6 The Daily Tar Heel Tuesday. October 4, 1977
Faculty members question editorial stance against four-week
To the editor:
1 have resisted the impulse to write this
fetter about the four-week drop period for
several weeks now, but after the editorial in
the Sept. 29 DTH ("Four weeks is too
short") 1 can no longer refrain from
expressing my views.
I have been amazed at the repeated
insistence of the DTH editorial staff that the
shortened drop period did not have the effect
for which it was intended to reduce the
number of inappropriate drops late in the
semester. This statement is totally false and
the data presented in some of your own
editorials is clearly inconsistent with your
interpretation.
To be sure, the number of total drops has
not changed appreciably. If the number of
drops that occurred after the regular drop
period (the period at the beginning of the
semester when the great majority of drops is
calculated, the four-week period produced
only approximately 20 per cent as many
drops as the longer period. An 80 per cent
reduction is an incredible difference and one
completely consistent with the purpose for
which the drop period was shortened.
1 find it hard to believe that the D TH staff
has not noticed this effect in the data you
have reported. It leads me to wonder if
someone decided that if you tell a "big lie"
often enough people will start to believe it. I
hope this is not the case and that your staff
simply failed to notice the trend in your data.
Joseph Lowman
Department of Psychology
To the editor:
While 1 rarely choose to respond to Daily
Tar Heel editorials, the content of your
editorial of Sept. 29 is so incorrect and
misleading that, as a member of the
Greg Porter
Editor
Ben Cornelius, Managing Editor
Ed Rankin, Associate Editor
Lou Bilionis, Associate Editor
Laura Scism, University Editor
Elliott Potter, City Editor
Chuck Alston, State and National Editor
Sara Bullard, Features Editor
Chip Ensslin, Arts Editor
Gene Upchurc-h, Sports Editor
Allen Jernican, Photography Editor'
In response: Drop reasons
merely windy assertions
While we rarely receive the opportunity to
respond directly to the individuals who
shape the educational policy of this
institution, we welcome that opportunity
today. We are more than pleased that three
faculty members two of them on the
Educational Policy Committee have
shown the interest in the drop problem to
write in today. It seems there is a great deal of
confusion among students and faculty on the
issue, and we hope that more open debate of
any sort will help bring students, faculty and
administrators closer to an understanding.
One obvious area of confusion is the data
gathered on drop periods and the
interpretation of that data. The Daily Tar
Heel has insisted that the total number of
drops during long (twelve-week) and short
(four-week) drop periods are not
significantly different. Prof. Lowman of the
psychology department has conceded this,
but he has pointed out that the number of
drops late in the semester are considerably
greater during a longdrop period. We do not
and have not questioned this. It is practically
a truism that a shorter drop period will allow
fewer drops late in the semester.
But it is nevertheless important and
seldom mentioned that the total number
of drops did not decrease significantly with
the shorter period. If the total number of
drops does not change with a shorter drop
period, then there can be little or no effect on
grade inflation one of the concerns that
spawned the drop controversy in the first
place. Furthermore, the static number of
drops disproves once and for all the oft
muttered gripe that students make "frivolous
drops" if given the opportunity.
The second prevalent mistaken belief is
that students have ignored "educational
concerns" in favor of maximizing grade
point averages. In fact, students have argued
that the ability to adjust one's course load in
mid-semester due to job or financial
pressures, a heavier load than was expected
or a course that proves a waste of time can
enhance the educational experience by
allowing the student to work harder in other
courses. Many a student has dropped a
course irrelevant to his curriculum in order
to allocate more time to a core course.
The "educational consequences" stated in
Prof. Cramer's letter are that longer drop
periods: a) often disrupt coordination of
student assignments in courses; b) can
adversely affect the grading curve for
remaining students; and, most importantly,
c) delay the time when a student must decide
to buckle down to work.
Problem a is certainly limited to a very
small number of classes. Further, we fail to
see how a drop period of moderate length
would interfere with the coordination of
assignments at all. Problem b, while it is held
up to be an educational concern, is a purely
numerical concern. Further, it represents
what most naturally should be a worry, and
The Daily
publishes Mondux through Trida during iheat dih mu cut (llu c. 01 cat the Student
Union Building. L'niversitv of Sonh Carolina. Chapel Hill. S.C. Telephone
numbers: VJJ-0241, 0246.
Educational Policies Committee. I have no
choice but to respond. The Committee's
report has not yet been written and will
certainly not be written by the Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences nor his staff.
