Daily Bruin

Do new kiosks signify a trend?

Editor:

Well now, isn’t that pretty? After two years of dealing with (da
da dah) the REAL WORLD (aaaaGH!) I am once again a student on
UCLA’s beautiful campus. Which has changed so much that my husband
had to give me a guided tour during Reg Week so I could find my way
to my classes. The maze between Powell Library and Royce Hall is
particularly impressive, and I’m not going to get started on
mourning the demise of the VERY expensive grass now under
asphalt.

No, my particular peeve this time is the newspaper kiosks. When
I was an undergrad, obviously in the dark ages when the campus had
a lower standard of living, we had simple little kiosks that held
three stacks of Daily Bruins. Perhaps you remember them. There are
a few still around. Now we have very high-tech, impressively sleek
metal kiosks with labeled slots for the newsmagazines.

Why is this necessary? Are these new kiosks that much more
effective than the old ones that we can justify the expense? Or is
"Wendy" ­ and her Snapple beverage crew ­ paying for
them? The only real difference I can see is that it is much more
difficult to post things on them or, perhaps psychologically,
students are deterred from covering them with the many multicolored
flyers the old ones always sported.

This is disturbing; the old newspaper kiosks were pretty much
the only place we could post notices that were not stamped and
sanctioned by the university. A reflection of the growing trend
away from the relaxed, liberal arts college atmosphere we used to
have, along with marble floors in Murphy, freeway art in the
Treehouse and shrinking green spaces? Hmmm.

Jasmin Harvey

Graduate student

Germanic Linguistics

Tea in the cup of education

Editor:

Know something funny? This is my second year, but I feel more
like a freshman than ever. The biggest thing I learned at UCLA last
year was that I have a lot to learn.

"Don’t look down on me ’cause I’m a chola," my Prison Coalition
tutee demanded, right after introducing herself to me. I asked her
what "chola" meant, and she laughed at me. Growing up in a
comfortable suburb of San Jose, gangs are an elsewhere phenomenon,
something you hear about on the 10 o’clock news, fuzzy and faded,
like an "I Love Lucy" rerun.

The first quarter I tutored in South Central, I got the shock of
my life. I thought segregation was a thing of the past. Maybe the
laws changed, but the reality hasn’t.

I’m always astonished at the obstacles my pupils face. Not one
of my tutees (all young teenagers) knew their multiplication
tables. Two were illiterate. One saw a gang murder in front of his
home.

Tutoring has taken all the stuff about poverty and oppression
that I’d heard before and infused it with vivid Technicolor and
surround-sound.

I don’t understand much of what I see these days, but I remember
a story about a student who goes to a famous Zen teacher and asks
to learn from him. The Zen master tells the student to sit down,
and begins pouring a cup of tea. He continues to pour even after
the cup is full, with tea running down its sides. The student asks,
"Why do you continue to pour tea into my cup?" The teacher replies,
"You must empty your cup of knowledge before I can teach you
anything."

It’s a new quarter, and I’ll be tutoring in Chinatown as part of
the Asian Education Project. I’m getting ready to empty my cup.

Christina Shigemura

Second year

Geography/Environmental Studies

Teachers cause ‘campus crisis,’ not students

Editor:

The column by Professor William Allen ("’Crisis of the
classroom’ pervades UCLA lectures," Oct. 24) goes to great lengths
to explain the profound educational shortfall which students at
this "prestigious university" are experiencing. The aloofness which
characterized the professor’s article is the same attitude which is
responsible for what he calls "children of the campus … who do
not know much."

Professors like him ­ and I have had many in my three years
on campus ­ are the precise cause of the "dour assessment" of
the educational prowess of UCLA students. As Professor Allen states
himself, "I do very little teaching … I profess profundity
-­ but not much is learned." Perhaps if Professor Allen did a
little more teaching rather than talking down to his students, they
would learn a little more.

