Tell Congress that you oppose SOPA and PIPA

Censoring the Internet prevents knowledge from spreading and it prevents free knowledge in general, something that many people take for granted. You can make a difference by signing Google's "End Piracy, not Liberty" petition. Do yourself, and the country a favor, by taking 30 seconds to sign the petition. Censorship is wrong and it hurts business, industry and education.

Although, do people really think that they would censor the internet in America? I mean how dumb would Congress be to ██ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ and ██████ ██ ████ ██. Also, did it ever occur to you that ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██? It's just ridiculous to think that could happen. You know what I mean?

UNH Students too Passive

A few weeks ago I wrote about the lack of student activism and participation around campus. UNH students, and many other college campuses, are pretty passive nowadays when it comes to holding rallies and protests. Obviously this was not always the case, such as the protests that were held in the mid 1960s and into the 1970s over the United States actions in Vietnam.

It is a little surprising that campuses remain so quiet now, even with the very similar wars going on in the Middle East. Most professors would agree that students do not seem to care about class material or real-world issues, and even President Huddleston has taken notice.

As we all know by now, President Huddleston gave a speech to the New Hampshire State Finance Committee that raised some eyebrows around campus, particularly with the AAUP, who held a "no-confidence" vote on Huddleston's actions. However, I am not here to critique President Huddleston or the AAUP for either of their actions.

I want to draw light on the particular quote by Huddleston that caught the AAUP's attention. Huddleston said:

"We still too frequently convey information in 50-minute lectures delivered by a ‘sage on the stage' to largely passive recipients in the audience three times a week for 15 weeks a term — as if that schedule were Biblically decreed and as if that were the way that ‘digital natives' actually learn today. Worse, we remain wedded to a credentialing regimen of courses and majors and degrees that mainly reflect ‘seat time,' rather than what students actually learn or need to learn."

The part that first grabbed my attention was the "largely passive recipients in the audience" line. You can say that again.

UNH is full of students who really do not care about many classes and real-world issues. Both of these problems have really simple solutions, but the changes need to be made from the top of the university system.

The entire General Education and Discovery program needs to be changed. I understand that it is important for students to have a well-rounded education, but students are too often stuck in meaningless Gen Eds that are simply GPA boosters. What good does that do? Other than boost your GPA of course. Germs? Making Babies? Intro to Music? I'm glad I know that washing my hands is healthy, condoms prevent STDs and babies, and that I can name which one of Beethoven's symphonies is being played in just 15 seconds.

Watch out Donald Trump, here comes The New Hampshirite, future entrepreneur of the century. I'm going to be as healthy as an ox and musically sophisticated, that is a one-two punch to make millions off of. If UNH loses funding there are going to be even more 250 seat brainless lectures, because classes like those are cheaper to run.

The second problem I mentioned above, UNH students not seeming to take an interest in world news and events, can also be improved. This became blatantly apparent Sunday night following the news of Osama bin Laden's death. Universities across the country including Penn State, West Virginia and even UMass had students pouring into the streets in celebration. I made my way downtown and UNH was dead quiet – a virtual ghost town.

One of the reasons that students of the 60s and 70s were so active was because the schools allowed them to and even encouraged it in a way. Many universities would hold what were called "teach-in" discussions and debates for up to three days every semester.

During these teach-ins, classes would be replaced by debates and workshops dedicated to discussing the Vietnam War and other national events in a respectful and civil manner. What is really more important, learning about something you can probably look up in about three minutes online or examining and discussing real world events that are currently impacting your life in more ways than you know?

Vietnam protesters were called "bad Americans" for not supporting the government despite the fact that it is our responsibility and right to critique the government. I do not think protesters are "bad Americans" at all, but I do think that you can be a "bad American" if you do not take the time to learn and discuss what is really happening in the world.

Then the question arises, should we as a people be morally responsible for letting it happen? If you're not being taught or discussing world events in class, then educate yourself.

Stay classy, not UMassy

Thoughts on Yesterday's News

Well, yesterday was a pretty crazy day if you ask me. I encountered some of the most random luck ever... and you know, the whole Bin Laden thing too. Before I get into that, I just want to share a few things. I also realized how simple my life is for certain events to make my day so awesome. First, I'm on the way to the dining hall for lunch. Really it was my breakfast, but it was at lunch time. As my roommate and I are walking down Gables Way a friend passes us and she gave us a ride to HoCo.

Then on the way back another one of our roommates passes us and gives us a ride back.  Then I head over to Solarfest, meet up with a few friends and partake in some good old hippie watching, which is always entertaining. At night we're hanging out in the apartment and I see on Twitter that Obama had a huge statement coming up and through some investigative twitter searching I found a leaked report about an hour before any of the news channels made the official announcement.

So, my roommates and a few friends and I watch the news for a while, do a celebratory shotgun and I get the idea to go to the bar. I really wanted to see if campus would be active at all downtown. Three of us head out just as a bus pulls away and I manage to thumb it down in the street and they let us on, which may be my greatest accomplishment at UNH yet. At the bar we split a pitcher and a kid next to my roommate turns and asks "are any of you behind UNH blog?" (I had tweeted that we were heading to Ballards). At first we all said no, but after a minute I told him. He shook my hand and said I was his hero. It was pretty hilarious, but also felt really nice to hear that.

Anyways, the more important issue...

