October 1997 - Binghamton Review by Binghamton Review

Quinlan and Chi vs. Pipe Dream

The Core Curriculum

A Hard Core Look at Higher Education Freshman Disorientation Introducing The Bottom Line

BINGHAMTON REvIEW Volume 11 Number 2

Founded 1987 October 1997

Departments

Editorial: Paul Th...... writes something a little bard core.

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ÂŤhnmaculatc" journalism and amusing anecdotes; Campus Presswatch separates the mcn from the boys in campus media.

InsllgalloOJ tackles the Academic Vice President, S.C.A.T.E., inclusiveness, and wild-eyed progressives. Right Side, We will be back next month with a full 14 The two pages. 1/4

IIINGIIAMTON IhMIW Penonals: Yes, you read that right. Who says conservatives don't know how to have fun? Quibbles 23 and facts.

& Bits: Even morc strange but true quotes, stories,

Features

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Dc AJdo Bernanlo examines the original academic program at fJarpur College, and likes what he sees. Nathan Wurtzel explains why Binghamton Univcristy needs a core curriculum now more than ever.

Paul Thrros goes behind the scenes to unearth just why Pipe Dream was shut down by the Student Association.

Zoya loslfovlch and Jeff Coben discuss the need for the reform of Social Security.

Michael Fonl makes the case that the law of supply and demand applies to real life as well as to economics.

Robert Zoch attends Orientation at Binghamton and lives to tell the tale.

Adam Schechter comments on freshman year, halogen lamps, and alumni apathy.

Eyal Eislg turm Newing College back into a winner.

Jason J, Kovacs and the SA Budget Committe don't get along. That's why he likes the Student Activity Voucher System.

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EDITORIAL

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Whose Fathers and Which Gods ost students on this campus still celebratc Columbus Day, or at the very least, they don ' t protest it. But you wouldn ' t know that from the

use of distributive requirements, have all

riculurn may at fust glance appear to be

but disappeared in the university 's bulletin of classes, only revealing that the rot is

the last thing some students may desire here

plethora of annual ritualized rites that

The students who graduate from Binghamton know less and less about West-

greets the eye in the early morning of the October holiday. "Ibis year will prove to be

no exception. "lbe portrayal of Christopher Columbus,

for example, as "wanted" for crimes 1S the s tepchild of our old friend , multiculturalism, which permeates all levels of our University. From rank and file hard-lincrs, office-holding do-nothings, professional know-nothings, and right on up to the Office of the President,

multiculturalism is still in vogue. Lois DeFleur simply can't help herself from repeating'this bU2Zword half a dozen times

on our University's web page. Nor can she and other higher level administrators refrain from holding still more occasions of the "Leadership Brunch", with high qual-

ity rainbow backgrotUlds adorning their invitations and comp le te with the University's new «Diversity, Respect . Unity" logo. What have been the po licy im-

from within.

ern Civilization, and more and more about "Diversity." "lbe situation has reached the point where they are all just short of being required to take classes as per a Diversity Requirement. "lbat should sound only too familiar. But let me not go about deconstructing the relations of power, op-

at Binghamton University. However it was a core curriculum of n sort that this university almost implemented not even one year ago . "lbe dehates in the chambers ofHarpur Collegc Council are no longer, and for that

matter never have been centered about the feasibility or desirability of some form of a

core curriculwn in all honesty. The high priests of multiculturalism and the throngs of vocal pro-diversity students have always been firmly set upon the idea of instituting

pression, and hierarchical relation s of dominance, etc., of the Diversity Require-

a bizarre core curriculum as core

ment here. Besides, thankfully it was repealed. "lbe main purpose of obtaining an edu-

versity Requirement" was instead not f<r cused on whether should we have 8 core curriculum, but rather on what shall a Binghamton core curriculum mandate. It is this debate that continues to motivate the parties involved. A traditional core curricu-

cation is to gain knowledge, and consequently the idea put forth by some of the campus lett of a university "run by the students" is non-sensible, especially in regards

CurriCU4

lmn s go. "lbe debate surrounding the "Di-

to the university's curriculum. Years of aca-

lum would ensure the education of traditional western values and culture. It is the

demic freedom, purported to exist but really used as tactic to introduce diversity into the classroom have almost led us down a

transmission of culture and commWlity that was once a large and indispensable role of education. Today this is no longer the casc.

path to a new kind ofoore curriculum. For-

"Ibis role of education is not being fulfilled at all today, that is if it has not already been usurped by the warriors of multiculturalism,

plications of our politically correct university president, and the students who cham-

tunately for the namesake of thi s univer-

pion it as their cause?

of B inghamton students, that curriculum was repealed last year. It was called the "Diversity Requirement." It is the further that we stray from the true purpose of educa-

diversity, and extrem ism, the modern

jor "interdisciplinary" programs. In the competition for classes, students, professors, simply put time and money, and other resources, the lion's share goes to a tie between the Women's Studies program and the Latin American & Caribbean Area

tion, even if we do not know or agree on what exactly that is, and closer to "diversity," that we cheat more students out of

been so sure and steady sinee the loss of all Many will still wonder why do men quar-

an education that might actually prove useful to them.

rel over such matters and their Western Civili za tion or worse? Put simpl y by

Bringing back the traditional core cur-

Studies Program. Each with about twenty-

riculum is looked upon by some, at least,

Macaulay, it is "for the ashes of thcir fathers and the temples of their gods." "lbe

Today there exist about seventy-five classes of cross-listed courses placed in the university bulletin of classes by three ma-

sity, and more importantly, the education

seven courses listed this semester. Con-

as a necessary step towards that image of

gratulations to beth. Meanwhile the traditional elements of a truly liberal education, long ago placed on the shelf through the

health in education that we all recognize,

and a step away from the illness that now pervades it at the college level. A core CUf-

blessed trinity. To those who look aghast at the prospects of either cOre curriculum, the

current slide towards «diversity" has never traces of a traditional core curriculum.

great question in education today is simply whose fathers and which gods. -Paul M. Torres

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CAMPUS PRESSWATCH

lf you arc one who believes in equal opportunities for all persOns, you may be classified as a leftist; if not you can be classed somwbcrc 10 the right of liberal.

OFF! September 1997

Socialist Head H oncho Rich Barley goes off in OFF! about the RWIIW receiving $200from the Studenl Association over the slimmer. Here's the scoop: although the IlIivIIiW may gel afew hundred bucks over an occassional summer, we haven't received reglliar SAlunding since 1989, due to our printing of "insensitive" rna/erial. Despite Barley claiming that he wouldn't mind seeing the Review getting SA funds, you can bet your boltom dollar he'd vote against it if he couid. Our bottom dollar is this: as soon as the Queer Student Union gives up their $4,200, and other parasitic organizations thatleed regllkulyat the SA trough g ive up their free rides, we'll return our $200. We'll be waiting...

Pipe Dream September 30, 1997 Pipe Dream staffwriter Jessica Mansbach mentions that Hinman College founder George L. Hinman died at the age of 91 ... Hinman CoUege was named in his honor, as he was involved in the 1949 founding of Harpur CoUege at the Stale University of New Yolk at Binghamton. However, interestingly enough, Mansbach fails to mention thtJt among Hinmnn's many accolades was his extensive political involvement with the Republican Party. The September 26th obituary section ofthe Ne w York POSI reports tool ...

Tell us how much laundered corporate cash you're getling and 1'U stop picking on you ... The Queer Student Union (QSU) ran a postering campaign early in the yeas accusing the IbMsw of getting $200 of Student Association money a year... rm not against a conservative organization getting SA money.

GOP stalwart George L. Hinman, a longtime political advisor to Nelson Rockefeller and a Republican stalwart for two decades died Sunday in New York. He was 9 1. Hinman assisted Rockefeller while the latter was governor of New York, from 1953 to 1973, and vice president to Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. The Harvard-educated lawyer came to prominence in 1956, when he was named counsel to a commi sion headed by Rockefeller in preparation for a cons titutional convention .Rockefell er named Himnan his executive assistant two years laler. Hinman served on the RNC from 1959 to 1977, mostly on tbe Executive Commitee. He was a delegate at-1arge from New York to the Republican National Conventions in 1%0, 1964, and 1976.

OFF! September I 997

Romantic poety laver and occasional cam~ pus ''progressive'' Jesse Cohn gives ~ few unintentional compliments to the campus right [both oj us!] and the IbMsw in his orlicle on the future of campus radicals. Thanks, Jesse - keep them coming... II doesn't hurt that they have interesting so urces of funding for things like the BI....... MTON 1bMsw, which comes out like clockwork .. Campus ullra~conservatives have their act together and can mobilize enough people effectively 10 make a difference.

Pipe Dream September 30, 1997 Sure, guys... As ifthe reason Pipe Dream was shut down was over the l sI Amendment...

OFF! Seplember 1997

Normnlly sensible l CA CJuJinnnn David . Thibault redefines the definitions oflib ernI and left~wing to suit his extremist political agenda.

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Nliinber of articles iIuit n!lglllively mention 5

If you believe you sbould be allowed the same rights guaranteed to citizens not living on a college campus, write to pipe dream and demand freedom of th e press. Quinlan and Chi must not be allowed to cut off the right arm of democracy.

