xt76q52fbd9v https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt76q52fbd9v/data/mets.xml The Kentucky Kernel Kentucky -- Lexington The Kentucky Kernel 1978-03-09 Earlier Titles: Idea of University of Kentucky, The State College Cadet newspapers  English   Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. The Kentucky Kernel  The Kentucky Kernel, March 09, 1978 text The Kentucky Kernel, March 09, 1978 1978 1978-03-09 2020 true xt76q52fbd9v section xt76q52fbd9v UK scientists rebut EPA spray edict

By JIM MCNAIR
Copy Editor

The UK Tobacco and Health
Research Institute announced
yesterday that a tobacco plant
spray declared a health hazard by
the Environmental Protection
Agency, is actually less toxic than
anaher spray under EPA approval.

Institute officals and researchers
agreed the findings concerning
maleic hydrazide would effectively
rebut claims made by the EPA that
the chemical was harmful and
should be banned.

Maleic hydrazide, commonly
referred to as MH, is the most ef-
ficient chemical agait ever con-

ceived for the control of suckers,
according to Dr. D. L. Davis,
professor of agronomy at UK. A
sucker is a sprout-like growth on
tobacco plants which diverts
nutrients away from its adjoining
leaf.

Last October, MH became the
central issue in a conflict between
the tobacco industry and the EPA.
The agency was given information
that MH was harmful to health, and
said that unless scientific evidence
could be provided proving other-
wise, MH would likely be banned.

This caused UK scientists to
gather existing research and for-
mulate new data supporting the
retention of MH as a sucker retar-

c“
. 4‘ .
4
(_.

This former home is indicative of the condition of Lexington's
South Hill since the LCC called for the destruction of [30 buildings
two years ago to clear the area for a 16-acre parking lot to serve

the Civic Center.

Urban renewal
brings wreckage

By GREGG FIELDS
Copy Editor

Note: This is the second of a three-
part series on urban housing in
Lexington and other cities.

Across the nation, thousands of
low-income people are being
dislocated as their neighborhoods
are destroyed to make room for
urban renewal.

In Lexington’s South Hill, a low-
income neighborhood, dislocation
has been progressing for over two
years.

In 1975, as its $46 million con-
vention center neared completion,
the Lexington Center Corporation
announced plans to acquire and
destroy 130 houses in adjacent South
Hill. The destruction, LCC said, was
necessary to make room for a 16-
acre surface parking lot.

The plan caused a slight public
outcry, heard loudest on the UK
campus. But there was never any
real doubt the homes were doomed.
Pam Miller, a member of Urban
County Council, proposed a parking
garage which would have greatly
reduced the number of homes that

court order.

it.

 

today

state

needed to be destroyed, but UCC
defeated the proposal.

In the end, local government
approved LCC's plan.

Defenders of the plan argued a
strong case. Downtown clearly
lacked ability to draw peOple. The
Lexington Center, they predicted,
would revitalize downtown.

Probably the most important
reason for LCC’s action, however,
was that Hunt-Landmark, Ltd.,
deveIOper of the megastructure’s
Hyatt Regency Hotel and 405tore
mall. threatened to back out if the
homes weren“ destrOyed.

The plan‘s Opponents maintained
the proceedings were a ploy by the
LCC to rid the area of poor people.

“Let‘s face it, no one makes a 16-
acre surface parking lot," Bill
Bunting, director of Lexington’s
Housing Services Department, said
recently. “It’s obvious they (LCC)
wanted to gain control of the land."

Bunting blamed the attitude of
Lexington's generally affluent
citizenry for letting LCC get its way.
”This community doesn‘t give a
damn about those on the lower half
of the (economic) scale,“ acc-
cording to Bunting.

Continued on back page

dant. At the conference, four
scientists presented arguments
which made up the rebuttal of the
EPA allegations against MH.

Researcher Dr. P. S. Sabharwal, a
UK biology professor, found that
inhalation of MH-treated tobacco
smoke was not harmful to lung cells.
From his experiments, he proved
that three forms of MH were ac-
tually much less toxic than the plant
insecticide, carbaryl (commercially
known as Sevin), which has been
approved by the EPA.

