Opinion

Opinion

EVANS: Building a wider base for climate change action

By Will Evans | March 4, 2015

Most action-oriented folk forget that we are a minority whose expertise stems from intense experiences unshared by most. We readily dismiss non actors as hopeless and unwilling to engage in environmental discussion because our idea of what constitutes normal contribution fringes on the extreme. Strong opinions can even have polarizing effects on those who identify with the same overarching cause but hold different personal beliefs on how best to approach it. For instance, I was initially reluctant to engage with climate action at the University.

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Opinion

​Standardize interrogation practices

By Managing Board | March 3, 2015

Perhaps not every confession can be recorded, but the argument that this means police should not record interrogations is unpersuasive. If police are excessively forceful or brutal in their interrogation tactics, but no recording exists, a defendant’s claim that his confession was coerced or that he was subject to police brutality can’t be substantiated. In such a he-said, she-said scenario, a police officer — even if he did in fact coerce a confession — will appear much more believable than a potential criminal.

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Opinion

​DEZOORT: In defense of metal

By Gage DeZoort | March 3, 2015

In general, most listeners immediately write off metal. After all, it seems like noise to a novice ear. However, the music is actually an intricate combination of melodies and complex rhythms. Whether they’re pleasing to the listener, they are an enormous part of what makes metal interesting. It’s simply a matter of presentation that separates metal from other music.

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Opinion

PATEL: Don’t legalize sports betting

By Sawan Patel | March 3, 2015

The legalization of sports gambling would lead to a reduced interest in sports by those who do not bet, much like fantasy football has turned off traditional fans from being a part of the fandom of people who root for teams but instead root for players on their team. The attention of games would shift from simple wins and losses to spreads and margins of victory. Introducing money into the equation removes personal engagement and bonding with the team and other fans.

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Opinion

ADAMES: The misguided exaltation of Jefferson

By Alexander Adames | March 2, 2015

While I am sure not all of my fellow Cavaliers are paying homage to Jefferson as a man, from my experience and the experiences of many others, a substantial population of the University (administration and faculty included) seem to be Jeffersonian sycophants. If one searches “Thomas Jefferson” in the University email address, then one is likely to come across many references to Jefferson. The expression “What would Jefferson do?” is familiar to some students, faculty and staff. It seems to elevate Jefferson to a quasi-deistic stature.

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Opinion

DOYLE: Why is no one talking about the UBE?

By Bobby Doyle | March 2, 2015

The outgoing chairs of organizations the UBE oversees, such as the Honor Committee, actually take part in helping to select the next year’s members. There is a dangerous potential conflict of interest in letting people pick their own overseer. Without even meaning to, the chairs will pick people of whom they approve. While this does not seem to be a prevalent problem at the moment, there still is the potential for it to become one.

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Opinion

​Debt collection agencies hurt students

By Managing Board | March 2, 2015

If collection agencies knowingly concealed payment options that could lighten students’ burden of debt, the Department of Education is right in its decision to cut ties with those agencies. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice should immediately begin investigating whether those agencies violated existing federal debt collection laws — a strong possibility.

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Opinion

MINK: The hidden dangers of depression

By Alex Mink | March 2, 2015

As can be seen from the wide range of symptoms listed, depression is a complex illness that goes far beyond feelings of sadness, which many fail to understand. This lack of understanding, coupled with the often subtle effects of depression, can cause students to mistake their mood changes and other symptoms as nothing more than unavoidable results of the stress of college, a misunderstanding which prevents the affected students from getting the help they need. Though a certain amount of stress and sadness are normal, students must be made aware of what separates normal amounts of sadness and anxiety from harmful levels that are the result of a mental illness.

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Opinion

BROOM: Creating a diverse newsroom

By Christopher Broom | March 2, 2015

Other areas in which diversity is important cut across the student experience at the University. From financial aid, housing and food choices available on Grounds to how student health is set up there are innumerable topics that affect the day-to-day life of people here. It is critical that people who have different life experiences and different expectations and needs contribute to thinking about stories and questions on these topics.

