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July 19, 1983 - Image 7

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Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1983-07-19

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The Michigan Daily- Tuesday, July 19, 1983- Page 7
Rothman means business

By BARBARA MISLE
The heavy doors to the MLB
auditorium shut at 10:10 a.m. and the
39-year-old professor, -dressed in a
tweed blazer and faded jeans, walks
briskly toward the chalkboard. Putting
his pipe in his coat pocket. he arranges
his notes on the table and waits.
When the class quiets down, his pier-
cing blue eyes focus, his hands point to
the rows of students and without a
microphone his voice echoes, "Look
folks, we've got a lot to cover today."
PROF. ED Rothman teaches the
dreaded Statistics 402, a required cour-
se for all students concentrating in
psychology or statistics, and the job can
be trying. Rothman must make stud-
ents who barely survived high school
algebra understand the basic testing
skills used in scientific research.
Rothman has a reputation as a tough
professor who won't put up with
classroom chatter or with students
leaving in the middle of class. But
despite his stern character (some stud-
ents have dubbed him "the devil"),
Rothman consistently gets an "A" in
course evaluations.
Back in class, Rothman is midway
through a lecture on the probability of a
quarter turning up "heads," when a
PROFILE
student in the back row of the
auditorium casually slings his back-
pack over his shoulder, pushes his
way through the row of students and
walks out the door.
WHEN THE heavy door slams,
Rothman throws his chalk down and the
abrupt move silences the class. They
know he's mad.
"You know," Rothman said as he
stroked his graying beard, "I ought to
have a pile of drop slips right here for
every time a student leaves."
"If you want to leave during lecture,
don't bother coming to class," he adds.
INTIMIDATING as it might seem,
Rothman doesn't think his teaching
style is out of line. "I think people who
are rude ought to fear the consequences
of being rude," he said sitting in his of-
fice in Mason Hall dressed casually in
blue Adidas tennis shorts and a polo
shirt.
Equally disruptive, Rothman said
are students who sit in the second row
and "gab away" during lecture. "I just
don't tolerate that type of behavior in a
large lecture. I can't," he said.
Students might find Rothman's
demands excessive, the course load is
heavy, with weekly homework assign-
ments using computers and a fast-
paced reading list, but Rothman is used
to a strict lifestyle.
HE WAS born in Montreal, Canada
where high schools prescribe students'
curriculum except for two electives -
Rothman chose physics and math.
In order to graduate, students were

Daily Photo by ELIZABETH SCOTT
Statistics Prof. Ed Rothman, sitting in his Mason Hall office, says he won't put up with students chattering during class.
Rothman says many students today lack commitment.

required to pass exams covering 10 sub-
jects. Students found out if they passed
when the city newspaper printed
the test scores.
Rothman passed the exam by less
than one percent, but he was admitted
to McGill University, the Canadian
equivalent of Harvard. Rothman said
about 45 percent of his freshman class
dropped out because students at McGill
are forced to leave the university if they
fail two courses their first year and
don't make up the credits in the sum-
mer.
"THE LEVEL of discipline in
Canadian schools is a whole lot dif-
ferent than what you find in American
schools," he said.
At McGill, Rothman studied
mathematics and played semi-pro foot-
ball, which left him little time for par-
ties or going to bars.
"That's all I did. I played football and
studied. My social life was minimal,"
he said. "It would have been minimal
anyway because I just didn't have a lot
of money."
IN COLLEGE he did everything from
unloading potatoes to working as ' a
waiter at a gourmet Chinese restaurant
to help pay tuition. The restaurant,
Ruby Foos, was formerly owned by the
parents of University President Harold
Shapiro. (Shapiro's family lived near
Rothman in Montreal, although the two
did not know each other.)
Rothman's parents immigrated to
Montreal from Europe in the 1920s to
escape increasing persecution of Jews.
His father, born in Romania, only
received a third grade education, but
taught himself how to speak and read
four languages.
In Montreal the family shared a

duplex with his grandparents and his
uncles and aunts lived down the block.
LIVING IN close quarters was not
only economical, buta practical way to
withstand the strong current of anti-
semitism in Montreal at that time.
The grade school nearest the Roth-
man's house forbade Jewish students
from enrolling, so Rothman attended
another public grade school.
Leading the life of a Jew in Montreal
made him determined to overcome the
stifling discrimination.
His parents gave him "nothing but
encouragement," but their expectations
were high.
"ONE OF the most vivid recollec-
tions of my childhood -is having my
mother take me to kindergarten - and
I remember this as clearly as though it
was happening right now - she asked
me what I was going to do when I
finished college," he said.
After receiving a bachelors degree
with first class honors in Pure
Mathematics from McGill in 1965,
Rothman earned 'a doctorate in
statistics from Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity with a minor in three subjects:
business, economics, and engineering.
Rothman came to the University in
1969 when the statistics department
was created. He met his wife the
following year and the couple has a two-
year-old son.
CONSIDERING Rothman's im-
pressive credentials his experience
could certainly earn him a higher
salary consulting for firms than staying
at the University.
Rothman said he has turned down
several tempting offers to leave the
University, but teaching and doing
research is challenging enough to keep

him in Ann Arbor.
He earns a relatively high salary of
$52,000 a year, but his decision to stay
"certainly wasn't because of the
money," Rothman said.
"I AM IN business to help the
University and teach. Seeing a student
work to accomplish something makes
me feel terrific," he said.
But Rothman says teaching can be
exhausting. For Stat 402, he takes 20
hours a week coordinating lectures with
the lab teaching assistants and working
with graduate students in addition to
teaching the introductory statistics
course for students in Inteflex, the
University's six-year medical
program.
Rothman said he enjoys seeing
students "put their nose to the grind"
and overcome what they don't know.
But many students today are from af-
fluent families and missing the drive
and push Rothman grew up with in a
poor family. "(Students feel their
parents) will always take care of them,
so the motivation is lost. That's
frightening," he said.
What bothers Rothman most about
students today is their indecision and
lack of commitment to work hard at
something. "Students are unable to
makea decision. It doesn't matter what
field students concentrate in. You
could eliminate 80 percent of the
majors, because you learn the same
basic skills: how to get from A to B," he
said. "Get on with it, 10 years from
now, you'll forget what you learned in
Sociology 100, the material is lost but
substantial knowledge you'll hold on
to."
Misle is the Daily's editor-in-chief.
Profile appears every Tuesday.

New restaurant to open in N. Campus Commons

(Continued from Page 1) munity among the students from the
THE NEW restaurant is also inten- different schools on North Campus," he
ded to make the Commons more of a said.
center of student life on North Campus,
said Ronald Fracker, a Commons of- Construction on the restaurant began
fice assistant. in June, and Friedrichs said she is
"It will create some sense of com- "trying very hard to open in early Sep-

tember, in time to welcome new people
to North Campus."
She said the commons is also plan-
ning to install several copy machines
for student use on the commons' lower
level. The building already contains an
automatic banking machine and a

branch of the University Cellar.
A contest to name the restaurant is
open to all music, art, architecture and
urban planning, and engineering
students. Students with ideas can sub-
mit them to the Commons office by
Friday, July 22.

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