The+CSU-Chico+experience

Wiki post #1 by Jennifer Shipley How the big events such as, the undie run, labor day float, Halloween, Saint Patrick’s, and any day they are going to give “extended weekends” which is two days that are furloughed in row on weekends, giving Chico students easier way to party, contribute to giving Chico the bad reputation, it effects the CSU Chico experience and how people view the school academically. This video school Chico on an average night in Chico, things can get out of hand and Chico is enforcing more rules, such as the horseback police. In 1994 CSU Chico was rated the number on party school and that has affected higher education at Chico because now students may not be here for the same reasons and now they might not do as well because people focus more on partying. The video interviews many people including the president of college, a nurse that works at the local hospital and the person in charge at the police department, who all have concerns about student’s party, health and grades. After watching videos like this I think it would be interesting to make my own video about Chico and show how partying can affect certain students more than others. Show how some people can party and still be responsible and promote their school and get 3.0’s, so they are not hurting the school and the education reputation of the school. []

Wiki post #2 by Jennifer Shipley  This article that I found shows the amazing statistic and how Chico is looked on by many others as such a great school with a high GPA and many other scores. For two years in a row Chico had been awarded the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. It think article fits well with my topic because it shows how when people say CSU Chico is only a party school that really we are more than that and we have the grades and the awards while still partying. Chico has many different types awards that explains Chico well I think and shows the education side and all the others as well: 6th Best Public Master's Level University in the West (2008) from U.S. News & World Report, 2nd Most Sustainable College Campus in the United States of America, in 2002 it was given the title 2nd party school in U.S., by Playboy and in 1987 it was given the title as 1st party school in U.S. by Playboy. I really do like the variety of these awards because the higher education of our school is excellent and we are a great school that gets awards anywhere from partying to our school academics. The article shows many of other great things about CSU Chico’s educational programs and how it grows in academics. []

Wikipost #2 by Trevor Bay [] I thought this was a pretty good article about the most popular misconceptions about college life. It explains how high school students think college is going to be when they attend. One of the first misconceptions it says is that the dorms is nice, which really they are not. I, personally, have not lived in the dorms but I’ve to a couple of my friend’s dorms, and let’s just say I would much rather have my apartment. Another misconception I liked from the article was that “everyone is involved with sororities and fraternities. There are indeed a lot of people in fraternities and sororities, but not as much as people think. Almost all of my friends and people I know are not it a fraternity or sorority. One misconception that even I thought was true before I came to Chico was that all the classes are taught by experienced professors. I think this is a common misconception because in movies and on TV there are always real smart professors teaching the class. Most of the classes in colleges are lectures or sometimes there are teacher assistants teaching part of the class. Only few of my classes I have professors. What people also don’t know is that a lot of college work, nowadays, is done online. I have had multiple classes where all my homework and all the quizzes and tests are online and I just meet with a professor or a lecture teacher for an hour per week.

Joshua Carvajal [] The article I found was interesting to me because it discusses student debt. Student debt has become a huge problem for many students and for students parents, this article talks about the hassle it is to go to a four year college on your own, Raya Golden hadn’t counted on taking out a $75,000 in student loans to pay for tuition, and on top of that she plans on keeping a part time job. She planned out her schedule for classes so she would be able to maintain a part time job by anticipating on being at the four year college for five years. Student debt has dramatically changed the way of college experience, for Raya Golden especially because this will not be much of an experience, because she will be putting every hour of the day studying to get the absolute most out of the 75,000 grand she’ll be paying long after graduating college assuming she gets a job out of college. There’s a good chance that Raya can fall behind or even becoming overwhelmed and become depressed as many students will. If this should happen this could be a major problem for her because she will be a lot of money in debt and yet still not necessarily capable of working for a high paying job. I find my self constantly overwhelmed with homework and working a part time job and I dont pay for my tuition, so i couldn't image what kind of stress Raya Golden must face with. With such large student debt many people have struggle with having great college experiences which is important when shaping a strong foundation to a successful life.

