The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 28, 2011 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
GOP introduces
new price tag bill
A state lawmaker has intro-
duced a proposal to repeal Michi-
gan's unique law requiring price
tags on most retail items.
Republican Rep. Lisa Posthu-
mus Lyons of Alto introduced
the legislation yesterday, about a
week after Republican Gov. Rick
Snyder proposed the idea in his
State of the State speech.
The Michigan Retailers Asso-
ciation says the state's item
pricing law is a hidden tax on
consumers and results in higher
prices at stores.
The United Food and Commer-
cial Workers union supports the
current law and says jobs would
be lost in grocery stores if it's
repealed.
ATLANTA
Teach For America
to receive $100M
for endowment
Teach For America, the educa-
tion organization that has placed
recent college graduates in low-
income public schools, is getting
$100 million to launch its first-
ever endowment in hopes of mak-
ing the grass-roots organization a
permanent fixture in education.
The program - which is now
in communities from Atlanta to
rural New Mexico to Los Angeles
- announced yesterday that four
philanthropists are joiningto cre-
ate a stable, long-term source of
money. It's welcome news for an
organization that had more than
46,000 applications forjust 4,400
teaching slots this academic year.
"A few years ago we embraced
the priority of making Teach For
America an enduring American
institution that can thrive as long
as the problem we're working to
address persists," said founder
Wendy Kopp, who dreamed up
Teach-FerAmerica for her under-
graduatezhesis and launched itin
1990.
BAGHDAD
Car bomb strikes
funeral, kills 48
A car bomb exploded outside a
funeral tent yesterday in a mainly
Shiite area of Baghdad, killing
at least 48 people - the latest in
a wave of attacks that has trig-
gered fury over the government's
inability to stop the bloodshed.
As ambulances raced to the
scene and Iraqi helicopters
buzzed overhead, young men
enraged over the security lapse
pelted Iraqi forces with sticks and
stones; promptingskirmishes.
The violence over the past
week and ahalfhasmainlytarget-
ed the majority Shiite community
and Iraqi security forces, posing a
major challenge for Prime Minis-
ter Nouri al-Maliki and his frag-
ile coalition government that was
seated last month.
Sone lawmakers and city offi-
cials said insurgents were likely
trying to undermine the govern-
ment ahead of an Arab League
summit to be held in March in
Baghdad.
SANAA, Yemen
Yeminis demand
change in gov.'t
Tens of thousands of Yemenis
demanded the president step
down in nationwide protests yes-
terday, taking inspiration from
the popular revolt in Tunisia and
vowing to continue until their
U.S.-backed government falls.
Yemen is the latest Arab state
to be hit by mass anti-govern-
ment protests, joining Tunisia
and Egypt in calls for revolution-
ary change. The demonstrations
pose a new threat to the stability
of Yemen, the Arab world's most
impoverished nation, which has
become a haven for al-Qaida mil-
itants.
"No delays, no delays, the time
for departure has come!" shout-
ed protesters, calling for the
ouster of President Ali Abdullah
Saleh, who has ruled for nearly
32 years.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
0
CLASSES
From Page 1
tering," Moreiras-Menor said.
"They got into classes. This
semester we haven't received
any complaints."
According to Moreiras-
Menor, the Department of
Romance Languages and Lit-
eratures tries to be as accom-
modating as it can.
"In the context of our pos-
sibilities and our resources,
we try to cope. If we can open
classes, we do," Moreiras-
Menor said. "My impression is
we are placing the majority of
students in classes."
The Department of Romance
Languages and Literatures
isn't the only department in
which students have had.diffi-
culties registering for classes.
LSA sophomore Phoebe Barg-
houty said she has encountered
major issues trying to enroll in
Department of Communica-
tion Studies courses that are
already full.
"Because I am a first-year
student with sophomore stand-
ing, and I am trying to gradu-
ate early, it's hard to get all
my required courses because
I'm lower on the priority list,"
Barghouty said. "I got my first
two comm classes, 101 and 102,
by luck. Comm 211 was filled up
in just a couple days, so I had no
chance."
Planning a schedule becomes
frustrating, Barghouty said,
since she's not sure which
classes she'll be able to get into.
"I avoid waitlists," Bargh-
outy said. "I tend to choose the
classes that I want, then if they
are full, I just make a complete-
ly new schedule.".
The problems with register-
ing for required courses, Barg-
houty said, could stem from
students with other majors
enrolling in popular classes to
fill elective credits.
"In lots of cases, people are
just taking them for an elec-
tive, when people need them
for their major," Barghouty
said. "Sometimes I worry that I
won't be able to graduate early."
While some students are dis-
couraged from seeking enroll-
ment if a class has filled up,
others, like Public Policy senior
Michael Bertenthal, attempt to
get into the class by lobbying
professors.
"I think it's common for
students to have this problem,
but talking to professors really
helps," Bertenthal said. "Get-
ting on a waitlist, going to class
and discussing the opportunity
to take the class with the pro-
fessor works pretty well."