Sabharwal’s tests on Type II rat
lung cells showed that MH caused no
chromosomal damage or cancerous
tendencies. Type II lung cells, he
said, are the ones which most

Volume LXIX, Number 115
Thursday, March 9. 1978

noticeably reveal the damaging
effects of pollutants.

Davis said that if a sucker control
other than MH were used, a six
percent decrease in tobacco yield
per acre would result.

“The total cost to Kentucky far-
mers has been estimated at $40
million if other sucker control
chemicals were used or $75 million if
the tobacco were hand-suckered,”
Davis said.

He pointed out that there is no
existing scientific evidence of any
adverse effects of MH, which is also
used for spraying potatoes and
onions, and that MH contains only an
inconsequential amount of the

EN TUCKY

cancer-causing compound,
hydrazine.

“Based on current calculations,"
he said, “a person weighing 150
pounds would have to consume 730
packs of cigarettes, 120 pounds of
potatoes and 12 pounds of onions per
year for Over 400 years to ac-
cumulate toxic levels if n0ne were
excreted from the body, which is not
the case."

(‘hemistry professors Dr. Walter
T. Smith, Jr. and Dr. John M.
Patterson, developers of a tObacco
burning apparatus which simulates
the cigarettesmoking process in
humans, demonstrated that all but
one percent of the MH content was

an independent student n

EFT)

Waiting doesn’t pay

Penalty increase brings tuition in faster

By LYNNE FUNK
Kernel Staff Writer

The $50 reinstatement fee added to
unpaid tuition this semester was
established to synchronize the fee
payment schedule with the
academic calendar, said Judy
Marshall, ombudswoman for
business affairs.

Under the old system, the
University was still collecting fees
after the 17th day of classes, the
deadline for adding classes.
Therefore, students were prevented
from adding classes that were
technically full although some
spaces were filled by students who
had not returned to school, Marshall
said.

Studmts now have ten working
days to pay fees at the bqinning of a
semester, after which all unpaid
registrations are cancelled.
Students can be reinstated if they
pay their fees plus the $50 penalty
within seven working days following

the fee payment deadline, she said.

This procedure replaces a three-
day payment period, with a $5 late
fee added to unpaid fees and payable
within 30 calendar days of the
semester‘s beginning.

“The old late fee was ineffective,”
Marshall said. “It was not working
and it was a pain to collect."

Class space is reserved for all
registered students, so class cards
ta ken by prereg istered students who
do not return to the University
cannot be given to other students,
she said.

“We can’t tell if students are here
until they have paid their fees,” she
said.

Under the new system, professors
have the option of dropping students
from class rolls if they do not show
up the first two days of classes.
Positions are then 0pm for students
to add the class, she said.

The new system also prevents
studerts from going through the
semester without paying fees, then

paying only for the classes they did
well in when they are reinstated at
the end of the semester. The old
reinstatement policy allowed
students to pay a $25 fee, the $5 late
fee. full tuition for the classes whose
grades they elected to keep and half
tuition for those they chose to reject,
Marshall said.

“These were the students where
finances didn‘t matter,” Marshall
said. “Anyone could be reinstated at
any time. There was no deadline."

Only 458 students were dropped
for nonpayment this semester,
compared to 719 last fall, said Tony
Day, manager of Billing and
Collections.

“Most would think the results (of
the new system) would be the
reverse," Day said. “But if the
students have fee payment on their
minds they do it. If they know they
have time, then a lot of them really
forget it."

“I believe the new system is
successful in that a great number of

State’s $4.8 million helps needy

By RICHARD McDONALD
Copy Editor

Although its primary function is to
serve as a teaching hospital,
University Hospital is the major
scurce of care for poor Eastern and
Central Kentuckians.

According to Judge T. Calton,
hospital director, the state has
appropriated the hospital $4.8
million each of the past six years to
pr0vide care to state residents who
are unable to pay for treatment
themselves.

Students, however, are not eligible
for this aid.

According to Don Beyanowski,
hospital director of finances,
everyone entering the hospital
without “third party coverage" —
health insurance, Blue Cross-Blue
Shield, Medicaid or same other type
of governmental aid — is screened
by a “financial counselor" who
determines the patient‘s ability to
pay for his or her hospital stay.

The counselor does this by com-
paring the patient's income and
assets with the poverty level inc0me
as determined by the US. Bureau of
Labor.

