The downturn of the American economy at the end of 2008 has left a series of worsening and continuing consequences. A disappointing holiday shopping season has necessitated the closure of various stores and unemployment is at 7.2 percent, up from 5 percent at the end of 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen record amounts and is lower than it was even in 2002, in the aftermath of September 11th. The situation is expected to worsen, with unemployment predicted to reach 10 percent, before economists foresee any sort of recovery.

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In the current state of affairs, the results of the presidential elections are essentially a shoe-in for Senator Barack Obama. Unless some significant and unforeseen news is reported, either severely negative to Senator Obama or highly positive to Senator McCain, Senator Barack Obama will win the United States Presidential election with a comfortable margin to spare. (more…)

As the 2008 election season is under way, with the Democrat and Republican conventions just behind us and the elections just around the corner, it’s time for the last two frenzied months of campaigning. The Vice Presidential candidates were announced not long ago and already they are on the campaign trail, traveling from state to state, giving speeches, and promoting their ticket. The public buildup and political maneuvering to determine this election year’s candidates began four years ago, as soon as the last election ballot of 2004 was cast.

For some candidates, plans were laid in place long before even the 2004 election. However, the campaigning prior to now is relatively insignificant compared to these last two months, which are the most crucial because of undecided voters. The effect of previously released headlines and resulting damage to the candidates’ reputations has little consequence now and has largely been forgotten. Any harmful press now will have triple the effect on the candidate’s campaign. It’s an exciting time in the United States, as we are on the brink of some drastic changes in the administration of this country.

Two years ago, big changes were afoot in the little state of Vermont. Of its three national representatives, two seats were open and up for grabs and I had the opportunity to be a part of the action. As a senior in high school, I was required to complete a graduation challenge project – completing 60 hours of volunteer work and writing an analysis paper. To a senior already half checked out of high school it seemed like a ton of pointless work. I had always had a strong interest in politics and, though it was tempting to do something uninteresting just to obtain the required credit, I decided to try something that I had never done before to see where it led.

I volunteered for the Victory Office in my town. This Victory Office was one of many in an effort called the Victory Program across the nation launched by the GOP. President Bush began the program and Karl Rove began implementing it in 2000 and greatly expanded it for the 2004 election. The Victory Program’s goal is to reach potential voters and get them out to the polls on Election Day. It accomplishes this objective using many techniques, such as door-to-door canvassing, phone calls, absentee ballots, and other means, but mainly by its overarching focus on voters and candidates up for election, not necessarily the individual candidates themselves.

My primary job as an intern in the Victory Office was to work the phone banks and make calls to voters. To some this might sound exceedingly boring, but I never had a dull night. The survey questions were exactly the same from one call to the next, but the conversations went a little different way each time. I met quite a few interesting characters through the calls. And when I needed a break from the phone calls, there were all the fellow volunteers and staffers that occupied the office.

In a little town of less than eight thousand people, there were forty phone lines in one room and on any given night all forty lines were being used. As a then-seventeen-year-old senior in high school I was always the youngest one there. A few college students worked at the Victory Office as well, but mainly the phones were occupied by middle-aged to elderly volunteers. They all had interesting stories of previous elections to tell and were thrilled to have younger volunteers there. I also had the opportunity to meet almost all of the local state senators and representatives.

On the eve of the election, every single one of the forty phone lines was occupied. An additional office was opened up across the hall for an additional twenty people to use cell phones for long distance calls to all counties in Vermont. By the end of the evening, many of us were making calls on the cell phones clustered around power outlets because the batteries had lost their charge. Vermont Governor Douglas and Lieutenant Governor Dubie showed up at the very end to thank us for our support and hard work. In the small office space packed with volunteers and staffers, people were pumped and the air was energized. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of the entire campaign season for me.

Even though the election of 2006 didn’t go especially well for Republicans in general, it was an exciting time to be involved. If you ever have the chance to get involved with a campaign, be certain to take advantage of the opportunity. It’s bound to be a rewarding experience and you will learn more than you ever could from the news about candidates and their campaigns. You will meet so many new people, both voters and volunteers working alongside you for the same goal. The 2008 elections are sure to be eventful and have an interesting outcome.

Around lunchtime one day back in February I wandered into the Lower UC as I would any other day. I was somewhat engrossed in my own thoughts as I walked over to the silverware and tray stand. Here I was confronted with a student, standing guard over the tray stand. “It’s No Tray Day,” he proudly proclaimed, convinced that his message was one of ultimate truth and importance, and pointed to the sign on an easel, written in chalk, as if I was a bad person for even having walked over to the tray stand. He then launched into a lengthy diatribe on the purpose and benefits of No Tray Day, at which point, despite the nuisance, I was more hungry than interested in debating someone on the pros and cons of not permitting the use of trays to fellow lunch-goers.

