a
Page 2-Sunday, October 17, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Faculty react to fall in ranking
(Continued from Page 1)
main categories: faculty quality, the
effectiveness in educating researchers
and scientists, improvement during the
*past five years, and national reputation
Qf the program and its faculty mem-
bers.
The chemistry department-rated
19th in a 1969 survey and 16th in 1980's
controversial Gorman report-
dropped to 31st place in faculty quality
ip the 1982 survey.
- WHILE NOTING that surveys are "a
very crude qualitative method" of
rating programs, chemistry chairman
Tom Dunn said his department's fall in
the ratings reflects certain shor-
tcomings, real and perceived.
"The physical sciences haven't coun-
ted for a row of beans here since the
1930s," Dunn said, adding that the only
new facility built for these disciplines
;since that time has been the Dennison
Building, which is "not really a physics
building, but a classroom building."
According to Dunn, the outdated
chemistry facilities hurt outsiders' per-
ceptions of the quality of the entire
department. In the view of Dunn and
many other officials, the inferior
facilities are the root of the depar-
tment's problems.
THE FACILITIES in the chemistry
department make it difficult for the
present faculty to teach, research, and
attract new faculty who have to be
recruited from schools which have ex-
cellent facilities, said Robert Holbrook,
Associate to Vice President for
Academic Affairs Billy Frye.
Chemistry Prof. Peter Smith added
that overcrowded classrooms and
laboratories detract from the quality of
teaching in the department. He noted
that demonstrations which used to be
routinely done in organic chemistry
classes are no longer included because
the demonstration facilities have been
put to other uses.
- "I feel embarassed when I visit other
places and see their facilities," Smith
said.
ANOTHER reason the department
may be perceived unfavorably is the
high number of non-chemistry majors
that are taught in the University's
.chemistry courses. Said Dunn: "87 per-
cent of the teaching here has nothing to
do with chemistry majors. That amoun-
ts to 3,700 students per semester in the
introductory chemistry classes."
Dunn admitted that the teaching of
non-majors is one of the responsibilities
of a public university, but he cautioned
tlat as a result of that priority, "It is
totally unrealistic for this univesity to
ever expect to be in the top five schools
(in chemistry)." Teaching, he ex-
;ained, takes time away from .the
ore glamorous research function of
the department.
In addition, the department, which
depends heavily on modern instrumen-
tation, also- faces a serious shortage of
the latest equipment. In spite of its role
and importance to several other depar-
tments, it doesn't count for much even
with the administration, said Dunn,
SELECTED QUALITY RATINGS FROM THE CONFERENCE
BOARD OF ASSOCIATED RESEARCH COUNCILS
Mathematics Statistics Chemistry
Physics Geosciences Comp. Science
Berkeley .
Cticago ..
Columbia .
Harvard: .
linois .. .
MICHIGAN
Princeton .
Stanford .
Wisconsin
Yle ...
......... .
...... ....
..... ... ..
72(2)
71 (4)
6 (9)
71(5)
63 (15)
64(11)
73(1)
67 (7)
65(10)
69 (8)
72(1)
70 (3)
614(10)
62(7)
57(18)
53 (21)
62 (9)
72 (2)
66(4)
60(15)
74(1)
69 (8)
70 (5)
74 (3)
69 (9)
58(31)
64(13)
70(6)
69(10)
64(15)
72(3)
70 (6)
69 (9)
73 (2)
67(10)
60(23)
72(5)
70(8)
61(21)
65 (11)
64 (9)
66(5)
67 (4)
65 (7)
53 (27)
57(22)
63(11)
66(6)
60(14)
64(9)
70 (4)
unranked
50 (26)
unranked
63 (7)
unranked
55(14)
75 (1)
57(12)
60(8)
"." .".""."..".
Above are listed the
raw scores
of faculty quality at 10
universities,
Associated
as compiled by th
e Conference
In parenthesis
Board of
are the
Research
Councils.
school rankings from
a much larger sample. The survey
was conducted in April 1981.
.
citing his yearly $5,000 equipment
budget. A single scale costs $1,600, he
said.
THE SOLUTION to the department's
problems, in the opinion of all the of-
ficials interviewed, is the construction
of the new Chemical Sciences Building,
on the drawing board since the late '50s.
The new state-of-the structure, which
would assemble all the University's
chemistry-related research under one
roof, would return the University to
prominence in the field, Dunn said.
Holbrook affirmed the ad-
ministration's commitment to the con-
struction of the new building, rating it
attor near the top of the University's list
of capital improvements. He said the
reason for the delay in starting con-
struction has been the huge cost of the
sophisticated building: about $45
million to $50 million dollars.
