2 U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER

News Features FEBRUARY 1989

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Peace Corps fights its 'hippie' stereotype

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John Vreyens, a U. of Minnesota graduate, is a former Peace Corps volunteer.
PEAC COP

By Woody McBride
The Minnesota Daily
U. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Some people say that the word
"peace" is a dirty one - associating it
with violent protests, communist sym-
pathizers and long-haired hippies.
But the Peace Corps wants university
students to associate positive meanings
with the word.
About 111 U. of Minnesota students
have joined the Corps since 1984, but
total Peace Corps enlistment has fallen
by 600 volunteers since 1985.
The decline in volunteers is partly
due to people not wanting to be associ-
ated with the '60s-hippie stereotype,
said John Vreyens, a U. of Minnesota
agricultural education graduate stu-
dent and former Corps volunteer.
"When people throw off this ster-
otype, the Peace Corps will be more of a
success," Vreyens said.
Former volunteers said the Corps
helped them decide on a career path.
"I wanted the experience to see if it
was what I wanted to do," said Robert
Quinn, auniversity graduate student in
forestry. "Basically, I confirmed my
career goals rather than changed
them."
To get more top-quality individuals to
enlist, the Corps is offering one-year in-
stead of two-year assignments for indi-
viduals with five years of field experi-
ence in areas the Corps specializes in.
The Corps can now offer volunteers a
break on student loans of up to 20 per-
cent for three years of service.
The Corps has programs in 66 de-
veloping countries, offering assistance
in agriculture, natural resources man-
agement, general education, engineer-
ing, health care and other areas, accord-
ing to Peace Corps officials.

Student sues school
for master's degree
after failing her final
By Crickett Drake
The Central Florida Future
U. of Central Florida
Nora Roth, a business adminis-
tration student who failed the fin-
al economics test twice, is suing
the U. of Central Florida (UCF) to
get her master's degree or her
$5,000 tuition back.
According to Clifford Eubanks,
dean of the College of Business
Administration, in order for a stu-
dent to get a master's degree in
business administration, each
must pass a test reviewing mate-
rial in finance, management,
marketing and economics.
"After paying my dues and hav-
ing a good average, I feel abused,"
Roth said. "I really don't want
their money. I just want what I
earned ... a master's degree."
Roth passed the first three
parts of the test but failed the eco-
nomics section. She took the test a
second time and failed the econo-
mics section again.
Roth believes the test is unfair
because each of UCF's economics
professors place emphasis on
different areas of the subject.
Roth's complaint alleges that her
test was not prepared by a profes-
sor she studied with and included
unfamiliar material.
"A comprehensive test ensures
that students retain what they
learn," Eubanks said. "It is not
uncommon for students to fail the
test several times before they
pass, and Roth is permitted to
take it again."

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A need to increase volunteers ... A
recent congressional mandate requires that the
Peace Corps increase overseas volunteers to 10,000
by 1992. "It will be interesting to see if we can adapt
to this new era ... There would be no problem
filling the quota in the '60s, but this is the '80s," said
Public Affairs Specialist Jana Sample. The Corps
cannot supply as many volunteers as requested by
these needy nations, according to Charlie Augustine,
a former volunteer. Lack of federal funding is the
primary reason for the shortage. Augustine com-
pared the $150 million of funding for the Corps to
the amount spent on the Federal Marching Band. A
second problem encountered by the organization is

the lack of qualified applicants. Eve Ray, former
Peace Corps volunteer, said only 12 percent of
applicants are accepted and serve a full two-year
term, and 25 percent change their minds soon after
arriving in their assigned country. The main reason
for dropout is romantic involvement, she said. While
humanitarianism has always been the primary
motivation for volunteering, people now realize the
benefits of the Peace Corps asa good career move.
Studies indicate that former Peace Corps volunteers
consistently out-perform peers in salary gains and
promotions. David Stern, The Dart-
mouth, Dartmouth College, NH

8


Unusual classes offer challenge and a fresh change of pace

By Lisa Ryers
Brown Daily Herald
Brown U., RI
Last semester, Brown students
could create jewelry out of peach pits,
watch birds in their natural habitats
and dance to African drum beats.
Each semester, the university pro-
vides an eclectic breed of courses that
deviate from the standard reading,
writing and arithmetic formulas,
offering students a refreshing and in-
formative change of pace from their
often regimented course loads. In-
novative offerings last semester in-
cluded Special Themes 19 - Adorn-
ment as Art, which devotes 75 percent
of class time to jewelry making, and
Special Themes 58 - Sports in Amer-
ican Society, which examined sports
as a social institution.
Special Themes 19 resulted from a
desire to "teach a class which reflected
non-Western aesthetics, particularly
African," said professor Richard Fish-
man. Special Themes 58 looks at sport
"more than the relationship between
the individual and the game," said
Arlene Gorton, associate director of
athletics. "We look seriously at some-
thing very pervasive in our society."
While course titles like Special
Themes 15 - "The Life of Birds" and

Music 67 - "African Drumming and
Dance" may scare some students used
to bread and butter courses, enrollment
figures indicate the opposite. Eighty
students pre-registered for Special
Themes 15 and 70 students for Music
67.
Professors who created the innova-
tive courses are excited, but some are
concerned that students will equate
atypical with easy. However, the work-
loads for these courses are similar to

of courses are offered and that credit
can be earned by taking them, the re-
sponse is almost always positive. "I'm
interested in life sciences," said senior
John Ho. Special Themes 15 - "The
Life of Birds" seemed "like something I
would like to do versus what I had to
do."
How MTV Can Affect A GPA
When U. of North Texas (UNT) stu-
dents in Dr. Steven Fore's new class
turn on the radio or watch MTV, they're
doing homework.
The purpose of RTVF 4410 - "Film,
Music and Video," Fore's unusual radio/
television/film course, is to study the
impact of popular music on American
society.
"This is not a history of rock and roll,"
Fore said. "The course is intended to get
us to think more cohesively and syste-
matically about something that is the
fiber of our existence."

Lifestyle decisions, gender roles, au-
thority figures and school are all sub-
jects that popular music involves, Fore
said.
"Videos and films that use popular
music present to us articulate pictures
of this amorphous blob we call youth
culture," he said. "Popular music is abv
out audiences that it relates to -young
people."
Michele Pavelick, North Texas Daily, U. of
North Texas
Studying 'Soapology'
No one is more familiar with soap
operas than Sam Daniels, the world's
first soapologist.
Watching soaps and teaching are
Soapy Sam's two favorite pastimes an
after combining the two, he ended u
with a course entitled "The Soap
Opera."
In his class, Daniels teaches soapolo-
gy, which he defines as "the study of
daytime drama in all primary aspects."
In Soapy Sam's mini-course, which is
currently being offered at Onondaga
Community College, students can criti-
cally analyze scenes from the soaps, dis-
cuss soap opera history and write
direct, produce and perform in an ori-
ginal mini-soap.
Erin Futterman, The Daily Orange, Syra-
cuse U.

others, and include such requirements
as papers, projects, term reports, exams
and certain obligatory texts.
Andrew Schloss, instructor for Music
11 - "Computers and Music," said his
exams will be creative but challenging.
Students will identify sounds and tech-
niques, and create ways to make a
synthesizer perform certain functions.
Once students learn that these types