l p page 6 The Behrend College Collegian -Thursday,March 19,1998 Nationa Cam us News To the delight of students and the dismay of professors, taking is not what notes By Chad Brooks Campus Correspondent Indiana University Many students are so busy at col lege; they don't have time to go to class, much less to worry about hav ing notes to study when exams roll around. They don't seem too stressed either - especially when they're on cam puses where prepared lecture notes are for sale. Much to the dismay of many pro fessors and school officials, the note taking business is big and getting big ger. Students at Indiana, Ohio State and Pennsylvania State universities; the universities of Florida, Illinois, lowa, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and schools throughout the University of California's system can buy page after page of their professor's musings for as little as $3O for an entire se mester. And they certainly aren't the only ones. Note-taking franchises are popping up on campuses faster than students can ditch class. "I got caught in the rut as a fresh man," said Scott Hayman, now a se nior at Indiana University. "I realized how easy it was not to go to class in the first place. And with notes I could buy, it just made it that much easier" to skip. Although the notes are sometimes inaccurate, Hayman said they have, more often than not, helped him get the job done. "Usually I do quite well consider ing I have never even been to the class that I am studying for," he said. Talk like that sends shivers down the spines of many professors, who say note-taking services cheat the stu dents who use them. Tension among professors at the University of Illinois and two popular services have risen so high that many instructors are copyrighting their lectures to prevent their contents from being sold. (The services say they're not about to cease and desist because they aren't selling lectures verbatim, merely a student's interpretation of them.) "(Note-taking services) con stu dents into thinking that they can miss and still know what happened (in class)," said Marjorie Hershey, a po litical science professor at Indiana University. " I think we all know what it's like to try and understand some- Ricks College keeps traditional values alive Dan Egan Tribune Media Services REXBURG, Idaho - The decades don't seem to fly by fast at Mormon owned Ricks College, a school with about 8,000 students built on a hill side at the edge of eastern Idaho's din ner-plate-flat Snake River Plain. You won't find college kids with little barbells punched through their tongues or Dayglo green hair. Heck, even shorts are prohibited - including those funky knee-length dungarees so popular at the school's big brother, Brigham Young University, also owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What you will find at America's largest private junior college is stu dents in church on Sunday and in bed early Saturday night - alone. Visitors of the opposite sex are pro hibited in unmarried students' off campus apartments after 10 p.m., midnight on weekends. Beer bashes? Try dry dances, where students might hone moves studied in clogging class. It's like a time warp. Two genera tions ago, most American college campuses were rigidly ruled environ ments designed to safely mold a kid into an adult. Today most campuses are socially lax atmospheres where students are free, if not encouraged, to recreate on their own. But Ricks is different. A student's experience at the 109-year-old school likely would mirror that of a student one else's notes. It's just not an ad equate substitute for being present and taking part in discussions." Class discussion - including the tan gems that can put an important con cept into a clearer context - is invalu able, said Indiana journalism profes sor Andrew Rojecki. And then there were the times when a note-taker referred to Carmichael's lecture on rocks at the equator as "rocks at the center of the earth," and to sediments on the sea floor as "settlements." "Not going to class gives you no opportunity to ask questions and re ally understand the material," he said. Allison Desatnik, a senior at Indi ana, knows about that all too well. She said she used a note-taking service only once, and it had a negative af fect on her grade. "When you are used to going to class and taking your own notes and studying things on your terms it is hard to just start studying someone else's interpretation of a class," she said. "It is not even close to what it is like to go to class and take your own notes." Mark Jones, co-owner of The Note Network, a popular service at Indiana, agrees that his business isn't a substi tute for going to class. To help stu dents understand that, The Note Net work makes them sign a waiver ev ery time they make a purchase. It says: "The Note Network provides a ser vice which is to he used as a supple ment to tests and lectures, NOT a sub stitute. The Note Network is not re sponsible or liable for students atten dance or nonattendance of related lec tures." Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even students and professors agree that few custom ers care about that disclaimer when they can get important details from classes ranging from biology and business to geography and journalism. And yes, even physics. The Note Net work only charges $2.50 a day for such heady stuff. three decades ago, and that is by de- "There has always been a little hit more of a parental feeling in the way the college has related to its students," says Elder Henry B. Eyring, a past Ricks president who is now education commissioner for the Mormon Church and a member of its Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The student body, which is 99 per cent Mormon, doesn't seem to have a had reaction to the heavy dose of au thority. "I like the structured environment. It helps keep me on task," says 21- year-old Aaron Paugh, a returned mis sionary. "Ricks gives you the oppor tunity to have fun. Clean fun . . I feel safe here.