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state ; iI.: t.?. ic!. ; cizty vAk jAl . a. jf& & & ,4k HI' 1"''' & LOWY "" ' ' ' 75th Year No. 69 Good Morning! It's Thursday, December 2, 1 982 2 Sections 1 2 Pages 25 Cents gHBnLHHBHHBHn9nKME( ilHHMBMMflMHNVBfeLiflLH9i Up a street Larry Smith, manager of Taum Sauk Wilder-ness Outfitters, 911 E. Broadway, is not used to portaging city streets but these canoes had Grant Hodder to be moved from the store to a storage area to make room for something more seasonal snow skis. By Lenny Heymcnn Missourian staff writer When the Boone County Court opens its public hearing this morning on the 1983 budget, it will hear com-ments on a budget that has doubled since Presiding Judge Bill Freeh took office six years ago. The hearing begins at 10 a. m. in the County Court chambers on the fifth floor in the County- Cit- y Build-ing. Freeh will consider testimony as he draws up a budget that will be presented to the court on Dec. 20. Af-ter Freeh steps down at the end of the year, the new court will hold an-other public hearing Jan. 20, and by Jan. 31 will finalize a general fund budget that will contain approxi-mately $ 4.2 million of new revenue. Freeh found himself in the same position in 1977 when, as new presid-ing judge, he helped to approve a budget of $ 2.1 million. Much of the difference between the two budgets can be attributed to in-flation. But the doubling of the coun-ty's budget also reflects the tremen-dous growth Boone County has seen in the past decade. Although Boone County's popula-tion grew more in the 1960s than in the ' 70s, in the last 10 years most of the growth took place outside of Co-lumbia. Frpm 1970 to 1980 the city's population grew only 6 percent, from 58,557 to 62,061, while the county's shot from 22,354 to 38,315 people a leap of 71 percent. In some areas of the county, 0K0Da? growth has been even more dramat-ic. The Missouri Township area, west of Columbia, had a population of 1,000 in 1970. The 1980 census pegged it at 2,172. Building permits also reveal the rapid pace of growth in the county. In 1975 there were 187 permit re-quests for single family dwellings. The demand more than doubled to 383 in 1977, and remained about the same in ' 78, before dropping to 2S9 in ' 79. Judge Freeh sat back Wednesday in the corner of his office and spun a tale about the chain of events those permits wrought. Many of those building permits went to people who were used to ur-ban living, Freeh suggested. " They moved out there on a sunny day when the birds were singing," he continued. " Then along came the snows, the roads got bad along with 101 other things. So they all got on the phone to the presiding judge and demanded these urban services that the county had not been used to providing." One of those services was law en-forcement In Columbia, the crime index in-creased 30 percent from 1975 to 1980, but in the rest of the county it climbed 74.3 percent. The budget for the county jail reflects the skyrock-eting crime rate. In 1977 it was $ 107,080. By 1982 it had reached $ 540,000. Sheriff Charlie Foster explained that when he took office with Freeh in 1977 the jail population was in the 30s. This week it was up to 85, and has been as high as 100, forcing the county to purchase jail space in neighboring counties. The inflation bug also has eaten away at Foster's domain. Six years ago he bought nine new patrol cars for $ 35,000. Today, he said, that sum would buy only four cars. In Freeh's time, the county found itself saddled with added responsibil-ity from the state. Beginning in 1978, Missouri counties were asked to ad-minister five elections each year, up from two. Because of that change, the budget for elections and registra-tions has gone from $ 40,000 in 1977 to $ 246,000' in 1982. In Freeh's initial years, the county struggled to make ends meet. The situation was so bleak that in the 1977 budget report Freeh wrote that to stay solvent ei-ther property taxes would have to be raised, the state would have to allow a sales tax or it would be necessary that " virtually all county services added in the past 10 years are elimi-nated." It took a couple of years, but the court's fairy godmother finally ap-peared in January 1980 the form of a sales tax. Freeh is blunt about what would have happened to the county without it. " We would have been bankrupt. It's that simple," he said. " It came Bill Freeh Says sales tax saved the county just in the nick of time as far as Boone County is concerned." Now that tax will bring the county $ 2.6 million this year and has en-abled the court to cut its property tax assessment for