Category: Opinion

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Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Employer Expo

Although it’s hard to believe, University seniors are already sending out résumés and cover letters to employers all over the country in hopes of landing a job before graduation in May. Unfortunately for most of the graduating class, the outlook isn’t too promising. This week’s Employer Expo only seemed to emphasize the fact that finding a job with a liberal arts major is extremely difficult and the job market is overwhelmingly competitive. Seniors on The Bucknellian staff participated in the Employer Expo, but we left discouraged and frustrated by the apparent lack of jobs available. Our liberal arts majors didn’t seem to provide us with any competitive edge in the job market.

At first we were frustrated with the lack of diversity in the employer pool at Tuesday’s expo and our first reaction was to find someone to blame. Why was there a significantly greater amount of engineering and accounting headhunters than any other career path? Yes, we want to blame the University for seemingly favoring a certain type of student over another, but we simply cannot do that because it’s not fair. The Career Development Center (CDC) is not at fault in this situation. Students have to find out when, how and why certain employers hire. While employers are actively seeking college graduates (or soon-to-be graduates) with engineering and accounting majors, the same cannot be said for the rest of us.

We can’t blame the CDC. They really do seem to be doing everything they can to provide us with opportunities to find jobs. There are various expos that take place in cities like New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. that having the CDC makes available to students. In addition, later on in the year, the CDC provides job and internship fairs that are geared more towards the liberal arts majors. However, these fairs are typically recruiting interns and not full-time employees.

It’s frustrating to see our peers land jobs before us liberal arts majors, but we choose our own paths and now we have to stick with them. Some of the career paths we have chosen take a little more effort to get our foot in the door and soon-to-be graduates need to realize that and prepare.

 

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: From a Christian Bucknellian

Dear Bucknell,

I want to apologize for what happened the other day when those preachers came to campus.  I am a member of the Christian community here at Bucknell.  Although we were not responsible for what happened on Wednesday of last week and could do nothing to stop it, I feel that it is our responsibility to respond.  I beg your forgiveness for some of the things said in this overall rather offensive sermon and in general for all the wrongs that have been done by Christians in the name of Jesus Christ.  Many of those wrongs have been very hurtful.

Christians are just the same as everybody else when it comes to doing bad things.  Sometimes (often) we’re even worse.  Need I bring up such awful deeds as the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the people who bomb abortion clinics, the priest sex scandals of a few years ago, or the Catholic/Protestant fighting in Ireland?

I am not writing this letter to defend Christians because we have done some pretty horrible things, Catholics and Protestants alike.  The purpose of this letter is twofold:  First, to apologize for the hurt, guilt, and offense caused not only by those who were speaking on Wednesday downhill, but all the things that Christians have done that were not loving, especially here at Bucknell.  And second, to express that this is not God’s intended message for the world, for this campus, or for any one of you.  Yes, God wants us to proclaim the love of Jesus to all of you.  He wants us to encourage every person to seek an intimate relationship with Him.  He loves every one of us and a relationship with Him is not meant to be a burden on the soul, or a guilt complex. He does not condemn, but loves unconditionally.  He does not want us to send a message of superiority or hatred, which is what came across during much of the speech given on Wednesday.

In the Bible, Jesus defends those who have been condemned by society so many times.  Everyone is shocked to see him eating dinner with cheating tax collectors, talking with prostitutes in the street, and spending time with pagans and nonbelievers.  He even saves the life of an adulterous woman when everyone else wants to give her the death penalty.  Everyone was confused—wasn’t Jesus the voice of Godly justice?  Why was he standing up for such sinners?  But to Jesus, these things make perfect sense.  Nobody is completely righteous, he reminds us all the time, so why should any of us act like we’re better than everyone else?  He says, “why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matt 7:3)  He is constantly scolding the Pharisees for doing exactly what those Christians did downhill on Wednesday.  Sure, some of the people the Pharisees were sticking their noses up at were doing some pretty bad stuff—but so were the Pharisees.  So are the rest of us.

At first, when I heard about what these people were doing and saying on Wednesday, I thought Christians were being too loud.  But perhaps we’re being too quiet, not responding to this by shouting God’s message of mercy and love.

