desire to minimize risk, private in vestment will be deterred as long as there is a strong possibility that the federal government will step in and assume the risk." The report strongly disapproves of an increased federal role in the energy field for a variety of other reasons. For one thing, it says that "over the past 30 years deliberate efforts to transfer the products of government-spon sored R&D to the private sector have resulted mainly in unsuccessful projects that were eventually aban doned." In its conclusion, the report says that if the government really wants to encourage exploration and promote conservation, it ought to take the "more straightforward approach of eliminating special price controls on existing conventional fuels." And it should consider reducing severe reg ulatory barriers to use of existing en ergy sources and to the development of new ones. D
ACS sets special board election Dr. Raymond P. Mariella, who will join the American Chemical Society staff as associate executive director on July 1, before assuming the office of executive director in 1978, has sub mitted his resignation from the ACS Board of Directors effective July 1. Dr. Ε. Ε. McSweeney, chairman of the Committee on Nominations & Elections, has announced that an in terim election will be conducted by mail ballot of the council to fill the vacancy on the board of directors for the remainder of Mariella's current term as director-at-large, ending Dec. 31, 1978. The committee has nomi nated Dr. Robert B. Carlin of Carne gie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh Section) and Dr. David C. Young of Dow Chemical U.S.A. (Midland Sec tion) for the position. CN&E has es tablished Tuesday, Feb. 15, as the deadline for receipt of petition nom inations for the open position. Under the society's bylaws, members may nominate candidates for directorat-large by providing to the executive director by the deadline date nomi nating petitions containing signatures of at least 300 members, with no more than 50 of the required signatures originating from a single local section, nor more than 200 from any one re gion of the society. The committee plans to conduct the mail ballot promptly after the Feb. 15 deadline, and it hopes to an nounce the outcome of the special election at the time of the spring na tional meeting in New Orleans. D
ERDA's plans for nuclear wastes rapped The Energy Research & Development Administration's practice of burying its solid wastes contaminated with low levels of radioactivity in shallow trenches and pits has so far presented no threat to human health, says the National Research Council's Panel on Land Burial in a recent report. What is going to present a "measurable degree of hazard" is ERDA's plan to exhume and rebury much of the wastes that were buried in the early days of nuclear technology, the panel says. There is no merit in this plan, it adds. There is also no rationale for ERDA's 20-year retrievability plan, which calls for solid low-level ra dioactive wastes currently produced to be stored in a manner that would facilitate retrieval and final disposal within 20 years, the panel says. It recommends disposal in a final re pository. At present, the amount of solid low-level radioactive wastes generated annually by sites managed by ERDA is approximately equiva lent to the volume of solid wastes produced annually by a town with a population of 55,000. One of the panel's concerns is the availability of suitable burial land as the amount of solid low-level ra dioactive wastes increases with the construction of new plants and the dismantling of present reactors and facilities as they become obsolete and are replaced. Volume reduction such as by compaction and incineration is one solution. Another is to design new facilities so that the radioactive parts can be removed without destruction of other portions of the facility. Another of the panel's concerns is ERDA's present upper limit of 10 nanocuries of transuranium nuclides per gram of waste; above this level, the wastes cannot be buried. The panel believes that ERDA should evaluate this criterion since the orig inal assumptions may have to be modified by more recent data on bi ological and ecological effects of lowlevel radiation for occasional QJ* long-term exposure. The panel outlines a number of principles for the selection of future burial sites. It is in favor of desert areas where the wastes would be iso lated from water used by man. How ever, it says that several problems must be resolved with desert sites. Erosion is one and seismic conditions another. A third is that of road transportation, especially if the loads are heavy and the distances great. Rail transportation is recommended in case of great distances.
Workmen place waterproofed concrete cylinders into trenches at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory to store drums of low-level radioactive wastes. The drums will be retrieved later for final disposal, a practice criticized by National Research Council report
For the continued operation of ex isting sites, the panel recommends several safety measures. To prevent groundwater contamination, it suggests for the future the develop ment of engineering containers or facilities that would isolate the wastes from the water for hundreds of years. For the near term, the panel says that the wastes should be buried only in a hydrogeologic environment that has been demonstrated to be safe. D
Pension clauses delay oil labor contracts Labor contract signing by represen tatives of various oil companies and locals of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) has been delayed. The delay in approval of an otherwise agreed to general settlement came from dis agreement over pension changes in the proposed contracts, according to company and OCAW sources. In volved are nearly 60,000 members of the union who had been covered by more than 400 labor contracts be tween locals and various companies that expired Jan 7. This stumbling block to final agreements developed over how the time of employment was to be calcu lated for purposes of pensions. At press time, however, negotiators ap parently had agreed that this time be based on the date of initial employ ment less deductions above a certain level—usually 60 days—for leaves of absences and strike times. However, Jan. 17, 1977C&EN
7
considerable variation may exist from one contract to another. With certain exceptions, most OCAW members are continuing to work without a contract. The few strikes under way last week involved very few OCAW members and were over resolution of local issues. These problems had developed before what appeared to be a general agreement was worked out. Gulf Oil set a pattern for a general agreement with a proposed contract that OCAW accepted subject to local differences. This "pattern" agreement calls for an initial 9% wage increase during the first year of a twoyear contract and a 75 cent-per-hour increase during the second year. Other provisions in the agreement cover shift pay differentials and contributions to hospitalization premiums. The shift differentials will increase during the first year to 45 cents per hour from 20 cents per hour
for the second or evening shift, and to 90 cents per hour from 40 cents per hour for the third or night shift. These differentials are to rise to 50 cents and $1.00 an hour for the second and third shifts during the second year of the contracts. Company contributions to hospitalization premiums for individuals are to go up $4.00 per month during each year of the contracts from the present $22.50 a month. Premium contributions for family plans are to go to $62 per month from $50 in the first year, and to $72 per month in the second year of the contract. The demand for a cost-of-living adjustment clause has been dropped by OCAW. The reason, according to Alvin F. Grospiron, president of OCAW, is that the pay increase of about 18% over the two years of the contracts is large enough that an escalator isn't needed unless the economy gets completely out of hand. D
Changes in campus attiti des surveyed "The picture of higher education that we are able to draw is both more varied and in some cases more surprising than the contemporary image," according to Dr. Martin Trow, sociology professor in the graduate school of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. In assessing the behavior and attitude of teachers and students, he finds that on some topics they have not changed their views very much between 1969 and 1975. In other areas, however, they have become rather more liberal or permissive, and in still others they have become more conservative. These findings arise from a new survey directed by Trow and released last week by the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education,
an activity of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and successor to the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. Trow had directed a similar survey in 1969 for the Carnegie Commission. The 1975 survey, which included many of the same questions as the earlier one, was a massive undertaking. It included 25,000 each of faculty members, undergraduates, and graduate students. The surveys were taken at times of vastly different emotional and political campus climates. The popular view of what has been happening, Trow notes, is one of a change from turbulence and politics to a more sober and serious mood, from bold experimentation in social and edu-
Shifts in campus attitudes show no overall trend 1975
1969
Undergraduates Faculty
32% 19
59% 34
Political identification: Those identifying themselves as "left" and "liberal"
Undergraduates Graduates Faculty
35 43 41
44 43 41
Those identifying themselves as "moderately" or "strongly conservative"
Undergraduates Graduates Faculty
26 27 31
19 29 30
Faculty
28
38
Become more conservative Agreement strongly or with reservations to the statement that undergraduate education in America would be improved if grades were abolished Remain relatively stable
Become more liberal Agreement strongly or with reservations to the statement that collective bargaining by faculty members has no place in a college or university
8
C&EN Jan. 17, 1977
cational reform to a "new vocationalism." Despite a grain of truth in this conception, Trow says, reality is a good deal more complicated. For example, the 1969 survey indicated that very little of student discontent was directed at the institutions, the curricula, or even the various administrative rules. To the statement, "Most undergraduates at my college are satisfied with the education they are getting," 71% of all undergraduates in 1969 agreed strongly or with reservations. In 1975, undergraduates replied to the question in almost exactly the same proportions. Graduate students show a similar pattern of response, as do faculty members in their perceptions of student satisfaction. Despite the general shift in climate, changes in campus attitudes—as surveyed on 24 areas of concern— show no overall pattern. There is a trend toward conservatism on academic issues, whereas political attitudes appear relatively stable. In some areas of social concern, attitudes have become more liberal, but others are marked by ambivalence. For example, the tendency toward conservatism on academic issues is indicated by responses to such statements as "Undergraduate education in America would be improved if grades were abolished," or "if all courses were elective." There seems also to be a sense, Trow says, in which traditional and academic values are reflected in attitudes toward teaching and research as the basis for promotion of faculty. But the thing to note on this issue, he says, is the extraordinarily high proportions of students and faculty alike who believe that "teaching effectiveness," not publications, should be the primary criterion for promotion of faculty. In other areas, attitudes have become more liberal. For example, views on campus toward possession and use of marijuana have become much more permissive. Attitudes of teachers to the idea of collective bargaining have become somewhat more favorable. Academic attitudes toward minorities have been remarkably ambivalent over the six-year period, Trow says, though there is some evidence of the strengthening of traditional academic values in some areas. For example, there has been a drop in agreement, even with reservations, to the statement that "More minority group undergraduates should be admitted to my college even if it means relaxing normal academic standards of admission." However, on the broad question of education and integration, students and teachers are distinctly more "liberal" than the general population. •
