Has anyone ever ridden in a taxi around Dallas and realized how unbelievably expensive it is? They charge you by the person and then put they’re flat rate on top of that, which, let’s be honest, isn’t always accurate by the company standards. I feel like I’m being completely ripped off though and charged far too much for a five-minute ride from place to place.
These taxi drivers frequent the Greenville bars and restaurants on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for a good reason: they know that at least one and as many as fourteen SMU students will jump in their cab looking for a ride. They’ve decided to take advantage of this by charging pricy amounts for each extra person in they’re car after one. Not only do they do this though, but then when you go to pay for the ride with a credit card because there’s nowhere near enough cash to pay for the ride, they get all upset because they won’t be able to pocket any of the tips we give.
I know there are some drivers out there that are very willing to work with us as students and are not trying to take advantage of us. But I feel like, in general, they are exploiting the basic fact that a lot of these people in they’re cab are in it because they cannot drive and are choosing a safe way to get home. I think it is wrong that cab drivers are looking to young college students to make a little extra money off of. They know we’ll be there every week , and that we are a big part of their income already. By charging such high prices, it makes students not as willing to pay for the cab ride home and more willing to either try driving home themselves or finding someone else to drive home, both options that are much riskier than taking a cab.
Anyone feel the same or differently about these drivers?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Speaking English
So I think we can all agree that SMU is a little pricy, yes? And with that price I think we can also all agree that we expect faculty who are capable of teaching us what we need to know in a way that we can understand. However, in my first two semesters being here, I have now had at least three teachers whom I cannot even understand enough to comprehend the words they are saying or the lessons they are teaching.
I don’t want this to come off at being prejudice or racist in any way because that is not my intention in writing this and is not part of who I am. I do however, believe that, before being given a position at this school to work as an educator, professors should have to pass some sort of English speaking test. My pre-calc teacher, my stat teacher, and my advertising teacher are all of foreign decent and were born in different countries. As a result, they all have very strong accents. This creates a problem for us as students because when they are lecturing to us for three hours a week every week and we can’t understand what they are saying, it robs us of valuable learning time.
Now I’m not saying every teacher should have to develop an American accent to teach here. I would just appreciate if SMU took the time to find educators who were capable of being understood, and that, if they did hire a teacher with a strong accent, that they made it a priority to have that teacher be reviewed on his or her lecturing capabilities before presenting them as a college-level professor.
Anyone have any thoughts on this one way or another?
I don’t want this to come off at being prejudice or racist in any way because that is not my intention in writing this and is not part of who I am. I do however, believe that, before being given a position at this school to work as an educator, professors should have to pass some sort of English speaking test. My pre-calc teacher, my stat teacher, and my advertising teacher are all of foreign decent and were born in different countries. As a result, they all have very strong accents. This creates a problem for us as students because when they are lecturing to us for three hours a week every week and we can’t understand what they are saying, it robs us of valuable learning time.
Now I’m not saying every teacher should have to develop an American accent to teach here. I would just appreciate if SMU took the time to find educators who were capable of being understood, and that, if they did hire a teacher with a strong accent, that they made it a priority to have that teacher be reviewed on his or her lecturing capabilities before presenting them as a college-level professor.
Anyone have any thoughts on this one way or another?
Monday, April 5, 2010
Attendance Policy
So I thought one of the most different and coolest things about starting college and leaving high school behind was also leaving behind class attendance policies. I was going to pick and choose when I went to class and which classes I felt like going to that day.
Ya, that didn’t work out so well.
Here I am at SMU, still being graded on class attendance and signing in to say I was there. I thought I grew out of this?!
Apparently not. In the past few years, SMU has been working hard to enforce class participation and attendance by making class attendance count for a percentage of the semester grade and subtracting from the grade if a person misses a given amount of classes.
Now, I understand the motivation behind SMU to implement this reinforcement of the rules. By making class mandatory, it forces students to keep up with the workload the teacher has planned for the class. This, in turn, will theoretically yield higher grades and test scores, therefore, improving the academic standings of the university as a whole. Trust me, I get that this is for our own benefit and is being used as a way to keep us more on track with our lives in order. But at what point are we supposed to take responsibility for our own actions and decisions?
By allowing us as students to make our own decisions about whether or not class is important that day, we make our own mistakes and learn solely from ourselves. I think it is good and healthy to leave the decision up to the individual. If they continue to repeatedly miss class they will have no one to blame but themselves and will have learned from their own experience.
Because I’m a big believer of learning from the mistakes I make, I don’t think that SMU’s attendance policy is necessary. However, I’m sure there are those who would gladly disagree with me, and I’d love to hear another point of view on the matter.
