Research and Graduate Education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / July 1993 / Volume X, Number 3
VANTAGE POINT Across the Boundaries of the Traditional Disciplines ultural Studies. Cognitive Science. Intemational Studies. Materials Science. Women's Studies, Environmental Sciences. African-American Studies. Psycholinguistics. Southern Studies. These phrases, and others like them, are now commonplace at UNC-Chapel Hill and at univenities around the world. Each is the name of an emerging field of teaching and research, whose swiftly growing body of knowledge and expertise has important applications to real-world problems and experiences. Each phrase reminds us how rapidly learning and discovery are being transformed in light of new needs and new methods. Each reminds us, as well, how difficult it is to reorganize the university around fresh demands and opportunities. By now it has become a cliche to observe how much of our teaching and research goes on
acros the
boundanes of the traditional academic disciplines. Many UNC-CH faculty members are engaged in research that is not easily clasifiable within a single field. This is true even for faculty whose work may not lie within the bounds of the glitzy areas named at the beginning of this article, but whose research draws upon insights from several disciplines. 0ur students are even more interdisciplinary than the faculty. They will live and
work in a world transformed by new questions, original methods, and yet-undreamed-of ways of solving human problems. Many come to Chapel Hill interested not in chemistryperse but in solutions to environmental problems; not in sociologyperse but in the pathologies of poverty, crirne, and disease in our cities; not in managem enl per se but in busines organizations that will operate in an international marketplace o
) E
;
z o zl
where quality products and services alone will prevail. Should not our institutions of higher learning embrace the kinds of communities in which such learning and discovery occur? Can Carolina secure its academic excellence on any other basis? Alas, here as elsewhere, it is easier said than done. Neither this University nor any other of which I am aware is basically organized to support the emerging disciplines. By this I do not mean that there is no sup port for cultural studies, materials science, or women's studies at Chapel Hill. There is. But such support is
won against great odds, because this University, like its peers, is still oriented around the traditional departments, some of which grew up a century ago and almost all of which emerged before the cultural, technoIogical and international developments that have brought forth the new academic ventures. Consider how our University's dollars are allocated: Almost all of them go to the familiar schools, departments, and programs. These units have served Carolina well for decades, and we can scarcely imagine doing without them. As a result, faculty in an emerging field are nearly always required to raise money from outside the Univenig or to expend great enelgy inspiring the reallocation olmodest amounts of the existing dollars. (ln fairnes, I should note that many faculty in "tradilional" disciplines are also obliged to raise outside money in order to keep their work going.) Fortunately, Carolina faculty are remarkably entrepreneurial, and many of them have succeeded in obtaining the funds to launch new fields. Consider also where the authority lies. Department Chairs and program directors require the services of the very same faculty members who would like to spend some of their time in new disciplinary areas. Whether and to what extent those faculty can be released to develop new interdisciplinary counes or to embark on research projects with colleagues from other disciplines are decisions that rest with administra' tors who have large and recognizable responsibilities to existing programs. Like other research univenities, UNC{hapel Hill has a repertoire of devices for accommodating faculty and students who want to embark on new academic ventures. We establish "programs," "cunicula," and "centers." We sometimes allocate dollars to support new initiatives. 0ur development officers work hard to help faculty raise resources lor new fields of teaching and research. But all of this goes on amidst difficulty and contention. Any expenditure of a faculty member's time in a new direction is potentially subtracted from his or her old commitments. Every dollar that is internally reallocated to a new enterprise is taken from is suspected of contribut-
somewhere else. Every proposal to establish administrative support for a new field ing to bureaucratic bloat at a time when the University can least afford it.
How can our University respond more effectively to the interdisciplinary needs and opportunities it faces? We need to open administrative avenues for establishing and nurturing new ideas. Faculty require
help in jumping through the inevitable bureaucratic hoops on their way to new initiatives and more assis tance than they presently receive in raising outside money. Together we need to think about how to integrate the new disciplines into our University, perhaps even at the expense of some of the old. These things can happen only if there is a widely shared recognition that our future lies in these new directions and a deter-
mination to get there.
?-*r^a- Z- .
N|" C^,-,.,^,,t-
Richard L. McCormick Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Profesor of History
Research and Graduate Education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/ July 1993 / Volume X, Number 3
DEPARTMENTS
Endeavors Research and Graduate Education at The
2
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
NEWSMA(ERS: Carolina Faculg in
the Headlines
Was a Bird or Dinosaur First in Fliqht? July 1993
3
Volume X, Number 3
CAROIINA OPINION: Tar Heels Speak Out Harassment of Akican Americans and Homosexuals
Endeavors is a magazine published three times year by the 0ffice of Research Services at The
a
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each issue of Endeavon describes only a few of the many research projects undertaken by faculty
DIALOGUE: Issues in Research Childkftlt
Controversies and Conversations
.sturtes, puge 2()
-Ga1-
A Year in Review
and students of the University.
VITA: A Profile Requests for permission to reprint material,
Craig Tumer
readers' comments and requests for extra copies should be sent to Editor, Endeavors,Office of
WHY ARE. . . The Blues Called the Blues? A Carolina Profesor Explains
Research Services, CB #4100,300 Bynum Hall, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 275994100 (919/96e5625).
MARKETPTACI: Universig Innovations Solving the Problem with Polymers
Chancellor Paul Hardin
SCHOLARIY PURSUITS: Student Research Equality in a Mexican Junior Hiqh School
Vice Chancellor lor Graduate Studies and Research
Mary Sue Coleman
Klrls uork out. puge ](i D irector,
COVER STORY
1ffice of Research Seruices Robert
P.
Lowman
O 1,
Aduisory Board for ORS Publications
Feeding Soccer Balls to Snakes A Liquid Crystal Lrpert Plays With
Buckyballs
by
Scott
Lowry
Philip Cul Kenneth Coleman
FEATURES
Katherine High Douglas Kelly Carol Reuss
|Il )
Editor
Assistont Editors
Lisa Blansett Paul 0arber
Dottie Horn
'leuching
ntnt'rrtt,nt. pa4i:
(i
Ashley Singleton
S.
Punishment to Prevention
l5
A Mouse With a Mighty Cholesterol Count
Photographer: Will 0wens
r
Prison Cap Legislation in the Tar Heel
State
by Pctul Garber
Gene Targeting Techniques Create a Practical Model
for Atherosclerosis
by Chistino
S
Stoch
Stock
Illustrators: Jane Filer, Robert You
De s rgne
by Christino S. Stock
r3
Christine Sneed Christina
Realit-v?
Does Psycholoeical Momentum
Affect Sports Performance?
Brenda Powell
Scott Lowry
fne Big Mo': Illusion or
Martell/Desi gn
c()\'LR l'HOTO Fltgellenes. u neri ntrrlertilt
O1993 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Disease Prevention
by Poul Garber
18 ;:::x ffi ',;,,ilIil,T.ffi ii: 1;'"ilil:,1i.'#" Than Anticipated
by Christino S. Stock
rucceeiled rn uttuchtng polt'-
ner
chtttns trt hutktbulls.
Presion Snee, UNC, and Tom Palmer, NC Supercompulng Cenler.
2
0 H:I;ffr,fl i.sJi,fl ,,.n rurhng about Givinq Birth
by Dottie Horn
Corolino Foculty in the Headlines
NEWSMAKERS
WAS A BIRD OR DINOSAUR FIRST IN ruGHT? Archaeopteryr Clawed Its Way to the Tree Tops (And Then Flew Off)
He received about 50 letters from across the United States. One day he received a lengthy letter from a creationist, who apparently thought his work supported special creation theory. The next day, an atheist organization lauded him on his work. "l figured the two cancelled each other out," he says. Feduccia's findings appeared in The Nea
ne hundred and fifty million years ago in
York Times "Science Times" section,
the forests of what is today Bavaria, the first birds took flight. One hundred and thirty
g
other papers nationwide. He spoke on four radio
two years ago, Thomas Henry Huxley, an ally of u
the estimable Charles Darwin, suggested that birds
-o
evolved from the dinosaurs. Following Huxley's arguments, other scientists argued that flight emerged
o
from the ground up; protobirds ran, jumped and flapped their wings, eventually taking
off-a
theory
paleontologists, the public and the media have enthusiastically embraced. Five months ago, Alan Feduccia, profesor of
Ahn Feduccio
lrus upset the paLeontoloqicul
uorkl
contacted by television stations in Tokyo and Sydney, Australia. "l even got conned into speaking on a creationist/evolutionist
debate on a Palm
Beach radio station for 30 minutes." and Feduccia is now taking calls from colleagues
dhosaurs
who want to play racquetball. Before the interview
The media attention has finally died down,
comes t0 a close, he shows off two of his favorite
dramatically shook uo the dinosaur-loving world,
He then projected the slides, traced the cur-
when he published findings in Science indicating that Archaeopteryx evolved as a bird independently of dinosaurs during the late Jurasic period and
vature of the claws, measured their geometry and
"l hadn't realized what an impact this study
talk shows, including Voice of America, and was
(and thrilled ontithologists ) bv prouidutg Dery strong etidence that bids euolaed independently frorn
biology and internationally renowned ornithologist,
that flght evolved from the trees down.
Ihe Chorlotte
Obseruer,The News & )bseruer and numerous
fosils, also from the late Jurasic, which he keeps
compared them to fosils ol Archaeop[eryx.Iltook
in a file cabinet, wrapped in plastic. "This is the smallest pterosaur," he says,
six months for Feduccia to complete the meticulous, and at times arduous, comparison, he says. "l don't
which
advise it t0 anyone." Foot-claw arc of the fossils was
pterosaur. Imagine that thing flying around." Then
identical to those of modern perchers and hand-
he pulls out a cast of a dragon fly, which is a bit bigger than a sparrow. "Look," he says with ardor, "you can clearly see its delicate vein structure."
gently handling a small cast offlerodoctylus elegans, is the size of a sparrow. "lt's a great little
would have," Feduccia says. "l was iust trying to produce an honest study. Advocates of the birddinosaur connection are stuck with this ground-up
claw arcs matched those of climbers-"totally out of the range of ground dwellers," he says. "The
theory for the origin of flight. In my opinion, it is
conclusion seemed inescapable lhat Archaeopteryx
biophysically imposible "The arboreal theory-the tree-down theory
was using its fingers for tree{runk climbing, and it
He is now finishing the second edition of his bookThe Age of Birds,to be published by Harvard
was a perching bird too."
Press
facile theory, lf you jump out of -is an intuitively a tree, from limb to limb, you can easily imagine
Feduccia's evidence t0 supp0rt the arboreal
theory-the theory-is a tortuous explanation for
theory of the origin of flight, he says, refocuses the
in late
1994. "lt's really
flight evolved," he says,
critical to know how
-because
it's a major portion
of this book."
the oriqin of flight. The cursorial
origin of birds and flight to a logical setting. He
ground-up
criticizes cursorial scenarios not only as biophys-
is concerned, a German scientist announced the
something that can be explained very eastly with
ically imposible but also intuitively displeasing.
discovery of a 150-million-year-old fosilized rela-
the arboreal theory."
Everything about feathers, he says, points to an
tive of Archoeopleryx in April. The skeleton of the
arboreal theory. They represent "gros overkill"
still nameles bird includes long, curved claws and
To demonstrate thal Archoeopteryx was not a cursorial bird, a running, ground dweller, Feduccia eopteryx's claws with those of 500
compared ,4rcfta modern birds. "lt's difficult to look at a slab of
to explain thermoregulation, and, he says, feathers
the sternum of a powered flyer. The Iind appears to
would produce drag and inhibit an animal from
conlirm Feduccia's theory that ancient birds were
running and then flying up from the ground.
arboreal and volant. "ln esence it validates every-
"The notion of hot-blooded dinosaurs with
crushed bones and learn much about it," he says, refening to fosilized remains. "lt occurred to me
feathers is totally erroneous," he says. But it has
that the claws might be the clue."
great public appeal. His work, in effect, is a crusade
At the Smithsonian lnstitution, he photographed claw samples of ground dwellers, such
Natural history museum curators, teachers,
paleontology."
to adjust lo the Archaeopteryx's new identity, Feduccia says. "l think people are going to be a lot
such as motmots, toucans and coucoos; and tree-
responded to media requests for interviews, took
as woodpeckers, nuthatchers
phone calls, some congratulatory and others not,
and woodcreepers.
fossil is found, and it lays the whole thing to rest." the press, paleontologists and the public will have
For the entire month of February, Feduccia
trunk climbers, such
thing in the Scrence article. All of a sudden this
against "the rampant speculation that characterizes
fowl and quail; perchers,
as road runners, guinea
Thanks to serendipity, as far as Feduccia
and spoke on talk shows about his work. "Some people were quite dismayed," he says. "The phone
would ring all day."
happier with,4rchaeopteryx as alree dweller."
I
Tar Heels Speak
)ut
CAROTINA OPINION This column feotures informotion from the Corolina Poll conducted by the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication ond the Institute for Research in Social Science.
