Unpaid internships foster job market inequality

With the semester winding down, students are scrambling to finalize their summer plans. For many, that involves applying to countless internships. Across all professional disciplines, internship programs vary in compensation – some pay generously, others do not pay at all. Paradoxically, some of these unpaid internship programs exist at the biggest firms. Even the White House, which hosts 300 interns per year, does not pay its interns.

The conventional wisdom is that the professional experience gained from an internship is compensation enough. Also, interns are theoretically doing work for their own education, not for the benefit of their firm. In practice, however, that is not always the case - but we will address that later. Unpaid internships create a professional playing field that unfairly favors the upper and upper-middle class.

There is no doubt that having professional experience in a certain field will help students at finding employment upon graduation. Unpaid internships leave students that are unable to forgo a summer’s worth of pay to compete against those that are. In a job market where any meaningful employment is hard to come by, this dynamic doubles down the odds against the lower and middle class.

Unpaid internships are a luxury, padding the resumes of those who already enjoy every possible advantage in the job market. Anyone who has been on the hunt for summer employment knows, however, that having every possible advantage is not always enough in the current job market. The result is a slew of young people begrudgingly accepting positions for which they will not be paid simply because it is in their own best interest.

In theory, their internships would have them training for future careers by shadowing supervisors and observing the firms’ day-to-day operations. But as has been in the case in a number of high-profile lawsuits, higher-ups may end up delegating their less important work to interns.

Furthermore, litigation may actually be counterproductive. In response to a lawsuit, Condè Nast simply ended its internship program altogether, highlighting the reality that younger people truly need these positions more than the firms that offer them need us. Intuitively, the absence of any unpaid internships would level the playing field. The likelihood of that happening is extremely low. As unpopular as they may be, unpaid internships will exist as long as there are young people desperately searching for something – anything – to do.

Ideally, internships would be a wonderful resource for students seeking to prepare for future careers or even figure out what exactly they want to do. The way they are currently structured coupled with the massive amount of competition for them, however, creates an exclusionary job market.

NYPD attempts Twitter outreach, fails miserably

The New York Police Department decided to do a little citizen outreach on Tuesday April 22 by encouraging Twitter users to tweet pictures of themselves with officers using the hashtag #myNYPD. The results were not exactly what the NYPD was going for. Promptly, users started tweeting images depicting officers manhandling civilians. Many of the acts shown verged on brutality. Regardless, the response to this hashtag highlights the gulf between how the NYPD sees itself and how New Yorkers see it.

Police aim to “serve and protect,” but at a time when police forces nationwide are swelling and becoming increasingly militarized, it appears that they are in constant conflict with civilians. The NYPD in particular has swelled to a strength of 34,500 uniformed officers – roughly the same size as the FBI.

At the same time the NYPD grew to the size of an army – to borrow the phrasing of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – allegations of police misconduct have held steady.

Individual instances of police brutality are so common that it would be impossible to list them all. There are some highly publicized cases, however, that offer valuable insight as to why there was such a negative reaction to the #myNYPD campaign.

In 2012, former NYPD officer Richard Haste fatally shot 18-year-old Ramarely Graham after entering Graham’s grandmother’s apartment in the Bronx without a warrant. Police had falsely suspected the teenager of carrying a firearm.

That same year, four officers were captured on video brutally beating 19-year-old Jateik Reed as the Bronx teen was being arrested for alleged drug possession. Though the officers claimed Reed was resisting arrest, there was no sufficient evidence to substantiate their claims and all charges against the teenager were dropped.

The NYPD’s transgressions extend far beyond individual offenses as well. Recently, the department’s “stop-and-frisk” program has been a flashpoint of controversy to the point that Mayor Bill de Blasio campaigned on a platform of ending the practice altogether. Under Bloomberg, hundreds of thousands of civilians were stopped on the street each year and searched for weapons, drugs or any other contraband.

Also under Bloomberg, the NYPD conducted a covert surveillance operation on Muslims living within 100 miles of New York City. The program – which started in 2002 and was uncovered 10 years later – targeted mosques, restaurants, business and individuals, many of which were in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The program failed to yield a single lead.

The NYPD’s poor standing amongst New Yorkers is the product of its history of reckless hostility toward them. It’s going to take more than a hashtag to improve its image.

Diversity conversation shrouded in problematic rhetoric

High school seniors across the world will soon decide on their next educational institution. As the incoming Geneseo class will be profiled for its grade point averages, Scholastic Assessment Test score range and male-to-female ratio, another statistic will be thrown into the mix: the percentage of “multicultural” students in the class of 2018. Of course, this statistic is important for understanding the progress made in access to higher education for nonwhite students. This statistic, on the other hand, reveals the inappropriate emphasis of “multicultural” students that continues to plague college campuses.

Beginning at college admissions, it has become a part of college culture for students, faculty and staff to “other” one other. “Multicultural” emphasizes how minority students supposedly aren’t culturally the same as, say, white students. Multiracial or multiethnic would be more fitting to refer to the diverse student body, as they refer to demographics, not schools of thought or ways of living.

