Show Page 2 April 14 1994 "When the righteous die the heavens cry" of differences the one common factor that will continue to bring genders and races together is death All humyas die Death is as consistent as the sun rising and as reliable as democrats raising taxes To most Americans it is also the hardest part of life to deal with and is the most often avoided reality The College of Eastern Utah was unable to avoid this reality on March 30 1994 Boni Nichols instructor of r In this world 4 -- cvcr-incrcasi- 4 Vi business and economics passed away The wrong way to remember a person like Nichols is to ignore her death By doing this too often people will forget about her life Boni Nichols was bom in Price Utah on Dec 16 1946 She graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor of science degree and a master's degree in business administration She was a CEU instructor since 1978 She was often put into leadership positions which included: director of the Utah Small Business Development Center chairperson of the CEU business department and CEU vocational director She was also a finalist for the CEU vacancy this year She is survived by her son Troy Nichols and her mother Gwen Adams I personally had Nichols for economic history of the United Stales in the fall of 92 What was impressive to me was not her leaching skills (they were great) it was that she met the class each morning with a smile I was not a great student that year and she went out of her way to help me pass her class She was willing to slay late arrive early or do whatever I needed I was not a close friend nor even her favorite student but often it was easy to feel that I was I received a "C" in that class which is vice-presiden- probably better than I deserved Another student Gregg Prcttyman said “her impact on me was not so much her teaching but the kind of person she was" Nichols was accepted not only by her students but also by her colleagues In this current world of competing with and fighting for personal gain Nichols did not Patrick against Glenn assistant director of the Small Business Development Center stated that his professional and personal memory of Nichols is that she always applied the economy to real life He said that she had a “great smile that was very warm" In one word he described her as “neurotic her friends would know what I mean" Ron Vogel business department instructor called Nichols a “very good friend" and “very professional” Vogel has been an instructor for five years at CEU In his first year a most difficult year Nichols “more than any person expressed an interest in me (Vogel) as a person She was my mentor" Nichol's family in the opinion of Vogel was the most important part of her life Nichols was a highly successful and independent person She was respected and admired by many Henning Olsen business department chair described Nichols as a very dedicated person “Boni was really dedicated to teaching economics and helping the student understand She spent a lot of time in preparation" Nichols was involved in PBL a business organization that invovlcs competition between college students "She was very supportive of vocational education She always helped the students place in the top ten" Olsen slated She had a personality She had recently taken a sabbatical to work on a doctorate in economics Olsen slated “she was probably one year away" from achieving her goal Her achievements show that she was a person driven by goals but more importantly she achieved those goals I do not think death is a very debatable subject Eventually all humyns will die Death is natural and is guaranteed In the science community however my belief is being challenged Milan Panic is an Eastern European medical scientist doing research on "Virazolc" a drug used in the battle against AIDS goal-drive- n Panic states that people age because their DNA fails to send messages to its cells telling them to repair themselves He believes that if the science community can find a way to send this message “people will not die" If the cells do not age people do not age Panic asks the question “why die?” Scientists arc also researching “cyronics" This is when a living person is frozen and at a later day thawed We arc constantly bombarded with new drugs new treatments and new discoveries that keep people alive longer Today people live twice as long as people in the 19th Century In contrast to Panic's question I ask "why?" Death and feelings toward death arc very personal Often they revolve around religious beliefs My opinion is that people arc afraid of death We do not know where we go if it hurts or if we do go someplace This fear causes an abundance of people to avoid the reality of death Death I do not think has to be ugly or necessarily sad It can be a beautiful experience The bottom line though is that we will not know until it is our time The poet Wall Whitman wrote “And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death" There might be some sense of irony in this poem Whether people believe in heaven or not they still believe that death is final How can something so final and tragic be beautiful? I do not claim to know all the answers or even that my explanation is correct What I do believe though is that death is final only in terms of what we make it If there is a heaven then great and if there isn't then loo bad I think what is important is what we do on Earth while we arc here Nichols was an exceptional womyn who was loved Surely she will arrive in heaven Why can't Earth be our heaven? Our religious leaders tell us to do good deeds so that we will go to heaven and avoid bad deeds so we won't go to hell Personally