MASSPIRG Referendum Fails Members Allege Improper Procedures at Voting Tables Feedback Aids Learning~ CAMBRIDGE, Mass
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Wednesday, March 7,1990 Vol XX, Number 31 Study finds frequent MASSPIRG referendum fails Members allege improper procedures at voting tables feedback aids learning~ CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)-- students indicated they preferred by COLIN WOODARD “We have serious questions all of the people who worked at Teachers who spend the last minute opportunities to rewrite term Daily Editorial Board about the way the elections were the voting booths to check voters of every class asking students for papers after red-penciling by The Massachusetts Public Inter- held ... because during a three hour for student identification. She said a quick summary of what they faculty. est Research Group’s non-bind- period this morning there were at that the Elections Board mem- had just learned substantially “Students said they learned ing student referendum was de- least three people that we know bers were unable to constantly improve the class’s education, said more from doing the fourth draft feated by almost 25 percent yes- of that did not have their bursars monitor all of the voting stations, a Harvard University study re- than by doing the first draft.,” terday, according to results re- labels crossed out so that they and that it is possible that an leased Monday. Light said. leased by the Elections Board last could of voted more than once,” employee could have made such The “one-minute, low-tech, no- --Students found small study night. an oversight. cost” technique is among several groups of up to six people meet- But before the results were Nirken also said, however, that recommendations of the three- ing outside the classroom par- announced, MASSPIRG chair she had collected the votes from year study of undergraduate edu- ticularly effective. Light said Ginny Hamilton informed the the voting station immediately cation. The study concluded that teachers should encourage for- ElectionsBoard that MASSPIRG after the questionable employee’s modest shifts in academic poli- mation of such groups. had concerns over the way the shift ended. “I can guarantee there cies can bring big improvements bardstudents were the only referendum was conducted. weren’t enough votes under her in college classrooms, said Rich- ones interviewed, but Light said Members of MASSPIRG allege jurisdiction to change the results ard J. Light, the study’s author. the in-depth nature of the ques- that a number of students may of the electi~n,”Nirken said. Light, a professor at Harvard’s tionnaires and the input from the have voted more than once. Sklar said that even if the Graduate School of Education and seminars made the results appli- The official results were 823 MASSPIRG allegationsare true, Kennedy School of Government, cable elsewhere. votes for and 1024 against the they do not have much merit. “I said he found students preferred “I would say that these find- referendum with a 39 percent don’t think it is one of your more demanding courses and learned ings apply both to high schools student turnout, according to weighty arguments,” he said. the most from teachers who gave and graduate education,” Light Elections Board member Scott “Assuming she [the employee] substantial,immediate feedback. said. Epstein. The referendum read “Do didn’t check any IDS, then those The results were drawn from you support the funding of voting for or against MASSPIRG in-depth interviews of 360 Har- For example, the study sug MASSPIRG at Tufts at $8 per would have gone equally un- vard undergraduates--conducted gests that teachers could considei student, per year, of the total stu- Hamilton said last night. She added checked,” he added. by their fellow students -- and a asking students to take a minutt dent activities fee of $116 per that MASSPIRG members knew Hamilton disagrees, and says series of seminars that included at the end of each class to writt student, per year?” of a student who succeeded in the oversight could have changed faculty and administrators from down the salient points of the las TheElectionsBoard stands by voting twice. the results of the referendum, Harvard and about 20 other hour. Such an exercise gives teach. the final results but Hamilton says Elections Board member “especially seeing the turn-out schools. ers and students chance for mu that MASSPIRG will contest the Howard Sklar said that Hamilton being so high.” Other conclusions of “Explo- tual feedback,Light said, and coulc outcome and postpone budgetary informed,him of MASSPIRG’s According to Epstein, the 39 rations with StudentsandFaculty be employed in both secondarj requests in the meantime. concerns with the elixtion while percent voter turnout is a record about Teaching, Learning. and schools and graduate courses. “Since we don’t think these the votes were being counted. turnout