Page 6 The Behrend Beacon Brown bear breaks Appalachian State It wasn't your average breaking-and-entering call, the one that came into the Appalachian State University police department minutes before midnight Monday. The dispatcher listened as students described the scene outside their apartment window. The suspect, they said, was knocking in a door at the Holmes Convocation Center on busy U.S. 321 in Boone. A one-word description was all police needed: Bear. When officers arrived, they saw a brown bear had pushed the glass out of a ground-level door and was making its way down a hallway. For some reason, it made a U-turn and headed back out, according to ASU Police Chief Gunther Doerr. Spooked, perhaps by officers' flashlights, the bear fled across campus and ran head-first into an office building, Thomas Hall, where it bloodied its nose on a window. Then it took off into nearby woods, according to the chief. Officers searched for about an hour, wanting to make sure the bear was OK. Despite its size, estimated at 150 to 200 pounds, they never found the bear. No one else was injured in the incident, police said. "There actually was a student working inside the convocation center, but [ don't think he was in the same hallway as the bear," the chief said. He estimated damages at $l5O to $2OO. "I'm trying to think of why he would've chosen that building to go into, but it's beyond me." The convocation center, used for sporting and other events, has concession stands on the second floor, but no other food to speak of, Doerr said. "It's just basically a kind of bizarre incident," he said "We're going to be on the lookout for him." Hampton University, student paper reach accord after confiscation Hampton University's acting president and the editors of the student newspaper reached a resolution Oct. 24 after all copies of the latest issue were confiscated earlier this week The acting president, JoAnn Haysbert, had complained that the students had ignored her request to put on the front page her letter about recently corrected health violations in the cafeteria. It appeared on Page 3. In The agreement, the students said they would reprint copies of the paper Oct. 24, with Haysbert's letter on the front page, said Chris Campbell, director of the journal ism school. In return, Haysbert appointed a panel to draft guidelines for the operation of the newspaper, he said, and she agreed to abide by its recommendations. The panel will be led by visiting professor Earl Caldwell, a former columnist for The [t New York'Ditity News; and will include student journalists, Campbell and the newspaper's three advisers, Campbell said. "I think it's a good resolution to a difficult situation," he said. "This gives us a great opportunity to design a model for how newspapers at private universities should function." You're lord and master of quite possibly the most versatile automobile on the planet. Matrix is an entirely new breed of vehicle-cutting edge styling, standard air conditioning, and up to 180 horsepower with available 6-speed. Matrix is designed to be whatever you want, including affordable. by Diane Suchetka Knight Kidder Newspapers [he Virginian-Pilot Visit www.buyatoyota.com for details. Friday, November 7, 2003 into building TOYOTA Language boom sweeps colleges by Robert Becker Chicago Tribune In an increasingly global economy, and as ter rorism and war bring world events home, Ameri can students have returned to the study of foreign languages in record numbers. According to a study released Thursday by the Modern Language Association, 1.4 million Ameri can college students are enrolled in foreign lan guage study - the most since the group conducted its first survey in 1958. Since 1998 - the last time the survey was pub lished - the number of students enrolled in for eign language courses has jumped 17.9 percent. The percentage of college students taking such courses has risen to 8.7 percent, the highest it's been since 1972. Students say the study of languages is more than just an exercise in verb tenses and vocabulary. Rather, it's a unique window into another cul "Through German I'm getting a better under standing of Germany and the reunification pro cess they're still undergoing and just a lot of the things they've gone through over the last 50 years the Cold War and all that," said Aaron Miller, a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Study of some languages has risen sharply. Since 1998, enrollment in Arabic has increased 92.5 per cent to 10,596 students from 5,505 and Bibli cal Hebrew was up 59 percent, to 14,469 students from 9,099. "I think no doubt it's the interest in global is sues," said Rosemary Heal, executive director of the association. "The world is smaller, and people are much more aware of the need to expand their learning beyond the border of the U.S." Even with the jump, foreign language study in America's colleges and universities lags far be hind schools in Europe, where language study of ten begins as early as age 5, and high school gradu ates are proficient in two languages. "The good news is we seemed to have bottomed out on our sustained three-decade decline in lan guage acquisition," said David Ward, the British born president of the American Council on Edu cation and the former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "So it's two cheers, not three." 'Based on EPA estimates for 2003 5-speed manual The study notes that although Spanish, French and German still dominate the academic landscape, colleges have broadened their offerings, teaching 148 of the less commonly taught languages in 2002, compared with 137 in 1998. These languages include Ojibwe, Swahili, Tagalog and Vietnam ese. "It's great in terms of educating students in a global way," said Larry Schehr, a professor of French and executive associate dean for the hu manities at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. "It's a great way to develop and fos ter global awareness." Education experts said American schools wit nessed dramatic increases in language enrollment during the 1960 s amid the Cold War. At that time, national security concerns the need to translate foreign technical journals and analyze intelligence data prompted students to study Russian and other Eastern European lan- guages. Though the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks un doubtedly inspired part of the current increase, ex perts said Americans also understand the need for a deeper cultural understanding. "It is learning the language, but it is also be coming culturally literate," said Dagmar Lorenz, a professor in the department of Germanic studies at UIC. "Because just knowing the words and sen tences really is not that helpful if you don't know the larger context." UlC's German department has seen undergradu ate enrollment rise to 422 students in 2003, from 309 students in 2001. Elizabeth Loentz, an assistant professor at UIC, said students interested in the European Union and the global economy are majoring in German with a minor in business. The growth in the number of students studying Arabic at schools like Northwestern University has prompted administrators to add additional classes to accommodate them. At Northwestern, enrollment increased to around 60 students , thisyg3rmup,from 17 students in 2000. Lynn Whitcomb, a lecturet in thu program of Af rican and Asian languages at Northwestern, said a more diverse group of students is studying Ara bic. "It seems there are all sorts of people who want to learn," Whitcomb said
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