Why College Sports should be Eliminated in College Essay Example

Why College Sports should be Eliminated in College Essay The image of college athletes has become heavily stereotyped. And more often than not, these stereotypes are presented through jokes especially in movies. We see college athletes (more commonly known as â€Å"jocks†) exhibits exceptional physical capabilities but below average intelligence. Even though these kind of jokes exist, people very rarely question why sports and college are so interconnected. College and sports appear to be inseparable twin brothers inside the psyche of the public. This paper recognizes the lack of skepticism in the relationship of college and sports. Sports should be eliminated in college and academic institutions should focus more on academics nonetheless. Setting up this argument is indeed a difficult task. Since the time of ancient learning, academics and sports find their way to intersect each other. If we would review history, Greek intellectuals and Greek sports (like in the early olympics) was just as popular as each other. However, the balance was somehow became lopsided over the centuries. Championships in college sports became the object of glory of universities. In the colleges of today, a high-scoring baller would have an exponentially larger admirers than a scholar who propose a new theory of the origin of the universe. This lopsidedness also adds to the reasons why the existence of sports in the academic community should be challenged. We will write a custom essay sample on Why College Sports should be Eliminated in College specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Why College Sports should be Eliminated in College specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Why College Sports should be Eliminated in College specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer But of course, college sports is not all negative aspects. Actually, there are many strong positive points to college sports that made it indispensable in the academe: Good health and an active lifestyle is of course on the side of maintaining college, Winning championships of course will give pride to the students and the school gets a positive reputation, The virtues attributed to sports like sportsmanship, perseverance, determination, etc are of course good for building one’s character, Exceptional ballers gets the coveted chance to play on the professional level, The list go on and on. But what most people do not see in these items is that these things are not all positive. Moreover, it should be noted that these items are not and should not be the priority of a learning institution. College Sports as a Distraction to the Academics It is common in universities that they require their college athletes to maintain a certain grade point average. Failing to meet these requirements would often result to the prohibition for the college athlete to join the athletics team. That is with the thinking that the failing college athlete would focus more on his or her studies. This is what the public knows about the system. This arrange is like one big open secret in the world of college sports. Of course there are exceptional athletes but hopeless in their studies. Would coaches let their best players off the team just because of a failing grade point average? That is very unlikely and uncharacteristic of coaches. People would not think its impossible if â€Å"under the table† arrangements are practiced among coaches and teachers. However it may sound offensive, it is just not that convincing that every college athlete maintains the required grade point average, especially the top scorers for the time. One often overlooked issue is the time that college athletics require. And the large amount of time that college sports demand does not only apply to the student, but also to the other constituents of the school like the cheerleaders, student audiences, even the teachers when their team is about to play a game. College athletes would have to practice a lot, or else their coaches would tell them that they would be unable to win a game. This kind of thinking would undeniably take away a considerable amount of time from the student athlete. And as we know of student life, the time spent in practicing could have been the very precious time spent reviewing a lesson. One of the most distracting cons of college sports would be injuries. If a player got physically injured in a game, his or her physical condition would not be a hundred percent in the classroom (that is if an injured player manages to walk to his or her classroom). A discussion on college athletics would perhaps give us a deeper look in the issue. The speakers were Bill Thierfelder and Murray Sperber. Both of the speakers were college athletes, coaches, and currently educators themselves. Thierfelder had come up with a helpful description of college athletics as a distraction to academics. He described college athletics as an â€Å"artificial environment† (Schalin 2008). He added that within this â€Å"artificial environment† either good or bad could be inculcated in the minds of the college athletes, depending on the the character of who is directing that particular environment. The directors of the said environment would be of course the coaches, the athletic department, administrators, and even teachers. The issue that was surfaced in Thierfelder’s view is that most of the time, the directors of the said environment are fixated on the thought of winning. These directors are like to go by all means to achieve victory, reg ardless of its ethical repercussions or the well-being of the college students. Thierfelder added that the directors should be held accountable for the consequences of their methods just as they are savoring the glory of winning with those who actually participate in sports, the student players. On the other hand, in line with Thierfelder, Sperber argued that college sports has detached from its former purity and integrity. He argued that college sports is becoming more and more corrupted and commercialized in the present era. To support his point, he used the first intercollegiate contest to be ever held. The said contest was a rowing contest between Harvard and Yale during the 1830’s. Sperber pointed out that the early intercollegiate sports were not designed to advertise branded shoes. The interesting part is when he shared that corruption in college athletic was ever present since it was originated.   