The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 18, 1979 Page: 2 of 8
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Commentary
The North Texas Daily
Page 2
Tuesday, September 18, 1979
Editorials
A check on foundations
If the investigation into alleged misuse of NT's
Educational Foundation's money teaches school ad-
ministrators anything, it should teach them that
organizations designed to collect private donations in-
vite trouble if they are allowed to operate without
routine audits.
Many universities and colleges, and some public
school systems have foundations w-hich remain prac-
tically free of outside regulations or public inspection.
They are designed to collect funds to supplement the
services of parent institutions.
Recently, six foundations affiliated w ith Texas state
schools have been attacked for alleged financial mis-
management or conflict of interest. The publicity
generated by subsequent investigations have spurred
some legislators to support changes in the state's
regulation of school foundations.
At present, government-related foundations must
register with the Secretary of State's office as non-
profit corporations. However, they are not listed
separately from Texas' other private foundations.
Government-related foundations are exempt from
state appropriations processes and regular state inspec-
tions and audits.
Such loose controls unnecessarily invite
questionable and personal uses of funds.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Lee Jackson, R-Dallasand
Bill Messer. D-Belton, requires the state auditor to
regularly inspect foundations in the same way it
reviews the financial operations of state agencies and
schools.
Supporters of the Messer-Jackson bill are optimistic
that the bill will be passed when it is re-introduced in
the next legislative session.
There is some apprehension that state inspection of
foundation records would make some people less will-
ing to contribute to them. If that is the case, perhaps
people who shy away from state audits should not be
asked to support an academic institution in the first
place.
The purpose of the Messer-Jackson bill is simply to
guarantee that tne wishes of private donors are
honored by foundation officials throughout the state.
Recent disclosures of misuse of foundation funds in
Texas schools have shown it is time for effective
legislation to ensure that foundations will be regularly
audited in the future. University foundations are, after
all, designed to enhance the operation of state univer-
sities and to help pay for the education of the state's
population.
Perhaps the Messer-Jackson bill will someday make
it difficult for such abuses to exist within the opera-
tions of a state university.
If passed, the Messer-Jackson bill will make it less
likely that private donations will be used to pay for
quality wines instead of quality education.
The worth of teachers
Money is a great symbol in our capitalistic society.
Money represents the basic neccesities of life—food,
clothing, shelter—as well as the creature comforts that
one craves after basic needs have been fulfilled.
But money is a great deal more than that. Money is a
symbol. It is how we measure our worth. A person's
salary represents more to him than the things it will
buy. It is a tangible interpretation of what his work is
worth—of what he is worth. Why else are people so
sensitise about discussing how much they make, unless
it is a great deal?
Because money is a symbol of personal value and
since work is rewarded in accordance with how impor-
tant society thinks it is. the allocation of raises in the
1979-1980 budget is more than a slight to teachers, it is
an outrage.
The budget, which was recently approved by the
Board of Regents, gave a raise of 5.1 percent to con-
tinuing teachers, although the general increase among
all faculty members was 4.3 percent.
Administrators, on the other hand, got raises in
some cases as high as 35 percent and increases of 20
percent overall.
Medical ignorance
Tragedy in the pill trade
It's one of those situations where the blame can't be
pinned totally on anyone.
The blame is borne partly to the doctors that
prescribed the drug without knowing its possible
repercussions, partly to the mothers who took it
without question, partly to the researchers who
released the drug for public consumption while know-
ing that it could be harmful and finally to phar-
maceutical companies that actually manufactured the
drug.
But to the daughters of mothers who took the con-
troversial synthetic estrogen called DietvIstilbestrol
during pregnancy, who is to blame isn't of primary im-
portance
T he purpose of the widely-prescribed drug was to
prevent miscarriages and bleeding during pregnancy.
lollow-up studies of the drug have shown that
daughters of women that took DES often develop
adenosis, a mucous-producing nonmalignant tissue in
the vagina. Adenosis requires frequent and expensive
medical exams to ensure the presence does not become
malignant
Or worse, some of the daughters developed clear-cell
adenocarcinoma, an extremely rare form of vaginal
cancer The disease results in death if it is not quickly
treated The treatment: vaginectomy, or the removal of
the vagina.
Since 1941. even though laboratory tests linked es-
trogen with cancer in experiments with animals, the
drug was given out blindly to an unknown number of
Classes lack support
Honors program struggles
The raises come at a particularly ironic time. The
Board of Regents and administration i" crying “trim
the fat.” The elimination of two administrative posi-
tions this summer was purportedly done for the sake of
economics.
