Hampton University Men Aren’t Marriage Material

Tiffani Haynes

Hampton Men Aren’t Marriage Material

Word Count: 314

 

 

            The consensus it seems is clear: Hampton University men are not marriage material, at least right now. Most Hampton women believe that men on campus have the qualities of a good husband or becoming one but just choose not to act upon them while in school.

            Their focus isn’t finding Mrs. Right, it’s Mrs. Right Now,” said Sydney Finger, a senior nursing major from Hebron, Md.

            Finger even has proof that some Hampton men are thinking like that.

            “I always ask my male friends for their opinions on topics like this and they say that they’re not looking for Mrs. Right,” Finger said. “The girlfriends they have now are Mrs. Right Now but they could eventually turn into wife material.”

            All the women interviewed believe that it’s because men are still too interested in playing the field and meeting new women.

            “You don’t see people in exclusive relationships,” said Lianne Evans, a senior computer science major from Teaneck, N.J.  “A lot of relationships at Hampton are open because men are still testing the waters.”

            Kayla Emile, a senior communicative sciences and disorders major from Boston doesn’t believe that it’s only Hampton men.

            “A limited amount of men are ready for marriage at the age of 18-22,” Emile said. “I think this is playing the field time to see what type of female they like.”

            Shannon Cosby, a senior marketing major from Plainfield, N.J. agreed with Emile.

            “I don’t think any man is ready for marriage in college,” she said.

            Yet some are hopeful that love at Hampton is not a lost cause. Alaina Patterson, a senior English major from Los Angeles is one of the select few.

            “I don’t believe a lot of men are marriage material because I haven’t had luck with any of them but that doesn’t mean that somebody else won’t,” Patterson said. There’s still hope out there for some people.”

Hunt in Hampton for eligible Election ’08 voters

By Kathryn De Shields

 

When the Oct. 6 register to vote deadline arrived, 1½ months of employment ended for a voter registration crew at Hampton University.

 

Arron Mundy, a junior Management major from Inglewood, Calif., registered people to vote for a month. He joined the Community Voters Project to help people attending Hampton University to register for the first time, or re-register in Virginia.

 

“I was registered in California, but I re-registered in Virginia,” Mundy said. “I figured that Barack Obama is already going to win in California, so I want to take my vote elsewhere where it will matter.” 

Brittany Smith, sophomore biology major from Bronx, N.Y., decided to register people when she learned how many people she knew weren’t registered.

 

“A black man running for president is a big deal,” Smith said. “I would hate for my friends and people on campus to miss this opportunity to vote for a good thing.”

 

Smith and Mundy learned about the Community Voters Project through advertisements posted around campus and online e-mails.

 

Both students were paid by the hour to walk around campus and register people. There was a quota that they have to meet: A minimum of 12 voter registrations had to be turned in per day. 

“I had to chase people down and talk to anyone who was walking around,” said Mundy. “I’ve registered over 200 people so far.”

 

According to Mundy, along with the positive feeling of getting classmates registered, the $8.50 per hour he earned helped to pay his rent.

 

At the end of the day, Mundy, Smith and other participants returned to the Community Voter Project site located on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton to turn in applications for processing.

 

The fact that Virginia for the first time in over 40 years is a battleground state versus an automatic win for the Republican Party is a determining factor in the Voter Project. College students were encouraged to re-register in Virginia because some people believe that the absentee voting system is faulty and people don’t bother to vote at all.

 

“If everyone at Hampton was registered,” Smith said, “and surrounding colleges, it may make a big difference in who’s going to win the election.”

 

Legal constrictions and competition was a downside of the job.

 

According to Smith, about 20 people were getting paid to register voters and the numbers of remaining people not registered quickly dwindled.

 

“It’s getting harder because everyone I ask says that they have already been registered by someone else,” Smith said. “It’s hard to meet quotas now.”

 

According to a report on the WVEC TV-13 News Web site, three people were charged with voter registration fraud, and one of the suspects was a student, said the report. Voter registration workers can’t forge signatures, or mark an applicant’s paper in any way lest they face up to 10 years in federal prison per fraudulent form.

 

“Money is not worth time in prison,” said Mundy. “I don’t know why that person did what they did.” Despite strict rules in dealing with the forms, Mundy and Smith still believe the opportunity to register people was worthwhile.

 

“Knowing that I got people registered,” Mundy said, “and that they are going to vote on Nov. 4 is going to feel really good.”

 

The writer is a junior at the Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.

HU School of Business lives up to bountiful numbers

By Briquell Welch                                                                            

Hampton University’s School of Business has been at the frontier of all the schools at the university in terms of gaining a large number of gifts and donations.  According to the dean, the school receives about $700,000 worth of gifts a school year and averages $400,000 in scholarships to business majors.

However, these impressive numbers have not made an impact on its image. The school of business is located in Buckman Hall, erected in the early 1960s, and is one of the older buildings (not including the historic ones) on the campus.

The school houses approximately 950 to 1,100 students a year. Buckman is about 22,000 square feet and 18,000 square feet—or about 80 percent of the space was used by students and faculty. The leftover space is taken up by equipment and computers. 

“We are a little cramped but we make it work,” said Sid Howard Credle, dean of the school since 1999. “We only have two floors and two bathrooms for 900 (plus) people.  It is difficult.”

The building has been used for the school since 1967. During rain, the building leaks on the inside and heat and air conditioning are not adequate for the building.

Some students believe a new building would just be a greater image of who the students are that are a part of the school.  “When you look good, you feel good,” said senior business management major Lauren Gilliard. “If we had a new building while I was here, it would have been appreciated because we do so much in these buildings and it just does not go with the image that we portray when we go out for interviews and conferences.”

The school prides itself on having an extremely high rate of graduates that goes immediately into the work force and does very well.  “About 67 percent of the students enter in to Fortune 500 companies upon completion of graduation and about 15 percent return home to run family businesses (entrepreneurship majors),” said Credle.

These numbers however may not be working in the school’s favor.  It appears that even though building conditions are not up to par it is not stopping the students or faculty from making sure that every student becomes successful, winning case competitions, receiving scholarship money, winning excellence awards etc.  This works against them because now it raises the question amongst the university’s officials, “Well why does the school need a new building with impressive numbers like those,” said Credle.

The question can not be answered any one way because individuals want or believe the building is deserved for several reasons.  5 year MBA major Amber Sillmon said, “I would love to see a new building.  People do not understand we come inside on rainy days to get out of the rain and still have to deal with it–inside the building. That’s a problem.”

The new project is $10 million that has been in the development stage since 2004.  Developers have come out to discuss the building, but with the fall of the U.S. economy came the fall of the plans for the school. The idea was placed on hold.

But there is one thought in question sophomore MBA major Calvin Stephens asked, “How can the university build so many other buildings since 2004 and not work on a building that is much more needed than say the new cafeteria? It seems as though the priorities of the university are somewhere else and not where they should be for the betterment of the student body”. 

 “A new school could only help us,” said senior business management major Angelina Jordan. “If we were in a new building we would not have to worry about a lot of the issues that we do now. For example, the leaky roof or the smelly halls in the building just isn’t a good look.  This building is stuffy and we are just over due for something new”.

But whose support and backing does the school really need?

The dean needs the help of alumni, the undergraduate and graduate-level students, university officials, and the companies’ financial support for this dream to come true. 

There is no specific ground breaking date; however, there are a number of plans for a look and new location for the building. Right now the building is just an idea, but the students and faculty in Buckman Hall deserve some reality.

The writer is a senior at Hampton Univerity Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.