Arts Culture
aced@clackam as.edu
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012
The Clackamas Print /
Study abroad program
expensive, worthwhile
By Isaac Soper
Costa Rica and the other part of the time is spent at
Arts & Culture Editor
a biological field station in the rain forest. A chunk
o f time is spent at the beach studying beach ecol
You arrive in a foreign land. T he buildings ape. o g y as well as being at the beach,” said anthropol-
hundreds o f years old; the history is everywheA ogy instructor Robert Keeler.
you are Indiana Jones, and cultural diversity and
The Costa Rica excursion is in the summertime;
education is the Holy Grail to which you seek. - S Jhe program is approximately iour weeks long.
Clackamas Com m unity College is part o f a
, Keeler
__ ____________________
also mentioned that occasionally stu-
consortium 'of co llies, which includes Central dents participate in abroad studies that aren’t
Oregon Com m unity College, Chemeketa CC , directly sponsored by the college. O ther schools
M t. Hood CC , Portland CC, Rouge C C and will often take i n students from other colleges to
Southwestern CC. This consortium, known a s , work with their program.
the Oregon International Education Consortium . “I’ve taken groups to Belize and the Yucatan
(OIEC), offers programs in multiple countries that looking at Mayan ruins and such. Irma Bjene and
span from three weeks to a full term.
»L -I took a group to Peru a few years agp on spring
“We’ve got( good coverage for the l a n g t ^ f e |i ^ e a k ,” said .Keeler.
we teach, said David Miller, department chair o f -
C C C also features a student transfer program
foreign language.
to Germany, which will be held from June 19
C C G also sets up some trips apart fro m th e
July 3. Unlike the other programs, the trip to
consortium, including the upcoming spring bfeak-iG erm any doesn’t feature a typical school portion
trip to France, led by French instructor Heidi * on the agenda,
Cropsey.
, .
“T he Spanish programs all have a study compo-
There are many opportunities on campukdor nent to them; the German doesn't have any formal
foreign language study in other countries, with Je sse s,” said Miller.
multiple summer programs, including a three-
In the past, before the current financial reces-
week trip to Guanajuato, Mexico and Barcelona, sion, in some years the college would have quite
Spain-
X * > a few students participating in the programs,
There are two term-length programs that die according to Keeler. T hat am ount has dropped off
O IE C offers, one being last year’s trip to London, in the past few years, especially in the term long
England, and next fall’s trip to Florence, Italy.
programs; the trip to Florence has a base price of
‘This program is great because it is going t o , $7,895, excluding airline raxes and fuel charges.
Florence, raking classes -as if you were taking d & " * »The most com m on reason gfven for not going
classes here, but you are really immersed in any- is not having the m oney T he second most com-
thing that you are studying said Spanish instruc- m on reason is ‘I have to work,’ which is because
tor Irma Bjerre.
they don’t have enough money,” said Miller. '
O ne o f the big perks to the Florence trip is the
gT ho u g h the study abroad programs are expen-
free museum pass, which allows students tô
are a one o f a kind
ind program that gives
the various world-renowned art museums,st
culturally diverse experiences that they
the Uffizi Gallery the* oldest museum in rm
r^ t ’f ifd in the United States. *•........ , , (
Europe, dating back to 1581.
“We recognize that it is expensive for stu
“Can you imagine studying a A ln O kfence. dents—for anybody to travel, so we look for
what would be a greater experience th in that?” opportunities where costs cari be kept down. There
said Bjerre.
y
are also scholarships available; there are several that
T he full-term programs are sponsored by the are targeted specific for study abroad,” said Keeler.
American Institute for Foreign Studies (AIFS),
T he majority of the study abroad scholarships
which is based in London. T ^ V ^ e r a ^ a num ber ate aaaiig^Bro, which helps cover some costs. T he
o f different programs in various parts o f the world;
.
.
x
u, especially for the full-
currently C Ç Ç is just a part<
term frill credit programs, can be used just as if the
and Florence.
student was taking classes on campus.
T he college also offers a*
or Keeler are the main contacts on cam-
which focuses both on the
fe consortium and various study abroad
and field biology.
e Miller is the head o f the program in ;
rool in " UM^gf e ^ B je n ^ W ^ n m e n d e d that students get
“Part o f the time is spent at a
their registration in for the trip to Florence as soon
J-C15 S?
o
A new possibility
changes everything.
