The PaHy Tar Heel Wednesday, MarchjO,
8
Greg Porter
Editor
Joni Peters, Managing Editor
Ed Rankin, Associate Editor
Lou Bilionis, Associate Editor
Laura Seism, University Editor
Elliott Potter, Cfj? & tf0r
Chuck Alston, National Editor
Jack Greenspan, Features Editor
Jeanne Newsom, Arts Editor
Gene Upchurch, Sports Editor
Rouse Wibon, Photography Editor
Incomplete grade policy
needs modification
Though it is sometimes easy for students to forget about the world outside
Chapel Hill, the administration cannot afford this luxury. The students it
educates must compete with others from schools across the nation, and its
academic .policies .should give these students a fair chance of winning
summer internships, scholarships or jobs.
But UNCs stringent policy of averaging an incomplete in a course as an F
is denying students a fair chance and needs to be revised. At present, if you
are forced to take an incomplete in a course, you first must have the
instructor's permission. This presumably means you have a valid excuse.
But instead of allowing you a certain period of time to record a grade before
averaging an F into your grades, UNC averages an F in right away, leaving a
year to make up the incomplete. Only then will the F come off your record.
Your average lowered could very well hurt your chances for a summer job or
internships when you face a person from a school with a more lenient policy.
Students are thus penalized after they have been given permission to take
an incomplete. Instead of an incentive to quickly finish their work to avoid
an F, they get an F immediately. This situation does not exist at many other
schools. A survey by the Daily Tar Heel of several colleges and universities
on the East Coast revealed a fairer and more judicious policy at many fine
schools. These schools give a short deadline, with no F penalty, before an F
is averaged into the grade.
At Syracuse an incomplete is not averaged in unless a student does not
make it up after one year; then it becomes an F. Providence gives the student
30 days to make up the incomplete; the University of West Virginia one
semester; the University of Florida, one quarter; at Yale and Dartmouth
arrangements are made for a deadline and if the student does not meet it, the
grade is recorded as an F. If a course at Harvard is notsompleted before the
end of the term, a student must petition before a board of academics for an
extension to a specific date. Should the student still fail to complete the
course work, the instructor enters the grade he wants.
UNC needs a policy similar to that of these schools. A student could be
given 60 days before the grade is entered as an F and then have the rest of the
year to complete it. Then one would have an incentive to quickly finish the
course and keep that embarrassing F out of his average for a year. If a
student is given the right to take the course incomplete, he should at least
have time to do the work before being slapped with an F.
As it is now, the University is burdening its students with an unnecessarily
tough policy, one that many schools don't recognize. The University should
remember that the world is larger than the city limits of Chapel Hill and
modify this policy.
Food stamps for students
Many students are passing up a good way to cut their grocery bills.
The government food stamp program is a $5.4 billion giveaway for which
1 7.3 million students are eligible. But for some reason students aren't taking
advantage of the program. According to a recent release by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, only 1.3 per cent or about 250,000 students are
using food stamps.
Students face the same criteria for food stamps as anyone else, with two
exceptions. Students whose parents claim them as dependents cannot take
food stamps if their parents are ineligible. And students are not forced to
register to work as other food stamp recipients are.
Students who pay their own way to college and make less than $245 per
month (scholarship monies included) are eligible for the program.
Probable deterrents to student use of food stamps are I) red tape and 2)
the social stigma attached to "poverty programs."
Applicants for food stamps must meet with a food stamps program
officer and supply alt representative financial records. This bureaucratic
shuffle no doubt cuts out many an applicant.
But probably the biggest deterrent is pride. Food stamps unfortunately
seem to be an obscene expression to most students. But it's a shame. Food
stamps come from the same place many scholarships do the government.
And no one curses or ignores scholarships.
The images food stamps evoke seem much less important than the good
they might accomplish by keeping a student in school or by making his stay
there more enjoyable.
