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January 3 0 ,19 9 6 commentary- page 3 New class waiting list system leaves students waiting and waiting and waiting. . . BENJAMIN WYSKIDA staff writer There is, typically, a process at work as far as this whole college thing is con-, cerned. We, the students, come to college, move into our little rooms, take classes, etc. Let's back up a little here; did I say “take classes?” Not this semester at SMC, where getting into a class seemed to be an especially large nightmare. First, my own saga. I had myself signed up for classes, like a good boy. I was also put on the new and exciting electronic wait lists, which have served effectively as toilet paper for about half of the SMC faculty. I was third on the wait list, and second on another, and I was confident that I would get one of the classes. However I miscalculated my odds-I was booted from both. But it was only Tuesday, of the first week of class, and I had confidence. So, I talked to some professors: “Sorry, there are transfer students.” “There aren’t enough chairs .” “I need to hold that spot for majors, seniors, the O.J. Jury and your mother.” “I am mean and cynical. Go rot in 12 credit hell.” After asking two other professors for a spot in their class, and showing up for two more, the body count was complete: I had been flat out booted from four classes, and five other professors had offered their condolences, but told me not even to show up. That’s okay though-12 credits.I don’t need to graduate in four years. Now, those readers still with me may say, “Ben, you’re a freshman, you tried to get into all the cool classes, suck it up.” However I am not the only person to voice the same complaints. It appears as though approximately 3,000 students were on a waiting list for Introduction to Literature, two thirds of which had bribed a professor. So, what caused these problems? First off, more students. The school accepted a high number of transfer applicants, and anyone can tell you that Wood’s seems a whole lot more crowded. But it was also a problem of anticipation. The English department added two new sections of Introduction to Literature after registration, just to accommodate a rise in higher class numbers. It would seem that this semester is sending a message to the college-the students want variety, and they want options. Every department at SMC should be taking a look at what they offer, when they offer it, and who the professor is. More importantly, the faculty needs to decide-are they going to abide by the official waiting lists, or are they going to choose more freely which students they want in their classes. Either option would be fine, as long as the faculty will all go by the same rule. I finally got my elusive class-Inter-pretation of Myth. I don't know what that means, and it isn’t my major, but it is a great class. I haven’t studied myth before, but our first assignment is the SMC Course Listing.... Recycling: up and running, now campus needs to use it I have a friend who told me once that he was sick of hearing people preach to him about being environmentally friendly. He was tired of hypocrites, and sick of “green products.” He didn’t want to deal with Earth Day, or listen in his environmentally focused economics class. He had been overwhelmed with “green.” And I suppose that there is a good reason for that. But in Alaska, the last remaining old growth rain forest in North America (yes—a rain forest in Alaska) is being threatened by lumber companies to provide us with paper. Forests have been completely logged, for paper and for other reasons, such as mining underneath the forest. Mining leaks poisonous minerals into the environment, poisioning plants, animals, and people. But there is something that we can do about these horrors. We can do something real, helpful, and right: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. As part of SEAC’s effort to firmly establish a recycling program at St. Mary’s, we have been talking to faculty, staff, and students. Getting a program started from almost scratch is a huge effort that has taken a lot of time—but recycling is up and running. There are boxes for paper in almost all the offices. There are signs up on bathroom doors, in every laundry room, and numerous other spots around campus. Please read them before putting anything in the bins-they are no longer trash cans. If each of us does our small part, together, we can make a difference! For instance, just the recyclable glass bottles we have collected since this school year began weighed almost a ton!! Recycling eases some of the burden on our dwindling natural resources. Its not the final solution, but it is an important step in the right direction. Please recycle! blue bins around campus, and cardboard - Chris Slaght, Robbin Garber, and Moe Moore Student Environmental Action Coalition f v t io n W h a t do Y O U think of the OF THE W e e k c h a n 9es th a t W o o d ’s has made? -Photos, quotes compiled by Elizabeth Rose Lauri Watkins Clayton Ahrens Sophomore Sopiiomore “I don’t trust any regime “The new changes pro-that doesn’t have spinach vide a cornucopia of foods feta turnovers.” that are appealing to the eye.’ Leila Dongala Freshman “They made changes? The setup is different but the food is the same as before.” Nicole Erickson Junior “I think they’ve improved a lot. The salad bar is always fresh, and there is more variety ” High comedy or ignorant burlesque? JENNIFER CHAPIN-HARRIS staff writer The blatant use of derogatory insults towards various minority groups is common and horrible enough, but worse still is their use as “comedy.” Real, true comedy is funny and entertaining, not offensive. Apparently, however, “comedians”such as Pure Insanity, never learned this lesson, for instead of entertaining St. Mary’s College students last Wednesday, they managed to offend most of those present at the event. The comedians in the space of little over an hour managed to so horribly insult women, gays, and racial minorities to the extent that most of the audience had left before their show finished. For instance, one of the come dians chose to put on a Native American head-dress and mock their ritual dance and song. I seriously doubt that the European-American comedians would care to have some other ethnic or racial group racially slander them for the sake of “comedy.” Please pardon me, reader, if I ask if they would themselves be amused when someone called them “honky slave holders.” How dare they, then, laugh at what one oppressed group holds dear? Another comedian pretended to be a “gay recruiter” (obviously forgetting that scientists have already proven that sexual orientation is genetically determined) and targeted various men in the crowd to “convert.” For some reason, this man thought he could entertain us by using stereotypes hurt-iul to gays and the gay community in order to cause others to laugh. However, he only succeeded in bringing down himself and his comrades. Did they expect to find something amusing in keeping alive the horrible prejudices which already tear at this community? And what can possibly be so amusing about a woman that would cause these sexist fools to ask one woman to jump up and down so they could laugh at her shaking breasts? Do they not realize how insulting that is and how reminiscent of the sexual violence many women face in their daily lives? No, they were much more interested at laughing at everyone not in their good ol* boys club. Of course, the campus should not blame Coffeehouse or Student Development for what happened-they didn't know the nature of the performance. They have already written letters to the National Association of Campus Activities dealing with the issue. It is not to them that I address mine and the campus’ outrage, but to those so-called comedians. They thought that mocking certain groups of people would amuse others, but they failed to realize that they were insulting all people and therefore could not entertain us. Still, we ought to learn from this incident and try to end what prejudices exist on this campus.
Object Description
Title | Point News, 1996 January 30 |
Date | 1996-01-30 |
Year | 1996 |
Masthead | Point News |
Geographic Coverage | United States -- Maryland -- Saint Marys City |
Subject | St. Mary's College of Maryland - Newspapers |
Type | Text |
Technical Metadata | Digitized at 400 dpi true optical resolution / 256-color grayscale to uncompressed TIFF master files using i2S CopiBook HD 600. Searchable PDF derivatives shown here are downscaled to 150 dpi / Medium quality. |
Repository | St. Mary's College of Maryland Archives ( http://www.smcm.edu/archives/ ) |
Rights | St. Mary's College of Maryland retains all rights to the digital images presented on this website. The SMCM Archives website is intended for educational and research purposes only. |
Date Digital | 2012-05-18 |
Digitized by | Creekside Digital |
File Name | 1996-01-30.pdf |
Description
Title | Page 3 |
FullText | January 3 0 ,19 9 6 commentary- page 3 New class waiting list system leaves students waiting and waiting and waiting. . . BENJAMIN WYSKIDA staff writer There is, typically, a process at work as far as this whole college thing is con-, cerned. We, the students, come to college, move into our little rooms, take classes, etc. Let's back up a little here; did I say “take classes?” Not this semester at SMC, where getting into a class seemed to be an especially large nightmare. First, my own saga. I had myself signed up for classes, like a good boy. I was also put on the new and exciting electronic wait lists, which have served effectively as toilet paper for about half of the SMC faculty. I was third on the wait list, and second on another, and I was confident that I would get one of the classes. However I miscalculated my odds-I was booted from both. But it was only Tuesday, of the first week of class, and I had confidence. So, I talked to some professors: “Sorry, there are transfer students.” “There aren’t enough chairs .” “I need to hold that spot for majors, seniors, the O.J. Jury and your mother.” “I am mean and cynical. Go rot in 12 credit hell.” After asking two other professors for a spot in their class, and showing up for two more, the body count was complete: I had been flat out booted from four classes, and five other professors had offered their condolences, but told me not even to show up. That’s okay though-12 credits.I don’t need to graduate in four years. Now, those readers still with me may say, “Ben, you’re a freshman, you tried to get into all the cool classes, suck it up.” However I am not the only person to voice the same complaints. It appears as though approximately 3,000 students were on a waiting list for Introduction to Literature, two thirds of which had bribed a professor. So, what caused these problems? First off, more students. The school accepted a high number of transfer applicants, and anyone can tell you that Wood’s seems a whole lot more crowded. But it was also a problem of anticipation. The English department added two new sections of Introduction to Literature after registration, just to accommodate a rise in higher class numbers. It would seem that this semester is sending a message to the college-the students want variety, and they want options. Every department at SMC should be taking a look at what they