Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Tuesday, March 20, 2018
An open letter to the French Department
RISHABH KEWALRAMANI | COLUMN
E
very time I log on to
my
Facebook
feed,
I
usually
click
on
roughly four or five articles
from publications like Vox or
Politico. They’ve made it easy
for me and practically every
news consumer to read the
news. With the development
of the Instant Article on
Facebook, I can now click
on specific articles and they
will open without a load time.
While traditional outlets have
tried to adapt by using many of
these same methods, it’s clear
that the tide is changing for
these news sources like our
local newspaper and national
media outlets like The New
York Times. One doesn’t need
to turn to the “newspaper
death watch” to know that
newspapers are in trouble
from increased competition
and a changing readership.
Perhaps
you’re
one
of
the younger millennials like
myself, who, until recently,
never had the opportunity
to pay for news. Like every
generation before us, we’ve
grown up reading or watching
whatever our parents did —
whether that was the local
news, CNN or perhaps nothing
at all. Unlike our predecessors,
however, when we have earned
the opportunity to actually
pay for the news, we have been
inundated with free media
options. One could easily be
informed without ever having
to pay for a news story. The
internet dramatically shifted
how we consume our news on
top of the websites we visited
to do so.
With
the
change
from
print, radio and TV to the
internet came a dramatic shift
in ad revenue services. In the
newspaper industry, it’s fairly
obvious: The company would
make money by having you pay
a nominal subscription fee and
make more money by selling
advertisements and space in
the classified ads. The goal,
at least theoretically, was to
write a product so well that
consumers would pay for it and
view
advertisements
inside
it. “Page One: Inside the New
York Times” is a documentary
about
the
newspaper,
and
it shows the rollout of the
paywall online. Before 2010,
individuals could access the
news freely, without having
to pay for an article at all.
In order to make up for the
decreasing
revenue,
The
Times decided that making
readers pay for their articles
online was paramount to their
survival, but many consumers
simply decided to change their
news source.
This
phenomenon
of
changing news sources came
from the expectation of not
having to pay for anything on
the internet. Because of the
expectation that consumption
would be free, users pushed
back against the idea that
they would have to pay for a
news source that could easily
be
found
somewhere
else.
And this trend is growing.
Individuals are increasingly
turning to social media to get
their news. A survey from
Pew Research Center showed
that the gap between people
who consume news online
and those who read print is
closing dramatically. Another
statistic from that same survey
suggests this trend isn’t going
anywhere either: A majority of
individuals ages 18 to 29 get
their news online as of 2017; in
2016 it was 50 percent.
The concern regarding the
changing news landscape is
how critical newspapers have
been over the past 100 years.
A segment on “Last Week
Tonight with John Oliver”
covered the importance of
newspaper journalism. In this
piece, he includes a hearing
against Google’s ad revenue
service in 2010, where you
hear from a public official: It’s
a great time to be a corrupt
local politician. And the host
John Oliver is right to say
that a large share of coverage
for the news is derived from
the
newspaper
industry.
But all over the country,
newspapers are closing down
or restructuring. Over the
past
10
years,
newspaper
employment has dropped by
37 percent. This means there
are fewer journalists to cover
the perhaps mundane — but
important — local proceedings
that oversee the day-to-day
workings of political life. And
without that watchdog role
of those proceedings, it can
be reasonably assumed that
corrupt political maneuvers
could be happening without us
ever knowing about it.
There
is
hope
for
newspapers, though. Despite
these
closings,
online
subscriptions have gone up
for The Times. No one knows
exactly where the news is
heading
if
the
newspaper
industry collapses, but they’ve
adapted
before
and
will
hopefully adapt again. I can
only hope that the newspaper
industry finds a way to coexist
with the digital world.
