Gaming in college

Subin Lee


Gaming in college

College for most students is a place to enhance their education. However, for some, college is a place for sports, partying or recreation. One of the biggest recreations that the majority of the students participate is online games. Colleges are the places where they host LAN parties, which is a gathering of hard core gamers. All sorts of games are played by college students, including first-person-shooting games, role playing games, simulation games, and even gambling. Colleges have one of the fastest internet connections in the nation. This therefore allows players to play in a faster cyber world environment.
The problem with online games is the issue of addiction. Games are just as addicting as cigarettes. Not just in the game play but also meeting people online. For example in RPG games, players meet new people, and make a party in order play through the game together. Sometimes, they even make schedules when to log in and play together. Major game addicts may play up to or even more than 15 hours a day.
Online games consume a significant amount of time. This can affect student’s health, daily life pattern, grades, and social life. Long hours on the computer or video games can kill brain cells, deprive student’s sleep, and mess up eating schedule. Due to laziness, gamers might skip meals just to play more, and sleep at late odd hours.
Game can then lead students to miss classes due to daily improper schedule and increasing addiction. For online gamblers, it can also improve the speed of wasting a lot of money. Counseling services have been added to assist the estimated 11 percent of students who have a problem with these addictions whether it be card games with friends, online gambling or visiting casinos.
The harsh fact is that all college students own a computer, and most own a laptop. Laptop meaning portable, which means students can bring their laptops anywhere including their classes. This means that students can even play games on their laptops anywhere including their classes.

Budget Reduction: Should it Result in Quality Reduction?

Jinhyun Kim

The article “Insult to Injury” describes that “midyear [budget] reductions have been a national phenomenon over the past few months”, among colleges in the United States. This sudden budget reduction affecting a lot of colleges, which were apparently not prepare for this problem, has become a big issue recently to many of people such as college students, teachers, and faculties.

Colleges or universities, bigger or smaller, form own communities within which include various things from academics to profession to recreation. Colleges and people of the community usually greatly benefit from these as well as academics. However, if colleges cannot figure out how to solve this low budget issue, all the exciting things beside academics of colleges will be short of fund, and they will lose a great factor of their community.

Also as showed in the article “Insult to Injury”, school cannot afford all the teachers as full time employees. Some schools had to let go of some teachers or faculties. Some schools had to shift toward employing more part-time teachers. In addition, fewer classes offered and larger class size would likely occur, and people became to worry about the change in quality of education that students are getting in higher education according to the article, “Are State Budget Cuts Affecting the Quality of Public Higher Education?”

I think the ones who will be affected by the budget reductions the most and the longest are the college students as well as prospective students within a few years. There can be an increase in tuition from the school for the new students to enroll in the college. Besides, it will be harder for schools to provide the same financial aid to students. It could be a lot of pressure for some students over the nation to choose or go to school that they want. Students go to a college not only to study their major but also to experience a lot of activities and opportunities that they like other than classes. Students would not be very happy if they cannot continue having some fun in extracurricular activities aside the hard works from classes.

The issue of budget reductions in colleges is giving a big problem not only for school faculties but all the people belong to the community. I hope the college communities, together as one, can discuss and use this chance as a time to invest and find the ways of reducing wasteful cost and saving money for the greater good for everyone.

The Disadvantage of Minimal Foreign Language Requirements

Cherish Weiler

A recent study conducted by the American Council on Education found that fewer than one in five universities in the U.S. require a foreign-language credit from their undergraduates. While the study of languages is a well-known scholastic practice of the past, perhaps even a central component of education at one point in time, critics question the application of such minimal requirements in today’s society.

Dan Edelstein argues that mere tradition is not enough to keep colleges from requiring a foreign language credit or two. He points to evidence showing a decreased enrollment among undergraduates in foreign language courses and to evidence showing universities reducing their availability of language courses due to decreased funding. Edelstein suggests that the future of foreign language requirements depend on the ability of students to advance far in a particular language. He argues that the minimal requirements are hardly beneficial to students; in order to adequately learn a language and become proficient, students need to total immersion, not a year of introductory once-a-week classes. Edelstein recognizes the good intentions of universities that require language courses from their undergraduates but states that these “token requirements” are not enough to satisfy those intentions and goals.

Edelstein makes a bold argument against the need for minimal language requirements for college undergraduates. I agree that the need for cultural enrichment and the importance of multilingual skills are high in modern society and that the universities do have good intentions when requiring such language courses. However, I also agree that the level of requirement is not enough to truly benefit a student. Instead, I support the idea of removing required language courses but offering more beneficial and accessible programs such as a “total immersion” program or more accessible study abroad programs. Students should be able to decide the extent of their foreign language study and not be required to take classes that are of no value or use to them in the long run.

