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Show 4 Tuesday, October 26, 1982 EdiTORiAl Needed: a return to the basics Sometimes it becomes necessary to make changes in policy. Now is one of those times. Weber State College is realizing that the students it accepts should be able to meet certain skill levels. Presently many do not. That is what percipitated last week's action by the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate approved recommendations made last spring by the Ad Hoc Committee on Enrollment Growth and its subsequent review by Dr. Robert Smith, vice-president for academic affairs. The recommendations were not made hastily, but were studied for several months. The Faculty Senate voted to impose minimum skill levels in english and math for incoming freshmen by 1985. Those students not meeting the basic skill levels will be placed in a remedial program where they will be expected to improve their skills. While in the remedial program, these students will be restricted as to the number of hours they can take in a quarter, and their remedial course hours will not count towards graduation. Additionally, those students in the remedial program will have to pay additional money in order to cover the cost of the remedial program. At the same meeting, the Ad Hoc Committee on Enrollment Growth was charged with reviewing overall admission criteria in light of changes made recently at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. So, additional changes may be in order. If approved by the Utah State Board of Regents at their next meeting, the changes decided upon by the Faoulty Senate will begin to be phased in begin- ning in the summer quarter of 1983 and will inform all high schools in the state of the new requirements. Very frankly, that is a move that should have been made years ago. Our high schools should have been told that they are failing. More and more of our high school graduates cannot perform at desired levels in English, math and reading. How sad. At the Faculty Senate meeting it was stated that the new standards could have the effect of eliminating half of the incoming freshman class, if imposed immediately. Our high schools need to remember that their primary responsibility is to educate their students, not to entertain them. The high schools need a return to the basics. If the high schools fail to prepare their students for college, then future high school graduates may find themselves not being admitted to BYU, the U. of U. and yes, even Weber State. Competition will become keen for future admittance to a college or university "in Utah as a 58 increase in students is expected to begin by 1985. The state cannot begin to fund that kind of an increase in enrollment. It will come down to the students that are prepared, being admitted. The others will not. The recent action by Weber State College and its Faculty Senate is to be commended. Further recommendations may also be implemented. Now, let's hope that the high school s will respond as positively and work to improve their programs. After all, should a college or university be in the remedial education business? Where is the student support? by Lisa Wright Sports Editor Perhaps some of you are wondering what became of the bus to Boise that the Signpost was sponsoring. The simple truth is that out of the 10,000 students at Weber State not enough signed up to fill the bus. Even more surprising to me was that the people who showed an interest in going were either from the Wildcat Club or they were faculty members. Where is the student support? We are really lucky here at Weber to have such a variety of programs and events that would seem to suit just about every taste. We get tremendous support from the Ogden area. If you ever attend any athletic events, plays, concerts, etc., you can see how well the community participates in college activities. I think that is excellent, but I often wonder why there is such low student support for these events. It really disappoints me that students won't take a more active part in school. I don't care what area it is in, supporting athletics, student government activities, attending convocations, plays, concerts, or whatever, I believe that those who aren't involved are really missing an important part of their educational experience at Weber State. There may be a time in your life when someone will ask you what college you attended and how well you liked it. You may think back and respond that the classes were good, the campus was nice, but the school itself wasn't anything special, just someplace you went for three hours every day and then left, never having attended a sporting event, never having gone to a play, never really putting yourself into campus life. With participation like that, no wonder Weber wasn't anything special. I'm not implying that there is no student involvement on this campus. I have seen alot of students working hard to improve Weber. There are a lot of people here who love school and get everything out of it that they can. However, I do think that many could change their attitude towards the school. Weber's reputation could really change from one of an apathetic studentbody to one that gives tremendous support to the student organizations and activities. The whole experience at Weber is dependent on you. Whether you have a good or bad one is your decision. I personally hope that you opt for the positive. Letters to the Editor The Signpost welcomes Letters to the Editor. Letters should be typed, double spaced and not exceed 300 words. All letters become property of the Signpost. The Signpost reserves the right to edit for reasons of space and the right to refuse to print letters of libelous or slanderous nature. Each letter must include the name and address of the writer. Letters may be brought to the Signpost office, UB 267 Campus Police A student service organization by Blair Barton I, like many others, have amassed quite a collection of souvenirs from our friendly campus security force. During such times of great exhilaration, when my finest vocabulary is on the brink of unfolding, I have often questioned the need for such services. It was such an occasion that motivated me to pay our campus security a visit, to verify if their services were actually needed and justifiable. I was met by Lieutenant Heston who was very cordial. We discussed the role of campus security and some of the ficticious alternatives, that many students have contemplated. Lt. Heston described the security department as a type of a "Student Service Organization" designed to benefit the studentbody. He said they specialized not only in parking, but in areas such as crime prevention and drug control, snow removal, parking supervision at special activities in the Dee Events Center, investigatory actions to help locate stolen items, and services like jumping cars, transporting needy students to hospital facilities, and maintenance of parking facilities. Officer Heston did admit that their major concern, however, was campus parking. Security information indicates that somewhere between 70 and 80 thousand cars patronize the campus weekly, and that concerts bring in around five thousand cars, while only three thousand parking spaces are available at the Dee Events Center. Lt. Heston indicated that although students are generally familiar with parking procedures, first time concert goers and those attending special events generally have to rely on supervision and guidance. This seemed only reasonable. But what about those other areas, mainly the campus enforcement. After all there seems to be adequate parking stalls available on campus. Is there really a justified need? When presented with this question Lt. Heston responded, "Let us suppose that there was no enforcement of campus parking regulations; what would be the result?" The lieutenant indicated that he felt that without enforcement, total chaos would reside, stating that disregard for parking ethics would be greatly multiplied. He stated that campus enforcement was directly responsible for adherance to the standards. He mentioned that without enforcement there would be no incentive for students to comply with regulations. Cars would be strewn all about, emergency vehicle passages would be blocked as well as visitor, faculty, and handicap parking. He specifically sited parking abuse problems in the dirt parking areas, where there are no parking lines, and said in his opinion the other parking lots would probably degenerate in a similar manner. Lt. Heston stated that campus security is directly responsible for the organized parking situation available to students. He mentioned that Weber has lower parking fees and fines than many of our neighboring universities. He terminated by re-emphasizing that the officers are here at WSC to accomadate the students. It is true that occasionally our beloved officers meander through our parking lots at WSC leaving little love notes neatly tacked to our windshields, but then again they are the ones.that come with jumper cables in hand. May we just say, "They are good at what they do!" |