Editorial

Graduation is a bittersweet time of year. The college journey comes to an end but the future lies ahead for thousands of graduating students after every semester. For University students, commencement means gathering at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel for the celebratory ceremony, yet, it wasn’t always that way.

Buying and renting textbooks at the beginning of each semester is perhaps one of the most stressful and tedious aspects of college life. Before classes start, students are able to log on to their WebAdvisor account to view the list of books needed for each course and whether or not they are required or only recommended by the professor.

Spring semester seems to almost be a contradiction as we continue to be bombarded by a new snowstorm each week. It seems as though since the semester started we cannot go a week without looking out the window to watch the roads get covered in a new fresh layer of snow. While the ground ices over, students and faculty alike await to hear of the University closings and class cancellations that are delayed or never come. With a University student ratio of 50 percent on campus and 50 percent commuter, according to Vaughn Clay, here at the Outlook we believe these absent or late closings to be very dangerous.

For many students, a college degree implies that a person graduated with a major and plans to pursue a career in that respective field. On the other hand, The Outlook believes that a minor is a very valuable asset for a college student and encourages students to pursue one.

How can the students who study in the Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library get their work done when library hours are not the most accessible? We, as students, all have different studying habits; some can study in loud environments undisturbed, while others need the quietness of the library in order to keep their focus. Some Outlook editors like listening to music when studying while others need silence.

Experiential education is a requirement for many majors at the University. For those students who have not studied abroad, this means working at an internship. In order for an internship to count toward the experiential education requirement on our academic audits, we have to pay for a three credit class involving proof of 120 internship hours and a final paper. However, if internships are generally unpaid work, how are we supposed to afford the cost of over $2,000 for a three credit class?

Thanksgiving Day celebrations should be about catching up with family members and friends who have traveled long distances for the special occasion, stuffing your faces with trays upon trays of food and lounging around watching football. The holiday should not be celebrated by standing in hour-long lines, fighting the bitter, ruthless blasts of cold wind, and racing for the last 40-inch plasma screen TV that is discounted at 50 percent off at your local Best Buy.

When does volunteer work turn into paid work? When is it morally correct to not pay someone who donates more hours a week to their student run organization than their actual paid job? The Outlook staff believes that serving as an e-board member for any media run student organization acts as a full time-job and should be paid like a full time-job.

With the rise in technological use over the years, the way that we communicate has been altered. There is now a new form of communication among people, which has moved us away from face-to-face communication, and towards the new technology revolution. In addition to face-to-face communication, we are now able to speak to one another using text messages, emails and instant messaging, among many other forms of technologically advanced communication.

Midterms are a very stressful time for college students. Between the normal hustle and bustle college life of balancing course work, internships, work, and extra-curricular activities, midterms apply that extra ounce of pressure that is just enough to really stress us out. However, the stress could be eased a bit if a student knows where they stand during midterms by having their grades available to them.