W A R N E R P A C IF IC .E D U
■
PORTLAND, OR
Pirates put down swords,
pick up laptops
By Isadc Soper
Arts & Culture Editor
T hey used to call the Internet the “Inform ation Superhighway,”
for the pirates w ho sail the seven digital seas; it was a free trade system
o f alm ost all forms o f media. T h a t tim e is com ing to a close.
W e m ay n o t fly the jolly roger, .carry cudasses and wear eye patch
es. W e don’t have peg-legs th at click oil the ground while we walk; we
m ay n ot look the type, b ut we are the digital pirates.
M egaUpload has been raided by the FBI, BTJunkie has closed
dow n voluntarily” o ut o f fear. According their blog, T h e Pirate Bay
will be deleting all torrent files w ith seeds (uploaders) over 10 on Feb.
29 and replacing them w ith m agnet links.
W here did it begin? Ag
File-sharing has been popular throughout, the ‘90s until today,
according to a Stanford University study, an estimated 70 million
people engage in online file sharing.
T his started, as m any people know, w ith programs and networks
similar to Napster. These evolved into w hat was LimeW ire (until its
demise on O ct. 26, 2010, by court order nonetheless) and BitTorrent
clients.
File sharing never was an issue ufttil the uprise o f digital m edia and
-theT nternet.'W e h^tf trp-throw away-our VCRs-a«d'cassette decks to
bring in DM Ds an d T^3^. M ost jok^ ^^ m m Q n > ^ Q B g m edia can be
easily ripped (copied) onto a com puter and bent to our will.
| C D s are being phased out b y iTunes and similar music purchasing
software; D V D s are being phased o ut for Blu-ray. Looking into the
future, m ost Blu-rays even include digital copies o f the film for your
computer.
All o f these m edia types make it impossibly easy for non-violent
pirates to share w ith their friends.
Someone told m e that they had spoken w ith a film technician
w ho worked on the set o f “T h o r” last year. T h ey said th at their wages
were directly affectedby pirating, that o n th e opening night o f the
film, m ore people saw the film at hom e than they saw it in theaters. I f
you believe that, answer m e this: W ould those people have seen th at
film in theaters if there wasn’t a pirated copy on the web? D id they
dow nload the movie because they preferred to see the film taken oft
someone’s camcorder w ith crap sound? O r did they download the
movie because they w anted to w atch it b u t couldn’t afford it?
I w ould say that the m an’s lowered wages are due to today’s econ-
,omy, n ot because o f “pirates.” Blaming pirating for Wage loss is just
pointing fingers a t someone, opposed to dealing w ith the real issue.
Anyone can say in this day and age th at their, wages are direedy
Effected by people n o t com ing in to their business, b u t how can y o u
say th at it is direedy due to people dow nloading the m edia th at you
are producing? M y restaurant is losing m oney due to pirates m aking
their food at hom e! Blast you, Jack Sparrow!
Is a movie or m usic anything m ore than informatiori? W e have a
Freedom o f Inform ation Act. H ow does that com e into play? M ost
w ould argue that it doesn’t.
I f we download and w atch a movie o n our com puter, how is it
different than w atching the movie on television? H ow is listening to
“pirated” m usic on ou r m p3 players any different than listening to
the radio? D on’t get m e started on DVR.
I don’t like commercials, so I don’t like listening to the radio and
I hate w atching TV. N o m atter how convincing you- are, T in n o t
interested in your advertisements.. I’m never going to buy your new
car, R on Tonkin; I’m n ot interested in buying Cialis or Viagra. I ’m
n o t going to go to M cD onalds and spend m y m oney on a [expletive
deleted] H appy Meal for lunch. W ere poor.
W ere n o t Robin H ood, b u t w ere n o t pirates either. N o one is
being harm ed by us dow nloading the unreleased music by M um ford
& Sons, no one is being h arm ed by us downloading old H um phrey
Bogart films.
T h e transition to digital m edia has m ade die uploading and
dow nloading o f m edia possible. Prior to the Internet, if you w anted
to copy a movie, you had to have two VCRs! T h e transition to digi
tal has m ade everything easier, which is w hat w ere all about, b u t we
worship m oney as i f it were G od, so pirates send us into blind fury.
All that w ork we’ve done, for what? Entertainm ent? I m ade that
[expletive deleted] song to m ake money, n o t to m ake people’s lives
less miserable!