IT
Washington (CPS) This fall
armies of senior citizens equipped
with notepads and evaluation forms
will invade college classrooms across
the country in search of "liberal"
professors who feed students
"disinformation."
That, at least, is the scene Reed
Irvine, president and founder of the
conservative watchdog group Accu
racy in Media, would like to see
evolve from his newly-organized
Accuracy in Academia, scheduled to
begin operations this September.
Concerned about what he calls the
"liberal" slant of many college
instructors, Irvine plans to enlist
senior citizens and other volunteers
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Tar Heel Jonathan Serenius
The shadows of Davis Library fall on many students hard at
work now that exams are less than two weeks away.
Slfoaureware to eternise TUNC
By Kevin Meredith
Staff Writer
Shareware, a new marketing phi
losophy in computer software, and
sixty new computers on the UNC
Chapel Hill campus will make writ
ing the proverbial college paper easier
and less expensive then ever for
students this fall.
Until last semester, Microsoft
Word was the program used exclu
sively by students to write papers and
have them printed by University
computers.
- The Microsoft Word program,
encoded on a diskette smaller than
a legal size envelope, costs $227.
Copying the program onto another
E
Following complaints from the University admin
istration last week I decided to include a letter in every
copy of The Tar Heel that was mailed to incoming
students clarifying the article on the presence of rats
in the loading area serving Lenoir Hall, the Carolina
Union, and Davis Library. We now reprint the text
of the letter for the benefit of readers who did not
receive it:
In reference to the story on page fifteen of
today's paper "Rats infest Lenoir basement after
recent storms" and the reference to that story
in the "In This Issue" box on page one ("ARA
Rats: Infestation follows recent storms"), I feel
that some clarification is necessary.
The Tar Heel retracts the use of the words
"ARA Rats," "Infestation," and "infest." We did
not intend to imply that the rodents were the
direct responsibility of ARA and in addition it
to monitor college courses.
"The idea is to see whether kids
on college campuses are being fed
disinformation or misinformation,"
Irvine said in a recent Washington
interview.
Once inaccuracies are uncovered,
Irvine says the group will "expose
what is going on, and by exposing
it, hopefully persuade those respon
sible for it to do something about
it."
"It's really a pity for people to take
advantage of innocent kids who don't
know anything, and feed them a
bunch of garbage," he adds.
"Obviously, not all the kids are able
to fight back."
diskette is a violation of copyright
law, so the program's use was limited
for students.
The program could be used only
on the 15 or so personal computers
in House Undergraduate Library,
and was checked out to students, who
parted with their student IDs until
the diskette was returned.
PC-Write, a new word processing
program, will be far more accessible
through a method called Shareware,
which is based on the idea good
software should not cost a lot of
money to use.
What this means for UNC-CH is
that one diskette containing the PC
Write program has been bought by
distort Note
But such a monitoring of instruc
tors course contents "is best left to
colleagues and peers for academic
criticism," says John Bennett, direc
tor of faculty and self-regulation
programs for the American Council
on Education.
"Fellow instructors are in the best
position to say whether the pedagogy
involved is appropriate with regard
to balance and accuracy," he says,
"not outsiders looking at everything
from a conservative perspective."
"If all they, wanted to so was sit
in and monitor instructors courses,
I'd say fine," remarks Jordan Kur
land, associate general secretary for
the American Association of Univer
Tax changes affect '
(CPS) American colleges and
' universities could lose as much as
$900 million in donations next year
if President Reagan's tax reform
package becomes law.
Colleges, which are relying increas
ingly on gifts and contributions to
make ends meet, consequently could
have to cut the number of courses
they offer, their services to students
and faculty members, and even
financial aid to students, various
observers say.
If Congress does approve the tax
reform package as it stands now,
alumni would have fewer reasons for
donating money or services to col
leges and to the foundations that give
the University for $10, as opposed
to the several thousand dollars that
must be spent to buy a dozen or so
diskettes with the Microsoft Word
program.
The University has also paid $75
for a printed user's manual, telephone
support for questions and a quarterly
newsletter to keep the University and
student users up to date on improve
ments for the program.
