The Carolinian [October 6, 1981]

              The Carolinian Non-profit
US.Postage
PAID
Greensboro, N.C.
Permit No. 30
' 'Serving the academic community since 1897."
October 6. I9SI Volume I.XI The University of Norlk CaroMaa it Grtcmboro H..c a itorv Idea? (ill ui st .m-5041.
Observatory Opens
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BURLINGTION- With its stainless
steel dome gleaming in the midst of
a hardwood forest, the Three
College Observatory--which con-tains
the state's largest telescope-was
formally opened on September
30 in the rural area of southern
Alamance County.
John R. Jordan Jr. of Raleigh,
chairman of the University of North
Carolina's Board of Governors,
hailed the new facility as "another
milestone in science education "tor
the state.
Jordan was the featured speaker
at the opening ceremonies for the
Three College Observatory. Six
years in the planning and construc-tion,
the observtory is a joint
project between the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, Nor-th
Carolina A&T State University,
and Guilford College. It was funded
by a $236,000 grant from the
National Science Foundation.
"The impact of the new obser-vatory
on education will be an im-portant
one," said Jordan. "In-struction
in astronomy for our un-dergraduates
will certainly never be
the same again. And our students
will witness proof...that these in-stitution
and the National Science
Foundation value basic science."
Although the observatory is now
open, Jordan stated in his speech
that federal funding for such projec-ts
currently is harder to obtain
because of budget cutbacks.
"The realization of this obser-vatory
did not come easily. It began
as an idea," said Jor-dan...."
Unhappily, things have
now changed. If the proposal for
this observatory were received by
the National Science Foundation
today, the chances of it getting fun-ded
would be dim indeed. There is ,
little money now for this kind of
project."
The federal budget cuts, he said,
also have limited the space ex-ploration
activities of the United
States for the immediate future.
"Despite the great interest in
astronomy and space exploration
generated by the Voyager II probes
to Jupiter and Saturn and the
Earlier Viking landing on Mars,
there is no federal funding for
planetary exploration for the
coming year," said Jordan.
"Of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's budget
for 1981, which is only $6 billion,
only a small percentage went to
planetary exploration. By contrast,
the Defense Department's space ef-forts
received $8.1 billion, following
a clear trend of shifting emphasis on
our spending in space toward
military uses.
"Despite these cutbacks in
federal spending on pure space ex-ploration,
interest has not
diminished. Our nation cannot af-ford
to turn its back on seeking to
find answers to the eternal mysteries
of the universe. There are still too
many questions to be answered."
Although the nation's space ex-ploration
efforts are lagging, Jor-dan
stated that the public "can be
proud of what Three College Obser-vtory
can do to enhance the science
education of our students at UNC-G
A&T, and Guilford.
The opening ceremonies also in-cluded
remarks by the heads of the
three institutions which will run the
observatory. They were UNC-G
Chancellor William E. Moran, A&T
Chancellor Edward Fort, and
Guilford College President William
Rogers.
Dr. Moran said that the obser-vatory,
as a joint project of the
three schools, represents a symbol
of cooperation between the cam-puses.
"It has brought together the
faculties of very different kinds of
institutions, a Quaker college, a
predominately black university, and
a predominantly white one," said
Moran...."It points to the natural
alliance between faculty and
students everywhere whose interests
in the cosmos transcends in-stitutional
barriers and all other
barriers."
Moran also noted that the obser-vatory
was a symbol of the
educational process that goes on at
the three institutions. "What better
symbol could you have really than
an instrument designed to scan the
darkenss for light, and to try to un-derstand
the meaning of the light?"
he said.
Dr. Fort said the new observatory
will complement the scientific
research and instruction already
taking place at A&T. He said that he
views the new facility as a "wider
opportunity to provide our studen-ts,
particularly minority students,
access to scientific careers in so-called
non-traditional areas."
Dr. Rogers of Guilford College
said that both the research and in-structional
function of the obser-vtory
are important to his campus.
