Tuesday, October 13, 2015uiargonaut.com

Opinion, 9News, 1 Sports, 6 RecyclableVolume 117, Issue no. 16

Idaho volleyball hangs on to beat Sacramento State in five sets.

IN THIS ISSUE

sports, 6

University of Idaho

The pros and cons of online education. Read our view.

opinion, 9

academics

The dawn of distance education

University of Idaho looks into offering more online degrees

Ryan TarinelliArgonaut

Though the heated conversa-tions were kept at a minimum, the signs told another story as Planned Parenthood protestors faced off with the organization’s supporters in Pullman Saturday morning.

“Babies betrayed,” read one sign held by a pro-life supporter. “Killing your baby is bad parenthood,” read another. Pro-life demonstrators protested Planned Parenthood’s abortion services and called for the defunding of the organization.

Across the street, pro-Planned Parenthood demonstrators lined up with bright pink signs showing their support for the organization, which offers birth control, testing and treatment for sexually trans-mitted diseases and cancer screen-ings, among other services.

“Stand with Planned Parent-hood,” read one sign. “Don’t take away our care,” read another.

Groups of Planned Parenthood supporters and protesters gathered in Pullman Saturday.

With crowds of demonstrators on hand, the sidewalks were filled with people at the intersection of Bishop Boulevard and Highway 270 in Pullman. Demonstrators peacefully protested for about two hours on either side of the side-walk, with cars honking to show their support.

The protest came days before the opening of Planned Parenthood’s temporary Pullman Health Center. Last month, an early morning fire damaged Planned Parenthood’s permanent location in Pullman, which Pullman Police are investi-gating as arson.

A street divided

planned parenthood

Opposing crowds protest, show support for Planned Parenthood

SEE street, PAGE 5

Erin BamerArgonaut

University of Idaho Senior Edwin Latrell has completed 40 online courses in seven different countries while enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

And while he said he was frus-trated that he couldn’t get his three degrees earlier, Latrell is glad he had the opportunity to be a part of the university culture by taking some of his classes on campus.

“I like being on campus,” Latrell said. “I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation that people do ‘X’ number of credits on campus.”

Latrell is now set to gradu-ate in May with a triple major in philosophy, psychology and international studies.

Terry Ratcliff came to Moscow just over a year ago as the university’s first executive di-rector of Distance and Extended Education — a position made to help improve UI’s online educa-tion system.

“We need a plan,” Ratcliff said. “Strategic, action, vision,

whatever we call it, we need some clear institutional direc-tion when it comes to distance education, and we don’t have that right now.”

Ratcliff said UI’s distance education program is currently decentralized, with different col-leges and departments offering different forms of online educa-tion fit to their preferred formats.

He said the university must also work to market the current distance education program and

recruit online students to UI. Many different types of students take online courses, but Ratcliff said he is pri-oritizing remote stu-dents who are unable to get to campus.

“It’s the students who can’t get to Moscow but still want a U of I experience, that still want a U of I degree, that we will bring in that we don’t currently bring in,” Ratcliff said.

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Jeanne Stevenson said the development of distance education at UI is essential to the administration because it gives the university a chance to reach students who wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to receive a higher education.

“I think it provides … the op-portunity for access,” Stevenson said. “And that’s something that you also hear President Staben talk about is accessing educa-tion, and especially with a focus on Idaho residents.”

UI’s distance education

program also needs to build a better student support system, Rat-cliff said.

Stevenson said online courses should provide an equivalent

learning environment compared to on-campus courses.

UI offers more than 20 fully online degree programs for graduate students, but offers none for undergraduate stu-dents, Ratcliff said. He intends to send multiple proposals for un-dergraduate degree programs to the State Board of Education in the spring.

Though Latrell relied heavily on UI’s online education while he was overseas, he said he doesn’t think offering degrees fully through online courses is a good choice for the university.

Instead, Latrell said UI should make more courses available online without offering complete degree programs.

SEE dawn, PAGE 5

Jessica GeeArgonaut

Fall is the season for cooler tem-peratures, pumpkin-spiced everything and, of course, the flu.

Flu season is officially here, but there are many on-campus resources for Uni-versity of Idaho students.

Emily Tuschhoff, health education coordinator at Vandal Health, said she has been working since the start of the month to raise awareness for flu vaccinations.

