescission amendment. "As a matter of fact, we expected it," the aide said. Gam had voted for the Scott proposal. He says a majority of senators have told him they'll vote for his amendment. ERA backers concede the vote will be close but say they expect to win. - V ,4 - , - AH' mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm DTHAllen Jernigan Michael Teer By PAM KELLEY . ; Staff Writer The Orange Water and" Sewer Authority should wait until the Jordan Dam and Lake project' is completed before taking further Action on the planned Cane Creek Reservoir in southwestern Orange County, members of a community-action groip said last week. "We think it is senseless for us to give up our farms for the . reservoir if Jordan Lake can become a sufficient water supply," said Michael Teer, president of the Cane Creek Conservation Authority. CCCA and other groups have asked for a moratorium on OWASA's plan to increase southern Orange County's water supply by constructing a reservoir on Cane Creek Officials are in the process of obtaining permits to start the Cane Creek project. OWAS A officials have said construction should begin by mid 1979. An estimated 700 acres of land would be required to complete the project, according to official estimates. OWAS A and Corps of Engineers officials said both the Cane Creek project and Jordan Lake are .important because., of . increasing water. needs in southern Orange County.- -- "The Cane Creek Reservoir would supply water for 20 to 25 years. But after that, an" additional water source would be needed," Corps of Engineers biologist Frank Yelyerton said. CCCA member M itchell Lerner conceded that the Cane Creek Reservoir would be an ample water source. But the reservoir eventually would be insufficient, he said. s . Jordan Lake could supply water for 70 years, possibly making the Cane Creek project unnecessary, Lerner said. ' Meanwhile, President Carter's veto on Tuesday of the $10.2billion public works hill that includes Jordan Lake set the stage for a potentially bitter clash with fellow Democrats in Congress. Carter announced he will veto the bill because it is inflationary and wastes the taxpayers' money. See CREEK on page 2 Police Mitz on pu blic d rin king t By CHRIS BURRITT Staff Writer A Chapel Hill police crackdown on partyers, which has resulted in about seven arrests a week since Sept. 1, will be continued but only on a part-time basis, Police Chief Herman Stone decided Friday. Ben Callahan, administrative assistant to the chief, said Stone decided to put the crackdown unit of six policemen who patrol the downtown bar area on a more limited schedule. He made the decision after meeting Sept. 29 with the six men to evaluate the crackdown. Until that time, the crackdown unit worked seven days a week to arrest people who were littering or drinking on public property. All unit members were assigned to work on Friday and Saturday nights, while Sunday through Thursday nights they worked on a more flexible schedule. After the Sept. 29 meeting. Stone decided the unit would operate only on certain occasions and that the number of men assigned to work would vary with the occasion. Callahan said the crackdown, prompted by complaints from Chapel Hill merchants and residents, has been successful because bar owners and students "have cooperated almost totally." The Mad Hatter, a bar and delicatessen on Franklin Street, has cooperated with the crackdown by placing "No Beer Beyond This Point" signs above all exits. A Mad Hatter employee said the signs are one way management has been able to help the police. "Any. efforts they (the police) make to control unnecessary rowdiness is to our advantage," said the o ease up employee. "Most of the bar owners 1 have had contact with are all for this crackdown and are willing to help the police keep disorder off the streets." Chip Ensslin, a UNC senior, said he believes the crackdown has made students more aware of existing laws. "Since the crackdowm" he said, "if 1 have a beer in my hand I carry it at my side." However, freshman Buckley Strandberg said he has seen no effects of the crackdown. "My drinking habits have not changed because T have seen no major crackdown," he said. "The only evidence of a crackdown I have seen is what I have read in the paper." Callahan said although police have arrested about seven people a week, the crackdown is not designed "to fill the jail up on the weekend." ; "The crackdown is not like a roundup" he said. "In fact, the last resort is to throw people in jail." Aerial prof beats traffic. flies to Mike Rice has a sure way to beat the morning traffic rush on his way to the University. He flies to work. Rice, an associate professor of business administration, says, "It's - bstter than 25 minutesin at;arn (N.C.) 54, fighting traffic., Nothing I've done before compares to commuting by plane." He says it takes him six minutes to fly to Chapel Hill's Horace Williams Airport from the private airstrip he built near his home in western Orange County. Flying is fuel efficent, he adds. But by the time he parks, ties his plane down and rides to work on his Motorbecane, he admits he saves only five minutes. BufitsTa godoTway to start oltthe day, he adds. "You can't worry about worldly things when you're flying." For a year Rice and his family lived in a house trailer