Ambiguous Statements Research Articles

Engagements pastoraux et utopiques au XVIIe siecle

The Astree by Honore d'Urfe and different utopian novels from the end of the seventeenth century (such as La Terre australe connue by Gabriel de Foigny or L'Histoire des Sevarambes by Denis Veiras) offer models of hypothetical societies. This article attempts to show that these texts do not propose easily identifiable counter-values and that their "engaged" nature lies more in the fact that they propose ambiguous and problematic statements provoking an interpretative work from their readers. In this point of view, the paradoxal nature of both pastoral and utopian spaces undermines the validity and the viability of an authoritarian model of thought, acting as engaged works of the time.

Reanalysis within a Christian Ideological Surround: Relationships of Intrinsic Religious Orientation with Fundamentalism and Right-Wing Authoritarianism

This study examined whether ideology influenced the correlations of the Intrinsic Religious Orientation Scale with Religious Fundamentalism and Right-Wing Authoritarianism. A sample of 407 undergraduates responded to these instruments along with measures of Christian Fundamentalist Beliefs, Intolerance of Ambiguity, and religious extrinsicness. Empirical procedures were used to translate Religious Fundamentalism into a more adaptive Biblical Foundationalism. Formal evaluations of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale uncovered some ideologically pro-religious items, but an even larger number of ambiguous and anti-religious statements. Partial correlations controlling for Religious Fundamentalism documented the basically adaptive potentials of a biblical intrinsicness. The Intrinsic association with authoritarianism was attributable to the ambiguous and anti-religious ideological content of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale. Ideological factors, therefore, did seem to underlie empirical suggestions that traditional Christian commitments necessarily reflect a narrow-minded authoritarian fundamentalism.

Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory: comparing the separable and joint subsystems.

This study compared the applicability of the separable subsystems hypothesis and the joint subsystems hypothesis of Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in understanding the processing of pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli. In all 132 participants completed questionnaires covering trait impulsivity and anxiety, and reward expectancy and punishment expectancy. Following this, participants were tested individually on three tasks measuring processing of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral information. One task involved processing the valence of words. The second involved free recall of these words, and the third task involved developing stories based on emotionally ambiguous statements. The findings were mixed, with the results for the word processing and free recall tasks being consistent with the separable subsystems hypothesis, and the results for the story completion task being consistent with the joint subsystems hypothesis. The implications of task characteristics in relation to the RST and cognitive processing of emotional information are discussed.

Interpreting the accuracy of offender profiles

Two studies investigated the hypothesis that individuals are prepared to perceive ambiguous statements, when presented in the from of an ‘offender profile’, as being relatively accurate descriptions of complete strangers. Study one used a bogus profile with a real case with two distinctly different offender outcomes (one genuine, one fabricated) given to two groups of police officers (n = 24, n = 22). Over half of both groups classified the profile as accurate and, despite distinct differences between the offenders, there were no differences in accuracy ratings of the genuine offender and fabricated offender. Study two examined whether this effect transferred to a genuine profile, again using professional groups (senior police officers, n = 33; forensic professionals, n = 30). Despite receiving different offenders, over 75% of each sample rated the profile as at least somewhat accurate and over 50% as a generally or a very accurate assessment. Mean ratings of the genuine offender did not differ from ratings of the fabricated offender. The majority of individuals rated the profile as useful. These studies lend preliminary support to the hypothesis that individuals tend to construct meaning around ambiguous statements about a third party within the context of offender profiling. We suggest this might be best explained as an extension of the Barnum Effect. The methodological weaknesses of the studies are discussed, as are suggestions for future research.

