Here's an interesting new mandate for all of Missouri School of Journalism's incoming freshman: equip themselves with iPhones and iPod touches. Actually, let's go ahead and clarify what "mandate" means here, as associate dean Brian Brooks has stated that no one will a be punished for not buying / owning one. While noting the audio recording and playback capabilities were motivation for this decision, he explains the reason it's classified as a requirement is because it lets students include it in their financial need estimate -- wholly beneficial when you're figuring out scholarships and loans. It doens't look like there'll be any direct discounts from U of M, however, unlike some
other schools with similar initiatives. It's a clever loophole, to be sure, but we'd wager there's more than a few undergraduates who are none too pleased at the Apple favoritism, and to be honest, we love nothing more right now than imagining a large group of S60 and Zune supporters gathering in a field for frisbee, picnic, and lots of protesting.
[Via
Macworld]
posted May 9th 2009 10:02AM
Tegrity is a terrible product that's a major pain-in-the-ass to use.
Mizzou is *not* the best J-School in the country, that would go to Columbia, Northwestern, or NYU. Good luck with that one though.
I still don't get why everyone's so upset. Every University has agreements for discounted hardware and software for promoting certain vendors. The outrage is about 20 years late, but thanks for playing.
there's an enormous difference between having an affiliate and including it as a requirement (e.g. cheating financial aid systems).
financial aid is finite. limited. now, every student at missouri's j-school filling out FAFSA will be getting more aid than they actually need, which is less aid to go to those who actually DO need it for tuition and such. it's cheating. by including it as a requirement -- and going so far as to admit they only list it as a requirement so that students get aid for it -- they're openly gaming the system. it's unethical. federal taxpayer dollars are buying missouri kids iphones instead of paying for real students' tuition.
If you're going to be a journalist, you're going to need some basic tools. No matter how many crusty old white guy professors tell you to write everything down, almost any journalist coming up through the world today is going to use a recorder. A decent-quality recorder is about 60-70 bucks, with the better quality stuff being over 100. You're over halfway to the price of an iPod Touch/iPhone, right there. Toss in scheduling, communication with sources, keeping on top of breaking news, and to any new-media journalist, a connected device is going to be a required tool. Whether you spend that 200 bucks on an iPhone or piecemeal other gadgets and gizmos to get the job done, you're still spending the money required of your chosen profession. What's the problem with financial aid covering the supplies needed for your edumakation?
"...imagining a large group of S60 and Zune supporters" You'd have to imagine as there can' be but 15 Zune owners total.