Tipsy leads to Trouble

Bo Andrews

In college, alcohol is a major part of night-life. Wine, beer, whiskey and others continue to produce victims of academic decline. According to a study cited by Virginia Tech, "A" average students consume 3.3 drinks per week. Consequently, students with a "D" of "F" average drink 9.0 cans of beer every week. The same study revealed that students who abuse alcohol are more likely to perform poorly on a test or project. Although "A" average students who consume close to 3.3 drinks per week do not witness negative effects on their academics, they will feel the painful and irritating effects alcohol produces on one's body and mind.
Alcohol diminishes the amount of functional judgement, coordination, and memory brain cells, minimizing one's opportunity to succeed academically. For example, once a mixed drink is consumed, one's long term memory is impaired. Therefore, it becomes especially hard to score high on test because alcohol "reduces [one's] ability to remember information that [he or she] learned prior to going out for drinks." Alongside long term memory, REM sleep cycles--circadian rhythms that one's body is accustomed to-- are also damaged. Alcohol has many obvious effects such as loss of judgement, coordination, and memory; however, one may not know alcohol kills many brain cells that provide nutrients and energy. Not only are brain cells destroyed, but the ability to solve problems and thinking abstractly is restricted while drinking heavily.





"Alcohol use can result in missing class, doing poorly on tests or projects, disciplinary issues, or other problems. The Bacchus Network acknowledges that along with well know alcoholic effects, the ability to solve problems and think abstractly become very difficult for heavy drinkers. For instance, if a student takes a test with a hangover, he or she has trouble solving problems with different required strategies. Because of alcohol consumption, the student's mental flexibility is limited, so using different approaches to problems becomes an extremely difficult task. As one's alcohol level rises, one's ability to interpret stories or solve puzzles decreases. "The brain interprets different events, observations, and happenings in a variety of ways," so alcohol is the barrier to distinguishing "concrete, obvious, and surface reasoning, and abstract thinking." Essentially, alcohol has serious mental and physical effects. The more one drinks, the worse he or she does academically. Although it is difficult to see the effects of those students who drink and do well academically, students who choose not to drink do not have to deal with all the chaos alcohol causes inside one's body.

Online Education, a viable alternative?

Michael Sandt

It seems that in recent years the prospect of online college education has taken on a more mainstream image. More people are now willing to enroll in online education as it is now perceived that the benefits gained from higher education are near equal to those provided by a traditional college education. A study conducted by the Department of Education reveals that online learning can be at least as effective as traditional learning in producing measurable outcomes. Perhaps a great sign for the online education business which is booming right now. Others dispute this claim. In another study in which professors at traditional colleges were polled, seventy percent of them viewed online education as either "inferior" or "somewhat inferior".

It is easy to see why online education has become such a popular alternative. The classes are tailored to your schedule, it's cheaper, more easily accessed, and provides nearly all the benefits of a traditional education. The only pitfall I can see in online education is the acceptance of a diploma by employers. Until the corporate world begins to treat University of Phoenix degrees with the same consideration they would give to MIT degrees, traditional college will remain the most popular method of higher education. That being said, in the near future don't be surprised when your boss has a degree from University of Phoenix.

Dangerous College Hazing

Brenden Duncombe-Smith

In recent years, hazing at universities has received a lot of public attention. However, as recently as 2008 the University of Maine conducted a study at 53 institutions and found that the majority of varsity athletes, members of Greek life, and members of performing arts organizations were hazed. Though the most frightening statistic is the fact that 90 percent of students who underwent treatment defined as hazing did not think that they had been hazed.

The problem is not just that hazing exists, but also how dangerous it can be. There are numerous reported cases of students dying from hazing related drinking. Not to mention the vast number of cases of hazing related physical injury including broken bones. Although more disturbing, is the fact that these hazing related injuries and deaths were common knowledge, and yet hazing still continues to happen. In 2000, President Charles Vest of Massachusetts Institute of Technology took responsibility for the alcohol related hazing death of a student.

However, enforcing hazing laws is a very difficult process that usually ends in failure. Mainly because students don't realize that they are being hazed or that it is against the law. Some students actually protect the organizations by saying the they voluntarily participated in the activities.

Bottom line hazing is a very serious and deadly problem on many college campuses. Many laws have been passed to prevent hazing but they are hard to enforce. Overall there needs to be more awareness, and more preventive action taken by universities and students alike, in order to make sure that there are no more deaths from hazing.

The College All Nighter: Is it Really Worth It?

