Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, November 7, 2005
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About 50 years ago, or
somethin’ like that... on
this very Halloween night,
about 60,000 college stu
dents went absolutely
nuts...
Now...no one really got hurt
that badly...but from what
I hear there was lots of
shouting and a mattress got
burned...
It's our job now to moke
sure that college students
NEVER party on Halloween
AGAIN_
CODE RED!
Suspect spotted!
I need BACK UP!
Twix, Huh? Is that
what you kids are
calling ’it* these
days?...I outta
put a bullet in
your drug dealin’
head right now
Scum-Bag.. .You're
lucky" you have
RIGHTS!
/\AKUIN L^UV^MAitAU | ILUUdlTVMUn
In my opinion
More work on Fridays?
GIVE ME A BREAK
This Sunday, The New York Times
ran a story detailing the trend of three
day weekends on college campuses.
Some campuses want to “reclaim”
Fridays, i.e. regulate the academic cal
endar more strictly so that depart
ments are required to schedule more
Friday classes.
An increase in Friday instruction
time would reduce the abundance of
classes that occur midweek and battle
one another for room space and stu
dent enrollment. Administrators claim
that more Friday classes will benefit
students because a larger variety of
classes and class times can be offered.
Alongside mandating more Friday
class offerings, these schools may also
demand that earlier class times strive to
be the norm. Both Chico State and Duke
University have increased their Friday,
as well as early morning, classes.
However, as mentioned in the article,
students make great efforts to work
their schedule around factors such as
the early mornings and Fridays. If stu
dents are already choosing to give up
classes in favor of sleeping in, why offer
them more early morning classes?
The theory goes that university life
should mirror “real life,” the life that
students will lead once they graduate
from college. The problem with the log
ic of “get used to it now so you’re ready
for it later” is the fact that such reason
ing paints a static picture of the world
at large. In truth, it is the rest of the
world that needs a change: College stu
dents are wise in their reasoning that
schedules should be internally, rather
than externally, determined.
Administrators believe that they
know best what schedule college stu
dents need. Chancellor Charles B.
Reed of the California State Universi
ty system says that partying instead of
studying on Thursday nights “is not a
healthy atmosphere. ”
How Chancellor Reed defines a
healthy atmosphere is unclear. Is it
AILEE SLATER
FURTHER FROM PERFECTION
healthy to manipulate campus schedul
ing in order to slyly induce students
into attending school five days a week?
A main concern of many college ad
ministrators is that without the crunch
of Friday classes, students engage in
raucous partying Thursday night. How
ever, this concern is related to a more
general issue — alcohol consumption
by college students. The problem of stu
dent drinking will not disappear with
an upsurge in Friday class require
ments; students will simply hold off on
their alcohol consumption for a night or
two. What difference does it make to
administrators if students are wasted on
Thursday night or on Friday night? Or
both? It is not the responsibility of a uni
versity to regulate the social life or so
cial schedule of students.
It is no surprise that college officials
have once more promoted the image of
students as party animals in desperate
need of structure. However, increasing
early morning and Friday classes begs
the question; Why should education be
a masochistic experience for students?
It shouldn’t. Students should be al
lowed to enjoy and excel in school at a
pace to their own liking. If a student
can maintain a reasonable GPA and
meet their graduation date, administra
tors shouldn’t bother trying to tweak
scheduling preferences. If departments
don’t wish to schedule Friday classes
and students don’t wish to attend
them, then a Friday class demand will
only result in the poor emotional state
of everyone on campus.
Furthermore, students, and people in
general, deserve their free time, and
school administrators are dead wrong
in their assumption that Fridays-off
equals a three-day weekend. In fact, a
majority of college students devote at
least a portion, if not all, of their Satur
days and Sundays to completing essays,
reading and other long-term class proj
ects. Taking away the opportunity of
free Fridays would, for many students,
completely eradicate the dream of a
work-free, pressure-free weekend.
