College is not a game
page 2 Accent • February 16, 2009
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Jamie Carpenter
Campus Editor
As a college student, one o the things I love best is the abil-ity to be able to blame teachersor things that aren’t their ault.Whenever I have a genuineinterest in a class and I like my teacher, I will sing praises aboutthe teacher and the class. I lovegoing to class, enjoy doing thehomework, and I give the classmy best eort.Ten o course, there’s my Hyde side. When it’s a coreclass I am not interested in,but have to take in order tograduate, or a teacher whoseIn what amounts to one o the mosthypocritical and backwards propos-als ever, Gov. Perry in his eighth Stateo the State Address (Note: now wouldbe a good time to enorce term limits)proposed a our year tuition reeze. Fightthe urge to applaud. I it weren’t or Perry,tuition wouldn’t be so absolutely out o control to begin with.Te 2003 deregulation o tuition leadto yearly rapid and monumental hikes intuition state wide. When exas lawmak-ers deregulated tuition, they didn’t stipu-late that i the economy gets worse andthe board o regents goes crazy with thetuition increases, then the Legislature canstep in and start regulating again.Te way the reeze would work is thatthe students would start taking classesas reshman, and then when they aresophomores the cost o attending theuniversity might go up, but the cost they paid as reshmen would be locked in. Tiscontinues on so that by the time they arein their ourth year, the school is charg-ing incoming reshmen our years wortho increases, more than the graduatingseniors. Neat.Except, not all college studentsgraduate in our years. According to theCollege Navigator website, sponsored by the U.S. Department o Education, lessthan 50% o University o exas at Austinstudents graduate in our years. Tismeans that in their h year students’tuition will jump up to accommodate allour years o increases all at once.Supporters o this idea keep sayingthat it will be a great motivator or stu-dents to nish college ‘on time’, whichcondescendingly implies that students arecurrently in need o motivation to gradu-ate in our years.College students oen take longerthan our years to complete their degreesbecause o the increasing amount o responsibilities, not to mention the sky-rocketing rate o now deregulated tuitionthat makes taking 12-16 hour semestersnancially impossible.Te reality is that the Legislature cannot have its cake and eat it too. Obviously,they eel like they need control o tuition,but reuse to admit that they made a mis-take and wont assert that control in any long standing legal way.Perry’s proposal, which now hasmajority support in the Senate, wont xthe tuition problems that students areacing, and more over lacks a sense o responsibility or those problems, whichhe helped create. I propose Perry und aline o “I’m sorry I ruined the educationsystem” license plates beore he startsmessing with tuition again.personality I am not particu-larly ond o, I have nothinggood to say whatsoever.Everything that a teacherdoes or says is without a doubtsaid to annoy me. I did not getan F because I didn’t study, orbecause I procrastinated andwaited till the last minute.Instead, the grade is clearly theresult o my teacher being unrea-sonable and/or picking on me. Ireally believe that too many col-lege students do not want to holdthemselves accountable or theirsuccess or ailure in school. It istoo easy to blame the teachers,because they don’t know whatwe are going through.
