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Brown University Faculty Votes To Hijack History

Joshua Chaney — 2009-04-14T21:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Breaking News, News, Brown University, Microtrends on Campus, American University, Muskingum College

An obsession with political correctness at American universities has rapidly become a national phenomenon in recent years. A few colleges have really taken it too far.

Brown University's faculty voted last week to rename Columbus Day "Fall Weekend" on the University's calendar, a move that apparently was in step with the wishes of students according to a poll by the college newspaper The Brown Daily Herald. The poll revealed a majority of students disapproved of continuing to call the holiday Columbus Day.

The decision came after weeks of pressure from student groups proposing change.

American University's Undergraduate Senate passed a similar resolution a few years ago declaring the holiday "Indigenous People's Day" instead.

Columbus Day is named of course after Christopher Columbus, the man incorrectly attributed with discovering North America. As we know today, Columbus was tied to the enslavement and abuse of native inhabitants of the West Indies. Columbus Day has been celebrated since 1971.
But really, Columbus Day? It seems strange that academics would be so willing to hijack history for the sake of an extremist obsession to purify it. Owning a history book doesn't give one the right to rewrite it, however. Columbus Day still exists as does U.S. history in its entirety - dark spots as well as bright.

The faculty might have instead used the day instead to ... oh, I dunno, teach? Since when is it an acceptable standard in American academia to ignore history instead of use its errors as a basis to teach and educate?

"Brown University made itself an example to the nation by carefully exploring its ties to the slave trade and using that process to promote greater understanding," Providence mayor David Cicilline, a 1983 graduate of Brown, said in a press release last week. But the decision to "simply erase the celebration of an incredibly significant moment in world history and Italian-American culture for the sake of political correctness does just the opposite," he added.

While Columbus might not be credited now with being the first person to discover America, many Italian-American organizations still credit Columbus, an Italian explorer, as a major historical influence on western civilization's introduction to a new part of the world.

Providence newspaper columnist Bob Kerr called the decision "detached," especially because of the large number of Italian descendants residing in Providence. Rush Limbaugh also opined on the decision, attacking the students who urged for the change.

One Brown student said Columbus is "undeserving of a holiday." Another said "what they teach us in elementary school is misleading - hero worshiping."

The decision was "a progressive step," he added.

I couldn't disagree more. The most feasible part of the students' argument is that Columbus wasn't deserving of the holiday in the first place. But what is certain is that the holiday is also is a yearly reminder of how far we've come. It provides a basis on which teachers can educate their students.

A much greater injustice is done in ignoring the sacrifices made at the hands of the ignorant. Their story deserves to be told, not swept under the rug and the best way to do that is for Columbus Day to remain untouched. It is not an elementary teacher's place to go all philosophical on an 8-year-old, and I don't think children are educated to idolize Columbus - at least I wasn't.

At a higher level of learning, the flaws of such individuals need to be observed and critiqued.

The decisions by both American University and Brown University were more accurately in step with those attempting to censor historical scars, and call it cliche, but those who ignore history are, indeed, destined to repeat it.

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College Grads Look to Public Service as Option

Megan Baker — 2009-03-09T20:40:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, The Economy, Recession on Campus, Microtrends on Campus

When Barack Obama was running for president he urged young people to consider community service when making post graduation plans. An article in USA Today shows that many college graduates (myself included) have taken him up on that advice.

With a combination of a poor job market and a desire to do something good for the country, college graduates are turning to programs such as AmeriCorps, Peace Corps and Teach for America rather than scoping out the job listings in Craig's List.

According to the USA Today article, online applications are coming in three times faster than a year ago at AmeriCorps and Peace Corps applications have gone up by 16%. And why not? The stimulus package includes $200 million to support these government-funded service programs in hopes of expanding the scope that these programs offer to Americans in need.

I was recently accepted into City Year, which is an AmeriCorps program that focuses on tutoring and mentoring children in schools. Myself and 40 other young people from all across the country will relocate to San Jose, California without knowing anybody or having a place to live (we really need to work on that one...) to take a year and make a difference as the City Year motto says.

But it's not just young people getting into the spirit of service. There is legislation in the works that may offer incentives to Americans for rolling up their sleeves and helping out others.The Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act hopes to increase the amount of community service performed by both youth and adults by offering benefits such as tax incentives for employers who allow workers to take time off to partake in community service and to help fund volunteer drives for non-profits.

"As our nation confronts the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression, an enhanced commitment to local and community service is needed now more than ever," White House budget director Peter Orszag wrote to Kennedy on March 6, encouraging the committee he heads to approve the legislation.

