Opinion

Opinion

KWON AND FRYAR: Student self-governance trumps entitlement

By Andrew Kwon and Donald Fryar | April 30, 2015

Our Council this year is the most diverse it has ever been; it spans across all schools, races, religions, ideologies, majors, backgrounds, groups and CIOs on Grounds. Even within different ethnicities, students are diverse in and of themselves. Even the pool of applicants this year was more diverse than we have ever seen before. Diversity within the Trustees Council will allow us to gain and include perspectives and insights that have previously been excluded or not represented.

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Opinion

​PATEL: Decrease merit-based aid

By Sawan Patel | April 28, 2015

America is a meritocracy in principle and perhaps somewhat in practice, so it makes sense that some sort of merit-based aid remains in the university system. However, merit-based aid often relies on GPA and standardized test scores, two measures of academic performance that highly correlate with income. The results are that students of relatively high socioeconomic status don’t have to pay for college — when they can afford to more easily than others — because they have high socioeconomic status.

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Opinion

​By the numbers

By Managing Board | April 28, 2015

As the academic year comes to an end, the Managing Board recounts some notable numbers.

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Opinion

​CHIU, MARKWOOD & RUSSELL: The Class of 2016 has a crisis of leadership

By Jasmine Chiu , Meredith Markwood and Lauren Russell | April 28, 2015

In its current capacity, student self-governance only protects the governing and not those being governed. It is a system put into place to empower all students; however, it is also exactly what is currently preventing any action and accountability that we, students, seek. If measures written in a Constitution cannot be interpreted and enforced now, what purpose do they really serve?

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Opinion

​OLSON: Making meetings meaningful

By Jake Olson | April 28, 2015

In a research project done by the Harvard Business Review, the team found that for one large corporation, over 300,000 person hours were spent on a single weekly excom meeting over the course of the entire year (this figure doesn’t include time spent preparing for the meetings). Parkinson’s law explains another way meetings waste time.

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Opinion

​ZIFF: Transcending the human complexities of Jefferson

By Tamar Ziff | April 28, 2015

Can we internalize the ideas forwarded by Jefferson — considered notions of religious liberty and equality of opportunity — while acknowledging his dire callousness? We can — but we must be careful not to conflate the value of his ideas with that of his person. He was an intelligent man, but not a wholly good one, and his refusal to free his slaves seems particularly egregious when juxtaposed with his views on the fundamental rights of those he saw as truly human (read: not everyone).

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Opinion

Yes to gender-neutral bathrooms

By Managing Board | April 27, 2015

Issues facing LGBTQ students can be complex, but one issue that almost uniquely plagues transgender and gender non-conforming students is the issue of invisibility. When spaces demarcate between just two genders — male and female — and force all students into one of these two categories, transgender and gender non-conforming students are rendered invisible to existing structures.

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Opinion

​DOYLE: Rand Paul’s whirlwind of dangerous ideas

By Bobby Doyle | April 27, 2015

An argument could be made that any dubious ideas Paul might have could be checked by the other powers in government if he became president. However, the duties of a president go far past the position he holds; presidents are constantly making judgement calls. In light of Paul’s views, I find it hard to trust his judgment.

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Opinion

​MENNINGER: The printing divide

By Nate Menninger | April 27, 2015

I propose a system in which all students are granted the same set number of free pages per year. This number should be calculated based upon average professorial needs. For example, the University of Pittsburgh allocates students 900 “print units” per semester — a number based on a student’s average need.

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Opinion

​MINK: The misguided bureaucratization of higher education

By Alex Mink | April 27, 2015

The danger of an increased administrative presence on Grounds is greater than just the additional cost. Administrators might become disconnected from the faculty and students they are meant to serve. Though many administrators such as guidance and Counseling and Psychological Services counselors see students on a daily basis, others lack direct communication with students.

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Opinion

​BROOM: Braving the storm

By Christopher Broom | April 27, 2015

I have written frequently about what The Cavalier Daily, and any collegiate paper, should be. The students who create The Cavalier Daily have worked to be a source of information, a place for our community to learn what it needs to begin a conversation and a place to have that conversation. Again, I have criticisms about some of the specifics. The website still needs to be cleaned up: the search tool is ineffective, and it’s difficult to find articles or columns more than about 10 days or two weeks old.

