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October 4, 1999

Sold! to the CEO with the purple iMac	The hazards of public office
A front door for SFSU	The bookstore in cyberspace
Goldman on cloning	Produce—a mouse click away

Sold! to the CEO with the purple iMac

An article in the July 3 edition of the Houston Chronicle discussed the trend of people using on-line employment agencies such as Monster.com to find work. The latest trend in Internet jobseeking is Web sites that allow job candidates to auction their services to employers who offer the best pay and job description. John Sullivan, professor of human resources at SFSU, claims that this development "is deep and permanent. Talent will soon be bid for just as you bid on travel tickets on-line."

"What comes out sometimes looks wooden, as if it’s forced, uncomfortable, as if he’s speaking primarily from a carefully crafted agenda. He’s not the kind of person who seems natural in a spontaneous environment," said Joseph Tuman, professor of political speech at SFSU, in reference to Governor Gray Davis. Tuman’s comments appeared in a Sept. 19 San Francisco Examiner article that chronicled several of the verbal gaffes and miscues of Gov. Davis and discussed how they have affected his public image.

On Sept. 29 the San Francisco Chronicle featured a story on humanities professor Roger Birt’s crusade to build a distinctive entrance for SFSU’s campus at the intersection of 19th and Holloway avenues. Birt has secured $1,000 to offer as a reward to the winner of a contest to design a gate for the campus and is in the process of putting together a jury to judge the several dozen entries he has received "from architecture students around the world." The only problem is that there is not yet money to build the winning design. Birt hopes he can convince alumni to donate funds. He realizes that this project may not seem like a priority, but for him it is. He says, "Beauty is not a luxury. Beauty is as important as bread, and we have to spend for both."

"I see business being hurt dramatically in the next decade," said Rob Strong, manager of the SFSU bookstore, in an article in the Aug. 20 San Francisco Chronicle. Strong was referring to the spate of new Web sites offering textbook sales over the Internet. Strong goes on to say, "We have not yet seen a drop in sales, but we expect to see more of a ding this year. We have to act now." The bookstore began selling textbooks on-line at the beginning of this semester.

Michael A. Goldman, professor of biology at SFSU, wrote an editorial for the Sept. 19 Sacramento Bee on the ethics of cloning. Goldman argued that research in advanced cloning technology should not be limited because it may lead to the ability to replace "damaged tissues and organs without fear of graft rejection, because individuals can obtain genetically identical graft tissue." At the same time he clearly points out that "the peril lies in using the technology to create a baby. But there is no need to create a baby using cloning technologies, and legislation to restrict our ability to do so would be entirely reasonable."

The Sept. 1 San Francisco Examiner ran an article of the realitvely new phenomenon of on-line grocery shopping. Deborah Lowe, a professor of marketing at SFSU, predicts that this kind of business will take off in the next five years. And while some may bemoan losing the experience of shopping at the local market, Lowe was quick to point out that not only is it not likely to seriously curtail traditional food shopping, but also that the only thing consumers might lose is "probably road rage or shopping cart rage."

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