2019

Video game culture

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Video game culture Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 08/03/2019 - 00:00 Alexander Harrity

Within the last year, videogames have taken popular culture by storm, and have soared into the national spotlight. As the number of regular players continues to rise, so too has a curiosity about the beneficial and potentially detrimental effects of avid gaming.

Though videogames have been popular among younger generations for some time, recently there has been a massive surge in people playing on all platforms, and the digital pastime is at an all-time high. This is due in part to the release of a few games that have captured the world video gaming audience.

Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) is a NPD company that analyzes video gaming trends and provides accurate videogame attribute metadata. According to a study released by EEDAR, roughly 67 percent of Americans play videogames on at least one type of device. That figure comes out to right around 211 million people playing in the United States alone.

This recent surge has direct connections to the release of a few online videogames that have captivated audiences. When Epic Games released Fortnite Battle Royale in late 2017, it quickly began making waves in the video gaming community.

According to videogame journalism company, GamesRadar, in Mar. 2019, Fortnite reported 250 million registered players, with 78.3 million monthly active players. Respawn Entertainment’s game, Apex Legends, which is just over two months old, listed 50 million registered players.

Aside from the entertainment factor of playing these videogames, much of the garnered popularity for these games has come from increased media coverage and a sweeping dual-faceted entertainment model.

The advent and surge in popularity of live streaming video platform companies, like Twitch, has added an additional component to gaming. For the first time in gaming history, videogames have become both a participatory and spectatorial activity. Professional players use platforms like Twitch to broadcast both their gameplay, and webcam streams of themselves simultaneously, live for spectators to watch.

The presence of videogames like Fortnite and Apex Legends on Twitter, Facebook and especially Youtube, has made professional videogame players into celebrities.

According to a Business Insider Profile, one such individual, professional Fortnite player, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, was featured on the cover of ESPN Magazine, appeared in an NFL Super Bowl commercial and has amassed around $10 million from playing Fortnite.

According to a Verge Magazine profile, the 27-year-old professional gamer broke a record for the most-viewed live stream by a professional gamer, when he played an online game of Fortnite with superstar rap artists, Drake and Travis Scott, and professional NFL wide-receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster.

According to an ESPN profile, Blevins is revered by many in the video gaming community, and his family-friendly attitude and entertainment style has led many young gamers to look up to him as a role model.

Playing videogames as a career has undoubtedly enticed many, and as a result, according to Twitch’s online statistics, there are over 4.3 million people who stream their gameplay live every month, just as Blevins does.

Blevins’ success is one in a billion, though. Very few streamers actually make enough money from gaming alone, and only a handful are actually able to reach the same stardom as Blevins.

James Garrod, better known by his online alias, “Painful,” is one of the gamers that’s willing to give that dream a shot. While Garrod is also a professional Fortnite player, he isn’t anywhere near as famous as Blevins.

“I’ve got almost 21,000 followers on Twitch,” Garrod said. “I’ll get a few hundred concurrent [viewers] on a good day.”

“I make some decent money from skirmishes and tournaments, but, obviously not as much as I’d like,” he said. “But we all pull in enough together to pay the bills.”

The 22-year-old gamer spends around seven hours a day streaming Fortnite for a living. He lives in a small house in Rochester, New York with two of his J-Storm Gaming teammates. Though he does get to do what he loves on a daily basis, he’s had to battle with emotional challenges, he said.

“I mean, we’re definitely all depressed. If any of them [professional streamers] tell you otherwise, they’re a hundred percent lying,” Garrod said. “I think we all want to think it’s the hours, upon hours, upon hours of staring at a screen that’s messing with our heads. But honestly, I think being depressed is why a good chunk of us started doing this in the first place.”

For Garrod, videogames have always been a source of enjoyment in his life.

“I played DOTA 2 [Defense of the Ancients] for years in high school, and looking back, it’s probably why I didn’t have a ton of friends,” he said. “But now I’m closer with those guys I met online playing that game than I am with anyone from home.”

Many researchers and surveys have examined the potentially beneficial effects of online gaming on younger individuals’ social attitudes and cultural awareness. The ability for one to establish connections with people they might not otherwise ever cross paths with is an attribute these researchers look at.

According to an American Psychological Association study, authors Isabela Granic et al. note that videogames actually benefit children’s social skills and cultural awareness as, “players are gaming online, with friends, family, and complete strangers, crossing vast geographical distances and blurring not only cultural boundaries but also age and generation gaps, socioeconomic differences, and language barriers.”

Online videogames do, by nature, have the potential to be socially interactive in a distinct, unique fashion.

According to a survey in the LifeCourse Associates project, “The New Face of Gamers,” videogame players tend to be more optimistic, more socially conscious, and are more open to accepting positions of leadership than non-gamers.