Sperber said that there were â€Å"ringers† in both teams. The term â€Å"ringer† simply means a good athlete who has no direct connection to the schools. The ringers were not students but rather some good player they asked to play for them. In much simpler terms Sperber just wanted to say that cheating was already present ever since the first interco llegiate games was played. Ethical Issues Ethical issues were already touched by the previous segment, but this particular part of the paper will throw the harder punches. As stated earlier commercialization had became a blemish in the image of college sports. Dishonesty is also becoming more and more prevalent. The main problem is that these issues are rarely addressed. Cheating is also becoming more and more inseparable with the mention of college sports. There have been many instances wherein point-shaving of college players were committed. â€Å"Point-shaving† is a term used in the sports community to pertain to the act when players consciously underperform to make the opponent win the game. These kinds of games are known to sport enthusiasts â€Å"fixed-games.† The NABC or National Association of Basketball Coaches admits that game fixing is becoming prevalent in college basketball games. The NABC points the blame to the gambling market that the popularity of college basketball creates (NABC). The number of students who bet on games is ever considerable and still growing. The number of student â€Å"bookies† is also gaining numbers. â€Å"Bookies† are the ones who collects the bets from the gamblers who are usually the constituents of those concerned with the games, who else but the constituents of the universities themselves. Being a bookie is an ethically alarming job, especially for the students. Students should realize that their minds and character are being reared in the university. If gambling would become more and more of a problem, then immediate action is deemed necessary. Another issue that should be taken into consideration is the violence during college games. Both the college players and the fans had become entangled in the reports of violence in college sports. Even the coaches are sometimes initiator of the riots. In Myriam Miedzian’s book â€Å"Boys Will Be Boys: Breaking the Link between Masculinity and Violence†, she tackled this issue of college sports violence. She attributed the violent actions of college players to the thinking that was embedded in their heads (Miedzian 77). College players are taught (mostly by being shouted at) to think that winning is everything and losing is never an option. When college players accept this thinking as the only way to view reality, when they lose a game, they also seem to lose their temper. Moreover , some sports would always require physical contact. Sometimes a player gets hurt, but that’s normal. The problem that arises is when the hurt player takes it as a personal offense or when the players are intentionally hurting each other. The violent behavior is at times not done by the players but by the fans on the stands. And there are times when college sports violence escalate to a more alarming rate. Just this January, a UCLA basketball player named Kevin Love of Oregon received death threats through his cell phone. The death threat indicated killing the basketball player along with his family. But the violence did not stop there. Love did not attend the game because of the threats to him, instead his family watched the game. Dissapointed, Love’s own fans threw thrash at the player’s parents and sister. (sportsillustrated.com) Controversies NCAA players are not being paid and does not recieve any sort of payment has always been a circulating argument in college basketball. The NCAA argues that scholarship is enough compensation (ncaa.org). The problem with this is that the NCAA and the university profit from the college players through advertising. Murray Sperber also revealed that at a state university a certain basketball coach recieved two-hundred gran as a reward for recruiting a freshmen who was creating a buzz in high-school basketball. Conclusion College and sports are two very different entities, therefore should be separated. Both means well for the students. But purpose should always be kept in mind. Universities exist to mold the minds of future leaders. If these futures leaders would busy themselves excelling in sports, or gambling in sports, we could just imagine the future this might bring. The main source of the problem could just be over-prioritizing. Learning institutions should set clear lines to contain the issue. As for the problems with college sports laid out in this paper, we are already aware of these things. The problem is that these issues are rarely addressed. College sports is entering an era wherein glory is achieved in ill methods. Those concerned should learn how to act upon these issues as quick as possible.

Definition of Greenbacks

Definition of Greenbacks Greenbacks were the bills printed as paper currency by the United States government during the Civil War. They were given that name, of course, because the bills were printed with green ink. The printing of money by the government was seen as a wartime necessity prompted by the great costs of the conflict and it was a controversial choice. The objection to paper money was that it wasnt backed by precious metals, but rather by confidence in the issuing institution i.e. the federal government. (One version of origin of the name greenbacks is that people said the money was only backed by the green ink on the papers backs.) The first greenbacks were printed in 1862, after the passage of the Legal Tender Act, which President Abraham Lincoln signed into law on February 26, 1862. The law authorized the printing of $150 million in paper currency. A second Legal Tender Act, passed in 1863, authorized the issuing of another $300 million in greenbacks. The Civil War Prompted the Need for Money The outbreak of the Civil War created a massive financial crisis. The Lincoln administration began recruiting soldiers in 1861, and all the many thousands of troops had to be paid and equipped with weapons- everything from bullets to cannon to ironclad warships had to be built in northern factories. As most Americans did not expect the war to last very long, there didnt seem to be a pressing need to take drastic action. In 1861, Salmon Chase, the secretary of the treasury in Lincolns administration, issued bonds to pay for the war effort. But when a quick victory began to seem unlikely, other steps needed to be taken. In August 1861, after the Union defeat at the Battle of Bull Run and other disappointing engagements, Chase met with New York bankers and proposing issuing bonds to raise money. That still didnt solve the problem, and by the end of 1861 something drastic needed to be done. The idea of the federal government issuing paper money met with hard resistance. Some people feared, with good reason, that it would create a financial calamity. But after considerable debate, the Legal Tender Act made it through congress and became law. The Early Greenbacks Appeared in 1862 The new