Now the cuts appear to be empty gestures. Funds to
programs can be cut in the name of the financial
squeeze, but administrators, it appears, are not to feel
the shortage. One wonders: is the fat in the faculty or is
it somewhere in the Administration Building?
The outcry from the Faculty Senate was immediate
and understandable. The senate was disturbed hy the
priorities the budget indicated.
Indeed, this is the heart of the issue. Why at an in-
stitution ostensibly devoted to education is the work of
the faculty deemed less valuable than the work of the
administrators?
The priorities indicated bv this budget show that the
Board of Regents is more interested in NT as a
business than as a place of learning. By so blatantly as-
signing educators a lower priority, the goals of this un-
iversity have been clearly defined. And academic excel-
lence is not among them.
NTSl' Honors Program, patterned
after Harvard's "Mode of Thought
seminars, affords its brightest minds an
opportunity to study with its most gifted
scholars.
— NTSi Pocket Guide and Map
This statement was brought to my at-
tention late last spring while I was sitting
in my honors program social science'
seminar.
Cheryl
Tavlor
< *
Another member of the class ran
across the sentence hy accident, decided
it was worth sharing with the rest of us
and wrote it on the blackboard before
the professors entered.
As soon as the first of our “gifted
scholars" came in. the chalk tribute to
this illustrious program was erased
Which was appropriate. Outright
propaganda is difficult to tolerate, es-
pecially when it is as ludicrous as that lit-
tle jewel was.
Not that the program was always a
source of jokes for the students involved
in it. hut it was for the 33 hours in which
I was involved and always may have
been a subject treated less than respect-
fully.
It is true that to be accepted into
honors a student must meet specific
academic requirements. These usually
center around high school grades and
SAT-ACT scores. One complaint about
this induction method is students who
perform well in high school classes and
on standardized tests are comfortable in
a structured environment.
W hen placed in an open forum class,
they simply do not know how to func-
tion. Although they are “bright" ac-
cording to test scores, they need to know
exactly what is expected of them to ex-
cel.
As a result, discussion in class is
sparse, and instructors are obligated to
stick to traditional assignments. So
much for “Mode of Thought."
Instructors chosen for the program
are supposedly the university's most ex-
traordinary. Some are excellent, and
more professors of their caliber would
join them if administrative support were
afforded the honors program. Ad-
ministrative support is not the only thing
the program needs; additional funding
wouldn't hurt
As the system now stands, those peo-
ple teaching honors courses receive no
additional benefits, while the job re-
quires extra work. Under these circum-
stances gifted scholars have no incentive
to join the program. So much for
superiority.
When I was approached by Dr.
Anthony Damico, director of the
program, two years ago to join the
program. I suppose my expectations
were loo high. I expected a challenge.
At this summer's orientation I told
freshmen not to worry about the dif-
ficulty of the program, only whether
they wanted to waste 39 hours of their
college career So much for idealism.
Goodbye Harvard
War harms civic services
City, county officials lack cooperation
women; figures vary from hundreds of thousands to
two million.
Even though not every DES daughter develops
cancer, there is enough potential threat for concern.
It's too late to do much for the victims of DES. But
it's not too late to try to make sure the same thing
doesn't happen again.
The year is 1979 and the world of medicine is far
from being what it should be. Doctors don't always
carefully and knowingly prescribe drugs for their
patients. If a drug is not known to be safe, it should not
be dispensed.
Drugs should be carefully and methodically
researched If evidence is uncovered, as was the case
with DFS. that a drug could have dangerous side ef-
fects. the drug should not be prescribed.
Patients owe it to themselves to know what drugs
they are taking. Doctors owe it to their patients to tell
them what drugs they are prescribing and what affect
the drugs will have.
The decision whether to lake the drug can then be
weighed carefully by both the doctor and the patient,
and an intelligent decision can be reached.
DES victims are suing and receiving money from the
pharmaceutical firms that manufactured the drug.
But no amount of money can compensate for what
has been lost by DES v ictims.
Today it is their loss. Tomorrow, if we are not more
careful about what pills we pop unwittingly into our
mouths, it may be ours
Most people care little about the day-
to-day dealings of city councils and
county commissioners' courts That was
the case in Denton until the two govern-
ments went to war. We can't help but
notice that there's a war going on when
legions of service programs lie bleeding
at our feet.
The conflict began in November,
when the city drastically cut its contribu-
tions to the Denton County Health Unit
and to Fiow Memorial Hospital. Both
projects were funded 50-50 under con-
tracts between the city and the county .
