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Political Rancor Feels Old to America's Youth
Young people watching the rancor between political parties and among average Americans say they do not expect it to get better anytime soon.
“No one seems to want to listen to the other side, and it’s halting any possible progress that could be made otherwise in terms of finding out how best to run the country and what would make the most people happy,” said Christopher Charles Laverde, 22, who writes for the popular anime YouTube channel We the Celestials.
Among Gen Zers (18 to 24 years old), three-quarters said they felt the United States is more divided than before, according to More in Common, an organization that focuses on building “more united, inclusive and resilient societies in which people believe that what they have in common is stronger than what divides them,” according to their website.
In More in Common’s poll, nearly half said they believe the U.S. will remain in the same state of division in 2021, while 36% said they believe the United States will be less united. Far fewer — 17% — said they believe the United States will be more united.
“It's important to keep having these conversations,” said Noelle Malvar, a senior researcher at More in Common, in a video interview. “And [Gen Z] likes messages that speak to this idea that democracy and justice are things to keep working on.”
“For example, they know that addressing inequality, or fighting for justice takes time, and that this needs to be thought about,” she said.
More in Common’s research showed that 60% of young people polled said racial equality was the most important issue for them, with health care and the cost of education being subsequent issues.
In June, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) found in their research that the environment, racism and affordable health care were the top three issues driving youth in the 2020 elections.
“Getting back to normal after the pandemic and police mistreatment also ranked highly,” CIRCLE reported.
Americans of all ages see more conflict than they did in the past two presidential election cycles, according to a Pew Research poll published in March.
Among young people, 18 to 29 in particular, more than 70% said rifts between Republicans and Democrats are very strong, Pew reported. In the same survey, 23% of young people said rifts between these two groups are strong, while 4% called the rifts not very strong between the parties.
Kahnika Mehra is an English and communications major at the University of Maryland who interns at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C. She said she sees an increase in political polarization on social media.
“I find current conversations [between Republicans and Democrats] so dysfunctional and toxic,” she said in an interview with VOA.
Young people do not feel good about the divide. Less than half — 44% — of students said they feel proud to be an American, Chegg and College Plus reported.
Jacob Ehlers, 27, said his family has been divided by political rifts.
“My distant Republican relatives were already pretty bad when Obama was first elected but they got worse with the Tea Party, and then when [President Donald] Trump came around, it became unbearable. We couldn't have a normal discussion anymore,” Ehlers said.
Days before the election, Reuters news agency reported about families cleaved by political discord. When a mother from Milwaukee told her son she was voting for Trump because she aligned with his views on immigration, he said he was disowning her.
“This divide is affecting people’s mental and physical health because there’s so much fear-mongering going on,” Laverde said. “It feels like there’s going to be another war in America and no matter who wins, we're all going to end up losing in the long run.”
Laverde added, “Not to mention, however the virus situation goes, and any number of things really,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It's not hard to provoke the public.”
According to a study by the Healthy Minds Network, depression in 2019 increased among young people. Between March and May 2020, a higher proportion of students reported that their mental health negatively affected their academic performance, compared with the year before.
Yafei Zhao, a journalism major at the University of Maryland College Park, lived in the Shandong province on the northeast coast of China before moving to the United States in 2013. He said he hopes polarizing partisanship in the United States will go away, but said this is unlikely.
“I feel like we should all unite together as a nation and as a country because our differences are what makes us stronger,” Zhao said.
“I think political disagreement is a natural part of any free society. Yet in recent years, the partisan divide has continued to grow larger,” said Shehryar Haris, a master’s candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington. Haris was born in Karachi and grew up in Dubai.
“Populist tides have largely overtaken the discourse, which is dangerous,” she said. “But the American political and legal systems are designed in such a way to ensure checks and balances that allow government to resist these growing populist waves.”
Justin Young, 25, said he remains optimistic about the future and how conflicts will be resolved.
“I hope that people can look beyond cheap externalities when listening to a message,” Young said. “This, however, will not be a short and simple process. Especially with world issues. ... It’s going to take years and a concerted effort to make Americans un-partisan again.”
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Payments to college athletes to range from a few dollars to more than $1M under settlement
Thousands of former college athletes in the U.S. will be eligible for payments ranging from a few dollars to more than a million under the $2.78 billion antitrust settlement agreed to by the NCAA and five power conferences, a deal that also paves the way for schools to directly compensate athletes while attempting regulate payments from boosters.
Details of the sprawling plan were filed Friday in federal court in the Northern District of California, a little more than two months after the framework of an agreement was announced. The deal must still be approved by a judge.
"College athletes will finally be able to share in the billions of dollars their compelling stories and dynamic performances have generated for their schools, conferences, and the NCAA," the filing said. "This is nothing short of a seismic change to college sports following more than four years of hard-fought victories in this case."
The full term sheet includes guidelines on roster caps for individual sports that will replace scholarship limits; how the new financial payments will be monitored and enforced to ensure compliance by schools; how third-party payments to athletes will be regulated; and how nearly $3 billion in damages will be doled out over the next 10 years.
Those payouts will vary drastically and are determined by sport played, when, how long and what conference an athlete competed in. While Division I athletes across all sports will be eligible to collect damages, the majority of damages is expected to go to football and basketball players from power conferences because those leagues and teams generate most of the revenue that comes from billion-dollar media rights contracts.
