All You Can Eat or All You Should Eat?: The Dining Halls as a Source of Campus Obesity

Shane Le Master

One can walk into the dining halls on Georgia Tech’s campus and see a smorgasbord of things like a pasta bar, a pizza bar, an ice cream bar, and even a dessert corner complete with an ice cream machine. For the sake of wetting people’s appetites and retaining business (i.e. keeping students on the meal plan), the school has created dining halls with a menu consisting of all the yummy sugary, fatty, and carbohydrate-filled foods that one could ever want. However, in this pursuit, they forgot that the health of the students is more of a concern than their taste-buds. As a good parent would never sustain their baby on a diet of Twinkies and Pop-tarts, the school, too, needs to realize there are problems with its current dining hall menu and that they do more harm than good by serving up foods that taste good as opposed to foods that do good.

So widespread is the occurrence of weight gain by college students, the “freshman 15” (referring to how students often report gaining 15 pounds their freshman year) has now become ubiquitous in most minds with college life. Article after article, including this one by CNN, associate the primary cause of this unhealthy weight gain with the all-you-can eat, carbohydrate filled foods found in campus dining halls. While personal discipline does play a major part in managing health, it is often not enough. For many students where Georgia Tech meal plans are the only affordable and convenient food option, they should not have to walk into a dining hall filled with so many irresistible and fattening options. And though some healthy choices are offered, stress and time constraints can push even the best of us to reach for a greasy piece of pizza. And as according to a University of New Hampshire study where at least a third of college students are obese, it is unbecoming to see the university ignoring these alarming facts and continuing its current practices in the dining halls. Getting rid of the myriad of unhealthy foods would be the best thing the school could do for its students.

The college’s goal is to prepare its students for the next stage in their lives by giving them a good education as well as opportunities to learn how to handle independence and personal responsibility. However, it seems to be forgetting the importance of the students’ health by giving them the chance to develop sickening eating habits. The unhealthy foods that fill the dining halls can be seen as a tacit approval by the school of unhealthy eating. Instead of focusing on what will increase meal plan customers, the school should return to the basics and look after the genuine wellbeing of its students. In the future, instead of seeing the common picture of an obese student walking out with ice cream cones, it would be nice to see healthy students walking out of the dining hall eating carrot sticks.

The Costs and Benefits of Using Laptops in a College Class

Gregory Micek

Laptops present both advantages and disadvantages for education in the college classroom. Laptops allow students to take more organized notes faster, as many students can type faster than they can write. Wireless technology allows students to use their laptops to access the Internet in class. Thus, students are able to transfer files easily between their peers, and professors can instantaneously transfer a handout to a large lecture hall without taking the time to pass out a sheet of paper to each individual. Students can quickly search the Internet for answers to simple questions, look up words or concepts in dictionaries and encyclopedias online, follow PowerPoint presentations on their own laptops so that they are easier to read, and can even follow along with online textbooks. The benefits of having a laptop are apparent in the fact that students have access to the vast resources of the Internet in class, and they can easily obtain and share files and documents.

However, access to the Internet also means that students have access to a nearly infinite number of distractions, including social network sites such as Facebook, online games, online shopping, and any other online activity. These distractions can prevent students from paying attention in class. According to Jeffrey Young’s article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, one student stated, “‘[i]f it’s material that I know, most of the time I will surf the Internet a little bit.’” The article also mentions that sometimes she “uses the wireless Internet access in the college’s classrooms to do some online shopping or chat using instant messenger.” Therefore, students that have wireless Internet access in college classrooms can easily do other things besides listen to and take notes on the class, which detracts from their overall ability to learn.

David Cole presents another issue with laptops in the college classroom. His article in the Washington Post mentions that “[n]ote-taking on a laptop encourages verbatim transcription” and “[t]he note-taker … no longer processes information in a way that is conducive to the give and take of classroom discussion.” He also mentions that students that take notes by hand have to actually “listen, think and prioritize the most important themes.” Thus, Cole believes that beside the distractions laptops present, taking notes by hand forces students to think and learn more during the actual class lecture than if they were sitting behind a computer screen.

Overall, laptops in the college classroom allow students to access the immense number of resources on the Internet and to transfer files and handouts easily between their peers and professors, but they can also be a source of distraction and can inhibit students from processing information and participating in class in the same manner that they would if they were taking notes by hand.

