John Westercamp

Last year, Purdue underwent a change in letter grade evaluations. The University now factors pluses and minuses into students’ grade point averages. The policy was implemented with the argument that it would either benefit students’ GPAs or have no effect at all. In the time leading up to this change, newspaper editorials said that on average, a plus would negate a minus. Yet, there was one circumstance in which this did not apply – the A minus. Read More »

It’s been commonly thought that many Americans vote along their ideological lines. Conservatives vote Republican and liberals vote Democrat. While this is true for some Americans, I submit that the most sought after votes, the moderate vote, is won not by appealing to political convictions, but by a “the seat of their pants” consideration – their wallets. These moderate voters choose candidates based on their own prosperity (and expected prosperity), and their support can often lead to political victories. Examples of this theory can be seen throughout presidential campaigns. Read More »