2008 Woodie Awards
Letters to the editor
Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: Editorials
Miami biological sciences prepares all disciplines
As a zoology major and pre-med student, I believe the image that Jessica Brown (April 18, "Miami science programs not geared toward research") has created of the zoology and science program as a whole at Miami University is completely ungrounded. The zoology program is comprised of mostly classes geared around the studying of animal behavior and anatomy with hopes that it may cater to a wide range of disciplines: both for students who are entering a career based off animal studies, but also premedical students who can use the knowledge of animal anatomy/behavior and correlate it to humans in some capacity.
Her description of the "intellectual tease" that zoology classes pose is ungrounded. There is only one class under zoology that refers to medicine in its title alone: "Contemporary Issues in Medicine." There is no tease here-you know what you're registering for and if you don't, the university has never discouraged students from e-mailing the course professor and asking them for the course syllabus or asking an academic adviser about the class. Every course I have taken and/or discussed with peers as a zoology major have been based primarily off animals, whether it is ZOO 201 which studies vertebrate anatomy, or ZOO 305, an animal physiology course that is offered during the fall. Such a class focuses on the learning about an animal's physiology by studying our own anatomy via laboratory exercises due to known anatomical similarities that exist between both animals and humans.
Brown continues to describe oceans and their relation to the study of the human body and how we as scientists must continue the study of the human body to gain a better understanding of the interactions that do take place. Why, then, is she so opposed to classes that study humans and not animals? If such classes do exist, isn't this exactly what she is asking for? Maybe not. Maybe, she hopes to learn about "the interactions within the human body" by "studying frogs and poking at dead things with sticks."
On behalf of all biological sciences students at Miami University who have taken classes at the zoology department, I believe that while the program may not be perfect, it has prepared all disciplines equally for the next step in life, whether you are pre-veterinarian or pre-medical.
So as a student who does not obsess about comparing MCAT scores, but may take up residence at King Library, I suggest that you seek an academic adviser, or the class bulletin, both of which can provide a detailed description of every class (including the 14-plus other upper level courses that do not start with human phi-) and may help you find the class you have been looking for all these years.
Madhu Mathew
matehwjm@muohio.edu
Historical references miss mark of Crusade event
In response to the "I agree with Heather" campaign as well as the overall backlash against Campus Crusade and Christians in general following the "I agree with Sam" campaign, I found it troubling that evangelism would be compared in any stretch to hate crimes. Were the crusades of the middle century detestable? Yes. And are present day bombings of abortion clinics in the name of Christ atrocious? Absolutely. Alleged Christians for centuries have used their religion for political gain, power and oppression. But is that really what evangelism is? Not at all.
From the perspective of a follower of Jesus, we genuinely believe that man is not innately good and without Jesus Christ we will be separated from our creator God for all eternity-a separation that will be incredibly painful and never ending. Probably now, I have lost more than half the readers that consider me uneducated, intolerant and dogmatic. But this is what followers of Jesus believe.
Now why is it considered intolerant that we want our family, friends and neighbors to know the joy that we find by following Jesus? If a friend of yours was walking in front of a bus, you would not just watch and say, "That is what seems to best to them." And if you had the cure to a fatal disease, it would be irresponsible not to offer an alternative to certain death. I know that these are not exact representations, but from our perspective, it would be just as wrong not to share that Jesus is the way to a fulfilled and purposeful life for eternity. I know that this message is unpopular and seen as narrow-minded, but for the evangelical Christian, it is core to our life.
Do Christians always share this message gracefully and accurately? No. Do we as imperfect people become defensive at opposition and build up self-righteous attitudes toward those who don't believe like we do? Yes we do. But the motive behind our "outreach" is pure-our humanness just screws it up and can make our seemingly harmless words harmful. We are not asking for people to follow us or join our organization, we are asking people to follow the perfect man of Jesus Christ. Because of this, I applaud Campus Crusade for risking public backlash and the loss of respect for laboring to get out the message they live for, and I do agree with Sam.
Mark Smith
Campus Director
Miami Navigators
marksmith@miaminavs.com
Distinguished profs should increase teaching role
Miami University plans to create dozens of named (or "chaired") professorships over the coming years, but the first few of these should raise substantial concerns on the part of undergraduate students.
Why? Because they involve astonishingly little undergraduate teaching.
The latest of these named professorships, for example, involves a prof who this semester is teaching only one course, and who lists one-repeat, one-office hour per week. Two other distinguished profs together taught a combined total of just one undergrad class last fall, and together are teaching just two undergrad classes this spring enrolling a combined total of 30 undergrad students.
This trend, if continued, will cost Miami students in three ways: first, students will be paying tuition so that these distinguished professors can teach fewer of them. Second, students will be paying tuition to hire visiting instructors to teach the classes that the chaired professors are being paid not to teach-effectively paying twice for teaching. Third, class sizes also may continue to increase in order to meet the student need for courses, degrading the quality of the education for which students are paying.
Interestingly, these chaired professorships in the business school traditionally have involved no such lessening of teaching load-but then, we're only the eighth best public undergraduate business program in the nation.
