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MICH.ELLANY
Confessions. of a short college bowler
INTERVIEW
Greg Marks
Info, tech head says computer use
will soon be pervasive' on campus
Greg Marks has served as the University's deputy vice-provost for
information technology since the position was established in 1984.
Before being named to the post, Marks worked at the Institute for Social
Research and was involved with its computing activities. Marks is
respected in academic circles for his knowledge of the information
technology field. He was interviewed by Daily staffer Steve Blonder.
Daily: As we are in the midst of a technological age and an age in
which computers will soon be the norm, what is the greatest challenge
facing the University?
Marks: I think the greatest challenge is really adapting to the changes;
adapting to the potentialities of problems that are created by the new
technology. The technology that helps you work with information is just
central to the future and is going to become more and more pervasive.
I think on the research side, there's also going to be a lot of change. This
is a research university. Faculty members will continually get grants in
their own interests and motivations. More and more research will be done
using simulations on the computer - creating a real environment on the
computer rather than going out and doing experiments in laboratories.
Nobody builds wind tunnels and puts planes in them to a significant
degree anymore but rather this is being done on computers.
The process of coping with that change is largely resource allocation.
While to some degree it's a question of finding the money for the
computers, to a much larger degree it's finding the slice of time on the
part of faculty members so that they can devote some attention to
changes in the way they do things and teach their courses.
D: To what degree should the University become computerized?,
M: I think that more and more use of information technology is going to
happen at the University. It's going to be pervasive. There's kind of a
classic test of when something is an essential part of an institution.
When you take it away, the institution can't run any more. If in an
engineering college you told them they had no computers to do anything,
then you might as well shut the engineering college down.
Gradually you will see that running throughout the University. I don't
think we can imagine all of the kinds of things taking place with
information technology ten years from now. I do know and I feel that
people right now already have enough really good ideas of what they
would like to do with the technology to keep all of the available
resources busy for the next ten years. Our imagination and our
understanding of what we could do that is worthwhile is already so far
ahead of our ability to actually put it in place that we've got a lot to do.
D: In addition to the spread in information technology, what other kinds
of changes do you foresee over the next several years?
See INTERVIEW, Page 9
I USED TO DREAM of be
coming a placekicker for the
Michigan Wolverines. I'm a little
over 5'6".
It was clear to me that I was
never going to make it as quar -
terback, or a lineman, and I'm
much too slow to make it as a wide
receiver or safety. But placekicking
always seemed like a possibility. I
imagined that if I went into the
backyard and practiced for three or
four hours every day, that I'd be
able to walk onto the practice field
and endear myself to Bo with my.
ability to drill that sucker home
from seventy yards back.
I'm a senior now, and I doubt
that I've ever given Mike Gillette a
moment's worry. I do still have
four years of eligibility left, but I
still haven't practiced much. So the
Rose Bowl, in which I've kicked
hundreds of crucial dream field
goals, is a fading aspiration. Be -
sides, I've re-focused myself. I'm
out to letter in College Bowl, "the
Varsity sport of the mind."
Over the past couple weekends,
around 160 students have locked
horns in various rooms of the
Michigan Union. Armed with buz -
zers, speed, and years of infor -
OFF THE WALL
Dudes of the Universe unite!!
-Graduate Library
Brothers, we're going to have to
learn to RESPECT our sisters in
thought, words and deeds.
-GraduateLibrary
"God is dead."
-Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead."
-God
--Mason Hall
BOB IS A WAGON!
(replies)
I thought Chuck was a wagon!
I thought your tail was a waggin!
Reagan is a braggin'.
All I know is that while I'm
reading these "jokes" I'm a gaggin'.
Jill is a wench!
What kind of wench?
a box end wench?
or a socket wench?
or an open end wench?
9/16, 3/8, or 3/4?
maybe a monkey wench
She's a pipe wench
or an adjustable wench
-Graduate Library
Say you
Say me
Say another pronoun, Lionel
-GraduateLibrary
mation processing, they have
battled to be the first to answer
academic (and sometimes, not-so-
academic) trivia questions. I played
the high-school equivalent of
College Bowl, and my team won
the Class-D Championship, and
beat the Class-B Champs, but we
lost in the finals. I've competed in
UAC's intra-scholastic tournament
every year since then, hoping to
erase that painful, "I coulda been a
contendah"-type memory.
I'm not a fantastic college bow -
ler. I'm good. I can pull my weight
as a quarter of an evenly-talented
four-player team. And my teams,
up until this year, have finished in
the middle of the pack.
