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(12/03/13 4:08am)
Now that we’ve entered the holiday delirium between Thanksgiving and Christmas, millions of parents and young children will indulge in that cherished seasonal tradition — the legend of Santa Claus. To start, let’s brush off the annoying convention of winking at the truth rather than stating it outright. I’ll say it: Santa is a lie perpetuated by parents and society. At the risk of being called a “scrooge,” I assert we should not deceive children about the existence of Father Christmas.
(11/26/13 3:30am)
More than 90 colleges — including George Washington University, New York University, and the University of Maryland — offer gender-neutral housing, a housing option that would allow students to select roommates, suitemates or apartment-mates without regard to sex or gender. And this number is climbing. Boston University recently approved gender-neutral living options after significant student pressure. As I write, Harvard students are voting on a referendum to universalize their limited gender-neutral housing policies.
(11/19/13 5:41am)
You may be familiar with the view among some social media users that “Facebook is not for politics.” A 21st-century version of the “don’t discuss politics at the dinner table” rule of etiquette, it implies a wariness for informal political debate. Friends and family have reason to be cautious — it is easy for ideas to become oversimplified and for debate to take a nasty emotional turn, particularly in the disinhibiting medium of the Internet. But if you see political engagement and discussion as an important part of communities — whether online or elsewhere — then such avoidance is problematic. I argue that Facebook is an excellent forum for the exchange of political ideas, and that segregating political beliefs from friends and family deprives us of a meaningful space for engagement. But politics and Facebook only mix well if done correctly.
(11/12/13 4:07am)
About 99 percent of U.S. meat comes from industrial farms. I am by no means a vegetarian, but I propose there are significant moral, environmental and health costs associated with these contemporary methods. More traditional, ranch-style farming serves as an alternative to large-scale industrial methods, and its practices better account for animal interests. The mass production of meat and dairy is a complex business, but even a brief look at the pros and cons of each model suggests that ranch-style farming is preferable for an ethically- and environmentally-conscious public.
(11/05/13 1:18am)
As an end to this series on mental well-being, I wish to focus on one of the more striking contradictions in our student culture of health and wellness: hazing as a method for fraternity bonding. As the Inter-Fraternity Council’s vice president for risk management correctly noted in an Oct. 10 article, hazing occurs in social groups outside of Greek life. Still, its greatest stronghold at this University lies in fraternity tradition. Arguments against hazing regularly draw on common-sense values or the potential for unsafe consumption of alcohol, but this article will focus on the contradictions in such practices that social neuroscience brings to light.
(10/29/13 2:35am)
This past alumni weekend, I again received that favorite piece of post-graduate advice: that the “key to success” in college lies in how well you can “find balance” between your grades, extracurricular activities and social life. Good advice, to be sure, but each undergraduate is left to figure out the details. Our ability to “balance” determines not only our popularity, grades and community recognition but also the quality of our emotional lives, interpersonal relationships and overall mental and physical health. Yet students at the University, even more than those at your average American college, often approach the idea of balance with the maxim “work hard, play hard.” This sentiment — visibly pursued and endorsed by many in our community — often exacerbates the health challenges faced by college students. I suggest we adopt an attitude for “balance” that raises our likelihood of achieving mental health rather than putting it at risk.
(10/22/13 4:23am)
In my last column, I discussed why students should pay equal attention to mental wellness and physical health. Though effective mental health practices — management of disruptive emotions, cultivation of meaningful social relationships, and so on — are largely neglected, we reflexively seek them out. If people are unaware of good methods for managing their mental states, they will settle for poor ones. This is where the self-help genre known as “popular psychology” holds its power.
(10/08/13 3:17am)
For a population as fit and beauty-obsessed as the University’s, it comes as no surprise that we sport a prominent student culture of diet and exercise. Go to the Aquatic & Fitness Center before 10 p.m. on any given weeknight and you might have trouble getting an elliptical. Drive down JPA or Main Street after midnight and you risk hitting a rogue student jogger. Listen for how often a discussion about food includes the phrase “it’s only [insert number] calories”, asserted as a virtue. For the current University student population, such habits are a common aspect of how we approach health.