Hemispheric specialisation in processing prosodic structures: Revisited

Background : Research addressing prosodic deficits in brain-damaged populations has concentrated on the specialised capabilities of the right and the left cerebral hemispheres in processing the global characteristics of prosody. This focus has been of interest in that the fundamental frequency (F0), duration and intensity acoustic characteristics within a prosodic structure can convey different linguistic and nonlinguistic information. Much of the research investigating this interesting phenomenon has produced conflicting results. As such, different theories have been proposed in an attempt to provide plausible explanations of the conflicting findings regarding hemispheric specialisation in processing prosodic structures. Aims : The purpose of this study was to examine one of the theories, the functional lateralisation theory, through four experiments that altered the linguistic and nonlinguistic functions across a range of prosodic structures. Methods & Procedures : Three groups of subjects participated in each of the four experiments: (1) eight subjects with LHD, (2) eight subjects with RHD, and (3) eight control subjects. The first experiment addressed the extent to which the processing of lexical stress differences would be lateralised to the left or right hemisphere by requiring listeners to determine the meanings and grammatical assignments of two-syllable words conveyed through stressed or unstressed syllables. In another linguistic condition, the second experiment placed demands on syntactic parsing operations by requiring listeners to parse syntactically ambiguous sentences which were disambiguated through the perception of prosodic boundaries located at syntactic junctures. A third linguistic condition required listeners to determine the categorical assignment of a speaker's intention of making a statement or asking a question conveyed through the prosodic structures. The fourth experiment was designed to determine hemispheric lateralisation in processing nonlinguistic prosodic structures. In this experiment, listeners were required to determine the emotional state of a speaker conveyed through the prosodic structures in sentences that contained semantic information which was either congruent or incongruent with the emotional content of the prosodic structures. Results : When subjects were asked to identify lexical stress differences (Experiment 1), syntactically ambiguous sentences (Experiment 2), and questions and statements (Experiment 3) conveyed through prosody, the LHD group demonstrated a significantly poorer performance than the control and RHD groups. When asked to identify emotions conveyed through prosody (Experiment 4), the RHD group demonstrated a significantly poorer performance than the control and LHD groups. Conclusion : These findings support the functional lateralisation theory that proposes a left hemisphere dominance for processing linguistic prosodic structures and a right hemisphere dominance for processing nonlinguistic prosodic structures.

KYOTO SUCCESS IN JAPAN'S HANDS

JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER Junichiro Koizumi has made ambiguous statements about his nation's plans for the Kyoto protocol on global climate change. Since President George W. Bush announced that he was rejecting the protocol, Japan's ratification has become critical to the treaty's future. On June 30, in a meeting in the Koizumi appeared to tell Bush that Japan would not ratify the protocol without U.S. participation. Presently, I do not have the intention of proceeding without the cooperation of the U.S., he said. To the very last moment, I will work with the U.S. in cooperating on environmental issues. The Bush Administration concluded from Koizumi's remarks that Japan shared the U.S.'s negative view of the protocol. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on July 1 that the treaty appeared to be dead and that the Administration would continue to push alternative plans for increased research and voluntary programs on greenhouse gas reductions. I'm glad to ...

Risk classification systems for drug use during pregnancy: are they a reliable source of information?

In several countries, risk classification systems have been set up to summarise the sparse data on drug safety during pregnancy. However, these have resulted in ambiguous statements that are often difficult to interpret and use with accuracy when counselling patients on drug use in pregnancy. The objective of this study was to compare and analyse the consistency between and the criteria for risk classification for medications used during pregnancy included in 3 widely used international risk classification systems. All 3 systems use categories based on risk factors to summarise the degree to which available clinical information has ruled out the risk to unborn offspring, balanced against the drug's potential benefit to the patient. Drugs included in the risk classification systems from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee (ADEC) and the Swedish Catalogue of Approved Drugs (FASS), were reviewed and compared on basis of the risk factor category to which they had been assigned. Agreement between the systems was calculated as the number of drugs common to all 3 and assigned to the same risk factor category. In addition, evidence on teratogenicity and adverse effects during pregnancy was retrieved using a MEDLINE search (from 1966 up to 1998) for common drugs classified as teratogenic. Differences in the allocation of drugs to different risk factor categories were found. Risk factor category allocation for 645 drugs classified by the FDA, 446 classified by ADEC and 527 classified by FASS was compared. Only 61 (26%) of the 236 drugs common to all 3 systems were placed in the same risk factor category. Analysis of studies on the safety of common drugs during pregnancy of drugs classified as X by the FDA indicated that the variability in category allocation was not only attributable to the different definitions for the categories, but also depended on how the available scientific literature was handled. Differences in category allocation for the same drug can be a source of great confusion among users of the classification systems as well as for those who require information regarding risk for drug use during pregnancy, and may limit the usefulness and reliability of risk classification systems.

