It’s usually this time in the winter sports season that we start talking about trade deadlines. For teams and free agents it’s a stressful time and last ditch effort to acquire big name players and from the business side of things it’s just another day on the calendar to bring the sport hype.

Usually the trade deadline could be pretty exciting, but alas this year was kind of a dud in the way of the NHL.

A lot of the major trades talked about happened before the deadline, so by the actual deadline there was nothing to really get excited about.

In fact, I was so bored with the whole thing that I began reading about baseball, yes I thought it was so bad I broke away from hockey for baseball.

Mainly I read about the Mets and how like every other year, they’re looking to turn this season around. I read about Fred Wilpon’s finances and the rumors about David Wright’s “inevitable” trade, but somehow Ryan Braun came up in my Google search.

Ryan Braun, who was set free of any performance enhancing drug charges a short while ago, is still making news because he called out and accused the MLB of a preach of confidentiality and tampering with his two cups of urine evidence.

Reading the way in which the MLB handles the urine testing process was like something you’d see in a movie and was pretty entertaining I won’t lie.

According to what I read, Braun had to be watched when he gave up the sample, which was then split into two cups, in front of him. The cups of urine were also given a handler which would take the evidence to FedEx to be shipped out for testing in Canada.

I couldn’t believe the amount of detail that went into testing for PED’s, but it makes sense. The man’s urine came back with a 20-1 ratio of testosterone and tested positive for out outer-body substance, meaning his body did not produce that testosterone, which makes sense since the usual ratio of testosterone is 4-1.

It’s obvious that he was taking something and yet he gets off! Why? Because of a technicality. Braun was let off all because the handler took the urine sample home with him for 44 unaccounted hours because he didn’t want the samples to sit at a FedEx over the weekend.

I don’t believe athletes should be using PED’s, I think it makes a mockery out of sports and if you’re so self-conscious of your ability to play then maybe you shouldn’t be in the league.

Steroid use is talked about constantly so I didn’t really pay much attention to the Braun case, but thanks to the boring excuse for a trade deadline I was forced to. Since I took the time to read about it I can honestly say I don’t agree with the Braun decision.

He was let go because a man thought he was doing his job the best to his ability and now he’s accused the league which is continuing to let him play because of possible evidence tampering.

The MLB has come out and said that they stand firm that his sample wasn’t tampered with and they believe their process works, there’s no way it can’t, it’s that meticulous.

But let Braun deny the use of PED’s, it’ll prove interesting to see how he performs on the field this season, because all eyes are going to be on him.

That’s embarrassing. If you say that your automobile is a piece of junk, that reflects poorly on you as well as a consumer. Why didn’t you do your research and buy a better car? Why are you stuck in a lease that you can’t get out of? Why did you buy that dog that tears up your furniture when you leave it alone? You’re not an idiot, are you?

The same logic should be applied to those who do nothing but trash this University’s name. How does that make any sense? If you casually perused the social networks after the University released that they had a security breach, which was unintentional and not done to purposefully inconvenience any of the student body, you couldn’t help but think that CCSU was the worst educational institution in the state.

Why would anyone want to bash their own University where they pay to go to school? The people who are doing so are just feeding into the problems they perceive.

Whenever someone says, “CCSU is just a commuter school…” are the majority of the students who live on campus refuting that? No. So we’ll always have that reputation until someone stops perpetuating the idea that is all we are.

After you graduate, and you’re in a room full of people talking about your life to that point, and the topic of your place of education comes up, you better want to be proud to say that you went to CCSU. If you’re not, then leave. Don’t waste your time. And in the process if you could not relentlessly bash your school and make the rest of us look bad, that’d be great.

The school has put a lot of faith in you to make them look better. With every graduating class, we should be stronger and going on to do more important things as a group. We don’t reflect that in any way when we constantly trash the University, do we? We come off as babies. Frankly, it comes off as being uneducated, but if that’s what you’re going for then that’s perfect.

If at any point you are not grateful that you have a degree from an accredited university then you should have your head examined. When you’re sitting in your office, out in the field reporting, working in the arts or whatever else you end up doing with your life, don’t think that you were able to do so without that piece of paper that you may or may not have earned here.

