Features

Drew Christie, Philosophy
Class: Ecology and Values

Taking a direct and participatory approach, the students researched background facts on Web sites that address the issue of whether SUVs (sport utility vehicles) should meet automobile emission standards—currently, they fall under the light truck exception. One of my students said there was no way that SUVs could comply, that SUVs are heavy and need to be heavy. She had an icy commute and needed her four-wheel SUV; for her, it was a fundamental issue of safety. Another student said that CO2 emissions are a more important problem. If we can't control SUVs how can we control CO2? It makes an interesting debate. John Dewey is my favorite philosopher, and he emphasizes in his philosophy of education that teachers must start with the familiar. I think that one of the best things higher education can do is to take events in the news and look at them from different perspectives.

Mimi Becker, Natural Resources
Class: International Environmental Politics & Policies

We try to get our students to be more aware of the ingredients for implementing change under international agreement. A major part of it is that people must be educated, and environmental education becomes a crucial component: students must learn to identify the connections between their personal lifestyle choices, their health and the ability of the Earth to sustain human life. The United States was a leader in environmental policy and problem solving in the '70s and early '80s, but we have lost that leadership edge. As long as we have gridlock in Congress on environmental issues, we are not providing leadership, and we are perceived by most countries as blockers when it comes to meeting our obligations under international environmental agreements. To get commitment and change (of environmental policy), the American public has to be determined to overcome special interests. Without campaign finance reform and citizens committed to protecting both their and the planet's health, I see no way we can achieve long-term, sustainable economic and environmental health.

Global warming doesn't meet media standards of what is newsworthy: timeliness, conflict and proximity. I like to use the analogy of Eastern and Western medicine to explain the American media's approach to news. Western medicine is based on intervention and the treating of a crisis; Eastern medicine is more holistic and preventive, and addresses a conflict across a lifetime. That is why we hear a lot more about plane crashes than we do about global warming or homelessness.

On the Conflict in Kosovo

Nicoletta Gullace, History
Class: Topics in International Affairs

Events like the war in Kosovo are not just flashes in the pan but are events with long and deep roots. In class, we look at the ways that religious groups interact, how culture and ethnicity differ, and how they affect people. We also discuss diplomatic issues like the unprecedented action by NATO in fighting the war and the tension behind Orthodox and Muslim groups. After World War I, the tensions arising to settle the Balkan problem were not resolved. These are still issues which erupt now.

We all have filters which affect how we perceive the world. "We" know less about "them." This explains cliques in children, and "in" groups and "out" groups. (With the war in Kosovo) the press tends to personalize the conflict: Milosovic as the malicious leader. In class, we look at it as a larger issue; we try to contextualize it. What causes ethnic conflict? Not just the personality of Milosevic.

Taking an analytical perspective on the whole thing, why do we see what we see? I look at mass media itself as something that is not completely transparent. The process of producing current events affects what they are. Early on there were few photos of what the KLA did to the Serbs. As the war went on, the Serbs figured out how to manipulate the media, and they would take the Western journalists to places that would show NATO destruction.

To study a country and its history, you have to live in the present. It's like peeling away the skins on an onion. You have to start at the beginning, which is current events. (In Kosovo) the whole business goes back to the division of the Roman Empire. You can't talk about the region without discussing the Ottoman Empire, then going through World War I, the fighting in the Balkans and Russian involvement.

In sociology, "definition of the situation" is a concept that suggests that one cannot understand a situation until he or she is put in the shoes of the other. You cannot start with the notion that your perspective is the only perspective. The general public tends to be poorly informed and to want the easiest answer. But there are no easy answers; this belies the nature of these conflicts.

It gives one pause to think and consider the impact structural engineers can have on society and the quality of life. Structures are taken for granted in this country and elsewhere. But in Belgrade, the citizens camped out on the bridges to save them from being bombed... those bridges meant that much to them. ~

Elibet Moore Chase '81 is a free-lance writer in Concord, N.H., and a graduate student in the UNH non-fiction writing program.

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