The University's geology department
greeted its rating with considerably
less understanding. Previously ranked
sixth in the 1980 Gorman report-a sur-
vey which stirred controversy because
the researcher, never adequately ex-
plained his methodology-the geology
department was ranked 22nd in the 1982
survey.
ROB VAN DER VOO, geology depart-
ment chairman, expressed surprise
and dissatisfaction with the results.
Citing the department's ranking in the
1980 study, Van der Voo noted that his
department has implemented no cuts
and has changed nothing for the worse
since then.
"The department is as strong now or
stronger than it has been in the last
decade," said geology Prof. Bruce
Wilkinson. He listed as examples an in-
crease in graduate students and an
almost threefold increase in the amount
of research funds granted to the depar-
tment-from $120,000 in 1973 to $340,000
in 1982.
In addition, Wilkinson and Van der
Voo pointed to the fact that among the
department's graduate students are six
National Science Foundation Fellows, a
number unsurpassed by any other
university. That figure includes two of
the 29 fellowships awarded this year.
"This indicates that the department
can still attract candidates which have
the option of going anywhere," Van der
Voo said.
"I THINK the department is maybe
10th in the country," Wilkinson said,
adding that in his opinion, the depar-
tment is "easily in the top ten in any of
its five areas of specialization."
The' physics department, which
placed 14th in the Gorman report,
dropped to 23rd in faculty quality in the
1982 survey. While the department
didn't object strongly to the survey,
members said it doesn't accurately
represent the current situation.
"The Physics Department has
changed very drastically in the last two
years," said Marcellus .Wiedenbeck,
associate chairman of the department,
noting the aggressive program of new
hirings including the addition of Prof.
Martinus Veltman, one of the world's
foremost theorists on Particle Physics.
WIEDENBECK blames reputational
lag (the period of time, usually from
three to five years, which it takes for
changes in a department to become
widely known in the academic com-
munity) for the department's drop in
the rankings, noting that the hiring
program's successes have been
achieved too recently to have an impact
on the survey.
As an indication of the department's
improvement, Wiedenbeck cited its
threefold increase in research funding
during the past five years. During that
period, Wiedenbeck said, funding from
outside sources-such as the National
Science Foundation-has risen from $2
million per year to more than $6 million
per year.
In Wiedenbeck's view, the only
problem the department faces is a shor-
tage of space in the present facilities.
To remedy this, it has submitted a
proposal to the administration for a $2.5
million two-story bridge of offices
linking Randall Laboratory and the
Dennison Building.
THE STATISTICS department,
which has never appeared on any
previous survey, ranked approximately
21st on the 1982 survey in faculty
quality.
Robb Muirhead, associate chairman
of the department, blames its poor
showing on two factors: Its small size
and relative youth. "The higher ranked
departments are much more visible.
Michigan is a very small school, with 11
full-time faculty and two or three joint
appointments," Muirhead said.
In comparison, he said, the statistics
department at Stanford University has
more than twice as many faculty mem-
bers.
In addition, he said, the department
here is only 12 or 13 years old, having
grown out of the mathematics depar-
tment.
"IF I HAD to rank it (the University's
department), I would rank it about 10th
to 15th in the country - not too bad,
considering its size," he said.
The mathematics department, which
did the best of any University. depar-
tment surveyed, was tied for the num-
ber 11 spot in the 1982 report, about the
same place it's been ranked for the past
13 years.
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press international reports
Mob breaks up Klan rally
BOSTON - Two dozen robed Ku Klux Klan members were taken away
in police vans yesterday after a screaming mob of 1,000 people broke up a
Klan rally in front of Boston City Hall.
At least 13 people were injured in the resulting confrontation between
protesters and police, authorities said.
About 20 police on horseback wielding billy clubs and mace galloped
down Cambridge Street to intercept the rushing crowd that hurled bottles,
tomatoes, eggs, and epithets at the 23 robed and hooded Klansmen. Other
police on motorcycles roared into the chanting crowd, also spraying mace
and swinging their clubs.
The Klan rally was called by Bill Wilkinson, the imperial wizard of the
Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, after he was attacked during
a television talk show Thursday.
Wilkinson, 40, of Denham Springs, La., and Angie Stringer, a member of
the KKK Youth Corps, were pelted with eggs during the live "People Are
Talking" show on WBZ-TV.
Suspect sought in Tylenol deaths
CHICAGO - The nationwide hunt intensified yesterday for a suspected
killer and writer of a $1 million extortion letter who is sought in the murders
of seven people who swallowed Tylenol capsules spiked with cyanide.
While authorities searched for James W. Lewis and his wife, the FBI in
Washington tried to match Lewis' fingerprints with partial prints found on
the sabotaged bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol.
