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Office of Student Affairs 2011-04-01 A Modest Proposal, vol. 7, no. 7 Taylor Brigance, et al. © 2011 A Modest Proposal Find more information about this article here. This document has been made available for free and open access by the Eugene McDermott Library. Contact [email protected] for further information. T H E STUDE NT OPINION PUBLICATION Required clickers double-standards return rage Page 7 Page4 w 0 V) Digital Disobediance Galaxy Quest! Comraderie of Cricket z Who is Anonymous? What is Anonymous? Changing web portals is no easy task, but the Hitting the ball out of the park on the field 0 Who wants to know? revamped Galaxy is plagued with problems. and in the game of global goodwill. V) ....I Page 14 Page 5 Page 15 < A PRIL 201 • VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 7 • AMPUTD.COM A Mo o e ST · PROPO SA L CONTENTS 3· C AMPUS L I FE I 2 Arabic and Alternatives Polyglotophilia Clicking Away the Cash BY CAMILLE MEDER 4 Students pay for useless tech BY IRENE MORSE Arabic and Alternatives Freedom of Speech BY JASON DIDIER A Galaxy ofDoom 5 Miscommunication and technical They Are Legion problems plague new system Anonymous explained by a not so BY TAYLOR BUTTLER anonymous stu9ent BY RICHARD BARTH.EL 6 Subde Racism Facebook page used to mock S PORT S & international students P OLITICS BY FINNY PHI.LIP Cricket 101 Bait and Switch Hours of fun with tea and wickets 7 Dining Hall lavishes guests, deprives BY PRASHANT RAGHAVENDRAN students BY.JESSICA HIGGINS . ARTS & L E'ISURE GovERN MENT A Cinematic Invasion & P OLI TI CS Aliens abduct blockbuster season .Zach Fichteiibatim. Explosive Intervention BY ALEX GARCIA TOPETE . Alex Garcia Topete 8 America bountifully bombs Benghazi's R~an bitter enemies The Spin Cycle BY LINDSAY BERNSEN Radiohead and 1he Dodos BY LIZ ORGAN Hot for Teacher S H AME L.E S S FR IV 0 LIT Y 9 A seven point plan for education reform I· Anatomy of a H ipster BY ZACH FICHTENBAUM r8 The eyes, fedora, and skinny jeans have it I 0 The Great White Vote BY RYAN HENRY A breakdown of politics in America's goofy upstairs neighbor I 9 Comic Corner BY PETER ELLIOTT PuzzLES & GAM ES S OCIAL - COMMENTARY 20 Puzzles Page I I On Wings of Angels Westboro Baptist Chruch ~eturns whence it came 22 The Uranus BY BECKY AGUILAR C~ver design by elizabeth kensinger. Uranus cover design by alex garcia topete Contents images by. hung-shiu kwee, anastasia We're your voice. Why not use it? [email protected] konstans. anq jeff blackman 4 _________C~A~M~P~l~J~S-~~ ~~ L IE E Clicl<ing Away the Cash Students pay for useless tech (Classroom Performance System) brand the clickers (and work tl1rough any associat clickers for some math and science classes, ed technical difficulties), and the class could Technology can be a and, with regard to these clickers, students have proceeded with little interruption. definitely have a right to complain, consid However, perhaps the biggest issue here great addition to the ering the ways they are used (or not used) is the cost students incur from the clickers. classroom, but it should by irene morse and the expense associated with them. Fust, one must purchase the clicker, which [email protected] A disclaimer related to this issue is nec go for about S28 (including tax) at the be for a concrete essary. It is not as if UTD is acting alone bookstore. Mter buying the clicker, one in requiring sn1dents to purchase. clickers. must then purchase a subscription. A Sl3 purpose, ~ot technology College students are always ready to Many colleges across the country have subscription will last for one semester, and for technology's sake. complain about how expensive textbooks made dickers an important part of the a S39 subscription will last forever. This arc, but when it comes down to it, they rec classroom and a way to make learning means that a student could potentially end ognize the necessity of buying books. Most more interactive. up spending S67 for a device that's only or not clickers arc necessary for a class. of the time, the textbook is an integral, or 'D1e problem is that the UTD classes are current purpose is to take attendance. In addition, if clickers arc to be used in at least a helpful, addition to not using them to facilitate learning, but Unfortunately, the bookstore does not class, they should be used for much more the class lectures. instead to take attendance. A professor carry used dickers, and the staff claim that than attendance. 