Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 16, 1976, edition 1 / Page 1
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?! ct c. c ft hree-tourihs by Art Eisenstsdt Stsff Wrltsr Approximately three out of every four UNC undergraduates object to a proposal to be given to the Faculty Council next week which would reduce the length of the time in which students can drop courses without penalty. And almost a third of the undergraduates say a second proposal which would allow plus and minus grading on transcripts, but with no difference in grade-point values, is meaningless. These results were gleaned from a poll of 173 undergraduates conducted by the Daily Tar Heel Tuesday and Wednesday. The students were contacted by telephone from a list of 300 names drawn in a systematic random sample from the campus telephone directory published last fall. Percentages in the survey have a 95 per cent chance of being accurate to within 7.5 percentage points above or below the opinions of all of the University's 12,588 undergraduates. The survey was conducted after the Special Committee on University Grading, which the Faculty Council created last November when another University committee reported it had perceived grade inflation on campus, issued two Weather Continued warm with clear skies; some clouds in the afternoon. High In the mid 80's; low in mid 50's. Chance of precipitation is near 0 through the weekend. Unseasonably warm temperatures on Saturday and Sunday. Volume No. 83 i - i i : I i i J Thursday was a perfect day for ice, cream as temperatures climbed well into the eighties. The only problem Julia Ann Harper of Southport had was deciding which of Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors she wanted most. Finally, she settled on ! good old Class of 76 faces competitive job marke by Toni Gilbert Staff Writer UNC seniors will face a small and competitive job market because of the tight economy and a national unemployment rate of 7.5 per cent, according to Joe Galloway, director of Career Planning and Placement. According to the placement service's 1974-75 annual report, last year was the worst year for placing registrants in jobs. Galloway said he forsees some improvement, but he predicted that UNC offers courses y independent study by Tom Watklns Staff Writer The University's Department of Independent Study by Extension, formerly known as Correspondence Instruction, now offers oyer 140 credit courses to anyone wishing to participate, including full-time students. The department, founded in 1913 as a division of the Bureau of Extension, has become increasingly popular with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 students last year. "Essentially, our original purpose was to extend the University's resources to those unable to come to the campus," explained Lea Mitchell, administrative associate of the department. "Now we are an alternative delivery system, providing instruction for students who choose the independent study method to fit into their busy lifestyles." t To enroll, a student must complete an application to the program and pay the required fees. Full-time students must secure permission from their academic dean. For North Carolina residents the fees are $40 for a two-scmcster-hour course, $60 for a three-hour course and $80 for a four-hour course. Out-of-state residents must pay $52, $78, and $104 respectively. A student may enroll in a course any time during the year and has 1 3 months from the day he enrolls in a course to complete it. According to Mitchell, the average course is completed within two to three months after enrollment. An enrollee may take two courses at once, and can get credit toward graduation for up to 30 semester hours completed through Independent Study. "One of the advantages to our program, course editor June Walker said, "is that students can enroll in it at any time." She added that peak the end of spring semester. Upon enrollment, a student receives a packet una recommendations to the Faculty Council for consideration at its next meeting. One of the proposals would prohibit students from dropping a course after the fourth week of a semester, except in dire circumstances. Currently, students are allowed to drop courses with the permission of their advisor and dean until the twelfth week of classes. In the poll, students were asked, "What is your opinion of the committee's proposal to reduce the period when you can drop a course without penalty from 12 weeks to four weeks?" Their responses were as follows: N 3 27 10 83 48 1.7 15.6 5.8 48.0 27.7 STRONGLY APPROVE APPROVE DOESN'T MATTER DISAPPROVE STRONGLY DISAPPROVE 7 -4 4 - At jobs will be hard to find. "Liberal arts majors fare the worst in a tight economy," Galloway said. He said a liberal arts major was not trained to be as immediately productive as graduates in nursing or accounting. Galloway said that although opportunities declined last year in business, industry and government, these areas still provide liberal arts majors with the best employment prospects. He said that accounting, sales and general administration recruitments are still high. While other favorable job fields include public health, library science and electronic data containing all materials needed for the course. Materials for an average course include a series of lecture notes, along with assignments to be mailed in to Independent Study. The assignments, which may range from 8 to 24 per course, are then forwarded to the appropriate instructor. Assignments are usually written, but cassettes may be used if agreed upon by both