Witt cops foes not friends

I heard a story today that really bothered me.  One of my friends had to attend Wittenberg's alcohol class for getting a citation earlier in the semester and was telling me the story of two Witt students that were also there and why they received citations.  Apparently, two students were called early in the morning after Wittfest by the Wittenberg police to clean up their yard because there were beer cans and garbage all over their lawn.  As they were doing what they were told to do, a Wittenberg cop drove by and gave them alcohol citations because the beer they were cleaning up was not empty.  They were given open-container citations for cleaning up.  Seriously?  How can that be fair?  They did exactly what the cops told them to do and they still got in trouble.  Do they want to create a negative relationship with students?  Because it seems like interactions like these have been happening more and more on campus lately.  Its seriously ridiculous that people get in trouble for helping other people out that are sick, for cleaning up other peoples' messes, and for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This will only deter students from doing the right thing or from helping people when they face adverse situations.  I know that this is not their intention but it will be the consequence if it keeps occurring. It is really disappointing.

Blogging

This is probably just reiterating what everyone is saying but I think blogging would have been a lot more successful if we had more "required topics" to blog about.  I really liked when we discussed them in class, so even if there were a few that we did on our own it would have been cool to bring up something that someone was talking about and all discuss it.  Even then, we could write reactions to certain topics that would serve as additional blog topics.  I think that blogging was a creative idea but I wonder if there is a way to make it more journalism like.  Maybe even writing a short page or two long story about a certain blog after it was written and interviewing other students to get their reactions.  I don't know, I'm just thinking aloud.

Fun Websites

As I was writing my blog, I was browsing around my page and found that there was a "next blog" button that I had never clicked before.  Having no idea what it would do, I clicked it and found that it took me to a random person's blog so that I could check out what they were writing about.  It's pretty cool, I didn't know that Blogspot had this feature.  It makes me a little apprehensive though, I guess I never realized that people outside of our class could see what we were all writing, not that it makes a difference since we basically just rip on Wittenberg and write about the most random things.  But it reminded me a lot of the Stumble button featured on Stumbleupon.com which is one of my favorite websites when I have a lot of time to waste.  So I just wanted to make a list of websites that I have found intriguing and useful that other people can check out when their bored.

1. Stumbleupon.com
2. Kittehroulette.com (pretty much like stumble upon but with cat videos if your a loser like me who loves cats)
3. Pandora (I'm sure you all know what this is by now)
4. ebaumsworld.com (one of my favorites in middle school)
5. Youtube (obviously)
6. encyclopedia of life-an interactive page with every organism/species on Earth
7. Projectgutenberg.com- free online books, great for research papers!
8. ehow.com- essentially life for dummies
9. bubblesnaps.com- add captions to your digital pictures
10. polldaddy.com- free polls for blogs/websites

that's it for now

A Perspective on the Career Center

After talking to both Career Center directors, Karen and Wendy, last week, I have come to the conclusion that they are genuinely here to help students with resumes, jobs, internships and whatever else they need but need to expand their resources.  I have heard many students say that they are very helpful by sending their resume out to various employees and websites that post jobs.  However, the majority of these jobs seem to be only in Ohio and more-so, in Springfield, Columbus and only neighboring towns and cities.  That is a huge problem because although Wittenberg does have a large amount of students that are from Ohio, there are also a ton from out of state.  I don't know why they think that students are only looking for jobs in Ohio or that they would even want to stay here over the summer.  In my opinion, I wouldn't mind going back to New York for the summer or staying here, but I would much rather be home so that I could save money.  If you're from out of state or even just don't live in the same area where your potential internships are, you can spend a lot of money fast.  Even at Wittenberg, living here over the summer is not that cheap.  You still have to pay for rent, utilities, food, travel expenses, etc.  Obviously if you are at home for the summer, your parents or family pays for most of these expenses.  I think if they broadened their horizons and looked to find more employers that are looking for employees or interns out of Springfield, Columbus, or Ohio, then a lot more students would utilize their services.

