Ishmael Beah to Visit Trinity

Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, is scheduled to make an appearance here at Trinity on April 8th, 2008. The book, written by Beah at age 26, recounts his often stunning experiences as a young child experiencing the violence occurring in Sierra Leone and taking up arms for the government army at the age of 13. Beah recently appeared as a guest on The Jon Stuart Show. Enjoy watching this video clip from Comedy Central and stay tuned for more specifics as the event date draws near.

Facts Aside: Textbooks are Too Expensive

I have been in contemplation for around a week already. “What to write? How to write? What’s my angle?” Writing for a blog is nothing like writing for the Tripod, right? So, here’s my opinion – facts aside.

Text books are too expensive! No matter what PIRGs or politicians claim they’re going to do about it, textbook prices are undeniably overpriced and on-the-rise. I know that many of you do not pay out of pocket for your books, nor do you pass tangible notes to pay for them. But every semester, I go to the bookstore dreading the final tally as the cashier rings me out. My hands even shudder, occasionally, as I try to nonchalantly fan out my pay check and extend my arm to trade-in SEVERAL hours of hard work.

I swear it wouldn’t hurt as bad if I didn’t know that there must be more cost-effective ways to round-up textbooks. Why is it that students, and teachers, are in denial about the handle these publishing houses and book chains have on us? Should your/my Economics textbook really cost $160? Time-and-again I have attempted to shame my professors into finding more equitable publications. Often, they explain that the reason we cannot use last semester’s text (ones the bookstore would at least have cheaper used copies of) is that the publishing house closed-out one edition and released a “more up-to-date” edition. How much can really change from one year to the next when it comes to Algebra!? Has the primary number system changed, or something? Does E no longer equal mc2? Read more >>