Sunday, September 23, 1973
I HE MICHI(GAN DAILY
Page Five
%rspective:
The
pre-ined's plight
By CARLA RAPOPORT
It has been said that nearly
half of all entering freshman
consider themselves pre-med. A
nebulous distinction that means
the next four years will be de-
voted to training for medical
school, becoming a doctor, and
dreaming of that elaborately dec-
orated sheeps skin hanging on
the office wall. Somewhere along
the line, however, people seem
to disappear, the goal drifts far-
ther away, and the dream of
that beautiful diploma goes out
of focus.
.At this University, to be pre-
med means to have a science-
liberal arts background and to
be worried, tense, and mono-
maniacal. By the end a major-
ity have long since dropped the
idea of ever becoming doctors.
The offer of a vice-presidency in
their uncles textile firm becomes
irresistable.
WHAT IS THE grueling mech-
anism that weeds put prospec-
tive med school students and
spits out only the hardiest?
tThe process is called competi-
tion and it is a tradition which
carries through every pre-med
course taught at the the Univer-
sity. It is recognized as bad but
necessary evil by most profes-
sors. Students learn to live with
it, because they have no choice.
As an unfortunate result, the at-
mosphere in the pre-med courses
would make old Blackbeard him-
self shudder with fear.
If a student comes to the Uni-
versity with hopes of bettering
humankind, it doesn't take long
for him/her to ldose it. Human-
hti
kind soon turns into the kid who
ruined the curves with a 97, the
professor who maintains medi-
ans of 55 on the chemistry exams
and the person in laboratory who
actually sabotages a neighbor's
experiment and waltzes out with
someone else's data.
THE PROBLEM is not with the
courses as much as with the ten-
sion they produce in an under-
classman's mind. Sit in some-
time on a Physics 125 class to
find out for yourself.
There is a story around about
the professor who was disturbed
by the mechanical nature of his
students and so decided to give
a lecture on the principles of up-
hill flow of water. An hour of
gibberish later, the apparent au-
tomotons, in an almost a manic
tizzy, continued to scribble down
every word.
"Will that be on the hourly?"
must be the most common ques-
tion asked of pre-med science
professors. What is necessary?
What can be skipped? What has
to be memorized? The mindless
multitudes cannot be- bothered
w it h unnecessary, extraneous
facts. There are already enough
to drown a normal human being
in a sea of trivia. Besides it has
been a long time since anyone
questioned the exams. It's just
assumed that grades are of pri-
mary importance, and learning
is rarely considered. This seems
only natural since no medical
school need consider any appli-
cant with less than a 3.4 grade
point.
IN A RECENT closed-ballot
poll, Bot-Zoo 106 students were
asked what grade they were
working for in the course. One
hundred per cent said "A." In
the end, less than 20 per cent
will get "A's" while the pre-
ponderance pass into oblivion.
As a Chemistry 116 lecturer re-
cently explained to his class,
"Med schools look at us to tell
them who the top-notch students
are. They look right to the grades
in these chemistry courses . . .
I know this is hard on you to
compete this way, but it's the
function we serve."
All of this of course ignores
the 50 point subjective evalua-
tion by your teaching fellow.
BEFORE LONG, it becomes
easy to understand why less wo-
men make it through the pre-
med muddle. With the exception
of a handful, every pre - med
course at the University is taught
by a male. Teaching fellows for
science courses are overwhelm-
ingly male. These male profes-
sors have a way of talking about
the scientist and his problems,
his dilemnas, his world . . . etc.
Women sneak in with the chap-
ters on reproductive systems and
population control.
In the book now being used
for Bot-Zoo 106, a basic pre-med
course, one author introduces
himself and his hobbies. Pre-
senting:
William E. Boggs-enjoys cog-
nac, tennis on grass, Mozart
piano sonatas and women with
high cheekbones.
So much for his attitude to-
wvards women.
THE WHOLE problem is a
lousy system that makes for
lousy uptight pre - med students
(dare I mention 1 o u s y physi-
cians?).
This country sorely needs doc-
tors and it needs more medical
schools to train them. Students
shouldn't be plucked like weeds
from pre-med just because there
aren't enough seats available.
This summer there was nearly
a 500 person waiting list for the
mightly weedout course of them
all, Organic Chemistry 225. The
impact of these numbers is
amazing. Few people take Or-
ganic unless they are heading for
medical school or perhaps toward
a chemistry major.
THESE STUDENTS might get
locked out because the Chem
building is cramped, but they
are not going to evaporate be-
tween now and next term. The
most immediate effect is that all
students who do get into the
co rseare ready to beg, hustle,
and even openly battle for a
place, not to mention for an "A."
