First-year students are required to stay on campus, but while living out the rest of their time at the University of New England Chapel Hill, they have the option to live off campus. While living on campus can have its own sets of pros and cons, students are passionate in urging others to stay on campus for as long as possible. While it is a great incentive to be able to live on your own, and have your own home cooked meals while having a sense of independence, the college relationship fades. You are now roommates with your chosen group and neighbors. The second classes end, you are going back to your own house, surrounded by the same people. Most times, old friends will not reconnect and it is hard to spend time with others. The angle of this article is to make more of an effort as an off-campus student to stay on campus. This has proven beneficial in taking part in student gatherings and campus activities, which supports why students chose to be part of the UNC Chapel Hill community in the first place.
The North-South Bus Rapid Transit is the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill transit system. This is how students are able to commute across campus and is a project that has taken 15 years to get to the point it is at today. Last month, the North-South Bus Rapid Transit System received an additional $24 million federal investment on top of the federal funding they have already received. Brian Litchfield, the Chapel Hill Transit Director, has said this project is not yet complete, and is in a 60% design process. This is a newly defined design structure which is a procedure that shows the next level costs and engineering efforts. To complete the entire bus system, Litchfield believes they need more than $140 million more. The end goal of this project is to improve the infrastructure of pedestrians and cyclists. Additionally, they plan to do more construction on the roads, by adding multi-use paths and sidewalks for walking and biking. This fare-free bus is a way students can attend interviews, meetings and go to the grocery store. Depending on federal funding, Litchfield says construction could start as early as 2027.
This was a different article to read, it talks about what Duke is doing to offset there carbon admission, as well as reduce. There are couple ways that Duke is trying to do this, one way was gaining carbon neutrality. This is was done by helping reduce carbon waste and admission in other areas, the offset. Which is troubling due to the fact that Duke, on its current path, will have the purchase 25 more years worth of carbons offsets to keep carbon neutrality. Many members of the community of Duke believe, when this process was first introduced, would be reducing their carbon foot print at the University. Which is not necessarily has happened, there are some efforts but not in the way that it was originally portrayed. Overall, there is a plan to achieve their goal, with the hope for better understanding.
This a good article to read, it is about an up-and-coming politician. She is based out of North Carolina, she never thought she would be a politician but she was able to do things for the state from her short time office thus far. She talks about how she became a politician and her experience being a democrat within a traditionally red state. She helped a good few of people with their campaigns across the states and she helped turn some of her home states offices to be majority blue. When she started her career of politics she wanted to get back to the roots of her community. One of the things she talks about for article is the need for the rural areas to heard in way they haven’t been in a long time. She wants to encourage conversation between those within their community and show the young voters that can make change and be apart of this change.
This article is not intended to stir controversy but bring the deep underlying truth about UMass Amherst to light. Every semester tuition rises and housing increasingly becomes more expensive. The University stays aware of this issue but continues to respond with only half-measured solutions. The University’s systems are meant to support students are either unfunded, inaccessible, or just straight up broken. The author of this article resonates with this issue personally and struggles to scrap enough money together for next semester. The continuous skyrocketing of cost to attend the school leaves students with an impossible choice but to pay more in order to continue attending. Students are barely getting by with housing not being affordable and financial aid not giving enough. Students are skipping meals, rationing the little food they are given weekly. Admin announced future plans to open a food pantry in the fall of 2025. Another thing students have to worry about is financial penalties. This means if you miss one tuition payment your entire education is put on hold, “if you can’t pay, you can’t stay”. People outside this struggle don’t quite understand what it feels like to have your school tell you that your intelligence and eagerness to learn doesn’t matter, instead your future is dependent on whether you can come up with enough money in such little time to pay your bills. Many students are forced to balance jobs along with classes due to this problem. The university will allow you to fall and no one is doing anything to help or fix this. If enough students come together to protest, a change will emerge.