Wiki Post #2 by Ayaka Miyaji [] I think that charity work is a great idea to change public perceptions about college students. It would be better if the public could directly see college students actually doing charity work. By doing charity work such as teaching, having talks with elderly people or planting trees, people would eventually notice their misperception of college students. To that end, student should promote charity works. As I was looking for videos about charity works, I came across lots of videos which displaying drunk Chico students screaming at camera and raising a riot in town. At first glance, I thought it was funny, but then I grew disappointed. Many people know Chico state not for its academics, but for being a party school. People might think that Chico state is just a school to have fun at. This misperception is surely affecting what people think about college students. Who wants to help college students who look like they are not learning anything? Once this kind of misperception is firmly built up, it is hard to change it completely. It takes a lot of time and effect to undo negative actions of others. In the video, I found on YouTube, it introduces civic engagements in Chico state. According to the video, more than two thousand students were involved in volunteering. They introduce actual student’s activities in the video. For example, students went to New Orleans to rebuild homes destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Students also raised money for the St. Jude’s children’s Research Hospital and they were the number one fundraising school in the nation. These great facts should be known to the public, so colleges like Chico state are not thought to be non academic. I believe that these activities can make a difference to the public’s misperceptions.

Katrina Byrds Post #1 Often, the first thing that comes to mind when people talk about Chico State is the party scene. Many students come to Chico State with the hopes of partying it up often, and going to raging parties. However, in reading this article it expresses how students at Chico State drink larger amounts than they should. Chico State apparently has had many incidents with students dying of binge drinking. This partying mind set definitely hinders a student’s ability to do the best they can in the school aspect. A reported 59% of students binge drink at least once a week. That is more than half the students getting drunk every week. These students are paying a lot of money to get a higher education, yet are not really getting the full experience. How many students skip class because they are hung over? Most likely the numbers are pretty high. With the raise in tuition it is even more of a burden to pay for college, and for these kids to not even go to class is a complete waste of money. Sadly the state mandated furlough days have just become party days for students. So instead of sitting in class, Chico State students are just going to parties and getting drunk. No wonder the death rate is so high here. Binge drinking seems to be a very large problem at Chico State. Hopefully with the increase in tuition students will try and focus on school more to get all they can out of college. [|Article]

Lillian Kotlarz post 2 [] When I came to college I definitely had expectations of what everything would be like. What I thought my roommate could possibly be like, the dorm life, and just basically having school become my new home. Although my certaine expectations were met some were not and I had to learn how to deal with that. This website has articles about everything you could possibly be wondering when moving on campus. It's a good source for incoming students to look at and to take into consideration when wanting to live on campus, or living in an apartment. A large part of being in college is being able to be enough of an adult to take care of yourself and to handle situations that come your way in an appropriate manner, but a lot of the time we don't really know what to do... how to solve a certain conflict. This webiste really talks all about potential anything.... anything that could happen. Incoming freshman sometimes dont realize that they will be getting into situations that arent to there liking or that they dont know how to handle and this webiste/ all of the articles on this webiste really act a guide in helping students be able to function affectively at there university.

Katrina Byrd Post #2 [|Chico State Halloween Article] Most people know that Halloween in Chico is a large event. People from all over come up to Chico to “party it up”. But what most do not realize is how much this Halloween weekend affects the university. The article I chose was called “An Exercise in Controlled Chaos”. It talks about how the university has started to step in to ensure Halloween doesn’t get to out of hand. In all the dorms the residents were informed that they would not be allowed to have any guests. This is one way that the university is trying to keep the campus under control. The university sent out emails to all the students advising them on how to have a safe weekend. They even created commercials giving students tips on partying. The university is spending money on trying to keep the students safe when that money could be going towards other things. The reputation that Chico has earned makes everyone want to come to Chico for Halloween. However, this is putting a toll on the university. Halloween weekend also happens to lie right around the time of midterms. But many students don’t even attend class right around the time of Halloween because of all the festivities going on. It is horrible that Halloween is so big in Chico that even the university is spending money to keep it under control. That money could be spent on things to further our higher education. This article really gave you a look into how Halloween affects Chico State.

John Endres Wiki Post # 2 - public perception http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chico+state&search_type=&aq=f It’s always difficult for people to change public opinion. Politicians devote millions of dollars campaigning during elections, they bring together the best minds in marketing to create adds, write slogans and create push polls in the hope of altering the conceptions, or misconceptions held by the public in order to sway said conceptions in their favor. Suffice to say, changing public opinion is a daunting task. This has become increasingly true in recent years given the advancement of the Internet, and increase in the speed of information transit. People now look to websites when forming (semi)educated opinions rather than other people; this is largely due to an increasingly skeptical population and a misconception that the Internet is a neutral source of information.