Furthermore, “multicultural” groups together minorities as one, nonwhite category. This terminology positions whiteness as the standard against which all students are judged.

Take Geneseo’s Office of Multicultural Programs, for instance. While it “provides a place for students to share and discuss cross-cultural experiences and to interpret those experiences,” according to its website, it innately creates an “other” environment among ALANA students, or African American, Latino/a, Asian American and Native American. ALANA students are not one racial group; they are not even four. Placing Asian Americans under one umbrella is generalizing, too.

At least Geneseo isn’t alone, though. “Multicultural” has become a buzzword among colleges nationwide; it’s everywhere. This is a common statistic for colleges to measure for its classes to the point that the percentage is a selling point for prospective students.

The same goes for diversity, another frequent buzzword. Diversity can manifest itself in different forms, but specifying what it is being applied to can give the term greater import and salience, similar to races and ethnicities.

Cultural groups and staffs should be at the forefront of promoting positive and appropriate environments for diverse students – whether they are perceived different due to their ethnicity, racially or sexuality.

Geneseo’s cultural groups, for instance, do a good job at providing numerous opportunities for students to learn about other populations and their traditions. Take the annual dinners, where large groups of students gather and celebrate certain cultures throughout the academic year.

This is how diversity should be emphasized and encouraged in higher education institutions, not through a misused word that describes a good portion of their student bodies.

Forced attendance undermines Relay’s charitability

Another year, another wildly successful Relay for Life. This year, the Geneseo community managed to raise over $126,000, shattering the set goal of $100,000. Knowing that Greek organizations are forced to participate, however, it is hard to take that figure at face value. Geneseo’s Inter-Greek Council requires at least 50 percent of each Greek organization to attend Relay. If the organization fails to achieve 50 percent attendance, it is fined the cost of registration for each member under the mark. Consequently, Greek organizations are highly visible at Relay and their mandatory registration fees comprise a hearty amount of the event’s total take. Clearly, this system has been effective in raising a significant amount of money during Relay. But does it come at the expense of the integrity of the event?

Relay for Life’s mission – beyond raising money – is to show solidarity for anyone who has been affected by cancer. If that solidarity is coming substantially from organizations that face a financial penalty for not attending, how legitimate is their support?

The forced attendance of Greeks reveals the event’s highest priority – raising money. It is surely a benevolent cause and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who is against raising money for cancer research.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to simply ask for a donation from each organization and allow them to get involved with the event itself at their own discretion? There are several Greek organizations that do go above and beyond at Relay for Life. Their contributions are not mandated by the school, but rather are organic gestures of kindness and goodwill. The attendance requirement presupposes absenteeism from Greek organizations, many of which exist at least in part to undertake community service projects.

As for the organizations that are only there to avoid financial penalty, what exactly is the benefit of their presence – registration fees aside? Forcing hundreds of students to be somewhere they do not want to be on the weekend is a recipe for disaster no matter how you look at it.

As soon as you force community service on someone, it stops being service and becomes a punishment – ask anyone who has ever completed court-mandated community service. In this case, it is a preemptive punishment in that it assumes Greek organizations will not participate unless forced to.

As long as Relay’s fundraising totals continue to rise, however, the system will be deemed successful and nothing will change. Ultimately, that’s what the policy exists to serve – Relay for Life’s bottom line.

Climate change claims a delicious victim

If the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is not a strong enough indicator of the disastrous effect global climate change is having on our world, brace yourself for what may be the most horrifying news yet. Last month, Chipotle announced in its annual report that crop shortages due to weather-related issues have caused the price of certain ingredients to skyrocket. The company indicated that rather than shell out extra money for nonessential menu items, such as guacamole, it would rather suspend them from their listings.

The United States’ record on environmental issues is historically weak. We emit carbon and consume fossil fuels at some of the highest rates in the world, drastically exacerbating global climate change. Ironically, however, the U.S. has yet to feel climate change’s most disastrous consequences, while low-lying island nations are already suffering from floods and receding shorelines.

Kiribati, a country comprised of 33 islands in the central Pacific, is facing the very real possibility of sinking into the ocean by the end of the century. Such an event would turn the country’s 103,000 citizens into refugees – not of war or famine, but of climate change.

Chipotle’s announcement that it may suspend offering guacamole is arguably climate change’s most salient impact on us as consumers in the U.S. thus far. The possibility of living in a world where one cannot order a heaping dollop of avocado-based goodness on one’s burrito is a terrifying proposition.

It is only the beginning, though. The circumstances that drove avocado prices up apply to virtually all the food that we consume. Prices of meat, milk, cheese, vegetables and more are all dependent upon stable weather patterns. As climate change continues unabated, weather will become far more volatile.

The true face of climate change is not just rising global temperatures and melting glaciers. Climate change is something that will affect virtually all facets of life, starting with our beloved guacamole.