On March 1st, UMass’ Men’s Lacrosse brings victory home with a 10-9 final score. This is now the UMass’ Minutemen’s 4th consecutive win. During the first game for the Gorillas they did a good job staying in the lead until UMass made a comeback with only 1:50 on the clock remaining. Junior, Aiden Drunsic operated a play that put Minutemen in the lead by dishing a pass to Trace Hogan who then scored the winning goal. There was a pushing penalty on Brady Hoff giving Albany an opportunity to tie the game but they fumbled. Unbeaten Freshman goalie, Owen Salanger had made a critical stop for Mass on Saturday. Salanger is currently 5th in the nation in goals against average. He finished the game against the Great Dances with 13 saved for the third time this season. Things weren’t looking to hot for Minutemen when Albany had the first 3 goals of the game. Towards the end of the first quarter, Zach Auble came down rushing down the field passing to Hogan who scored UMss its first goal of the game. Minutemen’s star players of the game, Matthew Cargiulo, Robbie Granada, Charles Kurtz, John Krisch, and Trace Hogan all put in the work to bring their school to victory. On March 8th, UMass will return to the field to go head to head with Vermont.
Cam Skattebo named as defendant in 2023 lawsuit by former teammate
A new story emerges surrounding ASU football star and 2025 NFL draft prospect, Cam Skattebo. A teamate of Skattebo who was on the teams roster in 2022 named Mattheos Kategaris alleges that the two of them where riding a golf cart together after practice when everything went wrong. He states that Skattebo was jumping up and down on the rear of the golf cart, causing the bench of the cart to break and Kategaris to fall off. This gave Kategaris a “serious bodily injury” and resulted in months of medical care. Skattebo is now being sued for 300,000 dollars in damages as Kategaris claims he was the “actual and proximate cause” of the injurys he sustained. The story continues to develop as a solution has not been reached.
Dieting trends are taking over TikTok, raising misinformation and mental health concerns
As more and more people continue to be consumed by the information on their devices daily, the same goes for health advice. However, their is a huge issue surrounding the wrong advice being presented in large quantities online. This issue has started to poke its head on Tik Tok since the start of the Covid Pandemic and only gotten worse. Karson Taylor, a freshman studying nursing has noticed that diet trends on Tik Tok such as extreme veganism and the carnivore diet, are causing people to give up key nutrients like carbs. She goes on to explain the toxicity of the “one size fits all” mindset in Tik Tok nutrition videos. Taylor Zwall, the President of the Cultivate Downtown Gardening Club at ASU weighs in; “It’s all about figuring out what works for you and what you like doing, because if you like doing it, then you know you’re more likely to be consistent and achieve whatever results you’re trying to achieve,”. Claiming that a lot of what we see online is misinformation, and you should listen to your own body instead of someone on your phone.
Springchella’s ‘Spring Spotlight Competition’ determines student performers to open for Jordan Ward | LIFE+ARTS | laloyolan.com
A couple months ago it was announced an event called Springcella would be happening in the warmer months. It’s essentially a music festival put on in hopes to boost spirits and morale on campus. Following the news of the event another event was announced called the ‘Spring Spotlight Competition’ to determine would perform ahead of Spingcellas headliner who is Jordan Ward. The competition spans two nights and has four ‘winners’. The winners were decided on a vote on February 17 which chose one singer and one rapper and then again on February 21 which chose two different bands. One of the singers was Ryan Werner and a rapper named Jay Hollywood. The winning student bands were Midfield Avenue and Ultra Violet. The competition was also good exposure for the artists competing, even the ones who didn’t win. They were able to showcase their talents and gather new fans. Regardless there is a lot of excitement for the upcoming Springcella event.
We have Hogwarts at home: LMU Theatre’s ‘Puffs’ parodies a childhood classic | LIFE+ARTS | laloyolan.com
The LMU theatre club put on a production called “Puffs” which is a parody of the 7 original Harry Potter movies. The whole thing is 2 and half hours long and is a speed run through all the movies. ‘Puffs’ in this play was the subbed in word for wizard. Due to copyright reasons some of the terminology was changed such as muggles turned to mugborns and Dobby to Bippy. The play was a comedy but there were also dramatic elements such as struggle to belong, fights scenes, and lost love. Some of the actors had to learn magic tricks for the show for an added bit of flare. The show concluded with a heartfelt note on learning that following one’s own path is the best one and to appreciate their unique gift as ‘puffs’ and not to feel the need to compare themselves to one another.
Quaker Commitment boosts aid to $328M, tuition rises 3.7%
On Thursday, school officials announced an increase to financial aid of 6.4% to a record $328 million. This goes along with the new financial aid program titled ‘The Quaker Commitment” which focuses on support for middle-income families. Today 46% of undergraduates receive financial assistance with 21% receiving Pell grants.
