PAGE 2
THE TWIG
APRIL 17, 1980
THE
MEREDITH
TWiG
COLLEGE
Editors
Sonya Ammons,
Deborah Bartlett
Reporters
Kathy O’Brien,
Marlene Debo
Beth Giles, Ann Earp,
Kelly Stone, Jill Allen, Laura Moore
Columnists
Cindy Rinker,
Regine Nickel, Ann Stringfield
Sports Editor
Darla Stephenson
Photographers
Paula Douglas,
Lorri Whittemore, Peggy Williford
Business Manager
Leslie Landis
Circulation Editors
Suzanne Hill, Margie Snell
Layout Editors
Deborah Bartlett,
Sonya Ammons, Susan Jones
Cartoonist
Ann Beamon
Proofreading
Ann Earp
Advertising Editor
Mary Katherine Pittman
Faculty Advisors
Dr. Tom Parramore,
Mr. Bill Norton
Editorial
Is Census valid?
This year, Meredith students took part in the Decennial
Census, which has been taken in the United States every ten
years since 1790. This year, criticism has been voiced concerning
both the accuracy and the worth of the Census. Certainly, the
foundation of the census in determining congressional ap
portionment, federal revenue spending, eligibility for grants,
funding for public works, education, and other types of revenue
sharing is an important one. But the census is only as valuable as
it is accurate. Each decade, the Census Bureau faces an in
creasingly difficult task in locating the growing U.S. population.
The Census Bureau has even organized “M-Night” and “T-
Night,” when they counted people in such places as recreational
campgrounds, motels, flophouses, jaU, bus depots, and all-night
movies. There were “casual count places” like pool halls, food
stamp centers, and welfare offices. Despite the detailed work of
the Census Bureau, there are still significant faults in the system.
According to the Special Places Enumerator’s Manual CT-D
published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census, “The primary reason the census is taken now is the same
as it was in 1790, to determine the number of representatives each
State shall have in Congress.” It is further stated that “Reap
portionment at the State and local level is also based on census
statistics.” This year, for the first time, any college and
university students who do not live at home while attending
school are counted where they attend school. As a result,
representatives for national, state, and local government will
increase in the next decade in cities in which there is a large
number of college students. The problem lies in the fact that most
students do not vote in the city in which they attend college unless
they are permanent residents of that city. In some cities. Chapel
Hill, N.C., for example, local residents are strongly opposed to
allowing the university students who do not pay city taxes to vote
there. If, then, students do not register to vote in the city where
they attend college, should they be counted in that city? If so, they
are increasing the government representation for an area in
which their opinions are not considered. When they vote at home,
where representation may have been reduced since the official
college population was changed, their voices do not have the
strength which they might with a more accurate number of
representatives.
Additional problems have been caused since this is the first
decade in which college students have been counted at school.
Inevitably, some parents do not realize the change or were
confused about what to do if students were home for Easter, when
the census forms were due, and listed students on their forms.
Thus, there may have been a double count. Since the computers
used in the census are not programmed to read names (in order to
assure privacy), there is no way to detect such errors.
Is the present system used in the Decennial Census accurate
enough to serve the purposes originally outlined in the U.S.
Constitution? Regardless of the answer to that question, it seems
that a more careful evaluation of the census is needed before
Census ’90. It is probable that the evident lack of foresight in
deciding to count students at school will significantly effect
government representation in the next decade and should be a
major concern to students.
S.A.
READY FOR A BREAK?
Come join the Playday
Activities in the Courtyard from
3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on
APRIL 17
African youth sent to Cuba
for Communist education
by Regine Nickel
Cuba, a paradise for
eager African students? Fidel
Castro’s party paper
GRANMA would have its
readers think so. Under the
headline “Scholarship
Students in Cuba - African
Smiles” the paper praised the
Cuban boarding schools for
prospect African Communist
leaders; praise lavished on an
undertaking which is in truth
a frightful experiment in
Communist indoctrination.
Western sources vary as to the
amount of children presently
being educated in Castro’s
boarding schools. A safe
estimate seems to amount to
10,000 children from Angola,
Mozambique, Ethiopia,
Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sao
Tome, Principe, Namibia, and
the People’s Republic of
Congo. Their age is said to
range from seven to 15 years.
The governments of these
countries fully agree with the
Cuban suggestions and
educational methods. As the
Congolese attache for cultural
affairs said in Havanna, “In a
revolutionary atmosphere the
children are given the
education to battle im
perialism.”
The smooth operation of
this “happy” educational
experience (GRANMA) was
disturbed when two pilots of
“Air Afrique” refused to take
601 children from Brazzaville
to Havanna. According to the
German weekly DER
SPIEGEL (the mirror) they
had demanded written letters
of consent from the children’s
parents, especially since no
relative was at the airport to
see the children off, which is
contrary to African custom.
Apparently the parents had
thought their children were
going to a holiday camp inside
Congo, a holiday their
chil^en had won in a party
organized competition.
