Parker Vivian - Blog Post

https://parkervivian001.wixsite.com/studentsandtrump

Speak Up, Don’t Let Sexual Assault or Harassment Win

Remember when President Trump said, “grab her by the pussy” in a video interview? Let’s never do that—you do not see women going around grabbing men by their precious jewels. This is not a joke, do not become a wolf from Wall Street—sexual harassment is not okay.

“Sexual harassment is a continual problem. It has been with us for a while, even before the concept of sexual harassment was created, and it is something that limits a person’s sense of comfort and advancement,” stated Katherine Lehman Ph.D., self-identified feminist, chair and associate professor of communications. According to a New York Times  article, “40 per cent of women still say they experience sexual harassment at work. When they risk coming forward, many of them are either enticed or forced into private settlements outside of the courts by employers who want to avoid a public reckoning. Thanks to private settlements, we confront a very tiny sliver of their stories.” This is to show that America’s culture will not evolve if our employers cannot ensure that the repercussions for such actions will not be handled behind closed doors. Destini Torres ’17, a feminist majoring in sociology and communications commented, “I think it is unfair to men and women—because it happens to both—and all genders, whether they fit the gender binary to experience something like this because they did not ask for it to happen.”

Some of us have read about the Bill O’Reilly scandal, through newspaper articles, memes, or videos floating around the internet. The 21^st Century Fox star who apparently generated more than $446 million in advertising according to The Atlantic. Through the decades, O’Reilly has been accused of approaching and calling an African American woman in the office “hot chocolate,” while grunting like a “wild boar,” and he has offered multiple unwanted sexual advances and lewd comments to a woman producer on his show, even resorting to phoning her while it sounded like he was masturbating while describing various sexual fantasies. He suggested than a woman buy a vibrator and engage in phone sex or a threesome with him. He also, openly spoke about his very colorful sexual encounters, which in a sense, forced his coworkers to listen to it. These are not including all the racial comments that he has made on his show over the years. In addition, to cover his ass, he threatened to make any woman who complained about his actions pay for even dreaming about voicing their opinions. Even though it is pretty late, and O’Reilly has accumulated a fan base over the years, the issue was resolved—however the methods of resolution are questionable.

“I have been concerned about him from the beginning in terms of his public persona and what he says about women, minorities and just his general brand of hate speech. I think it is a triumph that Fox News finally let him go, but I understand that he received a $25 million-dollar severance package,” commented Lehman. Can this be considered a win, or will he be able to get a job elsewhere even after such a case has been issued against him? Only time will tell, but I hope no one else is forced to suffer by his hand at any other workplace in the future. “We have other high profiles cases with people in power with similar records and allegations who were not disciplined. So, we can’t look at this case and think that finally, something has been done. It is also chilling that someone could get to this point of power and authority having so many incidents and allegations against them,” reasoned Lehman.  According to an article from the New York Times, “Buried in Fox’s contracts with its employees is fine print saying that they can’t bring lawsuits against the company in court. Instead, those disputes have to be settled by a private entity with the details kept private, too. If some victims are lured into settlements, arbitration ensures others have no choice. Arbitration tilts the tables toward the employer: Employees win only about a fifth of the time in such a situation, about half as successful as in federal or state court.”

According to an article from the New York Times, “at least five women have received payments from either him or Fox that together total about $13 million, most of which were never previously made public. Many of the payments have come with agreements that the women won’t speak about what happened to them.” Jaya Minhas ’17, feminist majoring in spanish and french with women & gender studies minor commented, “It is a very personal thing and some women do not wish to take legal actions, but if they do, take time to reflect and go to someone immediately to have records taken of all the evidence that you have so that you are able to make that decision later.” This is easier said than done especially for a victim who fears coming forward. I suggest that employers listen to both sides and understand that this is a persistent incident that needs to be handled accordingly. “Look at it more systematically. Is this just a problem that has happened with this one employee or is there other issues that needs to be addressed holistically,” commented Lehman. Often, people are afraid to speak up because of power dynamics within the company they are working in and the fact that losing their jobs becomes a high burden for them. In addition, some may feel embarrassment about being a victim and develop fears about their case being swept under the rug.