This recent news should serve as a reminder of what we can do to mitigate the effect climate change will have on our world. Investing in alternative energy sources would help reduce our nation’s dependency on fossil fuels, which are unsustainable and pollute our environment.

On a smaller scale, taking efforts to reduce your carbon footprint and live sustainably are imperative. Little things such as recycling, using reusable water bottles, eating less meat and using electricity efficiently can have a large impact if more people are mindful of them. It’s a small price to pay to be able to keep our guacamole.

Incorporating the present into Black History Month

As Black History Month concludes, it is necessary to take a look at exactly how we celebrate some of the most important men and women in American history and whether or not we are failing to uphold their legacy. As anyone who has gone through the United States public school system will tell you, black history is taught with a highly specific narrative. Every hundred or so years, a few uniquely courageous figures emerge to successfully fight back against their era’s chief injustice.

That’s essentially where it ends. Ongoing racial issues are shoved to the side. There is no mention of the war on drugs’ deleterious effect on black Americans or the persistence of poverty in black communities. Even the name of the month itself implies that racism is in the past: Black History Month. As in it’s history now.

Writing in The Atlantic, Theodore R. Johnson summed it up perfectly: “The great black women and men who populate Black History Month celebrations feel like characters in a novel – a world away from the black guy a few steps behind you in a barren parking garage.”

While venerating black heroes across all eras is pertinent, there needs to be more of a concerted effort to educate Americans about ongoing issues facing African-Americans that they might be unaware of. Hopefully, this education will lead to action – particularly from those who insist that we live in a “post-racial” society.

Though it may not be codified as it once was, racism still informs and shapes our society in a substantial way. It isn’t just in lingering social and economic inequalities either, though those are a major problem that must be grappled with. Rather, it is a less tangible form of racism that traces its lineage to the eras of slavery and Jim Crow.

The onslaught of cases involving white assailants killing black victims – and by and large getting away with it – speaks volumes about to whom trust is given. One can argue about the laws and whether or not the correct verdicts were rendered, but what is inarguable is that neither Trayvon Martin nor Jordan Davis gave their respective killers any reason for suspicion let alone reason to pull the trigger.

Racism is not reasonable. It is not borne of logic but of socialization. In today’s supposedly “post-racial” world, Martin and Davis were seen as inherently threatening because of their race. In order to effectively address race relations in the U.S., breaking down these stereotypes should be among the targets of Black History Month. By dismantling the vestiges of a time when racism was codified, we will begin to be freed from its damaging legacies.

Free education for felons?

In the United States, what role do we assign to our felons post-sentence? Notwithstanding the assumptions and stereotypes that are commonly imposed on convicts, there is a yawning gap in opportunity in life after prison. In 1994, Congress cut access to Pell grants that allowed prisoners to receive college degrees while serving time. With Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent proposal to expand educational opportunities for convicted felons, the failures of our incarceration system are back in the headlines.

Cuomo’s proposal seeks to reduce recidivism and continue the trend of declining prison populations in New York. A study by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institution, found that correctional education reduces the likelihood of recidivism for inmates.

Critics of Cuomo’s proposal are incensed by the notion that criminals should be entitled to an education, while law-abiding Americans struggle to put themselves through college.

New York Sen. Greg Ball said, “In a world of finite resources, where we are struggling to find funding for education for our kids, the last thing New York State should be funding is college tuition for convicts.”

At the core of the issue is how felons are viewed in civil society. Many are quick to make moral judgments of those in jail but ignore the circumstances that may have led to their crimes. What’s worse is that, after their stay in prison, felons have even less opportunities and are likely to end up in jail yet again.

This is especially true of those jailed for drug crimes. In many areas of the country, drug dealing is a viable means to earn income. With poor educational infrastructure and a dearth of unskilled jobs that pay a living wage, many Americans find pulling themselves up by their bootstraps to be practically impossible. For them, crime is not simply a choice; it is a survival tactic.

A confluence of educational opportunities for inmates and further redress of sentencing for nonviolent drug crimes could cement New York as a leader in dismantling the drug war’s most damaging elements. The state’s prison population has fallen to approximately 54,200 since 1999 – when it reached a peak of 72,600 – thanks largely to drug law reform.

The stigma that follows Americans who are just trying to survive isolates them even further. Expanding educational opportunities for inmates would be a major step in transitioning our prison system from its current punitive structure to a rehabilitative institution that addresses the root causes of crime and works to eliminate them.

Michael Sam: You mad, NFL?

Missouri Tigers defensive end Michael Sam sent shockwaves through the sports world on Sunday when he announced that he is gay. If he is drafted in April, he will be the first openly gay athlete to play in the National Football League. Huge news, to say the least.

He came out to his college teammates prior to the 2013 season and was amicably accepted within the organization. Sam said he was supported “from day one” citing instances when teammates have attended gay pride events with him. Some of the team members -- straight team members -- have even been known to frequent gay bars in St. Louis with Sam.

