Lately I've been reading a lot about college news, in order to get a better sense of what is going on outside of New Hampshire and UNH. I recently read about a few college campuses being evacuated over bomb threats, which seems surreal to me as a student at another very crowded campus. One of the articles focusing on the University of Texas at Austin claimed that the campus received a phone call from an Al-Qaeda representative responsible for the threat. The other similar articles that were about North Dakota State and Hiram College in Ohio did not mention phone calls, but focused more on the evacuation, keeping every other detail under wraps. It seems like the backlash from the anti-Muslim film and the riots overseas have begun to hit home somehow. I will definitely pay more attention to what's going on as the stories develop to see if we could potentially be threatened here at home.
Also, following up on the Chicago teacher's strike, it seems as though wealthy donors have been working to change the union policy surrounding the state. According to this article, the teachers strike is reaching it's imminent close, but I find that hard to believe. I guess the donors had a hand in reforming the policy to cater more towards teacher evaluations and making teacher pay contingent on these evaluations and performance, rather than seniority. It's interesting to me because I may potentially end up as a teacher who has a part in a union, which are good and bad, depending on who you talk to. I will search for more articles on education so I can be more up to speed on what's going on in the field that I am going to enter someday.
The other articles I've read are about Kate Middleton and a University of Idaho fraternity brother falling off the roof of his house. Obviously Kate caused a huge panic in the royal community with her topless photos featured in a french magazine, but the British locals are giving her much needed support. The majority believe Kate is innocent, and having been on private property the paparazzi should be respectful of that privacy. Needless to say that will probably never happen, but the fact that nobody thinks she was in the wrong does help her credibility, (at least somewhat). The article talked about Princess Diana and how the royal family has always looked down on the paparazzi, so this brought back a lot of painful memories for them especially.
Now the University of Idaho article really got my attention, not just because it mentioned Greek life on campus, but because of the language they used. They mentioned the word "frat" which is a word that is frowned upon in most Greek organizations. Being an alumna of a fraternity myself, I saw this word as demeaning toward the Greek community and made this poor guy seem like your stereotypical "frat bro." Even though his actions probably deserve this treatment, I just feel that a lot of people think of us as heavy drinking, hazing young college students who don't care about their studies. This may be true for some, but the majority of Greek organizations put a heavy emphasis on studies and grades in order to meet certain guidelines and requirements. Each Greek organization has it's own standards, and we each must meet this standard in order to be considered for anything, such as a promotion on a Greek council, going to a Greek event, participating in sports or games, and going on Greek-sponsored trips, (to name a few). The article just made me think about how the media portrays Greek life and how often they focus on the bad rather than the good that we do for each community we serve. Each Greek organization has it's own philanthropy, and we strive to do the most we can for the our own community service project.
The news we read often sways our views in one direction or another, and I've noticed many articles are biased at times. I find the power that each article holds to be interesting and I am curious to see which articles hold the most power.
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