WGBH Journal; Bakke; Harvard Adminstration

Good afternoon and welcome to GBH Journal Cavazos. On today's show we'll hear university admissions policies in light of the Baca decision. A report on the radar on Cape Cod. We'll have a look at North and summer festivities and commentary on the news from. The United States Supreme Court has been in recess for two months but the ramifications of many of the court's decisions are still being debated. One of the last decisions handed down by the Supreme Court before recess involved the case of Allen backing an applicant to the University of California's medical school at Davis University with discriminatory practices and accepting what he alleged were less qualified minority applicants. The court ruled in Bakkies Bahah restated support of affirmative action policies.

How this decision will affect the admissions policies and the nation's universities is still unclear. Reportedly Wright has more. When the United States Supreme Court handed down its long awaited decision on the Baki case it appeared as though a judicious compromise had been reached. The use of quotas for minority admissions was ruled unconstitutional. The University of California at Davis the school sued by baaki had saved 16 seats for minority students and was ordered to revamp its program. The court also ruled however that affirmative action programs would take race into consideration in admissions are legitimate. Harvard University's admissions policy was cited by the court as an ideal one where racial diversity is achieved without the use of quotas at Harvard. Race Ethnicity and family background are factors in admissions. In much the same way as his athletic or musical ability. Last year eighteen point eight percent of the freshman class were minority students. A significant number. Harvard is

hardly a typical American college though and it is doubtful that smaller schools lacking in wealth and prestige can use Harvard's program and fund similar success. However the program has been thrust into the national spotlight and merits attention as one potential way of solving the pressing problem of minority under-representation in college. The philosophy behind Harvard's program is the belief that a diverse student body enriches the educational experience. Since most applicants have similarly high grades and test scores admissions officers look for other attributes which differentiate one student from another. William Fitzsimmons director of admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe explains that Harvard can create a diverse student body by accepting students from varying Geographic economic and racial backgrounds. The composition of the student body is a very very important part of the education of the undergraduates that we receive. The idea of the diversity of the student body is crucial to

what kind of education a student receives. I like to think of our. Country and society as a multi-racial multi-ethnic multi economic background kind of society. Someone is going to make an impact on society live and work in our society then their education really wouldn't be complete if they didn't have exposure to a full range of students during that four years. Mr. Fitzsimmons believes that last years. Eighteen point eight percent for minority admissions indicates Harvard has succeeded in its quest for diversity. Another view is held by Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz who believes the percentage is deceptive. He contends that many of the minority students come from middle class backgrounds and that Harvard has failed to reach economically deprived students of all races. I don't think we have real diversity at Harvard. Harvard was really seeking a genuine diversity. They would be getting going into the ghettos. They would be going into the barrios. They would be going into the Hasidic Jewish communities. They would be going into areas which have never

thought about access to Harvard was possible but they're not seeking that. Mr. Fitzsimmons disputes this claim. I think of Professor Dershowitz would read require that the economic. Backgrounds of the students here and I can see a pretty varied pattern. And I think this is not just true at Harvard. I think if you were to look throughout the so-called Ivy schools I think you'll see a real effort on the part of the colleges to get more economic diversity. The statistics on financial aid do lend credence to Harvard's claims of an economically diverse student body. Last year 45 percent of the undergraduates received direct grants from Harvard while fully two third received some form of aid. Seventy five percent of the minority students also receive financial aid. Hybrid success in achieving both economic and racial diversity however is a result of its unique position in the academic community with the largest applicant pool in the country. Harvard doesn't need quotas to ensure adequate minority representation. Smaller schools may not be

as fortunate. Ben Haines spokesperson for Bolsa black American Law Student Association elaborates Harvard's Deferred Action Program is an acceptable program because it pacifically met quotas and allows individuals of the first background to compete for all of the seats in order to create what I refer to as a heterogeneous type of community. Now that's fine because Harvard can well afford it because it has the facilities and it has the resources to back it up. Prof. Harvey because it is Harvard is going to receive thousands more applications than it can admit. You have more of a diverse selection at schools the size of Harvard and schools with the misty atmosphere at Harvard. So in Portland.