The Daily
publishes Monday through Friday during the academic year. Offices are at the
Student Union Building, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514.
Telephone numbers: 933-0245, 0246, 0252.
News: Keith Hollar, assistant editor; Jeff Cohen, Jeff Collins, Chris Fuller, Mary Gardner.
Russell Gardner, Toni Gilbert, Tony Gunn, Nancy Hartis, Charlene Havnaer, Jaci H ughes. Will
Jones, Mark Lazenby, Peter Masterman, Vernon Mays, Karen Millers, Linda Morris, Beth
Parsons, Chip Pearsall, Mary Anne Rhyne, Leslie Seism, David Stacks. Elizabeth Swaringen,
Patti Tush, Merton Vance, Mike Wade and Tom Watkins.
News Desk: Ben Cornelius, assistant managing editor. Copy editors: Richard Barron, Beth
Blake, Vicki Daniels, Robert Feke, Chip Highsmith, Newell Highsmith, Jay Jennings, Katherine
Oakley, Karen Oates, Evelyn Sahr, Karen Southern, Melinda Stovall, Merri Beth Tice, Larry
Tupler and Ken Williamson. Campus Calendar: Tenley Ayers. Editorial assistants: Robin
McWilliam and Steve Perry.
Sports: Lee Pace, assistant editor; Kevin Barris, Dede Biles, Skip Foreman, Tod Hughes, David
Kirk, Pete Mitchell, Joe Morgan, Ken Roberts, David Squires.Grant Vosburgh, Will Wilson and
Isabel Worthy.
Features Staff: Laurie Baker, Bob Brueckner, Sara Bullard, Buddy Bultman, Dave Duckett,
Peter Hapke, Carolyn Jack, Susan Read, Steven Shrader, Tim Smith, Valerie Van Arsdale and
Ellen Welles. " ,
Arts and Entertainment: Tenley Ayers, Assistant Editor; Hank Baker, Pam Belding, Chip
Ensslin, Beffie Graves, Marianne Hansen, Jeff Hoffman, Bill Kruck, Libby Lewis and Michael
McFee. Kaleidoscope: Melissa Swicegood.
Graphic Arts: Cartoonists: Allen Edwards and Lee Poole. Photographers: Bruce Clarke, Allen
Jernigan, Bill Russ and Joe Thomas. Illustrations: Jeff Keleher.
Business: Verna Taylor, business manager. Lisa Bradley, bookkeeper. Debbie Rogers and Nancy
Sylvia, clerks. Liz Huskey, receptionist coordinator. Tom Rawls, Mac Duncan, Lisa Watson,
Priscilla Ellis, Michelle Mitchclle, Jan Parker, Leslie Chilton, Karen Honeystuffel, Dan Nobles.
Subscription manager: David Rights.
Advertising: Philip Atkins, manager; Dan Collins, sales manager; Steve Crowell, classifieds
manager; parol Bedsole, Ann Clarke, Julie Coston, Cynthia Lesley, Anne Sherrill and Melanie
Stokes.
Composition Editors: Frank Moore and Reid
Kevin Campbell, Pat Dixon and Bert Felt.
DTH Composing Room Managed by UNC Printing Mary Ellen Seate, superw-or. Jeffrey
Loomis and Robert Streeter, typesetters. Ad layout: Evelyn Sahr. Composition: Ada Boone,
Wendell Clapp, Marcia Decker, Judy Dunn, Milton Fields, Carolyn Kuhn and Steve
Quakenbush.
The Daily Tar Heel is printed by Hinton Enterprises in Mebane, N.C.
1977
0
latin
5far Uwl
84frt Year of Editorial Freedom
Tar Heel
Tuvim
Circulation Managers: Tim Bryan,
Reading and writing
Testing skills better than Asocial promotion'
By MARY HELEN BE A CH
In his 1952 book. Where Main Street
Meets the River Pulitzer Prize winning
editor Hodding Carter reflected on his
experience teaching a college freshman
English class.