'D1ey should become a However, not a!l will display a ''quiz" (usually a simple once a clicker has been connected to one way for professors to assess student opinion required sup lectut·e-based question that will not student's eLearning account, it cannot be about various issues, such as how difficult an plies are quire actually be graded), and students will connected to another person's. However, exam was. Or they should be used periodi so essential. input their answers using the clickers. there is no conceivable reason why the cally within a lecture to spice things up, en UTD students The professor will then use that data clickers cannot easily be reconnected to a comage student interaction, and make sure have recently been 0 not for any educational purpose, new user's account, since they are subscrip people are paying attention. asked to buy CPS but for attendance data. tion based, so it seems that once one sub Finally, there should be options for the This is most certainly scription expires or is cancelled, another students who arc paying for them, such as a pointless waste of could begin. This, in turn, means that the used clickers in the bookstore or a renting time considering that bookstore should carry used options; yet option in the McDermott Library. instead an attendance for some reason it still doesn't. Technology can be a great addition to sheet could simply Additionally, in some cases, students are the classroom, but it should be for a con have been passed forced to buy a device that is rarely or never crete purpose, not technology for tech around. The pro used. In .courses taught by more than one nology's sake. It is clear that the math and fessor would not professor, the course syllabus may direct all science departments have not thought have had to write a students to put·chase clickers, when in real through their purpose for these clickers question, the students ity certain professors do not intend to use sufficiently, and therefore they should not would not have had to use them at all. have required them for classes. 1l1is becomes an even more important is If this issue is not resolved soon, either sue upon examining..the return policy of the by e-xpanding use of the clickers to more bookstore, which stjpulates that the clickers than attendance or by discontinuing their cannot be returned once the box has been use, UTD students will only continue to opened. This creates a completely unneces complain about this additional stretch of sary expense and gives students an extra piece their wallets. • ofjunk floating around their dorms, especial ly since students are not able ro resell their The clickers really know bow to push Irene's buttons. dickers to gain back at least some marginal Dismss this article at amputd.com! amount of their lost money. IfUTD is interested in introducing click ers into the classroom, it is going about it in the wrong way. UTD and individual professors Whatever happened to just saying "present"? itlustration by hung-shiu kwee should start by being very clear about whether A MoDEST PRoPosAL CAMPUS LIFE 5 A Gataxy of Doom Miscommunication and technical problems plague new system seems to have been mostly resolved, there are While both JAMS and OIM work gener you to call in pretending to be you and get still isolated reports of students continuing ally the same way, the transition between the your password reset. For obvious reasons, I to encounter this problem. However, it is two has caused quite a few problems, most won't elaborate on exactly how, but this is a unclear whether this is a lingering problem of which took over a week to fix and some very real problem. in the system or if it is with users' browsers of which still aren't fixed as of the writing of Even though it's been five weeks since the by taylor buttler caching the old site. this article in mid-March. rollout, a systematic solution for these prob taylor.buttlcr@gmailcom In addition to that, the system has had One of the problems was with the ability lems has still not been found. A few of them trouble recognizing any users who have to create new accounts. Specifically, new ac can be solved by manually correcting the dual roles, such as student workers, making counts weren't and still aren't being ~reated issue for each student individually, but the On Monday, February 21st, the Informa it so that they could access almost nothing properly, meaning that new applicants to sheer number of users makes this impracti tion Resources (IR) department, in conjunc through the Galaxy portal. After more than a UTD aren't able to activate their accounts, cal. tion with the Oracle Corporation's People week of being unable to find a systematic so obtain their NetiDs, and check their admis While there are many reasons for these Soft applications, rolled out the ne" Galaxy lution for this, they opted to go through and sion status online.