The possible solutions abound:
Encourage professors to exper-
iment with new grading systems
and testing procedures, expand
audio-tutorial methods and per-
haps allow greater numbers of
students into the pre-med mill.
There are no faciilties for the
confused and troubled pre-med
student to go for sympathetic
advice. Develop a better orien-
ing number of older students who
end up returning to lower level
courses to complete pre-med re-
quirements.
THERE ARE pot holes through-
out the route to receiving the
pre-med requirements at the
University. Many are falling into
them and it is a sad situation.
We need to encourage our future
doctors, not trip them up.
Carla Rapoport, a senior, is a
former Daily Editor now strug-
gling along as a pre-med.
_ e PFRS!4AN HOUSE
{>:.HOME OF AUTHENTIC
PERSIAN RUGS
* SE' THE LARGEST
SELECTION OF
SHEEPSKIN
COATS
IN ANN ARBOR
0 32 OFF LADIES SILVER
& TURQUOISE RINGS
_ TIL SEPT. 30
3 0 E. LIBERTY ST.
* HOUSE ANN ARBOR, MICH.
OF ~open 6 days a weekv
OF Sundays by appotment
yMPORTS 769-8555
-O O --:-) 4 0=0=0 4 0<-
ALL-,CAMPUS ELECTIO0N
The new Student Government Council wilt contain the directly elected representa-
tives of the various constituencies of students on campus. The new Council struc-
ture was put into effect by an overwhelming vote of the student body in the Spring
All-campus election. In a record turnout election, 92% of the voters voted for
the new reform Council plan.
The new SGC will be elected on October 9, 10, and 11. All of the seats
on the newly constituted Council are up for election this Fall. Each stu-
dent is allowed to vote in each of the three constituencies, residential,
divisional, and school and college. The seats up for election are as fol-
lows:
tation program for the
increas-
"Te ryA ULTS OLlt
"The v~ery best Film ever made" Al G oldstein
I--
r 8:30
MON.
& TUES.
U. UTAH
PHILLIPS
LSA
COFFEE HOUR
TVUESDAY
3:00-4:30
Sept. 25
+for
Anthropology Dept.
Angell Hall Basement
everyone welcome
*LAST
CHANCE
e TO
EVER
SEE ..
You can run for office in any district of which
you are a constituent.
Filing forms are avail-
RESIDENTIAL
CONSTITUENCY
Dorms (3 seats)
Fraternities (1 seat)
Sororities (1 seat)
ICC Co-ops (1 ,eat)
Univ. Married Housing
(1 seat)
Independent Housing
(apartments) (6 seats)
IPLAYBOY
ENDS
TUESDAY
Wednesday
DIVISIONAL
CONSTITUENCY
Rackham (grad)
(2 seats)
Undergraduate
(6 seats)
Professional
(Non-Rackharn grad)
(2 seats)
able in the SGC office on the third floor of the
Michigan Union, room 3X. The filing deadline
is Monday, September 24, 1973 at noon for the
dorm seats, the Independent Housing (apart-
SCHOOL and COLLEGE
CONSTITUENCY
LSA (4 seats)
Engineering (1 seat)
Education (1 seat)
Law (1 seat)
Medical (1 seat)
Business (1 seat)
Nursing (1 seat)
Arch. & Design (1 seat)
Music (1 seat)
Social Work (1 seat)
Dentistry (1 seat)
Natural Resources
(1 seat)
Library Science (1 seat)
Inter-College degree.
programs (1 seat)
Pharmacy (1 seat )
rtUll.0N413&03 AHCINEMN YSLAT
ment) seats, the undergraduate seats, and the LSA seats. The filing
deadline for all other seats is Monday, October 1, 1973. Any person
who desires to run or has any questions should come to the SGC office
in room 3X Michigan Union or call 763-3241.
also are open President and all eight district seats
of the University Housing Council
the Golden Voice
of the
Great Southwest
2.00
1411 Hill SREET
T"'-qI
I
ter..
'
-- - -------
I
... ...
U
JACOBSON'S OPEN THURSDAY AND FRIDAY UNTIL9:00 P.M.
1
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1972
Film Festival: A Gem From Truffaut
f 3' ' yr.'f
,.
By VINCENT CANBY
Francois Truffaut's "Two Eng-
lish Girls" is a film of such
beautiful, charming and comic
discretion that it isn't until the
end that one realizes it's also
immensely sad and even brutal.
though in the nonbrutalizing
way that truth can sometimes
be.
