PAGE 6, THE BEHREND BEACON, FEBRUARY 4, 2000
NATIONAL CAMPUS NEWS
Students attend virtual school
in high
by Christy Hoppe
Knight-Ridder Tribune
January 25, 20(K)
AUSTIN, Texas The start of
classes used to mean searching
crowded bookstores, bouncing from
aerospace to zoology, then waiting in
a mile-long checkout line stooped by
50 pounds of hardback knowledge.
Pool, or rather "click, - it's
changed.
Thousands of University of Texas
students, and others nationwide, be
gin the new semester Tuesday, Janu
ary 25. virtually altered.
The virtual student goes to the Uni
versity Co-op's Internet site, clicks on
a course nu tuber, types in a credit
card. and picks up their bundled text
books like so much take-out pizza.
And that's nothing. Students now
download class notes, term papers,
tutorials. and even entire self-paced
classes. They converse with profes
sors via e-mail and visit Web sites in-
stead of teaching assistants to get
broader explanations of difficult top-
Educators say computers have
changed everything, or they say that
in some ways. it's just sped up the
same old things.
Judy Ashcroft, director of UT's
Distance Learning Center, said 6,000
students are enrolled in university
classes that never meet and have no
walls. They rely on the Internet.
"But we've been doing this for 90
years, - Ashcroft said. Instead of the
Internet, they used to mail materials
hack and forth. It was called a corre
spondence course, she said. But
imagination matched with technology
has made many of these courses dra
matically different, Ashcroft said.
Protesters demand equal time
by Amanda Hill
Colorado Daily
University of Colorado
January 27. 2000
BOULDER, Colo. (TMS) A
graduate student career fair at the
University of Colorado at Boulder
turned into a battlefield of sorts Tues
day, January 25, as protesters urged
students to look outside big corpora-
tions for jobs.
Students, career services staff, and
university security clashed with dem
onstrators from the World Action and
Awareness Coalition of Equal United
Progressives (WAAKE-UP!). Group
members carried a banner that read,
"Students are NOT products, Teach
ers are NOT tools, The University is
NOT a factory!"
The protest came complete with
"Crackers the Corporate-Crime-
Fighting Chicken" and an Uncle Sam
look-alike, both of whom dashed
through hallways, handing out fliers
to surprised students.
The three-minute protest ended
when a campus security guard forc
ibly booted Crackers and Uncle Sam
out of the building.
"We're protesting the whole idea
that corporations can pay money to
use our campus without our consent,
and we can't go up and hand out our
fliers," said CU student Aaron Ibur,
who was kicked out of the career fair
Students push to be gi
public colleges' board
by Alice Warchol
Knight-Ridder Tribune
January 31, 2000
A group of student leaders from
Virginia public colleges is pushing
legislation that would give students
the right to sit on university govern
ing boards.
Three bills, all containing similar
language, would amend Virginia's
code to require state universities to
appoint one or more students to their
boards of visitors if they don't al
ready have student representation.
The students couldn't vote, but
they would be able to participate in
most university discussions.
"If a student can sit on a student
conduct hearing, why couldn't they
serve on a board of visitors?" asked
tech Information Age
"Everything is being looked at with
fresh eyes," Ashcroft said.
She said biology students now dis
sect one frog a million different ways
using a computer program saving
scores of real frogs. Or physics stu
dents use animation to mix different
chemicals saving scores of real
laboratories.
"A history course about Vietnam
can have students link to government
documents, political speeches, news
paper articles, and TV news clips.
They can go to bulletin boards where
Vietnam vets are talking to each
other," Ashcroft said.
The students choose long-distance
courses for a variety of reasons: some
have internships out of the city; some
are seniors who need one hard-to-get
class to graduate; or they are profes
sionals who come back to take re
fresher courses.
"There are other folks who might
have majored in a technical area, and
they're in middle life and they're
coming back and taking philosophy
and art," Ashcroft said.
All the technical change is just a
beginning, said UT education and
technology professor Paul Resta. He
said students have registered and
filled out forms on-line for years, and
now educators are working with tech
nology to see how it augments tradi
tional instruction.