The deal covers three antitrust cases — including the class-action lawsuit known as House vs. the NCAA — that challenged NCAA compensation rules dating to 2016. The plaintiffs claimed NCAA rules denied thousands of athletes the opportunity to earn millions of dollars off the use of their names, images and likenesses.
The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes earning money through endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2021.
The agreement does not settle the issue of whether college athletes should be deemed employees, but it does include language that would suggest the deal would be subject to change if "a change in law or circumstances permits collective bargaining."
The NCAA and college sports leaders continue to plead for help from Congress in the form of a federal law that would supersede state laws and allow the association and conferences to self govern without fear of future antitrust litigation.
"This settlement is an important step forward for student-athletes and college sports, but it does not address every challenge," the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Southeastern Conference and NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a joint statement. "The need for federal legislation to provide solutions remains. If Congress does not act, the progress reached through the settlement could be significantly mitigated by state laws and continued litigation."
While that help still seems unlikely to come soon — especially with a presidential election months away — college sports leaders hope the settlement can provide some certainty for schools and finally stem the constant legal attacks on its antiquated model of amateurism.
Paying athletes
The NCAA and conferences have agreed to amend their rules to permit a landmark compensation system that allows schools to share up to about $21 million in athletic revenues with their athletes annually, starting in 2025.
The NCAA and conferences will be permitted to make rules that prevent schools from circumventing the cap.
That number is derived from taking 22% of the average revenue generated through media rights contracts, tickets and other sources by power conference schools. The agreement will create an audit system that allows plaintiffs to monitor athletic revenue, which is expected to rise in the coming years as new media rights agreements kick in for conferences and the College Football Playoff.
Athletes are projected to receive $1.5 billion to $2 billion annually.
All athletes will be eligible to receive the new financial benefits, but each school will be permitted to determine how they want to divvy up the money among sports. How exactly Title IX gender equity rules apply is still unclear and will require federal clarification. How schools comply with Title IX will be the responsibility of each institution.
Scholarships and rosters
Replacing scholarship limits with roster caps could mean even more athletic scholarship opportunities in Division I.
Most notably, major college football teams will now be permitted to have 105 player on scholarship instead of the current 85, though schools will no longer be required to give full scholarships to every football player.
Partial scholarships have been used in some sports for years, but will now be permitted in all.
The roster caps for baseball (34), softball (25) and volleyball (18) will also allow for a significant jump in the number of scholarships schools can provide in those sports, though schools will not be required to meet the cap.
NIL deals and oversight
NCAA rules have been tweaked to allow schools to be more involved in providing NIL opportunities for college athletes, but they will still be allowed to strike deals with third parties.
However, athletes will be required to report deals with third parties that surpass $600 to an outside clearinghouse.
The NCAA is also creating a public database that it hopes will allow athletes to assess fair market value.
Booster-funded NIL collectives have become a common way athletes are compensated, but now those deals will be subject to review through an arbitration process to determine if it is for a "valid business purpose," according to the agreement.
Violations could lead to eligibility penalties for athletes and sanctions for schools.
Damage payments
The plaintiffs in the House case are responsible for doling out damages. Included in Friday's filing was a chart breaking down the categories of eligible athletes along with four different types of payouts they could be in line to receive.
According to the plaintiffs, about 19,000 power conference football players and men's basketball players will be in line to receive an average of $91,000, with payments ranging from $15,000 to $280,000 just for what is referred to broadcast name, image and likeness.
Some of those same athletes could also be in line for tens of thousands of dollars more related to lost opportunities to earn NIL money while in college and what is deemed by the plaintiffs as pay-for-play. Plaintiffs' lawyers say a few athletes will be eligible to receive upward of $1 million.
Next steps
Plaintiffs' attorneys say they will file a motion for preliminary approval and — if granted — a public website will go up in about two months where former college athletes can determine how much they are eligible to receive.
Still, the settlement is months away from final approval. There will be an opportunity for athletes who are members of the plaintiffs' class to object to the settlement and ask to be excluded. Already one school, Houston Christian, has objected — though the judge denied its request to intervene.
"We are moving forward in the right direction by giving college athletes what they have EARNED & DESERVE which has been long overdue," said Sedona Prince, a college basketball player now at TCU and one of the plaintiffs in the House case. "We still have a long way to go and I pray athletes ask more questions and demand more answers from the leaders at their schools, conferences and the NCAA."
Survey: US college students score low in civic literacy
A recent survey commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that college student in the United States are lacking in civic education.
Writing for Ed Source, Emma Gallegos reports that most of those surveyed don’t know the terms lengths for members of Congress, and a third couldn’t identify the speaker of the House of Representatives. (July 2024)
Tips for first-year international students in the US
Book your flights right away, get a U.S. phone plan, make sure you have linens for your dorm and attend orientation – that’s some of the advice international students have for first-year college students coming from abroad.
U.S. News & World Report compiled helpful tips for students studying in the United States for the first time. (July 2024)
Survey: Social integration, career prep are important to international students
A recent survey of international students in the United States found that before starting school, they were concerned about personal safety, making friends and feeling homesick.
Inside Higher Ed reports that international students want specialized orientations, peer connections, career preparation and job placement to help make their college experiences successful. (July 2024)
US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
