K
L.
Ninety-One Years
of
Editorial Freedom
Sit 43F1
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MIXED BLESSINGS
Partly cloudy with showers
likely in the afternoon.
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it Vol. XCI, No. 153
Copyright 1981, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, April 8, 1981
Ten Cents
Eight Pages
CRISP: Easyas
By KATHLYN HOOVER
So you think CRISP is complicated? Some
engineers will register next fall for the winter term
under a trial system-PI.
The formula for PI is simple: Divide a student's
GPA by four, multiply by his or her total credit hours
divided by 16 times the number of terms at. the
University, raise to the .585 power, add to the total
number of credit hours divided by 96, subtract one,
and multiply by 1000!
AND IF THE student's PI (priority index) number
is higher than his or her peers, he or she will have fir-
st dibs on hard-to-get courses in the Mechnical
Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department.
Despite the complicated formula, early
registration should be easier now for mechanical
engineering students, according to Bruce Karnopp,
department program advisor.
. -. ~ _____aaw
The department is initiating the system in an-
ticipation of enrollment increases and budget
decreases, Department Chairman David Pratt ex-
plained. "We can handle all the students we have
mnow, but it would be irresponsible to not have a
scheme to meet future budget cuts," Karnopp added.
THE EARMARKED courses are those that have
had enrollment problems in the past, according to
Karnopp. "They are the ones that students need to
graduate or are prerequisites and always have high
enrollment," he said.
Courses scheduled to be targeted in PI's winter
term trial run are: 324, 340, 362, 381, 461, and 471.
Karnopp and Pratt say they hope they won't have to
use the PI system with all courses, but want to be
prepared just in case.
In the future, PI courses will be announced about
six weeks before early registration. Students'
Ifor son
priority formulas will be calculated, and students will
register for the PI courses before early registration.
The student would then register the rest of his
schedule at CRISP during the normal randomly
assigned time.
BUT WHILE Engineering officials contend the new
system will increase efficiency, Tom Karunas,
Assistant University Registrar, said the new
procedure could cause problems at CRISP. "It will
increase the costs of registration because of the extra
paperwork," he said.
According to Karunas, the department has not yet
approached CRISP about the new system. "We'd
really run into problems if every department started
doing it (pre-registration)," he said. He added that
many programs request individual procedures but
generally, "we have to say no." Karunas said the Art
See STUDENTS, Page 8
ie engineers
Below is the formula the Mechanical Engineering and Applied
Mechanics Department will use to establish priority for admission
to earmarked courses:
r=-1000 (GPA/4 X C/16T)SS+C/96-1]
GPA =grade point average at time of computation.
T=number of terms in residence at the University.
C=number of credits earned toward degree at the time of com-
pu tation.
l= priority index. Students with high "us will be admitted
to certain courses before those with lower ls.
Eliminate geography,
review committee sa
YS
By SUE INGLIS
The geography review committee
recommends either complete discon-
tinuance of the University's geography
department or elimination of the
cultural part of the program, according
to a report released to LSA faculty
yesterday.
"We are unanimously agreed that the
department of geography cannot be
continued in its present form. We
believe that to do nothing at this jun-
cture would be a grievous mistake," the
report from the ad hoc faculty group
states.
THE COMMITTEE recommendation
will be discussed at next Monday's
special LSA faculty meeting. Faculty
members will have the opportunity to
make a motion to accept or reject the
proposal. However, the Regents'
Guidelines for Discontinuance of
Academic Programs specify that a
recommendation for elimination come
from the dean and the Executive Com-
mittee. If the college recommends
discontinuance of the geography depar-
tment, the final decision rests with the
Regents.
Geography Department Chairman
John Nystuen said the report contained
both subjective and objective aspects
but "seemed to dwell on subjective
areas.I think it's a matter of opinions
which are used to create a negative
view," he said yesterday.