The most notable beneficial qualities from playing videogames are those pertaining to mental capacity, reasoning and reaction times.

According to an Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported research paper, authors Brian D. Glass et al. state that specific videogames can increase the speed of one’s perceptual processing, increase problem-solving skills and heighten real-time strategical decision-making.

However, just as there is evidence supporting the benefits of videogames, so too is there evidence supporting its more detrimental aspects.

An issue that has arisen in recent years is that of videogame addiction. According to the World Health Organization, “gaming disorder” has been added to the international health agency’s comprehensive list of mental health diseases.

The World Health Organization’s recognition of gaming disorder as a genuine disease shines a light on just how credible a threat it is.

According to an Iowa State University national study, psychologists found that nearly one in 10 gamers exhibit pathological gaming behaviors. The method used was a derivative of that which experts use to measure pathological gambling tendencies.

Media coverage of videogames has increased as the gaming industry has risen. News about Fortnite surfaces on CNN, Forbes, NBC, Fox, The Washington Post and other media powerhouses daily. As the industry has continued to grow, and its media coverage alongside it, videogames have become increasingly normalized in American society.

Author and award-winning integrative psychiatrist, Dr. Victoria Dunckley, is a leading expert on the effects of screen time on children and adolescents.

With the rapid normalization of videogame culture, comes the unintended consequences of higher addiction rates, Dunckley said.

“There is now a robust body of evidence showing videogame addiction is a real disorder, complete with brain changes, impaired functioning, and mental health issues,” she said.

The psychiatrist has seen the effects of videogame addiction firsthand in her work with children, teens and even young adults, she said.

“Excessive gaming is associated with depression, anxiety, obsessive thinking, and even suicide,” Dunckley said. “And gaming addiction has damaging effects on the brain that are virtually identical to those from alcohol and substance abuse.”

One of the largest problems with contemporary videogame culture is how many children are gaming regularly.

“A typical picture of a child with too much screen time is a child who is irritable, prone to meltdowns, inattentive, struggling in school, and having difficulties making or keeping friends,” Dunckley said. “As children transition into adulthood, these difficulties may manifest in an inability to function in college, get and keep a job, poor coping skills, and social isolation.”

According to an NPD Group study found on TechCrunch, 91 percent of kids age 2-17 are playing videogames. In 2009, that figure was 83 percent.

The figures above demonstrate the fact that while videogames have been extremely prevalent among younger, adolescent-aged audiences for some time, the number of children and teenagers playing videogames is still very much on the rise.

On college campuses, the result is much of the same.

A survey was conducted at the �鶹��Ƶ aimed at roughly determining the number of students who play videogames on the college’s campus.

A total of 40 students participated in the student poll. In order to ensure accuracy, male and female participants were divided into their own categories, as gender effectively played a more divisive role than expected.

Of the survey’s 40 students, 72 percent play videogames each week. The gender divide becomes increasingly clear when examining the fact that nearly 98 percent of the total self-identifying men polled play videogames at least once a week. However, it is worth noting that while female students had less overall players per week, they had slightly more avid gamers who play 16 hours or more.

Gender certainly does play a role in examining daily gamers. According to a Pew Research survey analyzing gender trends in videogames, about 7 in ten men younger than 30 years old play videogames often or sometimes, compared to 49 percent of women in the same age range. The student survey shows that 50 percent of women polled play videogames, mirroring the Pew Research survey’s figure of 49 percent.

Perhaps the most significant statistic stemming from the survey above is that 17 students, or nearly half of those polled, play videogames for 11 or more hours every week.

Playing videogames for upwards of 11 hours per week consistently while in college can very easily get in the way of other important tasks. The key is moderation, but achieving and maintaining moderation is not such an easy task in and of itself.

When it comes to children playing videogames, poor habits or social inadequacies can very well develop early on, and carry with an individual into their adolescent and college years.

“Videogames can quickly become a vicious cycle because the individual isn’t forced to practice social

interactions like previous generations had to, so those social skills are never developed and he or she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with real-life interactions,” Ducnkley said.

“We need eye contact, face-to-face conversation and observation of body language to build emotional resonance and empathy, and practice doing so,” she said.

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Spring brings fear and hope for Hispanic immigrants

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 20:30:58 +0000

Spring brings fear and hope for Hispanic immigrants Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/01/2019 - 14:30

Trump’s campaign has immigrants running for the polls.

Gabriela Esparza was able to hug her mother and sister on April 30 during a symbolic event when an emergency door at the U.S.-Mexico border in California was opened for a brief time. (Courtesy of Border Angels (Facebook) through VOA News)

This year’s presidential race has immigrants racing to get citizenship by the tens of thousands, according to an article in the New York Post.

