Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 07:00:41 12/08/03
Go up one level in this thread
On December 07, 2003 at 23:15:30, Johan de Koning wrote: >On December 06, 2003 at 15:34:19, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >> >>It really depends. IE what about international students? They really can't >>go home for 3 months then come back. That is expensive, plus there is a >>housing problem to deal with, etc. They want to come here, go to school >>non-stop until they finish, then move on, which makes a lot of sense. I >>didn't go full-time for my BS or MS, but I did (for 3 years) for my Ph.D. > >Since I was being sarcastic here, you should be offended. >Or perhaps I should work on my sarcasm. :-) I don't usually get too offended on internet discussions, no body language, facial expressions, speech tone, etc to judge a conversation by. :) > >And besides, I don't think students are easily bored. If they are >because of a 2-week gap in the schedule, they suffer from wrong >person, wrong place, wrong time, or any subset of wrongs. That isn't the issue. A Summer term is 12 weeks. If I disappear for two weeks, they just lost 1/6 of the course content they signed up for. If we didn't teach in the Summer, their stay over here gets extended by another 4.5 months since they have to defer what they would take during the Summer to a later non-Summer term. Right now you can theoretically complete a MS degree in four semesters with no difficulty, and possibly in three if you want to take four full courses per semester. If you eliminate Summers, then you change that September xx, December XX+1 time frame to September XX to May XX+1 at best. That extra 4.5 months is pretty expensive for foreign students. That's why we offer courses during the Summer. >> >> >> >>No doubt. And it would leave time for "fun things" too. However, the problem >>is it turns into a "dictated vacation" since it is so long and expensive. I'd >>be hard-pressed to convince my wife to go to Israel, for example, as there >>are many other places she hasn't been that are more attractive and less >>dangerous. >> >>But it is moot with the length of stay required during a school year... > >It's not moot. >If you drag your wife into the discussion you have the perfect excuse >not to go. After all you have the right to live a good life as you see >fit, and no one (I hope) is going yo deny you that. There is however a >difference between reasons and feelings adding up to a decision, and a >campaign against the ICGA. And that's where this discussion ends, if >you will be so kind to forgive my arrogance. I don't "drag my wife into the discussion". My wife is, by my direct choice to marry her 35 years ago, a part of the discussion because she has earned that right. As someone else pointed out, the typical US worker has 2-3 weeks of vacation time per year. It would be pretty self-centered to tell my wife and kids, sorry, but I'm going to Israel for two weeks for a chess tournament. You can go if you want, you can go somewhere without me, or you can stay at home. I, personally, don't operate like that. Vacations are a _family_ decision, not a dictator's choice... At least in _my_ household. Also there is no "campaign against the ICGA". The ICGA has done some things that I as a member disagree with. I was a charter member in 1974. We wrote a charter that detailed what the ICCA would do and why. Apparently that charter was modified without any input from the general membership. At least _I_ never had the opportunity to vote on anything, and I've been a member for a _long_ time. I certainly disagree with that kind of nonsense. In early years, almost _all_ computer chess activity was centered in the US. Yet we hardly tried to keep the ICCA as a US-tournament-organization only. Because the original membership wanted to promote computer chess around the world. Now, however, that seems to have turned around. More commercial interest in Europe, so let's hold all the events close to Europe. That is what I disagree with. But, I'm not going to make a big deal of it any longer, I'm simply not going to renew. There are other ways to compete in Computer Chess besides the ICGA now. In fact, there are _better_ ways to compete. They chose this route. It might be painful. It was certainly avoidable. > >... Johan
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