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Posts Tagged ‘College’

Mr. Obama Comes To Town

Posted in College, Columbus, Ohio, Politics, tagged , , , , , on May 5, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Today President Obama is in town to deliver the commencement address at the Ohio State University graduation ceremony.  He will be the third sitting President to address OSU graduates.

It’s like old times — or, at least, it’s like the run-up to the 2012 election, when the President and Mitt Romney and Joe Biden and Paul Ryan and their minions seemingly were somewhere in Ohio every day.  Since then, Ohio has dropped off the political map a bit, and that is fine by me.  It’s been nice to return to our daily lives and get to the point where a visit by the President is once again a big deal, rather than a tiresome cause of another pre-election traffic snarl.

I’m envious of the graduating students, and their parents, who get to hear the President today.  I don’t remember anything about the speech given when I got my diploma from The Ohio State University in March 1980, although I have a vague recollection that the commencement address was an delivered by a female educator from a Midwestern university.  Her remarks left no impression on me, one way or the other.  I’m guessing  that hearing President Obama is something that today’s graduates won’t soon forget.

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College Movies

Posted in College, Movies, tagged , , , , , on March 5, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Think back to your days at your old Alma Mater.

Perhaps you went to the University Flick, on High Street.  Or you went to the repertory theater in your college town.  Or you went to see the odd, often old, movies shown by your school’s film and cinema department.  Or, because you are just a perverse individual, you were fascinated by David Lynch’s epic Eraserhead.

Either way, when you were in college you got to see an eclectic mix of movies that you aren’t likely to see at your standard suburban multiplex.   It was a great time to watch movies, and talk about movies, and learn about movies.

Think about your college movie experience, and you’ll be more likely to appreciate Richard’s movie reviews for Vox — like his latest, of The Act of Killing.  It sounds like a great movie — but then, Richard has a talent for making just about every movie worth seeing.  If you have not subscribed to his Twitter feed, you’re missing out.  His thoughts are well worth hearing.

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A Welcome To Buckeye Nation, And A Pledge

Posted in College, Family, sports, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Today is National Letter of Intent Signing Day!  I use initial caps, because for college football fans, it’s a Big Day.  The recruiting wars are finally ended, and the fans of each school count up the number of two-star, three-star, four-star, and five-star athletes who will be joining their teams.  By all accounts, Ohio State, its head coach Urban Meyer, and his hard-working assistants did pretty well this year.  Ezekiel Elliott, whose announcement that he will become a Buckeye is shown here, is one of the more heralded members of the Ohio State class.

When I think of National Letter of Intent Day, however, I think of kids, and their parents.  A high school student who is a stud athlete is still a high school student.  They may run faster, and bench press more, and catch footballs better than your ordinary kids, but deep down they are the same mass of raging hormones that you find in every kid of that age.  They are making a huge decision that could have tremendous, long-term consequences for their lives — and they and their parents are hoping that they make the right decision.  It’s a huge, emotional matter for any high school student about to go away from home to college.  Just imagine what it must be like for a kid who not only is leaving the cocoon of their family, but moving into new territory where their every move will be scrutinized and deconstructed by rabid college football fans.

So, on this National Letter of Intent Signing Day, I want to welcome all of the young men who have committed to come to The Ohio State University — but I especially want to welcome their parents to the family that is Buckeye Nation.

I also want to make this pledge to those parents:  no matter how high the athletic stakes, how big the game, or how colossal the blunder, I will always strive to remember that we are talking about young people here.  I will try to bear in mind that everyone makes mistakes, that we all have committed youthful indiscretions that we regret, and that people can mature and grow and shouldn’t be forever defined by a single, ill-advised decision.  I will always seek to give your kids the benefit of the doubt, just as I would hope that other parents would do with my kids. I suspect I’m not alone in this, so please remember that, for every fan who goes over the top there are dozens, if not hundreds, who support your youngster and wish only the best for him.

Welcome to Buckeye Nation!

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Harvard’s Muddled Cheating Scandal

Posted in America, College, tagged , , , , , , on February 4, 2013 | 1 Comment »

On Friday, Harvard University announced that it had imposed academic sanctions on dozens of students involved in a cheating scandal.  The back story tells you a lot about the state of modern education — even at an exalted academic institution like Harvard.

The incident involved an undergraduate course called “Introduction to Congress” that was seen as a gut course — that is, an easy A.  The scandal came to light when a teaching assistant for the course noticed that students may have shared answers to the “take home” final exam.  After an investigation that took months, Harvard’s academic integrity board announced that a number of students were required to withdraw from the school for several terms, others were put on probation, and others received no disciplinary action at all.  The President of Harvard’s Undergraduate Council says that the withdrawing students shouldn’t feel “alienated” from Harvard and should be embraced when they return.

