Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 42, Ed. 1 Friday, March 23, 1979 Page: 3 of 6
six pages : ill. ; page 23 x 16 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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UNIVERSITY PRESS March 23,1979*3
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Comment
This Learning World
Open meetings
Letters to the editor
Moffatt responds
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DR. RICHARD MEISLER
An old campus controversy got a new
twist recently at Wayne State University.
The law school faculty passed a revised
admissions policy to conform to the Bakke
decision.
Months later a local judge ruled that the
policy was invalid because the meeting
had been closed. The judge stated that the
faculty had been making public policy and
so the meeting came under the provisions
of the state’s Open Meetings Act.
Only a handful of faculty meetings at
public colleges will be forced open by state
open meeting laws. Yet any institution or
part of one may create an open meetings
policy of its own. It can also go one step
further and establish full student
participation in decision making.
As a faculty member and administrator,
I have attended dozens of faculty meetings
over the years, some of them closed to
students, others open.
There is an enormous difference
between the two types of meetings. The
presence of students at meetings makes
faculty more responsible and decisions
more realistic. Factors arising from the
lives of students, especially their interests
and the pressures they experience, are
taken more seriously.
When students are absent, faculty
issues, such as competition among
departments, professorial rivalries and
loyalty to disciplines, are more prominent.
It is a matter of group dynamics and
human forgetfulness.
People respond to the concerns of others
who are immediately present. It is easy to
forget those who are not in the room or to
remember them unrealistically. The issue
is also moral and political: Are people to
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Lamar University Press
Editor:
Tara Shockley
Managing Editor:
Greg Hale
Copy Editor*:
Ray Brown
Helen Sohlingey
New* Editor:
Ann Lavergne
Sport* Editor:
Cynthia Shields
Campus Editor:
Robby Karr
Entertainment Editor:
Tim Meece
Advertising Manager:
Tommy Newton
Advertising Representatives:
Linda Kirkpatrick
Vickie Bell
Graphics Manager
David Campbell
Graphics Assistant:
Sharon Irby
Composition:
Brett Thacker
Staff Cartoonist:
Kelly Asbury
Photographers:
Mike Cutaia
Janis Doyle
Lenny Gibson
Vic Humphrey
Staff Writers:
Frank Conde
Cindy Dowies
Mark Knowles
Susan Marlow
Intramural Writer:
Manuel Moreno, Jr.
Office Manager:
Renita Johnson
Circulation Managers:
Abbas Masumzadegan
Mohammad Talaee
w
Typesetters:
Gloria Post
Lori Rull
Ingrid Faulk
Director of Student Publications:
Howard Perkins
The University Press is the official
student newspaper of Lamar Univer-
sity, and publishes every Wednesday
and Friday during long semesters, ex-
cluding school holidays. Offices are
located at P.O. Box 10055, 200 Setzer
Student Center, University Station,
77710.
Opinions expressed in “Fair Comment," the editorial
section of thst UP Friday edition, and in sports editorials
are those of the student management of the newspaper.
These opinions are not necessarily those of the nmvir
sity administration.
participate in the decisions that affect
their lives?
The biggest problem about open
meetings and student participation is that
students find faculty meetings boring. So
do many faculty, but the problem is more
acute for students. The reason is that there
is an academic subculture whose language
and style dominate faculty meetings.
The normal discussions and decision-
making procedures of faculty meetings
seem strange• to students, just as most
faculty would feel a bit out of place in the
discussions in a corporate board of
directors meeting.
Thus when long struggles and debates
have finally produced open faculty
meetings, students have stopped
participating after a few sessions. Faculty
take this to be a sign of lack of seriousness.
It has often been a measure of the distance
between academic/faculty culture and
student culture.
The constructive response, once faculty
meetings are formally open, is to make
them accessible to students in subtle ways..
Informal discussions of the issues, held
with students for their benefit during
each meeting, would help.
Special parts of meetings might be
routinely set aside for student concerns.
Meetings might be held in different
settings, s<j that participants did not feel as
though students were invading faculty
territory.
In short, explicit efforts must be made to
make students feel comfortable, and this
will require alterations of the procedures
that feel most natural to faculty.
Hard-nosed faculty will find the
necessary changes inefficient and
wasteful of time. But the advantages to be
gained are significant, and they are more
important than efficiency. When meetings
are closed, decisions too often reflect a
partial view of educational realities, so
they are bad decisions.
In industry there is a world-wide
movement in the direction of joint worker-
management decision making. It would be
ironic if the educational world, which is
supposed to function for the benefit of
students, lags behind and maintains
paternalistic traditions when they are
being abandoned elsewhere-*
© 1S78, Richard Meisler
Editor:
Mr. LeJune’s letter (March 2)
supporting the Iranian revolution against
the Shah, both here and abroad,
completely avoids the only real
controversy still existing on the
subject—why in the world the Iranians are
still in America after the Americans have
been violently chased out of Iran.
Instead, LeJune suggests that we send
our buddies in Iran foodstuffs with which
to feed their poor. Perhaps he hasn’t
heard—there’s a new leader in Iran,
Ayatollah Khomeini, who is sitting on a
gold mine in oil. What’s wrong with him
and his government starting their own
welfare program—they’re such a nice
group of humanitarians anyhow-shooting
people in cold blood and nice things like
that. Maybe we should have them as guest
speakers at the next PTA meeting!
