News Clips 306

You've asked me about the role of the student in today's university and the governance of the university. I assume this question arises from the concern of your perception of the concern of many  people about student unrest and students or person's fear perhaps outside of the university  that students are going to take over and I have several thoughts that I would like to  share with you relative to this question first of all it's clear to me that students are not  going to take over the university we have many ways of ensuring that students do not take control  this does not mean that we are not committed to involving students in acceptable ways we at  Iowa State value participation of students through consultation with them and seeking their advice  but we in the administration retain the authority and the responsibility for making  decisions actually on our campus we find that only relatively few of our students  care to become involved in the university governance we have somewhere around 25 or six  university committees which have provision for the participation of students we find it difficult  to get many students to apply for the positions open on the committees the same thing  seems to be true at the college level and department level students are not flocking  to make application for positions on these committees which give them a relatively  powerful voice in the decision-making process so I'm afraid my view of the  student body at Iowa State this day these days is one of non-involvement  with university government and this non-involvement continues until an  issue arises an issue which might affect a sizable number of students personally and  then they tend to want to become involved and we welcome their involvement within  acceptable limits we cannot tolerate disruption of the university the regents in February just about  a year ago passed a very good policy covering the matter of student and faculty disruption of  the university and they said in essence that disruption of the enterprise would not  be tolerated and we are prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent  disruption and I think this is the trend across the country these days if one  looks at Hayakawa's handling of the situation at San Francisco State and recent  occurrences on the University of Wisconsin campus it's apparent that university  administration will no longer tolerate disruption and this is certainly  the approach that we will use or have used and will  continue to use at Iowa State they built villages they govern themselves ships came flat this is the land men came in the ships women came in the ships the men cleared the land and the women cared for the children the land called to them and they claimed it for their own and they thanked god the men's fathers claim the fruits of their land  though the men fought their fathers and the women mourn they crossed the mountains (inaudible) they gave thanks hey fight again but the children said no and the slaves said no and the land was troubled the news came through that  somebody presumably some students had set fire to one of the  buildings on the Berkeley campus done half a million dollars worth of damage and all forms felt kind of confusion Jim was talking  about the kind of annihilation that students were moving in Berkely a terrible pity and sorrow  that we have to move in such stupid ways after our presentation this afternoon some  audience members came up to me and said in effect that the things in  this country were all right and if I didn't like it I ought to go somewhere  else and we just can't live that way anymore there's there's nowhere else to  go because there's only one world Mr F J Johnson is professional  services coordinator for the NEA the national education association and  ACT which is the association of classroom teachers what are some of the problems that you see having  some similarity between the educational problems at the present time of the rural areas which  would be of the Iowa midwest rural areas compared to some of the problems that you see as the inner  city areas of New York Los Angeles Detroit some of these areas I think these two kinds of areas could  be compared in three ways one in terms of the inadequately trained teachers that man those  schools two in terms of the physical conditions of the schools themselves and three in terms of  the relevancy of the curriculums that are provided at the schools I don't know of any institutions  in the country now who are specifically engaged in training teachers specifically to go into the  rural areas to teach or to go into the urban areas to teach in general we find the schools themselves  are in very poor physical condition we find that the curriculums when they are relevant at  all are primarily restricted to providing kinds of backgrounds for the youngsters that will  cause them to stay in the areas where they're trained which would imply both staying in the  rural area as well as staying in the ghetto area right one of the things that we wouldn't want  to do in education if we were to do it properly is to provide the kind of education for a  youngster that would restrict him to an area in this day and time where mobility is  quite great and people move around it's necessary to train youngsters to move  into the mainstream of the American life well this is one of the things I was going to ask  next into what sense do you think that we can take the youngster with the background  that the youngster has whether it be rural or whether it be ghetto take it at  that spot and then train them to be able to be able to go wherever they want to at a later  mature time I think there are some basic skills that all youngsters need to learn certainly among  these are skill of writing the skill of verbal communication some computational skills the skills  of reading and from that point it becomes a little vague as to what is proper or what is necessary  or what is needed in training the youngster but I think an educational system that is based  upon giving the youngster an adequate foundation in these skills is one that begins to train that  youngster to go into any other educational system and do well because these are precisely  the kinds of skills that are involved in learning whatever it is you're going to learn  now what that is can perhaps best be decided by those individuals who are responsible for making  those decisions in whatever area the youngster might find himself now how much do the the parents  and the particular area have to contribute as to how their school functions do they have to  contribute one communicating to the teacher and the administration the level at which they  are functioning as a community now do they also have a responsibility to say how this is done