The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2005 Page: 3 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER
OPINION
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25,2005
Rice Voices
Pointless LPAPs require an overhaul
LPAPs are a waste of time. No one
in this school takes them seriously,
and it shows.
They are required for graduation,
but since they are worth
zero credit hours, all you
have to do is pass. LPAP
stands for "lifetime Physi-
cal Activity Program," but I
doubt anyone comes away
from any LPAP having
truly gained the inspiration
or knowledge to carry out
personal fitness for life.
With no uniform re-
quirements for the curri-
cula in these classes, they
are usually a joke as far as
learning goes. So what should be a
valuable and essential part of our
education is worthless and laughable.
We should fix this.
David
Axel
u
we 're going to make
LPAPs a requirement
to graduate, then
let's make it worth
something other than
a joke.
I say "fix" and not "abolish" because
the idea contained in the program's
title, "lifetime Physical Activity," is
a worthy one. It is a major foiling of
this country's universities that after
four years in an institution of higher
learning, we are supposedly ready for
life but ignorant of how to keep fit. It is
scandalous that many of us will end up
paying a personal trainer to teD us how
to stay healthy, when just a few classes
on the subject could educate us on the
same concepts. LPAPs are supposed to
give us that education, but
they fail miserably. So let's
overhaul the system.
First, get rid of this
zero hour nonsense. If
the university is serious
about teaching us why
exercise and nutrition are
important, then it should
treat LPAPs as real classes
with credit hours.
Secondly, LPAPs should
involve actual exercise. Un-
less I misunderstand it, the
goal of the program is skill in physical
activities, not skill in driving a golf ball.
Believe whatyou like, but driving down
the fairway and putting on the green
does not do a whole lot for your health,
even if you carry your clubs.
Thirdly, one should not be able to
satisfy the LPAP requirement without
demonstrating general knowledge in
basic physical fitness — for example,
aerobic fitness versus anaerobic fit-
ness, muscular strength versus
muscular endurance, how to gain or
lose muscle and fat, how these factors
contribute to things like heart disease
and so on. There used to be a swim-
ming requirement for graduation at
Rice. Reinstating that would not be so
bad either.
A class in nutrition should also be
required. The government keeps tell-
ing us such knowledge is essential, yet
most of us get our information from
magazine feature articles. We should
know why certain foods are unhealthy
and why others are beneficial. We're
college students; we should not have to
stare down spinach or Brussels sprouts
and eat them just because mom said it
was good for us. We are smart enough
to learn more details about these nu-
trients. Taking a nutrition class would
not only help us understand why mom
forced this stuff down our throats, but
also help us choose more tasty foods
that are just as beneficial.
The bottom line is that a Rice
student can currently take golf and
archery as his LPAPs, satisfy the
requirement and graduate, but have
absolutely no idea what is involved in
staying fit or why it is important.
True, he might have learned
how to drive a golf ball a few yards
or how to shoot a bow and arrow,
but ultimately skills like these are
useless when it comes to health. A
more rigorous program in physical
fitness would not only educate us
on how to stay healthy, but also on
why it is important and how to have
fun doing it, especially when such
a variety of LPAPs are offered that
do educate and entertain. Serious
classes explaining why and how
these activities are beneficial would
not only help us appreciate the value
of our efforts, but would also inspire
us to keep up a personal training
program after college.
If we're going to make LPAPs a
requirement to graduate, then let's
make it worth something other than
a joke. Personal fitness is a life skill
that should be as essential to a college
education as learning howto write and
knowing how to think. Rice should
lead the way in making it so.
David Axel is a Brown College junior.
Head Men s Track and Field Coach Jon
Warren contributed to this article.
Guest column
Irreligious people do not own Darwin Day
()n Feb. 12 — Darwin Day — the
Secular Students of Rice sponsored a
forum celebrating the renowned nat-
uralist's accomplishments. Speakers
such as History Profes-
sor Thomas Haskell dis-
cussed Charles Darwin's
role in formulating the
theory of evolution and
in challenging the dogma
of the time. Championing
this triumph of secular
thought, Jim Ashmore
from the Houston Church
ofFreethought discussed
the impact of Darwin's
works on American soci-
ety. If the founding fathers
— all deists — had read On the Ori-
gin of Species, Ashmore speculated,
we would likely be living in a more
secular society today.
Although the speakers discussed
much more than evolution's chal-
lenge to religion, I suspect that
groups like SSR may be doing
more to fuel the controversy than
to quell it.
The fact that a predominantly
atheistic and agnostic club did more
to celebrate Darwin Day than any
other group on campus is misleading.
Darwin himself was not an atheist,
nor was he specifically seeking alter-
natives to Judeo-Christian teachings
on creation. Arguing for more natural
explanations for the phenomenon
of species diversity, Darwin laid the
groundwork for one of the most cru-
cial scientific theories in history.
Yet many Americans are still skep-
tical. A 2001 survey conducted by the
National Science Foundation found
that just more than half of Americans
agreed that "human beings, as we
know them, developed from earlier
species of animals."
So dissent is still rampant, par-
ticularly with the conservative gains
in the 2004 elections. In Kansas, for
example, opponentsof evolution won
back the state board of education and
will consider proposals to modify the
state's science curriculum to include
"scientific creationism."
In Dover, Pa., the local school
Faraz
Sultan
board similarly advocated teaching
intelligent design, creationism's
seductive spawn, arguing that it is
scientifically valid and therefore
evades church-state issues.
A group of parents filed a
lawsuit, challenging the
board's claims.
And in a suburban At-
lanta, Ga., school county,
officials condoned disclaim-
ers on biology textbooks
warning that evolution is
"a theory, not a fact." A
federal judge later ordered
the stickers removed, citing
infringement of separation
between church and state.
