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Show jkmmtu THE SALT LAKE TIMES FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 1970 Page Eight i Curriculum Committee Reports To State Education Board Richard J. Maughan The Curriculum and Roles Committee, at present the most active of State Board of Higher Educations standing committees made a report to the board in its last meeting. Chairman Richard J. Maughan explained that in the past 17 months through the work of his committee, the Board has made 18 exclusive role assignments, discontinued 32 existing programs and approved five new programs at the nine member institutions. T feel we have made significant gains against the state wide problem of proliferating programs and courses, he said. One of the major criticisms of the state sponsored institutions prior to the creation of a single board in 1969 was the number of duplicated programs at member institutions. Under Maugh-an- s direction,. the Curriculum and Roles Committee has sought to rectify that problem and to bring increased economy and efficiency into the system. Effective role assignments have been made. Some programs have been shifetd from one institution and installed at another. A good number of programs have been discontinued and others have been consolidated, he said. At the same time, the board was hearing pleas for additional programs from system schools. Only five of those requests have been granted. The board has disapproved eight requests. Mr. Maughan explained that the committee takes a number of points into consideration be fore ever assigning a role or beWe ginning a new program. look at (l).the need for the program in that particular area of the state; (2) the competence of the institution in the field; (3) the staff available; (4) the relative cost of the program; (5) the actual personality of the institution; and (7) the role the Board has assigned that institution. Along that same vein, when a program is dropped from the curriculum, the Committee has looked deeply into its performance. When there is a failure to graduate a significant number of students, the costs are too high, the need for the program in society is no longer urgent or pressing, the student credit hour production is low, or there is a duplicate program at another institution, we consider dropping it from the curriculum, he said. The Maughan Committee is looking at further adjutments in the future. At present there are 14 analyses in progress. Among them are: a study of recruitment practices at all institutions, a review of all engineering program at system institutions, an investigation of all state programs in business and an assessment of the Doctor of Education and the Sixth year programs in the Schools of Education. The object of these analyses to eliminate unnecessary duis plication and create greater use of the systems facilities, buildings and personnel, he said. Recently, the board set up cooperative nursing programs between Utah State, Weber State and the University of Utah. Cooperative use of classroom facilities and personnel at these institutions has been effected to provide a total use of capabilities. This produces better quality education without construction of new facilities, and prevents duplication of costly educational effort, he said. Free transferability of credits within the State System, along with a uniform course numbering system for general education courses, is also a recent commit- tee product. Prior to this action of the Board the inability of many transferring students to have their credits fully accepted was a serious stumbling block to them. A student may now free- ly transfer his getneral education requirements from institution to institution within the State System. State revenue receipts in Utah 23 per cent, according to to analysis of state pared by the Utah Foundation, revenues and expenditures pre-thprivate tax research organization. Total state revenue receipts for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1970, amounted to $46,096,449. This sum was nearly $88.2 million more than the $377,885,056 collected in the 1969 fiscal year. Foundation analysts attribute the unusually large revenue hike in 1970 to (1) increased federal aid, (2) tax increases enacted by the 1969 Legislature, and (3) inflation and growth. The study shows that federal aid to Utah rose by $29.1 million last year. Most of this increase in federal funds was for highways, public welfare, and e Senator Frank E. Moss, said this week he voted against the farm bill because the bill in effect puts a ceiling on amount farmers can earn while at the same time taking the floor out from under their price support programs. Senator Moss said it would have been better to continue the old program for an additional year while studying the problem more thoroughly. Instead we are now saddled with a new, questionable program for the next three years, he said. Senator Moss noted that the new program for setting side acres of land and withholding them from production of certain crops really opens the door for over production of wheat and feed grains. The administration calls this aspect of their program flexible and it certainly is. Once a farmer has planted an assigned acres in wheat and feed grains, he can use his set aside acres for any use he wants, and this will certainly open the door for over production and thus lower income for the farmers. Another bad aspect is scraping of the parity program. It never really worked fully, but there was some gauge to show to what degree farmers were getting a fair price for their crops. Now with the scrapping of the D-Ut- ah, parity system, there is no gauge to judge the fairness of farm prices. Senator Moss noted that even if the farm bill had not passed it would not have affected the wool and dairy programs. They were not changed either with passage or rejection of the bill. I think it is interesting to not that nearly every Senator from a farm state voted against this bill, including the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Sen. Ellender. This surely indicates that the bill was not in the best interest of the nations farmers. Harold Taylor of Milford, N.H., admits he doesnt know much about birds, but hes pretty well up on bees since he has kept them for 30 years and now has 25 colonies or about 1,265 million bees. Each hive has an average output of 25 pounds of honey and Taylor, 77, attributes his good health to eating honey. 