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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, October 14,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor.
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Editorial
Otherschools
should adopt
GPA standard
For business majors, making the grade now
has new meaning, as the business school set
new guidelines for grade point averages in ma
jor, minor and pre-business classes.
We commend the school for taking the
University’s first step in letting students know
that a minimum level of work will not result
in a B+ or an A-. Average work deserves a G,
and curves exist for a reason. In an average
class, average students do about average
quality work. Students are being given ad
vance notice that if they want a higher grade,
they will have to earn it.
An argument certainly can be made that
curves such as the ones adopted by the
business school don’t hold up in each and
every class. Sometimes a class is filled with
overachievers, and a GPA cap has the po
tential to hurt some of those students. But if
the University community uses that argu
ment to rationalize having no set standards,
then everyone’s effort is devalued. A grade
ought to mean that a certain level of work
was accomplished.
It’s also worthy to note that the curve es
tablished by the business school is somewhat
liberal. For major core business classes,
grades must fall between a high G+ and a high
B. We don’t know how the school chose this
range — perhaps it reflects the mean grades
for business majors — but the average grade
is now set at above average.
A stronger reason to argue against the busi
ness school’s move is that other departments
don’t have the same standards. People out
side the University don’t know which depart
ments have standards and which don’t, so
students in other majors are getting better
grades for less work.
In response to that argument, we have a
challenge for the other departments on cam
pus: Get on the grading-standard bandwag
on. If a University education means that stu
dents are “citizen scholars,” as the
administration has claimed, the coursework
and grading policies should reflect it.
We challenge you, as instructors, to chal
lenge us. How can students want to achieve
greatness when you expect nothing more of
them than the bare minimum? Give Univer
sity students something to be proud of — a
grade they actually deserve.
Online Poll
Each Monday, the Emerald publishes the
previous week’s poll results and the coming
week’s poll question. Visit dailyemerald.com
to vote.
Last week: Do you support Bush’s proposal
to invade Iraq without U.N. approval?
Results: 108 total votes
Yes — 24.8 percent, or 27 votes
No — 67.6 percent, or 73 votes
Don’t know — 5.7 percent, or 6 votes
Don’t care — 1 percent, or 1 vote
Leave me alone! — 1 percent, or 1 vote
This week: What’s your favorite Oregon ski
area?
Choices: Hoodoo, Mt. Bachelor, Mt. Ashland,
Willamette Pass, Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood
SkiBowl, Mt. Hood Meadows, Other, Don’t
know, Leave me alone!
Do homework before going to war
The nations that currently com
prise the Middle East were formed
as a direct result of Western inter
vention following World War I. In
many cases, these arbitrary na
tional boundaries do not coincide
with the ethnic, religious and polit
ical identities of the people who
live in them.
This, combined with the fact
that the concept of a nation-state
was only introduced — forcibly —
aDout »u years
ago, is some
what to blame
for the contin
ual unrest in
many of these
young coun
tries. We can
no longer
afford to con
sider the
region in
terms of sepa
rate nation
states. This is not Europe, where
people have developed national
identities over centuries of com
mon experience. If we’re headed
tor war, we need to study the peo
ples who live in the area.
Take Lebanon, for example. The Ma
ronites, a Christian people with some ties to
Catholicism, originally accounted for rough
ly half of the population; Muslims comprised
the other half. The government was
arranged accordingly, with political power
divided in two. In more recent times, Mus
lims became much more populous than the
Maronites, and their attempt to gain more
political control resulted in war. Add to the
mix another religious community, the
Mowahhidoon, or Druse, who are neither
Muslim nor Christian — the exact beliefs of
the Druse are kept secret — and you can see
that political stability would be difficult.
But wait! We’re not done! There are two
main groups of Muslims: The Shiite and the
Sunni. The Sunni are more wealthy, more
educated and dominate positions of power
and prestige. This inequality is also a source
of conflict. These domestic conflicts are of
ten much more of a threat to the livelihood
of the average resident of the Middle East,
and as a result often take precedence over
issues of national relevance.
In the war between Iran and Iraq during
the mid-’80s, the Reagan administration
switched sides repeatedly and saw fit to sell
arms to both countries. Both blamed the un
satisfactory conclusion on the United States
and claimed they would have won if Ameri
ca had not intervened.