And any university official who
thinks that students need a higher
number (of productive days on campus
should take a serious look at the mental
health statistics of college students. Sur
veys in the late 1990s from the National
Mental Health Association report sui
cide as the second highest cause of
death among college students and say
that anxiety and depression are much
too common among students. Making
it harder for students to take a three-day
breath of fresh air from the university
will force already overworked students
into a high-stress atmosphere.
School officials looking to increase
Friday classes should also remember
that for students juggling classes and
employment, the ability to schedule ac
ademia-free days is key to finding a job.
Students are able to tell potential em
ployers that they are available all day
three days a week, rather than being
able to work for only a few hours after
the school day has ended.
Students are not single-minded par
ty animals looking to avoid school
work and have a drunken hullabaloo
three days a week. Rather, college stu
dents, like adults in general, enjoy the
ability to schedule their work and their
play. School administrators shouldn’t
encourage a five-day week if students
can, and want to, do their required aca
demic work in four days.
aslater@dailyemerald. com
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■ Editorial
Benefits of
apartment
sale require
clear outline
This University exists, both as a physical cam
pus and as an institution, by result of foresight
and planning by past administrators. Formulat
ing long-term strategies about how to expand this
“land-locked” University must account for a mul
titude of interwoven factors, and we understand
such planning is difficult.
Yet the administration’s current plan to sell
Westmoreland Apartments does not appear to fit
into a clear, practical long-range vision. State
ments made by President Dave Frohnmayer dur
ing a hearing before the Oregon State Board of
Higher Education on Friday failed to clearly dis
close the University’s plans, if any, for the use of
sale money. He emphasized the need to quickly
put the property on the market to keep potential
buyers interested but did not disclose how long
the University has been plotting a sale or why ad
ministrators announced the sale so suddenly.
Frohnmayer told the board that money gener
ated by the sale would allow the University to be
more nimble in buying land when “once a cen
tury” opportunities arise. After the hearing, he
said his dream is to build a land bank east of cam
pus along Franklin Boulevard that be his legacy.
It is unclear when land will become available
and how much it will cost. We must question
what the land, purchased with housing money,
will be used for, given the University’s history of
using housing money to acquire land for other
purposes. Even if it is used to renovate aging resi
dence halls, we don’t seem to have an overarch
ing plan for balancing residence hall needs with
non-traditional student needs.
Meanwhile, residents at Westmoreland, in
cluding graduate teaching fellows, international
students, students with children and others, op
pose the sale. Without Westmoreland, they right
fully say there will be a lack of affordable hous
ing and child care options for low-income
students, especially those with families.
We are pleased the board asked administrators
to study and implement ways to ease the effects
of a Westmoreland sale on tenants. Part of the
sale proceeds should certainly be used for this
purpose. But dealing with the aftermath of a sale
is not sufficient. The administration’s top priority
should be to clearly state its plans for the money.
Effective long-term planning sometimes re
quires short-term sacrifice. But before people will
sacrifice their homes, they need to see the long
term vision; they need to know what they give up
will not be in vain. As leaders of this University,
administrators surely understand that students'
and faculty members will not willingly sacrifice
if this vision isn’t shared openly with the Univer
sity community. So far, the vision is not clear.
If administrators wish to build a legacy, they
should lay out their plans for spending sale mon
ey as clearly as possible. We understand that fluc
tuating property markets and many other factors
will contribute to this decision, and many aspects
of the sale are interrelated. These complications
are exactly the types of details we need to know.
Only when the facts are clearly laid out will we
be able to judge the merits of this move. After re
viewing all the facts, students may continue to
oppose the sale. Then, even if a controversial sale
progresses, the administration will at least leave a
legacy of openness.
CORRECTION
Because of an editing error, a quote in Friday's “Senate votes to
adopt new model for stipends" should have stated that ASUO
President Adam Walsh said the following, referring to the stipend
model the Programs Finance Committee wanted to implement:
"I know for sure that the President’s office won’t approve of it
Even this model is a little higher than what they'd like to see."
A paragraph was deleted, making it appear that the quotation
came from ASUO Student Senate Ombudsman Jared Axelrod.
The Emerald regrets the error.