Fryxell reveals third
curriculum plan
By Jane Wagers
Staff writer
A third alternative to the present curriculum was proposed in
writing by professor emeritus Don Fryxell at the faculty meeting
yesterday.
Fryxell criticized the Augustana Plan saying, "The Augustana
Plan increases the number of required courses in the core by ten
credit hours without increasing its liberal arts emphasis; indeed,
it lessens that emphasis considerably." Fryxell was referring to
the courses in orientation, computer skills, and personal
development that the Augustana Plan has included in the core.
Fryxell goes on to say, "Our liberal arts core needs to be
strengthened, not weakened. Just as we cannot guarantee that all
our graduates are going to -get good jobs, neither can we
guarantee that after our students graduate, they will be more
moral, religious, socially committed human beings. What the
liberal arts can guarantee is an opportunity for students to
broaden and develop their minds by pursuing various branches
of knowledge for their own sake."
The "Fryxell Plan" proposes the following changes to the ex-isting
curriculum:
—lower the value of each course in every zone, except Zone IV,
to three credit hours
— increase credit hours in Zone IV to 4.0 credit hours per course
to emphasize the importance of laboratory work
—Zone III would be modified to make one of the two required
courses in this zone a history course
— a broader selection of literature courses would be offered as
an alternative to World Literature
—credit hours in Zone VI would be raised from seven to eigh-teen
and would require in addition to physical education, two
courses in a foreign language, a course in philosophy, a course in
mathematics, and two semesters of freshman composition.
— Interim would become optional, similar to the present mini-term
— no core classes would be offered in the Interim
Fryxell ends by saying, "Your choice is clear: either you com-mit
yourselves to the liberal arts, or you commit yourselves to a
program which adulterates the liberal arts in the name of general
education."
Pressler sets priorities for
remainder of session
Senator Larry Pressler Photo by Dave Burkholder
Money topic of Senate hearing
By Dave Loverude
Assistant edtior
A variety of South Dakota
businesspeople including
farmers, bankers and_-
economists told Sen. Larry
Pressler, R-SD, Monday at a
Senate hearing that high interest
rates are the main cause of
economic problems and the best
path to recovery is to reduce
them.
Pressler said that next to
defense high interest rates are
the greatest concern facing
America today.
"At some point, in my view,
we will have a cataclysmic
result if high interest rates con-tinue,"
he said.
Bob Balhorn, former presi-dent
of the South Dakota
Realtors, said that although the
housing market has improved
overall throughout the country,
smaller states and cities still suf-fer
a housing recession.
Balhorn cited figures that
showed that from Jan. 1979
through Dec. 1982, when in-terest
rates rose from 81/2 per-cent
to 17 percent, home sales in
By Jane Wagers
Staff writer
The Augustana faciilty
yesterday continued working
on the Augustana Plan, one of
the proposed alternatives to the
present curriculum. A third
plan, authored by Dr. Don
Fryxell was also presented at the
meeting. Action will not take
place on that plan until the
Augustana Plan and the Schot-ten
Alternate Plan have been
discussed by the full faculty.
The faculty did vote to delete
Section 1.1, "Meeting The
Challenge of College and
Career", from the proposed
Augustana Plan.
Dr. Donald Sneen, chairman
of the religion department,
made the motion to eliminate
the section that would have pro-vided
a one credit hour required
course designed to introduce
freshmen to the college and to
help them in making career
decisions.
Two other motions were
made and failed. The first,
made by Bill Gross of the
physical education department,
proposed that Section 1.2,
"Understanding The Self In In-terpersonal
Relationships", be
omitted from Area 1 and then
be considered under Area 3,
"Developing Knowledge for a
Changing World." Gross said
that the courses intended in that
section would be more ap-propriate
in the "knowledge"
the Sioux Falls area declined by
70 percent.
HOwever, in the first nine
months of this year, with lower
rates, sales have increased 58
percent.
"Lower rates were the reason
for the drastic increase,"
Balhorn said. "This is still a 30
percent drop from the 1979
level.
