The Carolinian [April 10, 1980]

              1
The Carolinian Non-profit
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Greensboro, N.C.
Permit No. 30
"Serving the academic community since 1897."
J^e .46
April 10,1980 Volume XIL Number 47 The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Please Call Oar Hotline: 379-5041
Student
Leaders
Take
Office
By TERESA BRITTAIN
News Editor
The new Student Government
leaders were sworn in at the senate
meeting Tuesday night. Bill Starkc
officially became president, Mark
Newton assumed his role as vice
president, and Pete Hoover took the
position of attorney general.
Additionally, the new cabinet
members took their oaths. The
executive cabinet members are Kelly
Chandler, executive secretary; Carol
Fungaroli, Academic Affairs;
Richard Hounten, Administrative
Affairs; Robert Marsh, Athletic Af-fairs;
George Poulos, Community
Affairs; Walter Pritchett, Minority
Affairs; Mike Barnes, Residential
Affairs; and Ester Myers, Town
Student Affairs.
Also several committee heads
were approved. Randy Carlisle was
appointed chairperson of the Social
Concerns and Activities Committee;
Robin Manning was named head of
the Legislative Committee; Steve
Paquette became chairperson of the
Appropriations Committee; and
Benton Bogle took the position as
head of the Classification of
Organizations Committee. In-dividual
committee members were
also announced -at the meeting.
The senate heard from the former
president of SG, David Payne and
vice president, John Cecil. Both
gave short speeches. Payne com-mented
on the good job the senate
has done this year on social
programming and said anything
that they concentrated on in the
same way in the future would be just
as successful. Cecil said he hoped
that "Student Government, and in
particular, the senate, will look at
the problems it has had and will
strive to improve on these
problems..."
In other business, the senate took
action Tuesday night on the matter
of the Superior Courts' decision of
fifty percent attendance
requirement for active club mem-bership.
The court had made this
ruling during its hearing of an In-ternational
Relations Club case on
March 11, 1980. The senate
requested a review of this ruling
because "the wording or the rule is
not clear as to the full intent and
application desired," as stated in
the senate's official report.
The group also heard reports
from the Social Concerns Commit-tee
on Spring Fling activities. They
said a schedule would be released
next week.
PIRG Petitions for
New Classification
Photo by Oa/f Rubin
Bill SUrke (L), president-elect, is given the podium by for-mer
president, David Payne.
NCSL Wins Resolution
Award at Convention
By EDDIE HARDIN
Associate Editor
The UNC-G delegation of the
North Carolina Student Legislation
won an award for best resolution in
the recent NCSL convention in
Raleigh. The resolution, on voter
registration, was chosen over twenty
five resolutions presented by various
others delegations from across the
state.
The UNC-G delegation also had
one of two bills passed in the con-vention:
the Construction Works in
Progress (CWIP) bill which calls for
an ammtndment to the existing
method of financing utility plants.
Anne Miller, president of UNC-G's
NCSL delegation called the ef-fort
"outstanding." "I was ex-tremely
pleased and proud of the
delegation's performance," added
Miller. "In essence, we took a
rookie delegation, but by their per-formance
you would have thought
they had been in NCSL for 3 years.
Their contributions were many
within the delegation, on the state
level and also in liason efforts
among other schools and state
legislators. A tremendous amount
of energy was displayed which I felt
was contagious to other delegations.
If anyone needed help they came to
us."
Many members of the UNC-G
delegation contributed to the overall
success of the convention. Ester
Meyers and Lucia Core served in the
senate and Core was nominated for
the best speaker. Byron Cooper, the
state publicity chairman, was
nominated for best speaker of the
House. Both Cooper and Miller
were nominated for the conven-tion's
most coveted award, the
Carlysle Award, which exemplifies
the best effort of any contributors
during the past year. The Carlysle
Award went to Glenn Viers. student
body president of Greensboro
College. Greensboro College also
won the award for best "small-college"
delegation. UNC-G's
Richard Roper, after serving as
Clerk of the House, was elected as
secretary of state, one of only four
elected state officers.
Speakers for this year's conven-tion
included Governor James
Hunt, former Secretary of State
Thad Eure, and Secretary of
Natural Resources and Human
Development Howard Lee.
"I wish I was coming back next
year," said senior President
Miller." The delegation came back
totally psyched for next year.
They're ready to go. They're biggest
hope is to have a large active mem-bership
for next year."
By EDDIE HARDIN
Associate Editor
UNC-G Public Interest Research
Group (PIRG) has begun a campus-wide
effort to gain support for re-classification
of their present Type 4
student organization consitution to
a Type 3 organization. But accor-ding
to sources within UNC-G's
senate, PIRG will run into heavy
opposition.
"I foresee them having a hard
time setting their present status
changed," said SG vice-president
John Cecil.