Immigrants are trying to become citizens partly in hopes of securing voting rights to keep Trump out of the White House, but also to avoid deportation if his campaign is successful. With Cruz officially out of the race, Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.

Naturalization applications are up 14 percent from this time period last year, according to the Associated Press. Of the 9 million green card holding immigrants eligible for citizenship, 4 million are Hispanic.

Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the U.S. Mexico border, block Muslims from entering the country and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants has succeeded in fear mongering, whether or not that was his aim.

Contrasting Trump’s fear-filled campaign, Border Patrol opened the Door of Hope.

In honor of Mexican “El Dia del Nino,” or “Children’s Day,” April 30, U.S. Border Patrol opened the Door of Hope, a maintenance door in the U.S.-Mexico border fence, allowing a select group of families to be reunited for three minutes.

The Door of Hope is in Friendship Park, a place for families to flock on weekends to spend time together on their respective sides of the border fence, according to an article in Voice of America.

Families appeal to be part of the event with Border Angels, the San Diego non-profit for immigration reform that organized the initiative, and an agent screens each case to make sure participants don’t have any criminal history. Border Angels hopes to make it annual event, but it has been canceled once since its inception in 2013.

Border Patrol nixed the event in 2014 because the previous year a little girl leapt into her father’s arms with no prior warning.

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Bible Earthers are out of this world

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 22:31:49 +0000

Bible Earthers are out of this world Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2019 - 16:31

Jessica Cha

In a small coffee shop in Fort Collins, Colorado, a meeting takes place inside the “Lovecraft” room at 6 p.m. every Tuesday. Members shuffle in at their leisure and take their seats at plastic tables arranged in a circle to face each other. They meet to talk about one thing: Flat Earth.

Conspiracy theories have been added to the large list of phenomena that have taken the world by storm in the rise of the popular internet and social media. One of the more well-known theories is the belief that the earth is actually flat. However, according to FlatEarthOfficial.com, this ever-growing society is more than just a forum to discuss the shape of the world.

“It is not that the truth is not known, it is that the truth has been intentionally hidden from the masses in order to control the population, and keep them away from God,” the website says.

Many of these believers share the same sentiments that traditional education that includes learning about the solar system and evolution are inherently not true because the teachings of the Bible say otherwise.

Being religious is not a requirement in becoming a Flat Earther, but for many of the members in the Fort Collins Flat Earth group, God is all that they have known. Samantha Peters, a relatively new member to the group, says that a relationship with God is the key to knowing the truths about the world.

“You don’t have to embrace the idea that you’ve been taught anything other than what you’ve been taught about the Bible and school,” she said. “People can still come to know God and faith on a deep level, so, I guess Flat Earth would be that extra piece of information that’s going to make things a lot clearer.”

Deborah Whitehead, a religious studies associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, says there’s a reason why modern science appears to be a threat to the Flat Earth movement and those who follow it in a religious context.

“There is a conflict thesis that you see come up a lot in articles about the Flat Earth movement that basically says that modern science and modern religion are completely incompatible,” she says. “That is fundamentally true. This is what underlies their opposition to evolution and their commitment to creationism.”

Whitehead believes that there is a fear in some Flat Earth individuals in connection to their religion and world views. She says that there is a need to hold onto their interpretations of biblical teachings of the world over evidence that might say otherwise.

Many fellow Bible Earthers have observed that what they were taught in school is the exact opposite of what biblical scripture has told them. They encourage others to do their own careful research into the topic to see the truth for themselves. Kent Shove, another member of the community, says that others should conduct experiments to see the evidence of Flat Earth.

“Go up to Estes Park and sit on top a 14er and look 360 degrees. If you come off that mountain and believe in NASA, you’re a fool,” he said. “I’m a mechanic. If can’t see it, if I can’t touch it, I don’t believe in it.”

Those in the science community like Dr. Doug Duncan, the former director of Fiske Planetarium at CU Boulder, aren’t too concerned about conspiracy theories that challenge them.

“Theories about the Flat Earth aren’t scientific theories. One of the biggest misconceptions about theories is the difference between people’s theories and scientific ones,” he said. “If it’s a scientific theory you have to test it and make predictions. Otherwise, it’s just an opinion.”

Despite pushback and stigmatization of the group, members of the Flat Earthers are hardly ever discouraged from their beliefs. They gather together in the “Love Craft” room surrounded by purple, blue, and orange colored walls in a place where their opinions are safe to be said. Peters, who has come to peace with who she is, mentions that she even feels bad for those who do not see their truth.

