University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 22, 2000 Page: 3 of 8
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University Press • Friday, September 22, 2000 • Page 3
University Press
Editor...........................................................Joshua Cobb
Managing Editor......................................Natasha Dailey
The opinions that appear in editorials are the official views of the
University Press student management as determined by the UP
Student Editorial Board. Opinions expressed elsewhere on this
page are the views of the writers only and are not necessarily
those of the University Press student management. Student opin-
ions are not necessarily those of the university administration.
Editorial
Perhaps we should
re-examine Lamar
health center policy
r During this past May mini-session, Lamar’s health center pro-
fessionals said they had to turn away 74 students who were trying
to endure an illness during the short period of time, approximately
three weeks, between the spring semester and summer I. They
regretted having to do this as health professionals. Because of the
university’s policy, only 21 of the students who visited the center
during the mini-session were eligible to receive care.
The student management of the UP is concerned about how
Lamar can make improvements to its current health policy so inci-
dences like these do not happen again. These students are depen-
dent upon the university for help when they are ill.
Current university policy holds that students not taking mini-
session classes are ineligible for university health services between
semesters. Even students who were enrolled full-time for the pre-
vious long term and are enrolled for {be upcoming long term can-
not be treated. That, precisely, is our concern.
What are students, who are not enrolled during the mini-ses-
sion but live in the dorm, supposed to do?
When some of these students get sick, they cannot easily go to
a doctor off campus. This is especially a serious problem for those
whose families live halfway across the globe. Many of these stu-
dents do not have transportation to leave the campus. They do not
have health insurance. They do not have primary care physicians.
They are left to either try to wear off the illness or try to get med-
ication from a doctor in their home country through a very “iffy”
and “can be dangerous” explanation of symptoms in a telephone
conversation or depending on a family member to describe the
symptoms to a doctor. And then there is the problem and time of
getting the medication sent to Beaumont. This can be potentially
dangerous, to say the least, for the student who is enrolled in the
university, even though he is not attending a mini-session.
. One suggestion for improving this situation is to allow students
to pay a health fee for these three weeks whether they are enrolled
in a mini-session. This fee could be an option for the student to
choose either the preceding semester or in preregistration for the
Qpcoming semester. This way, at least, those who live on or near
campus would have access to the health center during the short
periods in between the mini-sessions and the long semesters.
Another suggestion is if a student who has not paid the fee is
desperately in need of care, the health center could provide assis-
tance after verifying proof that the student was, indeed, enrolled
full-time the previous semester and is enrolled for the next semes-
ter, and simply charge him or her the $5 fee he or she did not pay
for the mini-session.
Certainly there are other possible solutions, but, in any event,
we take the stance that there is no place at Lamar University for a
legitimate student who is legitimately enrolled to be denied health
care on a “technicality.” We should re-evaluate our priorities and
make sure that we have policies that do, indeed, serve students.
French can pay the bills
Parlez vous, Francais? Benefits more than you ever imagined
Why take French as a foreign language?’
I hear this often when making my rounds as a
French teacher at Lamar. My immediate
response is that French is overwhelmingly
important. First of all, everyone should take
French at Lamar to increase enrollment, so I
can keep my job.
However, you can have your own selfish
reasons for taking French. Whether you are
interested in continuing your studies in grad-
uate school or improving your language and
writing skills in English, studying French is
helpful. In fact, foreign language study im-
proves scores on standardized tests (like the
GRE), and it increases knowledge of English
grammar. Overall, the study of a foreign lan-
guage improves many intellectual skills, from
reasoning ability and problem solving, to ver-
bal intelligence and memory.
I know that many of you don’t care about
those intangible reasons for learning a foreign
language. “Self-improvement, Schmelf-im-
provement. Will French help me rake in the
cash?” Actually, learning French can be
remarkably helpful in fairly substantial, finan-
cial ways.
