Bright Hall

What Is There to Learn About Women?

Parisa Saranj — 2009-02-22T22:15:00+00:00

There is often an air of skepticism about when feminism is put on the table. Some - who clearly will not accept any challenge of their beliefs - shrug it off and try to change the topic. Others bring up the old argument of feminists-are-scary-man-haters-who-burned-bras and challenge any ideas put forth.

As a student of Women's Studies, I am often asked "what is there to know about women?"

For me, Women's Studies is about seeing the world through the eyes of a woman. To see what life is like for different women of color, race, class, religion, or sexual status is one of the primary concerns of this discipline.

Today, there are 652 Women's and Gender Studies programs at community colleges, colleges, and universities in the U.S. According to National Women's Studies Association, in 2005-06, nearly 89,000 students enrolled undergraduate women's studies courses.

This very young course of study was established only in 1972 and since has tried to study the historical, social, and even psychological aspects of gender and its influence in human lives. However, during this short time Women's Studies discipline has suffered harsh criticism and negative attitudes.

The stigma against Women's Studies has even reached a point where students like myself fear that employers and other figures who stand to judge our transcripts will take unfortunate stereotypic leaps. Some think that studying women and gender is for lesbians or insecure girls who want to get together and bash men. Some assume that a major in Women's Studies can only lead a person to work for battered-women's shelters.

In a book called Women's Studies Graduates: The First Generation (Teachers College Press, 1995) by Barbara F. Luebke and Mary Ellen Reilly, the authors discover how Women's Studies graduates learned unique skills such as "empowerment, critical thinking, and building community."

This brings me to the most important observation I have made from being a Women's Studies minor. In the world that we live in, race, class, and gender are interlocking phenomenon that constantly shapes our understanding of the self and the society.

So, any study of women or gender goes beyond learning the differences or similarities between men and women. They are about recognizing the relationship of those phenomenons and any type of oppression on individuals. Those who have studied these concepts are now entering the areas of art, education, health, and even politics - with an exceptional consciousness.

I recommend that any student to take at least one Women's Studies course to explore where our society stands regarding race, color, class or gender.

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Obama Warns of Long Road Ahead, While Students Get Desperate

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-02-02T08:34:00+00:00

Filed under: Featured Stories, On Campus, National News, The Economy

The mantra of change during the 2008 election was so strong, and so frequent, that I think I forgot simply putting Barack Obama behind the desk of the Oval Office would not automatically turn the economy around.

Change [will] come. Maybe.

Obama gave a weekly address Saturday that was more mope than hope.

"Americans know that our economic recovery will take years -- not months," he said, according to a White House transcript of the speech.

He said the economy is probably going to get worse before it gets better. But it's pretty bad already, he admitted.

"Yesterday, we learned that our economy shrank by nearly 4 percent from October through December. That decline was the largest in over a quarter century, and it underscores the seriousness of the economic crisis that my administration found when we took office.

"Already the slowdown has cost us tens of thousands of jobs in January alone," he said.

It's the economy's affect on jobs that has college students worried, especially seniors, as May approaches.

Last week I went to a career fair at Notre Dame. There were more than 130 companies represented (many of which weren't even hiring at present), but far, far more students searching for jobs or internships. At one point, my friend turned to me and told me she could smell the desperation in the room. Another friend asked me if I thought it was just an urban legend that people get jobs from job fairs.

Will job fairs themselves soon become urban legends? Or worse, will we end up like the poor saps in CareerBuilder.com's hilarious Super Bowl ad?

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Higher Tuition Means Students Pay More for Less, Report Says

Sam Guzik — 2009-01-18T12:08:00+00:00

Filed under: On Campus, Washington University, The Economy

For students and parents already groaning under the weight of paying for higher education, the news that tuition at colleges and universities across the country will almost inevitably be higher has been sending shock waves through public and private institutions alike.

Even before the final budgets for most state institutions are set by the legislature, a painful trend has been emerging: according to The Associated Press, California's proposed budget would raise state university fees by about 10 percent; Florida's governor is looking to increase each individual school's power to raise tuition; and the State University of New York has already announced an unusual midyear 14-percent increase.