Well it is a plan that can be looked at in terms of setting up an offshoot plan but not to implement that plan as it stands. Say that this is the best plan we can come up with and it should fit a small school. Professor Dershowitz echoes Mr. Haines concern just as Powles reference to Harvard as a model of course failed to take into account the fact that it is the wealthiest University and has the largest applicant pool. And if any school can achieve both diversity and excellence it's Harvard. I don't think as I said Harvard is succeeding in doing that because I think it's quest for diversity is superficial and shallow. But I think corporate is capable of achieving both excellence and diversity. But other schools will have a much greater difficulty achieving that kind of diversity coupled with excellence because it doesn't have the facilities financial and also the applicant pool that permit it to do so.

The justice is compromised then may not have been so judicious while schools like Harvard can maintain high levels of minority representation without quotas. Other schools may not have the facilities to attract large numbers of minority students. It is too early to judge the effects of the baaki decision on affirmative action programs and the immediate ramifications may be difficult to measure. The baaki decision did impress upon Americans that affirmative action is on shaky ground now than it was a few months ago. Commitment to minority admissions could be on the wane and the baaki decision may be the first of many court battles which determines who gets the pieces of the shrinking American Pie for GBH Journal Lisa fruit. Environmental issues are clearly one source of political activism in the 1970s.

We're currently witnessing debate over the construction of a nuclear power plant in Seabrook New Hampshire. The effects of a cooling system and low level radiation have caused thousands of people to demonstrate at the site of the construction. Another source of environmental concern focuses on the effects of electromagnetic radiation. A proposed microwave radar facility at Cape Cod Otis Air Force Base has caused citizens of the Cape together to express their concern. Reporter Chris Ogwyn has more. The long term biological effects of microwave radiation are the cause of growing concern to scientists and environmentalists alike. Incidence of the suspected health hazards of such radiation have received increasing attention most notably at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow where higher than usual rates of blood disorders were linked to microwave radiation in the building common sources of microwave radiation are microwave ovens television transmission towers and radar radar being by far the most powerful emitter of microwaves at Otis

Air Force Base on Cape Cod. The Air Force hopes to activate a phased array warning system called pave paused. This radar will be able to detect objects flying 3000 miles away at a recent symposium held by opponents to pave paws on Cape Cod. Biologist Ruth Hubbard and author Paul burder described their reasons for opposing pay pause. Dr. Ruth Hubbard explained the biological basis for concern over microwaves and higher structure. And functioning. Of our. Bodies. Depends. On. The weak interaction. Between. Molecule. And eye on. Small. Small. Pieces. Of matter. That are weakly charged. We are basically dying to see water with some cells and tissues thrown

up around and the sea waters to pull up. So. Now the way these things move. Is going to be affected by electric fields and it's going to be affected by a magnetic field. We don't know how much. We don't know in what way. Now it's perfectly clear that throwing an electric field into such a situation is going to do something to those interaction. And nobody at this point can tell you exactly what it's going to do but we do know that this orderly array of molecules that makes up our membranes determines what gets into our show. And what. Gets out. Of chromosomes the things that determine heredity. What are they held together by. They're held together by weak electric forces. These large

molecules depend for their accurate configuration. On electric forces holding them together in just the right way. They depend on. Electric interaction. For the chromosomes to move apart at just the right time when a cell divides into which is what embryonic development is about. No matter what people tell you it stands to reason they're going to be a fact. The Defense Department is not anxious to study the effects of long term exposure to microwave radiation. They don't want to see a diminishing of this vital defense technology. Paul Broder author of the zapping of America microwaves their deadly risk and cover up agrees that we need radar. But the problem on Cape Cod is that living between the paved paw's radar installation and the sea are many Cape cotters.