In the medical field, for instance, France
is a world leader. The AIDS virus was first
isolated by French doctors. The Human
Genome Project is located in Paris. France
and the United States also exchange informa-
tion on cardiac, biotechnology, and other
research areas. If you’re entering medical
school, a significant background in French is a
UP COMMENTARY ji:-1 ■■■.:«
Maureen Keating Jp|f^
Guest columnist jj
LU TEACHER OF THE WtgL t 'V
French Language and culture
stepping stone to thousands of projects and
careers. French greatly increases your mar-
ketability in the medical field.
In the lucrative high-tech fields, innova-
tions galore come from France. French is sec-
ond only to English as the language of the
Internet. In industry, France is the No. 1
worldwide distributor of electronic compo-
nents. Fiber optics were invented in France,
high definition television was invented in
France, as were many other technological
innovations. France is a leader in transporta-
tion and military technology. They build the
world’s fastest trains (the TGV), the fastest
cominercial planes (the Concorde), and they
are the makers of Mack trucks. French great-
ly increases your marketability in engineer-
ing, computer science, or any technology-ori-
ented occupation.
In the field of international diplomacy
and translation, French is essential because it
is the most widely spoken language in the
world after English. Perhaps you have been
watching the Olympics lately? — the official
languages of the Olympics are French and
English. French is spoken as an official lan-
guage in 33 countries and is the only language
other than English spoken on five continents.
Learning French opens up a world of global
career opportunities.
You might be saying “Frenchie jobs are
fine, but I can get a job without learning some
crummy foreign language.” You’re right, but
learning French may increase your salary at
those jobs. When I worked at SoloCup as a
graduate student, my annual salary was $4,000
higher than those who did the same job only
in English. (Hello!! $4,000!!) Foreign lan-
guages are profitable.
Not interested in French classes yet? You
can still participate in French culture here at
Lamar. The Lamar French Circle meets
monthly. On Oct. 6, we are meeting at
President Simmons’ house for an evening of
French music and food. We also have several
French movie nights planned for this year.
You can participate in all of these activities
without setting foot in a French classroom.
Why French, you ask? Clearly, learning
French makes you smarter, richer and more
attractive than everyone else. But really you
should learn French because it gives you more
career opportunities, and more money in the
careers you do choose. Add these financial
reasons to the intellectual benefits, the gener-
al increase in your cultural knowledge, and all
the fun you’ll have eating French food and
traveling overseas, and you begin to see the
benefits.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Individuals who wish to speak out on issues should send a letter fewer
than 400 words in length to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box I00SS,
LU Station, Beaumont 77710, or drop letters off at our offices in
200 Setzer Student Center. The writer’s name, address, telephone
number and social security number must accompany each letter.
Letters received without this information cannot be printed. Letters
may be edited for length, grammar, style and possible libel. Opinions
expressed in letters are not necessarily those of the UP student man-
agement. Letters by the same writer on the same subject will not be
published. Poetry, reprints, anonymous letters and religious debates
will not be published.
University Press
©2000 University Press
News
Editor.........................
..................Joshua Cobb
Managing Editor...........
............Natasha Dailey
Copy Editor....................
Kuntal Kotnis
Sports Editor.................
.....................R.J. Enard
Briefs Editor..................
...............Kacey Jordan
Staff Writers........Daisy Hargraves, Shay Bayly,
Tara Smith, Catherine Wright,
Kasey Jordan, Pat Dennison,
Jeff Barker, Jennifer Sparks,
Thu-Thuy Nguyen
Photography
Photographers................
................Kevin Gilliam
Advertising Assistant....
.........Angela Woodford
Office Assistant.............
.............Allison Caillier
Director.........................
............Howard Perkins
Assistant Director.........
.............Andy Coughlan
Advertising Manager....
.................Linda Barrett
Entertainment industry targets violence at young minds
WASHINGTON — I did not have to
read the Federal Trade Commission’s new
report to know that the entertainment indus-
try has been promoting material unsuitable
to kids. My kid, in so many words, already
told me. He clued me in every time he
begged, prodded, cajoled and threatened in
his vain efforts to gain my permission to play
gory video games when he was only 8.
