Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Sept. 26, 2001, edition 1 / Page 7
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September 26, 2001 Meredith Herald Second Opinion 7_ This is your world, know what is going on country. These are all things that will take considerable time and effort to rectify, but there is one other realization that is equally disturbing but significantly easier to correct, Americans, par ticularly young Americans, are the most ignorant citi zens in the world when it comes to knowing general facts about interna tional affairs and their own govern ment. If ever present in a room filled with “intelligent” college students, you will quickly be given an answer if you ask about the score of the Braves game or the hours of the ABC store. However, try asking them to name John McCain's most pro fited platform or to list Afghanistan's neighboring countries, chances are you will be answered with only blank looks. I have met many students who could tel! you every shade of Clinique lipstick but could not utter a word when asked about President Bush’s stem cell research policy, the Fed’s dropping of interest rates or our country's involvement in Israel. Why is this? Why don’t young Americans care about what is going on around them? It only takes thir ty minutes to watch the news or skim the newspaper. Here is another idea: Listen to the news when it comes on the radio instead of changing the station to avoid it like the plague. *^Can someone please tell me when it went out of style to be knowledgeable about what’s going on the world?” The Campus Forum JONi Smith Managrng Editor D Are young Americans really as Ignorant as we think? Since the September 11 ter rorist attacks, I have been forced to accept many unset tling and disturbing truths. To begin with, we are not as safe as we think we are. And yes, we have a long road ahead of us to end terror ism. Perhaps the most difficult to understand is the fact that thousands of innocent Ameri cans lost their lives at the hand of a madman who is being purposely hidden by another Condolences from around the world, former visiting professors from China The tellers below were sent lo Dr. Carolyn Hopper, professor of history, by Dr Lan Tian, and Dr Jia Xiuhai, bolh exchange profes sors from Dongbet Universiiy in China. Boih professors visiied Meredhh to teach and siudy in 1999and2000, respectively. Inihe letters ikey express their deep sor row for the tragedies of Sept. II, 2001 in New York City and Wash ington. D.C. Dear Carolyn, It is a great relief that my dearest Lao Taitai and her fam ily are fine. I am terribly sorry to hear such bad news. I am sorry for the innocent victims. Take care of yourself, and don’t let me worry about you. You know I love you! Tian Hi Dr. Happer, We are very sad and shocked to have heard and seen from TV the terrorist attacks on sev eral U.S. cities. We express our heartfelt condolences to the families of all the deceased. We love American people, and we ABSOLUTELY don’t want to see any harms that are done to your people. Hope you’ll soon recover from your deep sorrow. This is Jia with a sad heart. An inexpensive education cannot be a quality education, says alumni Dear Editor: I read with interest the edito rial in the last issue of your paper from sophomore Terry Howell regarding the tuition increase for this year and the coming years. As a businesswoman, the current President of the Alum nae Association and the mother of a 1999 graduate as well as (and particularly) a high school senior and freshman, I too felt compelled to address this issue. When I applied to Meredith, I also applied to Duke and Wake Forest. At the time, these three schools were comparable in the SAT averages of their incom ing students and in the respect with which they were held in The Meredith Herald encourages letters to the edi tor. For your letter to be con sidered for publication, it must be typed and signed by the author. Also, include a contact name, address and telephone number. All letters submitted become the property of the Meredith Herald, and the newspaper reserves the right to edit submsissions or to choose not to print them. the community. I don’t remember what the tuition differences were then, but they were probably relative to what they are this year. Over the past 10 years, I have sat in Alumnae meetings and been appalled at the widen ing gap between our tuition and those of the schools we former ly competed against. It seemed to me and other alumnae that our focus had switched from being a school of the highest quality to being a school of the largest enroll ment. The message we were send ing was that we were a cheaper alternative to a first class edu cation. The SAT scores of our incoming students were drop ping and instead of competing with Duke, UNCCH, NCSU and Wake Forest for students, we were competing with sec ond tier public and private schools. We were trying to be every thing to everyone instead of focusing on our traditional strengths: faculty/student ratio, demanding academics includ ing the sciences and a nurturing environment where young women could develop leader ship skills in a way that was impossible on a coed campus. I believe these should still be our strengths. A quality private school edu cation is expensive; there is no way around it. An inexpensive private school education cannot be a quality education. Dr Hartford’s initiatives are imperative to bring us back to where we were 30 years ago and then move beyond that. I believe the value of my degree has been diminished over the past years and I am excited about seeing it restored. No one will pay a higher price for this than me if I enroll two daughters at Meredith over the next five years. Although we are now in dif ferent times, there should be no difference in the relevant qual ity of a Meredith education. Our task as alumnae is to raise more money to help the Can someone please tell me when it went out of style to be knowledgeable about what’s going on the worid? I was absolutely amazed when I sat with a group of friends, who happen to be “intelligent “college students. A couple of them did not know who Colin Powell is, and some of the others thought Israel was next to China. The most disturbing com ment I heard was, “Hey, there’s Bush. Where’s Hillary? Doesn’t the First Lady always stand beside the president when he’s on T.V. ” >(>! an unsMiT? Kmuil Joni Smith at smithjoCo'moredilh.C'du college attract the best and brightest students regardless of financial resources Just as all quality private schools must do. This is a difficult goal. Dr. Hartford has also had to make difficult and unpopular deci sions in order to achieve her goals. However, I believe all of us have no choice but to pursue these goals if we want to pre serve our heritage. Claire Sullivan Langford Class of 1972
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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Sept. 26, 2001, edition 1
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