Guy Reschenthaler, Wire Service Editor
The Behrend Beacon
Turmoil a hot topic
in college classrooms
by Linda Borg
The Providence Journal
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - The
course is Political Science 434. The
topic, the American intelligence com
munity.
But the real subject - the one that
inspires students to put down their
diet sodas and raise their hands - is
America's war on terrorism, as CNN
has dubbed the bombing of Afghani
stan.
Marc Genest, who teaches Ameri
can foreign policy at the University
of Rhode Island, paces from one side
of the classroom to the other, his
voice booming.
"How did we get Pakistan to turn
around and support us'?" he says to a
packed auditorium of attentive stu
dents.
"Money!" a student says.
"Military and economic aid," an
other student jumps in.
"Right," says Genest. "The people
who were originally aligned with al-
Qaida are now the people we are
working with to defeat them."
The turmoil in the Middle East that
was once a distant rumble on college
campuses now oc;:upies center stage,
pushing out more parochial concerns
such as underage drinking and fair
wages for support staff.
Around the country, colleges are
expanding classes on the Middle East,
Islam, and foreign policy, in order to
meet the demands of students who are
desperate for information on a region
Ritalin quickly becoming
recreational drug of choice
for college students
by Johnny Diaz
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Before he studies for a midterm
or a final, a 20-year-old University
of Miami pre-law student pops a
Ritalin pill.
Called Vitamin R or the "cram
ming drug," the small white pill
keeps him and some of his dorm
mates awake and increases their
concentration. But illegal and abu
sive use of the drug could also come
with some serious side effects.
"I would go for hours studying
when I took the Ritalin," said the
student, who asked that his name
not be used. "In college, there is so
much pressure to succeed, and this
is Miami, where people want to go
out and have fun, too. Sometimes
you have to turn to alternative
methods to succeed."
Where college students in the
past drank pots of coffee or popped
diet pills to stay awake while cram
ming for exams, a growing num
ber are now illegally using Ritalin.
Since 1995, the drug - widely
prescribed to treat attention deficit/
hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD -
has ranked on the Drug Enforce
ment Administration's list of most
stolen medications, said Gretchen
Feussner, a pharmacologist with the
federal DEA.
"It's like speed," Feussner said.
"(Students) know it's going to keep
them awake. They know they can
party hardy. What they don't know
(is) ... if you took cocaine and put
it in a pill and took it at a low dos
age, it would do exactly the same
thing. It's a serious drug."
National statistics are not avail
able on illegal. Ritalin use among
college-age students, partly be
cause Ritalin abuse tends to be
dwarfed by more visible issues,
such as alcoholism, smoking, AIDS
awareness and abuse of drugs such
as Ecstasy.
But a 1998 University of Wiscon
sin-Madison survey found that one
in five of 100 students' who re
sponded misused the:drug.
Next 'spring, counselors at the
University of Florida in Gainesville
plan to ask students about illegal
Ritalin use in an anonymous annual
they knew little about before Sept. 11
At Harvard University, students
were standing in the aisles on the first
day of Professor Nur Yalman's course
"Thought and Change in the Contem
porary Middle East."
At Stanford University, the course
"Palestine, Zionism, and the Arab-Is
raeli Conflict" was supposed to en
roll 40 students. It drew 100.
This spring, Roger Williams Uni
versity will offer a new course on ter
rorism, and it has changed the title of
one course from "Foreign Policies and
Selected Regional Powers" to the
much sexier "Rogue States, Allies,
and Regional Powers."
Genest says that several students sat
in on his foreign-policy class after he
appeared on local television and par
ticipated in a university-sponsored
panel on the Sept. 11 attacks.
1-le says he has been inundated with
e-mail from current and former stu
dents who wonder what prompted
these attacks and how the United
States should respond.
"One of the few positive things to
come out of all of this," says Genest,
"is heightened awareness of the im
portance of international politics.
Pedagogically, it has sparked a lot of
interest.
"This dovetails beautifully with
what I teach - we've been talking
about the geopolitics of our support
in the Middle East."
At colleges across the country, pro
fessors of history and political science
are using the terrorist attacks on
survey given randomly to students
on the campus.
During final exams this spring,
University of Miami officials posted
fliers and posters around the Coral
Gables campus warning students of
the negative effects of using
unprescribed Ritalin as a late-night
study aid.
In November, the school will e
mail a survey to all its students to
try to determine how many are abus
ing Ritalin, Oxycontin, and other
drugs, said Jennifer Brack, assistant
dean of students. The students will
be allowed to answer the survey
anonymously. Results of the online
survey, expected early next year, will
help counselors design more specific
drug-awareness campaigns, Brack
said.
