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Tuesday, November 26, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Stop Day not enough time to start studying for finals
Finals present a stressful situation for students in all disciplines. To prepare for finals, many students try to cram a semester's worth of knowledge into a few last study sessions. Of course, students should study throughout the semester to avoid the last-minute crunch. However, in many cases, students use only one day to begin studying for finals --- Stop Day.
This semester, Stop Day falls on Wednesday, Dec. 11. With the established finals schedule, students who have a Tuesday/Thursday class may have class on Tuesday, and then have only Wednesday to prepare for a final exam on Thursday. This is not enough time to prepare comprehensively, especially if a student has two finals on a given day.
At several of our peer schools, students are given more time to prepare. In fact, at each of our five peer institutions — University of Iowa, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Oregon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Oklahoma at Norman — students are given at least two days to prepare for finals. At Colorado and North Carolina, the last day of classes this fall is on a Wednesday and the first day of finals is on a Monday, giving students four days to concentrate on preparing for exams. Administrators at these schools recognize that although students should keep up with their studies throughout the semester, they often don't. Rather than penalize students for this, these administrators offer students a reasonable amount of time to play catch-up. In addition, even the most studious individuals could benefit from extra time to prepare.
Administrators, in conjunction with the registrar's office, should extend the preparation period for final examinations.
ANN MARCHAND FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The muddled process of advising at the University has needed an overhaul for a long time. The Board of Regents finally has recognized this and has organized a committee to revamp the advising system.
Advising system is a waste of students' money
A story in the Nov. 21 Kansan outlined some suggestions the committee will consider: rewards for faculty members dedicated to advising and a $1,000 bonus for faculty who show exceptional advising skills. As it now stands, faculty are not trained to advise.
"We just hand people an undergraduate timetable and say 'go advise,'" said Diana Carlin, associate professor of communication studies and chairperson of the committee for advising changes.
The University should focus on training those who advise. Helping students choose classes should be part of a professor's job, not a chance for a holiday bonus.
Carlin also said in the article, "Advising is establishing relationships with faculty." The personal contact is needed so students can allocate their time and money wisely.
Students need more resources, such as the Student Support Services Program. It is a federally financed program for qualifying students that offers academic advising, career counseling, tutoring, graduation planning and advice on other matters concerning college life. Because the program can serve only 240 students, advisers become closely acquainted with students and give them the best advice. The University needs to do this for the other 24.500 students who need assistance.
Advising can save students' time and money. Unfortunately, it has already cost them both. The committee's official plans will be done by early December. It should find a way to salvage a system that students depend on.
CARA SKODACK FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSANSTAFF
AMANDA TRAUGHBER
Editor
CRAIG LANG
Managing editor
MATT HOOD
Associate managing editor for design
KIMBERLY CRABTREE
CHARITY JEFFRIES
News editors
DARCI L. McLAIN
SARA ROSE
Public relations directors
Editora
Campus ... Suamna Lóbf
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KAREN GERSCH
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HEALY SMART
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TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
JUSTIN KNUPP
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Mark Oxlmk
regional mgr ... Donna Haupt
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Lisa Quebbeman
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Steve Sanger
Jeff MacNelly/ CHICAGO TRIBUNE
The other day as I was mixing a little 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran and some maleic anhydride to produce the end product known as 1,4-endoxo-1,4-diphenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-2,3-naphthalenedicarboxylic anhydride, a question occurred to me.
"Huh?"
The obvious question is why Are Americans just dumber than the rest of the world? Do the strange and ludicrous terms of organic chemistry lab actually mean something to my Japanese counterparts in the course? Possibly.
Different teaching method may help improve learning
I always had assumed that my question was the universal reaction to the subject, but an article I read recently led me to think otherwise.
I ask myself this question every Wednesday afternoon as I ponder the abstract and seemingly irrelevant concept of organic chemistry in my five-hour lab.
The article is just the latest in the annual series on American incompetency in the classroom. Apparently, on a recent test given to eighth-graders in 41 nations, Americans scored 28th in math and 17th in science, while Japan and several other Asian countries retained top positions.
The obvious question is why?