the general fund to just 2 cents per $ 100 assessed val-ue. The court also has gotten a more recent visit from another wizard, County Treasurer Kay Murry, whose investment program will net the county more than $ 800,000 in interest in 1982. Just one of Murry's tricks has been to invest the remaining See GROWTH, Page 8A JrlFSiMCillj D1116S Ellis Fischel's new director told to prepare for budget cut By Michael Kodas Misgourian staff writer Dr. Ronald Vincent skipped the frying pan and jumped straight into the fire during his first day as direc-tor of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Cen-ter Wednesday when the Missouri State Cancer Commission told him to figure out how to cut the center's budget by up to $ 1 million. Walt Kenney, assistant adminis-trator at Ellis Fischel, told the com-mission at its monthly meeting the center will fall almost $ 1 million be-low its projected income for fiscal 1983, which ends in July, if its patient load does not increase drastically. Along with the budget cut, the can-cer commission will ask the state for $ 1.5 million emergency authoriza-tion to spend its profits kept in the cancer center support fund as soon as it acquires the money in-stead of waiting for a later author-ization. The fund is derived from pa-tient fees charged by the center, so the center can only spend the funds after it earns them. But with only 33 patients in the 115-- bed hospital Tuesday, it seems doubtful the center will be able to generate enough money. " I don't know now whether we will be able to make more than a half million dollars in the rest of the year," Kenney said. But State Rep. Joe Holt, chairman of the commission, wants to be pre-pared to spend the funds in case they are earned. " We'll make the request ( for the $ 1.5 million) whether we can generate the funds or not." Holt said. " But the real question is where do we make the cuts," he said. " That decision falls in Dr. Vincent's lap." Vincent said he would need some time to decide where to make the cuts. He said be will not cut medical staff because he fears that could lower the number of patients at the center even more. Of the $ 1.5 million requested in the emergency appropriation, about $ 425,000 of it will pay for services from physicians and equipment out-side the hospital, some of which ' Sea DIRECTOR, Page 8A Noon " Women and Anger, a discussion at 1 Gentry Hall on the University camous 7 p. m. Industrial Devel opment Bonding Authority meets County Courtroom County- Cit- y Building 8 p. m. Ying Ruocheng, the Chinese actor who played Kub- la- i Khan on NBC's " Marco Polo" series, to lecture at M- mor-ial Union Auditorium on the University campus inside Business ................ ........ 7A Classified 3- 4- B Comics .................................... .6A Hallsville 2B Opinion. 4A Record ..................................... 7A Sports ............... .......... 1- 3- B , , Interest rates revive county construction By Jim Hirsch Missourian staff writer Boone County's once- wound- ed con-struction industry has been revived by lowered interest rates an in-dustry resurgence that appears to be nationwide. City records show a 19 percent in-crease in construction permits is-sued in October over those granted in October 1981. According to the Co-lumbia Department of Public Works, 61 permits were issued this October, 10 more than issued for the same month in 1981. County records show an even greater increase 175 percent from the eight permits issued in Oc-tober 1981 to the 22 issued in October 1982. " The housing industry is coming back because interest rates are back where people can afford them," said Bob Basset, owner of Basset Con-struction Company and. chairman of the Boons County Building Code Commission. " Interest rates are at 12 percent and there's talk of them going low-er," Basset said. " Last October they were 17 or 18 percent and there was talk of them going higher." Another reason for the October up- - swing. Basset said, is that man con-struction foundations are put in be-fore the winter months " The rebound has been a pretty good one," Basset said, " but it might bounce back for aw hile " By 1984, Basset projected, We may be at what we could call a nor-mal level i of construction i but it all depends on those interest rates " Nationally construction spending increased by a 1 1 percent annual rate in October, the federal Com-merce Department reported Wednesday Private construction increased 0 5 percent to a projected annual rate of $ 182 9 billion, while public construc-tion jumped 3 4 percent to a rate of $ 52 billion Due to falling interest rates, the Reagan administration