(10/01/13 1:56am)
Last November, Student Council’s Committee for Safety and Wellness held a forum for all then-active student CIOs with a health- or safety-related mission. Representatives from each organization gave a brief presentation about their purpose and goals followed by a series of small-group discussions. CIOs in attendance included One In Four, the all-male sexual assault peer education group, and Active Minds, the University’s primary organization dedicated to mental health issues. As a moderator for one of these small groups, it struck me that each CIO seemed to have one of two chief complaints: 1) the group had the right facts, data and pamphlets but lacked strategies at encouraging students to pay attention to their information; 2) the CIO had decent student exposure but felt it was not providing students with enough helpful information.
(09/24/13 3:06am)
Man has a habit of calling himself master of the universe. Centuries ago, we believed the cosmos revolved around us. Anthropocentric thought continues, though it is not as literal as geocentrism was. It lives on in contemporary culture, particularly when it comes to how humans treat animals.
(09/10/13 3:08am)
The cover story for this week’s issue of TIME magazine — “It’s Time to Pay College Athletes” by Sean Gregory — is irresponsible but unsurprising. The article considers the large profits of college football and basketball and argues that we have an “ethical imperative” to start paying student athletes tens (or potentially hundreds) of thousands of dollars in addition to scholarships and other benefits. I mark it as an unsurprising cover story because it is consistent with our culture’s increasing view of college athletes as celebrities rather than the students and young adults they are. I call the article irresponsible for two reasons. First, it unquestioningly advances the view of college athletes as celebrities and commodities. Second, its solution to the rising “exploitation” of student athletes is to throw these young adults into our cutthroat American market.
(09/03/13 12:24am)
I consider our surprise win against Georgia Tech in October 2011 — which ended in us storming the field — to be a high point for my level of school spirit (so far). Although I nearly broke my leg in a pile of screaming bodies, I limped to the field to chant, sing The Good Ol’ Song and generally exult in our school’s moment of glory.
(08/27/13 3:19am)
“I’d probably rank James Joyce’s Ulysses as mid-tier crap,” she said.
(04/15/13 11:37pm)
After first-year College student Jake Cusano took his life, I started seeing the telltale signs of discomfort with suicide. With two suicides in my family history, the reactions were familiar. Some reflexively lowered their voices at the word; others silently refrained from the topic. Even my Sustained Dialogue group – an irrepressibly vocal bunch – found themselves shy of conversation.
(04/09/13 12:40am)
As last semester wound to a close, University students woke one Saturday to find seven black banners hanging prominently around Grounds. “No man is an island, Entire of itself,” they began, summoning the famous words of the poet John Donne. The Seven Society hung the banners in light of a series of tragic events during the fall 2012 semester, including the death of a student, several sexual assaults and an alleged hate crime. The words invoke the principles of our honor-inspired, student-maintained “community of trust.”
(04/02/13 3:47am)
Several nights ago, I managed to catch Dean of Students Allen Groves between meetings. The University is a community of competitive, high-achieving students. So I asked him: “Do you have any advice for those trying to stand out?”
(03/26/13 1:31am)
Many students will declare their majors within the next month. Declaring can be a stressful but productive experience. It forces self-reflection, hopefully prompting an inventory of one’s interests, talents and post-graduate goals. Many students will choose traditional majors in subjects such as chemistry or English, but the University offers a number of excellent interdisciplinary majors, and undergraduates overlook them to their own disadvantage. It surprises me how little attention these programs receive, for the best of them meet every item on my imaginary perfect-major checklist: they provide a competitive edge in a hostile job market, an engaging educational experience and an opportunity to transform one’s thinking.
(03/19/13 3:30am)
Human understanding of neuroscience has grown exponentially in the past few decades, particularly when it comes to the connection between our emotions and physical health. Such findings have widespread applications, especially in the field of medicine. Chronically negative emotions slow patient recovery from illness, make us susceptible to new diseases and even shorter our life span.