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NSTIGATIONS

he attempt to revive the Student the morning of the 14th, aptly called "BuildCourse and Teacher Evaluation pro ing an Inclusive University Comnllmity." The gram, commonly called S.C.AT.E.~ Administration's big guns were there, includcuts to the heart of the problems swround- ing President Lois DeFleur and Vice Presiing our Student Association. After a year dent for Student Affairs Rodger Smnmers, that saw fmancial improprieties left and as well as a host of student leaders, all of right on the second floor of the Uni~ what whom were given an all-you-can-eat free really threw Instigations for a loop was the lunch in exchange to listening to sennons on recent, stwming disclosure that last year, how Bingbamtoncan become more inclusive, the SA E-Board spend nearly $44,000 on diverse, and all-around more wmm and fuzzy. "executive perks," such as computer up- Instigations didn't go for the sermons, but grades and cellular phone bills. So you the brunch went down smooth. Pedlaps it was would think now the SA would be cutting not a totally wasted morning. The afternoon saw a solemn ceremony in back on needless, exorbitant projects, right? Nope. 00ferent E-Board, same old business the Anderson Center for new inductees into as usual fiom the Kingdom Above the Union. Phi Eta Sigma, an National Honor Society for The Academic Vice President proc1aims that sophomores who earned a 3.5 GPA or higher S.CAT.E will "give students an advantage of their freshmen year. Around three hundred sharing infonnation among themselves about mends and family members attended to honor classes and teachers." Think about it; do stu- the select members of the Class of 2000 who dents really need an expensive, fancy govern- attained this honor. In a tmiversity that valued ment program telling them what classes to education, excellence, and merit, this ceremony take? Students already have mends, advisers, would be a big deal, and these honor students mentors, and professors to help them select would receive a fair amowlt of recognition courses. Plus, instead of "empowering stu- However, in contrast to the diversity logos, dents," S.CAT.E. will actually take away their there were no signs anywhere advertising the rights if the AVP's dream of getting the pr0- induction ceremmy. Also, were where the leadgram onto the BUSI system is realized. Pipe ers of our institution of higher learning? Dream reports that "in order to register for new DeFleur and Summers were conspicuous by classes, students would have to ewluate the their absence, although to be fair, Provost and courses they took that semester." Fmcing stu- First Amendment violator Mmy Ann Swain dents to use an SA programjust to register for made a brief speech. The credit for organizing cJasses sets a dangerous precedent, and puts and conducting this ceremony goes to the hmd an unreasonable amount ofpower in the bands wmking student officers and fuculty advisors of Phi Eta Sigma, not to some diversity czar of our SA bosses. Incidently, our AVP collected a smnmer sti- or lowly educmt worlcing in Couper. Although pend 1imn the Student Association without set- it was well hidden, the induction ceremony ting foot in the SA Office all summer. To Ie- reminded everyone who attended what a colphrasewbatPipe Dream said (while they were lege should be about. Instigations is troubled by the events that still publishing), maybe we should give our AVP ajob description; one that doesn't include occurred on September 14. No matter howhard stealing money from students or expanding students 1Iy to attain academic excellence, it seems that on Binghamton's hallowed our already cumbersome SA bureaucracy. grounds, no one seems to notice, especially eptember 14 started out like any other those who work in the Couper Administrasleepy Sunday at Binghamton; when tion Building. DeFleur and heraunies, as well the day was over, however, Instigations as many student leaders ftom the SA Execudiscovered not only how dire the condition tive Board down to the officers of the mous of higher learning was on our campus, but cultuml unions, have forgotten why we are also that the BU Administration is headed here. Instead, they spend their time tirelessly promoting impossible and irrelevant goals of in an educationally bankrupt direction. If you thought the new "diversitY' logos "diversitY' and "inclusiveness," when they that were plastered all over campus were just should be working on improving a pretty backdrop, you were wrong. The true Binghamton's academic reputation. meaning ofthe logos was discussed at a lead- Binghamton University has a fatal flaw; the ership Bnmch in the Susquehanna Room on Administration doesn't care about educa-

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so why should students?

Oucher supporters thought they had a difficult sales job ahead of them, especially when it came to convincing students that the various cultural unions were not "cultmal," in fact, but political.

That is until Jesse Cohn, everyone's favorite campus 'In'ogressive,'' came out with a ground-shaking article in the September issue of OFF!. Cohn laments the fact that the campus right is organized into one cohesive unit, while the Left is fragmented into a multitude of different clubs. He wasn't saying anything new tmtil he described what clubs: "Obviously, 1 would like us campus progressives to get our act together. But how? Working together is too hard. It's a pain to try to go to LASU or ASU meetings when you're already involved in the Food Co-op and the DSA, and vice versa." Exactly, Jesse. That's \\hat. Instigations and the campus right have been saying for years. Ewryone knows the DSA (DEmoaatic Socialists of America) is a political organization; at least they're honest about it But the cultural tmions, such asLASU or the ASU for eKBIIlple, are biding tmir political agendas tmder the meade of their respective cultures and heritages. The Food Co-op also appears innocuous, and they are quick to denmmce anyone that accuses them of having a partisan message, but their histOI}' tells a different stoIy, such as their organized boycott ofMmriott in the mid 1980s. Ifyou still have doubts about the Co-op, Colm labels it a left-wing "COlUlter-institution" in the same league as OCCT. Instigations always knew those blue buses were up to no good~ The point is, with the exception of organizations dedicated to hobbies, such as the Cigar Club or Chess Club, everyone has a political agenda; ~ even the cultural tmions, and yes, even the Food C<HJp. Jesse Colm has perhaps made one of the strongest cases for the Voucher System, without even realizing it. He probably wouldn~t want his activity fee dollars going to support iIINGHAMroN RIvmw, and Instigations staffers certainly don't want their money going to support the Food Co-op. Under a Voucher System, this would never haJr pen. No matter howextremist theDSA, LASU, or the C<HJp are in a given year, Jesse could give all of his activity fee to them, and mainstream students wouldn't have to.

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OcrOOOR

H ARPUR' S O RIGINAL P ROGRAM

1997

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Harpur's Original Progratll by Dr, AIdo S. Bernardo

he class of 1954, the first class graduating from Harpur College, presented the college with an unusual gift. It was a large granite stone containing a bronze inscription describing the goals ofthe academic progmm the class had been pursuing for almost 4 years. It said: FROM BREADTH TO DEPTH TO PERSPECTIVE. The stone now sits in the central quad at the intersection of a paved crossroad one side of which leads in the gcncml direction of the Bartle Library and classrooms. the other in the direction of the student union and housing. The stone's shape and location could not have been morc symbolic. The thick piece of granite resembles a cemetery headstone. The crossroads po int in the direction of growth on the onc hand and carefree youth in the other. The program celebrated by the stone died in the 1970's. The paths at whose intersection the stone sit explains why. When Triple Cities College became an extension of Syracuse University in 1946, Glenn Bartle was appointed Dean. From the very first, Bartle's dream was to create an in stitution with an academic program similar to Swarthmore's where he had served during the war. With the takeover of the college by the state in 1950, Bartle slartcd to recruit faculty to realize his dream. By 1955 the Symcuse program had been replaced by a progmm that resembled Swarthmore's in certain respects, but was highly original in others. The program was based on two major assumptions: ftrst, that overspecialization in limited fields of study has been a fundamental weakness of American higher education since the close ofwwn~ second, that Amcrican college students were capable of much greater intellectual effort than su~ posed. It also assumed that the then-recent

vogue of general-education programs in liberal arts afforded only a partial solution since the majority of such programs provided breadth at the expense of depth. The idea was to have the student first get immersed in geneml human knowledge, then investigate some basic areas in some depth, and [mally focus on a specialization. It was felt that this would alford the student a proper perspective toward life and learnmg.

Such a program required a drastic change in college sbucture. Formal departments were avoided in favor of three Divi· sions which reflected the basic organization of human knowledge. These were Humanities and Fine Arts, Social Sciences, and Sciences and Math. The goal was to give evcry student a thorough exposure to these essential areas of knowledgc before moving on to a specific specialty. A student would thus first satisfy a series of general education requirements, then decide in which of the three Divisions he wished to concentrate (or major), then explore various areas within the Divisions, and finally detennine a specialization. Such a structure a1so focused attention upon the interdependence of all the disciplines in the colIcge, making possible easy access to interdivisional programs. To assure breadth for all students, the program, based on three-hour courses, required that 60 of the 124 credits needed for graduation be devoted to a core of general requirements and other courses which provided a common experience and served as the basis for subsequent development in divisional studies. lbis common core had three parts: (I) general courses to provide an introduction to the training in communications and to provide an introduction to the major areas of knowledge; (2) general

requirements in mathematics and foreign languages; and (3) area requirenlents that insured a spread in individual programming. Being built on knowledge already acquired in secondary school, the first two parts also alforded some depth of Wlderstanding. The third part, the Area requirements, provided further depth through a series of upper~cl8ss requirements which called for some advanced work in divisions other than that in which the studcnt elected to major. The remaining half of the 124 hours program consisted in the divisional major and area specialization or special program. Another novelty of the program brought about by the non-departmental structure was the divisional rather than a departmental major. After completing the general college requirements and before specializing, a student had to elect one of the Divisions as a major. Here too, both breadth and depth were assured. The Hwnanities major, for example, had to take required courses in all the areas of the Humanities and in at least one area of the Social Sciences, and this in addition to the general course in the Sciences. The geneml courses were given in Communications, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences (biological or physical). Except in the Sciences, these were required yearlong courses carrying six hours of credit. In the sciences, two courses were offered, one in the biological , the other in the physical sciences. Each was a onc-tcnn course carrying five hours of credit. The student wns required to choose one. Each of the general courses was designed to dcal with the nature of its subject mattcr. Communications dealt with the nature of human commWlications, from articulal-

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ion of sound to produce words. to language as used in such daily media as newspapers, mdio, TV, movies, and eventually to how communication is achieved in art., music, theatre, dance and other arts. The Hwnanitics course dealt with the great works of Western Civilization from Homer to the end of the nineteenth century as they related to the growth and development of the dominant ethical ideal of the West. The Social Science course dealt with the nature of such disciplines by examining how each contributed to an understanding of some contemporary social problem. such as urbanization. The Science course dealt with the manner in which the biological and physical sciences complement the Humanities and Social Sciences by showing their Hmitations when faced ,vith the mysteries of Nature in the biological and physical realms. All divisional faculty was expected to participate in such courses either as lecturers or as section leaders. Since space does not allow full coverage of the program, I shall focus on how the program worked for the Humanities Major. and suggest its operation in the other two divisions. Along with other candidates for the B.A., the humanities major had to take from 23 to 4 1 hours of general education. mathematics, and foreign languages, plus 18 hours of area-study courses. In addition, he had to take introductory semester courses of three hours each in the fields of art, music, and philosophy. Once these basic requirements were satisfied, the student could be admitted to the hwnanities major. He then had to take 21 hours of significantly advanced work in areas that lay outside his specialization as follows:

L Art and Music Either three hours of advanced courses in the history of art and six hours in ad-

HARPUR'S ORIGINAL PROGRAM

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vanced music history OR six hours of art and three hours of music history. Total; 9 Hours. IL Literature A. A Cbaucer course and a Sbakespeare

course, with the option of substituting some other English literature course for one. ToW : 6 Hours B. Courses in a foreign literature. Total: 6 Hours

Philosophy Two philosophy courses beyond the introductory course. Total: 6 Hours

Thus, a student specializing in English would have to do nine hours of advanced work in art and music, six hours in a foreign literature, and 6 hours of advanced courses in philosophy. This explains why the average student would not be ready for specialization until the end of bis sophomore year. At this time he was assigned a personal adviser from tile department of his choice. The requirements for specia lization within the Hwnanities Division were as follows: Art 21 hours; Music 32 hours; Theatre 19 hours; Foreign Languages & Literature 32 hours; American & English Litemture 24 hours; Philosophy 21 hours. Each department also provided special programs for students interested in cross-departmental or cross-divisional specialization. Fi-

nally. each department offered a senior course entitled Humanities 97-98, which provided an opportunity for independent work under the guidance of an advisor as well as a means of integrating his hwnanities e~. perience. This resulted in a senior thesis that could take the form of a paper _ or of creative work. In recapitulation, the potential Humanities major did frOID 41 to 59 hours of work outside the humanities. He then balanced thi s with 5 I to 64 hours of work in the hwnanities (including the ~1JCc i alization). If his pre-college preparation was normal, he would bave from 19 - 32 hours for free electives. If such preparation was inadequate, there would be little room for electives. In either case. the student was ass ured a wellrounded program of studies without the frequently irreparable gaps left in the program of free electives and narrow specialization. The Social Science Major required a similar distribution of bours, with even greater emphasi s on work outside the Division. Specializations required from 18 to 30 hOUTS in a single area, culminating in a senior seminar and report. Specializations included Economics, Business, Geography, History, Political Science, and Sociology. 11m Science and Mathematics major understandably was expected to concentrate to 8 greater extent on individual disciplines. Such a student had to take either a substantial amount of work in a science in addition to the one in which he wished to specialize, or an equivalent amount of work in two sciences in addition to tile specialization. "The senior seminar often led to some form of research. Possible specializations included biology, psychology, chemistry, geology, and physics. It is important to bear in mind that Harpur College came into being in 1950. From 1946 to 1950 it was part of Symcuse University. From 1950 to 1954 the college

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BINGHAMTON

was able to attract a facul ty that was willing and able to undertake thi s highly ori ginal program. While other institutions, such as Columbia, had developed similar program over the years, Harpur, as a brand new school, was about the only one nationally that was able to organize a program that encompassed the entire c umculwn in a way that avoided invidious distinctions between di sciplines or departments. The entire curriculwn was administered by the three division chainnen working in concert. The end of the '50s had touted the Hmpur PT(}gram nationally as highly original. '1bcre

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Just when you thought it was safe to tum on the radio ...

is little doubt that to this day this distinclion still lingers in the reputation that Harpur currently enjoys. 'Ibc nati onal student movements of the 60s were instrumental in the erosion undergone by the program. Student rights advocaLes insisted that the program was too

rigid and demanded a voice in overhaulin g the curriculum to suit their newl y founded freedoms. Similarly, disgruntled fac ulty who fell that they program was taking too much timc from their research interests agrced to share ilIeir role in university governance \vith students. 'Ibis eventually led to a radical diminution of general requirements to a few di stribution requirements which operated at the level of electives. Student leaders had convinced the student body and a good portion of faculty that students were capable of determining a curriculum ilIat was best for them. Fin ally, when in 1966 the undergraduate campus initiated graduate studies and fommlized a departmental structure, the original program started to disintegrate. By the late 1970's, as graduate studies took hold and an increased number of graduate assistants were assigned to the discussion sections of the general education courses, student protests and faculty support scaled the demise of the program. Throughout the '70s and '80s several attempts were made to salvage the program by organizi ng a separate "classica l college," but to no avai l. Today. all that is left is an intimation of the divisional slructurc and tomb-like granite stone at the intersection of that leads to the library or to the student urtion.

Dr. Aida S. BenJardo is the Faculty Advisor O/BlNCoHAMTON REVlow.

Guest Speaker Don Parker of the Broome Information Group will visit The Gunpowder Plot on October 22 to discuss the October 24th" AntiU.N." Rally at the Old City Courthouse, comer of Court and Chenango Streets, Binghamton.

The Gunpowder Plot The official radio program of

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CORE CURRICULUM

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Why Binghamton Needs a Core Curriculum by Nathan L. Wurtzel may smprise even the most skeptical of you: When it comes to basic education, Bingbamton University isn~t excellent even for a SUNY school. What is basic educaquestion can be formed in two words: "The tion? A recent study by the Empire FounDegree." You~ve got to have that 9" X 12" dation for Public Policy Research and the framed document affirming that four (or New York Association of Scholars regards five, or six, or more) years of your time on as major components of a well-ro1.Ulded libEarth were spent at an accredited college eral education the following subjects: Enor university in order to get to the next glish composition, foreign language, hislevel: "The Job." A less comm~ but for- tory, literature, philosophy, arts, mathemattunately not rare, response falls somewhere ics, and natural science. Their report docuin the bounds of the general statement "To ments the presence or absence of each subget an education." Most people want to be ject as a component of the core curriculmn considered "'educated" and many will go at each SUNY school. How does B.U. 's General Education reso far as to crack open a book from time to quirement rate? It doesn't stack up to Buftime to achieve that goal~ but few students take even a passing moment to deeply con- falo, Cortland, or Geneseo. It isn't as good sider the quality of their education, not to as Plattsbmgh, Potsdam, Purchase, or any mention the quality of Binghamton Uni- other SUNY that begins with a "P.~ The University Center at Stony Brook has a betversity. "But the students know all about the ex- ter core curriculum and so does the small cellence ofBingbamton University," says your campus at Old Westbury. Binghamton Unibasic low-level administrator. "Why, good old versity requires less credit hoW'S in genexcellent B.U. is on the Money magazine list eral education than any other SUNY. Of and the U.S. News & World Report list. Ev- course, we do have a nice new diversity logo eryone knows that we~ve gone ftom vision to and those other schools don't So therel Now some people may think this lack of excellence in just 51 excellent years. Why, a cohesive core curriculum is a good thing. we've got excellence coming out of our ears! We can't even say one sentence without u. "Heck," they say, "this is the Age of the ing the word "excellence!" Lois DeFleur Individual. It's 1997, for heaven's sakel We won't hire us if we can. form even one sen- don't need people telling us what we need tence where "excellence" is not used as both to know and what we don't need to knowl a noun and an excellent adjective! Excellence~ Just give me my degree and let me out of herel Besides, students should be able to excellence~ excellence!" choose courses for themselves." We all Well, yes. We have heani a lot about excellence. We have also seen those magazine lists know this argument; it is the one some 0pthat say B.U. is a pretty good deal. But what ponents of the Harpur College diversity do those lists measure? What does excellence requirement used to get it repealed. We~ mean, especially as used by a B. U. adminis- they were wrong. Not about the diversity requirement, of trator? And can we really trust the same adcourse. The requirement was an abominaministration that described a bloodbath in Newing Dining Hall as a cut "less than an tion not because it was required, but beinch long on someone'sann" to honestly evalu- cause it forced political correctness down students' throats. A different requirement ate the quality of their academic programs? I didn't think so, either. But what I found which as part of a core curriculum would ~s ask ourselves a question. Why are we at Binghamton University, or any institution of bigher learning for that matter? The common answer to this

have required knowledge of non-Western culture, history, ~ pbilosophywOuld have been of great benefit to undergraduate stUdents. But before we can talk about the diversity requirement and before we can talk about general educati~ we need to think about a core curriculum. We had a good core cwriculmn once and you may have read about it on the preceding pages. If you haven't read Professor Bernardo's piece, go and do so now. Yll be here when you get back. The first thought we have is one of c0nfusion. Why on earth would B.U. scrap the core curriculmn when it was of such obvious benefit to lUldergraduate students and when it brought prestige and positive publicity to the school? This is a difficult question to answer, or at least the second half .is. Most f}dministrators arc bureaucrats, nQ~ .. educators, so the educational benefit of a given policy is not likely to be apparent to them. However, university administrators usually are sensitive to public relations and can generally sense when an event is likely to draw a public reaction. Most likely, the answer lies with the pr0pensity administrators have to full in line with transient educational trends. As Professor Bernardo points out in his article, for a time two to three decades ago, it was thought that students would be better served with an "open c~culum." With this type of curriculum, students could elect to take whatever courses they wanted, as long as they satisfied their major requirements and perhaps a few minor "distribution requirements" in areas not related to their major. Like so much ofthe thinking ofthe 1960's and 1970's, this idea has proven to be a disaster, and no wonder. Even the most intelligent and mature 1.Uldergraduate students do not enta' college with a good sense of what they need to knOw. Even in the days when primary and secondary education was better, students entering college were expected

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to have an incomplete inventory of general knowledge. Higher education is supposed to add another layer of general knowledge to the students' repertoires, in addition to ~ paring them for their careers. Otherwise, why do we bother having professors? Or higher education, for that matter? The cmrent obstacle to the core cwriculum is the intransigence of faculty in multicultmal studies areas. Ironically, their mgument assumes the existence of a core cwriculum somewhere in the lives of students. We need multicultuialism in college, they say, because students have learned all about Western culture, Western literature, and Western history in primary and secondary school. Now, they add, it is time for non-Western material to get its rightful place in the cwriculum. This argument is based on two faulty premises. First, multiculturalism typically does not teach non-Western material, but an extremist Western philosophical critique of Western culture. Frequently, the infonnation taught in multicultmal courses is incorrect. For example, in 1987 Stanford University jettisoned its three-course Western Civilization requirement in favor of a weak multicultural requirement called "Cultures, Ideas, and Values." One of the ringleaders in this change, writes Dinesh D'Souza in his book Dliberal Education, was William King, president of the Black Student Union. In arguing for multiculturalism, King claimed that tmder the Western Civilization requirement, he "read the Bible without knowing that St Augustine looked black" like him. He "didn't learn that Toussaint L'Ouverture's defeat of Napoleo~ in Haiti directly influenced the French Revolution, or that the Iroquois Indians in America had a representative democracy which served as a model for the American system." The reason he didn't learn those things in Western Civ was that St. Augustine was born more than 300 years after the time frame of the New Testament, that the French Revolution preceded Napoleon's overthrow in Haiti by 12 years, and that the Iroquois system is nuukedly different from the American constitution. Yet King's impassioned speech was instrumental in scmpping the Western Civilization requirement, which Suggests that multiculturalism tlomishes only in a vacuum of general knowledge. The second faulty premise is that stu-