A letter from a Harvard alum about the scandal raises some interesting questions.  According to his letter, the professor teaching the course had previously encouraged “open collaboration” on his exams.  He then changed the rules to say that the students couldn’t collaborate with professors, teaching fellows, “and others,”  the letter alleges, but some teaching fellows for the course nevertheless went over the exam in open sessions with students.  The vaguely defined rules, the letter suggests, led students to engage in lots of collaboration — although even the letter writer concedes that some students “went too far, literally cutting and pasting their answers.”

What does this incident say about Harvard?  For one, it tells you something about its academic rigor.  A class called “Introduction to Congress” that encourages “open collaboration” and features a “take home” final exam that TAs discuss with students beforehand sounds more like a community college course than an Ivy League offering.  It also tells you something about Harvard students.  Even with a basic subject area that is taught in every American high school and the luxury of a take-home final, some students were so dim-witted and unprincipled they thought they could get away with cutting and pasting answers of other students.  The students don’t exactly come out of this sounding like the cream of the crop, do they?  And finally, it tells you something about the hidebound nature of colleges, and the general atmosphere on campuses, that the investigation of a cheating scandal takes months and even students who blatantly cut and pasted answers are only required to withdraw for a few semesters, to be “embraced” on their return.

If Harvard, and other American colleges, don’t want to be seen as diploma mills, how about taking this approach:  have a meaningful honor code, offer challenging courses, require students to appear in the classroom for the exam and write their answers on paper, act promptly when potential cheating is detected, and punish those who violate the rules rather than telling them they will be welcomed back with a hug.

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Sadly, Seeking Sugar Daddy

Posted in America, College, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2013 | 1 Comment »

There’s always been a seamy side of life.  Does the internet just make the seamy side more visible, and thus more troubling to those of us who weren’t aware of it?

Take the website seekingarrangement.com, which bills itself as the elite “Sugar Daddy” “dating site” for “Sugar Daddies” who want to find “Sugar Babies,” and vice versa.  The site says that its “Sugar Daddies” want to “date the best” and adds, provocatively: “no matter what your desires may be, you are brutally honest about who you are, what you expect and what you offer.”  “Sugar Babies” are described as attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and goal-oriented; of them, the website says, “You know you deserve to date someone who will pamper you, empower you, and help you mentally, emotionally and financially.”  The website seems to allow people in each category to “browse” the other and, apparently, reach out to make arrangements for their relationship.

Sounds sleazy, and creepy, to me.  Are there really “Sugar Daddies” and “Sugar Babies” who are doing this?  The website says there are.  Recently, stories have appeared in Ohio and in Michigan about hundreds of female college students using the “Sugar Daddy” they found through the website to pay for their college tuition, room and board, and a little bit more — an average of approximately $3,000 a month.  What is the nature of the arrangements that have caused the “Sugar Daddy” to shell out that kind of moolah?  Perhaps they are just altruistic benefactors who enjoy the company of younger people, simply want to help highly motivated, risk-taking young women, and don’t expect anything in return . . . or perhaps they do.  In any event, the spokesman for the website is quoted as saying, “We do advise that members set their terms at the very beginning of the relationship.”

With all of the odd people out there, why would any self-respecting co-ed want to reach a dating arrangement with an unknown man in exchange for financial support?  It seems incredibly risky and sad and pathetic, for both parties.  Would you feel comfortable with your daughter using the website . . . or your father?

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Good Old-Fashioned Shoe Leather Reporting

Posted in College, Family, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 9, 2012 | 2 Comments »

Richard has been doing a wonderful job with his reporting for the Columbia Missourian.  I particularly liked a recent story about negotiations between the city of Columbia and the airlines about flights into Columbia’s airport.

It’s an excellent example of old-fashioned reporting — what my former advisor on the Ohio State Lantern, the hard-bitten, gravel-voiced Tom Wilson, would call “shoe leather” journalism.  The phrase refers to using every tool at your disposal and not being satisfied until you really get to “the story” — and if that means you go from source to source and wear out the soles of your shoes, you do it.   In Richard’s case, the Missourian used the public records laws to request emails concerning the negotiations.  The Missourian received 160 emails in response to their public records request and then prepared the story on the basis of those source documents.

