Opinion

Opinion

Bullet points

By Meredith Berger | April 22, 2013

Last Wednesday the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which would have required background checks for all commercial gun sales, received just 54 of the 60 votes it needed to pass in the U.S. Senate. The legislation’s supporters argued that the bill would have been a helpful preventive measure against gun violence. While I understand this perspective, it is important to see how the legislation would have affected United States citizens negatively.

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Opinion

Sweet serendipity

By Kelly McCoy | April 22, 2013

For some of us, serendipity means being able to attend our Friday classes safely because we chose not to go to school in Boston. For some of us, serendipity means having our elementary school experiences not be clouded by the terrors of Newtown, Connecticut. For some of us, serendipity means returning home safely from our study abroad experiences. For some of us, serendipity means being mentally, physically and monetarily able to study at the University of Virginia. And yet for all of us, serendipity means waking up each and every morning.

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Opinion

Forget the price tag

By Ashley Spinks | April 21, 2013

Money in politics is undesirable because we don’t want our legislators obligated to anyone but their constituents. We hope that when our Congressmen are casting a vote on important pieces of legislation, such as the gun regulation bill the Senate voted on April 16, they are concerned with what is the best idea for the largest number of people. They should not be worried about pleasing corporations or interests groups or ensuring their own re-elections — they should be thinking about how to keep people safe or protect their rights.

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Opinion

Jefferson’s green thumb

By Managing Board | April 21, 2013

But the University, with its ample intellectual capital, is also poised to make great strides in environmental protection. The school has already taken some notable steps. In February 2011, the University launched an interdisciplinary minor in global sustainability. A few months later, the Board of Visitors approved a commitment to reduce the University’s annual greenhouse gas emissions to 250,000 metric tons by 2025 — a figure 25 percent below 2009 levels.

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Opinion

The next generation of journalism

By Ashley Stevenson | April 21, 2013

Journalism can be a self-prophesying industry. Every journalist understands the political leaning and expected coverage of their workplace, and it takes bravery for journalists to write against a predominating zeitgeist with their job on the line. That’s not an excuse for media bias, but it is a problem.

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Opinion

By the numbers

By Managing Board | April 18, 2013

The managing board’s occasional survey of notable numerals

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Opinion

Differential equations

By Managing Board | April 18, 2013

The University’s enthusiasm for expanding differential-tuition programs — and its stated reasoning for upperclassman fees — comes from the same ethos that drives the development of the school’s new internal financial model. The model aims to treat each school or unit as a separate cost center that must generate revenues to cover its expenses.

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Opinion

Picking and choosing

By Russell Bogue | April 17, 2013

The rest of the report goes to describe in detail the revolting stories that form that fabric of Dr. Gosnell’s history — stories such as delivering and then murdering a live, screaming baby and keeping jars of baby feet. It reads almost like a horror story in which the antagonist is not a misanthropic psychopath but a twisted doctor motivated by profit.

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Opinion

Constitutions trump bylaws

By Ronald Fisher | April 17, 2013

Unfortunately, the Honor Committee has apparently determined that it need not comply with its own governing constitution in framing the bylaws governing informed retraction. Honor Bylaw III(3), as of March 3, 2013, states that “[t]he Vice Chairs [for Investigations and Trials] may accept or reject any IR submission,” and further provides that “[t]he decision of the Vice Chairs is final.” This language clearly contradicts the plain meaning of the Bellamy Amendment — language which, it bears repeating, is now enshrined in the Honor Committee’s constitution. Constitutions trump bylaws.

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Opinion

Gene blues

By Forrest Brown | April 17, 2013

Myriad could not charge $3000 for tests that cost $200 to perform if the company faced competition. Allowing companies to compete to produce better and cheaper products is in the best interest of patients, and in this case is also consistent with copyright law.

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Opinion

Chatting and hacking

By Andrew Kouri | April 17, 2013

I chatted with x86 and n3tcat using an encrypted application called Cryptocat, which prevented me from determining their IP addresses and consequentially protected their anonymity.

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Opinion

Rooting for data

By Managing Board | April 16, 2013

Though its actions sparked an online uproar, including hundreds of frantic tweets and a mention in The Washington Post, all R00tTh3B0x has done is redirect a web domain. Virginia.edu, the central hub of the University’s online presence, is an important page to keep secure. But R00tTh3B0x has not jeopardized the site’s security in any meaningful way.

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Opinion

Good intentions

By Alex Yahanda | April 16, 2013

The teacher, in an effort to improve her students’ persuasive writing skills, assigned a very controversial project. She instructed her students to envision themselves as Nazi military officers and write an essay arguing “that Jews are evil,” while using “solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!” A few students did not complete the assignment, and parents grew incensed about the topic. The teacher has been placed on leave with many calling for her to be fired.

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Opinion

Common knowledge

By Fariha Kabir | April 16, 2013

The University recently announced its plans to participate in the first national digital library, known as the Digital Public Library of America. This ambitious project, which gathers information from an array of scholarly organizations, will give students and scholars access to information available digitally at other universities as well as at the National Archives, the Smithsonian and other federal organizations. The University has decided to provide the Holsinger Studio Collection, which consists of information about Charlottesville from the 19th and 20th centuries. In the future, the University hopes to offer access to 16th-century French texts.

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Opinion

Pill poppers

By Meredith Berger | April 16, 2013

While sitting in Clemons the other day, a friend of mine asked,“Do you have any Adderall?”

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Opinion

Welcoming arms

By Sam Novack | April 16, 2013

The main point that the editorial attempts to drive home is based on nothing other than conjecture, and it paints an inaccurate picture of students swaggering into class with holsters on their hips.

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Opinion

Running scared

By Managing Board | April 15, 2013

Multiple University students, faculty and staff participated in the Massachusetts race. Mark Hampton, the Curry School’s senior associate dean for administration, finished the marathon about an hour before the bombs went off. The handful of University students in Boston for the race, as well as other faculty and staff members, also escaped harm.

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Opinion

Tradition over truncation

By Walter Keady | April 15, 2013

Because fraternities are so individualized, a mandatory initiation date not only damages fraternity tradition across the IFC but also damages the particular new member routines of each house.

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Opinion

Silence and stigma

By George Knaysi | April 15, 2013

After first-year College student Jake Cusano took his life, I started seeing the telltale signs of discomfort with suicide. With two suicides in my family history, the reactions were familiar. Some reflexively lowered their voices at the word; others silently refrained from the topic. Even my Sustained Dialogue group – an irrepressibly vocal bunch – found themselves shy of conversation.

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Opinion

The good old network

By Mary Wang | April 15, 2013

Instead of trying to make meaningful relationships with people in the organization, I simply put in “face time,” and, as a result, I could not compete with the friendships and bonds that other people had formed with each other by being genuine.