Another possibility is that American students don't work hard enough. I think we've all heard the stereotype of the Japanese homework machine — the eighth-grader who attends school 10 hours a day and then comes home to relax with some story problems and a little calculus, just for fun. Contrast this with the stereotypical lazy American kid.
As is often the case with stereotypes, it seems the above two
descriptions may be false. According to the article, American students actually spend more time on homework than Japanese students.
To me, this statistic is disheartening. I always had thought that recent Japanese dominance in the auto industry was due to merely the
This is a more optimistic view of the situation. It implies that if we make changes to our education system, Americans one day may score as well as the Japanese in math and science. I think this view makes sense.
second stage of the lazy American kid syndrome — the lazy American adult.
But if our students are working as hard, or even harder than Japanese students and still fall behind academically, maybe we just are not as capable. Maybe we're all destined for a life of manual labor in a giant Casio factory. Then again, maybe another possibility exists.
STAFF COLUMNIST
Education Secretary Richard Riley suggests the difference in test scores may be the result of a difference in teaching methods.
I know little of the Japanese education system. But from my own experience, one of the major problems with the American system is that it emphasizes memorization rather than understanding.
Many American students learn
math through repetitive problemsolving and science through rote memorization of words, numbers and processes. What they often don't learn is a broad understanding of concents.
That is the same reason I walk out of lab every week with a headache and an overwhelming desire to break things. Connections are not being made. Material is presented abstractly instead of within a meaningful context.
The result is that students learn information in the short term, take the test and forget the information three days later.
This is inefficient and may be one of the reasons the United States lags behind other countries in science and math.
Admittedly, it's not always easy to make these subjects seem relevant to students' lives, but it can be done.
This year in my third biology class, for example, I began to understand many difficult concepts for the first time. Instead of learning just names and processes, I learned how they applied in a larger sense to other areas. I learned, for example, why alcohol dehydrates the body and the neurological basis of heroin addiction. This went beyond the abstract and actually meant something. This is how learning takes place.
Maybe Americans aren't as smart as the rest of the world. Maybe we have a chance to match the Japanese in math and science. But then again, maybe the picture is not so bleak, and all we need is a different approach to education.
Jeff Mudrick is a Topeka sophomore in psychology.
Parking Department absent on game day
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I discovered to my dismay on Nov. 9 just how completely our University shuts down on game days. Arriving in my car at my scholarship hall at 12:45 p.m., I found no remaining parking spaces. Alumni Place parking lots (and there are about four) are restricted 24 hours, year-round, and every sign states that one must have the appropriate sticker or tag on one's car to park in one of the spaces. This is so scholarship hall residents will have places to park. Until Nov. 9, I have never been unable to find a space.
What made me incredibly angry and frustrated was that many of the spots were taken, or invented, by people without any sort of permit. I wanted to write nasty little notes asking all of those drivers whether they realized how selfish and inconsiderate their illegal parking had been.
Campus authorities allowed no outlet for my frustration. Despite what the man at KU Info said—and he was the only live voice I could get on the phone—no one was answering the phone at the parking department. Its recording advised me to dial zero for an emergency or towing question. No one answered at this "emergency" number, and the KU switchboard also was closed. I'm not the type to go out and slash tires, but I was beginning to feel as if that was my only option.
Jennette Selig Manhattan junior
Concerning the article on the Cypriot protesters and the political situation in Cyprus (Nov. 18), much of the information presented by Ian Ritter was incomplete, incorrect or biased.
In the future, I hope that at least the parking department will make itself available to tow illegally parked cars on game days, when, not coincidentally, a myriad of cars turn up that way. I feel slighted and insulted because I was given no options, no recourse and no place to park — after I paid $50 for this supposed privilege of an Alumni Place sticker.
Cyprus story omitted important information
The most blatant inaccuracy in the article was the geographic location of Cyprus. Cyprus is not near the coast of Greece. It is approximately 70 miles from the southern coast of Turkey and 500 miles off the coast of Greece.