Ya, that didn’t work out so well.
Here I am at SMU, still being graded on class attendance and signing in to say I was there. I thought I grew out of this?!
Apparently not. In the past few years, SMU has been working hard to enforce class participation and attendance by making class attendance count for a percentage of the semester grade and subtracting from the grade if a person misses a given amount of classes.
Now, I understand the motivation behind SMU to implement this reinforcement of the rules. By making class mandatory, it forces students to keep up with the workload the teacher has planned for the class. This, in turn, will theoretically yield higher grades and test scores, therefore, improving the academic standings of the university as a whole. Trust me, I get that this is for our own benefit and is being used as a way to keep us more on track with our lives in order. But at what point are we supposed to take responsibility for our own actions and decisions?
By allowing us as students to make our own decisions about whether or not class is important that day, we make our own mistakes and learn solely from ourselves. I think it is good and healthy to leave the decision up to the individual. If they continue to repeatedly miss class they will have no one to blame but themselves and will have learned from their own experience.
Because I’m a big believer of learning from the mistakes I make, I don’t think that SMU’s attendance policy is necessary. However, I’m sure there are those who would gladly disagree with me, and I’d love to hear another point of view on the matter.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping. Its something we all do both consciously and subconsciously, whether we like it or not. We do it walking down the street, in our classes, when we go out, when we travel, etc. But why is it that we do it? And what are some of our favorites?
When we enter a room or crowded place, we don’t have time to meet and get to know everyone there and their stories. It just isn’t possible to know everything about everyone you pass or meet. So, we take what we do know (i.e. hair color, wardrobe, height, race, mannerisms, etc.) and make a judgment about the person based on that.
Is that so wrong though? When I hear the word “stereotype,” I immediately associate a negative connotation with it unfortunately. People are always protesting against being stereotyped and not wanting to be grouped into a bad one. This is totally understandable. No one wants to be judged for something they have no connection with. Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves without being prejudged.
But, in this day and age, with the amount of violence and national security problems that continue to be prevalent in everyday life, can anyone really blame us for stereotyping? In other words, if it’s being done in self-defense or for the protection of innocent minds and lives, isn’t it almost necessary to stereotype to a certain degree?
I’d love to hear your views on this topic because I think it has very good arguments for both sides of it.
When we enter a room or crowded place, we don’t have time to meet and get to know everyone there and their stories. It just isn’t possible to know everything about everyone you pass or meet. So, we take what we do know (i.e. hair color, wardrobe, height, race, mannerisms, etc.) and make a judgment about the person based on that.
Is that so wrong though? When I hear the word “stereotype,” I immediately associate a negative connotation with it unfortunately. People are always protesting against being stereotyped and not wanting to be grouped into a bad one. This is totally understandable. No one wants to be judged for something they have no connection with. Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves without being prejudged.
But, in this day and age, with the amount of violence and national security problems that continue to be prevalent in everyday life, can anyone really blame us for stereotyping? In other words, if it’s being done in self-defense or for the protection of innocent minds and lives, isn’t it almost necessary to stereotype to a certain degree?
I’d love to hear your views on this topic because I think it has very good arguments for both sides of it.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Big or Small?
What makes a small school more appealing than a big school? Why did we all choose a university of 7000 when we could’ve gone to a school of 30,000? Is the trade off for getting the attention and advantages of a small university worth some of the disadvantages that go along with it?
Ok, so we all chose SMU for our various reasons: great education, awesome location, up-and-coming sports teams, etc. I myself valued the smaller community and class sizes that it offered and along with the top-ranked schools and entertaining social life that went along with the hard work.
Along with this smaller community of students comes some controversial downsides though. As some of us who have grown up in small towns or gone to small schools may know, when a small group of people is forced to be around each other all the time, people tend to focus on the lives and drama of others’. I feel that at times this feeling of people knowing and caring way too much about what each other do is present at SMU. I know that, for me and some of my friends at least, there have numerous times where we have felt like we’re back in high school dealing with high school drama, rumors, and gossip. This smaller community here at SMU has an issue with being too concerned about others’ habits and actions.
This doesn’t just happen through word of mouth though. With gossip websites such as Collegeacb and CampusGossip as popular sights for students to look at to see what people are saying about others, one person’s opinion or dislike for another can be publicly displayed for anyone who wishes to read it. People are called names, told they’re ugly, and have their names completely smeared on these sights, and the sad part is that most of what is put on these sites is completely untrue.