“I can’t make anyone believe in Flat Earth, they’re just going to have to look at it for themselves and make, at some point, a faith-based judgment,” she says, “Hopefully, they’re not going to buy it and keep looking. I think they have an awful lot to gain.”

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Refugees and asylum seekers in the Trump administration

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Refugees and asylum seekers in the Trump administration Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/20/2019 - 00:00 Valeria Fugate

Please find the digital storytelling project here:

http://spark.adobe.com/page/n4myjOTjflnm8/

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Mike Coffman on historical trends and the 2018 election

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Mike Coffman on historical trends and the 2018 election Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/15/2019 - 00:00 Makenna Sturgeon

Former Congressman Mike Coffman sat in a crowded coffee shop in Aurora, Colorado. He waved to his past constituents, and potential new voters in the city that he’s attempting to become Mayor of. He sipped on a warm tea and remarked on his understanding of the historical trends that experts have assessed as an influential element in the outcome of his most recent political race.

He proved difficult to unseat in past congressional elections but met his match in 2018. Coffman and experts attribute historical trends as a significant factor in his congressional loss. He thinks the rise in social media and a decline in local journalism also played a role in the election outcome.

Coffman was well-known for seeming to adapt to the district he represented, Colorado House District Six. Following major demographic changes, he looked to embrace diverse communities that became more abundant.

According to Coffman, Aurora has a little over 370,000 residents and is among the most diverse cities in the United States. He learned Spanish to better understand and communicate with his large group of Spanish-speaking constituents and went to a number of community churches and events to maintain visibility among potential voters.

“I would come home every weekend,” he said. “I really had to be active in a very aggressive way because as a Republican in a Democratic-leaning district, that was just really a point in trying to make up for the difference was to be very visible.”

Coffman’s congressional career came to an end when he lost in the 2018 midterm election to his Democratic challenger Jason Crow. Coffman said he wished he had paid more attention to historical trends when he was running.

“I think in the last campaign, one big takeaway is you can’t defy political gravity. And what I mean by that are the laws of political physics,” he said. “People like to look at elections in isolation and not the historical trends.”

In order to maintain checks and balances, the public corrects the system by pushing against the majority party and electing members from the minority party, or in this case, the Democrats.

Roll Call Columnist David Winston wrote an opinion piece in 2018 that outlined election trends and attributed the shifting waves the United States experiences to voters who identify as Independents. The shift in majority power usually comes down to which party can win the votes of the large Independent voting pool.

Elizabeth Skewes, University of Colorado journalism professor and department chair, attributed much of Coffman’s loss to the correction the public was trying to make. He got caught up in the anti-Trump wave that gained the Democrats control of the House of Representatives during the 2018 election cycle.

Coffman was attentive to his constituents, adapting to his swiftly changing district, but couldn’t counteract the successful national Democratic campaign. According to Skewes, Democrats recruited relatively young candidates, like Jason Crow, who had photogenic families and were able to practice politics from a grassroots level. They capitalized on the anti-Trump movement, sending the message that if the public voted in Democrats they could send President Trump a message because they didn’t have the chance to do it with a presidential election.

“I think he got caught in that,” she said. “Coffman’s district was always pretty tight, and he did a really good job. I just think he got stuck this time. I don’t think he did anything wrong, I just think the Democrats did something a little more right.”

Andrea Fields, Congressman Scott Tipton’s finance director, said she was surprised by how long it took the Democratic Party to unseat Coffman.

“They found every successful current and former state legislator within those boundaries to run against him, he still won because he is experienced and outworks all of his competitors,” she said. “The right political climate came along, the right competitor came along and all of the money was there. They [the Democrats] had focused all of their efforts in the state on regaining that seat for 10 years, they finally succeeded.”

Election night is characteristically a whirlwind for politicians and staffers. It results in numerous celebrations and heavy hearts. Coffman said the loss was fairly predictable but didn’t make it any less unfortunate.

“The election in 2018 was tough. Historically, when the same party picks up the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and the White House, the American people push back and, with few historical exceptions, the House swings back the other way in what we call a ‘wave’ election,” he said. “My district has been a Democrat-leaning district since it was redrawn in 2012. President Obama carried it by 5 points in 2012 and Clinton carried it by 9 points in 2016.”

Coffman ran his first campaign in the late 1980s. He claimed that campaign as his favorite because he was given the opportunity to become more involved in the community and work on his ground game, the tactic that involves heavy community outreach like going door-to-door and coffees with potential constituents.

He attributed the majority of his past success to hard work and campaign tactic. He said a successful campaign is comprised of a ground game, effective communication through all the platforms a candidate has access to and a message that really matters to the community.

In addition to the historical trends, Coffman blamed the change in local journalism for playing a role in his 2018 Congressional loss. There was a lack of reporting that made getting his message to the public much more difficult than it was in the past.

