This week's stories:
The athletics department didn't sell out tradition when it renamed the Reilly Center basketball court the Adelphia Court at the Reilly Center. It didn't actually "sell" anything. According to Gothard Lane, vice president and director of athletics, his department put the company name on the court in recognition of a donation given by John Rigas, president of Adelphia Cable Corporation. Lane declined to comment on the amount of money Rigas gave. But, Rigas has done much for the university. In addition to the court, the theater located in the The Quick Center for the Arts is named Rigas Family Theater. Rigas often attends Bonnies games and the only television station to carry a regular-season Bonnies game this season is Empire, which Adelphia owns. The idea that Rigas would buy the naming rights to the court seems ridiculous. The only exposure for the company, besides students (who all receive Adelphia cable anyway) and fans attending games, about 4,000 people per game, would be on his own network. Xavier University, a fellow Atlantic 10 Conference school, has its arena named after a company owned by a member of its board of trustees. Robert Kohlepp, C.E.O of the Cintas Corporation, a uniform company in suburban Cincinnati near Xavier, spearheaded a project to build an arena on campus, according to Matthew Koening, Cintas Center events coordinator. The 10,250-seat center opened in 2000 after the company donated between $23 and $26 million. This situation parallels the name change on this campus. While Lane would not say how much Rigas and Adelphia donated, they certainly rank among the top donors to St. Bonaventure. Rigas does not serve on the university's board of trustees. He used to. Now his son, Michael, executive vice president of operations at Adelphia, sits on the board. At a small university like ours, any amount of money that can be generated is a plus. The community should thank the Rigas family for their continuous support, not question the athletic department honoring the Rigas'. Besides, a name change can't break the proud tradition of Bonnies hoops. The building is still the Reilly Center. We can't imagine students, alumni or fans in Olean or Allegany ever emphatically saying, "Hey, let's catch the Bonnies game at Adelphia Court at the Reilly Center." It will always simply be the Reilly Center.
By Brion White I am a freak. Each year St. Bonaventure fills with svelte, clean-cut, binge drinking, 18 to 22-year-old students who hail primarily from Western New York. I am cut from a different cloth. I am a corpulent, mid 20s, long-haired, bearded, sober student who grew up in western Wisconsin. While these cosmetic and geographic differences made my perception of my fellow students more acute, an interesting road trip provided a new way to look at the community and myself. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, I embarked, along with students and friends of St. Bonaventure and Houghton universities, on a quest to change public policy. The U.S. military's School of Americas threatens the very fabric of ideals that founded this country. In our presence at the rally to close the school in Columbus, Ga., an inspired and unique collection of people gathered from around the world to speak against the tyranny and oppression of the world's lone super power - the United States. However, the protest turned into more than just acknowledging the abuses of the military and finding peaceful solutions. The people present saw the world in a different light: Taking action against a culture that permits this erroneous behavior to continue. This sect of the population used the School of Americas as a metaphor to ask each one of us what we can do to create a more just society. What can each one of us as world citizens can do in peace to promote compassion? Ordinary people with a desire to see a more peaceful and equal world need not bow to the accident of birth to determine the dignity of the world's people. As I fall back into the personal stresses and apathy in everyday life, one image flickers in my soul from my weekend of enlightenment. The protest taught me to see others in my community not as faceless Abercrombie models, but as brothers and sisters who make me a more compassionate person. While I may not fit the profile of the typical St. Bonaventure student, I took solace in people who came before me. Other freaks throughout time - Jesus, St. Francis, Martin Luther, Dennis Rodman - also used the canvas of society to show the possibilities of a different way of life. While I may not realize the true magnitude of the rally's message, I can at least lead a life of activism and consciousness in tune with needs of the world. For this freak, I hope that speaks loudly enough.
By Kevin Okun A Dec. 7, 2001, Bona Venture report quoted James White, dean of the school of arts and sciences, as saying most students view a C as failure and would be upset to receive less than a B. I'd agree. And that's why an average grade of 2.920, or just about a B, from the 390 undergraduates in the 2001 graduating class shouldn't surprise anyone. Some classes are more difficult than others and should have a lower average grade than easier classes. So a C shouldn't fall across the board as the average grade of a student. Students should know that a 400-level class tends to be more challenging than a 100-level class and a harder class might result in students earning lower grades. The difficulty of the class could also challenge the students and result in grades higher than an easy class. Also, freshmen might earn lower grades than upperclassmen since they aren't comfortable with college classes yet. Therefore, it would be expected that students who can complete college, like last year's graduating class, would have a GPA near 3.0. The BV article also said the meaning of a C may have changed with the needs of college students avoiding the draft for the conflict in Vietnam. Draftees needed a GPA above 2.0 to avoid the service. This may be true, but nonetheless, students in the 21st century expect to do work worthy of a grade better than a C. If a professor feels a student doesn't deserve a B, that teacher should give a grade that reflects the student's work. If students earn an A more than other grades, what's the problem? The university should feel proud that students can excel, if they are excelling. But if these students don't deserve the grades given, then the professors need to be reprimanded and if the problem persists, those teachers need to be removed. College costs too much money for students to have grades cheapened by professors afraid to give fair grades. William Wehmeyer, professor of English, said he thinks more students deserve to fail. That's fine, but teachers need to give accurate grades, even if that means upsetting students by giving failing grades. But what do those grades mean? Grades should be given as a reflection of the work a student does, not as a comparison of his work to the rest of the class. An A shouldn't be reserved only for the occasional student who comes along every few years and exhibits exceptional work. An A should be given to the student who puts forth extra effort and shows proficiency in a subject matter. A B should be given to the student who show he studied hard and knows more than what that the professor expects the student to know. A C student should earn a grade for showing a limited knowledge of the subject matter. The student who earned a D showed the professor little knowledge of the material taught. And the F student showed he does not understand what was taught. That student doesn't deserve credit for the class. But more important than any letter, students come to college to gain knowledge. Sometimes students get caught up in letter grades and don't learn the material in order to gain knowledge. That is not what college should be about. So don't let grades get in the way of what your professors are teaching
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