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UPDATE: Why is Everyone in America Talking About Baseball?
The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years, beating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings.
The Cubs led 6-3 after the first six innings but Cleveland scored three runs in the bottom of the eight to tie it up. Neither team scored in the ninth, and after a brief rain delay the game went into extra innings.
Both teams hoped to end long droughts without a world title: the Cubs last won in 1908 while the Indians' last series win was in 1948.
Despite the Cubs being favored to win the series, Cleveland was a game away from claiming the title after winning the first, third and fourth games of the series. But Chicago won three straight – including the final two in Cleveland - to end the longest stretch without a World Series win by any team in baseball.
Original story starts here:
This Major League Baseball World Series has brought fans out of the woodwork because it matches up two teams who have the longest World Series droughts in baseball.
America loves underdogs, and this year's World Series has two of them: The Cleveland Indians have not won a pennant since 1948, and the Chicago Cubs have not won since 1908!
The Indians are in the American League. They won in the playoffs, or the games that decided who would go to the World Series. According to the Indians website, the team has been in existence since 1901, and have won only two World Series titles. Once in 1920, and once in 1948.
Carlos Santana's game-winning catch to advance the Indians to the World Series
This means that the last time the Indians won the World Series:- A man hadn’t landed on the moon
- Israel had just declared itself an independent state
- It was the year that President Truman defeated Dewey. (And not the other way around.)
The Cubs are a part of the National League. The last time the Cubs appeared in the World Series was 1945. But they lost. The Cubs only have one World Series title under their belt, the one they won in 1908.
The Cubs celebrate clinching a trip to the World Series
This means that the last time the Cubs won the World Series:- Neither World War had occurred
- Sliced bread wasn’t in existence
- The Ottoman Empire still existed
The World Series is played over seven games, going back and forth between the two stadiums of the participating baseball teams. Whoever wins four of seven wins the World Series title. The first two World Series games of 2016 will be played at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. CNN Money reported that the average ticket price for the four possible games in Cleveland is $3,900.
In Chicago, Illinois at Wrigley Field, the ticket prices are even more steep. CNN Money reports that the average asking price for the three possible games is $7,200 a seat. Jesse Lawrence, the founder and CEO of TicketIQ told CNN that, "We've never seen anything like this before. ... We may never see it again,” as this series is even beating out previous Super Bowl ticket averages.
The World Series is a match-up played after the regular 162 game season, and the two to three rounds of playoffs after that point. The Wild Card game comes first and is a newer (and more confusing) feature of the World Series, and the New York Times has great background information on it. The Division Series, and the Championship Series follow afterward in that order. To get to the World Series, a team from each league of baseball must win both of these series. In the World Series, a team must win four of seven games to officially claim the championship title.
No matter which team claims the title, this World Series will be one for the history books. One title drought will be broken, and another will drag on. Game 2 of the series airs tonight at 7 PM on Fox, as the Indians lead the series 1-0. The full list of games is located here.
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Malaysian official: Schools can’t turn away from global tensions
Zambry Abdul Kadir, Malaysia’s higher education minister, said protests spreading across universities in the United States show that schools can’t ignore political tensions.
Helen Packer, reporting in Times Higher Education, said the minister reminded educators that universities are key in the development of leaders, individuals and societies. (April 2024)
Social media breaks are difficult, but necessary
Between online classes, maintaining social connections and working on projects, college students can have a hard time disengaging from the demands of technology.
In Florida International University’s PantherNOW, Ariana Rodriguez offers strategies for taking a break from social media. (April 2024)
- By Melos Ambaye
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.
