Race-Blind Admissions at the University of Texas-Austin Article

Race-Blind Admissions at the University of Texas-Austin - Article Example Ultimately, the outcomes that the policy yielded through the passage of time tended to prove the policy to be a deprivation of opportunity. The policy for the Race-blind Admission taken by the authority of the University of Texas is a milestone and at the same time, an epoch-making event in the US history of building a race-blind nation that will stand unified at one platform. The admission policy is exemplary in the sense that it was proficient enough to meet both the legal guidelines of the court and the pressing requirements diversity that was usually maintained under the Affirmative Actions in the pre-Hopwood admission policies. The issue of minority enrollment in the education has been an issue of the struggle for decades in the history of Texas. A number of measures have been adopted to increase the enrollment of the minority students and been changed to meet the ever-changing requirements of the time. After a verdict of the Federal court in 1996, the Texas Authority was pushed to modify the race-conscious admission policies in order to retain the diversity at states colleges and universities. Without directly focusing on the applicants’ ethnicity, the state lawmakers instituted Top Ten Percent Plan to ensure an automatic admission to any public universities in Texas. The plan that was enacted by the 75th Legislature served a two-fold purpose: to meet the requirements of diversity and to face the law of equal opportunity (Barr, 2005, p. 1). It is evident that the pre-Hopwood admission policy was outlawed on the ground that it goes against the US constitution. But the fact whether the policy adopted by the University Authority and the state legislators in the post Hopwood period was capable enough of bridging the hollering racial gaps existing in the US society may engender controversy.  

Alcoholic Beverage Should Be Illegal for All Ages Essay Example for Free

Alcoholic Beverage Should Be Illegal for All Ages Essay ?Penalties for drunk driving should be dramatically increased. I strongly believe that penalties for drunk driving should be dramatically increased. When a person decides to drink alcohol there should be thoughts going through their head. A person who drinks alcohol and doesn’t have a designated driver should already know their putting people in danger and going to receive a drastic penalty. On the other hand, for driver’s safety the law should increase the penalties for drunk driving drastically. Not only should their penalty be increased; they should have to participate in effective treatment before they thing about driving under the influence again. D. J. Hanson. (1997-2012) said when drivers drive drunk their speed limit is ten miles higher than their regular speed limit. For instance if a driver is driving 50 miles per hour on the interstate and their under the influence their speed limit is going to 60 miles per hour nonstop. Imagine if there was traffic on the interstate, midnight black outside, and an old lady is only driving 40 miles per hour on the interstate. The driver is under the influence driving 60 miles compared to the elderly lady 40 miles; there’s going to be an sever accident due to the driver driving drunk. This make the old lady be in a reckless predicament. A family has lost a love one and leaves the drunk driver with a DUI. The driver shouldn’t only get charged with a DUI he should go to therapy, rehab, and not be allowed to drive again. Furthermore, even though the drinking again has increased to 21 it shouldn’t make people think its okay to drink and drive drunk. Here’s a quote I found interesting to making penalties dramatically increased. DeWine (R-OH): It is a question of rights the right to have a fair chance on the highway, not to have someone come at you who has been drinking and driving. People have a right to drive on a highway so why should a person who is driving drunk penalty should be increasly severely. Lastly, I think penalities should be dramacticlly increased because I have lost 3 loved ones because somebody was driving drunk. The driver was driving 80 miles per hour on the expressway. When my auntie switched over to the fast lane the driver can full speed ahead and flipped the car 4 times in the air. My auntie wasn’t the only person in the car my 3 year old cousin and my 15 year old cousin. I was following behind my auntie when the accident happened. The funeral was very dreatful. Losing a love one to drunk driving and only getting a DUI isn’t enough. I agree with the statement penatlties should be dramactility increased to those who decides to drive under the incfluence.

