Marriage Pressure Weighs on Brigham Young Students
By Lani Dame
The Daily Universe
(U-WIRE) PROVO, Utah – Seventy-five percent of the Birgham Young University student body is single, yet marriage is a common topic of discussion, banter and concern.
“In a culture and religion which puts a priority on family and marriage, many people feel a sense of urgency,” said Richard Moody, assistant clinical professor of counseling psychology at the Counseling Center.
Moody said some pressure from bishops and professors does exist, but it’s not as common as students believe.
Becca Demary said there is more pressure to date and get married in BYU’s environment than at home because people have similar values here.
On the other hand, Brett Stalling said though he dates more at BYU than at home, he does not feel more pressure to get married.
“It’s better to wait,” Stallings said. “You’re only single for a very short time and married for eternity, so enjoy it.”
Randy Bott, professor of religion, said he has observed the difference between pressures at BYU compared with other schools.
While teaching at Duke and North Carolina State, Bott said he noticed the students were more career oriented and the pressure to date and marry young was not as great compared to BYU.
“You live in a society where there are certain windows imposed by society on what is the optimal time to get married and date,” Bott said.
Students need to be aware of these societal windows, he said.
Bott came up with a theory based on his observations called the “windows of opportunity” that gives an age range in which men and women have the best opportunity to get married.
For women the age range is between 20 and 24. For men, the age range is from 21 until 28, he said.
This may be too young, according the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000. The median age at first marriage for those 15 years and older was 25.1 for women and 26.8 for men.
Bott said that he is in favor of students waiting until they know that they are on the same page socially, religiously and intellectually before marriage in order to prevent problems and divorce.
“We jump in and out of marriage like we jump in and out of the shower,” Bott said.
Moody agreed people should wait until they are emotionally mature enough to understand the commitment that comes with marriage.
“Instead of thinking of it in terms of age, consider if a person is developmentally mature enough to take on that kind of commitment, desires to share their life with someone in an equal way, ” Moody said.
It is important that the couple get to know each other and spend quality time together, he said.
Boston Professor Promotes National Work Napping Day
By Jessica Stone
The Daily Free Press
(U-WIRE) BOSTON – Boston University professor Bill Anthony is on a mission to improve employee performance in America’s workplaces.
Anthony, director of the Sargent Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, isn’t seeking salary hikes for employees, nor is he looking to shorten the workday.
He just wants workers to take a nap.
In fact, Anthony’s passion for the midday siesta is so strong that he and his wife Camille, a fellow “nap-aholic,” have built their own napping empire. Three years ago the two came up with the concept of having a National Workplace Napping Day, which will be held this year on April 8.
With an estimated half of the American population suffering from sleep deprivation, Anthony said naps are an obvious and logical solution.
“The majority of Americans are sleep deprived and suffer from it in terms of lost workdays, accidents and an inability to be as productive as they might be,” Anthony said.
With so many workers performing potentially dangerous jobs, the Anthonys hope National Workplace Napping Day will increase awareness about the benefits of napping. They want employers to encourage and even mandate their employees to nap.
Though many Americans are still unaware of the advantages of napping, some companies are.
Yarde Metals, a distribution company headquartered in Bristol, Conn., may be the ideal nap-friendly company. Each of the company’s six facilities offers a designated napping area, and employees also sleep at their desks or in their cars.
The napping policy, which marketing manager Susan Kozikowski says is “on the honor system,” has proven successful. “Because of the nap, the thought process improves,” Kozikowski said.
In addition, crew members for the Union Pacific Railroad are now allowed to nap for up to 45 minutes when the train is stopped and many airline pilots now take turns napping during long flights.
Anthony hopes napping will spread to a variety of fields and professions.
“The airlines and railroads understand the financial loss if someone misses a signal on a runway,” Anthony said. “We haven’t done a good job of taking that down to someone making life-or-death decisions.”
This year, some companies are using National Workplace Napping Day to raise money and promote their unusual company perk.
