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Volume 11, Issue 1 Take 1! Free for You!

Mid-Winter 2015

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COMICS & GAMES

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Top 10 ways to be a better student

Julianne Mosher Campus News

The start of a New Year and new semester brings us hope. We all wait anxiously to have a brand new clean slate; 365 days that could be started over.

At this time, we either make a mental note of New Year resolutions or actually write them down on paper. Some people have one main goal; they want to stop smoking, they want to find love, they want to be happier. Other people like to get everything that they do wrong in one list so they can try and correct themselves.

But as we students approach 2015, we need to get ourselves buckled down while we look forward to the spring semester and become the most successful human beings that we could possibly be.

To start of the New Year, here is a list of 10 resolutions we all should try to follow in order to get that 4.0 GPA. 10. Start using a planner If you don’t use one already, it’s a good idea to start utilizing a planner or a calendar to organize the list of things you have to do. Especially when school starts back up in January, writing down and checking off everything that you need to get done will help you on your road to success. ship

9. Look for part-time jobs or an intern-

Just because you’re in college doesn’t mean you have to be poor. This semester,

Inside: What to do when your GPA takes a dive.

try to find an easy part-time job on or off campus that can give you some extra money for your wallet. Having a job in college may be difficult to balance but if you do it and do it right, future employers will respect your ability to multitask. Internships are also a huge part of your future and applying for them early on will definitely make your resume much more appealing after graduation!

8. Get more involved on campus You are paying for activity fees in your tuitions. Why waste your money? Try out a club. Whether it’s arts and crafts or a sports team, you’ll have fun and it will be a nice break from a hectic school schedule.

7. Keep in touch with your old friends Making friends in college is important but make sure you keep the relationships going with your high school, middle school

continued on page 10

A rough road back to community college

Ke v in H o lt, J r.

Campus News

Getting to finish a journey I started fifteen years ago is a dream come true, but this dream was not realized without trial and tribulation. Even though I am currently on track to 3 graduate from SUNY Orange with two Associate’s degrees in About Us Liberal Arts within the next year and a half, both being deliv4 ered with Honors distinctions, my closest “friend” will always Being a Prof be near attempting to drive me back to a place of misery and hopelessness. I also have other opposing viewpoints from 5 GPA family members who think going back to a community college after having a 4.0 GPA at a prestigious internationally 6 known institution is settling for less. All in all, my path back New to You! to college was and is fraught with turmoil, yet I still stand and 7 move forward.

Online Dating After high school, I was not willing to get in the saddle of college so quickly. I was severely bullied, and thought the 8 Mandel same would happen at university. I was ahead of my graduat14 ing class with 30 credits toward a Bachelor’s, so I decided to Politics go to work instead. A part of me wanted to experience the life my father did — “being a man,” he called it. I took a proFrom the Adjunct 18 motion at my job in the summer of 1998, and during the next year, I worked 80 hour work weeks, traveled 10-15 hours each week. I was living the 9-to-5 corporate dream. There is something attractive about a paycheck. For me, I felt like a participant in society, not just some “moochy” teenager any-

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Campus News | January 2015 | Page 2

Happy Birthday, Campus News! What’s next?

Darren Johnson Publisher

It’s the fifth anniversary of this newspaper, Campus News, a project no one really believed could succeed back when, but actually has grown from rogue to established and widely accepted. The next five years will really be something.

I often get asked where the idea for this paper – one that hits many campuses – came from. People assume it’s just a student paper on steroids, but not so.

I’d say the defining experience for creating a paper like this came to me before I started working in the college world, handling campus communications and advising newspapers and young journalists. Of course college students are the main audience, so my experience with them has been an inspiration, and my work in campus communications helped me talk to the advertisers who fund this effort.

But when I was not far out of college myself, in the mid1990s, I decided to work for a startup newspaper, after having previously worked for a standard, 100-year-old, community paper.

The startup job maybe paid $5000 more a year. That was tempting, but also the idea of it.

The startup paper was called The American and was a colossal failure, lasting less than two years. The publisher had a good wad of cash as startup money and hired the best New York editorial and graphics people (except me; I was a relative kid, but passed the grammar test to get a low-level all-purpose gig).

The publisher had lived in Europe awhile and wrote as a correspondent for top American publications from there. He saw a market for an American newspaper overseas, as a lot of expats were over there as well as Europeans interested in American culture. So he gave the paper a simple name, just like Campus News is a simple name, and created a full-color paper that could become the USA Today of Europe.

This gig was eye-opening for me. I

had previously worked at a small community paper that did spot color (meaning only one other color, after black) and physical paste-up, spit out of an old laser printer that was hooked up to the kind of Mac with the built-in, greyscale screen.

At the new paper was a newsroom full of people who had worked at major publications producing PDFs with shiny, big, color Macs that were transmitted to London and Berlin for printing and distribution from there. The paper looked as good as any paper on the racks today, even though this was 20 years ago. It was ahead of its time.

The American taught me, as well, that news doesn’t have to be microlocal. It can be useful, or at least entertaining. In my other gig at a community paper, we covered small stories – the smaller the better. Cub Scouts winning the Pinewood Derby? Great! But not every paper has to do that. The USA Today is in half the hotels in America, it seems. It appeals to no one in particular, but everyone at the same time.

And the idea got in my head that a colorful paper could be created from anywhere. There was no need for an office on a Main Street. I learned everything I could in those two years about modern startup newspapers. The American failed because it relied on the honesty of far-away circulation contractors (crooks) and didn’t have an advertising plan. Plus, the Internet really started to pick up steam in the mid1990s, so American news could be gotten faster via computer.

When The American failed, I went back to the 100-year-old paper, but I was a much different writer and person.

Then I started adjuncting and doing PR work at Southampton College – which also eventually failed (twice; I was there both times) – while helping student writers and journalists whenever possible through clubs and activities. All of the failure at the organizations I’d worked for taught me to not really trust in any business to take care of my family and me.

So a lot came to a head in the Fall 2009 semester, when Stony Brook announced it was shuttering its Southampton College campus, and I’d been bouncing around the failed dream if The American in my head for all those years. I was advising a college paper at the time, but it

The first five years established this paper regionally; the next five years ... nationally?

The American, a paper that lasted two years in the 1990s.

was constitutionally managed. I really didn’t have much of a say in its day to day operations or its personnel. I mostly was a business manager, offered advice and organized field trips to journalism conferences. The last elected editorial team didn’t mesh with a creative kid, who ended up resigning from the paper. I told him my idea of a USA Today of college papers, and he helped design the first templates in his spare time. The cover of the first issue is pictured here. Nothing that colorful to begin with, but it did the trick.

The initial advertisers were Mercy College, Adelphi University, Five Towns College and Empire State College. The initial cover story was by Laura LaVacca, who still writes for us sometimes. She was a grad student then but now teaches composition at a Long Island community college.

The story is about students who don’t come back for their spring semester titled, “Where do all the student go?”

We currently have the largest circulation of any newspaper aimed at community college students in the world. That’s not an impossible feat, but it has taken a lot of work to pump out so many issues consistently.

In our next five years, I’d like to see Campus News established in the following areas: P r i n t C i r c u l at i o n I tend to think one print reader is worth 10 online readers, just because the print reader tends to hunker down

Our first issue, from February 1, 2010.

The Campus News app, to appear soon. more and build a relationship with the stories. They also do the puzzles and clip out the cartoons, on occasion. A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education noted how print products are a “deeper” read for college students than e-products.

So, with all that in mind, we have no intention of diminishing the printed newspaper, unlike what most journalism programs have done at colleges

continued on page 17

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 3

Sponsor Videos

Click on the stills from these campus videos to learn more about each college or click on the college logos to go to the campus web sites.

