CAPE GIRL IS SEMI-FINALIST IN TEEN MAGAZINE MODEL SEARCH

Lara Clem of Cape Girardeau appears in the Teen Magazine June issue as a 1992 Great Model Search super semifinalist.

Clem was chosen as one of 96 super semifinalists from 480 regional semifinalists that appeared in Teen and the 25,000 entries received.

The year-long process culminates with the selection of 12 finalists that will receive an all-expense paid trip to national finals week Los Angeles.

The winner will receive a $5,000 cash award from Maybelline, an appearance in a national Maybelline ad and a Sassaby cosmetics organizer.

The winner will also appear on the cover of the October issue of Teen. She, along with the finalists, will also be modeling the latest fashions in the October issue. If Clem wins, she will be in a long line of models such as Cheryl Tiegs, who have launched their careers on Teen's cover.

MU CHIEF HAS TOUGH REMEDIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION'S WOES

HeadlinMU CHIEF HAS TOUGH REMEDIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION'S WOESe:

At the University of Missouri, we are fortunate to have a leader of extraordinary ability, insight and energy. 70-year-old Dr. George "Bullet" Russell, the President of the University of Missouri, a native of Bertrand, Missouri, is that leader. Last December, after the defeat of Proposition B, Dr. Russell delivered a speech to the MU board of curators that is worth sharing with a wider audience. It just may restore your faith in higher education leadership in the state of Missouri.

Consider some excerpts:

"In case you have not read the Michael Walsh article, "Wimps Need Not Apply", I would recommend that you do so. The article is based on a speech Walsh delivered to university business officers. Walsh is a former trustee of Stanford and now a trustee of Creighton; he is Chief Executive Officer of Tenneco and a former CEO of the Union Pacific Railroad.

"In his article, Walsh wonders whether higher education leadership has the skill and will to mobilize a complacent academic community to adopt needed changes. He remarks that the inclination to examine others' deficiencies is frequently stronger than the willingness to face up to one's own. I hope the University of Missouri can prove that we can make changes.

"Proposition B is now behind us. I would like to have had different results, but facts are facts. We did not lose by a small margin; we were soundly defeated. The message seems to me very clear. The citizens of Missouri are not interested in putting more tax money into higher education as it is now operating. We have some work to do to regain public confidence and greater support for what we do, and we will set about doing that, and that is what matters.

".... In my study and practice of higher education management, I have concluded that in the last 40 years or so, we have all adopted some bad habits that have developed into a malady that is now becoming life-threatening. Symptoms of the ailment are:

"1) We expect someone else to solve our problems;

"2) When, after long and arduous study, we face a problem, we believe we can solve the problem by adding more people or more money;

"3) We reach a state of inertness where we seem to believe that old trite academic adage, `If it hasn't been done before, don't try it.'

"4) In our state of mind we strive diligently to avoid some things because we seem to be afraid to make mistakes, as if mistakes are fatal;

"5) In the final stages of this ailment, we strive to find other institutions, usually a sizable group, to show that we are as good as the average of the groups and at lower costs; and finally

"6) We begin to strive for comfort, a final stage of comfortable mediocrity. And of course, there are other recognizable symptoms ...

"Somewhere, sometime, some fine institution of higher education will diagnose its ailments and begin the long, arduous task of recovery. I ask myself, what better institution to lead, what better time to begin, than the oldest public University west of the Mississippi River, the premier public institution in the state of Missouri. ...

"The task before us is to abolish the word `average', to clearly seek to be the best at everything we choose to do, or not do it. That process will begin with my own staff. There are some things we will no longer do, and we will make significant reductions in our administrative costs regardless of what the pack does. ..."

Excerpts from lengthy remarks delivered December 5, 1991 by University of Missouri President George A. Russell to the MU Board of Curators. Dr. Russell is a physicist, a rocket scientist and a former career naval officer. He is a native of Bertrand, Missouri in Mississippi County.

* * * * *

In each copy of National Review, my favorite magazine of opinion, there is an exchange of letters between readers and founder Bill Buckley that is worth the price of the magazine. A recent issue yielded this priceless exchange on the question of blatantly offensive "art", for which something called "the arts community" demands a tax-paid subsidy.

The following two letters, together with Buckley's response, constitute one of the finest such exchanges ever. Consider this exchange in light of our recent artistic controversy concerning alleged "censorship" at a gallery here in Cape Girardeau.

"Dear Mr. Buckley:

"Will you help me spread a new term?

"`Taxual Harassment' is the using of tax dollars to fund sexually explicit material that, if spoken in an office, would constitute sexual harassment.

"Sincerely,

"John H. Gifford

"Lafayette, California

"Dear Mr. Buckley:

"If Clarence Thomas had described the Mapplethorpe exhibit to Anita Hill, would he be fit to serve on the United States Supreme Court?

"Please advise immediately.

"Sincerely,

"Michael Antonucci

"Carmichael, California

"Dear Mr. Antonucci: Certainly not. We don't want depraved people on the Court, only at the National Endowment for the Arts.

"Cordially,

"William F. Buckley Jr."