"I think what you're seeing is the
initial wave of the impact of technol
ogy on teaching, - Resta said.
For instance, students of education
are introduced to a make-believe
school district, Mustang ISD, that has
problems taken from the real world.
They meet their videotaped superin
tendent and get their marching orders.
Mustang's problems are solved or
for distributing fliers displaying in
formation about several of the par
ticipating corporations. "This vio
lates our First Amendment right."
WAAKE-UP! members said they
have been trying for years to get a
table at the annual career fair so they
could share their views. Group mem
bers rejected university officials'
claims that several student groups,
including WAAKE-UP!, were in
vited to attend a series of meetings
to discuss an appearance at this year's
fair. WAAKE-UP! members did not
respond, university officials said.
We weren't at the meetings be-
cause we weren't invited!" said
WAAKE-UP! member Chris
O'Loughlin.
University officials immediately
bounced protestors out of the fair be
cause their tactics "intimidated" other
students and employers, said Gordon
Gray, director of the university's ca
reer services.
"Cooperative employees and the
[university's security helped avert a
major confrontation," Gray said.
"We don't want protesters and politi
cal issues to get in the way of the
meaningful contact between students
and employers."
WAAKE-UP! members said they
would continue their push to show
other students that there are alterna
tives to working for multi-national
corporations.
Tommy R. Smigiel, student body
president at Old Dominion Univer
sity.
Smigiel and 14 students from four
universities visited Richmond last
week to find a sponsor for their leg
islation. They found support in the
Senate and the House.
"Since it's the student and his par
ent that are providing all the fund
ing, it seems reasonable that they
would have some kind of represen
tation on the board of visitors," said
Del. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia
Beach, author of one of the bills.
Other sponsors are from Northern
and western Virginia.
Some universities James
Madison, George Mason, Univer
sity of Virginia, and Mary Washing
ton already have student board
worsen based on the students' series
of recommended solutions.
Resta said he also sees problems
with the new technology. The qual
ity of on-line instruction varies
widely. And some of its uses are akin
to old-fashioned cheating, he said.
Numerous Web sites provide term
papers on any topic written to "exact
specifications," for about $l3 a page.
One site touted, "our writers only
work on subjects in which they have
earned their master's or PhD." The
student can request specific points to
be mentioned and delivery is guar
anteed within five days. In small
print, the site says the reports are
copyrighted and sold for "reference
purposes only."
Other sites offer notes from specific
class lectures, book reports, and
course synopses, all for a price.
While the ease and speed is trou
bling, in many ways they're the same
old problems that teachers have
fought since before the invention of
Cliff's Notes.
"It's only an electronic version of
what used to he passed around a fra
ternity house, - Resta said. "But the
faculty are aware of this and con
cerned about it.-
He said instructors can help com
bat Internet-produced papers by as
signing specialized topics and know
ing a student's capabilities.
The harder challenge is keeping up
with knowledgeable students in this
field, he said. "This is not new tech
nology to them. This is part of their
culture. The Internet is just a given,'
Resta said.
Exactly, said Thomas Steele, vice
president of the University Co-op, the
main campus textbook supplier. The
Co-op's Web site, after years of of
at U. of Colorado career fair
Security officers eject Crackers the Corporate-Crime-Fighting
Chicken from the University of Colorado Career Fair at University
Memorial Center in Boulder. The protesters were part of World
Action and Awareness Coalition of Equal United Progressives
(WAAKE-UP!).
yen seats on Va.
members. The legislation, if passed,
would extend to all state colleges.
"I think it's a good idea because
the university is about students and
not the politics that have come into
it," said Levi E. Willis, student gov
ernment president at Norfolk State
University.
"The real reason for this univer
sity is students," the junior said.
"We need a voice in every place
possible."