Yet since the notorious Scopes
monkey trial 80 years ago, theo-
logians and scientists have been
bridging the purported contradic-
tions between scientific and religious
thought. Popes Pius XII and John
Paul II both declared Catholicism
consistent with evolution.
The misconception that we came
from monkeys—as evolutionists are
falsely accused of arguing — or that
we are nothing more than the stuff
of the earth, a mere accident in a
random-walk process, will invariably
invite dissent. But evolutionists are
not trying to banish or marginalize
spirituality or trivialize the unique-
ness of people. Their goal is to under-
stand our existence and origins.
Our intuitions, buoyed by over-
whelming evidence, unequivocally
point to a naturalistic mechanism.
We understand its intricacies, but the
beauty of evolution by natural selec-
tion — perhaps the logic of Creator
after all — defies explication. While
I doubt scientific theories will ever
refer to the supernatural directly,
they hardly preclude the existence
of God. In this regard, theories like
evolution are perfectly palatable to
the believer.
People should not disagree with
Darwinism based on their religion.
The problem is that most people don't
realize this. The average American
believes Darwinism is a challenge
to the notion that we were specially
crafted by a loving Creator and are
distinct from animals. It is not.
Scientists and organizations like
SSR who depict Darwin's theory as
antithetical to faith only worsen these
misperceptions. While there will always
be scientists like Richard Dawkins who
liken religion to neurological disease1,
we must communicate to the general
public that these views are in the minor-
ity and reflect nothing about biology.
Equating Darwinism with atheism
is just as dogmatic as evangelists
trying to influence high school edu-
cation. And it is about as accurate as
saying that we are floating around
in ether or that all women are de-
scended from one male rib.
Faraz Sultan is a
College junior.
Sid Richardson
Madrid Notebook
European Union must
keep its public involved
In Madrid this past Sunday, I
joined government officials and
citizens across Europe as they
breathed a collective sigh of relief
when Spanish voters
ratified their country's
signing of the proposed
European Union con-
stitution by a margin of
76-17 percent.
Nobody really ex-
pected the constitution
to fail, although not for
a lack of trying on the
part of far-left and far-
right political groups.
In the closing days of
the campaign, it was
hard to walk down the street or
take the subway without seeing
the giant red "NO" on fliers put
up by international socialists and
pseudo-fascists.
I cannot find any fault with
the constitution, wbich chiefly
aims to clarify the roles of vari-
ous EU institutions and collect
the key elements of a half-dozen
treaties spanning five decades
of European integration into a
single document. It contains an
exhaustive bill of rights, which
guarantees everything from the
freedom to assemble and workers'
rights to organize to the right to
establish a family and to educa-
tion. The worst part seems to be
its length — more than 200 pages
from start to finish, not including
another 250 pages of annexes and
protocols.
The average voter probably
does not need to make his way
through more than 400 pages
of obscure legalisms to realize it
would have been a mistake to op-
pose the constitution. Most voters
were probably happy to take their
clue from the major parties and
Article 1-3, which says that the
EU's "aim is to promote peace,
its values and the well-being of
its peoples" and that it will "offer
its citizens an area of freedom,
security and justice."
Spain has set a good example
with Sunday's giant "si," but in
other countries where referenda
are required, governments are
delaying submitting the constitu-
tion to their electorates. In Great
Britain in particular, "Euroskeptic"
sentiments are notoriously strong,
and Prime Minister Tony Blair has
given his government another year
to convince Britons to approve
the treaty, in case they reject
Ian
Everhart
it and throw an embarrassing
monkey wrench in the constitu-
tional process. Including Britain,
at least nine other countries have
referenda still pending,
and they would do well
to continue what Spain
has started.
I am glad the vote
came out in favor of
the constitution, but I
am also disappointed
with the apathetic at-
titude I sense from
some quarters — evi-
denced in part by the
42 percent turnout in
the poll. Nobody here
had campaign signs in his or her
windows or front yard a la an
American election, and coverage
in the media seemed to be driven
mostly by a lack of other political
news rather than interest in the
constitution itself. One flier, put up
by a group promoting abstention
from the vote, featured a man say-
ing, "It seems like the politicians
have already made up their minds.
I'm going to stay home."
Maybe people are so apathetic
about the vote because everyone
expected it to pass. Or it might be
the "democratic deficit," a term
describing the distance many
EU citizens feel from EU institu-
tions (of which only the European
Parliament is directly accountable
to voters). If the latter is indeed
the case, there is certainly work to
do on the part of the international
body. An apathetic public may have
served EU interests this Sunday,
but in the long run, it certainly
will not.
What was a desolate continent
in the mid-20th century is nearly
unrecognizable as the Europe of
today. Europeans (and Spaniards
in particular) owe a great deal of
the economic and social develop-
ment of the intermediate years to
the political and financial policies
of the EU and its predecessor
institutions.
Spain has taken the right first
step in affirming and extending
that process. It would be a shame
for voters or legislators elsewhere
to reject that legacy, and it would be
equally unfortunate if the EU were
to sit by and accept the widespread
constituent apathy that may have
helped it Sunday.
Ian Everhart is a Hanszen College
junior.
L
the Rice Thresher
Lindsey Gilbert & Jonathan Yardley
Editors in Chief
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The Thresher is a member of the Associated
C ollegiate Press and the Society of Professional
Journalists Hey, my LPAP was not pointless on
any of the five occasions 1 went to it
© COPYRIGHT 2005
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Gilbert, Lindsey & Yardley, Jonathan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2005, newspaper, February 25, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443168/m1/3/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.