The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 9, 1987 Page: 4 of 20
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4 Friday. October 9,1987 THRESHER Opinion
Michigan ciass leaves auditor a bit uneasy
A free-lance writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
questioned the academic rigor of physical edu-
cation classes at the University of Michigan
after he audited an upper-level class.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports
that Scott Shuger audited a 400-level class
called "Sports Management and Marketing"
and later wrote about it in a diary form that was
published by the Ann Arbor Observer.
Shuger pointed out that "students were not
assigned any reading during the semester;
absenteeism and lateness were rampant, espe-
cially among the scholarship athletes; and stu-
dents whispered answers to each other and
consulted notebooks left open at their feet dur-
ing exams."
A true-false question on one of the four quiz-
zes stated "at the Michigan Stadium a spectator
can be readmitted to the game if he has a hand
stamp visible." The answer is false.
Donald Canham, Michigan director of ath-
letics, called Shuger's accounts "phony" even
though he had not yet read them. He claims
Shuger ignored the positive aspects of the
course by neglecting to say anything about the
11 guest lecturers.
Academic administrators claimed that "the
course had been examined last year during the
university's course-review process and that no
major changes had been made." They are,
however, looking at the course's structure.
Shuger reported thathe had wanted to find out
more about the athlete's off-the-field experi-
ences, and the only way he could do it was to
audit the course.
Duke entrepeneur
A 1987 Duke University graduate is making
money selling couch potatoes.
Craig Richardson, a recent Duke graduate,
began local sales of his Telly Tater the Video
Doonesbury
BEYOND THE HEDGES
by MaryAshkar
Vegetable doll after graduation last May. After
he showed the doll at retail conventions in New
York, he began selling his potatoes to Hallmark
stores and Bloomingdales.
The 14-inch Telly Tater comes in its own
burlap sack, retailing between $24.95 and
$27.95. It has big eyes and a dazed smile.
The Chronicle reports that "the dolls' smile
opens into a large pocket mouth that holds the
necessities of any real life couch potato: a tele-
vision remote control and, in the spirit of the
typical Duke student, a couple of beers."
Richardson came up with his couch potato
idea during a late night study session last fall. He
took his plans and sketches around campus to
get student opinions.
"There are so many people who are video
vegetables. At one time or another everybody
lounges around the television," he claims.
To promote his doll, Richardson had Telly
Tater T-shirts printed over fall break last year.
He sold 80 shirts to Duke students in four hours.
After a year in the couch potato business,
Richardson plans on going to business school
with a new perspective. For him, "the business
world cannot be understood from a book. ..it can
only be understood from practical experience."
Illegal phone calls
MCI Telecommunications filed a civil fraud
lawsuit against three former Texas Tech stu-
dents, according to the Tech student newspaper,
The University Daily.
The three female defendants were caught last
spring in an MCI long-distance scam on cam-
pus. Apparently "one or more unauthorized
MCI access codes were knowingly, intention-
ally and maliciously misrepresented by the stu-
dents' and about 20 other people during June
1986 and May 1987."
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of con-
spiring "with others to misrepresent and conceal
the true facts to obtain unlawful long distance
telephone services without paying."
Further, MCI claims that the defendants had
illegally used the access codes which are MCI's
property for their own benefit.
Approximately 1,000 Texas Tech students
stepped forward last spring to partake in an MCI
restitution campaign, admitting that they had
illegally used MCI access codes.
Sakai reinstated
The William E. Simon School of Business
Administration at the University of Rochester
readmitted a Fuji Photo employee after rescind-
ing his acceptance a few weeks ago.
When the Kodak Company, one of the
university's largest benefactors, indicated that it
may pull out its 120 students from the business
school if Tsueno Sakai, the Fuji employee, at-
tended classes, the Simon School revoked their
offer to Sakai. Kodak feared that its trade secrets
would be discovered by Sakai.
But the board oftrustees reopened the offer to
Sakai because they felt they needed "to defend
the integrity of the University not only in fact but
in perception," according to The Chronicle of
Higher Education.
President G. Dennis O'Brien approved of
rescinding the acceptance offer to Sakai since
the university "had a special relationship with
the company, based on heavy use of Kodak
materials in the classroom."
Most faculty members, however, did not
agree. In a letter signed by 43 of the school's 49
professors, the faculty disputed Mr. O'Brien's
claims, "saying the administration had made
Rochester look like a 'Kodak trade school'."
The decision to drop the acceptance offer to
Sakai surprised many professors, but the fact
that he was readmitted "is symbolic that the
university is trying to do the right thing," ac-
cording to one concerned professor.
Bible, evolution can agree
continued from page 3
use of allegories and parables in making a point.
It should also be remembered that the Bible is a
body of theological and ethical ideas, indeed the
best such work in history, and not a scientific
textbook.