Twilight Bella Swan and Edward Cullen :: twlight, love,

Is love at first sight possible? Is love and discontent possible at first sight? How can two people that have such discontent for each other fall in love? In the book and film Twilight Bella Swan and Edward Cullen both certainly did. They were drawn to each by curiosity and beauty. Curiosity drew them together, but they did not like each other very much in the beginning. They both ended up having a deep longing to be with one another and could not imagine being apart. In the book and movie Twilight, Bella was a girl who moved from hot sunny Arizona to basically a dark and rainy place called Forks Washington. She moved there because her mother and her mother’s new husband went on the road for a while. She didn’t like forks, in fact she hated it. But she moved there none the less allowing her mother to have time alone with her new husband. She moved with her father to Forks whose name was Charlie. She hadn’t gone to Forks for a visit since she was 14. The first time she saw Edward Cullen was in the cafeteria at school. He had reddish brown hair. He was beautiful and perfect. He had two â€Å"foster† sisters and two â€Å"foster† brothers as well who were perfect She couldn’t help to look at him more than once but did not want to appear that she was starring. He looked at her with somewhat of a smile on his face and then with a look of curiosity. The second time she saw Edward was quite different. It was biology class when Bella saw Edward next. She was seated next to him by the teacher. Edward looked at her with hostility and anger. He continued to stare at her the entire length of the class. His eyes were black. He appeared as though something smelled bad so Bella discreetly sniffed herself thinking perhaps she smelled badly. Feeling uncomfortable, she hid behind her hair trying not to look at him for the remainder of the class. Before class was over she looked at him one last time. His eyes were full of revulsion as if he literally wanted to kill her.