instructor and student. The instructor, either a faculty member or graduate student, grades the assignment, and Independent Study returns the graded work to the student. Final exams are also required, and may be supervised by any accredited college or technical school located near the student. The UNC Department of IndependentStudy by Extension, located in Abernethy Hall, now administers all correspondence courses offered in the 16 campus UNC system. Currently, five campuses have such programs: UNC-CH, N.C. State University, East Carolina University, Appalachian State University and UNC Greensboro. Credits are transferable as allowed and are treated as regular courses. Courses offered through the program originate from more than 30 academic departments in the five universities, with the majority coming from UNC-CH and NCSU. Among the courses offered are a citizenship program for aliens and a dental program, both non-credit. Credit courses are from such departments as economics, education, English, history, business administration, mathematics and psychology. No graduate courses are offered, but they may be in the future. Increased course offerings may be needed to keep up with increasing demand. "In general, the part-time student is becoming more important. Continuing education is taking on new significance it's a nationwide trend," Walker said. 1 """ ...n..u f - . f ergrads oppose drop DON'T KNOW 1.2 173 100.0 Many students who opposed the proposal said they thought four weeks was too short a time to gain an adequate feel for their courses. "Under the system we have now, I feel it's important for students to either be able to attend classes before having to permanently sign up for them, or there should be a lengthy period to drop," one respondent said. Another remarked, "Four weeks is not enough. Since you really don't do anything the first week! in a Tuesday-Thursday class you may only have six lectures to figure out what's going on." Some students recommended prohibiting drops after midterms, while others said students should be able to drop a course up until the final exam. One student who favored the reduced dropping proposal said, "With a 1 2-week drop period, there are a lot of courses in which students are closed out at the beginning of the semester, but then there's a lot of seats vacant at the end. The system is geared to people trying to make A's." Many students who dropped courses (other than in drop-add) said they did so just before Serving the students and the Friday, April 16, 1976, 1 ::Sx-::: :v':::::' viV J n 1 strawberry and seemed pleased with her choice. The weekend forecast calls for more clear skies and hot afternoons, perfect weather for Easter vacation no matter how you spend it. processing, opportunities in teaching have suffered the greatest decrease. Job markets for journalism and psychology majors are also, depressed. Galloway noted that job opportunities for women and blacks are increasing both in availability and salary. The average salary reported to the placement service by men increased 4.6 per cent, while the women's average salaries increased by 13.1 per cent for the 1974-75 report period. While job prospects are virtually nil around Chapel Hill, Galloway said that the Southeast is a generally good place to find employment because of a steady growth of business interests and industry. UNC seniors are meeting the crunch with a wide variety of post-graduation plans. Delmar Williams, a political science major, said he doesn't plan to get a full-time job after he graduates. "Right now I'm just going to get a job in a factory or something to make money. Maybe 111 go to graduate school later and try to get a job in government. "I'm not really worried because my parents said they would put me up until 1 find something," he said. Lynn Jones, a psychology major from Charlotte, said that next year she was going to work only to make some money for traveling. "I just want to get it out of my system. I know I don't have a chance to get a job in my field with an by Colette Chabbott Staff Writer Two UNC Speech Department courses send University students to state prisons to assist in the rehabilitation of prison inmates. The courses, Safety via Communications (Speech 95) and Speak Out (Speech 75). may be the only programs of their kind in the nation, according to UNC speech professor Paul Brandes. "Other student groups have gone into prisons but they soon turn into inmate advocates and get tossed out on their ear," Brandes said, adding that he thinks the UNC program has lasted six years due to its neutral professional approach. "We're not looking for do-gooders," Brandes said. "The prison officials have to deal with enough hassle. Their funding and space is limited and they're aware of what they're not doing." Students interested in receiving three credit hours for these courses should sign up for interviews in Brandes office on second floor Bingham Hall. midterms, with dislikecf the course or teacherand change of majors as the most frequently given reasons. Whether or not a student had dropped a pourse appeared to have little effect on his opinion on the proposal. Approximately 78.6 per cent of the respondents said they had dropped one or no courses in mid-semester. Although 83.3 per cent of the students who favored the proposal were in this category, 76.3 per cent of those who opposed it also were. The committee'i other proposal would allow faculty members to issue plus and minus grades, which would be recorded on students transcripts. However, a plus or minus would have the same value as the base