Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 7, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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Friday, February 7. 1969 Page 2 THE DAILY TAR HEEL Wh$ latlg afar 76 Years of Editorial Freedom Wayne Hurder, Editor Bill Staton, Business Manager Help Change Attend Rally The Southern Student Organizing Committee will hold a rally today in Memorial Hall at noon in support of the Black Student Movement's demands. We hope you'll make it. You should go if you believe, as George Vlasits explains, "that the University must become a force for change in the community" not a force for preservation of the status quo. Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson retreated from this responsibility to make the University a force for useful social change and has, for the time being, cast his lot with those people who hide from the needs of Don't Eat Crow, Shetley, Just Lower Prices Just before exams the Book Ex spent over $100 to buy an advertisement in The Daily Tar Heel to encourage students to sell and buy their texts at the Book Ex. One paragraph of that advertisement said that "if you find a book dealer selling any book for less than we sell that title, we will meet his price." Earlier this week a student tried to make the Book Ex puts its money where its mouth is. Unfortunately he didn't succeed. Instead Tom Shetley chose to confess that the Book Ex had misled students. Shetley, as he himself put it, had to cat crow. That's unfortunate. We don't like to see anyone eat crow. What we would rather see is the Book Ex live up to their claim that they will Eliminate Saturday Classes The University Faculty Council will receive a proposal to eliminate Saturday classes at their monthly meeting today. The proposal calls for holding 80 minute classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays rather than three days of 50 minute classes. We hope that the Faculty Council will approve the measure; as a matter of fact, we cannot see how anyone would want to oppose the proposal. For the sake of those sadists and masochists who might enjoy making students go to class on Saturday or who enjoy teaching them on Saturday we suggest that they observe that a five day work week is the norm in the country and that six days is abnormal and probably disfunctional. We say disfunctional because for most students the 50 minutes in class on Saturday are wasted; they are either trying to recover from Friday night's- party or thinking about Saturday night. In addition, besides the six day work week being a deviation from tiie norm for the country, it is a deviation from UNC's tradition. The six-day work week was established during the Second W'rM War for reasons peculiar to Rebel Good, Managing Editor Joe Sanders, News Editor Harvey Elliott, Features Editor Owen Davis, Sports Editor Scott Goodfellow, Associate Editor Kermit Buckner, Jr., Advertising Manager University Today our times behind pious statements on the necessity of providing equal treatment to all. We emphasize that Sitterson has cast his lot with these people for the time being because we believe that he is open minded and open to change. It is in order to show him the need for change and to encourage hi in and the rest of the Administration to change that the rally is being held today. We encourage you to be a part of the drive to make this University a force for change in our society so that it will eventually become the democratic society that most Americans want it to be. lower prices. They chose to spend over $100 of money they got from students to advertise this claim; now they should live up to it rather than retreat from their obligations by having a member of their management eat crow. It is perhaps understandable that they have to meet obligations to their wholesalers to sell new texts at a standard price. What is not so understandable is that their prices on used books are higher than those of local book stores. Here they should most definitely meet the promises that they have made. We don't want Mr. Shetley eating crow. We want reductions in prices like they promised. And we don't want the Book Ex to stall around until the book buying season is over with. that time; the reasons for Saturday classes are no longer applicable. The only reason we can think of for opposing the elimination of Saturday classes is that it would put a strain on class room usage. However, the fact that a study was done at the departmental level concerning Saturday classes and that the proposal results from that study make it clear that . the departments do not expect it to strain the University. For these reasons we encourage the Faculty Council to eliminate Saturday classes. The Daily Tar Heel is published by the University of North Carolina Student Publication's Board, daily except Monday, examination periods and vacations and during summer periods. Offices are at the Student Union Bldg., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 27514. Telephone numbers: editorial, sports, news 933-1011; business, circulation, advertisting 933-1163. Address: Box 1080, Chapel Hfll, N. C. 27514. Subscription rates: $9 per year; $5 per semester. We regret that we can accept only prepaid subscriptions. Classified ads are $1.00 per day prepaid. Display rate is $1.25 per column inch. Second class postage paid at U. S. Post Office in Chapel, N. C. Smoldering Fuse Continues At UNC Br JIM CI.OTFEl.TER DTI I Editor '62-'63 This University has for years unthinkingly and unobtrusively nurtured the spirit of student "alienation" credited with helping to undo Columbia, Berkeley, etc. If it has so far failed to stimulate a student "revolt",it is only because UNC students are both more courtly and lazier than students elsewhere. The University has encouraged students to think of themselves as being not quite full-fledged human beings by its unthinking reliance amazingly consistent over the past decade on students as the University's bureaucratic messenger boys. And by the