CORE CURRICULUM dents already have a good background in Western culture and American histoty. A Stanford Review survey of 1S9 randomlyselected Stanford upperclassmen last year revealed that more than two-thirds of these students could not identitY the author ofThe Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith), the inventor of the printing press (Gutenberg), the scholar who first proposed that the Earth revolves around the sun (Copernicus), or the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7 , 1941). More importantly, it can be assumed that the culturaI and historical significance of these events is lost to students as well. Of course, the Earth will continue to revolve around the sun whether or not Joe Student knows about the scientific revolution that followed Copernicus' work. And, for some, that is all that matters. But for an increasing amount of people, especially parents, the growing absence of general knowledge in the curriculum is alarming. Even in math and science, eighth-grade students in the United States finished last among industrialized nations. Even more worrisome, the eighth-graders declined from their performance at the fourth-grade level, where they at least outperfonned England and Norway. And it is hard to forget an article from the Press & Sun-Bulletin on President's Day in 1994 which showed a 16-year-old Los Angeles student stunned when she learned that her Grover Cleveland High School was named after a president "I always thought it was named after that city in Cana~" she said. In New York, standards have fDllen so far that education commissioner Richard Mills has proposed that the Board of Regents enact tougher graduation requirements for high school students. The addition to the core curriculwn includes more math and science aedits and requires at least one credit in a foreign language. Interestingly, most students interviewed by the Preas & Sun-Bulletin, though concerned about some of their underachieving peers, were in favor of the new requirements, saying they will make people try harder and learn more. On the other hand, the typical response of the educational bureaucracy was that of Thomas O'Brien, associate professor of education at B.U., who wonied about how the state would fimd this new requirement (though he did not explain wbyanyadditional fimds would be necessary)

••••••••••••••••••••••••• and about students who have ''historiailly not succeeded in school," which is liberal slang for "minorities" (he also did not explain why he thought minority students might not be able to meet the new requirements). These new requirements aren't enough, though, whether at the secondary school level or at the university level. It is not adequate to ask a student simply to complete a certain amount of credits in a given subject area without showing regard to what that person learns about that subject. This is the failure ofB.U.'s General Education requirement. I am one of the few conservatives at B.U. who support Gen Ed, but I do so only because I recognize ·it to be an interim stage upon which a true core cwriculum can be reconsbucted. Gen Ed is not a good core requirement, but it is much better than no requirement At first glance, Gen Ed seems substantiative. It requires a student to take a course in literature and composition, a course in American pluralism, a course in global interdependencies, a science laboratory course, a mathematics reasoning course, an aesthetic perspectives course, and two credits of physical activity and wellness. However, there is no mechanism in place to give students a common base of general knowledge about each area. In addition, some of these requirements can be circumvented with narrow and often silly courses which provide little or no basic knowledge about the subject area. The global interdependencies course can be satisfied with a Women's Studies course called "Film and Society," which focuses on how women are portrayed in film. The science requirement can be satisfied with a lecturellab in "The Principles of Photography," which is offered by the Department of Physics. We can only wonder how Kepler makes an appearance in that course. Perhaps the textbook includes a photograph of him. The gut-course HaIl of Shame grows from there. The American plwa1ism. requirement can be satisfied with courses such as "Multicultural Medical Ethics," U. S. Multicultural Women Writers," and "Marxist Interpretations of Contemporary Fiction." The aesthetic perspective requirement can be circumvented with "Gender, Class, and Grimm's Fairy Tales" (beware, Brothers Grimm, you are about to meet your new Sisters). The literature and composition require-

BINGHAMTON RIvEw

OcroBBR 1997

••••••••••••••••••••••• ment is a haven for courses which would otherwise be headed for the garbage can: "Alternative Fictions,» ''Literature of Captivity," "American Women and War", and my favorite, "Literature of Bourgeois Suburbs." Maybe an issue of the Rwmw will be included as a required reading. Only the math requirement seems to cut the muster and "Methods of Reasoning" looks a bit shaky in that department. Drawing Venn diagrams is neither very difficult nor very enlightening. And I'll withhold connnent on the physical education requirements only because I know I will not be able to stop laughing once I get started. No, 1 can't help but criticize this one: ''Men's lssues." This course is designed primarily for male varsity athletes and focuses on "sexual harassment, homophobia, pornography, date/acquaintance rape, and other topics of interest to the class." Putting aside the blatant gynecocratic message that these topics are somehow only "men's" issues, let us examine the tangible result of this classthe ladies' teams have been a lot better than the men's teams lately. Ahh, equality. This silliness stops being silly when we think about the effect of B. U. 's shoddy Gen Ed requirement on undergraduate students. We have a generation of students force-fed the hamfisted writing of cop-killer Abu Mumia-Jamal in ''Literature of Captivity," but no one is required to learn simple things like subject-predicate sentence structure. And, no, most students don't know this when they get to college. I taught a few classes that were designated "writing intensive" and have seen a lot of students' writing. There are times when I have been tempted to show "SchooJhouse Rock"videos in my lab classes (heck, let's make it a new Gen Ed course and call it "Film and Saturday Morning Societyj to improve my students' grammar skills. Look at the poor writing in most of the campus media if you want to see examples-and remember that the people who write for these newspapers and magazines do it for fun, not because it is required. I don't write this because I want to insult students or because I think they do not belong in college. In contrast, most of the students I have had the pleasure of teaching at B.U. are very intelligent. But I think that a lot of them are not being challenged by the university; that the shallow nature of the currently assigned work unrelated to their

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majors is dulling their motivation to learn and shattering their thirst for knowledge. I also can't help but notice that many students I have encountered have a very poor background in the foundations of American history and Western culture tmless they have taken it upon themselves to head to their library or bookstore for sustenance. The university can and should help students achieve a high level of competence not only in their career ~ but in American culturaIliteracy. To do this, they should bravely buck fashionable academic trends and reinstitute a core curriculum that provides students with a broad base of general knowledge. Perhaps they can start their own trend by doing so. Or maybe they should follow the lead of a CUNY school. Brooklyn College, which like B.U. isa public school, has an outstanding core curriculum which satisfies all the requirements of the old Harpur College program. All students at Brooklyn College take these courses, which are designated as Core I through Core 10 as follows: Core 1 teaches the classical origins ofWesteIn culture~ Core 2 introduces students to art and music from various periods and cultmes; and Core 3 is called ''People, Power, and Politics," a class that introduces general civics, as well as the raceJclass politics that multiculturalists hold dear. Core 4 is a modern. history comse and Core 5 is an in1rod~ tion to mathematical reasoning and computer science. These first five courses are considered first-tier core classes and should be completed before the second five courses. The next five courses are called secondtier classes. Core 6 is called "Landmmks of Literature" and focuses on English and American literatme, as well as non-Western writing. Cores 7 and 8 are science courses and teach chemistry, physics, biology, and geology. Core 9 is a diversity requirement comparing African, Asian, Latin American, and Pacific cultures. Finally, Core lOis a basic philosophy course called "Knowledge, Existence, and Values." The only glaring omi~ sion in the Brooklyn core cwriculwn is the absence of a writing class, but administrators there tell me that writing is emphasized in all ten courses of the Core. No good deed goes unpunished, even in academia, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that some factions at Brooklyn College are trying to purge the Core in favor of a weaker program called Brooklyn Connec-

tions. Brooklyn alumni are frantically trying to save the core cuniculum, which has been cited as a model program by the New Yolk TtmeS and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Because of the Core, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has rated Brooklyn College as one of the top schools in the nation. Binghamton University should follow Brooklyn College's lead and reinstate the core curriculum it abandoned so many years ago. Emphasis on the foundations of Western. culture and American history is of great importance. The non-Western portions of a Brooklyn-style curriculum should satisfy the desires of all honest multiculturalists and complement the teaching of Western culture. Exposure to great art, music, and literature is vital to maintain a civilized culture. And knowledge of basic science, mathematics, and philosophy completes the repertoire of a well-rounded student. The only opponent of such a core cuniculum is the person who says there is no objective foundation of knowledge. A typical example of this type of thinking is Duke University English professor Barbara HermsteinSmith who says she can imagine cultures "in which Homer would not be very interesting." Such cultures are either illiterate or wholly ignorant of their roots; those are the societies that gradually lose their reasons for existence and cease to operate beneficially. But Americans should be able to make distinctions 00tween Homer the poet, Wmslow Homer the painter, and Homer Simpson the cartoon character. It is our fuilure to teach about the former two as culturally relevant that makes the latter seem more important than it is. When we allow a subjective foundation of knowledge, we also foster the belieftbat anything is truth. This is how Stanford student William King could boldly assert that Toussaint VOuverture inspired the French Revolution without the fear ofbeing viewed as an ignoramus. But truth is what has guided men and women for centuries and it has been only truth that has cured societies of impo~ ing slavery, imperialism, oppression, terrorism, famine, and ignorance on others. Binghamton University students deserve the truth. They deserve a core curriculum. Nathan Wurtzel is the Editor-at-Large of BINGHAMTON RrMEw. He is currently wor~ ing in Washington D.C.