For example, the bureau says the
poverty line annual income for a

 

KEN'I‘L'CKY‘S COAL OPERATORS, THOl'GH APPREHENSIVE about
trouble, would be ready to resume production under a Taft-Hartley back-to-
work order, said industry spokesmen yesterday.

“I‘d say that everything would be open by Monday," said Everett Brown,
president of Coal Operators & Associates, a Pikeville-based organization.

President Carter's moves to reopen the mines have been accompanied by
predictions that many miners would disregard the back~to~work order, and
that some would picket operating mines.

Gov. Julian Carroll has said he will take any steps needed to protect
working miners, but will not put state police on special alert or call up the
National Guard unless it proves necessary.

nation

THE ('ARTER ADMINISTRATION WILL GO TO (‘OL'RT THIS AF-
TERNOON to seek an immediate back-to-work order against coal miners,
an administration official said Wednesday.

The statement came as a presidential fact-finding panel completed a one-
day hearing into the 94day coal strike.

Administration officials said the president needed only to receive the
panel‘s report before directing Justice Department attorneys to ask for the

The govanment is prepared to seek contempt citations and fines against
defendants violating the back-to-work order, the official said. adding:
“There's not much point in getting the order if you're not ready to enforce

TEDDY MORRIS. A YOUNG NORFOLK, VA. MAN ARRESTED as a
fugitive from Georgia in connection with the shooting of pornography
publisher Larry Flynt, was released yesterday, police announced.

Georgia authorities, who had questioned the 20-year-old Morris in his jail
cell, told a news conference that Morris’ arrest resulted from an apparent

hoax.

world

SOMALI REBELS ADMITTED YESTERDAY that Ethiopia’s Cuban- and
Soviet-backed forces had driven them from the Ogaden desert town of Jijiga,
dealing a heavy blow to the insurgent campaign to separate the region from

Ethiopia.

A spokesman for the Western Somali Liberation Front said rebel forces,
after two weeks of fierce fighting around the Northern Ogaden crossroads
town, retreated to the “mountains and countryside" to carry on resistance.

weather

ANOTHER DAY OF IIIRERNATION FOR THE Sl'N TODAY. ('loudy
skies and possibilities of snow flurries will make for another miserable day.
Temperatures in mid.30s for most of the day and night. 20 percent chance of
precipitation. Look forward to Friday‘s sunny skies and temperatures in the

low-40s

('ompiled from AP dispatches.

 

 

Southeastern United States family of
four is $6,182. A member of a family
with an annual income of $7,000, no
other assets and no third-party
coverage, would be expected to pay
the difference —— $818 toward his
or her hospital expenses. The
hospital would cover any costs
above the difference.

However, BOyanowski said,

Eyin’ the ball

lion l’liillips takes some time out from the hooks to limber up on
n-Lning before Spring Break in the Rillards Room of the Student
(enter. Phillips is an accounting senior.

destroyed when run through the
machine.

“It appears that most of the gases
fomied from MH are the same gases
that are formed from t0bacco itself
under similar conditions," said
Patterson.

Smith said plans for the device
have been requested by t0bacco
companies in the US. and abroad
became of its design and price
tag the machine costs $2,000,
compared to $20,000 for some other
machines.

The conference was presided over
by Thomas 0. Harris, Kentucky
Commissioner of Agricultlrre and
('hairman 0f the Board, and Dr.
John P. Wyatt, director of the in-
stitute. ,

21

University of Kentucky
Lexington. Kentucky

students paid by the deadline,"
Marshall said.

For students who missed the
deadline and have grievances, there
is an Appeal Committee. The
committee, made up of Gay Elsty, a
University attorney; Jack Blanton,
vice president for business affairs
and a student, heard 66 appeals this
semester.

Of those. 36 were approved. Those
students were reinstated without a
fee, Marshall said. Nineteen appeals
were denied and it promissory notes
were issued in cases of financial
hardship. Promissory notes in.
cluded the $50 reinstatement fee and
were due in three weeks.

