{"id":298288,"date":"2019-04-26T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=298288"},"modified":"2019-04-26T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T20:00:06","slug":"safe-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/safe-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe sex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author\u2019s Note: Originally posted on Jan. 26, 2016, but slightly modified and worth a second look. <\/em><\/p>\n

There are five frequently told lies on university campuses, unwittingly believed by too many.<\/p>\n

Lie No. 1:\u00a0There is safe sex.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Safe sex,\u00a0according to\u00a0webmd,\u00a0is no sex at all: The safest occurs between a husband and wife in a drug-free, lifelong monogamous relationship. The concept that a condom provides safety is wrong from a number of perspectives.\u00a0A materials scientist in any reputable college of engineering will tell you that a film of 0.015 mm thickness provides scant protection. Pores in rubber exist and occasionally provide spaces that very small viruses might pass through, and it only takes one. While 0.015 mm is thin and imperfect, that is only part of the story.\u00a0The social\/economic burdens of fatherless and\/or motherless child rearing are\u00a0widely understood in the sociology department. The psychology department can enumerate the emotional costs of \u201cone night stands\u201d and \u201chook-ups\u201d at the bar.\u00a0The heaviest burdens fall to women, but men carry the results of socially and personally irresponsible behavior, too\u2014sometimes until they die.\u00a0Safe sex is a lie outside of a marriage, on- or off-campus, for better or worse. Condom distribution tables in student centers don\u2019t create safety no matter what a committee of the\u00a0American Academy of Pediatrics\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Lie N0. 2:\u00a0We can conduct business as usual.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Universities are in the midst of dramatic change.\u00a0Free community colleges\u00a0will impact all but the elite universities in our nation. If \u201cfree\u201d translates into bachelor degrees granted by community colleges,\u00a0California\u2019s recent decision\u00a0has \u201cRichter Scale\u201d\u00a0impacts rippling out to every university in the land.\u00a0Conversely if a \u201cfree first two years\u201d works at community colleges, the logical extension to a free first two years at every state university follows\u2014a step of about 0.015 mm.\u00a0Public education produced phenomenal results in empowering our nation of immigrants and their offspring after the turn of the 20th century and the baby boomers after the century\u2019s midpoint. However, from its inception education has never been \u201cfree.\u201d\u00a0This progress occurred in a social, political and cultural environment that no longer exists. Universities should mindfully approach changing norms, demographics and evolving expectations of, by and for students.<\/p>\n

Lie No. 3: \u201cA\u201d means excellent and \u201cB\u201d means good.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most\u00a0commonly given grade\u00a0at Harvard is an \u201cA.\u201d\u00a0The department of educational psychology or the faculty senate will\u00a0\u201ccrawfish\u201d\u00a0all over this. (\u201cCrawfish\u201d is a Louisiana idiom that means vacillate, be indecisive and walk backwards like a crawfish.) Of course, there are\u00a0too many \u201cAs.\u201d\u00a0Who wants to be the \u201cbad guy\u201d to the student? Students complete teaching quality surveys that impact tenure and promotion decisions. Student perceptions turn, to the detriment of all, into customer satisfaction surveys.\u00a0Go to any department of\u00a0Institutional Research\u00a0on any university campus and ask to see grade distribution records.\u00a0With alarming frequency four of five grades given are \u201cA\u201d or \u201cB,\u201d with the preponderance being \u201cAs\u201d. When a student brings home an \u201cA,\u201d it may not mean much.\u00a0In this case, the difference between \u201cState U\u201d and Harvard is about 0.015 mm.<\/p>\n

Lie No. 4:\u00a0Committees make the best decisions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other than in a constitutional republic that selects leaders with a committee of the whole through a popular vote\u2014a frequently imperfect exercise but the best available, committees should never decide anything. They should be convened for input and perspective, but they should never make\u00a0\u201cthe\u201d decision. In human relations, the exchange of favors by various\u00a0interest groups\u00a0leads to defending and bartering group interests.\u00a0Too often presidents and ceos look after self-interest:\u00a0It is the nature of the human organization and the human organism. Moreover, committees eradicate personal responsibility. All lament the imperfection of the process, but argue that the art of compromise produces intelligent decisions.\u00a0The real result is perfected blamelessness. The difference between a committee decision and the decision of a leader committed to an organization\u2019s purpose is frequently more like 15 m, rather than 0.015 mm. The leader must be responsible for the considerable difference of 14,999.985 mm, and real leaders don\u2019t blame subordinates or committees.<\/p>\n

Lie No. 5:\u00a0The Whopper\u2014A degree is a meal ticket.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of unemployed degree-holding college graduates has increased markedly over the last quarter century.\u00a0In 1990, slightly over 5% of college graduates\u00a0were unemployed;\u00a0now it\u2019s over 8.5%.\u00a0Small differences?\u00a0Not for the 3.5%. Under-employment in 1994 for recent college graduates was just over 40% and now it is near 50%. A diploma is not a meal ticket or a guarantee, but too often it is a false hope that deceives people into borrowing excessive sums in hope of careers that don\u2019t exist or won\u2019t pay the loans.\u00a0\u00a0In 2017 fifteen percent of cab drivers had college degrees, up from one percent a few decades ago. A college education is powerful to be sure, but this particular lie is damnable precisely because at first glance it\u2019s close to the\u00a0truth about the college experience. The purported and real value is about 0.015 mm apart, but it might as well be a mile.<\/p>\n

Of course a college education has great worth, particularly when it satisfies legitimate intellectual curiosity and builds critical skills. To be sure, a college degree will provide excellent possibilities for employment if it educates people for occupations of national or local need or adequately prepares students for graduate or professional study.\u00a0Without a doubt, a college education is an excellent investment. However, when compared to lost opportunity, costs and hyped hope, a poorly conceived, responsibility-free ride on a borrowed nickel is not a boom, but a bust. Like safe sex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author\u2019s Note: Originally posted on Jan. 26, 2016, but slightly modified and worth a second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-298288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-business-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}