As part of the Quaker Commitment, the income for families to receive full undergraduate tuition will increase to $200,000 and the value of the family home will no longer be included in the assets being reviewed. Interim Penn President Larry Jameson believes that Penn’s reputation will improve by making a Penn education more widely available to lower and middle income families, “A greater number of students will receive full tuition with the increased financial aid package. We’re pleased to do this even with the financial uncertainty of federal funding cuts.”
Potential federal budget cuts due to policy changes may impact financial aid. VP for finance and Treasurer of the Penn Division of Finance Mark Dingfield pointed to the University’s reliance on Pell Grants for undergraduate funding. “The Quaker Commitment comes at a critical time in our political world. We may need to address graduate program admissions with upcoming funding losses.”
The financial aid increase comes at the same time as the Board of Trustees approved a 3.7% tuition increase for undergraduates starting in the fall of 2025. This fall tuition will increase to $63,204 (up from $60,920), fees to $8,032 (up from $7,766) and room and board to $19,876 from $19,174.
Penn is not alone in the Ivy League in raising tuition as Yale and Brown announced undergraduate academic costs will go up by just under 4% and 4.85% respectively.
12 thoughts on “BLOG-PROJ 5”
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025/02/opinion-column-off-campus-housing-downfalls
First-year students are required to stay on campus, but while living out the rest of their time at the University of New England Chapel Hill, they have the option to live off campus. While living on campus can have its own sets of pros and cons, students are passionate in urging others to stay on campus for as long as possible. While it is a great incentive to be able to live on your own, and have your own home cooked meals while having a sense of independence, the college relationship fades. You are now roommates with your chosen group and neighbors. The second classes end, you are going back to your own house, surrounded by the same people. Most times, old friends will not reconnect and it is hard to spend time with others. The angle of this article is to make more of an effort as an off-campus student to stay on campus. This has proven beneficial in taking part in student gatherings and campus activities, which supports why students chose to be part of the UNC Chapel Hill community in the first place.
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2025/02/city-chapel-hill-transit-funding-award
The North-South Bus Rapid Transit is the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill transit system. This is how students are able to commute across campus and is a project that has taken 15 years to get to the point it is at today. Last month, the North-South Bus Rapid Transit System received an additional $24 million federal investment on top of the federal funding they have already received. Brian Litchfield, the Chapel Hill Transit Director, has said this project is not yet complete, and is in a 60% design process. This is a newly defined design structure which is a procedure that shows the next level costs and engineering efforts. To complete the entire bus system, Litchfield believes they need more than $140 million more. The end goal of this project is to improve the infrastructure of pedestrians and cyclists. Additionally, they plan to do more construction on the roads, by adding multi-use paths and sidewalks for walking and biking. This fare-free bus is a way students can attend interviews, meetings and go to the grocery store. Depending on federal funding, Litchfield says construction could start as early as 2027.
https://cstickney.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj/
https://mmcdermott7.uneportfolio.org/us-department-of-education-expands-pell-grant-funding-for-incarcerated-students-criticism-remains/
https://mmcdermott7.uneportfolio.org/photo-essay-a-love-letter-to-us-berkeley-on-film/
Week 5 – Feb 25-28
Article 1 – Duke to be carbon neutral again in 2025, long-term approach still in the works – https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025/02/duke-university-carbon-neutral-again-2025-purchase-carbon-offsets-future-uncertain-reshaping-climate-strategy-2025-targets-carbon-reduction-resource-allocation-ad-hoc-committee
This was a different article to read, it talks about what Duke is doing to offset there carbon admission, as well as reduce. There are couple ways that Duke is trying to do this, one way was gaining carbon neutrality. This is was done by helping reduce carbon waste and admission in other areas, the offset. Which is troubling due to the fact that Duke, on its current path, will have the purchase 25 more years worth of carbons offsets to keep carbon neutrality. Many members of the community of Duke believe, when this process was first introduced, would be reducing their carbon foot print at the University. Which is not necessarily has happened, there are some efforts but not in the way that it was originally portrayed. Overall, there is a plan to achieve their goal, with the hope for better understanding.
