Opinion
PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2014
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College costs cripple student population I consider finances when deciding what school to attend. While 75.5 percent of students analyzed were admitted into their first-choice school, only 56.9 percent enrolled, opting in favor of institutions that offered better financial aid packages or simply cost less. In fact, 45.9 percent of students said cost was a “very important” factor, up 14.9 percentage points over the last decade. The Obama Administration made new moves on Friday and proposed “gainful employment” policies to hold for-profit colleges and other career training programs responsible for producing graduates able to earn enough money to pay back student loans. The regulations are intended to protect students from accumulating great amounts of student-loan debt that they will be unable to repay after graduation. If finalized, the regulations would take effect in 2016. It is unlikely that these proposed changes will make a significant difference to Knox. She is a determined young woman who knows what she wants and how she is going to get it. To avoid devoting a great deal of her post-graduate years to repaying debt, Knox has found an alternative to loans. Knox resorted to working in the porn industry as a way of paying for an education at a prestigious school. According to Knox, a job as a sex worker is considerably profitable. The Duke student claims to earn
The New Perestroika
n March 4, following his invasion of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a telling press conference. Many Western commentators observing Russian actions toward Ukraine took the view that afWes ter the Olympics Kyatt Contributing in Sochi—and more than 23 Columnist years of a postSoviet Russia—Putin would calculate a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine to be against his interests. As it turns out, many Western commentators, including this one, may have been wrong. During the now infamous press conference, Putin displayed himself as someone who is at least perceiving reality very differently from the West, and at worst completely detached from reality altogether. Russian troops were storming Ukrainian military installations in Crimea as Putin denied Russia was involved militarily at all. “There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform,” Putin said. The squadrons storming Crimea weren’t Russian units; they were “local defense units.” Two weeks later, Russian military exercises were being conducted just off Ukraine’s eastern border. If observers were gullible enough to believe Putin at the time, Russian actions since then illustrate that scenario as unlikely. Putin has indicated beyond the shadow of a doubt that he and the United States are reading from different playbooks. President Barack Obama has correctly insisted upon a diplomatic solution,
Erin Holloway, senior in English and anthropology
The revelation of Duke University’s freshman porn star, whose chosen name is Belle Knox, shocked the nation with a scandalous tale of a female student paying for her tuition by working in the porn industry. It is not that she was remarkably public with her quirky, sexual lifestyle that Sophie shocked t he Nelson public, but inContributing stead the price Columnist of the highereducation she was struggling to pay for. In her interview with Piers Morgan, Knox revealed the cost of attendance for the 2013-2014 year at Duke University, including fees for tuition, room, board, books and personal expenses, is an estimated $61,404. Tuition alone is estimated to cost a little over $45,000 and Knox is not alone in her struggle with absurdly high fees. Students across the nation are under an immense amount of stress concerning payment of student debts. Currently more than 40 million Americans struggle with student debt. Students in the United States are more than $1.2 trillion in debt, making it nearly impossible for college graduates to start careers without financial burden. In further support of Knox’s argument against student loans being a suitable option, thousands of students are unable to repay their loans. According to a study by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, an increasing number of students
TECHNICIAN
$1,000 per scene, making her decision to be a sex worker somewhat plausible. Despite the ethical controversy of filming porn to pay the bills, one thing is for certain: It pays better than waitressing. The average waiter or waitress earns a median wage of $8.92 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about $357 per week, before taxes and assuming a 40-hour work week. Knox is not the only female using her body as a way to finance her postsecondary education. In 2008, a 22-yearold women’s studies major, under the assumed name of Natalie Dylan, publicized that she would sell her virginity to finance her college studies. Bids soared as high as $3.8 million. Two years later, an anonymous 19-yearold university student in New Zealand’s Northland region followed the trend and accepted a bid that placed a $32,000 price tag on her virginity to raise tuition money for school. In each case, these young women seem desperately in pursuit of any means possible to pay for college and support their futures. Although people may disagree on the methods these young women go about paying for their education, it is admirable how bold and determined they are in their pursuits to tackle the crippling debt of being a student. Send your thoughts to Neel at technician-viewpoint@ ncsu.edu.
