Camp^s Echo
Thur^ay, October 28,1999
Beyond NCCU
7
North Carolina Central University
IN BRIEF
Children and TV viewing
A ccording to recommenda
tions by the American
Academy of Pediatrics,
children under 2 years old
should not watch television and
older children should not have
television sets in their bedroom.
The group says television
viewing can affect the mental,
social and physical health of
young people. The academy
based its recommendations on
knowledge of what babies need
for proper brain development.
However, many parents who
were interviewed agreed that
television’s influence was a
proper concern for pediatrics,
but it was unrealistic to set arbi
trary limits.
The academy has spent over
two years developing the latest
policy statement. In 1997 it
started the “Media Matters”
campaign to educate pediatri
cians and the public on positive,
as well as, negative influences
the media has on children.
*■ —Tiffanie Hughes
Orange County blacks
rejected for mortgages
T he Community
Reinvestment
Association of North
Carolina and the N.C. Fair
Housing Center recently con-
dimted a survey that revealed
th|t minorities have a harder
time getting mortgages than
wljites, especially in Orange
Cojinfy.
According to the 1997 Federal
mortgage reports, blacks get
d^ied home loans at a rate 3.4
pes higher than whites and
jome does not appear to be
determining factor in who
3S or does not receive a loan.
Hack loan applicants in the
le income bracket as white
jlicants get turnetffdoWn fof'^
lo4ns at a ra3ilb.6-tfh6&s^igher.
I ^ ^^Tijfanie Hughes
\ '
I
Tuition climb slows
ccording to a study done
by the College Board,
tuition and fees nation
wide rose less than 5 percent
fonthe current school year.
k thriving economy, brim-
mihg state coffers, vigorous
stc^k market boom, and efforts
byi^chools to reign in costs are
th^ economic factors that have
cojitributed for the slow
inorease.
fcollege Board president,
Galbton Carperton, states that
thife is money well spent—a four-
ye^r college degree doubles the
ealfnings of a high school gradu
ate
He said, “the average is
around $30,000 a year vs. $60,
00(J a year.” The $30,000 differ
ence equals and increased earn
ing of $1.2 million in a 40-year
career time.
•‘Education is expensive but
it’s not nearly as expensive as
noi getting an education,” said
Calperton.
I
-Tiffanie Hughes
Microsoft's Bill Gates
glyes $1 billion for
minority scholars
T he Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation schol
arship funds are targeted
to scholarships in the sciences,
majthmatics, engineering and
edjication fields.
The scholarships awarded
thijough this program will cover
tuijion and expenses for 1,000
sti^ents per year for the next
20 years.
the United Negro College
Fuhd will participate in the
adjninistration of the minority
scljolarships.
Recording to UNCF
President, William Gray, “the
scholarship will lead to increas
es bf 15 to 40 percent in the
number of minorities who
redjeive doctorates in mathe-
majtics, the sciences, engineer
ing and education.”
pill Gates is the Chairman
an^ CEO of Microsoft
Coi^oration. He has a net
worth of over $90 billion.
—Monique Perry
College Scholarship Fraud Prevention
of 1999 introduced in Congress
By'Rhonda Sciakra
DAILY EGYPTIAN-SOUTHERN aUNOI& UNIV.
(U-WIRE) CARBONDALE, Ill.
— A bill currently being pre
sented to Congress
aims to prevent incoming col
lege students from losing mil
lions of dollars
to fraudulent
scholarship
scams.
The “College
Scholarship
Fraud
Prevention Act
of 1999” adds
10 years to
prison sen-
tences of people convicted of
fraud if criminal activity
involves
education. The bill also
requires the Federal Trade
Commission and
Department of Education to
maintain a website that con
tains information
about legitimate college schol
arships.
n
A good rule of thumb is
that if it sounds too good to
he true, it probably is.
—^Monica Brahler
Finanqal Aid Officer
Sen. Spencer Abraham
(R-Michigan) and Russell
D. Feingold (D-
Wisconsin)
sponsored the legislation,
which went before a Senate
Judiciary Committee
hearing a week ago.
Monica
Brahler, public
relations coor
dinator for the
Financial Aid
Office
at SIUC, said
students
should be
leery of unso
licited scholar
ship services
that provide information
through the mail or via e-mail.
“A good rule, of thumb is that
if it sounds too good to be true,
it probably
is,” she said.
Brahler said the Better
Business Bureau and Attorney
General’s Office are great
resources for checking the
validity of a scholarship ser
vice’s claim.
She said if students are curious
about a compa
ny or service,
they should
not hesitate to
look into the
business’ past.
“If a busi
ness is not will
ing to give you
references or
work with you,
I think red flags should be
going up,” she said.
The first legal action against
scholarship scams began in fall
of 1996 when
the FTC launched project
Scholar Scam and shut down
five fraudulent
companies. Mark Kantrowitz,
publisher of the FinAid website
(www.fihaid.org), said scholar
ship scams have always existed.
“If you have to pay money to
get money, it is probably a
scam,” Kantrowitz said. “A
scholarship is about gaining
99
If you have to pay money
to get mony,
it is probably a scam.
