Columbia Suveillance Follow-Up

The Free Times currently has a lead story about the decision to install more cameras around downtown streets. Of particular interest, the report describes that many of the cameras are privately-owned, so their recordings are not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests for release.

Just something to think about before you head down to Five Points. Smile!

College Costs Creep Upward

Credit: NY Times

A recent New York Times article describes how the cost of attending college has risen many times faster than the average income of the U.S. family. Since a college degree is often considered the base-level requirement for entry into professional career, are we closing doors of opportunity by out-pricing the middle class?

For those of you who are college students now, did you have conversations about the cost of attending, taking on personal debt, or establishing a budget before you started college?

Alcohol Violations Freeze Fraternity Rush

In news that will shock very few, alcohol consumption - including underage drinking - has been observed on a college campus. What is newsworthy is that University of South Carolina officials responded to numerous alcohol-policy violations by freezing the entire fraternity recruitment period (otherwise known as "rushing").

According to the Daily Gamecock, Jerry Brewer, USC's Vice President of Student Affairs, elected to suspend the recruitment process for campus fraternities due to the severity of the alcohol violations. Additional reports from The State indicated that four incidents required medical assistance, one of which required hospitalization.

In the wake of the shutdown, the University will open hearings about the violations and design a plan to move forward beginning today. Not to be outdone, leaders among USC's Greek system composed a contrary statement that seeks to pin blame for the events on the Office for Greek Life for driving alcohol consumption underground. [Read the statement at The Daily Gamecock here: PDF.]

So, to the social problem question: Is this behavior indicative of a larger, cultural problem? Is underage drinking more or less common/severe than in the past? Was the University justified in its decision to suspend fraternity recruitment?

Could SC Have a Coal Ash Problem?

Environmental advocacy group Earth Justice has released a new report citing South Carolina as one of the states with the least oversight of "coal ash" retention. For those not familiar with the term, coal ash is one by-product of burning coal to produce electricity. Coal ash is known to contain hazardous materials like arsenic, lead, and selenium, but is often stored around the producing plant in large reservoirs because the waste is classified as an inert material (Dewan, 2008).

If the claims made by Earth Justice are correct, then the reservoirs in question could pose a potential hazard to South Carolinians. For example, a major coal ash spill infamously destroyed homes and poisoned a river in Kingston, TN in 2008. With environmental protection's chronic under-funding in SC, could a situation like this happen to one of our rivers? Is this a legitimate concern, or a watchdog group seeking to churn up public concern over a non-issue?

More Eyes in the Sky?

Photo courtesy The State online

The Columbia City Council is moving forward with plans to put up more surveillance cameras around the downtown area. Since concerns about violent crime around the city have increased (rightly or not), do you think adding cameras will make our streets more secure?

What are the costs of having streets that are electronically monitored?

KIDS Count Map

Related to the post below, here is a map describing the geography of states' ranks by order of children's issues. The darker the blue, the worse the conditions for children in that state.

Map from Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT Data Center

What trends do you see in this map? Do you have any ideas about why the rankings are distributed in the way we see here?

You can look through the Annie E. Casey Foundation's data and create your own maps based on a variety of variables (education, poverty, baby birth weight, etc.) by going to their Data Center.

New Child Poverty Data

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has just released its latest data about measures of child poverty in the U.S. Notable facts about children in SC:

• Percent of births to single mothers: 45.4%
• Percent of births to mothers with less than high school education: 23.9%
• Number of children living in poverty: 258,848 
• State rank for key indicators for children: 45th

These numbers certainly seem to be daunting and the state rank gives us a sense of context (relative to other states) BUT...

What do these numbers and rates really mean? Are these problems increasing or decreasing in intensity? You can follow this link and read for yourself how these numbers compare with measures from previous years.

Bad News for SC Commuters

Another dimension of public funding deficits facing the state will be our capacity to keep our roadways maintained through the economic recession. As someone who presently commutes about 30 minutes daily to and from Columbia, I have observed that the existing infrastructure is already worn fairly thin (though traffic-wise not as bad as other places I have frequently driven through, like Jacksonville or Orlando).

SCDOT Seeks Emergency Funding - Post &Courier

Public Protest of Rejected Education Funds

Just a brief follow-up from last week's entry about the state rejecting $143 million in federal education funding. On my way in to campus, I saw a group of people in front of the Rutledge Building off Bull St. Always interested in a good social movement, I drove by and saw these protesters...

SC Rejects $143 Million in Federal Bailout for Public Schools

For those of you interested in inequalities in local education, this recent decision to refuse $143 million in federal aid for public schools may be worth looking into.

South Carolina Turns Down $143 Million in Public School Funding - The State

Examine the dynamics between the political systems and the educational systems in the state. Why do you think that state officials are unwilling to accept the funding, citing concerns with federal involvement with state affairs?

Mission Statement

This blog is designed to be the central point for connecting the many blogs created by the students of the University of South Carolina's "Introduction to Social Problems" course, for the Fall of 2011.

I will use this site to post information relevant to the class, including supplemental readings, comments on the production and maintenance of student blogs, and other course announcements.

If you are here as a student in the course, please bookmark this site and remember to check back often. If you are a visitor from elsewhere, please feel free to participate in our nascent online forum!