Blame Wittenberg NOT Sodexo

I learned something very interesting today from students who are raising money for the Lesotho, Africa trip.  Apparently they were trying to set up a meal swap like they do every year where students can sacrifice one of their CDR meals so that the money goes towards the Africa trip.  This year, Wittenberg wouldn't let them.  You may wonder why Wittenberg since Sodexo is the one who charges us for meals?  Wrong... its mostly Wittenberg.  Sodexo only charges $1.20 for each meal while Wittenberg makes up all the rest.  This means that for every dinner that a student eats at the CDR, Wittenberg makes a $10.80 profit.  That is unreal.  So if 500 students eat dinner at the CDR in one given night (which is a very modest assumption) then Wittenberg makes $5,400.  So if you have always blamed Sodexo for their shitty and overpriced food, you should start to blame Wittenberg instead.  It is no wonder that Wittenberg continues to employ Sodexo despite the overwhelming number of complaints from students.  They make such a great profit off of Sodexo that it would probably kill their revenue flow if they were to switch to another service like Sisco.  What I want to know is where all of this money goes.  Wittenberg is supposedly stuck in this horrible financial crisis but then what are they doing with the money they are profiting from meals, and it makes me wonder what else they are overcharging us for. hmmmm.

Ridiculous Rules

I hate to air any dirty laundry, but I have so many mixed feelings about Greek life at Witt and the rules.  Don't get me wrong I love my sorority and the people in it but some of the rules are obnoxious.  In my opinion, we are in college and should be able to make our own decisions for ourselves.  I know that when you are a part of an organization, you have to follow their guidelines as well but I think you should be able to consider those guidelines and decide for yourself what is appropriate in certain situations.  For example, I left a social early a couple weekends ago because I was nervous that one of my good friends was getting a little too drunk.  Since I know very well what kind of states this individual can go into when she gets too drunk, I made the executive decision to make her leave and to take her back to campus where she wouldn't get in trouble.  While I probably should have told our social chair about the situation and have pondered other possible ways that I could help my friend without breaking the no leaving early rules, I acted out of instinct and was being a little overprotective of my friend.  Not long after we left, I got an angry call from a member asking where I was etc.  I tried to explain very clearly and rationally why I left and that I was just trying to be responsible, but continued to get screamed at.  I realize that I should have handled things differently, but I think that she could also address the situation differently.  And for that, I had to be a sober monitor at our formal.  But what defines a sober monitor?  I had a couple of drinks before hand and one beer at the formal and then got in trouble again for not being sober.  But who said I was drunk?  It is interesting also because another member was supposed to be sober throughout the entire event but she also had a couple drinks.  Though the situation is quite hypocritical, this member is also trying to make me go to relay for life for three hours during Saturday night so basically I can't go out.  Shouldn't she be doing the same then?  I just think its ridiculous, I was quite alert enough to handle myself if any adverse situation arose and shouldn't be treated like a child who cannot control themselves.  Luckily this came at a good time because I'm sick and wont be able to go out this weekend, and probably not to relay for life either... I don't want to make it worse by sitting in the cold for reasons other than actually wanting to be there to support the cause...which I will do earlier in the day :)  My thoughts are that it is college and how should anyone basically be able to tell you that you can't go out on a Saturday night? 

The Health Center Sucks

Today when I woke up, I immediately knew that I have a sinus infection.  After thinking about how much it sucks I knew that I needed to do something about it.  I didn't even think twice before I decided to go to an urgent care facility instead of the health center.  I think I've been to the health center twice this year and luckily, both times I was actually able to get a prescription which is practically unheard of.  However, the catch was that I exaggerated the severity of my symptoms and the duration of my illness...that is literally the only way they were prescribe you antibiotics right away.  I learned this because in previous years, I would go in with the same illness/symptoms (usually a sinus infection because I get them three times a year like its clockwork) but say that they just started and they would tell me to wait it out, claiming that "doctors now-a-days say to let your illness drag out and you can usually get better on your own."  Yeah....that is complete bullshit.  Since when has any credible doctor advised someone to let an infection drag on?  That would be never.  And almost all they give you in the time being is a brown paper bag with salt packets and Advil..yeah that's going to do something. Not.  In addition, its almost impossible to see the doctor during the week because she is completely booked and only she can write a prescription.  My favorite part is when they tell you to take Musinex D for every illness you come in with.  Today, when I was at Urgent Care, my doctor told me under no circumstances to take Musinex because it would dry my sinuses out and make me feel worse.  What sound advice the health center nurses have.  Anyway, I was in and out of there in less than an hour which is about the same time it would take if you already had an appointment at the doctor with the health center.  The copay was $35 but that also covered my prescription, a free refill, and some nasal spray.  Definitely worth it.  Plus, depending on your insurance, it could probably cost even less.  Needless to say, my advice for students who know that they are really sick and need antibiotics, go to an urgent care instead of the health center.  You will be helped faster, get better advice, and get everything you need rather than waste your time waiting around for someone that will not help you.