All students that went to lunch at Rathbone or the Lower UC experienced the zealous promoters of No Tray Day. Most students, however, cannot recall the particulars of why trays were not allowed, but do remember that day as one of special inconvenience. To the best of my knowledge, I understand that trays were not to be allowed in order to reduce excess consumption of food. The theory behind this was that, if students do not have a tray, their food-carrying capacity is reduced and thus the student will have to be more conscious of what they take off of the serving dishes in the first place. This assumes that, because a student has a tray, he or she will take more food, which is a questionable assumption at best. A standard Lehigh lunch tray can barely fit two large plates on it as is and it is unusual to see this arrangement on a tray. For most students, a tray is a convenient means of carrying silverware, a plate, and a beverage. Another small plate could potentially fit on the tray, but other than that, students must go back in order to pick up additional food. The vast majority of students know how much they want to eat and don’t need to be watched in order to make sure they take appropriate servings.

No Tray Day’s purpose was to reduce wasted food and combat wasteful behaviors in general. It was highly ineffective at achieving this goal. If Lehigh students are especially concerned and committed to reducing waste, perhaps there are more efficient methods to go about this. The take-out dining option alone produces a significant amount of waste. Styrofoam is a material that does not decompose with time and simply sits in landfills. In addition, the Styrofoam is in boxy shapes that take up a lot of space in trash cans, filling them faster than would ordinary waste. Many universities simply do not have take-out as an alternative to eating in the cafeteria. If Lehigh students are serious about reducing waste, they need to stop with gimmicks such as No Tray Day and put their focus where the waste is really happening.

Group Projects. I don’t know anyone who truly relishes the thought of a group project for one of their classes. You open up that syllabus on the first day of class and see in bold characters “Group Project – 25%.” My first thought is usually a sinking feeling of dread. Twenty-five percent of my grade rests on the responsibility of my other team members and how they decide to perform. My second thought is that I hope we are able to choose our own teams. Even if you don’t know anyone else in the entire class, you can usually judge who the students are that you want to work with. They are the ones sitting in the front row, always on time, and ready with their homework completely done. These self-selected groups tend to be more productive, as the team members have similar expectations for the end result and generally put equal amounts of time into the project. On the other hand, there are professor-assigned group projects and this is where the real trouble begins.

The problem with assigned group projects is that not everyone puts the same amount of effort into the project. Randomly selecting groups allows for the lowest common denominator performance. Invariably, one or two people end up doing the bulk of the work, carrying the rest of their team members. The students that want to receive a good grade will do whatever it takes for that “A,” even if it means doing the majority of the work meant for four people. The students that are “carried,” so to speak, by a single group member know that they can put little effort into the project and still come out no worse off. When these students can piggyback on someone else and know that that someone else is willing to do the work, why should they care? It is a simple matter of efficiency – except for the person who does all the work and gets burned for it. To a certain extent, professors do seem to realize that teams generally function this way, but at the same time they want to ensure that everyone performs at about the same level and has the same opportunity to succeed. This principle is not consistent with the real work world. For instance, actors could be randomly assigned to movies to produce commonly bad drivel; athletes could be randomly assigned to the Olympics to ensure that the United States loses all the medals; and high school students could be randomly accepted to Lehigh so that we are guaranteed not to outperform the local community college.

There are benefits to group projects, of course. Countless professors will tell you that you need to learn how to collaborate and cooperate in a group setting, no matter what field of work you go into. I wholeheartedly agree with this way of thinking. In the professional world, hardly anyone will complete a task alone. However, in the work world the best companies will have the best teams and will achieve the best performance. There are better ways to go about group projects, such as allowing students to choose their groups. This method will put students with similar standards for group work together. Students who previously would simply ride on the work of their other group members would be forced to contribute. This technique of self-selecting groups provides the most overall benefit to a class.

I had one class this semester in which the professor announced we could form our own groups and choose our own topics. Naturally I was pleased about this and went around to find other students who shared similar expectations for group work. It seemed like a cruel joke when, two weeks later, this very same professor had a complete change of mind and started assigning groups. Apparently, this professor’s department colleagues were somewhat aghast that students were allowed to select their own teams for a project. So this semester my class has acquired the dubious honor of becoming an experiment for the department. The professor can compare the quality of our group projects to that of previous semesters. I know what my prediction for the outcome will be; in a semester, we will know for certain. Somehow I don’t think that sinking feeling is really going to go away.