Initial Findings for Content Analysis

Content analysis
USI
Based on the headlines within the last month of the USI newspaper "The Shield"
Findings about USI so far. (work in progress)

The dominant issues: Sports, USI’s high executives (president), safety
The Dominant groups: Student Government Association (SGA), Student Ambassador Organization, Sports teams
Dominant values: Order, security, student concerns
Dominant political beliefs: Need more evidence
Under represented issues: Campus dinning, other USI sports groups. There are many groups and organizations at USI that are not well represented (groups that people don’t know about)

Initial data collected on USI from collegeboard.com
(work in progress)

Type of School
§ Public
§ Liberal Arts College
§ University
§ Four-year
§ Coed

Percent applicants admitted: 88%
§ Regionally Accredited
§ North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar: Semester

Degrees offered:
§ Associate
§ Bachelor's
§ Master's
§ Doctoral

Other characteristics: Credit courses offered at various off-campus sites in Evansville and surrounding areas.

Setting
§ Suburban setting
§ Small city (50,000 - 249,999)
§ Commuter campus

Size
§ Total undergrads: 9,320
§ First-time degree-seeking freshmen: 2,104
§ Degree-seeking undergrads: 9,137
§ Graduate enrollment: 806

1st-year students:
§ 93% In-state students
§ 7% Out-of-state students
§ 2% Part-time students
§ 60% Women
§ 40% Men
§ 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
§ 1% Asian/Pacific Islander
§ 7% Black/Non-Hispanic
§ 2% Hispanic
§ 87% White/Non-Hispanic
§ 1% Non-Resident Alien
§ 1% Race/ethnicity unreported
§ 9% in top 10th of graduating class
§ 27% in top quarter of graduating class
§ 60% in top half of graduating class
§ 12% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
§ 10% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
§ 11% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
§ 16% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
§ 30% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
§ 16% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49
§ 5% had h.s. GPA between 1.0 and 1.99

I also found a lot of information on Evansville at www.infoplease.com
I felt that the information would be too much to put on this blog.
I am having trouble understanding fully what Dr. Micer means about "making a claim about evansville?" I am not sure of what kind of information I'am looking for when sorting out the vast info on Evansville

Graduation Speech

To give a speech can be one of the most nerve wrecking events a person can experience in their life. It is said that next to death, public speaking is the most dreaded fear of many people. I was the salutatorian of my 2008 graduating high school senior class. This was a great honor form me, but also one that required me to give a speech on graduation day. I remembered how nervous I was before the graduation ceremony. I would walk around in circles and take deep breaths as I watched the clock draw closer and closer to the moment of truth. I slowly walked up to the stage and took my seat. As I watched the opening ceremony, my heart raced faster and faster until finally it was my turn to give my speech. At that point all that was going through my head was projecting my voice, enunciating, and trying to relax. I looked past the bright stage lights and saw a multitude of students and parents and other family members waiting to hear me speak. After I started giving the speech, my nerves calmed and I was able to finish the speech with confidence. As soon as I finished, I was finally able to relax and enjoy the rest of the ceremony. Looking back at my graduation speech, I realized that the experience had taught me a lot and helped change my outlook on many things.

Giving my graduation speech made me realized how quickly time goes by. As I stood on that podium it felt like it was just yesterday that I was a naive incoming freshman. The experience made me realize that I was indeed growing up and that I would not be a child forever. It made me realize that hard work does indeed pay of, and that it was important to start early in shaping one’s future. I realized that had it not been for the countless hours of studying and hard effort, I would not be standing on that stage speaking to my fellow peers. I learned that it was important to have a goal for the future and to use the present to take steps in reaching that goal. Looking back at the event I realize that nothing lasts forever for it was hard to believe that four years of high school had just gone by.

The lessons I learned from my graduation speech experience also helped change my view on the world. I realized how fleeting time could be and how it was very important to always make the best of it. The concept of passing time can be hopeful. The hopeful aspect of time lets one know that no condition is permanent. In other words no matter what a person might be going through, the situation would eventually come to pass. Although this raised the question, when that time finally comes to pass would we be better or worse than we were before? This made me realize how important our choices today are, for they determine the outcome of our future.

Political Compass

The political compass was described as a measure of attitudes and inevitable human contradictions to provide a more integrated definition of where people and parties are really at. Before the political compass, the right-left continuum was used to describe the political stance of people. On the left extreme of the continuum stood people who favored a collectivism view or communism, and on the right extreme stood people who favored a more libertarianism view. The flaw with the right-left continuum system is that it placed people based on their economic views and did not recognize the social aspect of political views. The political compass addressed this matter by incorporating a social continuum along with the economic continuum already used. On one extreme of the social continuum stood people with a centralized view of society or fascism, and on the other extreme stood people with a more liberal view of society or anarchism. The political compass test drew out the values of people through the use of many dilemma questions that could be argued both ways. Even though there were no right or wrong answers to the questions, I could not help but ask myself why I answered many of the questions the way I did.

According to the test, I was around the middle of the compass. I was not surprised by my results because I did not answer “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree” to any of the questions. I felt that since every question could be argued either way, I could not strongly position myself with one side of any question because I did want to ignore the arguments made for the other side of the question. What did surprise me though was the questions regarding sex because I did not see what they had to do with politics.

I am glad that I was around the middle of the compass and not to any extreme in any category. I feel that in the end what is right and what is wrong is all a matter of ones perspective. What I did not fully understand while taking the test, was whether it was my personal perspectives or the perspectives of my society and those around me that influenced my answers more.

To take the Political compass test, follow this link
http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis