Earth Day Resolution

I'm a big fan of helping the environment, and I always say I'm going to do more, but then I wind up giving up. Well, I found out about a new concept: making an Earth Day Resolution. For awhile now I've been considering the idea of harvesting rain water, as well as composting. With composting, the most I do is through the waste in my backyard. No more. I'm going to make a solid commitment to both of these goals.

Are Colleges Too Liberal?

One thing that you will witness a lot in college is people who are very outspoken about their views, whether religious, political, or ethical in nature. However, depending on your school and the location, some views may appear more prominent than others. Unfortunately, its hard to tell whether that's because more people hold those views, or because they are just more outspoken about them. Its even possible that people who hold one view are too afraid to speak up because they are in the minority.

Colleges are known for being extremely liberal. I go to school in a very conservative area and yet, most of the professors I know are liberal democrats, and many students are, at most, conservative democrats. Of course there are exceptions, and they tend to be very open about it. Still, the College Democrats have a much easier time staying active than the College Republicans.

A site called Campus Reform encourages students to take back their schools, and make them more conservative. While I belive that colleges should be places where there is a healthy debate on many topics, and permitting one over the other is a perfect way to discourage such debate, I'm not sure this website is going about it in the right way. Of course, encouraging debate might not be their goal. It seems like they want schools to favor conservatism above liberalism, not a healthy balance of the two.

There are a lot of related topics in a debate like this, so look for more posts on the topic. And, as always, I want to hear what your opinions are.

Related articles

• Where are all the political student groups on campus? (tech.mit.edu)

The Environment

All over the country people are making the effort to "go green." Colleges tend to be a hot bed for new trends and activism, so it is no surprise that administrations everywhere are make earth-friendly changes, often due to encouragement from students. According to this article, some students are even factoring environmentalism into their college choice.

What is your college doing to become more environmental? How are students reacting to it? And do you feel that your part of the country affects people's reactions and their willingness to make such change?

In your opinion, what changes do you think would be going to far? If, say, the cafeteria removed trays, or the school limited parking to encourage bus use, would you fight such changes?

Also, have you ever taken a class focused on the environment, such as one of the ones in this discussion? Would you?