QuaLife, a non-profit wellness center for terminally ill patients in Denver, Colo., is hosting its third annual Napathon Snooze-off to raise money for the center.
Balls Replace Bubbles in Latest New York Liquid Craze
By Andria Lam
Washington Square News
(U-WIRE) NEW YORK – Mary Bigloo, 20, was among the uninitiated.
“I would always see people in the street having it and I would imagine what it must taste like,” the New York University student said.
One weekend she could contain her curiosity no longer. Upon the insistent urging of a friend, Bigloo took the plunge. She ordered her first bubble tea.
“It’s not bad,” she said, sipping a honey green tea with tapioca. “These tapioca balls are kind of space-age. I feel like I’m in the future.”
Bubble tea – also known as tapioca milk tea, boba tea and pearl tea, among other names – has hit New York City in full force. Originating from Taiwan approximately 15 years ago, the beverage made the jump across the ocean about five years ago and has gained a loyal fan base in cities like Vancouver, British Columbia; Seattle; the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Within the past two years, however, at least a dozen different establishments have turned up in New York, delighting customers ever since.
On Mott Street in Chinatown, there are seven bubble tea outlets within three blocks of each other. The cafes opened in rapid succession about two years ago, after Asian bakeries began adding the drink to their menus and found success with the new trend.
One bubble tea cafe chain, Sago Tea Cafe, runs a shop in Queens and another at the South Street Seaport Mall. Another tea chain, Ten Ren, operates three shops in Brooklyn, Queens and Chinatown. Saint’s Alp Teahouse also can be found in Brooklyn, Chinatown and the East Village.
But what is bubble tea? The classic form of the beverage consists of black tea with milk, sugar or syrup and marble-sized, dark tapioca balls that sink to the bottom of the glass and are sucked through an extra-wide straw. The drink itself may come in a variety of forms and flavors, from lattes and milkshakes to ginseng with honey and fruit flavors like green apple and kumquat.
What makes the drinks special, though, are the ubiquitous tapioca pearls. Made of cassava root, sweet potato and brown sugar, the tapioca balls have a gummy, chewy texture. The taste by itself is not much, but when combined with the drink, it is pure heaven for its devoted followers.
“I love bubble tea,” said Chris Teng, 20, a Cornell University student. “It’s fun to drink.”
Two different bubble tea cafes have opened near Cornell’s Ithaca, N.Y., campus. Teng is a frequent customer of both shops.
“It reminds me of being back in the city,” said Teng, a New York native.
Peter Ng, manager and co-owner of Saint’s Alp Teahouse on Third Avenue, thinks bubble tea has cross-generational and cross-cultural appeal. Though his branch is located strategically near three college campuses – NYU, Cooper Union and The New School – college students are not his only customers, he said.
“Teenagers, 30-, 40-, 50-year-olds enjoy it. We’re not a seasonal product; everything is served hot and cold,” he said.
Plagiarizing Problematic For Tufts Prof.
By Jonathan Graham
The Tufts Daily
(U-WIRE) MEDFORD, Mass. – Twelve Tufts University students in last semester’s Astronomy 10 class were placed on academic probation level I for academic dishonesty, the Dean of Students Office announced Monday. Astronomy 10 professor Ken Olum said the students did not appropriately source their material.
“They deliberately copied Web sites and didn’t source,” Olum said.
Dean of Students Veronica Carter said that finding 12 students from one class guilty of academic dishonesty is an unusual situation. “We don’t normally have that many in one class,” she said.
Some of the students said they were confused about the proper way to cite Internet sources. To rectify the situation, the Dean of Students office mandated that all 12 take an Academic Resource Center workshop on source citing and paper writing techniques.
Last semester, three other students received disciplinary probation II for academic dishonesty. One admitted to copying another’s math exam, while a student admitted to turning in work from a previous year as original work. A biology student tried to submit a paper for re-grading after altering the original, but a faculty member who had photocopied the original discovered the discrepancy.
This fall was not the first time that Olum discovered plagiarism in his classes. One of 20 students in his Astronomy 10 summer course was also caught plagiarizing.
