I Welcome Back Week: 'UNCW offers numerous events to start the semester | 5 Basketball’s wild winter: Q S Men’s team loses players, wins five straight | w ilT January 9, 2003 Volume LIV, Number 14 w Serving UNC Wilmington since 1948, k One not enough Colleges seeing an increase in double majors. Sarah Broders Assistant News Editor Many college students are choosing to widen their field of expertise and pursue multiple majors. At Georgetown University, 23 percent of 2002 undergraduates had two majors, as opposed to 14 percent in 1996. At Washington University, 42 percent of arts and sciences undergraduates had two majors, as opposed to 28 percent five years earlier. Over 160 under graduates at the University of Wisconsin have three, four or even five majors. UNCW is no different. “What we have seen is that up until and around the 1980s there were 10 or so students who graduated with a second major,” said Nannette Manning, Director and Electronic Records Officer of University Planning, Assessment and Institutional Research. "Then in the first half of the 1990s we saw that double to around 20. We saw another jump from around 40 in 1995 to 90 in 1997. The number has remained around 100 since 1999.” Bonnie Howard, assistant reg istrar. said that although she has not seen a fourth major, there have been a handful of students at UNCW with three majors. There are several ways stu dents are able to accomplish earn ing multiple majors. Freshmen come into UNCW with many credits from advanced placement high school classes or summer school. Students enroll in classes that will fulfill requirements for core courses, as well as courses in one or both of their majors. Elective credit hours are also used to fulfill requirements for their majors. “I think students certainly have enough room in the credit hours to get a double major,” geography professor Elizabeth Hines said. Some professors have mixed feelings on whether or not a stu dent should pursue more than one major. Hines, for example feels that if a student is going into the business sector, there is no point in pursuing more than one major. If a student were going on to grad uate school then the double major would be more useful. “I still think that the best strategy is to take a variety of subjects and see what you like, then concentrate in that in your junior and senior year.” Some majors can easily be combined, like certain sciences such as biology and chemistry, said Scott Quackenbush, profes sor and department chair for the biological sciences department. President Bush and the First Lady sing with soldiers gearing for war. News from the Winter Break James Flint Editor-in-Chief While college campuses were quiet over the holiday break, the rest of the world was in full spin. The first day of 2003 brought news of more troops being deployed to the Persian Gulf. According to a recent article from the Associated Press 15,000 to 17,000 soldiers will be deployed in the first few weeks of 2003. The thousands of soldiers being sent from Fort Stewart and Fort Benning in Georgia are tank operators, attack helicopter pilots and highly mobile infantry. The Pentagon has prepared thousands of personnel and two aircraft carriers full of combat aircraft to go to the Persian Gulf The USS Abraham Lincoln, a large nuclear powered aircraft carrier, will remain in the Pacific Ocean and Arabian Gulf instead of returning home in February as previously scheduled. All move ment is in part of preparation for war with Iraq. On Monday, Jan. 6 — Iraqi Army day — Saddam Hussein announced through a televised speech that his country was ready for war with the United States and criticized United Nations weapon inspectors of being intelligence gatherers according to an Associated Press report. In the same speech, Saddam said that the U.S. threats to disarm his country are a distraction from U.S. problems both at home and overseas. The verified nuclear capabili ties of North Korea is a problem Bush and his advisers are working on. According to a report by CNN, the United States agreed to meet with North Korea about end ing their nuclear operations. North Korea has developed two nuclear bombs and sells SCUD missies to Yemen. The United States also faces problems at home. The country is at the highest rate of unemploy ment in eight years. According to NBC Nightly News, there are cur rently 8.5 million unemployed Americans, which is 6 percent of the U.S. population. The Bush administration has a new economic stimulus plan that will benefit every tax paying American. The $674 billion plan will take place over the next 10 years. The crux of the stimulus plan is the cutting of federal income tax on profits made selling stock. This change in federal pol icy will allow Americans to invest more in the stock market, thus improving the American economy. President Bush told reporters that economic growth and envi ronmental protection are closely related. Recent changes in envi ronmental law call for required limitations on three types of air pollutant emissions from power plants, but other regulations will be dropped. Certain Democrats and envi ronmentalists claim that Bush's changes to clean-air regulations will hurt the environment while See break, Page 2 ITM.1 ■ 1 il i v.L^ Contact Us Office: 962-3229 Visit Us OP/ED UNCW Life Classifieds Sports www.theseahawk.org 4 5 8 9 Ads: 962-3789