According to the 37-page report, the
committee's negative decision was due
to high instructional costs per student
credit hour, a low number of concen-
trators, a lack of a sense of coherence in
the department, the recent loss of
eminent faculty, and a decline in the
quality of teaching and research in the
department.
THE ALTERNATIVE recommendation
calling for selective program reduction
suggests discontinuing the program in
cultural geography while retaining
those departmental programs that are
central to the discipline.
The document states "there is little
reason to believe that the deficiency in
research productivity of some mem-
bers of the department has been offset
by the excellence of their teaching.
"No review of geography at the
University can avoid notice .of the
changes in the composition of the
department that have occured over the
past eight years."
THE REPORT cites an outside con-
sultant who told the committee that the
department has not yet recovered suf-
ficiently from its loss of four senior
scholars to have retained its position as
the second-ranked department-in the
nation (as of 1969), but still enjoys a
sound reputation for the prospects of
recovery to be excellent."
A member of the geography faculty,
however, suggested that the depar-
tment was not able to replace lost
faculty with instructors of the same
caliber because the department was
denied sufficient funding to do so when
it petitioned the college with requests to
fill the vacated positions.
Geography faculty members main-
tain that the report dwelled on the
poorest aspects of the department and
had little to say about its strengths.
"IT SEEMS TO me the report decides
the geography department cup is half
empty, instead of half full," Geography
Prof. John Kolars said.
"We have never claimed to be the
best department in the world," he said.
"We certainly are an average depar-
tment," noting the department's
statistics on cost effectiveness and
grade point average.
He added that 8 or 9 LSA departments
rank below geography in these
categories. Kolars also said he felt the
report's interpretation of quality of
students was "very unfair."
Although the report cites the
graduate program as a strength of the
department, it stated the GRE scores
and grade point averages of graduate
students have declined in recent years.
THE REPORT also emphasized the
undergraduate program is weak,
having few concentrators despite plen-
tiful job opportunities for graduates.
The report stated the introductory
See ELIMINATE, Page 8
Panda production AP Photo
Chia-Chia from the London Zoo chews bamboo unperturbed beneath the
sharp scrutiny ofwhat zoo officials hope will soon be the object of his affec-
tions. Ling-Ling, Washington's female panda, will be in heat next month.
Warsaw Pact ends
Sborder -maneuvers
uY rPoto by JOHN HAGEN
GEOGRAPHY CHAIRMAN John Nystuen displays one of 250 letters the
department received in support of the continuance of the department.
PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia
(AP)-Fears of Soviet intervention in
Poland diminished significantly
yesterday with Soviet President Leonid
Brezhnev declaring that Poland's
Communist Party could handle its own
affairs and the Warsaw Pact
maneuvers officially ending after three
tension-filled weeks.
Walter Stoessel, undersecretary of
state for political affairs and a former
U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union
and Poland, said in a TV interview in
Washington that Brezhnev's remarks
meant the Poles "have some more time
to put their house in order, according to
Soviet lights."
BREZHNEV TOLD the Czechoslovak
Communist Party congress that
although Poland was threatened by
hostile forces at home and abroad, he
felt the Polish party would "prove able
to successfully defend socialism, the
true interests of its people, the honor
and security of their homeland."
A Western diplomat in Moscow said
Brezhnev's speech and the end of the
maneuvers indicated the Kremlin in-
tended to "calm the waters." But the
source, who requested anonymity, said
the end of the maneuvers "doesn't close_
off the threat of invasion."
The Warsaw Pact carried out similar
exercises in Czechoslovakia in June
1968, two months before it intervened in
Prague, and the source said, "it may
very well have been a pressure tactic to
begin with."
AS BREZHNEV spoke, U.S. Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger, armed
with the latest spy satellite
photographs, briefed his Western coun-
terparts on Soviet military strength and
warned of a backlash in the United
States if Europe does not do more for its
own defense.
