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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1995)
Changes detract from education Less is exported of students on campus those days, as far as course and credit requirements are concerned. Unfortunately, the intentions of the University mean that students are getting loss in return. First came the elimination of the so-called “duster” requirement, in which students were required to take a certain number of credits in related classes. Then the total number of credits needed to graduate was cut from 186 to 180. In the latest move, many classes worth three credits last year am now worth four, with no discernible increase in difficulty or work. The looser requirements may help the University move students through their college career more rapid ly, but the University will only put students at a disad vantage. While these changes may help students leave college in the shod term, they will hurt students in the long run The changes may have been made to make It easier for students to graduate in four years, but the ever-decreas ing requirements for a degree at the University reduce uiq vniuo mai in the job market. Students may not set adequate training for trio future sim ply by counting credits and leaving in four years. Reducing the require ments expected of stu dents may allow more flexibility tor focused stu dents sot on a particular major. However, for those While these changes may help students leave college in the short term, they will hurt students in the long run. unsure 01 wnat tney want to study in college, the lack of requirements may not provide a strong enough frame work for students to follow to graduation. On a broader scale, the looser requirements represent a "dumbing down" of the education needed to get a degree. With stricter requirements, students leaving the University could justifiably toll a prospective employer that they worked hard. One day. will a student be able to come to the University, write a check, and leave with a degree that had no requirements attached? Budget reductions will affect the delivery of education at the University. Regardless, the University must not be allowed to Increase productivity of the institution at the expense of the quality of education for students. The University should realize that reduced credit and class requirements do help students leave school "on time." but are of no assistance in helping the student succeed in later life. Employers don't count the days that a prospective applicant spent in college, but check the quality of an education that they received. This educa tion is being compromised by the new requirements. Some may worry about leaving college in four years. While many would like to leave college as soon as pos sible. University students should realize that the goal of attending the University is to get an education, no mat ter how easy it the University makes it. Oregon Daily *0 #0« J«l» luMNI OKtOOh VtUi C>*po#t f-Wy £ mm 9*6 <9 (X4*>*f**i Mo/tday through FndMty Cte'tf'g !%» yea/ Tw«adAy and Tftw’ftday <H*»*aq ih# t>y th« Or •gen Da > Fm#**W3 r*vb*%ti&*q Co , k«c , a* t**» l>wv#'**ty (rf Oregon, fc 0*wgo« 1** ' -*'»**• a>cl*p<9ndan«*y 0# W» Umwtv!y «afh o^c«a * Sol* 300 of ff* f ./t Mamot'orf Uo*e*n arxJ «* a me/nba* of *f*» Auocuiftari Pim* The fm^riatf ** (*<vw»« p«oip«rfy The u«*aw*ui or u»e of paptr* -9 pro«KxAafe*» Editor-in Ch*l Kafy 5o*0 tOttQftAt I dito# H*w* An * dHw f riffinc# Editor *W»«i J#t Pvuay Ion ftuffintfci Ttttit Ncxni HdCiChXA Mar rttl Sport* Editor Suppi»m*nt» Editor Mtghl Editor c uavorui TiK»n-y Smrth. ffacithan'A&mtnt&t-jihon H#w* Stiff Slav# Astkxy. Amy CoJumbo t'al Amy C Davonpcyi T as'xa f cfw-wfw AN t ifc^wla Ptv^-o Fontana. tw*yi* Forman. 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Jarvvlar HiXivvl Ciavton V«o Mnwoom )»Uil SunirwHOfftc* M6-MI2 Diftplty Adv*rtiftmg 346-3712 346-4343 Deficit Attention Disorder wf oyv }v-J0 il&ttH Tkg i3u**Ax> *j£~a VOUMCA/V 4 00 ? ^C>, z M£AW ‘CawT 400’ u ■ OPINION Pro-lifers don’t agree with murders Brian Womack Dr Ralph Robinson fears going to work In l<* 1. ho puts on a bulletproof vest each morning before he leaves for his job in Birmingham, Ala Robinson is a doctor who does abortions With continuing death threats and recent escalations in dead ly attack* on those who do abor tions. he finds this a very viable option. Men like Michael Griffin and John C Salvi 111, who share three abortion clinic personnel mur ders between them, have brought these unnecessary fears to those who do abortions across the nation. Continued justifications from some in the pro-life community make the doctors and the rest of the nation wonder who's next This i* wrong As someone who has been pro-life for as long as 1 can remember, I find these threats and justifications appalling To be taking the law into one's own hands and destroying another life is not going to win the argument for pro-lifers It will only damage it as polls are beginning to show It is wrong and should bo slopped immedi ately. Yet something else should be stopped immediately: those in the abortion-rights camp who an- trying to take these travesties and use them as wide brush on the entire pro-life community. Many of them are attempting to characterise these actions as part of the mainstream of the pro-life community. Liberal Eleanor Clift of Newsweek implied that more than just the fringe of the pro life community are supporting the killings, but these ideas are encroaching into the main stream of the pro-life communi ty Interestingly, often when a report is done relating to the sto ries of the shootings, the fringe anti-abortionist explaining why kilting off doctors is fine will be given two paragraphs or two sound bites. Yet. the mainstream of the pro-life community, such as the National Right to Life, will he mentioned in passing as con demning the attains Some groups that call them selves pro-life may sound like they're representing the main stream but are doing anything but that Advocates for Life, for instance, which is hased in Port land. has a history of condoning violence at abortion clinics The Oregonian has been very thorough in making sure this group gets its Fifteen minutes of fame every time someone like Salvi gets active But these kinds of groups have tittle respect among pro-lif ers and are written off as more ly those way out on the edge I can see why some in the pro choice camp would like to char acterize the typical pro-lifer as a gun-wielding whacko bout on killing off anybody who does abortions. This would help c haracterize pro-choicers as the rational, lev el-headed thinkers whose oppo nents are placing reservations at the state mental institution. But this is about as fair as por traying the civil rights move ment as nothing but a bunch of Black Panthers or saying every environmentalist has the same ideas as someone from Karth First' Fringe elements of society exist in every group. Some feminists believe all sex is rape Some parties have David Dukes. Some in the peace movement have committed crimes that are anything hut peaceful. Despite the accusations, pro lifers are and remain people who are simply concerned about the plight of the most defenseless members of our society. A good example of this would be a recent story out of Chicago. Gloria Sosa, a Chicagoan, was walking to a store when she heard something crying. She explained. “When t got closer. 1 saw it was a baby My heart just went down to the pit of my stomach." The baby had been born to a 18-year-old unwed mother who had thrown the baby out the window of her apartment The baby was found naked in the hit ter cold behind the building while the mother was at school Those who take care of her at the hospital named her Z.oe, which is Greek for "life " The mother has been charged with aggravated battery to a child. This tragic story exposes an irony we have here in Ainerit a A baby is thrown away to die and. rightly so, we turn our heads in shock and disgust Yet moments before her short journey down the birth < anal she could nave lawn legally aborted The medical community has never defined exai tly when life does start We in the pro-life com rnunity believe that hoping it doesn't start until birth is irre sponsible at best. Those ideas are what the pro life community espouse, not mur der. If more whacked-out people who call themselves pro-life go off on a killing spree again, 1 will shudder for the doctors as I do for the unborn. But don't label me or anyone else in the pro-life community as a condoner and supporter of mur der We don't We believe in what Zoe's name means. That is all. Brian Womack is a columnist for the Emerald.
