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February 05, 1981 - Image 1

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1981-02-05

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Ninety-One Years
of
Editorial Freedom

t

olI E

l tt

~Ia4IQ

CHILLY
Not quite as cold today with
a chance of snow flurries.
Mostly cloudy all day. High
in the 20s, low near 5.

XCI. No. 108

Copyright 1981, The Michigan Daily

Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, February 5, 1981

Ten Cents

Ten Pages

Adam and Eve were

By HOWARD WITT
Take Inherit the Wind and read it
hrough a looking-glass and you might
come close to appreciating the con-
troversy.
In 1925, a public high school biology
instructor was brought to trial for
teaching Darwin's theory of evolution
instead of the sacred biblical account of
Genesis.
In 1980, a public high school biology
instructor was prosecuted for teaching
the biblical version of creation instead
f the sacrosanct Darwinian account of
natural selection.
TTHE CREATION/evolution dis-
pute has been simmering for the last
20 years; today, with a new power-
evangelism -sweeping the country, it
threatens to boil over in dozens of state
legislatures and even the U.S.
gongress. The result, quite possibly,"
could be radically altered public school
science curricula.
* * *

Creationists battle
evolutionary theory

Wilbert Henry Rusch, Sr. would be
the first to admit that Adam and Eve
may not have looked like the famous
Renaissance painters depicted them. In
fact, he says, "I don't think Adam and
Eve looked like WASPs at all."
But whatever the pair looked like -
and Rusch will concede they might
have resembled Neanderthal beings -
he is sure they were the first, the
product of a creation, and Darwin be
damned.
RUSCH IS hardly the Bible-waving
fanatic one might expect to find cham-
pioning the cause of "creationism." To
be sure, he is a deeply religious
Missouri Synod Lutheran. But he is also

a biologist, with degrees from the
Illinois Institute of Technology and The
University of Michigan.
And he can be pretty convincing.
"Darwin's theory of natural selection
turned out to be a tautology in the min-
ds of many evolutionists," Rusch ex-
plains. "A tautology is A equals A - it's
true, but it doesn't convey any infor-
mation. Natural selection says the fit-
test will survive. Well, why do they sur-
vive? Because they're fit. How do you
know they're fit? Because they sur-
vived."
RUSCH IS THE membership
secretary of the Creation Research
Society, a creationist publishing

first
organization of about 2,600 members.
The society, headquartered in Rusch's
small Ann Arbor home, boasts of
pastors, business executives, and scien-
tists among its members from as far
away as India, Tanzania, and Ireland.
They are Baptists, Methodists, Seventh
Day Adventists, Lutherans, and
Catholics. And, Rusch believes, there
are even some Orthodox Jews.
Rusch is also the editor of the third
edition of Biology: A Search for Order
in Complexity, a high school biology
textbook prepared by the society. More
than 55,000 copies are in use in
parochial schools across the country.
The book is not unlike most other
basic biology texts - until you get to
the section on "Theories of Biological
Change." There, where you might ex-
pect to, find explanations of natural
selection and evolution, Darwin is sub-
jected to a 70-page attack. There is no
See CREATIONISTS, Page 2

D ily Photo by HOWARDWITT
for the Creation Research

WILBERT RUSCH is membership secretary
Society, which publishes a quarterly journal.

'U' Extension Service
faces near elimination
By BARRY WITT faculty members, students, and ad- credit courses toward graduate degrees
Nin t tf th Un i ity E ministrtors-and the Committee on through the service's Flint and Dear-

AP Photo

l necy percent of teuniversit yx-
tension Service's $1.96 million budget
could be slashed next year as part of the
University's efforts to trim an ad-
ditional $3 million from its reduction-
ridden annual budget.
A 90 percent cut-amounting to more
than $1.75 million-in the Extension
Service's budget "would eliminate all
off-campus credit programs and main-
tain 25 percent of the administrative
staff for operation of non-credit and
non-instructional programs," accor-
ding to Vice President for Academic Af-
fairs Bill Frye's memo to a Budget
Priorities subcommittee charged with
studying the proposed cuts.
IF THE UNIVERSITY were to cut
the Extension Service budget by 90 per-
cent, "it would eliminate the service as
we know it now," said Alfred Storey,
Extension Service director.
The Extension Service operates six
centers around the state that offer
courses for University credit and
provides non-credit programs as well in
the Ann Arbor area. The service also
directs seminars and conferences at
various locations in the state using
University faculty members as lec-
turers.
Before any cuts are actually made,
the proposals must be reviewed by the
subcommittee, the whole Budget
Priorities Committee-composed of