Your professor is a person, too

Robert Cutrera Campus News

The first day of my teaching assistantship (TA) was also the last day of my student autonomy. As twenty three pairs of eyes scanned my wardrobe choice and eagerly listened to their new Composition instructor speak, they unintentionally altered my life in an unexpected way.

I was twenty one when I began teaching Composition at SUNY New Paltz. The youngest TA on staff, I felt proud and accomplished, especially considering I graduated from New Paltz as an undergraduate a semester early to take the position. This sense of selfworth increased as I was introduced to Graduate English courses, where class enrollment shrunk but paper length increased. But standing in front of a room full of students two and a half years younger than you, realizing that you made a mistake by being clean shaven and admitting that this is your first semester of teaching, has a nice way of stripping away your authority, replacing it with hot waves of embarrassment as you read aloud the syllabus.

I made plenty of concessions and appeasements that semester, but none more challenging than with my own identity. Being a college student in Northeastern America carries with it certain conventions: the original thirteen colonies are home to some of the best universities, and even if you’re not enrolled in an Ivy League school, students excel both academically and socially here. Most of my friends were just beginning to get their acts together, with graduation and student loan payments looming on the horizon, but, on the other side of the tracks, my professors were mature pillars, full of knowledge and experience, far removed from my Jansport backpack and midnight library visits. I realized that I had entered an academic “No Man’s Land”: no longer could I keep my autonomy while walking around campus; I had stepped up in

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 4

academic rank and was presented with a new host of expectations.

Arguably the most challenging of these expectations was effectively balancing my workload. No longer could I wait until the last moment to write essays or catch-up on reading: lesson plans will not generate themselves, and I found myself spending hours worrying about the various pitfalls I could fall into as I stood before my students. My superiors made me well aware that I was a student before a teacher. This sounds very seemly and idyllic, but nobody wants to feel like a fool in front of a bunch of people, especially people who have the opportunity to write student evaluations of their instructors at the end of the semester. Give students an opportunity to rattle the academic pecking order and

that student loan debt is second only to mortgage debt in this county is quite sobering. Not having that taxing shadow following me around campus was invaluable and I would not bite the hand that fed me.

I’m not advocating that every single prospective Graduate student enroll as a TA; this is unrealistic, considering the various majors and personalities that compose the post-graduate world. Even if you’d like to teach while in Graduate school, balancing your burdens is uncompromisingly tough, and standards are, most likely, only going to become more rigorous as we enter a new age of education where post-graduate diplomas are sought after with the same intensity as the new iPhone. But, no matter your current or prospective student status, it is important to realize that you do not know the status and background of the person conducting your classroom.

Whether seasoned lecturer or green TA, your professor is a person; like everyone else, their lives are full of nuances that are impossibly difficult for you to perceive.

Not everyone who wishes to teach at an accredited university gets the chance.

Every day I reflect, in some capacity, on the privilege I was given; I worked very hard for it, but, nonetheless, it was a privilege and will always continue to be, so long as I take what I learned in my time and apply it to my future endeavors.

But, academically, the most important thing I learned was how difficult it is to conduct a classroom, gradually understanding the time, effort, and motivation a professor dedicates to you; yes,

A path from student to college instructor.

they’ll usually take their chance to complain.

So I began neglecting my own studies. It’s mischievously easy to sit back in your seat as a professor lectures, and when the floor is opened up for questions and responses, it’s even easier to pass the buck by shifting your seat and giving side glances to your fellow students. Graduate classes start at 6 and end somewhere around 9, so that didn’t help matters either. No matter what the topic of discussion, who’s to stop the incessant noises of your stomach, growling for dinner after being conditioned to receive sustenance around sunset.

But the university paid my tuition. A major condition of being a TA at New Paltz, and most schools, for that matter, is a serious tuition reduction or full coverage. I never complained out loud; every time a comment or critique crossed my mind, I thought of other students and imagined the chunk of debt waiting for them. The nonsensical fact

you the individual student are given a professor’s full attention, so long as you seek it.

I ask you all to take a few brief moments to consider: you’ve had to give at least one presentation before your classmates by this point in your academic career; take the anxiety, nervousness, and preparation time invested in that presentation, multiply it all by five for duration, then multiply it by about thirty for the times your class meets throughout the semester. Then make sure you can think of twenty-nine alternatives that will keep the interest of about twenty-five students who are half preoccupied with their own reputations and whose attention spans are desultory at best. That’s a brief snapshot, but you can probably fill in the gaps.

So as you wrangle over your final grades, cursing whoever gave you a C or surprised you with a too difficult final exam, take a step back from your student self. You’d be surprised to obscure some details you take for granted about yourself as you consider what you must look like, arm extended over the desk, lazily scrolling through your phone as your professor drawls on about Composition or Geography or whatever.

Robert Cutrera is currently an adjunct instructor at SUNY New Paltz and Pace University. He graduated from SUNY New Paltz with his M.A. in 2014 and has spent all of his life in the Hudson Valley.

J ul ia n n e M os h e r Campus News

When my GPA took a nose dive

It was mid-March and I was crying hysterically. I didn’t know what to do.

My grades were terrible and I was overwhelmed. The semester before I signed up for 21 credits thinking that I could do it. Now, I sat fetal-positioned on my bedroom floor looking at my notebook, praying I could just drop out of school.

Like many students at a university, I was piling work on myself trying to succeed. “I need to take 21 credits in order to graduate remotely on time,” I told my mom. She rolled her eyes and said, “You’re going to regret doing this to yourself.” I did.

The work was a lot. Six classes, an internship, extracurricular clubs and a part-time job; there wasn’t enough time in the day to fulfill all of my responsibilities. But being enrolled in a school that expects so much from its students such as Stony Brook University, I felt almost like a failure not taking a dozen classes in just one semester.

That semester, I got a terrible GPA. I had barely graced the line between passing and failing. My cumulative grade point average was below a 3.0 – terrible for an overachiever like my-

self – who at one time had a 4.0 while attending community college.

The next fall I learned from my mistakes. I decided to take only 15 credits and to also not intern anywhere to get my GPA back up.

I made school my number one priority, not my social life, not my significant other and definitely not my part-time retail job. By doing this, I was able to bring my GPA back up and raise my cumulative to a better number that was up to my own personal standards.

My story is what practically every college student in the world deals with. The stresses of balance, prioritizing and getting the grades we want.

So what can we do as students in order to succeed the semester after we get a GPA that either is not what we are capable of or can ultimately lead us on the road to academic probation?

Most schools have a limit as to how many credits a student can take. Stony Brook University allows one student to take the maximum of 18 credits. Anything above that number needs special permission from administration. When

a student wants to take 21 or 24 (the absolute max) credits, they need to pay an extra fee on top of their tuition.

Don’t let the thought of not taking enough classes per semester scare you into piling them all into one semester. Break up your graduation plan and look

‘I decided to take fewer credits and get my grades up.’

into summer or winter classes for those courses you need to take but don’t necessarily want to. They only last a few weeks and end in the blink of an eye.

By doing that, you can focus on what you want to take rather than what you need to take according to the schools curriculum.

An Expert Responds

We posted the question, “Is GPA indicative of career success?” on the site Profnet, which links experts to journalists. Dr. Katie Dunleavy, a professor of communication at La Salle University in Philadelphia, responded to our query: “From an instructional communication perspective, we examine this as Learning Orientation/Grade Orientation (LOGO). Students can be one or the other, or a combination of both. What this question seems to be referring to is the Learning Oriented student, who is very interested in ideas, often with a practical application. What can happen here is that the student doesn’t see the grade as a necessity as an outcome. It is more important to this type of student to acquire the information for use in life, which doesn’t equate (in the student’s opinion) with grades. For that reason, the student probably won’t use a study guide for an exam nor will the student find structured grading criteria for assignments as something to spend time on. They are, however, great to speak interpersonally with as they often have a more firm grasp on the ideas presented in class.”