grade when grade-point averages were computed. Students were asked, "What is your opinion of the committee's proposal to allow plus and minus grades on transcripts, with no difference in grade point values?" They answered: N 14 8.2 59 34.7 STRONGLY APPROVE APPROVE University community since 1893 Chspel Hiil, North Carolina than by Vernon Loeb Staff Writer Long-term periods enabling students to drop a course without penalty, which have resulted in soaring numbers of dropped courses and below minimum course loads at N.C. State University, have not had the same affect here, UNC academic statistics show. Although during the 1975 fall semester approximately 32 per cent of UNC undergraduates dropped a course after the official drop-add period, the undergraduate student body of 12,013 maintained a 14.7 hour course load. - '-'The': mminrum eourse - load- at both universities is 12 hours per semester, while ah average of 15 course hours per semester is needed to graduate at the end of a four year period. At NCS U 9,000 courses are being d ropped per semester, and last fall 28.6 per cent of the undergraduates carried less than the minimum course load. Of the 5,603 courses dropped at UNC last semester, 4,320 came after the official drop add period and only 3,869 of those resulted undergraduate degree in psychology. soT'U have to go to grad school eventually," she said. She expects to look for a job outside of North Carolina. Boo Cheek, a drama major from Raleigh, said she went into drama never expecting to get a job in it. " But 1 did. I'll be teaching in a theater in Raleigh this summer." The placement service assesses the job market by the number of recruiters seeking applicants through the service, job openings offered by each recruiter, students registered with the service and students hired through the service. Galloway said that this year fewer recruiters are using the placement service and are offering fewer jobs. The number of students gaining employment through the service decreased from 38 per cent in 1973-74 to 33 per cent in 1974-75. More students have registered with the placement service this year than last year.- Galloway said the placement service's record of placing students in jobs had decreased by 90 per cent since 1969-70, which Galloway termed the "normal days." But he warned that the statistics can be distorted because most students find jobs on their own without using the placement service and because the service maintains a continuous correspondence with registered students until they either stop finding a job or stop answering letters. Galloway said, however, that low statistics reflect a lowered job market. Interviews will begin Tuesday and will last until Thursday. Students interested in joining the program are interviewed by a panel of veteran students, some of whom said they spent eight to fifteen hours per week with the course. Grades varied from A to F this semester. The program began in 1970 as a wajr of getting state youth correctional inmates into high schools to warn of the dangers of drugs. Since then the program has evolved into two student-run courses: one to teach communication skills to inmates inside both youth and regular correctional centers (Speech 95), and one to take inmates into the community for speeches (Speech 75). This semester 30 Speech 95 students worked one-on-one with inmates at Triangle Correctional Center. Six to ten Spea Out students worked with inmates at Triangle and the Women's Correctional Center in Raleigh. "We do not have enough time with the residents (inmates) to replace negative communication pi ) Z 52 30.6 29 17.1 10 5.9 2 1.2 4 2.4 in DOES NT MATTER DISAPPROVE STRONGLY DISAPPROVE DO NT KNOW NO OPINION 170 100.1 When students were asked, "What would be your opinion on this proposal if plus and minus grades had different grade-point values?" the indifferent category greatly diminished, while support for and opposition to the proposal grew. n 28 73 13 STRONGLY APPROVE APPROVE DOESN'T MATTER 16.5 42.9 7.6 0 in a reduction of course load hours. By class at UNC, course load hours for the 1975 fall semester were: freshmen 15.8, sophomores 14.8, juniors 14.3 and seniors 13.9. Last semester at NCSU, undergraduates began the semester with an average course load of 15.5 hours, and finished with 12.8. To curb the soaring number of dropped courses, the NCSU Faculty Senate has proposed changing the period for dropping courses without penalty from nine to 4 weeks. A similar proposal to cut back the drop period here from 12 to four weeks without penalty will . be considered by the UNC. Faculty Council next week. At UNC, courses can be dropped without penalty up to 1 1 weeks after the official drop add period. During the eleventh week of the 1975 fall semester, administration statistics show a peak in the number of dropped courses. Six hundred and fifty were dropped then, which account for 14 per cent of the courses dropped after drop-add. From the first to the tenth week after the an a "if f Local groups planning silent vigil to protest state's death penalty by Julie Knight Staff Writer A silent vigil in front of the Hillsborough County Courthouse today will protest North Carolina's death penalty, Steve Summerford of the Chapel H ill Peace Center said Thursday. The vigil, scheduled from noon to 2 p. m., represents a joint effort by political and religious groups. Jerry Paul, chief defense attorney in the "Joan Little case, and Lula Bell Noell, whose son Tommy is on death row in North Carolina, will present brief statements at the vigil, Summerford said. Over 100 men and women