Assignments and Deadlines

    Now that the 2012 fall semester is nearing its completion, the amount and significance of my assignments has been increasing in each class. While this a very common thing, I have noticed in several cases in which the amount of work that is being asked is completely unreasonable because of the deadlines that have been set. I have no problem writing a paper in the 10-page range, if the professor gives a heads up to the students in advance. But on multiple occasions this year, I have been notified about an assignment ahead of time, but not soon enough, putting pressure on me to meet the deadline, which leads me to rush through parts of the assignment, not stopping to even think about the significance of what I am doing. The professor may think it is good to challenge students, but in cases like this, the challenge actually takes away from learning as a whole.

     Many times when I have had my hands full with assignments, the assignments came from multiple classes, which is understandable because a professor isn’t going to change the assignments they hand out based on what you may have to do for other classes. However, another problem I have had to deal with involves a questionable amount of assignments for the same class being due around the same time. With smaller assignments, I completely understand professors asking for multiple things in one nights work. But if there is a major project due on a specific date, assigning something smaller and less important gives the student less time to focus on the major project, which could end up hurting it as a whole. I understand that there are only so many classes per semester, but there are some cases where there will be nothing due one day, and several things due the next. If these issues are dealt with, students will end up learning more and thinking critically about the work they are doing.  

Who Do I Love?

I love my cat. 

My cat's name is Jaida and it is a female. Jaida has grey and white stripes, white paws, and green eyes. She purrs when your pet her head and run your fingers down her back, and hates it when you rub her stomach. She would be next to me right now if I wasn't in my dorm.

Seeing how I am not at home just yet, I am excited to see her when I do get home. I feel I'm so close to her because she's comfortable with me. When Jaida was a kitten she would fall asleep on my chest and rub her paws into my hair. I miss it. Now that she's much bigger it's like seeing a younger sibling grow up, and I don't have a younger sibling.

I see my cat as a part of the family. Her being a girl, like the rest of my five sisters and mother, fit into my family just fine. I raised her since she was born until now, 5 years later. She knows me so well, when I get back home from school Jaida goes right back into routine. Stepping on my keyboard, scratching on my bedroom door and crying when she's hungry. It's like she's not just a pet, but another person in the house that has feelings too. Not a person but you know what I mean.  

I never thought I'd think of a pet, or animal, as an importance in my life. My cat is there when no one else is, as corny as it sounds, I love her. I thought I'd write about her because she is one of many things I look forward to go home to on my winter break. 

What about you? Anything at home that will warm your heart? 

Bad Bosses

The main job of bosses is to lead by example. If you cannot talk the talk and walk the walk, there is probably a chance you should not be in charge. This is certainly the case with my boss. I will not say names, nor will I say where I work on campus, but he displays questionable leadership skills on a daily basis and truly makes me question the hierarchy and why some people are hired to do jobs they are so obviously inept at completing. 

One article I found in relation to this is Three Types of Bosses That Should Be Fired. While I'm not saying my boss should be fired, it's an interesting piece that describes three types of managerial styles that do not mesh with the workplace. One in particular that applies to my boss is titled "The has-been". The has-been is someone who was hired and acted highly effectively, until something happened and he or she started to become less and less effective in that position of power.

This certainly applies to my boss. He started out strong; he was new in September, in from another school where he received multiple awards and certifications. At his former place of employment he was in charge of five staff members, where he did a fantastic job and was seen as the go-getter. Now he is in charge of almost twenty. The big difference, however, is not the leap from five to twenty staff members but that he still acts as if he is in charge of only five people. When discussing policy and other pertinent topics he constantly mentions what they used to do at his old school. He fails to realize that not every idea that works at a school of 500 students will work at a school of 5,000 students. He started out with new and  fresh ideas but failed to follow through with them when it came time to enact them. He originally turned up to meetings on time but now he consistently shows up late or blows them off altogether. Whenever we turn our paperwork in late or miss a meeting though we get a laughable reminder of how our responsibilities must be taken seriously. 