Ryan Kerns

A major problem that many college students face is the act of procrastination. However, what makes this lazy habit even worse is that it leads students to resort to extreme measures such as “all nighters” and excessive caffeine intake in order to make up for it. College all nighters are predominate during the week of finals because students decide that staying up all night to study for their upcoming test is more important than getting a decent night’s sleep. This often leads to extreme amounts of caffeine to be ingested in order to keep their bodies awake. Although the extra hours of studying seem like it would do students better than going to sleep, students do not take into consideration the consequences when they force their bodies to stay awake for long periods of time. More specifically, studies have shown that in most cases, staying up all night and ingesting extreme amounts of caffeine does students more harm by decreasing their concentration and increasing their stress levels.
According to Pamela Thacher, an associate professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University, in her research study for the Science Daily, “two-thirds of the students reported that they had pulled at least one all-nighter during a semester and that those who did it regularly had lower GPAs.” This can be attributed to the effects of sleep deprivation. According to Dr. Gary K. Zammit at shuteye.com, “lack of sleep can lead to errors in work, impaired concentration, and poor work performance”: not ideal conditions for taking major tests and finals.
However, the effects of sleep deprivation do not even take into account the effects of excess caffeine on the body. For example, according to collegeconcerns.com, “caffeine exaggerates the amount of stress that a person already has,” as if the stress of a final wasn’t bad enough. All of this stress compiles on your body and has many negative implications of its own including irritability and poor performance in everyday activities (including finals).
So, based on the numerous negative effects of pulling all nighters, what are some better ways to study, and how can students better prepare themselves for finals? And finally, is pulling the infamous all nighter really worth it?

e-Succeed

Bo Andrews

Online education is the most effective way of learning. According to the US Department of Education, face to face learning is becoming obsolete, and online education is becoming attractive. The government tested 51 factors in a study to find the driving factors behind online education. Opportunities for communication and extensive learning time allow students to thrive in an online college world.

World Wide Learn finds that online college carries valuable benefits that drive its students' cyber enrollment. As the world's premier online directory of education assures, "students can 'attend' courses anytime, from anywhere," it also provides "student-centered learning." Students can run on their own schedule and work at their own pace. The modern world consists of new technology and fast pace. Alongside, online education allows students to experience new technology that is applicable to real world situations. To survive in the real world is something; however, online education leads students to thrive as they become "exposed to knowledge" in modern business. Use of email, online research, and other tasks will become much more familiar and easy to conquer.
Online Education provides service for not only average age students, but also adults. Buzzle.com sees flexibility as necessary in older peoples life and by having a service at your own time, it is easier to complete other adult responsibilities such as cooking dinner or picking up kindergarten carpool. Online education has created a window of opportunity for a wide variety of people and it continues to grow (30% each year) as more people experience its benefits.

The Facts Behind Dropping Out

Michael Sandt

A report published in November of 2005 by the AP examines the demographics and reasons of college dropouts. Among the most startling statistics in the report is the apparent effect of race on whether or not a student will graduate. According to the report 57 percent of white students finish their degrees while only 44 percent of hispanic students and 39 percent of black students do. We often put the blame on the high school education these dropouts recieved but isn't the application process supposed to select those likely to succeed at an institution? While I do feel that a dropouts are an inevitability of the education process, the sheer amount that do as indicated by these statistics is baffling. These 2005 statistics are reinforced by a department of education study which places the dropout rate for the first year at 30 percent and 50 percent overall. If higher education is creating a society of half educated dropouts aren't we doing something wrong?

Cheating and Plagiarism in College

Brenden Duncombe-Smith

Recently there has been a notable increase in cheating and plagiarism at colleges and universities. Due to the widespread use of cell phones and the internet, it is now possible for students to download term papers online or text each other answers during a test. However, there are new solutions to help prevent against this type of plagiarism. For instance, a website called TurnItIn.com will check student papers against billions of sources including web pages, books, articles, magazines, and all of the other papers submitted to the site. Sites such as this could be the perfect answer for many professors; however, some believe that this is the wrong way to prevent cheating and plagiarism. Timothy R. Austin, dean at the College of the Holy Cross, suggests that professors design their assignments to discourage cheating. For example, professors should assign texts that online essay sources are unlikely to have written or require students to turn in drafts. Lawrence M. Hinman, writer for the Washington Post and professor of philosophy at the Values Institute at the University of San Diego, thinks that the best solution would be for professors to create assignments that engage students and peaks their interests. All of these are great ideas, but alone these ideas aren't fool proof. There will always be students that have absolutely no interest in doing the work and will cheat regardless of the assignment. Ideally, the assignments themselves would be enough to discourage cheating. However, since that is not the case, resources like TurnItIn.com could provide the final anti-plagiarism tool for professors, thus ensuring academic integrity.