The_Rambler_1965-07-16

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STATE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE
FARMINGDALE, L. I., N. V.
VOLUME II NO. 1 JULY 16, 1965
Wekome From The President Faculty
Members
CHARLES W. LAFFIN. JR.
To you newest arrivals on the Farmingdale
College Campus, I extend a hearty welcome. You
enter college at a most unusual time, as college
custom goes. But, whatever comfort it may be to
you as you sit in a classroom, lecture hall, or
laboratory and think of sand and surf, or cool
lakes and rivers - you are the vanguard of typical
college practice in the future.
With the greatly increased demand for a college
education, every existing higher educational insti-tution,
and many to be created in the future, will
have to utilize every inch of space to its fullest
capacity, day and night and year-round as Farm-ingdale
does at present.
Around you can be seen "newness** on our fifty
year old campus. The kitchen in Knapp Hall just
went into service. The Library began its operation
a few weeks ago, and Whitman Hall i s completing
its first year as a functioning part of the college.
Roosevelt Hall will be put in operation during this
present semester. Over twenty of the college
faculty are teaching here for the first time in
their careers. Their past experience and education
brings new insights, new knowledge, new person-alities
to a s s i s t your education.
As new college students, every means of con-veying
information about the college, its cus-toms
and traditions, its rules and regulations
have been utilized in the admissions and orienta-tion
programs. You have had brochures, catalogs,
handbooks, mimeographed notes, and speeches
directed at you until your heads must almost be in
orbit.
But, in this message to you, I hope you will get
one important fact clear. We on toe faculty and
administration are here to teach and serve the
students' educational needs. Express to the faculty,
or the department or division chairman, or the
Deans, or to my office your evident problems or
needs. The *'Open Door** policy exists in every
office on the campus. You need not **sit-in'», or
it-out'* or what have you to e;q)ress your feel-ings
at Farmingdale. We are here to listen, the
doors of our offices open easily to all our
students.
The one constant factor of college operation is
change, bringing newness to old established customs
and practices.Farmingdale has served our Long
Island community for over half a century - yet, it
DEDICATION
A most cordial welcome is ex-tended
to the following new facul-ty
who will be on campus this
summer:
WILLIAM CASTLE, Business
Dept., a former professor at
Thomas College, Waterville, Me.
and a public accoimtant and aud-itor
for the U.S. foternal Revenue
Service. Mr. Castle holds a B.A.
and M.B.A. from the City College
of New York.
JOSEPHINE CHANG, Nursing
Dept., a former staff nurse and
missionary nurse in China. Mrs.
Chang holds the B.S. and M.Ed«
from Teachers Ccdlege Columbia
University.
JOHN ERDELL, Art Dept., for-mer
Associate Professor at Mas-sachusetts
College of Art and
crafts director for the U.S.
Armed Forces, Germany. Mr.
Erdell holds the B.S. and M.A.
from Teachers CoUege, Colum-bia
University.
PAUL FIELD, Art Dept., a
specialist in fine art and com-mercial
art, he holds the B.F.A.
from Washington University, St.
Louis, and attended the Art Stu-dents
League.
E. NORMAN LURCH, Electri-cal
Technology Dept., a former
aero - space technologist with
NASA working on the Apollo pro-gram.
Mr. Lurch also taught at
Suffolk Community C(dlege and
was associated with the college
at Farmingdale from 1949 to
1960. He is the author of two
textbooks and has a biographical
listing in American Men of Sci-ence.
Mr. Lurch holds the B.E.
E. and M.E.E, from New York
University and the New York State
Professional Engineering Li-cense.
FRANCIS MULLEN, Physics
Dept., formerly a senior engin-eer
at Sperry (^roscope Co. and
teacher at Friends Academy and
part-time teacher at Adelphl u-niversityJiAr.
Mullen has written
several publications and holds
the A.B. from Hunter College
and the M.S. from New York
University.
MARY K. NAIMOLI, NUrslng
Dept., formerly assistant direc-tor
of nursing service at Good
Samaritan Hospital. Mrs. Nalmcdl
holds the B.A. from LadycUff
College, the Nursing Science Di-ploma
from St. Vincent's Hospital
School and M.A, from New York
University.
MAURICE PLOTKIN, Electri-cal
Techn(dogy Dept., formerly
associated with RCA Institutes as
an instructor and also senior In-structor
In charge of control
systems. Mr. Plotkin has been
a member of the Evening Div-ision
faculty. Mr. Plotkin holds
the B.E.E. from City College of
New York and M.S. from Hdf-stra
University.
SYLVIA SCHANZ, Assistant
Librarian, holds the B.A. from
State University at Stony Brook
and the M.L.S. from Pratt In-stitute
Graduate Library School.
GEORGE SWEENEY, Social
Science Dept., formerly asso-ciated
with the Borough of Man-hattan
Community College. He
also acted as Chief of Training
for the Air Force Europe Ex-change.
Mr. Sweeney has taught
at the elementary and secondary
schocd levels and has served as
a lecturer at St. John's Univer-sity.
He holds the a s . from Ford-bam
University and the If. A. from
New York Untverstty.
ROOSEVELT HALL DEDICATED. Prior to Commencement Ex-ercises,
a cornerstone and dedication ceremony was held at the en-trance
to Theodore Roosevelt Hall, the new student aaivities-gym-nasium
building nearing completion. Taking part in the ceremony
were, (from left), The Right Reverend Jonathan G. Sherman, Suf-fragan
Bishop of Long Island, Mrs. Quentin Roosevelt, Dr. Charles
W. Laffin, Mr. Mortimer J. Gleeson and Congressman John W.
Wydler. Included In the cornerstone were copies of THE RAMBLER,
The Alumnus, current editions of college publications and des-criptions
of construaion techniques used in the building.
Fair is Fair
When one works at a particular job one expects
to be paid for that work. But suppose a person
worked forty hours a week and, entitled to a pay-check
of 86 dollars, was^ given only 80 dollars
along with an explanation from his employer:
**this company has a policy which permits it to
pay only in ten dollar graduations, you only made
86 dollars, therefore you can only expect to receive
80 dollars." What i s the logic of the employer?
One would at least expect to be paid either the 86
dollars, or 90 dollars because we are more then
halfway to that ninety. This is logical.
Now, if we change the worker into a student and
change the dollars to numerical grades we can
readily see the lack of sound logic in our present
marking system. For here at Farmingdale (and I
believe, at the r e s t of the Sta^e University campuses)
the student i s getting the short end of the **stick''
he may have a 77 or 78 average but will get only
credit for a "C* when he deserves at least a
plus or possibly a **B*\ Thus a student who,
for example, took six three credit courses and
averaged 77 in each course would have an average of
2.0, which is, in the eyes of a future employee
or college, "C* work. By no stretch of the imagina-tion
can this be called fair or logical. That student,
under this marking should get a because he
was very close to it. He deserves a plus but
credit for a is given.
What can be done about this condition? Perhaps
a marking system can be employed that will give
a student credit for his **plus" grades, such as
the one used at St. Johns University. This, however,
i s improbable, so perhaps the only thixig that can
be done is for the faculty to give that student the
extra points rather than take them away. This could
be done either officially or im-o£ficially. After-all,
"fair i s fair."