Harassment of African Americans and Homosexuals by Gary D. Gaddy A majority of North Carolinians also say that
he majority of North Carolinians say that
Although a plurality of North Carolinians
neither blacks nor homosexuals have been
the news media give too much attention t0 attacl$
think that the government
attacked or harassed in their community
against both blacls and gay men and lesbians. By
vent attacla both against African Americans and
is doing enough to pre-
because of their race or sexuality, according to a
a margin of 61 percent to 16 percent, those surveyed
gay men and lesbians, opinion is split, with majori-
recent Carolina Poll. 0f the adults surveyed, 76 per-
say that television and newspapers give too much
ties of several groups saying the government should
cent say gay men and lesbians have never been
attention to attacks against blacks rather than not enough. By a similar margin of 61 percent to 14
be doing more. In particular, 54 percent of those under age 25 say the government should do more
attacked or harassed in their community because
percent, they say that television and newspapers
t0 prevent attacks against blacks and 52 percent
never been attacked or harased in their commu-
give too much attention to attacks against gays
say it should do more t0 prevent attacls against
nity because of their race. While this suggests
rather than not enough. People under age 25 and
homosexuals. For blacks, the majorities are even
harasment of blacls because of their race is more prevalent in North Carolina than harassment of
blacls are the groups most likely to say that the
larger with 72 percent saying the govemment should
media don't give enough attention to such attacks. 0f those under 25, 29 percent say not enough atten-
do more to prevent attacks against black and 63 percent saying it should do more t0 prevent attacks
of their sexuality, and
6l percent
say blacks have
gays because of their sexuality, black North Caro-
is given to
inians are more likely to say there is no harasment
tion
of blacla in their communities than whites (71% vs.
say not enough is given to attacla on gayr. Among
617,). Blacls are also more likely to say there is no
African Americans, 38 percent say not enough
harasment of
attention
gays in their communities than whites
attacla on blacls and 43 percent
is given to
attacla on blacks and 29 per-
cent say not enough is given to attacla on gays.
(944kvs.73%).
Have there been attacks or harassment in your community: 0n gay men or lesbians?
against gays.
North Carolinians think that most people in their communities would be more likely to be sympathetic to a black couple in their community
who was harased or threatened because of race than they would to a homosexual couple treated similarly. Most people in their community would expres
0n African Americans? Seldom
sympathy to a harassed black couple, according to
ll%
68 percent of those surveyed, but only 25 percent
Seldom 6%
SometimesS%
Never6l%
say most people in their community would do like-
Somelims l9%
wise for a homosexual couple. Although blacks
Often 4%
and whites both see most people in their communi-
No answer 6%
Nomer6%
ties expresing sympathy to harased black couples (72% and 68%), whites are more likely than
Do you
think the govennment is doing enough to prevent attacks: On gay men and lesbians?
0n African
blacls
to say that if homosexual couples were harased
Americans? 72%
Doing enough
most people in their communities would "just let it go,' by a margin of 50 percent t0 30 percent. While more people say they personally would expres sympathy (as compared to what they think
48%
most people in their communities would do) to either a harased black or homosexual couple rather than "just letting it go," harasment of black couples would still elicit more expresions of sympathy than harasment of homosexual couples.
According to the poll,86 percent of North Carolinians say they would expres sympathy to a harased black couple and only 6 percent would "let it go," 50 percent say they would expres sympathy to a The Carclina Poll tL'us conducted h.om
l'ebruon 26. l!)93. to lkn.ch 1,
199,). during
uthich
59E rondomlt'
selected adult resrclents of.\ctftlt Corolina households Luere intertieu:ed bv telephone. Erpected enrn is
opprcrirnateh plus or ntinus
4 percent
for tlrc total
sarrtpLe. but ts kuger
hr
cctntporisons between qrctups.
slori LL'ere osked of o spltt xrnple. 2E) respondenls being ushed the qu?stbns obout horossmenl of gots utd 3l6 osked obout lrurnssment of hlocks. f)rpected enor for these sLtmples ts opprorinntel\ plus or mrnus 6 percenl t'or lhe totol sonple. Dut i.s olso kn.qer fctt'cctn1xuisons hetLteen qroups. The quesliorts userl irt thts
34 percent would "let it go." Interestingly, while more blacla than
harased homosexual couple and
whites say they would expres sympathy to a harassed homosexual couple (62% vs. 48%), whites are as likely as blacks (8870 vs. 84%) to say they
would expres sympathy to
a
harased black couple.
I
lssues in Research
DIATOGUE
6 l. /t From August until June, scholars, administrators and tlrc lay public yelled or whispered, undermined or ualidated, created harmony or cacophony as they drscussed
tft
e rssues surrounding teaching
and research, faculty diuersity, budgets and salaries. This sompling of the many positions taken in the public record, uttered in different situations and at
Teaching, Research, Tenure, Education "Those professors who still manage to teach
more than a few hours a week are actually looked
down upon by their peers. to sav nothing of the negative effect teaching has on their chances for tenure. pav and promotion." Report
b1-
that affected research.
ctn Children, Youth and Fomilres. New York Times Netus Seruice. Greensboro News and Record,
September 15.1992
these two criteria are not evenly applied. AII too
often, an excellent researcher will be promoted even if he or she is mereiy an adequate teacher, whereas an excellent teacher will not be promoted From o letter aritten by Peter Filene, history professor, and Joel Schwartz, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. The letter was signed by 43 award-winning t'aculty members ond t'orutarded
"UNC Chapel Hill faculty teach most under-
graduate courses and most undergtaduates. Undergraduates cannot avoid iacultviaught counes befote graduating."
to the dean of arts and sciences. The Chapel Hill Herald, lonuary 15, 1993. "What about teaching versus research in a tenure decision? Colleagues
Stephen S. Birdsoll, dean of the college of ctrts
and sciences. Transylvania Tim
want to reward those who do both. Regrettably
if he or she is merely an adequate researcher."
the US House Select Committee
different times, creates a dialogue that qiues a fuller sense of the many uoices
"lnstead of 'research versus teaching,' we
es,
Breuord, NC,
lonuory 4, 1993
versa. Most faculty do both very well and earn
"There's a perception among the public, of
which I'm a member. that there are some instances in which we say to the professor that in order to be tenured there has to be some public service, wink, some excellence in teaching, wink, and some research-and that's where we're really qoinq to check you out." Alexander Hall, loayer ond t'ormer stlte House member, at o Board of Gouernors Meeting following the autctj- oDer recent tenure denials ctt UNC-CH Raleigh News & Obseruer, lonuon
point out that the
public only hears of extreme cases-the excellent teacher who does not excel in research, or vice-
8,
1993
)
tenure based on both. Typical cases are not publicized." Jomes L. Peocock
lll, Kenon professor of
anthropology and choir of UNC foculty, in remorks deliuered before a meeting of the foculg Raleigh News & Observer, lanuary 10, 1993
Controversies & Conversations A Year in Rerieu'
\
S\
N"i
"This is an innovative agreement. I believe
Faculty Diversity "About l0 percent
r-rf
UNC's full professors
and one-fifth of tenure-track facultl'are women. Women made no gains in moving to the rank of
profesor f rom
1989-90
to
1990-91 ."
Annuol report on the Connittee of the Status of Vtomen The Chapel Hill Herald,)ctober 16, 1992. "Tenure is no friend to women. it does not pr0tect them from institutional drscrimination,
UNC from the top of national polls rankinQ faculty.
and Hoechst Celanese scientists to get to know
Salaries no longer remain cornpetitive, which bodes
each other better and to build collaborations."
badly for a major research university of UNC's
Mary Sue Colemon, uice chancellor for
Shrrky
biolog
M
caliber
research and graduate studies, commenting on the
Prouost Richard McCormick, addressing the Employee Forum. Since 1982, UNC CH saloies t'or
monufocturer uhich utill fund scholorship t'or minorr
full time professors hos dropped from the top t'ifth
ties ond
uonen for
studres in scientific disciplines.
The Charlotte Obser.rer, October 11, 1992
)
of the siro*-eight conporoble research uniuersities to fifN-seuenth. The Chapel Hill Herald, lonuory 1
"
Tilghmon. professor of moleculor
at Pinceton, from her oped piece for the
New York Times, entitled, "Science us. Women-A
"UNC has 13 black faculty'members with
endowed chairs. That number is
21
"We were on the \,erge of being one of the top 10 or so in the
percent of the
6l actir,e and retired black faculh'members holding endowed chairs acros the country. "l'm especially
country. And then the bottom fell out."
retired in Decenber 1992, on the et'fect of the budget cnsrs on UNC's libraries Associoted Press Report,
Chapel Hill Newspaper, September 9. 1992. "People from all over are coming in to benefit
pleased that North Carolina, a Southern university,
from the research we re doing at the University of
had the most."
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chuck Stone, professor in the School
of
"
UNC Chancellor Paul Hardin addressing a
loumolism commenting on his suruel' of faculty. lssocrote Pess reporl. Winston-Salem Journal.
j oint state House-Senate appropriotion subcommittee
September, l8,1992
$280 million budget request. The Chapel Hill
on higher education meeting to reuieu the Uhir,erslr.r.'s
Herald, April
I,
1993
History professor Gil loseph on the numbet of highly esteemed scholors
uho haae left UNC-CH
to tohe positions at other prestigiaus colleges and uniuersities, including Yale and Emory. 0ften these scholars are lured
uilh
substantiolly better benet'it
pockoges ond solories more than 35% higher than UNC can offer. Joseph hos been U
hied by
Yale
niuersity. Rolergh News & Obsen er, J une 1 4, I 993
"l d0n't think it's any pie-in{he-sky request or just a wish list. We reaily need that money."
la1' Robinson, uice president for public aft'aus on the Uniuersity's request t'or additional monies to add foculty and stot'f to support progroms, update
computer equipment, improue the libraries and giue faculty consecutiue 6 percent onnual poy rncreoses.
"The people and chrldren of Nofih Carolina benefit l,ery little from research. There are not many subjects left Ifor research] that benefit the general
population." John Pope, Bocud ofTrustees, U,NC-CH The
DailyTar Heel, December 9,
7,
993 "This university is eminently raidable "
Budget and Salaries
lomes Gouen, Uniuersitti Librorian, who
Rodicol Solution." lonuory 26, 1993
"
donotion mode by the Neu Jerset-bosed chernical
Rather it rigidifies their career path rvhen they' need
maximum flexibilitr
"A lack of recent salary increases has pushed
it is one that will allow UNC-Chapel Hillscientists
1992.
The Chapel Hill Herald, )ctober 14. 1992.1
A Profile
VITA
E
b g
= tr
I
tltetr cltttructers should respond lo t:ut'h other
h
the recent Plur',,|'/riAers
pre.sertlultn of
l
luntLet.
Craig Tumer
flu.ry fall. while thousands of strrdents settle fi into their desks for the new school year at
I-.1UNC-CH, an elite troupe of recruits
begins a
three-year program in Graham Memorial Hall. They
spend most of their time not in traditional clasrooms but doing hands-on training with specialists
Don't worry, Turner is not running a clandes-
These student actors are Iearning to control
tine school for espionage and asassination. Instead,
what we all unconsciously do every time we inter-
he teaches movement lor the actor in the dramatic
act with others. Our body language sends sub-
art department. Empty-handed stage combat serves Turner
liminal mesaqes that can validate or undermine our words, tell others what sort of relationship is
well for introducing students to the idea that they can use their bodies to be better actors. "lt rs one
appropriate or c0nvey myriad other unspoken response-action loop set up whenever two people
only experience watching television or movies:
of the very first skills we do because it uses the whole body," he explains. "You have to acquire
fighting for their lives in an ancient castle in Den-
a certain physical skill to be able t0 r0ll, t0 fall,
of interactive behaviqr," he says. "lt's a way of
mark, perhaps, or assuming the identity of a naive
to work on the floor and to move your body very
studyine how we model what we think the world
American traveler in Paris. Turnels goal with these
vigorously without hurting yourself ."
is and how we
like Asociate Profesor Craig Turner. Eventually they
will be thrown into situations most ol
us
will
students is to teach them how to use their bodies
Students are simultaneously learning a
to best accomplish any misions for which they
deeper lesson, Turner adds. "Stage combat also
may be chosen.
involves some psychological questions, like how
communications. Turner is fascinated by the actionare together. "l'm interested in the nuts and bolts
think it operates. And I'm intrigued
by how human movement conveys or sometimes doesn't convey what we think it does." This interest extends beyond the theater.
He begins by introducing his charges to
do you deal with violence? How do you deal with
Turner has lectured women's groups about how
empty-handed combat, but with a different aim than that of most karate or judo instructors. "ln the
anger?" As students answer these questions, they
to present themselves to make the right impresions
begin to realize how movement can strengthen their art. "Movement is an extension of what the
in the busines world. The smallest details can be
actor's doing on the inside," Turner says. "The body
'l even taught them how to shake hands," he remembers. "ln some busines situations there's
they discover being able to tap into the dark side
can support the artistic impresion you re trying
a certain kind of handshake which gives more
and t0 face that. They have t0 come to grips with
to create for an audience."
confidence than others."
martial arts, one learns to transcend violence so that it doesn't rule your life," says Turner. "But here,
their own senso of violence."
impofiant.