Because of this, I believe that manipulating public opinion is best done through the Internet. For instance, if one is to search “Chico State” on YouTube, top search results include videos titled “College Crashers Part 2 – Chico State”, “Chico State back on Playboy” etc. Clearly, the party reputation we have stands. Given that many people use YouTube as an information source, and thus form their opinions based on videos hosted, having YouTube promote videos of Chico State students participating in athletic events, debate tournaments, political rallies, community service events etc., rather than partying would be a viable strategy for changing the perception of Chico State being a party school. Obviously this would be exceedingly expensive, given the popularity of the website. However, it is still worth considering. If people are to view college students coming from a school with a “party reputation” as a bad thing, there is a problem. It appears to me that people are often judged by the college they attend. If such a reputation stands, and is disliked by anyone it could be a detriment to a graduate’s future.

On the other hand, many people think of not only Chico State as a party school, but other schools too. Many people think of the entire college experience as a party. It seems to me that those who hold this opinion are older, and that they are perhaps romanticizing their college experience and applying it to that of others. I cannot count how many times I have heard older people say that college was “the best time in my life”. Maybe graduates are jealous that college is so awesome and they wish they were still attending a university, rather than sitting at a desk. In this case, such a reputation may not be such a bad thing.

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I think that Chico State has improved a lot from its dark past as a complete party school. Stories still stick around though, and they influence how many people perceive the school. This is the story oh the guy who died while he was pledging for a fraternity. He was forced to drink gallons of water and sprayed with cold water in the basement of a frat house. His body couldn’t take the massive amounts of water and his cells burst and killed him. Stories like this don’t get swept under the carpet. People remember these things that happen, all of the stories of drunken college kids who set couches on fire and start riots. It is good that Chico’s partying has cooled in recent years. It can show people that students are getting more serious about their studies and that hopefully the output of graduates from Chico will better the world.======

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Looking at graduation rates for students is very encouraging however. The rate is slowly climbing and more and more students are graduating. This is great except most people will judge before knowing this, and it will be harder for many Chico State graduates to get a job. They will always have to deal with people talking. I think the best thing to do is just keep doing what we are doing, improving. We are already known for our tremendous attempts to help the environment with recycling, and using recycled materials. This is great for the university, it shows that the people at Chico have a passion about something, and that is where it needs to start, and someday in the future students at Chico State will not be judged so harshly about where they attend college.======

Wiki Post #2 http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/chemicaldependency/a/etoh0104_2.htm Public perceptions of college students in my opinion always involve the terms “drunk” and “lazy” or perhaps even the term “careless”. These are perceptions that have remained with society for a long time and won’t change, simply because students don’t care about drinking norms. What are effective ways to counter these perceptions? Well I believe there aren’t many ways to do this since some are true. Recent college alcohol study reports have found that four in five college students drink alcohol and two in five engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking is the consumption of five or more drinks in a row at least once in the past two weeks for men, and four or more drinks in a row for women. This research shows binge drinking is associated with lower grades, vandalism, and physical and sexual violence. The statistics show everything. You can’t change them and I do believe students abuse drinking norms making perceptions society have of us true. Relative to the statistics of college drinking, social norms that are created to stop drinking problems on campuses aren’t effective since drinking behaviors by students are more influenced by their perceptions of friends' drinking behaviors than by social norms campaigns that encourage students to "go along with the crowd”. So what can we do? How do we get these social norms campaigns to be more affective? Alcohol will always be a component that Students and college perceptions will remain the same, since society doesn’t know what it feels like to be in the shoes of a student. I believe the key is to teach students to drink in a more responsible way in order to reduce the likelihood of negative consequences for the individuals and the community. Creating mandatory AlcoholEdu programs for freshman students is a very important as well. -Mario Chavarria

Wiki Post #2 John Brunk Public perceptions can be the make or break of a school, for example Stanford University is very highly regarded in the public eye, it is viewed as a prestigious. Now quite frankly Chico State is regarded as a party school in the majority of the public eye. When People think of the typical Chico State student they think of a student who has their degree in Partying. This frustrates me so much because I want my school to have a good name and our campus is so much more than that. It is so much more than people see. I believe that a good way to get people to really see the just of Chico State is to have them see how it is in our shoes. Do a live documentary of a day in the life. This will not only get people to see that college is just a huge sleep over, But actually a place where people want to expand their knowledge and make a career. Studies and surveys should be put in place by the school to show what is going on internally and how students are really trying to learn and expand intellectually. For example a weekly paper could be made to show residents what the school is all about. This is not only so narrow as to Chico State. This goes for all colleges. We as the students of Colleges want our school to be well represented and looked down upon. With more positive publicity we can achieve a better public view on the whole college experience as a whole. -John Brunk