paper money, printed in 1862, was (to the surprise of many) not met with widespread disapproval. On the contrary, the new bills were seen as being more reliable than the previous paper money in circulation, which had typically been issued by local banks. Historians have noted that the acceptance of the greenbacks signaled a change in thinking. Instead of the value of money being linked to the financial health of individual banks, it was now linked to the concept of faith in the nation itself. So in a sense, having a common currency was something of a patriotic boost during the Civil War. The new one-dollar bill featured an engraving of the secretary of the treasury, Salmon Chase. An engraving of Alexander Hamilton appeared on denominations of two, five, and 50 dollars. President Abraham Lincolns image appeared on the ten-dollar bill. The use of green ink was dictated by practical considerations. It was believed that a dark green ink was less likely to fade and the green ink was supposedly harder to counterfeit. The Confederate Government Also Issued Paper Money The Confederate States of America, the government of the slave states which had seceded from the Union, also had severe financial problems. The Confederate government also began issuing paper money as well. Confederate money is often regarded as having been worthless because, after all, it was the money of the losing side in the war. The Confederate currency was further devalued because it was easy to counterfeit, however. As was typical during the Civil War, skilled workers and advanced machines tended to be in the North, and that was true of the engravers and high-quality printing presses needed to print currency. As the bills printed in the South tended to be of low quality, it was easier to make facsimiles of them. One Philadelphia printer and shopkeeper, Samuel Upham, produced a huge amount of fake Confederate bills, which he sold as novelties. Uphams fakes, indistinguishable from the genuine bills, were often purchased to be used on the cotton market, and thus found their way into circulation in the South. Greenbacks Were Successful Despite reservations about issuing them, the federal greenbacks were accepted. They became standard currency, and were even preferred in the South. The greenbacks solved the problem of financing the war and a new system of national banks also brought some stability to the nations finances. However, a controversy arose in the years following the Civil War as the federal government had promised to eventually convert the greenbacks into gold. In the 1870s a political party, the Greenback Party, formed around the campaign issue of keeping greenbacks in circulation. The feeling among some Americans, primarily farmers in the west, was that greenbacks provided a better financial system. On January 2, 1879 the government was to begin converting greenbacks, but few citizens showed up at institutions where they could redeem paper money for gold coins. Over time the paper currency had become, in the public mind, as good as gold. Incidentally, the money remained green into the 20th century partly for practical reasons. Green ink was widely available, stable, and not prone to fading but green bills seemed to mean stability to the public, so American paper money has remained green to this day.

Operations Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Operations Management - Assignment Example simulation of safety engineering, training, education process, video gaming and technology for the purposes of optimizing performance. To study simulation models computer experiments are used. At advanced level simulation is used with scientific modeling of human systems and natural systems to enable researchers to gain full insight of these human and other natural systems. In addition, simulation can be used to indicate the eventual real effects of some alternative courses and conditions of action. This operation process is also used where real systems are not applicable since they are not accessible or they are not acceptable to be used (Greasley, 2004) There are several softwares that are used in simulation process as an operation process in companies and other institutions. These softwares are classified into two major categories open source software and proprietary software. Open source software include ASCEND, DWSIM, Sage and GNU Octave. The proprietary softwares include Arena software, AMESIM and APmonitor (Buckley, 2005) In this report the simulation software used to carry out the operation analysis of the discrete-event model is the Arena software. Arena is a discrete event automation and simulation software that was developed by Systems Modeling and was acquired by Rockwell Automation in the Year 2000. This software uses the SIMAN processor and simulation language. In this software the user must build an experiment model through placing models that show the logic or processes. Lines are used to join or connect these modules together, as well as, showing the flow of different entities. The modules have specific actions compared to flow, entities and timing. The precise representation of these modules and entities relative to real life objects depends on the decision of the modeler. Using this software statistical data like work in progress and cycle time levels are outputted and recorded as reports. This software is integrated with Microsoft technologi es such as visual basic for applications for further automation in cases where specific algorithms are required (Altiok & Melamed, 2007). The software also supports importation of Microsoft Visio flowcharts. Moreover, the software allows outputting to or reading from excel spreadsheets, as well as, access databases. Problem description The problems that the Arena software is used to solve in this report are problems of determining the breakeven point, total cost incurred before breakeven point, the profit earned by the company at a given units of product sold of a given company and also the determination of point of indifference in production. This report uses two case studies that are analyzed using the Arena software. In the first case the company is considering to add a new line of production, which requires leasing new equipment for a monthly payment of ?6,000. The company’s variable costs would be ?2 per unit and they would sell for ?7 each. The company’s manageme nt needs to determine the number of units needed to be sold in order to break-even. Secondly, the company would like to determine the profit or loss it will make if 1,000 units are made and sold in a month. Thirdly, the company needs to know the number of pies it requires to sell in order to realize a profit of ?4,000. Finally, the company would like to know if it sells 2,000 units, and the profit target is ?5,000, then what price it should