The Observer, March 30, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 22
Outside the Circle
Students to be billed for above-average energy use
Students at the University of Illinois at Springfield will soon be paying the costs for above-average energy usage in campus apartments. About 25 percent of students in these apartments regularly have high energy bills. Students will be charged if they use more than 10 percent above the average for their apartment court.
Students are currently charged an average rate for all utilities, and the university pays the actual utility bills. However, the university feels this has led to students being careless about energy usages.
"Some people have run up monstrous bills on a monthly basis ... in the $350 to $400 a month range," said John Ringle, director of housing and residential life at UIS. "As we chart these monthly bills that we get from [City Water, Light and Power], we know where the outrageous bills are."
Students were e-mailed about the change, to be implemented in April. E-mails were sent congratulating those who remained in the boundaries of acceptable use and cautioning those who were using too much energy.
The university hopes this will also teach students an important lesson about energy conservation. "They have a responsibility not only to us, but in terms of thinking globally," Ringle said.
Students have been willing to accept the changes. "I think it's fair," Mike Mikulski, a sophomore said. "It offers a consequence. [Some students] use energy like there's no consequence to excessive energy use."
Ringle encourages students to consider what they would do in their own home. "Hark back to the days when your mom or dad were always telling you to turn the lights off, don't leave the door open," Ringle said. "There's no God-given right to walk around in shorts and T-shirts in February and keep your heat up to 85 (degrees)."
Gay and lesbian students accepted at the Jewish Theological Seminary
After a long review process, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) will now accept gay and lesbian students into the rabbinical and cantorial schools. Three months ago, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly permitted the ordination of homosexuals, which brought this issue to the table for seminaries.
JTS held faculty forums, discussion sessions, meetings with the Board of Trustees, and an international survey of Conservative rabbis, cantors, teachers, and leaders exploring the topic.
"The decision to ordain gay and lesbian clergy at JTS is in keeping with the longstanding commitment of the Jewish tradition to pluralism," said Chancellor-elect Arnold Eisen. "That commitment has been all the more central to Conservative Judaism. Pluralism means that we recognize more than one way to be a good Conservative Jew, more than one way of walking authentically in the path of our tradition and of carrying that tradition forward. It means, too, that we respect those who disagree with us and understand that in the context of all that unites us, diversity makes us stronger."
The seminary hopes that the discussion that will be sparked by this decision will help make the community stronger. "It is my hope and belief that getting Conservative Jews to talk about these matters will be a step toward greater commitment and consensus," Eisen said. "Our communities will be strengthened by the very act of discussing our 'obligations of the heart' honestly and face to face. We will come to realize in doing so how much unites us as Conservative Jews. The sense of what binds us together will grow still more if we can arrive at consensus about the norms of belief and behavior that should guide us. I believe we can."
Easy steps to high SAT writing score
Les Perelman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coached a student on how to get a high score on the SAT writing test by including things that the College Board loves to see. In the essay the student submitted in October, he included a (inaccurate) quote of Roosevelt, gave him the middle name of Delanor, and peppered the paper with spelling and grammar errors. The student received a 5, the second highest possible score.
Perelman was trying to prove a point that the SAT writing portion is detrimental to students. He instructed his student to take the test without paying attention to historical facts. He suggests including one historical quote, regardless of accuracy or relevance to the topic. He told him to include examples from history and the arts (fictional or real), and to include some favorite key words, such as plethora and myriad.
Perelman feels that the SAT writing section encourages poor, formulaic writing. The College Board has said that students' scores are not harmed when they have incorrect historical facts in their essays. "This is a total disregard for the facts," Perelman said.
"They encourage false dichotomies," Perelman said. "They discourage history. You are punished for taking time to think."
At an annual meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Perelman distributed handouts with his lists of tips for how to succeed on the writing test. At the top of the handout, it read: "Basic assumption: The essay is a completely artificial and unnatural piece of writing."