Twitter

I just wanted to write about how much I love twitter.  I've only had it for a few days, but it has no been added to my list of websites that I check every time I get on the computer (facebook, email, and yahoo news).  It not only is fun to follow your friends, who meaninglessly update what they are doing every few minutes, but following celebrities and news sources is a lot of fun too, and can be educational.  While following your favorite celebrities is not, you still get the entertainment factor.  Right now, I'm following Rain Wilson from the Office, Daniel Tosh, Will Ferrell, Snooki, and Stephen Colbert to name a few, and they are hilarious.  It's really nice to get on Twitter and have a little laugh about what these characters say to brighten your day.  On the other hand, I'm following Speaker of the House, John Boener, which is very informative because I now know a lot of what is going on the the passage of certain bills and the government lock out.   I also plan to follow some news sources so that I can get up-to-date news at any time.  It is very convenient for that.  In addition, its fun.  And it allows you to stop updating your statuses on Facebook, which is something that drives me nuts.  Some people treat Facebook like it is a Twitter which is really annoying.  But that is exactly what Twitter is for, to be annoying and post what you are doing every two seconds.  I would not say that Facebook should be used in the same way.  SO if you are one of those annoying people on Facebook that blows up everyone's news feeds with your meaningless shit, I would advise you to get a Twitter, it is much better for that!

Racist Radio

It is really interesting how an incident of racism on a college campus can stir up so much controversy, yet everyday listeners of a popular Springfield radio station that is extremely racist, do not say a word.

The radio station that I am talking about is 102.9 which plays mostly rap, hip hop, and r & b music.  Since most of these genres of music are played by black artists, I don't see a problem that the radio station plays mostly music composed by black artists.  But I do have a huge problem with their commentators, specifically "Russ Par and the morning show."

I work at 8am every day, and am driving for the bulk of the time so I have done a lot of listening of the radio and specifically 102.9 because  I love the music they play.  But one day, I heard something that really disturbed me.  It was black history month and Russ Par was asking if listeners would call in to answer questions about important figures in the African American freedom movement.  This seems fine so far, but then he said "We only want black listeners to call in because other people just don't understand as well, or aren't as aware of the black figures that made these strides."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  He even admitted he was being a little racist but wasn't doing it "directly."  How much more direct can you be?  Other people don't understand?  I don't think that is true.  In addition, there were many white people who positively contributed to the movement as well, and they did not get any recognition on the air.  I don't understand how ignorant some people can be.  And they wonder why there is still racism in America.  It is because of the little things like this. It is the ignorance of it all.  And this isn't the first time they have said things that were outright racist towards whites or have had programming that is specifically targeting African Americans and encouraging them that the world is still the worst place for them...

In another recent show, they were convincing people that property tax increases or just the principle of high property taxes in neighborhoods that are primarily black, are issued so that they move out of the neighborhood.  Do people really have no clue what property taxes function as and why they are raised in certain areas?  Most of the time, they directly correlate with increases in standards of living, and a majority of the taxes go toward the funding of public schools.  If there are public schools that the government believes are doing very well or want to do better, they will try to increase their funding by raising property taxes.  It is not a race issue whatsoever.  So encouraging listeners who clearly are not knowledgeable on the subject that they skepticism of property taxes correlation with the demographics of neighborhoods is not doing any good.  All it is doing is increasing racist feelings among citizens.

It just really makes me mad that a radio station, which defines the democratic values that free speech has in America is still used improperly and offensively to certain racial groups.  If the radio station was the other way around, white people only letting other white people call in, or saying that their group was undermined in society for completely unrelated reasons, there would be complete uproar and drama.  If African Americans expect the race problem to go away then they also need to stop contributing to it.

Scheduling

Personally, I've never had a problem with scheduling.  I came to Wittenberg with a few extra credits from AP classes I took in high school so I was one of the first groups of freshman to schedule.  Since then, I've only dropped one class and have taken a summer internship that gave me 8 extra credits so that I would be even more ahead of the game, especially when it comes to scheduling.