The issue revolves around the
question of state money going to an
organizaion which pays salaries to
certain employees. The present Type
4 classification enables PIRG to
petition for funds without having a
set budget, as other student
organizations do.
"PIRG has done some good
things for this campus," added
Cecil, "but they just need to stay as
they are. The senate is worried that
funds from student activity fees
(which help make up organizational
budgets) will go to pay for PIRG
salaries. Most people support them
as a Type 4, but not as a Type 3. (A
Type 3 classification would enable
PIRG to apply for a budget at the
beginning of the year.) There was a
concern over getting them here at
all."
Presently, there are seven chap-ters
of North Carolina-PIRG.
UNC-G is the only state supported
university which recognizes a PIRG
chapter. In 1976, an attempt to
establish a PIRG chapter at UNC-Charlotte
was turned down by that
school's administration. The
decision to deny the PIRG chapter
at UNC-C followed an affirmative
student vote (over 804fe were willing
to help fund the organization
through student activity fees); there
was also a ruling by State Attorney
General Rufus Edmusten that
stated: if the organization provides
an "educational experience for
students" then "the Board of
Governors is authoriezed to ap-propriate
funds to NC-PIRG."
Art Donsky, the head of the
Greensboro PIRG organizations,
will present a student petition to
UNC-G next Tuesday asking for the
reclassifications.
He discounted the charges that
student fees would go to pay for
PIRG salaries. "The money we
would get would come from the
Appropriations Committee and
senate, and they can set the budget
and trim things as they see fit. It's
not a question of whether or not we
pay salaries with the budget; it's a
question of whether or not we get a
Type 3 classification. Funding
would have to be in line with the
Appropriations Committee and
senate.
"We just want a stable funding
budget like any other
organization."
Another key issue influencing the
decision is the apparent controversy
of the organization itself. PIRG
takes definite stands on such con-troversial
issues as nuclear power,
the draft question, and ERA. But
Donsky explained that the
organization sponsors only those
students who voluntarily support
PIRG.
"It's all voluntary," stated Don-sky."
If any student does not wish
to contribute through student fees,
he may apply for a refund."
A, similar program was
established at Guilford where
students pay S1.6S per semester.
The money is used to fund the
budget at the year's beginning.
"At Guilford, we advertised
about the refund, and any student
who wished to not pay the SI.65
filled out an application and got his
money back."
Despite the apparent urgency at
PIRg's request, most feel that the
issue will not be resolved until next
ML
"It would take a week for the
Classification of Orgainzations
Committee to discuss it and another
week before the senate will decide,"
said Cecil. "The earliest I see it
coming from the senate is next fall,
even with the petition."
Art Donsky
"The petition asks SG to fund
PIRG at only $.90 per student per
year," replied Donsky. "That's
probably the lowest in the whole
country."
Duke University students recently
voted to increase the student con-tribution
to PIRG $1.00 per student
in a campus-wide referendum
bringing the total to $4.00 a year per
student.
Donsky added. "We hope the
UNC-G Student Government will
like the idea of funding PIRG
democratically."
High School Competency
Tests Come Under Fire
By STEVE GILLIAM
UNC-G News Bureau
If any court challenges are forth-coming
for North Carolina's com-petency
testing program, they will
more than likely occur in the next
two or three years as the first groups
of high school seniors either pass the
tests and graduate-or fail them and
miss receiving high school diplomas.
That's the conclusion drawn by
Rupert Blanton of Ellenboro, who
has researched some of the legal
aspects of competency-based testing
for his doctoral dissertation at
UNC-G.
"This spring will mark North
Carolina's first graduating class un-der
the competency tests," said
Professor/Author Discusses Supreme
Court and JudicialSystemWorkings
Greensboro—Some of the myths
and truths about the U.S. Supreme
Court's judicial role will be explored
by a distinguished scholar and ex-pert
on judicial affairs in the annual
Phi Beta Kappa lecture at UNC-G
on Thursday, April 17.
Dr. Henry J. Abraham, who is
currently James Hart Professor of
Government and Foreign Affairs at
the University of Virginia, will begin
=News Briefs
Allies Cautious
Loedoa . America's allies
sympathized Tuesday with the
United State's situation concer-ning
Iran; however, their reac-tions
were cautious. After
President Carter's request for
support in his decision for cut-backs
in trade, several countries
said this proposal may be
discussed at their cabinet
■eatings in the near future.
his remarks at 7:30 p.m. in the
Virginia Dare Room of Alumni
House at UNC-G.
The author of five books on the
Supreme Court and the judicial
system and co-author of two texts
on American government, Dr.
Abraham will speak on "Some
Myths and Truths About the
Supreme Court: Reflections on the
Contemporary Judicial Role."
The lecture is open to the public
without charge. It is sponsored by
UNC-G's Epsilon Chapter of Phi
Beta Kappa, the national honorary
society for students showing the
highest academic achievements in
the liberal arts during their un-dergraduate
careers.
