Departments
In the News
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Week of 29 October 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 12 |
In the News
"Hate motivation makes a crime more serious, and the time for a federal hate-crime law is long overdue," writes Frederick Lawrence, law professor at the School of Law, in an October 4 op-ed piece in the Denver Post. "A federal hate-crime law would demonstrate a national commitment to the eradication of a kind of violence that threatens not only our physical safety but also our core value of equality." Conceding that "the punishment of hate crimes alone will not end bigotry in our society," he maintains, however, that "our inability to solve the entire problem should not dissuade us from dealing with parts of the problem."
There are problems in the American and English press with the portrayal of Orthodox Jews, according to Michael B. Shavelson, editor of the BU Bridge and an editor at Bostonia, "but the French press is by far the worst." Shavelson was interviewed Q & A style by the Paris weekly Actualité Juive on October 14. The article was part of the publication's special issue investigating a growing anti-Jewish trend in the French media.
In an essay in the October 11 New York Times, University Professor Saul Bellow disputes the prediction that technological media will supplant the written word. He promotes Republic of Letters, a publication he helped start to encourage unknown writers. "The little evidence we have suggests they are glad to find us; they are grateful," Bellow says. "They want more than they are getting. Ingenious technology has failed to give them what they so badly need." He muses further, "I seem to have had a persistent, democratic desire to find evidences of high culture in the most unlikely places."
Aware that more and more children are suffering from aches and pains caused by intensive computer use, Karen Jacobs, a clinical associate professor of occupational therapy at Sargent College, advises elementary school principals to "turn to the occupational therapist for the best ergonomic advice." In an article in the September issue of Principal magazine, she says, "Because today's students will be using computers not only during their childhood years, but in many decades to come, it is critical for schools to provide children with appropriate equipment and help them to develop healthy habits."
Patricia Hills, a CAS professor of art history, thinks that "museums, especially [Salem's] Peabody Essex, serve an important function in helping cities develop tourism." In a story in the Boston Globe October 10 about the museum's bicentennial celebration, she says, "It's gotten much more visibility and a stronger profile in recent years, and a lot of that has to do with all the public space it's taken over in Salem."
The number of girls in New England who see beauty pageants as a step toward ending world hunger is declining. A story in the October 5 Boston Herald about this decline contains several predictions that these displays of feminine charm will fade with the 20th century. "You're getting more and more young women who have serious career interests, and they're not going to waste their time," says Caryl Rivers, a COM professor of journalism who often writes about gender issues. "They're out playing soccer and not worrying about entering a beauty contest."
"In the News" is compiled by Alexander Crouch in the Office of Public Relations.