She said a common misconcep-tion is being unaware the difference between the flu and the stomach flu.

“Usually the flu is more similar to a cold with the symptoms,” Tus-chhoff said. “Throwing up and upset stomach are usually symptoms of the stomach flu.”

Even though the symptoms may be seemingly harmless, Tuschhoff said many Americans die every year from the flu, which is why she urges students to get their shot.

“We definitely see an influx of vaccinations once it reaches national news, but it’s better for students to get

it before then,” Tuschhoff said. Students can get a free vacci-

nation at various flu shot clinics that will be open at different times throughout the year.

The next flu shot clinic will be from 1-5 p.m. Wednesday at the

Student Recreation Center. After students get a flu shot, they can stop by the annual Vandal Health and Recreation Fair where they can learn about more re-sources and enter to win prizes.

There will also be free flu shot clinics from 11 a.m.

to 3 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Teaching Learning Center, and from 4-7 p.m. on Nov. 3 in the Kibbie Dome. Tus-chhoff said these clinics will offer

free meningitis vaccines as well.

Vandal Health will also give presentations upon request about issues ranging from maintaining a healthy diet to how to handle

stress. Tuschhoff said anyone can request a presentation on the Vandal Health webpage, where there is also more information on flu season and a Flu IQ quiz.

Flu season returnsStudents can stay healthy with on-campus resources

campus

SEE flu, PAGE 5

Diamond KoloskiArgonaut

Dealing with classes and midterms may be inevi-tably miserable, but living with a room-mate may not have to be.

“It’s common to get frustrated or annoyed with someone you see daily,” said Jill Powell, assistant director of Student Engagement in University Housing. “Typically around midterms, when stress is a little more prevalent, we will see some roommate concerns.”

Almost eight weeks into the school year, room-

mate issues and concerns may just now be revealing themselves — if they haven’t already.

“Moving in with someone you hardly know can be a transition, but on the other hand, sometimes the person you think will be your best friend will also frustrate you,” Powell said.

She said students should take several steps to help resolve a conflict.

Students should talk to the person while using “I” statements rather than pointing fingers, utilize the roommate or suitemate agreement with the help of your resident assistant and talk to Housing and

Residence Life staff, Powell said.

Resolving roommate issuesstudent life

Administrators give advice, share resources to resolve roommate conflicts

SEE roommate, PAGE 5

High bids, stalled planadministration

President’s residence project stalls as demo bids come in high

SEE bids, PAGE 5

Ryan LockeArgonaut

Plans are underway to replace the nearly half-century old president’s residence, but the project has already run into a few difficulties during the planning process.

While the University of Idaho plans to tear down the aging structure and build a new one

in the same location, the project is still in the early stages of planning and no designs for the new house have been drawn up, said Dan Ewart, vice president for Infrastructure.

He said there is not yet any set timeline for planning and construction.

The university allocated $2 million for the project and the Idaho State Board of Education has authorized the budget.

Strategic, action, vision, whatever we call it,

we need some clear institutional direction

when it comes to distance education, and we don’t

have that right now.Terry Ratcliff, executive director of Distance and

Extended Education

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illiustration by megan Hall | argonaut

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Tuschoff

THE ARGONAUTPage 10 august 28, 2015

Send us a 300-word letter to the editor.

arg-oPinion@uidaho.edu

our view

Board Games I don’t think there

will ever be an age where Clue isn’t fun, and Monopoly doesn’t tear families apart.

— Jessica

BirthdaysI still accept gifts every

anniversary of my birth, but it gets less fun when I ask for presents like towels or grocery money or a textbook. Hey, at least I get a massage today.

— Claire

New carNothing better than

driving around in a car that is 20 years younger than my last one.

—Jordan

Smoky out thereIf you’re already

stressed about school, just take a deep breath of fresh air. Oh, wait a second.

— Garrett

Ouch My greatest hope is to

one day finally learn that a pair of cute flats just isn’t worth the blisters.

— Corrin

Loving thisHaving my Fridays

free for the entire semes-ter is totally worth those 8 a.m. classes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

— Erin

The whole journalism community

Is mourning the loss of two members after the event in Virginia Wednesday. It’s a tragedy when simply doing your job ends with the loss of your life.

