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Students Appear Hesitant to Donate to Ocasio-Cortez’s Apartment Search – This Is What Changed Their Minds

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Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines last week when she said that she couldn’t afford an apartment in Washington D.C. until she starts getting paid. Many students at American University appeared ready to help her out — that is, until they found out what her salary will be during her time in Congress. . .

Many AU students stated their willingness to help the Democratic-socialist find an apartment, but some walked their support back when they found out just how much she’ll make as a congresswoman. The incoming lawmaker has also reportedly drawn $6,200 in salary from her campaign since August.

(Read more from “Students Appear Hesitant to Donate to Ocasio-Cortez’s Apartment Search – This Is What Changed Their Minds” HERE)

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US College Students Studying Abroad Prime Targets for Espionage Activity

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Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

The FBI has issued a stern warning to U.S. college students studying abroad: Beware of foreign intelligence officers who are discreetly targeting young, often naive Americans for espionage activities.

Glenn Shriver seemed like any other adventure-seeking college student — embarking on a study abroad program to China in 2004 while majoring in international affairs at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

The cash-strapped college junior from Jenison, Mich., soon became an easy target of Chinese intelligence officers, who first paid him to write political papers in what seemed like a benign job. The People’s Republic of China officers then befriended Shriver — sometimes meeting him in swanky hotel penthouses — and asked that he consider applying for U.S. government jobs.

Shriver complied, spending the next few years applying for jobs with the U.S. government — in particular, with the CIA and State Department — and receiving a total of $70,000 in exchange for doing so. When his scheme to provide the Chinese with classified information was uncovered in 2010, Shriver, now 32, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The FBI is highlighting Shriver’s case in a new effort to educate students about the unforeseen dangers of studying abroad. The bureau released a 28-minute video this week, titled, “Game of Pawns,” in which they dramatize Shriver’s experience in Shanghai and the espionage activity that would later lead to his arrest and imprisonment. The FBI is urging all U.S. students to view the video before they leave the country to help them understand when they’re being targeted or recruited for espionage.

Read more from this story HERE.

California College Student Teaches School $50,000 Lesson on Constitution (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA California college student who was blocked last year from handing out copies of the Constitution gave his school a lesson in civics and the law, winning a $50,000 settlement and an agreement to revise its speech codes.

Robert Van Tuinen, 26, settled with Modesto Junior College just five months after his run-in with school officials on Sept. 17 – National Constitution Day. Van Tuinen said he’s more excited about getting the school to revise its speech codes, which previously confined the First Amendment to a small area students had to sign up to use.

“They were maintaining an unconstitutional speech code, and now any of my fellow students can go out and exercise their right to free speech,” Van Tuinen, an Army veteran who grew up in Modesto and now studies photography, told FoxNews.com.

Back in September, FoxNews.com aired the video Van Tuinen took of his confrontation with school officials.

In the video, Van Tuinen is confronted by an unidentified campus police officer within minutes of passing out the pamphlets. When he protests, he is told “there are rules.”

Read more this story HERE.

College Textbook Paints Reagan as Pessimist, Sexist…

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe authors of a textbook used at University of South Carolina earned an ‘F’ in Ronald Reagan 101, according to several conservative Gamecock students.

“Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare: Critical Thinking Perspectives” portrays the 40th president as a sexist who was insensitive to minorities and whose main accomplishments were cutting taxes, jacking up defense spending and “slashing” social programs. The book states that conservatives like Reagan “take a pessimistic view of human nature.”

“I was absolutely shocked and was tempted to throw the book away,” Anna Chapman, 19, a sophomore majoring in political science, told FoxNews.com. “I would even write comments in the actual textbook next to some of the offensive things that I read. I didn’t know that this is what I had signed up for.”

The sexist comments are particular difficult to square with The Gipper’s record. Although the book states that he “ascribed to woman ‘primarily domestic functions’ and failed to appoint many women to significant positions of power during his presidency,” history shows Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the Supreme Court.

Reagan also appointed the first woman ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick. And among some 1,400 women Reagan appointed to policy-making positions during his two terms in office were Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler and Secretary of Labor Ann Dore McLaughlin. The textbook makes no mention of any of these appointments, Chapman noted in a post for education blog Campus Reform.

Read more from this story HERE.

Student Loan Borrowers Face Payment ‘Pitfalls’

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Repaying a student loan should be simple. But a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds that’s often not the case. Loan servicers, the companies hired by lenders to collect payment for private loans, don’t always act in the borrowers’ best interests. And loan servicers sometimes take actions that increase the total cost of higher education.

“When servicers process payments to maximize fees and penalties, they undermine the trust of their customers,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a statement. “Student loan borrowers deserve better; they deserve transparency and accountability.”

The most common complaints dealt with problems encountered by borrowers, trying to pay off their loans early or in a certain order.

It usually makes sense to pay off the loan with the highest interest rate first. But the CFPB found that loan servicers don’t always do that. Instead, they frequently divide the payment or overpayment and apply it to all the person’s outstanding loans.

According to the report, these “payment processing pitfalls” can lead to increased costs, prolonged repayments and harm to a borrower’s credit profile.

Read more from this story HERE.

Recent College Grad Claims Obamacare Has ‘Raped My Future’

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Photo Credit: NObamaNoMasA university graduate, 26 year old Ashley Dionne, posted an open letter on the Facebook page of conservative radio host, Dennis Praeger detailing the negative effects Obamacare has had on her life. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2009 and went back to school to obtain a second degree but has not been able to get a job that offers more than 32 hours a week. Obamacare takes her monthly health costs from $75.00 to $319.00 with a $6,000.00 deductible. She feels her future has been “raped” and she qualifies as the very same “working poor” this law was supposed to help.

Whenever proponents of Obamacare are told of these anecdotal stories outlining the harm that the Affordable Care Act has inflicted on people, they respond with either a denial of it being true, that it only applies to a “small” percentage of people or that the “sacrifice” is worth it to supply health care to those who did not previously have it…

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: McDonald's Cashier Requires Bachelor's Degree, Two Years Experience

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

With colleges producing more graduates, and youth unemployment at a sky-high 11.5 percent, even landing a job selling Big Macs is getting competitive.

Consider: A job opening at a Massachusetts McDonald’s restaurant for a full-time cashier requires one to two years experience and a bachelor’s degree.

“Get a weekly paycheck with a side order of food, folks and fun,” offered McDonalds.

It is not clear if the fast-food restaurant really wants that kind of experience or is fishing for the highest-qualified applicants…

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

College Students More Narcissistic Than Ever?

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The average college student thinks he possesses above average intelligence, drive, and leadership qualities, according to a new study that shows narcissism among young people is at a 50-year high.

The American Freshman Survey, which is published yearly by the Higher Education Research Institution at UCLA, depicts an upward trend in the self-confidence levels of college students since 1966. Over 70 percent of freshman responded that they are more driven than their peers, while over 60 percent thought they were more intelligent and made better leaders than the average student.

But students’ views of themselves are at odds with the facts, according Dr. Jean Twenge, a psychologist and author of the book “Generation Me.”

“Our culture now emphasizes feeling good almost as much as actual success,” she wrote in an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

In recent years, respondents showed increasing confidence in their writing abilities. Yet objective measures show that freshmen scored better in writing in the 1960s, when their self-confidence was much lower.

Read more from this story HERE.