The film was shown last night
at the New York Film Festival
at Alice Tully Hall and opens its
commercial engagement Sunday
at the Fine Arts Theater, where,
I trust, it will remain through
Thanksgiving, Christmas and be-
yond.
The source material Is "Les
Deux Anglaises et Le Continent;"
the second novel by Henri-Pierre
Roche, who didn't get around to
writing his first until he was
74. That was "Jules et Jim,"
which Truffaut adapted into his
finest film in 1961.
A bit too much will probably
be made of the fact that "Two
English Girls" reverses the cen-
tral situation of "Jules and
Jim," in which the two heroes
spend their lives being turned
on and off by the liberated
Catherine.
The new film, like the earlier
one, is set largely in an unde-
fined past-that is, sometime in
pre-World War I, Paris, though
the exact time is left fuzzy, as
times usually are in fables. In-
stead of two young men, the
victims (who are in great meas-
ure the mistresses of their fates)
are two proper English girls, sis-
ters, who share a profound at-
tachment for the same young
Frenchman.
In many ways, however, "Two
English Girls" is more closely
linked to such later (and dis-
similar) Truffaut films as "The
Soft S k i n," "Mississippi Mer-
maid" and "Stolen Kisses," each
a variation on the conflict be-
tween a love that is obsessive
(soeimes c alled nurel andi a
a film in color by Francois Truffaut
AREA PREMIERE!?Auditorium t'A", AngelI Hall
Monday, Sept. 24 through Sunday, Sept. 30
Evenings 7 & 9 p.m.-Admission $1.50
Weekend Matinees 1 & 3 p m:-Admission $1.00
ANN ARBOR FILM COOPERATIVE / CINEMA 11
THE CAST
TWO ENGLISH GIRLS (LES
DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE
CONTINENT), directed by
Francois Truffaut; screenplay
in French (with English sub-
titles) and English by Mr.
Truffaut and Jean Gruault,
based on the novel by Henri-
Pierre Roche; music, Georges
Delerue; director of photog-
raphy, Nestor Almendros; pro-
duced by Claude Miler; a Films
du Carosse-Cinetel production,
released by Janus Films. Run-
ning time: 108 minutes. Shown
last night at the New York
Film Festival at Alice Tully
Hall; opens Sunday at the Fine
Arts Theater, 58th Street near
Lexington Avenue. This film
has not been classified.
Claude Roc .. Jean-Pierre Leaud
Anne Brown .... Kika Markham
Mrs. Brown .... Sylvia Marriott
Mme. Roc......Marie Mansart
Diurka ........ Philippe Leofard
Ruta................Irene Tunc
Mr. Flint ........ Mark Peterson
The Palmist .... David Markham
occupied by not only the ex-
tremely complicated moral bar-
riers to love, but also by the
manages to look like both Queen
Elizabeth and Catherine De-
neuve, behaves like a princess in
a. fairy tale. She hides behind
dark glasses, as if she had suf-
fered a wicked enchantment, and
says such things as "I want all
of Claude or nothing. If it's no,
let it be like death."
The film covers seven years in
the lives of the curious trio,
much of it as if the film were
the daily j o u r n a l that was
Roche's fgvorite literary form.
The s c e n e s are sometimes so
short they are almost subliminal,
with the voice of the narrator
(Truffaut) often supplying a
text. Purists, I expect, will again
object to this tampering with
the accepted relationship be-
tween image, which the purists
think is paramount, and word,
which has always been thought
to be a lesser tool in cinema.
The effect, nevertheless, is
lovely, and even appropriate,
since fables begin with spoken
words. The performances are
fine. Leaud may well be - as
Truffaut calls him-the greatest
French actor of his generation.
At least I think that explains
why he seemed so off-putting-
w h i c h he was supposed to-in
"Bed and Board" and here, as
the earnestly free-loving rake, so
appealing.
Miss J believes in the shirtables
with the 70's razzmatazz!
The great unflappables. . .electric red
polyester/acrylic knits with those easy-
moving skirts. . .rayon/acetate crepes in
black crisped with white polka dots.
Softly shaped with hugged-in waists,
puffed sleeves and necklines strikingly
collared, by David Howard. Sizes 5-13.
A. Long shirtdress with sash tie and
black-buttoned front, $30.
B. Three-piece suitable. . .collarless
jacket, skirt and short sleeve
ruffled blouse, $48.
C. The twosome. ..tunnel-waisted
shirtdress and collarless jacket, $48.
L
tTAA
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