So, the economy sucks. Work is hard to come by. People are cutting back. No more Starbucks. Or maybe they are eating out less often. Or exchanging name brands for lesser brands.
And all that applies to college students as well. But as another quarter comes to an end, or another semester reaches its midpoint, many students are lamenting that they really, really need a break. But can they afford a vacation?
I, for example, am going on vacation over spring break, a road trip/photojournalism expedition (see, it's a working vacation) to northern Florida, to New Orleans (I've never been!), up through rural Alabama and Mississippi, to Nashville. But notice: I'm driving - no flying out of the nation's most expensive airport for me - I'm cashing out tons of Marriott points, and make no mistake about it - I am definately getting some familial help in financing this trip. If it were all up to me, if I were the only one paying for this trip, I'd be having a staycation.
How about you? How will the bad economy affect your spring break plans? What have you done for spring break in the past? What is your dream spring break?
Death Valley National Park, Part two of my 2008 Spring Break
And now it is finally official - Nancy Zimpher will leave the University of Cincinnati to become chancellor of the State University of New York system.
After weeks of denying what was strongly suspected, the announcement was finally made. She said at today’s press conference in Albany, N.Y., that “Only the size and scale of the opportunity at the SUNY system” could lure her away from UC.
And anyone would agree with that – Zimpher would have to be crazy not to take a position that puts her in charge of 64 campuses that boast a combined enrollment of more than 500,000 students.And despite what many UC community members are saying now, her legacy is yet to be determined.
The truth is, Zimpher has been a polarizing figure on campus and in the region. It seems people love her or hate her. Some describe her as warm and engaging while others say she comes off a little “frosty.” There seems to be no middle ground: There is no ambivalence when it comes to UC’s president.
Those who love her point to strong leadership and an emphasis on academic achievement as elements that bring her great esteem.
“I’ve really enjoyed having a president who has such an open attitude toward students,” said Frank Bowen, UC dean of students. “I’m hopefully optimistic for the future of UC that we find a president who is as exploratory, optimistic and academically focused as [Zimpher].”
And the love fest doesn’t end there.
Student Government President Ryan Rosensweig commented that the value of a UC degree has increased under Zimpher’s tenure.
And Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said: “I feel like I’m losing a friend.”
But those who, well let’s just say those who are not big fans of Zimpher seem to be hung up on a few very specific issues: comments she made about the lesser value of the “pre-Zimpher” degree and the firing of beloved basketball coach Bob Huggins in 2004. In fact, there are whole Web sites dedicated to trashing Zimpher in support of Hugs.
“Your attitude toward UC’s pre-Zimpher alumni is atrocious,” one alumnus said.
“Her comments about ‘pre-Zimpher’ alumni have left a bitter taste in my mouth (CCM ‘71). I have not renewed my alumni membership since she fired Huggins. Not because I thought she shouldn’t or couldn’t do it, but because of the way she did it,” said another.
And typical of the Huggins fan is this comment: “Whoever fires Bob Huggins doesn’t deserve to be at UC.”
And really, those are about the only printable comments there are on the subject of the Zimpher-Huggins rivalry.
So what is the truth?
While it is true that no one person is larger than the institution, and despite a few missteps (the closure of grad student housing tops the list), by and large, Zimpher has been good, very good, for the University.
UC’s reputation has improved. Enrollment is up. UC is now considered to be a top-notch research university. And Zimpher has positively impacted the entire region with her involvement in the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Agenda 360 and the CUF Community Council.
She has made UC a university students can be proud to attend.
And to those people who still carry a torch for Huggins? Get over it already.
Around the time Huggins was fired, Zimpher was quoted as saying: “Character counts.”
If all members of the UC community are honest with themselves, they’ll see she was right and that UC athletics are better off now than in the Huggins heyday.
Gone is the questionable recruiting. Gone is the thuggish reputation of the team. And in are the classier, quality athletics programs of today; the UC community should be proud not only of the performances of the baseball, volleyball and football teams (not to mention the basketball team, which is quietly earning its way to an NCAA tournament bid), but also of the academic accomplishments of UC athletes. According to the most recent figures available, 68 percent of athletes graduate while only 52 percent of the general student population graduates.
So while SUNY’s gain is UC’s loss, there are several initiatives she won’t be around to see through, including the semester conversion, performance-based budgeting and the redevelopment of McMillan Park.
