I have been having some long debates with myself and asking for advise from other people for picking between the two topics I have come up with. One topic is abut the STD problem that is going on in schools. I would like to know more information on how some school rates are higher than others, the information that is being given out in schools about the issue, how my students care about the issue, and also is there a possible way to help prevent the issue. It is such a simple thing that could be fixed but because people do not take it seriously, a simple fix is now difficult to accomplish.
The second topic I have been thinking about is the price of out-of-state tuition mostly because I am an out-of-state student. I would like to know what am I paying for as an out of state student that cost thousands of dollars more than a student who lives in the same state does. I am also interested in gaining more information about how successful some out-of-state students are about finding ways to go around the system to pay in state tuition. Before the end of the week I will make a decision on what topic I would like to use for my paper and begin looking for information about it.
The STD issue is viable. Rutgers unfortunately was "ground zero" years ago for the study of HPV -- an increasingly important and visible STD that can cause cancer. The initial studies of HPV infection rates were conducted here at Hurtado, and they showed a very high rate of HPV infection in Rutgers women (I think it was over 75%), leading many in the media to make jokes about that -- another media black-eye for the school. And you can certainly tie it in with an article like Sex on Campus from the NY Times. The difficulty would be to find an analytic angle on the topic. But I am sure it could be done. Don't just try to "fix it" -- try to understand it.
ReplyDeleteThe out-of-state tuition question is very interesting and current, especially as more public schools are recruiting out-of-state students to boost their incomes due to the extra fees charged for out-of-state tuition. Those fees are really a legacy of when states offered a lot more support for state schools and expected them to therefore serve the state and its students. But with states cutting back, they have freed the schools from accepting almost all in-state students and paying penalties for out-of-state admits (the fees initially were set to off-set the penalties). But the legacy of out of state rates has allowed schools to simply charge more and to recruit out of state students now, as a way of making a buck. I can recommend some interesting angles using privatization as a lens on this if you pursue it.