While the bill is definitely for a good cause (and as a future AmeriCorps member, of course I think these programs deserve more funding) do we really have the money to throw at these programs? It seems every time we turn around another sector (including the porn industry) is asking for millions of dollars. So what I'm asking you is, where will it end?

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2009 College Graduates are F*�!�$

Megan Baker — 2009-03-03T18:45:00+00:00

Filed under: St. John Fisher College, Recession on Campus, Microtrends on Campus

I'm not going to sugar coat this for you college seniors out there, this is not a great time for us to be graduating. The U.S. economy is steadily getting worse and the job market seems to be shrinking along with it. But we can't sit around feeling sorry for ourselves; it's time to get proactive. We didn't go to college to go back home to our crappy summer jobs, now did we?

To get myself pointed in the right direction, I headed to the one place I should have gone to a long time ago...my college career center. I met with the Director of Career Services, Betsy McDermott to get some advice on what we as college seniors should be doing to crack into a seemingly impossible job market.

The only problem is, a lot of us still don't know what we want to do (or can do) with our majors.

"You'd be amazed at how many seniors still don't know what they want to do at this point," McDermott said. "I definitely think students should sit down and have a talk with a career counselor to figure out what it is you want to do. It helps put the focus somewhere."

Here are some of the highlights of the discussion I had with Betsy:

Q: How can students start the job search process?

A: It is a three step process:

1. Identify what skills and interests you have

2. Narrow down your interests, and start to do research on fields and specific organizations you are interested in working for.

3. Target your audience and start sending out resumes.

Q: Is it okay to apply to a company that isn't hiring?

A: It really only works when you desperately want to work for one particular organization. In your cover letter you can say 'I know you're not hiring right now, but I really love your organization and would like to ask you to keep my name on file in case something pops up in the future.' Maybe when there is a job opening, they will be curious about finding out more about you and will give you a call. Everyone likes to hear that they are someone's first choice."

Q: How early should graduates start applying?

A: If you are looking for a job as a teacher, you should start sending out cover letters and resumes now. If you are looking to work in marketing, accounting or sales, you don't need to send out resumes until a couple months before graduation. If someone is interested in you but you are not able to start working until after graduation, offer to work part time or even intern, whatever it takes to keep them excited about hiring you.

Q: How many resumes should graduates plan on sending out?

A: It used to be common for people to send out 5,000 resumes and they would only hear back from about three places. The success rate is really low for cold targeting, and it's not really worth the time and effort unless you are trying to get a job you absolutely love.

While the job search process is daunting, McDermott made me feel a little bit better.

"Why are we so upset? The process is the same. Companies are always looking for people with initiative, strong people skills and professionals. There is movement out there in the word world, you just need to communicate to a company out there who needs your skills."

According to McDermott, it takes about three months to get a full time job, so seniors, get started! Some of the more common job search engines are Monster, Career Builder, Yahoo! HotJobs and Craig's List. These sites should give you a general idea of what is out there and what is expected of you as a potential employee.

Need resume advice? Check out this website or do what I did, meet with a career counselor at your college's Career Services Office.

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Don't Lower the Drinking Age

Joshua Sharp — 2009-02-20T20:36:00+00:00

Filed under: USC, News, Advise & Dissent, Microtrends on Campus

Animated disagreement between coworkers is a venerable tradition often denied to Bright Hall's far-flung, break room-less staff. Advise & Dissent is an attempt to fix that. Click here for past debates.

My colleague Megan Baker has a post up today proposing that the U.S. would be well-served by a lower age limit on alcohol consumption, in advance of a "60 Minutes" special airing Sunday which is sure to renew the national debate.

Critics of the current age limit are undoubtedly well-intentioned, but their focus is ill-advised. Lowering the age limit from 21 years of age to 18 would send precisely the wrong signal to young people across the country: that alcohol isn't as dangerous and serious a substance as has been suggested for the last twenty-five years, when the current limit was put into effect.

Rather than focusing energy on slightly modifying a somewhat arbitrary number, we should instead unite around effective education and prevention programs led by student ambassadors armed with the real facts. Too many alcohol education programs sound like they've been crafted by out-of-touch administrators instead of actual peers.

Students need to hear about the effects of alcohol from fellow classmates speaking in our common language. Relying on hyperbolic scare tactics and abstinence-only rhetoric ends the dialogue far too early.

"Haze" is a new documentary which strikes this important balance. Centered around the devastating, preventable death of a University of Colorado freshman, this gritty film explores the culture of binge drinking and guides viewers toward an effortless conclusion, reinforcing the stark realities of excessive alcohol consumption. (You can see the film here. It is difficult to watch, so viewer discretion is advised.)