‘NOT FOR RESUSCITATION’: GUIDELINES FOR DECISION MAKING AND DOCUMENTATION

SUMMARYIn 1991, the government's Chief Medical Officer made it clear that the responsibility for resuscitation policy lay with consultants, and that they should ensure this policy was understood by all staff caring for a patient, in particular junior medical staff. Since then, many hospitals and trusts have provided members of the multidisciplinary team with guidance on how to ensure that adequate and satisfactory communication is in place to record a patient's resuscitation status. However, as is common in the NHS, poor documentation is still evident. Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital Trust has been using a document since April 1998 which is clearly written, user friendly and does not contain ambiguous statements. With ongoing audit of this policy document we hope to reduce the incidence of inappropriate resuscitation attempts which are costly, both emotionally and financially, for all concerned.

A Comparison of One‐ and Two‐Sided Tests for Judging Significant Differences in Quantitative Data Obtained in Toxicological Bioassay of Laboratory Animals

A Comparison of One‐ and Two‐Sided Tests for Judging Significant Differences in Quantitative Data Obtained in Toxicological Bioassay of Laboratory Animals. Katsumi Kobayashi. Biosafety Research Center, Foods, Drugs and Pesticides—Since there are many ambiguous statements concerning the selection of one‐ or two‐sided tests in the statistical analysis of toxicological data, I examined the rate of appearance of significant differences in the data showing a trend in either a fixed direction or a mixed sided direction compared with the control and the number of significant differences to these two tests by t and Dunnett's tests in a long‐term chronic/carcinogenicity study conducted at the An‐Pyo Center, in addition to referring to the most widely used statistical analyses by mean of the one‐or two‐sided test in the literature. The results were as follows; (1) Almost all quantitative data (578 out of 700 cases) showed a fixed trend with statistically significant differences (p<0.05) compared with the control value. (2) The number of significant differences obtained with the one‐sided test was greater than with the two‐sided test in either analysis of the t or Dunnett's test; that is, the percentages of the significant differences in the two‐sided test were 85 and 86% of those in the one‐sided test by means of t and Dunnett's test, respectively. (3) The frequency of use of the one‐sided tests was very low in both Japanese and international publications. Consequently, the one‐sided test may be recommended for statistical analyses of toxicological bioassay data that generally show a fixed trend as compared with the control values, since more rigid evaluation of the data of the chemical effects on the living body and the environment is necessary.

Preference programming through approximate ratio comparisons

In the context of hierarchical weighting, this paper operationalizes interval judgments which allow the decision maker to enter ambiguous preference statements by indicating the relative importance of factors as intervals of values on a ratio scale. Through such judgments the decision maker can capture the subjective uncertainty in his preferences and thus avoid the often cumbersome elicitation of exact ratio estimates. After each new statement the interval judgments are synthesized into dominance relations on the alternatives by solving a series of linear programming problems. This leads to an interactive process of preference programming which provides more detailed results as the decision maker gradually enters a more specific preference description. Moreover, the overall effort of preference elicitation is smaller than in the analytic hierarchy process because the most preferred alternative can usually be identified before all possible comparisons between pairs of factors have been completed.

Communication Deviances and Clarity Among the Mothers of Normally Achieving and Learning‐Disabled Boys.

The main purpose of the study was to reexamine the association between maternal communication deviances and learning disabilities in children. In this study, we adapted and extended the procedure used by Ditton, Green, and Singer (1987). A two-part experimental task was used: one in which the child could not request any clarification of mother's instructions, and another in which the mother and child could communicate. Both communication deviances and the clarity of mothers' communication were analyzed. The subjects were 60 mother-child pairs in which half of the children had learning disabilities and the other half were normally achieving children matched for age and parents' SES. The dyads were videotaped in a laboratory setting. The mothers of learning-disabled (LD) children were found to give less exact instructions and to present more ambiguous messages to the child than the mothers of non-LD children. Despite the more inaccurate input from their mother, the LD boys did not request clarification for ambiguous statements any more than did the NLD boys.

A comprehensive introduction to vector algebra

Vectors can basically be defined in four ways: geometrically, analytically, axiomatically, and physically. Authors normally choose the approach best suited to that aspect of vectors they wish to elaborate on. Ambiguous and contradictory statements are common in introductory vector algebra textbooks. The author suggests that vectors need not be defined strictly to beginners, After all, they probably do not know a strict definition of numbers. It is important for students to know that operations on vectors can be carried out geometrically or analytically, and that both methods yield the same result. The student should be introduced to more than one notation, but nonsensical statements such as v = vt must be warned against. It is hoped that the emphasis on developing an algebra for entities representable by directed line segments, rather than on what a vector is, will be beneficial to students.