President Trump and O’Reilly’s comments have caused a noticeable upset among feminists today, and it is one of the reasons why feminists are coming together and becoming more active. Especially, “To advocate for women’s issues since women and girls are still disadvantaged globally—and in the U.S.—in the workplace, family and other realms of life. Bust also to be attuned toward inequality in any form, for example looking at race and class discrimination, discrimination against people who are gay or lesbian; so, feminism to me, has a broad meaning about fighting for equality,” explained Lehman. “Any day is very important to band together, whether you are a self-proclaimed feminist or not, especially now that we have a president who has been shown in the media as degrading and sexualizing women. Don’t be afraid to speak up,” commented Torres. 

In addition, there has been a substantial increase of women who publicly identify as being feminists on college campuses around the country today. “Women now account for the majority of college students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 11.3 million of them as compared with 8.7 million men. And 63 per cent identify as feminist,” according to an article from the New York Times. There is always a need for feminist activism and especially now since different groups within the United States is becoming disenfranchise and are under attack. There is currently an obvious threat to women’s rights, especially abortion rights, and to 50 years of progress on civil rights and civil liberties, religious tolerance, anti-racism, health care and LGBTQ rights. Therefore, it is highly important for these groups speak up if they are ever victims of sexual assault or harassment because there can be strength in numbers.

Here at Albright, there are various advocates who are key players in making sure that students and employees on campus are never victims of sexual assault or harassment. But, in the event that they are victims, they ensure that that these individuals are properly taken care of. These are the individuals that make up Albright’s Public Safety, Residential Life, and Gable Health Center. For example, in April for Sexual Assault Awareness month, the Gable Health Center facilitated a handful of events on campus that raised awareness and brought students’ attention to sexual assault and harassment. Some of these events alcohol screenings, showing a film titled Finding Jenn’s Voice and collaborating with Public Safety to offer Rape Aggression Defense System (RAD) classes to students on campus. This is to show that everyone is making a collective effort to ensure that students are living in a safe environment. It is essential for students at Albright to be informed about the services that are available to them and the fact that they are able to take advantage of these services. We all need to make a collective effort to ensure that everyone is living in a safe environment.

Written by Herfa Maitland   

Multimedia Blog Updated

https://wordpress.com/post/maddiebalga.wordpress.com/16

Multimedia report - draft

https://parkervivian001.wixsite.com/studentsandtrump

This is where my blog is. I currently have a handful of external sources to reference in my report. My report will use video recordings and Audio recordings once after I organize my sources by what we discussed in the interview.

Multimedia Blog

https://maddiebalga.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/president-trump-threatens-to-undermine-obamacare/?frame-nonce=7d2b5e25fd

Student Immigrants of Reading Strive for Citizenship with Renewed Rigor

As the United State’s government budget plan looms in public concern, President Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border of Mexico and the United States has become a highly debated topic within the budget’s shadow. While the cost of the wall is between $10 - 12 billion according to BBC's article, there seems to be little change in the mindset on whether to drop this project from the budget. Immigration has been in the spotlight ever since President Trump had become a candidate for president. As tensions grow higher, there are strong social repercussions in many communities. Reading, Pa., a city that is known to have a large latino population is feeling this tension and immigrants are not standing idly by.

Within the city of Reading, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and students on educational visas are pushing for citizenship or work visas with a renewed effort. The government’s sudden shift of focus has made the possibility of deportation and canceled visas an ever-present reality. Immigrants are also more wary of coming to the United States. According to a Pew Research study, the number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States has started to decline. This trend started in 2007 where the number stopped increasing and has held its position around 11.3 million people. The New York Times has also noticed this trend and reported that illegal crossing attempts seem to be down by 75 percent.

Immigrants are starting to see the United States as hostile territory rather than the land of opportunity. But how are immigrants residing locally fairing between social and economic opposition that stemmed from the political tide of this past election? They are working with renewed rigor.

One student from Reading Area Community College, who is unnamed because of being an illegal immigrant, spends her free time educating local Reading residents on their rights as immigrants and is a social advocate for more immigrant rights. “I hope that an immigration reform can help a lot of people who have been here working and productive that would allow us a pathway to citizenship so we wouldn’t have to live in fear,” said the RACC student. Upon receiving a GRIP (Greater Reading Education Program) scholarship, she has started participating in the programs fundraisers.