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PIPE DREAM

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Lauire Quinlan, Pipe Dream, and Fiscal Irresponsiblity by Paul Torres

tudent Association President Laurie

pipe dream editorial refers to a "negative

these practices and efforts to teCODci1e them

Quinlan and Financial Vice President article about last year's SA... " as the cause were attempted earlier in the month of Sep-

Tammy Chi refused to sign off further vouchers on pipe dream's account.on Monday, September 22124, effectively shutting the biweekly campus paper. The headline wm Pipe dream'~ Tuesday, September 23m, issue reads, "Last 1ssue??1", and in passing charges the President and the FVP of acting out of a "financial dispute." Laurie Quinlan, Student Association President, and Tammy Chi, the FVP, deny charges that they have acted outside oftheir constitutional authority by freezing pipe dream's account, as defenders of pipe dream and pipe dream itself charge. The President and the FVP concede that their actions effectively freeze pipe dream's account, but are legitimate because neither are constitutionally obligated to sign and approve pipe dream eXpense vouchers, which is the only action they have taken. This is materially different from freezing pipe dreams account despite the similarities in impact. Freezing an account, per se, is reserved solely for the President's Organizational Review Board (poRB), the Assembly's Rules Committee, Finance Committee, or finally the SA J-Board. The charge of censorship bas been made against the President and the FVP as well. The first half of pipe dream's editorial delivers a small history lesson, ranging from the administration of former SA President Carrie Printz, to the antics surrounding Anthony J. Benardello's election and administration. Pipe dream makes it clear from the presentation of these case examples that the intention behind the editorial of the 3()th is in part cc ••• to suggest, with the brief history lesson above... that SA administrations have historically tried to control what we decide to publish on our pages." What specifically was published or to be published is at the crux of the matter, and according to pipe dream provided the impetus for the actions of the President and the FVP. The

of this stir. Examination of the document tember. September 12th to be exact, was the in question, from the Friday, September date upon which three complaints against 26th, criticizes the extravagant expenditures pipe dream's financial practices and the need of the 96'-97' SA Office and E-Board. The for change in these was conveyed to the curstory was entitled ''Last Year's S.A. Office rent management ofpipe dream via a memoExpenses, Approved by its Executive Board randum, according to President Quinlan. and the University Comptroller." The tluust President Quinlan also adds that there was of the article however does not reveal the no progress towards achieving this goal of bad press coverage that the pipe dream edi- reconciling pipe dream's financial practices torial charges the SA President, Laurie straight up until the 2211d, the day FVP Chi Quinlan, acted upon. The President of the finally decertified pipe dream's treasmer and SA is quoted at the start of this article, on both took action by not approving any furthe cover of the Sept. 261h issue of pipe ther expense vouchers. President Quinlan dream, as stating, cc 'We are more open to then met with pipe dream on the next day, criticism and scrutiny... I am directly ac- the 23M of September, in an effort to negoticountable to the students - they can see ate. Meetings with pipe dream's manageeverything I spend.' " The article further ment up until this time apparently bared no states, "Quinlan said she felt students did fruit Two such meetings had been conducted not trust certain members of last year's during this past summer concerning only board... The 1996/1997 SA office budget... one of the three financial issues presently at reveals why... The SA plans to be more fis- hand. The President and FVP claim that the cally conservative this year, according to other two were as of yet unknown to them at Quinlan." And goes further to quote the time, and were only discovered in late Quinlan again, " 'Had I been there, a lot of August and early September. expenses wouldn't have happened,' she Pipe dream is charged by President said." Quinlan and FVP Chi in engaging in fiThis causal relationship does not stand nancial practices which they claim reveal up to a test of its merits. Perhaps the ver- financial mismanagement, violation of the sion of events as told by Quinlan and Chi SA Treasurer's Handbook, as well as viomay. In the pipe dream editorial of the 3()1h lation of state laws. is mentioned a memorandum from PresiThe first of these complaints is that pipe dent Quinlan and FVP Chi, which stated dream to date has an uncollected accounts to the effect that pipe dream was engaging receivable amounting to over $46,000. in the " 'Improper use of false purchase President Quinlan and FVP Chi state that orders' and an illegally falsified... govern- they have been aware of this problem for ment document. .. ' ". This memorandum, some time and were originally planning to according to pipe dream's editorial, was re- leave this matter for FORB which is to conceived three days prior, on the 2'J1h of Sep- vene sometime this month. The second charge was only more retember. This is the day after the "negative article" was published. Also contained in cently discovered by President Quinlan and this memorandum was the notice that pipe FVP Chi. This practice consisted of the dream's " ... SA account was frozen until printing and use of "Pipe Dream Purchase Orders" which are expressly prohibited by further notice." President Quinlan differs on this point the financial guidelines and regulations set claiming that a memorandum concerning forth in the Treasurer's Handbook and

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••••••••••••••••••••••• made known to all student organizations. The Student Association issues its own purchase orders, and recognizes only these. Each purchase order is a contract binding upon the Student Association for future payment with specific terms and conditions stipulated in the pmcbase order agreement. Local vendors essentially accept these and extend credit on the basis that the purchase orders are enforceable and will be repaid. All treasurers are instructed to only use official SA purchase orders. Pipe dream, by issuing its own purchase orders knowingly violated these prohibitions. Each purchase order, being printed in-house by pipe dream, was also never subject to any form of review or prior approval before being employed to make pmchases. The contractualobligations of the pipe dream pmchase orders are contracts that will likely extend to the Student Association despite their illegality by SA guidelines. If, as some propose, they actually would not extend to the SA and had the practice of pipe dream purchase orders continued, vendors may one

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day have been left holding the bag with unenforceable purchase orders and un-collectable debts owed to them by a student organization operating outside SA guidelines. If this ever occurs, vendors may refuse to accept further purchase orders and extend credit all together from the SA and its student groups. This would be an equally lDlpalatable situation, and is in part the impetus behind the actions of President Quinlan and FVPChi. The third charge against pipe dream consists of the patently illegal abuse of tax exemption fonns. These forms are issued by the Foundation for use by student organizations. All properly obtained tax-exemption forms are subject to a prior-approval and review process and co-signed by FVP Tammy Chi herself. By nature of the fact that each one issued states at which business the tax exemption fonn is to be used, there naturally is some sort of review and prior approval process. Pipe dream engaged in the practice of duplicating tax-exemption fonns after altering them so as to be blank.

The duplicates could then be filled out and used at any business without the knowledge of the Foundation or the Student Association. The duplication, which entailed the duplication of FVP Chi's signature, constituted fraud and is in violation of state law regulating the use of tax-exemption forms. President Quinlan and FVP Chi state that censorship is not the cause for their actions, but rather that a free press on campus is important, vital, not to mention constitutionally mandated under the SA's constitution. President Quinlan and FVP Chi add that the preservation of the pipe dream and the Student Association under which the pipe dream operates are equally important concerns. This, claims Quinlan and Chi, is the reason why they acted as they did. The abuses engaged in by pipe dream's current management were posing a threat to the pipe dream itself and to the Student Association. While the concealed abuses on the part of the pipe dream management might not have necessarily en-

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dangered the pipe dream itself or the Student Associatio~ once they were discovered immediate steps to correct these abuses were in order to preserve the Association's tax exempt status, if not its very existence. The ramifications for the pipe dream and all student organizations are obvious. The President and the FVP both claim to have made several attempts at achieving this goal by other means prior to decertifying their treasurer and approving their expense vouchers. The President and the FVP deny the charges that the sidestepping of these guidelines were condoned by them as per an agreement until October 1-, as the pipe dream's editorial claims. Both Executive Board members emphatically deny ever making such an agreement, and thereby ever reneging upon it even if by one day, as pipe dream's editorial claims. For that matter, both deny that they would ever even consider making such an agreement ''First of all, show me the agreement, because I'd love to see where it says that you can do illegal things until a certain date. Tammy and I are not above the law and I don't think Tammy would ever make such an agreement .. Tammy bas never heard of that [agreement] before... " said President Laurie Quinlan. In response to the charge made by pipe dream's management that the practices in question, despite their illegality or pro-

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RIGHT SIDE

hibition, were actually necessary in order to avoid bureaucratic red tape and allowed the paper to publish. President Quinlan has made it clear that the process of obtaining the paper work in question is not burdensome and can be obtained the same day from the Foundation with the necessary information. The hard-line stance taken by pipe dream in the past concerning the questionable extravagant expenses of the Student Association are hypocritical if the same paper plays fast and loose with the same rules. The purchase of a 5-cd changer stereo for the pipe dream office and color printers are questionable in themselves and may have been rejected if subjected to scrutiny prior to their actual purchase as per normal 0perating procedures. Negotiations between President Quinlan and pipe dream areat this time stalled. No progress has come about since lastTuesdays Assembly meeting. Quinlan stated at press time that she is planning to file a report with ULED concerning the physical attempt to remove pipe dream records from her personal possession on the part of pipe dream's editor-in-chief, Carlos Granda. One possible solution to the problems confronted by President Quinlan and FVP Chi is very simple. The freedom of the press and the guarantees of the First Amendment are very real freedoms provided by our Constitution. However, illegality changes the

••••••••••••••••••••••••• situation somewhat and the protections of the First Amendment are not absolute. Censorship is not the issue at hand, but rather illegality. The object of President Quinlan and FVP Chi should therefore be in accordance with their intentions as stated, which are expressly an end to the illegal practices of pipe dream and the resumption of printing by pipe dream. Pipe dream should publish as soon as their operating procedures are in accordance with all laws and regulations that govern them. And it was the past abuses of the pipe dream management that caused this whole episode in the annals of the Student Association. President Quinlan perceives correctly that this amounts to an abuse of positions of trust within pipe dream. Why should the management be entrusted yet again with the same duties? The REVIEW simply suggests that those members of the pipe dream management that were involved with the abuses should be unceremoniously dismissed, new elections/appointments should be held, and those dismissed should be ineligible for any future management positions. Pipe dream could then be back in the business of printing as usual.

Paul Torres is a junior majoring in economics and philosophy. He is Editor-inChiefofBlNGRAMTON RrMIiW.

Things to tell a Multi ifyou want to piss them off... 10. Want some pepper spray on those eggs? 9. I didn't recognize you without a megaphone strapped to your face. 8. I was out working to support myself the other day... 7. Hi. 6. Ifyou really want to save money within your group you should stop funding Nicaraguan Guerrilla Groups. 5. Ifyou hate America so much, can I have your 1997 Ford Explorer and Cellular Phone? 4. I hear you're on the E-Board of every cultural union. 3. I always thought loyalty was derived from citizenship. I guess not. 2. Run out of flags to bum? I. Shouldn't you be taking over a building?

