With rising tuition costs, college is becoming less affordable for some students. With the tough job market, several young adults are finding that the only way to be successful is with a college degree.

Graduate hopefuls like Diego Sepulveda, a 22-year-old UCLA student, are facing hunger and even homelessness to stay in school.

After Sepulveda lost his job at Subway, he had to be resourceful when it came time to find a place to sleep. Sometimes he would sleep on a couch in the college library. Other nights, he would find himself crashing in a friend’s living room. As for showers, he used the student activities center, which has a pool and locker rooms.

“You’re always thinking, ‘How am I going to pay for next quarter? How am I going to get through the rest of the days here at UCLA?” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

South Carolina starting pitcher Blake Cooper. Image Via: AP Photo/Nati Harnik

When you only allow two runs in two games, it’s a safe bet that you’re going to win a lot of baseball games. And behind a stellar pitching performance, the South Carolina Gamecocks just won the biggest game of them all.

With a dramatic 2-1, 11-inning victory, South Carolina beat the UCLA Bruins two games to none in the best-of-three College World Series Championship.

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UCLA's pitcher Trevor Bauer. Image Via: Crystal LoGiudice, US Presswire

The finals of the College World Series are set, and the two participants will be UCLA and South Carolina.

The Bruins plated five first-inning runs and never looked back, routing Texas Christian 10-3. Ben Dunlap stunned the Horned Frogs early, ripping a three-run home run into the left-field bleachers. Dunlap finished 3-for-5 on the day.

That support was more than enough for Bruin starter Trevor Bauer. Despite a heat index of 107 degrees, Bauer threw 84 of his 135 pitches for strikes and fanned 13. Although the Horned Frogs chipped away at the lead, closing to 6-3 on the second of Bryan Holaday’s two home runs, they never seriously threatened.

UCLA plated two runs in the sixth and seventh innings, ending any chance of another miracle TCU comeback. The Horned Frogs trailed Florida State 7-2 in a game earlier in the CWS, but came back to win.

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The Texas Christian Horned Frogs were facing elimination yesterday at the College World Series. Thankfully, that had Matt Purke on the mound, and in case you didn’t know, Purke doesn’t lose.

Really.

Purke moved to 16-0 on the season by retiring the first 11 hitters he faced–nine on ground balls–as TCU staved off elimination with a 6-2 win over UCLA. Purke didn’t allow a hit until Chris Giovinazzo bunted his way on base with one out in the fifth with the Bruins down 3-0, drawing a smattering of boos from the pro-TCU crowd.

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UCLA's Gerrit Cole. Image via: AP Photo/Nati Harnik

The Florida State Seminoles used three home runs to jump on top of the rival Florida Gators in the College World Series yesterday, but were forced to withstand a late rally before winning 8-5.

Mike McGee struck the big blow on offense with a three-run home run in the third inning. Stephen Cardullo and Tyler Holt also hit home runs for the Seminoles.

But the Gators nearly made Florida State pay for leaving 11 runners on base when they staged a rally in the ninth. Preston Tucker ripped a bases-loaded double down the left field line to make it 8-5 and forcing the Seminoles to bring in McGee to try and close it out.

But McGee wasn’t quite as fortunate on the mound as he was with the bat and allowed a single and hit a batter to load the bases up again and bring Mike Zunino to the plate as the leading run. Zunino ripped a ball to Cardullo that, for a fraction of a second, looked like it might get into the gap. But Cardullo caught it, and doubled the runner off second, ending the fifth-ranked Gators’ season.

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The College World Series (CWS) kicked off in Omaha yesterday, and although both games wound up blowouts, both came about quite differently.

In the Texas Christian versus Florida State opener, the Horned Frogs erased a 1-0 deficit three hitters into the game and wound up with a five-run first inning in their 8-1 victory. Florida State had a few rallies snuffed out, including one in the fourth inning when the first two hitters reached base.

But TCU’s Matt Purke got a double-play ground ball and a strikeout to escape the jam. After that, the Seminoles had pair of runners on in both the seventh and eighth innings but failed to score.

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Paying for college is almost always something incoming freshmen and their families have to consider. However, according to an annual study conducted by the University of California- Los Angeles, this concern is growing in importance.

Since the economic recession began in December 2007, students have been facing new problems and concerns. Many graduating students are unable to find jobs, and many full-time students are becoming part-time students and find part-time jobs in order to pay for their educations.

The 2009 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey study showed that 53.3 percent of college freshmen claimed to have at least “some” concern about how they would pay for their education. This is the highest percentage since 1971, and an increase of 3.9 percent since 2008.

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Pop Culture Founder, Ray Browne

Pop culture is possibly my favorite subject. There’s just something fun and intriguing about studying the Muppets, Grey’s Anatomy, or sports. At my school, there is a course focusing on the Twilight phenomenon and youth culture and a course studying The Beatles’ impact on music in the 1960s. Some might think these are classes that should not be taught on a college campus, but many think that they are a great way to analyze how current trends affect our culture.

The first man to define pop culture as an academic discipline was Ray Browne, a professor at Bowling Green State University. Browne died on October 22, 2009, from natural causes. Browne founded the first department of pop culture studies in 1973.

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Allow students to watch a XXX porn movie in the student union or risk budget cuts by the state. That was the dilemna facing University of Maryland this week after they’d elected to screen “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge” in its student union. Students across the country have been attending screenings of the big-budget porn flick on campuses, but when Maryland State Senator Andy Harris heard about the busty event, he made moves to have it stopped, by threatening to suspend state funding (about $424 million).

“I am pleased to know that the university did the right thing and canceled this movie,” said Harris. “Students can’t light up a cigarette in the student union but can watch a hardcore XXX porn film. Occasional viewing of porn is more dangerous than occasionally lighting up a cigarette.”

No surprise that the film and the recent move at U of M are stirring debate, talks of the First Amendment, and whether or not colleges should be an advertising medium for such films. Following the movie at the university, a representative from Planned Parenthood was scheduled to discuss safe sex. In December, the movie was shown at UCLA, after which students held a Q&A with the filmmakers and grilled them about porn’s role in the exploitation of women. Read the rest of this entry »

Four years is the typical degree plan. Fifth-year seniors aren’t uncommon. But a 20-year senior? Rare, and a title Troy Aikman now has.

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback kept a promise to his mother to finish school. He completed his final two courses, earned an A in each, and will participate in graduation ceremonies this June to accept a degree in sociology from UCLA.

At 42-years-old, Troy Aikman says he’s “finally taking care of unfinished business.”