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(04/29/22 4:33pm)
The sphere of consensus in our society grows smaller and smaller by the day. We have reached a moment in time that is both a standstill of progress and an unending barrage of attacks and counterstrikes. Nothing is sacred — least of all facts. When even the truth is muddied, it can be so easy to lower our eyes to the ground and resign ourselves to this new world. Most people shake their heads and lament what has changed — all while refusing to do anything about it.
(03/26/22 7:23pm)
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(03/11/22 11:17pm)
The McMinn County School Board in Tennessee recently made headlines when its members voted unanimously to remove “Maus,” a critically acclaimed graphic novel documenting stories of the Holocaust, from its eighth-grade school curriculum. What is troubling about this development, however, goes beyond the direct effects of the book’s absence in classrooms. As the media labels this as a book ban, the lack of nuance between mature and salacious content only muddies the waters when we discuss what is and is not permitted within school environments.
(02/02/22 12:02am)
By now, it is old news that the GOP swept all three Virginia statewide offices and reclaimed a majority in the House of Delegates during this past November’s elections. With Glenn Youngkin defeating Terry McAuliffe to become the 74th governor of Virginia, the 2022 midterms look bleaker than ever for Democrats, who have struggled to maintain unity since taking control of Congress and the White House in recent years. As Virginians, we are left with an uncertain future. After the state voted for President Biden by 10 points in 2020, Youngkin’s win comes as an upset, establishing Republican leadership in a state that had by all accounts been following a blue trend for years.
(11/22/21 5:47pm)
It should go without saying that social justice has been on the forefront of the American consciousness since this country’s founding. But just as civil rights and social justice movements have always existed in some capacity, these same movements all suffer from a common ailment — the rewriting of history to fit dominant cultural narratives. Civil rights movements in the United States have had their legacies co-opted by a society that is inherently reluctant to address its deep-seated problems surrounding race and class.
(02/14/22 10:47pm)
For all its talk of being the greatest country in the world, the U.S. has faced immense difficulty addressing the needs of its most vulnerable. The official U.S. poverty rate has lingered between 10 and 15 percent for decades, with little recent substantive change in this figure despite the creation of anti-poverty programs and reforms to existing social safety nets. In 2020, the U.S. poverty rate increased for the first time in five years, reaching 11.4 percent. While some might not see the situation as dire, it should be concerning that in a country where a select few individuals possess more wealth than they know what to do with, 10.5 percent of U.S. households were food insecure for some portion of 2020. Though some might claim this is an anomaly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity rates in the past show that this number is largely consistent with previous years. Simply put, the U.S. has a problem with poverty — leaving members of American society eager to rationalize its existence.
(10/27/21 10:58am)
Though it has not always been this way, the United States today prides itself on its diversity, and political and public actors from across the political spectrum have often cited it as one of our nation’s greatest strengths. There is no doubt that we live in a time when the U.S. is more diverse than ever before, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. As the Census Bureau projects the existence of a “majority minority” state in just over two decades, Americans are already experiencing the implications of such a shift — and with this has come increased attention to the purported “self-segregation problem,” most notably on college campuses, including the University.
(09/27/21 6:11am)
As someone with a notoriously terrible sense of direction, being back on Grounds has been … difficult, to put it lightly. I have never been the sort of person who can navigate unfamiliar territory without a GPS, and returning to an in-person format is a humiliating reminder of this. Need directions to Rice Hall? There’s a 50 percent chance I could point you in the general direction. McLeod Hall? That number drops significantly. Fayerweather Hall? The AFC? Anywhere on the Range? I wouldn’t be able to help you if my life literally depended on it.
(08/24/21 2:54am)
Summed up in a single word, college life is busy. It can be exhausting to balance clubs, student organizations and a decent amount of sleep on top of a full schedule of classes, and it is no small feat if you can manage to survive while still clinging to a functioning social life. But hey, at least you get breaks, right? After all, winter and summer breaks are both meant to be the time to relax, turn your brain off and give yourself just a second to breathe. Right?
(07/25/21 8:59pm)
After enduring the ordinary stresses of school with the extraordinary circumstances of living in a global pandemic, it appears that spring classes are finally coming to a close. This academic year was far from a normal one for students, both in K-12 education and beyond. With the year comprising mostly of online classes and social distancing guidelines, the University was no exception. As we enjoy a restful — and hopefully COVID-free — summer break, what better way to mentally prepare ourselves for the future than by taking a moment to reflect on the previous semester?
