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Page 2 • Thursday, April 17, 2003 Opinions The Pendulum Establi.flitfd 137+ The Pendulum Registration: there’s a ghtch in the system It’s that time of year again: registration time. And at Eion, the fledgling online registration “experiment” has had ill effects. Sunday night, 400 students went to bed knowing they would be registering for classes at 6 the next morning, an hour on the clock scarcely seen by college students. The same 400 students woke up at different times on Monday, some at 5:45 a.m., while the lollygaggers stayed in bed until 5:58 a.m. and sluggishly made it to their com puters, focused their eyes and began to click. But this year, many students who woke up at 5:58 were sad to see that a class they wanted had been filled by 5:55 a.m. As many workers in the registrar's office were busy telling students that morning, all clocks are different. But the comjiuter’s clock was different enough that it required a little adjustment. After receiving complaints about one senior seminar class that was full before the scheduled 6 a.m. registration time, workers realized the clocks on the Datatel system were about six minutes ahead of schedule. This means that overzealous students were able to register for all of their classes before many had even gotten out of bed. And the students who fol lowed the rules described in their registration booklets suffered. The glitch was fixed Tuesday afternoon, but for many students, the damage has already been done. 5:58 a.m. is not 6 a.m. For that matter. 5:45 a.m. is not 6 a.m., either. Seems obvious enough, but maybe not as nnich to tlu- registrar’s office. The Pendulum Colin Donohue, Editor in-Chief Katie Beaver, Managing Editor Lindsay Porter, News Editor Jessica Patchett, Assistant News Editor Eric Hall, Opinions Editor And! PetrinI, A & E Editor Kaitlyn North, Asst. A & E Editor Kathleen Frey, Features Editor Kristin SimonettI, Sports Editor Nick Palatiello, Sports Editor Tim Rosner, Photography Editor Mary-Hayden Britton and Ellis Harman, Copy Editors Annette Randall, Business Manager Malt Ford, Online Editor Janna Anderson, Adviser The Pendulum is published each Thursday of the academic year. The advertising and editorial copy deadline is 5 p.m. the Monday before publi cation. Letters to the editor and guest columns are welcome and should t)e typed, double-spaced, signed and include a telephone number for verifica tion. Submissions are also accepted as Word documents on disk or by e- mail. The Pendulum reserves the right to edit obscene or potentially libelous material. Lengthy letters or columns may have to be trimmed to fit. All sub missions t)ecome the property of The Pendulum and will not tie returned. To reach The Pendulum at 233 Moseley Center, call 278-7247 or fax 278- 7246, Contact The Pendulum by e-mail at pendulum@elon.edu. Visit our Web site at www.elon.edu/pendulum. Each individual Is entitled to one free copy Students should use speakers to discover their own politicai views Alex Smith Guest Columnist I was sitting at a Macintosh computer in the School of Communications the other day and wanted to pass the time by looking at The Pendulum on line. I glanced at the Opinions sec tion to find Jameson Dion’s arti cle about a need for the adminis tration to improve the quality of education at Elon. Astonished with this because 1 believe Elon offers an excellent education, I read on. There are three words that can describe my reaction to his article. I was shocked. 1 am a senior at Elon who has never written an article for The Pendulum before, but I feel passionate about this subject and want to force change. My willingness to make change can be illustrated in the words of the Eminem song, “Without Me”: “Now this looks like a job for me so everybody just follow me cuz we need a lit tle controversy cuz it feels so empty without me.” Some students understand why many speakers address their political perspective. “Maybe because of the war people are more likely to present their political perspective,” said junior Gabrielle Komorowski. “It’s good to hear the liberal side but it’s good to hear from the other side,” junior Lauren Thorneburg said. To begin aUacking Dion’s argument, I inust know his side. He argues that although we have had some “important individu als” such as Cornel West and Desmond Tutu, the majority of speakers arc liberal. This is a minority view because the majority of the stu dents who attend this school are conservative. He does have a .somewhat valid point about bal ancing the political views of our speakers. He says that he wants his “parents’ money to be used to educate, not to indoctrinate." Does Elon “indoctrinate” stu u She showed me pictures of Iraqi children with cancer, a shelter where a U.S. bomb landed and incinerated 400 people and many other depressing pictures of the war-torn country. It almost made me a pacifist. So why should it matter that we evaluate speakers on their political views? dents? Part of getting a higher education is getting all views, even those you may disagree with, and discerning what you like and dislike about them. Then you form your own opinion. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, taught to me by assistant professor Brooke Barnett. This year there may have been a disproportionate number of lib eral speakers at Elon. However, Dion must not have known what speakers have come to Elon. Since my freshman year, we have had at least six “conserva tive” people come to Elon. One of the most prestigious was for mer President George H. W. Bush. If this isn’t conservative, I don’t know what is. The Liberal Arts Forum has also sponsored speakers from the Young America’s Foundation, which is a conservative national organiza tion for college students based at the Ronald Reagan Ranch. So Elon has recognized the conservative side. If 1 had not been exposed to some of the cur ricula at Elon, I probably would n’t be who 1 am today. Dion is further upset that we have yet to hear a “pro-war” indi vidual. I would like to know the implications of what it means to be “pro-war.” I would argue that you can be pro-U.S foreign ptili- cy or pro-Bush without being “pro-war.” Being a Democrat doesn’t mean being anti-war and being a Republican doesn’t mean being pro-war. War is intrinsically wrong. No one in their right mind could say that killing people, starving fam ilies and causing worldwide destruction are good things. I was actually pro-U.S foreign pol icy when we first went after Saddam. I want this guy out of there so bad it’s not even funny. I recently talked to Lenore Yarger, who went to Iraq to expe rience the disparities there first hand. She showed me pictures of Iraqi children with cancer, a shel ter where a U.S. smart bomb landed and incinerated 400 peo- ple,and many other depressing pictures of the war-torn country. It almost made me a pacifist. So why should it matter that we evaluate speakers on their political views? I feel that speak ers should be chosen based on the person, not the politics. I am a member of the Liberal Arts Forum, and this is how I base decisions on speakers. 1 urge all students to go to speakers and discern for them selves what they believe. The more educated views you know will make you a more edu cated participant in our democra cy. When we can get more edu cated Americans to take hold of their rights as voters, this country will prosper. We as young people have the ability to shape our nation’s future. The tools to shape this future are out there you just have to find them. Sometimes they might actual ly be right under you nose. Hopefully with this article I can inspire others to discover their political views. Contact Alex Smith at pendu- lum@elon.eJu or 278-7247.
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