offer, when they offer it, and who the professor is. More importantly, the faculty needs to decide-are they going to abide by the official waiting lists, or are they going to choose more freely which students they want in their classes. Either option would be fine, as long as the faculty will all go by the same rule. I finally got my elusive class-Inter-pretation of Myth. I don't know what that means, and it isn’t my major, but it is a great class. I haven’t studied myth before, but our first assignment is the SMC Course Listing.... Recycling: up and running, now campus needs to use it I have a friend who told me once that he was sick of hearing people preach to him about being environmentally friendly. He was tired of hypocrites, and sick of “green products.” He didn’t want to deal with Earth Day, or listen in his environmentally focused economics class. He had been overwhelmed with “green.” And I suppose that there is a good reason for that. But in Alaska, the last remaining old growth rain forest in North America (yes—a rain forest in Alaska) is being threatened by lumber companies to provide us with paper. Forests have been completely logged, for paper and for other reasons, such as mining underneath the forest. Mining leaks poisonous minerals into the environment, poisioning plants, animals, and people. But there is something that we can do about these horrors. We can do something real, helpful, and right: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. As part of SEAC’s effort to firmly establish a recycling program at St. Mary’s, we have been talking to faculty, staff, and students. Getting a program started from almost scratch is a huge effort that has taken a lot of time—but recycling is up and running. There are boxes for paper in almost all the offices. There are signs up on bathroom doors, in every laundry room, and numerous other spots around campus. Please read them before putting anything in the bins-they are no longer trash cans. If each of us does our small part, together, we can make a difference! For instance, just the recyclable glass bottles we have collected since this school year began weighed almost a ton!! Recycling eases some of the burden on our dwindling natural resources. Its not the final solution, but it is an important step in the right direction. Please recycle! blue bins around campus, and cardboard - Chris Slaght, Robbin Garber, and Moe Moore Student Environmental Action Coalition f v t io n W h a t do Y O U think of the OF THE W e e k c h a n 9es th a t W o o d ’s has made? -Photos, quotes compiled by Elizabeth Rose Lauri Watkins Clayton Ahrens Sophomore Sopiiomore “I don’t trust any regime “The new changes pro-that doesn’t have spinach vide a cornucopia of foods feta turnovers.” that are appealing to the eye.’ Leila Dongala Freshman “They made changes? The setup is different but the food is the same as before.” Nicole Erickson Junior “I think they’ve improved a lot. The salad bar is always fresh, and there is more variety ” High comedy or ignorant burlesque? JENNIFER CHAPIN-HARRIS staff writer The blatant use of derogatory insults towards various minority groups is common and horrible enough, but worse still is their use as “comedy.” Real, true comedy is funny and entertaining, not offensive. Apparently, however, “comedians”such as Pure Insanity, never learned this lesson, for instead of entertaining St. Mary’s College students last Wednesday, they managed to offend most of those present at the event. The comedians in the space of little over an hour managed to so horribly insult women, gays, and racial minorities to the extent that most of the audience had left before their show finished. For instance, one of the come dians chose to put on a Native American head-dress and mock their ritual dance and song. I seriously doubt that the European-American comedians would care to have some other ethnic or racial group racially slander them for the sake of “comedy.” Please pardon me, reader, if I ask if they would themselves be amused when someone called them “honky slave holders.” How dare they, then, laugh at what one oppressed group holds dear? Another comedian pretended to be a “gay recruiter” (obviously forgetting that scientists have already proven that sexual orientation is genetically determined) and targeted various men in the crowd to “convert.” For some reason, this man thought he could entertain us by using stereotypes hurt-iul to gays and the gay community in order to cause others to laugh. However, he only succeeded in bringing down himself and his comrades. Did they expect to find something amusing in keeping alive the horrible prejudices which already tear at this community? And what can possibly be so amusing about a woman that would cause these sexist fools to ask one woman to jump up and down so they could laugh at her shaking breasts? Do they not realize how insulting that is and how reminiscent of the sexual violence many women face in their daily lives? No, they were much more interested at laughing at everyone not in their good ol* boys club. Of course, the campus should not blame Coffeehouse or Student Development for what happened-they didn't know the nature of the performance. They have already written letters to the National Association of Campus Activities dealing with the issue. It is not to them that I address mine and the campus’ outrage, but to those so-called comedians. They thought that mocking certain groups of people would amuse others, but they failed to realize that they were insulting all people and therefore could not entertain us. Still, we ought to learn from this incident and try to end what prejudices exist on this campus. |