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Show A Year of Change Open Hour Featured speakers for (his year's convocation lecture series have included John Nordstrom, owner of Nordstom deparment stores; Don Lind, former NASA astronaut and Graham Chapman, English comedian. yWra.. JJIUM im IM WWII ' m'l'J.UH.'ja.Al III! , . mi.. , , , , , j jM.jl.UH l . . wjJ. -V Xfr I ; - r I ; y r H 1 1 1 . ' i ; -j ... V ! ' - , - - , - 'I - , " ' I ,, i , V After last year's "maiden voyage" of open hour, it still remained to be seen how the program would' stand the test of time. This year's open hour has seen an evolution on the emphasis of some areas versus others. For instance, Coaches Corner was cut from the outset of the year and CareerPersonality Forum will be dropped as of 1987-88. However, more emphasis was placed in the Issues Forum area. Over the year, Issues Forum has discussed many national and international issues that are of interest to WSC students. Discussion on American involvement in the mid-East and in Central American as well as in Vietnam were popular topics. Also, spotlighted were AIDS issues and local problems with sex education in the schools. Probably the most widely known and frequented open hour event is convocations. This year has seen a variety of local, national and international figures. Among this years more local participants have been John Nordstrom, owner of Nordstrom department stores; Carol Lynn Pearson, author of the book, Good-bye, I Love You about the A1DS-related death of her ex-husband; and former NASA astronaut, Don Lind, who is currently teaching at Utah State University. National figures included Miss America, Kellye Cash; former UCLA Coach John Wooden, who also coached WSC basketball Coach Larry Farmer as a student at UCLA; and Kristian Alphonso, recent retiree from the character of Hope on daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives. People visiting Weber of internatioalfame have been comedian, Graham Chapman, of the English comic group Monte Python fame; Peter Vidmar, member of the champion Olympic men's gymnastic team and silver medalist all-around men's gymnast; ; and former U.S. President Gerald Ford speaking on the U.S. Constitution and the checks and balances system of government. The success of the convocations program can largely be attributed to the size of its budget. Through this year, each student has paid $2.25 per quarter as a separate student fee for convocations speakers. This budget totaled at approximately $65,960, an increase over last year's $62,000. For next year, however, the convocations budget will again became a part of the overall ASWSC " fee. Also, the whole open hour program is being placed under the auspices of the vice president for academics and administration rather than under the vice president for activities, services and organizations. One of the perennial problems facing the convocation program is the conflict between intellectual speakers and those "big name" people that students come to see. According to Louis Meyer, convocations chair, "Students like big names and people that would ' give them a break from school." However, a nine-member convocation stearing committee seems to generally feel that students spend their money on more education to glorify the more intellectual image. "Sometimes it's not as smooth as we'd like it," said Meyer. Peter Vidmar summed up the theme of the year probably the best when he said he explained that individuals succeed in life by putting in just that much more effort than others. "Everyone tells you that to achieve you have to try twice as hard ... but champions never win by twice as much," he said. Emilie Bean 8B SignOff Tuesday, June 2, 1987 |