The Lance
Volume 22 Number 3
St. Andrews Presbyterian Ctollege
tember 23, 1983
Questions Raised
The Safe
Roads SAGE “Capstone” Planned
Act of 1983
Ecological Alternatives
Viewed
By Nora Zbieranski
In battling the bladderwort
problem in Lake Ansley
Moore, Dr. Norman Melvin,
Professor of Biology,
brought in the Soil Conserva
tion Service (an agency of the
Department of Agriculture)
to look into the ecological
problems of the lake in 1981.
The agency was brought in to
propose alternatives to
restoring Lake Moore to its
previously youthful condi
tion. Two basic methods to
control the aquatic weed pro
blem were suggested
-chemical and mechanical.
The chemical control
recommended by the service
was the aquatic herbicide,
Diquat. It takes 1 to 2 gallons
of the weed killer per surface
acre, so for 78 acres of lake
the operation could take
$4500-$7000 - less than it
takes for a student to attend
St. Andrews for a year. This
method, however, does have
certain drawbacks.
The herbicide kills all
vegetation, so it destroys a
large part of the food web in
the lake. This in turn results
in oxygen depletion, and
adds enormous amounts of
organic material which con
tains to fill in the lake. The
decomposition lowers the ph
level and prevents other plant
from growing, and en
courages the growth of
anaerobic organisms.
In order to counterbalance
the effects of Diquat, fer
tilizer and lime should be ad
ded to the lake to increase the
ph level and promote the
growth of vegetation. After
this initial treatment of Di
quat, it is recommended that
the lake be drawn down
every couple of years to
maintain it.
The label on the aquatic
weed killer does warn that
treated water should not be
used for “animal consump
tion, swimming, spraying or
irrigation within 10 days
after treatment.” Dui'ing the
partial spraying this summer,
St. Andrews warned the
community of the potential
hazards of using the lake.
Security kept a close watch
on the lake, and “no
fishing” signs warned
fishermen of the danger.
The chemical is
biodegradable •
wonders about the im
mediate effects on the animal
life in the lake when he reads
the label warning that Diquat
“may be fatal if swallowed.
Continued on Page 6
Drew Hayes
Last Friday, the senior
class participated in an open
question and answer session
with Dr. Neal Bushoven, the
chairperson of the SAGE 402
team in Avinger. Now, this
simple event sounds fairly
normal, but the ramifica
tions of this session will
forever change a small part
of the St. Andrews ex
perience.
While students worried
about campus lights and
telephone operators last
week, there was a new con
troversy thrown into the ket
tle of student worries called
the SAGE 402 program.
During this past summer, an
eleven member team com
posed of 401 and 402 faculty
created a stronger and more
concise senior SAGE pro
gram than previous years and
classes have witnessed. There
is some student feeling that
their input was not sought by
the faculty, but this is a
misconception due to the fact
that a six member student
team of last years senior
SAGE and this years senior
SAGE participated in a three
day session with the faculty
team.
So, what exactly has been
changed in the program to
create such academic con
troversy? Well, it appears
that the SAGE 401-402 team
decided to produce a
“capstone” experience for
all students who toiled
through the four years at SA
and to create within the in
dividual student a sense of
liberal learning, in the
plenary last Friday, the term
“capstone” was used to
mean a “significant way to
draw together and make
sense of your learning at SA
that will present you with a
real but not overwhelming
challenge and insure that you
come to Cominencement
with a sense of accomplish
ment and closure, not just
because you have accumlated
a specified number of
courses.”
In theory, these goals of
“capstone” experience and
liberal learning are highly
notable , but the thorn of
this rose seems to be in the
model proposed by the team
to carry out these goals.
Simply stated, the model
calls for four teachers, a syn
thesize of the SAGE courses
beginning with SAGE 201,
and a test of threehours dura
tion for orals and six hour
duration for written ex
amination. Now, most
students are pretty
reasonable accept the four
teachers or “fellow col
leagues”, and the synthesis
of SAGE materials, but they
seem to have a hard time
swallowing the six hour ex
am. Now, I give students a
lot of credit and I think that
it is more than the six hour
exam which is presenting a
problem.
Other complications seem
to involve the manner in
which the SAGE program
was presented to them this
past week. After receiving a
syllabus in their mail boxes
on Thursday, the seniors
were then directed to attend
a plenary session the follow
ing morning to deal with the
question of SAGE 402. In
this session, they were in
formed that if they did not
like the exam, then they
could do a Baccalaureate
Project (BP), as opposed to
the Baccalaureate Examina
tion (BE).
This Project was “design
ed to appeal to students who
want to learn more in
dependently, and to apply
their learning to human
choices and global issues in a
research paper or hands-on
project.” In a comparative
sense, the BP is a “GIS with
broader focus, so one can
grapple with problems within
the framework of who you
are.” Now, if the BE is
beginning to Idok better,
than lets explore what it con
sists of. The BE can either be
“over yourpreviouscontent.”
This examination, should
you choose to accept it, will
be graded on a pass-fail basis
with honors and high honors
being awarded to those
students showing superior
achievement. A similar
system will be used in
grading the BP.
Before continuing into the
heated debate which occured
at the session, I think it is im
portant for everyone to keep
in mind that SAGE is not a
static program. It has always
been a fexible and ex
perimental program in which
elements have been changed
when it was felt that the
“liberal arts education”
could benefit. I ;hink it is
necessary "or all immediate
Continued on Page 8
Student Association Positions Open
Elections Monday
By Dana Dosier
Elections for the positions
to be filled in the Student
Association will be held
Monday, September 26.
There are several positions
which will be filled. These
positions include Social
Chairperson for each
residence hall, Highland-
Vice President, Wilmington-
President, Senate Member
Faculty Applelate Court,
Off-Campus Senate and nine
positions on the North
Carolina Public Interest
Research Group.
The nine positions on the
N.C. Public Interest
Research Group will be in
volved with other students
across the state. Their duties
include using $3,000 to ar
ticulate the views of students
on public concerns through
the media. The money comes
from $2.00 that is donated
for each student. Although
the Research Group has not
been used in the past, it is
hoped they will be this year.
The highest estiamted turn
out at an election is 50 per
cent. When asked about this.
Student Association Presi
dent, David Saunier said,
“There has been a lack of in
volvement in the past, but 1
hope there will be more this
time.” Saunier explained
that the lack of involvement
is because the students do not
feel as if the Student Associa
tion has any power and in
fluence over the decisions
made in college concerning
policy decisions. Saunier
stated, “My basic hope is to
include student involvement
in Student Association so it is
strenghtened, so that when it
goes before Faculty, they
view the Student Association
as representing a large group
of concerned students”.