There will always be exceptions to the norm, as in when people with virtually no education climb company ladders, but for the rest of us we should be proud of our choice in our university and not full of hate and disdain towards it.

The more you bash it now, the worse you’re going to look in the future. If you want to run CCSU’s name through the mud, you should accept the fact that you’ll be dealing with that throughout your career.

After this week’s issue, I’ll have seven editions left of this publication left while serving as editor. Past May, you won’t have to look at my face somewhere above the fold. You can take the opportunity now to snicker or jump for joy at my departure. This is by no means my farewell column, I’ll have plenty to say when that time comes, but this is a good chance for me to reflect on my time here with only a few months left.

At a certain point during my sophomore year, I was doing nothing self-fulfilling. My daily schedule consisted of going to an economics class, doing half of my graphic’s assignment and then taking off to my job at an electronics retail store.

What was I thinking? I’m not really positive of the chain of specific events, but somewhere along the way I became friendly with the former Editor of this paper, Michael Walsh.

It was he who got me to come down and write for the paper. Now, it pains me to say that my first article was a review of Hot Tub Time Machine, but I had to start somewhere. After that, I was finally involved with something on campus.

From the beginning of the fall 2010 semester, I was fully immersed in the production of our weekly product. I had gone from someone who didn’t want to be anywhere near the Student Center, to never leaving our office.

It turned out to be the best decision I’ve made in a while. On a campus that picks itself up and goes home on the weekends, it’s become nothing but home. If this hasn’t happened to yourself yet, then you’re missing out on what a college experience is.

If you don’t want to get involved in campus media, fine. I can’t force people to do something they don’t want to do. However, as an aside, if you’re planning on going into the media realm and you’re not on a campus media where all you have to do is join, then you’re fooling yourself into thinking that is what you want to do.

Are you interested in cars? Go to the car club and find out when they meet. Do you want to be more involved in politics? This is a great year to join the College Republicans. There’s a club for every passion. Why not take advantage of them?

Once all of us are past graduation and we have nothing to do besides eat, sleep and go to our jobs, we’re going to long for our college days again.

There are too many students who scramble during their last year to get experience that will look good on their post-college resumes. I’m happy that you’re at least doing that, but come on. Don’t be one of those people.

Where else can you take the skills you’re learning in class, which you are paying for, and be encouraged to use them for something that you love. This will probably be my last pitch for campus organizations, so please don’t take it lightly.

Don’t listen to me if you don’t want to. I don’t really care, to be honest, if you only read what I have to say so that you can disagree with it. At this point, I got you this far and that’s my intention. Mission accomplished. Now go out and do something that will make your time here well-spent and not just another example of going through the motions.

On February 16^th, the journalism profession lost one of its best reporters. Anthony Shadid, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and international correspondent for the New York Times, died from an apparent asthma attack while in Syria.

Shadid’s death is only half of the story, however. The other half is a heroic story, and in my opinion, shows why people subscribe to the New York Times, as well as showing just how important the relationship is between reporter and photographer.

Traveling with Shadid was fellow New York Times employee, photographer Tyler Hicks. Just like Shadid, Hicks was also a Pulitzer Prize winner, in addition to many more photography awards. They both knew each other for several years, and were even held captive together during the Libyan revolution last year.

The two were on assignment in Syria without permission, gathering information on the Syrian resistance. They were on horseback, which is apparently what triggered Shadid’s asthma attack. Because they did not have permission to be in the country, Hicks had to carry Shadid’s body with him out of Syria and into Turkey. It’s unclear of exactly what happened, but one thing is clear; Tyler Hicks is the reason that Shadid’s family has a body to bury.

It’s hard to explain, but this story seemed to ring a particular bell for me. I’ve done photography for about five years now and although I’ve never really gotten into a hairy situation, there’s no doubt in my mind that I would never hesitate to carry one of their bodies on my back.

Most people don’t realize and don’t actually see how much a writer and photographer collaborate, but that type of close relationship is why The Recorder is able to print week in and week out. Although most sports images are the discretion of the photographer, news and feature stories are a lot different. I have to work closely with the writers to understand what the best image is going to be, and use their knowledge to see how I can utilize my photography to tell their story.