WHY ARE... The Blues Called the Blues? A Carolina Professor Explains
Even more gratifying is the work he has done
with people referred to him by psychotherapists. Results can be dramatic, as with a patient referred to him a few years ago in Seattle. "The minute
\i.9k
I
started t0 get her t0 change the way she thought she could move, the way she thought she could
present herself, it began to change her whole selfimage and her whole self<oncept," he recalls with obvious satisfaction. "How you take up time and space with your body is a demonstration of yout soul, ol your spirit," says Turner. Everything he does
with his acting stu-
dents reflects this, even juggling exercises. "l don't teach them how to be jugglers," Turner remarks, "but through juggling I teach them how to be better
E
a
actors. Juggling is just a tool, it's just a device. It's a ruse, it's a
lie. As Iwatch you learn how to learn
he term probably comes from
devils.'
savs Assistant
.blue
Profesor Glenn
Hinro, ofihe curriculum in folklore.
The phrase meant something deeper than the
juggling, I understand exactly what your problems
=
are and what your strengths are, and then we try
disappointment basketball fans at a certain university in Durham felt after the tourna-
to fill that out."
ments last March. When Thomas iefferson
Filling out what these developing actors bring
with themselves
[l I I
is a long, involved
proces. About
a dozen specialists teach the students such tools
of the trade as movement, voice and speech, and acting; guest artists and teachers contribute their
f'rofessor CraigTurner. u:ho hus co-authored a bctok on Elizabethan su<trdpLal-. nakes a pr.tint u'hile
wrote in 1830 that "[W]e have something of the blue devils at times,' he was refening to what we today would call clinical depresion.
demonstrating hou: the rupier uas used in
What puzzles Hinson is the still-unan-
Shukespeare's day-.
swered question of how the label first came
own experiences. 0ne of the department's strengths,
to be applied to the music that is now usually
Turner believes, is the way the profesors work
This search is made more difficult by being con-
together t0 present an integrated program. "ln a
ducted under public scrutiny instead of in the shelter of a library or laboratory. "What we do on
wandering black man singing on the front
go from flower to flower and have to pull it all
the PlayMakers stage or when we do other productions, those are our laboratories," he says. "When
relationship.
together. All of us on the faculty really meld and
you watch a Playmakers production you are watch-
blend what we do together; we understand each
ing, in action, what we're developing within the
other's methods and what we're going for."
pr0gram."
profound way, it's unusual compared to a lot of graduate programs in certain fields where students
The first projects new students tackle, like
acting students, local amateurs and nationally
tionally broad, asking only for strong emotional
recognized profesionals. Everyone benefits from the experience. "Guest artists come in and see
ested in getting the new actors to do," explains Turner, "is just respond, respond, respond: 'What's
young actors who are still growing-it's interesting
your impulse? What do you want to do?'Once they
been out a while," Turner says. "The students are
to see what that does to older artists who have
understand the hot and the cold, the ytn and the
able to work with them and to see the variety of
yanq, the dark and the light, then you play the grays, then maybe you go to Chekhov, And then you get
ways in which profesionals solve problems, and compare it to what we've been doing in clas. And
into Shakespeare, where there's a highly relined
it's further broadened my knowledge of the profes-
text. The constraints become increasingly more
sion, of what's happening out there, because I can
difficult
as you deal
with more sophisticated and
clasic material,"
always find out what the latest is going on by talking to people who come in."
Like other aspects of acting, movement is a
These productions also show Turner just how
complex skill demanding years of training before
much his advanced students have learned from him
students can turn it to theit advantage. Actors are constantly experimenting to find which gestures
about makinq their characters believable to the audience. "l can see points where they've used what
or postures send the right signals to the audience
they've learned," he observes. "lt's very satisfying-
about the character they portray. Similarly, Turner
if it worla, if they did it in
is constantly experimenting, finding how he can best help actors discover their sense of who their
the role or help the play. And in many ways, with
characters are and how those personalties would react faced with the situations set up by the play.
porch about the sonows of a broken In fact, this African-American dance music was originally far livelier than most people realize. Songs often reioiced in the pleasure of love. Musicians were as likely
PlayMakers productions throw together
stage combat in the movement clases, are inten-
reactions from the actors. "What we're really inter-
asociated with the image of a lonesome,
a way that really
all of them, that's happened."
I
to be women as men, and many were stable,
workingrlas African Americans. Furthermore, solo performances were virtually un-
heard of, with the 12-bar structure inviting everyone to join in the celebration. Hinson believes that the man most responsible lor establishing the modem stereotype was Howard 0dum, former Kenan
profesor of sociology at UNC. In the 1920s, 0dum wrote not only scholarly studies such
x
Negro Worhaday Songs but also a fiction
trilogy about a onsarmed African-American musician based on Durham's Left Wing Gordon. lt was Odom's popular novels which Hinson says set the stereotype in concrete. Next time you hear someone singing the blues, take a moment to think about the Carolina blue connection. And don't let those blue devils get you down!
did help Gat a question? We'll get an answer. Write Endeavors al CB# 4100 or call 966-5625.
U niu er sity I nnou
o
tio
n
s
MARKETPLACE
SOLVING THE PROBTEM WITH POLYMERS A Breakthrough Using Environmentally Sound Solvents
mers involves combining f luoroacrylate m0n0mers,
plains the implications of DeSimone's work: "The way companies are synthesizing things now is going
the building blocks of fluoropolymers, with super-
to have to change. There's too much economic
critical carbon dioxide (C0, in
gain for these products to get out 0f the busines," he says. "And now, we think there's a way they can
DeSimone's method for creating fluoropoly-
gas and a
a state between a
liquid) and an initiator compound. He
n v the end of the decade. certain proceses l{ ro, maKlng n0n-stlcK cooKrng surtaces. Ll.ur., an. turnlture statn-guar.s. computer
mixes them in a cylindrical, stainles steel high-
disk-drive lubricants and many protective synthetic coatings will be banned. The Montreal Protocol on
dioxide a day or two later.
pressure chamber with small, round windows
continue making their existing line of products." DeSimone's work replacing Freon with carbon
made of clear industrial sapphires. The mixture
dioxide has evolved into research with even greater
look
posible repercussions. In March,
like water until scientists release the carbon When the pressure in the chamber is released,
Substances that Deplete the Ozone l-ayer, an inter-
1993, DeSimone
presented a paper, with his graduate students, Guan
and Elise Maury, and postdoctoral research aso-
national treaty signed by more than 70 nations, will
the carbon dioxide turns back to a gas, and the
ciates James Combes and Yusuf Menceloglu at the
force chemical companies to cease production of these substances if they cannot devise an environ-
polymer precipitates looking somewhat like a Iump
American Chemical Society National Meeting in
of chewing gum. The polymer can then be shaped into the needed form. And no waste-disposal
Denver, Co., on replacinQ water and hydrocarbon solvents in polymer production with C0r.
mentally sound way of making them. The problem with making some of these
environmentally noxious Freon, a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), is crucial to their synthesis for many chemical companies. But work by UNC-CH Assistant Profesor of Chemistry Joseph DeSimone could
A report on these findings appears rn the August 14 isues of Scrence. UNC"CH graduate student
in fluoropolymer production. 'With C0?, you don't generate organic waste,"
as a solvent
the use of water as a solvent in making acrylic plastics, such as Plexiglas and Lucite, PVC
(polpinyl
3M's Corporate Research Technology Development
chloride), which can take the form of piping and plastic food wrap, and rubber. But purification and
I-aboratory in St. Paul, Minn., coauthored the report.
disposal of contaminated water is an expensive
Zhibin Guan and Cheryl
S. Elsbernd, a chemist at
DeSimone explains that several methods
eradicate this problem. He has devised a means to replace Freon with common carbon dtoxide
The federal government does not yet prohibit
problem tarnishes the procedure.
products-all containing f Iuoropolymers-is that
and politically volatile problem for chemical
exist for making fluoropolymers, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. 0ne important
companies. "lt's early yet," DeSimone says. "But the
potential in its general applicability
quite high.
DeSimone saysl 'There is nothing to dispose
of . The
method uses Freon because the materials will not disolve in traditional organic solvents. But since
Water waste could be done away with in the pro-
cost for handling waste is skyrocketing; and
C0,
Freon has been blamed as a maior culprit in the
duction of many polymeric materials.
you can vent straight to the atmosphere." Although
C0,
is a greenhouse gas. DeSimone s procedure
adds nothing t0 current atmospheric levels. he explains. He uses what already exists and then releases it.
thinning of the ozone layer, its use
is being phased
out and will be banned by the year 2000 Robert Pozner, asociate director of Triangle
is
"Pending Iegislation is clear on the horizon," he says. "We need to find viable alternatives; is an acceptable
C0,
medium lrom a chemical point
Universities Licensing Consortium, an organization
of view. It's effectively inert, and it acts as a good
that markets intellectual property t0 industry, ex-
solvent." DeSimone's breakthroughs have kept him busy working in and giving tours of his lab and
speaking in lecture halls. In the Iast two years he has given more than 50 lectures at chemical com-
panies and profesional meetings. "The simplicity of it all impreses people the most," he says. For his Freon-replacement work, DeSimone receives funding fiom Du Pont, Unilever Research and 3M. The same three companies, in addition to a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and the Presidential Faculty Fellow Award, finance his research in other areas. UNCCH has applied for patents on both the Freon-and
water-replacement procedures.
I
DeSimone's research discussed in this article was supported in part by $125,000 from the National Science Foundation's Young Inuestigator Award.
loseph
DeSrrnc.ne
0ight.l ond his resertrch teom. Mtke Clork,
Ehse
Mourt,.limnn Combes, Zhtbtn Guan and.lin
IkCloin tleft) ore nokrng fluoropohnters in the lob u'ilh carbon dioxide tnstead of
Freon.
E.Nrl).E.A.V.O.R.S
Feeding Soccer Balls to Snalres A Liquid Crystal Expert Plays With Buckyballs by ftoftLorvry
bt many chemists talk about their work in terms of soccer balls and snakes and feeding frenzies. But then, not many chemists would
think to dump a bunch of buckyballs into a colleague's highly reactive polymer solution. Professor
Edward Samulski of the chemistry department encouraged his student assistants to do just that,
Those trying to use buckyballs have found
that
Cuo is
not user-friendly. Fullerenes cannot be
and the results could well help buckyballs find all sorts of jobs in the coming years. Already people
melted or solution-cast into thin films or other forms
are touting these molecules' potential as super-
doped with alkalimetals like lithium to allow high-
conductors, drugdelivery capsules to fight cancer,
temperature superconductivity, the substance de-
molecularscale
-ball
bearings' or lubricants, com-
for optical and electronic applications. When
composes 0n exposure to air. Such intransigence
ponents in high-speed optical computers and who
is a serious hindrance as scientists move from leam-
knows what else. Buc$balls may well be the
ing buckyballs' properties to finding ways to exploit
molecule of the
those properties. Fortunately, Samulski's research
'90s.
The formal name of this new soccer-ball-
team has figured out a way to get a handle on
shaped form of carbon, Buckminsterfullerene,
buckyballs, a handle that should help researchers
honors the inventor of the geodesic dome because
take
the researchers who discovered the
Cuo
molecule
Cuo
from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Samulski and fellow profesors Richard
1984 thought the spherical anay of its 60 carbon atoms looked like Fulle/s domes. And just as archi-
Jarnagin and Joseph DeSimone succeeded in mak-
tects three decades ago sought new uses for the
them. The resulting molecule, with its polymer arms
dome, it seems as if nearly every scientist today is
radiating from a buckyball at the center, reminded
in
looking for ways to use
Cuo.
But Samulski is taking
ing buckyballs and attaching polymer chains to
the researchers of Flagellata, cells with whiplike
a different approach that could have a more telling
appendages used for motion. Research group
effect on the molecule's future. He is interested not
members, in what Samulski calls "some sort of
so much in finding uses for buckyballs as in finding
masochistic creative wordsmithing," named their
ways to make buckyballs easier to use.
new clas of molecules flagellenes.
