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Sports Illustrated: Eruzione lights an intoxicating cauldron

ISteve Rushin offers his views in the February 18 Sports Illustrated on the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City -- calling it a great show brightened by the lighting of "an intoxicating cauldron." He describes Mike Eruzione (SED'77), director of athletic development in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and captain of the 1980 gold-medal-winning U.S.A. hockey team, as he held the Olympic torch in his right hand, as "part Statue of Liberty, part Bob's Big Boy -- while his teammates Iwo Jima'd in behind him. They could have been any group of lucky fans pulled from the stands, and your heart triple-Axeled as you thought of Lake Placid . . . and where you were at the moment: Atop a football stadium at the University of Utah, home of the Utes -- a name that means 'high place.' And you thought: Is it ever."

Special Educator: English language learning on fast track in Boston public schools

Massachusetts has been aggressive in its programs for educating students with limited English proficiency. Legislation proposed by Acting Governor Jane Swift may give students two years, rather than three, before they are immersed in mainstream classes, reports the Special Educator on February 12. "There's very little prospect it will be enacted," says Charles Glenn, an SED professor and chairman of the administration, training, and policy studies department. More likely, he says, the state will adopt a plan that favors one-year English immersion. "When I looked closely at schools, very few students had been mainstreamed when they were at the actual school," says Glenn, director of urban education and equity efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Education from 1970 to 1991 and an expert witness in federal court cases on school bilingual education issues. But regardless of how the state educates, he adds, shying away from program mentality is important. "[Student program] entry or exit is irrelevant. It's the school, not the program, serving the student. Latino parents are happy to have children take Spanish, but not if it is at the expense of English learning."

Federal News Service: LAW prof testifies on lessons from Enron's fall

The subject of accountability issues raised by the Enron scandal and lessons learned from Enron's fall were addressed in testimony presented by Susan Koniak, a LAW professor of instruction in the J.D. program, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 6, reports the Federal News Service. "Thus far, Enron's accountants have borne the lion's share of the blame for helping the wrongdoers at Enron commit what appears now to have been massive fraud. Let me put this as plainly as possible: to pull the wool over the eyes of the investing public, regulators, and the media for any considerable period of time, a corporation needs more than malleable accountants -- it needs the help of lawyers. Perhaps Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, but Enron and its accountants did not. When all the facts. . . are known, one thing will be clear. Everyone in the drama had a lawyer whispering in its ear. . . And one more thing will be clear: no lawyer stepped in to stop this calamity. . . . All too often lawyers act as if they were wearing magic caps -- hats that transport them to some alternative reality, a law-free zone, in which they are free to do anything and everything for the person or entity paying the lawyers' fees. . . . There are no such magic caps. But the scant attention that has thus far been paid to the role of the lawyers in this mess suggests that the myth of the magic cap has spread far and wide. With the report issued by Enron this weekend, Vinson & Elkins, Enron's primary outside law firm, which has thus far received relatively little grief, will undoubtedly receive much more scrutiny."

Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Cal.): Pinsky at UC-Riverside

To celebrate the University of California-Riverside's annual Writers Week, Robert Pinsky -- a CAS professor, former U.S. poet laureate, and creator of the Favorite Poem Project -- spoke to 200 UC students on topics from the passion of poetry to overcoming writer's block, says the February 11 Press-Enterprise. Pinsky, who read some poems from his latest collection, says they were inspired by mundane objects: a jar of pens, a glass, a book, a door, a newspaper. Attempts to describe something ordinary, he adds, eventually unlock our own emotions, fears, anxieties, and hopes. An object is never the "deep subject" but "an occasion for going into yourself," he says. "A lot of things go into my world."

15 February 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations