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LSA Journal November. 1986
4
ALTERNATIVE DEGREES
SAFEWALK
by Gregg Graver
You sent out all your applications,
hassled with your transcripts, fought
with your parents as to where you are
going to spend the next four years of
your life and figured out how to pay for
it all. Well, you thought the worst is
now behind you, right? Wrong.
Now you are here... at the
University of Michigan. Of course it's
the Harvard of the mid-west, of course
Michigan football is some of the best in
the country, of course you party hard,
but you also study hard. Yes folks.
that's why we're all here. But have you
sat down and thought about your
degree? Maybe you have and maybe
you haven't. If you have then I hope
you looked at all your alternatives
before you signed on the dotted line of
that ever-present declaration of major
form. If you haven't then keep reading
because you have some options you
might not know about.
The I.C.P: Commonly referred to
ICP, the independent concentration
program allows the motivated student
to create and name his own major. An
ICP allows a student who has fulfilled
all of his distribution requirements to
pick and choose those courses he is
most interested in and at the same time
gain a valuable liberal arts education.
While there are dozens of official
majors, some students feel that they
want more than the standard B.A or
B.S degrees have ,to offer. Don't get
carried away yet, the ICP is not a free
for all, each student's program must be
submitted to the College of LS&A for
final approval. It is more than likely
that if a student prepares a well
rounded and reasonable program it will
be acceptable.
The B.G.S: The bachelor of general
studies, commonly referred to as the
BGS, allows the well motivated-student
to set up his own course of study
without filling the standard distribution.
But in most cases the student can't help
but fill the most immediate distribution
requirements. The BGS degree is only
as good as the courses a student elects
to take, a student who opts for the BGS
as an escape route from the distribution
requirements is only hurting himself
and fooling no one. There are only a
few requirements of the BGS candidate:
he must complete sixty credits of upper-
level course-work; he must take no
more than twenty credits in any one
department (of course a student may
take more than twenty, but only twenty
in any single department will count
towards graduation); and finally the
student must fulfill the junior-senior
writing requirement. There are some
vicious and unfounded rumors about the
BGS floating around the better rest-
rooms of Ann Arbor. All of these are
unfounded. Contrary to popular rumor:
you can get into grad school with a BGS
degree, many students do each year;
you can get into even the top
professional schools; you can get a job
with a big city firm; and most of all you
can get a well rounded and well
structured education and set the whole
thing up yourself.
So now it doesn't look all that
hopeless does it? Wake up, the time to
think about this stuff is now! Ask your
friends what they're doing, go to a
professor you are impressed with, go to
the counseling center, go to career
planning and placement.... it's never
too early to worry about your future.
by Kevin Fox
This year a new program called
Safewalk is being offered as an
alternative to walking home alone.
This new program which is offered to
all university students has been
organized by student groups, university
services, and community interests.
Saftwalk is a program which has
been instituted in other universities
around the country. Last year, the idea
for such a program came out of MSA's
Women's issues Committee and
PIRGIM. They decided to initiate a
pilot program for students walking to
and from Helen Newberry House and
Betsy Barbour. Michelle Missaghich
was appointed to coordinate the
program. It was a success and was
then adopted on a campus wide scale.
Safewalk is a volunteer, student run
program. It is composed of a body of
approximately one hundred, which
includes two student coordinators, Julie
Steiner, the head of the Sexual Assault
Prevention and Awareness Center, and
Vern Bayson, from the Department of
Public Safety and Security. Safewalk
is run out of room 102 in the UGLI.
Any student may call at 936-1000 (off
campus), 6-1000 (on campus) or go to
the UGLi. They will be accompanied.
by a team of walkers, either coed or
two females, who will show the walkee
their special Safewalk I.D. cards. If
these cards are not shown, it is the
responsibility of the walkee to request
to see these cards. The walkers will
accompany students anywhere on
campus within a 20 minute walking
range of the UGLI. It operates Sunday
- Thursday from 8:00p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
Safewalk has been in operation for
about five weeks now and has had
excellent results. It has accompanied
over 150 students to their destinations
and has already expanded. Safewalk
started with issuing two teams an hour.
In the future, Safewalk hopes to create
another base of operations as well as
incorporate the use of walkie-talkies to
enhance communication with the base.
In the far future, Safewalk coordinators
hope to work with the nite owl bus
service in walking students from the
drop-off points to their homes.
Safewalk is run through the help of
volunteers who are asked to donate a
minimum of two hours a week. It is
sponsored by PIRGIM, MSA, the
Department of Public Safety and
Security, Housing Security, The Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center, the UGLi and University
Celler. Anyone wishing any further
information or who would like to
donate their time are asked to get in
touch with the Safewalk Program in the
library or Julie Steiner at 763-5865.
The Voice of LSA Student Government
:.
LS&A
STUDENT
GOVERNMENT
by Betsy Drilling & Michelle Tear
LSA Student Government (LSA-
SG) is comprised of 17 students who
are elected each November. One of
our functions is to allocate funds to
various student groups for events which
promote LSA student interest. These
events are educational forums. This is
not, however, the only function of LSA-
SG. Each year we hold an essay
contest which is designed to generate
student input and interest. There is
prize moiney for both under and upper-
classmen. LSA-SG succeeded in
placing a student on the TA training
board. This was significant in that
there had never been a student allowed
on this board in the past and it showed
that student participation in the process
of TA approval is indeed vital. LSA-
SG is also responsible for placing
students on committees such as
Academic Judiciary, Admissions,
Curriculum, and the Joint-Student
Faculty Policy Committee. We are
also responsible for the graduation
ceremonies for the individual majors in
the college of LSA.
