Viet offensive may oust Cambodians BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Exten- sive Vietnamese forces now being positioned in western Cambodia may soon launch an all-out drive that would send more than a half-million Cam- bodians fleeing into Thailand, some military analysts here say. The Vietnamese now have up to half their 200,000-man force in Cambodia in the west: six divisions in place and three others moving into positions along a 210-mile are from the Gulf of Thailand to the flat, brush and forest lands in northwest Cambodia. HANOI'S TARGETS are the guerrilla hold-outs of ousted Premier Pol Pot and anti-communist groups known as the "Khmer Serei" or "free Cambodians." Vast numbers of sick, hungry civilians have gravitated to .the two anti-Viet- namese factions, living in makeshift camps straddling the border. There has been much speculation about a Vietnamese offensive - and a possible spillover of the war into Thailand - since the monsoon rains receded in October, making large-scale military movements possible. Virtually no one is predicting a Viet- namese invasion of Thailand, but there is still concern that Hanoi's troops may enter the country in "hot pursuit," or even in order to bloody a few Thai units as a warning to Bangkok to cut all its connections with Pol Pot and the Free Khmer. Thailand has stepped up its vigilance at the frontier, assigned some top commanders to the area and involved the international aid community in helping Cambodian refugees to such an extent that Hanoi's planners would have to weigh carefully any military action inside Thailand. So far, fighting has not been heavy, and only sporadic shelling and in- trusions by "foreign troops" into Thailand have been reported along the frontier. Reye's Outbreak A seven-year-old girl is listed in critical condition at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital where she is receiving treatment for Reye's Syndrome. Her six-year-old 'brother, listed in good condition, is also hospitalized with the same disease. Holly and Andrew Burgett, from Union City, Michigan, were admitted to the hospital Wed- nesday after contracting the disease. REYE'S SYNDROME usually affects young children and adolescents recuperating from viral infections such as flu or chicken pox. Although it is not contagious, the disease is often fatal. Symptoms include severe vomiting, followed by mental disorders, such as hallucinations or delerium. Although there is no cure for the disease, the "Reye's Syn- drome team" at Mott Hospital has substantially reduced the death rate from nearly 50 per cent in 1974, when the team was established, to 20 to 30 per cent. The Michigan Daily-Sunday, December 2, 1979-Page 5 EVERYTHING YOU NEVER EXPECTED FROM AN APPLIANCE STORE. fk335 r Tenure system could hurt teaching quality (Continued from Page 1) ' professors looking for jobs, fewer young academics are being granted tenure. Colleges and universities all across the country suffered from a general panic about the tenure situation in the early 1970s. Academic journals are chock full of tenure-related studies and evaluations. AS THE DECADE wore on, it became apparent that any pending "disaster" was many years into the future and that there was sufficient time for a well thought-out solution. Scholars in- terested in the subject spent much time trying to decide whetheror not there really was a problem at all. But now, as the 41exibility of the University is reduced, and faculty members become virtually locked into their positions, a general University policy to deal with these problems is far from a reality. Administrators and faculty members conclude that an aging faculty and budget constraints are challenges which face the Univer- sity, but none of the answers are clear. "IT'S INEVITABLE," Frye says of a more stringent policy. "One thing it means is that job opportunities for young people are clearly limited. Fewer people are preparing (to enter academic professions) because there are no jobs. People aren't going to keep taking Ph.Ds." Young Ph.D.s face a future in which 46 per cent of the University's LSA Professors will be in their 50's and 60's in 1990, as opposed to 28.7 per cent now, according to Johnson's study. In addition to the fact that the older faculty will become more expensive, the University is losing money each year because of inflation the age creates an even greater problem. John- son's study pointed out that a tenured professor in his or her late 50s is on the average. more than twice as expensive as a new assistant professor and over half as expensive as a tenured faculty member in his or her early 30s. THE CURRENT condition of fiscal restraint "simply aggravates what is already going on" with respect to the University's limited ability to hire new faculty members, Frye says. Fewer of those receiving Ph.D.s will be able to find academic jobs, and those who do are not willing to let go of those jobs. Also, highly qualified young academics-nay be reluctant to come to the University if they know the prospect of promotion is low. University President-designate Harold Shapiro says the faculty tenure problems mentioned will be one of the main issues on his agenda for the coming decade. "It's one of the things I'm thinking a lot about. The adequate renewal of faculty is a major concern," he says. JOHNSON ADVOCATES periodical reviews of tenured professors to discourage the accumulation of what he calls "the dead wood in a department." He says any change in tenure policy "would be real innovative on the part of the University." He cautioned, however, that "abrupt change" should be avoided. Indeed, abrupt change seems far from likely given the current mood among professors and administrators who all say they feel administrative centralization of the tenure process must be avoided. Mention of change frightens many in offices around cam- pus. An older faculty is not necessarily worse, and increasing age does not necessarily indicate problems. The faculty will, however, probably have a different intellectual orientation. "One can only speculate that some changes will occur particularly in the intellectual orientation of the natural and social sciences faculties," John- son's 1975 study predicts. "One could anticipate less stress on frontier and testing research, and more stress on the integration of broader areas of research," the report also says. Frye says there is not a lot the University can do about the aging problem. "There is no radical cure. We can urge early retirements. Modest things have been done in that regard." He explains that because of aging and current market conditions, the federal government has concerned itself with creating a pool of young scholars, through such groups as the National Science Foundation. Frye says an organization might, for example, sub- sidize a position if the University would generate a tenure track slot for the academic. This has not yet been done on a large scale. But a policy which would allow only new Ph.D.s to be hired would even- tually bring a department to have one group of junior untenured faculty, and a second group of senior tenured faculty, with few in between. Faculty members say morale and productivity would become victims of such a situation.