The Educational Policies Committee is a
faculty committee and operates as such.
Second, the Committee certainly did
consider student arguments, insofar as they
were presented. An excellent document was
prepared by Mr. Moss and Mr. Lassiter
which was considered at great length. Other
student opinion was solicited, but no student
(other than the DTH staff writer assigned to
cover the meeting) chose to appear before
the committee in its open meeting. The fact
that we failed to be convinced by the
arguments of Mr. Moss and Mr. Lassiter is
far different from ignoring them.
Finally, I take issue with your opening
remark, "Chalk up another blow to
academic freedom." Academic freeedom is,
according to the Trustee Policies and
Regulations Governing Academic Tenure in
the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, "the right of a faculty member to be
responsibly engaged in efforts to discover,
speak and teach the truth." Assuming a
counterpart academic freedom for students
to discover, speak and learn the truth. 1 see
no earthly interpretation by which a four
week drop policy in any way limits academic
freedom.
Mark Appelbaum
Associate Professor
To the editor:
As a member of the Educational Policy
Committee, 1 wish to take exception to your
Sept. 29 editorial accusing us of treating
student input with "levity" in our decision to
recommend retention of the current four
week drop period. The total amount of
T
SatUj
85th year of editorial freedom
students are overwhelmingly more
concerned about the freedom to drop a
course with as much evidence as possible
than they are about the limited effects on the
grading curves in some classes. As to
problem c. Prof. Cramer has asserted it as an
important problem w ith no evidence to back
him up. We do not believe it is enough of a
problem to merit a strict, authoritarian drop
policy.
Probably the most disconcerting facet of
this entire controversy is the manner in
which it has been handled. When the length
of the drop period became an issue,
primarily because of grade inflation, the
decision was made to launch an
experimental short drop period. During this
period the plan was to be evaluated and its
fate to be determined.
But w hat sort of experiment has this been?
The only persuasive data we have received
has supported a virtual truism that a
shorter drop period will cut down on the
number of "late" drops. Not once, except by
students, has the assumption been
questioned that making drop decisions early
in the semester v. as inherently better than
making them in the middle. The "study" has
been a pleasant diversion, while the decision
reached was based on a set of premises thai
have never been scrutinized or justified. The
reasons for a short drop period and you
get a different one every time you ask are
windy assertions, with no data or logic to
back them up.
The pearls of wisdom such as the
famous and ill-fated "the long drop period
promotes frivolous drops" argument have
been unpersuasive not only to the students of
this University but also to the administrators
of universities such as Yale, where more
liberal academic policies are predicated on a
concern for education, not grades, and for
the right of the student to determine his
destiny at all times - not just in the first four
weeks of the semester.
Not only has our faculty failed to establish
soundly the benefits of a short drop policy
but it has ignored the negative, insulting
effects on the student body. As consumers of
education, students deserve a right of choice
at every possible moment. As members of
the University community, they deserve a
good listening not just hearing. Snobbery
that leads a professor to self-consciously
state he would never bother to write to the
student newspaper unless absolutely forced
is the sort of attitude that holds a priori that
students are unworthy of more than lour
weeks to drop a course.
While faculty members are allowed free
reign in the classroom, students are not even
allowed to leave it when they choose.
Students are not the learners but the objects
of teaching a sad state of affairs at an
institution with the motto "Light and
Liberiv."
Tar Heel
student input was hardly overwhelming -the
Moss-Lassiter Report from Student
Government and some expression from the
Daily Tcr Heel and it had all been in our
hands and discussed at some length at an
earlier committee meeting. We had hoped
for further input this past Monday at a
meeting expressly called to receive
additional student testimony, but no one
came to speak.
In our earlier discussion, all committee
members present had considered carefully
the main thrust of those student arguments
that had come to us for a longer drop period,
and we saw no attention given in those
letters to
arguments to the educational consequences.
The chief benefit attributed to a longer
period seemed to be that students could have
a better idea before deciding whether todrop
or not of how they could handle assignments
and of the grades they would receive in the
course. This emphasis on needing more
information about one's likely grades was
generally unpersuasive to a committee
whose responsibility is to examine the
educational consequences of a particular
University policy. We have been more
persuaded by arguments that later drops
often disrupt coordination of student
' assignments in courses. (2) can adversely
affect the grading curve for remaining
students, and, most importantly. (3) delay
the time when a student must decide to
buckle down to work in a course.
