By: Leila Ndebi Before:
On Tuesday, February 28 I attended a public deliberation at Webster’s Bookstore and Cafe on the topic of college tuition and if these high prices allowed people to pay for a brighter future after graduating from college. Out of all of the options I had for deliberations, I thought that this was an important one to go to because we are all college students, and not many of us have the privilege to pay our tuition without going into some type of debt. Many of us don’t know where our money goes, we pay $30,000 a year, some of us more, and are still swamped in other expenses. Sometimes it pushes you to think about if colleges dupe us out of money in order to make a profit. This was a topic that I found that I could relate to in every single way, and I was very comfortable talking to the other people attending because they all seemed to understand exactly where I was coming from. The deliberation started off with the group running the event on the stage introducing their topic and asking the attendees personal questions in order to cool the ice and open up discussion. After this we split up into three groups and began talking about their three approaches, Approach 1: Government We started off our group conversations by talking about if we thought that the government should play a bigger or smaller role in college tuition prices. The subcategories included: greater use of taxation, creation of policies to positively help students, and implementing universal public institution tuition collection systems. The first option for a greater use of taxation included “incentivizing companies and organizations to fund scholarships by creating tax write offs”. Our group agreed that yes, companies should fund scholarships but there should be programs in place to educate college students and high school students on the basics of scholarships like where to find them. The second option suggested actions like economic price floors on goods and services related to college, and price ceilings on necessities like textbooks, room and board, AP credits, credit hours. Our group agreed that prices should be constant, we noted that PSU seems to overcharge on textbooks compared to sites like Amazon and Cheggs. The third and final approach in this approach talked about implementation of universal public institution tuition collection, basically stating that tuition should be collected and calculated by dividing the number of students attending public institutions by the amount of money collected as a whole. Approach 2: Students/Family At the second approach our group talked about what they did to lower the cost of college for themselves and what they wish they would have done. Out group was in agreement that not many of us knew anything about applying for scholarships and we thought that classes or programs should be created to educate kids on how much money they could get and how to do it. We also talked about the importance of taking AP courses and knowing if your prospective institutions will take your credits before spending the money. We disagreed with the fact that students should have to sacrifice a good school or a dream school because of inability to pay tuition. Approach 3: University Lastly we talked about what the universities could do to help the students and their families out with costs. We all agreed that maybe schools should reduce all of the Gen Ed requirements that they make students fulfill in order to enter their major. We understood that it is very hard and very expensive to pay for these especially if you change your major and have to start over again. We also talked about alternative routes that people can take in order to graduate, like attending community college for two years which would allow students to lower the cost and enter these institutions with some credit. Conclusion: All in all, the deliberation was a positive experience and the topic was one that everyone seems to have a problem but nobody really tries to do anything about. It was interesting to hear the stories and opinions of the other students because I learned a lot from them. I think that the most important thing to take away from this is that we do have a voice as citizens. If we continue to host events like this, get the word out, and reach out to our local representatives we can make a difference.
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By: Leila Ndebi For the last couple of years, race in America has been a hot topic. Not that it wasn’t important before but now in the age of technology and social media there isn’t much people can do or say without it being posted on the internet somewhere. Protests have began, groups have been formed, and people have taken a stand against the unfair treatment that people of color, especially black people get when it comes to police brutality. These police killings have sparked an outrage among not only black people but people of other races that sympathize with what they see as a problem. Groups like Black Lives Matter popped up to peacefully protest these killings and to remind the people that black lives should matter, and they need to be treated like they do. Celebrities began to speak out about these injustices, using their platforms for good. One of these people that stood up rather took a knee for change was Collin Kaepernick. Last year Kaepernick decided to use his massive platform and following to make a statement. He would kneel every time the national anthem was played at a football game. Kaepernick believed that there was absolutely no reason to stand for a country that didn’t stand for its entire people. “One nation, Under God” didn’t mean anything to him if it his fellow black brothers and sisters were getting beat up and killed by the police every single day. Days went by, and people waited for Kaepernick to stop, but he didn’t. This movement that started of so small in San Francisco quickly took the NFL by storm. It seemed that there were many players that felt the same sentiment as Kaepernick and they weren’t afraid to show it. Players from teams all across the country began to take a knee, or raise a “Black Power” fist while the National Anthem played.
