page twelve/the journai/february 20,1974
Nigerian’s
Scholarship Ended
A foreign student at Montana
State University has had his
scholarship terminated because a
letter containing his political
views reached the Agency for
International Development (AID)
which sponsored his scholarship.
Abubakar S. Ibrahim, a
25-year-old Nigerian student, had
written a letter to his father in
early December expressing
disenchantment with certain US
policies and discussing South
African politics.
The letter reached the
university's Foreign Student
Advisor, Helen Simpson, who said
it had already been opened by the
post office. She then telephoned
AID in Washington and discussed
the letter with Robert Doan,
Program Specialist for
International Training, because,
she said, it was "something I had
to do." She said she felt AID
should be informed of Ibrahim's
attitudes because the federal
government was picking up the
tab for his education.
' Ibrahim received a call from
Doan who told him, "If 1 hear any
more about you I am going to
create enough problems for you in
Nigeria so that even your country
won't accept you."
Dr. Richard B. Landis, director
of the university's Center for
IntercuIturaI Programs said
Simpson had "acted highly
irregularly" in reporting the
contents of the letter to Doan.
Landis later contacted Doan, who
informed Landis that Ibrahim
should not stay on at MSU and
that his AID funding would expire
on January 23 anyway.
However, AID terminated
Ibrahim's funding in late
December, thus preventing him
from registering for the winter
term at MSU. He is now in
Washington meeting with the
Nigerian ambassador to see if his
country will pay for his
education.
University authorities are still
investigating to determine who
opened the letter.
In a letter to his fellow
students at MSU Ibrahim wrote:
"It is better for foreign students
to realize they don't have the
right to their own views in the
land of the free."
enrollment questioned
(CPS) The University of
Michigan fell substantially short
of its goal of enrolling blacks as
ten percent of its student body by
the fall 1973 term, the director of
the school's Opportunity Program
reported in late December
according to Higher Education
Daily (HED). The actual black
enrollment was 7.3 percent.
Although program director
George Goodman had predicted
last spring that the school would
be behind in its minority
enrollment program and blacks
would make up only 8.6 percent
of enrollment, even that goal was
missed. Goodman blamed the
school's failure to reach the goal
on competition from other
schools which are also trying to
enroll more blacks, substantial
growth of enrollment, and
unrealistic predictions.
The university set the target of
10 percent black enrollment by
1973 after a student strike led by
the Black Action Movement in
1970 demanded increased efforts
to recruit and financially help
black students.
l.ast spring Goodman had
pointed to the large dropout rates
for minorities and the high
standards of the university as
explanations for falling short of
the goal, according to HED. Now,
ri:]
minority student assistance.
Goodman said the school is
spending $310,000 on black
recruitment and providing $5
million in loans. When the
program started three years ago it
was budgeted at $115,000.
Universal Sabbatical
(CPS) A Universal Sabbatical Plan that would allow all Americans to
have one year off every seven, as is the custom for college professors,
has been proposed by author Kenneth Lamott.
Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) referred to the proposal as "the
funniest put-on since the crusade against naked animals and the drive to
make animals wear clothes." Several "distinguished" Americans,
however, have endorsed the plan, which was published in February's
Esquire.
Lamott called for all wage-earners, house wives, executives,
professionals, and self-employed to enjoy a government financed
sabbatical every seven years. During this leave of absence, each person
would receive a stipend equal to two-thirds of his average salary during
the preceding six years. Lamott estimated that the yearly cost of the
sabbatical would reach $75.6 billion.
"A quarter of the program will be rendered self-supporting," Lamott
said, "by virtue of those who choose to work at paid sabbatical jobs,
Another quarter will be generated by surtaxes levied on workers who
decline to take sabbaticals and on their employers. Still another quarter
will be raised by progressively closing the loopholes in the income-tax
system...which currently account for the loss to the public coffers of
$77 billion annually--enough to support the entire Universal Sabbatical
System with about a billion left over." Additional monies would accrue
from a redistribution of current budgetary allocations and, as new jobs
open, the resultant decrease in funds for enemployment insurance and
welfare.
' Projected benefits of the System include the reduction of welfare
rolls as vacated jobs are filled by the previously unemployed; an
increase in the gross national product as those on stipend pump money
into service, travel and educational industries; and the stemming of
inflation as individuals saving money for their sabbatical leave withdraw
an estimated $34 billion a year from circulation.
Requirements on the individual would be few, the article explained.
Each person would be responsible for how he spends his leave, and each
person would be encouraged to spend his time in activities that would
broaden his outlook and would be quite the opposite of his quotidian
chores. No one would be allowed to profit while on sabbatical leave.
'The Universal Sabbatical System," concluded Lamott, "is one of
those rare proposals that will truly benefit both the Individual and the
nation. Its costs are considerable, but the advantages-to society, to the
economy, and to the human spirit-are even more considerable. The
long and arduous task remains of arousing the voters to demand such a
system from those who make our laws."
Goodman said he thinks the 10
percent goal would probably not
be met by next year either,
despite an increased budget for
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