So whenever you hear a Christian speaking of fire and brimstone and threatening the world with talk of Hell, please remember that those words are coming from human mouths and that is not the message that Jesus gives to us to proclaim to the world.  They are grossly misrepresenting the things our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us.  He teaches a message of love and forgiveness, of reaching out in love to help one another, and of not judging others.  Even when we are pointing out wrongs, we are supposed to do so in a loving way (and gently, if possible), because we ourselves do plenty of wrongs also.  We Christians are pretty sloppy at carrying out that message.  We’re trying our best, though, and I believe that the incident on Wednesday is incentive to all of us to try even harder.

Again, I am very sorry for the hurtful things that were said on Wednesday.  We are all truly sorry.

–A Christian Bucknellian

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Students should be concerned about campus climate

To the Editor:

I write in response to your editorial of Sept. 16 regarding the Campus Climate Task Force (CCTF) Report. I am glad to see that you’ve taken these matters seriously enough to examine them critically in The Bucknellian. You raise a number of important questions, only some of which I can answer. You also make some claims that are unfounded. Critical thinking requires an adequate knowledge of the material being criticized, and so I hope that the following will fill some of those gaps.

Some of the statistics on sexual assault at the University cited in the Report are based on research that I have conducted with teams of student co-investigators for over 10 years. This research has been done in an attempt to understand better the nature of sexual assault among college students (it was not done for the University, although it was financially supported by the University). Our selection procedures have resulted in fairly large samples of students based on response rates that are considered quite good for survey research on this topic (30 to 40 percent). These procedures have also produced samples that are reasonably representative of the groups that we were interested in, depending on which aspects of sexual assault we were examining in a given study. Thus, for example, we have not collected data from first-year students in some studies because we were interested primarily in examining differences between members of Greek organizations and Independent students. Similarly, when focusing on sexual assault victimization, we have not sought data from male students, not because men are never victimized, but rather because women are victimized at substantially higher rates (and the rates of male victimization here are too small to analyze meaningfully).

You expressed concerns about survey response bias when you recommended encouraging truthful responses and wondered about respondents’ motivations to complete surveys. These are legitimate concerns for which there are only imperfect solutions. The best we can do regarding truthful responding is to measure tendencies to respond in a socially desirable manner, and then test for an association between that tendency and reports of victimization or lack thereof (we have not yet found such an association in any of our studies). Motivation to participate in surveys of personal, and potentially painful, matters such as sexual assault probably works both ways. It is possible, as you suggest, that some respondents might be more motivated to complete such surveys for a variety of reasons, but it is also possible that assault victims would be less likely to do so because they do not wish to be reminded of painful experiences.

You also seem to believe that “Greek life” is sufficiently safe for men and women at the University. Your points supporting this claim, while sensible, are not supported by the data. I agree that Greek life is safe for men, but not for women. Our data demonstrate that members of sororities are at significantly greater risk for being sexually assaulted than unaffiliated women (this is true in other studies conducted on other campuses as well).

The rates of sexual assault at the University as reflected by our research are high, in comparison to nationally representative data, and the CCTF and President Bravman are correct in arguing that something needs to be done about this problem. The choices about what we should do will be complex and difficult, and I hope that all members of the campus community will be engaged in helping with this task. In this effort, I would hope that students, Greek or otherwise, would be at least as concerned about their fellow students who have been affected by sexual assault as they are about their Greek organizations.

Sincerely,

Bill Flack
Associate Professor of Psychology

 

Categories
Opinion

Campus Climate forums proving constructive

By Jen Lassen

Contributing Writer

There is no question that the Campus Climate Task Force Report has caused many students to ask questions and discuss the contents of the 68-page document. President Bravman’s bold move to initiate a forum for students to attend first seemed a little dangerous to me, especially after I had observed students’ negative reactions to the document. Before I attended the forum last week I thought it would be a bunch of angry students back-lashing both the administration and the document for some of its more controversial topics. Especially as a first-year, I walked into the forum quite intimidated and unsure of how it would turn out. But I believe that in a world dominated by administrative hierarchies, giving students the chance to voice their opinions is always a good thing–especially with something that directly affects the students. A forum gives the administration a chance to rethink its original intentions for wanting to make University changes after students speak. Keeping an open dialogue between staff and students is healthy and productive, and in the case of the Campus Climate Task Force Report, the student body and administrators will be able to work together to improve campus from the discussions held.

I found myself surprised at how intelligent and constructive the students’ comments were. There were hints of anger in some students’ comments, yes, but overall I thought giving the students the ability to voice their own opinions turned out to be a good thing. As the president stood on stage, he certainly must have been listening to what the students had to say and analyzing their opinions about the report. I think this process of letting the students speak their minds helped everyone, especially the administration, realize how the students attending the University feel about a document that specifically targeted their actions.

Although on Tuesday students were not given the chance to ask questions about the document, only to voice their opinions, it turned out to be constructive because it allowed the president and his staff to gain insight from students and take students’ thoughts into consideration. Maybe the administration’s own opinions about what was written in the document were changed from the students’ comments, but we won’t know this until there is more collaboration between students and staff to improve the University.
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Opinion

Society is past the days of street preaching

By Connor Small

Contributing Writer

Outside the Elaine Langone Center earlier this week, many passersby heard a man with a microphone reading Bible verses and preaching Christianity. The street-corner preacher was met at first with stares, then resistance. His presence and the opposition that followed raised the idea of freedom of religion. Across the street a student held a spiral notebook with the words “Hail Satan” etched onto a page. The student and the preacher traded words, and as I walked by, I was asked if I had “worshipped Satan yet today.” Personally, I saw this as no more than a joke; in my view, it was somebody simply calling attention to himself. But his actions very well may have offended a large group of people on this campus.  

I understand that the University prides itself on strong community and increasing diversity, and protests have historically been a part of many colleges, but as I thought more about the events that occurred earlier that day, something just didn’t sit right with me. It was not so much what the man said that upset me, but rather how he went about getting his message across.

The real question here is this: was there a better way for the preacher to get his beliefs across? Preaching on the streets has its pros and cons: you reach everyone who happens to walk by, but you risk persecution, as is the case here. When I talked to my fellow classmates and heard their opinions on the matter, I came to the conclusion that maybe the University is not as accepting as many think. Many I talked to were hostile towards the idea of a Christian preaching on a corner: “I really don’t want to have somebody telling me that ‘God is the only way’ over a microphone while I’m trying to have a conversation with my friends,” one student said. “He should keep it in the church,” another said. Others were more pragmatic about the issue: “He can do say whatever he wants, as long as I have the right to argue against it.” Any belief system is going to be met with some form of resistance, but in my opinion, there is a better way to reach college students than standing on a corner reading scripture.

College is meant to be a time of experimentation, of challenging your ideas and of self-exploration. There are many options available to fit pretty much any interest at the University. Everybody is different: some know what they believe, others are still searching. To me, it seems we are past the days of street preaching. While the preacher feels it is his duty to spread his beliefs (and he has that right), he might have been met with less resistance had he chosen a more passive approach. Everybody has the right to his or her beliefs, and everybody has the right to challenge those of others. People are encouraged to formulate their own opinions, but in letting them out, one should be aware of how others are affected by their methods of expression.
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Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Campus Climate

The recent release of the Campus Climate Task Force Report by President Bravman has many students up in arms about the suggested changes to the University’s current academic and social conditions.

At The Bucknellian, we have been in communication with students, faculty and the administration throughout the past year about issues concerning campus climate. Last fall we dedicated the majority of an edition to the sexual assaults reported on campus. While we understand where the administration is coming from, and we can agree with the task force in some areas, we believe that some of the results may have been skewed out of proportion to highlight the negative aspects of our campus community.

One of the concerns we have with the report is lack of diversity from the pool from which the administration pulled statistics. According to the report, the task force used data majorly collected from members of the 2007, 2009 and 2010 graduating classes on a voluntary response basis. A large amount of the students polled in these surveys were also incoming first-years. Why wasn’t there a fairer representation of the student body in the task force data? How many sophomores, juniors and current seniors were polled during this time period? Obviously first-year students and outgoing seniors will have radically different perceptions of their time at the University. It only seems necessary to fill that gap to get a clear picture. Although data collection is hard, especially when a very limited amount of students participate, it is important to get a broad spectrum of statistics. That means encouraging students to answer these surveys truthfully or else no one can really take the statistics seriously.

In addition, the Sexual Experiences Survey was administered to an overwhelmingly female majority. Only 114 students out of the 1,023 surveyed were men. This doesn’t leave a large response bias. It would have been more accurate to include more male students. What was the non-response rate of these surveys? The fact that the task force only polled those students who were willing to go out of their way to submit their responses creates a response bias that cannot be overlooked.

We also think the task force has skewed the statistics towards a more negative angle. The task force places a heavy emphasis on the negatives of drinking, but it should be noted more clearly that drug use at the University is lower than comparable institutions. In addition, first-year students were over-represented in these samples. College freshmen tend to experiment with drinking a lot more than sophomores, juniors and seniors. We would have appreciated a more diverse statistic.

Through the climate report, President Bravman and the task force have expressed their severe dissatisfaction with Greek life and the way it impacts campus. Yes, Greek life can split the campus and create social divisions. However, an overwhelming amount of the philanthropic activities conducted on and around campus are done by Greek members. Although members of the Greek life here at the University are required to complete a certain number of ‘hours’ for philanthropy, the fact of the matter is, this is how it gets done. If it were not for the Greek system, philanthropy at the University would almost cease to exist. Although the Office of Civic Engagement offers many opportunities to students, many people aren’t aware of how to utilize it to its fullest.

We agree with the task force in that the University should be advertising more student-based activities, like Bingo, karaoke and other events at Uptown and in the ELC. However, it’s often the case that students don’t find going to Bingo as appealing as going to a fraternity party. While we know that there are students on campus that don’t participate in Greek life, the majority of them do, and the majority of them drink. This is not surprising in the least considering students drink when in college and there is a certain party atmosphere on campus. We don’t think the administration can change this. Even if the administration decides to eliminate Greek life all together, students who want to have fun by partying will find ways to do so. What’s more is that a large amount of alumni donators were members in Greek organizations on campus. If the administration gets rid of Greek life, alumni will stop donating to the University and the University’s College Rankings will lower.

We also have to disagree with the idea that Greek life is unsafe for men and women on campus. When fraternities decide to host parties on or off campus, they are legally responsible for all those attending. It is their best interest to keep things safe. The same goes for sororities and events that they host. It is in both organizations’ best interest so they can stay clean in the eyes of the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils. And closing Greek Life parties to first-years? Doesn’t that counteract Bucknell’s mission state of community? How are first-years supposed to feel a part of campus when they are forbidden from attending certain parties or events?

We understand the task force has good intentions and that there are issues on campus that need to be addressed. That being said, the skewed statistics and goals the University is proposing are extreme. Punish members of the community who need to be punished. The administration did that with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Kappa Delta Rho fraternities. All others, those Greek organizations and students who are following the rules, should not be penalized.

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: How Can We Heal?

To the editor:

A pair of opinions articles published in a recent issue of The Bucknellian reflecting on the legacy and lessons of the attacks of Sept. 11 touched on an issue that, in my opinion, is the most critical to the future security of our country—the deep flaws in our nation’s foreign policy. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes the remembrance of an event as tragic as the attacks 10 years ago to call attention to the matter. After reading Gabriella’s piece and Amanda’s response, I’d like to address a fundamental disagreement I have with the Editor.

The view that the true motivation for our involvement in the Middle East was “to ensure the future domestic security of our nation from extremists … that espouse beliefs that are fundamentally in opposition to the United States and the American way of life” may very well have been the intention of some policy makers, but the results of our actions could not bring us further from such a goal. For the better part of the 20th century to the modern day, our actions in the Middle East have led to the region’s instability and only serves to make us less secure. I’d like to cite our history with Iran as a prominent example of such unsound policy that will be extremely relevant to the future of our own generation.

The 1979 hostage crisis in which Islamist students took control of the American Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days marks what many people view as the beginning of our acerbic relationship with Iran. It was 26 years earlier, however, that conflict began. It was in this year that Operation Ajax, a coup d’état orchestrated by the American CIA and British MI6, overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed Mohammad Shāh Pahlavi, a pro-U.S. dictator. It was during the Shah’s 25-year rule (upheld by U.S. support) that anti-American resentment throughout the Middle East was cultivated. Our CIA helped to create SAVAK, an Iranian secret police that was used to instill fear in the hearts of dissenting Iranians. SAVAK imprisoned and tortured the Shah’s political enemies. Near the end of his reign, the Shah ordered troops to massacre protesters, an event that would spark the fire of the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis a year later.

Though it would be horrible to suggest that we were responsible for the attacks on our fellow Americans then or 10 years ago, or somehow invited or deserved them, it is no great mystery why radical Islamists are upset. They do not hate us because we are free or because they oppose our “way of life.” They target us because our government has meddled in their nation’s affairs and sovereignty for over a half century with often-injurious results to both sides. It’s time we looked seriously at the justifications given for our action in the Middle East and realize that we are no safer for it. We are only more endangered as we continue to invade, bomb and intervene in the Middle East. Every day our actions produce more extremist militants who see our actions as an attack on their way of life and independence. We must realize even as we celebrate the murder (Gabriella was right here) of Osama bin Laden, he has in several ways accomplished exactly what he wanted. Our government’s faulty response to the attacks on our country has led us to spend a total of $1.2 trillion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the unconstitutional “time-limited, scope-limited military action” under our newest war president. Just as militant Islamists sought to bleed-out the Soviets in Afghanistan, they now seek to have us spend our way into financial ruin in several unsustainable wars. The attacks have frenzied us so that we are now starting to give up what makes America truly great—our founding principles. We turn the rule of law on its head by giving our president the authority to decide who deserves to die and order an operation to kill rather than capture and give due process to a criminal. What would have been so horrible about executing bin Laden after a trial that would have surely found him guilty? Instead we delve deeper into a foreign policy that may well lead us into a sixth needless war in the Middle East. Our generation should be concerned. There is still time to show the world how great America truly is. There is still time to heal.

–Scott Lunde

Categories
Opinion

Music pirating is unethical

By Connor Small

Contributing Writer

A hot topic of discussion lately has been whether downloading music illegally is okay or whether it is detrimental to the music industry. According to a study done by the Pew Research Center in 2005, about 36 million Americans admitted to illegally downloading music from the Internet, and with today’s rapidly developing technology, I suspect that figure to be higher in 2011. But who is to blame here: the people who operate the hosting websites, or the users who download the music? While illegally downloading music may be considered socially acceptable by people of our generation, that does not make it right.

The availability of free music on the Internet is impressive, and there are many options at a user’s disposal: YouTube-MP3 converters, torrent websites such as the Pirate Bay, and P2P (peer-to-peer) databases such as FrostWire; the list goes on. Getting music for free is easy, even for someone who isn’t tech savvy. Think about it: if an individual could download all the music they wanted for free in the comfort of their own home, why would they ever buy music again? The illegal downloading of music seems to be commonplace for people of our generation.

As one University student put it, “It’s no big deal because everybody does it.” That does not matter, however, because it affects peoples’ lives. By downloading the new Jay-Z and Kanye West album illegally, you not only reduce the artists’ pay, but also the engineers, producers and a plethora of other individuals lose a piece of the pie as well.

Other people claim to have justified reasons for downloading music illegally.

“While it may be illegal, for the reasons I use it for, I can’t buy it off iTunes. I make beats and sample, so I can’t do that using iTunes because of copyrights,” one student said.

Even with a legitimate and productive use for the music, is it acceptable to steal music from the Internet?

This trend has drastically affected the music industry. Record sales are down, as are sales of concert tickets. So far, the top-selling album of 2011 (as of July 5), Adele’s “21,” has sold only 2,517,000 units. Compare that to just seven years ago when the number-one record of 2004, Usher’s “Confessions,” sold 7,978,594 copies. In 2010, worldwide concert ticket sales dropped over 12 percent from 2009.

To combat this, labels have come down hard on offenders. Lawsuits have been filed for over $150,000 per song, and there seems to be no restrictions as to who they will go after. In fact, the Recording Industry Association of America recently sued a 12 year-old girl for copying music from the Internet. Although these measures are extreme, this is the only defense mechanism labels have against music copying.

As someone who has worked in the music industry and has written and performed my own music, I understand how these sites affect artists. There is less money to spend on signing new artists and promoting and sustaining tours. We all love music, and it is an essential part of our culture. The music industry provides jobs to millions of people, so next time you decide to click on that torrent, think about the repercussions.
Categories
Opinion

Some first-years are not ready for intense college workload

By Elizabeth Bacharach

Contributing Writer

Despite my fear, I approached the first day of classes positively, reiterating to myself words of encouragement. I thought, “I can do this; I got into this school, didn’t I? That must mean I am prepared for the academics.” Ten a.m. came around and it was time to enter my first class: Spanish. It all seemed simple enough: a guiding syllabus, basic class rules (no cell phone, food, etc.) and finally, my first assignment. I proudly took out my planner, ready to be the best student I can be. The 52 minutes passed rather quickly, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had made it through my first college class.

Returning to my dorm room, I decided to get a head start on my work. However, the only thing I got was a rude awakening. I found myself puzzled by the syllabus; initially a simple assignment guide, this packet of work took on a new life. I was so accustomed to receiving my course work on a daily basis in high school that I did not even know where to begin. I was lost in a sea of assignments, unsure of how to complete them and what their due date actually was. Apparently, I was not as prepared as I thought I was; thanks a lot, high school.

