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Show Tuesday, December 6, 1988 Chronicle - Page Five W may By Jennifer foe brainVtofU.- sftudleiTits ymm Peterson Chronicle staff writer a babysitter, a tutor, and an insidious huckster; it colonizes our minds with images and is as addictive as heroin; it creates its own mesmeric reality and alters our attention span and even our ability to "It is absorb the written word." Karl E. Meyer And someone else called it "chewing gum for the eyes." On today's television screens we constantly see advertisements by such groups as the Association which informs viewers of the effects of television on children. But what about the effects on university students? Television, the medium which uses much of society's time and attention may have an important effect on University of Utah students' academic endeavors. Hugh Brown, associate director of U. Academic Advising thinks television takes away from study Parent-Teache- probably also because it's a habit," said Kathy Pierce another U. student who watches about four to six hours of television per week. It may seem obvious that time spent in front of the television takes away from study time. But this is no longer a simple observation. "I have seen studies which substantiate pretty clearly that there is a direct link between the amount of television watched by students and academic accomplish- - rs I'M !' think television is like an addiction. Parents stick their kids in front of television then kids grow up watching television. I think kids might turn on television instead of doing their reading and studying," "I Brown may well be right. "If there is something on that I want to see then I watch television. I don't usually do that the night before a test. But otherwise I'll watch TV instead of study." U. student Lisa Valdez said. Valdez, who said she watches ten to fifteen hours of television each week, is not alone in her lack of control. Many students do much the same thing. "If I didn't watch television I'd probably get a lot more done. But I watch it because it's interesting and -- ed Willigan the death lyzes statutory criteria for recommending stated criteria in othpenalty and compares them with erwise confidential reports. In this project (which includes 700 cases to be read and analyzed) he focuses on the causes and consequences of gender inequality, race and the difference between high and low social status as to how defen. dants are treated. This highly educated walking mass of sociological research has traveled among the Berber nomads in the and has worked with various governments, pre-Saha- "- ra piling up statistics in Islas, del Maiz, Nicaragua;, Tortuguero Island, Costa Rica, and the Middle Amazon Basin in Brazil. ; Willigan combines work with travel in what he calls "vacation research' One of these "vacations", took him to the Atlas Mountains near Marrakech, Morocco, in a bus on a road built by the French Foreign Legion. During a torrential rainstorm, the road started eroding away. Everyone panicked, including the bus driver, who was the first to jump out. There were' two little kids sitting next to Willigan whom he had seen being put on the bus by older relatives. They were being sent to their home in the outer regions. "Everyone ran off, so I took care of the two kids," Willigan said, "but we couldn't talk to each other because of the Berber dialect." The children were members of a tribe called the "Blue People." miles for and miles until they happened walked They on a sign at the end of the road which read, 'Timbuktu-U- S days." Willigan thought it might be an old camel caravan route. They were able to hitch a ride to the children's village with a group of people who knew the dialect. The parents of the children! and the whole, village thought the children had been killed in the storm. There was, needless to say, a great celebration in Willigan's honor. The people flayed a cow alive- -a great semi-nomad- ic lar with students, there is always an alternative. "My favorite show is "Young and the Restless" right now because "Days" (of Our Lives) is really sucking," Valdez said. Television is not, however, a useless medium. It also has its positive sides. "One of the studies I looked at about a year ago showed that students who didn't watch any television tended not to have as good of grades as those who watched some limited amount of television," Walker Chronicle photo by Aaron Ashcraft According to Deseret News TV Critic Joseph Walker, University of Utah students often get hooked on day time television shows like soap operas. r from naee four ' seems that university students watch a little more daytime television. I hear from a number of students who do get hooked on soap operas," Walker said. But if there is a television show on that is not popu"It awareness, some news and current event awareness that students seem to absorb," Walker said. He added if students control their viewing habits, television can be an asset rather than a problem. "If students keep television watching between one and three hours each day, it proves not to be too harmful. But if he or she watches more than three hours per day, it has a definite affect on their academic accomplishment," Walker said. . self-proclaim- Deseret News television critic, said. said. However, he is not referring only to educational programs such as those found on public television stations. "The study showed there is also some good which comes from television viewing including some social time. Brown said. ment The more television a student watches, the tendency is toward lower grades," Joseph Walker, the delicacy to the economically depressed area-a- nd gave a cube of the cow's flesh to Willigan to eat. y. This is a far cry from his Greenwich, Conn., upbringing. Willigan was educated at Columbia, Harvard, and l! sj ;' still-quiveri- ng Mm A it Sam! the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his doctorate in 1978 at the National Institute 0 , of Mental Health. v He is on the board of directors of a national organiza- w&wlm fmmm,, " " - f ; i ... pitliSr usro . tion called Peace and Environment Project. His research in Nicaraguan rain forests proved to be profitable. The Sandinistas had beguii defoliating the area , in which Comandante Zero's forces operated. v Willigan had to explain to the Sandinisita officials why defoliating was unnecessaryThere would have been massive erosion. By halting this action, the rain ' forest was saved, as were the giant sea turtle breeding grounds. Knowing languages of the world is part of Willigan's criteria for success on some of these worldwide research projects. He has had training in Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Greek. October 1989 will find Willigan in Italy. He has been invited by the Italian government to participate in a conference on the use of government archives in social research. He has also been invited to India in the same month for a conference devoted to new statistical methods for analyzing historical populations. classes. Willigan would like to teach smaller-size- d There is too much anonymity for him in large classes. His ideatalass would be small enough to have a tutorial emphasis. In. addition to his research and teaching duties,. Willigan is writing a new textbook with Harvard professor James Davis. It is an undergraduate text with unique computer software enabling students to gain hands-o- n experience in developing social scientific models. This project is being supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. I -- 111 I , Chronicle photo by Aaron Ashcraft NOW OPEN ine i - - 4 W;:ff9f' $12.00 NOW TOWARD YOUR ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP? : it- - VO.. '''::;: ':::;:' .': mM p .. PAY ONLY - THr UITVWP IN IDT tSOr1CKt VJK-V- SI i. NO PAYMENTS Al Yogurts Are Not Created Equd 'TIL FEB. 1st, 1989 B Then you pay only $19.00 a month - No plus No Interest Finance Charges Vanilla yogurt with toppings blended-in- . - you will love ours!) MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES ' . , ' ' Aerobics Professional Nautilus Equipment Co-E- Olympic Free Weights Sauna & Whirlpool i Please Present : Time Of Application 1440 Foothill Blvd. , jj Health Club Offer Expires :50p j 3640 Highland Drive Holladay 272-85- (West First Interstate Bank) " CUP AND SAVE (nominal fee) K(7dtflafilt Ad At The COW frozen yogurt ot Stall Facility Child Care . V (II you like Red's Mend 2 Locations . Jazzercise ach day with a variety o( 56 loppings. which includes .3 no tat - no cholesterol flavors each day. flavors 35 OFF 50$: MM I M I Ir UNI" Ij I I The COW frozenInterstate yogurt I Foothill (West of 1440 L This coupon entitles you to 50$ off the purchase of any medium en large yogurt. Not valid with any other coupon or offer. Expires December 31, 1988. 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