Tag: jessicajohnson

The College Football Playoff committee’s recent decision to deny undefeated ACC champion Florida State a chance to play for a national title sent shockwaves of disbelief that escalated to anger among FSU alums and fans. During the inception of the CFP nine years ago, it was always believed that an undefeated Power 5 conference champ would never be left out of the two semi-final games. Well, in the current state of college football things have gotten a little more complicated to where it isn’t just good enough to win.

As I was reading about the current legal challenges regarding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, I, and I’m sure many others, immediately thought about the triumphant Selma-to-Montgomery March in Alabama 58 years ago. Over 2,000 civil rights marchers led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his wife Coretta, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and a young John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during their 54-mile trek to Montgomery to push for national legislation to protect the rights of Blacks to vote. A little over a century had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation, and African Americans, while citizens by law, were still suffering great injustice in the Deep South. The Voting Rights Act was needed as a safeguard while exercising their God-given right to fully participate in our nation’s democracy. When the VRA was initially enacted on August 6, 1965, it was viewed as upholding the 15th Amendment, which bars the federal government and states from denying a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Along with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act brought a legal end to the southern Jim Crow laws. Since the late 60s, the VRA has been amended five times, but now the core of this landmark measure is in serious jeopardy.

The subject of detours has been on my mind since this year’s fall semester of school began at The Ohio State Univesity-Lima. As you all know, a major section of state Route 117 has been shut down since August.

This week, my associate dean at Ohio State University’s Lima campus sent the faculty a reprint of an earlier Chronicle of Higher Education story on students’ demands for flexibility post-COVID. For those of us who missed the original article in February, it was an interesting and informative read. Chronicle senior writer Beckie Supiano focused on the challenges and frustrations of both students and professors as universities strive to offer a “normal college education” three years removed from the pandemic. She effectively summarized our current state: “Everyone keeps telling professors to ‘meet students where they are’ — even if it takes more time and effort. But where are they, exactly? Covid has shaped students’ lives, but not all in the same way.”

At the end of October, NPR reposted a story that featured an interview with Sharon Riley, the pastor of Orlando, Florida’s Agape Perfecting Praise and Worship Center. In response to Florida banning AP African American History and the state placing restrictions on how Black history is taught in public schools, Riley is providing master classes for her congregation, which consists of many families with school-aged children. She explained to NPR’s Danielle Prieur that “there are certain pieces of information relevant to our history that are not [being] taught.”

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is being sued by a bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general who are alleging that the algorithms and notifications on its social media platforms are addictive and have greatly contributed to the mental health crisis of our nation’s young people. Thirty-three of the attorneys general filed a federal suit against Meta in the Northern District of California, and the remaining nine filed in their respective states.

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month is winding down in October, one of my closest friends, Shawmeen Henderson, is on the cusp of a very special anniversary. Shawmeen works as a program quality specialist at the Huckleberry House in Columbus, Ohio, a crisis center that helps troubled youth, and next year she will celebrate a decade of being cancer free.

The October report from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed some serious concerns regarding the 2023-24 academic year, as more than 1,300 K-12 schools across the country are still struggling due to the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recently released sci-fi action movie “The Creator” has drawn mixed reviews from critics, although 76% of fans gave it a thumbs-up on Rotten Tomatoes. Since its previews, I had this film on my schedule to view due to following how artificial intelligence has been depicted in pop culture and reading current AI headlines regarding robotic advancement and mounting ethical concerns. Recent news stories have explored the projections that AI would require the same amount of energy to run as an entire nation and have warned how AI generated voices are quickly spreading untruths and bogus news on TikTok.

Deion Sanders has rumbled through the college football landscape this season with the power and tenacity of a Buffalo stampede. In his first Power 5 coaching gig at the University of Colorado Boulder, Sanders has brought back the kind of excitement that was rampant on the Boulder campus during the ’90s before the Bowl Championship Series era.