In an interview with ESPN, Sam refreshingly said, “Telling the world I’m gay is nothing.” Refreshing because, as it was “nothing” for him to come out, it should be “nothing” that a gay man wants to play a professional sport -- and a masculine, testosterone-filled sport at that.

If it were any other player, it would be easy for NFL teams worried about upsetting their fanbases to cast Sam aside in the upcoming draft. Sam’s talent, however, is unignorable. The Associated Press named him the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year. Any other player of his caliber would undoubtedly be drafted in the middle rounds.

Sam is not any other player, though. He is trying to compete in an environment that holds largely hostile and exclusionary attitudes towards the LGBTQ-plus environment. Various NFL executives have already anonymously chimed in on Sam’s coming out and what they are saying is hugely discouraging.

One scout said, “Unfortunately, this is a lot more okay in society than it is in lots of locker rooms. Some locker rooms are still stuck in the ’50s.” This sentiment contradicts what Sam has said. Sam frequently reiterated the fact that his teammates knew about his sexuality and were completely accepting of him.

While there are certainly players out there who would have trouble playing alongside an openly gay teammate, the reality is NFL teams are more worried about their fans. Saying it would cause problems in the locker room is a much more convenient and diplomatic excuse than calling out fans for their intolerance.

At the end of the day, the only thing team owners care about is selling tickets. Normally, the best way to do that is by putting together an elite team that plays competitive football. Despite the progress this country has made, a gay player is still enough to alienate some of the most hardcore fans and that is too much to risk for NFL executives.

Regardless of what happens, Sam’s announcement is a major step forward for professional sports. Thus far, Sam has carried himself with remarkable poise and there is no doubt he will carry that into his professional career. The onus is on his future teammates and especially his fans to treat him with the respect and graciousness he deserves.

Feel-good Super Bowl commercials an easy win for corporations

Did you notice anything strange about the Super Bowl commercials this year? When they were not trying to be funny or clever, they were incredibly heavy on sentimental Americana themes. This year’s ads marked a noticeable trend toward aggressively patriotic bordering on jingoistic commercials.

Perhaps the most egregious example was Chrysler’s annual epic ode to Detroit. Music legend Bob Dylan rambled on for two minutes over flashing images of Americana, at one point asking the nation, “Is there anything more American than America?” Not exactly the layered, esoteric lyricism that made Dylan the icon that he is today.

Beyond being hokey, these multi-million dollar patriotism parades are insulting to our intelligence. What does it say about us that we clamor for commercials made by corporations that cynically appeal to our sense of nationalism with half-baked catchphrases?

Coca-Cola’s marquee commercial drew a nasty response for featuring a multilingual version of “America the Beautiful.” Critics angered by the commercial (did you know people get angry at commercials?) were peeved at hearing the song sung in languages other than English.

A valid criticism of this commercial, however, would be its positioning of Coca-Cola as a global force for good. In reality, The Coca-Cola Company’s business dealings in Latin American countries are rife with corruption and violence.

Panamerican Beverages, Coca-Cola’s largest bottling company in Latin America, is alleged to have ordered the assassination of union leaders in Colombia. This bottling company was 25 percent owned by Coca-Cola until 2003 after scrutiny of the bottling plant’s treatment of union organizers heightened. A 2004 independent investigation found 179 human rights violations, including nine murders, at the Colombian bottling plant.

Clearly that is what works in moving products, though. Americans love to see their country congratulated, even for things it does not deserve to be congratulated for and in ways that are simplistic to the point of self-parody.

And what better medium for this type of self-honoring than commercials? They are long enough to elicit laughter or genuine emotion but too short for anyone to really think about in the moment. By the time one is over, the next has already begun. Preying upon America’s sense of patriotism to sell cars and soda is cheap and lazy advertising.

There is no right way to make a commercial because the motive is always helplessly transparent. Some try harder than others to hide it, but ultimately every commercial is a means to an end – an investment with the hope of a return. But even in a corporate environment wherein profits are king, some things should be off limits.

State of the Union offers little to inspire hope

Settled comfortably into the second term of his presidency, President Barack Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday Jan. 29. He touted the successes of the Affordable Care Act, the country’s environmental record and promised to act unilaterally to address income inequality without interference from a stalled Congress.It was the type of speech that may have roused the nation five years ago. But, taken in the context of Obama’s increasingly frustrating presidency, the speech simply seemed like a desperate attempt to recapture the sense of hope and change the president initially campaigned on. The address took on a decidedly self-congratulatory tone, with Obama trotting out reminders of past successes. The president reminded the nation of his success in withdrawing troops from Iraq, a process completed in late 2011. Almost three years later, he might as well be bragging about killing Osama bin Laden. Obama’s attempt to reassure the nation that “it’s all good” also reached varying levels of desperation. Though he proudly proclaimed business leaders named the United States the best place to invest worldwide, Politico noted that that claim is based on a single survey done by Chicago-based consulting firm A.T. Kearney. A similar report by Forbes put the U.S. at number 14 and the Milken Institute ranked the States at 22. And can the president’s promise to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp even be taken seriously at this point? He has been floating that promise since he was a senator. It would be a major victory in closing an ugly chapter of the War on Terror, but given the tumult of the last few months, it would be seen as too little, too late. Obama is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Above all, it is just difficult to look at Obama the same way as one may have five years ago. Where a nation of voters frustrated with typical Washington politics once saw a symbol of change, it now sees a distillation of those qualities. Perhaps the strongest portion of his address, in which he promised a minimum wage of $10.10 for federally contracted employees, included a meager plea to states and businesses to act on their own, saying, “This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend.” As a second-term president, Obama does not have to worry about re-election anymore. Would it really kill him to directly address the poverty crisis happening in America rather than haphazardly hinting at it? It’s not that Obama’s presidency has been a failure so much as it has been disappointing. Though Obama’s promises of hope and change were pretty unrealistic in hindsight, the compromise and stalemate he has had to deal with feel no less painful. The State of the Union address was simply a reminder that when it comes to Washington, you always have to manage your expectations.