I
’m writing today because
I am a good student, but
I am scared. I’m writing
today because in all my time
at the University of Michigan,
I
have
believed
that
my
classes follow the tenets of an
effective meritocracy where
one can be successful if he or
she puts in the work. However,
that is not the case for one
program here. Every day when
the clock turns to 4 p.m., I
transform
from
a
student
who thrives to a student who
struggles to survive. I don’t
think it would come as any
surprise to you that French 231
is my 4 p.m. class. Last week,
my classmates and I got the
opportunity to do a midterm
course evaluation, and we
relished
the
opportunity
because so many of us honestly
dread
walking
into
that
classroom on a daily basis.
However, when our lecturer
recapped the review, it quickly
became clear that nothing
would change when it came
to the terrifying structure of
the French language program
at this University. However,
it is important to note that
the lecturers have very little
autonomy when it comes to
the curriculum. Thus, they
do not bear the brunt of
the responsibility for these
shortcomings.
Nevertheless,
here are just a few of the
grievances my classmates and
I described:
1.
Workload:
We
were
told at the beginning of the
semester to expect to spend
two hours outside of class for
every hour in class, which
brings us to an expected eight
hours a week of just French
outside of the classroom. On
most days, my classes go from
8:30 or 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. With
the amount of French work
allotted, that would mean my
day does not effectively start
until 7 p.m. At a university
that aims to create a well-
rounded student and person
after college, this leaves little
precious time to do those
things that would enrich my
education. Not to mention
that
if
every
four-credit
class had the same amount
of coursework, that would be
32 hours of outside work, or
almost a full-time job.
2.
Flipped
Classroom:
A
flipped
classroom
can
be described as an inverse
of
traditional
learning
environments,
where
students
learn
through
hands-on activities at home
instead of through lecture.
I understand that there are
teaching theories that say
that a flipped classroom is
better for learning. However,
they are without a doubt
inherently
unequal
when
grades are involved. Just like
in economic terms where the
rich can get richer because
they can invest their wealth,
students who are “better” at
French going into the course
get more out of a flipped
classroom, because a flipped
classroom puts the onus on the
students to learn the language
themselves. I have no doubt
in my mind that if you were to
give a test on the first day of
class and one on the last day
of class, the distribution of
scores would remain the same,
meaning the highest achiever
on the first day would most
likely be the highest achiever
on the last day. When you take
grades into account, you could
tell who was going to get an A
based on the first day of class.
3. Harsh Grading: When
compared to other University
courses and other language
courses at the University, the
French grading system comes
across as truly draconian. In
French 232 during the Winter
Semester of 2015, 60 percent
of students got a B or higher.
That same number was 87
percent, 74 percent and 86
percent for the same level
class in Italian, Spanish and
Latin, respectively, and the
comparison looks worse when
looking at the number of As
and A-s. From looking at this
data, you could reach one of
two conclusions: either French
students are objectively worse
students
than
their
peers
or the French program as a
whole is too harsh. In fact,
in that same semester, only 5
percent of students received
an A, or one in 20. That means
that fewer than one person
per section got an A. It takes
a special amount of arrogance
on the part of a whole program
to believe nobody in your class
has earned an A. By requiring
language courses, for students
who wish to continue their
study of French they started
in high school, the University
has essentially required me to
get something less than an A.
I
am
a
high-achieving
student
with
big
dreams.
Just the other day, I sat in
my academic adviser’s room
discussing my law school plans
where every 100th decimal
place
of
my
grade
point
average matters. I have found
this University to be more
than fair to me in almost every
respect, except for the French
program in the Department
of Romance Languages and
Literatures.
That
program
stresses me out, causes me to
panic and makes me honestly
furious. I am generally a
content
person,
but
when
someone needlessly messes
with my future, I am inclined
to speak out. So, this is me
saying something: Stop being
the reason for my stress, and
make it fun to learn a language
again. Finally, to students
choosing which language they
want to learn here, I strongly
advise you to stay away from
French until real changes are
made. Though the language
is
beautiful,
the
program
couldn’t be more ugly.
Pending doom of the newspaper industry?