E.Nof).E.A.V.O.R.S
10
Flagellenes combine the desirable'properties
As Samulski explains, this order is extremely
,
DiSital watches and Kevlar fibers were un-
knoiv'n when Samulski began studying liquid crystals
in solid films. they separate into buckyball-rich
subtle at the molecular level: "lf you were riding around on,,one of these molecules, you wouldn't
regions and polymer*ich regi0ns, "This spatial
be able to tell whether you were in the ordinary
scientists had not even heard ol liquid crystals then.
ordering is very intriguing,' Samulski remarks. "You
Iiquid or the liquid crystalline state." But step back,
even thouqh they had been discovered in 1888.
would still have any interesting properties of
and the results become dramaft:,,He points t0
Liquid crystals were all but lorgotten by the 1930s, Samulski says, because researchers asumed they
of therr two components and add a useful wrinkle:
C60
in
as a graduate
student in the mid-I960s. In fact. most
the buckyball-rich neighborhood, while at the same time conferring procesing capability by having
nature for some examples. Beetles' shells are iridescent because they were deposited in a liquid
the polymeric part. And the polymer could protect
crystalline state whose spatial periodicity matches
scientists figuredoulfrat they could be used in
the buckyball enclave because it's fairly inert and
the wavelength of visible light. 0r consider cell replication. "There's evidence that the DNA in
verylow-energy v'i$ral displays. That rekindled
is a nice encapsulating material. Cuo is rather
in'
chromosomes is packaged in a
liquid crys-
soluble and intractable as it stands, but as soon as you attach a polymer chainto it, it disolves; you
certain
can even cast films from the sOlution."
s0 you can get the stuff out in a hurry and do some-
Creating a new class of molecules was far from Samulski's mind whefl he turned his attenti-Qn to buckyballs shortly after their discovery. Instead,
talline state," says Samulski, r'lt's fluid yet organized, thing with it and put it back together again in'a very compact way.' Just as exciting as what nature can do with
knew everJthing about them. But around 1960,
interest in these substances iust as Samulski was looking for a disertation topic; he has remained interested in them ever since. "A large part of my research is devoted to undetstan{ing what in terms of molecular structural characteristics enables one molecule t0 melt into a liquid cry$al while a structure only slightly differ-
liquid crystals is whqt people can do, An eleetric or magnetic lield has negligible effect on an ordinary
ent melts ihto an ordinary liquid," says Samulski.
liquid Apply the same field to a Iiquid crystal. and
shapes work and which don't. Football'shaped
was going on fast and furious in many labs all,over
the molecules all literally fall into line like a roomful of compases. Samulski uses cows and cars to
molecules tend to show liquid crystal phases; baskelball or soccer ball shapes show plastic
the world and by the time we made
explain the effect of fields on normal liquid mole-
$talph.ses.'
he was out to play a hunch. "As soon as I saw a
buckyball Isaid, 'Gee, that will be a plastic crystal All we have to do is make some and melt it and I could prove it,"' remembers Samulski. "Bq! work Cuo
at UNC,
"We've got some general ideas on which molecular
people had already shown that it was in fact a
cules and liquid crystal molecules, "lf you had a
plastic crystal."
herd of cattle or a fleet of New York cab drivers and a stoplight in the middle 0f the desert. for the most
Samulski to
part they wouldn't respond individually or collec-
A plastic crystal is an intermediate state most
It was its soccer ball symmetry that drew Cuo. "We
made fullerenes by burning
a carbon arc. We separated buckyballs from the
spherical molecules exhibit between their liquid and solid states. They arrange themselves in the
tively to a right{urn-onl1' arrow. However. if you
soot and we had them sitting around," he recalls, "but we weren't sure exactly what to do with them."
rigid lattices exhibited by crystals, but because the
had a bunch of cars operated by cautious dtivers,
lnspiration struck at one of the regular research
molecules spin rapidly in place in that lattice, the
even though they're not perfectly ordered-there
group meetings of chemistry faculty and students,
material becomes mushy, Cool them a bit and plastic crystals become normal brittle solids; warm
are no lanes in the middle of the desert-if they encountered this right turn signal, you would notice
an informal forum designed to evaluate research
them and they melt into normal fluid liquids.
that all the cars would turn right at the same place."
programs and try out new ideas, Why not see what would happen when buckyballs and living poly-
Getting all the molecules in a liquid crystal to align, to "turn right," results in striking properties,
mers met?
of connection to liquid crystals, that's no accident.
Liquid crystals also exist between the solid and
such as a sudden change from transparency to
polymer molecules. "They are like piranhas sitting
Iiquid states. Not only d0 their molecules spin like
opacity. This eflect is the principle behind the ubiquitous liquid crystal display (LCD) of wrist-
around waiting for something to eat, 0r maybe a snake would be a better analogy since it's a long
watches and flat-panel computer scleens. Aligned
molecule," Samulski explains. "You start with a
molecules can also impart impresive strength to
monomer such as styrene and add a reagent that
If the name plastic crystal suggests some sort
those of plastic crystals, but they are ftee to move about almost like those of a normal liquid: almost
but not quite. Their movement is not actually random, but exhibits long-range orientational order.
LivinQ polymers are basically hyperactive
materials. The orientational order of the molecules
opens up the molecule and makes it ready to add
persists when fibers are spun from liquid crystalline
another styrene monomer. That gives you a dimer
solutions or melts, resulting in fabrics like Kevlar
which opens up giving you a trimer and so on until yOu get a polymer, a long chain of monomers.
strong enough to stop bullets.
E.N.D.E.A.V.O.R.S
"But in a living polymer, one end of that chain
l1
interested and interesting people that made it
tical molecules and conventional polymer materials
looking for the next monomer. Or you can feed it something interesting and see what it
happen here before it happened aninvhere else.
with their random distribution of molecule
Whenever I talk about this stuff, other laboratories
One outcome could be the first ordered self-asem-
will do. We threw in buckyballs and sure enough,
kick themselves for not having done it."
is alive and
the living polymer went for it in a sort of feeding
Samulski intends to c0ntinue chasing down
frenzy, attaching several chains onto a single
ideas in a number of different directions. Flagel-
buckyball and made this octopus-shaped mole-
lenes continue to be a high priority, with ongoing
cule." Samulski, DeSimone, Jarnagin and their
experiments looking at conductivity and nonlinear
students had asembled the first flagellenes.
optical properties. Work
Samulski says he feels right at home working
is in
progres to improve
sizes.
bly on gold of a monomolecular film of macromole cules, opening the door to all sorts of electronic, optical and biological applications. Nor have liquid crystals been neglected in the excitement over flagellenes. Samulski is cunently excited by thiophene, an aromatic monomer that
flagellenes by allowing only one living polymer to
has been Iargely overlooked by polymer scientists.
with flagellenes because, like liquid crystals, they
attach to each buckyball. Such monoflagellenes
Thiophene, a nonlinear, benzenelike molecule
are characterized by unusually ordered phases.
would involve les disruption of the
This spatial ordering in flagellenes, with buclryball
with five carbon atoms and one sulfur atom, can be incorporated into polymers that exhibit liquid
Cuo cores,
regions altemating with polymer regions, is periodic
thereby preserving their intrinsic optical and electric properties. Samulski is also intrigued by what
and regular on a very fine level. Samulski is pleased
could result when other types of polymers are
that this property may help others put buclryballs
attached to buckyballs. 0ne of his undergraduate
to use, but he is even more excited by the aesthetic
students is trying to attach living polymers to bucky-
sellasembled macromolecules or lagellenes
qualities ol the supramolecular order in these new
tubes, a sort of elongated buckyball; succes could
become as much a part of our lives as the small-
materials.
lead to new, super-strong, reinforced polymers.
That's no surprise from a man who approaches
Samulski is also developing an interest in
crystallinity, providing yet another structural handle for Samulski's experiments.
Will thiophenetontaining polymers, f
molecule liquid crystals apparent all around us in digital watches and portable computer screens?
science as an artist. "l'm excited by the intrinsic beauty 0f the buckyball itsell," Samulski says. "l
molecular biology because certain genetic expres-
Samulski believes that researchers must first dis-
sion systems should allow him to produce poly-
cover more efficient ways of synthesizing these
should have been a painter, but I do my creativity
mers to exacting standards. We cannot asemble
new materials. He hopes to spur synthetic chemists
through science. I'm a right-brain-dominant person,
synthetic polymers with a precise number ol
to do just that as he turns up more and more interesting molecular shapes and properties. "l think
and I like being able to make bizarre associations
monomers, but organisms can be used to make
from very different fields. And that's guided me,
biological polymers with whatever number of
allowed me to be creative."
monomers we want in the chain. Samulski wants
that would be the most efficient use of my talents," he explains, "to continue to understand why they
to study the behavioral differences between such
are the way they are."
Most of Samulski's work involves exploring that abstract tenitory where the boundaries between
I
biosynthetic polymer materials composed of iden-
the traditionalscientific disciplines melt away. "My
Samulsfti s reseorch discussed
research is sort of in a twilight zone between physics
of a number of projects supported by $41 5,000 from
and chemistry,' he says. "Exactly how the
the U.S. Air Force
physical properties and the chemical structure interplay is really where the fun is, where the excitement is.' Appropriately, the name flagellene comes from yet another
discipline, biology. Samulski points out that the three fields of
biology, chemistry and physics are pretty much
one at the molecular level. And inspiration, he
believes, can be found anywhere. This attitude encourages taking chances, and Samulski appreciates working with other risk-taken. He notes
that Dick Jamagin helped him synthesize and purify buckyballs when
most people thought it was a waste of time,
while Joe DeSimone was willing to risk his living polymer solution just t0 see what would happen when buckyballs were added. "0ur flagellene project could not have been done by one person alone. It was the sort of fortuitous combination of
in
this article is one
E.N.D.E.A.VoQof,o$
12
The BiSMot: Illusion or Reality? Does Psychological Momentum Affect Sports Performance? by Christina
S.
Stock
r t s the third round of the NCAA Men s BasketI bull Tourrurent. With two and a half minutes I t.i on the clock. the Tar Heels are clinging to a
against one another in a motor-skill game, which
two-point lead against Arkansas. They are looking
across a page. They competed for time and the
for somebody to get hot. The Heels' Donald Williams
accuracy of the croses
Silva calls "novel mazes." The students
crosed out
circles plotted on a Iine that winds haphazardly whether they remained
-
hits an 18-foot shot, and the Razorbacks' Darrell
fully within the circles or strayed out. The subjects,
Hawkins answers back with a three-pointer from the top of the key. Score: Heels-75, Razorbacks-74.
volunteers, half male and half female, could not
With 42 seconds left, George Lynch hits Williams
ceived fabricated feedback that made them think
for a layup. Then Williams makes three of four free
they had positive or negative momentum, regard-
throws. ln the last 1:53 of the game, Williams has
les of how they were really doing.
see one another during the competition. They re-
"Each subject experienced either'winning'
scored seven points. The Heels win 8&74 and
qualify for the semi-finals. Questions: Was the momentum on the Tar
or'losing' during the competition," Silva explains.
=
Heels'side? lf they thought it was, did that posi'
affect how the subjects performed later in the con-
a j
tively affect their performance? Were they bound
test. If momentum is created by succes, as theory
to win once Williams got on a roll?
suggests, the performances of the 'winners' would
:
John M. Silva III, profesor of spon psychology O
Joltn
lll
Silt:u Ill L:huilenges conunt)n nolirn.s ol
pslcltrrloqirtrl tnonlentunt irt utlilettcs
"Momentum is uery real in basketball. It's definitely there and definitely
"We hypothesized that these experiences would
be expected to improve, and the performances of
in the department of physical education, exercise and sport science, says ... maybe! "People think
the 'losers'would be expected to deteriorate."
they're hot, and they feel like they're hot. The question is, are they hot from a performance perspective
and reported feeling positive momentum did not
versus a cognitive and emotional penpective? From
losing and reported feeling negative m0mentum
a performance point of view, there is little evidence
did not decline fuffier. "Thus, winning and losing
that thinking you're hot enhances performance."
affected the subjects' emotions and thoughts about
But subjects who thought they were winning g0 0n t0 improve, And those who thought they wete
a factor. There are things you do
hit a rhythm, get in a groove, go on a roll. The crowd
their performance, but these emotions and thoughts were not translated into actual performance
to breah the momentum of losing
gets riled up; the players get excited; the announc-
changes," Silva says.
ond keep the momentum of winning. I'ue experienced it many times." -Sylvia
Hatchell
But how can this be? Everyone has seen a team
ers say the team has control of the momentum.
He does not contest that a player really feels
And the coaches either try to exploit posesion
hot, nor that an observer perceives a streak. But
of the momentum or sabotage it. Silva points out, "There is no question that being in a groove exists.
evidence from this study and another he conducted using data from NCM tennis matches suggests that
But there appears to be an attributional enor.
performance is not dramatically different during a
We've been too liberal t0 use momentum as a
so-called period of momentum.
convenient label to explain events we observe Silva has published his most recent report on psychological momentum in the 1992 isue of the lournal of Sport ond Exercise Psychology.
Silva's conclusions
will undoubtedly meet
contention. Coaches and players manipulate mo-
at significant points in competitions."
ll
delineates experimental findings which contradict what most players, fans, announcers, teachers and coaches commonly believe about momentum. Allen E. Cornelius and Laura M. Finch, graduate students in sporl psychology, are co-authors of the paper. The findings surprised them all, Silva says. "We thought momentum was operating too." Silva, Cornelius and Finch conducted a series
of experiments in which 116 students competed
mentum regularly as part of game tactics. Tar Heels women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell says, "Momentum is very real in basketball. It's definitely there and definitely a factor. There are things you
"lt's amazing how many times the announcers are creoting an entertoinment scenario that doesn't really pan out.
