Higher education should be a viable option for all socioeconomic classes

On Saturday Feb. 25, republican presidential candidate and former Sen. Rick Santorum responded to remarks made by President Barack Obama that encouraged all Americans to attend at least one year of higher education. Santorum said, "President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college; what a snob."

Santorum's comments demean the importance of higher education as well as offend those who choose to pursue higher learning. His conclusions are ignorant and misinformed.

Higher education should not be scoffed at or seen as a privilege for the upper-middle class. We support Obama's desire for all Americans – no matter their socioeconomic status – to have the opportunity to attend some kind of higher education, whether a university, vocational school, community college or otherwise.

Continuing your education in whatever capacity past the high school level to increase your marketability and number of job opportunities does not make you a "snob." There is nothing wrong with someone who chooses not to continue their education past high school, and there is certainly nothing wrong with pursuing a higher degree. What matters is that you have the option to choose which path you want to take. Higher education provides a wide array of opportunities, providing those working toward higher degrees with a greater realm of job options. 

Santorum continued, "There are good, decent men and women who work hard every day and put their skills to the test that aren't taught by some liberal college professor [who] tries to indoctrinate them." By insinuating that liberal colleges are simply indoctrinating students, Santorum expanded his earlier comments that the liberal university system is ruining America. He ignores the fact that there are also a large number of private, religious and conservative universities for students to attend. 

Additionally, in 2006 Santorum pushed for affordable college educations for all Pennsylvanians when he was senator. According to his website, "[he] supported legislative solutions that provide loans, grants, and tax incentives to make higher education more accessible and affordable." His hypocrisy simply translates as a mindless attack on Obama's policies.

As we attend a fairly liberal college, it's offensive that we're a bunch of mindless drones to Rick Santorum. Santorum is correct in one sense: People naturally change in college. It's a place to learn, grow and become the person you want to be. On the other hand, these changes are not necessarily the result of "liberal indoctrination."  

Santorum's false impression of Obama's comments led to misguided conclusions. We fully support Obama's desire for higher education access for all Americans. The idea that higher education should not be something of luxury is one that should be understood, not only by Santorum, but everyone.

(4/07/11) Incidental Amusements

There are a lot of things in today's society that we've grown to accept, but that in truth are pretty wacky.

Take gum for example. It's essentially a piece of rubber coated in minty flavoring that we gnaw on for hours at a time to give ourselves the illusion of eating.

Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with chewing on some strange composite material, but considering it was originally made to be a sealant I think they could've come up with a slightly more creative name than "chewing gum."

Next up: beards. Hair – on your face. Why does it grow there? No one knows, not even scientists or librarians, and they're pretty smart. My only guess is that when monkeys decided to take the next step and evolve into humans, they figured their faces would be cold.

Beards are most useful for stroking while deep in thought, but they can also be used to create a faux jaw line or to strain soup. Of course, their main function is to make wizards like Gandalf and Dumbledore look cool, so I guess it's possible that wizards invented them at the same time they invented chewing gum.

Then we have Nickelback. C'mon Canada, how could you possibly think that was a good idea?

We put floor mats on the bottoms of our cars, but I really don't see any difference between them and the regular car floor. If you have to vacuum them to clean them anyway, why not just vacuum the floor of the car instead and save yourself 30 bucks? But then again, without matching skull floor mats to go with your flaming skull steering wheel cover, decals, cigarette lighter and trailer hitch, your truck would just look feminine.

Finally, cows. What a stupid animal to eat. All they do is stand around stolidly and chew food that they've already eaten. What made us choose that gassy, mooing creature as our main food source while we've killed off the cool ones like buffalo, dodos and giant turtles?

Imagine driving down the road and passing a grizzly bear farm. Now there's an animal worth eating. Or drinking, if you happen to be straining your bear soup through your beard.

(2/17/11) Incidental Amusements

If you're reading this and you haven't seen Epic Meal Time on YouTube, you might want to turn away now. Your stomach may not be prepared for the recipe I'm about to share. Do the crossword, or perhaps peruse the comics.