predicted gains in residential construction In the public sector, the largest in-crease in construction went to high-ways and streets, which was up 5 1 percent to an annual rate of $ 14 2 bil-lion The department surveys most of the nation's large construction pro-jects and samples manv of the smaller ones each month to record the pace of spending in the industry EPA says dioxin levels don't warrant evacuation ST. LOUIS ( UPI) Preliminary test results show the level of dioxm in soil samples collected from two suburban neighborhoods is not enough to warrant emergency action by the Environmental Protection Agency. Rita Lavelle, the senior EPA offi-cial monitoring the case, said Tues-day that the test results support her earlier decision that it is unnecces- sar- y to immediately evacuate the neighborhoods in Imperial in north-ern Jefferson County. " It is not a situation to require emergency action," Mrs. Lavelle said. Mrs. Lavelle received reports of soil samples taken this fall from 312 locations in two Imperial areas She refused to reveal the levels of dioxin contamination found by the tests, saying she wanted to complete addi-tional tests before a Dec. 8 meeting with Gov. Christopher S. Bond. " He will decide whether to make the results public now or wait for fi-nal results," she said. The additional tests are being made on soil samples from the shoulders of streets in Times Beach Authorities believe that waste oil sprayed on the streets 10 years ago may have contained dioxin Five EPA technicians wearing in-sulated suits, boots and masks started taking soil samples Tuesday from the small St Louis suburb They plan to take nearly 2.400 sam-ples two every 100 feet from nearly every street in Tunes Beach In addition to the EPA tests, some residents of Tunes Beach are plan-ning a fund- raisin- g drive to hire a private company to test for dioxm Lane Jumper, a spokesman for the residents, said the group decided to collect $ 1,500 to hire Envirodyne En-gineers Inc. to test the soil " We do appreciate what the EPA is doing, but they're just not fast enough for us," he said Dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances known, was produced as a byproduct in the manufacture of a large family of chemicals, including the disinfectant hexachlorphene. It is believed to cause cancer, birth de-fects, and disorders of the skin, liver and bladder. Track takes tour without driver By Richard Myhre Missourian staff writer An Iowa construction worker parked his dump truck outside his Columbia motel room Wednesday and went inside to fix a sandwich. It turned out to be a lunch hour with a dose of indigestion. Fred Franks, who is staying at the Arrow- Hea- d Motel, 1411 Business Loop 70 E., had his sandwich- makin- g interrupted by a phone call. " The ( motel) office called us and said, ' Hey, I think your truck's going down the road with no one in it,' " said Franks, who is in Columbia with his son, Dan Franks, to haul as-phalt. Dan took off after it, but the two- to- n truck had rolled out of the park-ing lot and across four traffic lanes before he got out the door Then the asphalt earner curved back across the street and wheeled toward the parking lot of Lee Tire Co , about 100 yards from the motel Dan watched the runaway glance off a telephone nnle and crash into two pickup trucks Police arrived on the scene. No one was injured The dump truck crunched the side panels of both vehicles, but had only a few dents to show for its runaway ramble Franks said he had been having trouble with the truck's transmission and speculated that it may have jumped out of gear. Engineering programs ranked average By Diane Fedak Missourian staff writer The University's doctoral pro-grams in chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering are keeping pace with about two- thir- ds of the programs in the nation, according to a report released by a committee of the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils. But keeping up with the pack may not be something to brag about. Few did exceptionally well. Of the 326 engineering doctoral programs examined in a study of such programs, about 218 of them, including the University's, received scores between 40 and 60. Fifty rep-resents the average score for all of the programs the committee studied in its five- pa- rt report, of which the engineering study is the third. None of the University's engineering pro-grams rated a 50 or higher. Two earlier studies released by the commission evaluated math-ematics and sciences programs, and the humanities. Reports on biologi-cal sciences and behavioral sciences are still to come. The highest