Author: alexmendez

Internships and College Credit

I found this article touched on some really interesting topics concerning internships. The article pretty much highlights the debate around paying for internships during the summer if students want course credit. Some people argue against the idea that students should be paying more money to the school, only during the summer (which by the way, is when most people want to intern), if they want to intern and get college credit; this is due to the fact that it is not only out of their own will they choose to intern, but it’s a requirement for their degree. So what’s the issue? Its like taking a class and paying for it, right? Some may argue, its not so simple. There are other factors such as the expenses that go along with interning. Some factors that the article brought up were traveling, weather that be buying a car and paying for gas, or constantly paying for metro cards during the summer. But this can of course extend to other realms such as supplies one may need in order to fulfill certain tasks within their internship. Also, people gotta eat, am I right? Nonetheless, in addition to paying the school for the intern credit, they must dish out money for the expense that go a long with it, some expenses that students simply cannot offered. Furthermore, those against this notion will raise the question of whether an internship is really a “class” or a “job.” Non-paid internships for school as a “class” seems just like work with no pay and some experience for college credit. The distinction between a class and a job really highlights the issue of whether or not internships are a part of Higher Eds. Turf.

On the other hand, according to the article, some people in favor of this pay to Intern College credit dilemma simply say that if you are getting credit from the college, you pay them for the credits as you would any other classes, end of story. Of course they would be ignoring some of the factors we discussed above, but regardless the premise stands and is a simple but very powerful one. It just seems like they should be getting paid, or not have to pay the colleges, because we think of class not really as work, but perhaps it is, just a different kind of work. And when someone “works” they get paid; you don’t get paid to go to school. Its not the kind of work that the word “job” has connotations too, but nonetheless, its work, just a different type.

I really enjoyed this article due to the content and the debate that it discussed. It seems that this would have a real impact on the lower and lower-middle class students looking to make connections. But I really like the approach the author used to introduce the topic by using a personal account of a student. I find this technique to be very powerful and persuasive. Either way, enjoys the article, and I’d love to hear what you guys think! I tend to lean towards against having to pay for these internships.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/17/when-students-pay-tuition-work-unpaid-internships

Free Speech

Our discussion last class was one that was particularly interesting to me. This is because of how prevalent it is in our own Brooklyn College among peers and faculty. With talk of Political correctness and micro-aggressions, it’s only appropriate that we talk of Free Speech. In the Article “The Hell you Say” by Kelefa Sanneh discusses contemporary issues involving political correctness and free speech on college campuses.   The article looks at free speech through a political lens by discussing its history and court rulings such as the one in 1919 of “Clear and Present danger” or the one in 1969 of being likely to incite “imminent lawless action.” Freedom of speech as manifested itself in various ways across college campuses in many different ways, and I’d like to point to some specific examples in the article of how it’s done so.

The first example I’d like to look at was the Dj at the bar example. For those who didn’t read the article (Which you most certainly should, its very good!) a Dj at a local Irish pub near the University of North Carolina played the song “Blurred lines.” Becoming a major hit and very popular the Dj saw nothing wrong with playing it until a student asked the Dj to cut the song short because some of the lyrics “evoked threats of sexual violence.” The student wanted to create a safe space in the bar, but the Dj didn’t oblige and was later denied playing there again after much complaining on social media and refusal to cut the song. I guess my question would be is this an example of “Creating Safe Spaces” for students gone to far? Of course creating safe spaces wouldn’t be a bad thing for the local bar, but then again, its not located on the campus itself. Do you think students have any reasonable argument for what types of songs to be played or what atmosphere should be created in a place not associated with the college itself? The only reason why I saw the issue was brought up was because it was a hot spot for the students, but I can’t see how this makes for a reasonable argument. More importantly, I want to point out that this situation helps show an even bigger issue concerning free speech as a whole, and that is, not only should we be asking what can we say? Or how we can say it? But where can someone say something? It seems that the censoring of speech or expression is reaching further than just the college campus. Do you think this is an issue?

I do think the article highlights an interesting idea in that “For many modern free-speech advocates, the First Amendment is irrelevant: their main target is not repressive laws but shifting norms and values.” I do think this is pretty accurate in that it doesn’t seem like there are people who are trying to oppress our first amendment right, but instead look to it in a way that understands the social-psychological affects pure freedom of speech has. Or the kind of moral obligations people may or may not have when concerned with their speech. Although, the counter argument brought up of the constant self-censorship and policing of others also should be taken very seriously. It should be taken very seriously because of issues like the “… stifling of intellectual diversity.” I don’t feel that some political correctness and censorship on college campuses would result in somehow less intellectual dialogue. It’s interesting, the censorship would actually allow for a more interesting conversation; it forces students to say what they want in different ways. Pure free speech to me would be like a sport with one goal, and no rules. Its not much fun, and would get pretty chaotic.

All in all, the article does a fantastic job at explaining the root of political correctness, free speech. I do think that understanding the history of it as well as its association with different political groups ad activism will help us understand where we are today and why we say the things we do. Hope you enjoyed the article! newyorker.com/…015/08/10/the-hell-you-say

Chapter 6: The Online Revolution

  1. What are some of the ways new systems could be created that would allow for “certificates,” from online courses, to count as “credits” towards college?  Or towards earning any sort of crendtial?
  2. Online classes revolve around the idea of more avalability for people looking to get a higher education.  But it seems that it would be more avaliable for those who own a computer and those who are able to get internet acess for these courses.  There are resources such as public libraries where students can get both a computer and intenet acess needed for the class; but it would seem that this turns the idea of avalability on its head and reduce the problem of “not being able to get to campus” to, “not being able to get to a computer with wifi.”  With this in mind, do online courses favor those who have the resources to acquire laptops, home computers, wifi data, etc.?
  3. The on-going debate between whether in class lecture, or online courses are more useful, is more prevalent than ever.  But would not the simple answer be to offer both options?  Although one may be objectivley better, the prefrance of one way of learning over another is soley up to the individual.
  4. How does the offering of online courses both promote as well as hinder the agenda of higher educational institutions when interpreting these institutions to be businesses?  I see the implmentation of online courses, as a whole, to many educationl facillities, at once, more as a draw back for the business aspect of the insitution.
  5. “The Open Learning Initiative” at Carnagie Mellon is a perfect example of how online courses mkae it much easier to pin-point the problmes classes face when trying to learn ceratain material in a specific course.  How can this example be used literally and as a metaphor to sum up some of the more major issues with higher education as we know it?