Archive

BY BRYAN GROSS For most of us here at McKendree the time of year when Model U.N. rolls around is nothing more than a time in which we should all run for the scant comfort of the 1828 café while Ames becomes infested with high school students. We stand up in class and let each other know when that dreaded day is coming, and we ask around to find out if we have not been informed. This paints a pretty clear picture of what the general mood of the campus is towards this event, but I have to ask how many people have actually experienced the event itself? Do you really even know what it entails? This semester, I decided to join the ranks of many Model U.N. members. I attended a few training meetings to get the groundwork down for what I would be doing and how to conduct myself over the three...

BY JANELLE JANKOWSKI As stated on McKendree University’s website, Public Safety has the duty to ensure students feel safe on campus:  “In order to ensure the safety of members of the McKendree community, the Office of Public Safety is responsible for maintaining a safe and orderly environment on the campus. Officers work to create an environment where people can feel safe to learn, work, live and visit, and they are committed to providing safety and protection to the entire University community.”  Yet, without any cameras on campus, how are the Public Safety officers supposed to catch everyone? How safe does each student feel on campus without the security of cameras? Cameras located in public areas assist college security personnel, who cannot be everywhere at all times. When report ...

BY NATALIE VAN BOOVEN Sept. 19, 2006 was a watershed day in Thailand. On that day, after crossing the line once too often, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a military coup. Trouble began for Shinawatra almost from the moment he took office. The first of many disputes—and the first major test for the new constitution—occurred just after his Thai Rak Thai party secured 248/500 parliament seats (three short of an absolute majority) in the 2001 general election. Lauded as Thailand’s most democratic constitution to that date, the 1997 Constitution contained many features designed to protect the people’s increasing power. For example, it mandated an Administrative Court to guard against bureaucratic abuse and a Constitutional Court to deal with constitutional conflicts. Yet th...

BY SHARON BEARD Every morning, millions of people board the subway paying more attention to their cellular phone than their surroundings. A passenger checks his or her email, and just before the doors close, a thief grabs his or her phone, He jumps onto the platform before anyone could catch him, and walks away with the passenger’s phone as the train pulls away. There were 19,128 robberies in 2013 according to the New York City Police Department. More than 40% of all robberies in New York City involve smartphones and other cellular phones. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Chairman Julius Genachowski joined major police department chiefs, including New York City Police Commissioner Raymond E. Kelly,and the wireless industry to implement a database called the “kill switch” to preven...

QUESTION:  I am a first-generation student; my parents do not seem to understand the importance of my education. I have been taking out loans to help pay for my tuition each year to pay for what my scholarship does not cover. I'm already swimming in debt, and my parents think I should just drop out and focus on what is "apparently really important": taking on the family business. I've told my parents multiple times that I'm not interested, but they won't take no for an answer because, if I don't drop out, they're just going to have me manage the business after graduating. When I'm not at school nor at home, I work to help pay off my loans a little bit at a time. I'm at my wit's end. Without having the support of my parents for my education, I am constantly stressed (seeing as I commute fro...

A FILM REVIEW BY MICHAEL FEEZER Director Jaume Collet-Serra brings us the suspenseful and nerve-racking film, Non- Stop. This 2014, action-packed movie stars Schindler's List's Liam Neeson along with the lovely, Julianne Moore. The film starts off by giving a small insight into the life of Bill Marks (Liam Neeson), who is an Air Marshall who will do anything it takes to protect the lives of the people who travel by airplane. We quickly discover that Bill is an alcoholic who has a soft spot for children. The audience is forced to question the reliability of Bill as an air marshal when he is seen feeding his addiction on the job. On what seems like a normal flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Bill is called into action when someone texts him through a private phone number from a hidden ph...

A FILM REVIEW  BY KYLE JACKSON Have you ever watched or read a biography that has had you thinking, “What would this world be like if a person never had the courage or nerve to do what they have done?”  “42is about Jackie Robinson, a ball player who believed that color did not just separate people, but it restricted the freedoms of all African Americans. Brian Helgeland’s film “42”, documented on the life of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman).The film truly shows how history was changed when the color barrier was broken in the sport of baseball..  This film really expresses how brutal the world of sports was to African Americans in the time period of 1946. Jackie Robinson was one of a kind.  Not only was he and an outstanding baseball player, he also had more nerve than anyone could ever...

BY JOE HILDERBRAND The second semester of the academic year for college students is always the roughest half.  For some, returning to classes scheduled at 8 a.m. after a month-long winter break feels like the start of boot camp for a first-time marine.  For others, a 1 p.m. start time feels the same way.  Whoever the student may be, he or she yearns for the next break from school to begin.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day certainly does ease students back into the sluggish month of January, but a four day weekend is only a slice of cake to the starving overweight boy.  It takes a considerable amount of balance between work, slacking, butt-kissing and most of all endurance for students to fight through the month of February until they are rewarded for their efforts in the month of March.  To ...

BY JANELLE JANKOWSKI Summer is right around the corner, and what easier way would there be to get that sun-kissed- Floridian look than to hit up a tanning bed? I was always under the impression that tanning was considered bad because it causes, among other health issues, unwanted and premature wrinkles. When I walked into the Tan Company to interview the front desk worker (who happened to be very tan herself), I already had a list of planned questions to ask her. I informed her of my article, and told her I intended on writing a piece about unhealthy tanning can be. She then told me tanning can actually be good for you, a dynamic I had not previously considered! She explained to me that tanning can increase your self-esteem. It can also lead to the production of Vitamin D, which occurs w...

BY THOMAS (TJ) HAMIL Cracked Grass Handlebars I used to ride my bicycle with my sister – before we fought about things like who mom liked more, who’s doing right in life - used to ride through the gaps between the houses like water between the cracks in the grass-veins. We would ride under clotheslines and phone lines – we’d walk our bikes when we couldn’t ride them – Crossing the imagined boundaries between neighborhood principalities, Finding new nations hidden in little shops and – our favourite – Cafés. We were innocent enough to pay with money that wasn’t ours, to love things like blue skies freely dreaming of futures that were never anything But smoke rising into clouds, tasting the tops of the trains and plunging Off of the rooftop of the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the Gateway Arch, Innoce...