Worker exploitation continues amidst holiday season

It seems that the winter holiday shopping season starts earlier every year. There was a time when families would actually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to stab one another over discounted toys from Wal-Mart. But when Black Friday inexplicably commenced at 6 p.m. on Thursday Nov. 28, that idea seems like nothing more than a quaint memory.

The progressively emerging holiday shopping season comes at a major cost to the employees, who are forced to work extended hours while paid minimal wages. Though many of these workers are employed seasonally and are just looking to pick up extra cash, it is important to keep in mind the year-round labor practices of companies that cash in on the holiday season.

Wal-Mart and Whole Foods workers staged protests across the country on Black Friday with demands for better pay and benefits.

In a press release, Colby Harris, a Wal-Mart associate from Lancaster, Texas, said, “Unfair labor is working full time and living in poverty. Unfair labor is seeing your health care premiums skyrocket year after year. Unfair labor is being denied the hours needed to support your family. Unfair labor is being punished for exercising your freedom of speech and association.”

One would think that Wal-Mart, a company that made $15.7 billion in profit last year, could afford to treat its employees at least slightly better.

It’s not just big-box retailers that are guilty either. Amazon’s working conditions are tantamount to sweatshops. Employees work 12-hour shifts in sprawling warehouses and are subjected to mandatory overtime.

In 2011, one worker in an Allentown, Pa. factory quit after witnessing numerous coworkers pass out from the heat inside the factory, which consistently surpassed 100 degrees. Furthermore, when a worker from a different factory was terminated for suffering heat exhaustion and missing work, an Amazon representative contested her case for unemployment benefits.

It is mildly understandable, however, that companies know that shoppers will always flock to bargains, so the fault is not all that of the companies; consumer demand allows for the trend to continue and develop as a necessary part of Thanksgiving and the holidays as a whole.

As consumers, our backs are up against the wall. Shopping ethically is simply too costly for the average American. Not to mention, most consumers don’t think twice about patronizing companies that profit from child labor during the 11 other months of the year.

As long as our desire for cheap things supersedes concern for the welfare of the workers who bring them to us, companies will continue to cash in. Keep that in mind this holiday season.

The lingering power of derogatory language

Actor Alec Baldwin was recently caught on camera referring to a photographer with a horrific slur meant to demean the LGBTQ-plus community. This is nothing new for Baldwin, who has a history of using homophobic language. For those familiar with the actor’s politics, it is a puzzling scenario. Baldwin is one of the most outspoken advocates of same-sex marriage in Hollywood. Everything but his language would suggest that he is a friend to the LGBTQ-plus community.

As with most derogatory terms targeted at specific groups, gay slurs have become commonplace insults that have little meaning to the people using them. What is most damaging about these empty signifiers is the legacy and cycle of marginalization that they perpetuate.

The term Baldwin used conjures images of hateful messages spread by groups like the Westboro Baptist Church. Sadly, these are not images of a bygone era. Though it is far more stigmatized, the term Baldwin used is still actively used to subjugate the LGBTQ-plus community.

When Baldwin used this slur, he may not have been reflecting his personal feelings for the LGBTQ-plus community. By using that term in a derogatory context, however, he reinforced centuries-old stereotypes.

Language reflects the cultural zeitgeist. The slur Baldwin used comes from a time when it was commonplace to think of the LGBTQ-plus community as weak or “soft.” That slur was borne of a culture that deemed the community unfit for society. It wasn’t until 1974 that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Using that word today harks back to a far less enlightened time.

That is why it isn’t enough if you support same-sex marriage or if you have a gay friend who’s totally cool with you saying gay slurs. When you use words crafted to subjugate a population in a derogatory context, you are endorsing that subjugation. There is really no room for irony or subversion. These are words that have no place in modern society.

Think about the world one hundred years ago. Racial slurs were as prevalent and accepted as any other word. Today we wonder how that was ever acceptable. We have to realize that terms like the one used by Baldwin must be treated with the same indignation.