Or to see the violent R-rated thriller
“Scream 2” when he was only 9.
Or to buy the gangster-rapper Eminem’s
second CD earlier this summer when he was
still 10.
“Aw, Dad,” he groaned, “everybody in
the fifth grade loves Eminem.” This news did
not make me smile. Having been tortured by
Eminem’s X-rated, gay-bashing lyrics, it only
made me wonder, how do little kids get hold
of this stuff?
Scenes like this, repeated in households
across America, form the backdrop behind
official Washington’s latest high dudgeon
over sexually explicit and violence-glorifying
music, movies and video games.
Unlike past crusades against media
sleaze, this one focused not so much on the
sleaze as how it is marketed to children, a tar-
get audience everyone agrees should be a no-
no.
At the center of hearings chaired by Sen.
John McCain (R., Ariz.) was the FTC report,
commissioned by President Clinton in the
wake of last year’s Columbine High School
massacre in Colorado. The commission,
which is the federal government’s primary
consumer protection agency, found direct
marketing to kids that made Joe Camel
sound like a model of restraint.
It found, for example, that 35 of the 44
R-rated movies (no one under 17 admitted
without parent or guardian) that it studied
were targeted to children under 17.
It found that all 55 of the music record-
ings labeled “explicit content” that it studied
were marketed to kids under 17, as were 70
percent of the 118 video games it studied that
were rated “mature” for their violence.
“Our goal was to find the elusive teen
target audience to make sure everyone
between the ages of 12 and 18 was exposed to
the film,” one film company’s marketing plan
said with breathtaking frankness.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D., Conn.), the vice
presidential candidate who has long crusaded
against Hollywood sleaze along with Mc-
Cain, testified. So did former National
Endowment for the Humanities head Lynn
Cheney, who singled out Eminem by name as
an example of Hollywood’s cultural decay.
Then the wife of Republican vice presi-
dential candidate Dick Cheney took a swipe
at the Democratic ticket for a planned soft-
money fund-raiser held by, among other big
Hollywood names, Miramax Films chief
Harvey Weinstein in New York City two
days later.
Undaunted, A1 Gore and Joe Lieberman
pledged to support tougher measures to hold
the industry accountable, if it does not adopt
the FTC’s recommendations within six
months.
One pending bill by Lieberman and
McCain would authorize the FTC to rate
movies, games and recordings for violent
content — with proposed penalties of
$10,000 a day for noncompliance.
In other words, the government would
do what the First Amendment says it should
not do, which is to make law that infringes
upon the freedoms of speech and the press. It
would justify this end run around the First
Amendment with a public health argument
like that which justifies the regulation of
tobacco or liquor.
But the media are not booze or ciga-
rettes. Once government can use public
health as an argument to control free expres-
sion, what next? Will there be major lawsuits
by state attorneys general to find certain
movies, performers or video games as liable
for suicides and other violence as cigarette
companies have been found liable for lung
cancer?
But there is something the industry can
do at the retail level that would resemble the
tobacco and liquor industries: Check IDs.
At present, it is no great challenge for
underage kids to purchase adult-oriented
music, movie tickets or video games.
If retailers actually put some teeth
behind the ratings, the artists still would be
free to express themselves, but they would
have to do it without free and easy access to
kids.
That wouldn’t be censorship. It would be
a true test of their artistic integrity. How
many, I wonder, would keep up the raunchi-
ness if it actually hurt their sales instead of
helping them? Even Eminem might clean up
his act.
“It’s wrong to market inappropriate
material to children,” A1 Gore declared
solemnly to the star-studded crowd at
Weinstein’s fund-raiser.
With that, Gore said something on which
everyone can agree, except at least one child
I know. That’s OK. With luck, he’ll grow out
of it and it will be his turn to have some kid
groan “Aw, Dad” to him.
»
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Cobb, Joshua. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 22, 2000, newspaper, September 22, 2000; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500591/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed May 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.