Te Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 4-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, May 9, 1981 Sixteen Pages
Executive committee:
Eliminate Geography
By SUE INGLIS
The LSA Executive Committee has
decided to recommend that the
geography department be eliminated, a
member of the geography faculty said
yesterday.
The faculty member said that
Geography Department Chairman
John Nystuen had been informed of the
committee's decision on Thursday in a
meeting with Acting LSA Dean John
Knott.
THE COMMITTEE recommendation
will now be forwarded to President
Shapiro and Vice-President for
Academic Affairs Bill Frye. If Frye and
Shapiro endorse the proposal, it will be
sent to the Regents for final approval
when they convene May 20.
Both Knott and Vice-President for
Academic Affairs Bill Frye could not be
reached for comment. yesterday.
Nystuen said yesterday he had been
informed by a reliable source close to
both Knott and the executive commit-
tee that the decision to discontinue the
department had been made. Knott said
earlier in the week that the official an-
nouncement would most likely be
delivered next week, but did not say
what the decision would be.
NYSTUEN SAID he did not think the
committee deliberately waited to an-
nounce the recommendation during a
time when many students and
geography faculty were out of town. He
said the executive committee was sim-
ply behind schedule. "What are they
(the executive committee) going to do?
Wait around until September (when a
greater number of students and faculty
are on campus)?" he said.
Nystuen did express displeasure,
however, with the timing of the
decision. "It's not good," he said. "Has
anything been good anywhere in this
case? No."
Nystuen declined further comment
until he sees the final recommendation
in writing.
EARLIER IN the week he said
despite evidence presented that
geography is not the weakest depar-
tment in the college, the executive
committee was compelled by a
"necessity to chop something" in order
to avoid making deeper overall cuts. He
said he felt the initial decision to target
geography was a "capricious act"
given the data they used in making an
initial decision. "They have prejudged
the whole affair on the basis of this kind
of work," he said, referring to what he
said was "sloppy" research work done
by the dean's staff.
The executive committee announced
in January it would bring proceedings
against the geography department
which could possibly lead to its discon-
tinuance. After two and a half months
of investigation, a four-member faculty
committee, set up to review the depar-
tment, recommended that the depar-
tment be either entirely abolished or
that at least the cultural area of the
program by discontinued.
IN APRIL, the LSA faculty voted to
reject the review committee's recom-
mendation. Although not bound to the
faculty vote-effectively an advisory
vote-the executive committee said it
would "seriously consider" it when
making their final recommendation.
"If it is true that the executive com-
mittee has recommended that
geography be discontinued then I would
say it is most unfortunate," said
Mathematics Prof. Wilfred Kaplan. "It
will cause a lot of dissension in the
faculty." Kaplan introduced a motion
which was defeated at a February
faculty meeting to suspend the discon-
tinuance proceedings.
"It certainly isn't totally unexpec-
ted," said Joel Isaacson, professor of
art history. "It never seemed as though
a vote of the faculty would be sufficient
enough to bring about a different
decision." Isaacson added that he had
thoughtthe committee might decide to
recommend an alternative to the
discontinuance of the entire depar-
tment.
Exclusive
"I think they (the executive commit-
tee) stalled the whole thing for the op-
portune moment," said Geography
Prof. John Kolars. "Who's to reverse it?
I see no reason why the Regents won't
rubber stamp what the Vice-President
(Frye) has decided. The process has
been cut and dried."
Kolars said he felt Knott and the
executive committee were "just ex-
pressing the feelings of Frye and
(President) Shapiro."
"I don't think that it's Knott," he
said, adding that he felt Knott was sim-
ply acting in accord with what Frye and
Shapiro wanted.
"John Knott has been bloodied pretty
badly with the whole thing," he said. "I
consider the executive committee sim-
ply a tool of the administration. The
administration chooses the people they
want on the committee."
Daily staff writer Lorenzo Benet
filed a report for this story.
V'ictory beans AP Photo
PRESIDENT REAGAN CELEBRATES the House passage of his budget plan yesterday in one of his favorite ways. A
grinning Reagan presents House minority leader Bob Michel with a jar of his now-famous presidential jelly beans.
Financia1
aid cuts
loom
By MARK GINDIN
House approval of President Reagan's budget plan
has targeted the widely used Guaranteed Student
Loan and Pell Grant programs for revisions that
would make federal financial aid unavailable to most
of the University students who now use it.
If the Republican-dominated Senate approves
the Reagan budget, as it is almost sure to do, the
guidelines that determine eligibility for the federally-
subsidized grants and loans will be tightened, making
students from most middle- and higher-income
families ineligible.
TlE NEW ELIGIBILITY guidelines would include
family financial resources and individual need as
criteria for the aid. Currently, the GSLs are available
to students from any financial background.
A change to the new guidelines would "eliminate
80 percent of the 15,000 loan applications approved
this year," according to University Financial Aid
director Harvey Grotrian.
The Reagan proposals would not alter the interest
rate or payback period of the GSLs, only the
eligibility requirements, thus keeping in line with his
stance of not pulling the rug out from the "truly
needy," Grotrian said.
THE TARGET DATE FOR implementation of the
new federal guidelines was initially July 1, 1981, but
because of the inevitable debate in Congress,
Grotrian said he expects the date to be delayed to Oc-
tober 1, and possibly as late as January 1, 1982. He
added that all financial aid applications received un-
til that time will be processed under the old
guidelines.
See FEDERAL, Page9