4
O0i
Page 6
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 49-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Wednesday, July 28, 1982
The Michigan Daily
Wasserman
WE ARE REWRmN& BUT THE W &ANS ARE NOT WE 3UST WANT TO O KE \T
SOME OF-TM C\4LD REALLY 51&NWFCANT EASER FO E l'LOltERS TO (
LABOR UNDERSTAND
LAW.. T RLE RULS 0B
LI E VSPT
/ '5 / e//4
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Why go to class if its oln TV?
4
4
Let whaling die
FINALLY, AFTER nearly ten years of
negotiations, 25 members of the Inter-
national Whaling Commission (IWC) mustered
enough courage and compassion to ban all
commercial whaling in 1986. Whales are hardly
singing with glee, however, as Japan, the
world's largest whaler, has vowed to continue
its heartless hunting.
There is no compelling reason to continue the
senseless slaughter of one of the earth's most
complex and interesting creatures. Whale
products have many substitutes, and the
whaling industry has been on the decline for
years.
The reasons for nations to observe the ban
are overwhelming. Several species of the mar-
velous mammal are threatened with extinction
even if whaling were to end today. Continued
hunting would undoubtedly further endanger
the species as well as others.
The ban, of course, is a huge step foward for
saving the whales, but the IWC has no method
of enforcing it. That is where the United States
must step in.
President Reagan has come out solidly in
favor of the ban and he has some means to
pressure two of the world's biggest whalers,
Japan and the Soviet Union, into compliance.
Both have substantial fishing operations in
United States' waters and that right should be
revoked if the nations continue to hunt whales.
Now that 25 nations have ratified the ban, the
seven opposed should abandon their selfish
claims on whales. It is time to let the whaling
industry die, so that the world's largest, but
most graceful animal will not have to.
"SUPPOSE WE TRY SETTING IT ON I HE GROUVP*
4I l ttV $ f I.C- ttC
To the Daily:
The Five-Year Plan designed
by Vice-President of Academic
Affairs Billy Frye is an attempt
to reallocate $20 million from
what the administration deems
low to high priority areas. As it
stands one interesting outcome of
this plan could be the reduction of
faculty with no comparable drop
in student enrollment.
In his letter to the deans of
schools and colleges, Frye
outlines his plan to keep the
quality of teaching at a
maximum with a larger
teacher/student ratio. One of his
proposed solutons: "better uses
of technology." Putting two and
two together, it sounds as if Mr.
Frye is proposing to replace
teachers with televisions and
videotape monitors in our
classrooms.
At the present time, class sizes
are tremendous. If classes are
impersonal, frustrating, and con-
fusing now, what is it going to be
like with taped lectures from our
professors?
This method of teaching is now
used for large introductory
classes at Michigan State
University. One student who
transferred from MSU to the
University explained to us how
TV monitors are used there. Lec-
tures are taped in front of a class
to allow for any questions that
could occur. Howeverthis rarely
occurs and our student friend ex-
pressed her frustrations of . wan-
ting to ask questions and not
being able to. Also since the lec-
tures are shown on cable TV,
those students with cable outlets
never need to leave their home
for class. As our friend told us,
she had cable TV in her apar-
tment and never attended some
classes.
Is this what we want to see at
the University? Sure, large in-
troductory lectures are imper-
sonal and there is not a great deal
of student-teacher interaction,
but the fact that there is a real
person speaking face-to-face with
students is an infinitely better
alternative than TV.
A teacher is much more than a
source of facts. If all a teacher
did was spew out numbers and
dates, there would be no real
reason to ever go to class. After
all, a teacher could just write a
book, have students read it, and
test them on the facts. Yet for
teaching to be as effective as it
has -been at the University, the
teacher must go beyond the facts
and actually learn with the
students.
The face-to-face interaction
between a student and teacher
enables the teacher to be a role
model for students. The teacher
can act as a mentor and coun-
selor to help students with
problems such as pressures from
classes. Educational
psychologists have shown that a
rewarding student-teacher
relationship can be the most
valuable experience a student
can have while learning. The
more personal, caring, and un-
derstanding a teacher is, the
more students will want to learn.
All these aspects are lost when
technology replaces teachers.
What we've laid out are the ob-
vious problems of implementing
TV monitors in classes, but there
are some other financial and
academic concerns. Will
somebody have to be in the
classroom to repair the monitor
should it break down? What are
the costs going to be of obtaining
this equipment and maintaining
it? Will TVs in the large classes
just be a start, 'touantieven more
technologized education as the
administration shifts its funding
priorities to high-tech research
and other "needed" departmen-
ts?
These questions all have to be
examined before our policy
makers rationalize a "better use
of technology" as a sound ven-
ture. The administration and
Regents must stand back from all
the numbers and look at where
teaching at the University is
heading. Even if, by some quirk,
TVs and other technological aids
are used only in large classes, the
quality and value of this Univer-
sity would drop in our eyes. We
* hope other students will look hard
at what they want and value in an
education before their questions
are answered by our ad-
ministrators.
-Jamie Moeller
Henry Rice
David Guttchen
4
4
4
4
Cut 'U'from the top
To the Daily:
You got it wrong in your
editorial "Tuition hike: Reluc-
tant assent" (Daily, July 22). The
alternative to higher tuition is not
cutting programs and faculty,
but cutting the excess ad-
ministration. The top heavy
structure of this university is
pulling the rest under. There is no
way, unfortunately, that these
fat, balding, ancient men are
going to cut their own salaries.
No-wait! There is a way. But
never mind. There is no way the
apathetic, blind, pleasure-
seeking preppies which inhabit
this campus will ever join
together in a mass protest.
They'd all be afraid that
everyone will be wearing the
same designer jeans and
alligator shirts as they are.
-Cari VerPlanck
July 23, 1982
4
Letters and columns represent the opinions of the
individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
attitudes or beliefs of the Daily.