Four years of monotonous studying and preparation, and you would think I would be equipped for the next level of learning. However, college is a whole new world in which I am finding my rudimentary high school practices inconsequential to the actual studying, reading and writing I have to complete. As the first week progressed, I found myself burdened by a night’s reading of 30 pages. That was not my only assignment. Add to that a workbook full of Spanish grammar and conjugations, a “short” story by Chekov, a poem to write and a blog entry about my beliefs. Hours later (the next morning) I slowly climbed into bed, weak from the night’s work.

That night I was painfully alerted that I do not know how to read properly; high school never truly taught me how to actively read, highlight and take proper notes. Not only that, but as my first paper assignment approached, I did not even know where to begin. Without a simple prompt, I was lost as to what to write, how to write it and completely perplexed by the APA format.

This past week I had my first college exam. It was a nightmare, to put it simply. I spent dawn to dusk Sunday in the library, trying to manage all of the information I learned in the past three weeks. I was trapped by the panicking in my head, worrying about the unknown of what college tests constitute. I reread chapters, took even more notes, copied diagrams and memorized parts of the brain like it was my job. I stumbled out of the library feeling like Jello. There was too much information, and none of it was sticking. At that point, it was obvious that high school did not prepare me for the extensive information I was going to receive, nonetheless teach me the importance of processing it.

 Another story is time management. I am finding the only true way to learn to manage my time correctly is by trial and error. The more I get accustomed to my work load, the easier it is to designate certain times in the day for certain assignments. Conversely, this process is just another added weight to my shoulders as I try to manage my time as well as my school work; so much managing, so little understanding. My mind is a mess, and it is all thanks to high school, or rather the lack of preparation that my high school provided.

Despite my inexperience, I have come to a realization that it will all take time. Yes, it would be far easier to be prepared and to be good at time management. But for now, I just have to feel my way around and accept the trial and error learning experience that is to come. Nonetheless, it is official: high school did not prepare me for college work. So four years later, here I am trying to learn how to be a student, while trying to manage good grades.
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Opinion

Unbiased news sources do exist

By Riley Schwengel

Contributing Writer

As a young adult, one thing that is very important to me is independence.  I like to make my own decisions, participate in the activities that I want to take part in, form my own opinions and choose my own path in life. Many my age interpret this independence as freedom from their parents to do whatever they want. Once they come to college, they relish in the fact that their parents no longer hold the sway that they once did in high school. For example, they can drink and party as much as they want. What many students do not realize is that this newfound freedom applies to other aspects of their lives as well, not just their actions. To me, independence means that I can form my own opinions about all areas of my life, especially regarding politics. Although many news sources are biased, I have found alternatives that make it possible to get just the facts so I can make my own judgments.

I have always been interested in forming my own opinions of current events and political concerns without anyone telling me what to think.  Naturally, I first declared myself independent from my parents, forbidding their political leanings from influencing my personal opinions. Enjoying my newfound freedom, I began to look at news sources, ready to consume facts and produce my own thoughts and ideas. However, as time passed, I realized that many trusted “news” sources had no interest in providing unbiased facts. Instead, they only seemed interested in giving their personal opinions on events and political goings-on.  FOX, CBS, NBC, CNN and CNBC all seem to be content with reporting their personal slants on news stories, assuming that we are able and willing to just take their opinions as our own without questioning them. Whatever happened to unbiased news? Whatever happened to the idea that a news company’s responsibility was just to give us the facts? When did the ability to form opinions get taken away from the citizen and given completely to the news corporation? Discouraged from the large news corporations, I tried to find an unbiased news source.

I was able to find a few methods of getting unbiased reports. News wire services are helpful: this is where the large news corporations like FOX and CNN get their facts. Services like AP News send out short reports that include no opinions by writers or reporters, which gives them a way to get facts and a general, unbiased idea of events. Foreign news is also an option in addition to these services, especially the European news companies. These companies are much less biased than their American counterparts and their opinions on a story are usually saved until the end of a report, leaving the bulk of the story to be an exceptional resource. Finally, a superb method of getting unbiased news is to look and compare all the different sources on a particular event. For example, if CNN and FOX both report a news story, look at both reports. While the opinions will differ between the two sources, the facts should be easily identifiable because they should be the only part of the story that remains constant. By following these rules of obtaining news, the average college student can be free to make his or her own opinions and thoughts without the interference of news corporations or parents.