The new fee payment schedule
was formulated by a committee of
students and administrators last
May, Marshall said. The committee
also identified the need for a com-v
puterized accounts receivable
system which would eliminate the
fee payment in the ballroom, she
said.

patients

students are not eligible for this aid
since they are “voluntarily unem-
ployed" and the Health Service
delivers routine medical care to
members of the student body.
Participants in worker‘s strikes
are similarly ineligible because they
are also considaed to be voluntarily
unemployed.
(‘ontinued on back page

Stu! flinch

 

    
   
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
   
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
   
 
   
    
  
 
  
   
  
 
  
 
   
  
   
  
  
   
   
   
 
  
  
  
  

 

  
  
  
 
  
 
 
  
   
  
  
  
 
 
  
   
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
   
  
  

 
   
 
 
 
  
  
 
   
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
   
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 

 
  
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
 
 
 

   
 
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
    
  

  

 

 

@Efiel

editorials 8: comments

Sit-v0 liallmgcr
lehlll’ In Him]

llick tiabricl
Managing Editor

'l‘tiomas (‘lark
Assistant Managing Fdltor

('liarlcs Main
l'tlltoriul Editor

Ncll Ficlds
Assistant Arts &
l-Intcrtaimncut Fditor

.lcnu itcr ( iarr
StuffArtist

liar/id llibhitts
Sports Editor

Rob Staublc
Asxivtunt Sports Editor

Waltchunls
Arts tr l-‘ntcrminmcnt Editor

Gregg Fields
Richard McDonald
Jim McNair
Mike Mouser
ltctsy Pearce
Copy Edllofl

David O'Neil
Photo Manager

.lcanne Wehnes
Photo Supervisor

 

 

NCAA probes need controls

most detailed scrutiny for violations. Certainly
the debacle Coach Jerry Tarkanian has had at
Nevada-Las Vegas is an example of the punitive

The recent congressional hearing on the in-
vestigative practices of the NCAA have
produced enough evidence of impropriety to
in the organization’s

warrant changes
procedures.

Former employees, university presidents and
athletic officials all gave details of irrational and
disturbing actiors. Former investigator Brent

Clark was the most celebrated witness, charging

that a probe at the Universrty of Mississippi was
compromised when the investigator was
provided “with the services of a young lady.”

other witnesses gave testimony
of the NCAA.

e deliberately
d threatened

However, .
about more damaging practices

Coaches and pla yers were said to b
intimidated by investigators, an
with disastrous consequences if they did not
come up with the information that was being

sought.

For many, the impression of NCAA operatives
was that they had too much sin gle—mindedness in
their duties: investigations often took on the

character of witchhunts, with

programs who displeased the NCAA getting the

investigation.
What you’re

procedures and

coaches and

executioner, particular steps should be made to
assure fairness. By using administrative
voluntary compliance in con-
ducting its investigatiors, the NCAA wields
tremendous power.

In general, the NCAA has too much control
over the investigations. Although they are in-
house administrative probes often made in
cooperation with the school being probed, the
investigations are still adversary proc
where allegations are made and defended. A
standard appeals procedure would be a good
addition to the appeals process, perhaps with
outside arbitrators.

But some modifications needs to be made. The
importance of college
significance of probations and penalties
demands that NCAA investigations be com-
pletely fair and thorough.

virtually judge, jury and

eedings

athletics and the

 

WW
We

 

 

Letters to the Editor

 

Retire bill

A bill to forbid setting a man
datory retirement age below 70 is
now before Congress. It contains
many dangerous implications of
which the Kernel‘s readers should
be aware.

1. A business advisory group has
shown that each retirement results
in one new job and four promotions.
If the retirement age must be ex-
tended, where are your job’s and
promotions coming from during the
next five years?

2. If you are female, black,
Hispanic, ethnic or handicapped,
affirmative action rulings can’t give
you jobs that are already filled for
the next five years

3. The bill is inflationary. It will
result in higher costs, higher prices,
and higher taxes.

4. In its editorial against the bill,
The New York Times recommended

‘ that extending the retirement age be
done or a trial basis at the state
level. Califomia has passed such a
law. Can‘t we see how extending the
retirement age works there before it
is forced on the entire country?

5. Extending the retirement age
won‘t a ffect higher education before
1982. Graduate students who don't
finish their degrees by then can
count on spending the following five
years as Avon ladies or Burger Boy
countermen instead of as faculty
members. Faculty can expect fewer

. raises. fewer promotions. fewer
students (especially at graduate
level). and the quite likely abolition
of tenure.