Reasoning about scene descriptions

When a scene is described by means of natural language sentences, many details are usually omitted, because they are not in the focus of the conversation. Moreover, natural language is not the best tool to define precisely positions and spatial relationships. The process of interpreting ambiguous statements and inferring missing details involves many types of knowledge, from linguistics to physics. This paper is mainly concerned with the problem of modeling the process of understanding descriptions of static scenes. The specific topics covered by this work are the analysis of the meaning of spatial prepositions, the problem of the reference system and dimensionality, the activation of expectations about unmentioned objects, the role of default knowledge about object positions and its integration with contextual information sources, and the problem of space representation. The issue of understanding dynamic scenes descriptions is briefly approached in the last section.

The ‘Barnum Effect’ in Personality Assessment: A Review of the Literature

This review summarizes to date the research on the Barnum effect, the tendency for people to accept vague, ambiguous, and general statements as descriptive of their unique personalities. Studies examined address interpretation variables of the Barnum profiles in regard to generality and supposed relevance of the interpretation, favorability of interpretation, type of assessment procedure, and origin and format of interpretation. Also the role of personal factors such as characteristics of the subject and test administrator are examined. It is concluded that the level of acceptance of Barnum profiles depends on the relevance and favorability of the profile and to some extent on the type of assessment utilized. Directions for research on the Barnum effect are provided.

Award Fee Contracting as a J-Model Alternative to Revitalize Federal Program Management

An important feature of the American political economy is the extent to which it relies on private parties to accomplish public purposes. Contracting out governmental functions to private organizations has the ironic effect of blurring boundaries between public and private institutions. In the process, it raises crucial questions about what the government's responsibility is in mixedsector enterprises. Should government be other than merely sponsor and monitor of private performance of public functions? The position here is that, if government work to be done by contract is simple and well-specified, traditional methods may be used. Contracting and its management in such cases are straightforward. They can be done mechanically, at arms-length, and the government's part in actually doing the work can be negligible. But major complications occur when the work is complex and not well-specified, as it is in research and development or large-scale system acquisitions. One complication is uncertainty. Work statements are inevitably vague, and circumstances change in unpredictable ways. Managing under uncertainty calls for flexibility and judgment-problem solving-not routine performance of fixed procedures. Real managers, not mechanical systems must be at the heart of complex operations because only human beings can recognize and solve the problems those operations inevitably generate. Contracting must accommodate to this reality. The second complication is interdependence, a problem that is exacerbated by uncertainty. All contracting is inherently an exercise in interdependence. Under uncertainty, however, relations are active and intense because transactions must be continuously and collectively managed. Ambiguous work statements must be clarified on the basis of shared experience and redefined as circumstances or perceptions change and the public's interest must be protected in the process. Agents of the government, most particularly its program managers, must therefore participate directly and influentially in these dynamic undertakings. Contracting must accommodate to this requirement, too. Award fee contracting is a joint government/contractor approach to facilitate such participation. Lessons learned in recent Department of Defense and * To implement mixed-sector governmental programs effectively, they must often be conducted as joint undertakings by a government client and a private contractor. In practice, this means that provisions are needed to facilitate active involvement of government managers in the operations of these programs. A broadly applicable way to implement this J-model prescription-award fee contracting-is described and justified in this paper.

DIFFERENCES IN CRITICAL READING PERFORMANCE BETWEEN PUPILS IN SIXTH AND EIGHT GRADES

This study examines the area of critical reading in which pupils are to judge the truth value of statements related to social studies passages. A total of 526 subjects, 250 sixth grade and 276 eighth grade pupils were required to judge 45 statements, six statements for each of the seven passages, as either “true” (T), “probably true” (PT), “not enough facts” (NE), “probably false” (PF) or “false” (F) based upon passage information. Pupils differed significantly on 11 of 42 statements (X = 4.25, p<.05 to 51.65, p<.001). Findings support previous research that shows older pupils to be more aware of organizational structure, more precise in assessing information and better able to deal with logical relationships. Younger pupils respond more impulsively to ambiguous statements. When judging conclusive statements, the majority of sixth appear to rely upon their own belief system rather than upon passage information.