“The big change that I think is very sad is the mainstream media is not what it was,” he said. “The mainstream media was so important. And I think they really fairly covered races and in-depth races.”

The Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post were heavily involved with the candidates early in Coffman’s political career. He recalled participating in editorial interviews and trusting that the mainstream media would serve as a “relatively fair referee.” After the Rocky Mountain News closed and Denver Post’s resources decreased, the local journalism didn’t seem to meet Coffman’s expectations. The lack of coverage puts more pressure on the candidates to do the messaging themselves.

The increasing polarity of political journalism on larger platforms like CNN and the lack of coverage from local newspapers is leading to candidates’ uptake in social media usage and voters’ heavy reliance on television and social media ads, Coffman said.

Coffman thinks social media is a positive tool in the evolution of politics. As the mainstream media shrinks, campaigns need other ways to get a message out. The public relies more heavily on what candidates are saying now, even if it be through 30-second television ads. The issue with the prominence of personal messaging instead of going through the press presents itself in cost.

Carl Cannon, the Washington Bureau Chief of Real Clear Politics, said social media has encouraged people to become more partisan because the amount of clicks and follows serve as a type of currency for politicians and journalists alike. This form of currency leads to hostility between media and politicians because messaging becomes more about branding than getting out information that is essential to the public. He’s not sure if this is a temporary trend.

Coffman said the polarized political environment that has become a prevalent issue in the United States is a shame. It is difficult for individuals who less partisan to get involved in races or have a chance at winning because they are not backed by the major parties and have a difficult time funding their messaging and other campaign work.

“Races are much tougher today and involve a significantly higher level of spending by campaigns as well as outside groups trying to influence the outcome of an election,” he said. “When I started in politics, state legislative and local campaigns in the late 1980s were mostly about a candidate going door-to-door and involved some low dollar fundraising to support a targeted direct mail plan.”

The former congressman has been forced to actively adapt to the changing media landscape in order to run his campaigns successfully. He said he relies more heavily on his own messaging and community involvement because politics are not reported in a “straight forward” manner anymore. He said he hopes it returns to the way he remembers it during his first campaign.

Coffman has announced his candidacy in the upcoming Aurora Mayoral election. The race will serve as an opportunity to become more invested in the community and work with the demographics that he became familiar with during his time as a congressman.

He said partisan politics will not play as large a role in this race as they did during his congressional election.

“Local elections are nonpartisan. In other words, they don't show partisan affiliations on the ballot while state and national races do,” he said. “Local races don't involve primaries where the ballot is limited to the nominees of their respective political parties.”

Coffman’s focus has shifted since losing the 2018 election. Campaigning on a national platform left him less time to focus on the ground game that he enjoys. However, he will have more time to focus on that in his upcoming race.

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Higher rent but desirable living

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Higher rent but desirable living Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2019 - 00:00 Nicole Karacic

Beau Burris is the owner of Burris Real Estate in Boulder. For the past 13 years he has been buying and managing properties on The Hill. His business is a personal investment and he takes pride in offering students comfortable, luxurious living.

Burris grew up in Boulder and went to CU himself. During his time as a student, there were no options for higher-end living on The Hill. After graduation, Burris remained in Boulder and eventually began to dabble in real estate on The Hill. Throughout his years in real estate, Burris has made a conscious effort to offer students with a positive living experience. He bought his first property in 2006 and since then has been buying and managing properties for CU students to live in.

As a former CU student, Burris understands why students have concern over rent but provided concrete information to explain the pricing system. “I currently own a handful of properties on The Hill and the average price of rent is around $1,200. In 2004, a bedroom on The Hill cost around $600 a month for a student. Now, this price has nearly doubled but not without reason. When I went to college in Boulder, there were no options for high quality housing like there is now. As quality of the product increases, so does the price. My properties are newly furnished and have high quality appliances like LG washers and dryers as well as stainless steel kitchen appliances. This is something Hill housing did not have when I first started buying properties.”

Burris explained that this change in living environment is something that students desire. Students do not want to live in run-down houses for high prices. He explained that his more expensive properties are in high demand and get the most requests for showings during rental season.

In comparison to when Burris first started buying property in Boulder, “properties cost twice as much as they did 10 years ago.”

Clearly, if the price to buy a property has doubled, it makes sense that rent itself would nearly double. Boulder has become a more expensive place to live over the years, and students have had to adapt to this just as much as permanent residents.

Burris furthered explained Boulder’s changing environment, “Boulder used to be a town of hippies and now it has become a very expensive place to live in with beautiful properties. The Hill had to adapt to this just like everyone else in town did. It is a completely different city than it once was.”