Momentum is an ouerused concePt." -John
Silva
E.N.D.E.A.Yo(fof,og
do to break the momentum of losing and keep the
13
Punishmentto Prevention
momentum of winning. I've experienced it many times." Joe Sagula, Tar Heels volleyball coach agrees. "Coaches and players try to do things to psych themselves up. People try to control and manipulate
momentum by controlling tactics. When people think things are going their way, they tend to play
Prison Cop Legislation in the Tor Heel State
better. Sometimes just one play can get a team going. Ithink momentum has a very big effect in
by Paul Garber
volleyball." Silva hypothesizes that what looks like momentum is actually only a performance run or streak
that would normally happen in the course of a game. And, it has little or nothing to do with how
confident the players feel. Coaches and players could apply his resuls in several ways, Silva says. "Spons are emotional. It's easy to get caught up emotionally in the situ-
ation." A cold attitude toward momentum could help players remain objective about their own runs. "lt could help athletes understand they should keep their role within the team. Many times players lose
discipline because they think they are hotter than they are." A team could cope better when the opposi-
tion
is hot, too. "Teams get rattled. Any player
"We really haue to look at how
or
hids grow up: their fomilies, their
team has to learn how to withstand a run. They
schools, their communities. We u)ant to
need to know these runs will take their course. The probability is Iow that high performance will last
keep them from doing the uime in the
long. So there is no need to panic."
first place, ond there is not enough
Silva says an objective attitude toward mo-
interest in doing lhoL "
mentum could also help announcers call games more accurately. "lt's amazing how many times the
-Stevens
H. Clarke
ann0uncers are creating an entertainment scenario that doesn't really pan out. Momentum is an overused concept."
Nonetheles, Silva is not prepared to entirely
orth Carolina appean to have a serious crime problem. The Carolina Poll conducted in the
North Carolina Department of Correction, the state
spring of 1992 by the UNC-CH School of
to alleviate overcrowding by releasing enough legal-
enacted the cap as a short-term, emergency measure
discredit the effect of psychological momentum on
iournalism and
performance. It may merely exist on a smaller level
Institute for Research in Social Science showed
population falls below the cap, which presently
that no one has discovered how to measure yet. And, he says, though rare, "pure examples" of
that nearly twothirds of the state's residents were
standsat21,200.
worried that they or their families would become
momentum do exist: when players feel hot, think
victims of crime. Crime rates appear to be escalat.
The drawback of the cap is that it depreciates the credibility of prison time as a punishment or as
Mass
Communication and the
they are hot and their performance far exceeds
ing; criminals seem to be spending les and
the normal run or streak. This does happen. For
time behind bars. To many people, the obvious
example:
solution
is just to
les
build more prisons.
But Stevens H. Clarke, criminal justice re-
It is a clear, warm night at Arlington Stadium
Iy
eligible prisoners so that the state-wide prison
a deterrent. Furthermore, some people seeking an
explanation for increasing crime rates blame the cap, saying it simply puts criminals back on the streets sooner.
on May 1, 1991, and 33,439 fans are holding their
searcher at the Institute of Covernment, wants to
collective breath. The Texas Rangers are playing
dispel beliefs that lengthy prison terms are the best
an inconsequential effect, neither good or bad, on
means of dealing with crime. He suggests instead
crime in North Carolina. Clarke's research suggests
host to the Toronto Blue Jays. Texas is up
3{.
It's
the top of the ninth, and Nolan Ryan is pitching.
a shift
The Jays have two outs, and Roberto Alomar is at
system to a preventive approach.
the plate with two strikes. Ryan pitches. Alomar swings. He mises. Strike three. Ballgame. no-hitter, a major league record.
'When all three of these variables converge: "now that's momentum!"
I
Clarke recently examined the state's Prison Cap legislation in a study which appeared in the
Nolan Ryan has pitched hisseventh career
emotion, cognition and performance," Silva
in attention from an inadequate punitive
says,
Institute's journal Popular Gouemment. The state
However, Clarke believes the cap has had
that crime rates in North Carolina in the period following the cap legislation generally did not increase any more than in the rest of the South. Clarke examined data the FBI reported on the number of "index crimes" per 100,000 residents.
enacted the cap in 1987 as a result of the Small vs.
Index crimes comprise violent crimes-murder,
Martin lawsuit alleging that prison overcrowding
rape, robbery and aggravated
had reached unc0nstituti0nal proportions. Accord-
crimes-burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.
ing to Bill Poston, public information officer for the
He compared the FBI data from 1984-1991 for North
asault-and property
E.Nof).E.A.V.0.R.S
t4
"lt's important to haue just, fair
punishment, but we should not confuse that with cime preuention. We could haue the best criminal justice system
in the world, and we'd still haue a lot of crime.
"
-Stevens
H. Clarke
Nor is expanding prisons to lock up more people after they have committed a crime a costa
effective solution. ln 1992, $103 million was appropriated by the state to build more than 3,300 new
q
o
;
"beds," the space required for each inmate. That
z
works out to about $31,200 for each new space. Prison operating costs for 1991 averaged roughly
F
a
$20,000 per inmate.
a
thing: people are willing to entertain the idea of building more prisons and operating them, but we
As Clarke says, "here's the really puzzling I
b ucnntnrrktte nore irnutes. Jolutson Count,v Correctional Center hus a prsenl toktl (apo(it) of 551 as nundated llr'lrrnils set ln Prisr-rn Clup Leqiskrtiort. Sleoens L-/an?e (lrques tltet trsouttes cou1rl
Recenllr' e.tpunded
be put to better use rn findirtg tiruls k) pt?renl,
rut just punish,
titte
don't know where the money is going to come from t0 operate tho;e prisons that we're already building. lf we try t0 prevent crime by building more prisons we're going t0 have to take the money
Carolina to the data for I 6 other southern and border states and the District of Columbia.
tion between the time people serve in prison and their Iikelihood of doing a new crime when they
away from other programs such as education." Rather than narrowly focusing only on prison
get out, especially a new property crime like larceny
terms and their Iengths, Clarke suggests that more
for all states, Clarke found that North Carolina's
or burglary." This correlation holds up even after
time should be spent understanding why people
violent crime rate remained well below the overall
taking int0 acc0unt differences among offenders
commit crime. "We really have to look at how kids
Southern rate; only the state's burglary and larceny rates increased at a faster rate than the region's.
such as age, criminal history or type of crime
grow up: their families, their schools, their commu-
committed.
nities," says Clarke, "We want t0 keep them from doing the crime in the first place, and there is not
While crime rates increased across the board
As Clarke interprets the statistics, the cap is not the proper scapegoat. "lf the cap had a
[negative] effect, we would see a general increase in all kinds of crimes, not just one or two," he says.
AIso, Iengthy terms can have a detrimental effect on people by depriving them of a normal life, making them unemployable, and posibly making
Furthermore, the state's rate for auto theft increased
them victims of homosexual rape. "lt's important to have just, fair punishment," Clarke says, "but we
much more slowly and remained significantly below the South's rate. "lt's not because of the cap
should not confuse that with crime prevention. We could have the best criminal justice system in the
that we have so much crime," Clarke says. More-
world, and we'd still have a lot of crime."
over, he says the cap did not significantly affect
enough interest in doing that."
According to correction official Bill Poston, 95 percent of prison inmates have
les than a high
school diploma. He says it's time fot the state to stop thinking about how to expand its prisons and to start looking at preventatives, Iike education
reforms.
As an analogy, Clarke compares the response
No one doubts that crime is a serious problem.
crime rates because the prisoners released earlier
oriented nature of the criminal justice system t0
tended to be lower-risk offenders and, on average,
hospital. Just as one would not expect an emergency
The question is whether the prison system holds the solution to the crime problem. "What I'm trying
prison terms were not shortened much. It is common to assume that longer prison
room to prevent accidents, one should also not expect the criminal justice system to prevent crime
to do is get people to think beyond the criminal justice sptem," Clarke says. "l'm concerned with
"The idea that the way t0 prevent crime is to lock
improving the criminal iustice system; I've spent much of my working life on it, I care a lot about it.
terms
will reduce crime by frightening would-be
offenders. Although Clarke acknowledges that the threat of a long prison sentence probably has some effect on crime, a recidivism study he published
a
up people responsible is like saying the way to prevent AIDS is to lock up all the high risk people," Clarke says. "This preoccupation with punishing
last year suggests that longer prison terms are more
people isn't going to help us much with preventing
likely to have just the opposite effect. "Our study of recidivism suggests that there is a positive correla-
crime, and preventing crime is more important than trying to figure out how to punish people."
But what alarms me is that increasingly it is being
thought of as the only way to prevent crime. If that's what you tell people they're going to be sorely disappointed."
1
E.Nof)rf,oIrIIoQoR.S
15
A Mouse lryith a Mighty Cholestertl Count Gene Targeting Techniques Create o Proctical Model for Atherosclerosis by Christina
S.
Stock
Reddick says, "The rnouse provides a stable
ardiovascular disease is the primary cause
understanding of multifactorial diseases, such as
of death in Western societies. In 1990, the
hypertension and atherosclerosis," Dr. Claude
genetic base on which we can look at modifica-
last year for which data are available, 18,047
Lenfant, director of the Institute, says,
tions which increase and decrease hardening of
Americans died due to complications created by
Using gene targeting techniques developed
the arteries. And we can get results in a relatively
atherosclerosis: heart attacks and strokes. And until last October, no practical, small-animal model
ology, Maeda's team disrupted the gene responsible
for studying atheroscierosis, or hardening of the
for creating apolipoprotein E. a protein the Ii",er
arteries. existed.
depends on to remove fat particles called chylomicron remnants. "lf apolipoprotein E is not there,
exceeds that of other animals, 0r even humans.
researchers led by Dr. Nobuyo Maeda, asociate
the remnants accumulate in the blood, and choles-
This knowledge makes assays for screeninq the
profesor of pathology, succeeded at genetically
terol and other fats go up too," Maeda explains.
But then a team of pioneering UNC CH
by Dr. Oliver Smithies, Excellence profesor of path-
Maeda says the other great advantage of using
mice for research, instead of rabbits or pigs, is that knowledge about the qenetic structure of mice far
effects of other genes on atherosclerosis possible.
altering mice to reach cholesterol levels five times greater than normal even when they eat a regular
a high{at, high-cholesterol diet, stress, high blood
diet. The research implications of an atheroscler-
pressure and lack of exercise can all aggravate the
otic mouse are compelling.
condition. Arteries clog with fats and other debris
Although atherosclerosis is a genetic disease,
And breeding and raising the mice costs less than other animals. Requests for the mice have poured in from
around the nation and as far as Germany. Researchers in nutrition, biochemistry, pathology, to
*:{
{4'
short span of time."
'** i_OO"*t . *-a..J tr b
name a few fields, are using these mice to compare
how vitamins, fish oil, animal fat and cholesterolfighting drugs affect the gene{argeted mice and normal mice. Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, is reproducing the mice on a large scale. Maeda says Jackson
*,
will distribute the mice for
research purposes charging only the cost.
1..-
Dr. Steven H. Quarfordt, associate profesor in the division of gastroenterology at Duke Univenity
These qenetrcolLt ullered rrttct' uppeur nrnnrul
is using the mouse to study fat and cholesterol transport. "l'm ecstatic about the mouse," he says. "What Dr. Maeda made is exactly what I need to
But
answer questions about what apolipoprotein
{ url lrcallht'. just like hunans urth undiagnosed olheroscleroslr tn set'entl ntonths their Ltsntnat urtcrtes (riqltt) u,tll he ulnutst uunpletelv ck4gtd uith fat deposits
E
somewha[ like iron pipes closing up with rust.
does in the transport of trigliceride Ifat] and cholesterol." For 10 years Dr. Quarfordt has been
lent opportunity to mimic human disease and study
When the coronary arteries get blocked, a heart
researching how readily fat and cholesterol leave
modifications in drugs and diet in a controlled en-
attack results, When the carotid arteries, which
the body, but only with this gene-altered mouse
vironment. It
feed the brain, clog, a stroke occurs,
could he study the proces with reduced apolipo-
"With a model like this, we'll have an excel-
is going to provide a lot of answers to
imp0rtant clinical questions that affect just about
Drug, diet or vitamin treatments for hardening
everybody's Uncle Fred and Aunt Sally," says Dr.
of the arteries take decades to test because athero-
Robert Reddick, Kenneth Brinkhous Distinguished
sclerosis is a cumulative disease, worsening over a penon's entire lifespan. Using the mice circumvents
Profesor of Pathology. Together with Maeda and Reddick, Dr. Sunny
is the cleanest system available." he says. "lt's an
unbelievable opportunity,"
I
the problem of waiting decades to see if theoreti-
H. Zhang, graduate student in pathology, and Dr.
cal treatments will succeed. Maeda explains that
Jorge A. Piedrahita, now at Texas A&M University,
the mice's condition progreses drastically within a
published a report 0n their work in the October
year, and, she says, cumulative research results can
16
protein E, an aspect crucial to greater understanding of the mechanisms of lipids metabolism. "This
isue of .lcience. The National Heart, Lung and
be acquired within 5 months. With such immediate
Blood Institute supported the research. "The mouse should quicken the pace of
results researchers
research and increase by leaps and bounds our
lifetimes, to screen drug, diet or vitamin treatments.
will be able to determine the
most effective treatments without waiting years,
Maedo's research discussed in this article wos funded in full by $935,168 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood lnstitute.
