NC shouldn’t wait for congress to invest in infrasturcture

Opinion

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 6 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

NC shouldn’t wait for congress to invest in infrastructure

In his State of the Union address, President Trump called upon Congress for “a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion” in infrastructure spending, in a throwback to one of his campaign promises. However, his request failed to inspire much confidence for me. Despite the high dollar amount, Trump failed to offer any specific proposals on how to raise or spend the money. Also, seeing as the Capitol has been unable to fund itself recently, it seems unlikely that such a large spending package will appear anytime soon.

To maintain the health of our state’s economy, North Carolina should act now to fund infrastructure repair and development. Especially in the Triangle region, investment in transportation, higher education and technological infrastructure could greatly improve the economy, providing jobs for NC State graduates and other North Carolinians.

In a recent news article, Technician correspondent Georgia Burgess reported on NC State’s plans to upgrade several facilities starting in 2018. The construction, funded by the sale of government bonds, includes a new engineering building on Centennial Campus, the installation of a Student Services center in Harris Hall and improvements to Carmichael Gym. Projects like these are important to the student body because they ensure that our facilities are actively meeting our needs and improving ease of use.

Spending on infrastructure can stimulate the economy in excess of the amount of dollars used, but only when targeted to weak or underfunded areas, according to the Brookings Institute. So we cannot merely build miles of new roads, except where such construction will actively improve driving conditions.

For instance, Project Fortify, a project scheduled to finish this spring which has repaired sections of I-40 around Raleigh, is an example of impactful spending. This highway services 120,000 commuters each day and had degraded considerably, threatening driver safety. Although the past five years of traffic congestion have been painful at times, the new roads will probably ease the daily commute for thousands of workers for a long time to come.

At its heart, good infrastructure spending aims to combat real issues and grease the gears of the economy. Regardless of whether Congress manages to pass a substantial infrastructure deal, North Carolina must commit to improving its infrastructure, in order to ensure that we remain a center for economic growth in the 21st century.

Raleigh has been chosen as a finalist for the new Amazon headquarters, but as the News & Observer notes, our “anemic transportation system” is a major shortfall in our city’s bid for the headquarters. Although our state has offered tax incentives to attract Amazon’s attention, some of that money might be better devoted to improving our roads and mass transit. In addition, NC State students would directly benefit from improved bus service to Raleigh and other cities in the area.

The article does describe key strengths of the Triangle region, including the proximity

to major universities and the existing tech environment of RTP. Preserving these advantages should also motivate the General Assembly to boost investment in higher education and technology start-ups. In the information economy, reliable Noah electricity access is crucial to productivity. Jabusch North Carolina has become a leader in solar Staff Columnist energy production. However, as the News & Observer notes, incentives by the state legislature to encourage both Duke Energy and energy consumers to add renewable capacity would pave the way to a cleaner energy future, as well as boosting our profile across the nation. In his speech, Trump failed to mention the grave dangers posed by climate change to the American people. By taking infrastructure into its own hands, North Carolina can grow the economy in a way consistent with our needs and goals. As adults poised to enter the job market, we must support infrastructure spending by speaking out in favor of economically focused investment, both at the polls and between elections, to safeguard our economic future.

Talley’s improvements have not gone unnoticed

With the new semester has come new changes to Talley. In the past month there have been two important changes in the Pavilions, both improving the area in their own way. The first change is the addition of a Tapingo display screen outside of Tuffy’s Diner and the second being the implementation of compostable cups to the area.

Admittedly, both of these changes have been small changes to how we as students each order and eat our food. But the effect that both of them have on the student body and the dining experience at Talley as whole certainly shouldn’t go unnoticed. These two changes alone are great steps in the right direction for the future of Talley.

The new screen at Tuffy’s is a clear example of the effort Talley is making to provide a better experience and the services that Tapingo is willing to provide to make their process more efficient.

I’ve had my critiques of Tapingo in the past. Tapingo’s system of ordering food increased demand to a point of backlog during rush times (lunch and dinner) and it also punishes those who don’t want to order using the service by increasing their wait times.

However, their addition of a screen works to counteract what I see as the largest problems stemming from the nature of how the company views ordering food.

The screen at Tuffy’s addresses the rush times by visually showing customers what is in store for them if they place an order during that time. Imagine a scenario where you walk up to Tuffy’s and the screen shows that most orders haven’t even been started yet, you would be much more likely to just eat somewhere else or during some other time.

Furthermore, the visual queue helps show to customers who place their orders in-person the wait that they have in front of them. Previously, the only way for these individuals to know how many people had placed a Tapingo order ahead of them was to have the app themselves, which in-person customers would likely not have. In short, this screen provides a visual representation of a virtual line; that’s helpful information. Combined, these two effects help make sure that food is ordered and prepared in a way that doesn’t so severely backlog the orders which is something that neither the customers nor the employees want to deal with. With more of these screens around Talley, the effects could be increased even more, benefitting both all parties involved. The second change happens to have even less of an impact on how you eat, but an even larger impact on NC State as a whole. The introduction of compostable cups in Talley Pavilions is likewise something that should

not go unnoticed by the student body. The cups require little participation for each individual and, according to reporting by Marco Valencia, are estimated to reduce the waste created by Talley Student Union by 15 percent. Joseph This is by no measure a small impact; the Rivenbark addition of these cups show NC State’s push Correspondent to become more environmentally friendly and demonstrate Talley’s willingness to be part of the movement. Combined with the visual queue, this could mean that an increased number of students use more environmentally friendly methods of eating food. These two changes combined will help make sure that Talley moves in a more efficient and environmentally friendly direction. It’s because of this that these changes should not go unnoticed. These are steps by the NC State administration to provide a better place for students, and they work.