score a University program has received so far is a 66, which the physics graduate program scored in the area of improvement. The engineering study used the re-- Ranking of Graduate Programs I in Engineering 1 Scholarly Research Increase Faculty 1 Program Faculty Scholars Last 5 Years Familiarity 1 Chemical 43 43 49 43 i Civil 45 47 48 43 I Electrical 44 44 40 42 1 Mechanical 37 37 41 41 1 Filly represents average score ol all programs evaluated 8 SOURCE Conference Board ol Associated Research Councils 1 suits of questionnaires from 579 fac-ulty members to rank the programs. Those polled scored the programs on faculty quality, effectiveness in edu-cating research scholars and scien-tists, improvement in last five years and faculty's familiarity with the program. The University's programs scored consistently in the 40s, with the ex-ceptions on the low side going to the mechanical engineering program, which received 37s in both faculty quality and effectiveness in educa-tion of researchers. Graduate Dean Don Blount de-clined to talk about the study, saying that he was reserving his comments until all the reports had been re-leased. In an article of the Mizzou Weekly, however, Blount said that after the entire report was out, an examination of the results would in-clude decisions about the Universi-ty's direction in terms of its areas of excellence. He added that it was evi-dent that the school could not be the nation's best in every discipline University President James Ol-son, who served on the committee that managed the assessment effort, echoed those thoughts, as did Chan-cellor Barbara Uehling Earlier this fall, the chancellor predicted a dark-er future for graduate program-ming, advocating tradeoffs to bol-ster some of the University's stronger programs. " We would be making a serious misuse of funds if we tried to main-tain every grad program we have," she said at that time.
Object Description
Title | Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1982-12-02 |
Description | Vol. 75th Year, No. 69 |
Subject |
Columbia (Mo.) -- Newspapers Boone County (Mo.) -- Newspapers |
Coverage | United States -- Missouri -- Boone County -- Columbia |
Language | English |
Date.Search | 1982-12-02 |
Type | Newspaper |
Format | |
Collection Name | Columbia Missourian Newspaper Collection |
Publisher.Digital | The Office of Library Systems of the University of Missouri |
Contributing Institution |
State Historical Society of Missouri University of Missouri School of Journalism |
Copy Request | Contact the State Historical Society of Missouri at: (800) 747-6366 or (573) 882-7083 or email contact@shsmo.org. Some fees apply:http://shsmo.org/research/researchfees |
Description
Title | Full Page |
Date.Search | 1982-12-02 |
Type | page |
Item.Transcript | state ; iI.: t.?. ic!. ; cizty vAk jAl . a. jf& & & ,4k HI' 1"''' & LOWY "" ' ' ' 75th Year No. 69 Good Morning! It's Thursday, December 2, 1 982 2 Sections 1 2 Pages 25 Cents gHBnLHHBHHBHn9nKME( ilHHMBMMflMHNVBfeLiflLH9i Up a street Larry Smith, manager of Taum Sauk Wilder-ness Outfitters, 911 E. Broadway, is not used to portaging city streets but these canoes had Grant Hodder to be moved from the store to a storage area to make room for something more seasonal snow skis. By Lenny Heymcnn Missourian staff writer When the Boone County Court opens its public hearing this morning on the 1983 budget, it will hear com-ments on a budget that has doubled since Presiding Judge Bill Freeh took office six years ago. The hearing begins at 10 a. m. in the County Court chambers on the fifth floor in the County- Cit- y Build-ing. Freeh will consider testimony as he draws up a budget that will be presented to the court on Dec. 20. Af-ter Freeh steps down at the end of the year, the new court will hold an-other public hearing Jan. 20, and by Jan. 31 will finalize a general fund budget that will contain approxi-mately $ 4.2 million of new revenue. Freeh found himself in the same position in 1977 when, as new presid-ing judge, he helped to approve a budget of $ 2.1 million. Much of the difference between the two budgets can be attributed to in-flation. But the doubling of the coun-ty's budget also reflects the tremen-dous growth Boone County has seen in the past decade. Although Boone County's popula-tion grew more in the 1960s than in the ' 70s, in the last 10 years most of the growth took place outside of Co-lumbia. Frpm 1970 to 1980 the city's population grew only 6 percent, from 58,557 to 62,061, while the county's shot from 22,354 to 38,315 people a leap of 71 percent. In some areas of the county, 0K0Da? growth has been even more dramat-ic. The