Baldwin does not get a “pass” for his words because of what he has done to support the LGBTQ-plus community. He only displayed his ignorance of the power that language carries.

Rather than offer a proper apology, Baldwin has cowardly said that he actually said “fathead.” He, and others, would be behooved to listen and try to correct their problematic behavior rather than offer lame rationalizations.

Catastrophe in Philippines highlights need for relief system

The destruction in the Philippines wrought by Typhoon Haiyan is the latest in a string of extreme weather events that have occurred over the past decade. As climate change continues unabated, these events have increased in frequency and impact. Unfortunately, most of the areas that get hit the hardest have the weakest infrastructure and the most underdeveloped economies to respond adequately.

Mayor of Tacloban Alfred Romualdez recently said that residents should flee the city. He said he was worried that the city would not be able to provide basic services and he feared the breakdown of law and order. Already, Romualdez had to choose between using the meager resources at his disposal to either provide food and water or to dispose of the dead bodies in the streets.

Now Naderev Sano, a delegate of the Philippines Climate Change Commission, is taking a stand. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday Nov. 12, Sano said he will be going on a hunger strike “until a meaningful outcome is in sight.”

According to The Guardian, researchers have found a definitive link between climate change and the rising intensity of storms.

According to professor Myles Allen of the University of Oxford, “The current consensus is that climate change is not making the risk of hurricanes any greater, but there are physical arguments and evidence that there is a risk of more intense hurricanes.” Specifically, rising water temperatures increase storms’ strengths, and rising water levels increase the risk of flooding.

Meanwhile, the developed countries chiefly responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming do not seem to be taking the talks seriously. Australia failed to send its environment minister, who preferred to stay home in order to work on the dismantling of Australia’s carbon tax.

A United States briefing on the Warsaw climate summit obtained by The Guardian revealed that the U.S. is worried that the typhoon will lead to extreme weather events dominating the talks. The U.S. opposed proposals of damage payments at last year’s talks in Qatar and insisted that any money should be referred to as “aid.”

The briefing shows that the U.S. is unwilling to participate in a meaningful discussion on remediating the effects of climate change.

Countries like the Philippines should not have to rely on humanitarian aid packages pieced together after each disaster. Rather, there should be a comprehensive compensation plan in which high-emission countries take financial responsibility for their role in causing climate change.

Developed countries, such as Japan, have the resources to rebuild after natural disasters like the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Other countries depend on humanitarian aid pieced together after each disaster.

Developed countries’ consumption can serve as a cautionary example for nations in the midst of development. Rather than investing in the types of pollution-heavy industry that spurred China’s rapid growth, developing countries should look to greener and more sustainable initiatives.

Student participation vital to local election

People are sort of funny. We, as part of a sovereign nation, are in control of whom we elect into political office and then we, the people, complain about those whom we elect into those offices. Make sense? The only time when people seem to go to the booths is during the presidential elections, and even then the numbers are not great. In 2012, only 58.2 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. “We the people,” or at least those who don’t vote, have no right to complain.

The numbers in years without a presidential election are even lower. According to the United States Election Project, only 41 percent of eligible voters casted a ballot in 2010. In New York specifically, the number shrank to 35.5 percent.

As students, we may have an excuse, since most of us are outside of our constituencies, but we are just the beginning of the problem. Very few people vote in local elections, which is somewhat counterintuitive.

Our votes at the local level carry much more weight than they do at the national scale. Still, we neglect to carry out our civic duty as drawn up by the Constitution. Locally elected officials make the decisions that immediately impact our lives.

Take student housing, for instance. Zoning laws restrict students to live in certain areas. Other local laws control leasing and the types of contracts that can be agreed upon. Local government also influences municipal court, public transportation – and the list goes on.

The problem lies in the availability of information. Presidential elections are impossible to avoid. Candidates’ platforms plague the media in presidential election years but are nowhere to be found otherwise.

Signs litter every street intersection, but what do we know beyond the local candidates’ names and political party affiliation? The constituents, the candidates and the media are all largely insufficient in providing information to students about local elections. For that reason, we must take it upon ourselves to become active participants in local elections.

Of course, it would help if there were greater student outreach on the part of the candidates. But the reason they do not campaign to students is because we do not vote in the first place. If we went into the voting booth in greater numbers, then they would see that we comprise a significant voting bloc, and they would do more to appeal to us as students.

So, if you would like to see more local policies that are friendly to students, there is a very simple solution. Go out and show local politicians that you have something to offer them: your vote.

Believe it or not, blackface is still not OK

Halloween seems to bring out the worst in some people. Each year, countless participants dress in racially charged costumes that hark back to an ugly chapter in history when it was OK for white people to crudely portray people of color. It’s always fun to dress up as whomever you want – or imagine yourself – to be. But it isn’t an excuse for us to forget about exactly who we’re portraying and how we’re portraying them through our costumes.

Dressing in racial drag reduces whomever your costume portrays to a skin color. If the only way you can portray someone is by altering the color of your skin, it implicitly says that you define people chiefly by race.