now  historically education has been a state function and even the state function by default you recall  that our constitution does not say very much about education in fact it doesn't say anything at all  about it and as a result the state assumes that it's it's responsibilities to provide education  it has transferred some of that responsibility to to local administrative units and elected  school boards more and more the idea of parent involvement more and more the idea  of community control or community participation is becoming a popular concept where  parents themselves are becoming involved in saying what they think the schools should do what they  think the schools should teach what they think their youngsters should learn I think this idea is  going to grow I think it's going to grow because the parents themselves are the ones who have  the greatest amount invested namely their kids they are the ones who have the greatest amount  of concern because the outcome the future or the life of that youngster is going to depend  upon the kind of foundation that he gets in school I certainly favor more and more involvement on  the part of parents in making decisions about what goes on in the schools about what is being  taught about who is going to do the teaching and about how the teaching is going to be  done now how is this though also resolved in the situation in which perhaps the  parents are not aware of the facilities and of the quality of education that is possible  for the children well I think I think what you may be suggesting is that parents themselves are not  qualified educators for the most part how do they know what good teaching is how do they know what  relevant curriculum is how do they know what good administration is how do they know what textbooks  what facilities what things of that type should be used I think it's not necessarily necessary that  they know these things I think what they do know is that they know when their kids are learning how  to read and they know when they're not doing that they know when their kids are being treated  fairly they know when the teacher likes the kid and when he doesn't they know that the youngster likes  to go to school or he doesn't they know that there are conditions in the school that suggest that the  youngster would prefer to stay home and when they know these things they have every opportunity by  participation in PTA or other kind of community organizations to visit the school from time to time  to really take a look at what's going on now let me make it clear that I'm not suggesting here  that there should be any lowering of standards on the part of persons who are presently involved in  curriculum or persons who are presently involved in teaching I'm simply saying that it may  be time indeed it is time for us to look in some other directions to get some kinds of  advice as to what we might possibly do in the schools that educators themselves do not have  a monopoly on the kinds of information that it is available to have in order to make these  kinds of determinations now traditionally the educational system was not set up to necessarily  take care of all these far end of the scale it was more more for one particular group and to educate  one group would you like to comment on this yes originally the educational system I suppose was  set up to to educate the middle class or the upper middle class now we have decided that the  educational system should be able to encompass the the poor the disenfranchised the the  individual who is culturally deprived or economically deprived the Appalachian youngster  the rural youngster the Black ghetto youngster all of these people are entitled and have  always been entitled to an adequate education from free public American educational system  but since the schools were originally set up to educate the middle class youngster and  since they have not changed they are totally inadequate in trying to meet the needs of such  a broad spectrum there are going to have to be some revolutionary changes in the concept of what  education is and the concept of how education is to be disseminated if we are going to meet the  needs of all of these youngsters and certainly we're going to have to do that and this is going  to be varied from place to place it's going to vary from place to place I would suspect that  the kinds of changes that you might need in rural communities in our for example would be completely  different than the kinds of changes that you might need in a metropolitan area like Washington DC  Baltimore New York Chicago or Detroit I suspect that the kind of training that  it would be necessary for you to give to persons who are going to teach in  these areas would be entirely different I'm sure that something is going to have to be  done in order to train teachers in the lifestyles of those people who live in different communities  something is going to have to be done to give them a greater verbal facility with language  so that they can communicate adequately with people who may even speak what might be  considered a dialect of English I think something is going to have to be done in the area of human  relations so that people can develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the dignity of  an individual simply because he is an individual I think there's going to have to be some recognition  to the fact that the same kind of educational system is not going to be adequate for all of the  people in the society we certainly appreciate you taking the time our guest has been F W Johnson who  is professional services coordinator for NEA ACT on our program today as you can see we're visiting  the Iowa Beef Improvement Association Bull Test Station which is located about six miles east  of Randall and we're going to visit some of the fellows we've interrupted their activities while  they've been weighing these bulls first of all we have Bob De Baca extension livestock specialist  at Iowa State Bob I think first of all we might just mention a little bit how this bull test  station was organized well actually this is 10 years since the first time a bull test  station was organized in Iowa the first one lasted two years and because of some  administrative problems did not continue this present station is under the sponsorship  of the Iowa Beef Improvement Association the state performance testing program and it  is set up on contract with a family corporation Greenway Park Farms Incorporated here at well  they actually have a Radcliffe address yeah and the bulls are consigned under contract with the  feeders and the Iowa Beef Improvement Association by breeders throughout the state we have   88 sire groups of bulls owned by 76 different breeders and a total of 282 bulls on test  these bulls have been on