How can you help stOp passage of
a law that can so easily endanger
your futures? Write your
congressman. Write Senators Ford
and Iluddleston. All congressmen
and Senator Iluddlcston are up for

reelection this year. If you are from
out of state. write your congressman
and senators back home. If the bill
passes, write I’rcsidcnt (‘arter and
ask him to veto it.

RM. Longyear
llcpartmcnt of Music

Only dreams

What we have now could more
accurately be described as a nation
of dreamers. drcamcrs cnvisioning
ideologies from a more fruitful past;
pcoplc continuing to trust and
bclicvc in bureaucrats who preach
the righteousness of the ”American
Way" whilc voting thcmsclvcs
monetary incrcascs when they find
their dollars buying loss »but
leaving you and I and the American
populace still plagucd. without
rectifications offered.

flow can one respect a govcrn-
mcnt that continually grows and

cxpands in size but decreases and

diminishes in its ability to deal with
the problems that confront the
American public —— not the German,
not the Italian, not the Panamanian
people but the people that live here
in the United States. 0r don‘t we
count any more? Is supplying
Egypt. Israel and numerous other
countries with weapons of
destruction and armament so that
they can annihilate themselves
really more important than helping
to educate or feed a poverty-stricken
family in the ghettos of our cities or
the starving helping. hOpeless
starry-eyed children of some un-
derprivileged worker out West, or
down South; everywhere would be
more correct terminology.

How do you condoue a government
that exists only for itself and its
“parishioners“? When was the last
time the courts were receptive to
your pleas of supp05ed innocence
over some small “speeding

violation"? If only your name had
been Richard Nixon or Patty Hearst,
maybe then you would have been
heard (or is the word bought? I. This
is “American justice!" Do you feel
better now that you know you‘ve
been treated honestly, fairly and
impartially?

Only when the tremendous
salaries. special privileges and the
tax-supported luxuries are
obliterated from g0vernment
positions will government once more
become a respectable. moral way of
life impregnated with only sin-
ccrc. dedicated and truthful leaders.

[)0 you remember when you were
a child and your parents read you
fairy talcs and you believed them?
. , , one nation. under God, with
liberty and justice for all. There is
another one, see if you can believe it.

Randy J. Skaggs
1913 (‘ambridge I)r.

Wet anger

l was very disappointed tonight
when I showed up at the Coliseum
pool for the recreation swim period.
And. I am confident that the rest of
the students I was with were none
too pleased. My anger has prompted
me to finally get off my ass and
write about some of the long-
standing problems that I have en-
countered with the pool program.

For one thing. I find the hours
availablc for recreation swimming
very restrictive. especially during
the week. I am a full-time graduate
student with several part-time jobs.
The two-hour Monday. Wednesday
and Friday time slots are difficult
ones for me to schedule. Also. these
twohour time slots appcar to create
a real congestion problem since
cvcryouc who wants to swim must
do so in this bricf pcriod. I would like
to suggest a simple. feasible remedy

for this: extension of the recreation
swim hours.

An additional complaint that I
would like to voice with regard to the
recreation swim program concerns
a lack of communication of pool
closings. l have often experienced a
communication breakdown per-
taining to the special events and
unforeseen circumstances that
necessitate the pool’s closing. The
problem seems to be one of no
central communication center for
this sort of information. Tonight is a
good case in point. There was no
notice posted at the pool (which is
the usual terribly ineffectual
message procedure). Also, the
Seaton Center people had no in-
formation. I believe that this
problem has an easy solution. I
would like to suggest leaving in-
formation regarding the pool hours
at a central location. like the Student
(‘enter information desk.

Alfred L. Saylor
Graduate student

Time for ERA

One of the ways in which sup-
porters of the Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA) who live in
ratified states can work for the ERA
is by working for an extension of the
ERA deadline.

The time limit itself has become a
political factor. Opponents of the
ERA have been telling their sup-
porters they only have to hang on
one more time and it will be all over.
They have been pressuring state
legislators to block passage of the
ERA or vote against it by assuring
them that time will run out and ERA
supporters and their constituencies
won‘t have a chance to hold them
responsible for their actions. What
the opposition is saying is that after
March 22. 1979. the ERA will go
away and so will its supporters.