E.N.I).E.A.VoQof,o$
l6
Neverlbo Youn$ Childrlen and Heart Disease Prrcvention by Paul Garber
"We got inuolued because of the lach of physical education programs in North Carolina. Schoo/s are dropping P. E. So here we haue all these fat hids and we're taking awoy their options to
reduce weight and normalize blood pressure." -Robert
McMurraY
The study examined 1,261 third- and fourth-
"lf you can learn how to incorporate
physical actiuity into your lifestyle and see that it makes a difference uhen you're young, you are more aqt to
continue to be deuoted to it later on." -Joanne
graders in six rural and six urban schools
acros
the exercise interventions and lesons on nutrition, the benefits of physical activity, and the dangers
z
of smoking. The other 674 students received no
o zl
W
who received the interventions showed significant
Harrell
x',','.',",]f,l
i
o
decreases in cholesterol and body fat, and increas'
hen you think about heart disease, you
il :il JTt[
E
special exercise or health lesons. The children
es in aerobic capacity. These changes in their young
f f ,
I
,6
North Carolina. 0f these students, 587 received
;,lf i'ill,
usually do not appear until midlife, the behaviors that lead to heart disease can begin at a very young age. There is evidence that some children as young
Harell
Shrikant Bangdiwala, the project's biostatisti"
as they get older.
-
again. Although the manifestations of heart disease
Joanne
bodies may help them fight cardiovascular disease The exercises that the researchers used for
cian, says that the researchers found a significant
the study differed from regular physical education clases by stresing activity over skill. "Since there
difference between rural and urban schoolchildren.
no scoring, winning or losing, everybody partici-
he says. "We see this as an important result because
is
pates,' says Robert McMurray, the project's exercise physiologist. "You don't have to be a great baseball
"The interventions worked best in rural schools," of the predominantly rural nature ol the state."
hitter or catcher, just be able to run and be active,"
Hanell adds that rural schools may be a focus for the group's research in the future. "Children in rural
he says. Running, jumping rope and small-team
areas had the worst risk factor profiles and indeed
UNC-CH significantly improved heart disease risk
soccer without goals were part of the exercise
had the best response to interventions," she says.
factors in third- and fourth-graders through an eight' week intervention program. The interventions had
program used in the study. The exercises were
two parts: on three days of the school week the
groups moving.
as 3 have fatty
streak in their aortas that may fore-
shadow heart disease later in life. But there is hope. A group of researchen at
children received 2Gminute exercise periods. 0n the other two days of the school week, they received
designed to be fun and to keep the large muscle
Hanell
says that the
children enjoyed partici-
The researchers studied two methods of inter'
vention: largegroup intervention in which all thirdand fourth-graders in randomly selected schools received the interventions; and small'group inter-
pating in the study, and that their enthusiasm was
vention that focused on children believed to be at'
infectious. "ln one of the schools, the seventh'and
risk for cardiovascular disease based on health and
"The behaviors that we believe are related to
eighth-grade students petitioned the principal to be
fitnes pre-asesments. The students in the small
atherosclerotic changes are initiated in childhood," says Joanne Harrell, an assistant profesor in the
allowed to have an exercise program Iike the third-
groups had the advantage of having fewer students per teacher, allowing them to have more personal-
lesons that stressed the importance of good health.
School of Nursing and the principal investigator on the school-based intervention research. "lf you can
and fourth-graders were having." "We got involved because of the lack of
ized instruction. "The point was to see if the individualized, small-group intervention was more
learn how to incorporate physical activity into yout
physical education programs in North Carolina," McMunay said. "Schools are dropping P.E. So here
Hanell
Iifestyle and see that it makes a difference when
we have all these fat kids and we're taking away
you're young, you are more apt to continue to be
their options to reduce weight and normalize
devoted to it later on."
blood presure."
succesful than the large-group intervention," says.
E.N.D.E.A.Vo(frf,rg
17
II o
o
Harrell hopes that the school-based interven-l tions will catch on. would like to see this kind of program implemented in the school system. Maybe not all year every year, but for part of the year every
week and perhaps at intervals more often," she says. "l'm hoping that as more
year, for at least eight
people become aware of the potential here and how badly off the children really are, that we can make some impact with a program that is really cheap and easy to do,' she says.
"l am very interested in taking my research beyond academia and hope to affect policy," Hanell adds. "We need to work with school committees on a local, regional and state-wide basis to
do. There's a legislative subcommittee that lools at physical fitnes and youth, and Dr. McMurray made a presentation of our prelimi-
see what we can
Research assistant Diane Dennis monitors porticipants' progress during the bike test in a preissessment fitness screening. The data gathered during the pre<tssessmenls enabled reseorchers to pinplint children already at
The researchers discovered no difference between the two approaches. "We found that the
largegroup intervention worked at least
as
well
with the children as the smallgroup, which really surprised us,' Harrell says. "Clinicians generally
Hanell studied third- and fourth-graders be cause they had reached the age where the inter-
ventions would begin to have a long-term influence on the children. "Developmentally, by about thirdor fourthgrade children seem ready to realize that
think that you deal with people at-risk, and if you focus individually it will help them. Well, with
what they do now can have an impact later on," she says. "Younger than third-grade they really
schoolchildren that wasn't the case.'
can't do that."
Hanell was pleased that the largegroup intervention worked as well as the small-group interven-
The researchers hope that what the kids learn in school now will help keep them healthy for life.
tion because the largegroup intervention is cheaper
"We hope not to just change knowledge but change
and allows all of the children to be involved. "Clear-
behavior," says Annette Frauman, the project's pediatric nurse. "lf they develop habits that stres
ly everyone can benefit from a physical activity program or from more knowledge about heart disease," she says.
nary results before that subcommittee. As a result of that presentation, we've had several calls from
rish for cardiouascular diseose.
exercise and low{at eating, that should put them at lower risk for heart disease."
school districts and concerned parents, but a lot more needs to happen to get it implemented state
wide. I'm eager to discus with legislators, school boards and other groups that have an impact on school curricula ways that my study could be
applied in their settings."
I
"Deuelopmentally, by about third or fourth grade children seem reody to
realize that whot they do nou) can haue an impoct loter on." -Joanne
Harrell
E.N.D.E.A.YoQof,o$
l8
Centr:al Europe Embarks on an Arduous Journey Documenting Why Priuatization Is a Tougher Task Than Anticipated by Christina S. Stock
f I I
n
the papers have documented is that it's a far more
1990 a previously booming Czech electronics
.orprny
complex proces than anybody had ever anticipat'
neededio barterand trade to getsuP o
plies. PIVO Praha (an alias to cover the firm's
identity), the stateowned electronics company, had to borrow money just to cover wages. Customen owed the company $3.7 million, and worker layoffs
The main mision of the project, funded by
tr
a grant from the Johnson & Johnson Corporation,
E
is to provide American and
I
loomed. In an attempt to make the company com-
o
petitive in the dawning era of Iree markets, PIVO's
ies
multinational companwith information to asist investment decisions
and to help busines schools examine private enterprise isues.
management decided to attract a foreign investor. U
The company hired American busines consultant George Jackson. He was to assess the company's
r t
problems and develop a privatization plan. PIVO's history and the task belore Jackson are
E
s
described in one of a series of 15 working papers published by the UNC-CH International Private
Central Europe were actually going about the privatization proces. And what's become clear from our
Priuate Enterprise Deuelopment Research Center.
studies is that there's no single most effective way
says
Dennis Rondinelli, diector of UNC-CH lnternatbnal
priuatization of Central European countries
is
more complicated than the West had expected.
all of the papers, in translation, are used by policy makers in the countries themselves. The U.S. State Department asked for and received a set. And many American consulting firms have also requested the
o
identify different ways that different countries in
clas
rooms of leading American busines schools. And
o
zf
Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. "We tried to
The case-study papers are being used in
I
Enterprise Development Research Center at the
to go about privatization," says Dennis Rondinelli,
ed. It's going to take far longer," Rondinelli says.
c
papers.
The highly focused accounts of privatization processes in the papers demonstrate how the his'
torically unprecedented conversion from a command economy to a marketdriven economy is an inevocable change. And to the dismay of many, the transition will be more complicated than the
quick fix prescribed by many Western consultants
director of the Research Center.
When the communist regimes of Central
Rondinelli commisioned a group of mostly Central European academics and policy makers in
Rondinelli hopes to receive funding to examine how management reacts to and affects environmen-
Europe disintegrated in the late'80s, and democrat'
1991 to examine privatization policy and specific stateowned enterprises (SOEs) considering privati'
tal regulations and conditions in Central European pulp and paper mills. And then, perhaps in a few
ically elected leaders appeared, Westerners rushed
zation in Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary
years, another series to update findings in
The prospects seemed promising. Central Europe,
and the once Yugoslovian republic of Slovenia. The Center published the resulting series of papers
Priuotizotion ond Economic Reformwill come out.
though operating under a planned economy lor
The vital findings of the book, says Rondinelli,
in 1992. Several ol the papers analyze the vulnerabilities and potentials of a number of the dinosaur SOEs: tobacco, electronic, furniture and tool com'
are that
panies. Others examine the privatization of a geographic area or an entire country. This summer the series will come out as a book, litled Priuqtization
l)
the convenion proces from
a command
in to offer advice on how to foster free enterprise.
almost half a century, was industrialized long ago. is skilled and educated, and popu-
The work force
economy to a market economy is greatly more
lations were initially enthusiastic. Infrastructure
complex than ever expected and 2) no formula
roads, railways, airports, telecommunications
exists for privatization; choices abound.
exist. And markets are sizeable. But the former
"What our studies have done is to document
and Economic Reform in Central Europe: the Changing
the fact that there are a dozen different ways of privatizing state enterprises. They all have some
Busrness Climate, published by Quorum Bools. The publication of this work prepares the way
weakneses and some strengths." The papers discus a vast range ol choices, including vouchers,
-
-
communist nations have shown they come with their own labyrinthine set ol problems. The new governments face isues unknown to communist regimes: how to designate property
for the Center's next projected research, a more
buyouts, selling to foreign investors and liquidation
ownership; who should reclaim once confiscated Iand; how to start a stock exchange or privatize
specif ic study examining environmental conditions
"That provides the lramework for people to under'
banls. They must decide to what extent should
and regulations in manufacturing industries.
stand what the alternatives are. The other thing that
foreign busineses be permitted to invest; if SOk
E.N.D.E.A.V.0.R.S
l9
(the majoritv of enterprises) should be shut down,
to a free-market economy rvouid cure communist
sold to pril'ate investors or bought out by manage-
countries' multifarious and rampant ills. Rondinelli
ment or employees; and if vouchers and auctions
He grimly recalls a story a colleague told him
says, 'We'r,e been preaching in the United States
when Rondinelli visited the former Czechoslotakia: "One of the people Iwas working with had gone
should be used to introduce the people to free
for 40 years that's exactly what they need to do if
back and forth from Bohemia to Cermanv for busi-
enterprise.
they want to be able to deal with their economic
nes in
problems effectively, and if it fails, it will not onlv be
people were allowed to travel. My colleague took
"Success 0f macroec0nomic reforms depend-
1990 . After the fall of the communist regime,
ed on two fundamental achievements." Rondinelli
a political embanasment, but it
writes in his paper on the earh'transition period. "The first challenge would be to privatize the large
in which the U.S wlll lose prestige in the world.' The most impodant reason reform must
the living conditions between Czechoslovakia and
rnefficienl and unproductive state-owned manufacturing firms that had dominated these regions'
succeed is that no options exist, Rondinelli says. "There are peopie in these countries whose future
Germany flabbergasted the old man. He began crying and then his son asked, 'Dad. what's the matter?'
economies and had become serious obstacles to
depends on the success of democracy and market
After his father recovered, he looked around at
future growth. The second task was t0 create a
economies. There's nothinq to go back to other than
Cermany''s wealth and said of his former commun-
critical mas of small- and medium-srzed businesses that could generate jobs and tncome for the
a life that's pretty drab and without much hope."
ist rulers, 'they wasted my life."'
will be a situation
his 80-year-old father over to Germany for the first
time in 45 years. And such a drastic difference in
millions of workers who lvould inevitably be displaced bv the industrial restructunng."