The Troubles of Student Loans

By Rohan Gupta

One of the most prevalent ways that students themselves have and continue to produce the thousands of dollars for tuition is by getting student loans. The current recession has made these loans very easy to get, but by no means easy to pay back. The amount of debt that student accumulate while at college due to interest and the length of the loan makes paying the loan to be formidable challenge.

Fortunately, there are many loan forgiveness programs throughout the United States that ease the process of paying back loans. However, because loan forgiveness is federally operated, the recession has significantly dwindled the aid that the program could have provided. Though the program is controlled by the federal government, it is operated by the state governments; this means that the effects of the recession on the program will differ from state to state. Unfortunately, the tremendous state budget cuts in Georgia this year will not allow for the program to offer much aid to college students living in the state.

For undergraduate students who did borrow this year, the median loan debt was $ 19,999 which is up five percent from four years ago. Ninety-eight percent of those who went to a private two year college had an education loan. Fortunately, only thirty-eight percent of individuals who went to public two year college were in debt. For the 2007-2008 school year, the median loan debt for students attending a private college was up five percent from four years earlier and with the failing forgiveness programs, college students cannot expect much compensation. Student are now forced to carry this loan for many years after they graduate. Hopefully the economy will improve in the coming years and decrease the current price tag on higher education.

The Issue of Hazing

Scott Zadig

The hazing that takes place upon college campuses nationwide is a very serious issue. Hazing, by definition, means subjecting a person or group of people to anything that endangers or mistreats them in order for that person or group of people to be accepted into their collective group. Hazing occurs during the initiation process when new initiates or “pledges” are trying to gain acceptance by their fellow brothers or sisters in the Greek organization they committed themselves to. Hazing is a serious issue that is not taken lightly, but sometimes it seems authorities and the public considers the smallest things to be hazing.

I have recently accepted a bid to a fraternity of my choice and have had good experiences that have not been tainted by hazing. My fraternity does not partake in activities that I would consider to be hazing. As a pledge in my fraternity, we have the job of cleaning up the house to make it look nice before game days and social events. When I tell my friends about that, they consider it to be hazing for some reason. I see it as a duty that I have as a new potential brother in the fraternity. The brother’s also have their own duties related to the house’s upkeep, so it is not a valid to argue that the pledges’ cleaning requirement is hazing if the brothers have their own cleaning duties as well. There are other related examples that the general population considers to be hazing. If anything, activities such as those teach responsibility within the fraternity. I had to do similar activities such as cleaning when I was a part of a Boy Scout troop. Before one jumps to conclusions about whether an activity is “hazing” or not, one should think about whether harm is being done or if maybe something beneficial is taking place.

Online Courses: Inevitable Mediocrity?

by Amber Lee

With the rise of online schools, virtual classes are becoming a norm in higher education. And not only in online schools. Many traditional colleges are now offering some of their courses online. But should colleges try to compete with these online schools?

Online schools primarily attract adults with full-time jobs and families. The students are able to “attend” a school without having to leave home and they can work classes around their busy schedules. Traditional colleges attempt to attract the same demographic by offering some of their courses online too. By doing this, colleges get more tuition money from students who want to attend their school, but live hundreds of miles away, or students with too busy schedules to attend class every day. However, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, it cost a lot of money to get an online course up, running, and maintained. The tuition does not always compensate the cost of running the course and some schools have had to abandon their online programs. But because online classes are so popular among students it is doubtful that they will fade out completely, despite the issues with cost.

However, online classes are not popular among professors. According to Elayne Clift, professors are not compensated for the extra work they must put in to teach an online course. She also claims that the courses in general are grossly ineffective. The inability to give instant feedback makes it difficult for instructors to be clear in their meaning and expectations. The students, in turn, drown their professor in e-mails asking for clarity, advice, and help and sometimes misinterpreting the response they receive. This often leads to students submitting subpar work, but receiving high grades for them.

There is no doubt that the online classes will continue to be available and students will want to take advantage of them when they can. But nothing can replace face-to-face interaction between students and professors.

Cheating Problem in College Continues Escalating

By Gregory Micek

Cheating in college is an issue of great concern. According to the Washington Post, “[r]ecent studies have shown that a steadily growing number of students cheat or plagiarize in college” and that number “will continue to rise.” The same source also mentioned that a study by “Don McCabe of Rutgers University showed that 74 percent of high school students admitted to” cheating one or more times on tests.

As technology improves, it becomes easier for students to cheat in college courses. Whereas students years ago had to search through the saved papers at greek houses, or contact a firm to fax a paper to them, in today’s society it is easy for a student to find a paper online the night before s/he must turn it in. After paying a fee, the student instantly has a paper that someone else wrote (Washington Post).

Similarly, the advent of cell phones has made it easier for students to cheat during exams. With a large number of students in an exam room, students may be able to text their friends for help during the exam. As more technologically advanced cell phones come into consumers’ hands, students may even be able to search the web or Wikipedia for answers during a test.

According to the New York Times, Duke University punished 34 MBA students for cheating on a take-home, open-book final exam in March of 2007. Similarities in the students’ answers alerted the professor of the cheating that had taken place. Fifteen of the students “were suspended for a year” and received a failing grade in the course, nine students received a failing grade in the course, and one received a failing grade on the exam.

Overall, cheating is an issue of great importance that continues to grow in the college environment. As technology improves, students find cheating easier, and the repercussions of cheating can vary from a zero received on the exam to expulsion from the university.

Understanding One's Classmates Through Studying a Foreign Language

Shane Le Master

It is commonly drilled into our minds via the media, teachers, and every other part of society that it is very useful to learn a foreign language. Learning a foreign language, such a Spanish or Chinese, can open the doors for great opportunities and success in the business and diplomatic worlds. As the world continues to globalize, more and more students are scrambling to buy programs like Rosetta Stone in order to teach themselves a foreign language(s) and get in on the action. However, the benefits of teaching oneself a foreign language extend far beyond the realms of personal gain. By teaching oneself a foreign language, a student opens up his or her mind and heart to the struggles and issues that the countless immigrants in our diverse country face. It is by teaching oneself a different tongue that he or she throws off the rose-colored glasses of having the ease and of speaking English and gets into the shoes of those people struggling everyday to make it a land where the language used is one other than their own.

I taught myself Spanish, Chinese, and Korean. To date, I have mastered all three, but am still always learning and immersing myself in the cultures. With each language, I constantly had to struggle to get in the very mindset of that language. When learning a foreign language, one has to get his or herself in the mindset of that language, understand how the people of that culture think. Only then can one fully understand the innate essence of that language and those who speak it. When I teach myself a language, I aim for the full immersion. I go to neighborhoods where the language is spoken and try to speak people in that language. It is always a challenge trying to express myself and be understood. The other party has to show a lot of patience and they also must try hard to keep from discouraging my earnest efforts. From being in the position as the non-native speaker trying to make it in an area where my own language is not predominant, at school I am able to understand my classmates who are from other parts of the world and who have yet to master English. When I speak to those classmates and work with them on projects, I don’t look down on them and I am patient and understanding as they try to communicate. Teaching myself foreign languages put me in the same shoes as those classmates who are struggling to study in an English language institution. I always remember in my mind that we are all on the same level and we all deserve respect.

Having learned understanding like that on my own over the years, it never ran through my mind that other people could be having the same experience. That was until recently when I came across an article in the Chronicles of Higher Education that brought light to the story of a teacher in New York whose experiences and failures in teaching himself Russian brings him ever closer to his students who come from all over the world. From his own struggles with learning Russian, he understands the shame and difficulty his students have when they are struggling with English. He knows, more than someone who has never been in the situation of trying to learn a foreign language, how to help these students without being either too tough or too easy on them. Just from teaching himself a foreign language, this New Yorker understands his diverse students so much better and he knows just how and where to assist them.

American university campuses are undeniably diverse with students from across the globe coming together to learn. Consequently, everyone is going to have to work with and build relationships with students who are still trying to improve their English. Many get frustrated with their classmates who cannot speak English well and they go so far as to ignore their ideas. The language barrier has the power to cause people to forget that we are all humans and we all have equally valuable ideas to share. By teaching themselves a foreign language and by struggling in learning it, all students can develop a much deeper understanding for their foreign classmates and make their relationships with them so much more effective and meaningful.

Professor Ratings

Kevin Corley
Amber brought up an interesting topic in her post about the ratings of professors that are available on the internet. Statistics are made available by Georgia Tech to students here about the grades given by professors. Some professors give very few A’s while others give primarily A’s in the same course. According to the Ubyssey, www.ratemyprofessors.com only lists ratings about professors who give consent. Data about professors, however, is extremely important to both students and universities. It is helpful that Georgia Tech makes these statistics available on its own website. All colleges should require that these statistics be made available to students.

Ratings about professors raises an interesting issue as to the enormous spread in average grades given by professors. Some students are able to slide by easily in one professor’s class while others struggle to just barely get by in a different professor's class. This is not fair to students and it is evident of poorly educating all students at an equal level. If two students are are taking the same class, but with different professors, and one class averages a C while the other average an A the students are not being educated at the same level. Making data about professors available is helpful to students but it does not solve the problem.