The panic over higher than expected tuition increases compounded with the release of a report this week saying that most college students are paying more for their education, even as their schools spend less on teaching them.

"The public's got it exactly right," Jane Wellman, head of the Delta Project, told Inside HigherEd. "They are jacking up tuition, and they're not re-investing it in quality."

The Delta Project's trends held true mostly for public universities, but also found that private university educations--and the higher spending on instruction that goes along with it--is clustered in the hands of a much smaller number of students.

Though many private universities have not yet announced their tuition figures for next year, those schools that have announced show no indication of letting up on the trend of raising tuition. On Thursday, Washington University in St. Louis announced a 4.4 percent increase and last week saw the announcement of a 6 percent increase at Southern Methodist University.

The Delta Project report contains several telling pieces of information about how colleges and universities allocate the budgets afforded to them. Increases in spending were driven mostly by higher administration, maintenance, and student services costs and were financed largely by student contributions through tuition.

"The data tell us that the spending patterns are not changing, we're just shifting revenue sources," Wellman said. "So what this tells us is we're not dealing with our cost structures, we're just shifting revenues."

Based on the report's calculations, public universities spent almost $4,000 per student per year on administration, support, and maintenance in 2006, up more than 13 percent, in real terms over 1995. And they spent another $1,200 a year on services such as counseling, which was up 23 percent. Meanwhile, they spent about $8,700 a year on classroom instruction for each student, up about 9 percent.

Bright Hall explores the far-reaching effects of the financial crisis on the youth and campuses of America. Click here for the full series.

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Friend of Dr. King Speaks Out on Obama

Kaitlynn Riely — 2009-01-18T10:07:00+00:00

Filed under: US Elections, Politics, On Campus, Notre Dame

Artist Shepard Fairey's iconic portrait of President-elect Obama was unveiled Saturday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

The election of Barack Obama, and that picture of hope, would not have been possible but for the work of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and man other brave men and women, including one man who means a lot to the University of Notre Dame.

In the same National Portrait Gallery, there hangs a picture of King standing, his arms crossied and joined with Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, a man who was president of Notre Dame for 35 years. The portrait depicts King & Hesburgh with their mouths open, joined in singing "We Shall Overcome" at a prayer service in Chicago.

That was 45 years ago. Father Hesburgh is no longer president of Notre Dame, and we all know the tragic fate of Dr. King. But the cause they worked for, equality for all people regardless of the color of their skin, has made great strides. In a few days I will travel from South Bend, Indiana to Washington DC to witness the culmination of their work.

A few days ago, I had the chance to see Hesburgh talk about his relationship with Dr. King. When King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, Hesburgh said, most Americans thought it was only an empty dream.

We all know there is still progress to be made with race relations in America, but in a few days, a black man will again stand before a mass of people and speak with intent to inspire and challenge a nation. This time, he will not be the face of an oppressed people, but the leader of the free world and the face of our nation.

Hesburgh, 91, served as chairman of the Civil RIghts Commission from 1969 to 1972, and is one of the few people aliive who can get away with calling King "Martin."

"I often wish that Martin had lived, not just so he could continue his work, but to see that his message had finally gotten through," Hesburgh said a few days ago.

The day Obama is sworn in as the nation's 44th president will be a proud day for all Americans, he said.

"I thought it would take 20 more years to get to this point. But now we're here."

On January 20, while our newly inaugurated president will give a speech about his hopes and plans for the United States, back at Notre Dame, there will be an old man who will think back to that day many years ago when the dream seemed near impossible.

Not far from where the crowds will have gathered, two portraits hang. One is not possible without the other.

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Don't Even Bother Applying to This College

Matt Negrin — 2009-01-16T05:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Featured Stories, On Campus, Boston University

Rejection letters from universities usually contain phrases similar to, "Although you were one of many qualified applicants, we had such a competitive pool this year that we simply are unable to offer you a spot at our school." Well, turns out the reasoning behind those decisions may be a bit murky, if not entirely illegal and disgusting.

The Daily Beast has revealed, in an extensive expose of anonymous college admissions officers, how some decisions are really made. They include, but I can promise are not limited to:

- If the admissions officer's preferred sports team loses a game and reads your application the next morning.

