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Does anyone ever look at the black gum spots on the ground and wonder what flavor it was?
Much respect to the editor for not putting "Wichita state shocks many on the road to Final Four." It got old real quick.
I'm a girl and I like it when anyone holds the door open for me, and I try to return the favor to whoever is around. Being polite isn't restricted to gender.
I'm thinking the FFA should get a Twitter... Just imagine the possibilities.
To the guy who poured a bag of peanut butter M&Ms into his oatmeal at Schutz this morning — respect.
Some people at the gym shouldn't be allowed to lift weights with head phones on. Lift CRASH, Lift CRASH, Lift CRASH.
Sometimes I like to sneak into the library and just cry.
Playing catch in Anshutz for a study break! #Win
Whenever I see a guy with a beard, I always wonder how long it took to grow.
If your initials are B.P. and you are missing your student ID, go to the lost and found in Fraser Hall.
What the hell do you have against Murphy Hall??
Thermodynamics tests don't just ruin your day, they ruin your life.
Kansas; the only state where residents are so clueless about the geography of their state that they think anything west of Topeka is "western Kansas."
If you actually read the bill concealed weapons would only be aloud for professors/faculty.
No I don't wanna help animals... I
wanna eat them.
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013
Why are there seagulls randomly around campus...?
Playoffs??? Don't talk about my Royals to the playoffs! We've only had one game!
Greatest April Fools prank... Apparently I'm kicked out of KU. Good joke.
I'm going to be daring and put away all my winter clothes.
Is it me, or have preachers at Wescoe become progressively less entertaining over the year?
Stop saying Haworth with a Y sound.
Did you not learn phonetics in kinder-
garten?
To the people listening to the crazy guy on Wescoe, he's got it wrong.
Hotdogs in front of the bible thumper on Wescoe Beach. Lunch and a show!!
Is there a hotline for reporting crazy people on campus?
If I had a year to do a paper I'd still do it the night before!
Students need to rethink their degrees
ERIC SCHUMACHER
eschumacher@kansan.com
In my last column, I wrote about the difficulty of affording college and the reality of just how necessary it is, especially considering the frustratingly slow pace of the economic recovery. In light of these difficulties and the fact that even a solid education hasn't spared many people from the worst of the economic downturn, people have started to question the meaning of post-secondary education.
This isn't to jump on the "college is a useless scam" or "big schools are just corporations selling a very expensive product" bandwagon. The previous column discussed just some of the ways that college is not only beneficial, but necessary. But what if college as it exists is functioning on an old model designed to meet the needs of a time since passed? If so, what do we need to change to make it more responsive to the times we live in?
First, a history lesson: college as we know it was expanded to
the larger population in the decades after World
War II. Before then, a smaller number of people (usually wealthy white males) completed degrees and some went on to a profession that required extra schooling such as medicine or law. Amid the economic boom that followed the war, it was thought that a well-educated workforce was necessary to maintain a strong economy. Many of our grandfathers (including mine) funded their education on the GI bill, which provided tuition assistance for veterans of the war. Over the next few decades, the feminist and civil rights movements helped to give women and minorities access to higher education.
The economy that these people were trained for was markedly different than the one we are entering. From the early 1900s until decades after World War II, manufacturing was at the heart of the U.S. economy. By the 90s, it was information and services-oriented. The professions that allowed the sons and daughters of farmers, factory workers and laborers to join the growing middle class became more ubiquitous—even though highly specialized professionals like doctors, nurses and engineers have always been in high demand.
What does that have to do with today? For one thing, our education system in a lot of ways is still the one that our grandparents went through. But it's also different in a few key ways. Consider that at one point, computer science was almost a novelty, confined to the labs of career academics. Now, according to Forbes, a degree in a computer-related field is one of the most lucrative available. Additionally, unemployment rates and earnings vary wildly within individual fields depending on the content of their course work and the specialized skills they develop, according to a report titled "Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings" released by Georgetown.
This all goes to show what the education of today should look like for the economy of tomorrow: more specialization, more real-world applicability, and more refined technological skills than many curriculums currently offer. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, technical training, and professional specializations are the educational priorities we must pursue to make sure we are giving people the opportunity to pursue success and security without being trapped in debt with jobs that don't pay well and don't match up to their skill sets.
For instance, many liberal arts degrees are designed to prepare students for academic mastery instead of what we amusingly call "the real world." In case you didn't know, finding a good job in academia can be very, very hard. The same goes for primary and secondary education, where any shot of moving up requires a professional degree in education. The irony is that we are living in an increasingly shrinking, complicated, interconnected world where the skill set developed while pursuing an LAS degree (communication skills, critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning) is actually becoming increasingly valuable. But because of the nature of what liberal arts students are taught, the potential real-world applications are difficult to market to potential employers and sometimes get lost entirely.
College is as valuable as ever, and more necessary for the current generation than it was for our parents or grandparents. But as the world we inhabit changes, so must what we value in an education. It's up to current and future educators to make sure our institutions are meeting their number one obligation by responding to the demands of the times. But it's up to today's students to hold them accountable and decide what the value of an education really should be.
Schumacher is a senior majoring in political science and English from Toneka.
WILDLIFE
Animal sanctuaries offer safe living place for wild animals
Before my spring break, finding homes for stray tigers was not on my list of pressing issues in the United States.
After my Alternative Spring Break at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary (IEAS) and In-Sync Exotics, my eyes have been opened to how much animal sanctuaries do for our society and the need for them in our society. Animal sanctuaries provide a natural, permanent home for animals to live out the rest of their lives. Sanctuaries differ from zoos because they are not open to the public. Also, most animal sanctuaries have education and conservation as core values.
