My Bradley Take

Today, I noticed on my Facebook newsfeed, that a friend or two of mine had joined a group called "I'm Dissastified with My Bradley University Experience." The group, which can be found here appears to be made up of two Bradley students, who appear intelligent, frustrated with their experience at Bradley and looking to harness the negative energy of the student body to ultimately produce change. In their description, they cite several reasons why they dislike their experiences. Also, included in the group's discussion wall is somewhat of a sister site,BU Soundoff I'll give you my take, and being a senior, I definitely feel qualified to address this.

Before I start, I'm not going to make this post into a "Bradley Lovefest," pretending like I'm an admissions rep giving a tour to a BU perspective. I'll admit, I have a little bias since my parents met here. But going to Bradley was very much my own decision. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been quick to make a comment about some part of the university that I disliked at the time or still do. Bradley is far from perfect, and perhaps even farther from the dream school that BU Admissions portrayed. After all, there job is to get you to come to the school, and it is not their direct responsibility for you to enjoy your college experience. Many of the complaints listed on the facebook are legitamate. One of my pet peeves at Bradley is when it rains in a part of campus, the water pools and makes it impossible to walk around it without getting wet. Ok, so we all have things we don't like about our school. Students at every school have things they do not like, its human nature.

I've actually really enjoyed my Bradley experience. Its been far from perfect, but I can't picture going anywhere else. I actually like Peoria, even for its flaws, which there are many. I grew up in the North Shore, where a lot of the time it seemed like whoever had the most money mattered, so it was nice to be able to leave that. Bradley is a solid school, and any criticism of Bradley has to be attributed to any other school. Universities are far from a perfect and they are all plagued by similar problems. Just because you don't like your experience here, doesn't mean that they will be better elsewhere.

One of the first issues listed by the group is Braldey's library. People who don't like Bradley, often first point at the Library as it has developed some notority for being at the top of the Princeton Review's list of worst libraries. The library is far from the best, but people never mention the resources that the library has. With Interlibrary loan, you can get most books that you need for an assingment. The group talks about the quality/availablity of food on campus. Well, I can't think of another place where you can get all the breakfast, omlets included for $1.90 (gotta love that off-campus meal plan). The group also laments about the quality of teachers. I think that is actually one of the strong suits of the University. Most if not all have a Phd. At a bigger school, it would be impossible for a teacher to read a senior thesis and critique it in depth like at Bradley. Also, through another teacher, a brodcast management internship was created for me.

I think a lot of the people who don't like Bradley are unrealistic in what should be available to them here. Likewise, there are an equal number of people who do not ultilize the resources that the school does provide. People get so caught up in one negative aspect about the university that it ruins their entire experience.The cost of the university is a huge (no pun intended) concern to many. Last year, I was able to go into the financial aid office, and I came out with a scholarship application for a scholarship I had no idea the school provided. For my senior year, the university gave me an additional scholarship basically for going into the office and asking. There are a ton of seminars, lectures, and training avaiable through the library and the Career Center which I don't think people ultize. Speaking of lectures, the school also brings some pretty good speakers, which a lot of students only attend if its mandatory. I think the Study Abroad and Global Scholars (there's a little box for it the Degree Audit online) also are experiences that many people don't know about.

My advice would be to make the most of your Bradley/college experience. Take advantage of what the school does offer, not what it doesn't offer. Enjoy college, its only 4/5/6 years, so make the most of it!

Black Friday Report

As promised, I said that I'd give a report about how Black Friday 2009 turned out. I kind of thought that people would spend less due to the recession, but it was not the case as this
Yahoo article points out. Data from Martin's, a Chicago based research firm, indicates that spending on Black Friday increased from $10.3 billion on Black Friday 2008 to $10.6 billion, a small increase of 0.5 %.


It also appears that some websites, which offered "Black Friday" specials on their websites experienced a lot of traffic from shoppers looking to save money without stepping into the chilly weather. I also learned that Black Friday is referred to as 'Black' because "the black" means profitablity. As for a reason behind the increase in sales, I think that a lot of people are allured by the sales whether or not they can afford to spend. There is definitely still the allure of what appears to be a good deal and the rush of waking up before sunrise to make off with a "steal of a deal." Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Black Friday; Wal-Mart vs. Amazon

With Black Friday just two days away, I came across an article about the Wal-Mart/Amazon rivalry that has emerged on line. It makes sense but I had no idea how much Wal-Mart was ahead of Amazon in terms of sales dollars: $405 billion in sales compared to Amazon's $20 billion in sales (last year's totals). It will be interesting to see how there price war continues, and if Amazon will be able to match Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart prides itself on having the absolute lowest prices, but will Wal-Mart.com stay true to that goal. The two giants have their unique competitive advantages: Wal-Mart's is offline, which avoids shipping costs and Amazon provides the convenience of not having to leave the computer.

I think Amazon will reduce its sales gap with Wal-Mart. Living in a convenience and technology based society, means that more people are around their computers than willing to make the cross-town trip to Wal-Mart. While Wal-Mart may have lower prices, affluent people would rather purchase a produce online. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how Black Friday is different this year, due to the recession. Happy early Thanksgiving!

Tim Tebow: "A student athlete?"