"If my favorite sports team was in a slump, it affected who made the cut. If the [Pittsburgh] Steelers lost a game and I read your file the next morning, chances were you weren't getting in. Where I could have been nice, I just didn't go out of my way - I was a lot less charitable." -- A 25-year-old former admissions officer at a liberal-arts school in the Northeast

- If you live in an area that serves a bad lunch to a college admissions officer.

"One night, I got food poisoning at a restaurant in Buffalo. The next day, I rejected all the Buffalo applications. I couldn't stomach reading them." -- A current admissions officer at a state school in the Northeast

- If your parents didn't make a large donation to the school.

"Our school did away with on-campus interviews a few years ago, but if you were the child of a donor or an alum, you could get an unofficial interview. A face-to-face sit-down with the admissions office most people don't get." -- A former admissions officer at an elite college in Massachusetts

In addition to the obvious concerns about how ridiculously presumptuous college admissions are, this series of embarrassing revelations draws out the question: Who the hell are these backward admissions officers?

The answer is probably the people at your school. Do you remember first applying to college, and what an arduous, stressful process it was? There are kids I know who broke down during their senior year of high school because it was getting to be too much. Dozens of cheeky personal essays and flattering statements about the school du jour, scores of application papers and absurd questions that start with, "If you could be any aquatic creature in Oceania ..."

And now, after all that, you find out that your application was simply dismissed because it was "a little more boring" than another one. Or that you don't seem "likable" enough. Said one current applicant chooser at an Ivy League school, "Let's face it. Some people are just more affable or more likable than others. An admissions officer is really asking himself, 'Would I like to hang out with this guy or gal for the next four years?' So if you come off as just another Asian math genius with no personality, then it's going to be tough for you. An admissions officer is not going to push very hard for you."

I know who I'd like to push.

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In Their Own Words: Reactions From Spin Alley

Sam Guzik — 2008-10-03T03:56:00+00:00

Filed under: US Elections, Politics, On Campus, Washington University

After Thursday night's vice presidential debate journalists from around the world scrambled around the Athletic Complex at Washington University to get each campaign's interpretation of the debate. I was on the scene to get reactions to the debate in their own words.

David Plouffe, Obama-Biden campaign manager
"This is an election about change. John McCain abandoned his message about experience a couple of weeks ago. Although he's been so erratic, maybe he'll go back to it. Now it's about change and we are highly confident that the questions between who do you trust to bring about change is it McCain and Palin who want to continue all the Bush economic policies or is it Obama and Biden who want in every fundamental way to change the priorities in Washington to put the middle class first."

"John McCain has no separation from George Bush on the economy because there is none. It's an important thing for us to say: if you like the Bush policies, both economy, Iraq and Afghanistan, then McCain is your choice because that's largely what he's offering."

Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
"I thought she was very aggressive and again forward looking on education, public school education. And, she said that while she supported No Child Left Behind it needed more funding-very interesting-and needed more flexibility for educators at the local level."

"Here you got someone who was a governor, who never operated on the national level until six weeks ago standing toe-to-toe with a very capable man, Joe Biden, who's been a Senator for 35 years. And she was every bit and informed and confident-this was a very good debate. I'm not here to criticize Joe, I'm hear to say that the stunning success of tonight was Sara Palin-she far exceeded any reasonable threshold of credibility. She's ready to lead, she's ready to be John McCain's partner."

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
"The issue is not who relates well, the issue is who has more experience and more knowledge and it was clear tonight that Senator Biden has it."

"I think that Senator Biden showed that he has the experience, the competence, the facts to assume the presidency. I believe Governor Palin, she was effective, she was OK, she was positive, but she lacks experience in foreign policy and national security-she couldn't go beyond her talking points."

Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii
"I think Sara did a great job tonight. She showed the difference between a successful governor and a lifetime Washington politician. She was solution oriented, she talked about the future, she talked about things she has done to make life better in her state, while Senator Biden tried to find other people to blame for the inaction of the United States Senate on so many issue through the years."

"She actually has much more experience than either Obama or Biden. She's had to balance a budget, she's had to push an agenda through the legislature, she has to make decisions every day-she can't hide behind her caucus or her committee chairman the way you can when you're in the Senate. I think anyone who has been a governor is a proven leader."