Rob Palladino
Columnist
As I’m sitting here tappingaway at the keyboard, way pastdeadline – and hoping my editor isn’t going to ay mealive - I happened to tune intoPresident Obama’s maidenpress conerence and I sin-cerely wished I hadn’t. It wasperhaps the most dishonestdisplay I’ve, well, since Obamalast said something.Tis “presser” was noth-ing more than a stump speechpunctuated by meaningless,soball questions asked by his awning press core – andwhat a disgrace to journal-ism they are. He was allowedto meander his way throughdouble-talk and BS and no onebatted an eyelid – i they couldkeep their eyes open duringthe mogadon bore-est. Whenthe liveliest member o thepress core is Medusa hersel,Helen Tomas – who, as BillO’Reilly amusingly quipped,that i someone poured salt onher she would dissolve – youhave a big problem.But, let’s talk taxes here.So ar it’s difcult to know,as Dennis Miller beautiully pointed out last week on Fox,that ormer Illinois governorRod Blagojevich “appears tobe the only guy Barack Obamahas met in the last ve years o his lie who has paid his taxes.”Now, while that is unny,it also seems to be a sadly sel-ullling prophecy. Sure, omDaschle ell on his own sword,aer a little tipping rom theNew York imes, but somehowim Geithner is still going totake charge o the reasury despite his tax “problems.”Why both o these chumpsaren’t being hammered by the IRS is beyond me. I you,I or anyone o us ordinary olk “orgets” to pay any kindo tax, you can be sure you’llreceive that riendly bludgeonat your ront door and a comy prison cell to spend some timein. It’s a “one law or them”system and all o us will justhave to deal.President Obama alsocame up with this zinger atthe National Prayer Breakasta ew days back: “Tere is noGod who condones takingthe lie o an innocent humanbeing, this much we know.”Oh really?Maybe he should bereminded o the act that herecently signed the reversalo the Mexico City Policy that so generously “donates”American tax payer dollars tound abortion overseas. Also, just in case it slipped his mind,he’s about to do the same withthe utterly revolting Freedomo Choice Act (FOCA) whichwill basically turn the USAinto a 50-state abortion mill.But then, I guess it willmake Hollywood zombieAshley Judd happy that babies,instead o wolves, are beingmurdered. I eel a warm anduzzy coming on. Speaking o zombies…MSNBC’s Rachel Maddowis a class act. No, really. Lastnight on her show, she gave ashort “speech” about how shebacked all the people that areghting the good ght against“corrupt” CEOs and so called“Fat Cats.” Ms. Maddow is ahypocrite par excellence. Whodoes she think she works or?Greenpeace? Tis bright spark works or MSNBC who areowned by? General Electric!Yes, that pinnacle o le-wing thought and debateworks or one o the biggestcompanies in the United Statesyet complains about the very system that is making her richbeyond her wildest dreams.It’s all very well to stand thereand hold a clenched st up,act like Amy “Bin” Goodman,go home to a swanky NYCapartment and still claim tobe street credible by support-ing, not reporting mind you,random acts o evermorepointless demonstration.I think Maddow shouldat least be honest – althoughshe couldn’t about almostlanding a job with Fox News awhile back – and admit she’sa champagne socialist. But, i she did that, Keith Olbermannwould have to re her, sincehe seems to be making all theeditorial decisions at MSNBCthese days, and she may endup on the next series o “Rock o Love.”
Perry has coitent
issues with state tuition
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But really, the truth o thematter is that teachers do knowwhat it’s like. Obviously, inorder to be a teacher, they hadto go to school. Tey had to dohomework, manage their time,take classes they didn’t want totake, and put up with teachersthey might not have liked. Tey survived and so will we. Were itonly so simple that the ault o bad learning lied solely in thehands o the students. I don’tknow how many times I haveread in a proessor’s syllabusthat it is important we showup or class on time, and havegood attendance/participa-tion, only to have them wasteour time by spending the rstthirty minutes trying to pre-pare or lectures, sipping theircoee, or chatting with peoplethat aren’t even in our class.eachers should be preparedto teach class just as studentsshould be prepared to learn inclass.Regardless o whether ornot the issue is a lack o owningup to your procrastination withyour homework or hypocriti-cal teachers, there should notbe this unspoken war betweenteachers and students whereteachers are tyrants holdingour destiny in their hands, andstudents are bratty kids talkingon their cell phones and walk-ing into class late.In order or a learning envi-ronment to be successul, nei-ther teacher nor student shouldbe late to class, talk on thecell phone, or chat with otherpeople, because it is disruptingor all parties. Te classroomenvironment should be aboutlearning. Instead, it seems likethere is a silent divide betweenteachers and students which ispointless and unnecessary.A college education is not apetty game with losers or win-ners. Both teachers and studentswould benet rom a sense o mutual respect in the learningrelationship they share.
Karen Kuhn • Sta artist
Presser disappoints
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