Furthermore, if people knew the disgusting history behind racial drag, they might be more reluctant to dress in it.

According to contributing editor at The New Inquiry Ayesha Siddiqi, “Racial drag was invented to control the representation of nonwhites (particularly on TV, film, and other media) and still does. It created racial archetypes that continue to echo in culture-wide understandings of people of color.”

So for people wondering what the big deal about racialized costumes is, the answer is pretty simple. The history behind blackface, brownface, redface and yellowface is one that is inextricably bound to the subjugation of people of color by whites.

Actress Julianne Hough recently found herself at the center of a costume controversy. Portraying the character Crazy Eyes from the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” Hough went in blackface. While those who know her personally have leapt to her defense and said that she meant no harm, her intent is irrelevant.

Blackface has a long history in the United States for its use in minstrel shows. Beginning in the early 19th century, white actors, using makeup, cartoonishly portrayed African Americans as being uneducated and poor, yet notably happy-go-lucky. The portrayals made slavery appear somehow mutually beneficial but were callous ways for whites to cleanse the image of slavery.

This is not a matter of being overly PC, as some may assert. This is a matter of basic human decency. If you cannot check your privilege for one night and not wear a costume that perpetuates a manifestation of white supremacy, then that may not make you a racist, but it does make you outstandingly ignorant.

To you, it may be “just a joke.” Just know that your joke is deeply imbued with the history of white people as solely manipulating the perception of people of color in the public consciousness. That sounds like a really awful joke, doesn’t it?

The grad school question: Is it worth it?

On Tuesday Oct. 22, Geneseo held the Graduate School Fair in the College Union Ballroom. Representatives for various grad schools talked to students interested in continuing their education after they graduate from Geneseo. The conventional wisdom today is that you will not be able to find gainful employment after graduation without going to graduate school. Students may make up their minds to attend graduate school even if their desired careers do not require any advanced degrees. Using graduate school as a fallback, or simply pursuing it to avoid joining the workforce out of college, is a reckless and financially irresponsible course of action.

Of course, education beyond an undergraduate degree is a necessity for some college students. For those who want to become doctors, there is no getting out of medical school. If your dream is to be a lawyer, you are going to law school.

There are plenty of students who enter college not knowing what they want to do professionally. The idea that you would figure out what you want to do in graduate school is a false premise. You should go to graduate school because you know what you want to do.

Even more so than an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree is an investment. You will likely incur a great amount of debt paying for your degree. By aimlessly entering grad school right after graduating college, you are not only risking wasting your time; you are risking putting yourself into potential financial ruin.

The job market for recent college graduates is a rough one, no question there. No one wants to graduate and just loaf around in a minimum-wage job. There are other things you can do to make yourself stand out to employers, though.

With such stiff competition for employment, the best thing you can do is set yourself apart from the competition. Take advantage of internship opportunities and other experiences to become a well-rounded candidate. If everyone has the same idea to get an advanced degree and thinks that it will make them more qualified, then it will have the opposite effect.

This is especially true for the communication majors out there hoping to enter the media field. Rather than entering journalism school after graduation, since a master’s degree in journalism could take decades to pay off, you should spend time developing your writing ability and looking for ways to innovate the changing media landscape.

Employers will invariably be more attracted to a candidate with exciting ideas than someone with two degrees instead of one; in fact, some may even be turned off by the stylistic limitations a journalism school may foster in one’s writing.

Getting a job out of college today is a vastly different process than the one our parents went through. Rather than wasting time and money in graduate school, however, the onus to adapt to the changing landscape falls squarely on us.

How Syracuse public schools can be a model for the nation

While public school districts across the country are being forced to tighten their belts, there is something remarkable happening in the city of Syracuse. Once the home to one of the weakest school districts in New York, Syracuse is undergoing something of a renaissance of its public school system thanks to Say Yes Syracuse.

An $88 million plan, Say Yes Syracuse is an outgrowth of the nonprofit organization Say Yes to Education, which has chapters throughout the Northeast. Say Yes Syracuse, however, is the first of these chapters to be adopted by a city school district rather than an individual school.

The program aims to increase graduation rates and college enrollment. It does so by offering services that would otherwise be unavailable to students, such as tutoring, after school programs and SAT preparation: services that the Syracuse City School District has been forced to cut.

The centerpiece of Say Yes Syracuse is its scholarship program. Say Yes is aligned with 54 private institutions that offer a full scholarship to students from homes with under $75,000 in annual income. Say Yes offers full tuition – after need-based government aid – to students admitted to New York state institutions.

Already, Say Yes is yielding positive returns. According to the program’s website, ninth grade dropout rates between 2009 and 2010 dropped by 44 percent. The number of students passing the ninth grade algebra Regents exam increased by over 30 percent. Since 2009, nearly 2,000 Say Yes students have enrolled in two and four-year colleges.

Syracuse’s investment in education is one that should serve as a model for the rest of the nation. Investment in education has returns that go far beyond graduation rates: It creates a well-educated workforce that is equipped for both occupying and creating high-paying jobs.