0cr0mm.1997

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SOCIAL SECURln~ • •••••••••••••••••••••••

How to Save Social Security Privitizlltion Offers Prosperity For AU

by Zoya Iosifovich and Jeff Cohen

f you could choose between being a mil lionaire at age 65 and struggling to re tire at age 70, what would you choose? It sounds stupid, but our totalitarian social security system is currently choosing the latter for all citizens of our COlUltty. The key problem has to do with choice. Every payday, a large percentage of our earnings is taken from us, by the government, and handed out to today's senior citizens. The promise by the government is that when we are old, whoever is working at that time will pay for us. Sounds fair enough, right? Well, what if we tried that with grades. Suppose that all of the grades that freshman got went to seniors, and then when they became seniors, they got the grades of all of the new freshman. How well do you think the school would do? Obviously, people would tty a lot harder if they were working for their OWN grades, and its the same with social security. Instead of having the government take our money we should invest it ourselves. But what about people who don't know a lot about investing for retirement - won't these people be hurt? Let's look at the evidence. In Chile, when the government Social Security system was being phased out, each citizen was given a choice: one could stay with the government Social Security system, or invest in a private pension plan. The overwhelming majority of the people chose to go private, and in the next generation almost everyone did. For people without a lot of invest-

ment knowledge, private businesses would offer assistance. So how did the people fare? The quality ofliving for senior citizens skyrocketed, because the elderly were making more than the government could ever had hoped to give them. If a countty as poor as Chile could be so successful in transfonning the system, then why can't we? Economists have figured out, based on how well stocks and bonds usually do, that the average person investing his or her

OWN money would be a millionaire by age 65. That's not the average accounting major, but just anyone who opens a newspaper and randomly circles a bunch of stocks and bonds to buy. Under the present system, the average 20 year old would be better off putting all of the money he or she gives to Social Security under his mattress- earning no interest whatsoever, than taking the government's deal. Social Security, in its present fonn, will go bankrupt by 2029. Now that's not saying we couldn't increase taxes to keep it going, but why would we want to? Instead, we could phase out the system by giving all working Ameri-

cans the choice to either pay into Social Secunty or invest themselves. Most likely, people will see the benefit of switching to privatization, and in a generation the government Social Security system will be obsolete. In the interim, the cmrent seniors will be paid the money they are owed through a small tax on the giant windfall which will hit everyone's bank account once we start to obliterate government Social Security. Even for people who are non-believers, the pressure to switch will grow as people contemplate the chance that the government will actually be there for them when they get old. Today, in fact, more people Wlder the age of 21 believe in UFO's than believe that they will ever receive Social Secwity benefits. What can be done is to realize that the current system was truly the work of the devil, and to slowly and fairly phase it out. Gradually, we allow people to invest their own money instead of having the government do it for them. They've tried this in Chile, and it has worked incredibly. Not only are the seniors making a hell of a lot of money, but everybody gets what he or she deserves. So the message is clear: abolish the government Social Security system, and create prosperity for all.

Zoya Iosi/ovich is a sophomore majoring in English and General Literature. Jeff Cohen is a graduate student in economics at the University 0/Maryland.

OcrOBBR 1997

••••••••••••••••••••••••• SUPPLY AND DEMAND •••••••••••••••••••••••••

Supply and Demand is the Law of the Land by Michael D. Ford

n any system considered to be a free market economy, and many regulated economies as wea the law of supply and demand reigns supreme. In fact, most attempts to break this law merely serve to strengthen its effect. A prime example of this is the existence of black market economies borne of a need to satisfy demand where supply is regulated. Demand for a product or service is stronger than any legislative attempt to control supply. If we examine a society's effort to eradicate the drug market by focusing on busting dea1~ ers it is shown that this may only lead to an increase in crime. The reduction in supply serves to empower those dealers remaining in the market as it increases price and their respective volume of business. Increasing price will encourage addicts to commit more crime (such as theft, prostitution or dealing) in order to support their habit Further, the removal of dealers from the market makes business better for those remaining by reducing competition. Per survival ofthe fittest, only the strongest will survive and those dealers with the most efficient operations will continue and gain more profits, tending toward a monopoly. The main focus should therefore be on the elimination of demand. A reduction in supply has the effect C?f increasing the demand for drugs, whereas a reduction in demand will in time induce a similar reduction in supply. Less addicts (lower demand) will weaken the market and make it less profitable for dealers and the perceived gain v. loss risk (where gain is money and loss is criminal prosecution) may not justifY staying in business. By focusing on demand, prevention and treatment through education and upbringing are the leftlright com- . bination to knockout drug abuse. A similar example of the power of demand has been discussed with regard to the recent death ofPrincess Diana Spencer. Although is has now come to light that the driver's use of chemical substances and excessive speed contributed to the accident, there has been blame placed on the infa-

mous paparazzi at the scene. The photog- willingly displayed it all in the movie Billy raphers were merely supply filling a de- Bathgate. The reality ofthe situation is that mand, and if they are to be considered celebrities love the demand for their picmurderers, then the proper label is contract tures (it's their livelihood)~ but what they killers. They were hired by the fawning want to regulate is the pictures taken for public, filling the unquenched desire to which they do not obtain royalties. It's not invade Diana's private life. How ironic that about privacy; it's a case of "show me the the same tear-shedding public, which has money." There are countless other examples agonized and mourned over her loss, is in fact responsible for creating the hysterical which illustrate the power of demand over madness smrounding her life. Every viewer the regulation of supply. Prohibition of alof Hard Copy and Entertainment Tonight, cohol clearly was a failure~ whereas the reor subscriber to People or the Enquirer duction of demarid through education and must recognize that they share in the blame healthier lifestyles will prove better. Does because they represent the demand for pic- bulking up border patrol (control of suptures. Attempts to control supply are illogi- ply) stop immigrants from attempting to cal; as long as the public clamors for pic- ford the Rio Grande, or would improving tures and information from celebrities pri- conditions for Mexico or educating its citivate lives someone will supply the need. zens (controlling demand) work better? We The outspoken views of hypocrites such as have learned that attempting to reduce teenTom Cruise who call for the regulation and age promiscuity by controlling supply (i.e.. boycotting of paparazzo's work is absurd. trying to "police" our youth) is not nearly Mr. Cruise complains about not being able as effective as creating environments which to have a private life and is irritated by the minimize the desire or glorification of constant snapping of cameras whenever he "scoring." In all realms of society, the exand his wife, Nicole Kidman, go out. The istence of behaviors which may be deemed fact is that Cruise can relieve himself of immoral, l.Ulethical, or just downright stuthis burden by simply not choosing to en- pid, will be best controlled not by creating gage in a profession which promotes ce- laws which regulate supply~ but rather by lebrity status and profits from public ree- focusing on the elimination of the demand ognition. If Cruise worked as a night crew which is driving the market. shelf stocker at a WalMart in Omaha, nobody would give a damn about his picture. Michael D. Ford is a graduate student at Cruise would have you believe that be's con- Binghamton University. cemed about his wife's privacy, after she

OcroBBR 1997

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DISORIENTATION

BINGHAMTON REVEW 17 • •••••••••••••••• •••••••

The wrong message is being sent to our freshman class.

by Robert Zoch

t me see you stand if you have ever celebrated Christmas. Let me see you tand if you have ever celebrated PasSOVCf. Let me see you stand if you were born in a foreign country." Do any of these quotes sound fwniliar to you? If you are a freshman at Binghamton, like I am, you probably heard these when you attended the Beginnings orientation program during the summer. During the program, the Orientation Advisors went to great lengths to stress the different backgrounds of the students of the Class of2001, preaching about the amazing "diversity" that was found at our places of higher learning. They did little to discuss their knowledge concerning class sizes, the difficulty of classes, the standard of living, and other issues that would be of

caught my attention for several reasons. First, its standards are considerably higher than those of most other colleges arc. Second the cost of tuition at this school made an attractive alternative to the infl ated costs of attending a private college. I also learned from several sources that the stu-

importance to an incoming student at Binghamton University. Rather they chose to constantly show us that our fellow classmates arc of different ancestry, have different values, and practice different religions. I was somewhat offended by the attitudes of these Orientation Advisors. They seemed to have little intereSt in the quality of these students. It's as if they were saying, "you are the students who were chosen over so many others by the admission board, and look how many of you are Asian!"Or, "you have all worked very hard to get here, and by the way, how many of you are Jewish?" Am I the only person to find this insulting? When I came to Binghamton for orientation, I wanted to learn about college life so that I would feel more comfortable as a student. The cultural and religious backgrounds of my classmates do not interest me in the least. Besides, what busi-

ness is it of theirs what nationality you are or what religion you practice? When I was searching for a place to further my education, Binghamton University

dents are gencrally happy in this environment. When I attended the Beginnings program. however, I was surpri sed and saddened to see that there seems to be a greater emphasis on the ethnic and religious hackgrounds of the students than on their abilities and nccomplisrunents. During the 1960's, the Civil Rights movement sought to destroy a ll racial and

religious boundaries in the United States because a person's skin color or faith is irrelevant; a person should be judged on the basis of their merit, and nothing marc . Many leaders of this movement, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evans, lost their lives as a direct result of their support for this causc. For more than thirty years, thi s country has struggled to maintain equality of law for all citizens. Today, after all these years of struggling to show that all Americans are equal, regardless of faith or ethnicity, I find myself in an environment where nothin g is more important than stressing the notion that all students here are somehow different. Not one day goes by where [ do not find something on campus that praises B inghamton for its diversity. Should we automatically assume diversity is u good thing? Should we accept the idea that multiculturalism is a policy far superior to the maintenance of long-standing America traditions? Fellow students, if we must downplay our academic standards in favor of stressing the cultural differences in our student body. something is seriously wrong here. Is this the kind of messagc we should convey to the leaders of tomorrow? Do the college's views really reflect the values of the maj ority of its students? One of the Orientation Advisors boasted that Binghamton University has one of the most diverse student bodies in the entire SUNY system. It di sturbs me that the more relevant truth about Binghamton was barely recognized that we have one of the most academically talented and accompli shed student bodies in the SUNY systelll.

