Preserve College Sports

The institution of college sports is faltering.  With growing revenues, greater exposure, and increasing volatility, college athletics are more heavily scrutinized as institutions bring in more money.  In tandem with this grand commercialization of college sports, the governing body of major college sports – the NCAA – hands out more and more violations each year.  Most violations are frivolous rules that seek to aggressively enforce the NCAA ideal of amateurism in college sports.  That is, college athletes will never see a penny of the billions of dollars generated by one of the greatest spectator sports in the world.  The issue of whether to provide salaries for college athletes has gained steam in the last few years; people are beginning to get fed up with players losing eligibility and teams being vacated of their wins and championships.  

However, paying student – athletes a salary will cause irreparable damage to the institution of college sports, creating complications that will not only shake the foundation of college sports, but could prove to destroy them altogether.  This is no doubt that college athletics need to be fixed, but it is a matter of deciding to effectively overhaul the way college sports is governed.

Let Students Drink…Legally

The video posted above outlines the debate for lowering the drinking age in the US from 21 to 18.  College campuses are rampant with students drinking illegally – and all are at risk.  The number of alcohol related deaths has increased in recent years, and we have seen a crackdown on campuses regarding student safety.    Even on Bucknell, fraternities have been kicked off and put on probation because of drinking violations, among other things.  Stringent guidelines have been put in place at Bucknell to “register” parties, and yet these rules have backfired, as students have destroyed the downtown area known to Lewisburg locals as the “ghetto.”

Lowering the drinking age to 18 would make the act of drinking less of a taboo action for young people and allow them to be more knowledgeable about alcohol and its consequences by the time students left for college.  More experience and more acceptance of it at home would result in an increased knowledge about the dangers of alcohol.  There are certain drawbacks to the law, but the benefits far outweigh the costs as college campuses would be safer with more students understanding how to safely consume alcohol at a younger age.  Money would not be wasted on town/campus police patrolling students’ homes for parties and illegal drinking.  The current law of having to be 21 to drink is not effective, as we see those younger than 21 drink extremely frequently.  College wouldn’t be thought as a place to go to drink because many would be able to legally drink before attending.  A person can vote, sit on a jury, and go to war for their country at the age of 18.  Why can’t they have a beer?

The Digital Scholar

Found this book in the front of the library - it caught my eye.

Looking at the books in the exhibit area in the front of the library, The Digital Scholar, by Martin Weller immediately caught my attention.  I’ve made no secret on this blog of my fascination with technology, so it’s fitting that I would see a book like this in the front of the library.  While technology is rapidly evolving, and our lives are dominated by these technological advances, there very interesting ways in which scholars can be positively and negatively affected by these extraordinary changes in our society on the part of technology.   Continue reading →

From Prep to Pro: The NBA and Age Restriction

From Prep to Pro: The NBA and Age Restrictions

            In the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case, Haywood v. National Basketball Association (NBA), Spencer Haywood argued that he should be allowed to play in the NBA, even before waiting four years after his high school graduation.  The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Haywood, 7 – 2, holding that Haywood be allowed to play for the Seattle SuperSonics, as “he will suffer irreparable injury in that a substantial part of his playing career will have been dissipated, his physical condition, skills and coordination will deteriorate from lack of high – level competition, […] and a great injustice will be perpetrated on him” (Haywood v. NBA).  Haywood had already been playing in the American Basketball Association for one year after two years of college basketball at the University of Detroit.  He looked to make a jump to the more talented NBA the following season, having signed a lucrative contract with Seattle.  Since he had already played professionally in the ABA, not allowing him to continue his career was unjust, according to the Supreme Court (Haywood v. NBA).  Additionally, Haywood had led the ABA in points per game and rebounds in the one year he had played; he was an extremely skilled player (Basketball Reference). Continue reading →

Beyond the Game

Sheth and Babiak talk mention an NBA social responsibilty initaitive in their study of CSR and sports.

Milton Freidman’s article regarding the corporation’s social responsibility has been the most intriguing article I’ve read in this class all semester.  I agree with it on many levels, but also keep finding good arguments against it, as we have discussed in class.  I decided to dig a little deeper on Google Scholar, seeing which articles, specifically about sports, had cited Friedman.  367 articles had popped up as articles about or including sports that had also cited Freidman, but many past the first page only mentioned sports in passing and was not going to be useful.  The second article that was listed was unavailable to view, so I clicked on a link that gave me related articles.  After browsing for a few minutes,  I came upon an article from the Journal of Business Ethics published by Hela Sheth and Kathy Babiak, called “Beyond the Game: Perceptions and Practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Professional Sport Industry.”  This was perfect, and it even cited both Friedman and Freeman.   Continue reading →

iRobot: Japan’s technology footprint

Japanese robots are becoming more and more advanced.

I’m very interested in visiting Japan, an island that seems to always be at the forefront of innovation.  I always seem to hear about Japan creating new technology that dwarfs the kinds of things we use today.  Even if the innovations aren’t technologically ground breaking, they seem to be applications that are incredibly useful.  Japan’s culture is also very different from ours – from their lack of diversity to their heritage – Japan is a place that offers an interesting look inside an old culture with modern ideals.