Honestly, I laugh at a lot of the people that have trouble with scheduling because they are the people that have dropped multiple classes, are behind in credits, or don't take the initiative to email a professor beforehand to at least ask them if they could potentially save them a spot for a particular class or add them in.  I think that Wittenberg's system of scheduling is the best way they could possibly do it, with students' number of credits determining how early or late they schedule.  It is the most fair way to do it because it would really piss a lot of people off if the lazy students that don't even give a shit about school and drop a class because it gets a little too hard for them, scheduled before everyone else.

So the system is not the problem, but I think the number of classes offered for certain majors is.  I do feel for a lot of Communication students because the Comm department really does not offer enough 300 level classes for upperclassmen or even underclassmen who want to get ahead.  I've had several friends that have gotten closed out of several Comm classes every single semester.  Must be frustrating.  But at the same time, if you know what you want your major to be early on, then I would suggest that you start chipping away at classes as soon as possible.  I'm really happy that I did it that way.  I finished my political science major the first semester of my junior year, except for methods.  Essentially, all  have to do to graduate is take two more classes for each of my minors, and I have been able to do so along with taking on 12 credits for 3 semesters of college.  Convenient huh? 

Honestly, if students just took some initiative to do things the right way and not save all of their important classes for their last two years, they will have a lot less pressure to stuff classes into their schedules to graduate.  Balance is key.  Like taking two gen ed's and two major/minor classes per semester.  It's really not that complicated and it makes scheduling a lot less complicated as well.

Spring Break

This is a little delayed, but I guess I could talk about what I did on spring break here in the lovely Springfield Ohio.  I left to go home to buffalo the Friday before spring break and spent the long weekend at home by hanging out with my family and friends.  My parents and I went to a movie (I can't remember what is was but I know it was good) and one night I ventured downtown for one of my good friends' 21st birthday.  Unfortunately, the weekend was up before I knew it and I had to head back to school on Tuesday in time to make my LSAT class in Dayton.  One of my friends needed a ride back to Ohio State so luckily, I was able to have company for five out of the six hours I was driving.  I got back home to my boyfriends house that I stayed at the rest of break, in time to make dinner and then hit the road again :( needless to say, it was a long day.  On Wednesday I mostly cleaned up the house until I had to work for my soccer coach in the evening.  On both Wednesday and Friday, I helped him train younger club teams from the Springfield area.  It was a lot of fun, I loved interacting with the little kids and it was so funny to see them play.  Sometimes I wish I was still that age.  Friday was also and interesting day though, as I got a flat tire on the way to "fake and bake" so I wouldn't look so pale compared to everyone that was coming back from their spring break trips to Florida and beyond.  I guess people just leave metal rods in the middle of the road :(  So I had to call AAA to put my spare tire on, and all was well from there.  However, when I was leaving to work for my coach again early Saturday morning, my spare got a flat as well.  Really unfortunate and unlucky, but I'm definitely the one to blame...when I pulled the metal rod out of my tire the first time, I accidentally left it on the road....and then ran over it again...Blonde moment I guess, but I did have a good laugh.  But at 7am I had to drive to a place next to Station that fixes tires...and then I had to walk to the HPER from there.  Not fun.  Regardless, people started coming to Witt so we decided to go out, despite my resiliency at first since I knew I had work at 7am again on Sunday.  Long story short, and a few Jim Beam and Cokes later, I was pretty blacked out.  I ended up crashing on a friends couch, and not waking up to my alarm at 6am because my phone was in pieces scattered throughout the room.  Plus, the clocks turned forward so I ended up being two hours late for work...still drunk...

The Negative Side

I guess I would have to say that one of the most negative aspects about Witt is how much it has changed.  Both of my parents went to Witt so needless to say, I've heard countless stories about their endeavors. But I've noticed that Witt has just gotten more tame over the years.  We no longer get out of classes early on W day, and there are definitely no longer free kegs in the hollow, anxiously awaiting students' arrival.  The music starts at 4:00 and there is a small square of grass reserved for an obnoxiously overpriced beer garden.  The most rowdy people on homecoming are the alumni, and I'm not talking about the recently graduated, I mean the over 50 crowd, including my parents.  My Sophomore year, a bunch of my Dad's frat brothers came to Witt for homecoming, and initiated me into their "151 Club."  Essentially, they went to every football game with a can of Coke filled with 151 proof rum, and only a splash of Coke and would get completely inebriated.  Sounds pretty fun if you ask me.  And of course they made me drink some and I was soon feeling the effects of what they felt years ago.  I loved it, I think those are some of the greatest traditions.  Now, barely anyone goes to the football games regularly, and its a stretch to see a lot of people out during the week, and even on Fridays.  If anyone else is disappointed in this, I think we should step it up and get people back out.  I'm so sick of the excuse that people have too much work.  We all have too much work.  But if we can get it done during the week so we don't have much to do on the weekends, then why not take advantage of our free time?  We only have 4 years at college, and most of us only do it once.  So why take things so damn seriously?  Is your employer really going to care that you had a 4.0 but did nothing with your time? NO. They will think that your a LOSER.  They want people that are well rounded, did well in school, but can still balance other things.  I think we can spare a couple of tenths on our GPA.  Would you rather get a 3.4 and have fun, or a 4.0 and be miserable?  That's what I thought.  And I know its hard to believe, but some people can actually do both.  Stop taking college so seriously and have some damn fun.  Anyone with me?

