Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Wednesday
March 29,2000
Volume 101, Issue 119
Emerald
education
creepy and cool. Imag
ine getting a psycholo
gy or sociology degree
on-line with no human
interaction. Isn’t that a
bit ironic? And the in
teraction that spices up
the classroom atmos
phere is so often amaz
ing. How much does
someone learn just
through listening and
interacting with peers
versus reading a book?
Some things never change. With
all the innovations in technolo
gy throughout the years and
the withering away of grand in
stitutions like religion, the sense that
life is always evolving hangs con
stantly around us. But some things are
consistent and give us a sense of sta
bility throughout the ages.
School and learning, while in their
many forms and with their many his
toric problems and exclusions, have
always been about people getting to
gether. In ancient Greece or Rome,
scholars gathered to talk. In the mid
dle ages, the monks were already as
sembled in groups to foster educa
tion. And in modern times,
school-aged children and grownups
have mustered the courage to get out
and get an education. Because educa
tion is more than reading on your
own, it’s about being together to learn
from others.
All the technological strides in the
world can’t take the place of school,
the community of education.
Or can they?
The University unveiled a new pro
gram this week that will debut this
fall. Many programs at the University
come and go, but this one is special:
It’s the first ever degree program avail
able completely on-line.
All courses and correspondence
can be done without really ever leav
ing home. It’s the real-world equiva
lent of Dot.Com Guy, the man who
said he’d live without leaving his
home and who gets everything he
needs from the Internet, including gro
ceries. Well, now he can get a masters
degree in Applied Information Man
agement to boot.
The idea of on-line degrees is both
Yet, it’s cool. Many
students have taken University cours
es on-line. In fact, the Distance Educa
tion program at the University has
grow in popularity each year. In fall
term 1997, there were 217 partici
pants. Last term 412 people enrolled.
And they’re doing it for all types of
reasons.
The main point, though, is to have a
class where you never go to class.
Courses such as Economics 201 and
202 or Political Science 201 and 204
are available on-line. And the work is
about the same. The experience is
much different and perhaps more effi
cient. Students can take more work
than they have time for or can take
classes for summer school while they
are in Europe. If a student has a sched
uling conflict, he or she can take a
Web course and avoid the time con
flict. There are many more applica
tions for these on-line courses and de
grees than just people who can’t phys
ically get to school. They can be fan
tastic for people who have the
discipline to work by themselves.
And it’s not all devoid of human
contact. While you don’t hear a profes
sor’s lecture, a writing class could have
an e-mail chat about someone’s paper,
for instance. Think about how much
interaction you have with people via e
mail or through surfing the Web. Virtu
al communication is vital to our mod
em world.
One day an on-line degree may be as
common as a traditional one. And it’s
not nearly as cheesy as those Sally
Struthers’ commercials where you can
learn to be a bookkeeper or legal assis
tant with just a few courses at home.
This one degree being offered on
line is just a test. It’s a masters degree,
so people taking the sequence will
probably have been traditional stu
dents who have sat through the “real”
classroom experience. They have
been there, done that, and now they
are moving on to more exciting
things. Like using your computer to
interface with the world.
And while we toil in classes every
day, that may not be the case forever.
Times for education are finally
a’changin’.
This editorial represents the view of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Working together to improve labor practices
Wi
en it comes to battling the abuses
of sweatshop labor, we will get more
done working together than against
one other.
When it comes to battling child labor, forced
labor, discrimination and harassment, we are all
on the same side, heading for the same goals. I
cannot think of a person on this campus — facul
ty member, staff, student or administrator — who
does not want to support living wages, reason
able hours of work and adequate safety and
health for workers. This is also true for those
workers who make University licensed products
— the clothing and other items that carry our
name. When a product bears the University
name, we all want to be as certain as we can that
no harmful or unethical labor practices went into
its manufacture. . .
Commentary
Dave
Frohnmayer
How do we do that?
Together.
A number of students, including ASUO lead
ers, are actively seeking solutions. Some have put
forward ideas for specific action. Many voted for
action in the last election.
I have heard the student voices uniting behind
one newly forming international monitor. We, as
a university community, are acting — although
perhaps not quite as quickly as some students
have urged.
This is much more than a student issue. It is an
issue for everyone at the University, including
faculty members, staff and administrators. We are
a diverse community, and we seek responsible
answers that reflect and honor that diversity.
This means that ultimately the answers must be
found by all of us, working together.
Any time an issue affects the entire campus, the
entire campus should confront it and work to
solve it. Sometimes, as in the case of licensing
codes of conduct, a committee is formed that in
cludes all the campus voices: students, faculty
and staff. As is appropriate for an institution of
higher learning dedicated both to free expression
and due reflection, that group studies, thinks and
discusses the issue, then makes recommendations
to the president. Ultimately, under the laws of our
state, the president must decide what action to
Turn to Frohnmayer, page 3
Quoted
“I hope they’ll be
able to work it out.
I hope that the sys
tem will allow for
it to be contin
ued."
— University of
North Carolina
Athletic Director
Dick Baddour dis
cussing how UNC
basketball stars Ed
Cota and Terrence
Newbyare are sup
posed to be in Dis
trict Court the day
that the NCAA
Championship
game is scheduled
to be played, April
3.TheTar Heels
could make the
game but would
be without the two
star players due to
their involvement
in a brawl on Hal
loween.
ESPN.com, March
27.
“The tobacco com
panies face a virtu
ally unlimited pool
of prospective
plaintiffs. In other
words, they don’t
have a shutoff
valve.”
—Stephen Cillers,
law professor at
New York Universi
ty, on Monday’s to
bacco lawsuit ver
dict in which a
woman who be
gan smoking after
warning labels
we re put on car
tons won $20 mil
lion in damages.
“Our priority is to
overcome our own
poverty.”
—Vladimir Putin,
former KGB agent
and hand-picked
successor to Russ
ian President Boris
Yeltsin, on his
landslide victory
Sunday in the
Russian presiden
tial election.
CORRECTION
in the story “Sens
ing urgency for
2000-01” (ODE,
March 28),
Cathrine
Kraayeveld’s
name was mis
spelled.
In the story “UO
waits till end to
beat the Clan”
(ODE, March 27),
Simon Fraserwas
misspelled.
The Emerald re
grets the errors.