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Show -- ' V, THE D A UTAH I THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW C If you've probably the U lacks diversity. If you are a U student who happens to be Chicanao, you know that perhaps better than anyone at this campus. This morning, however, the vcid of diversity at the U was somewhat filled when Venceremos hit the newsstands, Venceremos, a Chicanao student newspaper, hasn't published for a number of semester? not out of a lack of need but because students hadn't found the time or the resources to put it together. All of that is changing though. Students Chicanao and not have diligently worked on the publication over the past few months and promise to put out another issue before Spring Semester is over. The U needs more student publications like Venceremos, which improve the outreach efforts of the university. Tjhe U has had trouble helping minority students identify with (and adjust to) the campus environment, and publications such as Venceremos provide students of Chicanao ethnicity something with which they can call their own. Publications like Venceremos can be powerful tools for the university administration in its efforts to make the U's over whelmingly white campus a little more friendly to students of diverse backgrounds. The U obviously reeds more than just Venceremos to help minority students feel at home. Even the university administration acknowledges this and sets aside money for publications like Venceremos. Money and other support from the administration is there. All students have to do is come up with a plan and be willing to put in the hard work involved with getting a newspaper to the press. There is really no reason why Asian students who make up the largest ethnic minority at the U don't have a newspaper that other Asian students can read and identify with. There is no good reason Muslim students don't have their own university-subsidize- d publication, just as there is no excuse why a newspaper doesn't exist Russian-languag- 6TUWi io- ?Ai Cff Outreach Responsibility you arc a University of Utah e on campus. Publications such as Venceremos undoubtedly help improve the U's lack of diversity and unquestionably help the Chi- canao student body find something on campus with which they can identify. The same should be said for the other ethnic minority student bodies. The money is there students need to take advantage of it. C I Just victual VeaU Venceremos Fulfills U N H E L i- Qw jb, pbz LETTER TO THE EDITOR Gun Control a Complex Issue Editor: The arguments on gun control are many and varied. The latest debate seems to be centered around concealed weapons in churches and schools. If Ashley Watkins' Feb. 4 column, "Firearm Restriction Means Safer Society," was aimed at preventing people from killing other people, I would be behind her 100 percent. I, too, hate to see innocent people shot to death. The problem vith this particular restriction is that it would be completely ineffective in solving the real problem. It would be like taking aspirin to cure brain cancer. Remember the school shooting in Colorado, the church shooting in Texas and the many similar incidents around the country? How many of those killers had a concealed-weapo- n permit? Let me word the question more specifi cally: How many people die every year from those citizens who have taken the necessary classes, filled out all the forms, paid the fees required to obtain a concealed-weapo- n permit, and then chose to wear the firearm to school or to church? I think the answer is close to zero. So, then, exactly what problem do we hope to solve by this additional piece of legislation? Under the current law, it is perfectly legal for someone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon. However, if these people were to pull their guns out without cause and shoot another individual, they would already be committing some very serious crimes. The title and content of Watkins' column suggests that see GUNS, page 7 oes Education Depend on the University? into the study's category are In fact, actually very good colleges. many are selective when with other highly compared so institutions nation-widless than although schools. Ivy League But on the whole, the level of education a student receives does indeed depend on the student, regardless of the institution the student attends. Some students barely make it into Harvard, but are able to attend that school because they come from wealthy families; while others of d economic backgrounds are among the first accepted to the most prestigious universities, but are unable to attend due to the high costs. However, these students will generally seek out good educations and have successful careers no matter where they go to school. There are a lot of possible explanations, aside from personal ambition, as to why students who arc accepted into prestigious universities but choose to go to less prestigious universities enjoy an equal, if not greater, amount of success than their counterparts in Ivy League schools. For instance, universities often have smaller class sizes. Professors are able to attention to each individpay more ual student. Also, many students at prestigious universities are both ambitious and intelligent, while many students at less prestigious universities care less about a education and more about getting a degree as a stepping stone to a good job. So the really interested students stand out and therefore tend to get more per "less-selectiv- KATHRYN COWLES e, Chronicle Opinion Editor most recent big question in higher has been whether or not the of a college degree at a highly selective university outweigh the costs. On first examination, one would assume that a degree from any one of the Ivy League schools would ensure a good job with a fat paycheck. One would also assume that graduates from highly prestigious universities would get better jobs, for the most part, than graduates from universities. But the issue is more complicated than that. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that although students enrolled in highly selective colleges geng erally got jobs, these who were the but chose to universities same into accepted attend universities usually for financial reasons actually got paid more in the The lcss-sclccti- high-payin- less-selecti- long run. Alan B. Kreuger, who along with Andrew W. Mellon authored the study, concluded that it was the students, not the universities, who produced individual success in education, which later produced individual success in the job market. There arc a few problems with this conclusion. For instance, some of the colleges lumped e" sonal attention from teachers. This situation relates specifically to education in Utah. The University of Utah is the obvious flagship university in this state. Although it is no Ivy League school, it is the most highly reputed state college around. students Many of the best Utah apply to the U first; the admissions requirements are therefore steeper than those at any other public university. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all U students are high-scho- te On less-soun- less-selecti- one-on-o- well-round- CHRONICLE OPINION EDITOR ol . leveS the whole, the of education a student receives does indeed depend on the student, regardless of the institution he or she attends, smarter than all students of other Utah universities. The smartest, g students of each university are often relatively comparahardest-workin- ble. And to be perfectly honest, students who a state college, at least for the first two years of their educations, are perhaps smarter in one area: finance. The latest trend in higher education is to begin schooling at a less expensive community or state college, then transfer to a more prestigious one later. Tuition at the U is significantly higher than tuition at any other of Utah's state attend KATHRYN COWLES LETTERSCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU universities. Therefore, this trend is very sound, financially. Students who are in it for the degree are smart if they go to a smaller college first where they pay less for tuitionthen transfer to the U and receive the 32me degree as the students who have been paying higher tuition prices all along. Students who are in it for the education are probably also smart to begin their general education at a smaller, cheaper university, especially if they are not sure what they are going to major in. n classes are scandalously large at the U. I have been a student in classes of between 100 and 300 students, with graduate-student teacher's aids leading weekly lab sessions of about 30 students per class. General-educatio- Because of the class sizes, curricula are often severely limited. Really good teachers can become mediocre in such a large class. Students can get good grades with minimal effort. Tests require regurgitation of what the teacher has said, not critical thinking. And no teacher is superhuman enough to spend the time each student deserves and pays for reading each paper and making constructive comments when he or she has hundreds of other papers to read. Similar classes at community colleges and state universities are much smaller, but have similar curricula. The possibility of receiving a' good education, at least when it comes to general-cduca- lower-divisio- n, see EDUCATION, page 561-704- 1 7 |