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Opinion

​What Honor is, and what it isn’t

By Managing Board | February 27, 2015

Undeniably, the ideals that fall under the umbrella of the community of trust extend far beyond lying, cheating and stealing, and Honor may have a place in conversations outside that punitive domain. But the time for Honor to take on that role has not yet come.

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Opinion

KHAN: Prioritize computer literacy

By Hasan Khan | February 27, 2015

Teens and young adults picking up languages so late in the game are barred from becoming proficient and fluent at a language in classroom-style settings. In contrast, learning code is much easier to begin later in life — after basic arithmetic concepts have been learned by students — but just as hard to master as conventional foreign languages.

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Opinion

​WAN: Stop overlooking Virginia polo

By Sasha Wan | February 27, 2015

Despite the popular image of polo players as predominantly privileged white males, the Virginia polo team is very diverse. Members of the team are composed of American students and international students from Costa Rica, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In various informal conversation, the players on the team explain their diverse interest and background in polo.

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Opinion

​Homeless citizens are entitled to free speech

By Managing Board | February 26, 2015

Here in Charlottesville, homelessness is an obvious problem — a simple walk on the Corner demonstrates that. But in a city where the Downtown Mall serves as one of few pedestrian areas where people are likely to gather (as opposed to driving through in a car), banning panhandling on the Mall is effectively a preliminary step to banning panhandling altogether.

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Opinion

GORMAN: No scarlet letter for sexual assault

By Ryan Gorman | February 26, 2015

If HB 1888 were to pass, the wrongly accused would fall victim to a grave violation of their personal liberty. Without any due process of law, the accused would potentially be discriminated against by universities — many of which require a transcript to enroll — and by potential employers, who often look at students’ transcripts to view their academic virtues. Branding these students with the “scarlet letter” of sexual assault would entrap them in the cruel vice of a corrupt and unjust system, revoking their natural right to social mobility.

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Opinion

​EDEL: Idris Elba for Bond — with reservations

By Brennan Edel | February 26, 2015

Casting the popular and talented Elba would actually be a monumental inconsistency. The other Bond actors were relative nobodies when they took the role or dropped out of the public eye once they left it, mostly because they weren’t any good in the first place.

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Opinion

FOGEL: Legalize sports betting

By Jared Fogel | February 26, 2015

The issues with sports gambling are evident — it can ruin people’s lives — but on the other hand, so do casinos, state lotteries and horse racing. There are significant moral qualms surrounding both sports gambling and other forms of gambling such as state lotteries; however, these moral issues are already intertwined in our society and legalizing sports betting would merely help create organization, transparency and credibility in an otherwise shady process.

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Opinion

LGBTQ individuals deserve anti-discrimination legislation

By Managing Board | February 25, 2015

It is obvious the problem of workplace discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community persists. With no current national law in place to mitigate this discrimination — the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 died in Congress — addressing this issue is left to the states. SB 785 would address this problem, solidifying in law the state’s stance on issues of discrimination.

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Opinion

JACKSON: Language about sexual assault matters

By Lauren Jackson | February 25, 2015

The word “defile” appeared in Virginia legislation for the first time in 1950 with the writing of Virginia Code § 18.2-48, titled “Abduction. . . for immoral purpose.” In the law today, the word defile officially means to “corrupt the integrity of a thing” — applying to both trampled flags or to sexually assaulted people.

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Opinion

ZIFF: What we mean by “success”

By Tamar Ziff | February 25, 2015

The line between one’s professional and personal life is becoming ever finer. About one-fifth of Americans report working from home at least once a week, and that number is projected to rise. In the near future, many more Americans will be involved in so-called “flexible work” programs, where they will do what they do from a home office.

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Opinion

SPINKS: Feminism is more than leaning in

By Ashley Spinks | February 25, 2015

Women should have the ability to make career moves that they want or deserve — but not the obligation to do so. The problem with accusing Williams of suffering from "imposter syndrome" is it assumes that, as a woman, Williams is simply unaware of her own talents. This kind of woman-on-woman criticism is exactly what hurts the feminist movement, rather than propelling it forward.