Unfortunately, the only time that animal sanctuaries really make the news is when an animal attacks. I have heard countless reactions to these news stories, including proclamations about how wild animals are not meant to interact with humans. Too often, the blame is placed on the animal sanctuary, with many believing these attacks should just be expected.
However, many people are unaware of the multiple safety protocols in place to prevent accidents. At IEAS, no gate is opened or closed without a second person verifying that all safety precautions are being met. All the gates are set up so that no person/volunteer/keeper has to be in the same cage as the large cat.
Animal sanctuary workers are probably the last group of people that need to be told that lions and tigers are wild
animals. For example, a tiger at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary, Sajani, was trained to lift his paw up and look to the sky, presumably for photo-taking purposes. The interns are told not to reinforce this behavior and leave once Sajani begins to put his paw up. Animals that have imprinted on humans and can no longer be released in the wild are common residents at animal sanctuaries. Imprintering occurs when people are under the false impression that wild animals would make a good pet, but then these animals become unmanageable adults.
It is unbelievable how many people obtain wild animals as pets. In-Sync Exotics promotes education on "the realities of irresponsible captive ownership practices and the need for conservation." In an informational video about In-Sync, they talk about turning down rescues a couple times a month due to lack of space. There are other sources of these animals such as circuses and other animal sanctuaries with a lack of space or licensure.
We are so aware of the homeless dogs and cats yet sometimes the abused and neglected exotic animals are overlooked because they are not in our everyday lives. With wild animals, the
possibilities of mistreatment increase. Most people do not know the necessary nutrition needs of an exotic cat and would see no harm in giving cat food to a tiger. Mistakes like this not only lead to malnourished animals but to injuries such as hairline fractures in bones. Animal Sanctuaries take these animals in and meet all of their needs through appropriate diet, habitat, and care.
I asked other participants on my alternative break to give their opinion as to why animal sanctuaries are important in our society.
"They are an educational source to teach people about wildlife," junior Dillon Klahr said. "It shows people that animals are not pets. It's not like they caught the tigers; sanctuaries are beneficial to the cats that do not have the same opportunities as other cats."
"I think they are important because they need to go somewhere and they can't go back to the wild," junior Ramona Yoder said. "Animal sanctuaries give them a home close to their natural environment that won't put them at a disadvantage that they would have in the wild."
Whether they are providing a safe haven or educating the public on the dangers of domesticizing wild animals, animal sanctuaries are an asset to be appreciated.
Jenny Stern is a freshman majoring in biology from Lawrence
TELEVISION
BBC's 'Sherlock' to come back strong
And so the countdown until series three of BBC's "Sherlock"
A until series three of BBC's "Sherlock" begins. Co-creators and writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat modernized Sir Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories into what is one of the most visually stunning and well-written TV shows I've encountered.
Of all the Sherlock Holmes adaptations out there, BBC's "Sherlock" wins every time. The casting is perfect. The music is perfect. The scripts, yes, heart-breakingly perfect. Saying I'm excited might be a bit of an understatement.
In early March, pictures of the set started to appear on Twitter. The set designers gleefully sent out photos of the wallpaper in 221 B Baker Street's apartment. Then, they proceeded to smash our hearts with a picture of (spoiler alert) Sherlock's grave stone.
Then things started getting nasty. Gatiss tweeted a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch's (Sherlock Holmes) gorgeous collarbone, and Moffat revealed the three key words of this new season: rat, wedding, and bow.
We, the Sherlock fandom, are being teased. And I'm not sure if I can handle it. Especially after the series two finale "The Reichenbach Fall". My feelings are way, way overloaded. How is Sherlock going to come back? How did he survive a fall like that? How is he going to tell John Watson—played by Martin Freeman—that he is very much alive? Is Mortiarty really dead? What cases will consume Sherlock this season? How will the media react to him not being dead? Will Sherlock and John have a falling out? No horrible pun intended.
Will Mycroft Holmes finally propose to his lover Greg Lestrade? Wait. No. That doesn't sound right. Sorry, getting Tumblr mixed up with real life canon again.
But seriously, I can't wrap my mind around how series three is even going to work, which is
probably why I am a crazed fan, not a writer for the show.
Gatiss announced the first episode is going to be called "The Empty Hearse," which I'm guessing has everything and nothing to do with Sherlock's resurrection from the dead.
It also looks like series three will introduce a few new characters to the cast.
Actress Amanda Abbington, Martin Freeman's real-life girlfriend, will be joining the cast in a role that "significantly impacts upon the lives of John and Sherlock." There have been rumors, hinting at John's possible marriage to "Mary," Sir Conan Doyle's character who marries John in the original stories. Could Amanda be playing John's future wife? One of the words Moffat teased us with is "wed-ding"...
I'm not thrilled with the idea John might be getting married, but it could create an interesting dynamic between the three characters: Sherlock, John's significant other (if there is one).
But Moffat has a reputation for messing with the fans, so it is entirely possible the wedding clue was thrown out there, just to confusion us. I wouldn't put it past the man, who has in interviews stated he loves making little children cry. So far, he's done a great job making me cry, so kudos to him.
It hasn't been decided when series three will air, but it's looking like Fall 2013. If you decide to take the "Sherlock" feels journey, I wish you luck and godspeed.
Brown is a freshman majoring in journalism from Overland Park
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