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(04/08/14 5:57am)
With the debate over legalization of medical marijuana heating up in Virginia, many arguments will be presented against its legalization. The argument that legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes might somehow lead to higher crime, however, should not receive serious consideration. Despite a recent poll showing 84 percent of Virginians now favor the legalization of medicinal marijuana, opponents of such a move have been vehement in their resistance.
(04/02/14 6:01am)
Recruiting low-income students is becoming a more persistent problem for the University. Despite recent administrative efforts, the percentage of low-income students has remained relatively low over the past few years, contributing to the University’s status as one of the least socioeconomically diverse colleges in the country. With the fundamental purpose of the University at stake, the issue of recruiting more low-income students will be critical for the future. Though the University has already taken significant steps in this regard, more can be done.
(03/25/14 5:28am)
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest questions facing the state of Virginia today is whether it should choose to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Though Governor McAuliffe’s campaign concentrated on the expansion of Medicaid — arguably making his election a public mandate for such a move — the state has yet to act.
(03/04/14 6:19am)
I’ll get straight to the point — now is not the time to introduce more merit-based aid at the University. Need-based aid must continue to be the fundamental priority. If our commitment to need-based aid is not renewed, we will leave low and moderate-income students in the dust.
(02/25/14 7:09am)
On October 14, 1960, at 2 a.m., then-Senator John F. Kennedy spoke to a large crowd at the University of Michigan. During his extemporaneous address, he questioned the willingness of students to serve abroad. By the next day, they had responded with a petition carrying the signatures of 1,000 students who decided to rise to his challenge; thus a movement was born.
(02/19/14 6:46am)
From looking at a balance sheet, one could easily forget that the University is a public institution. Though in 1980 state appropriations accounted for 46 percent of the University’s budget, now that number has shrunk to a paltry 5.8 percent — 10 percent for the Academic Division alone. The causes of this precipitous decline are well known: declining state support for public schools, rising costs of higher education, a stagnant economy — the list goes on.
(02/11/14 5:56am)
In Richmond, there seems to be an air of constitutional reform. This past week, the House of Delegates voted down a bill that would have petitioned Congress for a convention of the states, a forum in which delegates from each state would gather to propose constitutional amendments. The bill’s conspicuous lack of substance, however, demonstrates the imprudent approach that House Republicans have adopted towards the issue. The bill’s impracticality, moreover, may indicate political motives.
(02/04/14 5:39am)
The United States has waged as many undeclared wars in the past seven decades as it has declared wars in its entire history. To some this may come as a shocking and perhaps disconcerting statistic, while to others it may simply represent the evolving nature of war and the United States’ role in global affairs. The past seven decades, nonetheless, represent a dramatic escalation in American military commitment. One significant development occurred in 1973 with the enactment of the War Powers Resolution. The act’s lack of precision, however, has since enabled presidents of both parties to initiate military action without prior congressional approval. Now, with the most recent “wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq winding down, the United States should seriously reconsider its conduct of military affairs.
(01/28/14 5:16am)
The spirit of Sandy was conspicuously absent from the New Jersey Statehouse as Governor Chris Christie made a somber trek to the podium to deliver his State of the State address on January 14th. Though the mood was edgy, Christie’s comments did little to lessen the tension. As with after his marathon press conference earlier that week, many people left the room with more questions than answers.
(01/21/14 3:07am)
Students and faculty have rightly condemned the incident of racist graffiti that took place on Grounds last week. But we should not leap to conclusions about the motives behind the defacement of the Elson Student Health Center sign. Nor should we assume that the act of vandalism indicates brewing racial tensions at the University.
(01/14/14 4:44am)
As the Virginia House of Delegates opens for a new legislative session this year, it does so in the face of exceedingly disparate income inequality within the state. Virginia currently ranks among the states with the highest levels of income inequality and its bottom 20 percent experienced no growth in household income from the late 1990s to mid-2000s. With this in mind, on Jan. 5 Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Henrico, introduced a bill that proposed to raise the minimum wage in the state from $7.25 to $8.50. His proposal comes in light of a recent uptick in the national movement for greater income equality. The minimum wage debate resurfaced with heightened seriousness on the national level when President Obama indicated his commitment to make raising the federal minimum wage a key issue in the upcoming year.
(11/26/13 3:00am)
For a process that is supposed to bring out the best and most creative aspects in you, applying to college saps your originality.
(11/19/13 5:36am)
In the wake of the Edward Snowden affair, the public has adopted an increasingly negative view of government agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. Though I believe that the NSA and other intelligence-gathering agencies have overstepped their boundaries, accusing individual agency officials of malice misses the larger issue. The very claim that the NSA has overstepped its limits is problematic, because the agency lacks adequate oversight. The issue is not so much that the NSA concealed malignant invasions of individual privacy, but rather that the agency is plagued by complications in management and a lack of adequate external controls.
(11/13/13 3:49am)
For Governor Chris Christie, the path to reelection started with a storm — Superstorm Sandy, that is. In a state where the majority of voters disagree with the sitting Governor on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, the best thing that Christie could have hoped for was a means that could enable him to shift the focus of the race away from policy concerns to an area where he knew he could win: trust. Sandy provided him with such an opportunity. Christie’s resulting reelection has demonstrated that trust and likability are two of the most powerful factors that can help politicians win elections.
(11/05/13 1:06am)
The technological issues involved in the recent roll-out of the online health care market point to a key area of deficiency within our federal bureaucracy: information technology. The unveiling of the government health insurance program began disastrously when technical issues rendered the main website, healthcare.gov, inoperative.
(10/29/13 2:18am)
If you’re registered to vote here in Virginia, you may want to check again. The statewide process of removing incorrectly registered voters from Virginia’s voting rolls has been anything but smooth; errors have abounded, removing many correctly registered voters from the rolls. The months prior to an election are not a suitable time for such a task. We need to take the politics out of the process by mandating a neutral time for examining the voter rolls.
(10/23/13 1:40am)
On Oct. 7, the United States marked the beginning of its 12th year of war in Afghanistan. Over the years, our military involvement has paid mixed dividends; our strategy is in need of a significant shift.
(10/16/13 3:25am)
“Peyton Manning” — the crowd roared as soon as it heard the name.
(10/08/13 3:38am)
On Sunday, Oct. 29, five justices of the United States Supreme Court — John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer –– ascended the steps of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. to attend the “Red Mass,” an annual mass held in a Catholic Church for judges, attorneys and government officials to request guidance from the Holy Spirit for those who seek justice. Yesterday, the Court began hearing oral arguments for the new fall term. As is custom, at the beginning of arguments, the marshal of the Supreme Court proclaimed to those in the courtroom: “God save the United States and this honorable court.”