for a referendum. Nirken Student Life” inchde: R. Eugene Rice, senior felloM are valid results, we will contest “From what they say, in the morn- said that referendums usually --Students said they learned at the Carnegie Foundation foi the vote through the TCUJ,” ing, the person in the Campus receive less than 25 percent of a most in classes with tests, oral the Advancement of Teaching Hamilton said immediately after Center didn’t check her [Hamil- showing. presentations and papers, which said the study ‘‘confirms a lot !.ha the results were announced. “We ton’s] ID or her friend’s ID and said that MAssme let them know how they were we know about learning, in fact talked to the Elections Board an she assumes from that, that she will not request any funds from doing “mid-course,” instead of just huthuman work in genera hour and a half ago... We would didn’t check any IDs,”Sklar said. the Tufts Community Union getting bombarded with a test or -- the importance of feedback, io have contested it either way,”she Elections Board Chair Melanie see REFERENDUM, page 11 paper at the end, In particular, ‘regulation and-itstiming.” added. Nirken said that she had instructed ets permit private ownership Elections Board alters MOSCOW (AP)-- Beset with Deputy Premier Leonid I. dustrial production slipping 1 a sinking economy and rising Abalkin said the law, to go into percent. “There is a crisis of campaign poster policy discontent, Soviet lawmakers effect July 1, will enable private confidence, of confidence in the made a drastic break with Com- citizens to own workshops, ga- government,” he added. by COLIN WOODARD last fall’s election. “We’ve had a munist orthodoxy Tuesday by rages for automotive repairs, farm Although the Property Law Daily Editorial Board lot of complaints from people in voting to allow private citizens to enterprises and other small-scale conserves large economic mo- The Elections Board is con- the Senate, and complaints from own small factoriesand hire their ventures to supplement the noto- nopolies for the state-run sector, sidering modifications to the policy administrators saying that Build- own workers. riously ineffective state-run econ- it declares all forms of ownership governing the posting of cam- ings and Grounds was complain- Applause swept through the omy. juridically equal, including prop- paign posters, according to Elec- ing,” she said. Kremlin chamber as the Supreme Also, subject to restrictions erty owned by individuals, the tions Board member Howard Sklar. Nirken said that there are 35 Soviet, by a 350-3 vote with 11 from legislaturesin the 15 Soviet government and collectives, and Sklar said that the Elections openings in the April elections. abstentions, passed the Property republics, the law permits one says society gains by competition Ebard made the decision to modify ‘We’re expecting between 50 and Law, which the official Tass news citizen to hire another for pay, a among them. the old campaign poster policy at 70 candidates to run because agency described as “the main practice that currently is illegal “This is an enormous step for- last Thursday’s meeting, but he , usually there are at least 2 candi- plank” of President Mikhail S. and was a key target of the Rus- ward because it lays down the added that the board is not yet dates” for each position, she said. Gorbachev’s campaign for eco- sian revolutionaries. principle of pluralism in the forms certain what will replace the old According to Sklar, the Elec- nomic reform. In the early 1920s, Vladimir I. of ownership and the basis of policy. tions Board felt that the system The law permits Soviets for Lenin and his Bolsheviks tempo- their equality and theirprotection “Tentatively, what we are look- would not work in the April elec- the first time in nearly seven rarily retreated from their drive from the government,” said pro- ing for is having posters in each tions because of the expected large decades to privately possess to implement communism and gressive lawmaker Alexei Ya- dining hall -- like a section of number of candidates. “Literally, “means of production,” an ap- allowed private ownership of the blokov. postersforeachcandidate,”Sklar the campus would have 7000 proach at odds with classic Marx- means of production under the In another sign of the new said. posters,”Sklarsaid. “Seven thou- ist thinking, which sees in private New Economic Policy, or NEP. eConOmiC thinking, a govemment- According to Elections Board sand posters in one day -- think ownership the roots of the capi- The policy was ended under sponsored preamble offered by Chair Melanie Nirken, under this about it.” talist exploitation wiped out by Lenin’s successor, Josef Stalin. Abalkin proclaiming “socialist option each dandidate would Sklar said he does not believe the Russian Revolution 72 years Tuesday’s vote was hailed by PrOPerty” to be the foundation of submit a poster to the board, which that the tentative policy will be ago.