US News Rankings for Colleges Unacceptable

Ajit Vakharia

According to the U.S. News 100 Best Colleges in the Nation, Harvard University is number one and Princeton University is number, but how do these rankings work? What makes a university better than another when the education is essentially all the same? According to Robert J. Morse and Samuel Flanigan the ranking is set by two categories: “quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality and a nonpartisan view of what matters in education” by the reviews. US News then compare schools to the amount of majors offered and the amount of graduates per major. Then they send out a survey of fifteen academic indicators to each university. Each factor is then ranked and weighed and compared to all other universities and then rankings are given all the universities. Only the universities and US News know what exactly are asked in the survey, but is this process fair to all universities and is it a reliable process to ranking colleges. College rankings should be based on many factors which include quality of professors, quality of teaching, ratio of students to professors, and amount of students graduating that earn jobs after graduation or go on to reputable schools. Students should also be given surveys to see how they feel about the school at which they go to. A lot more about how good a school can be told from students who would have a more unbiased perspective of the school than administrators or professors that are given the surveys.

Money hurting college students

Subin Lee Money is a big problem in college. The majority of the college students are broke, unless their parents fully financially support them.

There are lots of places which students need to spend their money. First of all college itself is a big money eater. “The cost of college is constantly on the rise.” If the student is not financially supported with scholarship, financial aid, or from their parents, it is very difficult for them to pay for school. Housing is the next biggest issue. Unless students are commuting from their homes, students will need to get a place to stay either in dorms, or in apartments nearby. Then there are textbooks, which are not cheap at all. Most textbooks are priced from 20~200 dollars, especially for major classes with those really thick hardcover textbooks. Not just that, but students also need money for their own expenses, such as shopping, food, and own recreation.

Therefore many students take part time jobs to earn money for themselves. These jobs can be in campus, or off-campus. Either way, it consumes a lot time. Either in the weekday or weekends, most students will probably at least work 10 hours a week. With minimum wage being around 8 dollars, 8 dollars times 10 hours equals 80 dollars, yet that is not a lot of money and less if tax paid. Is 80 dollars worth 10 hours? Students might be able to get better jobs with higher wages, but those jobs would probably require more hours and more skill. And in most cases, the workplace would not be near school, which additionally takes more time as well.

Working conclusively takes away much time, meaning extra study time or rest time or play time is taken away. Though money is an inevitable issue, it is an important issue for college administration to consider for students.

Computer Science in the Middle of Tech

Jinhyun Kim

Have young students lost their interests in computer science in the recent years while Information Technology field is still growing amazingly rapid and broader? Many colleges have been experiencing decreased enrollment of students in computer science major recently. There are people saying that recent job market for computer science, computer engineering, and related majors are tough and terrible. However, among many things have happened already which also have affected IT field and job market more or less, some of the new cool technologies, for example, are very hopeful in bringing computer science back in the game. According to the article "College enrollment in computer science , engineering on the rise", There is a jump in enrollment of undergraduate computer science major for the first time since the 1990s' dot-com boom, and Peter Harsha from Computing Research Association said "[t]he perception that IT jobs are hard to come by is over, and the field is now considered an interesting place to be".

There is a mix of several possible factors that resulted in the reflection of the computer science students' enrollment springing back up. One of them is the newest technology, as it is greatly affecting the trend among younger generation students, and these include facebook, iPhone, and etc. Also, computer science departments of many colleges are trying to do better. One example is shown in the article "'Chic Geek': Computer Science Major Rebounds" as that "[t]he Georgia Institute of Technology has revised its computer science curriculum to move away from a traditional hardware-software approach to much more emphasis on the creative process and the roles computer science majors go on to assume in their careers", as well as advertising the major's benefit of being able to work across the world in different places with the ability of critical thinking.

The major of computer science is very promising in the present and future. The world runs with technology nowadays more or less, and the majority of the study fields also uses technology to improve the efficiency in the study. Computer science in in the middle of all technology to make sure all the users are getting benefit of technology, and increased enrollment in this major in colleges would be very optimistic if colleges try to widen the field or study of computer science.

A Tough Decision: Mixing Classroom and Online Instruction

Cherish Weiler
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently began conducting their introductory Spanish courses completely online. Over the past couple years, the University had offered a mixture of a classroom-based and online-based Spanish 101 course but made the decision to cut the classroom interaction component out of their course curriculum. While some may criticize the use of a completely Web-based instruction, the benefits of offering online courses to full-time students are numerous. Online courses reduce the need for universities to spend resources for classroom-based instruction and allow students the flexibility of completing a course on their own time.

The decision to switch to an online-based Spanish 101 course revolved around the University’s limited resources. Larry King, chair of the Romance Language and Literature department, states that a combination of having the department budget cut and an increased demand for Spanish instruction led to the decision. The switch saved the department from having to make personal departmental cuts and also freed up room for more students to enroll in the course. However, critics of the online-only instruction argue that using the Web to teach a language course eliminating the most important aspect of the course: face-to-face communication. They also claim that students may be less enticed to study or less inclined to continue their Spanish education. Still, department officials state that data revealed there was no significant difference in learning outcomes between the hybrid course and the traditional, classroom course. Also, students have the ability to meet with their professor at any time and move through the course at their own pace.

Many students learn under different types of instruction and should recognize the benefits and disadvantages of the courses they might consider taking. Additionally, universities should not view the option of offering online courses as a quick way to save money and resources. The tough decision to integrate online-based instruction in a traditional, classroom-based setting should be considered for universities struggling to meet the demands of students.