During the program, 28 UNC-G
seniors will be inducted into the Ep-silon
Chapter. UNC-G is one of
only five colleges and universities in
North Carolina which has a Phi
Beta Kappa chapter.
Cubans flee
Waaheagtea • Fidel Castro suf-fered
an embarrassing blow
Tuesday when 10.000 Cubans
sought asylum at Peru's embassy
in Havanna U.S. official* said
that they do not expect a threat to
the stability of Castro's gover-nment.
However, some Cuban
exiles in Florida'
New Sanctions
daw marks "the beginning of the
end of Fidd Castro
Tehran • The new political and
ecooomic sanctions against Iran
were welcomed by Ayatollah
Khomeini and President Bani-
Sadr's government. They used
the sanctions in an appeal to the
people for aa end to the Inmasilt
economic woes that have
troubled the country since
February 1979. Khomeini said he
saw the sanctions as "a good
Phi Beta Kappa was established in
1776 at William and Mary College
to honor students with outstanding
academic records. Since then it has
become national in scope.
Dr. Abraham has taught and lec-tured
throughout the world, in-cluding
parts of Asia and Europe as
well as across the United Stales. An
advisory editor of the Oxford
University Presr for nine years, he
has focused much of his research
and writing on .constitutional law,
comparative government, aad
public law.
A native of Germany, Dr.
Abraham served for three and a half
years with the U.S. Army during
World War II. He serves as a mem
bar of the editorial board of Social
Science magarinr and on the ad-visory
board of The Encyclopedia
of the Aatericaa Constitution.
Dr. Abraham received his
bachelor's degree. saaaaaa cum
laudc. with highest honors ia
political science from Keayoa
His master's
at COM
he received ass Ph.D. degree from
the Ussrvcratty of I
Blanton, "the State's program has
never really been tested in court and
there's the possibility that
something might not have been
done just right, even though it's a
remote chance."
Blanton conducted a nation-wide
survey of all SO states and the
District of Columbia to determine
their involvement in competency
testing. He undertook the project as
his dissertation study for the doctor
of education degree in ad-ministration
here.
With North Carolina's program,
Blanton says the situation is similar
to the one that Florida went through
with its competency tests a couple of
years ago. By a court order, the tests
were forestalled as a graduation
requirement there until 1982
because students had not been given
adequate advance notice of the
tests' inauguration.
"North Carolina might not be too
far removed from a similar
situation," said Blanton, who is an
occupational education coordinator
at East Rutherford High School.
"One of the main contentions in
Florida was that initial groups of
students who took the tests there
had been in segregated schools for
part of their education.
"This was also a question of im-proper
phase-in, with the judge
ruling that the students hadn't lear-ned
far enough in advance that
they'd have to take such a test and
pass it ia order to receive a high
school diploma His thinking was
that they might have been more
motivated during their educational
careers."
la reviewing litigation involving
competency testing in both
educational and noncducaiional set
mags, Blaalon said he found that
such testing ia schools may he
vulnerable to court
uwucs in 'our general i
•Competency testing progri
for the high school diploma where
there has bean a prior history of
discrimination baaed oa race.
I the disadvaaaaaad.
lent programs that
ia a stsjdant's
wsthMtJeor ao
prior notice.
•Competency test programs that
are not specifically based on
classroom instruction.
•Competency test programs that
do not test accurately what they pur-port
to measure. He said an example
might be a program of tests that is
described as an assessment of those
skills needed to function in modern
society.
In his research, Blanton found
that among the 33 states that are in-volved
with competency testing
programs. North Carolina is one of
IS states which require passing the
tests for the high school graduation.
Moreover, the state it one of only
five which has the requirement by
legislative mandate.
While five might seem like a
relatively small portion of the
nation's SO states, Blanton reads the
legislative involvement in com-petency
testing as a "negative reac-tion"
on the part of legislatures
which are responding to public sen-timent.
"You have to understand the
times and the events that the com-petency
test movement came out
of," said Blanton. "With very few
exceptions, most states began their
programs during the I970's aad this
makes them a fairly recent
phenomenon."
Among the items which Blanton
luted as reasons for increasing
numbers of states who have taken
up competency testing are:
•7V Schoiattic Aptnude Teal
fSA T) tcore decline ■ Between 1962
and 1976. the average aatioaal SAT
score dropped 49 points oa verbal
scores and 32 points on math scores.
The ensuing attention that was
focused on the score decline, ■an-te*
said, "coovtaced parents aad
legislators that something was
svroag ia education."
•The "beck to Ike boatca"
movement - A ao-frslls approach to
education, back to basks am-traditional
studies oa
wrung, aad arithmetic ia
iiary grades aad Eaglish.
Ctmt. om Pag* 3