While making data about professors available is important, something should be done about leveling the playing field. The data clearly shows that there is an issue with the way certain professors are grading or teaching. Some sort of standard should be put in place to ensure that professors are teaching properly. Professors should be evaluated upon the performance of their students and if their grade are sub-par, then some sort of action should be taken to facilitate a correction. While all the grades given by all professors may have a normal average, this is of little importance. If the grades are skewed based upon professors, there is a problem with certain professors' teachings. Each professor should be giving approximately the same number of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s as other professors and approximately the same GPA. This would help to ensure that students get the best education possible and that everyone has a fair opportunity to succeed in a class.

Are Advanced Placement Teachers truly Qualified?

By Rohan Gupta

I'm sure many college students are familiar with the the "Advanced Placement" system offered by the College Board. It is a system that allows high school students to take college level classes in high school and it provides the students with an opportunity to exempt the actual introductory college classes when they go to school. In order for students to receive college credit for the classes, they must perform very well on the examinations that are held at the end of the courses in high school. College students who took the advanced placement (AP) exams in high school know that they are by no means easy and they also know that many students who take them do not perform very well. One reason that I noticed for the poor performance by many students, specifically at my high school, was not that they did not wish to properly learn the material, but because they were not taught the material properly.

I went to high school in a small town south of Atlanta called La Grange, Georgia. The high school just like almost all of the high schools in Georgia offered the AP courses, but there were some interesting aspects of the courses taught at the school that I observed. I also took many of the courses that were offered. I noticed that many students performed poorly on the AP exams on all those courses with the exception of about three. The reason that there were high exam scores in those few courses was because the teachers had been teaching those courses for about twenty years and they were very old; all of the other AP teachers did not have such tenure. Could tenure of the teacher be correlated with exam scores?

I always pondered on that question, but I found a more precise answer to the question by coming to Georgia Tech. On the first day of classes at Georgia Tech, all of professors showed their credentials and I noticed that all of the teachers had completed bachelors, masters and doctoral levels of education, but were not very old. After a few weeks of classes, I saw that the professors all knew how to teach their subjects very well. In comparison, my high school teachers had only completed a bachelors degree and were teaching college level classes and taught rather poorly. Though the teachers were qualified by the College Board to teach AP classes, it was apparent that they did not have nearly enough education to teach college level courses in comparison to professors who actually taught college courses.

After making these observations, it became clear to me why the students performed so poorly. The teachers did not know how to teach the material properly and did not know how to properly prepare the students to perform well on the AP exams. Teachers who wish to teach college level courses in high school must experience the similar rigor that professors have had to experience in order to teach actual college courses. Granted, that the high school teachers will eventually gain the experience to teach their AP courses well, but it should not be at the students' expense. High school students who wish to gain college credit and opt out of introductory classes should be taught by educators who truly have mastery over the material that they will teach and know how to teach it properly.

Student Evaluations

By Amber Lee

In the beginning of the school year, a high school junior I “friended” on Facebook posted that he would be taking AP Language & Composition with Mrs. Smith and asked if she was a good teacher or not. I replied that I also had her my junior year and that though it was not an easy class and a lot of effort was required, I felt it was justified. One of the benefits of having upperclassmen as friends, in high school as well as college, is the advice they can give on teachers and what kind of work you can expect to do in class. With social networking sites it is even easier to acquire this advice from friends and even strangers.

Ratemyprofessors.com (RMP) is one of the most popular sites for student evaluations. It allows you to rate based on easiness, clarity, helpfulness, and rater interest of the professor. You can even say whether you think he/she is hot or not, although the site does not consider that criteria when determining the quality of the professor. The anonymity of the sites gives the raters freedom to evaluate truthfully – and sometimes caustically. Though the site is moderated, some students use it to vent their particularly strong dislike of a professor. But is it because the quality of the professor was poor or that the class just wasn’t what the student wanted? For example, many people commented on my Facebook friend’s post and most agreed with me that Mrs. Smith was a good teacher. However, one or two felt that she was the hardest teacher they ever had and her grading policy made it difficult to receive a good grade. But knowing those students personally, I can say that they were more than likely looking for an easy ‘A’ that she wasn’t willing to give. Of course, they did not include this in there comment just like few of the comments at RPM are likely to fully explain why they gave the professor a particular rating.