Pretty cool!  I wish more journalists would use the public records laws, the open-meetings laws that require most governmental meetings to occur in public, and other laws that promote access to prepare their stories, rather than just settling for a few quotes and, often, leaving the real story untouched.

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Why Would Any College Student Want An Alcohol Enema?

Posted in College, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »

When I was in college we drank often, and sometimes to excess.  I remember drinking shots and slugging down awful-tasting concoctions mixed in garbage pails . . . and regretting it all profoundly when I woke up with my head on the toilet seat the the next morning.  All of that drinking, of course, occurred by slurping and swallowing the contents of cups, bottles, or cans raised to my lips.

Apparently we’ve crossed some new frontier in collegiate drinking excess, because some students are experimenting with alcohol enemas.  This practice involves placing a tube in the keister and pouring alcohol into the colon, where it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.  As a result, the enzymes in the stomach and liver that break down alcohol are bypassed, and the drinker (I’m not sure that’s the right word, given the circumstances) gets drunk quicker.  In fact, the recipient (I’m not sure that’s the right word, either) can get much drunker, much faster.  A recent incident at the University of Tennessee saw one student hospitalized with a blood alcohol level of .40, which is five times the legal limit and in the range where people can die of alcohol poisoning.

This might just be a weird incident at one school that shouldn’t be assumed to be a trend.  Even if alcohol enemas are just limited to the University of Tennessee, however, what would possibly motivate a kid to drop trou, stick a hose up his butt, and ask another person to do the pouring honors?  Is getting drunk as fast as possible really so important that you would do something so outlandish, disturbing, and dangerous?  I’ve got to believe that any student who has experimented with alcohol enemas has some very serious problems.

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Political Neutrality In The Classroom

Posted in America, College, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on September 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »

In a heated presidential election campaign, are college classrooms becoming improperly political?  Two recent news reports address the issue.

At The Ohio State University, a professor notified fellow professors that the Obama campaign was willing to send a volunteer to classrooms to encourage students to register, a pitch that would take about five minutes of class time.  The message also said the staffer could talk to students about volunteering with the Obama campaign, but if professors “weren’t comfortable” with that, the presentation would be limited to voter registration.  A report about the message appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the OSU administration reacted promptly.  The University Provost sent a message to faculty stating that “we must make absolutely certain that Ohio State does not engage in partisan political activities,” which includes “inviting political organizers into our classrooms.”  The message added that national elections are important and exciting, but the OSU faculty and administration needed to ensure that “Ohio State will be seen as a base for impartial discourse.”

More recently, a professor at a Florida college is reported to have handed out pledges to vote for President Obama to her students during a math class; when the reports came to light, the school commenced an investigation to determine if its policies had been violated and the professor went on a leave of absence.

Do these reports show that our colleges and universities are being vigilant in ensuring that classrooms aren’t used as political indoctrination sessions?  Or, as some conservatives claim, are such reports merely addressing the tip of the iceberg of partisan political discourse — discourse that conservatives suspect is overwhelmingly liberal in orientation?

Colleges always will be hotbeds of political discussion among students, but I think most colleges and universities are legitimately trying to avoid partisan hackery by faculty members.  I was encouraged by the Lantern article which quoted OSU students as saying that professors weren’t expressing their personal political views in the classroom or pressuring students to vote one way or another.

This is an election where there is heated feeling on both sides.  Under such circumstances, you’d expect a professor to cross the line now and then.  The important thing is for school administrations to keep an eye our for such policy violations, respond to any reports with appropriate investigations, and remind faculty and staff of the rules.  American institutions of higher education should strive to achieve a neutral setting where students feel free to discuss and debate all political viewpoints — which is a lot of what college should be about.

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Paint Job

Posted in America, College, Work, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2012 | 2 Comments »

Lately, as Kish has noted, we’ve been having some painting done at our house.  The experience has got me to thinking about work, and jobs.

Our painter has been doing a good job.  He shows up at the right time.  He is quiet, keeps to himself, and applies himself fully to the task at hand.  The quality of his work is high, and there have been no accidents or incidents, no drips or splots or runs.  In short, he has all of those intangible characteristics that separate a good worker from a bad one:  reliability, diligence, carefulness, and concern about quality. And, to cap it all off, he charges a fair price for his work.   We learned about this painter through word of mouth, and it’s no wonder that he came highly recommended.  It’s also not surprising that he is being kept busy.  It’s hard to find a capable, dependable, reasonably priced painter these days.

When you think about it, being a painter wouldn’t be a bad gig.  You work by yourself and set your own schedule.  You don’t have to supervise employees or pay rent for a storefront.  You might occasionally encounter an unreasonable or pesky customer, but for the most part people will appreciate your work and thank you for a job well done.  And your job can’t be outsourced; for so long as people live in houses, paint and painters will be needed.