These types of relationships also develop lasting friendships. I can only imagine how close of friends Shadid and Hicks were, and how Hicks handled the passing of his friend and colleague. In the end, the newspaper as a whole and the individuals involved with it mean a lot to me. I’ve worked here for two years, and I’m extremely grateful to have this job and the ability to work with some extremely talented people.

In the case of Shadid and Hicks, there’s no doubt that they learned from each other, and the things they shared with each other is what made them such good friends. I mean, how could two Pulitzer Prize winners in their respective fields not be able to feed off one another to make themselves better? The most important thing as journalists is networking, and picking up different things from different people, no matter how big or small.

For me, the lasting friendships are definitely things that I won’t forget. But, the thing that I cherish most is the things that I learn from these people, and the ability to teach them the things that I know.

By the time this article reaches the newsstand, the NBA All-Star game will have come and gone with little more than a ripple on the Richter scale.

Now with all the glory and prominence encompassing NBA All-Star weekend, comes the disappointment of isolated ostracism as the NBA’s most popular player is forced to watch the game next to Keanu Reeves. Jeremy Lin has taken the NBA by storm and it is just another reminder to why it should be mandatory for everybody in the world to love sports.

The storylines that sports produce are unpredictable and amazingly beautiful. No movie producer could have ever created a script in which a 6’3” Taiwanese point guard from Harvard, who was cut by two NBA teams already during the season, could statistically transcend Magic Johnson, Shaq and Michael Jordan but that’s what makes Jeremy Lin’s fable seem so impossible.

Lin has single-handedly made it “cool” to go to Harvard again; Lin’s made us think of Taiwan as more than just a place that has monopolized all the “Made in” tags on just about everything you own, and most importantly Lin is showing not only the Asian population, but everybody what it feels like to be an underdog and take the NBA by storm and its these ascending characteristics and popularity that entitle Jeremy Lin to be playing in the NBA All-Star game.

Now before I delve into the reasons why Jeremy Lin should be participating in the All-Star Game, I must digress with an opinionated disclosure on my overall views of fans voting for All-Star games. Plain and simple: I hate fan voting. Fan voting depreciates the statistical value of an individual’s season and turns an All-Star Game into nothing more than a popularity contest.

Letting fans decide these procedures meant that in 2011, Derek Jeter and his awful first half numbers were selected to promenade around the MLB All-Star game as if he actually deserved to be there. The list of these atrocious preferences can go on and on as fans painstakingly click on the most revered name on the all-star ballot rather than the players that actually deserve it.

The last reason I have an utter disdain for fan voting is that the Hall of Fame Selection Committee uses All-Star game appearances as a pillar of judgment unto which votes are cast. That would be like if an individual where applying to Harvard and fit all the educational and extra-curricular requirements needed but Harvard didn’t allow the student in because he didn’t win Prom King.

Phew! I feel a lot better now that that’s off my chest. Unfortunately, my rant cannot undo the current popularity based format of the All-Star game so whether I like it or not, the most popular players in the NBA are voted in. It’s safe to presume that Jeremy Lin is the most popular player in the NBA right now thus he needs to be in the All-Star game.

For this year’s All-Star game, fan voting ended on Feb. 1 while the game itself was not played until Feb. 26. In Jeremy Lin’s case, he didn’t even make his first career start until Feb. 6. With this being formulated, if the fan voting went until Feb. 14, for example, Linsanity would have been in full effect and Jeremy Lin would have absolutely been voted into the All-Star game.

Heck, it took the kid three NBA starts before his jersey was the highest selling jersey in the NBA. So I have no doubt the voters would have showed up in droves begging to make Lin a participant in the All-Star game.

His statistics through his first 11 career starts are all-star worthy. In Lin’s first five NBA starts, he broke Shaq’s all-time record for most points scored in his first five games by netting 136 points (27.2 ppg). In Lin’s last 12 games, which represents the only 12 games of his career in which he saw valuable minutes, Lin averaged 22.6 ppg and 8.7 apg.

