The Michigan Daily-Friday, March 21, 1980-Page 9
Activists
take over
Texas
monumuent
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) - Three
people claiming to be Mexican-
American activists took over the Alamo
after scaling the historic monument's
outer wall yesterday, but were arrested
about 40 minutes later by police who
climbed up behind them on fire ladders.
Blue leaflets tossed from the Alamo
by the three charged that the descen-
dants of the small band of Texans killed
by Mexicans in the Alamo in the battle
of 1836, have sucked the blood of the
Chicanopeople, driving them into the
ground, destroying their language and
culture and trying to force them to live
on their knees."
A CROWD of about 200 spectators
cheered when police arrested the trio,
and cheered again when a policeman
returned the Texas flag, which the
three had replaced with an all-red ban-
ner.
"It's an outrage," said Mrs. Wayne
Hanks, a member of the Daughters of
the Republic of Texas, the group that
takes care of the Alamo. "You don't run
down the Texas flag in Texas."
The unarmed trio - two men and a
woman - claimed to be members of a
group they called the "Texas
Revolutionary Mayday Brigade."
"ALL THEY wanted . was a little
press coverage," said Police Sgt. John-
ny Sanders.
Officers had held spectators about 70
feet away while a police helicopter
hovered above the 262-year-old mission
in downtown San Antonio.
The trio unfurled a banner in front of
the Alamo that read, "Revolutionary
Mayday 1980 - Take history into our
hands."
AP Photo'
THREE CHICANO activists (left) stand atop the Alamo yesterday afternoon after scaling the monument's historic
walls. The three protesters occupied the roof of the building for about 40 minutes before being removed by police.
Views on course evaluation
valdity diverse within 'U'
(Continued from Page 1,
All evaluations are voluntary and
generally gathered from students who
#top at the office, Gershanov said.
Although the evaluations are criticized
because they are voluntary, she said
the office makes no claim that they
constitute, a random sampling of
students.
THE EVALUATIONS on hand are
grouped together by department and
the number of completed forms for
each course varies. Gershanov said her'
office attempted to gather syllabi from
all University courses to further aid
,udent class selection, but only ten
departments responded.
Gershanov said she would like to see
use of the CRLT form with open-ended
essay-type questions. She said her of-
fice's main focus is evaluations as an
aid to students.
Kulik said the purpose of the CRLT
form is to help the instructors become
better teachers. Two problems with the
forms, he said, include overly general
items and a standard method of inter-
preting the evaluations.
"SOME PEOPLE who don't use them
(evaluation~s) are scared of them,"
McKeachie said. Many poor teachers
are poor because of their anxiety about
teaching. Bad ratings won't help the
situation a bit."
"McKeachie said forcing an instructor
to distribute forms can make a
situation worse. McKeachie suggested
that a better remedy for bad teaching is
consultation with another faculty
member.
Both SACUA and the LSA Curriculum
Committee have taken a special in-
terest in course evaluations. The
groups have discussed the evaluation
situation, but neither body has come to
a conclusive decision about a course of
action.
AATA deals with
high absenteeism
(Continued from Page 1)
rate for periods of one hour to all
ay because of absences for which no
substitute could be found.
A SEPARATE, BUT related, issue
brought by the AATA attendance study
was the high frequency of absenteeism
from on-the-job injury.
There were 71 on-the-job injuries in
1979, or more than one per week. The
days of work lost from these injuries
averaged almost 38 days per incident.
Simonetta explained that most in-
juries were to drivers' backs and the
diumber included a number of repeated
injuries to the same person.
IMPROPER maintenance of driver's .
seats was ° cited by Kevorkian as a
najor cause of back problems. He ex- Ket orkt
plained that the driver's seats in the ... current policy
Dial-a-Ride vans are designed to
float," that is, move up and down
@bout six inches to smooth out the ride.
°F But he said that such vans with
broken seats can jolt the driver's back
when he or she rides over a bump.
Simonetta said he knew of the claims
that back injuries resulted from
drivers' seats and bumps. He also said
he had heard of claims that reaching to
open and close the door in Dial-a-Ride
#ans had caused back strain in some
drivers.
BOTH SIMONETTA and Kevorkian
said the high number of injuries had
resulted in excessive workman's com-
pensation insurance payments by
AATA. Simonetta said AATA insurance
premiums were more than twice the
statewide average for mass transpor-
tation operation.
When asked if frequent absences in-
curred by some employees might not be
r legitimate illness, Simonetta said he
'uld only speculate, but he said he
thought that some employees were
abusing sick leave privileges.
Kevorkian said he did not think em- 0
ployees were abusing their sick leave
privileges.
416 E.BERTA
DANCE TO THE MAX-ALL WEEKEND
{CUB KODA
and MUSSY
thru Saturday
Sunday: THE LOOK
A Glimpse Into Darkness
CONFERENCE ON THE HOLOCAUST
March 23, 24, 25
Sunday, March 23
Raul Hilberg: "The Final Solution" Keynote Address
2:00 P.M. Rackham Amphitheatre
Personal and Artistic Responses to the Holocaust
Dance Performance
Workshops: Faith After the Holocaust
Children of Survivors
Experiences in Nazi-Occupied Poland
Personal Accounfs of Survivors
7:15 P.M. Pendleton Room Union
Monday, March 24
Lawrence L. Langer: "Versions of Survival:
The Psychology of Victim Response"
7:30 P.M. Rackham Amphitheatre
Tuesday, March 25
Carol Rittner, R.S.M.
"The Holocaust: Humanity's Shame"
7:30 P.M. Rackham Amphitheatre
I