The program, written by Bob
Wallace of Quicksoft, can be copied
by anyone without infringing on
copyright laws. In other words,
students may check out the PC-Write
diskette or borrow a copy from
someone else, and legally copy the
should be noted that ARA has a grade A
sanitation rating.
In addition, the wrong version of the story
was printed. The first paragraph should have
read:
A Big Mac-size dead rat was found in the
loading dock area serving Lenoir Hall, the
Carolina Union, and Davis Library, and there
had been other cases of infestation. But there
is no chance that the rodents could get into
Lenoir Hall, according to Tony Hardee, Director
of ARA Food Services.
The Tar Heel stands by the remainder of the
story which I believe to be fair, balanced, and
accurate. We regret any inconvenience or
embarrassment caused by the story.
Jim Greenhill
1- .. - 1
sity Professors and director of the
union's academic freedom division.
"But how they ferret out the
information and how they attempt
to censor the information remains to
be seen, and holds all sorts of
potential problems," he says.
Indeed, applying public and pol
itical pressure against professors who
don't agree with Irvine's world view
"certainly holds the potential for
something like the blacklisting in the
1 950s happening all over again," says
the ACE's Bennett.
Irvine, however, says his group is
not interested in stifling academic
freedom or in censoring what pro
fessors say in their classrooms.
to colleges, says Dr. Charles Clot
felter, a Duke Economics professor
who has studied the package's impact
on higher education.
If Clotfelter is correct, the tax
reform package would cost American
colleges from $800 million to $900
million in donations this year.
Corporations alone gave $1.29
billion in grants and equipment to
colleges in 1983, the most recent year
for which the Council for Financial
Aid to Education has complete
numbers.
The tax reform package, while
eliminating many of the tax reasons
corporations would give money to
colleges, does preserve tax breaks for
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program onto a blank diskette
(available for $2.00 at the Ram
Shop.located in the Students Stores'
Daniels Building across form the pit.)
Thus, students may compose
papers (or anything else, for that
matter) on any computer with a
compatible disk drive. After the
paper has been proofread and edited,
it can be printed on standard com
position paper.
In addition to the disk-drive
computers in House Library, a
cluster of 60 computers will be
installed on the third floor of Venable
Hall.
John Harrison, associate provost,
IN THIS ISSUE
ROSEMARY SQUARE:
A cautiously welcomed addition to downtown page 2
SPORTS:
Maryland" picked to top ACC in football this season page 30
Tarheel programs lauded page 9
NUTRITION:
Annie Lowenfels explores the evils of
added salt and sugar - page 9
THE FEDERAL DEFICIT:
Is there any hope to curb the national debt?
See D.G. Martin on the deficit page 4
AND OF COURSE .. .
Comics page 10
Crossword page 2
What's on in Chapel Hill page 4
nsma
But "if somebody says something
that is wrong," he adds, "people
ought to be free to criticize it."
"It's one thing to have a diverse
group of people in a classroom
engaging in stimulating discussions,
and debates," says Bennett. "But to
go into a professor's classroom with
the intention of reporting to politi
cians and administrators is the wrong
motivation."
AI A should be operational "some
time this fall," says a representative
in AIM'S Washington headquarters,
adding that the new watchdog group
was formed "because so many people
See HUNT page 5
colle
companies that donate equipment to
non-profit institutions.
Although the bill's future is still
uncertain, some schools report it's
already affecting fundraising this
summer.
"Some people who are concerned
about changes in tax laws are
speeding up their contributions, to
take maximum advantage of the tax
breaks before the laws change," says
Bruce Newman of the Rutgers Uni
versity Foundation. "But others are
delaying their plans, saying 'I'm going
to wait and see how it falls.' "
"We haven't seen any drop in
See TAX page 5
said service will begin Oct. I in
Venable, and the computers and
printers will be available seven days
a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. or
so. Two computers each in eight
dorms across campus will also be
available, he said.
Sherry Graham, of the Resource
Center for Instructional Computing,
said the new program and the
Shareware approach will "cut down
on the traffic jam" of students waiting
to check out the Microsoft Word
diskette in the computer lab.
"We'd rather lab assistants had
See WORD page 5
ges