Currently, LSA-SG is planning a
forum, in conjunction with Career
Planning & Placement, on the options
available to an LSA student who is not
geared toward professional school.
This forum will be of interest to all
LSA students, regardless of class status
because it may introduce previously
unknown fields of interest to the liberal
arts student. ,Our main function is
to advocate student interests to the
administration. In the past, we have
met with the Executive Committee (the
governing body of LSA) to discuss
student needs.
Right now, LSA-SG is looking for
suggestions from students as to what
problems are, if any, and if they feel
there is a certain area or vroblem
which LSA-SG should address. Please
give us your input; we have much
power and money to get things done!
SUGGESTIONS TO LSA-SG:
Please drop this off at the LSA-SG
office 4003 Michigan UnionI
RESOURCES
AT YOUR,
FINGERTIPS
by Michael Nelson
Many students at this university--
both freshpersons and others--are not
aware of all of the resources on our
campus. Indeed, most all know of the
computing centers (e.g. NUBS & the
Union) on campus, and of the Campus
Information Center (CIC), but that's not
all. Some resources that seem to take
people the longest to discover are those
of the thorough university library
system.
With our twenty (20) libraries, the
university library system offers a great
variety of resources for the more than
thirty-eight thousand (38,000) students
at the Ann Arbor campus. The
libraries are located throughout the
campus: e.g. in the Frieze Bldg., on
Beal Street (north campus), on South
University, and on E. Catherine St.
Our libraries are some of the most
respected in the country and have
collections devoted to such topics as art
and architecture, physics and
astronomy, law, music and social work.
STAN "THE.
MAN" KAPLAN
by Bill Goldberg
Many LSA juniors and seniors are
at the point in their college careers
when they must begin to prepare for
graduate school. Standardized
placement tests are at the heart of this
preparation and there are several
methods of studying for these exams.
Some students prefer to study on their
own while others turn to the Stanley
Kaplan Educational Center for
assistance in their preparation
Kaplan Centers across the country
offer classes for the LSAT, MCAT,
GMAT and GRE. Most of these tests
are given twice each year, once in the
spring and once in the fall. The fee for
the Kaplan Services which include
classroom work, study guides, and
practice tests is substantial, but most
students feel that it is money well
spent. One LSA junior who just
finished his MCAT's said, "The
course was expensive and studying was
a nightmare but I couldn't have learned
what I did without Stanley." For more
information on the Stanley Kaplan
Educational Center in Ann Arbor, call
662-3149.
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HOPWOOD
AWARDS
by Howard Solomon
The Avery Hopwood Award came
to being under the terms of the will of
Avery Hopwood, prominent American
dramatist and member of the class of
1905 at the University of Michigan.
According to the terms of Hopwood's
bequest, the regents are endowed to
award annual prizes under the
Hopwood name to University of
Michigan Students who perform the
best creative work in the fields of
dramatic writing, fiction, poetry, and
essay.
The awards are classified as major
awards, open to graduate students and
seniors, and minor awards, open to
undergraduates. Monday, February
2,1987 is the last day to order,
transcripts from the transcript office.
Manuscripts are due in the Hopwood
Room, Tuesday, February 10, 1987 .
Announcement of awards will be made
April 15, 1987 at the Rackham Lecture
Hall. In addition to the major and
minor Hopwood contest, there are
numerous other contests also sponsored
under the Hopwood name.
The Roy W. Cowder Memorial
Fellowship is an award made on the
basis of demonstrated writing and
financial need. Awards"rangefrom
$250 to $1000, and are presented at the
Hopwood underclassmen awards
ceremony in January.
The Kasdun Scholarship in creative
writing is a tuition award of up to
$1500 made on the basis of financial
need and promise in the writing of
screen plays, drama, or fiction.
The Arthur Miller Award of the
University of Michigan Club of New
York Scholarship Fund is open to
sophomores and Juniors who have
demonstrated writing talents in the
areas of drama, screen play, fiction or
poetry.
The Jeffrey Weisberg Memorial
Prize in freshman poetry is awarded for
best poems submitted by freshmen.
Amy questions regarding rules of
eligibility, preparation of manuscripts,
or regulations for 1986-87 Hopwood
awards can be made in the Hopwood
Room, Angell Hall.
PRE-REGISTR-
ATION
by Robin Goldstein
Waiting on endless lines to crisp,
suffering the endless trauma of
DROP/ADD, and worst of taking a
class because others were closed, these
are all the problems that plague the
University of Michigan Class
Registration Procedure. Realizing
these serious drawbacks, the LS &A
Student Government spoke with various
deans and professors in an attempt to
change the system. What we proposed
was a method of pre-registration.
Under a system of pre-registration
the students would fill out a form
selectingthe class they would like
to take the following semester. In
addition to selection of class they would
also choose times they wanted in a
preferential order. These forms would
be sent back to the University and
processed by computers. Then the
students would receive their schedules
in the mail along with a specific time
and day in which they would be able to
drop and add if necessary.
Although this general idea would
reduce the chaos and time spent in
C.R.I.S.P. lines, students would still be
closed out of classes. Unfortunately for
the students the only way to solve this
problem is to hire more T.A.'s and
professors to-teach the popular classes--
a step that this University does not
seem willing to take.
Instead of allocating some funds
directly to the student's education, by
opening more classes, they are
spending money on a new Chemistry
Building, more copying machines, and
more computers. It is difficult to
understand why at such a well
respected university, several hundreds
of students should be excluded from
different classes each term.