Author: cgeorge96

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/26/two-colleges-what-happens-when-protesters-obstruct-free-speech

This article discusses how the administration of DePaul University tried to stop a student’s speech while he was voicing his grievances against the school. This speech sparked a protest which resulted in the event being shut down. The student, Milo Yiannopolous, was giving a speech bashing topics such as feminism, and the transgender movement. This event sparked anger and discomfort among the crowd and the event got out of hand. Protestors stated that this student had engaged them in hateful speech before and made students feel unwelcome. The article also captures the story of six Jewish students who attend the university. They were in a room and were watching a movie called Beneath the Helmet which told the story of five Israeli soldiers and their sacrifices in the line of duty. People were protesting the students watching the movie. The aggression was quite evident because the students were apparently screaming and belligerent and resulted in one of the students, Lisa Armony, calling the police. When the police arrived, and attempted to ease the altercation, the students finished the movie. This protest should never have happened. A simple movie should not be the cause of such disagreement between students. Both of these students believe in free speech but they have two different ideologies.

I believe hate speech and racism needs to be ended. There is really no reason for me to hate any other person simply because of the color of their skin. They are people just like us and people should not be categorized as different just because they are from a different country or believe in a different religion. Freedom of speech should be limited when it threatens the safety of the students, not when the students want to promote equality. Students who are hateful towards other races tend to be more hostile and as a result, letting them do what they want against other students just allows them to be bullies. In a college or university, people from all over the world are attending in order to gain an education. People should not be discriminated against especially in the cultural melting pot that is higher education.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/spellings-says-unc-system-wont-try-to-enforce-controversial-bathroom-law/111714

This is a very interesting article about a professor who enrolls as an undercover student at the school he taught at. Mike Cross, who taught chemistry at Northern Essex Community College for six years enrolled as a student to see how students handle all their work. He already had a PhD in chemistry, but he wanted to get his associate degree in liberal arts. He wanted to experience the full college experience himself, all up to getting his own degree.

After this experience, the professor says that he was able to empathize with students a lot more. He understood what goes through their mind when they’re doing work and trying to graduate. He mentions that he was able to understand what goes through students’ minds when they are late for class, or even want to skip class. It was also awkward when he ran into his own previous students in his classes. He was able to fix his teaching with this learning experience. He learned that certain classes have uncomfortable chairs/desks, and when he was being a teacher, he would use this empathy when seeing kids squirm in their uncomfortable chairs. He also made sure to write an appropriate size so that kids in the back of the class could read, which was something he didn’t really care about before. The students, when they learned what he did, really appreciated the work he put in to empathize with students.

I feel that this is something all teachers should do. There are many teachers who don’t empathize with how students feel because they don’t know, and they act accordingly. If teachers knew what students go through, they may be able to fix their teaching.  They would be able to empathize with the issues that students go through, and this would allow them to fix any issues that students may have with them. This article was extremely interesting to read, and I was especially able to appreciate what this professor did. I think all of you guys should read this and appreciate what he did as well.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/spellings-says-unc-system-wont-try-to-enforce-controversial-bathroom-law/111714

This article states how University of North Carolina is going against a state government law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms according to their birth gender. This is quite a controversial decision on their part and it serves as a progressive example of how society as a whole is changing. LGBTQ people are slowly becoming more and more accepted into society even while there are forces standing against them. The University of North Carolina had previously agreed to enforce these laws however; but, their student body was completely against it. People have been rioting against the law and it has become serious enough to warrant a few arrests. However, in the city’s defense, the article states that this law is constituted to protect transgender people from discrimination in bathrooms.

In my opinion, they should not enforce the law because this is a private matter that a government should not interfere in. Transgender people do not want to be treated any different than how the everyone else is. If transgender people want to go in the bathrooms they associate with in terms of gender, they should be allowed to. If someone told me I had to use a girl’s bathroom for the rest of my life, I would definitely feel different. Transgender people are forced to do that every single day against their will which should be unacceptable. However, I also understand the perspective that the government is playing because they are saying that is is about safety rather than discrimination. This could potentially decrease the amount of hate crimes concerning transgender people in the area. However, there is a possibility that the people there are generally conservative and not accept people who are different. In the end, there are bigger issues to focus on, people should simply be accepted for who they are so that society can simply get along better. If people united, it would increase general happiness for the people who live there. In higher education, this would lead to better views among future generations who are going to run the world eventually. This would also lead to a better college experience. When students in college are able to empathize and understand situations like these, and then form an opinion with justice, it helps make society a better environment to live in.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/27/arkansas-single-parents-scholarship-helps-pay-living-expenses