And let’s not forget the continued support
the United States provides Israel. In a recent
comprehensive poll, published by the Wash
ington Post, Arabs in general listed the rights
of Palestinians as the third most important
political concern in their lives. Rest assured
that all Arabs opposed to the Zionist move
ment have no illusions as to where Israel
gets its state-of-the-art planes, tanks and
missiles. In the same poll, Arabs were found
to “have a strongly negative overall view of
the United States based largely on American
policy toward the region.”
According to the Associated Press, there
are around 8,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan,
and this continued occupation is creating un
rest. This fact, combined with the United
States, Japan and Saudi Arabia failing to de
liver a promised #180 million in aid could
make an opposition movement in
Afghanistan a real and dangerous threat.
Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden
before him, both make exceptional poster
children for military action in the Middle
East.
• • ' - • . I . : .. ;,V: '
One man is accredited with assassinat
ing his own relatives, gassing his own citi
zens and repeatedly attacking his neigh
bors. The other is charged with several
acts of terrorism against America, the lat
est of which resulted in nearly 3,000 civil
ian casualties.
But for lasting peace to be possible in
this region, Western powers must come to
better understand the people who live in
it. I don’t want to pick up an M-16 and go
charging across the sand dunes until I
know exactly what it is I am charging into.
If drafted, I would go to war with Iraq, or
al-Qaeda , or whomever, but I don’t want
to die because Bush was too busy babbling
about “evil” to do his homework.
Contact the columnist
at michaelcosgrove@dailyemerald.com. His views
do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
M.Reilly
Cosgrove
Separate this
Peter Utsey Emerald
Students have political influence with votes
Guest commentary
This November, you have an opportunity
to shape the political future not only of our
own state, but also of the entire nation. With
the Senate so closely divided, the contest be
tween Gordon Smith and myself is one of a
handful that can determine which party con
trols that chamber’s gavel. It is up to Oregoni
ans — and especially young people — to help
decide what course of action our nation
should pursue.
The stakes are unmistakably high: Envi
ronmental policy, funding for higher educa
tion, and preserving a woman’s right to make
her own reproductive decisions all hang in
the balance.
The good news is this: In Oregon, stu
dents matter.
I think I see a few people smirking at the
back of your classroom. They’re skeptical of
my last claim.
As Oregon’s secretary of state, I’ve visited
more than 100 schools and can understand
your frustration. You feel that politicians
aren’t paying attention to your priorities. You
know that the federal government doesn’t
spend enough on grants for college tuition
(which have been in steady decline for two
decades) because you’ve signed for the
loans. You know that, nationwide, 18-34
year-olds often cast one out of every 10 bal
lots counted — even though you make up
nearly one-third of the voting-age population.
Does it have to be this way? Are you
doomed to a vicious cycle of underparticipat
ing and being underserved in return? Of
course not.
You need only look at the last presidential
election in order to discover your influence.
In 2000, A1 Gore carried Oregon by a mere
6,767 votes. That year, the Oregon Youth
Vote coalition single-handedly registered
27,000 young Oregonians to vote — approxi
mately four times the number of votes that
decided the outcome. Now, take those 27,000
votes out of the picture. Might the outcome
have been different?
Let’s be clear: Oregon students deserve a
senator who will be accountable to them. I
support increasing Pell Grants by $1,000
over the next three years, so that more col
lege students have the opportunity to com
plete their degrees and develop the skills to
improve their marketability in this tough
economy. I also support increasing the num
ber of Pell Grants available, so that more low
income students have the opportunity to pur
sue a degree.
The bottom line is that we all benefit when
we make quality college education affordable
and accessible to students. Society shares the
economic benefit of a highly educated work
force, enjoys the innovations made possible
by new scientific research, and celebrates the
cultural advances of artists and scholars. Par
ticipating in elections is your best opportuni
ty to remind your elders of these truths.
So, if you’re not registered to vote, get reg
istered!! It’s easy — you can find a form on
line at www.oregonvotes.org. When your bal
lot arrives in the mail this October, mark it
and mail it in.
With your vote, you’ll be standing up to
counter the opinion that young people don’t
care about politics — or, even worse, that
you haven’t the means or opportunity to
make a difference.
Here’s to proving them wrong.
Bill Bradbury is the Democrats' nominee
for U.S. Senate.