Does GPA matter? Yes, but so does graduating on time.

Darren Johnson Campus News

Yes, in an optimal world, you will take a challenging curriculum, have a great GPA and graduate on time. But for most people, this combination is impossible.

It’s hard to take the 15-16 credits per semester to graduate on time while also getting great grades, especially if the coursework is rigorous (as it should be).

Add to that that many students have to have jobs, especially at community colleges.

I used to be a bit embarrassed that my final undergraduate GPA was 2.67.

But, looking back, I’m kind of proud of what I did in those four years.

I double majored – one major, Pre-Law: Sociology, was a GPA killer, the other, English: Writing, I did well in – and finished exactly in four years, only having to take one summer course during my junior year (because it wasn’t being offered in my senior year and I needed it). I also worked grueling jobs – the most prominent of which was delivering The New York Times during early morning hours, seven days a week, including holidays. Looking back, graduation was a solid accomplishment, considering all of the work needed, and that I had no mentors, including parents, to help guide me.

Eventually, I went on to get an MFA in Writing and Literature and my GPA was nearly perfect (graduate school is less about the grades), so perhaps my 2.67 from before just showed

my pragmatism, as the professor in the gray box above notes. If I didn’t get to read a book in my literature class during the semester, I’d just take the B-, having read the other six or seven books, and read the book I’d missed over the summer break instead. I guess the grade itself didn’t matter much to me at the time.

Did having a low GPA upon graduation have an effect on my future prospects? A bit.

I did apply to a few graduate Writing programs. Some liked my creative portfolio but the department director in a couple of cases expressed worry about my GPA. At least they wrote me personal notes explaining everything. So, instead, I worked on my writing and took a job at a newspaper. In the work world, especially in pragmatic jobs like writing for a newspaper, GPA doesn’t matter much at all. In fact, a 4.0 grad may be looked at skeptically. Remember, most managers were probably just average students.

Working in the field helps build one’s graduate school application, as, ultimately, getting a degree is about getting a job, so if your GPA is holding you back, get some experience in the field to compensate for the lackluster transcript. And, because I had taken a rigorous courseload, I was well equipped with the focus it takes to survive in the white-collar working world.

So, if I had to rate these in importance, from most to least, I’d put completing on time first, because each year you are not in the workforce you are

‘A lot depends on your actual career goal.’

losing out on college-grad-level income and relevant experience; rigorous courseload second (take hard courses that prove your smarts), and GPA third.

But, if you are looking to go straight into graduate school after a four-year college, I’d rate GPA and the strength of your major’s program at the top.

Also, some fields, such as Engineering, where it is expected that you have mastered your subject matter, do require that you have a high GPA. So, it definitely opens up more options for you to have a high GPA, but don’t let it deflate you if you don’t. Make your goal graduating on time regardless.

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Campus News | January 2015 | Page 5

Downloading ‘The Interview’ is a vote for free speech

Darren Johnson Campus News

Who knew you could rent movies via YouTube? The big winner in this whole Sony leak/controversy over the Christmas-release “The Interview” may be the previously free video site.

This will definitely put YouTube on the map as a major streaming service.

Sony decided to mostly let the Internet carry the film. On YouTube, you can rent it for $5.99, if you link your verified Google Plus account (if you have an Android phone, you likely have one and just don’t use it much) and a credit card or Paypal.

I was hoping I’d be able to watch the film via the Wii we have hooked up to our big plasma TV, like we do Netflix and free YouTube videos via their app, but this wouldn’t load. Thus the family had to gather around the 15″ Campus News laptop to view the movie.

So, was “The Interview,” with the one dimensional Seth Rogan and the smarmy and unlikeable James Franco — two of our generation’s most overrated comedy actors — worth the $5.99?

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 6

Well, if it means family unity during the holidays, surely, because I can’t watch any more “Christmas With the Kranks” type movies.

And I’m definitely glad I didn’t pay movie theater prices for this, as I was on the fence about going to see this one before the controversy. We usually do see a movie this time of year at the theater — last year it was that awful Christmas “Madea” movie.

And if the $5.99 goes toward making YouTube a site where major films can appear first. And if the $5.99 is a vote for the free speech rights the North Koreans tried to suppress, then, yes, it’s worth it.

Without all of the above, this is an average comedic movie with very little that’s original, too much rectal humor and too many leaps in logic to make it plau-

sible — every good comedy has to have at least one foot planted in reality.

For example, why would the main characters give up a 10-year major TV journalism career to — quickly decided over a cup of coffee — kill a world leader (and probably be killed)?

Now, if they were offered a suitcase of money, then there may be a story. But, no, they just flippantly go along with it.

There is some social commentary in the film about the facade that North Korea tries to show the world, but not really. We already know that the country is starving and its leader is crazy. So what’s the point?

How could this have been a better movie? Maybe if it simply had different actors in the place of Rogen and Franco. I wish Hollywood would stop giving us them (and also stop giving us Jonah Hill, Mark Wahlberg, etc.) over and over again. They are not funny.

Ever.

And, no, I’m not “peanut butter and jealous.”

But, let’s not crap on this film too much. It is a solid C+/B- and better than most things on TV this time of year. Use your Paypal account to deposit a vote for free speech, and for bringing the movie theater to our living rooms — or, at least, our laptops.

Hooking up more often starts online

Kristina Bostley Campus News

In a world where technology basically runs the world, where the term “bisocial” has worked its way into mainstream culture (defined by Chron.com author Craig Hlavaty as the tendency to be preoccupied by a smart phone while in a social setting), it is no surprise that the dating world has also gone digital.

While popular dating websites such as Match.com and OkCupid have existed for years, with the rise of smart phone usage many of these sites have created accompanying apps for their subscribers. In addition, there are several dating services that have been created solely as smart phone applications.

Traditionally, dating websites have required users to fill out extensive questionnaires and/or profiles in order to pair people together. But several dating apps have taken a different approach: they use location-based services to match people in a certain area. Tinder, a popular dating app, allows users to upload pictures and fill out a brief profile. Then, they are matched with others in their area, and users either swipe left to pass on that person’s profile or swipe right to match with a seemingly limitless number of singles. Coffee Meets Bagel requires a slightly longer profile and matches users with only one person per day.

Hinge also has a limit on the number of matches per day, giving their users only fifteen profiles to view.

Dating apps provide the convenience of connecting with someone nearby, especially for those who are especially quiet in social situations. They allow users to get to know others based on profile information and pictures, and once connected, they allow users to take their time answering while thinking of the most appropriate response. Kate Taylor of Match.com points out that dating apps help people flirt and open

up the lines of communication by increasing confidence levels; after reading a profile, the user already knows about the other person, providing multiple potential conversation topics. John Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, published a study in the American Sociological Review.

He found that 22% of new couples had met online, and couples who begin their relationships digitally have a significantly higher probability of walking down the aisle than couples who meet in other ways.

In 2013, the Pew Research Center published a study on online dating. It helps to establish the fact that the stigma around online dating is quickly disappearing. As the amount of people logging onto the internet via multiple communication channels – smart phones, tablets, computers – rises, people have steadily increased their online presence. It is no surprise, then, that the connotations surrounding online dating are changing.

In 2005, a Pew Research survey had found that 29% of people viewed online dating as desperate – a figure that dropped to 21% in their 2013 survey. While the figure is still high, the fact that it has dropped so significantly in less than a decade could be an indicator that online dating will soon become widely accepted. While 44% of people saw online dating as a good way to meet people online in 2005, the figure rose to a shocking 59% in 2013. Most people – 53% – agreed that online dating led to better matches, compared with only 47% in 2005.