For those of you with stronger constitutions, Epic Meal Time is a testosterone-fueled cooking show featuring dishes that would probably make even Arnold Schwarzenegger question his masculinity. With dishes like meat salad and the slaughterhouse Christmas special, the cast strives to create the most heart attack-worthy feasts, one slice of bacon at a time.

Because copying people with a death wish is always a good idea, several of my friends and I decided to make a tribute video featuring our own grease-soaked, artery-clogging creation: Frysagna.

Frysagna is the food that food would bake if it had any self-preservation instincts. I'm still avoiding the chicken nuggets in my freezer and it's been nearly three weeks since we grease-fried Frysagna into existence.

To make this dish of death, we deep-fried two bags of French fries and a bag of chicken fries and threw them into a lasagna plate before draping them with a whole bag of shredded cheese. As if that were not enough, we broke out the bacon – because apparently you can't have a manly meal without bacon – and used it to wrap … everything.

Chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, and scallops were all enveloped in the meaty embrace of raw bacon and baked until they drowned in their own grease. Each layer of bacon-wrapped insanity was blanketed by a thick layer of shredded cheese.

Since we didn't have enough plates to hold our appetizers, I got a crash course in bacon-weaving as my eyes streamed tears from the grease permeating the air. While our bacon plates fried, we attempted yet another life-threatening experiment —filling a chocolate fountain with four boxes of beef broth to create a fountain of gravy. It actually worked until the pure power of disgusting managed to clog up its inner workings.

When our fried beast was done baking, we bathed it in a mixing bowl full of melted Cheese Whiz and threw our bacon plates, candied bacon and bacon scallops on top. The resulting monstrosity weighed in at a whopping 23,605 calories and 1,578 grams of fat.

Covered in evaporated grease and flecks of Cheez Whiz, we sat down to enjoy our meal. And by "enjoy" I mean "survive."

Departments propose curriculum revisions*

Reporting credits: Jesse Goldberg/News Editor | Amelia Stymacks/Assoc. News Editor | Kevin Muller/Managing Editor | Aaron Davis/Opinion Editor | Julie McMahon/Editor-in-Chief | Laura Vitto/Asst. News Editor

*All proposals were submitted under the charge of Provost Carol Long as hypothetical plans in the case that Geneseo changes from a five-course, three-credit curriculum model to a four-course, four-credit curriculum model. All faculty members within a given department do not necessarily agree with or endorse their department's proposal.

ANTHROPOLOGY

>>"We're actually quite excited [about the change]," said professor Paul Pacheco.

>>The department is already focused on transformative learning, so such a change will allow professors to emphasize what they already do well.

>>No elaborate change in the proposal, especially since it is already a small department.

>>Pacheco said he doesn't see how faculty workload could remain the same post-transition.

SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

>>"The general approach has been that art history, theater and music have looked at their curriculums," said Jon Gondar, dean of the School of the Arts. "They discussed these things in faculty meetings, and they have generally taken the approach of expanding three-credit courses to four-credit courses. In some cases, that means lengthening the time frame of the course."

>>The departments are considering linking three-credit courses and one-credit courses into four-credit courses. For example: Theater 129 and 130 hold three credits and one credit, respectively, and they are taught at the same time.

>>For most of the history courses, the members of the faculty have taken the viewpoint that they're just going to expand them and make them more intensive.

>>Gondar himself proposed offering two-credit courses in the departments to allow for some variety of electives.

BIOLOGY

>>With 18 faculty in the department, there is not agreement on the proposal.

>>It seems that the department has too many majors and not enough faculty and staff to make this kind of transition without great difficulty.

>>There would be a substantial reduction in electives.

>>Proposal suggests changing from three-hour to two-hour labs and adding recitations to some three-credit courses instead of pairing them with labs to make them four-credit courses.

>>There may be far fewer offerings for non-majors.

JONES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

>>The SOB has submitted its proposal, it largely retains the existing curriculum but has less room for students to take electives.