Missouri Township area, west of Columbia, had a population of 1,000 in 1970. The 1980 census pegged it at 2,172. Building permits also reveal the rapid pace of growth in the county. In 1975 there were 187 permit re-quests for single family dwellings. The demand more than doubled to 383 in 1977, and remained about the same in ' 78, before dropping to 2S9 in ' 79. Judge Freeh sat back Wednesday in the corner of his office and spun a tale about the chain of events those permits wrought. Many of those building permits went to people who were used to ur-ban living, Freeh suggested. " They moved out there on a sunny day when the birds were singing," he continued. " Then along came the snows, the roads got bad along with 101 other things. So they all got on the phone to the presiding judge and demanded these urban services that the county had not been used to providing." One of those services was law en-forcement In Columbia, the crime index in-creased 30 percent from 1975 to 1980, but in the rest of the county it climbed 74.3 percent. The budget for the county jail reflects the skyrock-eting crime rate. In 1977 it was $ 107,080. By 1982 it had reached $ 540,000. Sheriff Charlie Foster explained that when he took office with Freeh in 1977 the jail population was in the 30s. This week it was up to 85, and has been as high as 100, forcing the county to purchase jail space in neighboring counties. The inflation bug also has eaten away at Foster's domain. Six years ago he bought nine new patrol cars for $ 35,000. Today, he said, that sum would buy only four cars. In Freeh's time, the county found itself saddled with added responsibil-ity from the state. Beginning in 1978, Missouri counties were asked to ad-minister five elections each year, up from two. Because of that change, the budget for elections and registra-tions has gone from $ 40,000 in 1977 to $ 246,000' in 1982. In Freeh's initial years, the county struggled to make ends meet. The situation was so bleak that in the 1977 budget report Freeh wrote that to stay solvent ei-ther property taxes would have to be raised, the state would have to allow a sales tax or it would be necessary that " virtually all county services added in the past 10 years are elimi-nated." It took a couple of years, but the court's fairy godmother finally ap-peared in January 1980 the form of a sales tax. Freeh is blunt about what would have happened to the county without it. " We would have been bankrupt. It's that simple," he said. " It came Bill Freeh Says sales tax saved the county just in the nick of time as far as Boone County is concerned." Now that tax will bring the county $ 2.6 million this year and has en-abled the court to cut its property tax assessment for the general fund to just 2 cents per $ 100 assessed val-ue. The court also has gotten a more recent visit from another wizard, County Treasurer Kay Murry, whose investment program will net the county more than $ 800,000 in interest in 1982. Just one of Murry's tricks has been to invest the remaining See GROWTH, Page 8A JrlFSiMCillj D1116S Ellis Fischel's new director told to prepare for budget cut By Michael Kodas Misgourian staff writer Dr. Ronald Vincent skipped the frying pan and jumped straight into the fire during his first day as direc-tor of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Cen-ter Wednesday when the Missouri State Cancer Commission told him to figure out how to cut the center's budget by up to $ 1 million. Walt Kenney, assistant adminis-trator at Ellis Fischel, told the com-mission at its monthly meeting the center will fall almost $ 1 million be-low its projected income for fiscal 1983, which ends in July, if its patient load does not increase drastically. Along with the budget cut, the can-cer commission will ask the state for $ 1.5 million emergency authoriza-tion to spend its profits kept in the cancer center support fund as soon as it acquires the money in-stead of waiting for a later author-ization. The fund is derived from pa-tient fees charged by the center, so the center can only spend the funds after it earns them. But with only 33 patients in the 115-- bed hospital Tuesday, it seems doubtful the center will be able to generate enough money. " I don't know now whether we will be able to make more than a half million dollars in the rest of the year," Kenney said. But State Rep. Joe Holt, chairman of the commission, wants to be pre-pared to spend the funds in case they are earned. " We'll make the request ( for the $ 1.5 million) whether we can generate the funds or not." Holt said. " But the real question is where do we make the cuts," he said. " That