6 The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday. November 9, 1977
Greg Porter
Editor
Ben Cornelius, Managing Editor
Ed Rankin, Associate Editor
Lou Biuonis, Associate Editor
Laura Scism, University Editor
Elliott Potter, City Editor
Chuck Alston, State and National Editor
Sara Bullard, Features Editor
Ch EmiSsun, Arts Editor
Gene Upchurch, Sports Editor
Allen Jernigan, Photography Editor
BatUj
(Far HM
85th year of editorial freedom
letters to the editor
Police should enforce every ordinance consistendy
Proctoring needed to make
new Honor Code effective
The Educational Policy Committee's (EPC) decision Monday to support
deletion of the "rat clause" from the Honor Code and yet oppose a proposal
for faculty proctoring during exams is at best puzzling.
On one hand the EPC is favoring releasing students from formal
obligation to turn in peers they see cheating. Yet, at the same time, the
committee fails to fill the consequent void of enf orcement by refusing to make
faculty members responsible for protecting academic integrity of the
University.
The committee is correct in supporting the Committee on Student
Conduct's (COSC) recommended deletion of the "rat clause" which requires
a student to report all Honor Code violations observed by him. A 1976
survey on cheating done by sociology Professor John Reed reported that 88
percent of UNC students said they believed this clause to be ineffective. The
committee is also on target in supporting the recommendation that
reporting of Honor Code violations be retained as a moral obligation for
students.
But by refusing to approve the COSC recommendation for mandatory
faculty proctoring, the EPC has in effect taken the punch out of the
proposed Honor Code changes. If it is acknowledged that students are not
ultimately responsible for reporting violations, then this responsibility has
to be shifted elsewhere. If it is not, any kind of "honor" system would be less
effective than the present one if that is possible.
The EPC waters down the COSC recommendation for proctoring by
suggesting instead a system where a faculty member may be present in a
classroom during an exam ;he or students in the class feel his presence is
necessary. Or, the EPC recommends, Student Government could designate'
students to be present in a classroom during an exam if requested or
necessary.
In short, the Educational Policy Committee will present a "non-honor"
system to the Faculty Council's December meeting if the recommendations
contained in the committee's rough draft are retained. Under the proposal,
faculty responsibility for monitoring honor code violations will be arbitrary
and irregular. Some professors will decide to proctor and perhaps a few
students will ask them to remain in class. What more than likely will occur,
however, is that both professors and students will shirk their responsibility
to uphold the Honor Code, and violations will continue.
The EPC contends that faculty proctoring would encourage an adversary
relationship between students and teachers and resulting cynicism could
lead to more cheating. But 27 of 42 professors contacted in a recent Daily
Tar Heel straw poll said they favor faculty proctoring as an alternative to the
present system if studnets are allowed, but not required, to turn in students.
In addition, the 1976 Reed survey also supported the truism that students
are more tempted to cheat when they are in large classes with no faculty
supervision. The professors in the straw poll also said they felt the mere
presence of an instructor in the classroom reduces cheating.
The Educational Policy Committee should not delete the "rat clause" and
leave nothing in its place. The EPC is misreading campus opinion if it thinks
that instituting faculty proctoring would be a slap in students' and faculty
members' faces. We need a revised honor code but one that still retains
provisions for effective and consistent enforcement of the academic
reputation of this University.
By not recommending faculty proctoring to the Faculty Council in
December, the Educational Policy Committee clearly will be passing the
buck. We hope the Faculty Council recognizes this and reinstates the
original COSC proposal for faculty proctoring. If the council does not, the
"Honor Code" will remain only in name, not in fact.
Years younger from the experience
To the editor:
What are the priorities of the Chapel
Hill Police Department? I agree that in
some circumstances, ticketing and
towing should be enforced. But 1 also
believe that during sellout conditions of
the Clemson game and Blue-White
game in which parking facilities are even
more inadequate than usual, ticketing
and towing should be enforced only in
cases of obvious interference of traffic.