James Brock
Economics Department
brockj@muohio.edu
As a zoology major and pre-med student, I believe the image that Jessica Brown (April 18, "Miami science programs not geared toward research") has created of the zoology and science program as a whole at Miami University is completely ungrounded. The zoology program is comprised of mostly classes geared around the studying of animal behavior and anatomy with hopes that it may cater to a wide range of disciplines: both for students who are entering a career based off animal studies, but also premedical students who can use the knowledge of animal anatomy/behavior and correlate it to humans in some capacity.
Her description of the "intellectual tease" that zoology classes pose is ungrounded. There is only one class under zoology that refers to medicine in its title alone: "Contemporary Issues in Medicine." There is no tease here-you know what you're registering for and if you don't, the university has never discouraged students from e-mailing the course professor and asking them for the course syllabus or asking an academic adviser about the class. Every course I have taken and/or discussed with peers as a zoology major have been based primarily off animals, whether it is ZOO 201 which studies vertebrate anatomy, or ZOO 305, an animal physiology course that is offered during the fall. Such a class focuses on the learning about an animal's physiology by studying our own anatomy via laboratory exercises due to known anatomical similarities that exist between both animals and humans.
Brown continues to describe oceans and their relation to the study of the human body and how we as scientists must continue the study of the human body to gain a better understanding of the interactions that do take place. Why, then, is she so opposed to classes that study humans and not animals? If such classes do exist, isn't this exactly what she is asking for? Maybe not. Maybe, she hopes to learn about "the interactions within the human body" by "studying frogs and poking at dead things with sticks."
On behalf of all biological sciences students at Miami University who have taken classes at the zoology department, I believe that while the program may not be perfect, it has prepared all disciplines equally for the next step in life, whether you are pre-veterinarian or pre-medical.
So as a student who does not obsess about comparing MCAT scores, but may take up residence at King Library, I suggest that you seek an academic adviser, or the class bulletin, both of which can provide a detailed description of every class (including the 14-plus other upper level courses that do not start with human phi-) and may help you find the class you have been looking for all these years.
Madhu Mathew
matehwjm@muohio.edu
Historical references miss mark of Crusade event
In response to the "I agree with Heather" campaign as well as the overall backlash against Campus Crusade and Christians in general following the "I agree with Sam" campaign, I found it troubling that evangelism would be compared in any stretch to hate crimes. Were the crusades of the middle century detestable? Yes. And are present day bombings of abortion clinics in the name of Christ atrocious? Absolutely. Alleged Christians for centuries have used their religion for political gain, power and oppression. But is that really what evangelism is? Not at all.
From the perspective of a follower of Jesus, we genuinely believe that man is not innately good and without Jesus Christ we will be separated from our creator God for all eternity-a separation that will be incredibly painful and never ending. Probably now, I have lost more than half the readers that consider me uneducated, intolerant and dogmatic. But this is what followers of Jesus believe.
Now why is it considered intolerant that we want our family, friends and neighbors to know the joy that we find by following Jesus? If a friend of yours was walking in front of a bus, you would not just watch and say, "That is what seems to best to them." And if you had the cure to a fatal disease, it would be irresponsible not to offer an alternative to certain death. I know that these are not exact representations, but from our perspective, it would be just as wrong not to share that Jesus is the way to a fulfilled and purposeful life for eternity. I know that this message is unpopular and seen as narrow-minded, but for the evangelical Christian, it is core to our life.
Do Christians always share this message gracefully and accurately? No. Do we as imperfect people become defensive at opposition and build up self-righteous attitudes toward those who don't believe like we do? Yes we do. But the motive behind our "outreach" is pure-our humanness just screws it up and can make our seemingly harmless words harmful. We are not asking for people to follow us or join our organization, we are asking people to follow the perfect man of Jesus Christ. Because of this, I applaud Campus Crusade for risking public backlash and the loss of respect for laboring to get out the message they live for, and I do agree with Sam.
Mark Smith
Campus Director
Miami Navigators
marksmith@miaminavs.com
Distinguished profs should increase teaching role
Miami University plans to create dozens of named (or "chaired") professorships over the coming years, but the first few of these should raise substantial concerns on the part of undergraduate students.
Why? Because they involve astonishingly little undergraduate teaching.
The latest of these named professorships, for example, involves a prof who this semester is teaching only one course, and who lists one-repeat, one-office hour per week. Two other distinguished profs together taught a combined total of just one undergrad class last fall, and together are teaching just two undergrad classes this spring enrolling a combined total of 30 undergrad students.
This trend, if continued, will cost Miami students in three ways: first, students will be paying tuition so that these distinguished professors can teach fewer of them. Second, students will be paying tuition to hire visiting instructors to teach the classes that the chaired professors are being paid not to teach-effectively paying twice for teaching. Third, class sizes also may continue to increase in order to meet the student need for courses, degrading the quality of the education for which students are paying.
Interestingly, these chaired professorships in the business school traditionally have involved no such lessening of teaching load-but then, we're only the eighth best public undergraduate business program in the nation.
James Brock
Economics Department
brockj@muohio.edu
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