He had just graduated himself and
was surprised at how ill prepared his
students were for college level work.
Only two of his students passed easily.
For the others, he had to teach on a
much lower level. He even resorted to
"offering a passing grade to the student
who was closest to predicting the score
of the upcoming football game."
That took place more than 30 years
ago, and, if anything, the situation has
become worse. Illiteracy and
deficiencies in reading and writing skills
have reached alarming proportions at
nearly all levels of education.
It is surprising, therefore, that N.C
Gov. Jim Hunt's proposed program for
testing to improve these skills is meeting
such resistance.
Hunt's program is twofold. First, it
would require that all students be tested
at various grade levels to determine
where their deficiencies are. They would
then receive special help in these areas
before moving to a more difficult level.
Second, it would require testing of
eleventh graders to see if they could pass
skills on at least a ninth grade level.
They would have to reach this level
before they could graduate.
According to a News & Observer
editorial, most of the opposition centers
around the fact that the tests are
"potentially embarrassing and
damaging to the pupils who may not do
well on them."
It is much more damaging and
embarrassing, not to mention a waste of
money, for a student to go to college,
only to discover that he is lacking the
basic skills needed to do well there.
Colleges and universities cannot
realistically be expected to teach
incoming students basic reading and
Ignored basketball managers deserve praise
To the editor:
Now that the National Championship
game is over and the sting of defeat has
lessened somewhat, people will begin to
reflect upon some of the personalities of
this great 1977 Tar Heel basketball
team. Walter, Phil, Mike and the rest
will get their share of praise, but three
very important people will be largely
ignored. They are the team's managers.
John Cohen and his assistants, Jeff
Mason and Rick Duckett, have given
much of themselves to the effort that
nearly brought the big one back to
Chapel Hill, and 1 think it's time that
somebody raised his voice to give these
three the praise they deserve.
Thanks, guys, for helping to make it a
great season for the Tar Heels.
Chris Schleter,
Head Football Manager
1 10 Ehringhaus
Bryant group concerned parents
To, the editor:
Just as singer Anita Bryant may be
misinformed about child molestation by
homosexual males (which indeed very
rarely occurs), Gary Parks (March 28) is
just as misinformed about the ideals
behind the Save Our Children, Inc.
group. Ms. Bryant, like any concerned
parent, only wants what she thinks is
best for her children. I am sure that
Black parents would not want their
children taught by a Ku Klux Klan
member, nor would Southern Baptist
parents want a child of theirs taught by a
self-proclaimed atheist.
What Ms. Bryant and the S.O.C. are
afraid of is the influence someone they
consider abnormal would have on their
children if that person were teaching in a
public school. Obviously, a person's
sexual preference, race, religion or
political belief is his or her own business,
but beliefs are hard to suppress in a
classroom, where they would influence
small children. 1 am not proclaiming
which (if any ) of these beliefs are right or
wrong, but merely stating that only
unbiased attitudes are of any help when
observing matters such as these.
Ms. Bryant and company do not feel
that Gay adults lurk in bathroom stalls
awaiting little boys the way a lion would
its dinner, although Mr. Parks may lead
you to think this. After reading his
letter, I had to wonder whether it is Ms.
Bryant who is guilty of inhuman
bigotry. Joel Roberts
57 Ehringhaus
writing skills. It costs both the college
and the student money to operate these
programs. It also takes time to develop
those skills time outside of other
classwork.
The only good way to develop, good
reading and writing skills is for these
skills to be taught throughout the
elementary and secondary school levels.
This is not being done now.
Journalism students at the U niversity
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill must
pass a spelling and grammar test before
they can graduate. Many students fail to
meet the passing score of 70 on the first
try, and most of the passing scores are
surprisingly low. This is one indication
of the problem. The words used are
simple nothing that isn't from
everyday use yet still many fail to pass.
Programs like that proposed by Gov.
i WmJfW mm ' s
You're headed south down 15-501 for the beach.
