PAGE TWO

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1966

PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1966


Students Rate Profs
Through Evaluations

By BETSY COHN
A new fad for college book-
worms: book that bites, professor
that squirms.
The title of this wordly novel is
COURSE CRITIQUE, 362 - page
book published last fall by the
students of the University of
Washington. Already a bestseller
(7000 copies sold at $1 apiece),
the book turns the tables on the
university's faculty, grading al-
most 400 teachers from A to E.
The trend of rating and degrad-.I
ing professors is rapidly spread-I
ing. There is an organized public
grading of teachers by students
at 20 schools now, according to
the National Students Association.
This program took root this fall
at a number of campuses includ-
ing the University of Washing-
ton, the University of Minnesota,
Oberlin College and City College
of New York. At the University
the course evaluation program
blossomed last spring and hopes
to produce again within two
months..
Indignation
Student ratings, however, are
reducing many professors to sput-
tering indignation. The United
Federation of College Teachers,
Regents Vote
for Institute
To Help Aged

a local of the American Federa-
tion of College Teachers, acidly
charges that the program at
CCNY "builds the values of the
TV pollster into the academic
situation."
Nevertheless, the rapid growth
of student evaluations of courses
and teachers indicates that many
a professor will have to grow a
thicker hide before long. Course
Critique has aroused lively con-
troversy cutting across student-
faculty lines. Harsh evaluations
have raised the possibility of libel
suits by teachers, while other stu-
dents and teachers favor the cri-
tique.
At the University, 250 students
will be working to produce the
second edition of the Course
Evaluation Booklet. The process-
ing of this publication began dur-
ing registration when 10,000 sets
of evaluation questionnaires were
distributed. The questionnaires
were distributed to literary college
students only as a result of last
year's lack of concentration in one
area.
The objective set of questions
and answers will then be given to
a selected group of students in the
concentrated fields; they will be
students who have not at any time
had the professor being rated.
These seniors will read the evalu-
ations, add their own comments,
then pass them on to a group of
graduate students who will again
add comments giving a different
perspective to what has already
been said.
Notifies Professor
From the. graduate student
r-mitta tham aaly tinn will be

Tests,
By WALLACE IMMEN
Recent tests conducted at the
University-owned rocket range on
the Keweenaw Peninsula have
found the weather buoy rocket
(Webrock) concept feasible. This
system is designedfor thergath-
ering of weather data by rockets
fired from platforms floating in
the world's oceans.
Prof. Harold F. Allen, of the
aerospace engineering department
was range director in the tests

Find _
which were hampered by heavy
snow and overcast skies. Four
rocketsawere launched on contract
with a private concern, Space De-
fense Corporation of Birmingham,
Mich., which is developing the
rocket system for the Navy's Of-
fice of Research (ONR).
If adopted, the rockets will be
placed on buoys at strategic lo-
cations in the oceans and will be
touched off from stations as far
as 2500 miles away. The data
would be transmitted as the in-

Veather
struments descend to earth by par-
achute.
Electronic Control
A key part of the system, an
electronic control which allows the
rockets to fire only when vertical
on a pitching sea was found satis-
factory. The rockets must be fired
straight into the atmosphere in
order to get accurate results.
After nearly a month of de-
lays, the 2.75 inch-diameter rock-
ets were fired from the shore
instead of the buoy to save time
setting up equipment during a
short break in the weather.
An earlier attempt to fire the
rockets from the lake was thwart-
ed when ice formed on the buoy's
firing mechanism. This buoy, Prof.
Allen explained, was designed only
for the test and not built to han-
dle rough water. The buoy design
under consideration is now being
tested off the Florida coast.
Delayed Firing TH
Plans called for the firings to Lak
be made in early November, but fini
it was December before the rockets sysi
were placed on special sleds and
towed through more than two feet
of accumulated snow to the launch
site. The rockets themselves car-
ried no instruments, but merely
showed that similar missiles on a
larger scale could be fired accur-
ately to altitudes near 100,000 feet.
The site of the rocket range is
near Copper Harbor on the point
which juts out into Lake Superior.
The land was given by the Calu-
met and Hecla Mining Company
and is still under development.
This was its first use in about a
year and the first in winter. Prof.
Allen believes this test has shown
the range suitable for use all year
long.
The buoy will be moored in
nearby Lac La Belle to check
equipment reliability when expos-
ed to the elements for extended
periods, and the northern winter
is expecteddto be as rigorous an
environment as the oceans.
A time-lapse camera system in-
stalled on the buoy was to have
noted the angle of each launch;
its function now is to record the
weathering.
Data from the launch and
weathering tests will be evaluated
by Navy technical personnel to de-
termine whether the program
should be expanded. ONR feels
Webrock information would be of
great value in long range weath-
er forecasting and would be more
accurate than present means of
checking atmospheric conditions.
No date has been forecast for
operations. The final plans may
well call for a cluster of We-
brock rockets tobe placed on
each buoy, and periodic firings
over a period of months would
necessitate servicing about once a
year.

