Students achieve credits
for classes from a distance
■The Distance Education
program benefits students
who will not be in town by
offering on-line courses
By Simone Ripke
Oregon Daily Emerald
This summer, the word “dis
tance” in the University’s distance
education program will gain a
whole new meaning.
While the distance between a
student’s apartment and the Uni
versity campus has been bridged
by distance education classes for a
while, Sandra Gladney, the dis
tance education program coordi
nator, said some students plan to
lengthen it all the way across the
United States and even to Europe
this summer.
Currently, there are 120 enroll
ments for 11 on-line summer
classes ranging from linguistics
and arts and administration to po
litical science and geology. Glad
ney said she expects the enroll
ment to continue to climb.
“We expect it to go up, certain
ly,” she said. “People are still en
rolling.”
Gladney said some students
have contacted her to make
arrangements to take their tests
while on a road trip across the
country and while traveling
through Europe. One student,
Gladney said, plans to take tests
and submit assignments from cy
ber cafes across Europe.
“We can accommodate that,”
she said. “Students have to be
willing to recognize that they will
have to get on-line every week.”
And with some careful plan
ning ahead, that is usually not a
big problem, she said.
While some summer on-line
classes require students to turn in
assignments via e-mail and to take
tests at proctored sites, others are
more project-oriented, and stu
dents are not as dependent on fre
quent access to a computer and the
Internet.
Gladney said that while on-line
distance education is a great way
to take classes without having to
go to classes or even be in Eugene
or the country, she warned that
students should not underesti
mate the work that comes with
succeeding in such a non-tradi
tional setting.
“Just because you have flexibili
ty doesn’t mean there is less work
involved,” she said. “You need to
be aware that it’s still an intensive
course.”
Michele Rutheiser, a senior
journalism major, said she has tak
en at least a dozen distance educa
tion classes and is enrolled for one
over the summer.
“It’s terrific,” she said. “You re
ally have to be motivated and self
disciplined.”
While Rutheiser has no summer
travel plans yet, she said distance
education helped her make it
through the term when her father
recently died and she had to go
home to California to take care of
family matters. She said distance
education gave her enough flexi
bility to catch up and study at her
own pace and still finish all of her
tests and assignments for the class.
Rutheiser said that while taking
courses without going to classes
allows for studying at her own
pace, she still feels the quality of
education is the same as in the
classroom.
“I would say that it’s compara
ble,” she said. “In some cases, I
would even say that it’s been a bet
ter experience.”
Distance education allows peo
ple who are traveling, raising chil
dren or have illnesses to continue
their education without having to
be here, said Kathy Dellabough, an
adjunct instructor in the arts and
administration department.
“In terms of traveling, it’s great,”
she said.
Greg Miles, the instructor for
distance education geology class
es, said besides not being tied to
campus, on-line classes have the
advantage that students can study
at times where their concentration
level is the highest. So students
who tend not to do well in 8 a.m.
classes have the option of getting
their class work done at night
when they might be more produc
tive, he said.
Promises
continued from page 3A
said. “I am leaving office with
such a nasty taste in my mouth as
far as that man goes,” Anoushira
vani said. “We were marginal
ized.”
They said that even when ad
ministrators disagreed with their
proposals, including Executive
Assistance Vice President Dave
Hubin, Vice President of Student
Affairs Anne Leavitt and Vice
President of Public Affairs and
Development Duncan McDon
ald, the administrators were still
curious why students were inter
ested in the proposal. With
Frohnmayer, they said, that dia
logue was never created.
Frohnmayer said he has tried
to keep in contact with the exec
utive and said he has been
pleased with how they have han
dled a tough and busy year.
“The ASUO president, vice
president and I had a scheduled
series of meetings every other
week through the school year in
my office,” Frohnmayer said.
“Occasionally I had to
reschedule — for instance, my
severe and well-publicized
health problems put a crimp in
my schedule — sometimes they
had to,” he said. “But scheduled
meetings weren’t the only way to
communicate. As always, I an
swer my phone calls and e-mails
quickly, often within a day.”
Chen and Anoushiravani also
began work on improving light
ing on campus, providing cov
ered bike racks, improving Inter
net access and making federal
aid grants a priority in the state
government.
Big issues, little time
Throughout the year, other is
sues have overshadowed many
of these campaign promises,
from the Southworth U.S.
Supreme Court case that estab
lished the University’s student
fee system as legal, to the exten
sive work the executive did to
pass the WRC to monitor the ap
parel factories making Universi
ty licensed products. As depart
ments completed successful
voter registration, diversity and
ASUO programs campaigns,
Anoushiravani said she was
pleased with how they handled
the bigger issues that arose and
how they remained true to their
goal of representing students.
Despite what they accom
plished, Anoushiravani said she
regrets spreading herself so thin
this year. She reviewed almost
100 ASUO programs’ budgets to
make an executive recommenda
tion to the Programs Finance
Committee’s hearings during
winter term. She also sat on the
EMU Board instead of hiring
someone else to fill the job. Both
added that they wanted to have a
better relationship with the Stu
dent Senate and the PFC as well.
On reflection, both said they’re
happy the year is coming to an
end and very pleased with what
they’ve done and the office they
are leaving for Breslow and Mag
ner.
“We’ve done our job really, re
ally well,” Chen said. “We don’t
make excuses for anything.”
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be Inspired by everything l do
remind myself that tall trees and green grass are worth all the rain '
challenge myself and others to consider each side of an issue
remember that being part of a six person class at the UO is a once-in-a-lifetime
not procrastinate... starting tomorrow
challenge my friends to drink responsibly... or not at all.
wi
.. and
MO
UO students
[80%] hove
» or fewer
they party
Zach Swanson
History Major, Honors College, UO
200Q
Office of Student Life
Data taken from 1998 UO Health center Survey.