The survey also found that 32% of people age 18 to 34 have participated in online dating. Though college provides an outlet where people can connect, the proportion of people registering for and using dating sites is on the rise – allowing people to con-

‘But dating apps can be likened to a game rather than a way to connect.’

Animal Crackers by Fred Wagner

nect outside their college communities.

Adults are staying single for longer, increasing the need for outlets introducing them to others. And with such a wide variety of dating apps out there, each offering slightly different features, the number of users registering for more than one app is climbing as well.

Niche apps are on the rise, narrowing down the singles pool by focusing on a distinctive trait. Forty percent of online daters have joined sites aimed at people with common interests. For example, a new app Wyldfire was created as a way to connect college students together.

But it is in this way that dating apps can be likened to a game rather than a way to connect and forge new relationships with people. By narrowing down the search pool, users are neglecting to connect with people with different interests; as the old adage goes, “opposites attract.” Thirty-three percent of people who have used online dating apps and/or websites have never actually been out on a date with anyone they’ve communicated with – a figure that proves it’s easy to connect virtually, but much more difficult in reality.

Emma Kenny of Look magazine theorizes that “online dating breeds impatience and insecurity.” It is easy for a person to be consumed by the image they are creating for themselves online, and it’s just as easy to

become frustrated or impatient with the connections being made online.

Dating apps like Tinder offer a limitless number of matches per day can lead to clogged inboxes with dozens of messages. Leaving the user to sort through all these messages can leave users feeling overwhelmed, especially if they are using more than one dating app. Dating apps can also promote extreme selectivity based on only a few physical or personality traits. And, of course, factoring in the large detail that it is very easy to embellish a dating profile from behind a phone screen, dating apps have the potential do to more harm than good. More than half of online daters (54%) have felt that someone designed their profile to misrepresent themselves, according to the Pew Research Center.

The fact that negative attitudes are dissipating proportionately to the percentage of users joining sites each year proves that online dating is now a major player in the dating game. Mobile dating apps are more convenient, as it’s easier to carry around a phone versus a laptop. Chances are that if a person owns a smart phone, they are not likely to leave home without it – so it’s that much easier to log onto these apps wherever they have service. One thing is certain: online dating is here to stay.

9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron

Bound & Gagged by Dana Summers

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 7

Students on silent mode – but why?

Prof. Jack K. Mandel, MBA Nassau Community College

Quick question — see anything strange about the four students in the photograph? Bet you have NO clue... but I do.

You see, although they are all standing in close proximity to each other (probably inches away) there are no facial or communicative recognition of each other. They are probably in the same class, waiting for it to begin — but you would never know it.

I call it being in a “personal time zone warp.”

And unfortunately, this is what has become the norm. Not only in colleges, but in the workplace, the playground, the library, in a restaurant, in a mall — EVERYWHERE! Look, we will never be back to the days of rotary

phones; in fact, landlines may become extinct in another decade or two. Believe me, only those of us 30 and over can appreciate a public pay phone and the privacy it gave an individual.

Today, if you talk on your cell, YOUR business is now MY business. No one seems to care about privacy.

And I don’t seem to get it. It’s almost like an addiction. Students in high schools and colleges need to be told over and over again to put their mobile device away — again, and again.

And don’t think it is totally appropriate to text a “thank you” after a job interview. NO, NO, NO! A phone call or a written (huh?) letter is far more meaningful and shows greater thought and interest.

It is almost like the SPOKEN word has lost its place in society. I have to laugh when I think back to my early days of teaching at Nassau Community College (early 1980s). Everyone talked, and a really personal class would have to be told to calm down so I could take attendance. Today, I walk into TOTAL SILENCE as each student is in their “personal time zone warp.”

Readers, what do you think? Have a great spring 2015 semester! And please, “speak up a little more!”

LOL!

Stay away from the ‘personal time zone warp’ and watch your life improve.

Professor Mandel teaches marketing at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY. He is the recipient of the prestigious Outstanding Teacher Award conferred by the NYS Association of TwoYear Colleges. He is also a “Best of Long Island Winner” for in the Teaching category from the Long Island Press.

Living on Mars

Lorain Watters Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

The future of exploration for alien life in space and habitable planets rests on the continued curiosity of answering the age-old question: “Are we alone in the universe?”

The Planetary Society held a panel discussion in December to talk about NASA's upcoming missions, which include taking a closer look at Mars’ atmosphere and biology, and visiting other planets’ moons and their oceans.

These missions will focus on the presence of life in the past and if these planets are habitable.

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said the success of previous missions to Mars, such as Curiosity and Maven, have led scientists to become interested in the planet on a biological level.

“Mars has the key,” he said.

He said that Curiosity set the stage for future missions. The next ones will be in 2016 with the launch of Insight and the ExoMars Orbiter.

The 2020 Mars Rover will use a similar design as Curiosity, but it will have different instruments, which are being developed now. It will look for Campus News | January 2015 | Page 8

signs of life and gather sounds.

“Even if nothing happened on Mars, it might have the best record of how life started in our solar system,” Meyer said.

By 2025, NASA expects to send humans to an asteroid, and by the 2030s, humans will land on Mars as part of the Journey to Mars program.

This will be a one-way ride.

Kevin Hand, deputy chief scientist for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Science at NASA, is working on an ocean exploration - looking for planets with oceans. So far, four of Jupiter’s 63 known moons have water and show promise for life.

“These moons with sub-surface liquid water oceans are changing our understanding of what it means for a world to be habitable,” Hand said.

Europa is Hand's first pick. He said Europa's ocean, 62 miles deep, may have similar chemical processes – with water mixing with rocks and the sea floor – to Earth's deepest ocean, 7 miles.

"If we’ve learned anything from life on Earth, all life depends on liquid water," he said.

Hand said Europa has been around for most of the solar system's history. But the main question he

wants answered is whether Europa is bad weather. Data from the unmanned habitable, and if not, can it be made craft’s two orbits of earth will help habitable. send humans on deep space explo“I will be happy with the tiniest of rations, including the journey to Mars. microbes,” he said. “We have yet to However, Nye said none of this know or understand whether biology can be achieved if NASA does not works the same way beyond the home have the budget to make the machines. planet.”

NASA’s budget request for the 2015 Bill Nye, known previously as the fiscal year is $17.46 billion, which is Science Guy and now CEO of the $185 billion less than 2014. Congress Planetary Society, said he does not passed a continuing resolution to fund know what is on Mars or these ocean the government through Dec. 11, but it planets. has not passed the appropriations bill “That’s why we’re going,” Nye that funds NASA. said. “This fundamental idea is how we Nye said that the budget request is change the world.” low, and the technology used for space He said looking for life on other is inexpensive. planets is logical and promising, and “NASA is the best brand the U.S. NASA has the technical capability to has. Everybody in the world respects do so. it,” he said. “Deep space exploration “It would change this world comhas these extraordinary benefits to our pletely,” he said. “The way everybody society. We are at a point in history thinks about everything – our place in where we can change the world.” the cosmos, our place in space – would be revolutionized.”

NASA successfully launched Orion Friday after scrubbing the launch Thursday because of malfunctioning Write for us and your stories go worldwide! valves and

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Campus News | January 2015 | Page 9

Stay calm and watch out for Yik Yak

Jonathan Lopes Campus News

Yik Yak is an anonymous social media application for iOS and Android. The ever growing in popularity app allows people to anonymously create and view “Yaks” within a 10 mile radius. It is distinguishable from other popular apps such as PostSecret and Whisper because i’s primary objective is with those in close proximity to the user. As a result, information posted makes it more applicable and relevant for people reading the posts.