This article is about a fund in Arkansas that helps single mothers who need support for going to school. Amanda Codon is a 27 year old mother with 3 kids. She is going back to school after she dropped out when she was 20, because she had 2 kids at the time. She also needs to work full-time in order to support her kids and go to school, and she barely has any time in the day to have free time, and she works really hard to support herself her kids, herself, and her tuition. She gets some financial aid but it doesn’t help.

However, she applies to the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, and this fund is able to not only support her tuition, but it also supports the daily living of herself and her kids. This fund really helped out a lot, as Amanda didn’t need to work full-time to support herself. She is able to use this time in order to take care of her kids and also go to school, and study more. Hilary Clinton really supports this fund, and she’s planning to spread this charity out on a National Level. Arkansas is one of the only states that provides something like this, so spreading it out nationally would help single college mothers all over the country. Hilary’s campaign would be called SPARK (Student Parents in America Raising Kids). The money used to pay for it would come from her New College Compact.

I think this program is extremely helpful to single mothers, as they really need this type of support. This article gave me the ability to empathize with Amanda, and I fully understand why she needs this type of support. I support Hilary’s decision to spread this out to the world. Amanda needs her degree so that she can get a better job, and have a much easier time supporting herself and her kids. I hope that this change also leads to other types of change that need to take place, including teenage college students, and even senior citizen college students.

 

The College Scorecard is a college-finding system created by the White House which allows students to find colleges that are best suited towards their interests. However, differently from other college-finding systems, the College Scorecard uses three main metrics in order to define the colleges: graduation rate, average annual cost, and salary after attending. This system puts a huge emphasis on annual cost for need-based students, showing the low prices need-based students can pay for even the most expensive and upper-tiered schools. Clearly, one can assume that need-based students are the main target audience for the College Scorecard. They can use this system in order to find schools that will give them the best bang for their buck, and can even show them almost unknown schools that can give them exactly what they’re looking for.  However, many studies show that this useful tool isn’t reaching the students that it is intended for. Advantaged students are using this tool for schools that they feel will best fit their needs and wants, and showing them schools that are very low-profile is a great advantage. However, the disadvantaged students that the tool is targeted towards aren’t really using it.

I feel that the College Scoreboard is a great tool for students to find colleges that will best fit them, even showing them schools that they probably have never heard of before. The financial aid tools given are also a great advantage. However, I don’t think it is fair to claim that the College Scoreboard is mainly targeted towards need-based students. It should be targeted for all students. However, if you want to reach out to more need-based students, a better marketing strategy is needed.

http://chronicle.com/article/Video-Finding-Advantages-in/236340

In this interview, Darron Collins, who is the president of a 350-student university called “College of the Atlantic” discusses the steps that he takes in order to ensure that his college succeeds, as well has how being a smaller school has its benefits. He talks about how being a small school gives a much bigger sense of community between the students. It allows the students to build a better relationship with the faculty, and its easier for the faculty to maintain these relationships. The students are also able to have a bigger impact on the school by voicing their opinions and actually being a part of how the school is run. Even though they aren’t able to raise a lot of money through tuition, they receive a lot of support through scholarships and other organizations. The students here are primarily need-based and receive many scholarships for attending this school. Students here come from the US as well as 40 other countries around the world, showing how difficult it is to get into this school with only 350 students.

This school has definitely succeeded in terms of allowing top-tier students who can’t afford a normal private university to have a close-knit college experience, while receiving a lot of scholarship as a student. With only 350 kids, the students get a good college experience, being close knit with their peers as well as the college faculty. The school is better able to cater to the student population, even cater to their personal needs. This can allow students to have a better learning experience as well, as they are able to have a personal connection with their professors.

I feel that this a university is a great example of a comfortable college experience. With a low student population, low prices, a more selective acceptance process, as well as a great student-faculty ratio, students are able to fully access the school’s resources and push their education to its maximum potential.