Comparisons of Lewis' neat printing and the hand-printed extortion let-
ter led to the extortion warrant. The Chicago Sun-Times reported the FBI
had matched Lewis' fingerprints with those found on the letter.
In another poisoning in Florida, police officials said yesterday the acid
spiking of cinnamon-flavored Lavoris mouthwash that burned the mouth of a
29-year-old man apparently was an isolated act of a demented person.
Gemayel to disarm militia
Lebanon President Amin Gemayel ordered the Lebanese army to secure
positions across east Beirut yesterday to prepare for its greatest challenge
- disarming the 20,000-strong Christian Phalangist army of his slain
brother.
Army units took up positions at key intersections in the predominantly
Christian eastern sector in a bid to be fully deployed before Gemayel flies to
the United States today to meet President Reagan.
Gemayel's talks with Reagan in Washington this week are expected to
focus on withdraway of all foreign armies from Lebanon, imposition of law
and order and a reconstruction program that government planners say
could cost $12 billion.
A top government official said before Gemayel's departure the
president considers U.S. support crucial to solving Lebanon's chronic
political and social crisis.
Brooklyn hospital siege ends
NEW YORK - A 33-year-old convict who took five people hostage in a
hospital basement during an escape attempt released his remaining captive
and surrendered yesterday, ending a 46 -hour siege.
Larry Van Dyke, a "career criminal" who was to have been sentenced
Friday on an armed robbery charge, agreed to give up in exchange for
making a final statement toreporters on prison conditions.
"I am not a madman," Van Dyke told reporters through a window shortly
before giving up. "I'm a man that was trying to get freedoin. . . I got
caught, I'm here."
The ordeal began at 10 a.m. Thursday when Van Dyke, who had gotten a
cast removed from a broken hand, seized a prison guard's gun, wounded the
guard in the arm and holed up with five hospital employees in a basement
locker room at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital, the nation's second-
largest hospital after Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
At 8:25 a.m. yesterday, Elton SMith, 28, a clerk, was released. Five
minutes later, Van Dyke, who is called Larry Gardner in court papers, put
his gun on the window ledge and clambered out of the basement, surren-
dering to heavily armed police and negotiators.
It was not immediately clear what criminal charges Van Dyke would
face. Police said a complaint would be drawn up by the Brooklyn district at-
torney's office after interviews with everyone involved in the case.
Rancher ends three-day armed
holdout on missile range
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M.-An 81-year-old rancher and his
niece ended a three-day armed occupation of the White Sands Missile Range
yesterday and were escorted off the secret test base that was once the old
man's ranch.
Dave McDonald wants the government either to return his 640-acre ranch
or settle on a fair price for the land, which was taken over by the Army in
1942 as part of a secret base where the first atomic bomb was tested.
McDonald and his niece, Mary McDonald, 32, were escorted off the range
by Sen. Harrison Schmitt and Rep. Joe Skeen, both Republicans.
Guards found the couple Wednesday sitting in lawn chairs behind a rope
bearing a sign that proclaimed: "Road Closed to U.S. Army."
They were armed with two rifles and a pistol and had put up signs warning
people away.
McDonald agreed late Friday to end his protest if Skeen-who also is a
southern New Mexico rancher-would accompany him.
Meanwhile, Schmitt said he had asked the General Accounting Office to
"determine whether the federal government or Department of Defense has
dealt with New Mexico ranchers fairly" in acquiring lands for the 4,000-
square-mile base.
Vol. XCIII, No. 42
Wednesday, October 27, 1982
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COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL ACTION
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
* OPPRESSED JEWRY
* CAMPUS MISSIONARIES
* SENIOR CITIZENS
* TROUBLED YOUTH
* THE NEW RIGHT
Monday, Oct. 18, 7:15 PM at Hillel
1429 Hill St.
Ut
U.S. aids Israel in U.N.
(Continued from Page 1>
The United States views these threats
with grave concern," Shultz said of the
proposals to exclude Israel. "We will
take . . action in other United Nations
organizations if there are similar
moves."
POETRY READING
with
David Bornstein, Jeff Wine
and John Richard
MONDAY, Oct. 18th -8 pm
GUILD HOUSE
802 Monroe
odmission free
U.S. sources said, however, the
United States does not contemplate
withdrawing from the Security Council,
the most powerful political body of the
United Nations with just 15 members,
five of them permanent.
SHULTZ UNDERSCORED a prime
U.S. concern when he said in his
statement yesterday that Israel's
ouster from the General Assembly
would represent a "serious setback for
progress toward peace in the Middle
East."
U.N. observers have said hardline
Arab nations succeeded last week in
getting a credentials vote on the matter
postponed until Oct. 25.
SER-UM
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