The next few months were brutal, it seemed that everywhere I looked they were talking about Kaepernick and his protest, but not in the way that most of us supporters wanted. For months Kaepernick was dragged on television for being un-American, for disrespecting the people who fought and died for this country, and for just being to sensitive. The people who stood up with him also became easy targets for the media, who had a field day talking about them rather than the actual news that needed to be said. Kaepernick’s jersey became the highest selling jersey in the NFL just because people wanted to use it as a doormat. Death threats were sent, people criticized, but Kaepernick persevered. He took it upon himself to be the punching bag, He realized that this problem was bigger than him, yes he was getting called out and insulted everyday but he wasn’t the one getting beat up in the street, when those football games were over he still got to retreat to his million dollar home, others couldn’t. For months all people talked about was this issue, whether it be negative or positive people still took the time out of their days to acknowledge what was going on. By “sacrificing” himself and his public image, Collin Kaepernick brought light to an issue that 100% needed to be front and center. Now it’s a few months later and Kaepernick remains a free agent, meaning he has no team. According to many news articles, he won’t get a team because owners do not believe in what he did. Owners don’t want a player on their team that will piss off the fans. Our very own President, failed to deny the fact that he would go on a twitter rampage against the team that ended up picking Kaepernick. To me, this is unfair. For years now I have heard and watched stories on the news of football players beating their wives, getting caught with drugs, abusing their kids, or being caught up in a sexual assault charge. Yet, I still see these players on the field, every week, catching the ball, making money for the team. I don’t understand how someone could possibly rationalize that those other offenses are somehow better than what Kaepernick did. All he did was take a stand against an injustice that is clearly there, he didn’t hurt anyone, all he did was take a knee. In our country race has become such a taboo topic that nobody wants to talk about. We all know that there is a problem. It’s clear to see when every other day there’s a new hashtag for yet ANOTHER unarmed black man that was killed by police. It’s clear that race is an issue when there are stories of people deliberately going out of their way and killing innocent African Americans just because they hate them. For years now this problem has been clear, but for some reason everyone is too scared to talk about. Under the mentality that if we just ignore the problem and stop talking about it all together it will somehow disappear. That’s not how it works. Those families that lost sons and daughters to unfair treatment by the police don’t just forget what happened. In this age of “political correctness” we need to be way more vocal about the problems that plague our society. If people don’t want to hear it, then we’ll make them hear it. This isn’t 1935; racism should not be as common as it is right now. Yes, things are much better than they once were, but better doesn’t cut. It is up to the youth of America to make sure that this changes happen, that people are held accountable for their actions, and people treat others as equals. Most older people already have their minds made up, they know what they believe in and there really isn’t anything that one can do to change their mind. People say it all the time, we are the future, and we need to start acting like it. By: Leila Ndebi A few days ago, a couple of classmates and I hosted a debate between Gary, The Willard Preacher and Sam Richards, the sociology 119 professor at Penn State. This was a highly anticipated event, as shown by the thousands of Facebook interests that we received. We were all excited to hear what both men had to say, but I was also a little scared that maybe they would say something that I was completely against. The debate started and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Sam answered the questions exactly how I thought he would and I completely disagreed with most of what The Willard Preacher said. Closer to the end of the debate we decided to ask both men about their thoughts on feminism. I should have known that this would be the question to ruin the debate for me, but yet I stilled pushed on and asked. As soon as the word feminism was uttered about 20 guys from the stands got up and left, that was the first bad sign. Immediately after Sam groaned and basically said that this was a one-minute topic. At this point I should have known exactly what I was getting myself into. Yet, I stayed and waited, giving both men the benefit of the doubt. In class Sam seemed to be pretty open-minded and fair when it came to equality between men and women. Just a few weeks earlier he held a class with his wife about how our world was created for men. On the other hand, I didn’t expect anything from the Willard Preacher. Judging from the words I had heard him scream at people on my way to classes, I thought that I had a pretty clear understanding of what he believed in.
Gary answered the question first and went on a sort of rant about how he believes that feminist want to be men. He continued on by saying that he believed that the most important job that a woman can have is being a mother. He used his own wife as an example; she homeschooled two of their kids and they both went on to get good grades at their colleges. He went on to talk about the fact that women that work should not turn around and look down on the women who decide to stay home and take care of their homes and children. Next, it was Sam’s turn to talk about the subject. I figured he would have something ready to counter Gary, to tell him how wrong he was on the subject. He did neither; all he did was agree with what Gary said. Surprisingly I was not completely against the answers of the two men. Feminism is necessary. In a male-centered world where men still make more than a woman at the same job, I think that it is important for women to stand up and demand their rights. Yes, we’ve come a long way from the days of not being able to vote and having to stay at home, but things are not equal. So yes, maybe Gary is right in the fact that women want to be men. We want the same rights. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be paid the same, or wanting the right to make decisions about our own bodies. To this day many double standards between men and women still exist especially when it comes to sexuality. Men are looked at like studs for being sexually free. The more women you sleep with, the higher you are seen in societies eyes. Yet when it comes to women, everything is switched. Instead of being a stud, we’re now sluts and whores. We aren’t seen as cool in societies eyes. No, we’re just women who don’t respect our bodies or ourselves. In regards to motherhood being the greatest gift any women could ever receive, that is completely up to the person. There’s this misconception that all women want to be mothers, or that the highlight of a woman’s life is when she has children. It is important that we stop holding women to these old standards. Back in the day, women were expected to have children; if they didn’t then they were looked at as weird. In this day and age the highlight of a woman’s life could be making partner at her law firm or finally becoming a doctor. It is okay to want to be a working women, just like it is okay to want to stay home with your kids. By saying this I’m not at all saying that women who stay at home are not working and deserve to be looked down on. Raising children is a hard job, keeping a home is difficult. But it is not fair to look at a woman who decides to dedicate her life to her work or decides to be a working mom, as someone who loves his or her children any less or weird. This goes both ways, working women cannot take it upon themselves to look down on women who decide to stop working in order to fully devote all of their time to taking care of their children and family. Many working women these days have the tendency to look at women who decide to quit their jobs to stay home as weak women. Many people assume that the only reason that these women even worked in the first place was just to pass the time until they found a husband to take care of them. This is not always true, it is possible to be a career driven woman who wants to stay home and take care of her kids. Regardless of both of their answers, I truly do not believe that most men understand the importance of feminism because they don’t understand what it is like to be a woman. As hard as they can try to relate, until they walk a day in a woman’s shoes and truly understand the differences between both genders they will never understand. |
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