Rondinelli explains the unexpected unfolding of events in privatizing countries: "We were just
Enterprising Americans Work Abroad
overly optimistic about the abilitv to transform
a
socialist economies into market ec0nomies very rapidlv. All of these countries are trying to go through reform. privatization. unlortunately at a time when there is a world-wide recession. Also,
I I
I
t the same time the Kenan Institute of
erivate Enterprise formed the International
lPrivate
Center,
it
Enterprise Development Research
also began the MBA Enterprise Corps.
The Corps'executive director Lynne Gerber says, "Members are expected to help implement change and pass on ideas and knowledge to othen
in the company. It's more than just beinq a con-
don't think the international economists who were
The Corps sends recent graduates with Master's
sultant," Being able to implement change is a key
pushing for rapid reform took into consideration
degrees in Busines Administration from 22 lead-
the social implications of it. You're going to have
ing American business schools to Central Europe
to restructure and lav off a lot of people. And
and Southeast Asia.
element in the Corps and distinguishes it from other technical asistance programs, Gerber says. "We're pleased with the development of the
there's nothing to absorb all of that employment.
Corps' members act as in-house consultants
So what we're beginning to see now are social and
in busineses converting from state to private
Corps. We started in '91 with 42 members. In '92,
we had 6i, and this year we have 85," Gerber says,
political backlashes against the rapid pace of pri-
ownership. They survey busineses,
ases the
The program's biggest growth has been in Poland,
vatization." For example, in mid-March of this year,
problems and then help implement solutions,
where members are now in 17 cities, after starting
the Polish Parliament defeated a bill that would
usually over a two-year period.
in two, The feedback from the companies that
have converted 600 state companies into private
enterprises. And this May. a no-confidence vote
Administrated by the Kenan Institute, the Corps is the largest private program providing
hired them is extremely positive," Gerber says. "Many are requesting second Corps members."
brought down the Polish pro-reform government.
technical asistance for enterprise development
The slow pace of reform can also be attribu-
ted to other sources, Rondinelli says, for example,
in Eastern Europe. Selected volunteers from the schools are placed in companies throughout
inveterate sluggishness of managers who were very
Eastern Europe and also in pilot programs in
comfortable under the corrupt communist system.
Southeast Asia and Africa
And, the absence of a model only heightens the
uncertainty for former communist countries, pro-
With support from the Agency for Interna-
tional Development and private sources, the MBA
tracting the pace further. "Nobody has done it on
Enterprise Corps has places 120 members in the
the mas scale that's being tried in Central Europe.
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia,
There's no experience. And as a result, nobody
Ghana and Indonesia. This year the Corps
anticipated all the suffering that would arise,"
be extending to Bulgaria, Uganda and China.
he says.
From the beginning, the Centels research direction has overlapped with the needs of the
Rondinelli explains why he believes capital-
wll
ism needs to succeed rn Central Europe. "They are
Enterprise Corps."We wanted t0 focus 0ur
strategic countries in terms of the world political
research on isues that were of interest to
situation. They could have an impact 0n Western
busineses and to our academic concerns with
European economies, especially if they don't succeed. Already there are large-scale migrations into
private enterprise," Dennis Rondinelli, the Centers director says. "But we also wanted to support the
Cermany. If these economies decline and fail. it will
activities of the MBA Enterprise Corps, providing
be a major social upheaval in that pafi of the world."
information on what was happening with eco-
And, he adds, at stake is the prestige of the Western countries, especially the United States,
who insisted conversion from a planned economy
U.S.
nomic reforms and privatization of state-owned enterprises."
Drnetn ('iurk I itll t. rt |uit: ltridLktt( LtrtLl lltrlgt'! lllutst lirirtt iltrsfurnq/r;n t hl'erstn irr ,\'1. 1.urls tttttil ir rrrriJi Ltt !ltr, (':t'clt Repubttt {r,r KrtLi i tL i',i;, tsliL-t It
kl
] i i ne
r.\' |
()I I
I
p u
I
t ut ljrno. art i llttslrtll -\. counâ&#x201A;Źsy MBA Enrerpnse Corps
i
5,!n.t1 1
E.N.D.E
20
A.V.O.R.s
The Pon'er of a Story Researcher Studies Women Talking about Giuing Birth by Dottie Horn
he twins were both turned feet-down in her uterus, rather than poised head-down ready to descend. Worried about their safety, Leslie decided to have a cesarean. One afternoon two months after the birth, over the course of two hours, Leslie told the story to Asociate Profesor of Speech
Communications Della Pollock. Leslie talked about the binh in her own home, with clasical music playing in the background, with her twins close by. Pollock has talked with 40 women, and occasionally their male partners, about their experiences giving birth. She is interested in the way women make their birth experiences meaningful and power' ful through telling stories about them. lt is not the events of the birth per se that interest her, but the
role and power of the story about those events. In Leslie's case, the events 0f the birth itself were frightening. "lt remains one of the most hor-
{*q*ft
:;
rific stories I heard," says Pollock. A transcript of the interview with Leslie looks like poetry: Pollock
.'â&#x201A;Ź:
u" 'â&#x201A;Ź#,ie
has broken the nanative into separate lines based
on the rhythm of the phrases. Pollock has also used italics to emphasize the streses in Leslie's
words. In Leslie's birth, one of the first things to AIL
pholos coudesy oi l\4ariorie
Pyle BNC, ACCE. Lifecircle.
g0 wrong was the kinking of the tube which slowly
and continuously fed anesthetic into Leslie's spine The numbing of sensation stopped, letting Leslie feel the doctors cutting through the muscles in her
Each birth story is a performance. Performance encompasses the doing of the story, which includes
qualities of the storyteller's uoice, body and surroundings, as well as the interpretation of the story's numerous and fluctuating meanings.
abdomen, During and after the cesalean, Leslie was given morphine, which had an unusual side effect, paralyzinQ her colon. At first, Leslie did not know
that her colon was paralyzed. Because she was unable to eliminate anything through her bowels, Leslie's abdomen swelled over the course of two days back to her pre-delivery size. Her obstetrician
prescribed an oral laxative. Leslie's husband, Jim, a physician who had completed his residency and was a fellow at the hospital, intervened.
"
An oroll
laxative just wasn't gonna go anywhere because
ny bowel wasl paralyzed," Leslie related. lf Leslie's distended bowel had gotten worse, she might have ended up needing a colostomy. "He saued my colon by himself," Leslie said of Jim, who argued with another physician until Leslie was taken off the
morphine. Because of the bowel problems, Leslie was eatinq and drinking nothing. receiving nour-
21
,/,
l"r ;
* ,t $\
l'
s
*rh
:./l' ..f, "
.,i
ishment onll'through IVs. " [t] rvas verv difficulti 'cause Iwas trying to nurse both babies, So I'm
drinking nothing/ and I was just so thirsty I could screom " Leslie said.
Four da,vs after the cesarean. the staples were removed from Leslie s incision. Leslie's obstetrician stopped b),to say the incision looked good, When Jim looked at the incision. he was immediately concerned. "What had happened is that the obste-
trician had now mised a/ second
moTor complica-
tion." Leslie said. Some of Leslie
stitches had split
s
open. 'lt was basicaliy a gaping hole the slze of a
.
silver dollar and/ about like/ Iike like an inch and Even so, Lesle's voice was full of power as
ahalf deep." Leslie said. Because a life{hreatening
or reconciling themselves to their experiences,"
infection might have ensued. the opening could
she says. "But, the stories are alwa!'s more ambit a-
she t0ld the story. "To tell a story is to exercise
not be restrtched. "The1'' have to reson to a sort of barbaric wa1' of making it heal and that/ is b-v pack-
lent than that. There's always something else going
agency. It's to do something rather than to be done
on, and much of that can be traced to the perform-
to." says Pollock, explaining the power of story-
rnq rt./ Now. I couldn t take anv narcotjcs for the
ative act of telling."
telline, especially abouI one's bodily experiences.
Some people, for example. might interpret
poin of this," Leslie said. Three times a day. the wound was packed with saline gauze.
Leslie's relaxed voice whrle
tellng her story as evi"
story. Pollock had spoken with her several times.
dence that talkinq about the bad experience was making her feel better, Pollock disagrees. "Les[e
"But I had never heard her so clear and so focused,"
counterpointed her story repeatedly by saying, 'l m
says Pollock. 'Hervoice was low and relaxed and
not one of those people who needs to tell their story.' One reason why she said, 'l don't need to tell it.'
Before the dav on which Leslie revealed this
so powerful, in the telling of what was a totally'
"A story is an embodied action. lt's something that
you do in and with your body in relation t0 someone else," says Pollock. "There's in the act of telling an achievement of a new identity that is determined
in collaboration with listeners. That new identity reflects the birthing mothers efforls at making the birth meaningful in her own terms. She is not just
disempowering event." How does Pollock explain Leslie's voice rvhile teiling the story? "There is a
might have been that she presumed people need
receiving ali of these meanings from out there and
to tell to make themselves feel better, It didn't make
enacting them, It's a way of reshaping the body or
way in which some stories function for women as
her feel better. There was a salting of the wound
recovering one's material vitality for oneself and
involved in havinq to tell." says Pollock.
one's own interest."
a wa1' of getting
rid of bad feelings, or overcoming
SPLITTING OPEN AND FIAMES AND JOURNEYS Women Talk about
Birthing Pain
ngry at hospital staff who had
broad physical gesturing." Along
these stars/ and what happened was
treated her rudely and given
with Amanda's anger, says Pollock, came one of the most vivid descrip-
was pushing so hard at the end I was
her lVs and a fetal monitor she
didn't want, Amanda gestured in wide
tions of the pain of birth she has
sweeping motions as she talked about
heard:
giving birlh. About a year after the birth, Amanda was telling the story to Asociate Profesor of Speech Communications Della Pollock.
"Presure, and/ stretching, and/ uh, breakinq...."
Pollock: "Yeah," Splining open and it was coming out [the] anus/ and you know just.../
busting blood vessels in my face..,."
Pollock: 'Ughhhh' "... so that I was pushing too hard
and I had you know my eyes closed tightly." Such graphic, detailed descriptions of birthing pain were rare
the brggest presure/ and deep pain
among the women she talked to, says Pollock, "ln most of the stories.
talked with Amanda extensively,"
likei (laughs) waves/ and then I felt
it's this great gap, this thing that
Pollock says, "but I'd never seen this
like I was kinda underand seeing
people don't talk about," she says.
Pollock
is studying 40 women's
stories about giving
birth. 'l had
I
22
"Meny uomen I talk to, their mothers
had unconscious births and so don't haue stories to tell. We're coming out of a generation of silence." -Della
Pollock
Turning back to Leslie, Pollock explains how bodily her story was. "She had a highly rhythmic quality. She was breathing her story out," Pollock explains, also citing Leslie's vivid bodily descriptions, as of the wound opening. Moreover, there was a tension in Leslie's story. "She was poised
between that place of experiencing her body as a spectacle, floating out there, seeing all these things happening to her, and then in the act of narrative, being able and encouraged to talk about what it was like from inside, from the perspective of the person that it's being done to," says Pollock. For example, Leslie related in detail the argument
between her husband and another physician over
example, Anna saw their cat with a limp blue jay
the morphine. Leslie even ascribed each person
in its mouth. Anna chased the cat for ten minutes,
tions is perlormance studies, considers each birth
dialogue. But then she turned inside to her own fears and sensations: "l could have ended up... being
The cat eventually dropped the motionles jay on
story a performance. Performance encompasses,
the ground, standing guard over it. Screaming and
says Pollock, the doing of the story,
wheeled into surgery to [have] a portion of my colon removed... I was just delirious with pain."
clapping her hands, Anna ran at the cat, scaring it
qualities of the storyteller's voice, body and sur-
into running off. The lay flew to the top of a tree.
roundings; as well as the interpretation of the story's
Anna was four days late for her period. At that
numerous and fluctuating meanings. "What I'm not
in are the ones that are just real happy," says Pollock,
moment, Anna says, she knew she was pregnant. "The omens justify a romance of the baby and the
doing is studying narrative texts exclusively," says Pollock. "That would give me a very different sense
As Anna and Michael told their story, they focused
birth that one might conventionally think
on the mystical experiences which accompanied their in-vitro fertilization. "They're deeply indebted
tering the story of science. Actually, I see it as filling
sumes stability and closure, and all of these stories
out the story of science, enabling it. lt's not folk
are totally provisional." Provisional means not only
to medical technologies and see science as mirac-
knowledge positioned against medical or scientific
that the story is a product of the moment when it is
ulous in the context of the birth of their baby," says
knowledge. They're interrelated and feed each
Not all of the stones were frightening or ciltical
like Leslie's. "Many of the ones I'm most interested
is coun-
Pollock, whose area of speech communica-
which includes
of what the story is about. The narrative text pre-
Pollock. Hand-in-hand with this gratitude to medi-
other and make each other more meaningful,"
told, but also that its meanings vary as well. "l've talked with some people two or three times, and
cine are the four omen stories they tell about their
says Pollock,
the story's c0mpletely different each time.
birth. 0n the day of their wedding anniversary, for
0r they
play out a different aspect of it," says Pollock.