I just want to end this post with some thoughts on the issue of celebrating last night's news. I completely see both sides of the argument. Is it wrong to celebrate a death, doesn't that make us look like the extremists who celebrated 9/11 and American deaths? But that is not how I see it. I see it as celebrating a moment in time that America really needed. Hopefully this will be a unifying moment for America. There are a lot of problems right now, domestically and internationally, and the death of one man will not solve them. But it is definitely a historical and symbolically important moment. We are celebrating the achievement of a goal that was 10 years in the making. On September 11th around 3,000 Americans were tragically killed. Since then thousands more have fought and been killed in battle. Bin Laden's death doesn't change that, but it is now the first major step in finally ending the war. Retaliation can be expected and this war is not over. But this is a moment we will not forget, this is a moment where the United States can say that we achieved a significant accomplishment. It is for those reasons why I believe it is okay to celebrate the moment. Do not celebrate the death, but celebrate what this means for our country and freedom. UNH was basically a ghost town last night, apart from a few small fireworks. At most colleges there were huge rallies and celebrations, which would have been quite an event to witness or be apart of. But do not forget, this is not over. It will not be over soon. It is okay to celebrate, if you realize these things. Do not celebrate a death, even if it was one of the most hated and evilest humans imaginable, but celebrate what it represents. This is a symbolic moment and American needed a breath of fresh air.

Stay classy, not UMassy.

College Professors: Are they Fair and Balanced?

For the last three years I have been attending classes all over this campus. I am a history major, but I have always tried to pick a wide variety of classes for my general education courses and other electives. I have also begun working towards a minor in communications and took a few upper-level English writing courses, aside from the general education requirements. I have taken many courses across the curriculum, although I have never stepped foot inside McConnell Hall, so I cannot speak on what that part of the student body has been taught. My history courses have ranged from ancient civilizations to modern U.S., which is my focus. Of all the classes I have taken during my time here, I feel as though I have been preached a few overlying messages: Fox News is the devil! Do not let yourself be brainwashed by corporate propaganda! We don't get paid enough money! Sometimes I feel a little sorry for the conservative students on campus and what they have to listen to all day.

While I tend to agree with most of my professors on those ideas, even I feel that sometimes our professors at UNH can be overly liberal with their beliefs and teaching agenda. Politically speaking, I am a pretty liberal person, but I also prefer not to have my professor's personal political beliefs affect the content of a class. When a professor tells the class "We won't spend too much time on President Reagan (or Bill Clinton or George W. Bush) because I am too bias to give a fair lecture," that really pisses me off. I have had all three of those situations happen to me with different professors. I am paying thousands of dollars to go to school here and you cannot give a fair lecture on major presidents of the United States? I am a modern U.S. history major and, whether you like Reagan, Clinton and Bush or not, they are incredibly important to my field of study. I am sorry, UNH, but that does not sound too fair and balanced to me. I cannot learn everything from Wikipedia, just a large majority of it.

Everyone knows that Fox News has a conservative agenda, but so does almost every other news channel, whether they are liberal or conservative. I have had professor after professor of all subjects speak out against Fox News, but never once have I heard a professor say anything negative about MSNBC's liberal side. MSNBC has tried to become the liberal news channel, but I find myself watching and paying more attention to Fox News than MSNBC. Granted, I think that is more for the entertainment value of watching Bill O'Reilly telling his guests to shut up or Glenn Beck creating some conspiracy theory, all the while being secretly terrified that thousands, if not millions, of people believe him.

Then I have professors telling me to be aware of major corporations, media conglomerations and their tricky marketing campaigns. But then I go out to the Durham Book Exchange to buy my semesters worth of books, and when I finally sit down to study the night before the first exam of the year I see that my professor co-authored or edited the book, or it was written by one of his or her old graduate school buddies. Universities have become giant machines like most of the corporations our professors tell us to watch out for.

I do not want to come off as a conspiracy theorist (although I do have a life goal of gaining access to Area 51), but I think it is important for students to step back once in a while and really think about what we are being taught. One major learning tool that has been beaten relentlessly into my brain has been to look for bias in every source, document and article I read, and try to be fair and balanced with my analysis and interpretations. But is it truly fair for students to be expected to do that when the professor directs the class in one direction? I believe overly liberal or conservative professors can be just as damaging as overly liberal or conservative news channels, especially for students who are too afraid to question the answers. I will be the first to admit I have an open bias and agenda on my blog and in my columns - we all do in every conversation we have. But when those biases or agendas keep professors from giving a fair and balanced lecture it is not any different than a conservative school board editing what is said in high school textbooks.

Stay classy, not UMassy,
The New Hampshirite

UNH Ranks 371 on Forbes top American College list

Forbes Magazine recently released their annual "Best College" list and UNH was ranked number 371. To see Forbes' methodology for their ranking click here. (In brief- it involves student satisfaction, postgrad success, student debt and several other categories.) The entire list of colleges can be found here.

The 371 ranking (out of 610) is an improvement from last year's ranking of 454, which I wrote about here. This year we jumped ahead of UMass (number 402), which seems about right. UNH also ranked ahead of UMaine (467) UMass-Lowell (475) URI (477) and Northeastern (519). Northeastern's low ranking surprised me, I always thought that was supposed to be a really good school. Sounds like some people are over paying for the name on the degree. Boston College ranked #27, three spots ahead of Dartmouth, BU was somewhere in the 200's while UVM was 329.

Williams College in Massachusetts toped the list, followed by Princeton, Amherst College, West Point (last year's #1) and MIT.

ALSO: Don't forget to order your textbooks through the blog. We have already referred a few sales and have received great feedback. I also bought a few books and I really did save a lot of money (At least half of what I would have paid at UNH.)  Plus it is like Christmas everyday when I go to the mailbox and see that another book has arrived. The orders have all shipped on time and it really is a great way to help us and save money. Give it a shot!

Stay classy, not UMassy.