Dr. Jon Shaw, director of child and
adolescent psychiatry at the Univer
sity of Miami, said one of his col
lege patients hides his Ritalin at night
because he fears his dorm mates
might try to swipe some pills.
"There is no question Ritalin is be
ing misused by college students,"
Shaw said.
Students say they are given the
pills by friends or buy them for about
$5 a tablet from people who have
been prescribed the drug.
Dr. Eric Heiligenstein, clinical di
rector of psychiatry at the Univer
sity of Wisconsin-Madison's Health
Services, said he conducted his sur
vey after hearing reports of misuse
and thinks the abuse remains perva
sive today on campuses nationwide.
"On most college campuses, you
can go to the library and probably
walk away with some (Ritalin) eas
Heiligenstein said. "It has be
come the medicine people want, to
•
have."
Ritalin, a powerful stimulant clas
sified in the same category as co
caine and inethamphettunines, is
slowly absorbed into the blood
stream, stimulating the brain and cre
ating a chemical reaction that allows
people who are distracted or hyper
active to keep their attention fo
cused. Legal use of the drug has sky-
rocketed, with a threefold increase
•
among children between 1991 and
1995.
But it can be dangerous if abused.
• efft) rj
f6rz to ,
ceisti*tl
Friday, November 2, 2001
American soil as a teachable moment:
an opportunity to make the connection
between practice and theory.
Ken Osborne, a history professor
and dean of the Metropolitan College
at Roger Williams, says he is already
getting requests for his course next
semester on Vietnam, and plans to in
crease enrollment from 30 students to
40.
In his U.S. history class, Osborne is
using the crisis to illuminate how the
United States has faced external
threats in the past, such as the attack
on Pearl Harbor.
During a recent discussion on World
War I, he drew comparisons between
the way Americans felt about the use
of submarine warfare on civilian tar
gets with the way they feel now about
biological and germ warfare.
"The average college kid grew up
with Fortress America," says Osborne.
"They barely remember the Soviet
Union. This has been a whole new
awakening for them."
Mark Sawonski, who teaches for
eign policy and international relations
at Roger Williams, says there has been
a heightened level of intensity and se
riousness in his classes, which begin
with a discussion of the latest devel
opments in the Middle East.
"I think there is a greater apprecia
tion of the cost of our involvement
internationally," says Sawonski. "Stu
dents realize that it's not a free ride -
they understand now that we are be
ing tested."
Since Sept. 11, comedians choose
their targets carefully
by Dan DeLuca
Knight Ridder Newspapers
It's OK to be funny again.
But what is it OK to be funny
about?
Despite reports that the Sept. I 1
terrorist attacks marked a seismic
pop-cultural shift away from
smart-alecky irony, late-night talk
show hosts, stand-up comedians,
and Internet satirists have gradu
ally returned to the business of
cracking wise and providing
comic relief in a time of national
unease
For some, such as Jay Leno, a
wartime footing means it's open
season on the enemy, and subtle
wittiness be hanged. "Do you
know what Osama bin Laden is
going to be for Halloween?" he
asked in a monologue last week.
"A dead guy."
David Letterman, meanwhile,
has addressed the tragedy only ob
liquely since his tearful return to
the "Late Show" on Sept. 17.
"When I come to work every day,
there's a guy who sits outside who
gives me the finger," he remarked
recently, commenting on the posi
tive spirit in New York. "Today,
he gave me the finger and a hug."
Since the attacks, the rules of
engagement have changed: With
President Bush's approval ratings
at record highs, slow-witted-chief
executive jokes are out. (As Leno
quipped, "Bush is smart now.")
And lines that might be construed
as offensive to Arabs or Muslims
are similarly taboo.
"You choose your targets more
carefully," says Mo Rocca, a cor
respondent and writer for Comedy
Central's "The Daily Show With
Jon Stewart." "We definitely need
to use comedy smart bombs, not
carpet bombs."
In an interview, Leno acknowl
edges the uncertainness of the co
medic terrain: "We don't do Ko
ran jokes, we don't do Muslim
jokes, we don't do World Trade
Center jokes." But bin Laden is
too inviting a target: "When the
times are good, you make fun of
Beacon arrives in Afghanistan
Beacon, an F/A-18 pilot, suits up for a strike mission over Afghanistan. "After watching the twin
towers fall to the ground and kill 6,000 fellow Americans ... . It's a whole different set of resolve
here," he said, comparing this mission to Bosnia.
the king. When times are had, you
make fun of the enemy."
The "Tonight Show" host sees
no need to hold anything hack
when it comes to the man sus
pected of masterminding the
World Trade Center and Pentagon
attacks. (Sample: "I have three
words for this guy: Anna Nicole
Smith. We send her over there,
she'll get his money, he'll be dead
in a week.")
"I think you can go after him a
lot," Len() says. "The only time it
was different during a war was in
Vietnam, when it wasn't clear
what our motives were. But here
you have a clear and present en
emy: a group of terrorists who
have said they want to kill Jews
and Americans. I don't think any
thing you could do to make fun of
them would be too much. This is
really Nazism."
Leno has led the way in lam
pooning bin Laden and
Afghanistan's Taliban leadership.
(He's got a million of 'em: "What
do the Taliban and the Washing
ton Redskins have in common?
Neither of them will be around for
the playoffs. - )
"It's a tough time for humor
ists," says Daniel Kurtzman, who
runs About.com's political-humor
Web site. "But I've been surprised
at how many people have been out
there looking for a good joke.
There are thousands, if not tens of
thousands, of people searching the
Web for Osama bin Laden jokes.
Some of the humor is a bit vitri
olic, and some of it is racist and
inappropriate. But there's also a
lot of clever stuff out there that
even a pacifist could laugh at."
One of the more popular
Internet bin Laden bits is a nurs
ery rhyme that suggests torturing
him by giving him a sex-change
operation and sending him to live
in Afghanistan as a woman.
On TV, Jimmy Fallon of "Sat
urday Night Live's" "Weekend
Update" reported, "Bin Laden is
most likely hiding out somewhere
remote and barren, where he will
not encounter others. The FBI has
begun searching theaters showing
the movie 'Glitter. — And on "The
Daily Show," Stewart displayed al
tered photographs showing bin
Laden's alleged disguises, includ
ing one with a soul patch instead
of a beard, one with a fake heard
on top of his beard, and another
looking fashionable in a Jennifer
Aniston haircut.
"You can make fun of the en
emy," says "The Daily Show's"
Rocca. "It's the Charlie Chaplin
model from (the 1940 film) 'The
Great Dictator.' Chaplin made
Hitler look like a dimwit. That kind
of thing is not only funny, but it
also gives relief and satisfaction. -
Leno concurs: "If you believe
that making fun of someone who
is scary makes them less so, then
maybe we're doing some good
here."
For comics who use current
events as fodder, these are tricky
"It's a fine line," Rocca says.
"You don't want to dodge it. We
use the news for entertainment.
And if entertainment is supposed
to be some sort of diversion, this
is difficult news to use."
During the Persian Gulf War in
1991, humorists took aim at
Saddam Hussein, taking particular
joy in mocking the Iraqi leader's
"Mother of All Battles" bluster.
But Elayna Newport, a writer and
performer for the Capitol Steps, a
Washington, D.C., political musi
cal-comedy troupe, says it's differ
ent now.
That war didn't take place on our
soil," Newport says. "This time it's
tougher because it's closer to
home."
Getting up on stage also can be
difficult. "It's weird," she says.
"You have to go out there and give
the audience relief. But you're
feeling what everybody else is
feeling."
• Lawrence Mintz, director of the
Art Gliner Center for Humor Stud
ies at the University of Maryland,
says the effects of Sept. 11 linger
because of the fear that there's
more to come
behrcolls@aol.com:
"We're not out of this thing yet,"
Mintz says. "That makes it a lot
harder to laugh. It's a very uncer-
Lain situation.-
Mintz says it's a mistake to think
that people's ability to chuckle ner
vously at bin Laden jokes marks a
return to comedic normality.
"There are a lot of things that
you still can't make jokes about,
and may never be able to, like ter
rorism itself," he says. "Bin Laden
is a very convenient target; he's
easy to caricature. Leno seems to
identify with that kind of saber
rattling, 'we're going to get this
guy' thinking. But that's almost
too simple for Letterman. He's too
sophisticated. He's not going to
take that easy road."
Letterman and fellow New York
talk-show host Conan O'Brien
have refrained from yanking on
bin Laden's beard. Instead, they've
taken a more indirect approach.
(An O'Brien example: "New
Yorkers are friendlier now. Today
I went and bought a hot dog and
the vendor was nice enough to say,
`Hey, I wouldn't eat that crap if I
were you.")
A still more sophisticated, if of
ten vulgar, take on the attacks
flourishes on the Internet satire
of the Onion,
www.onion.com. The weekly
publication's most-viewed issue
online addressed the crisis with
stories under such headlines as
"American Life Turns Into Bad
Jerry Bruckheimer Movie" and
"Hijackers Surprised To Find
Selves In Hell."
"We didn't make any overt, '0
Some Big Loudmouth' jokes,"
says Tim Harrod, who wrote the
issue's "U.S. Vows To Defeat
Whoever It Is We're At War With"
story. "That's the domain of morn
ing-radio jocks and T-shirt sales
men. Our task is to deal with what
people have been forced to look
at head-on. We are first and fore
most a humor publication, but we
really feel an article has to have a
spin and a point and a message."
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