I believe very firmly that we need radar. We need it to maintain a balance of terror. Which is what I believe is maintain the peace for 25 30 years. I have no quarrel with the need for radar. It is where this radar is. We don't need this radar in this place. Now the basic argument or the controversy so-call here is that the Air Force and the electronics industry and of course that the microwave oven manufacturers are trying to tell me there's no problem with microwave radiation except the total average amount of heat deposited in the human body which raises the core temperature and causes proper heating of tissue. They do not admit that there are any so-called non thermal effects of

radiation effects of the instantaneous power. Three hundred and twenty eight seconds say from the north to each you which penetrates deep really human tissue in Marysville California where the other pay Paul was going up a year ago the citizens got worried about it and they asked the Air Force to come out there. And the Air Force did because the Air Force will always respond to citizens who demand a response. And Lieutenant Colonel McLachlin who is one of the operations officers pay pause was asked as was Mr. John Mitchell of the aerospace School of Medicine. What data do you have. To support your contention that the radiation coming from this device poses no threat to help over the long term.

And they had no data. And they have no data. The Air Force maintains that paved paw's radar installation will not be harmful to the Cape cotters. However this is only a theoretical contention. The Cape Cod environmental coalition does not want paved paused turned on until the Air Force has proved in an environmental impact study that it will not be harmful and the coalition has filed in federal court to block the operation of PAVE pause until such a study is submitted. Federal Court Judge Joseph Torro has taken the case under advisement pending more information from both sides for GBH Journal. This is Chris outline. It's not a. Small neighborhood community celebration attracts the public's attention the way Boston's

Italian north and feasts have these annual celebrations like a weekend feast of the Madonna della cava and Anthony have become popular enough to take a place by summer concerts on the esplanade as an integral part of the summer scene in Boston. Mullins reports what was originally an Italian tradition has almost become an American tradition at least for those living in the Boston area. The Northlands annual summer festivals are now well underway. The feast began in the early 19:00 as a way to make the American naturalization easier for Italian migrants. Various clubs welcome newcomers with a feast in honor of their hometowns patron saint. The feast of Madonna della cava was held recently this past week. Joseph St. Angelo chairman of the feast told me about the origins of his festival was founded in 1920 by a group of Sicilians from Italy was mainly founded to reunite citizens of the town of creativity and to celebrate at least once a year.

In Sicily the festival of the Madonna della cava has been celebrated for over seven hundred fifty six years in America. It's in its 50th year. Each annual celebration learns more and more people to the festival and the crowd isn't just restricted to North and residents and attend the Feast of the most the people in the area. People who are members of this site are doing tours. We get to host a colossal members and their families and the pace of. Each of the feast days begins with the church mass in honor of the saint Saturday celebrating begins with a parade through the streets as a welcome to guess. Saturday night brings the feasting which is followed by a Sunday profession of the faithful through the north end music and celebrating then last through the evening. Joseph Sant'Angelo says that the Madonna society waits all year for this feast. Not only does

the weekend bring funding for society's other activities but it's also a steadfast tradition. Many people in the society were born in the same town with Madonna was born. Others have never even been to Italy. But for everyone involved the feast is a reminder of his ancestry. But for most of the public good joins in the feast the night to be in the north end is Saturday night along with the music. The food vendors. That cold cold cold my flesh is. The hot weather. Stuff. How is it. Super.

Sized and the people. They always come every weekend and this place is out there. I noticed you had half an hour before have a great time. Time haven't a bed at all. All I like about music he said. I come down here. No I say Ebony's my piece. Next week. Years ago I did it for girls like me and. Yes I know. You tried to kill yourself. Before the flush them on Watermill. Right now.

Rodemeyer the only place you get to enjoy it is right. Everybody every every comes good with people makes me feel like I'm on the top of my posts come from Italy I love the people right at the end of this feast. The Madonna della Karva society helps prepare for next week's feast of the fishermen and once again present day style feasting and old tradition will come together. For GBH Journal.