And while Boulder’s rents aren’t necessarily unusual at other universities, the increases in cost for students are real and clear. Driving the rise, however, appears to have as much to do with student demand for high-end living and blame shouldn’t be solely placed on landlords.

The University of Illinois located in Champaign-Urbana has a student population of around 44,000. The average rent for off-campus housing is $1,200. With a similar average rent, the quality of living is drastic.

Dario Kikas, a student at the University of Illinois explained, “There are limited options for off-campus housing so students end up paying more for low-quality living because they do not have much of a choice.”

Kikas went on to say, “I live in a small space with appliances from the 80s but I am stuck paying the average price because I don’t have an option to do anything else.”

This is where CU stands out and is different than many other universities. Boulder has made significant changes in housing and is pushing to offer students with more options.

In 2009, the student population in Boulder was around 25,000 according to CU’s education demographic site. In just 10 years, this number has risen to 35,000. With this drastic rise in student population, student housing experienced a high increase in demand.

The university itself has had to adapt to this hefty increase in population. In 2018, the university built a residential hall on Williams Village to accommodate to the large number of students. The Bear Creek Apartments and Williams Village itself account for a large amount of the student population and a residence hall was necessary.

Along with this development, East Campus housing became available for students within the last five years. Students are offered 169 different apartment options at this location. The issue is that the apartments are over a quarter mile away from the main campus.

The rents of properties located east of campus are significantly lower than rent on The Hill. A four-bedroom apartment costs students around $800 a semester at the Bear Creek Apartments.

Nonetheless, because of the locations of the Bear Creek Apartments and other East Campus housing, The Hill remains the most popular and the most expensive place for student living. Living on The Hill provides students with a short walk from campus, various restaurant options, and no need for public transit to get to class. This multi-element appeal is why students are choosing to pay more rather than settling for less.

Although East Campus housing may have not helped decrease the demand for housing on The Hill like developers were hoping, it pushed real-estate companies to remodel Hill houses.

According to Aaron Mumford, a manager at FourStar real estate that manages Hill properties, “Around five years ago, properties on East Campus became available. These properties offered a new standard for living that The Hill did not have. It was a great development because it pushed owners of houses on The Hill to remodel and refurnish properties to keep in line with new competition. Instead of charging unreasonable prices because they could without competition, they were forced to keep up with trends and offer higher-end living.”

The manager has seen the company grow tremendously in recent years. While FourStar does not own properties on The Hill, it manages many in the area, where it has seen its stock quadruple from 300 to 1,200 since he’s been with the company.

“Since 2009, owners have invested into their homes tremendously to refurnish and re-do them so that they can fairly charge rent in the upper end of the market,” Mumford said.

Owners of houses want to be able to charge rent in the upper end of the market but doing so forces them to keep up with high-end living competition.

FourStar manages a large amount of properties that are considered higher-end real estate for students. Some of these include D-House on University Avenue and The Lofts which are located off of Broadway and 16^th Street. These properties offer tenants with appliances that are up to date and aesthetically pleasing, costing students around $1,500 a month. Despite this high price, these are the properties that are rented first and have a large interest for showings.

“Each year, our pre-leasing season moves up. Students try to secure their housing sooner each year. Our higher priced properties are always in demand” Mumford said.

Clearly, because there is demand for higher-end housing it is in the best interest for owners to keep their properties up-to-date.

Landlords and real-estate companies are constantly attacked for unfair pricing but clearly the student population is just as responsible for the shift in the market. It is a combination of the two and blame cannot be placed upon one party. Many students want a higher living standard in an ideal location and are willing to pay the price. The university has tried to push housing that is further away from campus but has had little success with this tactic.

Boulder’s University Hill remains a hot-spot for students despite a spike in prices and change in price isn’t foreseeable. That being said, The Hill’s environment is changing and as more students prefer high-end living, companies are pushing to offer students with this option.

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Students define consent after university sexual assault protest

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Students define consent after university sexual assault protest Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/29/2019 - 00:00 Morgan Charlton

On March 18, students gathered at the University Memorial Center to demand that the University of Colorado, Boulder take more action to investigate students who are accused of rape or sexual assault.

This protest came after CU student, Zachary Roper, was charged with 2 counts of sexual assault on March 14. Roper was accused of sexually assaulting a student following a sorority event. Approximately thirty students attended the protest and demanded the university suspend Roper until his trial and expel him if he is found guilty.

Students carried signs that read, “I Believe Survivors,” and chanted “Stop the silence. End the violence.” Their purpose for being there was not only to protest Roper, but also to share their own experiences as survivors of sexual assault. Ultimately this extended not only to the larger Boulder area, but to the national conversation surrounding the “Me Too” movement.

