The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Ashley Spinks


​SPINKS: Internships aren’t everything

Being a student at the University comes with enough pressure and expectation, without the self-hatred and mania that alway seem to manifest during internship-search season. Give yourself a break, and know that your time here is preparing you well for a fulfilling life, regardless of what you do during the summer of your third year.

​SPINKS: We need accountability, not retractions

It is reprehensible that the Managing Board failed to hold itself to the same standards that it sets for its subordinates. It exercised its own judgement when deciding to run those articles, and the Managing Board needs to stand by its decision. The Cavalier Daily, as an editorially independent institution, had every right both to attempt satire and to publish jokes at others’ expense. The Managing Board actively exercised that right, and to retract the pieces post-hoc suggests that they did so wrongly, which undermines their individual and collective integrity.

​SPINKS: Brand Link is bad journalism

What does the term “Brand Link” mean to the uninitiated? Horowitz assured me that an explanation of our Brand Link policy would remain a fixture on our website, and she said that the model “is not coming from a place of ignorance” about editorial integrity concerns. She says that “much more of our energy is going into long-term solutions” than into the Brand Link model. But those long-term solutions are moot if our audience can no longer trust us.

​SPINKS: Don’t blame Longo for race problems

For all of the good that I know the panel achieved, I don’t believe that it is beyond reproach. The panel was not what I wanted it to be, and I realize that may be unimportant. I know it may seem condescending for me to suggest improvements to black student leaders’ protest and activism tactics, when I am so far removed from the struggles they face on a daily basis.

​SPINKS: Don’t blame millennials for higher-ed trends

Apparently, students valuing the “return on investment” of their degree rather than the experience of earning it is also not a new trend, and in fact, has its roots in our parents’ generation. Much of the growth in the percentage of students who rate highly the importance of "being well off financially" occurred from 1966 to 1987, when it increased from around 42 to 74 percent.

SPINKS: A closer look at the IRC

It is presumptuous to assume that because a group of students is entirely “international,” they will necessarily have overlapping University experiences. International students, after all, come from nearly 150 different countries, and so the idea that they can all be adequately served with identical resources and living conditions is faulty. But in my experience, the IRC did not attempt to corral international students, literally or figuratively.

SPINKS: Feminism is more than leaning in

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.

SPINKS: What should we consider real news?

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.

​SPINKS: End Lee-Jackson Day

If Charlottesville decides to get rid of Lee-Jackson Day, it will join the several other Virginia cities that have already done so, among them Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg and Richmond. The question of how Charlottesville should handle this dilemma is wrought with ambiguity, and to suggest otherwise would be historically irresponsible.

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