Say Yes’ scholarship program not only gives students the opportunity to pursue higher learning but also allows them to do so without the burden of student debt that can bring about financial ruin to young people.

While the program is still young, Say Yes Syracuse has great potential to ameliorate the city’s economic problem. The effects of a strong public school system are felt several times over. Crime rates have been decreasing, economic growth increasing and property values rising – home values in Syracuse have seen a 3.5 percent rise since 2009.

In December 2011, the city of Buffalo implemented Say Yes to Education at the district level as well, becoming the second city to do so. It is encouraging to see New York’s public schools giving education the investment it deserves. If similar programs can reach school districts throughout the nation, the U.S. could be on its way to solving its education problem.

Misinformation pervades in coverage of Dahl's departure

Geneseo President Christopher Dahl will soon step down from his post to take a nine-month leave before his tenure as college president officially ends in June 2014. This move has drawn criticism from some students, who are upset that Dahl is receiving a full year’s pay to essentially go on a vacation. In reality, Dahl’s time away from Geneseo will be anything but a vacation. Dahl is slated to work on three “work assignments” over the course of the next nine months. He will be advising Interim President Carol Long and SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher as well as completing advancement projects with alumni and donor networks. On top of that, he will embark on three separate scholarly projects related to his work in the English department – not exactly a vacation in the traditional sense of the term.

If students were more aware of what Dahl’s leave entailed – which is not a sabbatical to begin with; more on that later – they might not be so quick to criticize this move. Bob Lonsberry posted a story on WHAM 1180’s website denouncing Dahl’s leave as irresponsible, incorrectly referring to the leave as a sabbatical and calling it a “$300,000 parting gift.”

Lonsberry’s piece is not just factually incorrect; it is recklessly poor journalism. The facts about Dahl’s leave are available to those who seek them out. If Lonsberry had even a modicum of journalistic integrity, he would have talked to Dahl directly before writing such a blatantly false article.

Because of Lonsberry’s misreporting, students have been putting Dahl on blast across social media. Students were quick to judge the editorial without considering the veracity. But ultimately, it is not the students’ fault for their appropriate reactions. If what he had reported was true, students would have every reason to be upset.

It probably did not help that school administrators referred to Dahl’s leave of absence as a sabbatical either, since the initial announcement in March. Under the definition put forth by the State University of New York Board of Trustees, employees must return for one full year following the completion of their sabbatical.

Rather, Dahl’s leave of absence is classified as a Title F Leave, which does not require his return upon completion. This type of leave is granted for professional development or other projects “consistent with the needs and interests of the University.”

With Dahl advising Long and Zimpher, not to mention working side by side with alumni and donor networks, we recognize that he will be doing plenty to serve Geneseo, despite his absence from campus.

Hazing Prevention Week preaches safe drinking: sound familiar?

This week is National Hazing Prevention Week and Geneseo is hosting a full slate of programs and presentations to raise awareness on the dangers of hazing that, according to the College, is any act that has the effect of “humiliating, intimidating or demeaning the student or endangering the mental or physical health of the student, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”In other words, the things that students do, often unwillingly, when pledging or being initiated into certain organizations. Those familiar with Greek life specifically know that the pledge process often involves the “initiation night” followed by four to six “dry” weeks during which the hopeful new members spend intensive time with the organization doing sometimes humiliating and mortifying tasks, all in a sober state. From basement sleepovers and full-body criticisms to baby carrots and cats, we’ve all heard the hazing rumors; true or not, things happen out there during those six weeks that have nothing to do with alcohol or anything that would pertain to Gordie or the Keg Stand Queens. That said, what should be a week-long schedule that focuses on unraveling the hazing cycle and its psychological and social implications has formed into another scare-tactic attempt to deter students, women especially, from binge drinking. It’s an educational program that feeds into the stereotype of Greek life as heavily alcoholic, ignoring the dangerous psychological abuse that occurs otherwise. We understand that there is considerable overlap between binge drinking and hazing, but we also know that most students are already well aware of the dangers associated with binge drinking, whereas many do not see their hazing “chores” as harmful. Hazing Prevention Week at Geneseo seems to be to a transparent attempt to send an oft-repeated message about drinking under the guise of hazing awareness. In the attempt to deter binge drinking, the College continuously and problematically exploits stories of students who have died as a result of hazing are indeed tragic, deeming the programs as shamelessly manipulative. It is plain wrong to use a person’s death to make a point about hazing that has been made time and time again. These tributes tug at the heartstrings of those watching them without actually educating their audience on how to prevent hazing, what to do if you are being hazed, or why it’s done in the first place. Addressing hazing is necessary, as is National Hazing Prevention Week. While we do not condone alcohol education, we hope that in future years a well-rounded program can be developed that delves into the tradition, continuation and acceptance of hazing, both with and without alcohol. Until then, ineffective programming will continue to allow for real hazing that can be just as damaging and abusive as binge drinking.