decision falls in Dr. Vincent's lap." Vincent said he would need some time to decide where to make the cuts. He said be will not cut medical staff because he fears that could lower the number of patients at the center even more. Of the $ 1.5 million requested in the emergency appropriation, about $ 425,000 of it will pay for services from physicians and equipment out-side the hospital, some of which ' Sea DIRECTOR, Page 8A Noon " Women and Anger, a discussion at 1 Gentry Hall on the University camous 7 p. m. Industrial Devel opment Bonding Authority meets County Courtroom County- Cit- y Building 8 p. m. Ying Ruocheng, the Chinese actor who played Kub- la- i Khan on NBC's " Marco Polo" series, to lecture at M- mor-ial Union Auditorium on the University campus inside Business ................ ........ 7A Classified 3- 4- B Comics .................................... .6A Hallsville 2B Opinion. 4A Record ..................................... 7A Sports ............... .......... 1- 3- B , , Interest rates revive county construction By Jim Hirsch Missourian staff writer Boone County's once- wound- ed con-struction industry has been revived by lowered interest rates an in-dustry resurgence that appears to be nationwide. City records show a 19 percent in-crease in construction permits is-sued in October over those granted in October 1981. According to the Co-lumbia Department of Public Works, 61 permits were issued this October, 10 more than issued for the same month in 1981. County records show an even greater increase 175 percent from the eight permits issued in Oc-tober 1981 to the 22 issued in October 1982. " The housing industry is coming back because interest rates are back where people can afford them," said Bob Basset, owner of Basset Con-struction Company and. chairman of the Boons County Building Code Commission. " Interest rates are at 12 percent and there's talk of them going low-er," Basset said. " Last October they were 17 or 18 percent and there was talk of them going higher." Another reason for the October up- - swing. Basset said, is that man con-struction foundations are put in be-fore the winter months " The rebound has been a pretty good one," Basset said, " but it might bounce back for aw hile " By 1984, Basset projected, We may be at what we could call a nor-mal level i of construction i but it all depends on those interest rates " Nationally construction spending increased by a 1 1 percent annual rate in October, the federal Com-merce Department reported Wednesday Private construction increased 0 5 percent to a projected annual rate of $ 182 9 billion, while public construc-tion jumped 3 4 percent to a rate of $ 52 billion Due to falling interest rates, the Reagan administration predicted gains in residential construction In the public sector, the largest in-crease in construction went to high-ways and streets, which was up 5 1 percent to an annual rate of $ 14 2 bil-lion The department surveys most of the nation's large construction pro-jects and samples manv of the smaller ones each month to record the pace of spending in the industry EPA says dioxin levels don't warrant evacuation ST. LOUIS ( UPI) Preliminary test results show the level of dioxm in soil samples collected from two suburban neighborhoods is not enough to warrant emergency action by the Environmental Protection Agency. Rita Lavelle, the senior EPA offi-cial monitoring the case, said Tues-day that the test results support her earlier decision that it is unnecces- sar- y to immediately evacuate the neighborhoods in Imperial in north-ern Jefferson County. " It is not a situation to require emergency action," Mrs. Lavelle said. Mrs. Lavelle received reports of soil samples taken this fall from 312 locations in two Imperial areas She refused to reveal the levels of dioxin contamination found by the tests, saying she wanted to complete addi-tional tests before a Dec. 8 meeting with Gov. Christopher S. Bond. " He will decide whether to make the results public now or wait for fi-nal results," she said. The additional tests are being made on soil samples from the shoulders of streets in Times Beach Authorities believe that waste oil sprayed on the streets 10 years ago may have contained dioxin Five EPA technicians wearing in-sulated suits, boots and masks started taking soil samples Tuesday from the small St Louis suburb They plan to take nearly 2.400 sam-ples two every 100 feet from nearly every street in Tunes Beach In addition to the EPA tests, some residents of Tunes Beach are plan-ning a fund- raisin- g drive to hire a private company to test for dioxm Lane Jumper, a spokesman for the