unstated assumption that 'tis better to harrass students than to change rules. Granted that the University administration's recent effort to demonstrate its unresponsiveness to substantively important matters (re: black students) makes something as routine and widespread as harrassment of students (regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin) seem trivial by comparison. But harrassment, even incremental harrassment, is not an insignificant matter. No one would charge malevolence against University administrators; they spend as much time trying to dig their way out of triplicate forms as students do. It's just that no one bothers to change the rules by which (1) students' legs and patience, and those sweet little ladies from town you see every registration, do what could be done much more easily by computers, the U.S. Mail, and a few regulation changes, and (2) teaching and learning often become subordinated to Rules. Everyone has his own favorite examples of the Supremacy of Rules and Established Ways of Doing Things: Some centering around the admissions process, others drop-add or registration. But the basic point is that things don't have to be this way. Honest. The University of Wisconsin, with an enrollment of over 30,000 (it's one of those impersonal Big Ten megaversities that we don't want to be like), puts its students through relatively little of the standing in line, racing back and forth, etc. that goes on here. Computers are used much more extensively (although it's true that students' time is much cheaper than computer time), and registration forms: and the equivalent of drop-add forms are sent through the mail after processing. Of course, these procedures are aided by a tendency at Wisconsin to let education hold sway over regulations when the two come in conflict. For example, in most cases if classes grow larger than a classroom can seat, the class is shifted to a larger classroom to make room for everyone who wants to take it mnless the professor has set an explicit limit on enrollment. In other words, class size is dictated by how many students desire to take the class (whether or not they pre-registered) and by the professor's notion of how many people he can effectively teach not by the size of a classroom assigned beforehand. For that matter, why shut off drop-add so early? Why not leave to the professor and the student the determination as to which class the student is in and which one he isn't in, and wait to officially confirm a student's course schedule midway in the semester. (This is done elsewhere and works.) Another minor example. Students enrolling for the first time here, or re-enrolling after a year's absence, have to submit a medical form a month ahead of time. Yet when they arrive for registration, they are dispatched cross-country to the infirmary to get another form stamped, confirming that the medical form has in fact been Mark Rodin Trying At the beginning of each semester, there is the usual rush to the Book Exchange to buy the required books for classes. This is also the time for many students to complain about how the management of the Book Ex fleeces and gyps them while they wail and moan over the high cost of textbooks. All this shouting is justified, because it calls attention to a situation which may exist. As a curious and concerned student, who is interested in helping his fellow brethren out in any way he can, I decided to do some investigating over semester break. So home to suburban Boston I went, determined to find out some facts of interest to all. If there is any place to do some amateur research on text books and their cost, Boston is the perfect spot. After all, it is supposed to be the cultural and' educational capital of America. It can toast not only of having Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Radcliffe, but also Northeastern University, a university of over one hundred and twenty thousand full time students, Boston University, and Boston College, and many other suburban and urban college and university campuses. In addition, many of the leading textbook publishers are headquartered here or in New York, which is only fifty minutes air properly submitted. Surely this kind of information could be prDcessed before registration. 'n addition, He tone in which the University demnrOs personal data about students does rot, demonstrate a realization that L is dealing with bodies that at least rpproxmate aduit human b3;ngs, E.G., "University Regulations require that even' studei-t keep the office of Records and Registration advised at all tines of his current lot-a! and home address. If our address changes, you must report this change. . .Failure to do so may result in tliscipliwn action." Disciplinary action. Really. Other examples I could cite would be just as trivial and substantively un-important. This is not a situation in which the University is doing "bad things." It is the tone which the school sets, the implication that students don't need to be treated the way any adult University faculty or staff member would expect to be treated. The implication that. . .after all, they're only students, and a good long stand in an unnecessary line is good for them. To summarize: the University, in its general bureaucratic processing of students not to mention regulating their personal lives and other more "serious" matters consistently demonstrates its low regard for the worth of students as people. It thus puts itself in the position that should it need to call on students' "generalized support" in a future crisis, it may not have much support to call on. UNC Is Roundly Attacked By Blamer To the editor: Anyone who believes in the New Left, Otelia Connor, NATO, or Owen Davis must be crazy. What we need is for a few more people to attend Campus Crusade for Christ meetings! Again in disgust. Jim Blamer Hiltonhead Court To Resell-Book Hang-Up shipping time via the shuttle. The writer decided to shop for his books in two locations. The First has to be the world's most respect and well-known college store, the H a r vard-M.I.T. Cooperative, affectionately known as the Harvard Coop. This is actually a small scale of Macy's. They can not ony supply you with books and student supplies but they can outfit you completely from head to toe, and can sell you a washing machine, TV camera, perfume, you name it and they have it! The second location was the student book store at Northeastern University. This store is very similar to our own loveable Book' Ex. The only difference is that everything is on one fior- . At both places the results of my research were the same. You may remember an ad of Mr. Shetley's in one of the last issues of the DTH for the first semester. If you don't, read the copies that are plastered over the front window of the book ex. In his add he states that if any book store can sell you a book for a lower price than the Book Ex, the Book Ex will meet that price. That's a pretty strong statement, and l ean assure you that Mr. Shetley has got strong evidence to back it up. At both Harvard and Northeastern goodf The 'Closed-Out' Blues BOOK EXCHANGE- Have you noticed the way the cash registers here ring up the totals for books by branding them as either "Meat" or "Groceries?" When I asked how the fellow could tell if a Mod Civ book was meat or vegetable, I expected something about "food for thought." No, it turns out that old books are "Meat," and new books arc "Groceries." By far, that answer turned out to be the most efficient part of the first week of the semester. Take, for example, Drop-Add. A friend of mine gives this account of his attempt to get into a course. "I'd like to Add Anthropology 546, please," said my friend. "Ah, let's see. That's Music Lessons for Pet Alligator Owners, isn't it. Oh, I'm sorry, but that course is filled up," said the secretary. "But 1 must have it to graduate." "I'm sorry, but did you remember to take your green form to Hanes Hall during registration?" "Yes." "Well, did you make sure the lady stamped the same number on the green copy, the pink copy, and the white and yellow copies?" "Why, no. Could that have been the problem?" "Yes." "Well, then, I can go back and have it corrected?" i V-o o V Ine. 5 V i T S -f University book stores, the price of a book that is used at Carolina and either one of the two universities is the same. There is no difference at all in the price of a new book at any college book store in the country, as a matter of fact!! Thus when a student buys his books new at the Book Ex he is not being cheated. We should stop giving Mr. Shetley brickbats about this point because he has no control over the price of our textbooks. I had a half hour talk with the manager of the Harvard Coop, who explained to me the reason for this. The price that one pays for a new textbook is a standard price set by the publisher. All money that you pay for a book goes back to the publisher and it is split three ways. Part of it goes to pay shipping and printing costs. The rest is split up between the publisher in the form of publishing fees and profits and the author, who gets royalties from every new book purchased. Thus, like any other industry, the book publishing industry is a racket with its usual practices. The publisher calls the tune (i.e., he sets the price) and the student dances to the music. As far as the buying of used textbooks is concerned, it is the standard practice of the Harvard Coop to buy back used hard cover books for at least fifty pr cent of r scoff f ow "Certainly, you should go over right now." "Will that get me into Anthro 546?" "Of course not. But it will help to keep our records straight." "What if 1 went to the Dean and got his permission to get into the course?" "fm sure he'd be glad to help. Unfortunately, the computer decideds how many people are in the course. It says there are 15." "But I just looked at the classroom and there are 20 seats." "My hands are tied," she said. "What if I went to the computer center and had them change the number of seats in the class?" "You can't do that until you get the number changed on your green form, your pink form, your. . ." "But you said that wouldn't help." "It won't. They're using the computer for Information Science 10, now. That means it will break every three or four hours." "What if 1 can get special permission from the instructor?" "You'll have to make an appointment with your instructor." "But the appointment books are full and Drop-Add will end in a couple days." "My hands are tied," she said. "How will I graduate?" "Why don't you go to your Dean's office and demand a diploma? Oh yes, you'd better take your pet alligator along." s v - c S Ui x. v the original cost if in fair condition and for seventy five percent if in excellent condition. The price of a used paperback being sold by a student is one third of the original cost if in fair condition to two thirds if in excellent condition. In the same advertisement to which I referred earlier, Mr. Shetley claims that he will meet the price offered by any buyer of used textbooks for your books, if it is better than the Book Ex. Well, Mr. Shetley owes the students here a good deal of money. It so happens that Mr. Shetley will buy a used hard cover or paper back book which may be in excellent condition for one third or one half of its original cost and sell it to the sucker who buys it for one half to three fourths of its original cost, thus making a nice little profit. So Mr. Shetley has his own little profit mark-up on used books and the students, who he claims to offer the best price to get a lousy deal. The prices offered for used books at the Northeastern University bookstore are lower than at the Harvard Coop, but HIGHER than the Book Ex. Thus from three hours of curious interest I can offer students the following advice: buy your new books at the Hook Ex. but don't sell them there. Sell them at the Alpha Phi Omeca Hook Exchange.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 7, 1969, edition 1
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