Carrying On: A reasonable affirmation

Affirmative action, it would seem, is on its way out. Once embraced by liberals as a way to ensure equality established as a goal by the civil rights movements of the ‘60’s and ‘70s, it now has waning support across demographics and political ideologies. The fight is increasingly polarized as people take sides for or against affirmative action with such personally and politically-charged fervor that compromise seems impossible. Ironically, this passion is often supported only by anecdotal evidence and a profound ignorance of what affirmative action actually is.

By Perry Collins January 11, 2007

Editorials

Making student loans easy

As part of its one hundred-hour legislative agenda, the newly elected Democratic majority aims to make college education more affordable.

By the Editorial Board January 11, 2007

Editorials

There’s no place like the dorms

Just two days ago, students returning to University housing for the spring semester were caught in the rush of last-minute details that inevitably occurs at this time every year, when there is less than a day to move in before the start of classes.

By the Editorial Board January 11, 2007

Voices

This winter’s global warning

There is no sound that brings greater joy to my heart than the crisp “zip” of corduroy-clad thighs rubbing merrily against each other as they make their way down snow-filled streets. The rustle of a wool crepe coat, the swish of a lambs wool scarf jauntily arranged about a toasty neck and the smart clip of a buttery leather boot are music to my ears. These sounds usher in the winter season, a magical three months filled with sledding, good cheer, and according to statistics, lots of baby-making.

By admin January 11, 2007

Editorials

The principal of Fentytown

The confetti has barely finished falling and the last of the 15,000 guests are still trickling out of Adrian Fenty’s lavish inaugural ball, but the mayor is already delivering on the cornerstone promise of his campaign: change.

By the Editorial Board January 11, 2007

Editorials

Giving professors a deadline

Course selection period can be a rough time for students as they attempt to strike a delicate balance between hard and easy classes. They try to put together the ideal schedule by avoiding 8:50 time slots and bypassing Fridays while still fulfilling requirements. But the situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of the courses listed online don’t include up-to-date syllabi or even a course description at all.

By the Editorial Board December 7, 2006

Voices

Georgetown can’t handle the truth

After half a semester of backyard noise, late night weekend parties and one living room rock concert, an anonymous neighbor complained about a radio station event at my house to the University as well as the police in the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 12. Two days later, my housemates and I trudged into the Office of Off Campus Student Life to meet with Chuck VanSant about the incident, and were summarily punished for our honesty.

By Chris Norton December 7, 2006

Editorials

And now, our feature presentation

Far too frequently, it is not the professor so much as the students who are acually teaching the material. You are forced to listen to the student who happens to be doing a “class presentation” that day.

By the Editorial Board December 7, 2006

Voices

Negating affirmative action

Last Monday night I felt like the white kid from a black school in a white state sitting in a room full of black students at a white university. Issues of race, usually lurking in the unspeakable shadows, were then front and center in a panel discussion that dealt with whether the historically ivory tower of academics would be able to keep embracing students of color through affirmative action in the future, a possibility that I, apparently alone in my stand, look at with dismay. I see a legitimate alternative: class-based affirmative action, unfairly discounted by backward-looking ideology at American universities.

By Ryan Callahan December 7, 2006

Editorials

War, hugh, what is it good for?

Last week, campus religious groups united to memorialize the massive loss of life that has flowed from the U.S. invasion of Iraq. They covered Copley lawn with red flags, each symbolizing 100 Iraq War casualties. The flags were so numerous that the lawn became practically unusable, and the statement was impossible to overlook. Such demonstrations are encouraging, but they do not occur frequently enough.

By the Editorial Board December 7, 2006

Voices

Barackin’ in the free world

I worked in the Senate with Mercy, a tall, pretty senior from UMass who lived for movie stars. The interns had a game inspired by Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation in which we’d name an actor and a movie as dissimilar as possible (try James Dean and National Treasure) and Mercy would have to connect them from memory. After two weeks of the game, it was Mercy: 46, interns: 0.

By Sam Sweeney December 7, 2006

Voices

Carrying On: From the sidelines: across the desert and far away

Last Thursday, during halftime of the Men’s basketball game against Oregon, ten individuals—men and women—filed onto the court. Some walked with a limp, some with a cane, all were veterans of the Iraq war. Most of them looked to be in their early 20s. I distinctly remember one of them, a young man with crutches and a missing leg.

By Austin Richardson December 7, 2006

Voices

The good, the bad and the ugly

I rode the escalator into the subway station. “Gray? or Gorgeous?” the older woman in the first poster asked.

By Kathryn Brand November 30, 2006

Editorials

Ka-ching: the universal language

The University needs to take steps towards enacting a foreign language requirement for International Business majors so that they can be familiar with a second language when they pursue careers that will put them in contact with non-English-speaking business leaders.

By the Editorial Board November 30, 2006

Voices