The weapons LeJune mentioned were
sent to Iran by the United States, mainly
as a means of protection for the Iranian
people from foreign control. Britain had
announced in 1968 that it was going to
cease its policing of the Persian Gulf
coast. This left Iran wide open to a naval
invasion from Russia, or Egypt, both of
which were real threats to the Iranians at
the time.
LeJune also accuses the American
government of “ripping off the Iranians to
the tune of billions of dollars since the
early 1950s.” If anyone ripped off the
Iranians, it was the Shah—not the
American government.
It is known that the Shah had a Swiss
bank account and made a mint for himself
off the oil in Iran—but, he also ended
foreign dominance in Iran (Russia and
Britain); started a system to educate his
people; was bringing about social reforms
to make his people second to none in the
world (such as college educations in
foreign countries); and most importantly,
turned a country that had been
underdeveloped for over a hundred years
into an industrial power through his
“Seven Years Plan.” He was a
Renaissance man to his people, and every
Iranian going to school in this country is
Here because of the Shah. I don’t
necessarily support the Shah, but there are
two sides to every story.
The Iranians have chosen to revolt
against the Shah and have driven him
from his country. Now they want his life!
They have also taken shots at Americans
in their country and have destroyed
property in America (cars, fires, rocks,
etc.) during their riots, which LeJune can
“certainly understand.”
They’re certainly going about it in an
intelligent and civilized manner. They’ve
gotten myself and many other “neo-
imperalist American patriots ” mad as
hell, and we’re not going to take it
anymore!
To think the Iranians are still in America
after the treatment our countrymen
received in Iran is sickening and makes
me wonder about anyone who can
“understand” such violence.
If you really believe the Iranians have a
right to remain in America, Mr. LeJune,
might I suggest that you call Roto-Rooter
and have your head unstopped—I have a
good idea of what is plugging it up—chap!
Pete Moffatt Jr.
Another response
Editor:
In response to Mr. LeJune’s letter of
March 2, in which he states, “Perhaps we
should sell Iran foodstuffs to feed her vast
numbers of poor, instead of weapons...,” If
LeJune went to an appliance store to buy a
TV what would he do if they tried to sell
him a loaf of bread?
LeJune further states, “Mr. Moffet
either familiarize himself with the facts...,
or re-examine his morals.” Perhaps
LeJune should present these “facts” if he
wishes to refute Mr. Moffet’s statements.
In fact, maybe he should present the facts
to support his claims.
James Airey
The youngest person ever kidnapped has
been Carolyn Wharton, born in
Beaumont’s Baptist Hospital at 12:46 p.m.,
March 19,1955.
Twenty-nine minutes old at the time she
was kidnapped, she was taken by a woman
disguised as a nurse.
The kidnapping took place at 1:15 p.m.
1979 Guinness Book
of World Record:
Evaluations need reevaluation
Student evaluations of
faculty and classes are being
used in many colleges and
universities across the coun-
try. Most schools leave it up
to the instructor to decide
whether his or her students
will have the opportunity to
participate in an evaluation.
It is on this voluntary basis
that student evaluations are
used at Lamar, but students
and faculty alike need to
examine how efficiently this
valuable tool is being used.
Rating forms can serve
several important functions
in an academic atmosphere.
Department heads can use
student evaluations to help
instructors improve the con-
tent and methodology in their
teaching. Evaluations are,
perhaps, the best way for
teachers to find out if they
are “getting through’’ to
their students.
Student evaluations can
also help students in
clarifying problems they
may have with a particular
course.
Too often, students feel
they do not like a course or
are not getting what they ex-
pected from a course, but
cannot really pinpoint the
problems.
Student evaluations, as
they are being used at
Lamar,actually tell faculty,
students and academic ad-
ministrators very little. The
rating forms are stan-
dardized and utilize a
“multiple choice” system.
Students can evaluate only
such general areas as course
organization and the ap-
pearance of the instructor.
Student evaluations should
deal with the specifics of
each course. Evaluations
should be more subjective,
giving the student a chance
to comment, in his or her own
words, on the content, the
teaching and the atmosphere
of the course. Rating forms
should be designed by a com-
mittee of students and
faculty in each department,
taking into consideration the
objectives of each program.
Perhaps the most im-
portant function student
evaluations can serve is to
demonstrate that the univer-
sity cares about its students.
Not all faculty will want to
use evaluations, and this cer-
tainly does not mean those
who choose not to are poor
teachers.
The end of this semester is
near, and this would be a
good time to take another
look at Lamar’s system of
faculty evaluations by
students.
Tara Shockley
* $©rr ^
DRINKS
MK THE HOUSE!
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Limit 1 Coupon per
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orders. Vbid where
prohibited by law.
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since ‘VirglYlta Woolf... Firth is stupendous. ;t”
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March 28 — SSC Ballroom
LU - $1 Guests - $1.50
2 showings: 7p.m. and 9p.m.
SSCC Travel Committee presents a
Guadalupe River
Canoeing Trip
April 20-22
For safety reasons, a Canoeing Clinic is a
prerequisite for the Guadalupe River
Trek. Also, swimming ability is required.
Canoeing Clinic
April 7-8
Clinic
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Shockley, Tara. Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 42, Ed. 1 Friday, March 23, 1979, newspaper, March 23, 1979; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500340/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.