Student Union
Father Springsteen Advises Students During COVID
At the start an otherwise dreary academic year for many college freshmen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston College -- a Jesuit Catholic university -- treated incoming freshmen to a pep talk from one of the biggest stars in American music.
“If you completed your assignment and read my book, you will know I got into rock ‘n’ roll for the sex, the drugs and the sex,” drawled Bruce Springsteen, winner of numerous awards, seller of a gazillion downloads, and the father of Boston College graduate Evan Springsteen, Class of 2012.
“Oh wait, that's the wrong speech. Let's start again.”
Springsteen, 70, delivered his remarks September 10 by livestream to the incoming class of freshmen, who, like millions of other among the Class of 2024, have not enjoyed the same initiations and orientations of most new freshmen. The COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools or limited the typical ways new students interact in person because of social distancing.
But the megastar quickly turned philosophical and fatherly, consoling them over their limitations and dubbing these post-GenZers the “coronial generation,” a play on the coronavirus.
“The life of the mind is a beautiful thing. Along with your spiritual life, it's the apotheosis of human experience,” he said. “You can waste it, you can half-ass your way through it, or you can absorb every minute of what you're experiencing, and come out on the other end: an individual of expanded vision, of intellectual vigor, of spiritual character and grace, fully prepared to meet the world, on its own terms.”
Despite mentioning a few times that he’d lapsed from formal religious views learned in eight years of Catholic school in central New Jersey, Springsteen often returned to mentions of faith and spirituality.
“My faith was something I thought I could walk away from after those eight formative years in Catholic school, but I was wrong. … My faith remained with me, informing my writing … incorporating biblical language. I consider myself primarily a spiritual songwriter,” he said. “I make music that ultimately wants to address the soul. I made my peace with my Catholic upbringing, for better or for worse. And I have had to nod to the fact that I wouldn't exactly be who I am without it.”
Freshman Danny Giunta of Massachusetts asked the mega-star how he avoided conformity in his youth and gained confidence as a fledgling artist.
“How did I maintain my confidence? Ah …” Springsteen pondered. “I am a rambling mess of towering insecurities, even to this day …”
But after a decade of performing in “bars, union halls, firehouses, fairs, weddings, high school dances [and] bar mitzvahs” -- before he signed his first recording contract that launched worldwide adoration and wealth -- he had learned and worked to gain confidence in his skills.
Money, which is a frequent theme in his work, “is great. But alone, it ain't gonna do it. Everybody wants to do well, but don't just do well, as they say, do good. Choose something that makes you happy and makes you want to get up and go to work in the morning and allows you to rest easy at night,” he said
When asked by BC student Heidi Yoon about the importance of friendship near the end of his 30-minute address, the singer-songwriter lit up.
“Imagine this: The people you're going to school with right now? Forty-five years later, you're working with those exact same people! Forty-five years later, those same people are still with you,” he said, laughing and shaking his head.
“You're gonna fight, you're gonna love, you're gonna argue, you're gonna hate this about the other guy, he's gonna hate this about you. But … we held the value of our friendship, higher than any of our personal grievances or disputes,” he said of the E Street band, assembled in 1972 and maintaining the same members for most of its duration.
Springsteen gave several minutes to encouraging his young viewers to participate in the upcoming presidential election, and their role in civic duty.
“Your country needs you: your vision, your energy and your love. Yes, your love,” he said. “Love your country, but never fail to be critical. When it comes to your country's living up to your and its ideals. Listen to the voices calling you from our founding documents and keep faith with them. And vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Only half of all Americans vote. It's a sin.”
Jesuit education is notable for its intellectual rigor, critical thinking and volunteerism. There are numerous Jesuit educational institutions around the world, with 27 universities in the U.S., including Boston College and College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, Georgetown University in Washington, Loyola University of Maryland, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Chicago, Gonzaga University in the state of Washington, and Spring Hill College in Alabama.
“You are already wisened by this experience,” Springsteen said about the COVID pandemic and resultant restrictions and limitations.
“So appreciate the underappreciated: sporting events, getting together with your friends, concerts. Remember those?” Springsteen said, whose concert tickets to stadium performances sell out in minutes. “We will soon look to you for answers for a safer and better world.”
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Many master's degrees aren't worth the investment, research shows
Nearly half of master's degrees have a negative financial return, according to new research by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, an economic research organization.
