Blog 4. Story ideas.

So here are a few story ideas I have:

1. Newlyweds on campus-->talk to some students who recently got married and see how they are managing being a newlywed and a student
2. Rumor control-->discuss how to combat fictitious stories and stop the spread of rumors. Could be interesting if you talk to students and hear some outlandish made up stories they've heard about themselves.
3. Sexual assaults/harrassment on campus-->I know this is touchy but it definitely needs to be addressed. It could just discuss how to protect yourself and avoid potentially dangerous situations.
4. Jersey Shore-->Why the craze? What do students find so captivating about it?
5. Students lack of school spirit-->I was talking to a few guys and they were discussing the lack of student attendance at sporting events and wondering why no one comes to the games. How could we amp up school spirit?

How far have we really come?

historyking.com

Last semester I took Intro to the City, an urban studies class about how cities grow and develop. We watched one of those Dateline special news type shows about how blacks are still treated differently than whites, despite how far people believe we've come since segregation. We saw a white man try to buy a car and he was immediately offered a deal of $5,000, but then later a black man talked to the same salesmen and was told the same car was $8,000--no deals offered. We also saw a black man try to rent an apartment from an elderly white couple and he was told the apartment was already rented out. But then later a white man tried to rent the same apartment from the same couple and was gladly shown a tour of the apartment. Even at Witt, there is a feel of segregation between the black and white students. If you look around the CDR, you will usually notice a few tables of only black students, and then whole tables of only white students. There isn't much variety among friend groups on campus. Also, there is a whole club called Concerned Black Students. Why couldn't it just be called Concerned Students? If we want segregation to end, we need to start doing things together, instead of in separate groups. These examples just help to show that, despite what people may think, society really hasn't come that far since the days of segregation. No matter what, there will always be those few people that still believe blacks are inferior to whites, and the only thing we can do is to continue to educate those people and hope they eventually change their thinking.

Week 1, Blog 2

So for my first short story I want to write about recreational drug use on campus. So far I have talked to a few fraternity and sorority members on their views of drug use on campus. Almost everyone agreed that drug use has increased significantly since their first years on campus. Now I just need to figure out why..

Week 1, blog 1.

So my main thoughts lately have been about recreational drug use on campus. When I came in as a freshman at Witt I can honestly say I had only seen weed/marijuana/whatever you like to call it one time and had only pretended to take a hit. By the end of my first semester here I realized that marijuana use was much more common than I thought, and it became harder to refuse each time I was confronted with the opportunity to smoke. Now as a senior it seems as though smoking marijuana socially has become the norm and could (possibly?) be leading to students smoking more often than just 'socially,' say everyday or several times a day. I guess I'm wondering what is causing us to smoke more. Thoughts?