ASUSU lobbyists visit the hill

my article from the 2/22/08 edition of The Utah Statesman

More than 10 ASUSU student lobbyists went to the state capitol Wednesday to give Aggie Ice Cream to Utah state representatives and senators to lobby for bills that, if passed, would directly affect USU students.

House Bill 196 is a bill for tax-free textbooks and, if passed, "would take the sales tax off of college textbooks. However, this bill is facing opposition in both the House and Senate," said Ashley Johnson, executive vice president of ASUSU.

Another current bill that could influence students is Senate Bill 103, legislation on higher education enhancements, that would allocate $3 million to USU programs, Johnson said.

"Some of the things that the money would go toward would be faculty improvement, expanding partnerships, improving our math and science program, and just all the areas that need help and additional funding," she said.

While this bill has a lot of support, budgeting has become a problem, Johnson said.

"They have only set aside so much funding that they are giving to education this year, and since we had a really great year last year, we might have trouble getting the full amount," Johnson said. "But we are lobbying really hard to make sure that Utah State gets as much of $3 million that they can."

The third bill the students lobbied for was Senate Bill 180, the Legacy Scholarship bill, which would give money to all qualifying college students and provide incentives for Utah students to go to college, Johnson said.

"Senator (Lyle) Hillyard's bill would give money to all upcoming freshmen, who have done well in high school and have been able to tackle a rigorous course load and maintain an A and B average," she said. "The bill would also help first-generation college students in their families obtain financial help. It's an incentive for Utah students to work hard in school and go to school in Utah."

Alexander Erickson, student lobbyist for USU, said, "I like Senate Bill 180. It has a lot more practicality in the fact that it's not as expensive, and right now the state capitol is facing a budget deficit, and they are trying to cut spending in places that they can."

"Overall it would be really helpful if USU students and their parents would call their specific representatives and senators and say, 'Hey, if House Bill 196 comes up, please support it,' because higher education is very expensive, and anything that helps alleviate that is helping Utah in general, because people who receive degrees of higher education will eventually be some of the greatest tax payers, and will be future contributors to the economy," Johnson said. "We also think that the money saved on textbooks would be spent on local businesses, so it would help generate local economies. We think that economically it would be beneficial long-term."

Nick West, student lobbyist for USU and ASUSU Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences academic senator, said, "I think the most important thing, when we think about student lobbying, is the fact that our representatives need to know that students care. We have had representatives come up and tell us that the fact that they see students out there is something they really want to see."

Johnson said any student can get involved in lobbying.

"We put out applications for lobbying internships at the beginning of every school year, and you have to be a junior with good academic standing," she said. "If you aren't involved in the lobbying internship, we still let students come down to lobby."

Johnson said ASUSU student lobbyists will also be going down to Salt Lake City a few more times this year. Any students interested in going down can contact her at ashley.johnson@aggiemail.usu.edu.

What's wrong with Wikipedia?

The majority of USU professors prohibit their students from using Wikipedia.com, a free online encyclopedia built collaboratively by millions of anonymous individuals, as a source in research papers.

Wikipedia is self proclaimed to be “The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. Over seven million articles in over 200 languages, and still growing.”

So why is a website that is so widely circulated frowned upon as a credible source for papers? The answer to this question can be found at the top of Wikipedia’s main page, which says, “Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, or so the website professes, but Barry Kort, a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, is telling a different story.

Kort was banned from editing Wikipedia after he tried to fix an entry on one of his colleagues which was inaccurate.

"Wikipedia doesn't try for accuracy, since the editors are anonymous amateurs,” Kort said. “Instead it tries to make sure that everything comes from a reliable source. But that's not a good basis for accuracy."

Kort said Wikipedia banned him and other academics because they “challenge the baloney that the other people have put up on the site. In my case, the justification was that, quote: I had no interest in writing an encyclopedia.”

Kort isn’t the only one speaking out against Wikipedia. Wikipedia Review is an online opinion and editorial website, reserved strictly for bashing Wikipedia. Not only are several of the pieces stories like Kort’s, but also pieces that reveal the absurdity of using Wikipedia for anything more than popular culture.

"Wikipedia should declare itself to be what it has in fact become, a good compendium of popular culture," Kort said.

The idea of Wikipedia, or an online collaborative encyclopedia, is a good idea, but the way that Wikipedia allowed absolute anonymity and no credentials, eventually led to its poor quality and inaccuracies.

Kort could use a sock puppet, “a username that no one knows” to continue editing but he says that Wikipedia’s administrators would know the sock puppet was him, and would block him. The only other solution to continued editing would be to become an administrator.

Becoming an administrator for Wikipedia is “like being nominated for a political job; it’s just politics," Kort said.

He said the Wikipedia administrators “are called The Cabal. People who have staked out positions of power there. Like warlords."

Google is working on creating an answer to Wikipedia, Kort said, called Knol. Knol will be very similar to Wikipedia, but scholars and academics will be compensated for the encyclopedic entries they contribute.

In the meantime, there are other, more credible, online encyclopedias, Kort said, "Citizendium has a different plan, so does Scholarpedia."

USU celebrates SUPER Tuesday in Style

(published in the February 6, 2008 edition of the Utah Statesman)

USU students of every party affiliation showed up at the Taggart Student Center Tuesday night to watch poll results from primaries around the nation.

The party, a collaborated event hosted by ASUSU, the College Democrats and USU for Obama, is one of several ways USU has gotten involved in political events.