Today, ESPN announced its College Football Academic All-American Team, an honor reserved to football athletes who excel in the classroom. All student-athletes who manage to excel in the classroom despite the pressure and time constraints of competing in NCAA sports should be commended. However, I have a problem with one of the selections, the most notable selection. Tim Tebow, the posterboy of College Football, was selected as the 2009 ESPN Academic All-America of the Year, the top honor.This is ridiculous. Yahoo's College Football Blog, Dr. Saturday, posted an article in the beginning of the season posted an article in the beginning of the season of how Tebow was only taking 1 hour of class, stating that "he was a football player this season. The fact that academics take a back seat to football at times, is a given, but that is not the topic of this post. The media needs to get off of the Tim Tebow love train. I know he's a great player and humanitarian, but he is not deserving of this award. He even admitted he's not really a student this semester. I cannot believe that the Academic All-American has been given to someone taking 1 hour of credit. Really? Zeke Markshausen, a Northwestern receiver enrolled in graduate school for mechanical engineering (3.46 GPA) was among all the more deserving student-athletes deserving of this award. The Academic All-America of the Year belongs to a student-athlete, not simply someone who is a football player like Tebow.










College Football

I'm a huge college football fan, so every Saturday I'll give you my take on College Football. I'll start with the early games, and post later about the afternoon games in College football

Ohio State-Michigan
Ohio State beat Michigan 21-10 to win their six straight game, in what I think is the best rivalry in sports, though it hasn't been much of a rivalry lately. Jim Tressel has done an amazing job with Ohio State. They are often criticized for their results in the BCS games the past few years and for Tressel's "conservative" approach. However, if conservative means dominating your conference, a national championship, a couple other national championships, and a majority of the Big Ten championships, then I thank that a lot of teams/fans would want to be in that situation. Ohio State is the Big Ten team of the 2000s and the second best team isn't even close.

Notre Dame
Notre Dame plays UConn today, and it looks like a win is necessary for ND coach Charlie Weis to keep his job. Many are already speculating that he will be replaced by the ND athletic director at the end of the season. Bloggers have been talking about possible replacements including Jon Gruden (currently with ESPN's Monday Night Football) and Brian Kelly, the Cincinnati coach who I think is one of the best coaches in the country. In any case, I hope Northwestern's coach Pat Fitzgerald doesn't get lured away.

National Championship contenders
Florida, Alabama, and TCU all won by at least 35. Texas plays later tonight. Cincinnati is off until they play Pittsburgh in 22 weeks in what should be a great game. Boise State won big on Friday after a close start. I think the National Championship right now will most likely be between the Florida/Alabama winner and Texas. I'd love to see a team from a BCS-non Automatic Qualifier make it to the National Championship, though I don't know how likely it is to happen

Replay in Sports?

After watching the replays ad nauseum of Thierry Henry's handball assist that set up the winning goal to put France in the 2010 World Cup field. I wonder if instant replay should be used more in sports where it is either not widely used (like baseball) or not used at all such as soccer. As this article states, FIFA and UEFA, the governing bodies of soccer (futbol, as they call it) for the World and Europe, respectively. Clearly, Henry's goal should not have been allowed, and as a result, Ireland was robbed of a World Cup Berth. It will be interesting to see what the fallout is, and if FIFA or UEFA institute the use of replay in the future, especially the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

I'm torn. The use of video compromises the human element of referees/umpires. Referees can't be expected to make perfect calls at every controversial play. Obviously, soccer games are often decided by one goal, which makes overruling a goal more significant than overruling a home run. One solution, as the article points out, would be to add more refs behind the goals. Likewise, in baseball, more refs could be hired for crucial games. Of course FIFA, UEFA, MLB would have to pay for more sporting officials, a price that may be worth a debate over their officials' integrity.


George Ryan Pension

In the newspaper today was an article about former IL governor James Thompson, who is seeking to gain pension for a client in prison. The client is also a former governor, George Ryan, currently serving a jail sentence for corruption. Thompson, who is Ryan's attorney, is seeking to recover the pension that the disgraced governor would have been entitled to, had he not been corrupt. It appears that Ryan's need for the pension comes at a time when his wife and himself don't have money. Currently, Ryan is entitled to none of the pension. Thompson is fighting for the pension that would have accrued during Ryan's earlier tenure in state office, prior to becoming Secretary of State and Governor.

Personally, i don't think Ryan is deserving of any of the pension. I don't think you can simply remove the corruption from his "body of work" as a state official. Clearly, he had aspirations for being governor and motives for abusing the state's highest position. Even though he and his wife are old and in need of the money, it should not come from the state. Illinois has a huge budget deficit and cannot dig a deeper hole for its self by paying corrupt officials. If the Ryan's need money so badly, it should come privately from some means, but not through the state.

Click on this link to read the article:Ryan article



The First Post

I'm Aaron Friedman and welcome to my blog. I'm sure most of the people reading this are my friends, so thank you all for stopping by. The rest of you must have visited this blog accidentally, so hopefully you'll like what you read. So what made me want to start a blog? Well, I was working on my History thesis when it hit me. I like to write and share my opinions, but I didn't really like constantly draw from sources and not get to talk about what actually concerns you. Therefore, I figured that writing a blog would allow me to write about the things I care about. I'm not going to limit the blog to one specific topic. I have a lot of different interests and the blog will most likely cover: Bradley/Peoria, sports, news, politics, greek life, and anything I find interesting enough to share. I appreciate feedback, so if you have any ideas of what to write just let me know. Hopefully, I'll be able to blog on a consistent basis. Thanks again for stopping by!