The insistence on the part of Creationists that
their view is essential to Christianity is causing
untold damage to the role of Christianity in the
modern word. As the fact of Evolution is one of
the most abundantly demonstrated ideas in sci-
ence, rational and intelligent people cannot,
upon examination, deny its essential truth.
Christians lacking scientific background are
told that scientific views of the world stand
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
YOU KNOW, WHEN IT COMES TO
CHARACTER DEFENSE, I MUST
CONFESS TO AN ADVANTAGE: TV&.
GOT UNLIMITED AIR-TIME^
ANY PLACE,ANY
TO RECTIFY THIS UNFAIR SITUA-
TION, TD LIKE TO MAKE AN OFFER
TO MY OPPONENTS. IF ANY ONE OF
YOU SHOULD DEVELOP A CHARACTER
D-D-DEFECT, I'D BE HAPPY
TD ACCESS THE PUBLIC
JACK! TIRED OF THOSE RUMORS
ABOUT CALIFORNIA? LET ME PUT
THEM 10 R-R-REST! PKT! UJANT
ME 10 SET YOUR MILITARY
RECORD STRAIGHT ?
ANY OF YOU PLAGUED BY
STORIES OF WOMANIZING?
TRUST ME TO HANDLE IT
UJTTH D-D-DISCRETION,
NtCB 10 HAVE THATCLEARED UP,
ISNTIT? WELL, B-B-BACK
10 THE LAW BOOKS!
f
S-5-S0! UJHAT 90U15
HAVE LEFT? FOURTEEN
CHARACTERS IN SEARCH
OF CHARACTER! 600D
HUNTING,
5
I AM NOT
A BIMBO!
SPEAKING
OF CHARACTER,
LETS FUP OVER ID THE
PLAYBOY CHANNEL AND JOIN
THE JESSICA HAHN PRESS
CONFERENCE NOW
IN PROGRESS!
Si
J-J-JUMPIN'JOE REALLY DIS-
APPOINTED ME, KNOW THAT? WHY
IS EVERYONE GETTING TRIPPED
j UPBYC-C-CHARACTER? I HAVE
ABSOLUTELY NO TROUBLE STAY-
o ING IN CHARACTER!
HOUJ'S THAT,
Y-
CAREFUL,
HEADREST,
YOUUVE
IN A GLASS
HOUSE.
i
i
UJELL, FOR STARTERS, HAH
YOUR "T-T-TALKIN' 1H0U6HT
ABOUT MY GENERA- YOU MIGHT
VON'SLOGAN IS SWOP TO
A DIRECT LIFT MENTIONING
FROM THE "WHO? THAT! I'M
READY FOR
I HAVE HERB THE LAUJ
SCHOOL T-T-TRANSCRJPTS
OF ALL FOUR LADS...
^you!
mm
i
against God. They therefore have no motivation
to examine these issues for themselves; they
have been told the matter is settled, and they
believe it. The intellectual reputation of Christi-
anity is further damaged.
Christ said, "The truth shall make you free."
Creationists base their so-called "scientific"
arguments on distortions and outright misrepre-
sentations of the evidence rather than on actual
information. If their view were truly a Christian
one, it would be based on truth, not fraud.
And for non-Christians, I would urge them to
examine Christianity itself and not to rely on the
statements of extremists such as the Creation-
ists. As their "scientific" views do not represent
science, their religious views do not represent
Christianity.
Keith F. Goonlght '86
Graduate Student, Biology
Career focus
unfortunate
continued from page 2
ducer is the sum total of one's life. Obviously,
providing for oneself and family, and hence pro-
fessional goals, is neither unimportant nor bad;
everyone needs to eat.
But merely being a producer isn't enough—
persons can and should be much more. The
essence of being a person lies in the fact that we
are able to focus on more than the struggle to
survive; we can understand the world around us
and our role in it.
Consequently, college should be much more
than four years spent trying to line up a job. This
time should be used to explore and to question in
order to dicover how one fits into the world; it is
an opportunity to expand one's views of the
world and people.
While most people go, through their lives
acting according to the assumptions which they
have absorbed from their enviroment, college
students have an opportunity to avoid this trap.
One is given four years to examine the world
around them critically and learn why it is the
way that it is. College provides a rare chance to
question that which most persons take for
granted throughout their lives.
However, students imbued with grim career-
ism miss this chance. In their mad dash to collect
as many material goods as they can, they forget
to question or examine anything around them.
Rather, they complacently accept whatever as-
sumptions they happen to come across, at best
only questioning them for the sake expediency.
They have chosen to remain in ignorance in
hope of a secure life.
Thus, grim careerists have unnecessarily
missed the true opportunity that college can
offer. Focusing on the so-called practical is in
vain; the truly practical willnotbe apparent until
much later. At the same time, they have failed to
expand their ways of thinking. Grim careerism
has won their minds.
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 9, 1987, newspaper, October 9, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245674/m1/4/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.