- Ricks' cloistered history dates back to 1888, when Idaho law prohibited Mormons from voting despite their dense concentration in the eastern Idaho communities that dot the banks of the Snake River. "Parents did not want their children educated in a system in which parents had no voice or control," says David L. Crowder in his recently published history, "The Spirit of Ricks." So lo cal Mormons started an academy that, in the words of historian Merrill D. Beal, was "designed as a shield for (Mormon) children against gentile (non-Mormon) taunts and re proaches." Mormons eventually won back the vote and by the 19605, the school had evolved into an easy-to get-into regional Mormon junior col- it used to be Which begs an important question: Who are these note-takers in whom students place so much trust'? Typi cally, other students. The Note Net work requires that its note-takers have at least a 3.2 grade-point average and he registered in the class they're cov ering. "Given that the campus wide GPA (at Indiana) is a 3.0, that doesn't give me much confidence in the skill of the people they hire," Hershey'said. "Stu dents who purchase these notes are in effect taking a correspondence course, except that they have no idea who they're corresponding with. That's not my idea of learning." Tracy Ore, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois, told the stu dent newspaper, the "Daily Mini, - that notes taken from her classes by a service called I-Notes are "of incred ibly poor quality." "They do a had job," she added. "It's amusing mostly." Robert Carmichael, a geology pro fessor at the University of lowa, has even been known to announce mis- takes note-takers have made to the rest of the class. For example, when he lectured about Crater Lake. Ore., the student note-taker wrote down "Cre ator" Lake "as if it was somehow di vinely inspired," he said. And then there were the times when a note-taker referred to Carmichael's lecture on rocks at the equator as "rocks at the center of the earth," and to sediments on the sea floor as "settlements." Jones, the note-taking service owner, said some people will always complain about the wares he peddles. He insists his business will benefit students who use it properly - and even instructors who want to critique their own teaching by looking at what student note-takers actually take away from their classes. Meanwhile, students like Indiana University senior Jason Snow will quietly pick up their 512.50 exam packs and leave the heated debates to everyone else. "The good far outweighs the had in my eyes," he said. "I guess it could be considered laziness, hut most of the classes I use them for I'm not really interested in anyway." lege, a place a student could move away to and still go home for Sunday dinner. It also served as a safety net for students who could not get into school anywhere else. "Ricks has always had a feeling as a place you could come when you perhaps hadn't had very much aca demic success. You could find your self and raise yourself to academic achievement," says Eyring. "The teachers, rather than trying to simply test the students, have always tried to lift the students." But Ricks is again being redefined The number of students has ex ploded from 1,800 in the mid-1960s to 8,300 today. It draws students from all 50 states and dozens of countries. This year it will turn away more than 1,000 qualified applicants. Church leaders recently gave ad ministrators permission to bump stu dent numbers to 8,600, but that still isn't enough to accommodate every one who wants to attend. Because the pool of potential stu dents continues to deepen due to phe nomenal church growth, Ricks will continue to turn away an increasing number of applicants. It's clear that administrators are not entirely com fortable with their newfound status as a competitive school, especially since admission to BYU is exceptionally tough. "It's awkward in the church when you have a highly selective university and then a two-year school that is also highly selective," says Ricks admis- Ohio State University student makes up a story good enough for The Jenny Jones Show By Gretchen Jeffries College Press Service The Lantern (Ohio State University) Don't believe everything you see on television A 21-year-old Ohio State Univer sity journalism major, along with his roommate, scammed an all-expense paid trip to Chicago to appear on the "Jenny Jones" show. Nathan Collins and his roommate, Frank Munyon, made up a story after watching an episode of the show that requested viewers to call if they had bullied someone during grade school hut wished to apologize for it. Collins made the initial call and told the operator he had tormented Munyon and had lived to regret it. co he considered for the show, Collins spun an interesting yarn "I told them that I held him down and shaved his nipples, 'de-pantsed' him and threw food at him," he said. To really lay it on thick, Collins told the operator he had picked on Munyon because Munyon had a sions director Gordon Westenskow. "It is a very hurtful thing to get a de nial from a two-year college." Westenskow said the school's mis sion is changing from safety net to trampoline. The goal is to launch high-caliber graduates into bachelor's degree programs at public universi ties across the country. "We can crank through an awful lot of kids and disperse them out to other schools, - said Westenskow. "And they can go out and strengthen the (LDS) Institutes at their colleges." LDS Institutes can he found on pub lic college campuses throughout the West. Their purpose is to provide a sense of community for Mormon stu dents and augment a public school's secular curriculum with religious studies. But administrators contend Ricks is much more than a vehicle to fortify the Mormon presence on public cam puses. New President David Bednar, a 45-year-old business professor plucked this year from the University of Arkansas, said he hopes to main tain Ricks' reputation as a nurturing environment. "Our market is to help somebody who is not quite sure about this col lege thing, somebody who clearly has . the ability hut may not be totally con fident," says Bednar "This is a place where students can come and receive extra help and support in finding out who they are and what they want to become - academically and spiritu ally." its Part of that process is adhering to something that has changed little over the years, a stringent code of conduct. Most students have no problem fol lowing the rules; administrators say only about 100 are expelled or asked not to return each year. Compliance is high because students know what to expect before they arrive. About 30 percent are returned missionaries. "There is a strong self-selection here," says Mack Shirley, student life vice president. "Students come here because we are able to deliver