At one time, ODU's board Rec
tor Edward L. Hamm Jr. thought
that way, too
He proposed having faculty mem
bers and students on the Board of
Visitors three years ago, but became
convinced that "it possibly would
create more problems than it would
cure."
fering Longhorn merchandise, began
last summer offering textbook sales
on-line
"I'd have looked like an idiot if I
hadn't done it,' Steele said.
About 5 percent of customers buy
their books through the Co-op's Web
site. That number will only grow, he
said.
But the change isn't as sweeping
as it may appear, Steele said.
When the Co-op sent out a letter
asking students if they wanted to use
the on-line service, about 2,000 re
sponded. Even though they could
have e-mailed their answers, 80 per
cent filled out the form and mailed it
back, he said.
Matt Peeples, a second-semester
archaeology student, said he's never
bought textbooks any other way than
through the Web.
"I just fill out the classes I need,
and they have the books waiting for
me," he said.
E-mail is also his preferred way of
talking to professors, instead of vis
iting during office hours: "It's less
threatening," he said.
Misha Shaver, a sophomore, said
her zoology professor had links on his
Web page to additional information
on a variety of topics covered in class.
"It was definitely helpful," she said.
But two of her professors wanted
her to learn a new way to research.
"Both English classes I took, the
professors wouldn't allow us to use
the Internet. Nothing could be
sourced from it," Shaver said.
She said for years she's learned
how easy it is to find information on
the Internet.
"But they wanted us to actually go
to the library,' she said. "It wasn't
very nice."
One reason had to do with the na
ture of the relationship of the presi
dent to students.
"There are a lot of sensitive issues
and confidential issues that public
boards handle, such as presidential
compensation and evaluation of the
president," Hamm said. "It is not
always wise to have people for
whom the president is responsible
for evaluating the president or be
ing party to those sensitive discus
sions."
The bills would allow any board
to exclude student representatives
from "discussions of faculty griev
ances, faculty, or staff disciplinary
matter or salaries." But they do not
specify if university presidents are
considered part of the faculty.
No class: students bring
rude behavior into classroom
by Christine Tatum
TMS Campus
January 31, 2000
CHICAGO (TMS) Someone an
swers a cell phone while someone
else, knife and fork in hand, dives
into a blue-plate special. Just down
the way, three more people are pass
ing the day's newspaper around, ea
ger to complete the crossword
puzzle, and a woman is painting her
fingernails.
Hubbub in the student union? The
dining hall?
Nope. Try the classroom.
Complaints about society's loss of
civility are nothing new. For years,
professors have said students are dis
respectful, even downright rude.
Heck, in the 13th century, professors
at the University of Bologna were so
afraid of students who beat them
up if they didn't like their grades
that they formed unions to protect
themselves. And then in the 1820 s,
students at Yale University staged the
"Bread and Butter" rebellion. Upset
with their difficult classes, they took
to throwing food and silverware at
their instructors.
Those incidents made history
books, but many of today's profes
sors and their students say stu
dents' rudeness and lack of consid-
eration is so commonplace it's
scarcely worth a mention in the cam
pus newspaper. These days, actions
once considered worthy of suspen
sion, such as napping in the hack of
a room or whispering throughout a
class, are mild affronts that happen
every day. Professors say they're
now dealing with students who hurl
profane insults in class and even
threaten violence.
A case in point: one professor at
Virginia Tech reported a voice mail
message he received from a student.
"You fat fuck with yellow teeth!" the
student shouted. "You hump!" Her
problem? She couldn't resell her
textbook.
When and how did the decorous
world of academe disintegrate into
It seems everyone has the answer
for that: poor parenting, grade
schools and religious groups falling
down on the job, substance abuse,
and a myriad of media images.
"We shout first and think later,"
said Donna Halper, a journalism in
structor at Emerson College. "And
on TV, we pull out a gun and blow
the other person away. No wonder
kids are confused. Civility and cour
tesy are not valued the way they once
were."
Agreed, said Christopher Martin,
a student at Truman College of Chi-
"Let's blame it on the 60s and its
bra-burning and candid freedom of
expression," he said. "Then toss on
top of that the 90s and its lack of dis
cipline in the home, parental fear of
adolescents, and the rebellious be
havior that is often given a thumbs
up by media."
