The Maricruzer's

http://ticker.baruchconnect.com/article/elevator-etiquette/

Elevators in Baruch College are a well know spectacle, in an unfortunate way. This opinion article written by Marielle Bachman, in the Baruch Ticker, describes the daily ordeal most Baruch students face in their daily trip up the elevators in the campus. She focuses on elevator etiquette which basically is a fancy term for showing proper manners in an elevator, which Bachman feels students lack in this school. She describes how apparently nice students turn into “a pack of bloodthirsty wolves” when they try to get a place inside an already packed elevator. Bachman proposes to students to put deodorant just in case they have a foul smell after rushing into the elevator.  She goes on to condemn students who block a majority of space at the front of the elevator, stating “since when did the front of the elevator become some sort of VIP or first-class ordeal?” I agree with this statement because I have seen for myself, many students stalling small areas in the elevator which could have fitted a few other people. Bachman also advises freshmen not to put their arms between the elevator doors to keep them open since they will only “suffer pain, quite a deal of embarrassment, and perhaps even dismemberment.” She reasons that eventually every student will at some point in their undergraduate years, be stuck in the elevator. In the article, Bachman shares Junior Ana Recio’s testimony of an experience she had in one of the elevators in the college. Earlier on, I stated that some students tried to catch the elevator by putting their hands in between the doors to keep it open. Unfortunately, Recio witnessed a similar incident where one student’s arm got caught between the doors of the elevator. Recio describes the incident as “something out of a movie”. She explains that although the trapped student was experience a rather ill-fated accident, Recio and the other students in the elevator could do nothing about it. She says “Of course, they closed on his arm and the entire elevator watched in stunned silence as his arm flapped back and forth for a solid minute. The best part was that no one made a noise except for one other kid and I, who couldn’t stop laughing until we reached the 11th floor.” Bachman concludes on the note that although such incidents are prone to occur, they can be avoided. All we need to do, in Bachman’s words, is to be mindful of the people we share the elevators with. Then only will the awful reputation of Baruch’s elevators disappear once and for all.

Sanjay Gurung

Frank Bruni speaks about the “College Identity Crisis”. He questions whether it is true or not that college is what determines one’s wealth in their future. Or whether or not it is even true that what is taught in the classroom is more valuable than what one can learn in the military or simply at home. What Frank Bruni found was in a way, shocking.

Time magazine recently did a survey and discovered that 62% of recent college graduates didn’t even know that, “congressional terms are two years in the House of Representatives and six years in the Senate.” That would mean that 62% of recent college graduates that partook in that survey, didn’t really understand how our government works. After looking at many other experiments and surveys, Michael Dannenberg stated, “Higher education policy needs to focus not just on access and affordability but also quality and success”. Although the affordability of a higher education is a big problem in the United States, success and the quality of the education is a big problem as well. Another huge problem is that people are deciding to not go to college any longer because the costs are so high and there are so few jobs available once you have your degree. What are students supposed to do if they are spending so much money on a higher education every year and then cant get a job when they graduate? How will they pay off their student loan debt? This is the reason why some people are trying to find other ways to get a job and not going to college. Supposedly Obama’s administration is trying to find a solution for the costs of colleges however, the quality of the education as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/opinion/sunday/how-to-read-afghanistan.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1380581817-bRbu/vb8v14Vq6T9VEr0JA

This article is by Vanessa M Gezari. It starts off by introducing the Human Terrain System, a program that sends social scientist programs into conflict zones to help soldiers understand local culture, politics and economics. The article states a story about a woman named Paula Lloyd. A woman, on the Human Terrain System, was casually striking up a conversation with an Afghan man through an interpreter. After the interpreter walked away, she was set on fire by the same man. And to this day, it is still unclear why he did it. He was shot moments after the violent attack.  In Afghan Culture, oral communication is the main type of communication. In fact, many people in Afghanistan are illiterate so they depend on stories, metaphors and anecdotes to convey meaning. However, Americans do not understand that. We were trained to understand things by reading them, analyzing them and understanding them. Gerazi tries to explain this miscommunication is what gets many Americans killed. She tries to say that the Americans need to learn to listen to the Afghans. They need to listen to their stories, and what they have to say because they are all not pointless. Understanding you enemy is the best tactic. You cannot fight a country without understanding their situation and their culture. She provides an example of a man who says “I would like to tell [the Americans] a story. In our country, we grow wheat and we have ants. There is no way we can stop the little ants from stealing the wheat. There are so many little ants it is almost impossible to stop them.” He says this to try to show the Americans the situation in Afghanistan. Gerazi’s main point is communication is key. I agree with her. You need to be able to fully understand you enemy before you go off having a multibillion dollar war with them and wasting tax payer’s money and killing Americans. You have to indulge yourself in their culture and truly understand them.

Salma Haque

http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/on-911-my-two-cents-on-syria/

The author, Mark Bittman, usually writes about food. He usually doesn’t write about topics such as this one. The article starts with him speaking about how he’s spent a lot of time trying to form an opinion on what’s been going on in Syria. Bittman goes on to say that on 9/11, we lost 3000 American lives. However, this is the number of people that Syria is losing every two weeks. Also, millions have left their homes. But, he says that he doesn’t understand why the United States must, “act as the world’s conscious and police force.” He explains there have been times where we intervened and actually were successful, and sometimes, not so much. He brings up a point about Canada. He asks whether or not the United States would intervene if there was a civil war in Canada and the government was torturing people like in Syria. Many will criticize the United States if they intervene and even if they don’t intervene. Bittman goes to his main point which is: we have enough problems in our own country and we don’t need to add on to it by going in to Syria. He states our government is constantly doing wrong in itself, how can they go and do “right” in the Middle East? Finally, he gets to the point that if the U.S were to really intervene, we would need congressional approval and a coalition. He states that the UN won’t meet the requirements to be “that coalition,” and if anything, maybe this can lead to a “NATO like alliance. However, how “successful,” this may be is still in question.