In Angola the Catholic
Bishop’s Conference issued a
stem warning directed at the
government in Luanda.
Desperate parents, whose
chil^en had been sent to Cuba
without their consent, had
FACT AND FICTION
Each year between V* and
one-third of the uranium
(fuel) in the nuclear reactor is
removed and replaced. The
uranium that is removed is
then referred to as “waste” or
more often “spent fuel.” The
spent fuel is not all the waste
from the fuel cycle, but within
it lies more than 99 percent of
all radioactively produced by
nuclear wastes of the fuel
cycle.
The storage of the
radioactive spent fuel consists
of placing the fuel in water
fill^ basins, a practice that
has been around since nuclear
reactors began operating.
These water basins are
presently located on the plant
sites. However,the Depart
ment of Energy plans to see
water basins built away from
reactors and managed by
either private industry or, hf
necessary, the government.
Going by guidelines proposed
by the DOE, the spent fuel
transfer to away-from-reactor
sites would not be before 1983.
This might not be much help
since, by 1980, four U.S.
reactors will lack space for
the spent fuel removed an
nually. With nowhere to store
the spent fuel, refueling
cannot take place; this, in
turn, would call for a shut
down of plants.
Reprocessing the spent
fuel might be one answer to
the upcoming dilemma. This
involves sending the fuel to a
special reprocessing plant
where uranium 235 and
plutonium 239 are extracted to
be used as fuel. Reprocessing
would eliminate much of the
need for storage space, but
there are no commercial
reprocessing plants operating
in the U.S. today. High cost,
delays and shut downs of
reprocessing plants that have
been buUt, and environmental
restrictions are all factors
which lead to the absence of
reprocessing plants in the U.S.
even though spent fuel basins
will reach full capacity soon.
Thirteen reprocessing plants
are in operation in the world
today, most of them in
Europe.
How much longer before
nuclear plants are shut down
from lack of spent fuel storage
space? If the shut downs
occur, we will be back to day
one in the nuclear power
business except for one thing -
Money, time, and ENERGY
used to put the plants in
operation will be down the
drain.
Questions about
reprocessing and ultimate
disposal have yet to be
resolved
References:
General Electric’s Nuclear
Power Quick Reference II.
appealed to the church to do
something. Portugese
missionaries report that the
bishops’ intervention proved
successful. Today Angola
seems to have stopped send
ing children against the
expressed will of their
parents.
As far as Ethiopia is
concerned the Cuban “help”
seems to have been the
children’s only chance to
receive some sort of education
at all. According to in
ternational press reports
Cuban soldiers gathered
thousands of war orphans and
sent them home. At least they
were spared death of star
vation in a country devastated
by war.
According to TIME the
children are being fed and
cared for well. They live in
simple buildings and divide
their days between learning
and working in the fields. This
should be a valuable aspect of
the situation. After all, Cuba
has 35,000 men stationed in
Africa; men it urgently needs
in the fields. The children
present a welcome boost of the
national workforce. This
prompted several Cuban
refugees to state that the
children were kept under
subhuman conditions and
were forced to work in the
fields day and night. The truth
of the situation is almost
impossible to establish.
As in East Germany after
the war, the young African
Communist countries realize
Uie special importance due to
the .^ucation of the young.
Education is the key to the
mind of the future generation
and complete Communist
education, without disturbing
family influence, can best be
provided in a place inac
cessible from home and
family. And Cuba gladly
volunteered to provide the
location.
Since this is my last
column I would like to thank
my editors Kristy Beattie and
Mary Katherine Pittman for
their confidence and the
complete freedom they gave
me, my roommate for her
patience, and Dr. Jack Huber
for his encouragement and
criticism.
r"
Compus Paperback bestsellers
1. The Americans, by John Jakes. (Jove, $2.95.) Kent fam
ily chronicles, Vol. VIII: fiction.
2. Lauren Bacall, by Myself, by Lauren Bacall (Ballantine,
$2.75.) Life with “Bogie” and on her own.
3. The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, by Dr. Herman
Tarnower & Samm S. Baker. (Bantam, $2.75.)
4. The Stand, by Stephen King. (NAL/Signet, $2.95.) Wide
spread disease followed by unknown terror: fiction.
5. How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, by
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6. Dragondrums, by Anne McCaffrey. (Bantam, $2.25.)
Third volume of science fiction trilogy.
7. Good as Gold, by Joseph Heller. (Pocket, $2.95.) Aspira
tions and struggles of Jewish-American professor: fiction.
8. The Matarese Circle, by Robert Ludlum. (Bantam,
$3.50.) American-Soviet spy thriller: fiction.
9. Kramer Versus Kramer, by Avery Gorman. (NAL/Signet,
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10. The Mr. Bill Show, by Walter Williams. (Running Press,
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Compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education from information
supplied by college stores throughout the country. April 7, 1980.