Image courtesy of Ms. Magazine Blog

As you can imagine, the Supreme Court receives thousands of case requests each year.

In the end only about fifty cases make the cut and get the full attention of the Supremes.

That’s a lot of people who receive a big fat NO.

This year, one of those people was a high school student whose NO was especially tragic.

In October 2008, a 16-year-old cheerleader from Texas, known only by her first name Hillaire, was raped by Rakheem Bolton, a basketball player at her school. Bolton pled guilty to a lesser crime of assault. His prison sentence was suspended, and he came back to the school, continuing to play basketball.

During a game, Hillaire and the cheer squad were instructed to cheer for him, saying

Two, four, six, eight, ten, come on Rakheem, put it in.

Hillaire stepped away from the squad and refused to cheer for her rapist. She was kicked off the squad.

Hillaire and her parents sued the school, saying that the administration violated Hillaire’s right to freely speak – or in this case, not to speak. The 5^th District Court of Appeals heard the case but ruled against Hillaire, explaining that

As a cheerleader, [Hillaire] served as a mouthpiece through which [the school district] could disseminate speech – namely, support for its athletic teams…This act constituted a substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, [Hillaire] was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering.

To add insult to injury, the court ruled Hillaire’s lawsuit to be frivolous and ordered her family to pay the school district’s legal fees – an amount totaling 45,000 dollars.

Hillaire appealed to the Supreme Court, but earlier this month the Court refused to hear the case, leaving the initial decision in place.

How does the Court’s decision illustrate the treatment of rape victims in the US? And what do you think this decision means for a student’s right to speak – or not to speak – in school?

Acts 20: 25-38

25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” 36 When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

Reflection:
This passage retells the farewell account of Paul as he leaves the church in Ephesus. It is clear that this is a heartwarming scene of a spiritual father encouraging the leaders to care about the church as he departs for good. He charges them to keep watch especially over the flock that Christ bought with his own blood, a charge that is not to be taken lightly but embraced fully. To work hard and help the weak, because there will be trouble coming in the form of detractors, wanting to lead the flock astray. By the example of Paul, the church is to not just sit back, see that what they have is good, and be a burden. Rather, they are to embrace and remember that they have much work to do in living as they are called to be the people of God. Paul wanted them to see that the fruit of the labor of loving and raising up of the church requires as much he has given and it is possible for those he is entrusting do the same.

Response:
Many of us who are working know that we just don’t work for the sake of it, but for the very reason that we need to provide for ourselves and for our families. If we don’t do the work, then it is possible that we would lose our job. However, as a people who are set to live for His purposes, we have a better, eternal reason to work hard. Beyond the earthly rewards, we are to work each day in living out this love in the church and amongst the people that Jesus loves who are not in the flock yet. We have no choice but to be on guard for this very purpose, not imposing undue hardship on each other, but lifting each other up according to what we have been abundantly given. Let’s ask the Lord to give us the strength to persevere, the endurance from the Spirit, and that He would sustain us each step of the way. May God have mercy on us as we work hard for His kingdom!

In August of 2009, I wrote about the findings from the report of the American Psychological Association's (APA) task force studying the interface between psychology and global climate change. That report was in a way, a call to action for additional research and work to better understand the role of human behavior in climate change, the reasons people are not acting and ways to get people to act. The report made clear the many ways psychology as a discipline has important contributions to make in understanding climate change and helping to reverse it.

Jumping forward two years and the May/June 2011 issue of American Psychologist (APA's official journal) is a devoted special issue and follow up to that earlier report.

The special issue includes seven articles written by researchers from colleges and universities around the world, including many from the APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. For campus sustainability advocates interested in research on psychology and climate change, the articles are fascinating but can also can provide important concrete lessons for improving initiatives and programs on campus. Robert Gifford's article, "The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation", provides what he calls "dragons of inaction" essentially a taxonomy of seven psychological barriers that limit sustainable behavior change at both an individual and organizational level.

The seven article's include:

• Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change.

