Mass Media (Newspaper) - September 24, 1974, Boston, Massachusetts THE MASS MEDIA No 3 THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT BOSTON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24 1074 Steering Committee Reports to UMB Assembly The Steering Committee and the Committee on Committees held 10 meetings during the summer On September IK 1974 the Steering Committee of the University Assembly summed up its proposals lor the school year Both Administration and Student related matters were discussed and covered On the question concerning Tenure quota of Academic Affairs reiterated that there is now no tenure quota of any kind Because of this the Steering Committee strongly protested against the implications of a tenure quota being introduced through the back An urgent letter was received from Professor Max Bluestone detailing the inadequacies of the Health Services on campus The Steering Committee sent a copy of the letter to Tubbs and to SAC Chairperson Joseph Bosonac asking for a formal urgent reply The situation regarding the Bookstore Boycott was discussed The Steering Committee requested prior notice from the Chancellor in the wake of any violence that might eive rise to emergency measures The Chancellor agreed insisting that he would take action only against obstructionist tactics and not a peaceful boycott The Athletic Facilities Building received quite a bit of attention The Steering Committee was briefed on latest gym planning by Assistant Chancellor Rawn and Director of Planning Median The Steering Committee appointed Mr and Ms to participate in Planning Group during the remainder of the summer The representatives were directed to pay special attention to administrative plans for a daycare center One motion was made concerning the physical plan ning of the gym The motion is as follows While the value of both and spectator considerations it is the sense of the USAC that the physical planning of the gym participatory and in considerations Of academic interest two new course proposals are to he sub milled for approval to the Academic Affairs Committee Ap proved were Studies 106 Black Intellectual and tentatively approved were Afro American Studies 110 III and 114 The Chancellor informed the Steering Committee of the Radio Stations application to the ICC for an KM licence The Steer ing Committee thought it premature to set up an Advisory Committee al this lime Improvement concerning the betterment of campus com was discussed ll was decided thai the agenda mailing list will now include Mass Media all administration offices all sons of departments The substance of the minutes will also be submitted to the Mass Media The Chancellor the Steering Committee that he would meet in the near future with the Steering Committee chairpersons the Budget Com chairperson and College Senate executive committees to ex plain the workings of the budget The University Assembly provides the major concerning the policies of UK uni versity Such mailers as policies relating to University Admissions budget general facilities and development are reviewed by the University Assembly Us members include elected students staff and faculty the colleges of the University The faculty co chairman Dr Salvatore Campo expressed concern for the importance of involvement on the part of the students Two weeks ago in the Mass Media and throughout the University there were notices concerning involvement in the com that are part of the U liver sity Assembly Few students responded to the call of dut The University would have a larger response to the in volvement of these committees More response would have provided a more integrated and meaningful opinions The originated in from a friction among Senior Junior tv and Problems concer ning policies are and were unable to he handled the College Senate Then Chancellor conceived an ad hoc com concerning I Governance The committee drew UP the Constitution from was formed the To become a member of the one must get elected Flections are held in the spring The members consist of 40 percent students and percent from each of the colleges There are two which lead the one and one student Kastenbaum Research Team Studies Death And Aging II may be difficult for us as college students in our 20s to think seriously about our own death Or even about growing old After all we can reasonably expect medical technology to keep us alive for another fifty years or so Yet it may be just tendency to avoid the subject of death which makes our inevitable confutations with death seem so dismaying Certainly we have had our con with death that of our friends relatives pels perhaps even suffered a serious accident ourselves Death is unavoidable Thus maybe we should learn something about it We have in our midst a research team concerned specifically with death dying and the process of ag ing Led by Prof Robert J Kasten baum the team is composed of Assis Prof Brian Mishara and Assoc Prof Paul Costa and students of the College I Psychology Department Dr Kastenbaum is u n questionably the lifeforce of the team He has gained over the last ten years a national reputation as one of the originators of psy research in this area From 19611968 he worked at the Cushing Hospital in setting up a death information and research center there From 1972 he directed the Center for Psychological Studies of Dying Death and Lethal Behavior at Wayne State University in Detroit In his third year at UMB Dr Kastenbaum is active in promoting the sorts of questions he feels must he asked about death In addition to his research he conducts an un class of death Human College I as well as editing two international journals on the subject and Human Development and Omega Journal of Dying ami Death He is the co author of a recently published text book The Psychology of Death and this year has served as president of the American Associa tion of Suicidology One of the experiments on which Dr Kastenbaum and his colleagues are currently working concerns the socalled stages of death Do they in fact exist and if so what are they Do people die via a predetermined set of psychological responses For experiment the team hits con duct extensive interviews with elder ly people concerning their potential death In addition they have noted changes in altitudes when ihe in tend to break down by ser ving wine as an intoxicant before some of the interviews Dr Kastenbaum has also ex the relationship if any between fear of death and fertility In other words does the fear of death encourage people to procreate and thus leave a bit of themselves behind Dr research in this area has centered mainly around the phenomenon of family names The tendency to name ones children after oneself for example may he an indication of a particular altitude towards death Expressed altitudes toward death however may nol reflect mil at when actually confronted with death There is a big difference between talk and a raw encounter with a says Dr Kastenbaum We should not think thai ability to talk about ii is going lo change the way we deal wilh Jle uses as an example an experi ment he once did in which older housewives were asked lo interview a patient in a hospital Half were told he was ill with a minor disease and the others that he had terminal cancer Those interviewing the sick man tended lo be warm and friendly while those interviewing the dying man were much colder tending lo avoid eye contact with and to keep their distance from the patient In line wilh his course on Human Aging Dr Kastenbaum and his colleagues are presently conducting experiments on Ihe processes of psy and social aging Are they necessarily connected wilh physical or chronological aging Can they be induced Or for that mailer postponed Can we in fact reshape our ideas of what aging is all about All these experiments and the questions they raise have obvious importance nol only now bul in future limes As our life expectancy increases so loo does ihe number of elderly people who have lo deal w ilh aging and and with whom society has to deal Paul Crimmons for ALL copy is thursday noon this includes classifieds notices and display ads letters columns articles all material MINI be typed on it character pica line double spaced
