#morebeaches

[raphagerard]

I lied, there's a few more beach photos... Enjoy!

[watermelanie96-blog]

~I’ll Have the Fish N’ Chups~

Kira Ora from the beaches of Dunedin! You know that saying, “Never Trust a Weatherman?” Well its true, but today was an exception, where it was nice and bright. I even got a nice little tan. 

The lecture today was presented by one of our very own associate professor on this trip, Josh Newman. What struck me most about his presentation is how the US Sport Industry was worth $500 billion, whereas the Food industry was only $580 billion. When considering this, I had no idea that the sporting industry was so large. This included college sports as well. As Newman brought up today, he doesn’t believe in such large funding for colleges to be allocated towards sports. In my opinion, I agree because currently there is even a debate on whether or not student athletes should get paid for playing. Student athletes already receive scholarships and at UMD, there have been major cutbacks on some sports and funding for others. I would compare student athletes as having non-paid internships in college, where they are building experience to play professionally. Newman also presented the idea, where you are basically paying to work in order to build experience to be paid later. In this case, student athletes are still developing skills to play professionally later on if desired. Additionally, due to large cash flows towards college sports, it is greatly unfavorable for “regular” students attending universities. For example, much of UMD’s funding is currently being allocated towards developing the football team, like the present rebuilding of the Cole Field House as a practice field for the football team. How is this fair when our football team absolutely sucks. I am not a fan of football, but I probably would be if our team was actually good. So why continue directing student’s tuition towards our sucky football team? Only for the exploitation of sponsorships in the large stadiums that are televised at every game. Students just wanna learn. No need to treat unaccomplished athletes like they are Olympians. 

Surf’s up, brahh! The class went surfing today, and I was their official photographer. We were on St.Claire’s beach, where there were soo many dogs. I loved it. Also, two different beaches already? heck yea!

Cheers!

<3 Mel