Rebecca
Hirschhorn
The council members and commis-
sioners met twice this year to try to
resolve this and other issues related to
"cooperative" ventures, hut without
success
Last Monday, the county announced
a $99,000 cut in its contribution to the
Emily Fowler Library, which had
previously been funded 50-50. The
county did not cut its contribution to the
hospital or to the health unit, but
refused to make up the deficit caused by
the city's action.
The next day. the city voted to reject
the county's S35.000 library contribu-
tion and to divert an additional S85.000
from its own hospital contribution to
cover library expenses.
It remains to be seen who. if anyone.
was the victor in this struggle. One thing
is certain: it was not those who use the
serv ices
After the decision was made. Mayor
Nash said the city should try to work
things out with the county and rescind
the action if necessary .
\A hy does he believe a solution can be
worked now. when efforts have been un-
successlul tor so long.’ And even if there
is a resolution, why did it take this long?
•> i . 4.4--------- «u
llll 5UUUVM a.S|'Wi V»i IIII.‘
situation is that it might have been
prevented. A look at the history of city -
county relations here reveals a pitifully
inadequate system of communication
between the two governments, use of
retaliatory tactics and a general un-
easiness with the idea of cooperative ser-
v ice programs.
In covering the county government
last spring. I was amazed to discover the
officials did much of their com-
municating through newspaper
reporters.
The process hy which funds from the
sale of the city-council civil defense air-
plane were divided is illustrative of this
phenomenon. The plane, purchased for
$200 from federal surplus, was paid for
out of the local civil defense budget,
which is 50 percent federally funded. 25
percent city-funded and 25 percent
county-funded. The city, which had been
keeping the plane, sold it for $22,651.
At a joint meeting in February, the
county asked for its share of the
proceeds, and the city agreed to pay 50
percent Less than a week later, there
was an item on the city's agenda calling
for a vote on whether to give the county
25 or 50 percent of the proceeds.
I asked County Judge Jerry John
Crawford about it. tnmking I had mis-
understood the agreement. Much to my
surprise, he replied. "Is that so? We
haven't heard anything about that, I'll
give the city manager a call later on.”
Then he walked off to tell the commis-
sioners.
Before the city council met. I spoke
with Assistant City Manager King Cole.
He reiuciantiy admitted that it was a
matter of whether the city would keep or
fvdvru! '*0* nv»*r»t \ ek'ira ixf
the money, which had been released by
the Federal Surplus Property Division.
The city council voted to honor its
agreement with the county and pay the
50 percent.
City officials also had to read the
newspapers to find out what the state of
allairs was between the two groups In
March, the county voted to tell the city
that it would not know how much its
library contribution would be until
several months after the March 30
deadline to terminate or modify the con-
tract
This was a surprise at the time, but
probably was not for those familiar with
the local way of doing things, last
week's events lead one to believe retalia-
tion is a way of life for Denton's of-
ficials.
Perhaps this year's problems are par-
tially due to a lack of confidence in the
concept of joint serv ice programs. The
officials created self-fulfilling
prophecies. C ooperation requires a kind
of commitment that is missing here
Commissioner Bill Switzer said last
week he is not sure the city and the
county should be collaborating in health
services at all. Are they now? Were they
ever?
Letter Policy
The North Texas Daily welcomes and will print
letters from readers. ALL letters must he signed
and must include the writer's address and
telephone number Because of limited space, let-
ters should not exceed 200 words The Daily re-
tains the right to edit Mail letters to: Box 5297.
NT Station.
The North Texas Daily
63rO Ymi North Texes Stale University Denton Texes
Printed bv the North Texas Stale University Printing Office
ALL-AMKRK AN end PAxZMAKtR
P
ALLAN COOK, editor
MARY HOGAN,
advertising manager
Sera Jacobsmeyer. manuring editor
aanan CuH newt Dianne King, editorials
Sandra Guerre, newt aave* Rodrigue* eo-to-.ait
Louit Marrodum, entertainments
Demse Morris entertainments
Susan Collmewortn news assistant
Stephern Cromers, news assistant
Rebecca Hiracnnorn. news assistant
Walter Snarpiess sports
Vi'. Zavotna Sports
cneryt Taylor Stitt repoter
Snaron Ware start reporter
John Harrison photographer
Terry Hasver. photographer
Eddy Morris photographer
Frederic* Wain. photographer
Dan Barker ad representative
Beck, Jameson ad representative
Lisa lowe ad representative
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Cook. Allan. The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 18, 1979, newspaper, September 18, 1979; Denton, TX. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1002639/m1/2/?q=music: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.