So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we subject ourselves to criticism about our every move and word and look? That is a question there is no good or logical answer for. Maybe because we’re bored with our own lives so we find entertainment in the lives and rumors about others? All I know is that I have friends that go to many different schools that are bigger than SMU, and the general consensus is that, with a bigger school, there is less of an “everybody knows everybody” feel, creating less of a chance to know about each detail about someone else’s life.
I love SMU and wouldn’t change my decision to go here for the world. However, I really do believe that, with it being a smaller school, the amount of gossip and rumors spread is greatly increased and is a sad reality that we have to deal with as students here.
Ok, so we all chose SMU for our various reasons: great education, awesome location, up-and-coming sports teams, etc. I myself valued the smaller community and class sizes that it offered and along with the top-ranked schools and entertaining social life that went along with the hard work.
Along with this smaller community of students comes some controversial downsides though. As some of us who have grown up in small towns or gone to small schools may know, when a small group of people is forced to be around each other all the time, people tend to focus on the lives and drama of others’. I feel that at times this feeling of people knowing and caring way too much about what each other do is present at SMU. I know that, for me and some of my friends at least, there have numerous times where we have felt like we’re back in high school dealing with high school drama, rumors, and gossip. This smaller community here at SMU has an issue with being too concerned about others’ habits and actions.
This doesn’t just happen through word of mouth though. With gossip websites such as Collegeacb and CampusGossip as popular sights for students to look at to see what people are saying about others, one person’s opinion or dislike for another can be publicly displayed for anyone who wishes to read it. People are called names, told they’re ugly, and have their names completely smeared on these sights, and the sad part is that most of what is put on these sites is completely untrue.
So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we subject ourselves to criticism about our every move and word and look? That is a question there is no good or logical answer for. Maybe because we’re bored with our own lives so we find entertainment in the lives and rumors about others? All I know is that I have friends that go to many different schools that are bigger than SMU, and the general consensus is that, with a bigger school, there is less of an “everybody knows everybody” feel, creating less of a chance to know about each detail about someone else’s life.
I love SMU and wouldn’t change my decision to go here for the world. However, I really do believe that, with it being a smaller school, the amount of gossip and rumors spread is greatly increased and is a sad reality that we have to deal with as students here.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
"They Steal"
One of the few generalizations in Don Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital about the Net Generation is that we are thieves. By illegally downloading, obtaining, and viewing private information, we have a blatant disregard for the personal rights and property of others. The biggest complaint about our unlawful acts relates back to the illegal downloading of music files which, in other words, is stealing from the artists and companies behind those songs. Without the consent of the creators of products, we are not permitted to be in possession of any of their products, as is enforced by law.
To be perfectly honest, this is a growing problem with our generation. We don’t seem to be able to see the boundaries that divide public and private information, and even if we do realize where those boundaries lie, I think that most of us have the attitude of “everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?” It’s this attitude that gives our generation as a whole a bad name when it comes to illegal activities being done via internet. Though one cannot say that “everyone” is doing it, I do believe that a large majority of us are doing it, both with and without the knowledge that we are committing illegal acts.
To be perfectly honest, this is a growing problem with our generation. We don’t seem to be able to see the boundaries that divide public and private information, and even if we do realize where those boundaries lie, I think that most of us have the attitude of “everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?” It’s this attitude that gives our generation as a whole a bad name when it comes to illegal activities being done via internet. Though one cannot say that “everyone” is doing it, I do believe that a large majority of us are doing it, both with and without the knowledge that we are committing illegal acts.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Greek Life
When I applied for SMU and did my research on it, one of the big things I had learned about it was about its prevalent Greek life. After asking around and figuring out if that was something I would be interested in or not, I decided that rushing might be fun. I’d never thought of going Greek until now, but now that I’m currently in it, I can see first-hand the SMU’s increasing interest in shutting down the system altogether, and I really believe that that would be a big mistake for them, considering it’s one of their bigger claims-to-fame.
Fast-forward about 6 months from my research stage and here I am in the middle of my first semester of college. I’ve now been in the “college scene” for about 3 months and am having the time of my life. I’m living on my own, going out and coming back when I want, and deciding which sorority would be best for me and my interests. Everything I’ve gone out to has been sponsored by at least one of the Panhellenic fraternities or sororities. Little did I know though that the school is not a supporter of Greek life, and that they have been making it their jobs to punish and penalize frats and sororities whenever possible in an effort to eventually possibly have the means and evidence against them to get rid of the Greek life altogether. I just think that the school is going out of their way to get these frats and sororities in trouble, and that because of this, events and functions held by them are becoming riskier due to the inability of the school to let Greek life hold these events of theirs on campus grounds.
Thoughts?
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