Day One of the Future

Today is day one of the future. The Class of 2011 is now in grad school, working or unemployed, but no longer at Quinnipiac. The Class of 2012 is now the senior class, 2013 is now the junior class, so on and so on.

As the former Class of 2012 President, I do have one piece of advice to give all of you. Live, laugh and love. This is our last of everything as we prepare for the future. Our last summer vacation, our last first day of school, our last Midnight Madness and everything else that will go on.

Make the most of everything. Spend time with your friends. Go on that random road trip that you're not sure if you want to or not. Do something each day that scares you. Thank your family for helping you get to where you have gotten today.

Take care of yourself. One day, your family will pass away, you may or may not be married, and when it comes down to it, you are the one here for yourself. You can't go much further than your body will let you.

On May 20, 2012, I hope all of you can look back on this and remember to live, laugh and love. Quinnipiac, we have one year left on campus and I am looking to make the most of it...I hope you are too!

Congratulations Quinnpiac Class of 2011!

In a ceremony that lasted about 2 1/2 hours from the beginning of the walk-in to the end of the walk-out, Quinnipiac University graduated 1,333 students. It was 60 and cloudy during the ceremony, but it was perfect because it wasn't hot or too chilly and I didn't have to worry about getting sunburned.

Mitch Albom was the commencement speaker, and he was absolutely great. I wish that the Class of 2012 could have gotten him. I think everyone enjoyed his 18 minutes on the podium.

To the Class of 2011, we have some big shoes to fill if we want to be able to live up to the standard you set. Thank you for everything you have done, and I wish you godspeed and good luck!

P.S. You can view the commencement exercises from yesterday here: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x2677.xml

P.S.S Albom speaks from 24:30 to 42:30 in the video in the link above.

Coming attraction

If you don't know me or missed out on my introduction, you're really missing out. I'm one of the, if not the, biggest Bobcats sports fans. I'm at all of the basketball and hockey games in my jersey and wig [seen below].

In the next month or two, the winter sports schedules will be coming out. I'm looking to write my preview and prediction for M & W basketball and hockey. In addition to that, I look to be highlighting the major games, and in-season, possibly write my reaction to all of the games. Let me know what you think about this.

Can't wait until the schedules are released. Let's go Bobcats!

Home Sweet(?) Home

I've made my triumphant return to Northeast Pennsylvania, or "The Valley" as we like to call little corner of the world sometimes. I return to Hamden to start work on my fellowship on June 1. I'm really stoked to go back.

There are things about home that I like, that every college kid likes I imagine. It's good to see your family and your friends. It's good to have a fully stocked food pantry. Its good to have the solitude of your own room. Of your own bathroom. and not have to pay $3 per load of laundry that you lug however many flights of stairs. We all share that.

This summer what is different for me is that I'll really only be home these two weeks. I love my life at Quinnipiac, but I always enjoyed being home too. I now have these two weeks to cram everything in. Spending time with my girlfriend who home but will living in Pittsburgh for the summer (which is over 5 hours from the Valley), spending time with my friends, and getting to play some golf with my Dad. And there's the around the house chores, but those are often kind of light. Oh yeah and my biggest project, car shopping. I have a 1997 Jeep Wrangler that I'm selling ($6300, if you're interested). It's a really fun car, but terrible on the highway and not a practical traveling vehicle.

My point being, my summers aren't ultra relaxing anymore. Last summer I worked near 60 hours/week, the summer before I did 40hours/week of laying tile. I love being in college, I love doing new and exciting things, but I really miss the days of being 14 and not having a care in the world for months. When all I was responsible for was soccer practice, paintball, sleeping in, and going for bike rides.

What's the point of a final exam?

I'm sure that this is something asked by many students, but what is the point of a final exam?

I understand that it is the capstone idea; you have learned the subject for the past 15 or so weeks, so we are now going to see what you know. However, it is one of the worst ideas out there. A final exam shows how much you can remember of a specific subject matter at a certain point in time, being affected by whatever else is going on in your life. It's a way for your professor to judge you, to give you a letter that is supposed to show how well, in their mind, you understand the subject matter. The funny thing about this is when you ask someone who took a big exam earlier in the day to explain the subject matter, they have usually forgotten many of the details already.

A final exam isn't just an exam. It's also a big portion of your final grade. One of the classes I took this semester gave 45% of it's final grade to the final exam. 45 percent! I don't get how you can put so much weight of this grade on this one examination. It really doesn't make sense to me.

As opposed to exams, projects and papers show the professor what you know and what you know about the topic. In fact, most the time, I feel that I learn more about the course when doing a paper or project than when taking the exam. I think all professors should consider going down the paper/project route rather than the exam route because then they can evaluate their teaching style based on what the students understand rather than if they incorrectly bubbled in "A" instead of "C' on the Scantron sheet.

In a perfect world, I would like to get rid of examinations all together. However, that isn't something that is feasible...at least in my one year remaining in college. What I would like to do is bring a motion to the Student Government Association in the fall on this matter. I would like to have SGA pass this motion, which would be a recommendation to the Faculty Senate that no one examination can count as more than 25% of the final grade. By making it no more than 25% of the final grade, you're still giving the students a fighting chance of doing OK in the course AND you're giving the professor more of a chance to understand what you have learned so that they can judge you properly when giving you your grade. A paper or project would not be affected by this recommendation.

Exams are the easy way out for the professors, but don't truly reflect one's understanding of the subject matter. Let's work together and limit their effect on our academic experience.