Word: documentable
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Republican congressional candidates have been set adrift with nothing they can latch onto except a controversial party platform that serves only to alienate much of the electorate. That document has been abandoned by practically everyone, but there really isn't anything, except for the promise of on tax increases, to take its place. And the tax issue, with the looming deficit, isn't going to carry an entire party...
During a simple ceremony in a small Renaissance palace set in the gardens behind St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican Secretary of State, presided as representatives of Argentina and Chile signed copies of a document marking the end of almost six years of mediation and decades of mutual hostility. The dispute involved the Beagle Channel, which lies at the southern tip of South America. The settlement clarifies each country's territorial and water rights in the waterway and recognizes Chilean sovereignty over three main channel islands, as well as seven smaller ones...
...document, drawn up by a panel of seven scholars chaired by Kenneth Mortimer, Penn State professor of higher education, has little patience with colleges that would blame their shortcomings on the failure of high schools to prepare entering students. "Part of the problem," insists the report, "is what happens to students after they matriculate in college." Freshmen are herded into rote lecture courses that turn them off. Some 41% of faculty members teach only part time. The report adds that colleges "cannot condone a professor's shortchanging the students ... in favor of outside activities and expect students to focus...
Worse yet, the universities allow students to make a poor selection of courses. "The college curriculum has become excessively vocational in its orientation," says the document, noting that "the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded in arts and sciences (as opposed to professional and vocational programs) fell from 49% in 1971 to 36% in 1982." The impetus for the imbalance has come from parents and students who "believe that the best insurance in a technological society is a highly specialized education that will lead to a specific...
...addition, the report calls for proficiency exams to supplement the present grade and credit systems "as a condition of awarding degrees." It also recommends raising faculty pay and giving greater weight to teaching (vs. research) in hiring, salary and tenure. It is, in all, a challenging document, designed to generate the same kind of debate and groundswell of reform that has followed the earlier study on schools. Chairman Mortimer, for one, is confident the reforms will come. "This is the year the spotlight gets thrust on higher education," he says. "It's almost a window of opportunity." -By Ezra...