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IN YOUR WORDS
while insisting that the vote in Crimea to join the Russian federation is illegitimate, resulting in intimidation from Moscow. U.S. economic sanctions put in place yesterday target specific officials, including those close to Putin and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The U.S. did not sanction Putin himself, leaving room to up the ante if the situation continues to escalate. Unfortunately, as indicated by the bruising the DOW took last Thursday, Russian banks have likely already anticipated sanctions. A vast amount of Russian money was taken out of the U.S. beforehand, and likely placed in London or Germany, where governments are more reticent to take action against the Kremlin. If the U.S. was beaten to the punch, it’s unlikely that Putin is going to stop his expansion with Crimea. Still, that doesn’t mean an invasion of Ukraine is imminent, although it’s a definite possibility. Putin may be acting irrationally according to a Western worldview, but if his goal is to reconstruct the former Soviet Union, it will require more than an invasion of a former territory. Russia will seek to frustrate U.S. interests via backchannels in places such as Syria and Iraq, where U.S. foreign policy is already shaky. If the U.S. doesn’t play its cards perfectly, distractions will gift Putin with the tool of surprise, which he will exploit yet again. If a Ukrainian invasion occurs, it must be met with military force by the U.S. and its allies. Part of the reason Putin continues to push the envelope during this crisis
has to do with the fact that he believes Obama is bluffing— a direct result of missteps on the “redline” in Syria. Mistakes such as that are unaffordable now. It’s not clear what the Russian president is thinking, but his previous attempt to annex Georgia in 2008 indicates he isn’t interested in reclaiming only one territory. The time has come to consider a systematic annexation of former territories piece by piece. In t he meantime, t he current level of economic sanctions is regarded by the Russians as “toothless” and “symbolic.” The U.S. should take severely drastic measures against Putin during what increasingly looks like the run-up to a military standoff. When this started, there was talk of boycotting the G20 and G8 summits. This is no longer appropriate. Instead, Russia should be barred from these groups altogether. The United Nations needs to consider possible actions against Russia, including the legitimacy of its Security Council seat. Finally, the U.S. needs to get the Navy out of the wild goose chase that is Malaysian Flight 370, and into the Black Sea. “Perest roi ka” l itera l ly means “restructuring.” As the Cold War ended, “perestroika” was the term for the policies that rebuilt Russia from the ashes of the Soviet Union. Now, in Putin’s hands, a new perestroika threatens to rebuild to Soviet Union from the ashes of sovereign states—that’s a liquidation of democracy the world can’t afford. Send your thoughts to Tim at technician-viewpoint @ ncsu.edu.
“Port City Java because I drink a lot of coffee and it’s close to where I live in Tucker.”
“Legal Service Office because it’s a good start to get help with a lawyer”
Adam Hamilton, freshman, biological sciences
Li Xiao graduate student, wood & paper science
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Which part of the newly opened section of Talley are you most excited about and why? BY SAM FELDSTEIN
Learning from Ukraine B
arricades of automobile tires and sandbags demarcate pathways across Kyiv’s Independence Square, towering rubble serve as a reminder that Ukraine’s revolution has yet to complete its rotation of power. Neel Mandavilli I carefully skirt around boxes of Contributing Columnist unused Molotov cock ta i ls a nd piles of unearthed bricks as I walk alongside Pavlov Bondarenko, an economics student at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. “I stayed up for over four days at one point,” Bondarenko confessed with a grin, the content of this conventional undergraduate revelation not nearly as revealing as its context.
Bondarenko was among the many students who stormed Independence Square in November 2013, their collective actions triggering the Euromaidan protests eventually leading to the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. While many Ukrainians contributed to the Euromaidan through financial provisions and crucial behindthe-scenes work, 19-year-old Pavlov positioned himself on the protest frontlines, heaving tires between barricade assembly lines and carrying those injured in clashes with riot police to safety. It was the resolution of young protestors like Pavlov that inspired countless Ukrainians to ac-
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tion, uniting many who had been dissuaded from political mobilization by the historical precedents of former failed revolutions. “When you are young… you think you can change the world,” said Yuriy Vitrenko, Managing Director at Ukrainian advisory firm AYA Capital. Vitrenko’s company provided financial support to university groups spearheading the initial 2013 protests, lending fax machines and tablets to aid students in their organizational efforts. Vitrenko, a former consultant and advisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Merril Lynch, eventually took to Kyiv’s streets to protest. He said his decision to participate was
fueled by the determination of Ukraine’s younger generation, who he said, “show[ed] by their example that they were not afraid.” For many demonstrators, the very act of engaging in demonstrations alongside thousands of fellow Ukrainians evoked the fearlessness that led Kyiv’s protests to reach peaks of 800,000 participants. “At first you start filming it on your phone. Then you start taking pictures of yourself, like doing selfies. And only then you understand that maybe it is really dangerous,” said Vitrenko. Da nger, however, was not enough to deter Pavlov from the revolution’s fore-
front. He points upward as we walk, motioning to a set of cathedral bells, recalling their ringing to awake sleeping protestors to the first waves of Berkut—the now dissolved Ukrainian special police, infamous for their police brutality. I am loosely reminded of Paul Revere’s midnight ride, and the tendons of historical importance attach themselves to our conversation. As the two of us, Ukrainian and American, reach the edge of the seemingly appropriately named Independence Square, I wonder what I would have done in Pavlov’s position. Revolution is easy to romanticize, and difficult to fully grasp without expe-
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riencing the full weight of a people’s disagreement with their government. In the United States, we are fortunate to have a regular, peaceful exchange of presidential power. Our favorable circumstances, however, cultivate an unfavorable complacency toward our civic and political responsibilities. As students such as Pavlov risk their lives to fight political corruption, we must question how we prioritize our own demands as students. If we must lose sleep, let it not be over this paper’s decision to forego its yearly comical edition. Send your thoughts to Sophie at technician-viewpoint@ ncsu.edu.
The Technician (USPS 455-050) is the official student newspaper of N.C. State University and is published every Monday through Friday throughout the academic year from August through May except during holidays and examination periods. Opinions expressed in the columns, cartoons, photo illustrations and letters that appear on the Technician’s pages are the views of the individual writers and cartoonists. As a public forum for student expression, the students determine the content of the publication without prior review. To receive permission for reproduction, please write the editor. Subscription cost is $100 per year. A single copy is free to all students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus. Additional copies are $0.25 each. Printed by The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Copyright 2014 by North Carolina State Student Media. All rights reserved.