University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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Brain size has never been proven to have any correlation to intelligence — Neanderthals had bigger brains than modem humans and no one argues that they were any smarter. And say- ing that homos exuality can ' t be genetically determined is ludi- crous. Being gay doesn ' t erase a person ' s desire to have kids. A lot ol gay men and women who haven ' t come out are rais- ing families, and more and more lesbians are being artificially in- seminated. The argument just doesn ' t stand up. — Nancy Keizer, Anthropology major hours on. Not that we necessarily came to an agreement, but we discuss, we lay out our positions, and we say what we think and why we think it. If there ' s anybody else who does this in an introductory class, I never heard about it. Most of the kids don ' t come, but the opportunity is there for those who want to learn something. How many big classes have you taken? In how many of those classes did the instructor make himself available for discussion sections? For most professors, you can ' t talk to them at all. Past and present students have been overwhelmingly positive, Sarich notes. I ' ve gotten one negative letter and lots and lots of positive ones. The amount of acrimony in the class decreases markedly as the semester goes on in the sense that whether the students agree with me is not the important point. They see it as an interesting opportunity to discuss things. This is true even of people who violently disagree with particular issues. The students are great. Any number of students have said or written to me that my class is the best educational experience they have. What I think they mean is that it ' s the class that made the greatest impact on their thinking. Despite a controversy that caused a lecture to be cancelled and several demands for his dismissal, Sarich felt, This Anthro I last semester was surely the best Anthro 1 I ' ve ever done. It was a combination of having more of my own readings prepared, good notetaking. more contoversial topics, some new topics I tossed in that weren ' t present before, good students — some ver ' , very sharp students who wouldn ' t let me get away with anything — and a good bunch of TAs. If you talked to students, 1 think they ' d tell you it was a really good class, Sarich claims. Even the Late Night Notes were what Sarich termed a best-seller. there were twice as many subscnptions as there were students in the class — and subscription requests have come from all around. The debate certainly hasn ' t prompted Sarich to change any of his views. If anything, it has strengthened his belief in them. It ' s interesting to me that some of my faculty enemies have used the term ' brainwashing ' — what that means to me is that I ' m an effective teacher, and I ' m effective at getting across points of view, he explained. I do something on this campus that nobody else does.

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To Be Or Not to Be P.C. ' incent Sarich, noted in the field of Anthropology as much for his ego as his expertise, has stirred up controversy once again — this time over the political, moral, and technical correctness of his teachings. And he loves the attention. I By Julie Chin -think I ' m effective, interesting, and different. Who can de- scribe anthropology professor Vincent Sarich any better than Vincent Sarich himself? But, by being effective, interesting, and different, Professor Sarich was criticized and even condemned by many students, faculty, and community members. While lecturing to his Anthropology 1 class in early November, Professor Sanch found himself in the middle of an unexpected controversy that started when 75 protesters interrupted and demanded his dismissal on grounds that he was endorsing sexist, racist, and homophobic opinions in his lectures. Sarich was quoted as saying, Heterosexuality is more natural. and Human males have larger brains than human females. These statements generated hostility and opposition in many people, while Sarich maintained that his statements were factually correct. Well, if I say that homosexuality is less natural . . . than heterosexuality, that ' s true . . . It ' s ludicrous to suggest that you could have a genetic predisposition for some- thing which causes you to produce less. That just doesn ' t work. As far as the brain size thing is concerned, males do have bigger brains than do females, on the average. That ' s a fact ... I don ' t claim that males have bigger brains than females. I report it. I don ' t claim that the sun rises in the east. It ' s true. I have yet, I think, to be challenged for something I said that is supposed to be factually untrue, asserts Sarich. For Sarich, the facts do not bother nor do they frighten him. He doesn ' t hesistate to reveal facts, regardless of the controversy that is sure to follow. He states, Facts are not inherently sexist or racist-it ' s what you do with the facts, how you allow the facts to affect you own behavior . . . If one wants to define sexism and racism as believing there are functionally significant differences between sexes and between races, then I plead guilty ... a lot of people feel very strongly that, in a sense, one has the responsibility to present only those facu and points of view which are, in their view, socially desirable or lead to socially desirable effects. It ' s what ' s called ' political correctness. ' In Sarich ' s opinio n, much of the controversy can be attributed to society ' s inability to accept certian truisms, no matter how painful or offensive they may be to the members of the society. It ' s the explanation that often times bothers people ... in general, human behavior is explained in soaal and cultural terms, and to many people, explaining any aspect of human behavior in biologic, evolutionary, or genetic terms is anathema, and that ' s where the hang-up comes in. Literally, it ' s considered evil. ex- plained Sarich. Professors play an important role in the student learning process. It is the professor who attempts to transform an otherwise dull subject into an exciting and thought-provoking one by guiding students through difficult concepts and presenting different perspectives and challenging topics. Of all these tasks, Sarich probably values the last one the most because it is through questions and challenge that an individual learns. If we don ' t want to teach controversial points of view, then why don ' t we just give them the Bible or the Quran? Say, ' Here, it ' s all in here. ' Or, give them the secular equivalent. Give them a non-controversial book . . . they won ' t learn anything from it because it will be boring and irrelevant. What ' s our function except to talk about controversial things? What else are we here for? The only place you have any halfway decent discussion of this material is between myself, my students, and my TAs . . . You don ' t hear any of the so-called protestors or any of my colleagues arguing anything. They just want to censure. There ' s a whole lot of cowardice. People do not want their views challenged. They don ' t want to have an open discussion. What they want is to teach students a catechism, and they want to teach Saint Marx and Saint Durkheim and so forth . . . they don ' t like seeing Darwin or others. As a means of encouraging and emphasizing the importance of dis- cussion, Sarich organized and lead extra voluntary discussion sections for students who wished to delve more deeply into the issues he introduced. He explained. Studenu who are taking the class seriously take advantage of the fact that these conroversial issues are discussed at great length in discussion sections, both the ones that I have and the ones that the TAs have. The agenda is determined by the students. I don ' t come to lecture. I just come there and say, ' Ask me questions. ' Some of the issues we spent

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he clock clicks . . ORALS t ' s 7 pm and you ' re watching rera JSJ Family Ties. You ' re sitting back, relaxed, enjoying a Q of Zachary ' s deep dish special along with a cool, refre a gwg Coke. Every- thing ' s perfect with this picture exce ' rt r the minor, maybe even pressing, fact that you do have a midterm In Stat 21 — TOMORROW, at 8 a.m. All you have to do Is stay up all night £Lnd cram everything Into your head. Don ' t feel bad that you ' ve waited until the night before the exam to study. Hey, you ' re Just like any other of the 96% of students who procrastinate, who prolong the ex- tended vacation.