OPINION
4 CRUSADER
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
—OUR VIEW
Campus Rave Alert Important When attending school, it is always important to be in the constant know of what is going on. No matter what the situation may be, staff and students need to be alerted. Realizing the importance of this, Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School uses the Rave Alert system. After talking to other colleges who use this system, SCCC administration decided it was flexible enough, and a rather easy way to alert all students and staff members. Rave Alert is a multi-message delivery system in which a message is delivered to all of those in its system after being authorized by an administrator or security officer. Those receiving the alerts can choose multiple devices ahead of time in which the alerts are sent to. It can be sent either directly to cell phones through a text message, or to iPods, laptops, desktops and tablets through email. Alerts can also be sent to social
sites and shown on the TVs in the hall. An audio emergency paging system allows for all buildings across campus to be reached with one phone call as well. “In one of our campus closings due to weather, we sent out 1,291 text messages in 3 seconds plus another 2340 emails in only 2 minutes” said Doug Browne, director of Multimedia Technology. Although SCCC has only used the Rave Alert for weather purposes, it is comforting to know how little of time it takes to relay a single message to huge amounts of people. Because of the type of world we are living in, it is especially necessary to have a safety plan for any given moment. The faster word gets out, more people have a chance to take precautions, which can then lead to more lives being saved. Browne could think of only one flaw to the Rave Alert system. “Probably the only one that I
Steps to Rave Alert Devices Page
can see is that some of the smaller carriers are not connected to the Rave Alert system, so messages cannot be delivered to them. Most major carriers, like AT&T and Verizon are connected but smaller ones may not be. “If someone has a carrier that we cannot get a text to, please have them come see the tech department and we will request that the carrier be added to the system.” In creating a safe environment, the amount of concern the college has for its faculty and students is very comforting. The fact that every teacher and student is automatically set up with the system makes for a more effective safety system. Although an impressive and effective system is set up to give warning or information, it is strongly encouraged for you to stay aware and take all safety precautions. Stay connected through email and all devices.
Wanelo. (“wah-neeloh,” from Want, Need, Love) is an online community for all of the world's shopping. A dozen years after the attacks took place, we were curious to see what our students and faculty remember from that sorrowful September day. Most of this year’s freshmen were only 5 or 6 years old when this disaster took place, minimizing the amount of students in years to come who will actually have personal memories of 9/11.
1 2
Go to sccc.edu, and in the top right corner you will click mycampus. Login to your portal.
3
4
Click on the red Rave Alert icon.
Choose the devices you want the alerts to relay to.
Edmodo. Helps connect all learners with the people and resources needed to reach their full potential.
What’s better?
Reddit. A source where you provide all the content for what’s new and popular on the web.
Blogger. Start blogging, and keep updated with all of your posts wherever you go.
Kristy Blair
A: What I remember of 9/11 is how everyone was in a rush to go get gas because they thought gas would go up.
#dontcryonfacebook #thismeanswar #stop #stoptweeting #likeus #cantwegetalong #tweettweet #war #enemies #socialmedia #throwpunches #bothblue #choosingsides #ihatethis #sorrynotsorry #birdy #like #thenextbigthing #cagefights #juststopthis
Vine. A videosharing app, designed to record short films in seperate instances and then linked together in a total of six seconds.
Tumblr. A blogging app where you can post or reblog anything from anywhere. From images, text, video, links, and quotes.
Social Networking War
Crusader illustration/Maria Lara
Angel Dominguez A: I was in second grade during 9/11, and the first time I heard about it was when we were coming home from a bowling party from school, and when I got home my mom was crying.
#choosingsides
Maria Lara Evan Allen A: I was in school in New Jersey when 9/11 happened and I remember our school getting locked down for two hours and they wouldn’t let you leave till your parents picked you up.
Alex Musgrove A: I was a freshman in high school when 9/11 happened. I remember being at school and going from one building to the commons area to see TVs lined up and turned to the news. I also remember going to work and trying to find a parking spot because there was a line outside because there was a gas station next to where I worked and everyone was trying to pump gas.
Photos and interviews by Zulema Duran
Becky Helm A: What I remember about 9/11 is working at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, and all I remember is there being silence, and it went on for days.
