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Show MONDAY • AUGUST 28 • 2006 WWW.NETXNEWS.NET One Person's Opinion Staff Views Testing center move earns an F This is a time of tremendous change at UVSC and often we as a campus community get pulled in many directions at the same time. With legislators flexing and donors demanding, administrators have a lot of different publics to keep satisfied. But as the campus evolves, we feel the school's primary concern should be in meeting the demands of the student body. Traditionally, student concerns have been well represented by our student government. ASUVSC not only has control over student fees, a tidy sum indeed, but also a vote on nearly every board and council on this campus. Nary a thing gets done around here without student input and involvement. That is why we were shocked that there wasn't more fuss when administrators made plans to move the testing center from the center of campus to the far reaches of the northwest corner. Instead of members of student government objecting to such a move, it appears that the administration moved the center to Timbuktu with little trouble. So for now, and at least until the DLC is completed, students will either need to take their lives in their own hands and cross the busy Campus Parkway, or wait for the free parking lot bus to take them to and from the far-flung testing center. But perhaps the real issue is not where to locate the testing center, but rather why we need one in the first place. Most colleges and university do not have testing centers, nor should they. Class time is the most appropriate time to administer testing. After all, the students and the faculty have agreed upon that time as when the class meets. Students have enough to worry about outside of the classroom without adding the hassle of getting to the testing center. So why does such a dynamic and growing college continue to hang on to an outdated relic like the testing center? One reason is revenue. When former student body president Jared Sumsion looked closely at the testing center budgets last year, he saw that around 66%-of all tests taken were administered on late days. That means students were willing to pay the late fees and put off taking the tests. Entire budgets and salaries hang on the fact that students procrastinate. Currently, teachers enjoy the luxury of dropping off a test at the testing center and a few days later picking up the results. The testing center is a service for them as much as it is for the students, yet no money comes from their academic departments. The testing center does offer the ability for students who don't do well under pressure to take more time than what might be possible in the classroom. We feel this minority could be taken care of in other ways, perhaps with Accessibilities Services leading the way. Or perhaps the individual schools might offer their own testing services for the classes, or students, which really needed them. Instead the burden is placed on the entire student body to not only fund the center, but to also schlep out to the nether regions of campus just to take a test. There are enough roadblocks on the path to graduation, the last thing we need is a school that goes out of its way to create more hassles. You have already placed the testing center in the middle of nowhere; why not just put it out of its misery? Recipe for a rivalry squared off against the Cougars over the past couple of years, they have Opinions Writer , been teams from low-publicity sports. Football and men's basketball draw t's coming. Next week, Brigham the most fans, and add the most fuel to Young University will be back in a rivalry. UVSC has no football team session, and the enmity between and won't, until pigs sprout wings and Wolverines and Cougars will rip- fly - and our men's basketball team has en once more. Sadly though, the rivalry yet to take on the Cougars. Needless - if you can call it that - amounts to lit- to say, the athletic side of our rivalry tle more than our student body hurling is virtually nonexistent, and this is one insults toward the other end of Univer- reason BYU overlooks us. We have two choices: we can either sity Parkway, where they are largely ignored by everyone at BYU. Don't wait for UVSC to play the BYU men's misunderstand me; making fun of a basketball schedule, or we can start atrival school is a collegiate rite of pas- tending the athletic events where our sage, but when the favor isn't returned, teams are already competing against BYU squads. If we show up in droves you know something is wrong. You see, as far as BYU is concerned, to volleyball, tennis, softball and other UVSC hardly registers on the radar. games to cheer our teams on against The Zoobies are far too preoccupied BYU, it will serve as a challenge to the with their sworn rival, the University Cougars to rally their fans, and with of Utah, to pay us any heed. But why that we'll be on the road to a potennot pay attention to us? UVSC is an tially good rivalry. Our rivalry is also lackluster because up-and-coming school, which now offers baccalaureate, degrees. We have of the way we've gone about estabgood athletic teams. And it's a prov- lishing it. A good rivalry is built on en fact that UVSC grads make more two things: dislike (good-natured or money. So why isn't there more of a otherwise) for the opposing school, and pride in one's own school. Our sorivalry between the two schools? There are two answers to this ques- called rivalry with BYU, unfortunatetion. The first deals with athletic com- ly, is built solely on our contempt for petition. Sporting events are a hotbed the Zoobies and their presumed selffor creating and nurturing rivalries, righteousness. and while many UVSC squads have While we've made it clear as to why Justin Ritter I we hate BYU, we haven't given any examples of what makes UVSC any better. Because of this, UVSC comes off as being all bark and no bite. It's like a Chihuahua yapping at a St. Bernard. No wonder the Zoobies ignore us. To have a legitimate rivalry with BYU, we need to show its students we think Utah Valley State is a great institution. While making fun of the Zoo can be almost irresistible at times, merely insulting the BYU student body comes off as bitterness. When you combine some well-placed jokes with reasons UVSC is a good school, it comes off as a challenge. And if the Cougars have any sense of school pride - and they do - they will rise to the occasion. Let's stop complaining about BYU and wondering why its student body ignores us. Instead, let's build a real rivalry. UVSC could use one, and what better rival could we have than the saintly school down the street? It's competitive, close and anyone who has ever read the BYU campus police beat knows the potential for jokes is endless. But one thing has to happen before we have a real rivalry. The Zoobies have to take us seriously. And it's up to us to see that they do. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly The Bad: Snakes are to blame The Good: Jazz Pepsi Original!) Jazz Pepsi was to be made from ringing out Karl Malone's old socks. Luckily they changed the formula to strawberries and cream. Delicious' The Ugly: Buttars: That's Me! The serpent has beguiled the folks of Mapleton and now they have grabbed their torches and pitchforks and have gone after a local resident who wants to raise ball pythons and the mice they eat in his backyard. Got an Opinion? Put a stamp on it! / V- / * E-Mail letters to uvscopinions@hotmail.coni -^fc'ty * The NetXNews room is located on campus in SC220. ';£ |: All letters become property of NetXNews and may be '?:: edited for content, specifically clarity, length or other concerns at the discretion of the Opinions Editor. *' ••': * Letters between 50-250 words are encouraged and those letter^ marked by their succinctness are more likely to be$ published, • V " ' :v x • - : . ^ ' - : % ^ ^ ^ ^ : < ; ^ ^ : V > ; ^ ^ ; ^ ^ ^ ' * Letters must be accompanied by full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes (contact informal tion jvill not be published). State Sen. Chris Buttars stuck his foot in his mouth again when he said that Brown vs. The Board of Education, the landmark case that desegregated public schools, "was wrong to begin with." X |