1994_02 The Daily Collegian February 1994

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Eres-io State's Independent Daily *
Tuesday, Feb. 1,1994
Report
grades
colleges
By Lori Ash
THECOLLEGIAN
Albert Einstein once said, "Ev¬
erything has changed but our ways
of thinking, and if these do not
' change, we drift toward unparal¬
leled catastrophe."
The idea Entstein was convey¬
ing is what the concept that the
report from the Wingspread Group
on Higher Education was founded
upon.
The group found that the na¬
tional college and university sys¬
tem is not adequately doing its job.
"The American imperative for
the 21st century is that society
must hold higher education to
much higher expectations or risk
national decline," said William
Brock, former U.S. Secretary of
Labor and chairman of the Wing-
spread Group.
"Establishing higher expecta¬
tions, however, will require that
students, parents, facility and ad-
*f* ministrators rethink what too many
seem to want from education: the
credential without the content, the
degree without the knowledge and
effort it implies."
The report analyzed the results
of many studies of the U.S Depart¬
ment of Education.
"In the area of quantitative
skills, for example* 56.3 percent
of American-bora, four-year col¬
lege graduates are unable to con¬
sistently perform simple tasks such
as calculating change from $3.00
after buying a 60-cent bowl of
soup and a $1.95 sandwich," the
Wingspread report noted. •
"Tasks such as these should not
be insuperable for people with 16
years of education."     f
There are 3,400 institutions of
higher learning ip America and
they come in all shapes and sizes.
They are public as well as pri¬
vate.
They include state colleges and
universities, community colleges,
technical schools and research uni¬
versities., ^^^v     '
In each category, excellence
and mediocrigr exist. \ *
"It is hard not to conclude that
too much undergraduate educa¬
tion is little more than secondary
school material - warmed over and
re-offered at a much higher ex¬
pense, but not at correspondingly
higher levels of effectiveness,"
Brock said. "The United States
can no longer afford the ineffi¬
ciencies, or the waste of talent,
time and*money, revealed by these���warning signs."
See REPORT, page5
ByOtpnMvMann
Tlffi COLLEGIA^
Oputa wins annual
social award atFSU
Temple Beth Israel,* an orga¬
nization working actively to end
social.injustice, has chosen
Prancine Oputa, director of the
FreanoStaae^mversity Women's
lUacuree Center at recipient of
its 5th annual award for social
action.
/   The award was presented to
Oputa at a Jan. 28 banquet that
WMMtenoWtyiie^
"ajoa the k^calcotnmunity.
BtoughTup jn the San
Fernando Valley, Opwasays*.
betbeentavofc^wrmwcialisr
eues at far \m±Mtix cm «*-,:
of*W,aite^*a
tj^natitfiaic'-a&nt
the diverse work she had done,
which, according to excerpts
from me banquet, "was'virtu-*
ally a pan of her;'
Oputa has worked at the Re¬
source Center for more than four
years, although it has only been
a year since the center relocated
to the FSU campus. Qputa's
work at the Resource Center
includes helping the homeless
and vtetims of sexual abuse and
domestic violence. The center��caters to the needs of the whole
community, besides providing
services to FSU students and
not enough
teraM.tkertfcce, teuton
Media production guides
FSU'sports into the future
V
By Chris Branam
THECOLLEGIAN
Two years ago, Scott Johnson
saw the future — and it was televi¬
sion.
Johnson, who was the Fresno
State University Sports Informa¬
tion director at the time, came up
with a plan for his department to be
involved in all aspects of television
production.
These aspects would include
selling commercial air time and
producing and directing weekly
shows.
His idea was to create a mini-
production company.
"We're trying to take the [pro¬
duction] concept and fit it into our
department," Johnson said.
The plan has had such credence
that Johnson has since been pro¬
moted to assistant athletic director/
commu nications, a position that has
been created for the venture.
The plan has three goals.
i   • Increase revenue
•Gain better control of the prod-
• Get more events^on the air
Currently, FSU has a contracf
with KMPH, Fox 26 to televise
Bulldog football and men's basket¬
ball events, which expires next year.
"We're probably going to take it
out for bid," Johnson said of the
department's plans concerning the
contract.      \^_/ •
Dr. Gary Cunningham, FSU ath¬
letic director, said the sports de¬
partment has had to look at ways of
increasing its exposure after mov¬
ing from the Big West Conference,
which has no major television con¬
tracts, to the Western Athletic Con¬
ference in 1991.
"We're in a different market,"
Cunningham said.
"The Big West didn't have na¬
tional television agreements, so that-
changed the dynamics a bit"
Cunningham said the new pro¬
duction capabilides will create more
opportunities to televise events.
"There would be a whole menu
of things we want to do," he said.
In the mid-1980s, FSU had tele¬
vision contracts for 25 events per
year. That number has decreased
steadily in the past eight years since
FSU signed the contract with
KMPH.
Women's basketball and soft-
ball is televised on a delayed basis
by Continental Oabtevision, but*
Johnson said he would like to see
other sports, besides football and
men's basketball on regular televi¬
sion.
"I want expansion into more
sports," Johnson said.
"I also want expansion into His¬
panic radio and TV. That's a mar¬
ket that needs to be addressed."
But when the subject comes to
See JOHNSON, page 4
Inside
OPINION: Tho grades from
Clinton's first year in
Drug Free: Penn State
establishes substance free
housing on campus .4
SPORTS: Dooley and
Mwsk* to lead FSU track
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