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Show Editorial Chrtmide - Page Fourteen Monday, September 25, 1985 Sorensftn oirdeal emplhiasDzes funding dilemmas The stir generated during the summer medical school in the first place. This is over whether the University of Utah not to say Sorenson's desperately needed But the hospital and medical school should have donation was not appreciated. been renamed after a wealthy donor raises strict conditions attached to the donation, a number of pertinent issues that, with the as well as his begrudging attitude benefit of hindsight, should be carefully following the announcement the medical scrutinized. school would not be renamed (even To briefly sum up this sordid episode, though U. officials came up with other the hubbub erupted in July, when ways to honor him, all of which he felt businessman J.L. Sorenson donated $15 were insufficient) led many to question million in stock" to the U. hospital medical his benevolence. school. Immediately following news of the During the medical school incident, a donation, U. officials announced the name number of faculty, students and observers of the medical school would be changed to have complained that thebusiness of the J.L. Sorenson School of Medicine, a naming buildings and schools after move that left many medical students and generous donors besmirches the faculty rightfully concerned about the loss reputation of the U. of the school's widely respected title. Such complaints are, for the most part, Following a storm of protests, U. officials valid. Benevolence should not have announced the name of the medical center strings attached. It should be rooted in a would be left in tact. The disgruntled sense of responsibility. The recent $1 million donation to the Sorenson angrily withdrew his donation. The incident brought up a myriad of English department, not to mention ethical questions. The most fundamental countless other charitable donations from was whether U. officials exercised wealthy individuals who are concerned well-bein- g of the U. prudence in changing the name of the with the integrity and PYhihit a strong sense of character that was sorely absent in the Sorenson deal. It is, however, unnecessary to find fault with U. officials. They operated with the best of intentions. And U. president Chase Peterson has correctly pointed out that the business side of the U. is crucial to the survival of this institution. long-term Much of the blame rests on the inadequate priority the Utah Legislature places on funding higher education. Taxes are needlessly being cut and the U. receives barely enough funds from the state to keep afloat. As a result, tuition faculty wages continually rises and Is it wonder U. remain at a standstill. any officials are desperately trying to solicit funds to maintain the quality of this institution? Donations are always needed and we should feel gratitude toward those who are. generous enough to support this institution. But a reputable university like the U. should not be forced to grovel at the mercy of the J.L. Sorensons of the world to survive. Lori Hunt V (I Bush's drug war y a doomed battle unprecedented $20 billion on According to Detroit Free drug enforcement, while at the same time cocaine consumption doubled and the wholesale price dropped 60 percent. Press cartoonist Bill Day, whose work appeared in a recent issue of Newsweek, President Bush's war on drugs is a lot like cocaine. At first the rhetoric makes you feel euphoric, but after it wears off, you still have the same problems. Day's depiction is perhaps the most accurate summary of Bush's . In addition, statistics show the drug problem is even more severe in cities with high incarceration rates. Washington, D.C., for example, imprisons more of its citizens than any d other in the world, yet its crime rate is still drug program thus tar. When Bush announced his $7.9 billion "War on Drugs" Sept. 5, some people were encouraged by his drug-relate- alarmingly high. According to Jerome Miller, of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, approximately 46,000 drug "earnestness" and sincerity. er The president, making the first televised speech of his administration, said he was living up to his campaign arrests have been made in Washington in the past 218 promise to help rid the nation of its drug problem. months. i ' On an average day, 26,000 residents are under correctional supervision, and at least half of all black men under 35 have been or will be imprisoned or jailed at least some time in their lives. Yet even with such a high d incarceration rate, violence in Washington rages on. The reason? First, U.S. prisons are nothing more than schools of crime. Rehabilitation has taken a back seat to Calling drugs the "gravest domestic threat facing our nation today," Bush promised victory over the drug crisis by stepping up law enforcement and building new prisons to house the ever-risin-g number of drug offenders, Such a strategy, combined ; with pumping money into some existing programs, will attack the " drug problem from every angle, Bush said during his speech. However, his "strategy" only controlling violence, gang tackles the problem from one activity and drug abuse. A dimension the supply side. person who spends time behind Beefing up police work against bars is more than likely to cocaine traffickers in the United on the streets a more drug-relate- Letters Article ignored " Natural Approach" ge States and Latin America, increasing border patrols, and building new prisons does nothing to fight the root of the drug problem violent, angry Editor: In her article on the Immersion Program in your Openings 1989 issue, Cathy Kelly gave Professor Sternfeld an opportunity to explain and knowledgeable criminal. a Second, seemingly inexhaustible population of young buyers and sellers the demand for and advertise his method of grows increasingly worse. replaces the other offenders the minute they are led away from the courtroom. These people simply move from one neighborhood to the next, as drug agents and strike forces push them out of areas teaching foreign languages. Since the Immersion article is the only publication on the work of the language department, I am afraid that new students or teachers reading the Chronicle may form a false picture of what is actually offered in the field of second-languag- e Bush's new "lock 'em up" plan. Assuming prisons were successful at rehabilitating teaching. Ms. Kelly, as well as Professor illegal substances. Rather, it's like plucking a dandelion from the stem. It simply covers up the crisis for a brief period of time, while underneath the soil the problem And grow is just what the drug problem will do under In his speech, Bush said the solution is "more prisons, more courts, more prosecutors." But his steadfast belief in punishment as the most important element of the drug fight will only perpetuate the problem. the Under Reagan administration, the federal an spent government ' designated for "clean up." criminals, Bush's new "war on drugs" would not provide cities with enough funds to build new facilities. 'When Bush promised to appropriate aid to state and local police agencies to fight the drug crisis, he left out some vital information. State and local enforcement agencies will be see "Hunt" on page 15 - . Sternfeld, failed to mention that Immersion is not the only method taught at the language department. There is, in fact, another way of teaching, the Natural Approach, which is used in most of the first-yecourses in Spanish, French and German. N.A. has little to do with ar what Professor Sternfeld calls skills-base"conventional d programs." It is, in fact, based on the same philosophy as Immersion, going out from the assumption that grammatical structures are acquired by exposure to a language and not by the explanation of its rules. Yes, the Natural Approach teaches skills, but a very different type of skills than the "conventional methods." Students learn how to understand and how to make themselves understood, rather than learning the skills of, for example, verb and adjective declension. The main difference between the Immersion and N.A. methods lies in the way students are exposed to the foreign language. Immersion tries to come as close as possible to the : true-to-li- fe experience in a foreign country. Students listen to and read a great variety of texts on a very complex level, as they would, indeed, if they lived abroad. They are thrown into the water and presented in a naturalistic way. The instructor provides a large amount of additional exposure to the language by acting out situations and by expanding on the book's materials. No English is spoken, no grammar is explained. The textbook allows the instructor to introduce structures systematically, to repeat a given structure so many times in a that it will be firmly anchored in the students' memories. Students who might sink in the Immersion ocean are offered a life jacket. Neither of the two methods is ideal for all. There are as many methods of teaching as there are students and it is the task of the language department to offer aa variety of methods to meet variety of needs. Students must be thoroughly informed about all available programs. expected to swim. N.A. uses a textbook beginning with simple everyday situations . Chrisine Vincent teaching fellow in the language department |