The Griffin: volume 59, issue 13 - Feb. 3, 1989

              S raise the application fee for Canisius from $15 to $25, generating an additional $20,500 revenue.The committee recommended that the college: (cont'd on page 4) This $10 increase would keep the price of a Canisius application at a level comparable to other colleges and universities Academic Council Amends Pass/Fail Policy Niagara Mohawk's Dewey Avenue Storage Facility. that P/F would have to be declared in the first week, but could be declined again for a letter grade in the fast week if the student felt confident of a higher grade. This proposal passed by a vote of 18-1-1. According to the current policy only juniors and seniors who have completed at least 30 hours at Canisius may choose to receive a recorded grade on their transcript of either "Pass" or "Fail." This qualification will still remain in the newly revised policy. Currently, a student must declare himself pass/fail in the fifth week of the semester, without the freedom to drop that pass/fail at any time during the semester for the con- A student will be able to declare himself as pass/fail in the first week of the semester, but will be able to back out in the last week of the semester and earn the conventional letter grade. An amended pass/fail policy will go into effect next semester at Canisius, according to Dr. Ellen Conley, chairperson of the Policy and Procedures Committee of the Academic Council. by Valerie Latona At that meeting, various ideas were discussed as possible changes for the policy. The idea of changing the current P/F policy was brought up before the Academic Council at the Dec. 15 meeting. "We began to question just what was behind the pass/fail policy," Conley said. 'The pass/fail policy exists to encourage students to take courses that they wouldn't normally take." There was an inequity there between students who knew how well they were doing in the course and those who hadn't yet received any kind of grade, Conley said. pass/fail The idea developed last spring when Conley, serving as acting assistant dean of arts and sciences, heard complaints that many students had not had any tests yet by the fifth week of the semester. Because of this, they were not able to determine how well they were doing in the course and could not therefore decide whether or not to declare themselves 'This is the idea that if someone is doing pass/fail and is doing very well, why not put it on the record?" said Dr. Raymond Clough, a member of the Academic Council and Chairman of the Modern languages department. ventional letter grade. Photo by BETH ORLOWSKI that it has elected to ship, handle and re-ship its PCB related material to and from its nearby waste storage facility, formally known as building 14, because it is "convenient, economical and logical for the utility to do so," stated Allen f. Hutchinson, station superintendent for NMP's Western New York region. The waste storage facility would serve as NMP's main PCB waste storage facility for W.N.Y. which covers all areas of New York State west of Rochester. Niagara Mohawk's Dewey Avenue Service Center, which has stored extremely hazardous (cont'd on page 9) In order to earn a "Pass" in a class, a student must achieve a grade of "D" or above. Eventually it was proposed Niagara Mohawk Storage Site Sparks Controversy Concerns were raised that this type of policy might encourage students to take 100 or 200 level courses instead of the harder ones intended by the option. Dr. Charles Schmidtke, dean of Continuing Studies, requested that in order to prevent a Russian roulette system, students should be required to declare P/F in the last week. One member, Dr. E. Roger Stephenson, chairman of the English department,11 called for a late declaration rule, even 72 hours before the final exam, so that a good student who is earning an A can choose to earn that rather than a P Niagara Mohawk maintains by Mike Schaeffer and Karen Sturniolo A hearing on a controversial permit application that Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (NMP) has requested from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), to store up to 24,000 gallons of highly toxic, cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), about one-quarter mile from Canisius College at its Dewey Avenue Service Center, continued this past week. The session was at a closed meeting held at Niagara Mohawk's Dewey Avenue Service Center Headquarters.jHBw'c 1 -**"®r _ » rT1T TT~? T~) TT7T7T A 7 1 ilil (JJlvIFI xi\ Serving The College Community VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 13 FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3, 1989 Trustees Reject USA's Budget Proposal The U.S.A. body voted to accept the proposal by a vote of 15-1-0. The recommendations were presented by the ad-hoc U.S.A. committee to the full U.S.A. body at an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. on Monday. Although the budget still has to be formally accepted by the Board of Trustees as a whole next Tuesday afternoon, "it is for all intents and purposes a mere formality," said U.S.A. President Vince Roux '90. by Valerie Latona Recommendations of an adhoc Undergraduate Senate Assembly (U.S.A.) committee for the amendment of Canisius' budget, were rejected by the Board of Trustees Finance and Budget Committee Tuesday morning. The recommendations called for a $100 decrease in the proposed $700 tuition hike for the 1989-90 school year. USA president Vince Roux "90, presents USA's proposals for the College's 1989-90 budget to Thomas E. Miller, vice president for student affairs. Ph„i„ by vai.erik umxi 'Through these recommendations, we decided to trim all the money possible, without reducing the quality of Canisius," Roux said at the meeting on Monday. The recommendations made by the committee would have cut approximately $163,246 from the budget. "Even if we can save each student $50 we have achieved a great moral victory for the students," U.S.A. Sen. Pat O'Brien '89 said. 'There is a lot of thought that went into this."