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Campus Watch: WU Debate Day Happenings

Sam Guzik — 2008-10-02T15:32:00+00:00

Filed under: US Elections, Politics, Environment, Small Campus, Big Story, On Campus, Washington University, News

As the nation's eye turns to Washington University, students, campaign supporters and the media are rubbing shoulders and sending sparks flying. Among the highlights from the day, in coordination with Student Life:

Outside a live MSNBC broadcast at Washington University middle-aged volunteers from the McCain campaign edged out students showing support for Obama. Members of the group said they were volunteers from Illinois, but would not give details about how they gained access to campus. Earlier in the week, the McCain campaign had solicited local fraternities with offers of cash for support.
A man wearing a green shirt and green pants quoted Mark Twain, giving a speech from a tree branch near the MSNBC booth against imperialism and war-mongering. The student did not come from an organization, nor did he seek to advance any specific cause, or provoke a reaction.
Major national and international media outlets have claimed that their reporters, who were assured credentials weeks ago, are not being let into the media filing room. The Commission on Presidential Debates has said that those reporters who have shown up today may not get credentialed.

For photos from the day, check below the fold.
Chao Yang, a graduate student in chemistry, made a button for herself at the CNN first time voter table.

Alex Fine, a sophomore at Washington University, carries a nine-foot windmill to advocate for sustainable energy. She represents the Washington University chapter of power vote, a national organization looking to encourage voters to consider the environment.

Check back throughout the day for more updates and profiles of protesters.

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Debating the Debate at Penn

Emily Lasky — 2008-09-27T19:01:00+00:00

Filed under: US Elections, Featured Stories, On Campus, University of Pennsylvania

It's unlikely that the first debate changed the mind of anyone at the University of Pennsylvania. People seem very set on who they will vote for, but that in no way stops the Penn Dems or the College Republicans from trying to sway students to the other side. And regardless of political affinity, both groups are determined to get everyone on campus registered to vote. Speaking of, if anyone reading this is trying to 'get out the vote' or 'lead the vote' or 'rock the vote' on Penn's campus, please know that I am registered to vote in Philadelphia. If you ask me if I need to change my address one more time, I will make sure to somehow switch my residence to a state that is no way swinging.

The Penn Dems held a debate viewing party Friday night in Jon M. Huntsman Hall and invited students from a West Philly high school to watch the debate along with the university students. Everyone gathered in a lecture hall to enjoy the all-American refreshments of chips and soda and watch the debate on two giant screens. Despite the fact that the crowd was obviously full of Obama supporters (some wore "Barack the Vote" shirts), the crowd of about 200 was mostly quiet throughout. There were chuckles during a few of McCain's comments (and anytime Jim Lehrer wrested control away from the senator), some "oohs" when the Republican tried to throw down against Obama early on, and a little bit of clapping after someone suggested they should be clapping for Obama. But all of this was invariably shushed in favor of listening quietly to the candidates.

Elsewhere in Huntsman Hall, kids in study rooms had set up the CNN.com live feed on their computers and were watching while they worked. Many others were in their dorms or apartments, preferring to watch the debate alone or with their roommates. It seems that after an especially tumultuous couple of days, students just wanted to hear what Obama and McCain had to say.

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Colleges Reconsider Drinking Age

Sam Guzik — 2008-08-19T04:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Politics, On Campus, Washington University

Nearly 100 college presidents from institutions of higher education around the country have joined together, looking to lobby congress to lower the drinking age from 21- to 18-years-old.

The presidents represent many of the nation's most well-known universities including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State. The movement is known as the Amethyst Initiative and had been working to gain support for nearly a year.

"This is a law that is routinely evaded," John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization, told the Associated Press. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."
According to the initiative's web site, the organization calls upon lawmakers to "support an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21 year-old drinking age" and to "invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol."

The presidents say that they are looking to curtail the culture of binge drinking that has grown on college campuses and to encourage students to make healthier choices about alcohol.

According to the Associated Press, "research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents."

The group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry.

Critics of this initiative include Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes and accuses the college presidents of trying to find a convenient solution to the problem of enforcing drinking laws on campus.

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