Rant n' Rave
What do you think about the federal student loan that passed with the health care legislation?
Staff Editorial
After a year of partisan posturing, stonewalling, and grandiose rhetoric, the health care reform bill was signed into law on March 30. This is a stunning victory for President Barack Obama and for the countless Americans, many of whom are students, who will be safeguarded from financial ruin because of unplanned medical expenses.
Karissa explains it all
I have attended both online and classroom courses for the past few years and have come to the conclusion that the classes that integrate both Blackboard, an online course management system, and in-class lectures have proven to be the most beneficial courses I have enrolled in.
Rant n' Rave
Pinnacle’s Albertson parking lot will be closed, and the Shuttle services from the parking lot to campus will be terminated on May 13. A new parking lot will be built to accommodate the campus parking needs. What do the students think about the new parking changes?
For Devon's Sake
It’s every straight man’s dream: The ability to walk up to a random woman on the street, strike up a conversation, and within minutes have her phone number. The only problem with that fantasy is how quickly it evaporates in the cruel light of reality. Before most guys could even take a step in that woman’s direction, their inner monologue kicks in, shutting them down with fears of rejection, inadaquency, and anxiety.
Karissa explains it all
Condoms are a staple on my grocery list, right along with milk and fruit.
The family planning aisle always has rows upon rows of various condoms and choosing one can be a daunting task.
It is important to choose the correct size because buying condoms that are too big or too small could slip off or break during intercourse and may also reduce sexual pleasure according to a large minority of men surveyed for a research study that was released in February.
Voters shouldn’t be scared of new taxes, new campuses, or ACC
Several communities within the ACC service district are in the process of petitioning signatures that, if enough are collected, would allow them to vote to be included in the ACC taxing district. Often when discussing raising taxes, people cross their arms and immediately decide that it is a bad idea, no matter what. It is important that voters stay open minded to the possibility of an ACC presence in their community, and realistic about what annexation would actually mean for them.
Next semester, the add/drop date may change from three days after classes start to the week before it begins. What do you think about the new add/drop deadline proposal?
Editor’s note: The Accent editorial board believes that it is important for members of the ACC community to be aware of the background and credentials of people invited to speak about important issues. This editorial went to press before the Date to Mate talk show. We are commenting on the previously published opinions expressed by the speaker. A full and fair report of the actual event will be available on the Accent web site.
Open Letter from Devorah Feldman
“Start Here”: The Need For Grace
ACC belongs to the community. So when the college that boasts of accessibility and open doors proposes changes that will shut the doors on many students, eyebrows are raised.
The recommendation is to end registration and add/drop the Friday before classes start with no option for late registrants to enter 16-week classes.
I remember the first time I used a computer in elementary school. They were big and clunky and it took place in a time before the Internet was invented. It took me years to understand new technologies and not until high school was I able to learn how to quickly adapt to them.My four-year-old son on the other hand, knows how to start up and shut down my laptop, navigate Web sites and, even though he doesn’t know how to write yet, and he can type his name and several words on various programs.
Rant n' Rave
What do you think about the new free ACC Green Pass?
Student and Staff Opinions
at Eastview Campus
Add/drop week changes punish over burdened students
The administration is considering moving late registration dates back and making the add/drop week end before classes even start. Under the new schedule, students who register late would not be able to change their schedule after the semester starts in order to get the classes they need. Also, students who register on time and then arrive at the class only to find that it is not the right fit for them, will not be able to replace that class with one that works better. It’s hard to see any way that this policy would actually promote student success.
Welcome to another semester at ACC. As I have noted to recent graduates, when I delivered my first ACC commencement speech in 1977, the entire graduating class could sit on the front ledge at Symphony Square. This illustrates how many more students are choosing to “start here to get there.” At its current rate of growth, sometime in the not-so-distant future, the ACC student body will likely outnumber that of the University of Texas.
Lowering the Cost of Higher Ed. — Helping more students “start here” at ACC, especially in this economy, means ensuring higher education is affordable. In 2009, when President Obama announced his economic recovery package, he invited Congress to help make his plan better. I offered a proposal to help college students that the President accepted. In the legislation Congress passed and the President signed into law, students can share in a $13 billion tax cut targeted to higher education.