I do not sec how hell could be s And honestly the last few years any worse than our of my life have been heaven I've struggled as has every other person but I view my struggles as events that make me stronger inncr-cite- (see Ulibarrl page 4) The information highway is there an exit? In the motion picture Sneakers Ben Kingsley's character delivers a prophetic speech to opposite star Robert Redford about the wondrous evils of the information age our society is on the brink of plunging into In the future the power will not lie in the hands of those who control the come when the information links users to infinite data video text amounts of graphics and music sent from huge databases via phone lines optical fibers or wireless transmissions received and displayed on one's television screen or broadcast and cable personal computer Unlike today's video systems tomorrow's information highway will be and interactive requiring databases of information that a user can link into with a simple phone call or click of a mouse Once an individual is hooked into the network hcshc can watch one movie or television show while someone else can order and watch the same movie or show but started five minutes later The result of such control and choice over programming and data analysis is no longer the need for channels instead there is one channel with unlimited capacity The first Internet link was built 20 years ago between two defense laboratories It has exploded into a network that effects virtually every facet of humyn life from ordering roses to being used by researchers working on the muliimillion-dolla- r Human Genome Project pool their findings into a gigantic database to help identify all the genes in the human genetic blueprint The ability of research to become not only an individual's work but the work of a collective research team makes the prospect Tor an information network an exciting and indispensable research tool The has not only bridged the gap between individuals thousands of miles away but has also brought about some once unlikely business mergers among the private sector Bell Atlantic a large regional telephone company and Telecommunications Inc had planned to merge forces to make the highway a reality but it seems that the merge is unlikely Other communications and computer institutions have been working together such as AT&T Sprint and Microsoft As of this fall the Clinton Administration announced a plan to fund basic research and promote regulatory changes to help the super-highwa- y one-wa- y two-wa- y Ryan Hoglund -t- - VTV ‘w' viewpoint writer world's military or even the bomb the power will lie with those “who control the information" No other comment about the way tomorrow's world will be conducted has carried as much truth or frightening awe With the " ground work for an all out information scheduled to begin construction this year humyn's 20th century best friend is soon to become our only friend in the coming "super-highway- years We have truly embarked upon the information age of super services such as America Online which computers and has doubled its membership to more than 6()0(X)0 in the past six months With a basic home computer one can link into services like Internet a global web of computer networks and information repositories and talk to a relative hundreds of miles away read the morning paper hot off the AP wire or even order a gift for that “special someone” direct from a retailer like JCPcnncy In this the digital age we are recognizing it is no longer important who you know or what you know but do you have access to the know has not quite materialized— that will But the on-lin- info-revoluti- e super-highwa- y private industry lay the groundwork for the highway Besides the educational and research value an information highway would have on knowledge and creativity the potential an information y could have on extinguishing the boundaries of "out there" and “here" would be awesome A super-highwa- community linked by computer networks could have the collective mindset and speed of discussion needed to deal with environmental and societal problems When a problem arises information concerning its nature and possible solutions is proliferated across the wires until everyone is informed then a decision is made using a e system— A1 Gore in a becomes absolute a collective democracy among recent interview with US News A World Report expressed our government's support for a computer link in political decision making “In a real sense the printing press made possible the modem nation-stal- e and representative democracy by giving citizens of a large geographic area enough civic knowledge to participate in decision making If the printing press did that then how much richer in spirit can our country be if our people are with the knowledge that these empowered computer networks can distribute? It's a very exciting prospect" This might of the collective has the potential of forging may be its greatest evil The threat of an (The Lawnmawer Man) who controls the agenda of what is discussed and what is not discussed along the highway is a danger of a society dependent on information But a more scenario likely Gucdon a professor of according to cultural studies at the University of Montreal is the rise of “a r humanity: those of the Net and those who are not" With one-perso- n one-vot- high-capaci- super-highwa- ty y electro-authoritari- Jean-Claud- c two-tie- the impacts of technology always far exceeding the visions of its creators a icchno-clit- c isolating itself from the rest of humanity is a real danger But also with a increase in steady (See Hoglund page 5) |