• Human behavioral contributions to climate change: Psychological and contextual drivers.

• The psychological impacts of global climate change.

• Adapting to and coping with the threat and impacts of climate change.

• The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation.

• Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change.

• Public understanding of climate change in the United States.

Abstracts to all of the articles are available for free here. If you are on a campus, your library may be able to provide access as well.

Photo Courtesy of cramster.com

It’s graduation season. This time of year media outlets pour out stories about the trials and tribulations of college life.

There will be coverage of famous and favorite college speakers and tales of job search woes for recent graduates.

Here’s a little twist to the conventional college season verbiage…

It’s a case where two media outlets are in a sparring match over the value of a college education.

In this corner, you have the Washington Post who recently published a rather compelling chart about college graduates earnings.

The chart (worth checking out below) was based on research from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workplace. It displays ( among other things)

The typical lifetime earnings of engineering and computer science majors are 50 percent higher than those of humanities majors

The Atlantic magazine saw this chart and thought a different spin to the information was needed.  The magazine asserts it is incorrect to value of a university degree solely by the money it generates over time. But the information in the chart is useful.

The Atlantic salutes the folks at Georgetown for their valuable research and its efforts to quatify in numbers the value of a college degree.

We agree with the magazine’s assertion that more information about colleges and their graduates should be made available. Facts about success rates of graduates can help inform current students and applicants of the value of their $100,000+ investment.

Our friends at the Blighty blog post at The Economist online have another take on college success.

They raise a point that children of the wealthiest parents may have more than a financial advantage over other college students.

They suggest better-off kids may have picked up other qualities like perseverance, gumption, and good-heartedness from their privileged upbringing.

“Non-cognitive skills are just as important as cognitive ability: the decisions that are most important in making people happy are the ones in which reason plays little or no part.”

The blog cites the work of psychologist Walter Mischel and his marshmallow experiment .

Home stability and domestic cultural norms should be taken into account alongside monetary means when it comes to assessing how well-adjusted a child becomes as an adult. These are also factors that are often times forgotten on national standardized tests.

“Those who waited longest scored higher in academic tests at school, were much less likely to drop out of university and earned substantially higher incomes than those who gobbled up the sweet straight away.”

How do you judge the success of a college degree?

When I am not running around campus trying to take care of last minute assignments or trying to find my lost keys I manage to find some time in my busy busy life to cook.

I decided to try my hand at Avocado Pesto. How can something that does not require any cooking be hard?

I am pretty sure I stole the recipe from someone. Well, actually, I googled “Avocado Pesto” decided that the recipe looked too hard, so did my own thing.

Which was pretty much the same as the recipe.

You could also call this recipe Yummy Guacamole, because that is what it tasted like.

Avocado Pesto

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 avocado, peel and remove the pit
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic
• 1 handful pine nuts
• 1 handful basil leaves
• 1/4 cup water
• Lemon juice to taste

Food process everything and serve over pasta with a healthy serving of cheese.

*I made up all the amounts for the salt, pepper and garlic. Just shake until it looks good. And lick the pesto from the food processor as you add to test for quality control.

The worst part is cleaning the food processor. Not fun.

I served this with a side of bruschetta. They went really well together.

Enjoy!

During the spring 2011 semester, students in MLL 495/695 Intercultural Video productions completed two community-base digital story projects. The first brought the class to the Arbutus branch of the Baltimore County Public Library to help tell the stories of the librarians and others in the community. This was the second year for the project.

Next the class went to the Charlestown retirement community for aa new round of Charlestown stories. This was a continuation of an award-winning project that began in 2006.

The semester culminated in a showing of all stories hosted by the Arbutus Library.

This Sunday, May 29^th, 2011 QUMBC is looking for volunteers to work concessions from 7am-6pm. If you can work please let me know ASAP so this fundraising opportunity does not pass us by.

And remember, fundraising is instrumental in keeping every great organization running, and since we pride ourselves in being the best, we are always looking for more volunteers. If you would like to be a part of the fundraising work group please contact me at pdownie1@umbc.edu