>>"The School of Business is not excited about [the plan]," said Michael Schinski, dean of the School of Business.

>>Combining courses is difficult in programs comprised of individual courses that cover specific, skill-focused content.

>>The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the accreditation body for undergraduate business programs, can provide accreditation under a four course system. The current SOB curriculum is very well-developed and represents the culmination of years of revision and input from employers regarding the skills they want graduates to have.

CHEMISTRY

>>The American Chemical Society places certain restrictions on the courses – not just topics – students need in their curriculum. The ACS, though, deals with upper-level courses, so 100-level courses are not subject to the same stringent requirements. This means that the department can adapt to the needs of possible future general education requirement changes.

>>The department looked at what is being done by other liberal arts colleges that are certified and were able to put together a good curriculum within a four course model.

>>Chemistry doesn't look at labs as components of courses, but as separate entities; this makes labs slightly more difficult to work with.

COMMUNICATION

>>The department sent two proposals and although neither was very detailed and the process has been a lot of work, it's been productive in that the department is taking the chance to really look at its curriculum, said acting department chair Andrew Herman.

>>The proposals didn't represent major changes to course offerings.

>>Even if the transition to a four course, four-credit model doesn't go through, this was still a productive discussion, Herman said.

ELLA CLINE SHEAR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

>>The School of Education has submitted two proposals, one for a childhood/special education program and another for a triple-certificate program in childhood, special education and early childhood.

>>Before the discussion of a four course model even started, the SOE had established a goal to transform its program into a 5-year program so that all graduates will have certification by the time they graduate. Now, the SOE is hoping to combine the four course model with a five year program.

>>The SOE intends to respond to the economic crisis by adapting its programs to reduce costs for the college, said Osman Alawiye, Dean of the SOE. For example, the school is considering eliminating low-enrollment courses.

>>Alawiye has his own personal six block plan as well.

ENGLISH

>>The department as a whole has not yet agreed on the proposal, which was crafted by a department policy committee of six full-time professors.

>>Complete restructuring of the major: students would have to take 10 courses instead of 12, and there wouldn't be a checklist of required types of courses as there is now. Instead, students would simply be required to take two 200-level and four 300-level courses as part of their ten classes.

Trick-or-treat leads to drug bust

A Geneseo student has been arrested and charged in a Halloween incident involving the possession and sale of marijuana to minors.

According to police, four teenage trick-or-treaters arrived at senior Joshua Balduf's apartment at 72 Court St. at around 8 p.m on Oct. 31 asking for candy.

Balduf, 22, reportedly told the group that he did not have any candy and turned them away. The group also allegedly asked him for alcohol and was again turned away. The teens supposedly returned to the apartment approximately one hour later. The group was then allegedly invited inside by Balduf, who offered them marijuana and smoked it with them, police said.

Following his appearance in the Geneseo Village Court Tuesday night, Balduf has been charged with second-degree criminal sale of marijuana, a felony, as well as two misdemeanors - first degree unlawfully dealing with a child, and first degree endangering the welfare of a child, Geneseo Village Police Chief Eric Osganian said.

Balduf was arraigned last week in the Geneseo Village Court and was held in the Livingston County Jail for $5,000 cash bail, or $10,000 bond. He may face additional charges.

Pending the advice of his lawyer, Balduf declined to comment.

The teens involved in the incident are between the ages of 15 and 17.

Geneseo Village Police were notified of the alleged event by a father of one of the teens after his daughter returned home later that evening, Osganian said.

On Nov. 2, the Geneseo Village Police acted on a search warrant for the apartment and subsequently arrested Balduf's two housemates, seniors Jesse Schulman and Nicholas Watson.

Balduf's housemates, who are scheduled to appear in the Geneseo Village Court on Dec. 4, have been charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana. Heeding their lawyers' counsel, both students have declined comment.

Members of the college administration could not be reached for comment. However, according to a Democrat and Chronicle article published on Nov. 7, the administration has been informed of the incident and the students face disciplinary action from the college.