Budget Administration, a group of top-
level administrators that will make the
final decision.
ACCORDING TO Storey, the sub-
committee is looking at possible cut-
backs of 90 percent, 75 percent, and 50
percent. "We're trying to get the ad-
ministration to take a minimum
amount of reductions," Storey said.
. The subcommittee is scheduled to
report its findings by the end of this
month. In its review, the subcommittee
is asking deans of schools that would be
affected by a decrease in services. to
submit their views on a reduction.
Many of the.University's professional
schools offer credit courses through the
Extension Service. Dean Phillip Fellin
of the School of Social Work said
students can earn up to an entire term
of credit toward a degree at one of the
service's centers-located in Dearborn,
Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids,
and Ann Arbor-before enrolling at the
Ann Arbor campus.
FELLIN SAID his staff has not
finished its analysis of the effects of a
reduction. If off-campus credit were
eliminated, Fellin said it could be
replaced by programs around the state
funded by the School of Social Work.
The School of Library Science offers

born centers.
Library Science Dean Russell
Bidlack said he believes his school
should offer courses outside Ann Arbor.
"As a professional school in a state
university, we feel we have obligations
beyond Ann Arbor," he said.
IF THE EXTENSION Service is for-
ced to eliminate credit course offerings,
Bidlack said his school would still try to
offer both credit and non-credit courses
outside of Ann Arbor, probably using
the University's Flint and Dearborn
campuses.
Noting the small size of his program,
he said he does not think the adjustment
would be too difficult, but added he was
not certain if such a shift would save the
University money.
Storey echoed Bidlack's- concern
about the possibility of .reducing the
geographic area of Extension Services.
"The cut would markedly alter the
University's function as a public state
institution," Storey said.
HE SAID HE bases his beliefs on the
notion that one purpose of the Univer-
sity "is to accommodate part-time
students who can't matriculate in Ann
Arbor."
Storey said any reduction in general
fund allocations to the service would af-
fect the credit course offerings, but the

JOHN DWYER, husband of freelance writer Cynthia Dwyer who has been
held in Iran for nine months on spy charges, awaits word on the outcome of
his wife's trial. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said a verdict is expected Mon-
day.
ran tries Amnerican

Storey
-.. hopes for the best

j ournai:
From UPI and AP
BERN, Switzerland - An Iranian
Revolutionary Court tried American
free lance journalist Cynthia Dwyer
on espionage charges yesterday and
a verdict - and possibly sentencing
- was expected as early as Monday,
the Swiss Foreign Ministry said.
The surprise move came only two
weeks after 52 American hostages
were released from 444 days of cap-
tivity in Iran and at a time when the
Reagan administration was
reviewing terms of the agreenent
with Iran that freed the hostages.
Simultaneously, Iranian author-
ities released on $1 million bail Mohi
Sobhani, an Iranian-born U.S.
citizen who had been held on un-
specified charges since Sept. 6.
DWYER, WHO defied then-
President Carter's travel ban to
Iran, has been held in Iranian
prisons for nine months. A Swiss
diplomat who attended the one-day
trial said she appeared "nervous but
in good condition" and was able to
'speak freely" during the trial.
In Washington, State Department
spokesman William Dyess said in-
formation the department had
received reported Dwyer had a

JA

a

sT asspy
hearing and not a trial and that "we
are not aware of any specific
charges."
;Dyess refused to define the dif-
ference between a hearing and a
trial. But asked if Dwyer had been
tried on espionage charges, he said,
"Our information is different."
The Swiss, who represent.
American interests in Iran, did not
specify the exact nature of the
espionage charges against Dwyer,
who was arrested on May 5 at her
Tehran hotel by Revolutionary
Guards.
ESPIONAGE carries a maximum
penalty of death.I
John Dwyer, who said his wife was
arrested when she went to Iran to
write articles about the Iranian.
revolution, withheld comment "until
I hear-a little more officially."
President Reagan, asked his reac-
tion, said: "I don't know of any news
about her but I do feel we have an
obligation to bring her home and
the others we have there."
DWYER, A 49-year-old mother of
three from Amherst, a suburb of
Buffalo, N.Y., and Sobhani, 44,
whose family lives in southern
See IRAN, Page 5

non-credit courses are somewhat more
stable. "The credit-free program is
largely self-supporting," he said.
The director was reluctant to com-
ment on what effects budget cuts would
have on staffing, saying he would
prefer to wait until he is certain of the
level of the reductions. Vice President
See EXTENSION, Page 3

