CHRISTMAS, right up there with the Chinese New Year, has always been my favorite time of year. Perhaps it is because the decorations for this holiday have been put out two months in advance, but I have always felt especially happy and cheerful during this holiday season.
CHRISTMAS is the time when the Lord sent his son, Jesus Christ, down from Heaven to live among us.
THE SEMESTER has flown by. It feels as if classes started only yesterday. Yet, for many people, the intensity of the college academic schedule has made its mark and worn people out.
AS MY FIRST semester as a transfer student at the University draws to a close, I have begun to reflect on the comical difference in atmosphere between the University and my last school, Carnegie Mellon University.
CYNICS often trash Christmas as a stressful, consumerist holiday that probably was invented by Hallmark and Sears.
IT'S DEC. 25, a day I've anticipated for the past 364. I wake up early - before my five other family members - and softly creep downstairs, an ongoing ritual from my childhood.
AS ANOTHER semester draws to a close at the University, I have decided to compile a list of cheers and jeers from this semester.
PRESIDENT Bush is entirely correct in calling for military trials of suspected terrorists. Although liberals may whine about abuses of civil liberties, the issue is key to national security and fighting the war on terrorism.
AS WE NEAR the end of the semester, most University students already have enrolled in some courses for the spring and now are working on altering their schedules.
I HAVE never been a big fan of Cosmopolitan magazine. I don't really think that the - ahem - "values" system it promotes is necessarily one that we as a society want to be embracing, nor did I ever buy into the common argument it was just "harmless fun" and has no influence on society.
ONCE IN every half hour or so, a person dies in an alcohol-related accident and in 2000, 40 percent of all car crash fatalities involved drinking, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Drunk driving is one of the biggest problems we face, yet society seems particularly unconcerned by it.
NOVEMBER 16, officials at the College of William and Mary banned sexual relationships between faculty and undergraduate students.
COLLEGE is a strange place, and college students are strange beings. Most of us are nominally adults, yet people in the "real world" frequently treat us like babies in incubators.
IN THEIR never-ending quest for victimhood, conservative Christians are yelling persecution. This time, it's over the New York City public school system allowing Muslim students to accommodate their schedules to pray during Ramadan. The school board currently allows Muslim students to excuse themselves from class when they need to pray, and provides a space for the prayer to take place, which is open to all students regardless of their religion.
AS ANY University student who traveled this Thanksgiving may have seen, the supposedly improved security at airports and major public centers is an illusion which does little more than provide a safety blanket to the public.
WITH THE fall semester ending, first-year law students committing acts of near-suicide in preparation for exams, and some second-year law students wishing they had succeeded in their first-year attempts, only one thing could possibly make exam studying complete: yet another installment of the popular segment "Ask Seth." Our first question comes from a Mr. I.
IMMEDIATELY after Sept. 11, individuals of all political persuasions spoke of the need for unity.
IS THIS you? You just ran inside for a minute. When you came back, you found that those merciless angels of death at Parking and Transportation decided to pin a ticket underneath your windshield wiper, like a modern-day scarlet letter, brightly proclaiming your irresponsibility as a motorist.
MOST OF us would celebrate if we could wave a magic wand and eliminate grades. It would be nice if grades weren't necessary - if everyone had equal abilities and always gave 100 percent effort.
LAST WEEK, the College of William and Mary adopted a policy banning all romantic student-faculty relationships.
