Monday, April 20, 2009

What do I want..................?

An ideal university:

Admission:

A fair admission process is imperative for a university to be successful. The admissions office needs to have a curriculum that all potential applicants should meet: An increase of percentage of out of state, in state students, and international should be accepted every year. A minimum of a 3.5 GPA is required to enter a university. Applicants should have taken a minimum of 3 IB/AP courses, in addition to completing four years of a language of their interest. Applicants should be well-rounded and unique. Every potential student of a university should be interviewed.

Majors/Courses

As freshmen they should be able to enroll in classes relevant to their interest without having to follow strict general education requirements. Once students explore, they need to meet with their academic advisor and find out the majors that would appeal to their interest. Lectures should be split into discussion and application of knowledge and the other half should be dedicated to the teaching of the subject. Professors should be required to work closely with each student to assure that they comprehend the material taught. Students should be able to conduct research on their own and integrate their knowledge during class time with other classmates. Each professor‘s priority should be creating an effective learning environment instead of over assigning students with work. Every student should be required to study a language of their interest and become fluent at it; this opportunity would enable them to appreciate other cultures and communicate to other people in the world without difficulties.
Who I am and what I need?
I expect a university to integrate students and faculty who want to make a positive effective influence in the world. I want to be able to know my professors well and gain as much knowledge as I can. I want to be able to work with students from other colleges to create a creative learning environment. As well as interacting with different mentalities, nationalities, and communities to develop a challenging learning environment.

One of my favorite classes is English, every class I attended I become more mesmerized by my professor’s teaching style. Although it’s a short class, I walk out with a new piece of information. Her excitement and passion for what she teaches has made me more open minded in respect to the material she presents in class. Having the opportunity to explore into topics of our interest has stimulated me as a student and in fact made more passionate. What I respect about this professor, is, she respects each of the student’s opinion and takes it into consideration.

My other favorite class is Spanish. This semester my professor gave more encouragement to learn more about the language. She teaches and has discussions in class which allowed me as a student of the Spanish language to discover more details about each material presented.

An ideal university should encompass all of the above to make it an expectional experience for the students and faculty.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Business..Parody... Religion

The visual and textual rhetoric of these shirts are unbelievingly disrespectful and humiliating to those who greatly practice the Christian religion as well as those of other strong faiths. Both shirts elicit the same reaction from me. The designers of both of these shirts, wanted to appeal to the religious community, clearly to gain business from them. The designers didn’t not take one important factor into consideration when creating the different ideas of the shirts; religious Christians will be intolerant of parody. As a religious Muslim, I perceive these images a parody because as Paul Mitchell said, “In the end Christianity is not a brand-it’s a relationship whose depth can’t be reduced to slogans.”
Paul Mitchell said, “Christian sloganeering-which is of course, not restricted to the fashion world-has become too similar to the world’s omnipresent advertising slogans. Consequently, it has diminished its ability to grab people’s attention.” This is not true because different fashion companies that are integrating religious symbols and figures have been successful in the sense of propagating their designs to younger religious groups. This is proven by the robust sales of the Teenage Millionaire, the Los Angeles-based makers of the “Jesus is My Homeboy” which sold 10 million up from 2 million three years ago.
If the shirts only contained text, this would have a different impact to the consumers but not to the intolerant groups of parody. To most of the consumers, text may not be sufficient to represent their faith publically; therefore a visual would further demonstrate their ideology of their religion. On the other hand, we have seen as religious consumers that the mainstream culture has made a mockery of these shirts; in addition, it has become more acceptable.
The rhetorical message of the Jesus in both shirts is clearly disrespecting and Jesus has been thought of an ordinary figure not a religious figure that serves as a role model to many religious communities. In the center, the shirt displays Jesus as a “Home Boy” and advocating peace. The positioning of him is not revealed in a religious way but in a street-like manner. The color of the shirt is plain; there is clearly an emphasis on the text and visual which allegedly implies the “phenomenon” of the Jesus to the targeted consumers. The designer draws “Jesus” face in a non-purely way which gives off a sign of disrespect. The shirt to the left, Jesus was given the holy face, but he was wearing a black shirt and not religious attire which is shocking and brings to us as religious individuals that the designers are directly attacking the Christian faith. The positioning of Jesus is ironically holy, which means the designer was trying to integrate some methods of religion to garner as many consumers as he can. The designers played with the fonts to emphasize certain ideas and grab the attention of the consumer. The usages of different color schemes implicate the importance of the message.