on their 86 acre farm while their house was being built. "The reason I bought the farm was so I . could build a little airstrip," he said. "It will tell you something of my order of priorities that I built the airstrip first, then a hangar and then my house." Rice was concerned at first about how his neighbors would react to his airstrip. But now he says he has given neighbors "hundreds of rides if I've given one. "Having a little strip out in the country is kind of like aviation was 25 years ago," Rice says. "It's like when a barnstorming pilot came into town and everybody went to see what it. was all about. "Sure, everybody thinks I'm half-crazy, but I figure everybody that razzes me is just a little bit jealous." New law g ive police option o f not g drunks By ERIC MILLER Special to the Daily Tar Heel A state law became effective this week that permits police to assist public drunks rather than arrest them. Under the new law, police officers are allowed to take a drunk home, to a friend's house or to a local alcohol rehabilitation center rather than to jail. Officers still have the authority tojail a drunk for 24 hours but cannot charge him unless he has been disruptive in public."Being disruptive means blocking or interfering with traffic, grabbing or pushing other people, cursing, shouting, begging for money or property," Chapel Hill Police Lt. Bucky Simmons said. The new law provides no loopholes for persons charged with drunken driving. Records show that during September in Chapel Hill 29 arrests were made for public drunkenness; last year in Orange County 362 arrests for the offense were made. "About 95 percent of the people who were charged with public drunkenness in September were also being disruptive in public," said Ben Callahan, administrative assistant at the Chapel Hill Police Department. "We very seldom arrested someone for just staggering. We took them home or to a friend's house. So basically the new law tells us to do what we had been doing already," Callahan said. Legislators say they found jailing drunks did not solve the problem of psSlic drunkenness. The North Carolina House passed the law in 1977, the state Senate f,;liov. cd suit this year. 1 nirty-four other states have similar laws to decriminalize drunkenness. William F. O'Connell, a special deputy attorney general who helped draft the new law, said his work was the result of two study commissions that looked at the problem of public drunks. He said the commissions agreed that public drunkenness should be treated as a victimless crime no one is hurt by such over indulgence but the drunk himself. The new law may unclog court dockets, but it is no guarantee that drunks will be kept off the streets and be treated. The General Assembly did not appropriate money for more detoxification or treatment centers. Drunks in some communities may not have anywhere to go for short-term care, Michael Crowell of the Institute of Government said. He worked with the attorney general's commission. Statewide, 56,000 arrests were made in 1977 for public drunkenness. The majority of those persons arrested were between the ages of 45 and 59. More than 94 percent of the arrests involved males, while 5.8 percent involved females. - Despite voter approval of mixed-drink sales in Orange County, there probably will be no increase in public drunkenness and driving under the influence, Callahan said. "I don't think we'll see any significant change, Callahan said. "In this town the DUIs (driving under the influence cases) are not the result of liquor. They are the result of beer, most of them. "When you have DUIs as a result of a lot of liquor it (the sale of . mixed drinks) is probably going to cut down because youre not going to drink a lot of liquor. You can't afford it," Callahan said. jailin Since Sept. 1 , police officers in Chapel Hill have been cracking down on violators of the town's public consumption law. Area residents had complained of public drunkenness and litter. " The town ordinance outlaws beer and wine consumption on public streets, sidewalks, alleys, parking lots and in buildings owned by the town. There is a $10 fine plus court costs for conviction. , "You can sit and hold the beer as long as you like. But don't let a policeman see you drink it," Callahan said. "Normally what the person gets is a warning for public consumption." ; State laws prohibiting possession and consumption of alcohol on the University campus are enforced only when alcohol is abused, he said. "That lawisjustatool. If they have to use it, they can. "It's just like a lot of laws created that are not meant to be strictly enforced because if they were, everybody would be arrested, Callahan said. State law prohibits public display of alcoholic beverages at athletic contests. "You definitely cannot walk in (to an athletic event) carrying an open bottle. They can arrest you," Callahan said. People under age 21 generally do not flout state liquor laws, as do many minors who purchase beer illegally, Callahan said. "The people (underage) who buy liquor don't usually abuse it like people underage who buy beer, he said. "Somebody 18 or 19 who gets by with buying liquor takes it out in the street. He doesn't drive. ft, , ( 4 :4 ' 1 .- ; : . :; , ', - ; : 4: 1 '4 t ' . 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