Robert Zoch is a freshman in Harpur Col-

lege.

... . . .. . ... . .. . .. ........

Ocr"""" 1997

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

$$ GET PAID $$ GAIN GREAT EXPERIENCE Elected Official seeks students for part-time, paid employment for fall and spring semesters. Previously employed students have gone to work for: Governor Pataki, Congressman Gilman, Evans & Novak, and the Leadership Institute. Please submit resume and cover letter to:

P.O. Box 656 Binghamton, NY 13902

ELECT

"Adjunct Faculty of 13 Years Binghamton University, School of Education and Human Development, Criminal Justice "Dedication "Ambition "Availability

RICHARD WESTFALL

Vestal Town Justice

Vote Nov. 4th, 1997 Paid for by Friends of Rick Westfall

OcroBBR 1997

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BINGHAMTON RIvEw

PERRENIAL QUEST • •••••••••••••••••••••••

PE~~EN'AL

<LUEST

by Adam Schechter NlgbtfaD at BlDgbamton

efore the end of the spring semester halogen lamps were officially banned from all the residence halls. The reasoning behind it was because of the fire hazard they presented. I never knew, or cared, about a halogen lamp until I came to Binghamton. My roommate had already moved in by the time I got here. The first thing he commented on was how mighty dark the room becomes at night '1t's a cave," commented my roommate, Kevin Edson. He was right His clip-on desk lamp sheds more light than the one the University supplies us with. The residence halls were supposed to receive another lamp per room this year. The Residential Life office told me that the order was still on hold and pending on actions in

Albany. "Evmyone had one [halogen lamp], and they were gIeat," said an anonymous junior. "You would place it in the comer of the room, and it would light the whole room." I did notice something interesting during a trip to the SA office. I noticed halogen lamps in the Academic Vice President's office and in the office of the Vice President for Mutlicultura1 Affairs. It struck me that if the lamps are banned for safety reasons, does this mean that the lamps in the Kingdom above the Union are safer than any other lamps? Of COW'Se, people would say, there is less clutter 81'OlDld these lamps. Fmmy, but there isn't any clutter around my weak lamp the University provided for my room. I suppose that ifwe all had the lamps used by the Student Association, they'd be safe enough to put in the residence halls again. Meanwhile, my room of three alone has three lamps, including the one provided. And there is still inadequate lighting. The

question is are the safety hazards overblown? Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the latgest product safety testing finn, issued new standards for halogen 1amps as of February 6, 1997, according to the company's web site. In the testing for their new standards, a double sheet of highly flammable cheesecloth is placed on each lamp. For the product to get the UL ~ it must have not burned a hole through the cheesecloth after 7 hours. The product also must contain warnings about the possibilities of a fire hazard. Along with these new standards, there are many protective devices such as screens and casings that also help decrease the risk ofdanger. Even with these new standards and devices, these widely popular products are still banned.

This brings up my question: How much should college students care about what's going on where we came from? I contend that there should be some form of a bond, but not to the point of fighting every battle as ifI was still attending school there. The more important ties, like the school paper, deserve some consideration. During the break, others and myself are going to visit and see what we can do. Does it seem like being totally apathetic about your old school is wrong? I would hope that the people there influenced the lives of everyone here in some way. Don't we owe it to our old school to still have some interest in what's going on? Well, do what you will; I know I still have some business to take care of there.

Alumni Apathy

oesn't that seem like a sarcastic title? It's not wrong. I do think that college is fim from the short time that rve been here so far, but there is another meaning to that I've found that sleep is a thing of the past rve been struck by how easily it's sacrificed. There is no real good explanation for the lack of sleep; it just seems to happen. This is nothing new, however, so why harp on it? It just seems to be a testimony to how busy college is as compared to high school. I remember when I visited my tour guide telling me that a typical day is "8 hours of work, 8 hours of social, and 8 hours of sleep." From this first month, he discovered that it's more like: 8 hours work, 3 hoW's of other things, 6 hours social, and sleep whenever you get around to it. Some people have no problem with this. I for one can get by. just SW'prised about how many people are healthconscious about eating, conscious about studying, conscious about activities, and leave sleep underrated. What can be said about Marriott? Be-

freshmen I know still have a feeling of where they came from. sure we all do. I hold a strong connection to myoid high school because of what I did there, and also due to my friends and sister who still attend. Through the grapevine of e-mail, I've discovered some horrible things about my former school. For one, the Assistant Principal is censoring the school paper there (something I know that is unconstitutional). She is banning all opinion and editorial articles in it - a move probably made to save her from student scrutiny. A few others and myself plan to challenge the Assistant Principal because this paper is the site of my first works. When I contacted a fonner editor and told him what was going on, he told me not to care that much about it. It upset him, he said, but I should just move on. Now, I am moving on, but I still feel a bond of allegiance to my former stomping grounds.

College Is Fun

BtNGIIAMrON RIivIiw •••••••••••••••••••••••••

ing that my high school's food was just above edible, anything would be an improvement In a way, it's true, but rm not saying it's good. If you take it for what it is, it's mass produced institution food. In that respect, it's not that bad. I've notice that it's just very generic. It doesn't have it's own personal qualities to it, it's just... food. My biggest complaint is the silverware. It's so bad that I had to resort to plastic utensils. Paying for a cup of milk when you only want a little to put into cereal is mther odd, as well. The milk costs more than the bowl of cereal. The pricing of fruits is also ridiculous. Paying salad bar prices (which are about as high as most entree prices) for a bowl of sliced peaches for desert is nuts. I don't eat fruit for a meal, yet it's priced that way. The service is rather nice, though. At 7:30 a.m., it's

OcrOBBR 1997

NEWING COLLEGE ••••••••••••••••••••••••• which was being lead under the capable leadership of Chenango Hall's very own Jed Bell. When Homecoming started, some people thought Newing would not even be able to field a team because we couldn't even organize Newing Navy. However, everyone was soon shocked to hear about the new and improved Newing College. Not only did we show up to play at most of our own events, but Homecoming organizer Matt Biscuiti was even heard saying, "Newing shows up to events they don't even have." To make a long heroic, courageous, spirited and miraculous story even longer talk to Jed Bell or any disgruntled Hinman resident. As Duncan McCloud has so often taught us a1l, "in the end there can only be Adam Schechter is a freshmen in Harpur one." That one was Newing College; the College. victoIy was so traumatic to the university that pipe dream, as many times is the case, is still suffering from denial. They have yet to write about this stunning tum of events. Newing College could have been happy with this victmy and simply continued to be apathetic. However, there is a new breed of ftesbmen in Newing and they were ~ termined to help make Bootcamp a success. Unfortunately, that does not mean that there were enough people for every event However, our goal was to get high interest, so that we could be sure that when Newing Navy starts we could attract Bootcamp start of the school year, the new executive people and others. Furthermore, the elections in Newing board was eager to follow through on their commitments. First, we inventoried and revealed that nearly every position is filled, cleaned out the office, which had not been and in addition we deemed it necessary to cleaned since the late 1970s. Then we pre- establish rules of decorum to govern our pared for elections and some upcoming meetings. This also brings to mind a maevents. However, it soon became clear that jor problem with coordinating events; we had a difficult decision to make. Newing is the only community where ofThe weekend of homecoming conflicted ficers are elected to a term of one semeswith our own event, Bootcamp, which is ter instead of two. Events are more diffilike a mini-Newing Navy in that all the cult to organize when officers are not buildings compete against each other in a around for the enitre year. Lately, our entire Executive Board has variety of athletic events. We mgued about the timing and voiced our concern about been working to organize events to benefit the success of our own event, but decided Newing College. However, no event will not to change the date for Bootcamp be- be successful without the participation of cause we wanted the freshmen to get in- Newing residents. If the start of this year is volved in our own Newing events as soon any indication, then I believe considering as possible. Thus, with the elections com- our obstacles, Newing College's thirty-fifth pleted we helped coordinate with Denise year may be remembered as its finest. Nelson (N.C.C. Coordinator) and the R.D. 's how Bootcamp was going to be successful. Eyal Eisig is Newing College Academic At the same time we helped get people to Vice President. sign up for Newing's homecoming team, nice having people be chipper and wish me a ~'Good Morning." Before I came here, the best thing next to sliced bread - according to the University - is the BUCS accowt. What did I do? I put a good amount of money on it, and used it to pay for books, purchase from vending machines, and what have you. What happened? Well, paying for most of my books on it wasn't a huge ordeal, except when the system was down. Next thing I find: there are so few vending machines that accept BUCS. If I had known this, maybe I wouldn't have put so much on it At least now I have enough to last me through my senior year.