some thing that is important for them." Social activities include sledding, dances attended by thousands, rent ing movies and heading out into the surrounding wild lands. The school is less than an hour away from the south west corner of Yellowstone National Park, and the Teton Mountains stab into the horizon 40 miles to the east. Students say the dearth of diver sions in nearly tavern-free Rexburg is compensated by the sense of commu nity they share. Part of that heaven undoubtedly has to do with sex, or at least the potential for it. At Ricks, freshman flings quickly flame into commitments of lifelong fidelity. "People even come out and say they are looking for a wife," says sopho more Kirk Hamilton. Administrators don't refute Ricks' matchmaking reputation, but they are quick to point out it is a byproduct of like-minded, mating-aged students seeking a quality education. They ap preciate the school's small class sizes and the philosophy of tying the gos pel into everything from anthropol ogy to calculus. chipped tooth. Collins said he empa thized with Munyon years later be cause he also had wound up losing one his front teeth. "I also told them that Frank dropped out of school and that I thought it might he because I was so cruel to him," he said. The ruse worked. Collins and Munyon were the first set of guests booked for the show. Collins took notes on what he had told the show's producers so he and Munyon could keep their stories straight. It was a smart move, Collins said, because the producers called both men several times to corroborate their stories. Collins said the producers inten tionally antagonized him. He said they repeatedly called and asked him why he wanted to apologize. Collins said the producers referred to him in de rogatory terms when they called Munyon. Collins also said the produc ers told Munyon he didn't have to accept Collins' apology. On March 4, the roommates were Spring Break may have mellowed out somewhat Florida By Todd Pack Knight-Ridder Newspapers DAYTONA BEACH - Poolside at the Holiday Inn Sun Spree Resort, near a giant balloon painted to re semble a condom package, Meghan Tally sits on a deck chair and writes a postcard to her mother: "You wouldn't believe how crazy Daytona Beach is," she writes. "I don't think you would like it." The Emory University freshman is probably right abort that, but Daytona Beach police say spring break isn't as crazy at it was a few years ago. In the first week of spring break this year, the number of arrests was down slightly from the same period in 1997, police spokesman Rob Brinkerhoff said Monday. Police arrested 400 people on felony and misdemeanor charges in the week ended Sunday, Brinkerhoff said. That compares with 413 during opening week of spring break in 1997, Spring Break '97, he said. Police don't know how many of those were spring breakers. But Brinkerhoff said this year's to tal is noteworthy because police have changed how they count arrests dur ing spring break. Last year's number includes only those people charged by Daytona Beach authorities, he said. This year's includes people arrested by police in other east Volusia County cities including Holly Hill and South Daytona, he said. That means the number of people arrested by Daytona Beach police is probably well below 400, Brinkerhoff said. Why are students less rowdy? One reason might by last week's chilly weather, Brinkerhoff said. The temperature dipped into the 40s at night. "It might've been too cold for them to go out and get into trouble," he said. A list of charges filed last week was not available Monday, but most of those arrested during the first week of spring break last year had been drinking, Brinkerhoff said. Despite last week's arrests, he said, spring breakers are generally well behaved. Tourism officials estimate tens of thousands of students, most of them flown to separate Chicago airports and had limousines waiting for them when they arrived. Collins said they were driven io separate four-star ho tels and given S4O-a-day bar and res taurant tabs. The taping was March 6. While in Chicago. Collins said he and Munyon went out together and called each other regularly. The day of the taping, Collins said he and Munyon were escorted to sepa rate green rooms where they were prepped for the show. "They told us 'This is what Jenny has on her blue card; this is what you've said, and this is how it's sup posed to go,' " Collins said. A spokeswoman from the "Jenny Jones" show was unable to answer questions regarding how guests are chosen, how stories are validated and who pays for guests' travel costs. Collins and Munyon don't know when the show will air, but they said producers told them it would he two to four weeks after taping. from schools in the Northeast or Mid west, checked into the city's heachside hotels last week. Ormond Beach tourism consultant Evelyn Fine said 140,000 to 150,000 students would vacation in Daytona Beach during the three-week spring break season. On average, they'll spend less than In 1993, MTV stopped covering spring break events in Daytona Beach after officials complained its raucous programs were hurting the city's image $5OO each, she said If that figure is correct, spring breakers will put $7O million to $75 million in Daytona Beach coffers this month That is down considerably from the $l2O million students spent in 1989, when a record 400,000 college stu dents visited the town. They picked fights, urinated and vomited in the street and slept in their cars in residential neighborhoods. The city has since cracked down on the unruly behavior and curbed efforts to promote Daytona Beach as a spring break destination. In 1993, MTV stopped covering spring break events in Daytona Beach after officials complained its raucous programs were hurting the city's im age. But while police and merchants say this year's spring breakers stay close to the tourist strip, people who live nearby say they can still be plenty rowdy. Judy Howe, 47, who lives on Grandview Avenue, says she can't sleep at night because of drunken stu dents yelling obscenities from the nearby Desert Inn, a spring break hub. "It's just unreal," she said Monday. "I take Tylenol P.M. and wear ear plugs, and they still wake me up." Daytona Beach might rank behind other cities, such as Panama City Beach, as a spring break destination, she said, "but the party isn't over."
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