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March 21, 1980 - Image 1

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The Michigan Daily, 1980-03-21

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COUNSELING
See editorial page

C I
ht

LIE igan

:43 tiV

PLEASANT
See Today for details

r Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom

Vol. XC, No. 134

Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, March 21, 1980

Ten Cents

Twelve Pages

Views on course evaluatio

By BETH ROSENBERG
and MITCH STUART
Last in a two-pard series
"The instructor made class interesting."
"The grading was a fair assessment of my
ability in this class."
"The instructor delivered clear, organized
explanations."
On course evaluations of classes and instruc-
tors students are often asked to rate the
validity of questions like these on a scale
ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly
disagree." And while there is plenty of local
controversy as to how such evaluations should
be used once collected, there are those who
laim such ratings are altogether invalid.
THE MOST extensively-used evaluation
form at the University was designed at the Cen-
ter for Research on Learning and Teaching
Iranian
elections
impede
hostages'
release
From AP and UPI
Iran's attempt to elect a new
Parliament bogged down yesterday in
slow vote-counting and complaints of
improprieties, casting new doubt on
when the revolutionary government
will be ready to make a decision on
freeing the U.S. Embassy hostages.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in a
Persian new year's broadcast to the
nation, chided those who have accused
some groups of fraud in last Friday's
voting. Such complaining before the
rest of the world is anti-Islamic, he
said.
KHOMEINI'S statement was ap-
parently aimed at silencing critics, in-
cluding Iranian President Abolhassan
Bani-Sadr. who complained of instan-
ces of fraud and coercion in last week's
election for the. parliament that
Khomeini has charged with deciding
the fate of the American hostages.
The United States, meanwhile, asked
*he World Court yesterdy to demand the
immediate release of the hostages in
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, saying
there is no way of knowing whether
Iran will keep the 50 Americans "for a
month, a year or a decade."
In a summation reflecting
Washington's frustration after more
than four months of conflicting signals
from Tehran, State Department legal
adviser Robert B. Owen told the Inter-
iational Court of Justice that Iran
,15hight have no intention of freeing the
Americans held captive for 138 g days.
OWEN ALSO called, for an urgent
court judgment that Iran has violated
international law and a final order for Th
release of the hostages. The court itself Pa
cannot enforce such an order, however. Ro
In Washington, U.N. Secretary Ba
Ca
See IRANIAN; Page 2

(CRLT). The form is "instructor-designed,"
allowing the instructors to choose 30 questions
from more than 900. The center then prints a
computer form with the specified questions for
distribution to classes.
By allowing staff members to design their
own questionnaires, items will be more
relevant to the individual classes., according to
James Kulik, the associate director of the cen-
ter.
Psych. Prof. William McKeachie, CRLT
director, said evidence indicates faculty can
benefit from student reaction on evaluation
forms.
"THERE'S NO doubt the evaluations are
valid, but how valid?" McKeachie said.
"They're highly valid for one important goal of
education - finding out how successful
teachers are in getting students interested in

the class."
McKeachie said another valid goal of
evaluations is to determine the relationships
between the students' performances in class
and their satisfaction with the class and in-
structor. He specified that results his office has
examined in the past indicate that students who
course
evaluations:
the ratings game

n validity
perform better than most others in the class
tend to rate the class higher than their peers.
The CRLT form, according to McKeachie, is
"probably as good as any." Because the results
of the survey are computerized, they are con-
venient. But McKeachie said an ideal form for
students would contain open-ended questions.
PROF. THOMAS Dunn, Chemistry Depar-
tment chairman, said he finds evaluations
"dubious at the best of times." Most surveys
designed by non-scientists aren't appropriate
for physical science classes, he said.
"(In the Chemistry Department) people
have to give lectures in things they don't want
to and use books they don't want to use," Dunn
explained.
He claims that required courses in a science
department may not be the most desirable for

diverse
faculty, but they must be taught. Dunn said
sometimes it is difficult to make an introduc-
tory course interesting and that factor will be
reflected on evaluations.
"ALL THAT will happen will be that it (man-
datory evaluation) causes problems," he said.
Questions asked on a standard evaluation form
designed for 2,000 students in an introductory
class are different than those in evaluating a
class of 25, Dunn said.
Staffers in the University's Student Coun
seling Office (SCO) would like to see a Univer-
sity-wide course evaluation project, according
to office coordinator Ellen Gershanov. Located
on the first floor of Angell Hall, the office ser-
ves as a reference point for students interested
in utilizing peer evaluations.
See VIEWS, Page 9