All users have the ability to contribute to the online feed by writing, responding, and liking or disliking yaks, similar to that of Facebook and Twitter features offered.

Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, friends and graduates from Furman University, developed the app and started collaborating when placed into the same class where they learned how to code iPhone apps. The two individuals released the application in November 2013 and months later, it was ranked as the 9th most downloaded social media app in the United States.

It is no surprise that Yik Yak has become an ultimate source for bullies, for no consequences can be given due to the unique privacy the app maintains. Although college communities are supposed to be mature, the application brings out severe immaturity. Yik

Yak allows this phenomenon to occur on an anonymous level.

Overall, Yik Yak is negatively affecting college communities everywhere, and has made the anonymous expression of immaturity a widespread source of entertainment. Yik Yak may be the most popular new app for students, especially within the age range demographic of 18-25. However, if it is used in the wrong ways, it can potentially be more trouble than it is worth.

Be responsible and think before you post something on Yik Yak that may offend or upset someone else, regardless of the fact that said post is anonymous.

The application is only seen as negative and harmful, if we as a community contribute in that facet.

Yak serves as a virtual chat room where false accusations can be viewed by the nearby geographic area.

One of the biggest criticisms of social media sites and applications is their inherent potential to expand and enhance the prevalent issue of cyber-bullying. Due to the widespread bullying and harassment committed through Yik Yak, various colleges and K-12 school districts have taken action to ban the application.

An October Huffington Post editorial was titled “Why Your College Campus Should Ban Yik Yak.” The article asserted that Yik Yak’s anonymous messaging boards “are like bathroom stalls without toilets. They’re useless, sources of unhelpful or harmful conversations, and they’re a complete eyesore.”

What do you get when an anonymous version of Twitter comes out?

That’s right, we’re talking about Yik Yak. The newest messaging phenomenon has taken over college campuses throughout the country. Yik Yak allows users to express themselves on social media, while keeping their individual identities completely hidden. According to multiple interviews, Droll claims that “‘yaking’ is the welcoming, authentic and anonymous version of tweeting.” But while the app may have been originally created to chat, it has become

a tool used to talk down on people, places and classes. Users also have the ability to choose their general location, and view yaks from anywhere in the country.

Yik Yak can be quite entertaining at times because it explores scenarios that many may not be aware of. Yaks often offer information about parties occurring, uncomfortable situations, and other events, however strange or confusing. This social media up-rise is due to the ability to hide one’s identity, while having no filter on posts published. An authority figure can be insulted on Yik Yak and the “yak” can only be seen by those in the surrounding area. The only way for a “yak” to dis- 9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron appear is for five users to down vote that post. This is known as “downing,” and is essentially a way of “unliking” a particular post.

Popular yaks can get hundreds of votes, better known as “ups.”

Essentially Yik Yak was intended to be fun and comical, but it is considered by psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow to be “the most dangerous app” he has ever seen, for it holds the power to anonymously destroy an innocent individual’s reputation. Users can use the app to spread rumors and insult others. Bullying is already an epidemic and Yik

3. Get some sleep It’s hard, we know. But you need at least six hours of sleep each night. Also it’s best if you get your body into a sleep schedule. It’ll be difficult at first but try going to bed at the same time every night. This will make it easier for you to wake up in the morning, thus having much more energy.

1. Get your homework done a day in advance This is also a hard one but you won’t regret it. If you get your homework and other work done a day in advance, you’ll be able to proofread your work and double check the facts. One tip that seems to work well is to do the homework the day it gets assigned to you.

If you get it done while it’s still fresh in your head, it’ll be less work later on and you won’t end up procrastinating.

‘Yik Yak can be entertaining because it explores scenarios that you may not be aware of.’

Your goals for spring (continued from cover)

and childhood friends. If they are far away try to Skype them once in a while.

If they live next door, go get a cup of coffee. You don’t want to lose these longterm relationships.

6. Charge less on the credit card You’re already in debt; you don’t want to add any more interest to your name. Use your credit cards for things you definitely need rather than want.

Those new shoes can wait but the textbooks are more necessary.

5. Eat healthier It’s hard especially if you’re always on the run. However, try to pack a healthy sandwich or salad with you instead of stopping for fast food. Your body will thank you and so will your mind.

4. Go to the gym Included in your tuition is also a payment for your school’s gym so why not take advantage of it? Regardless of whether or not you lift, try going for a run on the treadmill or take a yoga class at the gym. You need to exercise in order to keep a healthy mind.

Working out relieves stress and if you make a weekly habit of visiting the gym, you will be much happier.

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 10

2. Do something out of your element You’re young! Try something different. Go to a new place, travel a little bit and go a little crazy. This is the time to be selfish and enjoy yourself. Try something out that you never would have ever tried before. Why not!?

Happy New Year!

Campus News has some winter/spring writing and internship opportunities.

Contact editor@cccnews.info.

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Campus News | January 2015 | Page 11

Crowdfunding is hit and miss

Ayana Stewart Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

When David Furr first learned about Kickstarter, he was skeptical.

The 40-year-old comic book publisher was looking for a way to cover printing costs for his company’s books, and someone recommended crowdfunding.

Kickstarter was started in 2009 and is targeted toward creative projects and often used by filmmakers, musicians, artists and inventors who need financial support. Anyone can create a project and invite family, friends and complete strangers to contribute. More than 7.5 million people have contributed $1.4 billion to projects in the company’s fiveyear existence.

If a project reaches its funding goal, backers receive rewards from project creators – T-shirts, stickers or the product.

“I’m like, ‘That’s got to be some sort of Ponzi scheme or something,'” Furr, who lives in Houston, said. “I wasn’t buying it.”

But after asking around, he was told that Kickstarter was the future of indie comics.

Furr launched his first campaign in February 2014 and raised more than $4,500. In October, he launched another campaign and barely fell short of his $1,600 goal, raising $1,578.

Similar websites include Indiegogo, which allows a wider range of projects, and GoFundMe, which is often used for personal causes, such as medical bills or college tuition.

From July through September, more

James Rogers. Photo by Author. than 6,100 Kickstarter projects were successfully funded.

Since Kickstarter started, more than 194,000 projects have been introduced, with the most successful project raising $13.3 million to develop a drink cooler with speakers, a blender and a USB charger.

According to Kickstarter’s statistics page, 40 percent of projects reach their funding goals.

So what happens to the other 60

percent?

If a project doesn’t reach its goal in the days allotted by the project creator, it receives none of the money pledged.

The appeal of Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing approach is clear – there’s little risk for backers.

Kickstarter spokesman Justin Kazmark provided several tips for anyone thinking about launching a project, including contributing to a project before starting your own.

“Find a project you’re inspired by and back it,” he said, which allows creators to get a sense of “what it takes to run a successful project.”

Crowdfunding is more complicated than just having an idea and raising money from strangers. Kazmark said the most successful campaigns include multimedia elements and “bringing a project to life.”

“It’s not just about getting money,” he said. “It’s about sharing a vision and inspiring people to get behind you.”

Kickstarter helped Virginia residents Scott Bauer and James Rogers create a brand new product.

Rogers, 28, a software engineer form Arlington, bikes to work. He was looking for a way to use his cellphone while he waited at crosswalks. Having to dig through his backpack proved time-consuming, and his phone often fell out of his pocket when he stashed it there.

In February, he shared an idea with Bauer: What about creating a magnetic armband that would hold his phone in place?

From there, the two brainstormed.

They settled on a compression sleeve and a bed of magnets to create a handsfree, magnetic phone holder. They decided to call it OnYou. “Our two things are comfort and accessibility,” said Bauer, 29, who lives in Fairfax City.

Bauer started planning a Kickstarter campaign in August to help mass produce the phone holder. They emailed all

of their relatives and friends and hundreds of news outlets and blogs.