Ultrastructural Aspects of the Host-Parasite Relationship in Ichthyophthiriasis

The parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, is bordered on its outer surface by one to several layers of host (Ictalurus punctatus) epidermal cells. With reference to the position of the parasite relative to the dermis, there intervenes between parasite and dermis: (1) several layers of epidermal cells and an intact basal lamina; (2) a single layer of epidermal cells and an intact basal lamina; (3) a single layer of epidermal cells and a discontinuous basal lamina; (4) a discontinuous layer of epidermal cells and an intact basal lamina; and (5) a discontinuous basal lamina. In some instances, the epidermal cells are extremely attenuated. Very little or considerable space intervenes between the host cells and the parasite. In no instance did a parasite penetrate into the dermis. Parasites did not feed on host red blood cells. The possibility is noted that host defense mechanisms destroy infecting parasites. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Fouquet, 1876) is a holotrichous ciliate protozoon that belongs to the suborder Ophryoglenina of the order Hymenostomatida (see Corliss, 1979). In the epidermal phase (trophont stage) of its life cycle, I. multifiliis is an obligate parasite (Amlacher, 1970), infecting the gills, skin, eyes, and fins of fish (Nigrelli et al., 1976). Nigrelli et al. (1976) mention susceptibility only in fresh-water fish, but van Duijn (1967) and Corliss (1979) state that both marine and fresh-water fish are attacked by the trophonts. The pathological condition produced, viz., ichthyophthiriasis, ich or disease, is characterized by the appearance on the affected parts of the fish of numerous white spots, each having a diameter up to 1.0 mm. Each white spot represents the locus of from 1-6 parasites, more or less surrounded by epidermal cells, which may have undergone a proliferation about the parasites (van Duijn, 1967). The literature contains several long and short reviews of the lengthy history of the causative organism (Canella & Rocchi-Canella, 1976; Chapman & Kern, 1983; Corliss, 1979; Hoffman, 1967; Nigrelli et al., 1976). In spite of this lengthy history, the numerous reports pertaining to the organism, and the recent revival of interest in the organism brought about by world-wide efforts at fish farming and the fact that the organism is one of the most important pathogenic parasites of cultured fish (Goven et al., 1980; Hines & Spira, 1973; Nigrelli et al., 1976), a literature search revealed only seven reports concerned with the ultrastructure of I. multifiliis. These reports discussed: the contractile vacuole system (Mosevitch, 1965); the oral structure, contractile vacuole, and somatic cortex (Roque et al., 1967); the kinetid (Lom & Corliss, 1971); the nuclear changes occurring throughout the cell cycle (Hauser, 1972, 1973); the The author thanks Mr. G. Patrick Riordan, Mr. Robert C. Kern, and Miss Andrea S. Blake for their technical assistance. TRANS. AM. MICROSC. SOC., 103(4): 364-375. 1984. ? Copyright, 1984, by the American Microscopical Society, Inc. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.153 on Mon, 19 Sep 2016 04:45:05 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms VOL. 103, NO. 4, OCTOBER 1984 contractile vacuole and cortex (Chapman & Kern, 1983); and the morphology of the cyst wall (Ewing et al., 1983). The literature includes several contradictory and ambiguous statements about the host-parasite relationship but no electron micrographs illustrating that relationship. Therefore, we examined, by light and electron microscopy, this facet of the biology of ichthyophthiriasis. Additional motivation was provided by the perception that evidence is increasing to suggest that a knowledge of fine structural features can help to explain disease processes, and may even open avenues of treatment or mechanisms of prevention (Fawcett, 1977). MATERIALS AND METHODS A 5.0-cm long channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), which had become heavily infected with white spot disease, was decapitated and its soft dorsal fin was removed. The fin was fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde and 2.0% paraformaldehyde (Karnovsky, 1965), buffered at pH 7.3 with 0.1 M phosphate (Millonig, 1961), washed three times in buffer, post-fixed in 2% OsO4, rinsed twice in buffer, dehydrated in ethanol followed by propylene oxide, and embedded in Epon 812 (Luft, 1961). Ultrathin sections (40-60 nm) were cut with a diamond knife (E. I. Dupont, Wilmington, Delaware) and a Porter-Blum MT2-B ultramicrotome. The ultrathin sections were stained with 5.0% uranyl acetate in 50% ethanol for 11 min (Gibbons and Grimstone, 1960), washed in distilled water and stained again in 0.2% lead citrate for 2 min (Venable & Coggeshall, 1965). Following washing in distilled water, the ultrathin sections were studied with an RCA EMU-2D electron microscope. Thin sections (0.5-1.0 ,um) also were cut, with the same instrumentation, transferred to histological slides, and stained with methylene blue and Azur II according to the procedure of Richardson et al. (1960). The thin sections were studied with a monocular Bausch & Lomb research microscope, equipped with Bausch & Lomb or Nikon lenses, and illuminated with bright-field transmitted

Types of Utterances to Avoid When Speaking to Language-Delayed Children

Five common types of language utterances that cause confusion for language-delayed children are reviewed in this paper. They are sarcasm, idiomatic expressions, ambiguous statements, indirect requests, and words with multiple meanings.