The money students are paying for
their education may also figure into
the lack of incivility many instruc
tors sense, said Alan Deardorff, an
economics professor at the Univer
sity of Michigan.
"... They [students] are paying so
much more, in real terms, for their
education than students did years
ago," he said. "Therefore they feel
more like customers and less like stu
dents who ought to look up to us.
That doesn't bother me too much.
Investigators seize
student's computer in
Seton Hall fire probe
TMS Campus
January 31, 2000
NEWARK, N.J. (TMS) Inves
tigators seized a computer belong
ing to a student living in the same
dormitory where a deadly fire
broke out two weeks ago after uni
versity officials received an e-mail
threatening of an even worse
blaze.
The computer was taken from a
second-floor room in Boland Hall
But when they are rude to their fel
lo\\ students and make it harder for
others to 4.et their money's \North,
that does bother me.,.
Many instructors say they can
overlook incessant student chatter,
hut find other instances of rudeness
and inconsiderate hehas ior more dif
ficult to ignore.
"Some students come to my office
outside of office hours and just start
talking without asking first if I have
time to see them," Deardorff said. "I
do invite them to interrupt if my door
is ajar, hut to me, politeness still re
quires that you ask if a person, any
person, has time to talk to you.. ,
Jane Piliav in, a sociology profes
sor at the University of Wisconsin,
said she didn't take too kindly to un
dergraduate students who last year
called her by her first name without
her suggesting or encouraging them
to do so.
It v as rather startling considering
WV a~~r," she >aid
I lalper she' nut tond of ring
1114 cell pinwie,,
"If one gocs, and interrupts us,
I confiscate it. - she said. 'ln most
cir.tes, studcnti , don't do it on purpose:
(ho, itri-tt forgot to turn the bell off.
But all it take, i, une 111 1 / 4 :ldellt USLI
:IIk. anal it '...e1d0111 if ever hap
pens again het:dust! I make a big deal
out or it.-
Though reahring they'll probably
never pinpoint the exact problems
causing students . egregious misbe
havior much le , ,s sok e them ----
uni ersdtiei-, are tn, lug to pre
vent had from getting
vi.orii,e. Student inmiletice iiimong un
dergraduate sittidents had gotten uo
had at Virginia Tech that the
institution's faculty senate estab
lished a "Climate Committee - to ex
plore the issue. At Montana State
Clniv erSit \ the problem grew so had
that the institution formed a task
force to stud\ disruptive classroom
helta\ ior, particularly in large class
rooms, where professors say they
have the hardest time maintaining
students' attention.
Cavernous lectors halls filled with
up to 300 students at a time are in
deed the \\Orst.inany instructors and
students say. The large classes pro
vide safety in number for students
who want to act up and act out.
They're also too big to invite much
meaningful discussion ---- which only
exacerbates students' disengage
ment. As a result, many institutions,
such as the University of Michigan,
are striving to reduce class sizes.
"It's hard to say if leaving early or
arriving late is really a function of
bad manners because who knows
what that particular person may have
to do that day? - said Deveron Sand
ers, a student at the UM whose eco
nomics course has about 250 stu
dents. "But one thing is still the
same: students who are rude tend to
sit near the back of the class, and
those w ho conic to learn sit near the
front. It seems as if more people are
always carrying on their conversa
tions at the rear of the class.'
Sherri Richards, a student at the
University of North Dakota, said she
longs for the more chivalrous and
polite society she's heard about from
her parents.
"Times have changed, and I feel
students' attitudes have changed for
the worse right along with them," she
said. "We don't call people 'sir' or
'miss' or stress the golden rule as
much as we used to and we
should."
three days after the Jan. 19 fire,
which killed three students and in
jured 62 four of whom arc still
in critical condition.
Investigators are analyzing the
computer's hard drive and soft
ware to determine if the e-mail
was a prank, school officials said.
They do not know whether the stu
dent who owns the computer had
anything to do with the message
or the fire, and they have declined
to release the student's name.