Continue reading →

Office Romance Isn’t Safe

An Archer episode shows the violent side of office romance.

In the FX series, Archer, the episode, “Training Day,” shows how poor management skills can lead to disastrous consequences.  Archer is a show chronicling the adventures of a secret agent, Archer, and the daily operations of the agency that he works for, ISIS.  Archer works with another field agent, Lana, whom he used to date.  Currently, Lana dates the accountant, Cyril.  The manager of the agency, Malory, is also Archer’s mother.  The shenanigans that go on in ISIS contribute to a ridiculously hostile work environment, as evidenced in the video below.    Continue reading →

High School Track in the ‘Burbs

Back in high school, I ran track.  I specialized in sprinting (100m, 200m) and the polevault.  I know what you’re thinking.  I’m short, white, and don’t look particularly fast.  Well, those things are all pretty much true – but I wasn’t a terrble sprinter.  In today’s America, we are predestined to beleive that African Americans are better sprinters.  They’re faster.  And history (as far back as they were allowed to compete), doesn’t really tell us any differently.  Is this fact?  Or Is this racist?  First, I’ll tell my story. Continue reading →

Blog Council Awards

Hi All,

The following are the awards from Blog Council this week.  Also, the prompt for next week should be up later today as well.

The Best Post:

Derek’s Psycho-Ethics, deemed the most influential influential post. (The repetition is on purpose).

Other Awards:

Most Thought Provoking: Beth’s Just Do – What? and Dana’s Oh Crap, Is She Talking About This Again?

Most Pugilistic Commenter: Joey’s comment on Beth’s post. (But we like intense debate.)

Most Serendipitous: Amanda’s Like to travel? Wanderfly.  Amanda may have given them some new users!

Idea with the Most Potential: Caitlin’s Samasource: Ending Poverty by Global Outsourcing Differently

Have a great weekend!

-The Blog Council (Patrick, Ben, Chris, Jordi)

Related articles

• Blog Councils First Weekly Awards (bizgovsociii.wordpress.com)
• It’s awards time! (bizgovsociii.wordpress.com)
• What or Who Inspires You? Blog 5 (bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com)
• Blog Council Update: Week 1 (bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com)

Square – Payments of the Future

Collect card payments from anyone on the go with Square.

I’ve always had an interest in technology.  Since my pre – teen years I’ve always wanted to play on the newest computer, fiddle with the newest cell phone, and marvel at the flat screen TV’s in the electronics store.  Business, government, and society are all structures that can be massively affected by technology.  Social media has exploded onto the scene; the majority of companies are now located on some type of social media outlet.  Government, while a little slow to adopt new technologies, has been greatly affected by technology nonetheless.  Governments have needed to up their virtual security, and most recently, have debated censoring parts of the internet.  Society has been constantly affected by new technology, and yet I think one of the most intriguing technological inventions involves the transfer of money from one person to another.  Continue reading →

Grand Theft Auto – controversy of Rockstar Studios

Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take – Two Interactive, created a series of video games in 1997 called Grand Theft Auto (GTA).  Multiple games in the series have been made, each one becoming a more ridiculous depiction of the life of a criminal.  The gamer plays the role of the criminal, wreaking havoc on cities that bear striking resemblances to New York City, Las Vegas, Miami, among others.  I’ve played these games since 2001 and, along with many people I know, enjoy playing them a lot.  However, there are numerous aspects to the games that many people find disturbing and inappropriate to be included in something that is made for gamers; the majority of gamers (especially when these GTA games reached their peak) are usually adolescents and younger.

Continue reading →

Defense Wins Championships…Or not?

Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics.com looks at the credibility of the old adage “Defense wins championships.”  In light of this past weekend’s big event, its always interesting to dissect the importance of defense and offense and the impact each has on winning football games; more specifically, the impact each has on winning a Super Bowl.  In addition, this season in the NFL there have been a few times that have had great success while having poorly ranked defenses.  Two of these teams, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, made it to the Super Bowl.  Dubner, because of the recent surge of good football teams with mediocre defenses, decided to dwelve a little deeper into statistical findings that help to disprove something those around the game of football have blindly (more or less) believed in. Continue reading →

Blogging in writing and education – the convergence of technology in the classroom

With the advent of technology and the large audience one can gain by sharing their thoughts on the Internet, it’s no wonder there are millions of blogs in cyberspace on any subject one could be interested in.  Blogging has given people a voice who may have not had an audience to share their voice with before.  Blogging also allows gifted writers and storytellers, as well as those with certain media connections, to provide unadulterated information to the public.  In fact, blogging has become so popular, and more importantly influential, that blogs with large audiences (high traffic volume) stand to make money through advertisements, and partnerships, among other things.  Blogging has given a voice to everyone who desires one, and with technology transforming the way we communicate (e.g. iPhone, cloud computing, etc.), blogs can be maintained and altered in seconds from a mobile device or tablet.  Because education is such a hot topic in today’s society, its no wonder blogging, among many other technologies, has invaded the classroom.   Continue reading →