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PAGE 6A
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014
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TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
People, submit more FFAs. I know your lives are funny. Let me laugh at you.
Is it creepy to ask Embid about his back in the underground? No he doesn't know who I am...
If Student Senate cuts SUA's budget and we lose Tea @ 3 on Thursdays... two words: mass hysteria.
Friend (at 3 a.m.): Are you sleeping? Me; No. I'skydiving.
If you're in the dorms, low on the AC means 80 degrees instead of 95, while off means 55.
There seem to be more seekers of redheaded men than actual redheaded men on campus.
The FFA is getting so desperate for appropriate FFAs that the editor might even accept this. Editor's Note. Nice try. I wouldn't fall for that.
You've never seen more expressions of sheer panic until you've been camping at the fieldhouse when the wifi goes down.
I got in the FFA today, but now
I'm not sure if that means
I'm actually funny, or all the
other submissions were
too inappropriate :-\
Editor's Note: You may
never know...
All true gingers are attractive.
(P.S. are you Rupert Grint?!?)
If you look both ways before you cross the street on campus, you represent a very small fraction of the KU student body... so I guess congrats?
With all these people searching for redheads, why don't we skip this middle man and all have a speed dating sesh on wescoe? *I'll supply the ginger*
Wifi is on the fritz again. Makes those online quizzes really hard.
Considering I've never met another Rex, I have to assume this is for me. I'm flattered, but I have a bf. If this is my bf- way too soon, dude.
Do you think they walk on the left side of the sidewalk in England?
If you are bitter because you are legally required to yield to pedestrians, then you may have misguided aggression.
KU housing issuing ultimates to students...who do they think they are? Russia?
Person looking for a handsome redhead man, I'm at least handsome, redhead and male are up in the air.
Syllabus changes cause problems for students
ACADEMICS
"The professor reserves the right to amend the syllabus." I've seen those words in countless syllabi during my six-year stint here at the University. On the one hand, it makes sense. I presume that my professor, a learned and wise scholar, knows the best way to teach me the material. So if he or she decides to change things up, to rearrange the schedule or alter the homework a bit, that's totally fine.
The problem is when teachers let this power go to their heads — when they get too freewheeling in their changes to the syllabus. If I'm paying $1,000 for a class (which I am, I just checked my bill). I expect some degree of stability throughout the semester. I want to know what I'm paying for, and I want to be able to plan my life around classwork. So while it's fine if we need to reschedule a class because you'll be gone next month, it definitely is not fine if you alter the schedule or homework with very short notice. Amazingly enough, I have other classes with other (sometimes more pressing) responsibilities. And, wouldn't you believe it, I have a life outside the classroom, a life where I like to eat and sleep and sometimes, just sometimes, be able to hang out friends and family.
For further proof, let's break it down: there are 120 hours in a five-day working week. Subtract five hours for breakfasts/getting ready in the morning (yes, I take an hour to get ready; I move slowly in the morning). Subtract another seven and a half hours for dinners and lunch (assuming I spend a half hour making/eating lunch, and an hour making/eating dinner each day). If I'm in class for 15 hours, and I spend roughly three hours per class doing homework (I average around 400 pages of reading a week), that leaves us with 47.5 hours. Subtract 40 hours for sleep (eight times five), and we're left with seven and a half hours. Then, for purposes of true scientific accuracy, we'll subtract another hour per day for commuting to and from class. That leaves two and a half hours. Two and a half
By Preston Bukaty opinion@kansan.com
hours of glorious, God-given free time, and that's assuming I plan out my schedule to the exact minute. If everything goes exactly as planned, I don't even have enough time to watch "The Wolf of Wall Street" in one sitting. That's what we're dealing with here.
But what happens when everything doesn't go as planned? What if my grandma dies, my apartment floods, my car shoots craps or I eat a bad burrito and I shoot craps? Then that whole schedule goes to hell. The same thing happens when a teacher changes the schedule or adds additional homework at the last minute. There just isn't enough time. Time is a zero-sum game, so spending more time on one class requires that I cut time from somewhere else. And since I only have two and a half hours to truly devote to myself, chances are some other class work is going to suffer. I'll cut corners, skim readings or skip class altogether just to make up the additional work.
I'm sure some professors reading this will advise that I use my weekends to do the additional work, but I like to reserve that time to actually live my life, exercise, see family and friends or finish "The Wolf of Wall Street." All of these activities are equally scheduled to some degree, so a late Friday email upping the week's reading only frustrates my weekends as well. "Sorry mom, I know grandma's birthday dinner was planned for Saturday night, but my teacher just decided I need to do 100 more pages of reading. Hopefully grandma will make it to next year!"
So yes, while I do believe a professor reserves the right to amend a class, I also believe that right has limits. A professor, a wise and learned scholar, should recognize that his or her students have other responsibilities, and changing the syllabus at the last minute complicates those responsibilities.
Preston Bukaty is a graduate student from Overland Park studying law
FFA OF THE DAY
That awkward moment when you walk into the wrong class... as a junior.
ECONOMY
College pricing itself out of the middle class
In order to be competitive in today's job market, one needs a solid educational background. Every year, thousands of students are reminded of how important their education will be in deciding the future they will one day enjoy, and it is becoming more and more apparent education may be the only path to financial success in the near future.
Education has historically been the primary mode of social and economic mobility, allowing millions to improve their lives and build the largest and most diverse economy in the world. This system being necessary for the production of a competitive global economy has developed over the past half-century to the point where businesses now demand some form of college education in order to be hired.
While widespread higher education for the masses is a good thing, it poses a peculiar economic problem for thousands of American families. Over the past half-century, particularly since the early 1970s, the cost of and demand for higher education has increased immensely. What has not grown, and what is beginning to concern millions of Americans is the lack of growing wages while the cost of education continues to skyrocket. Since the early 1970s, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, wages have remained virtually
stagnant, with little growth in much of the modern workforce as the level of production from businesses and the cost of education have both grown steadily.
The lack of significant growth in wages has made the middle class, income average of $32,000, more and more reliant on less expensive options like online degree programs or attending smaller schools with lower tuition.
According to a June 2011 article from CNN Money, the average cost of a four year education at most American universities has increased approximately 130 percent since the 1980s, stemming from a decrease in government support for universities, the enlarging of university programs, more public services for students, as well as more diverse and technologically-demanding degree programs.
This dramatic increase in the cost of an education has created a growing problem of affordability with the middle class. As college has become more expensive, families and individuals looking to enter the job market armed with a college degree are becoming desperate for universities that are affordable to attend which
will not accrue extensive debt. According to the Project on Student Debt, 71 percent of college students in 2013 held at least some student loan debt, with the average debt being $29,400 per borrowing student. In addition, from 2008 to 2012, total college debt accumulation from federal and private loans saw a 6 percent increase per year, which coincidentally mirrors the average increase in tuition per year of about five percent.
For now, the cost of an education is still fairly manageable for many American families,but what about ten years from now,when the average price per year of a four year education at a large university is estimated to cost, according to The Education Board's 2011 report on trends in education, approximately $41,325 for public institutions and $82,240 for private institutions?
The modern system of education and business form a sensitive equilibrium, that, when unbalanced, can spell economic disaster for those seeking and those providing jobs now and in the future. Universities will need to learn to control their consumption and expansion, so as to continue to provide students with an education that is affordable and cost-effective.
Rob Pyatt is a junior from St. Joseph studying journalism
RICKY SMITH/KANSAN
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