Search

The article focuses on the use of portable electronic calculators by college students. The tested and accepted slide-rule is being replaced by the calculator. In some colleges, pocket calculators are even provided to the students. New disciplines that employ calculation, other than math, science, engineering, and business, have been introduced. The costs of the calculator is also decreasing. Some professors and students staunchly oppose the usage of calculators despite its popularity.

The article reports on mass higher education as a threat to academic standards. In a speech by U. S. Vice-President Spiro Theodore Agnew, he criticized open admission policies and urged colleges not to lower their standards. Fritz Machlup, professor of Princeton University gave his views on this issue in a paper at a recent conference sponsored by the Educational Testing Service. Excerpts on Machlup's paper are presented in the article.

The article reports on the feelings of resentment, doubt and frustration by junior college teachers in the United States based on the paper "Junior College Faculty: Issues and Problems," conducted by Roger H. Garrison former vice president of Briarcliff College in New York. Key proposals to resolve such issues include the creation of a national job clearinghouse to match positions and applications and a dialogue among junior college faculty members.

The article comments on the paper "Evaluating College Professors by Scientific Methods," by Evelyn Kossoff in the "American Scholar" journal. The author points out that Kossoff has demonstrated that with regards to evaluating teaching, scholars often ignore evidence, research and examined experience and prefer preconceptions, misinformation and single examples.

The article reports on the warning of the California state college professors on the possible occurrence of hostile political climate in California. The warning was directed to the faculty members to be aware of the political conflict in the state. The academic senate of the 18 state colleges has adopted a position paper stating that prospective teachers must be told that the political climate in the state is no longer friendly to the ideals of democratic higher education.

The article reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of Samuel L. Popkin, an assistant professor of government at Harvard University. Popkin was imprisoned last year for refusing to respond to a federal grand jury's questions about his sources of information on the Pentagon Papers. Therefore, the U.S. Court of Appeals' ruling under which Popkin was incarcerated remains in effect.