On Saturday at appoximately 6:40
p.m. after the two ball games, 1
happened to see a Chapel H ill police car
parked" behind my brother's car.
Because my brother Charles was still at
the Blue-White game, I stopped to see
what was going on. Charles' car was
parked on the sidewalk on Ransom
Street, just barely extending on the
road, allowing plentiful room for the
passage of cars, he officer told me
Charles' tar was going to be towed
unless I could find him in two minutes.
Thinking Charles was still at the Blue
White game and having no way to help,
1 left. By luck, 1 saw Charles walking
from the game, and so I took him to
Ransom Street hoping his car had not
yet been towed. His car and the officer
were still there, so 1 thought I had saved
Charles some money and trouble. As it
turned out, the officer removed the $5
parking ticket from his windshield and
cancelled the wrecker. Then to our
complete surprise, the officer wrote him
a 527 citation. The citation includes no
fine but a $27 court cost or requires him
to appear in court on December 6, 1977.
Of course, Charles is going to contest
the citation.
Although not proclaiming to be a
lawyer or even knowing law to a great
degree, 1 do believe I have the common
sense to know when an injustice has
occurred. It would be different if this
was an isolated incident, but what about
all the other cars that were parked
illegally during the games'? Why was
Charles given a citation when hundreds
of other people were not? If laws and
ordinances are to be enforced, they
should be enforced consistently. This
indicates to me that the Chapel Hill
police are unsympathetic in regard to
grossly insufficient parking facilities at
all times.
In my opinion, strict enforcement of
this ordinance or law by the Chapel H ill
Police Department is an underhanded
way for someone to make a fast buck!
Wayne Hardee
108 W. Cameron Ave.
Error in judgment
To the editor:
First of all, 1 respectfully admit to an
aspect of the allegations made by
Messrs. Vogelbach, Rubinsohn and
Clough ("Dubious drawings?," Nov. 8)
as to the lack of originality on my part in
three recent cartoons appearing in the
DTH.
As much as 1 dislike excuses, though,
1 feel that some sort of public response is
appropriate. It has never been mv
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intention to "pull a trick" on anybody at
this University as far as originality is
concerned. Absolutely any excuse 1
have for the three examples of
"borrowing characters" will perhaps
come off as less than justified to some
people; yet there are reasons. In the past
year and a half, I have taken on the job
of cranking out 67 cartoon strips
("Highrise Lowlife" took an average of
between three and four hours a night
pains were taken not only in dialogue
and illustrations but even in the special
paper and border tape used) and well
over 100 illustrations and single-panel
cartoons, both editorial and pertaining
to accompanying articles. As much as 1
enjoy pure pen and ink illustrations, I
took on the added task of trying to make
them humorous (ever tried to do an
illustration to make an article on
pregnancy tests funny?). Anyway, the
point of all this is not to elicit the playing
of violin music or to jerk crocodile tears
from your eyes, but to make a different
point: not only have I turned out almost
200 illustrations, but I have not been
entirely wise in using my better
judgement as to when I had time enough
to do them. In the past year and a half I
have turned down only one request to
do an illustration for the paper. Almost
every request reaches me in the early
evening the night before the paper
comes out. I am not particularly
talented each illustration takes quite
a while to do. My "tendency over the
past semester.. .to blatantly stealing" has
occurred three times within the past few
weeks only. have not and never intend
on stealing captions, entire cartoons,
and most importantly, ideas from
anybody. The characters I have
borrowed have simply been that,
gentlemen characters
incorporated into a-larger cartoon that
in no way resembles the ideas and; or
humor of Mr. Kliban or anybody else
for that matter. My compromise in
originality has come about only through
recent pressures of time coupled with
my desire to make somebody
somewhere laugh during a break
between the excitement of their General
Parasitology lab and their Introduction
to Fluid Dynamics class.
But 1 do admit to a judgmental error.