He added that registration
issues within other schools
at the University besides LSA
tend to be easier to resolve
since students can receive more
specialized help.
"If you are in a smaller
school, I think youhave a better
chance of getting into classes
you need," Bertenthal said. "I
was in LSA for two years before
I entered Public Policy. In LSA,
you are more anonymous and
dealing with advisers can be
more difficult when trying to
get into courses."
Though a number of stu-
dents pointed out flaws in the
registration process, students
said they had mixed feelings
about whether they would talk
to departments to express their
dissatisfaction.
Barghouty said she has sug-
gestions for improving regis-
tration within the Department
of Communication Studies, but
she wouldn't contact admin-
istrators with a grievance
regarding registration issues.
"I wouldn't file a complaint,"
Barghouty said "But I would
consider giving the comm
department some constructive
criticism."
Engineering freshman Alex
Nagler said his registration
problems for introductory
classes have been aggravating,
but he would rather handle the
situation on his own.
"It's impossible to get into
any 101 classes. Those should
be really easy to get into,"
Nagler said. "I would never
really consider taking it up with
the department. It's a nuisance,
but I can deal with it."
WOLV-TV
From Page 1
work a few days after they stream
online, accordingto Prasad.
Bruce Madej, the University's
associate athletic director for
special projects, is the liaison
between the University's Ath-
letic Department and the Big
Ten Network. He said though the
University doesn't have a broad-
casting program, a partnership
with the network provides a real-
world environment for students
to learn about broadcast journal-
ism.
"What has been really fun for
me is to be able to see individu-
als getting a background ina pro-
fession that they're interested in
and have fun while they're doing
it," Madej said. "It really is fun to
watch them."
The students mainly cover
home games of non-revenue
sports, including men's soccer
and baseball and women's soc-
cer, basketball and softball. This
year, they've covered all women's
home basketball games except
for last Sunday's matchup against
Purdue. Prasad said this cover-
age has been an important fac-
tor in increasing viewership of
women's sports at the University.
"That's an exposure wom-
en's basketball has never seen
before," Prasad said.
Though they did cover a few
men's basketball and ice hockey
games this year, Prasad said
students don't usually cover
football, basketball or hockey
because the Big Ten Network
typically covers them on their
own, using a satellite truck cost-
ingnearly $30,000.
To reduce the cost of using
the truck, the Big Ten Network
offers student producers at Big
Ten schools what they call "fly
packs" - production equipment
that connects the network and
the conference schools for data
sharing. This makes high qual-
ity production equipment more
accessible to student producers,
and it costs "infinitely less" than
using the satellite truck, Prasad
said.
Rex Arends, the director of
university technical operations
for the Big Ten Network, wrote
in an e-mail interview that the
technology provides efficient,
high quality video footage and
facilitates open lines of commu-
nication between the schools and
the network.
"The bandwidth is huge, and
we can send true HD video down
it with very little compression,"
Arends wrote. "It also is bidi-
rectional, which means we can
receive video and communica-
tion from students working on
live sporting events and we can
communicate back to them and
oversee their production from
Chicago."
The technology allows stu-
dents to learn how to broadcast
sporting events in a professional
setting, he wrote.
"The students produce live
sporting events just like we do
at the network," Arends wrote.
"They produce, direct, run cam-
era ... from start to finish, includ-
ing play-by-play and analyst
announcers. They have learned
well how to do this and the prod-
uct continues to get better and
exceed expectations."
When Prasad and his crew first
started working with the net-
work last year, they were asked
to film six baseball and softball
events, which streamed online.
Once the students expressed
a desire to do more reporting,
Madej said he convinced the net-
work to let them produce more
games.
"Because of the passion the
students have for it, we really
have some of the best student
broadcasting on the Big Ten Net-
work," Madej said.
Arends said he is "continually
impressed" with the students'
broadcasts, especially since they
develop the programs on their
own.
"At most of the schools, we
have a video service liaison that
oversees the process," Arends
wrote. "At (Michigan), it is com-
pletely'run by students, and they
do an amazing job."
Though students aren't able
to take courses in broadcast
journalism at the University,
Prasad said working with the Big
Ten Network is a better learn-
ing experience than what is
offered by university broadcast
programs, like the one at Syra-
cuse University's S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communica-
tions.
"Nowhere at Syracuse (Uni-
versity) can you say to the stu-
dents that their work is being
viewed in over 70 million house-
holds nationwide," Prasad said.
LAPTOPS
From Page 1
CRLT.
Currently, there isn't a Uni-
versity-wide policy specifying
rules or restrictions on laptop
use in class, so professors and
lecturers have the flexibility to
decide whether or not to allow
computer use.
Though laptops can side-
track students from course
material, the CRLT provides
University faculty and GSIs
training resources to help them
effectively incorporate laptops
in lectures.