The study indicates that many graduate degree programs do not increase lifetime earnings enough to be worth it.
While 23% of bachelor’s degree programs yield a negative financial return on investment, 43% of two-year degrees and master’s degrees fail to deliver a return, according to the study by Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at FREOPP.
Cooper assessed the return on investment for 53,000 degree and certificate programs to determine whether a student’s lifetime earnings outweigh program costs and the risk of not completing their degree.
His findings show that a student’s field of study was the overriding indicator of return on investment at the undergraduate and graduate level.
Engineering, computer science and nursing bachelor’s degrees have high financial returns on investment, while programs in education, fine arts, psychology and English usually have low returns.
Graduate degrees in medicine and law tend to have strong payoffs. But a large share of master’s programs, including the MBA, frequently have low payoffs, according to Cooper.
Although workers with master’s degrees earn 16% more than those with only bachelor’s degrees, Cooper says the figure fails to account for students who had “higher preexisting earnings potential.”
“MBA students typically have high preexisting earnings potential, having often chosen high-ROI undergraduate majors such as finance and economics,” Cooper writes. “So the MBA adds little value on top of that.”
The study indicates that high starting salaries are predictors of high returns on investment. Degrees with starting salaries of $57,000 a year or more deliver the best lifetime returns.
But the return on investment of a degree can vary depending on the educational institution.
“Students interested in fields with low average pay can still find some schools that do well transforming those fields of study into high-paying careers,” Cooper writes.
The quality of an institution also matters, said William Tierney, professor emeritus of higher education at the University of Southern California.
“An MBA from Harvard is a likely ticket to a good job,” Tierney told VOA. “An MBA from the University of Phoenix, less so.”
But students pursue graduate programs for more than just financial reasons.
“Some degrees open up careers in fields that students may enjoy, such as in the performing arts,” Robert Kelchen, head of educational leadership at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, told VOA.
“Others can help gain access to social networks or simply help students learn about a topic that is of interest,” Kelchen added.
Cooper told VOA that it might make sense for students in degree programs with low returns on investment to switch majors if they can still graduate on time.
He found the worst outcome for a student’s return on investment is dropping out of college “because they must pay for one or more years’ tuition and spend time out of the labor force.”
Lawmakers who fund higher education have a responsibility in ensuring “higher education delivers on its promise of economic mobility,” Cooper said.
Nearly a third of federal funding, including Pell grants and student loans, pays for higher education programs that fail to provide students with a return on investment, according to the study.
Cooper’s view is that “some schools should shut down low-ROI programs and reallocate institutional resources to programs with a better return.”
“There's definitely this narrative out there that higher education is always worth it, and you should always try to get that extra degree because it will increase your earnings,” he told VOA. “That's reinforced by colleges who make lofty promises regarding their graduate degree programs' outcomes, which all too often fall short.”
Harvard students end protest as school agrees to discuss Gaza conflict
Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas were voluntarily taking down their tents in Harvard Yard on Tuesday after university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.
The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that the encampment "outlasted its utility with respect to our demands." Meanwhile, Harvard University interim President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between protesters and university officials regarding the students' questions.
Students at many college campuses this spring set up similar encampments, calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel's military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Harvard said its president and the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Hopi Hoekstra, will meet with the protesters to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
The protesters said they worked out an agreement to meet with university officials, including the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the world's largest academic endowment, valued at about $50 billion.
The protesters' statement said the students will set an agenda that includes discussions on disclosure, divestment, reinvestment and the creation of a Center for Palestine Studies. The students also said that Harvard has offered to retract suspensions of more than 20 students and student workers and back down on disciplinary measures faced by 60 more.
"Since its establishment three weeks ago, the encampment has both broadened and deepened Palestine solidarity organizing on campus," a spokesperson for the protesters said. "It has moved the needle on disclosure and divestment at Harvard."
Chinese students report interrogations, deportations at US airports
Academics from China are reporting increased scrutiny at U.S. airports, with valid visa holders being interrogated and turned away by Customs and Border Protection Agents.
Phones and laptops have been searched, and researchers have undergone extensive questioning about their work. One graduate student at Yale, who was midway through her PhD, was turned back at Dulles airport and banned from entering the U.S. for five years, according to The Guardian.
