One of my other jobs, I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is teaching freshman composition. When I’m doing that, I try to emphasize that the skills necessary to produce a decent essay — the ability to evaluate sources and information; to organize thought and argument; to make a point concisely -— are also useful outside an English classroom.
The United States agriculture industry has been stripped of one of its most beneficial cash-cow commodities.
In his Feb. 11 column “Yes, in your backyard,” Andrew Wells asserts that the solutions to climate change must start with individuals — that we must all do our part to recycle, reduce our energy usage and think about conservation in our daily behavior.
The Virginia legislature recently passed laws that would reduce the incidence of voter fraud by limiting the types of voter ID polling places deem acceptable.
Though many people were probably unaware, yesterday marked Charles Darwin’s birthday. Darwin, as hopefully everyone knows, solidified the theory of evolution with his explanation of descent with modification, the process by which adaptive changes take place.
The joke is an old one: When talking to an English major, you usually end the conversation with “Yes, I do want fries with that.” Studying Proust or Joyce is not exactly economically sound.
Carl Sagan once said, in reference to the famous photograph taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft that shows the Earth as a pale blue dot, that humans have a responsibility to “preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” I urge you to read the transcript of this speech.
Last week, a group of fourth-year students revealed the lesson they learned from a two-month project they undertook for one of their classes.
Between classes and extracurricular activities, time spent searching for love is fairly limited at college.
It may be dead by now, but last week a bill in the Virginia General Assembly would have required the University’s Board of Visitors — and board of visitors at every four-year public university in the Commonwealth — to include a student member elected by students.
I have been proud to be a Wahoo lately. University Dining has recently been promoting vegetarianism through initiatives such as “Meatless Mondays” and “Vegan Love.” As a vegetarian, I’ve been particularly encouraged by these efforts.
Last week the University of Michigan de-recog nized the Asian chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship because the group’s constitution required leaders to sign a statement of faith, a violation of the university’s non-discrimination policy.
As President Barack Obama has begun his second term, he has been working toward reforming his cabinet after several first-term members have stepped down.
If I asked you to picture a lecture in your head, it would probably look like this: 200 of your closest friends in a hall somewhere on Grounds, all listening — or, at least, pretending to listen — to a professor as he gesticulates wildly.
President Barack Obama has decided to make immigration reform a priority for his second term. Illegal immigration has been tackled several times at the state level, but unsuccessfully.
WHEN it comes to reforming American schools, the debate rightly focuses most consistently on improving academics.
In these first few weeks of his second term, President Barack Obama is poised to make a terrible mistake: flawed immigration reform.
Call me a cynic, but I doubt anyone who says cutting back on something is going to make it better. So I was more than skeptical when I read about The Cavalier Daily’s “comprehensive plan to shift focus from the traditional daily newspaper to a digital-first newsroom,” that would replace the nearly daily newspaper “with a revamped biweekly newsmagazine and expand online and mobile content offerings.” The newsmagazine, we’re promised, will “offer extensive analysis, informative graphics and an increased focus on features, local entertainment and weekend previews.” Matt Cameron, in his last days as the paper’s editor-in-chief, said the newsmagazine will have “more of the in-depth, investigative journalism that our readers crave.” Meanwhile, the new digital emphasis will bring “mobile and tablet apps, a daily e-newsletter, high-quality multimedia content and an increased emphasis on social media and web graphics.” In a memo to the staff, the managing board declared itself “confident about the benefits this plan will produce.” Managing board members said of the restructuring: “It will expand our coverage opportunities by allowing us to afford sending reporters to out-of-state events.
The Super Bowl may be the most important football game of the year, but for some it is a day just to enjoy the commercials.
IT’S EASY to disparage social media. Facebook can make us feel alienated and detached from our friends just as often as it can connect us to them.
