The Lumberjack, April 30, 2003.

              SERIAL ACQUISITIONS
PO BOX 6022
FLAGSTAFF AZ 86011-6022 T h e L u m b e r j a c k • _ a___ i ________ ■___ j . _______________ An Independent Student Publicat4i orwn. . ueit: __N__o__r_t_h__e__r__n__ _A__r__i_z_o_Un a University ^
A p ril 3 0 -A u g . 18, 2 0 0 3
D i v e r s i t y b e c o m i n g a r e q u i r e m e n t
N1CKI ESCU DEWO
T h e L u m b e r j a c k
Incoming students have a
new diversity requirement to
consider when they choose
their liberal studies classes.
The 2004 fall freshmen will
be required to take one three
credit hour course in U.S. eth
nic studies and at least one
three credit-hour course on a
non-western region of the
world. The University
Curriculum Committee voted
in favor of the new amend­ment
in April.
Courses can be selected
from within a student’s major
or minor, liberal studies or
electives. After the Liberal
Studies Committee clarifies
whether “non Western” coun
tries will be changed to
include western European
countries, specific courses
wilt be submitted and
approved for the program.
One NAU students thinks
NAU needs classes that can
broaden student horizons.
“We have a whole bunch of
ignorant and naive people on
this campus, and it’s not their
fault," said Adiam Tesfay,
president of Black Student
Union. “They’ve never been
educated.”
According to an
Association of American
Colleges and Universities sur
vey, 62 percent of 543 accred­ited
U.S. colleges and univer
sities either have a diversity
requirement in place or are in
the process of developing
one.
One NAU student believes
a diversity requirement
would not necessarily cause
students to be more cultural
ly aware after college.
“I think (it) all depends on
the student’s motivation
level,* said Rob Conley, soph­omore
mechanical engineer­ing
major.
Other students believe the
diversity requirement will
benefit students, especially
those who may not experi
ence diversity outside of
school.
“A lot people come from
different backgrounds and in
order to understand diversity
they may need to be taught,
because some people don't
learn it at home or from
friends," said Amanda
Chambers, freshman photog­raphy
major “If they don’t
learn it anywhere else, it
should be taught at school."
Tesfay agreed.
“I do think it’s a great idea,”
Tesfay said. “I think it’s very
beneficial. I think a lot of
See DIVERSITY, page 7
The Proposed
Diversity
Requirement is:
Ethnic udies
course
•One Non­western
culture
class
•The current propos­al
allows for student s
to take these classes
without increasing
A ndrea Scheel/The Lum berjack
DR. SKYLER LINDSLEY, Aubrie Vargas's radiologist, checks up on her progress since treatment.
Coping with Cancer: Student conquers disease
T E R R A COLE
T h e L u m b e r j a c k
Death did not scare her.
life did. t
When senior Aubrie
Vargas underwent cancer
treatment, she was not afraid
of dying, she was afraid of liv­ing—
living with the pain
cancer caused.
“I remember laying there
and telling God, ‘if I’m going
to live like this, then just take
me,’" Vargas said. “1 don’t
want to live suffering.”
Two months after a car
accident, Vargas began feel­ing
back pains. After visiting
a chiropractor for a few
months, the doctor sched­uled
Vargas for a magnetic
resonance imaging scan, or
MR1.
Vargas and her mother,
Evelyn, remember watching
the number of technicians in
the room multiply to five.
That was when they knew
something was wrong. By
the next day, Oct 17, 2002,
Vargas was diagnosed with
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
cancer.
“When 1 first heard the
words lymphoma it was like
I went into shock for a few
minutes because all I could
think of was death," said
Evelyn. “You can never not
equal cancer to death.”
Vargas’s grandmother died
of lymphoma cancer 15 years
ago
By the time she was diag­nosed,
Vargas’s pain was so
severe she could not lie
down. She slept sitting up, if
she slept at all—all the while,
still going to class at NAU.
“She was in so much pain
you could see it on her face,
but she’d sit through class,
not say a word, quiet as can
be," said Carmel le
Malkovich, a senior public
relations major and lifelong
friend of Vargas.
Vargas had lost feeling in
her legs and her stomach was
.numb because of the cancer­ous
tumor growing in her
back, pushing her spinal
cord to the left.
Isaac Bunney, a December
NAU graduate in health pro­motions,
has known Vargas
since the third grade. He said
the diagnosis shocked him
and Vargas’s entire home­town
of Miami, Ariz.