*Editor's Note:The charges against Schulman were reduced to one count of disorderly conduct. All criminal charges against Schulman were dropped.

In a formal letter, Schulman's lawyer Gregory McGaffrey said that the remaining charge stemmed from the presence of prescription medication in Schulman's bedroom. According to Schulman, the controlled substance was a bottle of Ritalin that his sister accidentally left in his room when she had visited.

Incidental Amusements

As my final semester begins to draw to an end, I find myself getting very reflective.

I've also started watching "Arrested Development," fitting the entire series in only a few days. It's a great show, but one thing I really noticed is how college and "Arrested Development" are similar, and I don't just mean that they were both funnier on Tuesday (wink, wink).

They both ended too soon, cut away from me by corporate America. They both had important life lessons to teach me, things like honesty, motivation and cat-like stealth. The show stresses the importance of family, which in college can really be anything. Your college family can be your friends, your study groups or the people you wake up next to.

The ongoing lesson that you can get out of your problems through unorthodox means rings true with every college student who has ever crammed the night before an exam, read SparkNotes or created Wikipedia articles to support your thesis.

One of the oddest things about the show is its treatment of casual incest. This really rings true in everyday America. It may not be our biological cousin we lust after, but a cousin of money or fame. Or, you know, our hot cousins. I'm just saying everyone has the same number of chromosomes in the dark.

The biggest lesson that "Arrested Development" has taught me is the importance of breaking the fourth wall. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, and a life that is self-referenced is certainly well examined. Breaking that barrier that separates the show from the audience allows us a whole new perspective on our lives.

We can look back at some of our most outrageous moments and, tongues firmly in cheek, laugh at ourselves in order to learn from our mistakes, and we only do that to be able to go on to make newer and bigger mistakes.

Professor's "Vicious Scissors" crafts Kinetic Gallery

The work of Geneseo geography professor Ren Vasiliev is being showcased in "Vicious Scissors," an exhibit in the Union's Kinetic Gallery that features a captivating collection of mixed-media pieces in the form of paper and patchwork collages.

"The complex medium of collage allows me to bend the perceptual expectations of fine art by using manufactured images that I distort in scale, perspective and staging, violating the anticipated viewing comfort," Vasiliev said in her artist statement.

Vasiliev always starts with an idea. "There's always something I want to say," she explained. She does this with the awareness that two different audiences will view her work: those with artistic background or sensibility and those without. "I make [my work] for myself hoping that it will speak to both audiences," she said. "It is the receiver who ultimately makes the decision about what it says."

Her subject matter focuses on feelings and thoughts, often relating to the environment. Rather than recreating what already exists, Vasiliev utilizes images as a form of media to create something new. This is what separates her from a pop artist.

Her work is undoubtedly influenced by her love of geography, especially in the case of the two-sided tapestry portraying Oswego, where Vasiliev completed her under-graduate studies. The cloth panels portray the wind, water and agricultural fields in vibrant, sweeping color, adorned with a cornucopia woven from beads.

Juxtaposing this abstracted landscape are two maps of Oswego; one a navigational map of the waterways and the other a topographical land map. Vasiliev has woven the two together to create one. The back of the tapestry contains historical postcards of the area, which have been printed on to cloth. "It tells the story of my life at Oswego," Vasiliev said.

Her craftsmanship is crisp and precise, her paper collages often mistaken for photographs. Because of this, she shows one piece unframed and allows the viewer to run their fingers along the image, to feel the break from one piece of paper to the next.

Vasiliev has had a long history with scissors. She explained that she grew up surrounded by utilitarian and highly crafted textile work. At age two she said her mother, a seamstress, handed her a piece of paper, a needle, thread and buttons, and showed her how to use them in an attempt to keep her occupied. Though she was too young to remember this moment, Vasiliev explained, "It was as if I was born knowing how to use a needle and thread."