(04/17/21 5:27pm)
After a year of sitting around waiting for normalcy to be restored in our communities, I think it’s safe to say that, at this point, we are all more than a little impatient for the COVID-19 pandemic to end. The pandemic has embodied many things, but by far the most disappointing have been the wasted potential and missed opportunities — including plans put on hold, restrictions placed on what we can do and general feelings of unproductivity. It’s borderline upsetting to think about how much time has passed. This past year of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing has felt like one big blur.
(04/03/21 4:03am)
At this point, it’s hard not to be numbed to the recurring headlines detailing death and despair. Whether it’s COVID-19 statistics on rising cases and deaths or the tragic loss of life in an unforeseen incident, reading the news has shifted from an mundane part of one’s routine to an instant horror-inducing necessity. The Atlanta shooting — in which eight people lost their lives at three separate massage parlors — is no exception.
(09/09/21 1:00am)
In my first year at the University, I took a course that discussed — among other things — the creation and maintenance of ethical spaces at the University. For our final project, my group chose to showcase the inherent inequality found all across Grounds in a short presentation, ranging from dilemmas posed by merit-based versus need-based financial aid to the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services.
(02/17/21 7:50pm)
For someone who loves to sleep as much as I do, you would think I’d be more consistent at going to bed at a reasonable hour. If I try hard enough, I can imagine an alternate reality where I put down my phone, hop into bed and get that recommended seven hours of sleep every night. I would wake up bright and early, refreshed and ready to tackle whatever awaits me in the morning. Maybe I would even get up early to watch the sunrise, take a moment to close my eyes and listen to the birds chirping — or something else equally idyllic and Disney-like. It would be a beautiful start to the day.
(01/31/21 8:04pm)
Well, it finally happened. Donald Trump’s term of office has ended, and a new administration has rolled in to take its place. With policy plans and a platform that could not be more different from the one it replaced, you would think I would be relieved, eager for a return to some semblance of normalcy. Despite it all, however, the events of the past month have left a bitter taste in my mouth — a prevailing fear for the future of our country after years of fraying unity. The catalyst to my anxiety was an event I doubt anyone could forget — the insurrection of the Capitol building on January 6.
(12/14/20 4:39pm)
There’s no getting around it. This year has been — to put it lightly — a bad one.
(10/19/20 8:48pm)
We are less than a month away from Election Day, Nov. 3, and it is nearly impossible to avoid that fact wherever you go. Whether it's overhearing highlights from the presidential and vice presidential debates, having to deal with your family's off-handed political opinions or even stumbling upon Kanye West's "presidential" tweets on social media, there's no getting around it. This year's election cycle seems to be one of the most contentious yet, and it seems unlikely that the chaos will calm down in the ensuing weeks, much to the entire nation's dismay.
(10/04/20 4:40am)
After weeks upon weeks of social distancing, staying indoors and taking necessary safety precautions, I think every person alive has come to the same, nagging question — what am I supposed to do now?
(08/25/20 1:32am)
I suppose I should start with what everyone has been thinking these past few months — 2020 has been crazy, to put it mildly. Between the ongoing pandemic, incompetent federal government responses and protests over the continued presence of police brutality and racial inequity in this country, this year is one of few that I truly believe will be unforgettable. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, a notable consequence of its nature — one that I'm sure we are all well aware of — was the shift to online classes for the latter half of the spring semester at the University. For me, reading President Jim Ryan's email detailing changes to the semester was the moment that made it all real. It was the definitive event that forced me to come to terms with the fact that this virus was here to stay.
(02/20/20 6:01pm)
It is an understatement to say that COVID-19 — more commonly known by the the family of viruses the disease belongs to, coronavirus — has been a prominent force in the global public consciousness over these past few weeks. In December 2019, a mere handful of cases with pneumonia-like symptoms arose in Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province and one of China’s largest cities. However, today, the country estimates that there are 74,000 total infections and over 2,000 deaths, making the disease more infectious and deadly than the SARS epidemic — the most recent worldwide outbreak, which also originated in China and infected 8,000 people.