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

....About Witt.  It honestly makes me really sad after reading a lot of your blogs where the negatives of Witt either outweighed the positives, or you couldn't think of any positives at all.  I know that I have been frustrated with a lot of different things since I've been here, but at the same time, I don't think I could be any happier.  I love this place.  I think my favorite thing is all of the people that I have made friends with that I never thought I would get the opportunity to meet.  Because people are so involved in Witt, you get to meet so many different groups of people... from different classes, sports teams, Greek life, intramurals, secret societies, student senate, etc. If I didn't play soccer or join my sorority or wasn't involved in other things, I never would have met a lot of amazing people.  And maybe it is because I am from NY that I think people are a lot nicer here for the most part, but I have always felt comfortable in the Witt community and college has been drama free for me.

And I know that everyone complains about certain classes and attendance policies and such, but that is one of the reasons I went to Witt. We are PRIVILEGED to have small classes where we can actually have class discussions and raise our hands without being ignored by our professors.  Our opinions are respected and challenged, as they will be when we all have jobs.  I think that the atmosphere is perfect with that transition, working with small groups of people, giving presentations, speaking our minds.  Yes, at times it absolutely sucks.  Take it from me, I don't like presentations that much, but they have really improved my public speaking skills and are preparing me for the future.  You can't deny that these little things will help you later in life.

I love that everyone still gets as drunk as I did in high school.  I know that sounds ridiculous but I don't think I could ever top some of those nights I had my freshman/sophomore year in high school.  But at Witt, everyone likes to have a good time and will go to extreme lengths to make sure they do.  I rarely have to pay for my own drinks because the party supplies, or the bar goers are generous.  At other schools, you have to pay to get into parties...seriously?  I think the worst I've had to do is get my own alcohol to pregame with or chip in $5 when we have parties with other sports teams or organizations.  Honestly, that's lucky, and not to mention, it saves me from spending all of my money on alcohol.  What could be better than that?

If nothing else, I'm proud so say I go to Witt.  At the end of the day, despite all of the little things that piss me and everyone else off about this campus, I think that the positives overwhelmingly outweigh the negatives.  No, it's not all perfect or glorious, but think about it.  I know that you wouldn't trade your Witt community for anything, despite our imperfections.  We are all here for a reason, and I think everyone truly loves this place, they just have to consider what they would miss if they never went here.

Semester Story

For my semester story, I'm building off of the first story that I wrote about the success of certain majors at Wittenberg.  Depending on the feedback that I get back from the career center, I will either wrtie just about the success of communication majors or I will focus on 1 or 2 other majors and interview more students that recently graduated.

Spring break in Springtucky :(

Unfortunately, this year my spring break plans pretty much suck.  I start an LSAT prep course next Tuesday, and have it every Tuesday and Thursday night until the end of April.  And of course, the class does not observe Wittenberg's spring break, so I will be stuck in Springfield, on a deserted campus.  So basically I will be completely alone because there is no one that I know that is actually staying here, or would want to.  Grass is greener on the other side though, I am able to go home for a long weekend the first week of March.  Although I may have to skip my Friday classes (sorry Mac!) so that I can make the 6ish hour drive home to Buffalo before it gets too dark, or the weather gets bad, I will get to see my lovely family and surprise my Dad on his birthday :) So if you know anyone that is staying in Springfield, please let me know...I would enjoy the company!  And against my Grandma's best advice, I will definitely be buying a tanning package so that I don't look like a ghost compared to everyone that comes back from their tropical vacations. Yay Springfield.