Because sites such as RMP have such a strong following, students are given a certain power over their professors. However, it is also up to the students to be objective and in turn be able to discern an objective criticism from a biased one.

Is Cramming Really All That Bad?

Scott Zadig

The night before a midterm exam usually ensures that the college campus library is going to be occupied by many students hoping to cram the last bit of information into their brains. Cramming is a popular form of last resort studying that students choose to take part in because they usually have no other choice with time constraints they brought upon themselves. The effects that result from this technique of learning seem like they would not lead to much success in the long run. Studies show that this fact is true, but there could possibly be some benefit from trying to work under pressure with a short deadline.

Cramming, as stated previously, is an ineffective way of retaining knowledge at the last minute. Many students put themselves in a situation where they have no other choice but to cram. Cramming is usually a result of overcommitted schedules and other obligations they may have, which leads to poor time management related to their studies. The pressure a student has to deal with in those kinds of situations could end up being a good skill to develop though. Even if students were not able to get the best grade they could possibly get, they experienced situations working under pressure and having a short deadline to meet. Students will inevitably face difficult situations in future careers where many things are going at once and they put important deadlines aside until the last minute. Teachers and scientist do not recommend the idea of waiting until the last minute to study, but if students can learn to work under pressure, then maybe there is some benefit to cramming in the long run.

College Costs

Kevin Corley

Those who receive college degrees are often highly respected and considered to have a greater opportunity to be successful in life. However, with the current college costs, unemployment rates, and a recession, is the cost of college really worth? According to a CBS article, students leave college with a nationwide average debt of $22,000. Some people argue that the debt is not worth it, while others see an education as a potential for their future. Tyler Kemper, according to the CBS article, believes that a college is not worth it as he already has the skills necessary to rebuild engines and can do so on the side. If an individual begins working immediately upon graduating high school, they begin making money right away. These people can begin making money immediately upon graduation.

On the contrary, Don Bobbit states that while initially a college education may cost more, in the end, a college education is worth about 2.1 million dollars over a lifetime. A college degree opens so many doors to a a graduating individual. Those who do not have an education will never have the same opportunities as those who do. Considering a college education is worth about 2.1 million dollars over a lifetime, it is certainly a good long term investment.

All factors considered, a college education is certainly worth the cost regardless of the current economic conditions. While some believe it incurs too much debt, they will never have the enormous opportunities that someone with a college education will have. Even if it take a few years to pay off loans, the long term opportunities are so great for an individual with a college degree. Once loans are paid off, people with college degrees will make more in their first few years working than most people can only dream of making without a college degree. While the current economic situation may be dismal and makes a obtaining college degree more risky, it is certainly a risk worth taking.

Adderall on Campus: Ending the Abuse

Shane Le Master

There exists out there a multitude of writings that detail the negative health effects and addictiveness of Adderall when it is abused as a test-taking drug. However, they do not discuss how this is a complete breech of the honor code, and that by taking Adderall to help concentrate on an exam, students are committing a very serious act of cheating. Yes, taking Adderall can be unhealthy if taken without a prescription, however, more serious is its affects on other students. Using Adderall in this matter gives the students taking it an unfair advantage over their classmates that obey the law and don’t illegally take the drug. Schools need to more actively set out to try to curb the use of the drug as a test aid and harshly punish those students that use it.

The Chronicle of Higher Education and the National Public Radio have articles that describe how many students go online to post ads requesting to both buy and sell Adderall, the “smart drug.” The web is unquestionably a major facilitator in the illegal trade of the drug. Therefore, an effective way for Universities to catch students using Adderall during exams would be to get itself more involved in monitoring sites that these students use such as Facebook and Craigslist. But in accordance with the principle that using Adderall to give one focus during an exam is a violation of the rules of cheating and honorable conduct, schools should not stop here. In the Olympics, officials administer drugs tests to the athletes before each competition. To a professor or a student, an exam is in much the same importance as an Olympic competition. Before all exams, students should be administered a drug test to test for Adderall. The school should promptly expel and even turn in to the police any students whose drug test results come back positive.

The methods suggested here to help curb the habit of university students illegally using Adderall during exams may be harsh, but harsh punishments are often the only way to quickly and surely stop such an illegal practice. Students who take Adderall as an academic enhancer need to know that what they are doing is falsifying the exam scores of both them and their classmates. In respect to all students working hard to perform well in school the honest way, universities need not hesitate in changing their current, lax attitudes and adopting a more gung ho approach in seeking out and punishing unlawful Adderall-using individuals.