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.