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Opinion

​RUDGLEY: Clinton should move a little left

By Ben Rudgley | April 24, 2015

There is cause for hope among progressives as they look to 2016. It is very possible that if Clinton’s competitors for the nomination all level concerted, persistent policy criticisms her way then she could be forced to adopt a more liberal, populist platform in several key areas. Clinton’s challengers can successfully push her to the left if they focus on issues that play well with the Democratic base, like income inequality, a cautious foreign policy and climate change.

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Opinion

Reevaluating structures in higher education

By Managing Board | April 24, 2015

If it is not conscious decisions, but rather subconscious biases as a result of existing structures, that push administrators toward unethical tendencies, addressing ethical issues in higher education is that much more complicated. But this case-study provides some clear solutions: one could be that administrators be required to review their decisions in one consistent platform; another could be that outsiders come into college campuses over certain periods of time to discuss current ethical dilemmas.

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Opinion

​KHAN: Native invisibility

By Hasan Khan | April 24, 2015

The plans to build a Mauna Kea observatory show blatant disrespect for the Native Americans, as well as how Native Americans are often exoticised rather than fully recognized in American culture. Often, when people imagine Hawaii, they visualize not only the beautiful beaches and lush forests but also the local people, hula dancing and other aspects of Native culture. The problem isn't so much that Native Americans aren’t recognized; instead, it’s about exoticisation — exotic representation of only certain aspects of the native islander “good life” — without truly caring or respecting Native American lands and culture.

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Opinion

​DEZOORT: Abandon first-year dining requirements

By Gage DeZoort | April 24, 2015

If it’s not dining options or advertising causing this lack of interest in meal plans, then what is it? Personally, and based off of the general feeling around Grounds, I’d be willing to label dining hall food as subpar. It’s reasonable to assert that this stands out as a reason that students might spend less on meal plans. After all, there’s really no other reason students would avoid expensive meal plans. Dining locations are abundant and extremely convenient, and there are meal options for most hours of the day. It must be the case that students simply don’t enjoy dining hall food.

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Opinion

​Eramo’s letter and Rolling Stone’s ramifications

By Managing Board | April 23, 2015

We cannot overstate the harm these generalizations have created. People who are survivors may not see themselves as such, or if they do, they may not report their stories. And those who work tirelessly on behalf of survivors and take all the right steps — such as informing survivors of all their options and allowing them the room to make a choice to give them back their agency, something Erdely condemned in her article — must fear that doing the right thing will be manipulated and distorted by an ill-informed public.

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Opinion

​PARTING SHOT: Digging deeper and pushing further

By Rebecca Lim | April 23, 2015

I remember unsuccessfully fighting back tears in a packed press conference as Hannah Graham’s parents implored an unseen audience for information that might bring back their child. In the aftermath of the Rolling Stone article, I remember piggybacking seemingly endless 4 a.m. nights with coffee-fueled all-nighters, frantically live-tweeting press conferences while typing up my final term papers and struggling to make sense of what I knew to be true and what I felt to be right amid an inundation of national media inquiries, official statements, protests, exams and every little crisis in between.

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Opinion

​JACKSON: Trying to be a better ally

By Lauren Jackson | April 23, 2015

Though I recognize my inherent inadequacy in addressing those concerns — for I speak from a place of the deepest sympathy, but not of empathy — I want to be an effective representative of all members of the student body when I speak to prospective students about enrolling. Addressing minority students’ concerns about attending the University cannot be a job for only the minority community.

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Opinion

​PARTING SHOT: A simple thank-you note

By Kelly Kaler | April 23, 2015

I am humbled and forever thankful for the fleeting time I was able to spend crafting the literal and figurative pages of this organization. You made me a better person, and you will always hold a special place in my heart.

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Opinion

​EDEL: Breaking down a Computer Science minor

By Brennan Edel | April 23, 2015

Computer Science is an intrinsically different type of discipline in that it is highly vocational, more so than any other major in the College or the Engineering School. A study on return-on-investment for universities came to the conclusion that a Computer Science degree is the most valuable in the nation almost across the board. And the reason for that is that almost everything taught in the department correlates to a job skill.