He noted that Guilford College is
the home of the only undergraduate
journal of physics in the United
States. Research from the obser-vatory
can be published in the jour-nal,
he said.
FratBrothers ToRunFor Charity
By STEVE GILLIAM
Sptdllto II* <aroH*|M
GREENSBORO-Charity comes
in many different forms. On the
weekend of Oct. 10-11, it will be
personified by sweaty joggers who
will be rolling a beer keg from the
mountains to the Piedmont.
The event is the first annual Keg
Roll for St. Jude Children's
Hospital. And the joggers who'll do
the sweating will be the members of
Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) frater-nities
at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro and Ap-palachian
State University.
"A lot of people have said that
we're a little crazy to be doing
something like this," said Wallace
G. "Danny" Daniel of Henderson,
a member of the TKE colony at
UNC-G. "We'd rather do
something a little different, though,
and we feel like the cause is a good
one."
The keg roll will commence on
Saturday morning, Oct. 10, on the
Appalachian State University cam-pus.
Daniel said the event's planners
have estimated that it will take 19
hours to cover the 110 miles from
Boone to the finish line ontheUNC-G
campus. The distance is the
equivalent of four marathons, give
or take a mile or two.
"We're figuring on 50 people (20
from UNC-G, 30 from Ap-palachian)
doing the rolling," said
Daniel, a junior accounting major
at UNC-G. "We'll run in pairs for a
mile and we're going to be doing
approximately a 12-minute-mile
pace, or about five miles an hour."
The beneficiary of all the activity
will be St. Jude children's Hospital
of Memphis, Tenn. Long identified
with comedian and singer Danny
Thomas, a TKE alumnus who
heads its fund-raising activities, the
hospital provides free medical care
for children with terminal diseases.
"We want to raise $2,500 for the
hospital," said Daniel. "All of that
money will come from pledges per
mile that area businesses have made.
We'll do all the running and we're
grateful for the support we've
received."
The keg to be rolled out of the
mountains along U.S. Highway 421
is being modified for easy handling,
Daniel said. Donated by Mark IV
Beverage, a Greensboro beer
distributor, it has been fitted with a
handle for easy rolling.
"That way, it can be dragged up
the hills, if necessary, and rolled
down them without too much
trouble," he said. "But no matter
how hard it might be, most people
will only be running about four
times out of the entire keg roll."
Daniel said the group plans to get
as close as possible to Winston-cont.
on page 3
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downs, cowboys, and other spectators enjoy a Oty Stage event. See photo spread pages 4 and 5.
Drake Dismisses
UFO Possibilities
By STEVE GillJAM
MMddto IhrC •M.IIIII...
If there is extraterrestrial life in
outer space, the chances are good
that it will communicate with the
Earth through radio signals rather
than by sending spacecraft, one of
the nation's leading experts in radio
astronomy said here on Tuesday.
Dr. Frank D. Drake of Cornell
University, in an interview, said that
the existence of unidentified flying
objects, or UFOs, is highly unlikely.
"Because of what we know about
the arrangement of the galaxy, par-ticularly
the huge distances that
separate the stars and the amount of
energy needed to cross those distan-ces
in a resonable amount of time,
we would say that it's very unlikely
or very uncommon for spacecraft to
be sent from one star to another,"
said Drake.
"They (the extraterrestrial life)
would adopt the strategy, which to
us is clearly the most reasonable,
and that is to communicate with one
another and to study one another
through radio waves and not to send
spacecraft."
Drake spoke at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro
Thursday on the topic, "New
Worlds in Space." A respected
scholar who holds the Goldwin
Smith Professorship in astronomy
at Cornell University, Drake is a
senior scientist with the National
Astronomy and Ionosphere Center
there. His address came as a follow-up
event to Wednesday's opening of
the Three College Observatory.
In an interview, Dr. Drake said
that "to the best of our knowledge,
there is certainly extraterrestrial
life" located somewhere in the
cosmos.
"IU abundance and its actual
physical forms are something we
know very poorly, we do know
enough about the evolution ot the
universe and the planets and the
origins of life to say that there must
be life elsewhere in the universe."