“I’ll take a hoe out there myself if it takes [longer than two years],” Zimpher said in January 2008.
Looks like we’ll never get to see that happen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a look at Nancy Zimpher's first visit with a college in the SUNY system, the University of Albany.
With no improvement in sight for the troubled economy, many Americans are renewing the call for a commitment to a “Buy American.”
Jim Berns, shop manager for the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, is leading the charge, emphasizing the everyday benefits of buying American-made goods.
“When you buy from another American, that money can come back to you fairly quickly,” Berns said. “If you buy something from China, you might as well throw that money out the window because they’re going to put it in the bank and they aren’t going to buy anything from you or from me.”
Berns has taken his campaign to both the streets and the airwaves as of late, appearing on local television and radio, as well as area street corners, touting his position with handmade signs while requesting passersby to honk “if you love the U.S.A.”
Beth Walter Honadle, a UC political science professor specializing in policy analysis and evaluation, public finance and economic development, takes issue with the current “Buy American” campaign.
“I expect the ‘Buy American’ policy to be about as effective as President Gerald Ford’s ‘Whip Inflation Now’ campaign was back in 1974,” Honadle said. In that initiative, the president exhorted people to save more and spend less and encouraged the wearing of WIN buttons to ‘whip’ inflation.
“The history lesson is that slogans asking people to behave against their self-interest generally don’t work,” Honadle said.
And indeed, some of Berns’ own students admit that adhering to the call to buy American can be challenging.
Seidi Kenneh and Michelle Olden are two of the students who are working with Berns to make signs and get the word out.
“It’s hard to pick something up, say to myself ‘Wow, I really like this and it’s cheaper [than something made in the United States],’” Kenneh said. “It’s hard for me to say I won’t buy it because it’s not made in the United States.”
“The concept is good as long as there are people behind it and we can really get [the campaign] to go someplace,” Olden said. “It will take a lot of people to change our buying system.”
David Brasington, an economics professor specializing in political economies, said “Buy American” could have some success.
“For goods and services that Americans already make the best and cheapest, it won’t have any effect, because we’re already buying them,” Brasington said. “For goods and services that we’re not best and cheapest at, if people follow the campaign and buy American instead of a cheaper or better foreign good, it will help preserve jobs and profits for those companies that might otherwise continue their slide toward going out of business. And people won’t mind the lower quality or higher prices because they get satisfaction knowing they’re helping American companies.”
But Berns doesn’t want his efforts to be confused with pork barrel spending – he isn’t promoting buying American products for the sake of buying American products if they’re not the best quality or most efficient products available.
And concerning products the United States is not prepared to compete on, like electronics, it’s fine, Berns says, to buy foreign-made item, especially if that other country is a trading partner like Canada or Mexico.
“There is some parity in that balance,” Berns said. “The U.S.-China trade imbalance is huge – the United States purchases about five times more from China than China buys from the United States.”
Honadle warns that a concerted effort by government or citizens to buy only American could prompt a trade war.
Furthermore, “In today’s global economy, with goods being produced with component parts from around the globe, it might be interesting just to see how they will define what an ‘American good’ is these days,” Honadle said.
Brasington agrees.
“Today’s American firms are mostly highly international anyway, so a ‘Buy American’ campaign might actually help preserve some foreigners’ jobs, too. Dell computers may be assembled [in the Philippines]; some Fords are made by Mexicans; some Chevrolet camshafts are made in China,” he said.
“But the ‘Buy American’ campaign, if effective, would still help preserve corporate profits and corporate jobs that Ford still has in the [United States], whether or not these are the types of jobs such a campaign is really thinking of helping.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check you the YouTube video made by some of the students who are working with Jim Berns. Effective? Do you consider the place of origin of the products you buy? Are you willing to pay more for American made products?
So, I just cannot take it any longer. I feel I need to address the hypocrites and idiots who have found it necessary to comment on the University of Cincinnati's week of "Sexploration."
The event has garnered considerable media attention, especially from the Cincinnati Enquirer, and I'll admit I found it odd that the paper previewed the event on Sunday, Feb. 1. Here's a link to Cliff Peale's article: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090201/NEWS01/902010361.
"Really," I thought at the time. "Is there so little going on in Cincinnati that the Enquirer is now covering benign campus events?"