I'm Lisa Mullins. Can be done. To complete today's VBH Journal comment on the news with Louis Lyons the House of Representatives voted a three year extension for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment whose deadline would expire next March with three states short of the needed number. The House also defeated a motion to allow states that have ratified to renege on it. There's been agitation in four states to do that. Representative Margaret Hechler Massachusetts credits Tip O'Neill with pushing the issue to a vote before the recess. Again pressure from members who wanted to duck the question for recess starts tomorrow. The speaker was chaired by women in the capital Cardus after the vote in the Senate a filibuster

as threatened by Senator Hatch of Utah. It will be interesting to see how many senators overlook the irony of taking a lead from the Mormon state to block women's rights. The morning headline Senate vote. Senate votes aid on college costs omits the other half of it that the Senate voted down. Tuition credit to secondary schools which meant to parochial schools and private academies. The move for government aid to parochial schools is a perennial issue as opposed to the last three days of debate as before on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state. The inclusion of private academies in the request for aid has gained strength since the creation of so many as havens of segregation debate against such aid was both on the ground of it supporting segregation and of its weakening local support of public schools. The bill now goes to conference for the House passed a similar bill in June. Slightly more

generous than the hundred dollar college tax credit to rise to 100 250 in 1980. A small help to our tuitions now offering forty five hundred or more. Both sound as Kennedy and Brooke voted against the school aid but Kennedy against both using the income tax as an aid to education. He called a back door source and a bad idea. But both New Hampshire senators both Maine senators and Ribicoff of Connecticut voted for the school aid which lost by 56 to 41. Kennedy spoke against the college aid bill is denying aid to the lowest income group and of the largest family because they lack enough income tax liability to take advantage of the credit. The Massachusetts legislative committee investigating the background of the MBM scandal describes a pattern of political corruption. Already familiar newspaper readers the system of awarding building contracts is so vulnerable to corruption and abuses that it

must be reformed. They find the description of the job MBM was paid millions to do they said was a single worthless paragraph. There are a hundred and twelve page report recites 10 kinds of reform necessary to protect the Commonwealth and the assigning of responsibility for making such awards and in strengthening their review and auditing. As chairman said the totality of the system is more important than individual wrongs. The investigation reached he said only the tip of the iceberg and must be followed up by a special commission with power of subpoena that this committee was not granted. The federal mediator reports no progress between the New York newspapers and the pressmen. And we're now hearing predictions of a long strike. The last one 16 years ago brought elimination of three New York newspapers The Herald Tribune the World Telegram and the first American against the Pressman's strike the three remaining newspapers shut down determined to protect the economies of automation in which

they've made huge investments that will cut their labor costs. The paper has offered to reduce staff only by attrition. That won't lay off any employee of three years service but the pressman claimed to see this in an inevitable speed up. Automation is the issue as it has been in one form or another since the Luddites destroyed the first textile machinery 160 years ago. The vocabulary of labor strife has grown up around the issue. The speed up itself was Labor's resistance to the first management efficiency studies featherbedding was management's name for railroad labor and demand to keep a second man in the cab even after the diesel engine eliminated the firemans coal stoking function. Bogey is a newspaper name for the printers demand to duplicate the typesetting of an ad that a department store supplies all set to all papers alike. That issue has faded with the reduction of the number of newspapers in so many cities to one standby as conditions demand for hiring union

players. Even when the music is furnished from a record or by an amateur man both organized labor and industry reject compulsory arbitration for such stubborn issues as fervently as politicians reject wage and price controls for such a stubborn issue as our ever rising inflation. Inflation takes on more of a political caste has the president appeals for Congress to help against special interest lobbies protecting that price rises. Then the president in Missouri promises livestock growers he will curb beef imports but the 17 percent rate of rise in beef prices the first half here is the highest inflation in food that consumer faces a local political item reported in the morning papers the Boston Patrolman's Association endorses heavy Nelson's candidacy for governor. The first involvement of the police union and politics the report continues was in 1972 when it endorsed Richard Nixon. Police

union involvement in politics office and historical version of Calvin Coolidge his political involvement in policing and equally intolerable. On Wednesday the 16th day of August 1978 that CBH Journal the regional news magazine heard Monday through Friday at 4:30. Matia Hertz's the journal's producer editor Barry Carter DREs engineer and I'm Bill Cavanagh's. Be ready to mingle with Zinder while you want your wishes to win out this Wednesday. To. Mayor. My God

you need to. On