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.