IAN LEACH | COLUMN
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
Ashley Zhang
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G
rowing up, my family
had a lot of different
animals, but perhaps
one
of
the
most
memorable to me
was the big ram
we called Evander.
Evander
was
a
mean old ram and
wouldn’t
hesitate
to let you know it.
My brothers and I
were
terrified
of
Evander, as we had
all been run down
on more than one
occasion. When we were
feeling
especially
brave,
we would play a game of
chicken with him, but these
games almost always started
with a dare (who can back
down from a double dog
dare?) and ended with one of
us in tears and an unhealthy
amount of bruising. While
we liked to think of it as a
game, it didn’t do much to
change the fact that we were
still scared to death of him.
One day, all the sheep
had managed to get loose,
probably by some negligence
involving the chain keeping
the gate in place (hey, don’t
look at me, I wasn’t the last
one to lock them up). They had
meandered down into one of
the neighbor’s fields and after
several hours we had rounded
up all of them but Evander, so
we split up and had a search
party for him. After a couple
hours, I stumbled into a field
a couple miles from home and
sitting at the edge of the field
was my brother, lying on top
of a sheep. As I approached,
I could see he was covered in
sweat and breathing pretty
heavily — both he and the
sheep were. I will never forget
the look of pride he had,
and when I asked why he
sat there instead
of bringing the
sheep home, he
simply replied: “I
wanted to savor
this moment.”
Upon
being
found,
Evander
had
apparently
charged
my
brother (didn’t see
that one coming),
and
having
few
other choices, my brother was
forced to fight back. After
what was recounted as an
epic battle, my brother had
managed to down the big guy
and then lay on top of him
to keep him down. Or maybe
it was to teach him a lesson.
The story depended on if my
mom was listening or not and
definitely had nothing to do
with the fact that she might
have loved those sheep more
than she loved us. After the
incident, Evander’s pride was
so hurt he never bothered my
brother again. Shortly after, I
too downed Evander in order
to partake in the benefit of not
getting run down anymore.
This was my first experience
that I can remember stepping
out of my comfort zone and
ultimately becoming a better
person for it.
Flash forward to when
I was accepted to attend
the University of Michigan,
and I found myself feeling
a very familiar fear. I was
terrified of going so far from
the place I called home and
leaving behind everyone and
everything I knew. When it
came down to making the final
college decision, I liked to tell
people it was a money matter.
With the scholarship help from
the University, it simply made
sense. Deep down, I knew
it had a lot more to do with
facing my fears and forcing
myself to dive headfirst into
something about which I knew
very little. This allowed me to
take a huge step outside of my
comfort zone.
I remember thinking about
the story of Evander whenever
I
began
to
doubt
myself,
thinking about the pride and
feeling of accomplishment I
saw in my brother and later
experienced myself. As a first-
generation student, I have had
to step out of my comfort zone
time and time again. Many
times I have found myself in a
very unfamiliar situation and
each time I take that extra
step, I become a slightly better
person for it.
As
evolving
students,
we must always try to push
ourselves. We need to face
our fears, try new things
and step outside that comfy
circle we often find ourselves
becoming complacent in — and
not just when it’s convenient
for us, but whenever we have
the
opportunity.
Without
challenge, there will be no
growth, and without growth,
how can we possibly expect
to create and contribute to
the change and progress we
wish to see? Because I faced
my fears and stepped outside
my comfort zone, I was able to
achieve a new sense of pride I
wouldn’t change for the world.
A Wolverine pride.
Facing our fears
LUCAS DEAN | COLUMN
SARAH NEFF | CONTACT SARAH AT SANE@UMICH.EDU
LUCAS
DEAN
Lucas Dean can be reached at
lbdean@umich.edu.
Ian Leach can be reached at
ileach@umich.edu.
It takes a special
amount of
arrogance on the
part of a whole
program to
believe nobody
in your class has
earned an A.
Rishabh Kewalramani can be
reached at rkew@umich.edu.
One could easily
be informed
without ever
having to pay for a
news story.