Leaving UVU

The end of the semester finally arrived and finals went well. Grades were posted yesterday and although I no longer have a 4.0, I performed much better in my statistics class than I had hoped; I earned an "A" minus when I thought I would only earn a "B". This leaves my cumulative UVU GPA at 3.97 and when I factor these grades into my grades at BYU, my GPA will still be 3.95. I've been very blessed.

On that note, this was my last semester at UVU and I will be transferring to BYU in January; I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I am glad to be leaving a school that attracts so many underachievers who complain about 19 page reading assignments, who only turn in half their assignments, who shirk their responsibilities for group projects, and who think that high achieving students somehow hold them back. I would expect this more from Freshmen, but four of my five classes were sophomore level classes and it seemed like at least a third of the students in each of my classes exhibited the aforementioned attitudes and behavior. The sad part is that, although my professors are very dedicated and will do anything to help students succeed, they still have very low expectations and will give C's and B's to students who should really only be earning C's and D's... or F's. This is UVU's second academic year of being a full fledged university and it needs to raise the bar. It seems as though that the pervasive mentality is that this is a commuter school and still functions as a community college. But just because UVU is open enrollment doesn't mean that it should not have high standards. I would have hoped that these students would have been weeded out by this point (or more accurately: weeded themselves out). I can see why people call the school UVHS.

On the other hand, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to continue my education after an extended interruption. It was because of UVU's open enrollment status that I was able to do this. As I mentioned, the professors at UVU are very dedicated and the small class sizes allow for them to give individual attention to students. There are also many dedicated students who are doing their best to create better lives for themselves. If I were to continue in the Information Systems program at UVU, I would likely gain hands on experience in working with systems, as there are more systems classes required for the degree at UVU than at BYU. However, it seems that BYU has a broader base of recruiters.

Notwithstanding these mixed feelings, I am very excited to move on to BYU and I know that it is the best option for me at this time. I still have to apply to the Marriott School after Winter semester, but I'm fairly confident that I will be competitive.

Miscellaneous update

After studying diligently for my final exams (I know, it's summer - and I'll probably have to go to school next summer as well), my wife and I arrived in Minnesota at around noon today to visit family. On Saturday we are leaving for Wisconsin to visit my side of the family - I am looking forward to that as I haven't seen many of them in several years ("several" means "twenty", right?)

Tonight, my wife and I saw the move "Julie and Julia," which was entertaining, but I was a little peeved by some of the anti-Republican comments peppered throughout the film. One such example was when Julie Powell wrote about calling in sick to work on her blog and her boss warned her not to do it again. He then suggested that a Republican would have fired her for it. Excuse me? Is that to say that all Republicans are ruthless and have no heart and that Democrats have never fired anyone?

So, I went to Julie Powell's blog and found a post in which she writes about her Republican-bashing and says that she doesn't like the world view that Republican hold. Does she even know what Republicans stand for or does she just believe all the usual, typical lies that liberals have been saying about Republicans for the past sixty years? For example, things like: all Republicans are racist, sexist, assault or kill gays, are greedy, don't care about the poor, and have the goal of imposing a police state. What, pray tell, does she really think Republicans' world view is? If she actually did some investigating instead of making blanket statements (read: lies), she would find that most people in America live conservative lives, including herself (who took advantage of the economic opportunity here and received at least several hundred thousand dollars for her book/movie... how much of that did she voluntarily donate to the poor, etc.?) Her ideals are simply just that, whereas Republican principles are what people generally practice and live every day.

Gates, Crowley, Obama have beers together

Why is this headline worthy? Why did Obama even feel the need to weigh in and put in his two cents in the first place? Aren't there more important things to report about?

Mitt Romney poll numbers improve again

Congressional disapproval sinks to another low... Mitt Romney once again bests other potential Republican candidates for the 2012 nomination. A lot could change in two and a half years, but things keep looking better for Mitt.

FOX News Poll: 60 Percent Disapprove of Congress - Polls | AP Polls | Gallup Poll | Opinion Polls - FOXNews.com

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UVU selects an outside company for institutional reporting

Utah Valley University Selects Information Builders for Institutional Reporting
— Information Builders, an independent leader in
business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Utah Valley University (UVU), a state-funded university that is home to 25,000 students, deployed
Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform for institutional reporting. UVU is using WebFOCUS to create an institution-wide reporting system that accommodates the needs of a variety of different departments and thousands of users.
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I don't presume to have all of the facts, but why did UVU use an outside company instead of having its own Information Systems students develop a similar tool? The school professes to be all about "Community Engagement" and a project like this would have provided a great opportunity for UVU students to become engaged in their field of study and work with other departments within the university. Not to mention, it could have potentially saved thousands of budget dollars. I'd like to know more about why they chose this company instead of using its own students.

This reminds me of when the school spent tens of thousands of dollars on new logo and branding when there are several talented graphic design students already at UVU. Perhaps some of the students did actually work with the marketing company on the project, but I'm not sure. Still, UVU needs to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to "Community Engagemnt."

UVU vs. BYU part II

This is in response to the comments made and I feel that I need to elaborate on my experience at UVU. First of all, thank you for your comments . btw - The study I read didn't focus on any specific majors.