Stegeman land deal
discussion reopened

By SARA ANSPACH
The University Regents will reopen
discussion this morning on the land op-
tion the board granted to local.
developer John Stegeman last month,
Regent David Laro (R-Flint) said
yesterday.
The University has not yet signed the
option agreement that the Regents ap-
proved by a 3-2 vote at last month's
meeting. According to Laro, "it's not
legally clear" whether the vote itself is
legally binding.
THE AGREEMENT grants
Stegeman the option to buy a piece of
University property behind the Church
Street parking structure. Stegeman
hopes to use the property in his
proposed development of 'a 32-story
"multi-use" facility at the forner of S.
Forest and Washtenaw.
Last month's vote, for which Laro and
Regent Paul Brown (DPetoskey) were
not present, caught much of the
University community by surprise and
in the past month has generate protests
from faculty, students and other. Ann
Arbor residents.
"I suspect that there'll be a motion to,
suspend the rules," Laro said last
night, "so the matter will come up
again before the full board." According
to Robert's rules of order, once a mat-
ter is approved only a person who voted
on the winning side may bring the mat-
ter up again and then no later than 24
hours after the original vote.
REGENT DEANE Baker (R-Ann Ar-
bor) who is strongly opposed to the
agreement, had indicated previously
that he would move that the board in-
clude several restrictions to the design
of Stegeman's building in the option
agreement.
At a crowded public comments
session yesterday, five people
representing different sectors of the
community addressed the board about
last month's decision to grant
Stegeman the option. They critc'zed

the board for making the decision
without adequate community input,
and expressed concern about the effec-
ts a 32-story building would have on the
community. Addressing the Regents,
University Economics Prof. William
Shepherd called the board's action last
month "irregular" because the normal
conditions of a land sale, including open
solicitations of bids and lack of staff
evaluations of the proposed effect of the
sale, were absent.
"It will affect everyone," Shepherd
said, adding that the high-rise would be

seen as a "symbol" of the University by
people entering the campus from the
east and that the structure would be
"seen prominently from the diag."
ROBERT SNYDER, president of the
South University Neighborhood
Association, also spoke strongly again-
st the proposed high-rise and the
Regents' actions. He urged that the
issue be brought back on the agenda
this month and suggested that if any
Regent had any possible financial or
political connections to Stegeman he or
See DISCUSSION, Page 3

uition to increase at
least 9.5% next year

By JULIE ENGEBRECHT
Next year's tuition for in-state
University students will jump at least
9.5 per cent, and probably more. One
University administrator suggested
yesterday that holding tuition to a 9.5
per cent hike is "unrealistic" in light of
the state's financial picture.
Upon recommendation of University
administrators, the Regents voted
yesterday to place no ceiling on 1980-81
tuition hikes. In correspondence last
week the administration had suggested
the Regents enact a 13 per cent ceiling
on hikes in undergraduate resident
tuition.
BUT UNIVERSITY administrators
decided a gainst a ceilingafter
reviewing with state officials the
likelihood of severe cutbacks in the
state's higher education budget, they

said.
Acting University Vice-President for
Academic Affairs Alfred Sussman said
because of heavy constraints on the
state budget students are forced to pay
for a larger portion of their education
Carter cutbacks may severely hurt
University research and student finan-
cial aid. See story, Page 3.
"than they would like." He also said in
light of the current financial problems
the 9.5 per cent' minimum tuition in-
crease is "unrealistic." The trend
among "peer institutions" indicates a
range of tuition increases between 11
and 18 per cent, Sussman said.
The University depends on the state
See REGENTS, Page 3

AP Photo
Heavy rolling
e Republican strategists have been busy discussing how the Grand Old
rty could roll over the Democrats this November, and since it looks like
nald Reagan will be the likely nominee, this could be the only way.
by Tarra, however, pictured above, hasn't endorsed the conservative
lifornia ex-governor.

