Western Front - 1988 July 26

              SPORTS
Football
division
changes
p. 6
MOVIE
'Arthur 2'
hits rock bottom
p.3
LEISURE
Padden
Pleasures
p.4-5
The Western Front VOL. 80, NO. 40 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA TUESDAY, JULY 26,1988
Diploma more likely
for successful frosh
By Thomas M. Davis
staff reporter
If you can survive your fresh­man
year of college, odds are in
your favor that you will complete
your degree.
A survey was conducted last
year of students who dropped out
of Western in 1982 without gradu­ating.
Many of these students en­tered
Western as freshmen and
left while still young and without a
declared major.
Richard Riehl, director of ad­missions,
said this fit a typical pat­tern
that exists in most colleges.
Some students have a more dif­ficult
time getting through the ad­justment
period.
"It makes some logical sense,
since it's the first experience for
most at a university," Riehl said.
"After they have experienced a
full year, they are more com­mitted
to completing their de­gree."
While many of the 1982 non-graduates
hadn't declared a
major, nearly 85 percent of these
students reported they were in­tending
to complete a degree
when they enrolled.
a different school within a half-year
of leaving Western. A slightly
smaller group took a year off and
returned to either Western or
transferred to another school.
But over 40 percent of these
non-graduates literally dropped
out and hadn't returned to school
five years after leaving Western.
The survey report stated a
common reason for leaving
school, as mentioned by drop­outs,
was inability to fit into a
school's environment. In the sur­vey
prepared for the 1982 non-graduates,
they were asked to
identify their reasons for leaving.
A third of those who
responded to the survey noted
their main reason for leaving was
completion of what they had set
out to do at Western. This group
was less likely to mention a lack
of interest in school or a dis­satisfaction
with programs.
Problems related to finances,
personal or family, were the
source of why one fifth of these
students left. The report pointed
out these reasons for leaving had
little to do with Western.
A small number mentioned
Reasons non-graduates give for leaving Western
• minor reasoa • ««*« reason
not interested in college ~&K9B
lacked friends/social life J p i
dissatisfied with professors J HH
poor college performance ySM
found good job jSHJ
couldn't get courses needed.u^Hgj^||U|||f-wanted
time to decide goals mjg^
personal/family reasons fBH
financial problems HW
transferred ~Hgffi
achieved goals Hjpl
percent S 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
But some students enrolled at
Western with no intention of
graduating. Fifteen percent of
those interviewed said they had
never planned on graduating.
They had taken classes for either
pure enjoyment or for job-related
purposes. And this group tended
to value college more for learning
than for a degree, the survey
report concluded. The report also
found these students valued well-rounded
learning more than the
1982 graduates they were com­pared
to.
The student's age appeared to
play a role in the reason they at­tended
Western. Those between
the ages of 30 and 50 were more
likely to say they enrolled in
classes for job-related reasons.
But those who were younger than
30 or older than 50 were more
likely to enroll in a class for enjoy­ment's
sake.
It would be inaccurate to as­sume
all who left Western without
graduating failed to ever complete
a degree. More than a third of the
1982 non-graduates transferred to
they left because they had found a
good job, or simply wanted some
time to think about career goals.
Those who listed finding a job as
a major reason for leaving often
mentioned a lack of interest in
college, poor grades or dissatisfac­tion
with professors as additional
reasons. The report concluded
that apparently "some non-congruence
with college appar-ently
combined with the
availability of employment op­tions
to produce the departure."
The survey of the 1982 West­ern
non-graduates was part of a
project completed last year by
Carl Simpson of the sociology de­partment
and Western's Office of
Survey Research. The entire pro­ject
involved surveying graduates
and non-graduates from 1982 and
seniors during the spring of 1987.
This project represents West­ern's
first attempt to question a
wide assortment of past and pres­ent
students about educational ex­perience
to evaluate quality and
success of university programs.
Eric C. Evarts
Jack and David Sodt run a thriving lemonade business outside the art/technology building.
Canadian nixes two-party system
Ex-B.C. boss finds form "frankly absurd"
By Wendy Sawyer
staff reporter
Although former British
Columbia Premier David Barrett
said he feels "politics are divorced
from logic and reason," he was
still able to voice his negative
views on the American two-party
system, a system, he said, that
doesn't ensure accountability to
issues the people support.
"Remember, I'm biased,"
Barrett, who served as the B.C.
premier from 1972-75, told a
group of about 30 Washington
state educators, involved in a two-week
seminar designed to en­courage
teachers to participate in
the democratic process.
Barrett, just one of about 60
speakers throughout the two
weeks, said the American two-party
system places more empha­sis
on political personalities rather
than key issues. A member of the
Canadian New Democratic Party,
Barrett said because the emphasis
is on personalities, the American
system doesn't make sure
politicians deliver their promises
and support the issues.
As a result, the American
public has lost confidence in
politicians' honesty and ability to
support issues, Barrett said.
Noting this low confidence
level, he emphasized a resulting
high level of cynicism and apathy
among voters.
This seminar, sponsored by
the Taft Institute for Two-party
Government, ended last Friday,
and was designed to give
educators, mostly high school so­cial
studies teachers, a chance to
meet informally and discuss issues
with people involved in politics.
This seminar was organized to
lower apathy, and to give teachers
a new enthusiasm for teaching
politics and government, said the
seminar's co-director Don Alper,
of Western's political science de-partment.
He hopes this
enthusiasm will transfer to stu­dents,
and will encourage them to
actively participate in govern­ment.
Other Taft Seminars are being
held across the nation this sum­mer,
Alper said.
Susan Yates, a social studies
"Corporations buy a
candidate who best
represents their views."
— Former British
Columbia Premier
David Barrett
teacher at West Valley High
School in Tacoma, said she came
to the Taft Seminar to get excited
about American government.
Recognizing most teenagers
are more interested in MTV than
politics, Yates said she wants to
expose her students to the demo­cratic
process, and hopes this will
encourage them to become more
involved in politics.
The need for involvement is
one point Barrett stressed.
Barrett said one option for
voters who want to bring about
change in the system is to join a
political party. He added, how­ever,
that members of a party,
whether Republican or Demo­cratic,
have no' real say ii\ making
party policy.
He emphasized the need for
people to determine what issues
are important, placing less em­phasis
on the politician.
"Democracy means members
of a party determining, by vote,
what issues are important and
who will represent these issues,"
he said.
Barrett said people's needs
are not amply represented in the
two-party system, and this makes
the American democratic system
"frankly absurd."
Barrett partly attributed this
lack of accountability to the
wealthy corporations that, he
feels, own political parties
through their massive financial
support.
"Corporations buy a candi­date
who best represents their
views," he said. "After this, there
is no accountability to issues."
Jerry Thorpe, a social studies
teacher at Woodrow Wilson High
School in Tacoma, said he was en­couraged
by Barrett's words, and
added he recognizes a need to
transmit this excitement about
American government to his stu­dents.
Thorpe said he does, how­ever,
realize politics may not be
relevant to high-school students
more concerned with jobs, cars'
and peers, rather than govern­ment.
"Someday, after they leave
high school, I hope they will re­member
what I have taught them
and become interested and in­volved
in politics," he said.
The discussion led by Barrett
was the only Taft Seminar open to
the press.