Volume 86, Issue 12
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Friday, Feb. 27, 1998
The Augustan°
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Political interest among
students at all-time low
Faculty approves early
start to fall semester,
new structure of breaks
BY HOLLY ANDREN
MIRROR CO-EDITOR
First-year students are feel-ing
more disengaged from poli-tics
than ever, but they have
more conservative stances on
some social issues, according
to a nationwide survey in
which Augustana first-year
students participated.
The survey, conducted by
the Higher Education
Research Institute at the Uni-versity
of California, Los Ange-les,
included 348,465 students
at 665 of the nation's two-and
four-year colleges and univer-,
sities. Around 280 of Augus-tana's
329 incoming first-year
students participated in the
survey when they registered
Speaker
Books provide
focus that web
fails to offer
BY HEIDI-ANETTE HAGEN
MIRROR STAFF WRITER
Students rely too much on
the World Wide Web as a
resource and are too lazy to do
their own research, said Pro-fessor
Paul Cantor of the Uni-versity
of Virginia.
In his speech, titled "Tales
from the Misinformation
Superhighway," Cantor dis-cussed
his concerns about stu-dent
research, the Internet and
its negative effects. Cantor said
that although students often
are "webmasters," they do not
know how to convey informa-tion.
Students depend too
much on the sources they find
for classes last summer, said
Jim Bies, vice president for
student services.
Of the first-year students
who took the national survey,
26.7 percent believe that
"keeping up to date with politi-cal
affairs is an important life
goal." Augustana's results
were slightly above the nation-al
average, with 29.6 percent of
first-year students indicating
the necessity to keep informed
about politics. At the national
level, 14 percent of students
said that they frequently dis-cussed
politics. At Augustana
18.1 percent said that political
discussions were common.
Although they took the sur-vey
before entering classes,
on the web for their research.
He shared examples of stu-dents
who had contacted him
via e-mail, asking him for help
with interpretations for papers
they were writing about Shake-speare.
Although Cantor is a
Shakespeare scholar, he does
not know how these people
learned about him or his e-mail
address. After receiving
these e-mail messages, Cantor
believes that students lack the
effort to do the research them-selves.
He thinks that some of
them expect him to provide all
the answers.
Cantor said that the use of
computers is not based on
careful consideration. Rather,
one tends to use technology
just because it is there. "We
professors are afraid of sound-ing
old-fashioned," he said.
Cantor also • is displeased with
the information on the Inter-some
Augustana first-year stu-dents
say that they continue to
lack interest in politics.
First-year student Tom Wull-stein
says that he rarely reads
a newspaper or watches the
news for political information,
but he believes that politics are
necessary.
"It's important for society to
have politics to keep - the coun-try
safe," Wullstein said. "But I
don't feel like I'm actually
involved in politics."
Although less than one-third
of the students who took the
survey said that they did not
place importance on current
Survey
continued on page 8
Photo by Jill Gunnink
Paul Cantor
net. He said that although the
Internet allows for a large
quantity of information, the
quality of the material is usual-ly
poor.
Cantor contrasted the Inter-net
to books. He claimed that
there is little control on the
Internet and that many sites
are inefficient.
BY GENE BOADWINE
MIRROR STAFF WRITER
In December the faculty
approved several revisions for
the academic calendar for the
1998-99 school year, including
the start of school before Labor
Day.
One of the revisions is that
the first day of classes will be
on Sept. 2,
the Wednes-day
before
Labor Day
instead of
Sept. 10, the
Thursday
after Labor
Day. Other
changes
include a
Labor Day
break, an
extra day of
Thanksgiving
break and the
consolidation
of spring break and Easter
break.
The changes to the calendar
were prompted by an attempt
to standardize the semesters
so that they will be equal in
length. This year, there are 70
school days in the fall semester
and 67 days in the spring. Next
school year, the spring semes-ter
will be shorter by two days.
Registrar John Bylsma and
Academic Dean Richard Han-
"In fact, their only function
is to refer you to other sites,"
he said. Books, on the other
hand, are finished products
with "intellectual authority,"
Cantor said.
He says that when net
surfers jump from site to site,
they do not focus on the given
information, whereas books
invite more focus from readers.
This focus makes readers
think about how the different
parts of a book fit together.
Computers, or the new media,
work against "intellectual
coherence," Cantor said. The
experience of reading a book
cannot be replaced, especially
not by the Internet, he said.
A panel discussion, featuring
Cantor and Augustana profes-sors
Michelle Bartel and
Michael Nedelsky, followed the
Speech. Augustana faculty and
students participated in the
son proposed to make the sec-ond
semester equal to the first
semester, but the faculty did
not approve the lengthening of
spring semester, Hanson said.
"I do not anticipate there will
be any more • changes in the
calendar for the next two
years," Hanson said.
ASA worked closely with the
faculty in
order to obtain
an academic
calendar with
compromises,
Senator Lora
Anderson said.
"ASA did not
want to have
the students
starting
[school) in
August,"
Anderson said.
"That would
have created a
problem for
the students who worked dur-ing
the summer. [ASA) did not
want students having more
days in the spring semester
because of how strong the job
market is."
Anderson said that although
there were varying opinions
about the calendar changes
within the senate, she believes
Calendar changes
continued on page 8
discussion by asking questions
or presenting their views on
the Internet.
Religion professor Michelle
Bartel said that her main con-cern
is that society is "facing a
lack of critical thinking." She
also said that it is important to
encourage independent and
critical thinking among stu-dents
so that they will gain
knowledge through their own
research.
Michael Nedelsky, a psychol-ogy
professor, said that com-puters
cannot replace the face-to-
face value of the classroom,
but using the web for educa-tional
purposes is valuable
because of the potential for
finding information on the
Internet. Nedelsky also said
that it is not the product in
itself that one should question,
but rather the use of it.
"I do not
anticipate there
will be any more
changes in the
calendar for the
next two years."
—Richard Hanson
criticizes use of Internet for research