687,527. This amount was $74.1 million or 19.1 per cent greater than the expenditure total for the preceding fiscal year. State expenditures for education rose by $27.9 million, state highway spending was up by $23.4 million ,and public welfare costs In 1969 the Utah Legislature million last rasied the state sales tax rate increased by $10.2 from 3 to 4 per cent, increased year. The Foundation study shows the motor fuel tax from 6 to 7 cents per gallon, and provided that education accounts for 46.2 for a speed up income withhold- per cent of all state spending, ing collections. The three meas- highways for 23.5 and welfare ures boosted state revenues by for 10.9 per cent. an estimated $33.4 million in the According to the report, state 1970 fiscal year. expenditures in Utah have risen The remaining $25.7 million dramatically during the past revenue increase for fiscal 1970 two decades. Total state spendis accounted for by inflation, ing increased from $71.4 million growth in the states economy, in 1950 to $166.1 million in and other factors. According to 1960 and $460.7 million in 1970. the Foundation study, the cost These amounts were equal to of living (inflation) index rose $106 per capita in 1950, $191 per by 6 per cent last year and was capita in 1960, and $441 per capan important factor in the in- ita in 1970. In terms of the relacreased collections for some of tive growth in the Utah econthe major taxes, particularly the omy, state spending rose from sales tax and the individual in- 8.6 per cent of personal income come tax. in 1950 to 9.0 per cent of perUtah state expenditures in the sonal income in 1960 and to 1970 fiscal year totaled $460,- - 14.7 personal income in 1970. Revenue Rose 23 in 1970 Utah Foundation Reports last year rose by Sen. Moss Explains Farm Bill Vote ITS YOUR BUSINESS The U. S. Consumer Economy? Will 'Big Brother' Take Over If Aruth in packaging is a posed government product testgenuinegoal of professional ing law could prove disastrous. con- sumer spokesmen now operating on the national capital scene, they might well begin by some of their own proposed legislative products. Take, as a starter, the pending bill to establish a Consumer Protection Agency. This new federal agency would secure in the federal government effective pdotectoin and representation of the interests of consumers, and for other purposes. On the surface the principle of consumer protection and representation is one that everyone supports. But beneath the attraction label, this legislative package includes some ingredients which would prove, as the phrase goes, delerterious to the health of a free, independent U.S. economy. For what the Washnigton style consumer protectors propose to do, all in the interests of consumer protection and representation, is nothing less than establish a super agency possessing unprecedented peace time authority in the area of the national economy. According to legislative experts, this consumer czar would hold what amount to life or death power over the general economy and individual industries and businesses. Nor is this an exaggeration. For example, the proposal for government testing and establishment of a federal seal of approval for products vests vast new powers in a government to control the con-agency sumer marketplace. And as experience in socialist countries has demonstrated, when these agencies possess such power they tend to disregard true consumer interests in favor of their own arbitrary view of wthats good for the consumer. A question arises as to whether this danger of Big Brother controlling the economy is fully understood by supporters of the proposals. If so, those who do comprehend its ramifications are obviously intent on remolding the U.S. consumer economy into a form resembling that of the socialist economies of Europe. From the standpoint of the small businessman, enactment and implementation of the pro- super- Kennecott Sells Four Coal Mines Four strip coal mines owned and operated by Peabody Coal Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kennecott Copper Corp., have been sold to American Smelting and Refining Co., Kennecott announced this week. The sale was made pursuant to a consent judgment entered into with the U. S. Department oi Justice by Peabody prior to its acquisition by. Kennecott in 68. The four Peabody properties have an annual productive capacity of 6 millions tons of coal. The Kennecott announcement stated that the book value of the mines exceeds the sales price of nearly $24,000,000 cash. As ana result, Kennecott will report extraordinary nonrecurring loss of nearly $13.3 million, net after tax, or 40 cents per share on Kennecotts 1970 earnings. Such testing would be primarily concentrated on products of the major manufacturers. Thus, the small manufacturer producing a good, safe product, but once which, because of the bureaucratic system, was not tested would be seriously handicapped in the competitive marketplace. His product would not be government approved. Another section empowers the Consumer Protection Agency to conduct wide scale hearings to obtain information to protect the consumer. These hearings would probe into production costs, prices, distributive mechanisms or whatever suited the agencys fancy as to a fishing expedition. Businessmen who prize their trade secrets would do well to examine closely the implications of this section. Further, under one of the pro- visions of the proposed law, no file of information in the federal government, save in the single area of national security, would be safe from the grasp of the Consumer Protector. Not long ago, Members of Congress were raising a furor over the efforts of a White House aide to lay hold of a private citizens income tax files. Now, it seems that in the name of consumer protection and representation this power is to be handed by legislative fiat to a Consumer Agency Big Brother. Americans have succeeded in creating the greatest consumer economy in the history of the world precisely because that economy has remained free of restrictive government controls. Hopefully, Congress itself will closely examine the contents of this latest consumeristic package and begin to look elsewhere for effective means to strengthen or protect real consumer interests in our free market place. Northrop Grant To Utah State Northrup Corporation, a Los Angeles based aircraft, communications and electronics firm, has announced plans to grant $7,500 per year for five years to the Department of Manufacturing Engineering at Utah State University in Logan. The grant acknowledges the excellence of Utah States program in manufacturing engineering curricula. It is part of the Northrup continuing effort of support and encouragement for industry related institutions of higher learning. Utah States program was selected because the school is one of the leaders in this unique area of training professional engineers for the needs of manufacturing, according to a Northrup spokesman. Northrup recognizes the need for a balance in university level training between the manufacturing engineer and the scientific or technically oriented personnel. This balance is essential in the overall start to finish concept of industry today, spokesmen said. Schools such as Utah State contribute significantly to the achievement of this important balance, he said. |