I have great respect for students. If more
students had chosen to express themselves
on the issue. I would have been quite
Student boiling point near
West Germany paralyzed by youthful terrorists
By PETER HA EKE
West Germany, a nation renowned lor its
peaceful liberal order, is in a state of chaos.
The disorder has been caused by student
terrorists who hae been methodically
murdering the barons of German industry.
Beginning w ith the 1972 bombing murders
of four U.S. servicemen by the notorious
Baader-Meinhol gang, student terrorism has
spread across Deutschland like ink on a
blotter. They have struck dispassionately in
the last five months at first, the head of
Germany's Dresdener Bank. Jurgen Ponto.
who was murdered in July. Them most
recently, industrialist Hanns-Marlin
Schleyer was kidnaped by the Red Army
Faction in a bloody ambush. Sen leyer's three
bodyguards and chauffeur were machine
gunned to death.
In response to this latest atrocity, security
in Germany, and especially Bonn, the
capital, has tightened around every German
citien like a police dragnet. Bonn, for all
intents and purposes, is a city at bay:
machine-gun toting police patrol the
Cologne-Bonn airport, barbed wire
surrounds every government building and
private home of high-level officials and
heavily armed police check every car in the
city and even in the suburbs.
Since Ponto's brutal murder, nearly every
company has had to increase security by
hiring additional guards and installing
monitoring cameras. As one executive
lamented. "I can't drink a beer without
security men. 1 can't go to the toilet without
security men. My family life is ruined. And 1
can't have a relationship with another
woman without security men." Indeed, after
the Schleyer kidnapping. Daimler-Ben
received 138 orders for bulletproof
Mercedes-Ben limousines.
The recent spate of terrorism points to an
inherent pathology of the German political
svstem: in its enthusiasm for order, the Bonn
YOU Sj0ffC4, I HfiD TH(S ACCIDENT
IN '59, BUT I DIDN'T
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prepared to put more time into considering
their ideas. As it is, the ideas that we did
receive seemed so clearly to be addressed to
essentially noncducational issues that we
have felt compelled to vote in opposition to
them not out of disrespect to students, but
out of a desire to help produce as good a
system for educating students as we can
conceive.
M. Richard Cramer
Associate Professor
Editor's Note: A response to these letters is
in the editorial column today.
the editor
So that's what they mean
To the editor:
All this talk of Southern Bell brings to
mind an old joke: When thoroughbred
horses are mated when they bring all the
mares down to the stallions it's called
servicing. Now you now what the phone
company means when they say they've been
servicing us for over 100 years.
Reid Tuvim
103 Winston
Duke coeds 'shocked'
To the editor:
We are three Duke coeds who were
shopping on Franklin Street this past
Saturday. While browsing through the
Intimate Bookshop, we were shocked by a
most offensive sight. A young man who was
IT'S VOSt THAN 1
government has been steadily eroding civil
liberties. Thus in its quest to halt terrorism
with tighter security, the government has
been restricting more liberties and fanning
the embers of a potentially explosive student
revolt.
Because leftist ideology is so entrenched
within the German university system, many
students and faculty have charged that the
government overreacted to the terrorist
activities. Many academics fear that Bonn
will use the terrorism as a pretense to clamp
down on the liberal movement. Germany's
intellectual university community has
always been isolated from the rest of society,
and now with Chancellor Schmidt and the
6
Il.afcLH inn ffiftjf1 mum mi 1 1 M mil m m i wmmum itomiiliii rrn
wearing a Tar Heel T-shirt dropped his pants
and mooned us through the store window.
Being accustomed to the cour'tdous behavior
of Duke gentlemen, we found such conduct
rude and unacceptable not at all in
keeping with the Southern Gentlemen
image. Therefore, the three of us wish to
express our extreme disappointment with
you Carolina cuties. If the grit who is guilty
of this terrible deed wishes to apologize, we
will gladly accept his excuses at Box 6424
College Station. Durham. North Carolina,
27708.
Cindy Roberts, '79
Michele Clause, '79
Julie Elliott, '79
. Southern Bell meets test
To the editor:
The time has come to find out just how
much the student body will take and
Southern Bell has met the challenge.
Their latest ploy consists of charging the
students 60 cents per month to have both
their own and their roommate's name listed
in the directory. The next step is to give the
students an old directory for shock effect.
This small fee runs about $5 by the end of the
second semester. Does it take a five-man
crew to list two names so that Southern Bell
can justify it as a "service charge"?