While Cyprus may be considered a "Greek" island because Greek people have inhabited the island since the time of the Mycenaeans, roughly the time of Greek civilization, Turkish people have resided on the island since the time of the Ottoman Empire, from 1600 to the early 1000s — almost four centuries. At this point, both peoples have legitimate claims on the island; therefore, both groups should be recognized as having a critical interest in the island's politics.
Furthermore, the intent of the Turkish International Association's display case was not to celebrate the occupation of northern Cyprus. The display celebrated the formation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a body that evolved after 20 years and has found no ready solution to the conflict.
The article neglected to represent the Turkish side of the argument. It did not mention the reason for the presence of Turkish troops in the north of Cyprus, nor did it mention the fact that Turkish Cypriots are not represented in the Republic of Cyprus as constitutionally stipulated. Turkish troops first occupied the area because Turkish Cypriots
claimed that genocide was being committed against them by Greeks and Greek Cypriots. They have formed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to represent their interests until some solution is reached.
Catherine Cronlin
Houston, Texas, sophomore
Amy Sumpter
Madisonville, La., sophomore
Editor's note: The Kansan printed a correction about the map and about the Turkish International Association's display on Nov. 19.
Vegetarians are bearing brunt of the sidewalk chalk writings
Wescoe Hall recently has become a forum for the issue of vegetarianism. It was started by vegetarians claiming that meat was murder and that dissection was cruel.
I am a vegetarian, and while I am against dissection and choose not to eat meat, I try not to force my views on anyone else. My feeling is that if people are going to stop eating meat, it has to be their own decli-
STAFF COLUMNIST
sion. And if they are determined to be carnivores, no amount of harassment is going to convert them. I doubt that messages scrawled on sidewalks are going to transform the students of the University of Kansas into a campus of vegetarians. However, I also doubt that the pro-meat
messages written in response are going to change those who follow a vegetarian lifestyle. Both types of messages are pointless and have done nothing but create a mess.
From what I have heard, most people agree that the chalk activists are silly and annoying. However, almost all of the attacks have been against the vegetarians. They have ranged from complaints that vegetarians try to force their beliefs on others to proclamations that meat is good and that everyone should eat it. Oddly enough, I have not heard any criticism against the people who wrote: "Don't be cruel to animals — tell them how good they taste," and "Shut up and eat meat."
I realize that most of the criticism I receive is meant as a joke. But still it gets tiring having to justify my choices when I sit down to dinner. I probably wouldn't even care if people didn't complain about vegetarians harassing others. But seeing that vegetarians are the recipients of much criticism lately, I think it is necessary to remind people that attacks do come from both sides.
If I'm not mistaken, a carnivore telling a vegetarian to shut up and eat meat is no different than a vegetarian telling a carnivore that eating a hamburger is on par with murder. I don't agree with either view, and that is why I don't harass my meateating friends. In fact, none of the vegetarians I know engage in such behavior. Still, I am constantly reprimanded by people who assume that all vegetarians are radical carnivore-bashers.
In the past 2 1/2 years since I have become a vegetarian, I have been assaulted by a deluge of arguments about why I should eat meat. "These animals are being raised for meat," people tell me. "We're supposed to eat them. That's why we have those pointed teeth, to tear meat." Thanks, but I'd rather use my pointed teeth to tear some tofu if the carnivores don't mind.
I especially find it amusing when I hear people bashing vegetarians in general because of a few messages written on the sidewalk. There are millions of vegetarians in the world; it's not as if we're all in some club that plots to convert carnivores, or at least make them feel guilty for their food choices. I have yet to meet a vegetarian on campus who takes credit for the messages. However, I am still taking criticism for the action.
My residence hall recently sponsored a program on vegetarianism that attracted both vegetarians and carnivores. One of the people who described herself as a semi-vegetarian — someone who occasionally eats meat — said she thought vegetarians should not admonish people for eating meat. I completely agree with her. But I find it equally offensive and annoying when people laugh at my "radical" lifestyle and wave hamburgers in my face.
We are all adults on this campus Hopefully, we are also all mature enough to accept that we all have different lifestyles and to learn to respect each other's differences. What we put in our bodies is our own decision, and people should not be criticized for their food choices, whether they be vegetarian or carnivore.
Steph Brower is a Chester, Conn, sophomore in Journalism and French.