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GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Wide range of options available for new graduates
BY CLAIRE MCINERNY editor@kansan.com
As some seniors are preparing for jobs and planning their lives after school,some students are experiencing a different scenario the end of college cycle.
er. One opportunity that enables students to make that happen is through Teach for America. Teach For America is a program that allows recent college graduates to teach in public schools in low-income communities. The assignment lasts for two years.
a way to prolong having to find a job, but rather look at it as a way to find new opportunities and new ways for students to use their passions. She said a lot of politicians who now work in Congress were in the program and are now fighting for education rights.
Wiechman spent his two years in Saint Lucia doing community development. He helped a farmers cooperative develop a grant proposal to get funding for a composting project from the United Nations and also taught reading and music at a school.
--hopes that she might be interesting or interested in you. Her Activities are sturdy enough: running, grilling out, hip-hop dancing. Her Likes match yours: Family Guy, Wes Anderson, Lil Wayne.
The Peace Corps was an attract-
tion for Wienchman because
Four vea
degree
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Are you trying to sound poetic on the FFA?
I'm going to see you today, and I'm more excited about it than ever.
A) Who are you talking to? And B) Why should anybody give a damn?
Sorry, I gave you the herpes, babe.
Can I have my penls back now?
Suffering from insomnia?
Try duct tape and chloroform AKA the Caylee Anthony special.
Hey, beautiful with the eyes, can you PLEASE be there Sunday at 5?
Sorry, bro, I've got plans at 5 with someone who had the balls to talk to me.
I want her more than anything in the world.
Ugh, shut the flock up already, grow a pair, ask her out and stop the stupid-juvenile-secret messages on here. It's nauseating, pathetic and no one cares.
What's more satisfying... a big fart or an orgasm?
Can't wait to break out this new cheesecake. It's going to be LEGENDARY.
Damn, he was cute then he took his hat off and now he's not. Put your hat back on.
Real life doesn't imitate Facebook status
SOCIAL
A friend of mine recently went on a date with a girl with whom he had connected through Facebook.
Over a few chats that spanned a week or so, they agreed to meet up in the flesh, get to know each other and maybe French kiss.
I can't blame my friend for this oversight because it's pretty common. You meet a friend of a friend in a poorly-lit area and add her later on Facebook in
Everything went fine, he said, until they actually met up. Where she seemed cool online based on her "Likes," "Activities" and Facebook chat quips, in reality she wasn't a fair representation of those traits. She was socially awkward and boring. In other words, the girl was just Facebook hot.
BY LIZ STEPHENS editor@kansan.com
She seems like someone you could jive with. But therein lies the problem. When we get to know someone based on how
they are represented on the Internet—as opposed to judging them face to face—we aren't getting the whole picture.
For one thing, our Facebook accounts are crafted to make ourselves seem fun. It's an image manipulated by the user to be something that others will like.
The boring, banal, or creepy stuff gets left off. What we really "like" (for the record: torture movies, decaf coffee, weeping quietly) we don't transmit for others to mock.
The other downside is that everyone seems cool on Facebook chat. From one end of the computer, it's difficult to discern the emotions and motivations of what a person is saying. When we can't see the other person's face and we can't
hear their voice, messages can be mistaken.
My mother once said, "Don't ever refuse a first date. You never know what the other person is really like until you meet them." While that may have worked thirty years ago, it's only half applicable now.
I say, go on dates with people. Real dates where you can hold hands and get nervous and stuff. If you like the person, add him or her on Facebook after the date.
At the end of the day, poking is so much more fun in real life than on over the internet.
Stephens is a junior in English from Dodge City.
POLITICS
Washington politicians incapable of making the right choice
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers and pundits have been stressing the need of the American people to make great "sacrifices." With the country quickly approaching the debt ceiling, the talks have been growing more serious and the proposals more drastic. But despite the fact that the proposals in Washington are growing more extreme, the debate over what needs to be done about the economy seems quite narrow.
The debate simply breaks down to this: just how much should we cut? Granted, the idea of a tax hike for the super wealthy is being discussed as a viable option. But with the current political climate and with so many deficit hawks on Capitol Hill, I for one am feeling somewhat pessimistic as to whether a sufficient tax increase will happen. What does seem certain, however, is about four trillion dollars in entitlements cuts.
Pointicians on both sides of the aisle have been assuring Americans that such cuts are
BY MATT SOENER
editor@kansan.com
truly best for the people and the economy. Does their demagoguery hold up? Of course not
- though it is what's best for the corporate elites who fear a significant tax hike to cover the debt and the inflation that would inevitably occur if the economy were to rebound quickly.
So, as per usual, Washington is siding with its friends in the business community and its representatives on K Street at the expense of the rest of us. Anyone who is serious about creating jobs and seeing economic growth in the U.S. knows that draconian austerity measures will only exasperate an already dire problem.
With so many debt incumbent Americans struggling to pay their
health insurance; their mortgage, college debt, credit card debt and with unemployment, underemployment and poverty as high as they are in this country
most Americans are tightening their spending, in an attempt to offset their own balance sheets—subsequently hindering economic growth. Further cuts to social security, Medicaid and privatizing Medicare (which will undoubtedly be more expensive), will only result in even tighter spending and a stagnating, if not weaker economy.
Nobel prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz understands this perfectly well. Stiglitz not only predicted the crash but also the kind of entitlement cuts in our midst and their negative implications. Furthermore, he has contended numerous times since the fall of 2008 that if people are not spending the government has an obligation to create another stimulus package to relieve the burden of the many struggling Americans and to encourage spending.
Regrettably these ideas, which proved quite effective in the post-war period, are nowhere to be heard in today's political dialogue. This is not terribly surprising given the "limited government" dogma that has permeated political discourse for decades. Nonetheless, it is terribly disappointing to only hear of proposals that are not only bad for the economy, but more importantly, proposals that will hurt millions of Americans.
With so many people struggling to get by, Americans should be looking less towards the empty promises of politicians and more towards the bona fide examples of democracy the world has recently witnessed in Wisconsin Spain and Greece. The struggle against austerity measures and market fundamentalism overall is no easy task, but it is a far better alternative than the daily economic struggle facing most Americans.
Soener is a senior in sociology from Omaha, Neb.
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