So why don’t more people become painters, or carpenters, or electricians, or auto mechanics, or plumbers?  I’m not the only person who is asking that question.  Mike Rowe, who hosts the TV show Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, has written to both President Obama and Mitt Romney about the shortage of skilled labor and the dismissal of careers in such occupations.  President Obama did not respond to the letter, which Rowe sent four years ago.  Romney at least has read it; now we’ll see whether he says or does anything about it.

Not everyone needs to go to college — and, in the process, incur tens of thousands of dollars of debt that will limit their life choices thereafter.  As we look at our national policy on education, we should consider the need for people in the skilled trades, stop acting like those jobs are somehow unworthy, and stop trying to convince people that they inevitably will be failures if they don’t go to college.

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The Double-Edged Student Loans Sword

Posted in America, College, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on September 5, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Student loans have been a focus of many of the speeches at the Democratic National Convention.  The speakers obviously feel that talking about “making college more affordable” through more student loans is a winning issue — but is it?

To be sure, at one time going to college, and especially being the first person in your family to do so, was viewed as a sure way to get ahead and realize the American Dream.  Is that still the case?  As the scope of student loans has expanded — and as such loans have been used to finance educations in traditional colleges, and trade schools, and for-profit schools, and as all such schools seem to increase their tuition requirements on an annual basis — many have come to see student loans as less a gateway to opportunity, and more as a gateway to lifelong debt.

The statistics about the debt load related to student loans are striking.  Believe it or not, the Treasury Department is garnishing the Social Security payments of more than 115,000 senior citizens — to pay off their student loans.  More than 2 million people 60 and older have student loan debt; I know people who are hoping to pay off the loans they took out to attend college and law school at some point in their 50s.  As the article linked above indicates, younger Americans are carrying enormous amounts of student loan debt, debts that have affected the choices they are making about their careers and their lives, debts that have affected their parents who agreed to guarantee the repayment of those loans, and debts that may even make it impossible for the students to later get a mortgage for their purchase of a home.

How much has the easy availability of student loans encouraged universities, trade schools, and for-profit colleges to constantly increase their tuitions, rather than looking for ways to reduce costs?  How are students who borrowed heavily to go to college, or graduate school, or both, to manage in an economy that isn’t producing enough jobs that will allow them to comfortably repay those debts?  How many individuals who took on such loans now regret that decision?

Going to college and receiving a higher education is great, but you need income to repay debts — and that means getting a good-paying job.  If a struggling economy isn’t creating such jobs, student loans can quickly go from a blessing to an albatross.

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A Speech To College Freshmen

Posted in America, College, Growing Up, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

College classes are starting again, and everywhere excited college freshmen are heading off to their new schools, accompanied by worried parents.

Every college makes a big deal about graduation and brings in big-name speakers to talk about what the graduates should do with their degrees.  I think that approach is backward.  By the time you’ve got your degree, you’ve already made a bunch of choices that have put you on a certain path.  Kids could use some honest advice at the beginning of their college career, not the end.  Here is my advice to the incoming freshman class.

Greetings, you freshmen, and welcome!  Now that you’re settled in and have met your roommates, it’s time for you to consider an important question:  are you sure you want to be here?

In case you haven’t heard about it, getting an education at a college like this one is very expensive.  Chances are that you, or your parents, are borrowing the money to pay for your chance to study in these ivy-covered buildings all around us.   Those loans are going to be with you and your family for a long time, and the need to pay back what you have borrowed may affect a lot of the choices you will be making after you graduate.  If you are taking out student loans, you may well still be repaying them when you are in your 30s, or even 40s.  So, before you make that kind of long-term commitment, think for a minute:  Are you sure you want to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to get a college degree?

If your answer to that is “yes,” then you need to think about what you can do to achieve some kind of meaningful return on your investment in yourself.  Do you have a real interest that you want to pursue, or are you here because everyone knows that a college degree helps your job prospects?  If you are in the former category, follow your interest, but do it seriously.  Don’t dabble!  Take the courses that give you the best grounding in that area of interest, get to know your professors and advisors in that area, and look carefully at the training programs and internships that are available here.  If you are in the latter category, look to take the toughest schedule you can.  Don’t avoid the math and science courses because you think they’ll be too hard.  In our world of constant technological advances, people who have some grounding in math and science are better positioned than those who never ventured outside the humanities curriculum.