For Devon's Sake
The last time NBC replaced its “The Tonight Show” host, the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing was interesting enough to make a movie about. The Late Shift, the TV movie about Jay Leno and David Letterman’s struggle for Johnny Carson’s coveted seat, aired on HBO in 1996, four years after the dust had settled on the debacle. In 2009, however, media moves a bit faster, and the Internet has been lit up for the past few weeks with Youtube videos, non-stop Twittering and Facebook campaigns covering every aspect of the Conan O’Brien-Leno primetime shuffle. Whatever side you were on (for the record, I’m with Coco) the real core of the quagmire was never about Leno or Conan or any of the other late night hosts hopping on the NBC bashing bandwagon. No, the big issue is about bowing out gracefully, and American’s frequent failure to do so.
Karissa Explains it All
Credit cards and college students don’t mix. Sure there are some students that are financially responsible and are able to keep themselves out of debt, but I definitely wasn’t one of them a few years ago when I turned 18.
A great new credit card law, dubbed the Credit CARD Act of 2009, will take effect on Feb. 22 and will prevent naïve college students (like myself five years ago) from falling into the greedy grasp of the credit card industry.
The law will have significant multiple effects on college students across college campuses nationwide, all of which I find beneficial, and will prevent students from causing themselves to enter into debt.
Student opinions at Riverside Campus
Do you have health insurance? Should the federal government get involved with health care?
For Devon's Sake
I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. Not that I’m opposed to the concept, I think it’s good for people to evaluate their vices and set goals for self improvement. It’s the follow-through that always seems to be lacking. So this year, rather than making a bunch of promises to myself that I will likely end up breaking, I’m going for New Year’s wishes instead.
New bus passes are great for students, but not the environment
The new Green Passes will be available for students to pick up on Jan. 5. These new passes will allow students to ride Capitol Metro busses for free. This is an exciting new resource for students who use Capitol Metro for transportation. The passes are great, but that doesn’t make them green.
Karissa Explains it all
Recently, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonpartisan group, has been advocating for lowering the number of community college students in their 20s that have unplanned pregnancies.
Super conservative power players come out for Perry, students need alternative candidates
Endorsements are starting to roll in, at least on the Republican side, as the primaries for the Texas gubernatorial race draws nearer. These endorsements help paint a picture of the candidates, and what they stand for. Despite the fanfare surrounding former Vice President Dick Cheney’s support of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, it is Governor Rick Perry who is seeking an unprecedented third elected term. It is more important to know which of the conservative power-players are throwing their support behind the tea party attending, succession threatening, tuition raising incumbent.
For Devon's Sake
Dwarfed by the 400 pound yuletide gorilla that is Christmas, Thanksgiving is a holiday that never really gets its due respect. Widely regarded as a preamble to the real holiday season, Thanksgiving has been bullied and demeaned by commercial interests until now, where it is merely the placeholder before Black Friday. Unlike Christmas, whose murky backstory is hung with New Testament legend and pagan solstice leftovers, Thanksgiving’s meaning is one very few bother to investigate.
Karissa Explains it All
The Zilker Park Trail of Lights has been an Austin tradition for 43 years and is a long-standing family tradition of mine that I’m sure I share with nearly all students and Austinites alike.
Student and staff opinions at Rio Grande Campus
UT Professor Dr. Daniel Hamermesh recently said in an article in The Daily Texan that UT is not “[ACC] or Texas State University. We [UT] should be training the leaders of tomorrow to think.” Do you agree?
Will you use the free student bus passes available next semester?
“Yes, I would use it. I think it’s a good idea because I usually get here by car but I wrecked it. So now I use a bike but it’s not reasonable to ride when it rained. And then I used the bus and free bus fair or even reduced bus fair would be fantastic.
New policy forces unfortunate cuts in Student Life
The administration has decided to expand The Orientation Program (TOP), and to make orientation mandatory for all students before they take their first class at ACC beginning fall, 2010. Student Life (SL) will have to cut the Diversity, Leadership, Intramural Sports and Recreation clusters to compensate. These changes have the potential to make SL more difficult to become involved with and less consistent from campus to campus.
Sympathy for the Devil
Before we get started, let us make something perfectly clear. I am not sexually attracted to minors. I do not think sex between minors and adults is okay. I do not think child pornography is okay, and when sexual abuse does occur, I think it is a reprehensible tragedy that damages lives.
