The backlash against birthright citizenship for all demonstrates a resurgence of xenophobia that is startling to many. Birthright citizenship for all people is one of the great things about America, not a detriment.
Though some of us may have felt blindsided by this change in our system, its benefits far outweigh any small annoyances we may have with filling out another form.
The prevalence of bars and drinking institutions as well as the history of exclusion and instances of injustice make it clear that there is a need for a cultural shift on the Corner. Our first step in fostering this change should be the creation of a sober socializing space, open to all University students, on the Corner.
White men have traditionally dominated much of English language literature. Names such as Salinger, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck will always be important in the American consciousness. However, shaping curricula to include more diverse narratives will create a generation of globally literate Americans.
The absorption of both wealth and political power by the few has, by definition, propelled the country down the road to oligarchy. The promise of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is under threat. When both the economy and political process are rigged to favor those at the top, change has to come from outside our governing institutions — from the grassroots.
Candid speech, while admirable, is no excuse for a politician’s ideological shortcomings. In the case of Trump, his tendency to “tell it like it is” does not redeem his toxic misogyny, nativism or jingoism, none of which sound better coming from a foghorn than from a dog whistle. What people like Trump and his supporters fail to understand is that political correctness is not some trivial issue manufactured by the left to restrict free speech or thinking.
The Live Story feature contributes to the changing relationship between the individual and the hyperconnected world, wherein our immediate circle of contacts, and by extension our awareness of the lives and situation of others, has exponentially expanded due to the ubiquity of the internet. Snapchat’s Live Story is the ultimate manifestation of an ersatz citizen journalism, democratizing “reportage” — brief and banal as it may be — such that we can now see various places and cultures around the world with jarring authenticity.
Americans born in any of these territories are not granted the right to vote for president or representation by a voting member in the House of Representatives. For them, the American flag serves as a reminder that they are not first class citizens and are not equal to other Americans under the law. To address this disparity between principle and practice, all people born on American soil should be granted the full rights of citizenship, which includes the right to vote. In other words, the Constitution should most certainly follow the flag.
There currently exists a disjuncture between the proportion of Americans who are willing to donate their organs and those who actively register to become organ donors. Many polls and surveys demonstrate that the majority of Americans would be willing to donate their organs upon death, yet only about 45 percent of American adults are registered donors.
This litany of appalling media biases has corrupted journalism to the point where fair coverage of presidential elections is a luxury among mainstream media outlets. The political union of the Washington establishment, corporate interests and the media has created an environment in which it is political suicide for a candidate to so much as question the status quo in foreign policy or income inequality. As both Pauls have learned, criticizing disastrous Middle East policy will place you squarely in the crosshairs of the kingmaker of American elections — the mainstream media.
You now wear the honors of Honor and with the turn of a tassle you progress forward from students to alumni. As alumni we ask that you don’t forget your experiences at the University.
The Class of 2015, however, will not have the opportunity to see even the short-term impacts of this year — at least not as students. They will not have the opportunity to forget this school year, as it is their final memory of the University. Rather, they are entering the outside world having experienced large-scale national issues in their own backyard.
I have paid particular attention to the digital elements of the paper including the mobile applications, Twitter feeds, multimedia efforts including video and the website among others. They have all changed over time, seemingly growing in fits and starts.
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.
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.
As the academic year comes to an end, the Managing Board recounts some notable numbers.
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?
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.
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).
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.