II the students should want to know when
the new phone directory is coming out, a call
to the Southern Bell offices will reveal that
they will "probably be out in December."So
t he students are paying 60 cents to have their
names listed in Directory Assistance, which
you are charged for if you use it more than
five times.
As a student and a consumer. I feel it is my
responsibility to find out exactly the ways
that Southern Bell is trying to rip us off. Call
1H0USW WE SfflATO HAVE A
government viewing their culture as the
breeding ground of radicals, the students are
angry. Notes a leftist member of Schmidt's
Social Democratic party: "The country is in
political trouble, it is in economic trouble
and it needs some elements to blame."
Although Germany's present "fascist
state" atmosphere is a necessary expedient to
maintain security and order, the terrorist
activities should serve as a loud signal to
Schmidt and the German congress
Bundestag: the division in German society
between conservatives and leftist
intellectuals is deep and only deepening
more as a result of the government's
totalitarian security measures.
Don't forget to get details
if involved in auto accident
Elinor's now: This advice was prepared by the Student Legal Services
which maintains an office in Suite C of the Carolina Union. UNC students
have prepaid for this service and may obtain advice at no additional charge.
North Carolina has compulsory auto insurance which provides that no
vehicle may be registered and operated in this state unless accompanied by
proof of financial responsibility. This protects the prudent driver from the
penniless, careless driver who inflicts damage but is without resources to pay.
The driver of an automobile normally must be reasonably careful of his
passengers and others and he is liable for injuries suffered by them as a result
of his failure to observe such reasonable care. The injuries and damages that
may be inflicted by someone operating a borrowed car may also be the
responsibility of the owner who loaned it.
Under North Caiolina law, the driver of any vehicle involved in an accident
resulting 111 injuiv orLath is required to furnish information and assistance
immediately. Ifthcie is only property damage, the drivers must immediately
stop at the scene ol the accident and give his name, address, license number
and vehicle registration number to those involved. If the accident involved
any injury or property damage more than $200, the driver must immediately
giv e notice to t he local police department (or to the sheriff or highway patrol).
II you are insured against the casuality, immediately notify your insurance
company and ask them how to proceed. Negligence is a factor commonly
associated with automobile accidents and if you feel that you are being
unfairly accused of the negligent "absence of care," reserve all statements for
your insurance representative. Ifyou feel the other driver was "at fault" and
you arc unable to negotiate successfully with his insurer to reimburse your
damage, then seek legal advice.
ADYK'F F OR THE DAY: I) If you are involved in an accident, do not
make the mistake of failing to obtain the names and addresses of as many
witnesses as possible. 2) File all necessary reports without delay and seek
advice 1! iheie are conflicting opinions as to liability.
drop period
them today and find out. You'll never believe
it.
Susan Parham
535 Morrison
An "old schooler"
To the editor:
Call me elitist, hung-up and irrelevant.
Make fun of me. Laugh until your
marijuana-coated lungs burst. Go ahead, I
can take it. Because, you see, I'm an "old
schooler." 1 have been where you have been.
I'm "hip" to what's really happening.
Obviously, the rebuttals to my statements
concerning marijuana were written by some
young floundering potheads attempting
intelligent commentary. Any intelligent
expert on the subject would surely have read
the most recent study, conducted by the
German government. This study, which took
10 years to complete, supports my premises.
(By the way, this study may be found in the
periodicals section in Wilson Library.)
But just for the sake of argument, let's
pretend that my "facts" are "myths." Have
you, and be truthful, seen the real world?
Have you been a policeman in a suburban
town in Georgia and seen the transformation
of a young well-meaning student into a
"dime-store derelict?" I expect you haven't.
So as you light up and tell D. C. Malle
jokes, just remember that a concerned
"oldster" was just trying to help a young, but
misguided student body.
D. C. Malle
Rt. 10, Box 7
The Daily Tar Heel welcomes
contributions and letters to the editor.
Letters must be signed, typed on a 60
space line, double-spaced and must be
accompanied by a return address.
Letters chosen for publication are
subject to editing.
YCMM EPIDEMIC!1
Clearly, Schmidt and the Bonn
government should be sensitive to student
grievances and step up efforts to bridge the
cultural divisions within society; otherwise,
Germany's student left, unlike America's
student left which dissipated after the
Vietnam War, could escalate sporadic
terrorism into a full-scale student revolution.
Schmidt must act now, for although the pot
is merely simmering, the boiling point is
never far awav.
Peter Hapke, a senior, is an ecology and
English major from Asheville, N.C.