Newing College's Comeback by Eyal Eisig

t year, most people were writing Newing College off as hopelessly pathetic and without spirit There were a few dedicated members who attended Newing College Council meetings last year. However, they were outnumbered by the wid spaces that absent officers created. Furthermore, Newing's most popular event, Newing Navy, was canceled on account of bad weather and lack of interest. Under these conditions, executive board elections were held in which the candidates committed themselves to renewing the community. Before the summer, a new executive board (Sahalja Uriarte, Caroline Carrier, Meryl Pollen, Melissa Quesada, and myself) met to address the lack of participation occurring within the community. We established that we must work more diligently to publicize and involve people in our activities. The president, Jaime Kahan was so motivated by this goal that she proceeded to write a small pamphlet on how these goals can be achieved. By the

OCToBBR 1997

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THE BoTTaVli...NE

• •••••••••••••••••••••••

It's Only My Money

o one likes to get mugged. Aside from the threat of bodily harm, perhaps what is most infuriating about a rendezvous with someone who has different "ownership values" is the fact that someone else is taking our money. We earned the money that sits in the wallet that criminal X robbed us ot: and now this person will spend the money that was lawfully earned by us. This kind of situation leaves us with, more than anything, a feeling of helplessness. We can do very little to remedy the situation. But what if I told you that every semester, every undetgraduate at this school gets mugged for the total of $64, and that this ugly episode is repeated twice a year, every year, and is actually done legally. This statistic will never find its way into the Public Safety reports on crime, and will never hurt B~s valued Money Magazine rankings. However, the closeted days of this ugly truth may be coming to an end. The mandatory activity fee that every Student Association member pays is the dark secret of our student government Students have no choice this semester, or next semester for that matter, to pay a fee that will be allocated by eight political appointees and a controlling Financial Vice President in a smoky room late at night. The amount that will be allocated will most likely be in excess of half a million dollars. With a handful of students allocating funds paid for by thousands of undergraduates, the chance of conuption is virtually unlimited. "Cultural" Unions, extremist political organizations, requirement-loving radicals, and opulent SA Bosses are the main beneficiaries of the mandatory activity fee, and mainstream students are often left out in the cold. The good news is, it doesn't have to be this way. In April 1996, in the aftennath of the worst racial crisis Binghamton has ever experienced, and in the midst of Doug Boettner's statist SA, came a candle in the dark. A relatively unknown sophomore accounting major by the name of Joseph Hury brought forth in the pages of Binghamton Review an enlightened, progressive way to

reform the closed Student Association budgeting process. Replacing the antiquated budget system we currently have would be the Student Activity Voucher System, in which average, everyday students would allocate their own share of the mandatory activity fee that goes toward student organizations that funded by the SA to clubs that they see fit The Voucher System sounds simple and easy to set up and use, and that's because it

THE BOTIOM

LINE by Jason J. Kovacs is. Under this system, a ''voucher form" would be sent to each student with their tuition bill, and every one of the fundable SA chartered organizations would be on it Students could check offwhich clubs to support, and also how much of their fee they would like to allocate to each of them. Their tuition would not be considered paid in full until they completed their form and forwarded it back to the SA office. Instead of being more paperwork for our Student Association and Administration, it would be less in the long nm, and it would in fact save the SA money. Not only would vouchers move the SA from a closed budget system to an open one, but it would be much more fair and democratic, which is what our student government is supposed to be. Perhaps more importantly, the SA Executive Board and Student Assembly under which the Voucher System fmally gets passed can claim as a completed job every student politician's ultimate goal: to get more students involved in the SA. When students are finally de-

ciding which organizations to support with their activity fee, it only follows that they will take a more active interest in those very organizations. If Bob gives $25 to the XYZ Student Union, chances are he's going to want to know what they're doing with it Also, new clubs will be easier to found, since if seven students want to start a water-skiing club, they will instantly have several hundred dollars to work with the following semester, thereby alleviating a problem all new clubs have when they flTSt get started. Vouchers would also solve the timeless problem of paying for other people's hobbies, interests, and politics. IfI don't smoke cigars, support left-wing or right-wing groups, or really care that much about the latest South American band appearing in the Mandela Room, why should I be forced to pay for it? Vouchers would solve this problem, as students would be able to ~ port groups they believe in. As Thomas Jefferson said, "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyramrical." In addition, last year a district judge in Wisconsin ruled that it was also unconstitutional. In the wake of a controversial and divisive year, our Student Association has an golden opportunity to prove that it still matters, that it still does something worthwhile for students, and that it's not just comprised of a bunch of political wannabes who enjoy chatting on cellular phones with student funds. While some students reconnnend the complete abolition of the SA, I don't believe we should go that far just yet. The SA can do a lot of good for students, and it stands now only a few major refonns away from regaining students' trust. The implementation of the Student Activity Voucher System is one of the ways the SA can give itself a new beginning. Letting students allocate their own fimds will point our government in the right directi~ and take the SA to new heights. After all, it's only my money.

Jason J. Kovacs is a sophomore majoring in history and philosophy.

....... . . . .. . ....REvEw ... .. . . . 22

OcrOBER

BlNCiIIAMfON

Greetings ES, JF, JB, and others. Whether it's the 5th or the nth year in college, you just can't stay away from stirring up trouble. It surely beats working for a living. - AG

Carlos G.- You like hitting women? You hit her one more time and rn give you a demostr.tioD of all the little "tricks" I taught at the School of the Americas. 1 am the LAST person you want to mess with. Any questions? - Anthony

1997

•••••••••••••••••• ••••••• SDT Girl - You decided to run a writein campaign. The Committee voted against you. You got more than just my vote.

If I could only get a graphic in my article, because I have so many good ones. Just P.

1 love you Blub. - PHER

rd vote for him. He's a cutic.

1 saw you walking past my window. I live OD the first floor of Hughes. You were wearing a wife-beater. 1 was wearing flannel. I

I can't believe the Yankees lost. Who cares about the score.

took your \Wile-Ollt. BJH of Am - I always thought you were thc prettiest lady OD campus. You make my knees weak. - AlB

Laurie -

Girls- I helped you win, and now you won't do everything I say. Everyone will know just how rotten you all arc. Love, the other girl.

Thanks for all the Copy Editing, Teresa.

Bing! will be be back.

You are the most beautiful girl

on campus and we love the job you are do-

ing. Wc would do anything for you. You arc a goddess. We worship you. - Every guy on campus.

Cupcake is Greek God! Cupcake is Greek God!

Pot smoking male looking for tax excmpt forms to abuse. Call 1-800-BAD-PWE.

Looking for $46,000 we lost. Call 1-800BAD-PWE with info. - Just Justin

Meet outside the Union at 5:15 PM Thursday. Bring a bottle of Cbardonay or Cold Vodka. You know who to look for. Nice photo shoot. I have a better camera.

r-.~qc'e<: _---- ..

:Free Personals :InstrUCt(ons: Write your message clearly on the lines provided. Clip and I send to: BiNCMAMTON R&vJow, Personlals Department, P.O. Box 6000, I Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. You may also drop olfthe coupon at UU-I64.

::!I -I

-----------------J ------------------~~I

1.------------.1

OcroBllR 1997

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QUIBBLES

& BITS

BlNCiHAMI'ON ItEvEw 23 • •••••••••••••••••••••••

Love Them Scouts

assault weapons. During the hei st , they

caused a minor furor among those easily

The head of the Smithsonian Institution bas apologized to supporters of the Boy Scouts for an unfortunate decision in January that barred the youths from a National Zoo au-

spmyed anything that moved, including news helicopters, with rnpid fire. Police-issue 9mm pistols are hardly a match for fully automatic firepower. So as the bullets flew, the outgunned cops headed not to the local precinct but to nearby B&B Sales, a private gun store.

wheelchair? Smoking a cigarette? One aspect of the memorials financing would cause the 32nd Pres ident to spin in hi s grave. To keep down the taxpayer costs of maintaining llie 7.5 acre FDR Memorial,

The owner recognized some of the officers as previous customers and , overlook-

to mint and sell a commemorative coin.

ditorium because the Scouts do not admit atheists. " 1 apologize for thi s unfortunate

mistake and look fonvard to continuing our long-standing and mutually productive relationship with the Boy and Girl Scouts," Smi thsonian Secretary 1. Michael Heyman wrote to Sen. Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, last week. Mr. Heyman assured the senator that the Boy Scouts are not violating federal antidiscrimination laws because they require

boys to make a God-affirming pledge. "1 have reviewed this detennination [against the Scouts in January] and reversed it,» Mr. Heyman wrote. The case arose in January when the Washington-area branch of the Boy Scouts requested usc of lhc zoo's auditoriwn for a ceremony. Robert J. Hoage, hend of Smithsonian public affairs at the time, informed the Scouts' leader that the

ing the l5-day waiting period a typ ical civilian would face before being able to lega lly obtain firearm s, quickly supplied them with four 5.56mm Bushmaster XM15 semi-automatic rifles with high capacity magazines and two Remington shotguns

with rifled slugs. Once the officers were on a more equal footing , they plunged back into the fray, taking down the bad guys with no loss of innocent life. The LAPD offers

offended - should Roosevelt be shown in a

last year Congress authorized the Treasury made of 90 percent gold. That's right. The president who outlawed the private owner-

ship of gold in 1938 is being honored a half century later with an 8.359 gram coin.

available as a proof, lapel pin, or pendant (with or without chain). [Reason, August/ Sept. 1997] Organized Buggery Gone Amok

no comment on the officers' use of these

In San Francisco, the Human Rights Commission has reproached the Cafe 9, a gay

privately obtained weapons during the onslaught, as it has been sued by the robbers'

and lesbian bar in the Castro district, for violating nondiscrimination laws. The bar

families for refusing to give the crooks medical attention after shooting them .

kicked out a straight couple for kissing passionately, an act forbidden for straights

[Reason August/Sept. 1997]

but not gays . The Cafe 9's manager said

that some of his patrons find such displays

Smithsonian's policy prohibits co.-sponsoring events with an organization that exer-

More BuIUon from Washington

offensive. but that argwnent. but that argument didn1t carry water. So now the bar

cises bias on the basis of religious beliefs.

On May 3 the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial opened in Washington. While the

bas banned heavy kissing by people of all sexual orientations. [Reason August/Sept. 1997]

Scnator Spencer Abraham, Michigan Republican, circulated a letter to lawmakers stating hi s surprise at the Smithsonian's

treatment of the Boy Scouts. He also criticized the Smithsonian deci sion for deny-

ing access to a federall y supported institution OOcause [the group] exercises its constitutional right to free exercise ofreiigion.

[Washington Times , September 28, 1997 National Edition] Store Bought Protedlon By K. L. Billingsley When two heavily armed bandits grabbed $350,000 from a North Hollywood bank on February 28, the ensuing shootout \vith Los Angeles police resulted in a prime-time TV

special and prompted politicians to call for stricter gun control. Lost in the shuffle.

though, is how the outgunned cops ended their battle with roho-robbers Larry Eugene Phillips and Emil Matasareanu. lbe pair deployed five fully automatic rifics, each of which was illegal long before the current outcry against so called

run-up to the unveiling of FDR's statue

[OMMfMORRTIHG THf 1 AHHIUfRSRRV Of THf RIOT.

KALVIN

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PE'PER

SPIn, yours free with any whining about diversity at at any fine Stupid Association meeting.

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