'U' Prof Yates: -1970
RAM .goals unachieved

AATA examines curbs for high absenteeism

By LEE KATTERMAN
Based on statistics reported at Wednesday's Ann
Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) meeting,
both union and management officials agree that
workers absenteeism is a problem.
But agreement on how to address this issue may
not come as easily.
AT THE MONTHLY AATA board meeting the
Suthority's executive director, Richard Simonetta,
presented a recently-completed study of employee
attendance, which indicated that employees were ab-
sent three times more often than the average non-
manufacturing worker nationwide. He suggested that
a stricter absence policy be introduced in an attempt
to reduce absenteeism.
Transportation Employees Union (TEU) President
Harry Kevorkian said yesterday that if the figures
collected by AATA were verifiable, then absenteeism
was high, though not excessively. But he said that the
solution was to address the reasons causing the ab-

sences, rather than instituting a new personnel
policy.
"The absentee policy we have now is adequate,"
said Kevorkian. "The situation is directly at-
tributable to failure of management to address
problems they've been told about by union mechanics
and union officers."
HE SAID THE primary causes of absences are
back injuries and emotional exhaustion drivers ex-
perience in a job he described as "more stressful
than working on the line at GM."
Traffic!, equipment failures, dealing with the
public, and having to adjust to a system that is con-
stantly being redesigned were named by Kevorkian
as sources of stress for drivers. He noted that there
have been two major service changes in the last year
requiring drivers to learn new routes and explain
them to confused passengers.
Simonetta said a majority of employees had good
attendance. A small number of employees with more

than 50 days of sick leave are the main problem, he
said, and an absence policy that is too lenient is a par-
tial cause.
Simonetta said yesterday that under the present
contract there is very little management can do to
curb excessive absenteeism. An employee currently
cannot be required to document an illness until he or
she has used the full allotment of sick days (14),
vacation days (10), and any days the union provides
from its sick-leave "bank" (usualh, up to 15 days), he
explained. Then, only after a of undocumented
absences can any disciplinar3 - .... be taken.
"THE RULE REALLY doesn't have any teeth to
it," Simonetta said.
He added that his concern over absenteeism is the
cost of having enough employees on staff to fill unex-
pected absences. Further, runs are sometimes
missed if a substitute cannot be found.
During February of this year, 22 runs did not
See AATA, Page 9

By SHEILA STREET
Ten years after the Black Acton
Movement (BAM) strike, the Univer-
sity has not made any significant
changes toward the goals of the
protest, according to a University
professor.
Psychology Prof. J. Frank Yates said
yesterday that treatment of blacks at
the University was a "crime" in 1970
and remains that way today.
SPEAKING TO an audience of about
50 at the School of Education
Auditorium, Yates said some bright
black students enter the University
with poor initial training and therefore
have a slight chance of earning their
degrees.
He attributed the lack of graduate
students to disillusionment and lack of
incentive during a student's senior
year.
Yates was a panelist in a three-day
conference entitled "The University of

Michigan a Decade After BAM," spon-
sored by the Center for Afroamerican
and African Studies (CAAS). Other
speakers included members of the 1970
BAM strike negotiating team, former
interim University president and Law
Prof. Allan Smith, and psychology
professors Robert Hefner and Richard
Mann.
David Lewis, of the 1970 BAM
negotiating team, said BAM created a
direct impact on the operation of the
University by closing it down. $AM
proved that through organization and
numbers students can have power to ef-
fect change, he said.Cs
OBIKA GRARY, a CAAS staff mem-
ber, said that the BAM strike of 1970
lacked organizational continuity and
trained leaders, In discussing the
future of BAM for the 80's. Cynthia
Harris of the 1970 BAM negotiating
team said the organizatiort was a loose
See 'U' PROF., Page 5

Y I

he said. The State Board of Education called the proposal
very interesting," but added that "only an authoritarian
dictatorship" could implement the changes. '
A pain in the...
Some people seem to be in constant misery, but there
aren't too many who are as unfortunate as Iowa's "Citizen
Soldier." And even a U.S. Senator can't do anything about
it. The soldier, a prominent figure on the state seal, has

take more steps on the dance floor than either of them.
That's because it has four legs. The New York City Health
Department recently served a summons to the city's
Magique disco for allowing a horse to perform on the
premises. Authorities were informed of the horse's act
through a newspaper photograph depicting Penthouse Pet
of the Year Cheryl Rixon sitting atop the horse in the
establishment. City Health Commissioner Reinaldo Ferrer
said this is not the first instance of animals appearing in
disco. noting that lions and tigers have made such

behind him, May mushed casually over the finish line
Saturday night into the old gold rush city on Norton Sound.
May, who finished 11th in 1976 and fifth last year, said this
would be his last Iditarod race. "This is my last one," he
said, "why do it again?"
]
On the inside

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