My feelings about UVU are ambivalent. On one hand, I'm grateful for the opportunity I have had to attend there this past year as I wouldn't have been able to enroll in a selective enrollment university. I made the most of that year and earned a 4.0 GPA both semesters. On the other hand, I was in classes with so many students who accepted mediocrity, and it seemed that many professors were okay with that. Perhaps if I stayed another year, I would have seen such students weeded out, but my observations have shown that many of the programs will accept anyone and no system of selection is used. Where does UVU's business school rank in the major annual rankings? It doesn't rank at all. Its Accounting program isn't even accredited by the AACSB. The Information Systems program isn't part of the business school as it is at most other schools in the nation.

True, UVU does have a few great programs: Education, Aviation, Nursing, and Digital Media (I'm sure I'm not aware of others). But as an Information Systems student who is looking to have the best competitive edge possible (not just the highest salary) and who is looking to work outside of the state of Utah, BYU seems like the best choice so I will be transferring there in January 2010. As a sidenote, if it wasn't for my Information Systems major, my school of choice within the state of Utah would be University of Utah (as I like the urban atmospherere).

Another consideration to be made is that I went to UVU during the day. I know that there are many hard working students who work jobs during the day and attend classes at night. I'm sure those students work much harder at their classwork and are more motivated than many of the "kids" that attend during the day. Don't get me wrong, there are many day students who take their studies seriously; but I observed far too many slackers and do not want to be lumped in with them. If I knew they would eventually be weeded out, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

I will always be grateful for the springboard that UVU provided me in my academic career and I am grateful that I completed most of my general education requirements there rather than at BYU or some other school. UVU should continue to give students like me opportunities to pursue higher education, but I think at some point the Bachelor programs should hold a higher standard. I'm convinced that better opportunities will exist for me (especially outside the state of Utah) by graduating from BYU's Marriott School of Management than if I were to stay at UVU.

Mitt Romney ties with Obama in Rasmussen Poll

Mitt Romney ties with Obama and beats Sarah Palin in a Rasmussen poll:
click here.

I don't get too excited over polls, but Mitt Romney's poll numbers keep improving so that is a good sign.

Sarah Palin: Quitter

I do not understand Sarah Palin's decision to resign in the middle of her first term as governor of Alaska. She claims that she resigned to pursue a higher calling, but she could have finished her first term and have two entire years to do just that (if she were seeking to run for President in 2012). To me, it seems like merely an excuse as she would have only had less than two years to complete her term.

Palin also claims to be the victim of the media's double standard asserting, "And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make." Countless others finish their terms prior to pursuing a higher calling. She hasn't even officially announced any intention she has of running for Presidency and she makes it seem as though she is taking the moral high ground for making her decision.

What perplexes me even more are the thousands of supportive comments on Palin's Facebook page. It seems to me as though they are blindly following her as if she is some sort of political Messiah for the conservative movement. This underscores a concern I have that if she runs for President, many evangelical Christians will vote for her based on her religion and name-recognition alone without considering her record (or her propensity for quitting when the going gets tough). She could very well be a potential spoiler for Mitt Romney in 2012. The only consolation to this is that Palin would at least make Huckabee much less of a contender or split the evangelical vote, giving Mitt Romney a boost (assuming they all run in 2012.)

Democrats and unemployment

I just reviewed historical unemployment data, courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and noticed a few things:
* Unemployment has doubled since Democrats took over congress in 2007, with more than 6,000,000 jobs being lost in that same period.
* The highest unemployment rate under the Republican congress from 1994 to 2006 was 6.6 percent; with Democrats in congress, it currently stands at 9.5% and is expected to continue to increase throughout the rest of the year.
* Unemployment has increased by 25 percent since Democrats increased their congressional majority in January 2009.

Is there a direct correlation? The numbers speak for themselves.

UVU vs. BYU

I recently stumbled upon a report from the Utah Foundation that said that UVU graduates (at the time of the report, it was UVSC) earn a higher average salary than graduates of any other school in the state, including BYU. These numbers are skewed since many BYU graduates leave Utah after graduating and earn more income by doing so. Did the report interview these graduates? It also probably doesn't take into consideration that more female graduates from BYU end up staying home with their children rather than entering the workforce. Also, UVU is geared toward degrees that can be used in the workforce, whereas BYU offers more majors that aren't typically useful in the labor market. The moral of the story is that sometimes the numbers don't take into account all factors.

A Christian Perspective on Rawls' "Theory of Justice"

Something about Rawls' "Theory of Justice" has been really bothering me since the time it was originally presented in class last week and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Essentially, it is supposedly the "fair" and "just" (i.e. moral) thing to do to design a government or future laws based on the original position and behind a veil of ignorance. It is a very clever proposition. But there is one problem: The persons making the laws or government would have to either all agree to voluntarily look through that same veil of ignorance, or they would have to be forced to do so. The latter is more likely; thus, from the outset, Rawls' theory negates free will. Even if everyone making the laws voluntarily agreed to look from behind a veil of ignorance, it would still undermine the free will of the members of society since they would be forced to adhere to the Rawls version of morality. It is a virtuous thing to feed the hungry and nurse the sick, but when we are forced to "be just and fair", the virtue is removed.

Another problem I see with it is that since I believe in God, Rawls' theory, if it were put into practice seeks to set up the Government as the way "God should have done it in the first place." In essence, the Government becomes a replacement for God.