Some faculty members have
started to use laptops interac-
tively in class in a similar fash-
ion to the iClicker, Kaplan said.
Instead of answering multiple
choice questions on an iClicker,
students type full responses to
questions which promotes crit-
ical thinking.
Kaplan said the laptops also
allow students to send messag-
es to their GSIs and ask ques-
tions that they would not have
a chance to ask in a large class-
room setting.
"The faculty member can
even have a sense of what's
confusing students," Kaplan
said. "What we found is when
laptops are used very intention-
ally that way, they're somewhat
less distracting, and students
feel more like it's contributing
to their learning."
Shazia Iftkhar, assistant
professor of Communications
Studies at the University, wrote
in an e-mail interview that she
doesn't allow laptops in her
Communications 101 lecture or
in her smaller classes because
she feels they are a distraction
for students. Banning laptops
generates a more learning-ori-
ented environment, she wrote.
"We feel that not using lap-
tops allows students to listen
and engage in discussion in a
more focused way and to devel-
op critical and engaged note-
taking skills through active
listening," Iftkhar wrote.
With the proliferation of
portable technologies among
students, determining whether
or not to allow laptops in class
is something faculty have to
think about more than they did
10 years ago, Kaplan said.
"I think it's a question of
thinking carefully about what
your goals are and how the lap-
top might help you meet those
goals," he said. "Sort of what we
say about any technology tool,
which is it's a tool, and it should
be connected to your goals for
the class and for student learn-
ing."
LSA freshman Blake Mackie
took a class last semester in
which laptops were prohib-
ited. He said he thinks many
students understand why the
professor would choose not to
allow laptops in class, but it is
an inconvenience for students
who use their computer as a
way to take notes.
"It was my first semester,
and I wasn't allowed to use
laptops in any of my classes
actually, so that's what I was
used to," Mackie said. "I think
it was good because then
people weren't distracted
by Facebook and everything
that you see in all the classes
where you can use laptops."
CLOCKS
From Page 1
ager of LSA ISS, said students
who answered "yes" on the sur-
vey said they wanted more clocks
in classrooms because they can't
use personal electronic devices
during tests or because they don't
have cell phone reception in some
classrooms, which prevents them
from checking the time.
Some students who answered
"no" on the survey said they felt
clocks were distracting, while
others said the lack of clocks isn't
important enough to warrant
additional University funding.
"We recognize that we're not
going to make everybody happy,"
Dressler said. "But I think that,
particularly in spaces where there
are really large exams (that have)
high stakes, havingclocks for stu-
dents to be able to track their time
is really important."
Many small classrooms in
buildings including North Quad-
rangle Residential and Academic
Complex, the Dennison Build-
ing and the Modern Languages
Building don't have clocks. Put-
ting clocks in North Quad is a
priority because of the building's
poor cell phone reception,
Dressler said.
"Insomespaceswherethere
are not clocks, we may just be
able to work with the faculty
members who are working in
those spaces to be more cogni-
zant of student needs and the
fact that students don't wear a
lot of wristwatches anymore,"
Dressler said.
She said most of the Univer-
sity's auditoriums and class-
rooms that hold more than
100 people already have clocks.
However, she said many of these
clocks are in the back of the room,
and ISS is working to evaluate
whether the placement is effec-
tive for students or if more clocks
need to be added in the front of
these rooms.
There are also older clocks in
many of these classrooms that
may need to be replaced with the
wireless clocks, Dressler said.
Dressler said ISS plans to use
wireless clocks powered by trans-
mitters that she hopes will be
installed in LSA classrooms by
next fall.
Each transmitter costs about
$2,500, and each clock costs
about $200 and comes with
a battery that lasts about five
years. Though the plan is still
being evaluated, installation
time and licensing issues are
factors that will affect how
soon the clocks can be installed,
Dressler said.
Justin Leidel and Jeff Larkin,
the LSA-SG representatives on
the Student Advisory Board to
LSA ISS, said they're working
to get more clocks in classrooms
because of the survey results.
In addition to the survey, Leidel
and Larkin are garnering stu-
dent input through an LSA ser-
vice called "This Sucks," which
allows students to e-mail com-
plaints to LSA-SG.
In the "This Sucks" e-mails,
Larkin said, students wrote that
clocks are needed for timed tests
and making sure they get out of
class on time.
"It's always nice to have stu-
dent input when you're talking
about a new project or when
you're talking about ways to
improve our education and the
environment," Larkin said. "I
think it's not only valuable to
hear from, the faculty;perspec-
tive, but it's really for students to
voice your opinion."
Initiatives like the one to add
more clocks in classrooms are
significant, Leidel said, since
they derive from direct student
appeals and can be addressed.
"I think it's important for stu-
dents to know where tuition is
being spent, where the tuition's
going," Leidel said. "I think it's
really important that students,
through advocates like the stu-
dent government, have a way
of connecting with faculty and
connecting with people like
(Dressler) who will push to have
student initiatives taken."
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