Drake, who is widely known for
his beliefs that extraterrestrial life
exists, is one of the nation's leading
experts on the detection of life in
space. He designed the Arecibo
Message, which was sent into space
as a radio broadcast in 1974, and
also helped to design the laques
r.ik. *m
Dr. Freak D. Drake
which were used on the Pioneer 10
and 11 spacecraft.
In radio astronomy, Drake noted
that the instruments on Earth are
capable of picking up radio signals
from other worlds. And if ex-traterrestrial
life is to be encoun-tered,
Drake said it most likely will
be in the form of such signals.
"If there is another civilization,
even like ours, and we're rather
beginners, in the Milky Way
Galaxy, they can find us and we can
find them," said Drake. "That
doesn't mean it's easy. It takes a
great deal of effort because the
galaxy is a vast and wonderful
place. There are 100 billion stars
(and) and a multitude of frequen-
NBS Pageant To
Be Held Thursday
The Neo-Black Society at the
University of North Carolina at
Greensboro will hold its "Miss Neo-
Black Society" Pageant Thursday,
October 8, at 8:00 pm. The pageant
will be held In the Cone Ballroom of
Elliott University Center. The
Pageant is open to the public at no
charge.
The "Miss Neo-Black Society"
pageant is an annual event in which
a public representative is selected
for the Society. Contestants are to
be judged on characteristics such as
alertness. Intelligence, and the
ability to convey the goals of the
NBS to the public.
Contestants in this year's pageant
are: Wendy Howard of Madison;
Sheila Stevenson of Statesville;
Debra Welch of Winston-Salem;
Julie Owens of King's Mountain;
Renee Williams of Newton Grove;
Lavoris Brinson of Goldsboro;
Cathi Cobb of Harrisburg, Pa.;
Pamela Pate of Charlotte; Sonja
Jackson of Indian Trail; Marilyn of
Winston-Salem; and Patricia Taylor
of Soul City.
cies on which (he signals might
come."
Although the United States has
been broadcasting signals into space
since 1974, Drake said that "we
have never received a signal which
showed a good probability of
having been from another world."
Even so, Drake has encountered
brief signals which could not be
identified. Most of the signals that
are encountered originate on Earth,
he noted, and are deflected into the
radio telescope by an airplane or are
bounced off of the Moon.
"Occasionally, you get a brief
signal that is so faint you cannot tell
what is on it--is there a voice, morse
code or something," said Drake.
"It lasts such a brief time that you
cannot ascertain whether it came
from the cosmos or is one of these
terrestrial signals coming by a
peculiar route into the telescope.
"We will have to have much more
powerful equipment in order to cat-ch
such brief messages with enough
sensitivity and precision that we can
determine what information is on it
and, from that .determine whether it
came from Earth or elsewnere in the
universe."
Although interest is space ex-ploration
is on the rise, Drake said
the likelihood of the United States'
space program regaining the momen-tum
and support it enjoyed in the
early 1960s is small.
"...We all know that our
economic means are becoming more
limited and the demands on them
are more widespread and greater in
every area," said Drake. "In the
end, it will come down to a value
judgement-do you put your resour-ces
into exploration, adventure, and
the seeking of knowledge which may
or may not pay off in some practicle
way, or do you concentrate your
resources on the day-to-day needs of
living.
"At the present time, the
judgement is that we will not soon
regain the momentum we had in the
early 1960s. But tastes, interestsand
values may change, in which case we
could well return to the level of ex-ploration
we had in the early 1960s
or even exceed it.'*
Drake noted that budget cuts by
the Reagan administration will
cause "a slowing down in American
science." And he also noted that
such cuts are going to force
America's space efforts to give up
some of the areas which have been
developed. One example he cited
was the development of radio
astronomy studies on molecules in
space.
"We have had plans for years to
build telescopes to do this job better
and now we cannot do it," said
Drake. "It's a specific case where
we are giving up something because
of budget shortages."