2 | March 2, 2011

Opinion The Rambler | www.therambler.org

QEP tests student’s knowledge, patience

ing in high school? Guess not. bled about the content of the test. is, without accreditation, our uni- the QEP sessions being held on
My biggest qualm though, To be tested on something so versity would not be able to offer campus, and to the administrators
Shauna Banks was not the test itself, but the abruptly that we may not have anyone the degrees they seek. involved.
Editor - in- Chief fact that we’d have to waste an been exposed to in years seems That’s why it is important for Your voice does need to be heard
sbbanks@mail.txwes.edu entire class to take it. Not only like a poor way to determine the people to voice their issues or on these issues … just not in class.
was my professor not on board effectiveness of the university’s concerns with the university in
with this test, but neither were general education program.
any of the other students in the What if other students like my-
class. self, took their core classes at an-
Somehow I’m still not complete- More than a third of the class other school? If we didn’t even
ly caught up from those five snow didn’t even show up on test day. take the classes here, how can
days in February. During the test, titled the ETS the results (good or bad) apply
Projects, papers and assign- Proficiency Profile, I found out to Texas Wesleyan effectiveness
ments have piled up so high, that I that it was one of the steps be- evaluations?
wonder if there really are enough ing taken for development of the I took the test as I was instruct-
hours in the day to complete them Quality Enhancement Plan at Tex- ed to, and in general the ques-
all if I decided to never sleep as Wesleyan. tions, which concentrated on
again. Too bad I can’t freeze time Even though we’d all been told math, writing and reading/critical
like Zack Morris. this, many students around me thinking, were not difficult.
Classes are definitely going full- were simply clicking through However, I figured it may have
steam ahead, with multiple chap- questions as fast as possible, se- been slightly easier for me since
ters covered in a single class just to lecting answers at random. it had not been more than two or
get things caught up. However, in They’d also been told the test three years since I’d had classes in
one of my once-a-week classes, we wasn’t going to count for a grade, these subjects.
hit another road block last week. or really affect them in any way This university has so many ef-
A couple of days before class, we no matter how high or low they fective professors, who do every-
received a not entirely happy e- scored. thing they can to make sure their
mail from our professor letting us On top of that, the directions students grasp every concept.
know we’d be taking a standard- said we didn’t even have to use our I truly hope these tests aren’t
ized test. real name when taking the test. used for any official reports for
Like most other students in the For the entire hour it took me to accreditation in the near future, as
class, I responded to the e-mail take this test, I was Blair Watson. they would seem somewhat inac-
with a “What the heck?” thought Beside the fact that we were al- curate to me.
in my head. ready way behind and didn’t need I do recognize the value of
Standardized tests in college? to be wasting valuable classroom this QEP topic being developed
Didn’t we escape TAKS-type test- time, many students also grum- though, because the bottom line

Americans slowly losing cultural identity

say this culture is didn’t change us. I just don’t text message seem to be the is our adults coddle our chil- with few exceptions, it has
in decline—steep think it changed us for the standard communication. dren, and our children para- infected and affected all of us.
Barry Grubbs decline. better. I recently read an article lyze our adults with guilt I’m not trying to get
Opinion editor Americans are The surge in digital tech- in the Wall Street Journal until nobody seems to have preachy or philosophical
bgrubbs@mail.txwes.edu no longer viewed nologies has had as much to suggesting our new national the courage to do the right here. There’s no telling what
as gritty, adventur- do with our decline as any- identity as one of sissies and thing. the cure will be, or if there is
ous risk takers. thing else. whiners. I thought about America was once con- a cure.
Instead we are Let’s face it. We are a lazy it for a while and realized I sidered a global superpow- All I’m saying is that
seen by most in population determined to tend to agree. er, but I don’t believe the Americans are not doing
the world as whiny, fearful have instant gratification in Our television programs world perceives us that way their best these days.
I recently caught myself and paranoid. everything we do. focus on vulgarity, obesity, anymore. It would be more accu-
thinking a little too much We have spent nearly a Patience has no place in deception, crime and more We owe everyone mon- rate to say we’re doing what
about our American culture. decade brooding over the the digital world. With our manufactured drama than I ey. Our economic systems makes us feel best. That is
I consider myself an ex- events of 9/11, and although smartphones and social net- can stand. are on life support and key not the selfless attitude that
pert on the subject, but only it seemed to ignite an explo- works, we have carefully dis- We literally have 499 principles this country was built and defended America
because I have been around sion of pride and patriotism guised our retreat from the channels of crap. founded like family values for more than two centuries.
long enough to see so many early on, I hear little more wholesome relationships of I defend the Discovery and social freedom have been On the bright side, we are
changes—more negative than than a whimper outside the past generations. Channel and a couple of oth- mutilated and manipulated, still free, and there is plenty
positive. military community these At one time we had con- ers just to be fair. mostly by politicians, until of room for improvement.
If I had to sum it up in a days. versations with each other. Our families are failing they are barely recognizable. Where we go from here is
single sentence, I would just I’m not saying the events Now, just a few words in a too. The truth of the matter The decline is viral and up to us.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR What are you planning to do for