Conversations about sexual assault are common on college campuses. The topic of consent, however, is something that often does not always get addressed.

Students agree that consent can be unclear. There are ways, however, to identify what is consent and what is not.

“There’s a certain amount of needing to pay attention to people’s nonverbal signals,” said Leila Browne, a student at CU Boulder. “Whether there’s enthusiasm or hesitance is a really useful way to read consent.”

According to a Planned Parenthood survey, there are differences in how men and women define consent. The study found that women were significantly more likely than men to strongly agree that consent must be given every time you have sex, and were more likely to disagree that consent continues after the first encounter. This survey is just one example of how consent can sometimes be unclear.

Even in a legal sense, all states have different laws for defining consent. In Colorado, a person has to be 17 years old to give consent, and the definition of consent does not include freely given consent or affirmative consent. Affirmative consent means that consent is clear, knowing, and voluntary.

CU Boulder’s definition of consent does have an affirmative consent standard, and states that, “Consent must include words or actions that create mutually understandable, clear permission conveying acceptance of the conditions of the sexual activity and willingness to engage in the sexual activity.”

“Colorado has a fairly broad and comprehensive set of state laws and our university has a well-established and defined set of university policies,” said Teresa Wroe, the Director of Education and Prevention and Deputy Title IX Coordinator at the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance.

“The word affirmative was added to our definition to help people further recognize that consent is something that needs to be established before sexual activity,” said Wroe. “This is to further the understanding that consent is not about doing whatever one wants until they get told not to, which is often the message that is conveyed about consent by society.”

While the definitions of consent vary among college students, many students at the protest agreed that consent needs to be a verbal yes.

“Consent is so much more than a lack of saying no,” said Alex Wolf-Root, a student at CU Boulder. “Just because you have been sexually involved with someone in the past doesn’t mean that you consent the next time. It has to be an open question every time.”

With April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, consent must be a part of the conversation. CU Boulder has the chance to set an example and give voice to the survivors both on campus and nationally.

“We demand accountability. We demand an environment that we can learn and teach without fear of sexual assault,” said Samantha West, a graduate student at CU Boulder who attended the protest at the UMC. “We believe survivors and the administration should reflect that.”

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Game of Loans: The battle continues

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Game of Loans: The battle continues Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/23/2019 - 00:00 Zoe Collins Rath

Aaron Barazza is a senior at the �鶹��Ƶ majoring in biochemistry. The out- of- state student from Roswell, New Mexico, hopes to do research after graduation in 2020.

Briannah Hill is a Colorado native from the neighborhood of Stapleton. She is an ethnic studies major with a minor in evolutionary biology. Hill will graduate this spring.

Mary Guenther is from Spokane, Washington. Last spring she graduated with her masters in education from CU. Currently, she works as an academic advisor in the business school.

All three have their own academic journey, but their experience contains one common thread, and it is something that binds many students together: the amount of debt they accumulate when they pay for school.

In 1979, someone could pay off one year of college tuition in a summer. The price of education has increased by 1300 percent since the 1970s, and the cost is going to keep rising. Today, 30 percent of the people who attend college have the ability to pay for it out of pocket.

However, the other 70 percent have to finance their education in other ways. Some get scholarships and grants known as gift aid, or money that the students do not have to pay back. If the gift aid does not cover the whole bill, then students and their families turn to the federal government or banks for loans.

Students taking out loans have become a necessary part of financing higher education and the average amount taken out is in the thousands. According to Business Insider, the average college student takes out $37,125 in loans and takes an average of 21 years to pay it back.

“It is something everyone has to go through,” says Guenther. “If you do not have the luxury of having your parents pay for your college.”

Guenther funded her undergraduate degree with scholarships and grants from the American Indian Graduate Center. She got similar funding for graduate school as well, but she did take out loans.

“I took out loans because I wanted to have the convenience of life and I had to pay for bills,” she said.

When Guenther graduated, she was $30,000 in debt. She was lucky enough to get a job right after graduation that allowed her to set up a payment plan with her employer. To pay back the loans every month, $300 is subtracted from her paycheck and goes to the government. Since going on the payment plan, she has not thought about loans because of her steady income.

Guenther did a lot of financial planning after graduation to save money and maintain a lifestyle, like skiing, when she got a full time job. But some students like Barazza are bad with money, and need some help with financial planning.

Barazza chose CU over his state school, the University of Mexico, because CU would give him opportunities he could not get at UNM. Since he is not a Colorado resident Barazza pays $60,000 to attend CU. For his freshman year, he took out loans through Wells Fargo.

However, since his sophomore year, he has taken out loans through Sallie Mae because there is a limit of money he can borrow through Wells Fargo, and he surpassed that limit as a freshman. Barazza estimates he is roughly $120,000 in debt.

“I was not really educated in loans or how to pay them back,” he says.

He is not the only student that feels kept out of the loop regarding loans and paying them back.

“I never got a lesson on how to take out loans and I think people should learn how to take them out,” Hill said.

Hill has scholarships and is a residential advisor in Hallett Hall to pay for school. But with all of that aid, there was still a couple of thousand dollars left over, so Hill had to take out loans. She did not want the burden of paying for school to fall on the shoulders of her mother, so Hill took out loans herself. What started as a couple thousand, turned into $21,000.

“I have not been paying them back because working on campus gives you oh so much money for yourself and not enough to pay them [the loans] back,” she said.

So with students in the dark about loans, with little education on how to manage money, and thousands of dollars to pay back after senior year, they can face problems paying back the loans. Problems include misinterpreting complex language in the loan contracts, interacting with aggressive loan collectors and overall confusion about loans. However, issues can be avoided if students speak to Ben Wurzel.

Wurzel works in Career Services and is the Money Sense Program Manager. He got a masters degree from Colorado State University and graduated with $20,000 in debt. Over a few years, Wurzel has paid off all of his loans.

As the Money Sense Program Manager, he works with students to help them build healthy financial habits and put them to good use. For example, if Hill or Barazza came to see him, then they would calculate the amount of loans they have to pay back and determine the best course of action to budget for things such as living expenses and saving money.

“I work with all students but most of the time I work with seniors. But sometimes students do not know I exist in the Career Services office,” Wurzel said.

Wurzel has said that when people come in to speak to him they feel better because they have a definite plan on what they have to do to pay back their loans. However, he wishes that people knew more about loans because two very common things that trip up students are different interest rates and the loan contract.

But the biggest issue that Wurzel sees starts before students go to college. High school seniors and families tend to over borrow or take out more money than what is necessary to fund education. Wurzel said the can be fixed with more education about paying for college.

“When people borrow a lot to attend an institution for undergrad, taking out nearly $200,000, it is a lot harder to get a start in life because they are behind financially,” he says.

One piece of advice Wurzel gives to high school seniors is to talk about finances with their families, and how they are going to pay for school when their financial aid package arrives. But Wurzel recognizes that talking about money is a complicated subject for students and their families.

“It’s a developmental thing,” says Wurzel. “People will not know the impact of the loans until you have to pay them back and to lessen the blow people need to talk about finances, even though it is uncomfortable.”

For people like Hill and Barazza talking about finances is a complicated topic because they come from homes where they did not talk about money. However, sending someone to college forces people to talk about finances, and students think about the debt they will be in a lot throughout their college experience, especially if graduation is only a year or less away.

The fear causes people to think about planning for their future. Guenther is an example of a student who planned their future and is following through on it. Others still in undergrad like Barazza and Hill think about what kind of job they have to get after graduation so they can start paying off the loans and rid themselves of debt as soon as possible.

Barazza wants to do cell research and he says the fear of debt has caused him to look at jobs he can secure before he walks across the stage so he can start making money and live how he wants. For the junior, he wants to buy a house and travel, things that are difficult when you are $100,000 in debt.

“When looking at a starting salary for the job I want it would be about $42,000,” he says.

That is about the median salary Hill will have when they go into non-profit work with LGBTQ youth. But it is going to take a while for the gender non-conforming student to move out to where they want to work. To make the impact Hill wants to have, they have to move from Colorado.

“A lot of organizations I want to work with are in L.A. So I need to get a job and make money so I doubt I will use the six month grace period,” she said.

When students graduate, they have the option of taking advantage of a six- month grace period provided by the federal government to pay back their loans. Some students do nothing and accrue more debt, or they work when they graduate, like Guenther did and Hill will do to pay them back.

But when Guenther started working for CU, her employer gave her the option on how to pay back her loans, something that is not often available for recent college graduates. However, sharing information about repayment options for student loans is going to become more common in Colorado.

In March, Gov. Polis signed into law a bill that would make it a requirement for state employees to receive materials on how to pay back their student loans and loan forgiveness programs. The bill also grants that department personnel give its employers the most recent set of information.

Colorado and other states are looking to help lessen the burden their employers face paying back their student loans. It is a step in the right direction of lessening the debt and making the repayment process easier than it has to be.

“There is a crazy amount of people in debt and it can set them back years if they do not take it seriously,” Hill said.

While Hill will not be a state employee, she and other students feel optimistic about more repayment programs being in place at their jobs, since employers are more aware of the weight of debt.

“It will make things easier because I know that who I work for understands the issue and will help,” Barazza says.

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