After all, as a student at a major university, I didn't bat an eye when I first heard about "Sexploration," and I'm fairly certain no I know did either.
"How are events such as "Pizza and Porn" and "Got the Hook Up?" any better than inviting a tobacco company to peddle cigarettes and celebrate the glories of a good smoke?" This is just one of the pearls of wisdom Bronson offers in his "Sexploration" blog post.
For the record, I can't think of I time I ever thought Bronson was right.
Sigh.
So let me first address the idiots (that's you and your ilk, Bronson). If any of these people had gone to, researched, or even called someone involved with the "Pizza and Porn" event, they'd realize the event was not dinner and a movie, but rather a public forum, a discourse, an exploration of people's thoughts and perspectives on pornography.
In other words, "Pizza and Porn" was intended to bring people of differing opinions together to encourage critical thinking concerning a difficult and controversial subject.
Gee, I could have sworn that this is what college is for: to teach people to think both critically and for themselves.
As for the hypocrites, well, I'll start with Pilarczyk. Dude, you are just in no way, shape or form in a position to comment on, well just about anything to do with sex.
"I find the 'Sexploration' program ... to be profoundly disturbing," Pilarczyk said in a statement released by the Archdiocese. "The gross disregard of the moral sensibilities of many in the university community is troubling in the extreme."
What's troubling to me is that a representative of a religion that is wholly and completely out of touch with life in the 21st century (Hello, no birth control? Seriously?) is commenting on the sexual mores of today's college students.
What's troubling to me is that a man who has vowed to live his life as a celibate is commenting on the safety of the sex others engage in.
What's troubling to me is that a man of such high position, so ready to publicly denounce the university and it's Wellness Center, could be completely misinformed as to whether or not taxpayer funds paid for the week's events (they didn't).
Pilarczyk would so willingly and without thinking out the consequences put himself out there in this way, opening himself up to a potential onslaught of criticism and recrimination, ready to make a fool of himself over what is essentially the decision of two consenting adults to participate in safe sex.
Well played, Archbishop. Well played.
Finally, to many, but not all of (some of the comments are very rational and intelligent), the women who post on momslikeme.com: Are you such old farts that you don't remember your college experience? Are you liars or just phonies? Just wondering, because some of you spout such venom towards Pure Romance. Are you denying you had sex in college? Because I'm not falling for that. Just saying.
UC President Nancy Zimpher with Thane Maynard (and Lucy the bearcat) of the Cincinnati Zoo, September 2008, UC Night at the Zoo
I bet you've heard the news already - Nancy Zimpher is poised to leave the University of Cincinnati to become chancellor of the State University of New York system.
Or, at least that what several major media outlets are saying (Hi, New York Times!).
Here at UC, mum is the word. Zimpher admits only that she has been approached about the position. In a statement issued on Monday, she said "It is not uncommon for me to receive such inquiries. I see it as recognition of the progress made by the University of Cincinnati on academic quality and accountability, urban issues, our strong research program and our collaborative endeavors throughout the region and state."
Gee, thanks for addressing the matter directly, Nancy.
UC spokeman Greg Hand and SUNY spokesman David Henahan are also holding the party line, stating no decision has been made.
The SUNY system is comprised of 64 campuses and has more than 500,000 students.
As a former student of a SUNY college (Oneonta!), I think this job would be big. Very big and very prestigious. Zimpher, if offered the position, would have to be crazy to decline it.
But if she were to accept it, UC would be left in the lurch - or would it?
The truth is, Zimpher has been a polarizing figure on campus and in the region. It seems people love her or hate her. I seldom hear of a middle ground; there is no ambivalence when it comes to UC's president.
So I invite you to share your thoughts. Do you love what she's done for academics and research, or are you still holding a torch for Hugs? Will be UC be lost without her or will time move on?
Should she stay or should she go?
(Please feel free to identify yourself in any comments you leave - I may contact you for a future article on this subject.)
YAY! I've graduated! Wait, now what? Okay, so maybe this whole journalism degree thing wasn't, well, my most brilliant idea. No, yes it was! I will make this work. If it kills me I will make this work. Know anyone who's hiring??
Dying to know more about me? Check it out: http://kristyconlin.weebly.com/
Las Vegas, part one of my 2008 Spring Break
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