Certainly state legislators aren't
acting as if they expected to be held
accountable. This has been most
clearly illustrated by the behavior of
legislators who were reclected by
groups actively supporting the ERA
but who reversed their position as
soon as they were returned to office.

In fact. the issue has so little
content for most legislators that
they use it simply to manipulate
cach other into place. In North
(‘arolina votes were switched on the
promise of committee chair-
manships. In Florida one senator
who had always supported the ERA
made a surprise defection to the
opposition s00n after a senate rules
committee clcarcd him of a conflict-
oflintcrcst charge.

In Nevada the state assembly.
which had passcd the ERA the
prcvious ycar. turncd around after
the Momionsthrcw together a giant

lobbying cffort Sincc it did pass in

the senate the same year. we would
have had another state if eleven
assembly members had not swit-
ched their votes after the election.

So what would extending the
deadline do? It would give us enough
elections to make substantial
changes in some state legislatures
and make legislators painfully
conscious of the fact that their
constituents can hold them
resporsible.

Second. the extension campaign
itself focuses attention again on the
ERA as a national issue. The ERA is
a federal amendment. not a “states‘
rights" issue. The debate over ex-
tension in Congress wil focus on the
national question again and will
allow citizensofthe ratified states to
express their commitment to the
ERA.

In other words, it‘dt‘tld get'th'e“
ratified states back into the act.

"Z‘Z‘n‘di' ziméridménts.

Many ERA supporters have been
working hard to help their sister
states acheive ratification. But we
need to surface again as a loud and
visible force which will not sit down
and will not shut up. We need to show
a few legislators that there is no
such place as “away" for us to go
after March 22, I979.

So is extending the deadline legal?
The Justice Department has advised
(‘ongress that it has the right to
extend the deadline by approving
the extensiOn resolution.
Ilistorically no time limits were set
for constitutional amendments until
the introduction of the 18th amend-
ment establishing prohibition.

The language of the 18th amend-
ment as it appearegvinectjie Con-
stitution contained 'a seven-year
deadline, as did“ the 80th, 21st“ nd

" the 1 th
(women's suffrage) had no time

 

limit, and the 23rd, like the ERA.
embodied its deadline in the
congressional reSOIution in which it

 

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Commentary authors should

articles are published and when

 

The Kentucky Kernel welcomes letters and
commentarirs submitted for publication. Articles
must include the signature, address. phone num-
ber, year and major if the writer is a student.

experience in the area their article pertains to.
The Kernel editors have final decision on which

The editors reserve the right to edit submissions

Letters policy

have expertise or campus events

be mailed to
they are published.

becausc of unsuitability in length. grammatical
errors. or libelous statements. All letters and
commentaries become the property of the Kernel.

The best-read letters are brief and concern

. though commentaries should be

shirt-essay length. Letters and commentaries can

the Editorial Editor. Room 114.

Journalism Building. l'niversity of Ky. 40508, or
may be ddivcrcd pasonally.

 

 

Why be an English major? .;
To be effective, that’ 5 why ~

How many times a day do you
either witness or participate in the
following exchange;

“Yeah, well that‘s really
grand!"

“Yeah, gee. thanks... uh, well,
what‘s your ma jor‘?"

"Excuse me?“

“Your major. What do you

study?"

“Oh, it's no big deal."

“Sure it is."

“I‘m an English major." Em-
barrassed silence. Cough.

“Gosh, that‘s neat, I guess. Do
you plan to teach?"

“Naw. I would hate it."

“Not much money in it either,
huh?“

“That‘s for sure."

 

john
cooke

“Well. why did you pick English,
anyhow?“ The English major
knows that it is futile to attempt an
cxplanation or to recoup his losses.
llc opts for a full fr0ntal a$ault to
bring the conversation to a swift
close.

“Frankly. I wanted to avoid
pctty cretins such as yourself."
The insultce shoots the insulter
twice in the face with a .38. As with
I’olyneiccs. no one bothers to move
the body. In the course of a few
days. it bccomcs an affront to the
cyc and nose. It is interred in an
unmarked common grave near the
Scaton (‘cnlcr

If this is not a familiar cx-
pcricno: for you. then you do not
attend class regularly.