test 84 days today and don't ask me what the daily gain in the  last 28 day period is because the computer will tell us tonight but these bulls are fed for  an average of around 2.75 pounds of daily gain we had a cattle feeder in here this morning said  say there's a bull or two in there that I think is kind of the wrong kind as far as I'm concerned  as a cattle feeder and we commented that's what we're trying to find out which of these bulls are  should not go out and sire feeder cattle and we're looking on an objective basis of using the  research of the last 40 years essentially today to find those strains of cattle that will go on  and really do a job of siring fast growing cattle because we know that margin and gaining  ability are the two big factors in determining profit for the cattle feeder well bob what  information now will you be getting on each one of these bulls the main information is  their ability to grow on tests in other words daily gains we will actually evaluate the  bulls at the end of the test on the basis of their weight per day of age in other words  that's how many pounds they weigh for every day of age they are and their daily gain  and the bulls will be ranked for sale at the end of this test the sale on April  14th incidentally right here at the station on the basis of their weight per day  of age and their daily gain combined well now you have several different breeds here  I noticed we have angus red angus charolais polled hereford hereford short horn polled short horn and three  four brown swiss bulls and as i understand it the breeds are not competing against each  other every bull will be indexed against the average of his own breed and then you  mentioned that there will be a sale I know you want to mention there will be a sale April  14th and only the top two thirds of bulls sell only the top two thirds now for a bull to come in  here he had to meet requirements on weight per day of age he had to meet requirements on birth date  and quite a number of other criteria that we had set up these bulls are contract fed the breeders  are quite interested in what's going on and I feel from the contact I'm having with commercial  men around the state that there's a lot of commercial interest in the bull test well I'll  come back to you in just a little bit I want to talk some of the fellows who do the work we have Byron  Wagner over here Byron as I understand you had a problem with feeding these bulls is that right nope no  problem no problem kind of routine what are these bulls fed what kind of a ration are they on  the ration consists of 56 percent corn silage 38 percent additional grain one and seven tenths pounds per head per  day of a supplement in other words it's just a regular feed lot ration there conventional  interesting I suppose to kind of watch these bulls they develop during the test isn't it  it's pretty hard for me to tell exactly how they're doing because we see them 16 hours a day  so you get them on the scales then you can tell right thanks a lot Byron now we have Dwayne Shaver  secretary I believe your official title field secretary of the Iowa Beef Improvement Association is  that right Dwayne field man yes yeah well now what are your responsibilities well I work with the breeders  over the state Dale and also help with this bull test and so forth spend part of your time keeping  De Baca in line part of the time yes that's right it's a little bit of a job sometimes well I  I can appreciate it would be Dwayne you find as you travel the state there's becoming more  interest in bull testing work very definitely yes interest is tremendous all over the state and at  this point we're pretty optimistic about this bull test well I can see how you would be because  after all is the only way we can find out what these bulls will actually do isn't it that's right  and you fully expect to continue it I suppose don't you yes we do yeah well Dwanye good luck to you and  I hope you do have a lot of success we have Carroll Sampson over here I understand he does most of the  work what are your responsibilities Carroll well I do most of the mixing you mix the feed mix  the feed mostly and Dwayne feeds it to the bulls my nephew nephew does the feeding mostly yeah  well I suppose that keeps you I should have said Byron feeds the bulls then doesn't he right and he's your  nephew right and this is a corporation here as I understand it yes I suppose it's interesting to you  too isn't it it's pretty interesting ok we'll see you later then sometime when we come up here  and the weather's a little nicer getting back to Bob De Baca Bob I mentioned there  to Dwayne if he's finding increased interest do you find the same thing out in the state oh  there's no question about it you see we have as I said earlier 40 years of research on this  whole beef cattle breeding thing we we know through our investigations out in Iowa feedlots  that we've got to have cattle that can gain you you put a pencil to it any way you want to and it  it's there it's there and the cattle cattlemen are knowing it there's an interest in such things  as crossbreeding performance testing bulls weaning more heavier calves calves that go  into the feedlot for a shorter period of time and I understand there are similar  testing stations in other parts of the country there's about 35 bull testing  stations we're not doing anything new Dale as a matter of fact in Montana alone  over five thousand bulls were tested is that right so we're we're you might say bringing up the  rear in certain sense although we've been giving leadership and concepts to some of the  other areas too but we're we've got some growing to do right here have you checked with any  of these other stations made any comparisons how these bulls are doing you bet I have for the simple reason  that I wanted to justify how our performance was doing at the end of 56 days we had a 2.7  just about a 2.7 daily gain on all the bulls and this has not been an easy winter Dale no that's  for sure the radio man might not know this but then with with the winter the way it's been  I've been concerned about our gains so I called out to some of the other  stations Stanford Montana for example 70 days on test and they hadn't  been able to get through the snow to weigh they've had mortality because of weather  Ogallala Nebraska they haven't weighed yet and we're right in line with Virginia  and some of the Nebraska stations and so forth I'm real pleased with the way  she's rolling well good luck to you Bob and we'll follow this along as it proceeds  and the sale again is April 14th right here at the station thanks a lot Bob De Baca extension  livestock specialist here at Iowa State today we've been visiting the Iowa Beef Improvement  Association Bull Test Station east of Randall