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February 20, 2014 • Issue no. 40 Volume 26
Boise, Idaho
First issue free
Perceptions of correct speech Students indicate where accents originate by sketching
North West
South East
Mid West
North East
West Coast
North West
South West
East Coast
Keely Mills @PelozaJ
Professor Ian Clayton was once talking to a woman on the phone who had a noticeable accent. Out of curiosity, he asked where she was from. “Virginia,” she said. “You can probably tell by the way I talk, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.” Clayton thought to himself, “Why is it bad to sound like you’re from Virginia?” The United States is the third largest country in the world, covering a total of 3.8 million square miles. Within those miles reside nearly 300 million people, who speak a range of different dialects. The regions of the United States are not quite clear and may be defined differently depending on who you ask. “I guess it depends on where you’re from,” said Bernard Garrard, a native Idahoan. “I have no idea what’s going on with the East Coast.” According to Clayton, many people divide the different regions of the United States depending upon which dialect, or accent, of English is spoken there. “In some cases, people may have an idea of what the region is that doesn’t necessarily correspond with the reality of the geography,” Clayton said. People tend to attach certain stereotypes to specific speech patterns that are associated with these different areas. Clayton explained how some speech patterns have negative connotations. “People often encounter negative reactions when they display a Southern type of
dialect,” Clayton said. Clayton attributed the display of these types of accents in our media as part of the reason why these negative stigmas exist. He noted the film “Cars” and the character Mater, who speaks with a Southern accent. “The dialect is performed for us with the express idea of allowing instant characterization,” Clayton said. “As soon as Mater opens his mouth we know something about him, because of the way he talks.” A comparable stereotype perpetuated in the media is the association of a New Jersey accent with being a gangster or mobster. Susan Hill, a Boise State alumn, used to work with a woman from the East Coast who had a thick Eastern accent. “I just associated her with being someone who’s from a different part of the U.S.,” Hill said. “I hear people on the East Coast are worldly, so I associated that with her.” However, Clayton explained how not all regions are divided solely upon the accent that is spoken there, but also by the history that surrounds each area. “The South, for instance, is probably the one that is most clearly defined in our minds for historical reasons, obviously with connections to the Civil War and slavery,” Clayton said. Clayton described the majority dialect spoken here in Idaho as being referred to as general English, though, he noted, “every dialect has some sort of non-standard way of saying a word.”
Idaho schools undergo program prioritization Staff Writer
In the hopes of improving the education and services that students are provided, the State Board of Education (SBOE) implemented program prioritization at all fouryear universities in Idaho last fall. Program prioritization is an exploration of programs and course offerings to help align universities with their strategic plans and missions. Richard Klautsch, chair of the Theatre Arts Department, said some of the benefits of this program include finding and creating efficiencies in day-today operations and curriculum by looking at every single aspect of the university, from the library to the Communication Department. “The program overall forces us to take a real
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Isabel Corona
The program overall forces us to take a real hard, close look at what we do as a department and to consider where we might be able to do things better. —Richard Klautsch
hard, close look at what we do as a department and to consider where we might be able to do things better,” Klautsch said. SBOE decided to implement program prioritization after several months of discussion on how to improve Idaho’s institutions of higher learning. After listening to a presentation by Robert C. Dickeson about the program he devised in his book, “Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services,” SBOE decided program prioritization was the best way to go. Richard Westerberg, the chair of Instruction Research and Student Affairs
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for SBOE added, “The board looked at that and said ‘Now’s the time. Rather than trying to do it in pieces, why don’t we look at all programs, in kind of a holistic approach.’” Each university in the state designed and implemented their own plan for program prioritization, with the results of the program due by the end of June. Boise State divided the process into three “bites.” The first bite, which has been completed, required each department to look at its individual emphases and minors. The second and third bites will examine individ-
Opinion
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ual degrees and the entire department respectively. Program prioritization aims to discover which university programs can use additional funds and attention in order to better serve the university and students. “I have every confidence that the decisions made through program prioritization will be made only for the goal of making things better for the university,” Klautsch said. “I don’t think a program that is already doing excellent work is going to be forced to change or to go away or anything like that simply because we want change for change’s sake.”
Although this is the desired outcome of the program, some faculty members at Boise State are worried about whether or not this will actually be the case. LeAnn Turner, the chair of the Art Department, said she was concerned about the possible implications the program could have. “None of us like the fact that there’s this bar. We could all potentially be performing well above the bar and this program as written says that something has to be in the lowest twenty percent.” Turner did say that the university has said just because something falls below the bar doesn’t mean that it will automatically be cut. Highlighting areas for improvement allows the university to allocate funds to programs that are used by students, but un-
Arts & Entertainment
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Sports
der-funded, while reducing or even cutting funding to those which are not being utilized. “I think the whole value in this is to look at individual programs and make sure that they are aligning with the needs of the students and the institution,” Westerberg said.
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