Opinion

Opinion

SPINKS: What should we consider real news?

By Ashley Spinks | February 18, 2015

The BBG had a budget of $731 million in fiscal year 2014, which means it has the resources to do a lot of good — or a significant amount of harm. From a solely idealistic standpoint, we can all get behind the mission of the BBG, which involves protecting free speech and providing news that is “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” to countries that often do not have access to a free press.

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Opinion

Our endorsement for the University Judiciary Committee

By Managing Board | February 17, 2015

We are pleased UJC elections are contested in the College this year, but still worry that student engagement with UJC is lacking. Austin and Mason will prove excellent at engaging the community, but we hope this effort will extend beyond simply the College.

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Opinion

ALJASSAR: The consequences of the GA’s mental health legislation

By Nazar Aljassar | February 17, 2015

As legal adults, students have a right to mental health privacy. For students who do not want their mental health information shared with their parents, SB 1122 is especially concerning. And according to Davis, CAPS would have to report concerning student behavior to campus threat assessment teams, as University counseling centers would not be exempt from HB 1715.

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Opinion

WHISNANT: So long, Stewart

By Gray Whisnant | February 17, 2015

When I found out Stewart was retiring, my first reaction was a pang of nostalgia for what felt like an exciting political innocence before the cynicism of the late Obama years. When I gave it a bit more thought, my next reaction was one of relief. “The Daily Show” was once a vibrant oasis in a desert of craven television personalities, but in 2015, the American left is better off leaving Jon Stewart and his brand of satire behind.

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Opinion

PATEL: The faulty logic of King v. Burwell

By Sawan Patel | February 17, 2015

The mechanism for the potential demise of Obamacare can be found in ambiguous wording in the original law. The claim by the plaintiffs is that the IRS illegally provided subsidies to individuals who purchased coverage through exchanges set up by the federal government. This is because the original act specified that the subsidies would be provided only for insurance bought through the state.

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Opinion

Jackie, FERPA and your right to privacy

By Managing Board | February 16, 2015

This process took a dark turn following the Rolling Stone article, but reveals the problems with privacy flagging directories in general: should a student wish to make her information private years into her University career — which she is able to do — the information that was previously made available will still be available. With online directories, the chance of such information remaining public is obviously heightened.

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Opinion

DOYLE: Why Modi should scare you

By Bobby Doyle | February 16, 2015

Perhaps the most frightening fact about Modi is that he is a Hindu nationalist leading a government made of Hindu nationalists. Hindu nationalism has been on the rise in the last few decades in response to political mobilizations by the lower classes in India. Note that this in not Indian nationalism, but Hindu nationalism.

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Opinion

MINK: Make textbooks affordable

By Alex Mink | February 16, 2015

Almost every University student has experienced the shock of going to buy textbooks at the University bookstore and realizing the text needed for one three credit course costs upwards of $200. With prices for a single course that high, when multiplied by several courses and stretching over eight semesters of school textbooks can add a tremendous amount of money to an already substantial final bill for college.

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Opinion

ADAMES: Hispanic is not a race

By Alexander Adames | February 16, 2015

Hispanics should repudiate being construed as a racial identity because this identification privileges the white identity and ignores other identities. For example, although they may share similar struggles on account of being Hispanic, many white (or white-passing) Hispanics will be immune to certain forms of discrimination based on race and complexion.

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Opinion

BROOM: Aim for full disclosure

By Christopher Broom | February 16, 2015

Maintaining balance in news coverage is critical for making sure those Opinion pieces and endorsements carry weight. Allegations of bias are raised in virtually every article with political content, it seems. Most of those allegations are entirely off base.

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Opinion

Standing with UNC

By Managing Board | February 13, 2015

In the coming weeks, months and perhaps even years, the UNC community will likely see its history as a division between before and after these murders. The job of reporting on these events will fall to the dedicated students who put together The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s student newspaper. Staffers have already gone to task reporting on the triple homicide, providing excellent coverage, both news and editorial.

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Opinion

RUSSO: Barriers to entry

By Mary Russo | February 13, 2015

In theory, fraternity guest lists provide a clear record of who was present at a party on a given night. In practice, this may not work. From what I have heard from friends and peers, many fraternities have compiled lists of several thousand people, likely including certain sororities and fraternities with whom that group may often socialize. The concern with this is twofold.

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Opinion

DEZOORT: Popular science for dummies

By Gage DeZoort | February 13, 2015

It’s an unfortunate fact that most humans simply aren’t equipped to distinguish between “Star Wars” and “real science.” For most, there’s little more foreign than string theory or the Higgs boson. Why, then, might the average viewer trust a book or television show to convey such alien abstractions? It’s not the fact that they’re outlandish (or otherwise too difficult for most of the audience to decipher). Rather, it’s the scientific figureheads endorsing them.

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Opinion

GORMAN: Americans should care more about rhinos

By Ryan Gorman | February 13, 2015

Chances are a poor farmer in Africa does not care what we Americans think; his next meal is more important to him than racking his brain for an answer to a question of humanity. He needs sustenance, but more than that he needs an incentive. Tourism needs to somehow have a positive impact on his livelihood if we want the rhino to stay alive, if we want to stabilize the wealth of all these impoverished African nations.

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Opinion

KHAN: Obama is right on religion

By Hasan Khan | February 13, 2015

Obama is boldly trying to undermine the sentiment that Islam’s inherent teachings are to blame for the violence caused by ISIS and other extremist groups. People interested in gaining power will always attempt to sanctify the methods in which they attain control, especially when there is a struggle for power. In the Middle East, such a struggle for power has never been greater.

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Opinion

RIPLEY: Sex after trauma

By Katherine Ripley | February 12, 2015

When sex is difficult because of traumas or fears, it’s probably best to do it with someone you know you can really trust. But I didn’t go that route because I wanted to return to a sense of normalcy. Taking a guy home from the party because I wanted to was part of my normal.

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Opinion

Stop damning hook-up culture

By Managing Board | February 12, 2015

Essentially, the amount of time and emotional energy required of a relationship is no longer a burden for a woman who prefers casual sex; in fact, she has more time to complete her academic work and achieve good grades. Additionally, women in relationships find it “difficult to meet people” — perhaps an inhibitor to the kind of social networking characteristic of a college experience (a networking that can help later in life when college friends have dispersed around the country and may be helpful in finding jobs).

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Opinion

SANABIA: Grindr, gay men and the University

By Andre Sanabia | February 12, 2015

Except for those staunchly opposed to hook-up culture, Grindr has touched almost every gay man’s life at some point. It can be difficult to spontaneously meet another gay man within the same social situations that our fellow hetero Hoos meet each other. Unlike its Tinder counterpart, Grindr gives you options as to why you are on it.

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Opinion

RUIZ: Choose love over hooking up

By Joy Ruiz | February 12, 2015

Hooking up feels good, it’s exciting, it’s fun — of course it makes you feel happy. But is this a sort of happiness that can be maintained? Does it satisfy?

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Opinion

FOGEL: Choose comedians for Valediction

By Jared Fogel | February 12, 2015

In 2013, the University first implemented the tactic of pairing up a comedian with a politician, selecting former U.S. Senator Jim Webb and comedian Stephen Colbert as the final exercise speakers. Choosing a comedian was a huge success, as it was the first time the University had welcomed a comedian in at least the past 25 years. Additionally, Colbert’s speech was, thanks to YouTube, the most watched in the University’s history, garnering almost half a million views on YouTube.