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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS. OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Leaders negotiate peace for war-ravaged Bosnia ■ OUR OPINION: A now democracy could mean an end to the bloodshed It's a good day when peo ple lay down their weapons, for whatever reason, and stop killing one another. It will bo an even bolter day when people stop hating each other. In Bosnia earlier this week rival factions were able to momentarily look beyond some of the intense hatred they have for each other by agreeing to hold democratic elections some time in the future However , foreign ministers from Bosnia. Croatia and Serbian dominated country fell short of ending their civil war when they rojer ted a US. proposer! cease-fire agree ment. During a campaign of sat uiatron bombings hv- N A I () aircraft on Serbian held positions. President Clinton dropped a top secret stealth weapon out of the blue and on top of Bosnia. 'Hut name of the bomb was U S. peace envoy Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke's talent for deal-making and compro mise virtually exploded all over the leaders of that region, practically blowing them all the way to the con ference table. While Holbrooke and the White House understandably fell short of negotiating an out right cease-fire in Bosnia, the world should look at the recent "steps toward democ racy" agreement with opti mism. The plan, one that will usher in an independent Bosnia, paves the way for open presidential elections, a parliament and a constitu tional government. These plans |M)lnt the former Yugoslavia not so much in a direction that promises a lasting solution, as toward a direction with a goal to aim for in the bid for stabiliza tion. As Clinton said. "There is no guarantee of sm < ess. but Tuesday's agreement moves us closer to the ultimate goal of a genuine peace." Part of the agreement includes allowing the newly formed federal government to split Bosnia into two parts This separation would give si percent con trol of the country to Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and the Bosnian Serbs -}•> percent. This liter al split, in a country torn apart by war, may serve more than one purpose in that it will give the different ethnicities not only voting rights in a spec ifit jurisdic lion, but they will l>e able to call a defined area of land their own This outlining of the land will In* needed to sort out the mass numbers of refugees forc ed from their homes by the fighting, f irst the Bosnian Muslims and Croats were fart ed from their land, then the tables turned and the Bosnian Serbs found themselves homeless and hurting The number of displaced is stag gering Hundreds of thou sands of refugees, many of whom have lost friends, homes and entire families, have waited miserably in internment camps for their luck to change. 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X SPl/N Hi^ APou/v/D TWQEE DMES.. \ 005 HI* \ POLIO* I i roio h/w f -ior n> P/A/ IT OH AAf COMMENTARY Laptop requirement irritates law students By Jen Solomon Unlike my i olleague Martin Fisher (ODE, Aug 21). who has a two-year gain on me in legal education. 1 am frustrated by the School of l-aw's new computer requirement A requirement to own a computer is avant garde, and I was delighted to leant that 1 would !«■ afforded the lienefits and support that would come with everyone in my class taking the teiii nologual plunge together But. the faculty at the law school has let our class down by not think ing this matter through and thereby turning us into guinea pigs Our I'm kpacks now weigh more than half of our body weight Most of us relocated here and are adjusting to new houses and/or new roommates, and wo live in terror of the Socratu: method, wondering when the pro fessors will make mincemeat out of us. As if that weren't not enough to send us directly to men tal-health services during the first week, we have to deal with this baffling, computer requirement. It's understandable that Dean O'Kelley wants to bo a leader in the future of technology Hut Apple computers' let's get real The computer ordeal began tuu k in spring 1995. In an April 2H letter from Director of Admissions Katherine jemberg, we were informed that we would be required to buy “a computer " Okay. 1 could live with that. After all, I'd planned on buying a personal computer for the past year; a PC is the computer of choice among lawyers, and it is more easily upgraded than an Apple computer We were also told that "full participation over the course of this class' three-year career here will be best achieved with a portable computer using a Mat in tosh oj>erut ing system or one compatible to it." We were also told that the Office of Financial Aid would be assisting us in covering this additional expense A memorandum arrived two weeks later, telling us that we would have to buy our com puters first and then present our receipts to Financial Aid in order to get another loan. In addition, we were told to hold off on any pur chasing decisions until the School of Law made its decision on specific computer requirements. Its decision arrived in a letter from Mitch Davis, director of information technology. Each student would “be expected to have Powerbook laptop computer and specified software " Whoa! This was a far cry from Jernberg's let ter informing us of the need for "a computer." It in this last letter that has most of the stu dents upset. When polled, the majority said they felt they had no choice but to buy a Power book. Others were told that their PCs would work, and the law school would support both Apple and PC users. Now it seemed the school had changed its tune. My last conversation with Davis was about getting my PC configured to the school system 1 was told that all PC users would be on their own for getting themselves hooked up online If something didn't work, we would have to pay a consultant to get our com puters configured I want to know how this lack of support is construed as fair when such a large portion of our ( lass uses Ptls I have heard that 20 to BO students who use PCs will lie penalized because Apple cut a deal with the law school. If I were seeing hundreds of faces with I-love my-Powerbook smiles on them, maybe I wouldn't bo so upset. Instead, one person who was told her computer was defective and that she needed to order another one; several people have had a difficult time getting their computers configured; two people canceled their orders at the last minute to buy PC notebooks. One per son wanted to return his computer because he was unhappy with it and was told that he's stuck with it. The faculty needs to get together with our ( lass so we uni discuss this situation I am tired of being told by older students that a laptop is not needed No one has told us why we need laptops in the first place. I tan dial-in from home. I prefer to study at home, and I'm content writing my notes in class Why require laptops when we can be looking 15-inch color monitors at home with a faster modems and CD-ROMs? Why weren't we polled on our computer prefer ence? Apple computers are constantly being updated, and as a result, the Powert>ook we are supposed to buy will most likely be antiquated in three years 1 in willing to guess that if we had been polled, most of us wouldn't have minded spending a few hundred dollars more for something that we'll be able to use for 10 instead of three years The least I can do is try to make the faculty aware of the situation in which they have put us and of how confused and upset we are. I hope a swift resolution will coine alKiut soon, where we will receive one concise answer instead of many mixed messages ! don't want to spend 52, 700 just to play solitaire in class. /eft Solomon is a first year student at the Univer sity School of Law