are currently awaiting execution in North Carolina. Summerford said that he hopes the vigil will bring up the questions of political and moral justice to make the governor, the state legislature and citizens more aware of the issue. "All of the gubernatorial candidates seem to be willing to use the death penalty and it will take a lot of pressure to get them to commute a death sentence," Summerford said. Political and religious groups are joining patterns. We have our doubts whether they should be replaced entirely since they are a kind of defense in the environment in which the inmates live. Instead, we try to leach them positive communication patterns alongside the negative ones," Brandes explained. The course taught within the prisons is divided into three parts. During the first part students teach the inmates transactional analysis, set up mock conflicts for the inmates to act out in positive and negative ways and explain channels of communication within the correctional system. "Often prisoners do not even realize these channels exist. They get written rules but some can't read or write," Brandes said. After learning basic communication skills, the students test them (inmates) by bringing in guests for them to interact with. "We bring in people who deal with issues the inmates are most concerned with parole, work study releases, etc. it's a two-way learning experience in which the students sit on the sides' and try to prod them into positive interactions," i 3 si j I H sutvei DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE DONT KNOW NO OPINION 3? II 7 1 170 21.8 6.4 4.1 .6 99.9 If there's no difference in grade-point values, 1 don't see how it can help or hurt " one student said, explaining her non-committal opinion. "It's important to ee how much you're doing compared to other students," another said. "There's a lot of difference between a B and a B-. A student who opposed the plus and minus grades said. "They'll just start more petty competition. What's the difference between a B and a B-? This survey was coordinated hy Art Eisenstadt with staff reports from Debbie Caudle. Tvni Gilbert. Unda Morris. Chip Pearsoll. Blioit Potter. Mel Rath and Elizabeth Sv aringen. 'Alchemist' Appears The 'Alchemist,' a new campus science magazine, makes its debut today. Copies are available at the Medical School and in the Pit for 50 cents. Issue No. 133 drop-add period, an average of 345 courses are dropped per week. However, during these weeks, course rosters are verified and some students are able to add a course. Of the courses dropped after the drop-add period last semester, 25 per cent would have fallen within the three-week limit of the proposal now pending approval of the Faculty Council. (The proposal's course dropping period without penalty is four weeks, if the drop-add period is included.) Updated statistics, compiled after the April 8 course-drop deadline this semester, show that the undergraduate student body of 11, 486 has maintained a course load of 15.2 . hours. By class, the breakdown is: Freshmen 16.3, Sophomores 14.8, Juniors I4.7and Seniors 14.0. These statistics, however, are tentative, and the cumulative undergraduate course load will decrease when students withdraw from courses. When students withdraw from a course after the legal drop period, a "W" is permanently recorded on their transcripts. together to work against the death penalty. "The vigil was originally called for by the Task Force on Criminal Justice w hich is part of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Durham." he said. The Task Force chose Good Friday because of the symbolic value of the day which has traditionally been a time of penitence and prayer for Christians, Summerford said. "The vigil is the second phase of the Task Force's efforts against the death penalty." he said. They preserved petitions to Gov. Holshouser about six months ago requesting that all death sentences be commuted to life in prison. Summerford said Gov. Holshouser told the Task Force that he would wait until the Supreme Court ruled on the death penalty. The governor has said he is against the death penalty and w ill probably stall any executions. Two carpools will leave the Chapel Hill Carrboro area at 1 1:30 a.m. for Hillsborough. One carpool wiH lepart from the parking lot beside of Andrews-Riggsbee Hardware on South Greensboro Street in Carrboro. Another will leave from the parking lot behind . the Wesley Newman Foundations. Brandes explained. In the third part of the course, the prisoners are encouraged to make short speeches in front of small groups within the class. Since the program began, the speech students have taught men and women, ranging from 13 to 60 years old, in nine correctional centers. Prison officials at each center use different methods of deciding which inmates may participate in the course. Those inmates who excel in the communications course and who have a high conduct rating are eligible to participate in the Speech 75 Speak Out program. Students in Speak Out are responsible for helping inmates organize five to eight minute speeches, arranging and publicizing speech engagements for them in the community and providing transportation to the engagement. "They may say anything they wish provided they offer a constructive, workable solution," Brandes explained. Inmates have spoken to large church groups, youth groups, as well as to UNC sociology and psychology classes and in dorms. courses State nmaies
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 16, 1976, edition 1
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