The RACC student came to the United States when she was six years old and is now 22. Without having any family members who are residents, a skill that the United States government finds irreplaceable, or a citizen who she is planning on marrying, the student does not know of a way to safely get become a resident. Being here since she was a child, she does not know how to speak Spanish anymore and views deportation back to the Dominican Republic as an end to her life and ability to work and act as a member of society. The student discusses her concerns about living in the U.S. illegally in this podcast.

Prasadi Dangolla, a senior at Albright College, is living in the United States on an education visa. Because she will soon be receiving her degree, she views the remaining year as a ticking clock. Once she receives her degree she cannot leave the country because her visa will be voided then. Her goal in the meantime is to reach a highly skilled level in work and education so that she can receive her citizenship through her own personal ability.

“There are a lot of ways I could go about it, one would be to continue my education to the highest level possible and then get hired by an American company who would say that I am a valuable employee and asset to their company, and we would like to help in her process to citizenship,” said Dangolla.

Obtaining citizenship for Dangolla does not come without cost. Already having citizenship in Sri Lanka and Denmark she would have to drop one of them. She feels the recent activities of the government are making citizenship even more difficult, yet making people more aware of the subject.

Jaya Minhas, a senior at Albright College, can relate closely to Dangolla’s situation. Minhas and her family have lived in the United States and England for large parts of her life and because of recent political activity are in the process of getting citizenship. Her father’s business is advocating for their family. The process is strenuous and extremely particular to details, she had to miss classes because of a fingerprint test. They would not allow the fingerprint test to be rescheduled and if she missed it for any reason, the citizenship process would be terminated. At the end of the process, her family will take a final written citizenship test, one Minhas helps teach people about presently.

Minhas believes tolerance and acceptance are needed for immigrants because they are coming to the United States because of struggles within their own country that have brought them here.“ I think education is the key and exposure to the people different than yourself is important it is so easy to hate and fear someone if you do not know them personally,” said Minhas.

A social change must occur before politicians follow. Education on the subject of immigration is the first step, then social change, political change and finally economic. Visit https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learners/apply-citizenship to learn about the 10 steps to naturalization.

For more information and perspectives on the processes of gaining citizenship, listen to this podcast created by Elise Nelson: https://soundcloud.com/elise-nelson-866403573/us-citizenship

Multimedia Project

Here is the link to my multimedia project:

https://emilyflynn33.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/voucher-schools-pose-a-threat-to-special-needs-students-and-taxpayers/

Multimedia Artile for Com315

Multimedia Artile for Com315
https://katiepriore.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/how-planned-parenthood-affects-people/

My multimedia report will be a piece on president Donald Trump's presidency thus far. I want to cover his Presidency as a whole, not his campaign or personal life; but evaluate him as a government official and representative of the United States. Though his time in office has been short, he has stirred up quite some out roar over his foreign policy such as Immigration from Syria.

Delving into Immigration's Policy, Problems, and Personal Side

Immigration has been a highly debated subject for years. If you watched the history channel when they talked about relevant material rather than aliens and big foot, there were programs on New York City when it was originally called New Amsterdam. Immigrants were coming to the new world in droves and almost immediately internal distain appeared. It is ironic since everyone except the Native Americans were immigrants.

Over 300 years later immigration has developed into an entirely different monster. Due to lines being drawn between countries and policies being made, immigration went from a simple social issue to a political and economic dilemma. Locally, Reading is a prime area for undocumented immigrants. But there is more behind the story of of an undocumented immigrant trying to become a legal resident.

The upcoming multi-media blog will take a broad look and focus on the process of legal immigration as well as the personal side of illegal immigration, and the economic repercussions on the United States and Reading in particular.

Betsy DeVos: Introductory Post

For my localized piece, I plan on writing about Betsy DeVos. Similar to the post I did for COM 390, I plan to interview current education students here at Albright and hopefully professors about their opinions with DeVos being the Secretary of Education. As an education major, I personally am concerned with DeVos being in office and how her plans with affect public education. Albright Early Education majors are nervous for the future of education. With the college eliminating it's early and middle level education programs and now with DeVos in office, students are scared for what's to come.