Re: Split ceremony spoils
graduation for students
I’m part of the 2011 Graduation class this
spring semester so I am well aware of not only
the split ceremony but the uproar this has
caused. I understand that not everyone is go-
ing to be happy about this new change, but the
positive aspects should be pointed out instead
of just focusing on the negatives.
 First, students will not be rushed out after the
first ceremony. There is about 2 hours between
ceremonies so students from the first half will
have time to “bask in their success”. This is a lot
more time than what students normally get af-
ter a ceremony is over because everyone is try-
ing to hurry and rush out of there to get to some
kind of celebration with family and friends.
 Second, Fort Worth does not offer a lot of
venue choices to hold a group our size. Plenty
of research went into this because it is not a de-
cision taken lightly. The arena was not available
since Tarrant County College uses it for their
ceremonies. As a student I REFUSE to have my
graduation ceremony at TCU’s Daniel-Meyer
coliseum which was an idea I heard from some
of my fellow graduates. I am a Wesleyan stu-
dent, not a TCU student.
 Third, Will Rogers would not guarantee not
to bump our ceremony to Saturday if some-
thing came up or even a future date despite us
reserving the facility so far in advanced. Imag-
ine how upset you would be if you told your
family to reserve that night for you only to find
out at the last minute that now you can’t gradu-
ate until the next night or weeks later. Some of
you probably have people flying in – do you
spring break?
really think it would be fair for them to fly in
for nothing?
 Fourth, what a lot of students probably don’t “I’m going to go visit my family down in Mexico.”
realize is that this 2011 Graduating class is the - Jorge Ruiz,
largest one Wesleyan has had in recent years or junior, business
maybe ever. As much as I’m looking forward
to graduating and basking in my success, I
don’t want to wait 4 hours for that to happen. “My friend’s mom is out of town, so I’m going over to
I also have selfish reasons because my family her house and play a bunch of video games.”
will be there, including my infant daughter and - Kameron Ratliff,
7-year-old son.  Anyone who has young kids senior, liberal studies
surely knows how hard it can be on them to
sit through a 2-hour movie much less a 4-hour
ceremony. “I’m going to Mexico with my boyfriend.”
  This idea about separating us is not com- - Kristen Thorn,
pletely foreign. A lot of other universities have junior, biology
their ceremonies broken up on different times
or even spread out over different days so that
each school within the university graduates “My mom is going out of town, so I’m going to have a
separately from the others. Wesleyan has been bunch of friends over.”
lucky they managed to keep everyone together - Richelle Pulever,
in previous years. Instead of focusing on the junior, paralegal studies
negative of having a split ceremony, how about
being excited that our university has grown “I’ don’t have anything planned because we don’t
to the point that we HAVE to have a split cer- really know what we are doing for track practice.”
emony? Just because we graduate hours apart - Taylor Gill,
doesn’t diminish our bond or make us less of sophomore, athletic training
a family. We are Rams, whether we graduate
at 4:30 p.m., 8:00 p.m., in December 2011, or
May 2012. Nothing can take that from us. I’m “I’m going to Panama City Beach, Florida with some
a member of the 2011 Graduating Class. I’m friends from high school.”
graduating at 4:30 p.m. I am a RAM! - Tyler Lackey,
— Tara Sheehan Cates junior, exercise science

The Rambler
Shauna Banks, editor-in-chief
Barry Grubbs, opinion editor
Eliana Mijangos, sports editor
Meisa Keivani Najafabadi, photo editor
Stephanie Mejia arts & entertainment editor
Jonathan Resendez, multimedia editor
Rachel Peel, community editor
Melissa Bates, campus editor
Erica Estrada, graphic designer/cartoonist
Wendy Moore, faculty adviser
Dr. Kay Colley, faculty liaison
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