“She’s the healthiest girl
you’ll ever meet,” Bunney
said. “And when she first got-injured
with her back, you
were like ‘man, what’s going
on, it’s not like her.”’
See STAR A TH LE TE ,
page 3
NAU students
unable to earn
degree in 4 years
SA R AH THOM ASON *
G O N Z A LE S
T h e L u m b e r j a c k
Many students come to col­lege
planning to finish in four
years. But for many students
at NAU this is not a possibili­ty-
Only 26 percent of NAU
students are able to obtain
their degree in four years,
according to the Office of
Planning and Institutional
Research.
One NAU student, Alyssa
Jeffers, a junior microbiology
major, is facing this problem
now.
“I will be going into my
fourth year in the fall, but 1
still have one and a half years
left before I will get my
degree,” Jeffers said.
While it will take Jeffers
five to six years to graduate,
the Office of Planning and
Institutional Research has
found the average time to
graduate at NAU is 4.8 years,
and some students need as
long as 10 years to complete
their undergraduate educa
tion.
Graduating in four years is
becoming a problem for more
and more students across the
nation, said Eileen Mahoney,
Director of Campus Advising.
According to the ASU
Institutional Analysis Center
Web site, 25 percent of Sun
Devil students graduate in
four years.
“Many students have to
work to pay for school, have
family issues or participate in
a number of extracurricular
activities," Mahoney said.
“And all of these things can
keep them fronj being able to
graduate in four years.”
See NAU, page 7
Student’s only
limit lurks in the
minds of others
Outdoors enthusiast paves the
m y for others in wheelchairs
N A TH A N IE L LU E D E K E R
S pecial to the L umberjack
NAU has its share of tender-footed,
soft-living students who prefer to expe­rience
the great outdoors through CBS’s
“Survivor." .
Senior Annemari Kate Romero is not
one of them.
*1 hear people with disabilities say
they don’t want to go camping because
it is too hard,” said the 22-year-old
Romero, who ;s majoring in parks and
recreation management with an
emphasis in outdoor leadership.
Romero, whose soft voice is contrast
ed by her iron hard will, is in a wheel
chaii. Actually, the term “wheelchair" is
not fitting. Romero’s chair is equipped
with off road tires that would put the
average “Huffy” bike owner to shame.
Romero said she had an internal head
injury about six years ago that was sim
ilar to a stroke because it was not caused
by physical trauma.
See DlAB ILITY, paqo 5
Despite cuts, distributed learning endures, grows
JA C O B LO PEZ
T h e L u m b e r j a c k .
NAU distributed learning is
beating the financial odds
despite state budget woes.
Although the program has
lost $750,000 due to budget cuts
since 2000, NAU Distributed
Learning Service Dean
Frederick Hurst said the pro­gram
produces $22 million in
revenue each yeai.
NAU President john Haeger
said $11 million remains in the
distributed learning program
while the rest funds various
services and departments at the
mountain campus.
The state legislature allocates
money to NAU according to the
number of students enrolled. As
a result, if NAU did not enroll
the 6,000 state and worldwide
students, the university would
be in a “world of hurt" Haeger
said.
Hurst said distributed learn
ing supplements the lack of
mountain campus students
with the extra revenue they pro­duce.
“In reality, if NAU did not
have an increase in student
enrollment off campus, along
with the decrease on campus,
we would’ve had more
budget problems, resulting
in less classes for example,”
Hurst said.
Hurst said off-campus
students have three ways to
take the distributed learn­ing
classes.
The most popular
method is through face-to-face
classroom settings at
the NAU sites, which span
from Yuma to reservation
sites such as Ganado, locat­ed
near the New Mexico bor­der.
Sixty-one percent of the
distributed learning stu­dents
use this method.
Another 25 percent take
their courses on the
Internet, and the final 14
percent take classes via
interactive television, Hurst
said.
In order to make up for
the budget deficit, DLS staff
from across the state has
accepted work split shifts
and extra hours so the pro
gram can remain within its
budget, Neuman said. In
addition, two managers
were laid off.
See DISTANCE,
i 7
Brardon Oberhart/ The Lumberjack
JU N IO R LAR ISSA SKINNER is currently
completing a liberal arts degree through DLS
in Thatcher. Ariz.
See News, page 5
Lumberjack
football players
make it to the
big time
See Sports, page 13
Asia Blonde is
music to
Flagstaff's ears
See Life, page 17
Inside
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