Guns on Campus?

Bringing guns on campus has been in the news lately. States such as Arizona and Texas have been considering revising their gun laws to allow looser regulations controlling guns on campus. Something like the Virginia Tech Shooting makes people worried, and no one wants to be caught unprotected.

If my campus ever allowed guns on campus for anyone other than police officers I would transfer immediately. In all honesty, guns scare the heck out of me. Most people I know were raised in households with at least one gun, and plenty of my friends like to go hunting. I, however, come from a pretty anti-gun, anti-violence family. This probably has done a lot to shape my feelings about guns.

Police officers have been professionally trained to use guns in dangerous situations. Stopping a violent murder is nothing like going hunting, but people have this idea that just because they know how to use a gun, they will be able to calmly draw a gun and shoot a person. In reality, they might end up hurting an innocent bystander and end up in court.

I've seen situations that seem harmless escalate quickly, and if one party has a weapon, things can get ugly fast. In my hometown, two people had a snow fight that ended with one person stabbing the other. We've all witnessed fights, and those could have ended badly if one person lost control. I will never believe that guns are an acceptable solution.

As always, I want to know what everyone else's opinion is on this topic.

Related articles

• Students Speak: We Don't Want Guns On Campus In Texas (news.change.org)
• Response to shooting: Looser gun laws? (salon.com)
• States Consider Allowing Guns on Campus (foxbusiness.com)
• New UI student group backs carrying guns on campus (thegazette.com)

Nickelodeon as We Knew is Coming Back

Rumor has it that in order to boost ratings, Nickelodean is bringing back some of its hit shows from the 90s. Not only will they be airing classic episodes, the producers have agreed to make new episodes as well. The fight to bring back the favorite episodes of our generation has been a pretty strong movement. The group on Facebook is right up there with requesting Betty White on SNL.

The only problem I see with this plan is accessibility. The shows will be part of a two-hour late night block on Teen Nick. I understand Nickelodean's target audience is college students who will likely be up that late, but it surprises me that the station does not want to try to get younger audiences interested as well. After all, these are kid shows. In addition to that, Teen Nick is a premium cable station and many college students will not have access to it. I think it would make more sense to air it on Nick's main channel, maybe as part of Nick @ Nite, and in the afternoon.

For the record, I don't really know much about the shows that they are planning to air. My family did not have cable until 2004.

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• Nostalgia Marches On: '90s Kid Classics Return to TeenNick (tunedin.blogs.time.com)

Advertising in Textbooks?

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This semester I am taking my first marketing class. I thought I would enjoy it but a lot about the class has fallen short of my expectations. My biggest complaint? The textbook's approach.

I understand that we are learning about advertising, but marketing, especially in its modern day form, is much more than just throwing ads and products at customers and expecting them to buy what you're selling. And my textbook certainly stressses the importance of knowing your customer and understanding them, but I can't help but wonder if the book itself is one giant advertisement.

Proctor and Gamble make many appearances in the book, especially concerning Tide, and I'm not even halfway through the book. I read through an entire list of many products that P&G make, including all of the Tides as well as other laudry detergents. I found this list in the book.

Another issue is when corporations are painted as nothing but good. Even if the company has had problems in the past, the goal of many marketing campaigns is to show that everything has changed. And in the class, the campaign is all we see. One negative concern I've seen addressed is about WalMart. Many dissatisfied customers will start websites criticizing the company and get thousands of visitors daily. While fixing the concerns (which even WalMart has to admit are valid) seems to me like the best fix, they instead try to take down the offending websites. And my book blames the starters of these sites for ruining WalMart's image.

Even in my management classes, whenever we watch a video case on a company, I always feel like I am watching a commercial. You have a narrarator with a cheery voice listing all of the benefits this company has as a result of a new leadership initiative. I understand that the teacher wants us to have a frame of references, but I think we deserve to know what is going on that may not be so wonderful about the companies we are studying. And I certainly shouldn't feel like I am always looking at ads during class.

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Banned Books Week

In honor of Banned Books Week (check out ala.org for more information) I will be writing reviews of commonly banned or challenged books all this week. My major focus will be on books that have been removed from school reading lists or public school libraries.

Has anyone ever had direct experience with book challenging? Do you ever think its ok to ban a book? For you future teachers, how would you deal with a controversial book that you wanted students to read?

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• Banned books week 2010: the top 10 most challenged titles (guardian.co.uk)
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