Editorial #3--Local/Campus Issue

For our third editorial we are to write on an issue concerning the UNK campus or Kearney community. After conversing with others about what they view as top issues on campus or in the Kearney area, many blurted out---parking! That certainly didn't help me out because we are strictly prohibited from writing on that topic.

So as I set out to think what my three topics of choice would be, I continued to ask people what they thought and before they could answer, I informed them that parking could not be one of them.

The first issue I came across was that concerning the debate of passing the bill to require school buses to have seat belts in them. An article in the Kearney Hub explains the sides that voters take for passing/not passing this bill. Though we may think right away that of course we need seat belts in buses, the article touches on some reasons, ones of which never occurred to me, as to why seat belts should not be added to school buses.

The second issue I came up with was that discussing the topic of online classes in the University system. As we advance further into the technological realm, we are seeing universities add more and more online classes for its students. Because students may not necessarily actually be on that campus they are taking the online class from and may never see the professor face-to-face, should these classes cost the same as a 3-credit class that students actually attend? Of course the first semester a professor partakes in an online class there may be more work cut out for it than any other class, but once the class is up and running and information is posted does the same amount of work go into it in the coming semesters? An article from fldcu.org discusses the costs of traditional versus online education. It contains some rather interesting insights on this topic.

The third issue I came up with is concerning the fact that if someone wants to host an event or hold some sort of get together/seminar with food to be involved, Chartwells, our food provider, is the only one that can cater for that event if it is held on campus. As far as I'm concerned people want specific foods for certain events and the selection is not very diverse; to say the least! An article found within UNK's website discusses this policy.