His verbose discourse completely neglects taking into account
that if a class of California’s best and brightest, the future
professionals and leaders of this state, fail to grasp his academic
ramblings, that perhaps this calls for a change in his "teaching"
approach. Luckily there are a "few exceptions" on this campus
­ professors whose goal is to educate, not just to conduct
classes. It is with these professors that the hope for a real
learning experience on this campus lies.

Dominic Messiha

Fourth year

Political Science

Can you say, ‘Welcome to USC West!?’

By Kevin Welner

UCLA student: "Our fees increased another 18 percent this
year."

USC student: "Wow. You pay all that money and you still have to
learn stuff!"

Actually, the fee increase this year will hopefully be "only" 10
percent (unless you are an incoming professional student ­ see
below). A complicated series of budgetary games played over the
summer by the governor, the Legislature, the regents and the UC
Office of the President (UCOP), has left us in fee-limbo.

First, the regents passed an Educational Fee increase of 18
percent, although they really didn’t want to and undoubtedly had
quite a bit of trouble sleeping at night.

Second, the governor and the Legislature agreed on a budget
which would cap the UC fee increases at 10 percent. This budget,
however, may not survive even through the end of this calendar
year. Please be patient while I provide some background.

California has had to address a cash flow problem this year
­ securing $7 billion in loans. Due to the state’s somewhat
unpleasant fiscal situation, it could not secure the loans absent a
mechanism that would ensure protection for the banks issuing the
loans if the state’s cash situation were to diminish further.

The Legislature thus inserted a "trigger" mechanism in its
budget bill which will require mid-year budget reductions if it is
determined by the State Controller in mid-November that the state’s
cash flow situation has further deteriorated. If it is determined
that this year’s budget expenditures exceed revenues by more than 1
percent of the state’s $40.9 billion budget, then the trigger will
take effect and the governor will be directed to submit a plan that
will balance the budget through increasing revenues, reducing
expenditures or both.

If the Legislature fails to enact legislation that accomplishes
the above by Feb. 15, then an automatic, across-the-board budget
reduction will take effect, exempting requirements (mainly
Proposition 98 spending on K-12 schools) and bond repayment. The
reduction, then, minus the buffer of approximately $430 million,
will be implemented proportionately for about 60 percent of the
state budget.

Third, the UC Regents, who are not legally bound to follow the
Legislature’s fee "recommendations," amended their 1994-95 Budget
Plan with respect to the Educational Fee level. They agreed to the
10 percent cap on fees for undergraduate and academic graduate
students, to be implemented in November, provided that the trigger
does not take effect. However, they also decided that the
Educational Fee increase will remain at the 18percent level for the
fall quarter, with a potential adjustment for the remaining terms,
resulting in a 10 percent increase in fees overall for the
year.

If the trigger does take effect, the university will develop an
alternative plan for consideration by the regents at their Nov.
17-18 meeting in San Francisco. As of mid-October, the word coming
from the UCOP office is that there is a 50-50 chance of the trigger
taking effect.

It should be noted that the University will follow the
Legislature’s recommendation of providing 33 percent return-to-aid
from new student fee income. Because of its computerized system,
UCLA’s financial aid office is well-positioned (in relation to
other UC schools, at least) to handle a sudden increase in
financial aid payments.

While the rest of us bemoan our 10 to 18 percent fee increase,
incoming professional students will suffer a second blow. They will
be assessed a differential fee of $2,000, again with a 33 percent
return-to-aid. The targeted schools are Anderson Graduate School of
Management, the School of Law, the School of Medicine and the
School of Dentistry.

In summary, we are currently working under the assumption that a
10 percent cap on fees will be implemented for this year with a 33
percent return-to-aid. As the trigger deadline approaches, we will
have a better sense of the state budget situation with respect to
the trigger as well as the budget picture for 1995-96. At the
moment, however, there appears to be a reasonable likelihood that
the trigger will go off, and our fees may, therefore, increase
further.

Accordingly, as a public service, I hereby furnish the following
list of the Top 10 Ways That We Can Still Afford A UC
Education:

10. Pearl Jam can sue the regents for overcharging us.

9. Gov. Wilson can be convinced that lowering our fees will
really annoy immigrants.

8. We can threaten to move to Baltimore or St. Louis.

7. We can hire former President Carter to negotiate for our
freedom.

6. We can all be born into wealthy families (this has also
proven effective in helping to be elected vice president of the
United States).