“Unless you’re just inventing the light bulb, I can’t imagine you can do it without lead-up,” he said.

At the end of the 45-day campaign, the project had raised $20,555, just over the $20,000 funding goal.

Toward the end, as OnYou inched closer to its campaign goal, Bauer stood on a street corner with the phone holder and randomly stopped people.

“I said, ‘Will you buy this product?’” he remembered. If the answer was yes, he told them to buy it through the company’s Kickstarter campaign.

More than 150 people backed the project, with 16 people pledging $150 or more. The company plans to have an initial batch of the cases finished by March.

They are manufacturing them at a lab called TechShop in Crystal City, Va. Walter Haas is the founder of Kickspy, a website that tracks Kickstarter projects. Haas has seen trends in successful projects – high-quality images, catchy titles and desirable rewards.

But one of his biggest tips is planning. Having a “pre-launch” event and allowing people to back a project early, along with building relationships with bloggers and journalists before the campaign starts, can help drum up publicity.

“This can have a dramatic effect,” he said. “The more backers that back your project early, the more prominent your project will be on sites like Kickspy, which gets you seen by even more backers.”

Even though Furr said he’s seen a decrease in the number of quality Kickstarter projects, he wants people to realize that most campaigns come from people with legitimate business plans.

“We’re working hard,” he said.

“We’re not just a bunch of loser slackers who have pie-in-the-sky dreams.”

‘Find a project you’re inspired by and back it.’

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 12

The five most under-reported stories of 2014

Wesley Juhl Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

While important stories about the Ebola crisis, Islamic state group and nationwide protests dominated headlines this past year, the news media neglected other important stories.

Prominent journalists met at the Woodrow Wilson Center last month to discuss the most underreported stories of 2014.

No one at the event would admit to missing an event outright – one journalist said that would be tantamount to admitting to malpractice – but they shared news they said should have gotten more widespread attention.

1 . L o o se n u k e s i n P a k i st a n Pakistan has at least six nuclear sites and could have as many as 200 nuclear devices by 2020. The Wilson Center’s Director Jane Harman said local reports described warheads being transported in vans, which could be a serious problem in a country with an active Taliban presence. (The discussion was held before December’s attack on a school in Islamabad where more than 100 students were murdered by Taliban forces.)

“There’s one I think at least we should devote a few brain cells to,” Harman said.

2. C i v i l w a r i n Sy r i a While the Islamic state group has gotten the most attention in this country in recent months, Robin Wright, a former Washington Post reporter and a Wilson Center scholar, said the conflict between rebels and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces has been largely neglected.

“There are two wars playing out in Syria,” she said. “We’re doing almost no examination or exploration of the war that has to do with the government in Damascus.”

Wright said Assad’s forces have dropped 2,500 barrel bombs in the last 50 days alone. She said they are crude bombs filled with shrapnel, chlorine and fertilizer-based explosives.

3 . L o s i ng L i b y a The attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi has become a partisan talking point and still makes headlines.

But Wright said that there are other important developments that should get some attention, too.

After the death of Moammar Gadhafi, many in the international community hoped the new democracy would remain stable.

But militants Islamists now control Benghazi and Tripoli.

“We are losing Libya,” Wright said. “The elected government has very few resources to regain power.”

4 . U . S . e c on om y Greg Ip, a U.S. economics editor for The Economist, said that the most underreported story about the economy is how well it is doing.

“The pace of job growth is not just strong, its accelerating,” he said.

“Within a year, we could have an economy that is fully back to normal, and yet opinion polls find that most people think we are still In a recession.”

But wages remain low, and households are still worse off than they were in 2007.

The probThe proposed lem the pipeline.

United States has is the inability to produce more goods and services, Ip said, because the country doesn't have enough labor and capital to do it. And the aging U.S. workforce will exacerbate labor problems in the coming years.

5. E P A r e g u l at i o n s The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller said the Keystone XL pipeline was

TCA graphic the biggest environmental story of the year, but it wasn’t the most consequential.

“The much bigger story is the EPA regulations that aren’t nearly as sexy,” she said.

Those regulations, which were announced over the summer, would

force states to come up with a formula for their existing coal-fired power plants to reduce carbon emissions by a set target.

“Over the long term that will have a far greater impact on the environment than if the Keystone pipeline is built,” she said.

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sfc.edu sfc .e d u Campus News | January 2015 | Page 13

Where senators go after leaving office

Kara Mason Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

As losing or retiring members of the Senate prepare to leave their offices on Capitol Hill in January, chances are their next gig will keep them in the capital and close to Congress.

It’s widely accepted that after a career in the Senate, there is a comfy office chair waiting on K Street for retired or losing incumbent members.

In the last three sessions of Congress, that has remained true. The majority of losing or retiring senators took a job with a lobbying firm immediately after office. Some move on from their initial jobs.

Members of the Senate are not able to register as lobbyists right away, however. There has been a two-year cooling-off period for departing members of the Senate in effect since 1991.

But that hasn’t slowed down the trend of employing former Senators, who can still advise clients about the ways of Capitol Hill.

Paul Jorgensen, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American and former fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, said the cooling-off periods aren’t long enough, and that’s why lobbying is still the No. 1 employer of former senators.

“The bottom line is that the cooling-off periods are usually too short, and the revolving door extends well beyond senators to their staff,” Jorgensen said. “Also, there are ways around reg-

istering as a lobbyist – which more and more individuals are doing.”

Only one former senator from the past three terms made it to a top lobbying firm right out of Congress. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., lost to then-Rep. John Boozman in 2010, and took a job as a special policy adviser at Alston & Bird.

Of course, she couldn’t register as a lobbyist right away.

The firm made just over $12 million in 2013, making it a top-20 lobbying firm that year, but not in 2010 when Lincoln joined the firm, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

There is no example of a senator leaving office and immediately going to a top-grossing lobbying firm during the past three sessions of congress.

But that could be because the revolving door between the Hill and K Street “is most exploited by Senate and House staffers,” Jorgensen said.

He recalls an interview former lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave at Harvard.

Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

“Abramoff was asked: How were you so skilled as a lobbyist? Abramoff answered that he influenced the staff and had staffers work for him. How did you do that? Abramoff replied: I not so subtly offered them a job whenever they wanted to quit being a staffer,” Jorgensen said.

Six of the past 38 senators leaving office went to universities: Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., went to Georgetown,

more. There was something missing though; I was not working toward my life-long goal to become a veterinarian.

It was time to make some changes.

A year later, after realizing my current stock in life was not getting me to my “promised land,” I re-enrolled at New Paltz College for Spring 2000. I also started looking for volunteer work that would enhance my knowledge in the path to veterinary science I was pursuing. I landed a position at a local veterinary hospital shadowing one of the resident doctors, and also for an income, I accepted a part-time job at Home Depot. So in August 1999, I started working my part-time job Friday through Sunday, and volunteered Monday through Thursday. From September until December, I spent every day filling my time with one thing or another, getting ready for college in the spring.

The semester began in January 2000, and I was ready for anything. I ended my volunteer work and a new position with Home Depot, to test out an initiative to improve operations, paid better and allowed me to concentrate on college during the day without any hinderance of scheduling conflicts. I was taking classes that I enjoy: maths and sciences. Everything was running smoothly, until later in the month.

Shortly after a winter storm, I was head-

ing to class when I hit some ice on a sharp curve. My car started to slide. By the time it was over, I was in someone’s yard across the street, facing the opposite direction from the one I was traveling, yet still alive and with no apparent injury. My car did not feel the same; it had irreparable damage. I had a decision to make: to buy a car or pay tuition.