From a “this season” standpoint and I know it’s a very small sample size in comparison, but just for argument’s sake, Derrick Rose is averaging 21.8 ppg and 7.7 apg on the season. In terms of the historical magnitude, Lin holds the record for most points and assists through a player’s first 12 career starts topping Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and John Stockton.

I must re-emphasize that the NBA is a tough and rugged sport that is always evolving so a good 12 game stretch does not make or break a career, but if Jeremy Lin can continue producing at such a ridiculously high level than we may be witnessing a star in the making.

David Stern, David Stern, David Stern tsk tsk tsk. From a strictly marketing and business standpoint, it seems impossible not to have the inclusion of Jeremy Lin down in Orlando this weekend. Ever since David Stern has taken over as the commissioner of the NBA, his major goal has been the globalization of the game of basketball. What better ways to expand the probing tentacles of the NBA than to have Jeremy Lin play in the All-Star game?

The peaking interest of the NBA in Asia is at an apex that hasn’t been attained since Yao Ming entered the league.

Lin played in the Rookies versus Sophomore game and it received the highest rating in its history, and as I mentioned before Lin has had the highest selling jersey in the NBA for the past month. Why not take advantage of this popularity by thrusting Lin into the All-Star game and giving global fans even more incentive to watch and become enthralled not only with Lin but with all the other star players in the NBA?

At first, I was thinking that Stern was avoiding the inclusion of Lin because he would have to create an unprecedented extra roster spot which lays a crack-filled foundation down for future All-Star games. But Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks got injured and could not play in the game leaving the decision to Stern on who to add to the Eastern Conference roster.

No need for any drumrolls or special effects with this decision because Stern picked Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics. Seriously David? How many more fans are going to watch the All-Star game because Rondo is in it? Now think about the global realm of millions that would have tuned into the game if you had selected Jeremy Lin instead. Fiscally, it just makes no sense.

Underdog stories have forever warmed the hearts of the American culture and that’s what makes Jeremy Lin’s story so attractive. He was told in high school he wasn’t good enough to play at the college level. After college, two NBA teams cut him from their roster. His job security was so porous that he didn’t even rent an apartment in NY choosing rather to sleep on teammates and family member’s couches.

Yet, with all this adversity cemented in Lin’s way he has persevered through it all to produce an impact that can be felt around the globe. He has turned himself into an emanating star that no longer walks the street in obscurity but is rather the focus of a whole segmentation of the mass media. All-Star weekend is an event created to let the stars shine, so why not let the brightest star of them all illuminate the basketball globe.

The beauty of politics is that with any given moment, anything can change.

Mitt Romney was looking pretty good in the primaries, leading in the polls. However, Rick Santorum seemed to come out of nowhere winning Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. This was a shock to some people including myself. Now recently, Santorum has passed Romney in polls, making him the new front runner.

Despite his new found popularity, like previous front runners in the GOP, he will just be another phase in the GOP and will drop back in the polls.

The reason that we haven’t seen much of Santorum was due to being near last in the polls. He hardly spoke at debates compared to Mitt Romney. The only thing that people really know about Santorum is that he reveres the idea of “family values.”

On the points of “family values” and other social issues, Santorum makes no bones about where he stands on certain issues. He is pro-life, opposes gay marriage and, if he was elected president, he would ban pornography.

Now, respectfully, if the former senator doesn’t agree with abortion, gay marriage and does not like pornography, that’s fine, he has every right to his opinion, but what gives him the right to have them banned? What makes him the arbiter on what’s right and wrong?

He should not dictate on what women should do with their own bodies, nor does he have the right to tell other people they cannot marry each other because of their sexual preferences or tell people what they can and cannot watch. It’s insane that there is a candidate in 2012 that is trying to be a crusader on what is to be determined right and wrong.

For economics issues, like the other candidates, Santorum has a conservative stance. He is for repealing Obama care. He wants to cut taxes for corporations, cut the tax rate to zero for all manufacturers, permanently extend the Bush tax cuts rates for capital gains and dividend tax rates, repeal the death tax, and reduce the tax code for all brackets. Santorum wants to remove certain regulations such as the CO₂ on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Along with Obama Care, Santorum wants to repeal Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank.