It seems that. in these modern
timcs. English has been relagatcd
to the position of the Nonesscntial
Ma 'pr. The only serious com-
petition comcs from the l‘ndccidcd
Major. but this is only a
technicality. The l'ndccided is not
a lcgitimatc course of study. only a
ililatory scmcster or two bcforc
moving towards the ('hoicc of

 

 

Lifefdrum roll) with all its
rcdoutable finality.
It is m1, however. that a study of
a language is considered useless. A
student of French, German.
Russian or even Latin is held in
higher estimation than the lowly

English major.

The study of one’s primary
tongue smacks of something
remedial for too many people. At
least aquiring a second language
“widens one‘s cultural scope" and
provides for “many op-
purtunities." such as the 0p-
purtunity to become a translator at
the UN.

With the current fascination for
anything “bi" those with bilingual
talents are enjoying the fruits of a
cataclysmic misinterpretation."

Many people have the Opinion
that the English major comes to
college only to hide out for a few
blissful years. He leaves school
virtually uncmployable except as a
tcachtr. but even that requires
furthcr training, lie is the
academic cquivalent to the ap-
pendix. a useless appendage and
atavism of a darker ep0ch. Ile has
the career outlook of an ostrich.

It IS a shame that this attitude
has become prevalent and
thcrcfore unquestionably credible
for the intellectually indolent. It is
my contention that English is still a
viable and immediate course of
study and it implies far more than
the study of the second mOSt
popular language of the world.

It is truc that the consideration of
any language concems itself with
cxprcssion and interpretation.
rathcr than “hard“ facts. and it
mOvcs from a subjective
I‘ramcwork. For many. this im-
palpablc quality is only

frustrating. Sch0lars of English
can count on fcw superlatives.

Thcre are many "correct"
readings of Shakespeare. There
are fcwcr “correct" methods of
rcporting a statistic or speed of a
particlc. It may be soon as an-
noying that English rcfuscs to hold
\llll. but this is an effect of its

 

was introduced. \\
It took from 1848 to 1920 to win Am
women the right to vote, a total of 72 pre
years. The ERA was introduced in Mu
1923. 55 years ago. And that says wo
something. too, that women have cor
been organized to get a decent vote at 1
in this country for 130 years. Three C
other amendments -—the 13th, the Jar
14th and the 15th -— were acheived pos
only by Civil War. we
All of the really profound im- '
provemcnts in the human condition twt
have taken enormous effort. The so
ERA. which gives women ful civil wt
rights under the Constitution, or
'represents another profound ad- Le
fiance for civilized society. Itis no in
{wonder that his taking time and m
cfort to acheive. pl
(‘arol Dussere w,

Lexington NOW
’ st
R.

capacity to grow beyond its past
limitations. It is dynamic and
requires a dynamic approach.

A knowledge of English and its
literature certainly does not
guarantee a high-salaried position
after graduation. but it also
promises few restrictions. An
individual with an understanding
of the subtlties and intricacies of
English and its literary heritage is L
not limited to such a narrow
outlook as the specialist.

The English scholar has been
cxposed to a great deal of
knowledge in many fields and is
better suited to make an intelligent ~
decision about his career if that is
at all possible.

In one sense, the student of
English postpones a confrontation
but. in another sense, he makes a
more important choice: not to be
constrained by a profession that
may not suit him after the first
cxposurc at the university. Instead
of finding himself in the starting
blocks after school. he is not
limited to one race.

'l‘hc study of English and its
litcraturc is the comingling of
many (lisciplincs: history.
phil0sophy. linquistics. and

 

 

psychology. to name a few,
l'ltimatcly. it is the study of
mankind and all that implies.
This does mean that the study of
English can too quickly collaspe

into mundanity because of its wide

range.

The student must be at once

t rcativc. disciplined and receptive.
and this is a formidable con-
sidcration.

This difficulty is

 

pcrhaps the largest single reason
that the image of the English
major has become tainted. The are
many incffectual English majors.
but it is not a major for the inef-
f'cctualo

.lolm t'ookc is a pistol-packing
English major. so don‘t ask any
questions. llc uses no special
(Trains and ointments and his
column appears cvcry Thursday. .