The Towerlight, October 7, 2010

FILE SHARIN TECHNIQUE EXPOSED PAGE 1 Towson’s campus and community news source Thursday, 10-07-10 Gay-friendly college still has 'long way to go' Towson's LBGT community reacts to Rutgers suicide LAUREN SLAVIN Senior Editor Starting his freshman year of col¬ lege, Rutgers student Tyler Clementi was like many college freshmen. He was getting used to a new cam¬ pus setting, new classes and profes¬ sors, and a new roommate, first-year student Dharun Ravi. The difference between dementi’s first-semester experiences and those of an average student is Ravi is on trial for third-degree invasion of privacy after taping Clementi having sexual relations in their dorm room and post¬ ing it on the Internet. Clementi reacted by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, something he also posted as his Facebook status. As of the week of Oct. 4, dementi’s death is one of five suicides within the last month of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender students ranging in ages from 13-18, according to The Huffington Post. In light of the tragedies surrounding the LGBT community, a bright spot has emerged at Towson. Inside College, a website run through education publishers Alloy Education, named Towson one of 83 top gay-friendly colleges in the coun¬ try. The list was determined from the “opinions of many experts from the field of education," according to the website’s 'About1 page. But vice president for student affairs Deb Moriarty said she wouldn’t call the ranking an honor. “It feels like what we should be doing,” Moriarty said. "We should be accepting all students. I think college is such a pivotal time of life in terms of self identify, and I’m really proud of the LBGT component we have as part of our Center for Student Diversity.” A program for LGBT student devel¬ opment in the See LGBT, page 8 Graduates not utilizing educational field in current career paths DANIEL GROSS Editor-in-Chief Imagine spending four years attending classes, studying for exams and doing homework, then finally walking across the stage with a new diploma only to realize the time you spent was a complete waste. This is the case for Towson graduate Andrew Payton, and he’s not alone. "My degree hangs crooked in the old bedroom at my parent’s house," he said. "The only thing my college degree has done for me since graduation, except perhaps prolonging feelings of self-worth among peers, is enable me to apply for the grad schools that unanimously rejected my application." Many factors in today’s society contribute to the difficulty of putting a college degree from any field of study to use. Towson University provost Marcia Welsh attri¬ butes the difficulty to the country’s economic state, which has led to a lack of available positions in many areas. "People aren’t retiring, so the jobs that normally open up aren't available. People are holding onto their jobs because they’ve lost so much of their retirement," Welsh said. "And this is across pretty much all job markets." Even though many say the application of a degree post-graduation is more difficult in recent years, Welsh said she still believes a four-year college degree is beneficial both in financial value and intellectual value. Payton graduated with a degree in elec¬ tronic media and film and English. He said his father wanted him to pursue physics, but he fell in love with the idea of becom¬ ing a film director. "The appeal for me [in] getting a poten¬ tially useless degree in a field with a com¬ petitive, even non-existent, job market was that I didn’t care and I was going to do what I love. My father studied math and languished 35 years in front of computer getting fat. I didn’t care if life was going to be more complicated, I was going to do exactly what I wanted," Payton said in an e-mail. After graduation, Payton applied for film production jobs throughout the coun¬ try including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City. He said he passed initial first round of cuts for a New York City pro¬ gram, so he went there under the impression he was going for an interview. See GRAD, page 10 Top TU Majors and Average Salaries: $33,067 - $49,720 Elementary Education $29,654- $49,852 Business Administration $50,369 - $82,326 Psychology $28,958 - $45,366 Journalism $46,771 - $66,971 Nursing Information Courtesy of payscale.com Illustration by Shelby Cahill/ The Towerlight Karaoke Thurs/Fri/Sat - 9 pm -3am 1 Ground Ceef Taco РП PP 10pm - 3am ■ Thu. Fri. Sat. only* ask for AJ or C <*p. 10/21/10 BUY Enchilada Platter Enchilada Platter Free (for equal or lesser value) exp. I -123 YORK Pd. TOWSON, Ml) WE DELIVER! tall 410-823-4545 or order online at WWW.LAPROMESA.FOODLER.COM с0153^Дроа)Е11][уМГ1