But this year, by happenstance, I
ended up on a team with, among
others, Chuck Forrest, the law
student who won the $100,000
Jeopardy Tournament of Chain -
pions. As a good player, I scored in
the high forties (out of one-hundred
possible points) on the pre-
tournament seeding quiz. Chuck
scored eighty-two. Our team's com -
bined score was ninety-five. That
means my teammates, Don Rubin,
Steve Irish, and I together knew
thirteen questions that Chuck
didn't. Don and Steve are good
players, too. But Chuck's really
good. Really, really good.
How good is he? Under extreme
pressure, when given the Russian
element name "Kurchatovium," he
can tell you that it's element
number 104. You could tell me it's
also Rutherfordium and Unnilquad -
ium, and I'd be stumped, and I had
two years of Russian.
How good is he? When told that
a word meaning "chemical change
caused by heat" was made up from
the Greek roots for "fire" and "a
loosening" Chuck, momentarily
stumped, and getting no help from
his teammates, made up a word.
Fortunately, the word had been
made up before, in precisely the
same way Chuck made it up. "Py -
rolysis" nabbed us some pretty
hefty bonus points.
Now there may be some whiz-
See LOGIE, Page 9
FILM
a wo3 : s
x 4
The family, clockwise from top left: Michael Tucker, Julie Kavner, Dianne Wiest, Joy Newman, Renee Lippin, Josh Mostel, Leah Carrey, Seth Green, and 14
Radio Days': Woody Allen at his most nost
By Kurt Serbus merely a loosely-tied string of made sure the ride was fun, no
nostalgic anecdotes. Some are matter how intensely personal his
WOODY ALLEN'S NEW FILM touching, some are funny, most are material got. This year's model,
Radio Days was released last week, not. Without any sense of co- however, seems content to wander
and the verdict is that it's not so hesiveness or emotional urgency, for a few hours through memories
damn terrific. R adio Days falls apart, which is and reverie, and if the audience isn't
Now, I'm not one of those who really a shame, since it's easily one in the mood, the hell with them.
thinks that the Woodman should be of the most promising and kind- With comedy that fails to be
saddled with doing schtick for the hearted films to be released in a funny and drama that fails to
rest of his career - if the guy long stretch. Radio Days is itsa in ug h e 9
wants to be Ingmar Bergman, more After a dumb opening bit (which hadcknDyys sritsan ck Tofg elo
power to him. Hannah And Her sets the tone for the rest of the roomkwoud seempt anel out anyo
Sisters was more than adequate movie), Woody introduces us to the oth acorldse chance o crang
proof that Allen could be one of the time, place, and characters of his sympathetic chaactes, ost ofan
greatest "serious" directors of the childhood through some breath - sypthetdo anarane Wisto
day; it's mature direction, warm taking cinematography and sen - Mhia dFar w y hMotand Seth
characters and poignant acting made sitive narration. The set-up looks Grearepiclarrlys oenincing
it one of Allen's best - albeit least fool-proof: a pre-adolescent Wood - Gan n eptcuarly onvese trgs'~
humorous - films, man growing up poor and Jewish, vadliantly to eyomak e tis trugof
Radio Days, however, shows awt an exende family of lovabe camws.
suprising and unwelcome de- looies inde Roka arn about Radio, Days is not a terrible L
evoluton into te choppy, amateur WWI ed an eale Al. film, it's merely a terrible
style of Woody's earlier works, woul chave hdany crowd in disappointment. I suppose the right
minus the laughs. Like such stithsantears withths pemise. audience in the right mood could be
classics s Everything You Always But 'that's becue n selierAe delightfully charmed as Allen spins '
Wo his sweet little nothings about
Take The Money And Run, which -- back in his neurotic prime, coming of age during the glory days / '
were little more than loosely-tied Woody always had one antenna of radio in America. As for me, I'll
strings of gags, Radio Days is tuned to the audience; he always take Manhattan. U Mia Farrow's effort is convincing.
.-. - - - - - ~ .. . .. - .W ~ ~~fh r ~t~ LIL~ LI UII/ , ,Y 0
PRINT FROM THE PAST
DAILY HLE PHOTO
"Oh boy, college is even more fun than I thought it would be!" Summer
orientation, 1965, featured chess matches.
THE DAILY ALMANAC
20 years ago - February
7, 1967: "Seventy-six years of
Editorial Freedom," said the
masthead, but Daily editors were
wondering if the slogan was really
true. The Board in Control of
Student Publications voted unani -
mously to undertake an inves-
tigation of The Daily's policies and
practices. Calls for the probe were
issued in response to a "crisis"
brought on by severai controversial
Daily articles, including one
disclosing University of California-
Berkeley Chancellor Roger Heyns'
possible interest in becoming pres-
ident at the University of Michigan.
An editorial criticizing aspects of
the University's $55 million fund
drive was also seen as possibly
"harmful to the University and
some individuals."
PAGE'8*$ ~ ....
WEEKE ND/FEBRUARY-6, 1987
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