4

Rockets

Feasible

E LAUNCHING BOUY developed by Space Defense Corp. of Birmingham, Mich., here floats on
ke Superior. Rockets are fired from the tubes near the center only when a special control system
ds them in vertical plane on the water. This particular bouy was not used in recent tests of the
tem because of icing and bad weather.

4

I'

commi iee Tie evamuuions wnu
Broadened services to Mich- given to a committee of group
igan's 650,000 aged, including the heads from SGC, The Daily, IFC,
training of persons to, help solve IQC, Assembly Association, Pan-
special problems of the aged, were hellenic, the Literary School
approved by the Regents at their Steering Committee, the Honors
last meeting., Steering Committee and UAC.
They voted to join with Wayne This group notifiesethe professor
State University in setting up an that he is being evaluated. They
Institute of Gerontology, ask information on the status of
"Our first big job will be to help the professor's course, the curve
communities all over the state used, whether or not he will be
with demonstrations and service teaching the same course next
projects," said Dr. Wilma T. Don- year, whether or not he will cover
ahue, director of the University's the same material, and other
division of gerontology, questions of a similar nature.
The Michigan Commission on The final committee consists of

Party time is
any time there's
anLpic alb-um

Aging, of which Donahue is a
member, urged the 1965 Legisla-
ture to set up the joint institute
to pool University and WSU facil-
ities and resources. The lawmak-
ers responded with a $200,000
appropriationnto cover operations
until next 'June 30.
The institute, patterned after
the highly successful University-
WSU Institute of Labor and In-
dustrial Relations, will pool and
build upon both universities' pres-
ent programs.~The University has
several nationallyrecognized ger-
ontology programs in such areas
as hospital administration, envi-
ronmental health, sheltered work-
shops and special housing.
No direct connection will exist
between the institute and any
particular school or department.
Rather, the specialized training
will be offered in cooperation with
other units-like medicine, public'
health, education and psychology
- which are already concerned
with some aspects of aging.
The new organization is offi-
cially named the "Institute of
Gerontology, the University of
Michigan - Wayne State Univer-
sity."

students in each field of concen-
tration who add their own com-
ments and give the final product
a thorough reading.
This year the booklet, which will
be published as a Daily supple-
ment, hopes to cover from 150-200
courses. The questions have been
arranged by the committee with
the aid of Prof. Wilbur J. Mc-
Keachie, chairman of the psy-
chology department. Although the
process is not. of _a. scientific
nature, the questions were de-
signed to be as objective and rea-
sonable as possible.

'*

GUY SNIDER of the Keweenaw Field Weather Station near
Gratiot Lake in Keweenaw County prepares to release a balloon
which will be tracked to check wind velocity before the launch
of four test rockets. Ready to record the readings is Richard
Lane of the Office of Naval Research in Minneapolis.


Sylvia Studio j
Sylvia Homer, LI.S.T.D.

offers
CLASSICAL BALLET, C.M.
for

] Dance

KOSHER KO-OP
Kosher Dinners Served Weekday Evenings
and on the Sabbath at H I LLEL.
DORM RESIDENTS are eligible for University rebates.
Sign up now at the Hillel Office,
1429 Hill, for the Winter Term.
Sponsored by B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation
and National Council of Young Israel

o'

PROFESSIONAL-I NTERMEDIATE
and BEGINNERS
0 established 1932 0 Phone 668-8066-668-7227

525 Liberty

*Stereo

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