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Show ft) Monday, April 17,2006 797-1762^ statesman@cc.usu.edu q www.utahstatesman.com Professors need to live up to USU's No Test Week Utah Statesman ri Editor in Chief Brooke Nelson r ri. News Editor Aaron Falk J Every year the week before finals is designated as No Test Week. The administering of exams is forbidden in an effort to allow students ample time, energy and mental capacity to perform at their best come finals week. And every year, a lot of professors don't comply. Some teachers get around tne rec uest J by labeling exams UUl VlcW as "really, really long, important WEp^i__!] quizzes." Others don't even attempt to mask their lack of compliance with scheduled tests appearing in their syllabi. No Test Week was put in place for a reason. With no "dead week" or even a day or two without scheduled classes, students are given only the weekend to review the semester in whole in preparation rfor finals. Studying for finals should begin long before the midnight hour, so to speak, but with new information being presented in class until the Friday before that 7:30 a.m. final on Monday, it's no wonder No Test Week was implemented. It is unfair to ask students to prepare for exams on a specific section or chapter in addition to learning new information and review for cumulative finals and still perform at their best. Not all professors use tests to gauge performance, and the deadlines for these final projects and papers are almost always during the week before finals. Adding "quizzes" to this schedule can make for a week of little sleep at a time when students need it most. We ask that professors honor No Test Week and restrain themselves from scheduling quizzes, exams and other types of testing during next week. Assistant News Editor Marie MacKay d Features Editor r, Steve Shinneylj Assistant Features Editor Emma Tippetts Sports Editor Andrea Edmunds Assistant Sports Editor Bryan Hinton INTO MY EYES. Diversions Editorr v Matt Wright j ! Copy Editor Lindsay Kite Letters to the Editor Photo Editor Public Forum' Turn off your cell phones in the library Editor, Engaging Mr. Hu Chinese president brings gifts but makes a weak political ally If there was ever a seri- on major strategic issues has ous debate within the Bush been weak. With its own administration about whether energy interests in mind, it is it is best to "engage" or "con- blocking the administration's tain" China, it is now over: attempt to bring pressure to When President Hu Jintao vis- bear on Iran's nuclear program its Washington this week, the through the United Nations two presidents _ ^ _ _ Security Council. will meet for the IfiMAf Similarly, it has fifth time in under VICW used its enora year. Though mous leverage Mr. Hu will not get the state dinonly to nudge that' ner or formal designation of regime into participating in state visitor that he wanted, talks on its nuclear weapons, he will get a 21-gun salute on rather than to demand steps the White House lawn, along toward giving them up. with other high-protocol trapMost compelling for pings. U.S.-China relations Congress, Mr. Hu has refused may not be formally described to adjust China's currency as a "strategic partnership," vis-a-vis the dollar since a as Beijing might like, but in tiny revaluation last year. The practice the Bush administra- overvaluation of the Chinese tion already treats Mr. Hu's currency, combined with bad regime as such an ally, invit- U.S. tax and spending deciing its collaboration in curb- sions, is creating dangerous ing the nuclear programs of financial imbalances that North Korea and Iran and sta- threaten the global economy. bilizing the global economy Mr. Hu is reluctant to risk - anci relegating concerns the possible domestic conabout its increasing domestic sequences of correcting that repression to a back burner. imbalance. But by refusing to act, he risks touching off The obvious question is whether all this pragma- a protectionist backlash in tism toward a powerful and Congress that would cause unyieldingly authoritarian state still greater disruption. has been worthwhile. With This is not to suggest that skepticism growing in both President Bush is wrong to Congress and the administra- meet frequently with Mr. tion itself, Mr. Hu is making Hu, seek his cooperation in a show of its benefits. Before global affairs or grant him arriving in Washington on the 21-gun salute ne craves. Thursday, he will visit Seattle, Administration officials argue where his trade minister just that the Hu government has signed lucrative new deals been more cooperative than with Boeing Co. and Microsoft it looks, quietly responding to Corp. - part of the $16 billion U.S. concerns in such places China showered on U.S. busi- as Afghanistan, Sudan and nesses this month. The bucks Burma. Even on Iran, they say, were accompanied by several China has been more helpful trade concessions, including than Vladimir Putin's Russia. the authorization of U.S. beef Nevertheless, the results so far imports and new promises by should raise the question of Beijing to crack down on the whether it is likely that China pirating of American movies will play a truly constructive