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Show DAILY H CHRONICLE UTAH SihukJ THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW 1 Building on the Shoulders of Giants On Monday, the Elections of the Students of the University of Utah disqualified the Innovation Party for violatthe campaign budget ing limit.The advantage the party gained in the race for high offices of ASUU by exceeding its limit with what Innovation called purchased food was "irreparable and severe" and it merited the harsh punishment The spirit of the rule Innovation allegedly violated is obvious. To ensure that candidates running for positions in ASUU play their game on an level playing field, rules have always been on the books to limit their spending and regulate the economic factor of the race for office. Without such limits, the races would inevitably get out of hand. Money as the only major determining factor in the outcome of a democratic election is ,!iArV --T-r goods and services rendered from the budget limit set in the student government's constitution. Whether you bought a tub of ice cream for $4 or i.C cents it is clear that, according to the rules, you must deduct the amount of money any Joe Lunchbox would pay for a retail 2L Pi ess ; aM.oo cseejis batch. Furthermore,- to argue Jhat paying a dollar for 60 tubs of ice cream is some kind of purchase feiJ'sL - asinine. The extraordinarily cheap food was clearly a contribution to the Innovation Party's campaign and as such it should be deducted from their spending is (c& limit. Whether or not the Innovation Party violated the exact language of the Redbook rule with their ludicrous proliferation of pizzas, pies, ice cream, candy and whatever else, is still up in the air. But clearly and unequivocally the party violated the spirit of ASUU's campaign buda concept students just aren't get limit for. The only remedy for the ready of the damage that has are extent So, logically, parties, is disqualification. caused a been for responsible demonstrating One of the most persuasive of amount extreme seemingly Innovation the bare when Party they arguments accountability has invoked is that its actions the line-itelists of their donawere justified because parties in tions and purchases. Redbook most definitely previous elections did the same requires parties to disclose thing. A fact that makes the Elecwhatever contributions they may have received and deduct tions Committee's courageous the fair market price of the decision all the more impressive. m tubs, or ros oeata f &OtWE.T m)U&.K?'-- FFUCfcCCK& I &tt(ltKb LETTER TO THE EDITOR Alienating More Than Just One Editor:. I am responding to a letter by Michele Burchett published in Monday's paper. Her experience was not unique. On the same day she wrote her letter, I was walking to campus with my wife when a member of the Innovation party approached me aad asked for my vote. I was told to remember the same thing Michele was told to remember not that the Innovation party had my interests in mind, or that they wanted to represent our university, or even that they just wanted my vote. No, I was told to "remember that the Church is true." member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints, but like Michele, I was disgusted that this party would attempt to persuade my vote by an appeal to religion. I turned to the young man, who looked surprised that I was about to confront him, and said, "The Church may be true, but if it is, you are doing nothing to help it out." Michele responded in her letter by saying that "the only function his comment served was to alienate me from his party." She will be pleased to learn that his corn- - lama see BAB APPLES, page 7 Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Dsily Utah Chronicle Editorial Board. Editorial columns and letters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum created on the Opinion Page Is one based on vigorous debate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, ethnic background, gender, appearance or sexual orientation will be edited or will not be published Making Points at Home in Foreign Tongues d proprograms with a package of grams, internships and other immersion-base- d pedagogic techniques, according to the article by Alison Schneider. Based on his own experiences of learning Russian, only an individual's complete involvement in a different culture and linguistic arena will allow him or her to develop the communicative skills students can sell to the corporations and organizations they hope to court after graduation. Maxwell's replacement plan for the foreign language instruction on his campus was full of wonderful ideas as complementary additions d to a grammar, vocab and literary lessons. Eliminating the professors, who can instill not a only strong intellectual language base in their students but also enthusiasm for an unfamiliar language, is absurd. The chair of the Russian language program here at the University of Utah, Gene Fitzgerald, also had some choice words for Drake's president. "I am totally appalled that a university would drop its language programs," Fitzgerald said during a brief interview Tuesday. "Would they dream of dropping a philosophy department? Dropping languages means, in my opinion, that a university is no longer even worthy of the title of 'university.'" So it's fair to say that this short diatribe on the idiocy of Maxwell's plan served its purpose. What needs to be addressed is something that lies at the core of Maxwell's motivation to take the steps he has. In The Chronicle's article, Maxwell to be for the out appeared sincerely looking students' interests by developing a program study-abroa- SCOTT LEWIS Chronicle Opinion Editor the word came out that little University in Iowa was its foreign language proand the 15 faculty members who kept it grams academicians exploded in horror at the going, response. The last time I checked on The Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site, not a single respondent to the online discussion had a nice word for Drake's president or his absolutist plan to remedy a deteriorating facet of American higher education. The institution's president, David Maxwell, argued in The Chronicle article that foreign language instruction in the United States had become so bad that the very institutionalized d language-teachin- g programs universities were actually keeping students from mastering unfamiliar tongues more than it was helping. The professors, who normally wouldn't have to fear for their jobs unless they committed a felony or pied on a trustee's mailbox, probably found themselves looking in the back of that same issue of The Chronicle for information on jobs in other parts of the country. Eliminating a department is essentially the . Jy way to faculty nicmbcs. t el rid of tenured-trac- k motive? ulterior an smell Anybody Maxwell sketched out a plan to re nee the When sup-purle- v. somewhat-modernize- ss flesh-and-blo- CT RONICLE OPINION EDITOR SCOTT LEWIS that would suit their needs and academic desires and maybe even, as frosting on the cake, streamline the way his university functions. The switch was being made to emphasize the "communicative" abilities of graduating students. Anyone who has learned a second language will tell you it is definitely something of which one can be very proud and it is a skill that will benefit its possessor in aspects of their lives in ways they would have never imagined. But since when did administrators become so respondent and accommodating to students' academic aspirations? Recently the U's Honors Program brought an idea in front of the Academic Senate to eliminate its language requirement for science majors. Many of these future scientists and engineers apparently feel like learning another language in college is not worthy of their attention. Given the course loads some of them try to manage, I can understand why. The directors of the Honors Program, in continuing efforts to enlarge the program's presence on campus and keep its ranks growing at the rate they have been, decided they would explore options to make the program even more attractive to those who are studying for a bachelor's of science degree. But Fitzgerald and other faculty members protested loudly when John Francis, associate vice president of undergraduate studies, and the Honors Program Director Richard Ricke presented the language-les- s proposal to the Academic Senate. Rieke told me that the objective of the plan LETTERSCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU was to "do what we reasonably can do to help students finish their honors degree." Helping, helping, helping. What administrators like Maxwell, Francis, Rieke and others are really doing is reinforcing the idea that learning a second, third or fourth language should only be on the academic agenda of those who understand a substantial economic benefit for their increased communicative skills. The honors program is worthy of its name only when it effectively challenges students to go beyond their initial fields of interest and successfully explore academic arenas to which others may not be exposed. The "honor" loses its ring when administrators "do what they can to help students finish." Many "students walk into their first language courses on campus without an inkling of desire to learn a foreign language and a year later find themselves halfway across the globe arguing the price of a dinner check with a pretentious French serveur in Nice or an Andaluz camarrero in Sevilla.. Yes, immersion is more than necessary if a person wants to gain the communicative skills marketable in the corporate world. But it's the cultural introduction experienced in classes here at home that give students something they can communicate about. If the engineering and science majors don't want to deal with that hindrance of "fun with diversity" than let them, but they should know they're not worthy of any extra "honors" from the administration. Scoff welcomes feedback at: slewischroni-cle.utah.edor send a letter to the editor to: u 581-704- 1 |