— Katelyn

Oh Sheit, it's XWhat a song. Thun-

dercat is on top of his game. I highly recom-mend a listen.

—Ryan

Sweater weatherAll I can think about is

pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween. Seriously.

— Tea

Shower thoughtsIf I self-diagnose my-

self as a hypochondriac, does that inherently make me a hypochondriac?

—Jake

Treat yourselfUse a Pilot G-2.

— Hannah

I've seen worseIf you think it’s smoky

now, you should have been in Seattle the day pot was legalized.

— Korb

ErinI am very sorry I failed

to turn my OTC in to you on time. To make up for it, I will buy you one Jimmy John’s sandwich during any production night of your choosing.

— Jack

the

Quick takes on life from our editorsConstruction season is com-

ing to a close. Most of the bulldozers and

jackhammers have disappeared for the winter, but the long-term effects of the many projects are still wait-ing to be seen.

The most notable projects are the new crosswalks, which add beauty and pedestrian safety, the construction of the Campus Visit Office and Welcome Center in the Bruce Pitman Center and some lighter construction on the roads that cut across campus.

When it comes to the crosswalks on Deakin Avenue and 6th Street, many students grumble that the money is going to waste on improv-ing campus aesthetics. However, something as simple as changing

the look of a street crossing may just sway a prospective student toward attending the University of Idaho.

The signs that were built last year on 3rd Street entrances to the university may not have added any functionality to UI, but they make it easier to see the university and it helps direct potential students inward.

Almost all of the construction that is taking place aligns with UI President Chuck Staben’s goal to increase student enrollment at UI over the next few years.

When touring prospective colleges, many students examine how the campus looks, and that can make all the difference. If these small improvements make people feel more welcomed on campus, it could mean more students would be willing to enroll.

These changes can make stu-

dents feel more at home at UI.In terms of the costs of these

projects, the budgets are actually managed fairly well.

Some smaller renovations, like at the Pitman Center, will cost less than $500,000, while other larger projects like the refreshes to more than half of Wallace, will come in at just over $4 million, according to the estimates provided by Ray Pankopf of UI Facilities.

This may seem like a lot, but compared to what other colleges sometimes spend, the amount ap-pears minimal.

While most of these construc-tion projects don’t appear to have a direct impact on current students, especially juniors and seniors, it is important to think about the mean-ing of the projects and what they are trying to accomplish.

For example, it is important to keep in mind that if something

simple can sway a student to enroll, it benefits the entire cam-pus. As enrollment increases, so does the amount of revenue gen-erated by the university. If that amount increases, perhaps the administration will make other changes with more immediate effects for enrolled students.

Investing the money in small projects now could make way for larger projects in the future.

Besides, not all of the con-struction will be useless for most of the currently enrolled stu-dents. The College of Education will reopen in the fall of 2016 and the new IRIC building will also be completed next fall.

Construction may seem pointless to some, but these are steps in a good direction to improving our campus as a whole.

— CW

Beautification with purposeConstruction projects will have positive benefits

please remain calm.

The fire dept. is on

their way

August 27

Congratulations! You’ve made it through “silly week!”

The first week of school is primarily used for professors to introduce their courses and hand out syllabi to their new batches of students. In return, students generally use this time to not pay attention to their professors and take advantage of the extra five days they have to put off the actual work.

But silly week can serve a bigger purpose to students than many of them realize. The first week is an opportunity for students to decide which courses are actually worth their time and energy.

The deadline to drop a course without adding a ‘W’ to a student’s record is always ridiculously close to the first day of classes. This year, the deadline is next Friday for full-term courses, less than two weeks after the start of term.

With such a short deadline, students aren’t given much time to come to a conclusion about the classes they’re enrolled in. But students ought to take advantage

of these two weeks to consider if one or more of their classes are important enough for them to see through to the end of the semester.

Dropping a course should never be seen as “giving up.” For one thing, most students have legitimate reasons for dropping a class. Also, giving students grief for “quitting” doesn’t achieve anything. All it does is make them feel bad.

There is no specific list of acceptable reasons for dropping a course. A student shouldn’t hesitate to drop a class if they’re uncomfortable with it. It could be because they know they won’t get a good grade, or because they feel like they won’t get anything out of the curriculum they’ll be taught. All of these are legitimate reasons for a student to leave a class.