For this reason, I respectfully will resign
my position as an illustrator and
cartoonist for the DTH if anyone else
feels as insulted as you three gentlemen.
However, if anyone feels that my efforts
in the past 1 8 months have been those of
something else than a thieving
charlatan, I would appreciate your
response to either myself or the editor
with the promise that rather than be less
than entirely original, I will turn down
any request that would require more
than the hour or two of free time needed.
As to Mr. Vogelbach, Rubinsohn and
Clough's delightfully clever suggestion
that I might next draw Snoopy,
somehow it seems that had I indeed
included the beagle in one of my
cartoons, it probably would have failed
to elicit the outrage illustrated in your
letter from even the staunchest of
Peanuts fans.
L. Poole
3-D University Gardens
Loaded cartoon
To the editor:
Brady's cartoon in Tuesday's Tar
Heel regarding the drama program at
UNC contains, in reverse order, a truth,
a half-truth and an insult.
Panel three illustrates a universal
alternative: you can always go
somewhere else.
Panel one contains the insult. None of
the students, undergraduate or
graduate, and none of the actresses
hired by the PRC are fairly represented
by the low-plunge lady to Housman's
right.
Panel two is a half-truth as the
students do indeed work in the Lab
Theatre in the basement of Graham
Memorial; five productions this
semester alone. However, the panel is
mainly an implied lie as the students also
work in Union shows, in PRC shows,
and next year, while the PRC remains in
the Playmakers Theatre, the students
will be performing in open auditiun
productions in the new Paul Green
Theatre.
David Adamson
Student of dramatic art
Crying wolf
To the editor:
On Friday, November 4 at 12:15 a.m.,
the residents of Lower Quad were jolted
by ear-piercing shrieks coming from the
general direction of the Arboretum. In
less than one minute, approximately 50
residents of Lower Quad raced in the
direction of the screams only to find that
the source was a few immature Manly
residents. Apparently, these "boys"
failed to realize that their actions
endangered the safety of the female
portion of the student body. If someone
had been attacked twenty minutes after
this incident, many might consider it an
example of "the little boy who cried
wolf."
We, the girls of Aycock Dorm, wish
to express our appreciation and thanks
to the residents of Graham, Lewis,
Everett and Stacy who came to offer aid.
It is reassuring to know that we are so
well-protected in the case of an
emergency. We hope that you won't fail
to help us in the event of a real
emergency just because of the
perverseness of a few students on this
campus.' Thanks again, guys of Lower
Quad!
Signed by 17 concerned residents
of Aycock Dorm
The effect of Einstein's law on college students and speeding muons
By JIM PATE
Time's a-wastin' and I'm going to waste some
of yours right now.
It takes a lot of time to be sentimental about
something, and I must admit that it will be a
while before I'm sentimental about my days at
Carolina. I've fathomed space somewhat (I'm
filling it up right now), as most people do today
while in college, but the element of time, since it
rules virtually everything we do in Chapel H ill, in
particular has puzzled me.
I get especially confused w hen it comes to time
changes, as in the recent switch from daylight
saving to standard time. This year was different,
though.
Last Saturday night a fraternity brother, after
spending two hours trying to explain to me how
daylight-saving time worked, finally laid it on the
line. He said that if the time came to change the
clock and I still hadn't figured it out from the
notes he gave me I was to call President William
Friday, because he was an expert at changing
times as well as deadlines, and besides, he was
always willing to talk to students.
Of course, brothers aren't supposed to lie to
each other, so when 2:30 a.m. rolled around and 1
was still agonizing over what to do because I
didn't want to be late for Sunday school, I had to
give up and call Mr. Friday. Well, he wasn't quite
the expert that I thought he was, but he did tell
me what to do with my clock.
But overall, even though I had the rare
opportunity to relive the same hour, college has
made me especially aware that the less one has to
do, the less time one finds to do it. Take going to
classes, for instance. There's never enough time
to get everything done in college; unlike money
and class computer tickets, time cannot be
counterfeited.
