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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1994)
EDIT ORIAL Business school sees slow change Business in the United States is going global; howev er. business In the management program at the Univer sity business school is running a few steps behind. As the world continues to grow smaller and the busi ness interest in it becomes a global one. there are many changes taking place. One of the changes is the reduc tion of big business in the United States. The global mar ket is saying. "Cut back and compete ... or else.” In order to compete in the global market with scaled down international companies. U S. companies havo had to tighten their belts. The interest, for many com panies. is in the same pie — but there are only so many pieces to go around. The cuts, and they are nothing new. are coming from middle management. The old triangle structure of top level management resting on middle management with lowor-level workers filling the space at the bottom of the triangle is becoming a thing of the past. No longer has the global market made it possible for top management to be buffered by middle management. The buffer, for most companies, has already been cut or needs to be. Keeping up with change is vital to tho competitive ness of tho University business school. Unfortunately change at the University isn't keeping pace with the changes in the business world. The management pro gram at the l Inivorsity would be a good one if the world were like it was 20 years ago — the years when big busi ness was coming to tho University with hopes of filling middle-management positions. Although tho teachers are dynamic, the program is in need of change. So what if you are a student in the management pro gram? The movement for the business school to reposi tion itself seems to have been made, and courses like international management are a good start. But even though as the wheel is being turned, it will take some time for tho ship to follow. For students in tho management program now. future employment opportunities are going to befew and far between. Preparing for the marketplace now means preparing for the global marketplace. Qualified people are wanted if they qualify for jobs. Students come to the University to receive an educa tion that prepares them for the working world. Students are making an investment in their education and. in return, education is investing in them. That education must be worthy and competitive in the modern business world. The changes in the business world are exciting and hold the potential for many great careers. As technology continues to link the world together, the opportunities continue to grow. But the University needs to continue its move to link the students to the business world. The opportunities may not bo apparent today, but neither are the changes that the future brings. For those with a watchful eye and the ability to bo flexible, tho future can be an exciting one. Oregon Daily PO CK)i J1V# fcov>6»«t O«€GON9!-»03 The Oagon D*iy £mwarn n p«blt*bed daily Monday through f nday during the *choo yaal and Tuetday and Thur*day during the mmmr by the Oregon Da»y Emerald (•uNnUrmg Co . Inc althe Umvervty ot Or agon f ugene. O'agon The fm«au operate* independently or the University with ottcrM ai $u«e 300 or mo Erb Memorial Union and •* a member ot the A.*.vxated Pusm Ihe EmaraUa private property The unlawful removal or uH or paper* .» prowxutatjie by UK* Editor-In-Chief: Jake Berg Emerald Managing ton or Editorial Editor Graphic* Editor Fraaianca Editor i au<*y Anoarvon David Thorn J0ti Pa*iay J*fl Wmtars 3po(ia cum cm * Editorial Edtloi Jr» P«*hardt Photo Editor Anthony Fornay Supplarnanta Editor Ka>y Soto myni touw, u»vu '' v Associate Editor*: Tdward Kloptenslem Student Covernment Activities. Rebecca Memti Community Julie Swenson r*ghev Education MmtniUr man Now* Stott Mandy Baucum Wilson Chan Darn Charbonneeu Mr Davit. Meg Doddph Amy Devenpoit C.ma f.ch#wtma. Ma n I onto. Mart.n t .sher Sarah Henderson Maalherie tames Yin tang leong Manus Meiand. Tnsto Now Elisabeth Reensttoma. Kate Saboutm HoUm Reeves. I a Satacoa Scott Simonson. Stephana S-ason. Susanna Stettens. jusur ■Vmi'w. Mcheie Thompson -Aguiar Kevin Tnpp Amy Van Tuyi Daniel West General Manager Jody liter* Advertising Director Mars Wane. Production Manager Mchele Moss Advertising SuOt Dufla. Neo*e tterimars Tscesa Isabelle Jett Manon. Jeremy Mason M* haet MKtetta. Van V O’Bryan it Rachael Trull. Kelsey Wese«, Angie W.ndheim Cla**ltled: Becky Merchant Manager Vidor Metes. Sim T/e Tec* Distribution: Andy Harvey John Long. Graham Simpson Business: Kathy Carbone. Supervisor Jody Connolly Production Doe McCobb. Production Coordmafor Shawna Amne Greg Desmond. Tor® Gautlnoy, Brad Joss. Stacy Mtcha*. JennKer Roland, Nad Thangnyt Clayton Yee Nmroofn .. 3464511 Ofttc*... 346*9512 LM*p«ay ^overusing .... Classified Advertising _ 346*4343 Hufv jfi ft>puU< ion gOn aw ■ M SPEC US W'TH 7M ^ REPOKiE&LV 8/6 SAA//V COMMENTARY Only humans can destroy Earth ' By Kevin M Nakamura h, the arrogance of humankind! David Thom, in his recent opinion col umn [ODE, |an 12). authorita tively declares that humans are "superior to all other forms of life." I'd hardly dare to challenge such wisdom. os(M*:iallv consid ering some of the undeniably sol id scientific evident* he presents. Who would dare to argue with the logic, for instant.e, that pot bellied pigs didn't plan the A|kiI lo missions? Of course 1 understand that Thorn is only being sarcastic when he makes such remarks, and his sense of humor is at know lodged The question is. therefore, how seriously are we to take hiill’’ Does he honestly believe that atn particular form of life is more valuable than another' Apparently so Thom's insistent* that humans art; superior comes from his dis agreeing with a bumper stit ker that simply reads. "All forms of life are equal " He goes on to say tfiat this claim "just doesn't hold up to any serious scrutiny." The problem here is that Thom is evaluating this statement from a purely human set of values Human beings, whether we like it or not. tend to interpret value in terms of economic s: A whale is more valuable than a microor ganism because it is larger, more complex and exists in greater scarcity. The fact of the matter is that these human-created rules of determining value simply do not apply here. There is a balance of life on planet Earth, a balance that can lie easily disturbed, but not eas ily restored Unfortunately, we as humans cannot readily per ceive this intricate network through which all living things are connected We fail to foresee the conse quences of widespread defor estation, the hunting into extinc tion of rare animals and the human-induced degradation of our planet's natural habitats You see, whenever you detrimental ly affect a single population of organisms, you tend to affect the entire community that that organ ism inhabits. Thorn seems convinced that small organisms ere less valuable than largo. In truth, Earth's oceans are teeming with micro scopic organisms that are impor tant and even critical to many larger animals, including people The oxygen that wo breathe is the result of more than three billion years of photosynthesis. A good fraction of this can be attributed to autotrophic: marine microor ganisms. Clearly they are quite valuable. So why. asks Thorn, when he uses antiseptic mouthwash, should he not be "punished" for "murdering" millions of micro scopic life forms7 Besides the obvious reason (morning breath), the answer is strictly one of sta tistic s: Simply put, you cannot help killing microorganisms because the probability of acc i dentally doing so at any given time is essentially one (as in 100 perc ent) Does this mean that amoetws are inferior to hamsters? No. it just means that you are more likely to step on or swallow a protozoan than you are a three toed sloth. And so we c ome to the ques tion of intelligence. Does humankind's ability to under stand "cause and effec t" make us any more essential than our fel low animals? Does the applic a tion of intelligence make us so cial? Thorn claims that zoologists have failed "to determine con clusively whether animals under stand ’cause and effect.' " If you're looking for the word "proved.” then don't hold your breath. True science will never prove anything What it c.un do. however, is disprove. So. essen tially. it has not been disproven that animals cannot understand causality. The American psy c hologist B.F Skinner found that rats could learn to press a bar to receive food, and studies of chim panzees have found that the act of using sticks to extract termites We are currently the most intelligent species on Earth. With such intelligence, however, comes a tremendous responsibility. for food is a learned (ns opposed to instinctual) behavior. Is this not an application of intelli- ^ genes? ■ I would not assume to chal lenge the notion that humans an* , the most intelligent form of life this planet has ever produced. The fai t remains, however, that our intelligence, our ability to process larger amounts of infor mation, is little more than an evo lutionary advantage randomly bestowed (read: mutation) on our ancestors some 500.000 years ago Homo sapiens are not supe rior. Just lucky. We are currently the most intelligent st>ocies on Kurth. With such intelligence, however, comes a tremendous responsi bility Although he does not con demn it, Thorn expresses annoy ance at environmentalism, which he seems to feel suppresses our own animal instincts: "No other animal is expected to curb its own consumption in order to save the planet: animals, left by themselves, will eat entire species into oblivion, and not feel a shred of remorse. If they are capable of destroying the envi ronment. they probably will. And no one would consider it 'immoral,'" In fact, there is only one ani mal capable of destroying the environment as we know it And I'll tell you one thing — it's not the pot-beliied pig. Kevin M Nakamura is a gen eral science major at the Uni versity