I have only dropped one class during my college career so far — accounting. I stuck it out for over a month, but I was miserable and knew I was already going to drop my business major so the course

wouldn’t help me in the end. I had an ‘A’ in the class when I dropped, but I knew that wouldn’t last.

If anything, I regret not drop-ping my accounting class sooner. In hindsight, it sucks that I worked so hard for a month only to realize that the work I was doing wasn’t worth my time. Once I finally dropped it, I was much happier and the rest of my semester went a lot smoother.

Professors usually encourage their students to drop courses too. While they want their students to enjoy themselves and learn from

what they teach, most professors — the good ones at least — tell students to drop a course if they feel it would result in a poor grade on their record.

Some students are ahead of the game already. They stuff their schedule full of 18, 20, even 22 credits worth of classes, then they go to all of them during silly week and choose the one or two classes they dislike the most. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, give it a go for future semesters.

The bottom line is that drop-ping a class isn’t something to feel ashamed of. It certainly is a serious decision to make, but students should never delay doing it if they’re really sure they won’t gain anything out of a course by the end of the semester.

Erin Bamer can be reached at

arg-opinion@uidaho.edu or on Twitter @ErinBamer

Not quite ‘quitting’ Why dropping classes early is the best choice

Erin Bamer

The bottom line is that dropping

a class isn’t something to

feel ashamed of.

Erin Bamer

Megan Hall argonaut

THE ARGONAUT PAGE 9SEPtEmbEr 4, 2015

Send us a 300-word letter to the editor.

ArG-oPinion@uidAho.Edu

Whiplash An amazing perfor-

mance by Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons. I strongly recommend this spellbinding film.

— Jessica

WhiplashIt hurt me to watch

a movie so horribly mis-represent an art form that I love so much. Compelling storyline, perhaps. But in general it was an unrealistic, shallow and almost comical portrayal of the jazz community.

To quote a fellow critic, it’s “a jazz movie that has nothing to do with jazz.”

— Ryan

Football seasonCollege football

on Saturdays. NFL on Sundays. My weekend is set.

— Garrett

Bitter rivalsThe Vandal football

team faced off against our oldest rival Ohio. The roots of this conflict go deep and passions ran high last night.

— Jack

And with that ...Football is back.

— Korb

Long weekendsI keep telling myself

I’ll get ahead on all of my readings over the three day weekend ... Fingers crossed!

— Corrin

WwwwwWw wwww wwww-

wwww ww w wwwww-www.

— Erin

Bare minimumThose days where

actually trying just sounds exhausting.

— Jordan

How much longer?

So ... how many days of class are left in this semester? Oh yeah, a lot.

— Claire

Sweaters and flip flops

Now comes the bi-polar Moscow weather than I can never seem to dress accordingly for.

— Tea

The Pope Is shaking up Ca-

tholicism. No matter your view on religion or culturally dividing issues, it’s hard to deny his influence.

— Katelyn

RefugeesWarsan Shire put it

best: “no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”

— Hannah

Chick-Fil-AAte it. My rating:

chicken sandwich/10, might eat it again.

— Jake

thE

Quick takes on life from our editors

our viEw

Once the school year begins, it’s not difficult to become caught up in a frenzy of new

responsibilities. There are clubs to get involved in,

events to attend around campus and obligatory phone calls to make to loved ones back home, not to men-tion classes. Amidst the chaos that is the daily life of a college student, it’s easy to forget about one of the most integral components of our educa-tion — the University of Idaho’s faculty.

Instructors are such an important part of students’ education that the follow-up question to “What classes are you taking?” is usually “What teachers do you have?” And while we’ve had a number of teachers throughout the course of our aca-

demic lives — both good and bad — UI happens to have a faculty that is not only unique in composition, but one that also genuinely cares about their students.

Professors put an incredible amount of time and energy into their students.

While we’re out exploring the town with friends or going to football games, our professors are grading papers, pouring over assign-ments and organizing lesson plans. In addition to balancing families and sometimes secondary careers like research positions, they do what they can to provide their students with the resources necessary for them to succeed.

Regardless of the work they put in, teaching can often be a thankless job wrought with administrative politics and the challenge of trying to communicate information from one brain to a number of other brains that work in completely different

ways. As the semester continues, it’s

important to remember the faculty, the people we see nearly every day who are a guiding and instructional force in our lives.