Wasted Resources

Just two hours ago I had my first appointment at the OCC since I've been at Witt.  It was surprisingly helpful and now I'm extremely pissed at myself that I had never gone there in the past to get help for my presentations.  In general, I don't think students use the academic resources that we have at Witt enough....that we already pay for with our tuition. There is the OCC, writing center, FLLC, career center, and student tutors from each department. This year, I also went to the writing center for the first time, and have only gone to the FLLC because it was mandatory for a class, and to the math workshop because I was really struggling with Pre-Calc.  Had I not had to go to the writing center, OCC, and FLLC for a class requirement, I probably never would have went.  But they really are good resources.  I was  a bit skeptical because most of the time, you encounter student workers that help you and it is kind of hard to trust them (especially for me because I hate working in groups!) but they do really know their stuff most of the time.  So a word of advice to everyone-- use these resources when you can because they do actually help and we won't have them in the real world.  Just a suggestion.

Crackberries

So I know that all I've been doing is complaining in most of my blogs which is probably annoying, but its actually nice to get all of this out.  So here I go.  I can't stand when people are constantly on their blackberry, iphone, smart phone, whatever.  It's so ridiculous when I can't even have a conversation with one of my friends or even my own mother because they are too damn busy checking their email or updating their facebook status every two seconds.  Can people really not wait until they get home or can get to a computer within an hour to do all of the above?  I can understand it if someone has class for four hours straight and are expecting an email from a professor or coach, that's understandable.  But do you have to do it in class or while you're in mid conversation, or at the dinner table? It's so rude!  When I'm talking to someone and they have to ask me what I just said five times within a minute, it's just a little annoying.  Some crackberry users literally can't handle being away from their phone for any amount of time.  Really?  This sounds exactly like a drug addiction...that's sad.  My favorite is when I can't even go for a five minute drive with my Mom in the car without her A. making a phone call B. feverishly checking or email or C. even looking at the damn thing.  She literally freaks out if she can't find it in her black hole of a purse...like starts cursing and yelling at the bag like it has taken her phone and hid it on purpose.  Sometimes in pubic.  It's embarrassing.  So my advise to smart phone users: save your parents some money and get off your damn data plan, you don't pay for your nasty habit so why make your parents the enablers because they pay for it.  Save your friends some frustration and actually listen to them while they are talking to you.  Get off facebook.  You are probably on it enough when you go on your lap top.  Your stupid student activities emails can wait, its not like you read them anyway, you just delete them.  And we all know your other emails are not so important that you cant wait an eight minute walk from Hollenbeck to your house to read them.

Superbowl Review

I just wanted to throw my two-cents in about the Superbowl.  And to be honest, I thought it was pretty shitty this year.  Sure the game was entertaining...for about the first quarter.  One interception...within the last couple minutes? Seriously, that's it?  Two fumbles, four sacks? Boring, if you ask me.  And the rest of the entertainment wasn't much better.  Why did we pay Christina Aguilera probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to F*** up the lyrics of the national anthem?  Or the Blacked Eyed Peas for a horrible performance?  Fergie sounded like a dying animal.  Her credibility definitely sunk, it must all be in the recording studio.  I guess shes putting her money in the right place to make sure she sounds like she's actually good and sounds nothing like her true abilities.  I did think the people in the lighted suits were great, that was a really cool touch to the show, but that was about it.  Even the commercials suffer, which are usually the best part. There were only a handful of funny ones, mainly Bud Light, Go Daddy, and Doritos, but even those got repetitive.  It was the same handful of companies that had a majority of air time.  Pretty lame if you ask me.  Maybe I'm just in a cynical mood this week, who knows.  So I'm curious, what are your thoughts?

