Triangle - 2000 February

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2000 February

THE EXPONENT: Volume 00, Number 2

"He who knows best knows how little he knows." --Thomas Jefferson

We Exponent people don't purport to know everything or even to be experts on this Fraternity stuff. All we hope to do is to provide you with information that provokes you to think; to provide things that might help you make your chapter and all of Triangle better at accomplishing goals - and to be more fun. Recognizing that one doesn't know everything, that there are many things to learn about any topic, and that one should always strive to be better tomorrow than one was today is the huge first step to accomplishing one's goals.

Contents

Ahh, Umm, Errr -- You'll Be Better Off Without Them: Tim Eiler minn87

It doesn't matter whether you're a technical person or a non-technical person, as you've all experienced, or at very least heard, you're going to have to communicate with people. It won't matter whether that communication takes place at the water cooler, in the boss' office, in the boardroom, at a customer site, at a political rally, or in one of thousands of other situations, the better you speak, the more intelligent you'll feel and look and the more successful you're likely to be. One of the easier ways you can improve your speaking ability is to rid yourself of a problem most people have - the dreaded verbal pause.

In case you may still be wondering what a verbal pause is, there's a good chance you'll be able to hear examples next time you hear nearly anyone speak - including yourself. If you hear someone say things like um, ahh, etc during interruptions or pauses in speaking, those are verbal pauses. Most people are uncomfortable - consciously or subconsciously - during speaking. That discomfort generally gets worse if the speaking is formal public speaking, but verbal pauses can happen in any kind of speaking.

People to a degree expect and ignore these pauses. Because we're all somewhat conditioned to filter out this noise, they may not even consciously notice when you stop using them in your speech. I can assure you from experience, though, that they do notice at least subconsciously and there are some very large payoffs in relation to the effort you'll put in to get rid of the problem.

How do you get rid of verbal pausing? Practice. When you catch yourself making a meaningless verbalization during a speech pause, stop. Tell yourself before you open your mouth to speak that you will eradicate such pauses. Ask a friend to monitor your speaking and either correct you during or after. Typically they don't disappear immediately, but verbal pauses will go all, or at least mostly, away if you do these simple things.

The payoff is increased confidence and improved perception of your confidence by others. That's great in class, on job interviews and definitely on dates.

Today's College Freshmen More Stressed Than Ever: New York Times, January 25, 2000

The current class of first-year college students, who have survived the most competitive higher-education admissions process ever and who are being saddled with increased family and financial responsibilities, entered school more stressed than any in a generation, a national survey has found.

A record 30.2 percent of the freshmen polled in their first days on U.S. campuses said they felt frequently overwhelmed by what they had to do, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), found.

There was a significant gender gap -- 38.8 percent of women and 20 percent of men reported high stress levels. The gap exists perhaps because female students report spending more time studying, doing volunteer work and participating in school clubs, while their male counterparts log more hours exercising, watching television, partying and playing video games.

Stress levels have been rising since 1985, when 16 percent of freshmen said they were frequently overwhelmed. "One could question: Do they really have more going on than students did 20 years ago, or do they just think they do?" said Linda Sax, an assistant professor of education at UCLA who directs the annual survey. "In some ways, it doesn't matter, because they feel the stress." Nearly one in four students surveyed said they expect to work full time while in college -- another record for the study, which has been conducted annually since 1966.

A separate study by the U.S. Department of Education found that half of the nation's college students work part-time to defray their educational expenses, clocking an average of 25 hours a week; an additional 30 percent work full-time while taking some classes.

Kendra Fox-Davis, president of the U.S. Students Association, a Washington advocacy group, attributed the increased stress, in part, to the cost of college and the need to balance conflicting responsibilities.

"Students are no longer able to go to college and devote themselves to this pursuit of learning and just spend four years being introspective," said Fox-Davis, a 1998 graduate of UCLA. "Instead of just, 'How do I memorize this information for the exam,' it's, 'How do I work enough hours, or apply for enough scholarships or get enough grants so I can afford a full load of classes?'"

The UCLA survey of current freshmen included 364,546 students at 683 of the country's two- and four-year colleges and universities. Interviewed during orientation or the first week of classes, the students were asked about the past year. The UCLA survey found troubling trends related to high school.

A record 39.9 percent of the new college students reported frequently having felt "bored in class," and 62.6 percent, an all-time high, said they had been late to school frequently or occasionally.

The survey also found that alcohol and tobacco are losing popularity among college students, with the lowest level of freshmen, 50.7 percent, saying they drank beer frequently or occasionally in the past year. That is down from 75.2 percent in 1981.

Volunteerism is on the rise, with a record 75.3 percent of students reporting having done community service during their senior year in high school. But the percentage of freshmen who think it is important to "influence social values" fell to 35.8 percent, its lowest point since 1986.

I Have a Dream: Tim Eiler minn87

In his famous "I have a dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. said something exceedingly important. He said, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

What's important about that? First, it shows that Dr. King, no matter what he might have been, was not a racist. Instead, it illustrates that he had a fundamental understanding of humanity. As it says in the U.S. Constitution, "all men are created equal." The real key, and the deepest meaning of the quote from Dr. King, is that, while we all come into this life as equals, it's what we do with ourselves that matters most.

Racism is the stereotyping and collectivizing of people of a race. That practice can easily happen on both sides of a racial division. Character is the true measure of a person and thus, when we "measure" groups based on traits other than character, we measure the wrong things. Diversity quotas are not diversity. Instead they are nothing but statistically-based groupings - groupings based not on the most important measurement criterion.

There's nothing wrong at all with differences among individuals and between groups of individuals. We should celebrate those differences of cultural heritage and individual choices. They are what makes life interesting and keeps us growing as a society. What's wrong-headed is when we think that all individuals who have one thing in common, especially when that one thing is something that is beyond the individuals' control, makes them all alike.

Like Dr. King, I, too, have a dream. I dream today of a place - maybe even a world - where people are judged individually and where they are judged by the choices they make and the actions they take. Do you Triangles also share this dream?

Things People Can Learn From Geese (so why the term "silly goose"?)

Author unknown

FACT #1:

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 75% greater flying range than if the bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community reach their destinations sooner and more easily, for they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT #2:

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go and are willing to accept their help and give our help to others. We only drop out of the group when the group is no longer headed in the direction we wish to go.

FACT #3:

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent upon each other's skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, and resources.

FACT #4:

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our "honking" is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core values of others) is the quality of "honking" we seek.

FACT #5:

When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to earth to help and protect it. They stay with it until it either dies or is able to fly again. They then launch out with another formation or catch up to their last flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we'll stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

[We don't know if we can trust the veracity of the above "facts", but we do know the sentiment is right. By the way, anyone know why sometimes on leg of a V of geese is longer? - ed.]

Hope you enjoyed this issue!!! If you have questions, feel free to email the editor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Tim Eiler minn87
Triangle Fraternity National Council Past President
Former U.S. Astronaut Technical Educator

RELENTLESS pursuit of EXCELLENCE!!!