1996_10 Insight October 1996

              VlEWPDINT
OCTOBER 2, 1996
Ag programs take back seat to athletics^
I Ag department not
supported on
campus
By Dawn Howe
Staff Writer
Fresno State is a learning institution which, as printed on page 11
in the 1995-96 general catalog,
•recognizes its commitment to develop qualified professionals who
will become tomorrow's leaders in
every walk of life."
There is a feeling among some
students and faculty members
within the School of Agricultural
Sciences and TechnohSgy lhat while
over 17.000 students attend Fresno
Slate, some "walks of life" receive
more support than others.
There is a greater emphasis
placed on sports and athletic events
ihan on thc agriculturally related
The lack of understanding and
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disregard for thc validity or value of
the agriculture department on campus, has prompted Gunland to change
her major.
Gunland was an agriculture communications major and is involved
with several extra-curricular activities. The agriculture communications
major is designed so that classes are
taken within the school of agriculture
as well as in the mass communication and journalism department. Involvement in ag-rclated events
requires that she miss class at times.
"The instructors outside of the ag
department can't relate. They without question work with athletes in
terms of attendance, while on many
occasions I have to take unexcused
absences to be involved. They don't
understand that the things I am involved in may help me to get a job
before a degree. I really don't think
they care." Gunland said.
Activites.interns are essential
Extra-curricular activities and internships are essential in virtually all
professions. Thc obvious alternative
■■BUBB
tjWk Athletic Department
238 scholarships
$1,612,212 in funds
I School of Engineering
11 scholarships
$80,000 in funds
I Sid Craig School of Business
126 scholarships
$853,524 in funds
I School of Music
7 scholarships
$30,000 in funds
would be to work around class sessions but that is not always possible.
Scott Johnson, associate athletic
director for Fresno State, said that in
terms of absences, there are some
problems with basketball and baseball, as they are typically not weekend sports, said Scott Johnson,
associate athletic director for Fresno
State.
In comparison, the nature of many
activities in the ag department require
travel and consequently missed class
sessions. For example, the livestock
judging team will travel extensively
for a year in preparation for 8 national
contests. These contests are held in
Denver, Colo.; Houston.Texas; Fort
Worth.Texas; Tulare; Los Angeles;
Portland.Ore; San Francisco and Louisville, Ky.
Special programs
Another discrepancy is that academic services are provided to student athletes and many are required
to attend study hall classes. Yet there
exists no parallel program for agriculture students or students with any
other major.
Gaining experience and meeting
industry leaders across America is an
awesome opportunity. College is
about learning, growing and absorbing as much as is possible to make a
difference and be a leader in whatever
profession one chooses to pursue. It
seems ludicrous for a some students
to be penalized and discouraged from
doing whatever it takes to accomplish
that purpose.
John Cordeiro, instructor and livestock judging team coach for the
Fresno State animal science department, agrees that there is more emphasis and a greater level of support
for athletic activities.
Everyone needs to work together
for thc benefit of the entire school.
One department shouldn't suffer for
another to succeed, Cordeiro said.
What many people outside of the
ag department do not understand is the
majority of activities agriculture students arc involved in arc an extension
of the classroom. It's an opportunity
to apply and experience thc things
learned in class.
Johnson believes that thc athletic
departments main source of support is the community.
Community visibility
"The acceptance of sports on
campus is due to the fact that we
receive so much community support Athletics are important because they are a window to the
community," Johnson said.
Media coverage and the visibility of the athletic program at
Fresno State are what set athletic
activities apart from others.
Another reason sports seem to
gain so much support is that there
is a lot of money involved. A great
deal of money comes into the department from the community
every year. Therefore there is a
vested interest in the success of
sports programs.
"There isn't any established
standard that separates athletics
from other activities. Most of the
acceptance and support isn't a result of anything we are doing. It's
just thc nature of the beast,"
Johnson said.
Stereotypes promote wrongheaded
ideas about race, culture, gender
I Judgements based
on stereotypes are
invalid
By Mohamed Elsharif
Staff Writer
Racism can take a lot of different
shapes and forms in our world.
I agree that we are all unique individuals, none of us looks thc same.
We have different skin tones, different accents, wc share different languages and different cultures; we also
have our own unique food recipes that
wc like to cook.
Yes. wc are different people, but we
all eat and drink, we all breathe thc
same air. we all walk on the same
earth.
Sterotyping is discrimination
Human beings are living species
like all living things around us. but we
were given an intelligent mind and
body to comprehend and understand
the world.
Although wc are able to explain so
many phenomena in our lives, wc still
can not explain our differences as human beings.
Stereotyping is the most modern
way of discrimination. It is a way to
characterize a particular race or sex
with fixed ideas believed to be true in
all cases.
Gender bias
For example, a lot of men believe
that all women are emotional, leaning upon their hearts more than their
brains to think.
On the other hand, they believe that
all men arc logical and rational because men use their brains to reason.
Of course, this will always be a
false suggestion to agree with. To
prove this general statement right, we
must examine all women and all men
to evaluate their way of judgment,
which is impossible to do.
This unfair generalization gives
men rationality and intelligence.
However, women for a long time were
thought to be warm, if not a bit over-
emotional.
Stereotyping is everywhere. TV ads
inject their audience with all kinds of
stereotypical ideas. Advertisements
not only sell products to thc viewers
but also play a game with the viewer's
mind.
TV adds to the problem
Clearly, ads present unrealistic images of women's faces and bodies.
The female figure in ads became the
ideal standard for all women. We all
know this cannot be true, we vary in
height, weight, and facial features.
Creating the perfect or the ideal
male or female figure is nothing but
gender stereotyping. These concepts
put the consumer in a narrow comer.
Does he or she buy the product to
fit in? Or do they choose to be inferior and stay outside that ideal image?