—^Mark Kantrowitz
FinAid Web Site Publisher
money - not giving money.”
The eight organizations that
have since been shut down by
the FTC
defrauded
more than
175,000 con
sumers of $22
million.
Kantrowitz
estimates total
consumer loss-
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm gg from schol
arship scams
to number in the hundreds of
millions of dollars.
“By the time I could assem
ble proof that an organization
is fraudulent, the organization
has already been in existence
for well over a year,”
Kantrowitz said. “By the time
fraud is proven, they have
changed their name and
address.”
Along with a crackdown on
fraud, the FTC has launched
programs to educate students
about what types of scams are
fraudulent.
“Educating consumers on
how to recognize these types of
scams will do more to thwart
these scams than any law
enforcement,” Kantrowitz said.
A type of scholarship fraud,
known as guaranteed scholar
ship services, guarantees stu
dents will earn a designated
amount of money but require
students to pay for the services.
Kantrowitz said the claims
these services make are unrea
sonable.
Kantrowitz said there are
several legitimate services cn
the Internet where students
can benefit from.
Terri Williams, academic
scholarship coordinator for
New Student Admissions at
SIUC, said students can find
enough ways to earn scholar
ships at no cost.
“There are enough scholar
ship services out there that su -
dents can take advantage of
without paying someone to do
that for them,” she said.
Census officials are working to get an accurate account of
college students in 2000
(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON — U.S. Census
Bureau officials plan to launch a major
paid advertising campaign, worth $167
million, in an effort to ensure a
more accurate count of the American
population for the 2000 Census.
The move stems from concerns about
the handling of the 1990 census, which
had a 10 percent decline in the mail
response rate to the original
questionnaire, said Jennifer Marks, chief
of the Census 2000 Publicity
Office at the U.S. Census Bureau. And
with the dramatic decline in the
public’s response in 1990, government
planners and legislators oil GUpitoU!®^'^
Hill want as clear a picture as possible
of the American public — college
students included.
“The goal is to reach everyone who
lives in the U. S. ages 18 and over and
to persuade them to mail back their cen
sus,” Marks said.
Lessons learned from the 1990 census
forced the bureau to pursue a new
advertising tactic.
“Evaluations of the advertising and
placement in the media in 1990
suggested that a small part of the popu
lation received the messages,” Marks
said. The new campaign will feature
print, broadcast, and billboard
advertising.
The areas in which college students
are counted provides vital services to
college towns, said Karen Mills, a demo-
G etting Census 2000 right will take a heroic effort. And
the stakes are high for different sectors of society. Now
the Census Bureau has taken to $167 million advertising
campaign. But the process is fraught with posshiilities of
error, such as when parents count college students who
also get counted at the university.
graphic statistician in the Census
Bureau’s Population Division.
“If they’re in a dorm, they’ll be couaL.^
ed at the university,” Mills said.
“The main concept of ‘Residence Rules’
is usual place of residence. The
students live in the community, rely on
the resources and patronize the
business establishments. They do this for
the greater part of the year.”
As a result, double counting often
occurs when the students’ parents
include their children in their census
replies and the students return
their own copies. This is one of several
enumeration errors, according to
Ken Wachter, chair of the Department of
Demography at the University of
California at Berkeley.
“The major problem is the potential
over-count which comes from the
‘Residence Rules’ and parents who dou
ble (count for college students),”
Wachter said.
Despite the duplicated enumeration
among college students, certain sectors
of differing socio-economic backgrounds
are traditionally undercounted, Census
Bureau Historian Michael Hovland said.
“The attitude of wariness tends to be
concentrated among minority
populations,” Hovland said. Past census
data indicates that certain sectors
of the population prefer confidentiality
and are fearful of releasing their
data to the government. He said young
black males account for the largest
undercounts.
Edward Spar, executive director of
the Council of Professional Associations
on Federal Statistics, said officials are
not sure how the undercount is
spread out, but he said he hopes the
approaching census will give such
indications.
“The Bureau is correct in its attempt
to get more people involved. The more
they can try to set up an environment
where people truly believe it’s in
■their best interest to respond, the .iiore
will,” he said.
Some analysts believe that changing
the wording of the census to reflect
social change will ultimately improve
results. Though the Census Bureau
tries to keep the census questions con
gruent from decade to decade, changes
in wording may create some discrepan
cies, Spar said.
“The wording has been determined
because of historical context and
cognitive research,” he said.
Wachter said some changes the
Census Bureau has made could be detri
mental.
“I expect Census 2000 to be the most
troubled census of the decades,” he
said. “There were bad decisions to put
very high reliance on failure-prone
statistical methods.
“I do think the Census Bureau is mak
ing heroic efforts,” Wachter said, “but in
the face of social changes. They’re run
ning faster to stay in place.”
Spar took a more optimistic view.
“You’ve got to look at the Census as a
national ceremony,” he said. “It is
astoundingly important to understand
what we’re about and the major
implications of where we’re going as a
society.”
seven;
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