Sometimes my staff and I will question why something was not done. The response we get? "Oh, I was too lazy to go downstairs to the office and get that", or "Oh, I forgot". Emails go unanswered. Requests are forgotten. I asked my boss to place an order in early October and it was not ordered until mid-November. It is as if he is still pretending that he works at his former institution and that if he ignores us we will all go away. 

Far too often, we find these types of bosses. The ones who ignore. Forget. Pretend like they care but when it comes time to follow through, fail to do so. While in my boss' case it seems to be because of failure to adjust to the demanding workload at FSU, one cannot help wonder just why these people are kept in this position of power if they are so ineffective. If I was responsible for so much resentment and disorganization, I would gladly either readjust my methods, or resign from that position altogether and find a place where my level of dedication matched the needs of the people I am leading. These "bad bosses" must realize that their action, or inaction, directly influences the behavior of the staff they lead, the harmony of the business they are employed in, and the outlook people have on their leadership style. 

"Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas"?

We all know that we live in a Christmas-dominated culture. We have a store with "Christmas" in its name open year round. We have festive Christmas cookies. We have a Christmas celebration for 1/12 of the year. We spend hundreds of dollars on family members, decorate our homes, and say "Merry Christmas" to everyone around us on December 25th.

There's only one problem. Many people do not celebrate Christmas. Some celebrate Hanukkah. Some celebrate Kwanzaa. Some don't celebrate anything at all. A blog entry I read recently by a Pagan woman who does not celebrate Christmas hit this issue home for me. Basically, if you don't know what exact holiday this person celebrates, wish them a "Happy Holiday". If you do know what holiday they celebrate and wish to tailor to their individual beliefs and holiday preference, then wish them whatever it is they celebrate, be it Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or even Festivus. 

At the same time though, if you do not celebrate Christmas, there is no need to be offended if someone wishes you a Merry Christmas. They simply want to wish you a day filled with joy, love, and care. What's wrong with that? Maybe they are a bit ignorant and don't realize what they are doing, but maybe they just want to be nice and are doing it the way they know how. If someone wished me a Merry Kwanzaa, I would never say "I do not celebrate Kwanzaa. I celebrate Christmas". That is rude and totally unnecessary. I would thank them and wish the same for them. I truly think it is all about manners. If I see someone I do not know, I wish them a happy holiday. They could be celebrating any holiday. If I see someone I know, I'll cater to the holiday I know they celebrate. 

I can see both sides of the issue. I totally understand why people are sick and tired of Christmas taking up the spotlight. There are other equally important holidays that simply are not recognized enough, and that is not right. However, flipping out at an innocent store clerk or Salvation Army bell jingler because he or she says "Merry Christmas" is not very considerate either. On the other hand, insisting that we say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" is a bit ethnocentric and selfish as well. We cannot expect everyone to wish us a Merry Christmas when some simply do not celebrate it. 

The point of the holidays is not to nitpick at other people's word choices and become confrontational if he or she violates your own personal creed. The point of the holidays is to come together for a common cause and appreciate all we are given on this beautiful earth. Saying "Happy Holidays" is a warm wish for everyone, regardless of the holiday they celebrate. It is a totally appropriate and considerate in the diverse world in which we live. 

Overpopulated State Schools

As a college student, my goal was to go somewhere affordable where I can receive the most sufficient learning experience. Lately, I have realized that with tuition rates so high, more families are suggesting that their children go to state universities rather than private colleges. Although I believe this is a reasonable choice, I do not think colleges should take advantage of this by accepting more students than they usually would. Tuition has not gone down, yet more students are getting accepted into these state universities and colleges. This is something that has to be stopped as it can also affect every student’s learning process and experience.

For me, Framingham State University is an adequate school for me mainly because of the sizes of all my classes. With classes of less than twenty students, it is easier to get help and ask the professor questions compared to a lecture hall of three hundred students or more.  Although these are positive aspects of Framingham State, I have also noticed some differences from last year.

With a new year, it seems as if the population of the school has become greater than the previous year. My classes have not increased greatly, but if every year more students are taken than necessary, will the ratio between students and professors change for the worse? Parking, which was never a problem for me as a commuter, has become very difficult this past month. It takes more time than necessary to find a parking spot, which results in parking far away causing me to be late to some of my classes. This affects me and many other students as we miss important class time that can impact our grade.

Framingham State is not the only school I have noticed to be slowly overpopulating. Many universities such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst have also been doing the same. With many of my friends attending this university, many of them had to be placed in forced triples because there was no room for standard rooms. Overpopulating these state schools has to come to a stop or else each school will lose its aspect of what makes it particularly special to their students.

The Voicless Victims

Up until this past summer, I have never been to New York City and I could not have been more excited. Although it was what I expected it to be with the rush of people speed walking either in your direction or the opposite, it was such a different experience than what I live in my hometown. I did not think there would be one thing I did not enjoy about this weekend trip to New York City, but after one day, I found that not to be true. With all the entertainment they have on the streets, one thing I immediately noticed were the horses carrying carriages of families. Although these families looked amused at this form of “entertainment”, I only felt bad for these animals.

For decades, we have heard of the pollution in our environment due to cars, factories, etc. and now these poor, innocent animals were out of their safe environment and put deep into the city. We have all seen images of Madison Square Garden and the craziness of the traffic with taxis and cars everywhere in sight. Now imagine horses among this traffic. Not only are the being exposed to polluted air that can most likely be fatal to them, but they are also constantly in danger of getting hit by a car or in an accident. Many accidents have occurred up to today. The city is not a place where I believe these animals belong in. They are meant to be on farms, somewhere safe that they can be healthy instead of being used as a ways of transportation. About a year ago, a horse named Charlie suddenly dropped dead on the streets of New York City. We are now in the twenty-first century; there is no need to put these horses through such physical pain especially in the city.

Animals are living creatures that should be respected and given rights for their safety. To put them in such danger is what I find cruel and wrong. Every time I saw them that weekend, I only felt pity instead of amusement. In conclusion, I am not a huge animal person, but I do believe that these animals should have rights for their own benefit, not for the benefit of their owners to use them as a means of profit.

These meetings are not for children

Recently my cousin, who I considered to be my “older brother” because of the month age difference and the similarities we share, came to my family for help.  He came to my family in need of help because he is battling the addiction to the dangerous world of pills, especially Percocet and Oxycodone. In his brief recovery process so far I have accompanied him to many narcotic anonymous meetings throughout the city of Worcester and have seen the same problem that bothers me and is causing me to write about in this blog entry.

The problem in which I see in these narcotic anonymous meetings aren’t the various amount of people that are here battling addiction. It’s the young children that are in these meetings that are doing the same I am doing, accompanying their drug abused parents. Though by having your child there in your recovery process seems to make you feel more comfortable. This isn’t the environment or place your child should be for various reasons.

There are many problems I see with having your child come to narcotic anonymous meetings start with the environment during these meetings. These meetings are filled with people who have nowhere else to turn and have lost everything including family. So when these children hear about these tragic stories of how addicts like their parents have lost their kids due to addiction this puts nightmares in the kid’s heads that they could possibly lose their parents.  In addition children shouldn’t be there because they don’t deserve to see their “role model” go through some of the toughest time of their live and admit they need help in controlling their lives. With all the different topics of addiction and drugs that are talked about in these meetings, this is  very inappropriate for younger children to hear is another reason I believe this is not a good environment for children to be in. In closing this environment just is not the place for your child to be because of all the events and things that are going on during these meetings, it is just too much for a young child to process and understand.

If I were to offer an alternative it would be the obvious choice of having these people drop their child off with a baby sitter or family member before they go to these meetings. But I also need to remember that some of these addicts have no money for a baby sitter or no other family because of their drug problems they are getting help with. The other solution I would have is for the attics to find meetings during the day when there child is in class, rather than taking them to meetings late at night and keeping them up past their bed times.