and CDs. global role as long as it is Unfortunately these con- ruled by a regime that censors cessions - which so far the Internet, imprisons its best haven't included the release journalists, and denies politiof any of the imprisoned jour- cal and religious freedom to nalists about whom the Bush its citizens. We'd say it's not administration has expressed likely - and that the Bush concern - cover a more fun- administration's policy should damental failure by Mr. Hu. reflect that reality more than it Beijing's reaction to the Bush does. administration's urging that This editorial appeared in it become " a stakeholder" Sunday's Washington Post A Staff Shut up!! I am sitting here in the computer lab in the basement or the newly dedicated Merrill-Cazier library. It is a Friday afternoon and I am working on a big research paper due in one of my classes next week. The problem? Everybody is talking. Whatever happened to people actually being quiet in the library? I remember a few years ago when I was a freshman here at USU, I could study whenever 1 wanted without the fear of having chatter boxes" all around me. That was of course in the good old Merrill Library. This year, however, because of the demolition of Merrill, I have been forced to study here in the SciTech Library. It is a nice, modern, expensive facility that was built with a lot of sacrifice. Unfortunately, I am not able to enjoy my experience here because too many cell phones ring, way too many people answer their ringing cell phones, and way too many people TALK on their ringing cell phones IN THE LIBRARY! What has happened to us? Why do seemingly very few students realize that it is completely inappropriate to talk on a cell phone or talk in a loud voice with the person next to you when in a study area? Something has to be done about this. I don't know what it will take, whether it be putting up more signs to remind people to turn ofi their stupid phones, or threatening physical harm to those who are loud in study areas, but something must be done. We are all here to get an education, and thus we all need to study. It would be nice if we could go to the library and do so without worrying about whether people were going to do some inconsiderate thing to completely distract you. So please, just turn off your pnone, stop talking to your neighbor and do some homework! Alec Cannon Blame mires the immigration issue Does "chutzpah" translate into Spanish? It's a reasonable question after the joint statement House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-lll., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., issued last week about the impasse blocking congressional action on legislation to overhaul the immigration laws. Frist and Hastert blamed Democrats for one of the most controversial ideas in the debate: the'provision in the legislation the House passed in December designating the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in America as felons. The Republican National Committee plans to run Spanish-language radio ads echoing that charge. The proposal to designate illegal immigrants as criminals, more than anything else, has ignited the nationwide wave of protests against the House bill. To attribute the idea to Democrats, Frist, Hastert and the RNC have to join the story on the last page -- and then misrepresent the evidence to boot. In fact, from the start of the recent debate, Republicans have driven the notion of imposing criminal penalties on illegal immigrants. Although President Bush has never acknowledged paternity, the idea's fathers include people in his administration. It is a crime to cross the border without authorization. But "unlawful presence" in the United States isn't a crime; it's a civil violation of immigration laws. In practice, when illegal immigrants are found in the U.S., the government almost always deports them through civil proceedings rather than attempting an expensive criminal prosecution for the border crossing, which often is difficult to prove. There's a glitch in the law, though, that afreets illegal immigrants who initially arrive through valid visas rather than a dash across the desert. Remember: Unlawful presence is a civil, not criminal, violation. That means it is not a crime to stay in the U.S. after your visa expires. If people overstay their visas, all the .government can do is send them home. That strikes some administration officials1 and GOP lawmakers as unfair. Because it is a crime to enter the U.S. without authorization, some people believe people who overstay a visa should face a criminal penalty. So as House Judiciary Committee Chairman F, James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., prepared his border security bill last year, the Justice Department asked him to include a provision making unlawful presence in the U.S. a crime. Sensenbrenner, on the House floor in December, said the idea came from the Bush administration, and an administration official last week, speaking anonymously, confirmed his account. Both parties agree the administration did not tell Sensenbrenner what sort of crime it believed unlawful presence should be. 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