The Michigan Daily - Sunday, June 17, 1984 - Page 5
UCLA abandons nuclear reactor
A 24-year-old UCLA research reac-
tor, already shut down for maintenan-
ce, will be permanently closed because
of increased operating costs and hard
times in the nuclear industry, univer-
sity officials say.
The reactor has been the focus of a
dispute since 1980, when the university
asked the Nuclear Regulatory Com-
mission to relicense the facility. But
Vice Chancellor William Schaefer said
Thursday that "there is no relationship
COLLEGES
between this decision and any concerns
that have been expressed by anyone
about the safety or security of the reac-
tor."
Steven Aftergood, executive director
of the anti-nuclear Committee to Bridge
the Gap, dismissed the argument as "a
predictable public relations statement."
He said hearings on the security of
the reactor were scheduled to begin
next week.
"The reactor has tremendous safety
problems ... that finally became clear
and could not be scientifically defen-
ded," Aftergood said.
The 100-kilowatt Argonaut-type reac-
tor, which began operation at UCLA in
1960, produced power equivalent to that
used by 100 home hair dryers. A com-
mercial nuclear plant puts out about
30,000 times that much, UCLA
spokesman Tom Tugen said.
The reactor has been shut down since
Feb. 3 for routine maintenance work,
and the university previously had an-
nounced that it would keep it closed
down during the summer's Olympic
Games to allay concerns over security.
Tugen insisted the reactor was safe,
saying the NRC recently gave ita clean
bill of health.
-- The Associated Press
Fan's ashes spread in Penn
State stadium
The ashes of a Penn State University
football fan were recently spread over
part of the school's football stadium,
contrary to school policy, university of-
ficials said Friday.
The ashes were spread over an un-
disclosed location of 83,770-seat Beaver
Stadium by the fan's son, said two ad-
ministrators who asked that their
names not be used.
Six months ago, in a prank cooked up
by two Penn State administrators, a
"fan" purportedly asked that his ashes
be dropped on the stadium from an air-
plane during a football game.
According to the two administrators,
permission to spread the real ashes was
granted by a middle-level athletic
department official who apparently did
not know the act would be against
school policy.
Sports information director Dave
Baker said such an act would not be
allowed.
"Apparently we had a similar
request five years ago from a woman
who asked if she could do it for her
husband, but we turned it down," Baker
said.
"If we allowed it, there are enough
people who would want to do it that it
would cause problems," he said.
In the prank, a man posing as the
fan's attorney telephoned Karen Rugh,
manager of campus relations, and said
a large gift would be made to the
university if the fan's unique request
was approved.
I said, 'We just can't pass this up.
We've go to have that money.' It was
the best practical joke I've ever been
- involved in," Rugh said Friday.
- The Associated Press
Harvard prof named
school fool
Harvard University is known for tur-
ning out scholars. But during her years
at the school, all Patricia Limerick
wanted to do was be a fool.
It wasn't easy, but she got her wish.
Limerick, a 33-year-old assistant
professor of history, had begged
university administrators to appoint
her the school's official fool.
At Harvard, "Everyone lives in
terror of being thoughta fool," she said.
"So I thought it would be very
liberating to have someone publicly ap-
pearing as a fool. It reassures people
about the widespreadedness of inner
doubt and about the potential to express
it without suffering penalties."
She explained all this to Harvard
President Derek Bok, who responded
by saying he already had appointed
enough fools, thank you.
"But I pointed out the obvious distin-
ction that he had appointed closet fools,
not open air fools," said Limerick, who
often can be seen wandering around
campus wearing white face, clown's
makeup, a crimson leotard and white
drawstring pants.
Bok finally relented in March, and in
a half-hour ceremony in his office, he
read a tongue-in-cheek proclamation
naming Limerick Harvard's official
fool.
"It was nice to have Harvard love me
as much as I loved it, if only for a half
hour," she said.
- The Associated Press
Court rules in favor of
Miami students having cars
A Miami (Ohio) University rule
prohibitn students from driving cars on
campus or in the town of Oxford, Ohio,
where the school is located, was struck
down by a federal appeals court judge.
The decision came in the appeal of a
suit filed by the student government
against toe university's trustees. In the
lawsuit, the students charged that the
rule violated their constitutional rights
to free association and privacy.
The appeals court said the regulation
raised complex constitutional issues
and sent the case back to district court
asking the judge to first decide whether
it is legal for the school to regulate
students'off-campus behavior.
The rule is designed to keep students
interested in campus activities and to
avoid overcrowding on the streets of
Oxford, a university spokesman said.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
Experts question need
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
national push for computer literacy is and Henry Levin of Stanford Univer-
fatally flawed because most people will sity.
never need to know how computers Computer literacy is irrelevant to
work, some educators and sociologists most people because computer
say. designers have become "magicians,"
They add that high schools that making computers easy to use without
require computer literacy for training, said Charles Oualline, a
graduation are needlessly intimidating professor of computer architecture at
students who have no aptitude for the East Texas State University.
machines. COMPUTERS ARE valuable in the
"IT IS NOT enough to expose the classroom, but mainly to aid learning
falsity. It is time to stop the parade,"
Douglas Ndble, a former Rochester
schoolteacher, said Friday at a con-
ference on the effect of computers on
society, sponsored by the University of _______:_
Rochester. Help Us Crem
California, Florida, Indiana, Rhode
Island, South Dakota, Virginia and the hieD IafluExpi
District of Columbia have passed laws
to require students to study computers, Jon the Staff
according to the National Assocation of FOR WRITING
Secondary School Principals.
In other states, where legislators' BUSINESS
have balked at spending the money to HART
establish new requirements, hundreds PHOTOGRAPI
of school districts haved taken the CALL 764-9
initiative in computer literacy courses, '
the assocation said. ' -' dtg 'tr
HOWEVER, SEVERAL scholars
have recently begun questioning the
need for the public to understand the . " 'wrinso f omutrt
inner workings of computers. .
The critics include Ernest Boyer, i . ' dW 'n he ta
president of the Carnegie Foundation F lft'
for the Advancement of Teaching;
Joseph Weizenbaum of the
Correction
Current figures indicate that black
enrollment may reach 5.1 percent at the
University this fall. Friday's
Daily incorrectly reported that it might gyg :
reach 5.4 percent:
for computer literacy
society . . . It epitomizes the
subjects from spelling to math to technological solution to any social
foreign languages, Oualline said in an problem," Arthur Fink, founder of the
interview. That, he said, does not Center for Appropriate Computing in
require "computer literacy," Wilton, N.H., said.
Students should rid themselves of Fink said the smattering of technical
their fears of computers, but they computer knowledge students get does
would be better off taking a course in a not prepare them to think critically
traditional subject, Oualline said. about the role of computers in society.
Training everyone in BASIC (a com- A recent survey of American high
puter language) is not the thing to do," school students showed they ranked
he said. "I'm a fundamentalist." computer literacy behind only math
"The computer has a mystique in our and English in importance.
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