Crusader staff lara@crusadernews.com
It’s evident that Facebook is at the top of social networking charts worldwide. Though Twitter’s percentage of users is rising drastically. At the same frequency level, these two rival sites are attracting more and more users every day. Justin Smith stated on insidefacebook.com, “If Facebook were a country, it would now have the fourth largest population in the world”, while Twitter is receiving 135,000 new subscribers every day. Now, what is it that is making Facebook users turn to Twitter? Although these two networks share some of the same purposes, it’s the differences that attract certain users. Both Facebook and Twitter have advantages as well as downfalls. Facebook goes beyond the physical boundaries. It helps keep in touch with all your distant family members and still be informed on their day-to-day doings. You can also decide who to
share your personal information with. Although, No matter what your privacy settings are on, you can never be guaranteed complete privacy. Facebook is a place to share your ideas and expand on your thoughts to other fellow Facebook users. If used efficiently, Facebook can benefit in the education field and help students have discussions about school assignments. Regardless of all the pros of Facebook, every up has a down. For Facebook users, privacy can be on the top of people’s concerns. Even though you can set the account settings for extra privacy, many people overlook that tiny detail and then later rant on about the fact that they have little or no privacy online. And I’m sure we can all agree on the fact that Facebook can easily lead to procrastination. “It’s Facebook. I can post whatever I want,” people say. Misuse of that freedom to post does occur, and it leads to postings of absurd things and sharing inappropriate images or posts that, in all honesty, your friends do not need to see. Then there’s the whole bullying situations, especially the cases that involve kids committing suicide after being cyberbul-
lied on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. “I only log in to Facebook to upload photos and keep in touch with my family. Twitter is just a quicker way to communicate with my friends,” Andrea Sitter, a sophomore at Seward County Community College, said. So does the good outweigh the bad? In all reality, we can never fully protect everyone from all of the violence in the world, whether it be online or in society. On the other end of the table, we have Twitter. Where life is sticky sweet and to the point. Twitter has the advantage of handling who you want seeing your tweets or who you want to access your profile by simply setting your profile on private. But just like Facebook, you can still see the retweets of those you are following, even when you are not following them to start with. Twitter allows you to follow your favorite celebrities and know for a fact that it is not some phony account by some obsessed fan, by simply looking for the verification icon next to the name of the celebrity. “Twitter is so much more efficient when it comes to communicating with other people. More direct,” Megan Armstrong, a freshman at Seward County
Community College, said. However, if you like posting novel long statuses, Twitter may not be right for you. Twitter limits users to 140 characters per tweet. You also cannot see videos on Twitter, or post more than one link on to your tweet, whereas on Facebook you can upload numerous video and photos at the same time. You can say that Twitter is more precise when you tweet because your followers can instantly see your tweet as soon as you press the send button. That creates a less of a privacy issue, but that is the beauty of having your profile set to private. You can choose who you want seeing your tweets. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t look like Facebook is going away in the distant future. Also, Twitter doesn’t look like it will be giving up the fight for runnerup anytime soon. In the grand scheme of these two opposing social networks, you can say that they both have contributions that benefit different people in different ways. It just depends on how you want to see it, use it, and access it. Facebook and Twitter will be up against each other for quite some time.
Ideal state involves some randomness, so plans are best left flexible Matthew Adkins Crusader staff adkins@crusadernews.com
One of the biggest problems faced by young adults entering college is picking a major. Very few people have the luxury of knowing what they want to do for the rest of their life, and many of those that think they do
will end up changing majors at some point anyway. Not knowing such an important detail can be quite stressful to some. Having a five-year plan helps but sometimes things don’t go according to the plan. If I had followed the five year plan that I made five years ago, I would be in a Marine marching band in Japan right now. Instead, I’m in the process technology program here in Liberal, a program I didn’t even know about until a few months ago, and I will be teaching a col-
lege course at the age of 20. These things were definitely not part of any five-year plan I’ve made before now, but it has worked out very well for me. I am not where I thought I would be but I am glad that I am here. I still don’t know what I want to do for the rest of my life but I have come to realize that there are people who are 20 years into their careers who still don’t know what they want to do. My advice to new college students is to not panic about choosing a major or what job you will
have in five years. The worst thing a person can do is nothing, it won’t be a complete waste of time if you take a few philosophy classes before deciding to become a photographer or engineer. Try to plan, but be flexible in your planning and always take time to try something new. The best way to meet people and gain new skills is to try new things. It’s possible that in one year you will be in a place you didn’t expect you would be. This is a good thing and taking
advantage of new and strange experiences is a great way to grow and learn. Activities, clubs, events and meeting the wide variety of people who attend SCCC are all ways to put yourself out there and set yourself up for success and learn about yourself as well as others. Participating in the world is the only way to improve yourself and discover. Self improvement should be the goal of every young person and ideally you should be in an unexpected place or situation every so often.
A physicist might describe self improvement as reducing entropy, or randomness; however, I think the ideal state involves some randomness. The bottom line of everyone’s college experience should be learning and improving. The exact details cannot always be controlled or predicted, but as long as a person does not withdraw into their own world then he or she will learn and improve.