In 2000, financial aid was not as generous as it is now, and my income was always too high to qualify. My decision was made for me; I could not get to college without a car, and I could not buy a car if I paid tuition. Thankfully, my job opened a door for me, and I was promoted to supervisor of overnight operations. My team had succeeded in the proposed initiative and I was given the opportunity to set up improved procedures. I was depressed about the accident and having to withdraw from college, but at least had a stable income, a better car, and could save up money. I set a goal to go back to school in spring 2003. This would allow me ample time to save enough for a year’s tuition and emergency funds. So I dug deep, found my determination, and then tragedy struck.

I was diagnosed with cancer in

Graphic by Sean McMinn.

Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; to Indiana University; Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to Marquette University Law School; and Ted Kaufman, D-Del., to Duke University.

George Voinovich, D-Ohio, took a fellowship at Cleveland State University, and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., took a fellowship at Stanford University Law School.

“When I left the Senate I was anxious to return to my home state of New Mexico, which my wife and I have always considered our home,” Bingaman said in an email interview. “I also had no interest in lobbying the Congress. I am sure that the main factor which re-

sults in former members of congress staying in D.C. and lobbying is the financial incentive.”

Some former senators went back into government, including Hillary Clinton and former-Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb may run for president. The Democrat wrote a book after serving one term.

Others have left Washington for good, including Hawaii’s Daniel Akaka, who left the Senate in 2012.

The Democrat celebrated his 90th birthday in September.

2003. Amazing, how one simple sentence can impact a person. I had changed jobs at the new year, and thankfully my benefits paid a majority of bills, but I was still responsible for 20%.

Within a year, I liquidated all my cash into staying alive. For the next ten years, I would struggle to pay off and write off the remainder of the expenses. During this time, my “friend,” depression, took over. I would isolate myself, put on the mask of happiness, and keep moving forward. Even after meeting great friends and a life-changing mentor, I never truly stood tall anymore. My “friend” influenced my decisions in business, leisure, and even romance. My college career seemed to be at an end before it ever got off the ground.

Then in 2013, a personal matter forced me to realize that I had a problem: my depression had made friends over the years, anxiety and addiction.

Without going into too many details, I needed help, and in fall of 2013, I began treatment for depression with a clinical psychologist. From September 2013 until now, I have accepted a lot of truths about myself, my dysfunctional family, the abuse I suffered as a teenager, and

the people I hurt along the way. I started to feel again, not just carry a mask of emotional happiness. I decided to take a risk, and finish my dream of becoming a vet. Financial aid is more generous now, and I accepted its help to not just pay my tuition, but supplement my income while I am in college. I enrolled at SUNY Orange, and two weeks before the start of the semester, I was offered a spot in the Honors program.

Why a community college when I already had a good standing at a fouryear? My family asked this also, but as an adult learner, I wanted a fresh start.

That meant retaking a few classes I already succeeded at to review. I could have reviewed independently, but I knew I needed the structure for better organization. SUNY Orange offered this, and to its credit, was far more challenging than I had expected. I know I made the right decision. Now I have opportunity to grow as a student again, while staying close to home and building my real life, with all its flaws.

My tough road back to college (cont. from cover)

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 14

‘I liquidated all my cash into staying alive.’

Kevin Holt, Jr., is a first-year Liberal Arts student at SUNY Orange, a community college in Upstate New York.

Online threats case heard in the Supreme Court

Kara Mason Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

It might have been the first time “just kidding, laughing out loud” was used by a justice in Supreme Court oral arguments, but for some, Elonis v.

U.S., the First Amendment case heard in December, isn’t a laughing matter at all.

Justices heard arguments about whether intent is required to prove that a person’s online words are a true threat.

After Anthony Elonis and his wife, Tara Elonis, split in May 2010, he began posting status updates on his Facebook page that were seen as a threat to his ex-wife’s life. He also threatened a former coworker, who tipped off the FBI to the posts. But Anthony Elonis said the graphic fantasies of Tara Elonis’ death was a coping mechanism.

While oral arguments touched on several different aspects of the First Amendment, it was the topic of what constitutes a “true threat” that dominated the argument.

“I’m not sure that the court did either the law or the English language much of a good service when it said ‘true threat.’ It could mean so many things,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said to John Elwood, who represented Anthony Elonis. “It could mean that you really intend to carry it out … you really intend to intimidate the person, or that no one could possibly believe it.”

The court has not clearly defined a true threat in past First Amendment cases. As in the Elonis case, it is debated whether intent is required for a true threat.

In this case, lower courts decided the standard for a true threat would be if a reasonable person would consider the language threatening.

“But how would the government prove whether this threat in the mind of the threatener was genuine?” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked.

Anthony Elonis claimed his posts were merely therapeutic and for entertainment. In October 2010, he changed the name on his Facebook profile from Anthony Elonis to “Tone Dougie,” a rap pseudonym. He said that the lyrics “did not reflect the views, values or beliefs of Anthony Elonis, the person.” Thus, he lacked intent to actually kill his ex-wife.

Tara Elonis still saw the posts as threatening. She said she never knew her former husband to listen to rap music while they were married.

When her sister posted about Halloween costume shopping with her and

her children, Anthony Elonis responded with a comment saying their son “should dress up as matricide.”

“I don’t know what his costume would entail though. Maybe (Tara’s) head on a stick?” he said in the comment.

Anthony Elonis mentioned the death of his exwife in three more Facebook posts and then on Nov. 16, 2010, posted that he would make a name for himself by initiating the most heinous school shooting ever.

“And hell hath no fury like a crazy man in a kindergarten class,” he wrote.

If the court sides with Tara Elonis and deems the posts threatening, it Photo by Author. could mean a lot of what is said online would be taken much more seriwhat he believed the level should be ously, and the possibility of prosecufor intent: “So one, the very, very hightion would increase significantly. est level might be I affirmatively want Elwood argued that the audience of the language is very important to the to place this person in fear. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. There’s a threat. Taken out of context, a reasonstep down from that, which is I don’t able person might believe Anthony want to do that, I’m just fulfilling my Elonis really wished to harm his exartistic fantasies, whatever you want to wife, but his friends, or his audience, call it, but I know that I am going to place this person in fear. Which intent do you want?”

Elwood said he preferred the second interpretation.

But Michael Dreeben, deputy solicitor general, who argued on behalf of the U.S. government, told the justices he believed the standard for a true threat should be broader.

“What we want is a standard that holds accountable people for the ordiwouldn’t take the language seriously.

“I think many of the speakers who are online and many of the people who are being prosecuted now are teenagers who are essentially shooting off their mouths or making sort of ill-timed, sarcastic comments, which wind up getting thrown in jail,” Elwood said.

In a friend of the court brief, the Student Press Law Center echoed that argument, citing several examples when online posts were seen as threatening, though the authors had no intent to be harmful.

“The original context of a message, understandable and benign to an intended set of initial recipients, may be misunderstood when republished to a different audience that is unaware of the message’s original context,” the center wrote to the court.

Justice Elana Kagan asked Elwood

‘And hell hath no fury like a crazy man in a kindergarten class,’ he wrote on Facebook.

nary and natural meaning of the words that they say in context,” he said.

Adding a “JK” or “LOL” could have changed the context, though.

“And then there’s some individual who likes this. He puts a thumb up to this comment,” Justice Samuel Alito said to Elwood. “Now, suppose that this was altered a little bit, so at the bottom he puts, just kidding, just kidding, laughing out loud. And at the top he puts, Tone Dougie aspiring rap artist. What’s a jury to do with that under your theory?”

Elwood responded that it would be up to a jury of reasonable people to decide whether the threat was true.

The court is expected to make a decision on the case by summer.

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Birthday (cont.)

large and small in the past few years.

Campus News still gets excellent “pick up,” as it’s called in this industry, so it’s not like people are all suddenly allergic to the printed word.