Karissa Explains it All
I am a firm believer in God and faith. I believe that there is a higher authority watching over everyone. That authority creates miracles and allows terrible events to occur worldwide in order to teach us to be better people.
Karissa Explains it all
An increase of binge drinking among college students has revealed a dangerous new form of extreme dieting.
Austin City Limits (ACL for friends) music festival happened on Oct. 2-4 at Zilker Park. But who doesn’t know that? With the number of billboards all over downtown Austin and on the pedicabs (those little carriages ridden by actual people that look too much like slave work, despite the green initiative), only the most distracted Austinites and temporary residents were not aware of the concert until the first week of October.
For Devon's Sake
When I was a kid, I loved Halloween. By the time I’d gotten down to the dregs of my candy haul, which took almost a month thanks to my parents’ obnoxious insistence on “moderation,” my brain was teeming with ideas for next year’s costumes. The serious stages of costume design started as early as June when my mom and I would check out patterns and fabric at the craft store.
Every state needs more funding for unemployment
The United States Senate is struggling to pass a bill to extend unemployment insurance. On Oct. 13, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked for clearance to pass this bill, but it was shot down by GOP senators who have issues with how the extension would be funded and with the fact that the bill did not equally include all states. It is important that these issues be resolved and this passes quickly to help the Americans who are running out of unemployment insurance.
Bigger loans with no middle man
The United States Congress passed a bill with a 253 to 171 vote that will eliminate the wasteful Federal Family Education Program (FFELP) and use the savings to increase funding for the Pell Grant Program, fund direct loans from the government to students, and help better fund higher education programs.
For Devon's Sake
Congratulations to everyone who attended Austin City Limit’s seventh annual outdoor music festival this weekend. I hope you had fun. I hope your three day badge was worth it’s $180 price tag, and that the $4 bottles of water were cool and refreshing. I really, really hope that Pearl Jam and the Dave Matthew’s Band rocked your socks off. Congratulations on your good time. This article is not for you.
Karissa Explains it all
In 2004 I was a freshman at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I wanted to feel the full experience of being in college, so I lived on campus in a dorm, enrolled in a full load of courses, and bought all brand new possessions including textbooks. I ended up tallying up a bill of over $8,000 in my one and only semester at UTSA.
Karissa Explains it all
On New Year’s Day of 2008, my family and I were driving in our Volkswagen Jetta heading south on Ranch Road 620 after leaving Lakeline Mall. Seconds after stopping at a red light we felt the impact of our car forced forward after a Toyota Tundra slammed into us at full speed.
Despite the fact that many had school, or work and were standing for two hours in front of the capitol under the sun, many were happy to finally be able to use their freedom of speech. Unfortunately in many countries freedom of speech cannot be exercised.
I have never been a big sports fan. Since I was a little kid I hated all kinds of games, especially the ones involving balls, because apparently my head just attracts them.
For Devon’s Sake
Obama pledged to take on America’s health care problem while still on the 2008 campaign trail, but even at that early stage those that remembered Clinton’s quixotic quest shuddered at the thought of the oncoming ugliness.
I delivered my first Austin Community College commencement speech in 1977. In those days, the entire ACC graduating class could sit on the small front ledge at Symphony square.
Politician needs a lesson in manners
Rep. Joe Wilson (R) S. C. behaved with the decorum of a child when he screamed “you lie” at the president while the president addressed Congress about health care.
Karissa Explains it all
College without grades sounds alluring, but what impact would ending the grading system incur? Too many negative consequences I believe. That question was considered at a workshop during the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities late last month, reported by Inside Higher Ed.
Redress of Grievances
In September of 2008 I attended the fall orientation for the Accent. Although I had been a student at ACC for about six months by then, I had yet to participate in any student activities. When I heard about the opportunity to be able to contribute to a newspaper, I was pretty excited.
Our View
In a proposed amendment in HB 3518, community college students would no longer be subject to the six course drop limit. The ACC Board of Trustees came out in support of this and other legislation that helps college students. It was never reasonable to expect community college students to stay within this limit.
This spring was a tough time to be a pirate. On April 16, the French Navy captured a Somali pirate mother ship, striking a harsh blow against those scourges of the Adriatic Sea. The following day, a Swedish court found the four men behind the infamous Pirate Bay file sharing web site guilty of contributory copyright infringement, levying a heavy fine and a year in prison against all four.
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