Shittenberg

I'm really annoyed.  Even though we practically got a six-day weekend from the ice days we had last week, which was great, don't get me wrong, but I think there are a lot of issues that Wittenberg--I mean Shittenberg failed to address and I'm pissed.  I really don't understand why there was no "progress" on the snow/ice removal until the third day we had off...and why the efforts were so lame.  If Shittenberg was worried about our "safety," then you would think that our ground staff would be working feverishly to remove the ice from the sidewalks and streets, yet I did not see one glimpse of an attempt until the third day and even then the progress was minimal.  To be honest, if they were legitimately trying to fix the problem, we would probably been able to have classes the third day, or maybe even the second.  So where does the money go that every student has already paid for those 36-50 credit hour days?  Obviously we don't get that back.  Maybe Shittenberg could have reached into their pockets to do something about that instead of doing NOTHING.  It was still quite dangerous to be walking outside on Friday.  The neighborhoods off campus had absolutely no change.  Great, you sprinkled a little salt on the sidewalks but didn't bother to shovel it up afterwards so it just re-froze.  Great.  We should have just forced the new pledges from each sorority and fraternity to go out there with shovels, they would have done a better job (just kidding...kinda).  I understand that it is a liability to have students, faculty, and professors to be walking outside when it is dangerous, but is that all that Shittenberg cares about?  Potential lawsuits or grievances from angry parents?  That's what it seems like anyway.  But they should be scared because they did a sub-par job and a lot of people were injured from their lack of effort to plow/remove ice.  And now since we missed so much class, most professors will probably conveniently load the work on at the end of the semester.  Great. Perfect timing. Can't wait!!!!!!!!  Thanks Shittenberg, you're the best.

Story #1

Initially, my story was going really well.  I knew exactly who I wanted to interview and exactly what I wanted to write my story about.  The interviews went well and I was able to narrow my stories down to the success of Communication majors after graduation.  Kelly Clark and Joelle Ghanam were the two recent graduates that I interviewed who were both comm majors and got jobs right out of college.  Although the companies that they work for and their positions are completely different, they both answered similarly to my questions about their experiences at Wittenberg and the reasons for their success.  However, when I went to interview people at the career center, I found out that they were booked for weeks so I was not able to interview them at all.  Although this hurt my story a little because I wanted a different perspective from the career center and data about the success of other majors on campus.  But I think this could be a good idea for my bigger story so I'm going to make an appointment at the career center to see if their information will make the story even better.

Maybe It Was Only a Dream

When we honor Martin Luther King Jr's legacy and black history month, "I have a dream" is typically what we think of first.  We envy Dr. King's amazing effort and contribution to change the broken society from the 1960's.  But the problem seems to be that not much has truly changed and our society remains fragmented.  It is evident that racism and prejudices still exist across the United States.  Maybe MLK's dream is only just a dream and it will never become reality.  Many of our dreams are difficult, if not impossible to achieve so it seems very possible that MLK's dream may not be achieved.  If racism is still alive and prominent at Wittenberg, where I have met some of the nicest, most thoughtful, and open minded people I have ever, then I have no doubt in my mind that it is still a significant problem elsewhere.  I don't understand why people have to be so hateful and ignorant.  Not everyone is going to like each other regardless of their similarities or differences.  But why can't people just keep their thoughts to themselves?  If you don't particularly like someone, that's fine.  But why air all of your dirty laundry to the community where people may get hurt?  We wonder why there are mass shootings at college campuses throughout the United States and how many of the perpetrators are victims of racism, prejudices, or are flat out judged by their own peers.  These people are victims of bullying and harassment by people that may not have attempted to reach out to them to get to know them. This needs to change, but how?  When we are taught by our own families that people are different from one another because of their skin color, ethnicity, weight, height, you name it, how are we supposed to look at these people with an open mind, and truly believe that we are all the same?  I don't know the answer to this but I think that the majority of Wittenberg students can try to put their differences aside and become a family.  We are all here for a reason and by being chosen out of thousands of perspective students to attend this institution makes us all similar in one way or another.

Marijuanna: The New Alcohol?

Where do we draw the line on appropriate drug use on campus?  I think that it's a matter of opinion and degree.  I have been to parties where there is the typical "upstairs group" that spends most of their time on the top floor smoking marijuanna and never make it down to the actual party.  On the other hand, I have also been to parties where blunts are continually passed around all night.  It seems like marijuanna is almost treated like alcohol, everyone pools their few dollars together so that there is enough for everyone to achieve their desired results.  I don't think many people have a problem with that either, despite marijuanna's "drug" status.  If people choose to attend parties where marijuanna use is taking place then they probably enjoy it or don't mind when other people are smoking it.  If they don't like that it's being used at the party they are at, they are likely to leave or they just simply decline the blunt when it is passed to them and carry on socializing with other party-goers.  I've never seen anyone forced to smoke or do any other drugs at these parties which is why I don't think marijuanna use is a very big concern at Witt.  And personally, I've only witnessed people doing harder drugs less than a handful of times so it seems that drug use may not very widespread on campus...unless I'm just not attending the right parties.