Textbooks are still on paper for the most part. We’re not giving in to the web hype.

In fact, we may be looking for a secondary market outside the Northeast; perhaps some self-contained community college system, as they have in some major US cities/states.

As The American proved, we can transmit our paper to a printing plant anywhere, rent an SUV in that city, and distribute accordingly.

The App We’ve been working with some young app developers on creating the Campus News app. It has been a slow go, but who knows how this will work out?

I think what will happen is the printed newspaper, Community College Campus News, will continue to hit two-year colleges while the digital efforts will open us up to four-year and graduate colleges, especially

journalism programs. They will be two separate entities. We’ll see how this turns out.

S t u d en t W i r e S e r v i c e As you see in our back pages, we regularly run Scripps Howard Foundation Wire stories by student journalist interns. They are based in Washington, DC, but I’ve wanted to do something similar, based in the Northeast somewhere, maybe in New York City or in Albany, where the students can cover the Capitol.

There are a lot of small newspapers in the state that can’t afford to send a correspondent to the Capitol, so perhaps this wire service would be useful to them. All the real work of your assemblymen and state senators happens in Albany. Though New York City has more news going on in general. Look for this to start to form in the next year or two.

GE E L L O AS C N I U Q le!

S A b A a d M r o O f f ge A e l l S T. T H o C e ak

ou M Y p l e H Can

Well, that’s about it, for now.

Thank you for reading this paper. If you’d like to get involved, please write to editor@cccnews.info. Have a great New Year!

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AR T S T E G O ta g e o f T n a v Y d D a e REA a n d ta k e v a lu a tio n s ! t i s i v s ip pu r a c a m a n d s c h o la r s h o f s u n d it Jo i p o t c re y! s a e h t d i r on F r sfe emester. n a r T a Attend throughout the s

events / u d e . c w.sta w w t a Online r e t s i g Re le Availab

s Program r e e r a &C ademic c A + rts 0 10 DII Spo A A C N 18 d Clubs n nt a s e i t tivi articipa c P A t m a n r e ud Prog 40+ St Ribbon ® - Yellow hool ndly Sc e i r F y r Milita ROCKLAND COUNTY, NEW YORK 845.398.4100 | www.stac.edu A U.S. News & World Report Top-Tier Institution Campus News | January 2015 | Page 17

Student choices in an ever-changing college landscape

David L. Podos Mohawk Valley CC

Should I take a traditional on- line class or should I be in an actual classroom? Do I register for Massive Open Online Classes (MOOC’s)? Maybe that “brick and motors” class where registration is limited to no more than 25 students is my ticket; would that be the best place for me? Should I only take courses that are taught by a full time Professor, or should I take a course that is being instructed by an Adjunct Professor/Instructor? When did going to college become so complicated?

Technology has opened up so many different avenues for learning that it boggles the mind. A typical college student today is literally bombarded by the latest technique to advance academically. And while Adjunct Professors/Instructors have been on college campuses teaching for eons, it has only been fairly recently that campuses across the country have seen a huge uptick in the number of Adjuncts versus the number full time Instructors. Much of this is driven by economics as the typical Adjunct usually gets paid about a third of what a full time Instructor would, thus saving the college money. However, one cannot discount the sheer numbers of Adjunct faculty that are instructing on American campuses today. Those numbers are a reality (on average most faculty today are comprised of at least 50% or more of Adjunct Instructors), and if anything the issue seems to be growing.

But first, let’s look at MOOCs. MOOCs (or Massive Open On-Line Courses) are open to anyone with a computer, and all students have “free” access. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But, there is some disturbing research that has been coming out on the efficacy of these massive free online classes. From an online blog written by Harman Singh and titled, “Whats Wrong with MOOCs and Why Aren’t They Working,” Singh says the following, “A study by MIT and Harvard in 20122013 revealed an overwhelming 95% of students taking a MOOC dropped their on-line course(s) before completion.”

Singh goes on to say that “the most common reason cited: there is no “live” teacher engagement.” Singh also points out that, “A live teacher at the center of the MOOC will help MOOCs evolve.” This may be true,

Campus News | January 2015 | Page 18

but the data is not in yet to refute or and boots on the ground experience confirm that this will happen, so only into the classroom, and that can only time will tell. Singh is the founder and be good for the student.

Chief Executive of on-line learning Students also need to do their due platform wizlQ. diligence and ask around on campus So what about plain old vanilla on- about an Instructor. Was he/she fair line courses? There have been volwith testing, were they available for ofumes written about on-line versus brick fice hours, and/or did they offer alterand mortar innative hours to meet with students who struction. For could not make set office hour schedmany students, ules? What are their attendance polionline is a necies, do they have experience in the cessity either course(s) that they are instructing bedue to work yond academic knowledge, etc. and or family All full time Professors have at schedules and least a Master’s degree or a PhD, so responsibilities, certainly from an academic standpoint or there might they are well versed and educated in be a commutthe curriculum that they are teaching ing issue. in, and for many students that is suffiToday’s oncient. In particular PhD’s have years line classes are of research under their belt, (or should a bit more technologically savvy than have), and this is important as it conearlier versions when a student could tributes to the body of knowledge that throw on their flip flops, grab a beer they are instructing, which offers a new (Coke or Pepsi) and sign in and sign look and voice on areas of study, often off whenever they pleased. With Intimes challenging the status quo into a structors expecting interaction via mes- new way of thinking. sage boards at certain times as well Adjuncts may or may not have the posting, uploading and downloading, higher degrees. While most do have a it’s a new ball game. That said, if a stu- Masters, some are able to teach with a dent can feel comfortable in a virtual Bachelor degree as long as they have a environment, has the discipline that it certain number of years experience takes for online instruction, and a working in the field of instruction that place that is conducive to learning, (a they will be teaching, and of course fairly quiet place with few or no intermany do have their PhD. In my experiruptions), then forget the dorm room ence and research, why students and go for it.

Finally, Broom Hilda by Russell Myers should a student choose an Adjunct or a full time faculty member to take classes? As an Adjunct teaching in higher education for over 14 years, I admit that I approach this topic with some prejudice, however not close mindedness. In my opinion there is room for mutually cooperative interaction in regards to instruction for full time and part time faculty and a place for each in the classroom. Both professionals bring a compilation of education, research

choose Adjuncts over full time Professors usually comes down to the Adjunct’s many years of working in a profession that they are now instructing, so “boots on the ground experience” is important to these students more so than academic title and or research awards and citations.

Whatever path you choose in regards to your academics (method of learning and/or by whom, full time faculty versus part time faculty) is your personal decision; just get all the facts beforehand and whatever you choose will most likely pay off.

A final note on learning that begs some consideration and thoughtfulness, from “Change Learning.ca” here is a snippet worth pondering (author unknown): “Learning is a social activity.” Note the word “social!” “That we learn best through collaboration, not competition, people learn best through interaction with others.”… Enough said.

David L. Podos is an adjunct instructor for the Center for Social Sciences, Business and Information Sciences at MVCC.

Campus News | January 2015 | Inside Back Cover

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Why should you transfer to Molloy College?

REASON

Your CALC professor called you by the wrong name – all semester.

#1 REASON

#2 REASON

#3

You want a campus that’s alive after 3 p.m.

You want to be at a school where you feel you belong.

Transferring here is not only simple . . . it’s rewarding. One of the most ost affordable private colleges on Long Island, Molloy offers an academically challenging yet nurturing environment, and an accomplished yet approachable faculty.

See more reasons why you should transfer to Molloy College.

Visit our campus. Meet the students. Call 1-888-4-MOLLOY, email admissions@molloy.edu or visit molloyprograms.com/transfer.

Go ahead. Start something.

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Community College Campus News | January 2015 | Back Cover