Incidental Amusements

English rock group Mungo Jerry once mused that, in the summertime, you can actually touch the sky. Granted, he also advocated drunk driving so I might take his advice with a grain of salt. I also doubt that you can actually touch the sky, but damn it, his heart was in the right place.

While it may be the start of spring, it's been feeling more and more like summer here in Geneseo. This summery weather seems to really be changing people. I've noticed a few things: more people are playing Frisbee on the fields, girls are tanning in skimpy bikinis, classes are being held on the green, girls are tanning in skimpy bikinis and girls are tanning in skimpy bikinis.

The weather has even had an effect on me. It's made me feel ... sticky. It's just one reason I hate this season. Ultraviolet rays are another. Any other time of the year, people have no way of telling whether or not I've stepped outside for three days. Now whenever my pasty butt goes outside, people try to shoot me with ectoplasm. That can hurt a guy's feelings, you know?

Probably the worst thing about summer is the existential funk it seems to put us all in. Tell me you haven't been sitting in class, looking out the window and wondering why you're bothering to sit in a little room instead of living free in the wilderness like Walden with toilet paper. Makes you question the whole established system, and that's dangerous thinking.

First you decide to study outside, next you decide to spend a day barefoot and then you're farming communal beets in 1954 Soviet Russia. Trust me, it happens.

Nice weather is threatening to tear the fabric of this campus apart. Bonding activities like huddling together for warmth are being replaced by things like tandem bike riding, which I guess isn't a solitary past time, but is totally lame. People will stop studying and start fornicating like animals everywhere, which I'm not necessarily against but they'll probably insist is rude to watch. So what can be done? Since we can't get the semester shortened, we need to re-instill that sense of faceless misery in the student body.

A one-two combination of artificial snow, wind, and me standing on a soapbox pointing out the character flaws of passers-by might just do the trick. If it doesn't, this school will go the way of San Jose State. God help us all.

Student attends Anti-Death Penalty conference in Texas

Three flights after leaving New York, I arrived in an overcast Austin, Texas. I was literally and figuratively a bit lost.

My decision to attend the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break was what some might call impulsive. I had booked my flights a mere three weeks earlier, despite the fact that I had never been to Austin and didn't know anyone else going. I knew that the "traditional" college spring break didn't really appeal to me though, and I wanted to do something with significance lasting beyond the pictures I would take to document it with.

Over the course of the week, I spent time with six exonerated former death row inmates, family members of innocent men on death row and several experts and members of death penalty abolition groups. The strategic location of the conference - in a state notorious for its long record of capital punishment - reinforced the message of its organizers: Federal- and state-sanctioned killing is wrong, and must be opposed by regular citizens if there's any hope of stopping it.

I soon found out that my fellow attendees all resided in Texas, and many were surprised by my interest, perhaps because we treat the death penalty a little different "up here." Despite the lack of diversity in terms of location though, everyone had compelling reasons for being there and came from very different backgrounds.

We wasted no time diving right into the heart of the issue, having received a call from a death row inmate just two hours into the conference. Though I knew what the program entailed, I was unprepared for how personal it became.

Spending a week in the presence of those who are directly affected by the death penalty was quite emotional. Through them, I got a firsthand look at the injustice of the law of parties, the severe underfunding and poor organization of the mental health system and the healing journey that many murder victims' families embark on, which often amazingly results in many of them deciding that the death penalty isn't moral, with some even fighting for its abolition.

The week culminated in a press conference, lobbying visits and rallying at the state capital and through downtown Austin. We received very mixed reactions from the general public. While some gave us strong support, others expressed their sentiments through generous use of some colorful words.

Though I have been involved in human rights activism since high school, it wasn't until this trip that I directly immersed myself in a cause. I don't know if capital punishment reform will be my main focus in the future, but I definitely came away from my trip with a newfound disrespect for the death penalty and awareness of the ways in which the capital punishment system is seriously flawed, particularly in Texas.

I encourage anyone who is looking for a truly unique experience to explore the many alternative spring break programs offered all over the country because, as I learned, Cabo can wait. Those biding their time on death row can't afford to.