opinion
Stumbling block
It’s enough to make you want to
those financing institutions of higher
recycle your course schedule before you
learning, mainly the state and students,
while not infringing on academic
use it.
House Bill 2831, the public release of freedom. The amended bill will not be as
faculty evaluation bill, was passed by affective in doing this.
the State House of Representatives 42-
The original bill also stated that in
18 this week. But, it has its drawbacks.
structors who got a bad recommen
The original bill stated that faculty dation in the published evaluations
evaluations would become public
would get equal time by printing their
record and be available to the media to views along side the evaluation. The
be printed, for example, in a school’s amended bill will not give instructors
equal time.
course schedule or newspaper.
The amended bill will give the student
The original bill, by giving students a
the right to view the faculty evaluations
preview of what classes and instructors
in a central location on campus and in
are like, would result in increased
offices of department heads, but not
carrying loads, financially benefitting
open to media use.
the state, students and the institution.
The amended bill is a compromise
The amended bill will minimize the in
between
supporters
and
non
creased carrying loads for students.
supporters. But sometimes, as in this
Many students try to register as fast as
case, a compromise is not the answer. If
they can. With information not right in
passed by the senate, the evaluations
front of them, they are less apt to exer
will not be as accessible to students,
cise their right to view the evaluations
especially at a community college level.
which will still end up in some un
The College has mail-in registration
necessary dropped classes.
forms and also many nightstudents.The
The amended bill is a good start, but
evaluations would not be as available to
these students as they would be if prin the original one would have been more
got
ted in the schedule or newspaper.
, beneficial to students. At least we _
One of the main points of the original' out of the starting block, but we should
bill was to give pertinent information to have won the race. C.B.
FRANKLY SPEAKING
....byphilfrarj
CARE
Ü5 FpRiCMB
© COLLEGE MEDIA SERVICES ■ box 4244 Berkeley, CA 947(14
guest shot
By Curtis Lowery
For The Print
Note: The following
editorial was adapted from
a speech by Curtis Lowery
who placed first in two
recent forensics tour
naments.
According to the 1979
Almanac, there are roughly
137 million vehicles registered
in the United States today. The
automobile has become a per
manent fixture in our modern
society because it satisfies so
many of our human needs and
desires, Americans have
become literally a people on
wheels.
A car is an expensive item.
As a matter of fact, it costs the
average family about $4,000 a
year. The biggest chunk of this
goes to car insurance.
We’ve all experienced the
rising cost of car insurance. Ac-
cording to Paula Nelson, the
author of The Joy of Money,
insurance has risen 66 percent
since 1970, and most of us pay
this without question. We take
the attitude, well, Mister In
surance Man, 1 know $600
every six months is a lot of
money, but I need my car, so I
guess I have to pay for it.
Our present system of car in
surance is lableled guilt by
association. That is because it
assigns the same rates to all
under
one
people
classification, and that is age,
sex and marital status, with.low
regard to driving ability.
Now, we all know young
males pay the highest
premiums. According to James
Stone, the insurance com
missioner of Massachusetts, the
young male constitutes 25 per
cent of the total driving
population. Out of that 25 per
cent, 38 percent are involved
sprint
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(
in accidents, thus, the 62 per
cent who are safe drivers are
penalized for being in the same
age group.
That means that two-thirds
of the young male population
are paying for the other one
third’s problems. My biggest
concern with insurance com
panies deals with this unequal
distribution. What I’m about to
say might sound like a personal
complaint, but I feel it exem
plifies the same question other
young males are asking: Why
should I pay?
I am 19 years old and male,
consider myself a responsible
person. I have no tickets, no
wrecks, 1 obtain high grades,
and drive a school bus. Yes, a
school bus that holds 60 high
school students each morning.
They depend on me to be a
responsible driver. They
depend on me with their lives.
And yet, it would cost me
$1100 a year to put my car on
the road,
My insurance company has,
because I am 19 and male, put
me—no—stereotyped me into
wreckless, irresponsible driver.
That’s like saying because a
man wears glasses he’s a boring
intellectual, when we all know
this is untrue. This treatment is
more than unfair. It is
discrimination.
Granted, I
might
be
exaggerating here a little bit,
but my point is that everyone is
different, and should be treated
differently. Just as some
people are able to handle the
responsibility of driving when
others never do, so should we
judge a person on his ability to
drive, rather than his age, sex.
or marital status.
The problem is not without a
solution. The solution has
already been adopted by three
states, Hawaii, Massachusetts
and North Carolina. This is the
merit system, where you are
judged for insurance purposes,
oh the length of driving ex
perience and your own “per
sonal” driving record.
Under the merit system, you
are given a special rate for the
first two years of driving, and I
don’t mean only between ages
16 and 18. I mean the first two
years for the man or woman
who starts driving at age 35 or
55, because they, too, would
have to prove their competen
cy. The best reason for this was
given by the insurance com
missioner of Massachusetts,
James Stone: “There is no ex
cuse to charge a youth, with
several years of unblemished
driving, twice the rate of a
novice at age 50.”
Under the merit system, you
are judged on your “own” per
sonal driving record. You are
credited for safe, responsible
driving and penalized for
violations.
Also under the merit system,
you are not judged on the car
you drive. It is not the car that
regulates the speed, but the
driver.
Under the North Carolina
merit system, drivers are given
points for certain violations,
such as one point for all
moving violations, four points
for reckless driving, 10 points
for driving under the influence,
and 12 points for manslaughter
or negligent homicide. After
you are given a rating, you are
assessed an insurance i^®
One point is $110, two »in®
$140, all the way up ta 19
points, which is $550. AftaW
points, you are given an Gd®
rate.
9
Insurance companies doH
like the merit system because®!
the example I cited earliel A9
you remember. 38 percent®
young male drivers are in«
volved in accidents, ana 69
percent are safe drivers Th®
can make more money byp®!
ting you in a group Thuslth®1
majority, which are the saf®
drivers, pay the price. Thebe®1
argument I’ve heard for guilt b®
association was given I thei®
suance
commissioner oil
Oregon, who said, “the me®
system would discriminate un-9
duly against the poor dt-ver.®|
But who do we want t®
discriminate against? Who doB
we want to pay the higher cos
of car insurance? Certain®®
the good driver. Grantedlth
penalty is stiff under the men
system, but three years after,
particular point is assigned®!
wiped off your record. Apes
son is given a chant®!
redeem himself
Now, don’t you think thi
would give a person the incen
tive to become a better drives
You are taking a system when
a person has no control ove
the factors affecting his rates
guilt by association, and yo
are replacing it with a sgst®
which you have iota! cont®
the factors affecting your rata
the merit system. The mej
system is a game where the
person with th Amm j oil®
ahead and the person w®
points at all is the winner
Wednesday, May 16,1
Page 2
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