Will Romney turn Big Bird into ‘Sesame’ chicken?
Governor Mitt Romney pledged to cut funding for PBS during the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, and in the same breath made the (now) famous statement “I love Big Bird!” This outburst caught many Americans off guard, though likely none more than debate moderator Jim Lehrer, who has worked as a news anchor for PBS since 1973. While Romney stands behind his stance that PBS should not receive government support, his insinuation that the cut would noticeably reduce the national deficit is “malarkey,” as Joe Biden might say. Romney was ill-informed when he targeted PBS specifically. The federal subsidy is not direct funding for PBS. It goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, non-profit organization that distributes the subsidy to PBS and other public TV and radio broadcast stations. According to … Read entire article »
College ranking studies are flawed and arbitrary
College rankings look enticing in print, but looking deeper into the arbitrary nature of media outlets and website criteria for prioritizing colleges is bleak and inconsistent. The methodology of placing colleges in a Best of ______ list is confusing. According to U.S. News and World Report, “16 key measures of quality” determine the merit of each college. Things get technical with complicated math and phrases like “category weight” and “sub-factor weight.” The charts on usnews.com list numerous ranking categories: undergraduate academic reputation, graduation and retention rates and financial resources, along with several others. Each category is broken into sub-factors such as acceptance rates, ACT scores and graduation rate performance. Those categories are further broken down into National Universities/National Liberal Arts Colleges and Regional Universities/Regional Colleges. Somewhere in this frenzy of numbers-crunching, a best colleges list is … Read entire article »
A day in the life of a bartender: reaching the tipping point
The grueling life of a college student is nothing short of stressful. Taking 18 credit hours with almost 40 hours of homework is no simple task. Having time for a job may be nearly impossible for most college students, so server jobs may be the best option. They allow for a flexible schedule with pretty decent money. The only problem is the average server makes $2.13 an hour, which adds up to pretty much nothing. Most shifts are five to eight hours, so the server usually makes around $15 a shift, not including tax. This forces servers to rely mainly on tips for income, but attaining tips is harder than it seems since the average American doesn’t seem to understand the difficulty of service jobs and the importance of extra cash … Read entire article »
Two different worlds: Why being bilingual is great
I was lucky enough to be born in a bicultural family, with a 100 percent Mexican father and American mother. I was born and raised in Mexico City, which now includes 20 million people. When I decided to explore life and broaden my thoughts at age 19, I moved to Kansas City and discovered the American lifestyle and culture is simply another planet. Fortunately, thanks to my mother, I grew up with the American traditions like Thanksgiving dinner, the 4th of July and Christmas. This made the big change of moving easier on me. I’m very proud of my Mexican heritage, including the recently celebrated Mexican Independence, which is Sept. 15-16, not on “Cinco de Mayo,” which is not even a holiday in Mexico. When you go to Mexico, you find very good … Read entire article »
Let’s execute plan to aid transgender students
UMKC has been noted as the 5th Most Gay-Friendly campus in the country by Newsweek. However, does this sentiment reach the same positivity for the transgender atmosphere? I would say we’re taking steps in the right direction. The LGBTQIA Partnership Committee, handpicked and led by Assistant Dean of Students Eric Grospitch, has specifically discussed amenities on campus which could benefit students who identify as transgender. LGBTQIA Resource Coordinator Jonathan Ta-Pryor recently proposed an upgrade to Blackboard that would allow students with a preferred name to submit it through the website. For example, if I were a female transitioning into a male, I would be able to access a link on Blackboard and request my name be listed as Ross instead of Roze. By intent, this would alleviate awkward and exploitative situations in the classroom for … Read entire article »
‘M’battled :Thoughts on both sides of the UMKC name change debate
Students have until Friday to complete an online name change survey that will influence whether or not UMKC keeps its four letter acronym or switches to either “KCU” or “UKC.” A name change won’t affect the University’s affiliation with the UM System, and the estimated $1 million cost would be funded exclusively by private donations. Chancellor Leo Morton initiated the name change proposal earlier this year, arguing that it could boost the school’s brand recognition by better establishing it as “Kansas City’s University.” About 70 percent of UMKC’s enrollment comes from the 15-county Kansas City region, and 75 percent of the school’s graduates settle in the area. Morton has argued that a name change could boost enrollment and philanthropic donations to the school, which are needed to fill the revenue gap created by declining … Read entire article »
Letter to the editor: On Meredith Shea’s ‘Obama-Romney video wars’
There are a couple of issues in this piece that I want to address from an economic perspective. I will try to keep these in the order they were raised in the comment. 1. Redistributing wealth is the defining feature separating socialism from American capitalism. Redistributing wealth has also been unsuccessful in promoting prosperity throughout history. The Republican Party has seemingly succeeded in associating every kind of policy designed to help the poor with terms like class warfare and socialism as practiced in the countries mentioned in the comment. Now as a starter, I see no reason why we should evaluate redistributive policies only according to socialist countries of present and past times. Non-socialist countries have made extensive use of policies that can be described in this way as well. (In fact, this seems … Read entire article »
UMKC unfriendly to transfer students
As I prepare to graduate from UMKC in December, I can truly state that I have never felt like a true Kangaroo or that I’m so hardcore in love with this school that I bleed blue and gold. I’m not sure if that stems from me being a transfer student, a commuter student, an avid hater of the University of Missouri portion of our name or some combination of all three. I do truly think that the transfer factor has something to do with it. I didn’t transfer to UMKC because I was so enthralled with the course offerings. I came here because it was the most convenient option and somewhat reasonably priced, or so I thought. I came to UMKC with about 60 credits from my previous college. UMKC only accepted … Read entire article »
It’s never too late to live on campus
I have lived both on and off campus over the last four years. Living on campus is one of the best decisions undergraduate students can make. It offers convenience to classes, enhances social lives and pushes students to be more involved on campus than they would be otherwise. In 2010, I transferred to UMKC as a sophomore from Ohio University. I didn’t know any other students who went to UMKC, and I did myself a disservice by living off campus. It disconnected me from my new college. In Ohio, I was required to live on campus my freshman year. I was forced to live with people I had never met, and it taught me a lot about the kind of person I am. I don’t believe living on campus should be a requirement … Read entire article »
Politician or celebrity?
Politicians are everywhere these days, from magazine covers to television shows about their lives. This is problematic when so many people get political information from Saturday Night Live or other comedic news forms. Once in a while, politicians even go so far to guest star on SNL. “‘The Race for the White House’ is the best reality show on TV,” writes Max Robins, vice president at the Paley Center for Media. “Despite the flowering of a zillion voices — good, bad and ugly — we are getting informed and entertained this election season.” Most recently, social media has become an extremely large part of celebritizating American elections. According to a Pew Research Center poll, roughly 22 percent of Americans use social networking sites for campaign updates. These updates will most likely come from biased friends … Read entire article »
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