5. We can sell a television pilot for another one of those shows
"about nothing."

4. We can sell our O. J. stories to sleazy, yet generous, media
outlets.

3. We can become an immediate favorite for state funding by
changing our name to the University (and Penal Colony) of
California.

2. We can unilaterally impose a salary cap on university
administrators.

1. Divorce Roseanne.

Welner is the Graduate Student Association (GSA) external vice
president.

‘Living history’ lets those of past speak to us still

Tom Momary

"History cannot help but engage us, either in lifting our
spirit,

or in provoking our rage and our sorrow …"

­ Thomas William

"The Weave of History"

The time is 1858. The place is Alton, Ill. This is the last
meeting between the Little Giant and the tall, lanky man who would
be president. Sen. Stephen Douglas has just unleashed a booming
tirade concerning the rights of the states. His deep voice has left
a hush on the crowd as the spirit and sentiment settles. Abraham
Lincoln rises from his chair and strides to the podium, gazing out
at the audience with genius burning in his eyes.

We are witnessing the seventh of the great debates, famed
throughout history as the ones that still ring in the ears of all
Americans. And it is being broadcast live from Lincoln Square on
C-SPAN. This is not just a re-enactment, but a living moment in
history brought forward in time. What an uncanny effect ­ as
if we are living that moment of long ago. As if, in a dream, we had
awakened in another time. They call it "living history."

Why do historical re-enactments such as this fascinate us? From
recreations of Civil War and Revolutionary War battles to our
Fourth of July fireworks which are meant to retell the tales of the
birth of our country, to the fun and frolic of Elizabethan England
at the Renaissance Faire, a certain mesmerizing effect occurs on
these occasions. I have never learned history better than at such
moments, and I believe that no greater method exists to teach
it.

How can we better understand the experiences of other humans,
past or present, than by stepping into their place and seeing the
world through their eyes? Sampling the thoughts and feelings and
hopes of a thousand forgotten minds reminds us of our capacity for
achievement. Furthermore, it demonstrates vividly to us, here and
now, that all that we feel ­ love, passion, happiness,
despair, anger, sorrow ­ all of it was felt by every person
who has ever lived.

Like beauty, these emotions that are so transitory in our
solitary lifetimes survive. We discover that we are not so
different from those who came before us. And those who follow us
will also be the same. We are connected, past and future. We can
know, by this discovery, that we may equal or surpass any former
glory. Reliving the past, by transporting it into the present, is a
dream brought to life.

Walt Disney was familiar with this dream. How much of Disneyland
involves history or the future (which is just history that has not
yet happened)? Haven’t we all had great fun reliving the
swashbuckling days of the Pirates of the Caribbean? What about
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln? And even the Disneyland railroad
that surrounds the park steams straight out of the old West. Walt
Disney was a dreamer, and one of his fondest dreams was to create
living history.

The imagineers at Disney have built upon Walt’s dream, and have
created a project called Disney America, to be based "once upon a
time" in Virginia. The new theme park would have recreated history.
It would have allowed all of us ­ the young and the youthful
of mind ­ to experience past events and people and times. It
would have been a better instructor of history than all the
teachers I have ever had combined. It would have demonstrated
something that history professors would do well to learn
themselves: experiencing the past remains the best way to learn its
lessons.

However, a curious alignment of those who call themselves
historians, and other evidently unthinking people, conspired to
block the Disney dream. They spouted prattle about how Disney would
"commercialize" history ­ somehow sensationalize it or change
it to make a profit. They claimed that it was a denigration of the
past.

These people appointed themselves "guardians" of history. These
same people, historians and professors, who themselves bungled half
of the history they teach. These "sentinels," have been so duped by
those persistent qualities I mentioned ­ greed, jealousy,
suspicion ­ in lives long ago lived, that they record errors
and call them facts.