"l often push them. Isay, 'Well what did it feel like? And that prompts
natural childbirth. It says you're sup-
said one woman. "Someone had told
talk about the pain in a way that isn't
posed to be in control ol the pain. If
me it would be like bad menstrual
some interesting metaphors or
clich6, their descriptions are more
cramps and it wasn't like that at all.//
nothing at all. 0r women resort to
metaphoric than Amanda's. "lt seems
you're doing it right, you won't feel pain. So, women are under the pres
we don't have an adequate language for pain, partly because people
sure of all ol these diflerent messages
pains in colors and real intense pain,l
that say that pain isn't acceptable.
it's like the top of a llame (laughs)./
In Amanda's case, anger served
haven't been authorized to speak
So, it either gets repressed, forgotten,
You know the blue pa( is always the
stimulus. "The anger she felt at
the clasic, 'lwas in some discom-
fort.' 0r, 'lt hurt like hell.
"
ln many cases, when women do
It was a b/ue
pain.// Idon't, Isee, Isee
about it," says Pollock. "ln the context
or it seeps out in these various
most intense part,/ it's quite intense
the doctors and nurses who had
of birth, you're pretty much taught
acceptable ways."
and I was very fortunate that I didn't
been incredibly rude to her," says
that the pain is not as bad as you think, or you're just being hysterical.
women used to describe pain was
umm,/ but that,/ it kind olleft me
And then there's this machismo in
flames. "lt was not like any.thing,"
breathles it wasso/ intense."
as a
Pollock, "enabled her to talk about the pain. It was a point of access."
One acceptable metaphor
go into that intense part forvery long...
E.N.D.E.A.V.Oof,.S
2,1
In addition to the bodily and provisional sides to the performance of a story, there rs also an
interactive dimension. "ln the interviewing," says Pollock. "there would often be this moment when
Birth is a prime moment of enculturation for u)omen.
the person would stop and say, 'So, what happened
During birth, women receiDe many messages about who
to you?"' Pollock, who has two children. would tell
they are as uomen and mothers from doctors, families
her birth stories. They weren't always interested in
ond the culture ot large.
what I said, but they'knew they'had to ask me. There was a very demanding sense
0f'0K, now you
tell me. I've been exposing all this to you. Iwant to make sure that you're able to hear this and that
you're risking
as much
vulnerability
as i
moment of enculturation for women, she says.
am."'Talk-
ing about performance includes talking about what
During birth, women receive many messages about
happens in the relationship between performer
who they are
and audience. "The performative event includes the
families and the culture at large. For example, some
audience member as a participant," says Pollock.
messages many women receive during birth are
as women and mothers from doctors,
Pollock says that in many cases, she has been
that their bodies are an instrument for having a
the first person, or audience member, to hear these
baby, and that their well-being should be sacri-
stories. "As told in 'natural' contexts," says Pollock,
ficed for the baby's. Pollock would like women t0
"the stories tend to be, at least by the account of
have a greater role in defining themselves and the
the women I've talked to, much more fragmentary,
significance of giving birth, rather than having
buried, or not there at all. 0r, told a lot for the first
these meaninqs determined for them.
Already, the stories women have told Pollock
few weeks. and then not after that." Pollock likes
have gained a life of their own. Since hearing
what she calls the interventionist quality of her interviews. "The interview as an explicitly artificial
so don't have stories to tell," says Pollock. "We're
Leslie's story, for example, Pollock has told it again
context is providing a new occasion for this kind
coming out of a generation of silence."
and again. "l knew that I had to do that," she says, "that I was authorized to by the need to caution
0f talk. It s authorizing it and giving it a reason to
If Pollock has been the first person to hear
continue. The interview provides a stage that is
some of the stories she has collected. she won't be
others and gain supporl for Leslie's point of view."
lacking in our everyday codes of communication,"
the last. She is writing a book, which will relate the
Pollock says that people need to hear Leslie's story
says Pollock.
stories to four issues: body, knowledge, dialogue
because it has the power to reshape and reinform
and resistance. "The first effect that I hope the book will have is to prompt more people to tell
their thinking. Those who have heard it start talk-
their stories and t0 tell them over and over again
negligent obstetrician being a woman, the prob-
of doctors tell people not to listen to stories or to
and to make up new ones," says Pollock. "l hope it
lems asociated with bifihing in a hospital, and the
disrespect them. iust listen to your doctor or read
will give these stories a new authority," 0n another
gender roles implicit in Leslie's relationship with
your books, lhe Whot to Expect When You're Expecting books, which are sort of the standard
level, Pollock would like people to think more
her husband. Leslie's story sets many other conversations into play. "lt's that ongoing life of the story
Birth stories used to be told much more generally and often, Pollock says. People don't tell them as much now for a variety of reasons. "A lot
story now," says Pollock. Some women don't talk
about what their own birth stories mean and how they might like t0 tell them so as to "recover even
about their births because they are embanased by
more of the power of telling," she says.
not having had as much control over the experience as they wanted and expected. "Many women I talk to,
their mothers had unconscious births and
0ther women described their
ing about isues including the irony of Leslie's
that is one of its main soutces of power," says Pollock.
I
Ultimately, Pollock hopes that her work will stimulate more people to think and talk about the
politics of contemporary birth. Birth
who loves you so much,/ To just see
is a prime
Physical pain also gets mixed up
when hospital staff was less than
pain as a journey. "You don't even
you go to the bowels of hell and
with all kinds 0f emotional pain. says
respectful, women felt vulnerable
know/ where you are. You just don't,"
back/ (laughs) quite literally, you
Pollock. For many women, it is not
to manipulation. "lt wasn't just trau-
said one woman. "You're in another world./ It's like you transport, you
know, and... deliver/ this just, these
the intensity of the pain which is at
beautiful creatures." Pollock
the root of their feelings and often
matic in terms of being so painful physically." says Pollock, "The pain
have to go and get the baby/ on
on the journey metaphor's appeal: "Pain can be totally, immediately
their silence about the pain of giving
is where women lost their own sense
birth. Rather, it is the vulnerability
of center and sense of identity. That
overwhelming. To cast it into the
which accompanies such intense
was the center of the trauma for them."
pain. "Sometimes women just felt
I
another planet, bring the baby back, and it's this/ very... painful journey."
hter in the interview,
the woman
continues this theme: "l think how/
women did it years ago and I don't know./ To not have someone there
terms of a
ref
lects
story-one's going on
a
quest-rationalizes it to some extent, puts it into more human and 'heroic'
didn't like and felt embanased
terms."
about," says Pollock. In other cases,
pasive to the pain in ways they
Student Reseorch
24
SCHOIARIY PURSUITS Equality in A Mexican Junior High School
I
I I I
percent t0 l5 percent of students are lndian, the indigenous people of Mexico, while the remaining students are mestizo, the mixed race of Spanish and Indian. In clas terms, E.S.F. was more hetero-
t a secundaria or iunior high school in
Uexico,
l
-yearoid Antonio srruggles to oe
accepted in the group of four upper-middle
geneous than many schools in the United States.
p
"You'd be amazed that kids in the same clasroom
o
clas boys who occasionally call themselves the
would be living in such disparate situations," says
Juanitos. After living all his life in a peasant village,
Levinson. "Some were coming from peasant com-
Antonio had moved to the city and acquired money
munities where they didn't have running water in
the Mexican junior hiqh school or secundaria colled
t0 spend on hip clothes and a racing bike two years
the house, and had a pit toilet and dirt floors, to
E.S.F. encourages ifs sludenls tr,t see themselues as
earlier, when his father had obtained his own truck-
some of the wealthier kids in the town, who were
ing busines. His father, Antonio tells the Juanitos,
living something similar to an upper-middle-clas
recently bought a Golf. A Golf is a late-modelVolla-
lifestyle that we would know here, with the satellite
wagen. Speaking in an accent, Antonio pronounces Golf with an aspirated '9" instead of a hard "g," "Holf"
dish and kids having motorbikes."
instead of "Golf." The Juanitos burst out laughing
the grupos escolares, or school groups. Formed at
Teachers encouraged equality largely through
Hauing students utear uniforms is one way in which
Todos somos iguales, l4le are all equal.
began recounting all the car names Antonio had mispronounced. "l see [Antonio] as very different
fiom you guys; he's got another style," Levinson said.
the beginning of the students' three years at the
at Antonio's pronunciation. Six months into his field work at this particu-
larsecundaria, Bradley Levinson, an August
1993
Alberto responded: "You're referring to the
secundaria, each grupo escolar is a clas of 3!50
school, and in the school it's another story entirely.
students. "Students are with this group the whole
ln the school you have friends that are all different
doctoral graduate in anthropology, listened to the
school day and all three years," explains Levinson.
kinds of students, from high and low society, but
Juanitos describe this incident with Antonio. It was
Each grupo escolar has students of varying abilities
there are certain school friends with whom you get
only one of many incidents Levinson observed or
and roughly an equal number of students from
heard described in which Antonio wavered on the
peasant villages. "Teachers are constantly exhorting
together (here he listed the three other Juanitos)." Levinson asked again: "Yeah, but that's what
edges of the group, sometimes ridiculed but never
students to see each other as equal," says Levinson.
I'm saying. You guys may get along with everyone,
totally rejected. Levinson's work was advised by
Todos somos iguales are the often repeated Spanish
from high society to low society, but even still, you
Profesor of Anthropology Dorothy Holland. His
words for'We are all equal'.
get along best and get t0gether most often with
year of fieldwork was funded by a Fulbright Fixed-
During almost daily visits to the school,
Sum Student Grant, and his writing was funded
Levinson documented how the teachers' discourse
by the Spencer Foundation and an 0n-Campus
ol Todos somos igucles manifested itself in students'
Disertation Fellowship.
identities and interactions with other students. In
Levinson went to Mexico to study how clas-,
addition to observing and talking to the 20 focal
those who are more or as
les from
the same situation
yourself, right?"
Alberto hedged: "But I also get along well with allthe rest!" The Juanitos' hesitance to even admit that
race-, and gender-based divisions among students
students he selected, he attended student parties
they make clas-based distinctions is exceptional,
were either transformed or reproduced at this par-
and visited students' homes when welcome, even
says Levinson. In schools in previously studied
ticular secundaria, which he calls by the pseudonym
taking trips with two different families. "My goal,"
countries, researchers have found race- and class-
Escuela Secundaria Federal, or E.S.F. At stake in
says Levinson, "was t0 get in touch with the fine-
based tensions erupting, resulting in students'
his research are questions including, How can
grained details of students' lives."
spray painting graffiti on school property, verbally
teachers and schools best intervene to encourage
He found that, at E.S.F., there wasn't any,thing
abusing each other or fighting. At an American
students to transcend divisions among themselves?
Iike the subcultures that researchers have found in
What impact can schools hope to have? "What happens in schools usually," says
American, European and Australian schools.
had even a chance to hang around with the
Although he found lriendship groups such
Juanitos, and they would have been even more
as the
school, says Levinson, "Antonio never would have
Levinson, 'is that students create all sorts of distinc-
Juanitos, they did not define themselves in opposi-
tions among themselves. Usually those distinctions
tion to the mainstream school culture. The friend-
form into subcultures." A subculture is a group
ship groups were also more ephemeral and com-
of mixed ability groups and emphasis on equalig
which has its own distinguishing symbols and prac-
plex in terms of the race and clas identities 0f the
does influence how students see themselves and
tices, and in most cases, resists an official main-
group members.
relate t0 each other. The secundaria's approach
The Juanitos' neither fully accepting n0r
stream culture. For example, members of one
disparaging of him than they were." Levinson concludes that the secundaria's use
also had limitations. As an example, gender-based
subculture that has been observed in American schools, the "Burnouts," oppose the official school
rejecting Antonio is an example of this complexity.
distinctions proved more intractable. Girls who
The Juanitos' wavering position finally led Levinson
spent a lot of time talking about boys rarely social-
culture by ignoring clas asignments, disrupting
to ask directly: "Okay, tell me if Antonio is a Juanito
ized with girls whose parents told them not to talk
asemblies with cynical remarks, and locating
or not." Levinson was tape recording an interview
to or about boys.
themselves in marginal rather than central spaces
with three of the Juanitos in one of the boys'
"The school is only one institution in society,
at school. Usually, observes Levinson, subcultures
kitchens. "He definitely pulls with the guys," said
that in many ways reflects the balance of power in society," says Levinson. "My disertation suggests
Alberto, implying that he was a member of the group. Levinson prompted the boys further. "The
that the school can make modest inroads into
have a clas or ethnic identity. However, virtually all 0f the research on student culture has been done in American, European and Australian schools.
dominant structures of inequality. But, only that.
because in the midst of student diversity, teachers
thing is that sometimes he tall$ with a little accent," said Alberto, "and that's why we give him a hard
a much more powerful transformative agent in
encouraged equality among students. At E.S.F.,
time, and we don't like the way he looks." Alberto
society."
Levinson was interested in
E.S.F.
partly 10
It remains to be seen whether the school can be
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