At the start of my freshman year at USC, all incoming students had to complete a two-part online education course, AlcoholEDU. The first half of the program had to be completed before the start of classes, and the second half began much later in the semester. While AlcoholEDU was certainly more memorable and conversational in tone compared to others I've seen, there remains a powerful subculture at college in which binge drinking is socially acceptable.

Penetrating this subculture and making binge drinking "uncool" again has to be our top priority today on campuses across America. Instead of spending money on campaigns whose legislative proposals, if passed, would suggest that alcohol is now more acceptable than ever before, we should work together on making binge drinking more unacceptable than ever. Such a social stigma would have a far greater impact than any legal limit.

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A Nation of Whiners?

Joshua Sharp — 2009-02-20T13:40:00+00:00

Filed under: USC, News, Microtrends on Campus

Last year, McCain 2008 economic adviser Phil Gramm was forced to resign after commenting that America had become "a nation of whiners." A recent New York Times story indicates that a similar mentality has spread to the younger generation in colleges across America, but students may not be entirely to blame.

Based on a study conducted by the University of California, Irvine, The Times reports that students are complaining more often about their grades and expecting to earn a B-average just for showing up. The study's lead researcher and other college professors attribute the shift to "achievement anxiety" and mounting parental pressure, adding that the mentality is reinforced by experiences in K-12 education in which many students have never received a grade lower than an A:

James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said: "Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that 'if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.'"

I see two things happening here. First, the article is right to point out that the pressure placed on students to achieve straight A's has spread across more and more families, pervaded our academic system and subsequently dictated career and financial success with increasing subjectivity.

Though loftier ambitions can be a positive development in moderation, they are psychologically defeating when taken to the extreme. Compared to our predecessors, my generation is more competitive, more adept at multi-tasking and more insistent on reaching the highest levels of personal success.

Second, changes in the American education system -- "socialized education," Michael Moore calls it -- have included so-called reforms which pass failing students simply by changing the threshold for a C-average. Much like inflation, the reduced value of a C grade and ease of access to it has made simple task completion and earnest effort seem like overachieving. Above-average students then seem like academic all-stars by comparison.

In universities across the nation, including my own, incoming freshmen classes are lauded each year as the most competitive and highest-achieving class yet. We would be wise to remain mindful of both the deflationary value of contemporary academic standards and the psychological effects of a make-or-break mentality which looks to fill a formula instead of simply pursuing a passion.

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CNN Needs Help... Anyone?

Joshua Sharp — 2009-01-18T21:09:00+00:00

Filed under: Breaking News, USC, Media, Microtrends on Campus

If this is the future of 24-hour cable news, I'm going back to newspapers.*

CNN has launched a new gimmick, melodramatically named "THE MOMENT," by which ordinary citizens present at Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday can submit a picture of Obama being sworn in, as seen from their viewpoint -- in all likelihood, miles away and among standing-room-only crowds. The idea is to create a miles-long collage of pictures capturing Obama taking the oath of office. CNN calls it "the most detailed experience of a single moment ever."

While this project may offer a mildly interesting result, CNN's continued self-congratulating gimmickry strikes me as rather annoying. Remember their utterly useless live hologram? Wolf Blitzer kept chanting that television history was being made. No, television history was being made in 1950 when CBS gave the public color programming. CNN's Jessica Yellin going Princess Leia on us isn't particularly useful (and technically, it wasn't even really a hologram).

Instead of focusing on the "just the facts, ma'am" style of reporting which made the network so reliable and informative in the past, CNN insists on elevating bombastic personalities and cheesy interactive features alongside the regular informed perspectives and in-depth reporting. Is this the future of journalism?

Even "THE MOMENT" isn't quite as ridiculous as Rick Sanchez asking me to Twitter, Myspace and Facebook him so we can feel like buddies and he can read my comments on-air. It isn't as biased as Jack Cafferty ranting for a minute and a half and then asking viewers a slanted question along the lines of, "Why do you agree with what I just persuasively argued?"

And it isn't as arrogant as CNN constantly labeling itself "The Best Political Team on Television" with "The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team" and "The Best Political Roundtable from The Best Political Team on Television" (TBPRFTBPTOT for short).

I could air other complaints about Fox News' fluff stories or MSNBC's aggressive editorializing. But whatever happened to just telling us the five W's with a dash of context? I don't want CNN spending its advertising dollars trying to impress me with new technology. Just give me the news.

* SIDE NOTE: In my First Amendment class last week, my fellow students and I used handheld clickers to answer polling questions about how we receive our news. The 45-person class certainly has a selective bias and the poll isn't scientific, but it appears that newspapers aren't dead: More than 70% of students said they obtain their news online, while 51% indicated they rely primarily on newspapers' websites when browsing for news online. While not scientific, the poll suggests that younger generations still trust newspapers for information; we just obtain the information in a different format than our predecessors.

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