"The level of sales is tied in-versely
to interest rates."
Balhorn, along with other
businessmen, said that the
record federal budget deficit is
the reason for high interest
rates. The National Association
of Realtors has proposed a plan
that would balance the budget
in five years by cutting the rate
of growth in government spen-ding.
"The best thing the govern-ment
could do is make a firm
commitment to work toward a
balanced budget," Balhorn said.
Pressler, who supports the
plan, called it a "realistic bill. I
think it's a great step forward
and I hope we do it."
Henry Billion, a Sioux Falls
Area 3.
The second motion to be
defeated was made by Lamoyne
Pederson of the philosophy
department. The motion called
for the title of Section 2.3
"Mathematical Competency" to
be changed to "Mathematical
and Reasoning Competency".
The change would have re-quired
that a course in critical
thinking be offered as an alter-native
to a math course.
Gross also submitted a sug-gested
adjustment to the
Augustana Plan. Gross said that
his submission was not intended
to be an alternate plan, but
"rather a point-by-point
reassessment and possible
clarification."
car dealer, said that high in-terest
rates not only hurt him
but also the car buyer because
he has to charge an additional
$100 to $150 to cover his in-terest
on unsold cars.
"The payment cost of pur-chasing
an automobile is too
high," Billion said. "They've
been driven out of the market."
Billion said that high rates
force people to make payments
over three or four years and
possibly five ,as opposed to the
regular two years.
Marie Fisher, a farmer from
Winner, SD, said that in the
risky business of farming high
interest rates make running a
farm more difficult.
Farmers are forced to sell 125
acres of wheat just to pay the in-terest
on a $100,000 loan at
11.75 percent, she said.
High interets rates also hurt
farmers when equipment breaks
down or needs repair because
businesses, in order to lower
their own costs, are forced to
carry a smaller inventory of
supplies, Fisher said.
By Tom Hayes
Editor
U.S. Senator Larry Pressler
(R-SD) says that though the
work remaining for the U.S.
Senate may seem routine, there
is alot of hard work ahead for
the senators. Pressler believes
that getting the federal deficit
under control is an important
priority of the U.S. Senate this
"I am supporting legislation
that calls for across the board
cuts. We have to cut the rate of
increase in programs.
These cuts must include the
military. Though I beleive that
a strong national defense is im-portant,
there is waste in the
pentagon. It should come under
the eye of David Stockman.
Balancing the budget will also
mean higher taxes," said Pressler. .
term. "We have to get the deficit
down and get interest rates
under control," Pressler said in
an interview on Monday.
One of the most publicized
task of the Senate in the near
future will be the confirmation
of Judge William Clark as
Secretary of the Interior. Ad-ministration
officials say that
Robert Macfarlane will replace
Clark as national security af-fairs
advisor.
"I feel good about both of
these men. I recently had occa-sion
to horseback ride with
Clark. He is a quiet man and a
good person. He will reflect the
President's policies. I believe he
will be a surprise.
"Macfarlane will make a
good national security advisor.
His appointment should make
Shultz much stronger in his
position as Secretary of State.
The president's moving Clark
over to interior will eliminate
the two from competing for
power," said Pressler.
The Senate will be working
on other issues during the re-mainder
of this term that
Pressler sees as very important.
needs to be done on the war
powers act. The administration
has to take steps regarding the
withdrawl of troops from the
Middle East.
"I am also working on legisla-tion
in the Communication,
Science and Transportation sub
committee that would eliminate
access charges for long distance
calls," said Pressler.
Though 1984 is an election
year for Pressler, he says that he
is not looking that far ahead. "I
feel I must work hard on the
issues that concern us this year.
There is a quiet attitude among
the people of South Dakota
regarding elections until the
year of an election. Things don't
usually start to heat up until
then," said Pressler.
Augustana Mirror Thursday
Oct. 20, 1983
Volume 67,
Number 6
Augie faculty continue
revising Augustana plan