Which one would you choose?
Movies create sterotypes
Every year Hollywood produces
dozens of motion pictures that stereotype people.
For a long time, Hollywood has
been depicting Arabs as terrorists. A
lot of movies in thc last six years show
Arabs as hijackers who bomb
Opinion
aircrafts and threaten kids and civilians. We saw these images over and
over again in different styles.
In adventures movies, the hero
fights to free the hostages and destroy
these Arab terrorists. In comedies,
Arabs always looked and spoke in a
funny way.
The Arabic image has been targeted
and confused in thc American culture
and the Western world. This false idea
had a negative impact on the general
viewers.
Most people are becoming suspicious and protective of thc Middle
East, because terrorism is the only
thing they see.
Arabs are like any other race, mixed
with good and bad people. However,
in America all Arabs arc stereotyped
First hand experience
Through my years in the United
States. I learned to be sensitive and
careful when I speak to other people.
Thc diversity of cultures and backgrounds in which we live should stop
us from making such generalizations.
But that certainly it is not true and of
ten people's feelings are hurt by
such generalizations.
However, as a student on this
campus, I realized that stereotyping is not only used by students
to joke around but also by teachers and professors.
To be a Palestinian made me an
easy target for stereotypical jokes.
Students often will ask me if I
ever make bombs in my apart-
Racial jokes are damaging
What really bothers me is when
a professor who has higher stature and level of education makes
these kind of jokes.
"Why don't you blow his car
up?" a professor asked mc, suggesting that all Arabs are experts
in exploding cars. o
These kinds of jokes not only
distort my image in the classroom
but also build a barrier between
the rest of thc students and myself.
This joke made me wonder if
our professors can be fair enough
to treat all students thc same way.
We put man on the moon 30 years ago,
isn't it time for another coup?
I Modern technology
does not live up to
expections
By Douglas Stolhand
Staff Writer
Thirty years ago we put a man on
the moon. Since then, nothing has happened.
Neil Armstrong's first steps on the
surface of the moon were the peak of
technology. Everything since has been
part of the downhill slide.
I think about technology a lot. It
surrounds us and pretty much runs our
lives. I can't imagine life without computers, fax machines, ATM machines
or copiers. However, these have been
around for quite a while, where's the
new stuff already?
Everything from cars to airline security seem to have stalled out in innovations long ago. Why?
I can't remember the last letter from
a friend I got in the mail. E-mail I get
plenty of, but it's not the same. A letter proves that the person took some
time to write it, e-mail can be done in
less than a minute and is rarely more
detailed that a TV Guide description.
"Went to a movie with Dave yesterday. Saw 'Trainspotting'. Might have
lunch tomorrow with Jeremy. Well,
gotta get going." The preceding is the
typical e-mail I receive from people.
I hardly ever have to scroll to the next
page to read a letter from start to finish.
Cable TV, just a scam
Cable TV is thc most frustrating for
me, though. Cable television, in one
form or another, has existed since the
'1970s. With that fact in mind, why
do I have to pay an installation fee in
order to "upgrade" my service so that
it includes HBO?
You know what it takes for the good
folks at a cable company to give me
HBO? They have to push a couple of
buttons. That's what I pay $9.95 for?
For $10 I'd like you to come to my
house and perform some ritual involving baking soda and a copy ofthe
Nancy Reagan autobiography on my
cable box to at least give the illusion
that my money was well spent.
Disappointed in programming
Then there is Pay-Per-View. Technically, the whole system is pay-per-
view. But in order to get HBO you
have to pay extra. And, because
HBO's 1-28 only show mediocre
movies, the same mediocre movies
they have shown for the past three
weeks, you feel compelled to see a
good movie. When you look in your
TV Guide and discover lhat HBO's
next six hours of programming are
devoted to the 'Leprechaun' trilogy
you are fooled into believing it is
worth it to pay $9.95 to see
'BioDome.,
Shouldn't there be more to cable
TV by now? Surely you regular cable
viewers have seen the ad depicting a
small, freckled girl disappointedly
leaving for her softball game while
her father, who promised to be there.
holds a meeting with another guy over
the TV set. Surely they jest. I can't
even get my remote control to skip
over the 17 Hispanic channels and they
think I'm going to believe I will be able
to talk interactively over the TV before I reach thc age of 70.
Advances slow to nonexlstant
Speaking of talking interactively,
whatever happened to video phones?
Other than occasional appearances on
the 'Real World' this little bit of technology passed us by quicker than
Crystal Pepsi. Even if I did have one,
who would I call with it? I'd be forced
to become friends with thc other 18
people in the country, all employees
of AT&T, that had video phone just to
be able to use it
And then there's cars. Shouldn't we
have developed a car that doesn't need
gas by now? It's 1996! In just a little
over three years it will be 2000. Why,
then, so I use the same gas they used
before I was bom? If they can turn
wind into energy, how come we don't
have some energy producing fans on
our cars? That way, as we drive we
produce fuel and all without polluting thc air!
Here's an idea, instead of a nonsmoking section of the same room,
how about smokers getting their own
room entirely. Same with planes.
Surely they can put a glass partition
between sections so that smokers
won't act like John Lithgow in 'Poltergeist* when they get on a flight
longer than 10 minutes.
Expectations "eft urrfuWWIed
I could go on and on about such
things as the lack of boneless fish in
restaurants, to 3-D movies and on to
why they can take a perfect picture
of my thumbnail from a satellite in
space but they can't give me a camera that can give me an neonate reading on how much film I have left, but
I've said too much as it is. I wrote
this article with a pen said paper, very
unusual for an aspiring journalist.
Oh well, until technology begins
living up to expectations I'll keep
reading Dave Barry and take life one
day at a time. Whatever happened to
Schneider anyway?
^