Article 2 – Meet Anderson Clayton, leader of North Carolina’s Democrats and the youngest state party chair in the country – https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025/02/duke-university-anderson-clayton-north-carolina-youngest-state-party-chair-political-organizing-reelected-rebuild-democratic-party
This a good article to read, it is about an up-and-coming politician. She is based out of North Carolina, she never thought she would be a politician but she was able to do things for the state from her short time office thus far. She talks about how she became a politician and her experience being a democrat within a traditionally red state. She helped a good few of people with their campaigns across the states and she helped turn some of her home states offices to be majority blue. When she started her career of politics she wanted to get back to the roots of her community. One of the things she talks about for article is the need for the rural areas to heard in way they haven’t been in a long time. She wants to encourage conversation between those within their community and show the young voters that can make change and be apart of this change.
https://dailycollegian.com/2025/02/umass-amherst-is-failing-its-students/
This article is not intended to stir controversy but bring the deep underlying truth about UMass Amherst to light. Every semester tuition rises and housing increasingly becomes more expensive. The University stays aware of this issue but continues to respond with only half-measured solutions. The University’s systems are meant to support students are either unfunded, inaccessible, or just straight up broken. The author of this article resonates with this issue personally and struggles to scrap enough money together for next semester. The continuous skyrocketing of cost to attend the school leaves students with an impossible choice but to pay more in order to continue attending. Students are barely getting by with housing not being affordable and financial aid not giving enough. Students are skipping meals, rationing the little food they are given weekly. Admin announced future plans to open a food pantry in the fall of 2025. Another thing students have to worry about is financial penalties. This means if you miss one tuition payment your entire education is put on hold, “if you can’t pay, you can’t stay”. People outside this struggle don’t quite understand what it feels like to have your school tell you that your intelligence and eagerness to learn doesn’t matter, instead your future is dependent on whether you can come up with enough money in such little time to pay your bills. Many students are forced to balance jobs along with classes due to this problem. The university will allow you to fall and no one is doing anything to help or fix this. If enough students come together to protest, a change will emerge.
https://dailycollegian.com/2025/03/lacrosse-notebook-umass-mens-lacrosse-comes-from-behind-to-beat-albany-10-9/
On March 1st, UMass’ Men’s Lacrosse brings victory home with a 10-9 final score. This is now the UMass’ Minutemen’s 4th consecutive win. During the first game for the Gorillas they did a good job staying in the lead until UMass made a comeback with only 1:50 on the clock remaining. Junior, Aiden Drunsic operated a play that put Minutemen in the lead by dishing a pass to Trace Hogan who then scored the winning goal. There was a pushing penalty on Brady Hoff giving Albany an opportunity to tie the game but they fumbled. Unbeaten Freshman goalie, Owen Salanger had made a critical stop for Mass on Saturday. Salanger is currently 5th in the nation in goals against average. He finished the game against the Great Dances with 13 saved for the third time this season. Things weren’t looking to hot for Minutemen when Albany had the first 3 goals of the game. Towards the end of the first quarter, Zach Auble came down rushing down the field passing to Hogan who scored UMss its first goal of the game. Minutemen’s star players of the game, Matthew Cargiulo, Robbie Granada, Charles Kurtz, John Krisch, and Trace Hogan all put in the work to bring their school to victory. On March 8th, UMass will return to the field to go head to head with Vermont.
https://aanthony5.uneportfolio.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=115&action=edit
https://ebrytowski.uneportfolio.org/2025/03/03/blog-proj-5/
BLOG PROJ 5
https://www.statepress.com/article/2025/03/skattebo-sued-case
Cam Skattebo named as defendant in 2023 lawsuit by former teammate
A new story emerges surrounding ASU football star and 2025 NFL draft prospect, Cam Skattebo. A teamate of Skattebo who was on the teams roster in 2022 named Mattheos Kategaris alleges that the two of them where riding a golf cart together after practice when everything went wrong. He states that Skattebo was jumping up and down on the rear of the golf cart, causing the bench of the cart to break and Kategaris to fall off. This gave Kategaris a “serious bodily injury” and resulted in months of medical care. Skattebo is now being sued for 300,000 dollars in damages as Kategaris claims he was the “actual and proximate cause” of the injurys he sustained. The story continues to develop as a solution has not been reached.
