T
u e s d a y
, M
a y
3, 2011 | V
1911 2011
o l
. 100, N
T H E
o
. 131
D A I L Y
MISSISSIPPIAN
Celebrating Our Hundredth Year | The Student Newspaper
of
The University
of
M i ss i ss i p p i | S e r v i n g O l e M i ss
and
Oxford
since
Apathy causes America reacts to Osama’s death students to study less BY JACOB BATTE AND MALLORY SIMERVILLE The Daily Mississippian
BY EMILY DAVIS The Daily Mississippian
Despite increasing tuition rates, more students are attending college than ever before. But are students actually learning anything? Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa recently published “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” which exposes national issues of higher education and claims that undergraduates are slacking more than ever before. In today’s society, a college degree is a basic requirement for a job in almost any profession, and some parents start saving for their children’s college expenses when they are very young. However, research by the Collegiate Learning Assessment illustrates that once in college, many undergraduates do not learn much. The main reason: a lack of motivation. Academic drifters are students who have no clear idea of what they want to do with their degree and who show little discipline. Compared to previous decades, “Students as a whole have fewer academic standards and lower work ethic,” Stacey Reycraft, director of Student Disability Services, said. Economic surveys in “Academically Adrift” show that in the 1920s students averaged 40 hours a week on academic studies. This number has declined over time, and by 2003, the average student spent only 13 hours a week on academics. The authors also gave a cognitive test to 2,300 students across the country, and 45 percent showed no sign of improvement in cognitive thinking, complex reasoning and creative writing during their first two years. This decline has very little effect on GPA fluctuation. Rather than learning the substance of their majors, students learn the art of managing college. According to statistics released by Duke University, students shape their schedules to include classes that require less See DRIFTERS, PAGE 4
Late Sunday night, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. armed forces. He called the assassination the greatest achievement made thus far in the War on Terror. “The world is safer. It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden,” Obama said in his address to the nation. Bin Laden’s death marks the end of a decade-long manhunt that began shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. When it was announced in 2001 that bin Laden was dead, festivities began to spring up all over the country with national news showcasing major cities, specifically New York and Washington, D.C. Thousands showed up at ground zero to remember the lives lost during the tragic incident. Oxford joined the rest of the country in celebration with reports that Kincannon Hall and Crosby Hall were host to several parties after hearing the news. Sancreisha Morgan, a freshman political science major, said she witnessed some of the celebrations around Oxford. “Last night I saw on Jackson Ave. a group of boys driving a truck with flags and everything,” Morgan said. “I think it boosted our patriotism.” On the other hand, Lucinda Morgan, senior psychology major, said she believes that the celebrations may have been a bit excessive. President Obama and his national security team watched the strike on bin Laden in real time. According to the Associated Press, members of the Navy SEAL team typically wear helmet cameras that transmit sound and video to their operation centers and that data can be fed live to the White House and Pentagon. The White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said they would not release any information about the raid at this time. The Associated Press announced that bin Laden was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed Monday. U.S. officials said a DNA match proved his identity, and his body was taken for a burial at sea. Although many believe he’s dead, some remain skeptical.
1911 |
w w w . t h e d mo n l i n e . com
this week FORD CENTER
PRIDE OF THE SOUTH BENEFIT CONCERT The University of Mississippi Band is hosting a benefit concert tonight featuring the University Wind Ensemble. The concert will help raise money for the Friends of Note Scholarship Endowment. The Wind Ensemble will play a traditional concert including a Sousa March. A reception will be held in the Ford Center lobby at 6:45 p.m. to meet the students before the concert. 7:30 p.m. Free
inside OPINION
FINDING OSAMA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama announced during a press conference Sunday night that a team of United States Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in his compound in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Amber Dickson, freshman criminal justice major, said she doesn’t believe he was assassinated. “I don’t think he’s dead,” Dickson said. “He’s been dead once before, now he’s just in hiding. When they show me a body, I’ll believe it.” In an AP article, U.S. officials addressed the skepticism that followed after announcing his death. “We are going to do everything we can to make sure that nobody has any basis to try to deny that we got Osama bin Laden,” John Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said Monday. He also said the U.S. will “share what we can because we want to make sure that not only the American people, but the world understand exactly what happened.” The next step is to deal with any possible of kind of retaliation. “I’m glad he’s dead, but I’m scared about the U.S. now because they are going to retaliate,” Quadray Kohlhim, business marketing freshman, said. “They’re
not going to stop until somebody’s dead. Similar to 9-11, only worse.” According to an AP article, halfway around the world a prominent al-Qaida commentator vowed revenge for bin Laden’s death. “Woe to his enemies. By God, we will avenge the killing of the Sheik of Islam,” he wrote under his online name Assad al-Jihad2. “Those who wish that jihad has ended or weakened, I tell them: Let us wait a little bit.” The terrorists “almost certainly will attempt to avenge” bin Laden’s death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo. “Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is not.” After the announcement, the Department of Homeland Security warned that the death would likely be motivation for attacks. “While there are no specific, bin Laden-related threats at this time, every logical and prudent step is being taken to mitigate any developing threats,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said in an AP article.
NEWS
ABORTION LAW CHALLENGED
SPORTS
ANTICIPATING JOHNSON