In his energy plan, he wants to continue to keep using oil along with coal, natural gas and nuclear. He is for offshore drilling, wanting to getting rid of President Obama’s restriction on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

These positions are not surprising considering these are all now dogma in the current Republican Party. The current GOP candidate has to be in favor of repealing Obamacare; otherwise the candidate will not get the nomination.

Just like with economics, Santorum has a conservative stance on foreign policy. He is for keeping the troops in Afghanistan, he says he would not have taken troops out of Iraq, and he wants to make sure that Iran doesn’t get ahold of nuclear weapons, even suggesting that the scientists involved should be assassinated. He also criticizes the president on the handling of Libya. Santorum also supports the use of waterboarding to extract information from prisoners.

Again, the positions aren’t surprising. The former senator is a chicken hawk when it comes to foreign policy, even though he has never served in the military. He is also trying to promote torture as a good policy, referring to the act as “enhanced interrogation,” even though it has been shown to not work. Santorum is trying act “macho” when it comes to foreign policy, trying to be the big policeman of the world. Out of the four current candidates the only one who has went against the grain with Republican stances on foreign policy is Congressman, Ron Paul.

All in all, Rick Santorum’s surge in the polls is going to be all for naught. He’s very headstrong about social issues; he wants to get rid of regulations, continue the Bush tax cuts and cut the corporate tax. He also wants to keep the war in Afghanistan going and wants to use torture as means of getting information.

Despite Republicans liking some of his policies, he won’t even fair against the president. Polls have shown President Obama beating Santorum by a decent margin. In this election, Republicans just want a candidate that can beat Obama and sadly, Santorum isn’t it. It’s only a matter of time before he falls in the polls just like Bachmann, Perry, Cain, and Gingrich.

Mitt Romney shouldn’t have a problem sleeping at night.

SGA President Eric Bergenn is now trying to get himself, and the student body he represents, involved in the process. Beyond voting at last week’s SGA meeting whether or not to approve his proposal to the Faculty Senate, he’s had little to no support. That’s baffling.

One of the biggest things that students complain about here at CCSU are the requirements for general education. It contributes to students having to stay longer, study longer and pay more tuition. The fact that no one is lining up to help the SGA try to get student input into the discussion is a sign of weakness on behalf of us all.

It’s frustrating that we can complain to our friends that a biology lab is keeping us from graduating, but when the opportunity is presented for us to say something to the faculty who will be making an overhaul of the system, we’re silent. Student turn-out at all of the General Education open forums has been poor at best.

There was a time when a college campus was a soapbox to stand on for issues to be challenged. Now we hide behind our Twitter handles and complain about #CCSU, but we don’t have the gall to say it out loud. Have we become weak? No, it goes beyond that.

If you peruse the social networks and look at comments about this University, we have no shortage of opinions. Unfortunately, these are not making their way to any administrators in any fashion that holds a speck of validity.

The problem lies in what our generation views as acceptable forms of communication. At this publication, we stress the importance of the well-crafted and edited written word. We have an obvious outlet to do so where some do not, but our opinions can only enter this editorial box on a given week.

As students, we have great power. Our opinions should be prevalent instead of hidden. Whether or not the administrators here would ever admit it, they work for us. We pay for our education and we are employing them to teach us. Without completely throwing aside the respect we should have for all of them, we should remember that we have numbers on our side.

We’re not advocating a riot here in any way, but if we’re not expressing to the faculty and administration what our desires are, then we are wasting time. At no point in our working careers should we be quiet and go with the flow if we don’t agree with what’s happening around us.

College should be a proving ground for the rest of our lives. This is no place to be apathetic. If something is worth complaining about, then it is worth changing. By showing the administration that we care about decisions they are making, we will also demonstrate to them that we take ourselves and our futures seriously.

After watching movies, reading articles and hearing guys talk about strip clubs, I found my self driving past the Gold Club in Hartford one day and wondering “What is it really going on behind those window-less doors?”

I asked a good friend what he thought of strip clubs and I was suprised that the had never been to one before, and he too had always wondered what it would be like inside. I jumped at the opportunity to finally get my answers and asked him if he would want to go together.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking. “Why would a girl who isn’t a lesbian want to go to a strip club with someone who isn’t her boyfriend?” That’s a great question, but the truth is I am just a curious person, and I wanted to figure out what all the hype was about. After we told our friends of our plan, I had another friend (a female) who also wanted to tag along and see what the big deal was.

After pulling into the parking lot, the first thing I noticed was that the place was packed. It was a Thursday night, around 11 p.m., and I was lucky to get a parking space. We accidentally walked into the 21+ section and were quickly told to go next door to the 18+ section, which was a surprise because I didn’t realize strip clubs actually did that. Finally we got into the right section, I paid my $5 ladies special fee, got my hand stamped with a smiley face and took a good look around.

First off I noticed that the 18+ side was much cleaner and smelled alot less like sweat and smoke than the 21+ section. There were also a lot less people sitting around the stage. My girl friend and I took seats further away from the stage, while my male accomplice made a bee-line for a front row seat.

Now this may come as a suprise to many, but what I learned was that the section for people over 18 actually had more nudity than the 21+ section, mainly because there is no alcohol involved and people are less likely to try something with one of the strippers.

As we sat down, one of the strippers was just finishing up her dance, and soon afterward a new girl came out. To my sheer dismay, I realized there were no outfits involved. I was under the impression that strippers came out in outfits like cops or nurses and that they made a real show of taking their clothes off. Instead, they came out in just a bra and a thong and started rolling around on the stage.

After about half an hour of watching this dancer and some others do their bit on stage, I came to the conclusion that my $5 would have been better spend on a Subway sandwich and that I would have enjoyed it more.

While the dancer was finishing up her routine, she started to collect the cash that had been thrown on the stage, and it disturbed me greatly how many times she said thank you to the guys around her. Hearing her say “thank you” each time a guy threw a couple ones or a five her way seemed excessive. Both parties, the stripper and the customer, know that the correct thing to do is to pay a stripper if she skakes her butt in your face or lets you motor-boat her breasts. I figured the guys should be saying thank you to the stripper for letting him get up close and personal.

Soon after the first stripper got off stage, she came over to us and asked if we were having a good time. Obviously not trying to be rude or arrogant, we said yes. She then asked us if we were planning on having any “personal dances,” to which we quickly replied “no.”

But instead of walking off and looking angry like I expected her too, this stripper sat down and  started talking to us about our night, with questions like “What brought you guys here tonight?,” “Are you two a couple?,” and being generally pleasant. After explaining that I was doing research for a column, she opened up completely.

We learned that she was a part-time stripper, in the sense that she only comes in once or twice a month, and she makes around a thouand dollars every night she works. Even more shocking was what she was doing with the money: saving for her tuition to the police academy! Yes, you read that correctly. She told us that her uncle was a state policeman, and that she was only doing this for the money.

“I know what people must think when they see me dancing on stage, but I’m not like a lot of other strippers. I don’t allow any touching, I don’t do personal dances, I don’t do coke and I don’t suck c***. I’m basically an angel compared to alot of other girls here.” She seemed like she wanted to continue talking, but when her manager came up and told her to do another dance, she smiled and waved goodbye.

After a couple dances, and a lap dance for my guy friend, we decided to head out. To my suprise, even my male counterpart was pretty unimpressed with the whole event and decided that he probably wouldn’t be going to a strip club again any time soon. I left the strip club with a profound sense of gratitude, feeling thankful that I will probably never have to do something like the women on that stage. That does not mean I think less of them, for I understand that everyone needs to make their own way in life. And deep down I somewhat envy the fact that they can be brazen enough to be so open and comfortable with their own bodies. Although the entire experience didn’t really entertain or excite me in any way, I am very glad that I took a chance to open my eyes and see things in a new perspective.

If I were told today that I was going to die, I would be perfectly fine with it. I have peace of mind knowing that I’ve lived my life to the fullest and I’ve done everything in my power to enjoy everything I’ve done. If any case arose where I was presented with grim news, my last days would be filled with spontaneity instead of worrying about crossing things off of a list. Now how many of you can say that?