https://www.statepress.com/article/2025/02/tiktok-health-misinformation
Dieting trends are taking over TikTok, raising misinformation and mental health concerns
As more and more people continue to be consumed by the information on their devices daily, the same goes for health advice. However, their is a huge issue surrounding the wrong advice being presented in large quantities online. This issue has started to poke its head on Tik Tok since the start of the Covid Pandemic and only gotten worse. Karson Taylor, a freshman studying nursing has noticed that diet trends on Tik Tok such as extreme veganism and the carnivore diet, are causing people to give up key nutrients like carbs. She goes on to explain the toxicity of the “one size fits all” mindset in Tik Tok nutrition videos. Taylor Zwall, the President of the Cultivate Downtown Gardening Club at ASU weighs in; “It’s all about figuring out what works for you and what you like doing, because if you like doing it, then you know you’re more likely to be consistent and achieve whatever results you’re trying to achieve,”. Claiming that a lot of what we see online is misinformation, and you should listen to your own body instead of someone on your phone.
Springchella’s ‘Spring Spotlight Competition’ determines student performers to open for Jordan Ward | LIFE+ARTS | laloyolan.com
A couple months ago it was announced an event called Springcella would be happening in the warmer months. It’s essentially a music festival put on in hopes to boost spirits and morale on campus. Following the news of the event another event was announced called the ‘Spring Spotlight Competition’ to determine would perform ahead of Spingcellas headliner who is Jordan Ward. The competition spans two nights and has four ‘winners’. The winners were decided on a vote on February 17 which chose one singer and one rapper and then again on February 21 which chose two different bands. One of the singers was Ryan Werner and a rapper named Jay Hollywood. The winning student bands were Midfield Avenue and Ultra Violet. The competition was also good exposure for the artists competing, even the ones who didn’t win. They were able to showcase their talents and gather new fans. Regardless there is a lot of excitement for the upcoming Springcella event.
We have Hogwarts at home: LMU Theatre’s ‘Puffs’ parodies a childhood classic | LIFE+ARTS | laloyolan.com
The LMU theatre club put on a production called “Puffs” which is a parody of the 7 original Harry Potter movies. The whole thing is 2 and half hours long and is a speed run through all the movies. ‘Puffs’ in this play was the subbed in word for wizard. Due to copyright reasons some of the terminology was changed such as muggles turned to mugborns and Dobby to Bippy. The play was a comedy but there were also dramatic elements such as struggle to belong, fights scenes, and lost love. Some of the actors had to learn magic tricks for the show for an added bit of flare. The show concluded with a heartfelt note on learning that following one’s own path is the best one and to appreciate their unique gift as ‘puffs’ and not to feel the need to compare themselves to one another.
https://qraducha.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj-5/
https://jstevens20.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj/
Quaker Commitment boosts aid to $328M, tuition rises 3.7%
On Thursday, school officials announced an increase to financial aid of 6.4% to a record $328 million. This goes along with the new financial aid program titled ‘The Quaker Commitment” which focuses on support for middle-income families. Today 46% of undergraduates receive financial assistance with 21% receiving Pell grants.
As part of the Quaker Commitment, the income for families to receive full undergraduate tuition will increase to $200,000 and the value of the family home will no longer be included in the assets being reviewed. Interim Penn President Larry Jameson believes that Penn’s reputation will improve by making a Penn education more widely available to lower and middle income families, “A greater number of students will receive full tuition with the increased financial aid package. We’re pleased to do this even with the financial uncertainty of federal funding cuts.”
Potential federal budget cuts due to policy changes may impact financial aid. VP for finance and Treasurer of the Penn Division of Finance Mark Dingfield pointed to the University’s reliance on Pell Grants for undergraduate funding. “The Quaker Commitment comes at a critical time in our political world. We may need to address graduate program admissions with upcoming funding losses.”
The financial aid increase comes at the same time as the Board of Trustees approved a 3.7% tuition increase for undergraduates starting in the fall of 2025. This fall tuition will increase to $63,204 (up from $60,920), fees to $8,032 (up from $7,766) and room and board to $19,876 from $19,174.
Penn is not alone in the Ivy League in raising tuition as Yale and Brown announced undergraduate academic costs will go up by just under 4% and 4.85% respectively.