You're not drinking beer or smoking pot; just driving
down for some rest and a good time. Traffic is mild on
this particular day because you got an early start 6
a.m., and you know damn well that's early for a
Saturday but it'll sure be worth it when you, your girl
and your canine hop out of the car to romp around in the
hot sand.
Good radio stations are scarce and the drive from
Hippy Hill to the coast is just long enough to give you
those commonly knpwn fanny discomforts.
Anticipation mounts in its. own subtle way. Raeford is
only 22 miles and that's approximately halfway at
least you think so. Conversation comes and goes, the gas
gauge just goes, and as the sun creeps upward the pre
lunch junk foo munchie attack begins td crowd your
thought. But it's not worth stopping for. That would
mean 10 minutes of fun in the sun lost forever, and
anyway you're the only one that's hungry (save your dog
because he's always hungry). Your girl friend doesn't eat
enough to keep a bird alive.
To the editor:
As we approach another Tax Day (April 1 5), there are
a couple of bills pending in the House of Representatives
which will be of interest to many students and faculty of
the University of North Carolina.
Some 54 million Americans are hit with an income tax
penalty of up to 20 per cent because they are single, or
because they are married with both partners working.
The Committee of Single Taxpayers (CO$T) has been
working for several years to eliminate this inequity. To
accomplish this goal. Rep. Ed Koch has again
introduced HR 850 in the House Ways and Means
Committee.
IF YOU
Hunt would help see that students
receive a better education and thus a
better chance after they finish school.
As for the complaints, in North
Carolina, they have come from a black
political group and the state teacher's
association.
The black group claims that Hunt's
program would result in "unfair racial
comparisons." In other words, they
think the program is unfair to minority'
children. This claim is unfounded. The
aim of the program is to assure that
every child in the state will receive the
best possible education, regardless of
race. The aim is not to prove that
minority children are less skillful in
reading and writing than others. With
this program, minorities would no
longer need to fear such a comparison.
As to the teacher's group, it is hard to
Beach trips and speeding tickets
Tax reforms in House
WW
believe that they would put possible
embarrassment of some children above
giving them the good education to
which they are entitled. It almost seems
that the teachers are . more afraid of
stepping on some parent's toes or of
taking .on more work for themselves.
It is time that teachers stop promoting
children just because they fear it would
embarrass the child to be held back. -These
"social promotions" only hurt the
child more later. They just get further
and further behind, until they have no
hope of catching up. Programs like Gov.
Hunt's would help to stop the problem
of illiteracy among school children.
Mary Helen Beach i& a senior
journalism major from Durham, N.C.
You jump. "What was that?" The fastest bummer in
the world has just occurred. Your emo.tions slide like
honey off of a spoon. The blue light sends its insulting
message through your rear view mirror.
"May I see your license please?"
You didn't intend to speed, but it's a fact: the digits
"70" stare at you from the god-like box in the disguised
patrol car. Your temporary speeding above the
designated 55 m.p.h. limit has cost you between $27 and
$37, has nearly ruined your trip and hangs over your
head and on the record for three years.
What can you say? (Besides some choice, cute four
letter type words). I've often wondered what salutation
you are supposed to give the patrolman as you step out
from his air-conditioned privacy. "Thank you"?
You might just ask yourself after the heat has
subsided, "Does the violation that I have committed
deserve the hassle that I have received?"
David Pharr
Chapel Hill
Also pending in Ways and Means is HR 84,
introduced by Rep. Herb Harris, which would make a
beginning toward income tax equality for renters,
similar to what has for so long been available to
homeowners.
Anyone interested in more information about these
bills is urged to send a long, self-addressed stamped
envelope to me at the address below, mentioning that
this letter was read in the University of North Carolina
Tar Heel. Thank you.
Lee Spencer
Box 4330
Arlington, Virginia 22204
-rrsS. - A M A
m. :