And speaking of long-term consequences, try to avoid them in your personal life, too.  That means having a little self-respect, and not heading down to the 24-hour soft-serve ice cream dispenser in your dorm cafeteria every night.  In case you haven’t noticed, we have an obesity problem in this country, and you don’t want to become part of it.  Your goal should be to avoid putting on the “freshman 10″ — or 15, or 20, or 25.  And if you’re given the chance to engage in underage drinking — and we all know that chance will come, don’t we? — think before you drink!  You don’t want to drink and drive, or lose control of your senses and end up with a splitting headache and hangover in a stranger’s bed, or develop a life-long drinking problem.  In short, show some self-respect!

I’ve got only one more bit of advice for you:  accept that your new roommates seem a bit weird — but also understand that you are, too.  Notwithstanding what your parents have been telling you for the last 18 years, you aren’t perfect or the pinnacle of human evolution.  You’ve got your faults and foibles and odd habits, and your roommates do, too.  Accept their idiosyncrasies, and they’ll accept yours.  As you move through life, you’ll come to realize that cheerfully accepting other people’s differences, and being able to interact civilly with them despite those differences, is one of the most important lessons you can learn.

Good luck to you all!  In today’s world, you’re going to need it.

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Mo’ Mizzou

Posted in College, Photography, tagged , , , on August 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The Missouri campus is a pretty place, in large part because — in the areas we’ve walked through, at least — they’ve avoided throwing up the ugly, uninspired, Bauhaus-style abominations of the ’60s and ’70s that mar so many college campuses.  In their place are classic college buildings that are designed to appeal to parents interested in scholarship and academic achievement.  For the students, however, the appeal may lie more in the bars, bistros, and coffee shops that surround the campus.

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Walking Granville

Posted in College, Ohio, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on May 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »

This afternoon Kish and I decided to drive over to Granville, Ohio — the home of Denison University and one of many scenic and interesting Ohio college towns.  Granville is about 20 miles due east of New Albany.

We walked around the college grounds and the picturesque main street, but the heat and lack of breeze — even on Denison’s hilltop campus — was too much for us.  So, we retreated to Brew’s Cafe for a bite to eat, then topped things off with some Almond Joy cones from Whit’s Frozen Custard.  It was a spectacularly delicious way to cool off.

The little trip also allowed me to take my first photo with the new camera — of the Swasey Chapel on the Denison campus.

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Why I Like Friday The 13th

Posted in College, Family, tagged , , , , , , on April 13, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Generally speaking, I’m not a superstitious person.  I don’t pay attention to black cats or walking under ladders or spilling salt.  (I make an exception, however, when it comes to sports teams — in which case I believe in jinxes, karma, cruel fates, and the undeniable reality that everything I do has a direct and profound impact whether my favorite teams succeed or fail.)

I don’t worry about bad luck on Friday the 13th, either.  Why?  Because on Friday the 13th of October, 1978, Kish and I had our first date.  We went to Dick’s Den — its evocative motto:  “Why Not?” — a campus bar and live music venue on High Street.  We drank beer, sat for part of the time with another couple that happened to be there, and listened to a band that didn’t require a cover charge.  Obviously, I was a big spender who knew how to show a girl a good time.

So, I have no fear of this dreaded day.  How could I be superstitious about Friday the 13th?  It certainly hasn’t meant bad luck for me.

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Bedbugs In The Big Ten

Posted in College, tagged , , , , , , , on February 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Some traditionalists objected to Nebraska joining the Big Ten.  Would the Cornhuskers have been invited if Big Ten officials knew that the University has an embarrassing bedbug problem?

Officials at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln admit that they’ve found bedbugs in student rooms and common areas in four dorms.  An article in the Lincoln Journal Star says the situation is “indicative of a growing wave of bedbugs in Lincoln.”  The college is using a bedbug-sniffing dog to try to locate the critters.

To make matters worse, some students believe the University tried to cover up the bedbug problem.  One intrepid student, after being bitten repeatedly on the neck by an apparently vampiric bedbug, captured one of the pests and took it to school officials — who promptly said it was dead.  The students says her resident director instructed her to put a sign on her door saying that her room was being remodeled to explain her absence from the room while it was being cleaned of the bedbugs.  The University denies that there was any attempted cover-up.

What?!?  Bedbugs in Big Ten dorms?  Hey, Nebraska — as the newbie in our conference, you need to understand that the esteemed institutions that make up the Big Ten have certain standards.  Cockroaches, bad food, excessive noise, childish behavior, and generalized filth in dorms is one thing, but bedbugs is where we draw the line!

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