A senior Pentagon official, giving
reporters an account of Weinberger's
remarks at a private meeting of 13
NATO defense ministers, said the
session included a "serious and very
somber" intelligence briefing on the
situation in Poland and Soviet strength
in general.
Nurse strike
deadli~ne
set for
6 amn. today
By JOHN ADAM
As of late last night agreement had not been
reached between the 1,100-member University
Professional Nurse Council and University
Hospital administrators. Nurses said yester-
day that if no resolution was reached by 6 a.m.
today, the union would walk off the job.
University Hospital has already begun to im-
plement contingency plans in the event' of a
nurse walkout. The hospital has deferred ad-
missions and postponed some surgery cases in
order to insure that adequate staff will be
available to those patients that critically need
it.
IN ADDITION, hospital administrators say
the hospital has been in "close touch" with
other area hospitals that will be unaffectedi by a
strike. However, according to Edward Schwar2
tz, hospital senior associate director and chief
operating officer, most local hospitals "are
now operating at or near capacity." In any
event Schwartz said all buildings will "main-
tain services at the maximum level possible
consistent with safe patient care, based upon
the number of clinical staff available."
Although there is no way to determine how
many nurses would actually participate if a
walkout is ordered, Margot Barron head of the
Nurse Council, said she believes the majority
would walk.
It is illegal for any public employee in
Michigan to stage a walkout. The ad-
ministration could seek a court injunction to
force the employees back to work, but accor-
ding to Hospital spokesman Joseph Owsley,
there has been no decision yet on whether any
legal action would be taken to force the nurses
back on duty.
THE NURSES have been working without a
contract since September, 1980 when their
previous agreement expired. Since then the
nurses have been working under terms which
have been extended on a week-to-week basis.
The Nurse Council notified the University of
their intent to strike twelve days ago and
negotiations have continued since last
Tuesday. As of deadline last night, only minor
issues had been resolved. The key stumbling
blocks, according to a Nurse Council report, in-
clude inadequate staffing, excessive overtime,
shift changes, and week-end duty.
A strike by the nurses would be the first in the
hospital's history.
-To DAY
Which would you prefer?
yOGURT PREFERENCES of dorm residents will
be examined more closely at 2 p.m. today in the
Betsy Barbour Test Kitchen as the Residence
Hall Association holds a taste test in a last-ditch
effort to get Dannon yogurt back into the dormitory
cafeterias. According to Test Kitchen Supervisor Kay
was about to be scratched, but now it's off and running
again for next fall. Bill Drew, general manager of New
Haven's closed-circuit off-track betting facility, said he has
been invited to teach ten seminars on various aspects of this
"sport of kings" at a Yale residential college. Drew denied
that the course would emphasize the knack of reading past
performance charts used in off-track betting. He said that
although the charts will be discussed in the course, the class
also will include discussions of race track finance, talks by
a jockey and a trainer and other aspects of racing. So the
course will be non-profit in addition to being non-credit. 0
the legal profession," said Association President Alan
Negus, "but we pay a premium price for it. Xerox says that
they could save $300 million a year if their machines didn't
have to handle two paper sizes." e
A multitude of well-wishers
James Brady, press secretary for President Reagan,
seems to have lots of well-wishers in his hometown of Cen-
tralia, Ill. More than 900 signatures have been collected on
a 43-foot-long get-well card for Brady, who was listed in
serious condition yesterday with a gunshot wound to the
room in the world, you'll find it in Houston, Tex. at the
Astrovillage Hotel. Known as the Celestial Suite, these ac-
commodations feature several elaborately decorated
rooms, each with a theme of its own. For example, there's
the Tarzan Room, The Lillian Russell Room, and the Ad-
venture Room, which is said to have been built with Robert
Kennedy in mind. On the lighter side, there's also a P.T.
Barnum Room and an Astrodome Room, a miniature
replica of the Houston Astrodome. The suite is sometimes
rented out to large corporations, and Elvis Presley is said
to have stayed there. At a cost of $3,000 a day,*the price for
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