Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2005)
4 Commentary Student Poll: Pop or soda? What do you call your carbonated beverage? “It’s soda. I just call it soda.” Joshua Springer “It’s pop. I’ve never used the word ‘soda.’” Sarah Abbott “I call it soda. ‘Pop’ sounds weird to me.” Mike Patelzick “I call every thing coke because I’m from the South.” Clackamas P Wednesday. Nov. 2, 2005 Of textbooks and profit Gabe Stone The Clackamas Print On the shifting sea of life, our education is that depend able vessel that carries us through the storm. And on our way to a degree, we can view textbooks as the boat anchor. Book pricing causes righ teous indignation on cam puses, and it could be argued that it is widely viewed as a racket. We all remember Oregon Congressman David Wu, right? He’s that Democrat represent ing the First Congressional District. Many of us remem ber him mentioning something about wanting to remedy the depressing situation. Last year, he introduced a House bill that directed the General Accounting Office to investigate whether textbook prices were justifiable under current conditions. Wu announced the find ings back in August. They are insightful and worth a read. Textbook prices have grown an average of six percent per year. College tuition and fees have^risen at an average of seven percent per year. Understandably, the price of books eats up a greater percentage of tuition and fees at the two-year than at the four-year level (about 72 percent). According to the report, the primary factor contribut ing to textbook price increas es is “the increased invest ment publishers have made in new products to enhance instruction and learning.” More specifically, indus try executives cite the grow- ing role publishers are being asked to play in providing materials to overworked part-time instructors. Usually these materials are not available separately. In addition, it mentions - frequent textbook revi- sions as a factor as well, along with the increasing prevalence of custom text books for institutions. Demand for used books far outpaces supply, driv ing up prices in that mar ket. However, increas ing consolidation in the publishing and wholesale markets has worsened the problem. Publishers deny this, saying com petition is still fierce. They also assert that extra supplements are required because they must diversify in order to compete. Although the quality of the materi als is not in question, ask a student if they’d like to save 50 bucks or get a CD with 3-D models of the human spleen. Publishers also contend that instructors are driving revision cycles, and although the GAO agrees with that statement, it certainly is not uniform across disciplines. One publisher even said that their revision cycles were directly tied to sales pat terns! It is certainly a complex business, with many paths a book takes as it goes from publisher to student, and from new to used. After reading the report, one gets a sense that publishers are either disconnected from reality, or are quite simply businessmen. C Photo illustration by Gabe Stone Clackamas Print Charlie FM: interesting, but not in a good w Nathan Young “It’s pop. ‘Soda’ is too sophis ticated for me.” Anna Hoesly “I call it sugar. If I had to choose, Fd call it soda.” Nicole Goodson “I’ve grown up calling it pop.” Max Allen This week's poll compiled by Kimberly Maier Cl Ciaramella The Clackamas Print “Random is good,” intones the voice of Charlie FM, one of the newest radio stations in Portland. Well, I’m here to say random is not good. I remember the day I was driving to school and I turned the radio to 97.1 expecting to hear the soothing sounds of KISN, only to find myself asking: “Who is Charlie, and why is he play ing David Bowie on the oldies sta tion?” I, like many peo ple that day, soon learned the truth. Charlie was in town, and he was planning on staying. The idea behind this new station is fairly revolutionary, to tell the truth. Normal radio stations only have playlists a few hundred songs deep, which means you’re guaranteed to hear the same songs everyday. Charlie’s playlist, on the other hand, contains thousands of songs. It’s an experiment (or more precisely a gamble) in ra4io. As of late, the biggest concern in radio-land is how to compete with the rise of the iPod, and Charlie FM is one of the first attempts at combating the dreaded “iPod Shuffle.” This means a non- genre-specific station that plays more music than you can shake a stick at. Sounds good, right? Well, like any first-time experiment, Charlie gets almost as many things wrong as it gets right. One of the first things you’ll notice when you tune in to the station is the lack of DJs. I’ve always been a strong proponent of “less talk, more rock,” but, for me, it takes something vital away from radio when you know there’s no actual person spinning the songs. It just sounds pro foundly “canned.” It’s a shame, because Internet Graphic Charlie F M ’ s variety of music could really be helped by some con DJs. It’s true that it’s fl station in town that w James Taylor, Metalli Tears for Fears back-fl but, you know, there’ ably a good reason a the only one. Even Charlie’s touts list isn’t all it’s crac to be. The station cli “play everything," but not really accurate. you consider1 thing” to be t Billboard pop the past 25 yea If I want rad actual DJs wh truly eclectic (not random; th difference), I cat to NPR’s fantast gramming or th community radio 90.7 KBOO, botho expect more out o listeners than drooli sive reception. Perha of all, there is not at Tears for Fears to bet For my closing p guess I could blathe how Charlie FM is j Clear Channel station, er tentacle of the grea monster, corporate bla blah, but that arguine overdone that I will] will simply say that Channel sucks, so by a tion Charlie sucks as fl