Ashley Johnson, executive vice president of ASUSU, works as a liaison between USU and local and state governments.

"I really want to get students as civically aware as possible," Johnson said. "Two weeks ago, we had civic awareness and HASS Week, and me and HASS Sen. Nick West got over 400 people to register to vote in less than four days."

Johnson said as part of her attempt to make USU more civically aware, she negotiated for early campus registration, which occurred last Friday, and is currently working on getting registration booths and a drop box, to make the voter registration process as easy as possible.

Johnson also arranged for MTV to come Tuesday night as a way to get students to come out to the event. MTV took 30-second clips Tuesday of different colleges around the nation who were getting politically involved, including USU.

"My biggest goal is making it as easy as possible for students to get involved, because most students just don't know how to go about getting involved," Johnson said.

Melinda Thatcher, campus coordinator for USU for Obama, said, "Students can really change the way things go, because we are such a huge population."

Aubrey Hill, president of the USU College Democrats, said she is a supporter of Hillary Clinton because "she has very specific plans for what policies she wants enacted and what direction she wants things to go."

Jaron Janson, chair of the College Republicans, said he is a supporter of Mitt Romney, and, "Activities like this are exciting, and get us excited about our civic responsibility and specific candidates"

Johnson said she was "excited about the turnout" and was glad to see students taking such an interest in politics.

Though Super Tuesday is over, the election is not, Johnson said.

"Go down and register to vote now," she said. "Today is Feb. 5, the field is about to narrow, but the election is not over. Get involved, look at the candidate who mirrors your values, and vote."

"You can have a big effect on the outcomes of elections," Hill said. "A lot of people tend to think that politics is removed from them, but policies that legislators make and that the president carries out as to education, foreign policy, and all of those kind of things really, really affect us in really specific, tangible ways. It determines what kind of funding we get. It determines how we are viewed in the world, etc. It really is about being aware of and taking control of the future we are going to have. To do that, we have to be involved in politics."

-lindsay.anderson@aggiemail.usu.edu
photo by Statesman Photographer Cameron Peterson

My rant on the POOR POOR rich people

So, this is my handy little model. The black portion refers to the wealthiest one person of Americans, who all together split 38% of the wealth in America. The green refers to the top 10% of the population, who share 71% of the wealth. The white section, refers to the poorest Americans, who make up 40% of our population. This group, who are the majority, share only 1% of the wealth in our nation. Now, looking at this model, and these statistics, wouldn't it make sense to tax those individuals who have a vast amount of money, and honestly won't miss a big chunk, because honestly, they are just fine. Boo hoo if they can't buy that new sports car they were just dying for.
In my opinion, if you are complaining about being taxed because you qualify in the top 10% of our nation, I say you deserve to be taxed. When it gets to the point that you are so consumed in your wealth, that you honestly believe that you are being treated unfairly because your parents could afford to send you to an Ivy League school, and now you are so unjustly being asked to pay back a little of your good fortune to society, then all I have to say is try walking in someone else's shoes!
America is pathetic, Wealthy individuals who feel they are being given a raw deal sound like complainers, and I am sorry, but I feel that you have no right to complain. You have a luxurious lifestyle, I feel SO bad for you. You are right, you are being treated so unfairly, and GOD FORBID you be asked to help someone else out. We Democrats who are bleeding hearts, are SO mean to you poor poor individuals. Raising taxes so that you pay a higher percent than a single mom who makes $25,000 a year is just so not fair. She must be so lazy if she is just making $25,000 a year, its her own fault that she has three kids, and that their father walked out on them.
You know, I take everything back, lets tax the poor. The rich deserve a break for once in a country that just makes life SO difficult for them.

Obama's Fighting Chance

So it turns out that the Kennedy endorsement deserved more credit than I originally gave it. After Kennedy campaigning on Obama's behalf in California all week, combined with the L.A. Times and La Opinion endorsment of Obama, poll predictions have turned in Obama's favor.
Clinton has been campaigning hard in California, specifically targeting Latinos, who comprise 39.5% of the Californian Population. Clinton was expected to win over this population, but thanks to the specific endorsement of La Opinion, one of the most popular Latino publications in California, Obama has gained significant ground in the split state.
So what are the polls reflecting for super Tuesday? Well, Real Clear Politics polls show that Clinton only has 2.5% on Obama, and that McCain has pulled out an even greater lead, leaving Romney trailing significantly behind.
However, the most exciting news in my opinion, is the general election polls change in favor of Obama. In a match up with McCain, Obama is now the favored candidate. Just see for yourself:

McCain vs Obama

Rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Having gotten progressively more bored of my music on my IPod, I decided a week ago to start downloading NPR and 60 Minutes Podcasts to listen to as I walk around campus, sit between classes, and work out at the gym. The other day I was listening to the January 13th 60 minutes podcast, and found myself listening to a report from Anderson Cooper on the "war against women." I was extremely disturbed by what I heard, and was also outraged that this atrocity has not been given much attention. I am passing the online report onto you, and encourage you to read it. Awareness and spreading the word is the first step in making a difference, so please, read this article. Something that stood out to me, was that the casualties of this "war," outnumber the amount of those killed by the conflict in Darfur, another awful genocide occurring in Africa. This is not a light matter, and it deserves our attention, so take a moment and read or watch this report, and then please, pass it on to a friend.

War Against Women 60 Minutes Report