This mindset comes largely in part from my late grandfather, who was a hardworking father of four. Growing up in Quebec, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces before he moved to Connecticut where he started a family. He spent most of his working life as a mason and eventually retired to Florida after he earned a nice pension. One day during the early days of his retirement, he decided that he wanted to visit all fifty states, which he did and was something that I admired him for. Hearing him talking about the sheer beauty of Alaska and having seen the polaroids of the Sequoia National Park in California was captivating. The best part is, he decided to do all of this on a whim, without much of a plan involved, which is exactly how I’ve done some of the most enjoyable things in my life.

When it comes down to it, I simply can not grasp the entire idea of creating a bucket list. I went to see the guys from MTV’s The Buried Life to attempt to understand it. Although I respect these guys a lot for going out and helping people accomplish goals with some simple encouragement, I still don’t think that living a portion of your life off of a list is really a good thing. Look at it this way: You make a grocery list, you have a list of homework assignments and then now you make a list about things you want to accomplish before you die?

A buddhist quote says “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” It’s not cryptic, nor is it complicated. Yet, it’s a mindset like this that helps keep a clear mind, which goes a long way for the average college student.

To be clear, I’m not a hater. I respect people’s right to do what they want, and I respect people even more who can go out and do crazy stuff to make themselves better people. But, I almost have this feeling that a lot of people make these lists and never follow up on them, which is just sad when it comes down to it. The reason these people don’t follow through is pretty simple; their goal is always just out of their reach, and since no one expects to die, they always put things off.

Now, the expression “living life in the moment” doesn’t necessarily mean that if you have a good idea you do it that very second. For me, I tend to have good ideas every now and then, and some of them take planning. But, I almost always take things one at a time and never turn down an opportunity to do something spontaneous.

Life throws you a lot of curve balls. Some of which can absolutely destroy some of the things on bucket lists. Deciding how to live your life is your choice, and I won’t argue whether you’re right or you’re wrong. But, if you look at how simple things are when you don’t have a list, major achievements are more powerful and feel so much better in the long run.

The SGA President at this University has presented his ideas to the general education ad hoc committee. He seems to think that it needs to be broadened to give students more options. That is the opposite of most of the drafts from the committee itself. They seem to agree on the fact that the system should be reduced slightly to keep students moving through their education and out into the real world.

It seems that the major talking point for a system overhaul is the graduation rate. The concern makes sense. We should be pushing for students to get through the University in four years. Instead, some of us are struggling to get out of here in six. Adding two years of student loans to the pile of debt that a graduate has already accumulated is nothing to take lightly, but we might not be looking at the whole picture.

Is the general education program really to blame? Have we settled on that as a definitive cause or is that our scapegoat? The system might need a small tweak, but only if we are addressing the closely related issues, which assist in holding back students, as well.

Take, for example, our advising system. Too many students have no idea what they should be taking when the add/drop period rolls around. This isn’t due to the fact that they haven’t had a meeting with their advisor, but it seems that some of those doing the guidance might not have all the answers either.

The degree evaluation system is too screwy. It’s complicated enough to figure out that you’re supposed to be taking a course when you are, but telling whether or not you’ve fulfilled an entire study area is another. Then what happens when the advisor is correct in their suggestions, but the student cannot get into the desired class?

Block scheduling. This was supposed to happen a long time ago, but we’re still stuck. For some reason, people cannot get what they want when it comes time for them to register. Where that problem stems from is irrelevant; it needs to be fixed. Students still have courses during the “university hour”and classes are over booked. With a fix to an online system that controls scheduling, this could easily be avoided.

Even with all the systems in place, the students should be held responsible completely. It’s their education and if they want to get out of here, it would behoove them to research what it takes to do so.

General education has opened a lot of doors for many students at this University and a scalping of the system would certainly take away from the exposure that someone gets to a new major. It’s a program that can turn a communication major into a business major. Letting a student experience a new discipline should always be a priority.

A well-rounded education is what differentiates a college from a trade school. Before we are quick to point the finger at general education, and subsequently wait to see if its reform changes anything, let’s make sure that we tackle any other existing issues as well. When the committees meet to decide what our programs should be, we hope that they take into account all sides. We should not just do what makes more sense financially, or somehow visually, for our university.