The opinions presented below are solely the views of the author and do not represent the views of The News-Letter. If you are a member of the Hopkins community looking to submit a piece or a letter to the editor, please email opinions@jhunewsletter.com.
Over the last few weeks, panic over the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has swept the nation. Now more than ever the University needs to support students, particularly when it comes to their mental health.
Hopkins announced that all spring semester classes must be graded as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory (S/U) on March 27. I’ve been hurt by the mandatory S/U policy. So have many-to-most other seniors. I would like the policy to include an exception for students graduating in May.
I remember scrolling through Twitter about a week ago and seeing pictures of the canals in Venice. They were crystal clear, there were fish swimming and the swans had returned — I didn’t even know the Venice canals attracted swans!
2020, the Lunar New Year of Rat, was accompanied by an unexpected outbreak of a mysterious yet pernicious virus that started in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
It was Wednesday, March 25 at 6 p.m, day 10 of my self-quarantine. I was in my kitchen watching a recording of a Korean news report from the night before, phone in hand, notifications flying off from multiple group chats and Facebook posts about the grading policy for the semester.
Restrictions on student groups. Spring Fair restructuring. Progress on (and ongoing opposition to) a private police force. Not long ago, we thought these were among the year’s biggest stories. Then came one headline to top them all: Students sent home.
I’ve had the following experience many times, both at and away from Hopkins. If I say that I am a Democrat, or if I voice my opinions toward a democratic ideology, I sometimes get a weird look, a look of suspicion and disgust.
Hope. For millions of people, both Americans and not, Bernie Sanders’ “Not Me, Us” movement has given hope that change is possible. The passion people have carried for that hope has been marked as aggressive, naïve and disorderly.
Hopkins is one of the most powerful institutions in Baltimore. It is the city’s largest employer: over 17,000 of its 37,000 employees are Baltimore residents. As a world-renowned university with an endowment of over $4 billion, Hopkins has the means and the responsibility of creating a more equitable economy for our city’s residents.
Though necessary, the University’s decision to send students home and transition to online courses after spring break due to the coronavirus had students scrambling. We were forced to quickly rethink travel and living arrangements, pack our bags and say our goodbyes, without even knowing when we’d return to our friends and community.
Readers have recently seen some of the paper’s first coverage of the protests in Hong Kong, a clash between demonstrators and state forces over China’s executive authority in the city. Though these protests having been happening since last June, they didn’t reach Homewood Campus until Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, two activist leaders of the Hong Kong movement, spoke at Shriver Hall on an invitation from the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS).
The coronavirus (COVID-19) officially became a pandemic on Wed, March 11. Yet just last week, Hopkins was mostly operating as usual. Classes proceeded as planned, clubs held their meetings, sports teams practiced and performing arts groups planned their spring productions.
One of The News-Letter editors wrote last week to express her disappointment at the current Democratic presidential candidates. What was the most diverse field of presidential candidates in a primary essentially winnowed down to a field of three, of which two were white men in their late seventies. Since then, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the last major standing female candidate, has suspended her campaign.
There’s a lot of talk about low turnout among young voters, especially in the wake of Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders’ campaign counted on a wave of new young voters heading to the polls and carrying him to victory — a wave that failed to appear, even though Sanders did overwhelmingly win among young voters.
In an attempt to increase voter turnout and streamline the voting process, the student body will vote for candidates on the Student Government Association’s (SGA) class councils and executive boards at the same time this year.
I don’t know how best to start this. With the Student Government Association (SGA) elections suddenly moved up with such short notice to the student body and beginning on Friday, I find that this may be the most, if not only, appropriate time to air these opinions. Having been a senator for almost a year and a half, I wanted to share some personal thoughts that have stuck with me since last semester about SGA. The views reflected in this piece are mine alone.
I didn’t expect to witness a death threat upon entering the auditorium at the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) event featuring the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement activists, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong.
Two weeks ago, Hopkins hosted two leaders from the Hong Kong riots, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong. Ever since event promotion began, it sparked anger among Hopkins Chinese students. A petition on Change.org was launched, raising awareness that Law and Wong’s movement fueled “brutal violence, massive vandalism, threats and actions of terrorism, as well as far-right-winged nativist and racist hatred toward Chinese Mainlanders.” Despite the petition efforts and support from over 2000 signatures, the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) event was held as planned.
With Tom Steyer, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination, the field now has even less diversity than it did last week. Now that my preferred candidate is no longer in the running, I’m tasked with selecting a new candidate.