residents, said the group decided to collect $ 1,500 to hire Envirodyne En-gineers Inc. to test the soil " We do appreciate what the EPA is doing, but they're just not fast enough for us," he said Dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances known, was produced as a byproduct in the manufacture of a large family of chemicals, including the disinfectant hexachlorphene. It is believed to cause cancer, birth de-fects, and disorders of the skin, liver and bladder. Track takes tour without driver By Richard Myhre Missourian staff writer An Iowa construction worker parked his dump truck outside his Columbia motel room Wednesday and went inside to fix a sandwich. It turned out to be a lunch hour with a dose of indigestion. Fred Franks, who is staying at the Arrow- Hea- d Motel, 1411 Business Loop 70 E., had his sandwich- makin- g interrupted by a phone call. " The ( motel) office called us and said, ' Hey, I think your truck's going down the road with no one in it,' " said Franks, who is in Columbia with his son, Dan Franks, to haul as-phalt. Dan took off after it, but the two- to- n truck had rolled out of the park-ing lot and across four traffic lanes before he got out the door Then the asphalt earner curved back across the street and wheeled toward the parking lot of Lee Tire Co , about 100 yards from the motel Dan watched the runaway glance off a telephone nnle and crash into two pickup trucks Police arrived on the scene. No one was injured The dump truck crunched the side panels of both vehicles, but had only a few dents to show for its runaway ramble Franks said he had been having trouble with the truck's transmission and speculated that it may have jumped out of gear. Engineering programs ranked average By Diane Fedak Missourian staff writer The University's doctoral pro-grams in chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering are keeping pace with about two- thir- ds of the programs in the nation, according to a report released by a committee of the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils. But keeping up with the pack may not be something to brag about. Few did exceptionally well. Of the 326 engineering doctoral programs examined in a study of such programs, about 218 of them, including the University's, received scores between 40 and 60. Fifty rep-resents the average score for all of the programs the committee studied in its five- pa- rt report, of which the engineering study is the third. None of the University's engineering pro-grams rated a 50 or higher. Two earlier studies released by the commission evaluated math-ematics and sciences programs, and the humanities. Reports on biologi-cal sciences and behavioral sciences are still to come. The highest score a University program has received so far is a 66, which the physics graduate program scored in the area of improvement. The engineering study used the re-- Ranking of Graduate Programs I in Engineering 1 Scholarly Research Increase Faculty 1 Program Faculty Scholars Last 5 Years Familiarity 1 Chemical 43 43 49 43 i Civil 45 47 48 43 I Electrical 44 44 40 42 1 Mechanical 37 37 41 41 1 Filly represents average score ol all programs evaluated 8 SOURCE Conference Board ol Associated Research Councils 1 suits of questionnaires from 579 fac-ulty members to rank the programs. Those polled scored the programs on faculty quality, effectiveness in edu-cating research scholars and scien-tists, improvement in last five years and faculty's familiarity with the program. The University's programs scored consistently in the 40s, with the ex-ceptions on the low side going to the mechanical engineering program, which received 37s in both faculty quality and effectiveness in educa-tion of researchers. Graduate Dean Don Blount de-clined to talk about the study, saying that he was reserving his comments until all the reports had been re-leased. In an article of the Mizzou Weekly, however, Blount said that after the entire report was out, an examination of the results would in-clude decisions about the Universi-ty's direction in terms of its areas of excellence. He added that it was evi-dent that the school could not be the nation's best in every discipline University President James Ol-son, who served on the committee that managed the assessment effort, echoed those thoughts, as did Chan-cellor Barbara Uehling Earlier this fall, the chancellor predicted a dark-er future for graduate program-ming, advocating tradeoffs to bol-ster some of the University's stronger programs. " We would be making a serious misuse of funds if we tried to main-tain every grad program we have," she said at that time. |