News In Brief
JUST SEEING HOW YOU'D REACT
Not surprisingly, banking officials in China have been on edge since armed robbers hit a branch earlier this month, resulting in three people being killed. So, to make sure its employees were prepared for such a contingency, administrators at a Bank of China branch in Wuhan decided to stage a mock holdup. Unhappily, no one bothered to warn the staff or, for that matter, the customers. The reaction? Right, pure panic. "In 60 years," one woman said, "that's the worst fright I've ever had." The charade ended when a staff member set off the burglar alarm.
WE NEED THAT SPACE. SORRY.
In London, observers are finding a certain irony in the replacement of the memorial to Sir Walter Raleigh on the lawn of Britain's Defense Ministry. The statue of Raleigh, who won fame for placing his cloak over a puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I could keep her feet dry, is being moved to a military college in Greenwich. Taking its place: a monument to women "of World War II."
Dumb jocks? More than half graduate at major colleges
Results of the latest annual survey by the National Collegiate Athletic Association show scholarship athletes graduated last year at a slightly higher rate than the student body at large among Division I member schools - those with the largest sports programs. The data track only men and women who enroll as freshmen, receive athletics-related financial aid, and earn diplomas within six years. (NCAA rules give scholarship athletes five years to exhaust their eligibility, although that does not apply to their coursework.) Those who transfer to other colleges count against the schools at which they first enrolled. Comparative graduation percentages for selected categories in the report:
All students 56%
Student-athletes 58%
Male student-athletes 51%
Female student-athletes 68%
Black students (overall) 38%
Black student-athletes 45%
Football players 48%
Men's basketball players 42%
Women's basketball players 63%
(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society
