Localized Story: Spring Break gas Prices

Bryan C. Visser

            Despite the recent rise of gas prices, a number of Dordt students have demonstrated little anxiety over the matter.

According to an article on examiner.com, during the past three weeks the average cost for a gallon of gasoline in the United States has gone from $3.14 to the current average of $3.50.
            Every spring break, dozens of Dordt students attend service trips as part of a project known as PLIA (Putting Love Into Action).

Most sites for these service trips require extended time driving to get to them; some of them being more that 1,000 miles away from campus.

When asked, members of college maintenance said that most vans likely to be used on PLIA get roughly 12-14mpg.This would mean a cost of around $250 simply to reach the site.

Bjorn Vaagensmith, one of the PLIA group leaders heading to Las Vegas, Nev. explained that every group gets a card from the college to pay for gas and that amount has increased since last year.

Dordt junior Emil Talen is one of the students traveling over 1,150 miles on a PLIA trip to New Orleans, La. Talen raised concerns that the increase in price may affect future students going on PLIA.

“I think it will concern the whole group of PLIA because PLIA prices are $65-85 depending on when you turn in your application. That price may go up next year if the prices stay the same as they are now or if they even go higher. It will definitely affect PLIA because students may not want to go anymore if it’s say $95-105,” Talen said.

By contrast, sophomore Abby Helder remains confident that the cost of students to attend PLIA will not go up by much if they do.

“I think it’s all taken care of. I think possibly it could go up maybe not by too much. People donate funds, so it won’t affect us too much,” Helder said.

            Those not going on PLIA in favor of going home or on trips of their own tend to favor carpooling as a means of dividing the cost of gas.

            Dordt freshman Tyler Ten Pass plans make the 500 mile trip home during spring break by carpooling. However he did raise a minor concern about the cost split up for those going.

            “Usually its $40 per trip, but now that gas is going up I don’t know if they’re gonna keep it that way or make it higher,” said Ten Pass.

            Ten Pass also raised concerns of how rising gas prices could result in higher prices at stores due to an increase in the cost of transport.

            “One thing that has always been brought up to me when the gas prices go up is how far can they go up until our society can’t work anymore?” said Ten Pass

Dordt senior Eric Tudor plans to spend his spring break with friends backpacking in Arizona and Utah. According to him, the round trip will be roughly 3,000 miles and each person going will be paying $170 for gas.

“It’s not affecting it too much even though it should. I guess we all recognize we’re already in debt and another couple hundred dollars is not going to make that any worse or better,” Tudor said.

Trend Story: Facebook at Dordt

Bryan C. Visser

           

            Professor Nick Breems was ready to give his normal 8 a.m. lesson, but not all of his students were ready to hear it.

And he knew why.

He had seen that they had submitted their assignments at 2a.m. the previous night and updated their Facebook status at 2:30 a.m.

“If you were tired and wanted to go to bed and wanted to go to bed and you finished your assignment at two in the morning, then why did you stay up another half an hour on Facebook?” said Breems

            This scenario points to what an Ohio researcher believes is a larger trend of Facebook use affecting the studies of college-going students. 

            Aryn Karpinski at Ohio State University did a study on the connection between college students using Facebook and poor academic performance. 

            In this study, Karpinski found that the average time Facebook users spent studying averaged from one to five hours a week, while they earned a 3.0 to 3.5 GPA.

            Those who did not use Facebook were found to study roughly 11 to 15 hours a week and earned a 3.5 to 4.0 GPA.

            “We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying – but we did find a relationship there," Karpinski said in an online publication by Ohio State University.

            After talking about the times he had seen students stay up late to use Facebook after homework, Professor Breems explained scenarios in which he had seen the reverse take place.

 “I have also seen it where a student turns in an assignment at two in the morning and their Facebook status was updated at 1:30 a.m. So they’re doing Facebook instead of their assignment. It’s not my place to say what they should be doing when, but most people would agree with me that that’s probably not optimal,” said Breems.

Like Karpinski, Breems was fairly quick to clarify that the procrastination he had seen was not necessarily the result of Facebook.

“The computer enables that. I wouldn’t say it causes it. It enables students to react to boredom in a way that isn’t all that helpful,” said Breems.

            Mark Volkers, professor of digital media at Dordt College, shared that while he thought Facebook is a useful social tool that he uses for promotional reasons, it can also be a distraction from what needs to be done.

“I have less sympathy for students who do poorly on tests or papers because it’s easy to assume now that they haven’t prepared properly because they spent too much time doing something else. And it probably had something to do with media,” Volkers said.

A closer look revealed Dordt students did not entirely fit into the norm Karpinski gave.

Not counting papers or other assignments, Dordt sophomore Chris Schultz spends anywhere from five to 10 hours studying during a typical school week.

During that same Monday to Friday period, he spends 15 to 25 hours on Facebook; much of that time is spent just chatting with other people.

“I spend more time on Facebook than I should,” Schultz said.

He said that if he were to cut back on some of his Facebook time he would work on homework a little bit more and do more activities in the campus center game room.

He had not noticed any significant impact his time on Facebook had affected his grades and has made sure that he gets to bed at a decent hour to avoid a lack of sleep.

“I think there are other factors that figure into grades more than just time spent on places like Facebook,” Schultz said.

Dordt students Emil Talen and Karisa Vander Groef both spend 25 hours a week on studies and four to six hours a week using Facebook.

“I talk to a lot of people back home with it. There are a lot of events that are planned through Facebook,” Vander Greof said.

“It’s something I use to contact people from home because I come from Canada and I can’t just drive home for the weekend,” Talen said.

The two agreed that if they were to cut back on Facebook time, they would likely use that time to get more sleep.

Marissa Rieckhoff spends roughly 10 hours a week on Facebook, but as a nursing major, that time does not cut into the weekly 30 to 40 hours she spends in her studies.

“It more takes away from doing things with people in the present,” Rieckhoff said.

“I like socializing and Facebook is one way I can keep up with friends,” Schultz said.