CONTACTING OS
; NEWSROOM:
I (541)346-5511
| E-MAIL
j ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
ADDRESS:
Oregon Daily Emerald
P.O. BOX3159
Eugene. Oregon 97403
ONLINE EDITION: whw uoregon,edu/-ode
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR
Mike Schmierbach
NIGHT EDITOR
Carl Yeh
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald
Let’s turn college into corporate America
IJ we want to prepare
students for the real world,
we should teach them a
lesson about reality
For some of us, the future is
nearly here. It’s called
graduation, and it will
force most of us into the
real world.
Like jumping into a freezing
lake in Norway after walking out
of the Arizona desert (I’m sure
Mike
Schmierbach
X-M.TllOy Will
make it possible
one day), gradu
ation brings
with it a certain
shock. Accord
ingly, there is an
increasing trend
in universities
to make college
more like “reali
ty" and less like
academia.
I, for one, am all for this move.
It’s important for students to be
educated about the brave new
world that awaits them, rather
than such useless concepts as lit
erature or calculus.
Therefore, I propose that we
run our classes more like busi
nesses. It’s high time professors
gained the power of company
presidents.
Of course, in order to be a suc
cessful business, you have to pro
duce something. It didn't take me
many Internet searches to find the
solution — papers.
Everyone needs papers. As long
as other schools continue to con
sider education their mission,
there will be college and high
school students who need some
thing to turn in at the end of the
period.
Running this operation success
fully will require a few changes in
the classroom environment. For
starters, it's time we end this silly
concept of educational breadth.
Students who are trained to write
papers on many topics are not
productive students; we need to
make sure each student hones
only a few useful skills.
Additionally, it’s time to con
solidate our classes. Consider, for
example, the vast range of classes
that deal with feminist topics —
we have classes on feminism and
politics, feminism and literature,
feminism and philosophy, femi
nism and the media. Why not just
have one class about feminism
and assign each student to ex
plore a different aspect of the
field? Having eliminated that
whole breadth thing, we could
probably force that student to in
crease his or her productivity to
one or two papers a week.
Extra incentives to boost pro
ductivity might be needed. Grades
are fine, of course, but I think we
should institute downsizing. If it
works for corporations, it can
work for the classroom.
Consider a class of 40 people.
Why should a professor have to
waste his or her time correcting
and educating students earning
C's or low B’s? Just cut them out
of the system and make the A stu
dents work harder. If they don’t,
just fire them, too. There are al
ways more kids who want to go to
college.
If, for whatever reason, we run
out of hardworking Oregonians,
we can always ship some of the
routine classes out to foreign
countries. I'm sure Latin Ameri
can children would be glad to
compose Spanish essays, for ex
ample. For that matter, there’s no
good reason we can’t let Asian la
borers work on Writing 121 pa
pers— they might not receive the
sort of hands-on education Amer
ican students are used to, but it
would still be an improvement
over the kind of schooling they
get now. Plus, it would promote
democracy.
There are certain risks to this
plan. Meddling government offi
cials might try to impose unfair reg
ulations on the education process,
requiring unreasonable levels of
quality to “protect” paper con
sumers or, worse, setting a mini
mum education level. As we all
know, such minimum education
standards would only force the
University to eliminate even more
students to make up for the cost.
On the other hand, government
can probably be counted on to
continue to subsidize the educa
tion process. After all, classrooms
provide a vital role in the commu
nity by providing a needed prod
uct, and if they can’t function
without government assistance,
then tax breaks and extra funding
are clearly called for.
What we really need to demand
from the government is that it al
lows classrooms to merge, there
by making paper purchasing easi
er for consumers. After all, if a
French professor is doing a good
job of making his or her students
work, why shouldn’t that class be
merged with an environmental
science class that isn't performing
uptosm Who cares if a French
professo,. n teach environmen
tal scie What matters is if he
or she get ore product out.
In fact, tl „ whole idea of having
carefully trained professors with
Ph.D.s in a particular field is proba
bly archaic. What we need are pro
fessors trained in management who
have proven their ability to drive
students to write more papers.
Maybe this idea seems a little
too revolutionary. Well, if you’d
told Adam Smith that one day
capitalism would mean multina
tional corporations with more
power than governments and en
tire departments dedicated to ex
tracting the maximum amount of
corporate welfare, he probably
wouldn’t have believed you.
Just think. The future is now.
Let’s educate our students to be
corporate drones; the traditional
college experience just threatens
to produce free thinkers who
might join unions, vote for liber
als and break down the very fab
ric of American society.
Mike Schmierbach is the editorial
editor for the Emerald. His views do
not necessarily represent those of the
newspaper.
LETTERS TO THE SUITOR
OSPIRG aids community
I read with interest the letter from Robert
Wasson on the faults he finds with OS
PIRG. I feel compelled to write because 1
can directly disprove his main criticism.
OSPIRG has been very visible and active in
Salem. Both student volunteers and staff
have worked with legislators and the gov
ernor’s office during the 1995 and 1997
sessions in which I have served. Some of
the issues they provided information on
have direct impact on students’ lives; ex
amples include a tuition freeze and stu
dents’ rights to decide the use of inciden
tal fees. The efforts of OSPIRG and the
Oregon Student Association were instru
mental in maintaining students’ autonomy
to decide how incidental fees should be
used on each campus.
OSPIRG also has provided me with im
portant background research on two issues
that impact both students and the larger
community: ATM fees and campaign fi
nance reform. Because of the efforts of stu
dent volunteers, OSPIRG research is the
type that is most valuable to state legisla
tors, who do not have research staffs. This
research was timely and based on data col
lected directly from Oregonians who
would be most affected by the proposed
legislation.
Wasson also seems to miss the point that
involvement in OSPIRG is an educational
experience for students. As a second-term
legislator, I can assure you that this state
needs all the trained, experienced “citizen
activists” it can get. There is a democracy
beyond the university campus — it is
found in the operations of local, state and
national government. OSPIRG is one of the
few student organizations that make it
their mission to prepare students to get in
volved in their community.
Floyd Prozanski
State Representative
Wasson helps students
With all the hype and misrepresentation
accompanying this year’s ASUO elections,
it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and apathetic
by all the sanctimonious posturing and
scare tactics the “Progressive” slate uses in
its campaign. Fortunately, thanks to the
hearings officers’ reprimand of the Pro
gressive elections violations, we have the
unexpected opportunity to elect an indi
vidual who is more concerned about act
ing to protect student rights instead of es
pousing empty rhetoric. During her two
years on the EMU board, Jenna Wasson has
proven herself to be a consistent advocate
of student rights, insisting on fairness and
fiscal responsibility. She fought for expan
sion of the Multicultural Center and
worked with the International Students
Association to find funding for the EMU el
evator. She has endeavored time and again
to make sure ASUO programs receive the
same consideration for space allocation as
EMU programs receive. She has cut over
$50,000 from the EMU administrative bud
get and advocates utilizing existing profits
to pay for any increases next year so that
student fees are not raised. Most recently,
she forced the cancellation of the coffee
contract, largely because no students were
involved in making the decision. If that’s
not pro-student rights, I don’t know what
is. So when voting this week, follow cre
dentials, not the crowd. Elect Jenna Was
son for EMU board, seat no. 4.
Jennifer Noble
English