For example, these same historians, who claim that Disney
America would have warped young minds, boldly celebrate how Thomas
Jefferson wrote our immortal Declaration of Independence (the very
essence of our country), when it was almost certainly penned by a
man named Thomas Paine. In fact, Paine was the whole heart and soul
and mind behind the American Revolution. With all the respect they
are due, Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Franklin were all, more
or less, along for the ride.

And these same people venerate Harry Truman for firing General
MacArthur at a time when he had, essentially won the Korean War for
us. Had Truman left MacArthur in command, there likely would have
been no Vietnam a decade later.

Have we been taught these things? Of course not. They have been
"written out" of history by the historians themselves. And THESE
are the people who we are supposed to trust with the annals of
history? THESE are the minds whose judgment we should honor
concerning a historical themepark like Disney America? I should
think that we could decide for ourselves.

The building of dreams is, in my view, one of the greatest of
accomplishments. I celebrate those who have the courage to dream in
our so often dismal world. And to those who boldly erect their
dreams, like Thomas Paine, like Walt Disney, like Jim Henson, like
thousands of others, we owe our gratitude. They share their dreams
with us. And the whole world benefits.

One of the greatest of dreams is bringing history back to life.
For the benefit of those who have narrow minds to experience other
perspectives; and for fresh, young minds open to new visions; and
for every one of us to connect with the likenesses in our past and
our future, we ought to participate in "living history." We ought
to wear the mantle of lives lived long ago. Like Lincoln and
Douglas, minds from the past, they can speak to us still.

Momary is a third-year Geophysics graduate student.

‘Crisis’ begins with high school system

By Dan Komaromi

After reading UCLA professor William Allen’s perspective
("’Crisis of the classroom’ pervades UCLA lectures," Oct. 24) I
must say that I am bothered by the scene he described so well. But
I am not surprised. The degradation of minds begins with the high
school system. There are several big problems here which create a
chain reaction that follows students throughout their university
education.

Namely, if you work hard in high school, I am convinced that
anyone can get straight As, or close to it. In most high school
classes you do not have to think, generalize or solve complex
problems of any sort. Instead, you simply accept what is
politically correct. High school instructors, with only a few years
of college education, tend to be opinionated and will only allow
students who entirely agree with them to excel in their course.
There is little room for mind expansion here.

While most high school students are definitely more ignorant
than their teachers, for the few bright students who have a
jump-start and have educated themselves through an extracurricular
curiosity, there is no classroom reward. The lack of such reward,
and the rigorous adherence to politically correct thinking breeds
frustration and resentment on behalf of the bright student. Thus,
there is little correlation between earning As and being wise.

The university admissions process places too much emphasis on
high school grades and overlooks other important considerations.
For example, they should ask each candidate: "What kind of books or
periodicals do you read, on your own choosing, which in no way is
connected to your school work?" It is my experience that those who
are not curious are those who never develop a method for thinking
about problems in such a way that the process is uncontaminated by
popular opinion and emotion. Acceptance of someone else’s thought
process is not the same as thinking.

Students at UCLA appear to have these things in common: they
work hard, they know how to play the examination game and they tend
to be selfish. And you can’t blame them too much, because the
system itself fails to recognize that these are the kinds of
qualities you must have, in the least, to earn fine grades. It’s
like putting a rat in a maze with cheese at the end and hoping that
it will stop to examine the texture and construction of the
maze.

These problems are created because of the common person’s desire
to idealize an institution. When the institution is first
constructed, its limitations and quirks are brought to mind. But
after many years, people forget about the history of its
conception, and instead adopt the institution as a permanent,
unchangeable fixture, which must be close to perfect, simply
because it has been around for so long.

Many advances have been made in technology and in the
understanding of the human will, yet the educational system has
resisted change, has been kept bureaucratic and lacking of any
complex interface that is so important for the smooth functioning
of any device. For example, realize that your automobile’s modern
engine is a thousand-fold times more complex that the engines that
existed in the early development of cars. So we can say that UCLA
is one of the nation’s top steam engines.

Komaromi is a senior in neuroscience.