International Student Essay

Nowadays , Education play an important role in our life . However , there are some countries which have poor education , poor teaching and learning strategies . Actually , Those students will go to higher education institutions country . It calls ‘’ International Students ‘’ . More importantly , United Kingdom is the most famous about education . The term ‘’ international students ‘’ is taken here to mean those students who have been educated in a national education system outside the UK and who on the whole are likely to be non-native speakers of English . There is a real story in the UK ‘’ Nicos Story’’ http://www.economicsnetwork. ac. uk/showcase/bamford_international Nicos was a postgraduate student at the Business School. He was diligent and conscientious and achieved good marks on his MA programme. He was expected to gain an overall distinction grade. He had excellent English language skills. An excerpt from Nicos’ email: ‘I really wanted to finish my dissertation by September so that I would not have to go back to London again, but I broke down, I suddenly felt that I could not do it. I was going crazy and could not write a word anymore. I would stand in front of the computer for hours just writing a paragraph. So on Sunday I left and came to Greece. Today I went to the airport for the flight back, so that I could see you in the morning but as soon as I had to leave my parents and go to the boarding gate, I freezed and panicked. I could not picture myself alone again in the same places for even an hour. The last few days I have started feeling a human being again. I can talk with people and they are people who care about me, I go out with friends for coffee and I want to cry. The first morning I woke up, I started crying because my mother had washed my bag, someone had done something for me. ‘ Common diffiuculties for International students. According to this story , there are clearly challenges for international students studying at higher education institutions in the UK . As University City London adds that major problems for International students They go on to say that culture shock . ‘’ As well as having to cope with a new institution and educational environment, international students are having to adjust to a different national culture with often unfamiliar social customs and conventions. They may become very homesick. Where English is not the first language, having to converse with strangers all the time in a foreign language is a strain. Some women students come from cultures where they have had a sheltered life and spent little time on their own or in the company of males outside their family. They may be vulnerable in certain social situations or upset by conventions that they do not understand ‘’. Secondly , ‘’ Students for whom English is a second language may struggle with their courses, International students are often under considerable pressure to succeed academically and their expectations of themselves may be unrealistic. The transition to a different educational system and new approaches to study is often more challenging than to home students. For example, students from abroad are sometimes unaccustomed to active learning situations, such as participating in discussion and working on a team project. They may have had a much more formal relationship with their teachers and thus be less inclined than home students to seek help from their personal tutors ‘’ Thirdly, ‘’ The number of students experiencing financial difficulties has increased significantly in recent years and is likely to continue doing so. Some students are more or less permanently hard up; others create short-term difficulties for themselves by managing their money badly . It is expensive to come to university ‘’. More exactly , According to J. K Bamford ( 2008 ) ,’’ The first of the these challenges concerns English language ability, or rather consideration of the fact that many international students are non-native speakers of English. This has two aspects to it. Firstly, there is a minimum language requirement for entry for all overseas students and secondly, even if students have more than met this entry requirement they may not be familiar with technical terminology for a specialist subject area. For some students who have only just met the criterion for language, studying in English particularly at Masters level can prove onerous and stressful. In this case study this aspect of language ability , that is those students who had just met the language entry requirement, covered half of the students and the levels of independent study required at a very early stage of the course caused a lot of stress. Secondly, there are those that are confident in their language ability and who feel that language support classes do not meet their needs as the classes are too generic and what they are seeking is further explanation of specialised terminology, little time is spent in addressing the more specialist support required by these students. As a consequence, there is frustration expressed by these students as lecturers can mistake their lack of knowledge regarding technical or even political or cultural terminology as the students having difficulties with language, which is not the case. In addition the students have different levels of English, which can hinder the educational experience of the whole group. One student commented in a focus group that ‘there are some people who come from different backgrounds – I don’t know enough about how people are taught in China but we have different levels of English and different backgrounds – some people just receive and not give’. Not speaking up in class can also make it difficult for tutors to gain a clear picture of the levels of English language ability and the understanding of the students. ’’ The second issue is that of the social and cultural adjustments of the students. Volet and Ang (1998) comment that ‘tertiary institutions have a social responsibility to design learning  environments which foster students’ developments on intercultural adaptability’ (1998:21) While students did not feel that a lack of social and cultural knowledge of the UK had affected their ability to study, there was a feeling that lecturers should incorporate the knowledge of the students’ native cultures into their class discussion as this could benefit everyone. Class contribution can also be a traumatic experience but this can be facilitated by tutors who make the students feel more comfortable in discussing subjects with other students that they don’t know. The importance of class interaction for overseas students is reinforced by Jackson (2003) who comments on the necessity for building a ‘considerable rapport’ with the group. This rapport is seen as one of the most effective learning and teaching techniques for overseas students. As De Vita (2001) observes, different discourse styles create tensions that affect a students’ performance. Groupwork may also be an issue and the cultural diversity of groups requires students to use intercultural skills which require training. Understanding the International Student Experience. Moreover , Catherine Montgomery ( 2010 )has written a clear, small study of international students at one UK university, how they network and how they change. Its value lies in the depth of insight into student thinking. She has not drawn her conclusions from a one-off survey, which is the main research tool used to study international students. In surveys of students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, the prior assumptions of the researcher define the issues and pre-set the potential for discovery, the voices of the students are muted and anything different or unexpected is screened out in advance. In contrast, after a tour through part of the literature, Montgomery uses participant observation of the daily lives of seven networked students from China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Italy and the Netherlands over a period of six months. The resulting picture challenges conventional thinking about international students. International students are often typecast as slow learners with poor English, limited class-participation skills, inability to think critically and a dodgy approach to referencing. In short, they are in learning deficit – if not social deficit. It is no wonder they are studying abroad, goes the thinking, because their home systems are of a poor standard. They badly need our help. Montgomery turns all of this on its head. Her students are mature, curious and quick to respond and to learn. They are high achievers – and a couple are truly exceptional within their milieu. After an initial period of academic adjustment, they learn to intervene and they power past the locals. They are conspicuously better motivated, focused and more aware of the benefits of higher education. These students are studying in an English-speaking country not because its culture is intrinsically superior but because English is the global language of business, professions and knowledge. They do not need to abandon the educational backgrounds and cultural identities that they brought to the UK, but they are eager to layer new learning and new identities on top. The effects of being a foreign student ‘’ Usually becoming a foreign student in order to study in another city can change your life in many aspects. Living in a city far away from home can bring many consequences and effects which almost always change a student’s form of life. When I became a foreign student, many things changed or had to change. You do not live with your family, so usually you have to learn how to live in harmony with others, how to do things by yourself, how to move to other places, etc. Being a foreign makes you learn a lot of things, but at the beginning it can be somewhat difficult, as it happened to me. That is why the purpose of this paper is to discuss the three main effects of being a foreign student. The main effect and the one that affects you most is the fact that you do not live with your parents and in your house, which means that you will not enjoy its commodities. It was so good when your mom cooked for you, and when the house maid used to make your bed. Your dad took you to school, and when classes finished, you returned to your room and made yourself completely comfortable. But becoming a foreign student implies that you will live in a dormitory or that you will rent an apartment . Usually you have to take care of dirty dishes, messy rooms, and cooking. This means you have to learn many new things, like how to cook several dishes. In a few words, you have to learn how to be independent. Another effect is that you have to find your way around the city, so you have to know the main parts of the city. If you have a car, it may be easier to explore the city. You can just get lost and see where each street takes you, and then find a way back home. But if you don’t have a car, you need to learn how to get around by walking, in buses, or with taxis. For this you may find out about bus routes or find out how much costs to use taxis, and in this way you can plan the time it will take you to get from your house to school, for example. This will force you to plan your time better, and maybe you will have less available time along the day. This may decrease the time you have to make homework or to hang out with your friends, for example. But over time, you learn how to plan your activities in a better way. A foreign student may also find himself feeling somewhat lonely, since arriving in a new city means you don’t know anyone. You may be lucky if another friend from your city comes with, but usually you are alone. It is important to start meeting people and making friends. In this way it will be much easier to get used to being a foreign student. You will have new people with who to hang with, with whom to go to parties. Besides you won’t have to be quiet all the time in classes like when you don’t know someone. Sometimes friends can also help you in a lot of situations, like when you have problems about running out of money, when you need to go to your house quickly but you don’t have a car, or when you need to get something that is not easily found. But most of all, with friends you can have a great time and learn a lot of things. Leaving your house and going to another city to study is an experience in your life that cannot be compared to any other experience in your life. You learn how to be independent, and you get to meet tons of people. It may be somewhat difficult to live without your parents and in another city, but this makes you learn how to live your life better and how to appreciate what you have, like your parents and your belongings. Besides, you get to appreciate the things you achieve during your life because you learn that your goals are not achieved easily, but that they cost a lot of work and effort. In conclusion, being a foreign student is great! ‘’

The Medieval World View

Dametrius Sanders 003 Mrs. Pike November 26, 2012 The Medieval World View, ed. ed. Candace R. Gregory, Carey Roberts, and H. Micheal Tarver (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) Peter von Sivers, Charles A. Desnoyers, and George B. Stow. Patterns of World History: vol. 1 : to 1600. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) Tammy Pike. Lecture Notes What are the cosmos and what do they represent. The Buch der Natur or the Book of Nature was written by Konrad von Magenburg depicts the cosmos as levels, steps that we have to take to reach heaven in a different way that nobody else sees it.There are so many different opinions on what the stars mean because the view of them has changed over time. So what are the stars are they just there or are they one of the levels we need to reach to enter heaven. According to Konrad Von Magenburg’s illustration of Buch der Natur is a book but he depicts the cosmos as humans on earth being the lowest level, then levels of the stars, finally the top level heaven the goals of all humans. Aristotle believes that â€Å"the earth is the center of the universe, and everything revolves around them† .This idea which is called Aristotle’s Universe was adopted by the medieval church and to challenge this view of the Universe was not merely a scientific issue; it became a theological one as well, and subjected dissenters to the considerable and not always benevolent power of the Church. So making people think that God put the earth at the center of the everything and the church being the peoples connection to God putting all the power into their hands.Ptolemy was different he added to Aristotle’s view of the universe but he calculated and researched to make his own ideas as well. Ptolemy came up with â€Å"that the heavens go in a uniform circular motion and the objects in the heavens are made from perfect material, and cannot change their intrinsic properties†. These ideas togeth er became known as the Ptolemaic Universe. He also wrote about the cosmos in his book called â€Å"Almagest† in a way Ptolemy and Aristotle had the same views and ideas about the heavens its just more scientific advances in Ptolemy's time .Even though today people don't see the cosmos as the heavens or a level to become heavenly beings we still try to discover what the stars hold. The meaning of the stars today really doesn’t mean anything to Christianity or the church. So is Konrad von Magenburg right or wrong are they a level. Is heaven right beyond them and all we have to do is pass certain tests to reach it. But the stars are something that we really want to discover but we as humans no longer think that the heavens lie beyond it.