MORE CREDITS THAN UCLA, BERKELEY, STANFORD, HARVARD:

'U' leads in advanced

By MARK GINDIN
The University of Michigan is number one again.
This time, the University leads all other American
colleges and universities in the number of entering
freshpersons applying for advanced placement
credit.
The number of AP examinations taken by Univer-
sity students is also the highest in the nation, accor-
ding to the College Entrance Examination Board,
which administers the tests in high schools across the
country.
WITH 1,427 CANDIDATES for AP credit and 2,222
examinations, the University led the nation, sur-
passing the University of California at Berkeley,
Stanford University, and Harvard-Radcliffe.
AP examinations are usually offered in May of a
student's senior year in high school. Depending on his
or her score in any of 24 subjects, a student can be
exempted from and receive college credit for in-
troductory level courses.
About two-thirds of the University freshpersons

applying for advanced placement credit came from
high schools within Michigan, according to Donald
Swain, University assistant director for un-
dergraduate admissions.
"THERE ARE A lot of good high schools in the
state," Swain said, "and the people who take AP tests
'The University's size is a factor in the
high number of AP applications, but
the figures are also a testimony to the
University's educational quality. '
-Donald Swain, assistant
admisions director
are the top students from the high schools." The tests
allow students to avoid taking material over again
that they have already mastered, he said.
The AP candidates appear to do as well or better
than students who do not take the tests, said Prof.
Frank Casa, chairman of the romance languages

placement
department. "AP students come in many shapes," he
said, but they are usually as prepared for advanced
college courses as the students who took the introduc-
tory material at the.University.
According to Swain, virtually all undergraduate
programs at the University admitted AP candidates,
with the largest proportion entering LSA.
Every geographical area of the state was represen-
ted, including the Upper Peninsula, Swain added. He
also said the AP program was expanding into more
schools and encompassing such unconventional sub-
jects as art history.
The University regained the top spot in the
rankings from the University of California at
Berkeley, which had claimed it for the past couple of
years, according to Casa, who works closely with the
program. Berkeley is now third, with the University
of California at Los Angeles in the second spot.
"Obviously, the University's size is a factor in the
high number of AP applications, but the figures are
also a testimony to the University's educational,
quality," Swain said.

TODAY
'U'fix-it
WORK BEGAN yesterday on the renovation of
the Cashier's Office in the LSA building.
According to University Cashier James
Gribble, the renovations are being made
primarily for security purposes. Plans call for installing
bullet-proof glazing on all of the glass fronts of the tellers'
ona -at fr npw namnltt rz.teller facilities. Gribble

Wheezing siren
Anyone walking within ear-shot of the LSA building
yesterday may have been somewhat startled by sputters
and groans coming from the roof of the building. According
to University Safety Director Walt Stevens, the noises
should have resembled a vocal message identifying the
broadcast as "only a test," followed by a short siren and
another vocal reassurance. The siren and public address
system is one of many around town, installed last summer
as part of the city's disaster-preparedness program. The
cvarm is tested on the first Wedna'uv of eaeh month at 3

body flopping and his mouth frothing. They rushed him to a
local veterinarian who placed the animal on the floor to ob-.
serve it. Jake promptly walked into a wall and keeled over.
"Is he dead?" the owners asked. "He sure is," replied the
vet. "He's dead drunk." While Jake slept it off at the vet's
overnight, the couple returned home to solve the mystery:
A bottle of bourbon was found broken in the kitchen. The
episode cost the couple $77 for the vet's fees and transpor-
tation to the animal hospital-and Jake one, dandy
hangover. n
:taS D av

although it is a standard practice in zoos," explained the
park's biologist High Berry (no joke). Killing excess lions is
highly criticized, Berry said, and "There just isn't any
market for live lions any more." In May, Rangers will
select about 20 percent of the female population, administer
the contraceptive (it's actually an injection for lions), and
mark the treated lionesses. The idea of vasectomies for
male lions was thrown out because it is irreversible and
would spoil the gene pool, Berry said. Berry explained the
creation of permanent water holes and game fences has
made the lions' life much too easy in the park and less time
is spent on hunting than normal. "They have become fat

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