Structure and function in neurobiology: a conceptual framework and the localization of functions.

A framework of concepts on structure and function of the nervous system is presented, in which we attempt to formulate the intended meanings of some ambiguous statements on structure and function in neurobiology in a set of strictly defined concepts. Function. The word "function" as generally used has different meanings. Two meanings of the question "What is the function of B?" are particularly relevant for this subject: (1) "What does B do?" and (2) "Why did B evolve?" It is shown that question 1 must be answered before question 2. Function of brain region S. The question "What does brain region S do?" has a meaning identical to the question "What is the relation between inputs and outputs of S, at specified conditions of S?" The answer to this question is the I/O-function. The I/)-function can be described at different levels, for instance at the molecular or cellular level. When neuroscientists ask "What is the function of brain region S?", the intended meaning appears to be either "What is the extra-CNS I/O-function of S?," or "Why did S evolve?" The "extra-CNS I/O-function of CNS subsystem S" is "the I/O-function of S in which input and output elements are outside the CNS". In many cases, neuroscientists want to know the "behavioral I/O-function of CNS subsystem S," i.e., the "I/O-function of S in which input and output elements are outside the organism"; they want to know "what is represented by the inputs of S outside the organism, and what are the effects of the outputs of S outside the organism." Loosely speaking, when a neuroscientist wants to know "the function of brain region S," he wants to know "the meaning of its neural messages, and their behavioral effects." Some examples of generally accepted behavioral I/O-functions of clearly sensory and motor parts of the CNS are presented. Localization of function. The following conclusions are drawn for "localization of function F." (1) "Function F" must be specified as "I/O-function F' " referring to input and output elements outside the CNS. (2) "Localization of I/O-function F' " is a kind of shorthand for "identification of the neural activity representing the states of these input and output elements." (3) If neurons exist whose activity only (or mainly) represents this input ("pontifical cells"), and/or only (or mainly) generates this output ("command neurons") (or, in other words, whose behavioral I/O-function is F'), it might be said metaphorically that "function F is localized in these neurons." In most cases, the existence of such neurons is still on open question.

Admissions, academic policy, and external relations

Discussing the effects of admission and academic policies and procedures, one could focus on specific groups or agencies within communities of the community college. This approach would miss the full impact of the discussion, however. For all these groups consist, at base, of actual people who can also become college students. As students, they no longer remain external. They may enroll classes to earn a degree, obtain a promotion, learn a hobby, just learn, discover who they are, or have a night out. Whatever the reasons, they are students and interact intimately with the college. While everything a college does may effect its external relations within the college's communities, admission and academic policies and processes possess power to influence profoundly and pervasively. Such policies can affect the individual person within the community directly and many people indirectly. We assume here that a moder community college's external relations should allow people to perceive it as what it is and that it is what it purports to be: an open door, egalitarian institution, performance based and community oriented, interested meeting as many of its community education needs as appropriate to its mission. However, the community college should be understood for what it is, not what it might pretend, regardless of consequences. If not the institution described above, the community college should not build a false image the public mind; if it is, it should not communicate otherwise. Community colleges like to discuss open-door admissions policies they claim to follow, the thing higher education today. According to Birenbaum, national consensus reveals that . .. everyone can be educated and should be educated to the full limit of his abilities and desires.' Frequently, however, an admissions statement a catalog includes a number of disclaimers. A student must prove can benefit from instruction, be a school graduate or equivalent, be 18 years of age or older if has not completed high school, and/or prove he can be successful the curriculum of his choice. Ambiguous statements certainly, but the message sent, sometimes loudly and clearly and sometimes quite subtly, is selection, not extension of opportunity to all who would try but rather provided only to those who have earned it. Screening out rather than inclusion in is the essence of the communication. For what reason do we add these statements to an affirmation of open-door