There’s a reason they’re here and it’s not for the money. Faculty at UI are here because they want to be.

It’s important to take pride in the university we attend, but also to appreciate those who are teaching us. Showing appreciation can be as simple as taking the time to get to know your professors or utilizing all of the academic resources they offer.

Office hours are a tremendous resource that is often ignored by stu-dents, as well as a great opportunity to get to know your faculty. Office hours are a rare opportunity to ask questions about their lives and per-haps even pick up some life advice while you’re at it. They’ve put this time aside for you and they likely have some interesting stories to tell.

No matter how you feel about your professor, they are people too. Something as simple as asking about their day when you walk into class can help foster a connection and re-lieve some of the everyday stressors of teaching.

Rather than staring at the floor or pretending to do something on your cellphone, say “hi” when you walk past faculty around campus or if you run into them at a coffee shop downtown.

Most importantly, don’t forget to be engaged. Imagine how frustrating it would be putting time and effort into someone who isn’t willing to turn in assignments or spends the entire class on their phone.

You get out of your education what you’re willing to put in. And faculty can be your biggest ally in college and in setting yourself up for the future.

– CB

Showing faculty appreciation in little ways matters too

Megan Hallargonaut

Most of the time, when a fraternity man hears the word “frat,” it’s met with a pang in their gut as a list of stereotypes are brought to the forefront of their mind. While some of these stereo-types may be accurate in certain cases, others often forget to look at all aspects of what it is to be in a fraternity.

It makes us seem un-educated, or like we don’t care about our education.

The most negative encounters I’ve had through being in a fraternity has been from professors. Wearing letters, or dressing to pin, you begin to worry about what professors might say or think. I’ve often heard side comments about our drinking habits, which they have no idea about.

This is both aggravating and inac-curate. Greeks are known to have an overall higher GPA across the board, both locally and nationally. We also host dinners often known as “pro-fessor dinners,” where we invite our

professors to our houses for dinner to thank them for the work they do.

Greeks care about academics. We are held to high standards and face losing membership should we not be able to perform. We are far from uneducated. In fact, many houses have

pillar values with a majority of them including scholar-ship.

It makes us sound like

all we care about is par-tying and drinking.

I am not going to try to lie and say that Greeks do not get social sometimes. In fact, we live by the motto of

working hard and playing harder. But if we get higher GPAs, why should our social habits matter to anyone?

We also do a lot to help others, es-pecially our communities. According to “I am a Fraternity man,” a campaign by Beta Theta Pi fraternity meant to reduce Greek stereotypes, last year U.S. fraternities completed 3.8 million hours of community service hours, and raised more than $20 million to go toward philanthropic causes.

By Alexander Milles

GReekSpeak

By Alexander Milles

GReekSpeak

one for the faculty

Stop letting ‘frat’ happenWhy fraternity men get offended when you use the word ‘frat’

Alex Milles argonaut

Erin Bamerargonaut

‘Basic’ knowledge

see Stop, PaGe10

I chose not to rush my first year of college.

In hindsight, that was a stupid decision because I based it off the negative stereo-types about sorority life I had heard from movies and televi-sion.

Not even one semester into my life at the University of Idaho, I realized my mistake. From my cramped dorm room in Wallace, I could clearly see how strong the university’s Greek system was. Greek stu-dents were far more involved in the community, got better grades and had much more fun than I was having.

By the following year, the only reason I had not to rush was my sophomore status, but I registered anyway and I’m so happy I did. Being in a sorority has enriched my

overall college experience in ways I wouldn’t have ever imagined before.

I’m proud to be Greek, so I find it endlessly frustrat-ing when people outside the

system ignore all the positives that Greek life offers and only focus on the negative stereotypes like I did.

People have many different misconcep-tions about who I am or how I act on a regular basis just be-

cause I’m in a sorority. Most of these misconceptions all boil down to the common stereotype that sorority girls are shallow.

I can confidently say this stereotype is untrue for the majority of sorority women I have encountered. I wish I was confident enough to say it is untrue for all sorority women in the world, but stereotypes like these last for a reason.

Breaking down sorority misconceptions one duck face at a time

see BaSic, PaGe10