My days at UNC have been exceedingly
impulsive ones and, like so many who have a test
coming up tomorrow and find something thev'd
rather do than study, there's nothing to alleviate
the agony like the spur of the moment. Many,
many times I've been cramming frantically for
exams, sweating painfully under the merciless
advance of the clock, and have been seized by an
impulse to do something to relieve the anxiety.
I am forced to consider my options: A) Like
the little moron, I could throw the clock out of
the window, B) I could throw myself out the
window, C) 1 could throw horseshoes.
Anyway, 1 inevitably give into something
(besides studying) because as always, the flight of
time is goadedon by the spur of the moment.
College has taught me to look for timesavers,
i.e. anything that saves expense and trouble, like
love at first sight. But at Carolina, the thing that
has taken up the least amount of my time but has
caused me the most trouble is sex: there are so
many beautiful women and there is so little
time.
But college drags on for me and the time is like
women, pigs and my granddaddy's mule; the
more you want it to go, the more it won't.
So what will I be w hen I finally graduate from
college but an idler who has spent his time
studying. Life is too short for such stuff and the
time we spend yawning can never be regained.
It's no wonder to me that I can't get too
sentimental about good ole UNC. Carolina is not
the same institution that our parents attended
it's not the same in a lot of ways. And our parents
did not live fast or grow up with The Bomb.
T he issues and the courses in college now are
different, approached with an entirely different
frame of mind. Science and art, Finstein and
Picasso, have painted and defined the world we
now live in, leaving their indelible marks upon all
who came after them.
So it no longei follows, necessarily, that las!
living sends one to an early grave; it this were so
we'd all be dead. Even the adage about burning
the candle at both ends doesn't follow logically
anymore. Because besides breeding atoms
Einstein's theory of relativity also hypothesized,
though in a much more complicated way, that
the faster one goes, the longer one lasts.
Recently, 12 European scientists proved in
practice what "Dr. Atomic's" theory predicted
on scraps of paper. Using subatomic particles
called muons, which when stationary have a life
of only two microseconds, the scientists proved
in a Geneva particle-physics laboratory that
space travelers of the future probably will return
to earth to find their great-grandchildren long
dead from old age.
The muons were made to simulate a space
journey by circling a storage ring at a velocity of
99.4 percent of the speed of light. By racing in
circles, these muons increased their life spans 32
times, living for 64 microseconds and coming
within 0.2 percent of the amount Einstein
predicted. Applied to the average life span of a
human (say, 70 years), this would mean people
dying at the rotten old age of 2,240.
But this kind of thing could present all sorts of
insurmountable problems. How could someone
(be forced to) retire at age 70 and then spend the
next 20 centuries fishing and puttering around
the garden, if there are any gardens or any fish
left then. And if someone is a dirty old man at 70,
just think of the far-reaching implications
reaching everywhere and everything and
probably grabbing right much.
But return your mind for a moment, if you
can, to the real world of today's college campus.
It would seem only logical that if a vast increase
in speed produces extreme longevity, then
smaller increases in speed must increase one's
existence by a correspondingly smaller amount.
If muons live longer by running in circles, just
think what great advantages this must give the
college student. Consider how much younger we
all must be from just a few normal college
activities like pre-registration, registration and
Greek rush.
If we compound these with looking for a
parking place, football weekends and trying to
obtain a good ticket to a basketball game, it
would seem that the longer one stayed in college,
the younger one would become. It's indeed
delightful to think that perhaps I might really be
young enough to enjoy my children by the time
they get to college; if I remain a professional
student, I'll still be young enough for the kids and
me to become true drinking buddies, and I'll be
able lo tcii ilicm cveiy snuc on campus.
Although I've been in Chapel Hill for four
years and still am only a junior, I no longer feel
ashamed of biding my precious time, for I'm sure
that I am at least a couple of years younger from
my experiences, for what is college except
running around in circles like a bunch of muons?
Jim Pate, a junior, is a journalism major from
Fairmont, N.C.