Opinion

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 7 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

My inbox is not your marketplace

Stanhope Student Apartments. NC State Dining. Tapingo. Although all three are seemingly unrelated, they share, along with many other organizations here on campus, an extremely negative and annoying flaw: spam emails.

Now, I completely understand that many probably view spam email as nothing more than a very minor nuisance. Still, it’s a very widespread phenomenon amongst college students that is very prone to getting on our nerves, and thus is worth discussing.

Leslie Godoy, a first-year studying accounting, and Jordan Hahn, a first-year studying electrical engineering, stated that they did receive emails that they would classify as “spam.” Godoy stated that, on average, she receives “like five [spam emails]” daily. “Not just Tapingo,” she added, “[but also] the career emails that I don’t care for.”

Aggravating advertisements are definitely not some sort of new ordeal. From funny jingles on TV to ads on Facebook that are creepily targeted towards our specific interests, Americans are very much used to the omnipresent salesperson constantly urging us to whip out our credit cards. However, flooding inboxes with spam is where the line should be drawn.

The inbox is extremely important for the average college student. It’s where we get vital, immediate communication for school, work and extracurricular activities. I always have my notifications volume up so that I can stay up-to-date, and I’m sure plenty of other students do too. Therefore, when we’re anxiously checking our email all day for results back on an exam, it can be extremely annoying to hastily pull out our phone after we hear a “ding”, only to see a “25 percent off” here and a “buy one, get one free” there.

“Research shows that just looking through your inbox can significantly increase your stress levels,” wrote Emma M. Seppälä in an article for Psychology Today, in which she went on to list some of the specific effects of spending too much time in your inbox, such as stress, decreased productivity and lowered selfcontrol. Following this logic, I’d argue that these effects would be intensified if that inbox was full distracting and annoying spam.

Others find that the number of ads they receive daily differs little from the number they receive in personal or work emails. “I have two personal emails, [the amount of spam] is a little less than my main email where I do most of my stuff, but it’s more than my email where I keep all of my information,” said Brenden Sledge, a firstyear studying plant and soil sciences.

Of course, getting rid of the incoming stream of spam is not the most difficult thing in the world. Users can easily block and mute accounts, continuously mark all as read or make several email accounts to at least divide up the stream of spam. While many might just not be bothered by spam, there are some that are, that view spam as a constant irritant that disrupts the stream of actually important messages.

I’m definitely not suggesting some sort of legal deterrent for dealing with spam, because the very definition of “spam” is far too abstract to be put down on legislature. The boundaries of what is and isn’t would vary from person to person, and legal teams from hundreds of corpora-

tions would pop up left and right to get a bill like that shut down. Rather, I believe that organizations should be much more conservative with how often they flood inboxes with their sales pitches. Not a new thought, for sure Colin — I’m certain we all have wished the same McKnight thing at some point. But my argument Correspondent here is similar to the argument against the constant barrage of television commercials: just like how interrupting my show makes me want to do anything but buy your product, flooding my email with ads makes me want to have nothing to do with your product. By sending advertisements in moderation, it might make someone actually stop and spend time viewing the message. Students already have a lot of information coming at them on a daily basis. We would expect that the email, the method of communication through which most instructors and university organizations can easily communicate with students, would be free of promotions like these. The truth, though, is that they definitely are not, and it makes the common student question what right these companies have to clutter our accounts.

As Seen Around Campus

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 8 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

JESSICA HERNANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Du’Bois A’Keen, Tendayi Kuumba and Courtney J. Cook, performers in the Urban Bush Women company, list words used to describe black hair in the “Hair & Other Stories” show in Stewart Theatre on Friday. The mission of the Urban Bush Women is to “bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.”

JESSICA HENANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Tendayi Kuumba and Courtney J. Cook, performers in the Urban Bush Women company, began the “Hair & Other Stories” show singing and dancing on stage in Stewart Theatre on Friday. The mission of the Urban Bush Women is to “bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.”

JESSICA HERNANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Tendayi Kuumba, Du’Bois A’Keen and Courtney J. Cook, performers in the Urban Bush Women company, listed words describing Black hair in the “Hair & Other Stories” show in Stewart Theatre on Friday. The mission of the Urban Bush Women is to “bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.”

JESSICA HERNANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Courtney J. Cook and Tendayi Kuumba, performers in the Urban Bush Women company, began the “Hair & Other Stories” show singing and dancing on stage in Stewart Theatre on Friday. The mission of the Urban Bush Women is to “bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.”

As Seen Around Campus

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 9 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

SARAH COCHRAN/TECHNICIAN The Urban Bush Women performer Tendayi Kuumba sang during the Urban Bush Women’s performance of “Hair & Other Stories” at Stewart Theatre on Friday. Urban Bush Women was founded 30 years ago by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who was hoping to establish a company that captures the energy of the African-American community and would inspire others.

SARAH COCHRAN/TECHNICIAN Tendayi Kuumba (left) and Courtney J. Cook (right) dance, sing and entertain during their performance of “Hair & Other Stories” from the Urban Bush Women on Friday at Stewart Theatre. Urban Bush Women was founded 30 years ago by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who was hoping to establish a company that captures the energy of the African-American community and would inspire others.

JESSICA HERNANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Tendayi Kuumba, a performer in the Urban Bush Women company, interacted with the audience during the “Hair & Other Stories” show in Stewart Theatre on Friday. The mission of the Urban Bush Women is to “bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.”

SARAH COCHRAN/TECHNICIAN Tendayi Kuumba (left), Du’Bois A’Keen (center) and Courtney J. Cook (right) pose during their performance of Urban Bush Women’s “Hair & Other Stories” on Friday at Stewart Theatre. Urban Bush Women was founded 30 years ago by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who was hoping to establish a company that captures the energy of the African-American community and would inspire others.