Last week, Senator Antonio Hayes introduced a new bill in the Maryland General Assembly: the Community Safety and Strengthening Act. This bill, SB 793, and its correspondent in the Maryland House of Representatives, HB 1094, includes the University’s second bid for a private police force.
Next week, the Student Government Association (SGA) will hold an impeachment trial against Executive President Noh Mebrahtu behind closed doors. SGA members introduced articles of impeachment at their latest weekly meeting, but not before telling one of our reporters to leave the room. That same day, SGA sent an email advertising a Students Against Private Police rally with the subject line “ICE Protest Tomorrow!” And last semester, it had to pass a bill to stop members from using social media, texting, web surfing and shopping during meetings.
Although people of color and those who live in low-income communities generally have the lowest carbon footprint, they often live in areas with the worst air quality and are most susceptible to flooding or other weather hazards. Meanwhile, those of us who have done the most to aggravate climate change – higher-income individuals, mega-corporations and business magnates – have the resources to avoid the consequences of our actions.
Last Friday, many of us received an email that Hopkins had purchased the building that currently houses the Newseum, a museum in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to promoting freedom of speech. Located on Pennsylvania Avenue, the building is positioned at the heart of the nation’s capital and will primarily be used to centralize the University’s graduate programs, including the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
When Johns Hopkins established the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889, he sought to provide quality healthcare and serve as an invaluable resource to the surrounding community. Yet recent reports on the conditions at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore illustrate an appalling failure to carry on our founder’s mission.
We hope that our community is encouraged to have difficult conversations about socioeconomic and educational inequity. And we hope that we use Bloomberg’s donation as a springboard to think critically about the pervasive elitism and exclusivity in higher education.
As the Editorial Board, we usually dedicate each week to holding people in power accountable, to mourning lives lost, to demanding change. But as Thanksgiving approaches, we also want to reflect on what we have to be grateful for — on the strides we’ve made not only in our country, but also in this city that we love and at our University.
We are optimistic that this increase in youth voter turnout signals a greater investment in American politics. But our civic engagement cannot begin and end with voting in elections. We must do our part to be consistently and regularly informed, not just when when we check off boxes on ballots every two years.
At times, we may wonder if standing in solidarity is enough. How can we fight the hateful tide engulfing our country? Right now, it is what we must do in order to support each other and rebuild our society on a foundation of love and understanding.
In their efforts to inform the public, journalists often put their lives on the line and this past year has been particularly dangerous. A few weeks ago, Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured, dismembered and killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after advocating for free expression in the Arab world in The Washington Post. U.S. President Donald Trump has meanwhile been reluctant to hold the Saudi government accountable in Khashoggi’s death.
After University officials failed to pass legislation that would have enabled them to create a private police force last semester, they announced that they would spend the next several months gathering student and community input to revise the bill.
The celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day on campus makes us hope that Hopkins is becoming a more diverse and inclusive university. But we can’t expect indigenous students to carry that burden alone. We have to remember that the University must also take action.
The mire of data related to sexual misconduct in the OIE report leaves us with many questions. Numbers are informative, but what can we do with these statistics? What can we do to address the problems they illustrate?
If this committee is given agency and information, it can be a good first step for the University in its efforts to solicit student feedback about campus security. We hope that it is a substantial body with real power and not simply a hollow gesture. It is up to the University to ensure that happens.
Recently, three women have accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. We’ve been watching his appointment hearings with anticipation.
To some of us, voting for student government may seem unimportant. But the stakes are higher than we think. Our engagement on campus translates into engagement in the broader world.
Baltimoreans have called for a black arts and entertainment district to be designated in the city for years. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a local grassroots think tank, formally applied to recognize a historic part of Pennsylvania Avenue in Upton as such a district this year. After a kick-off event in the area this weekend, the creation of a black arts district has never seemed more achievable.
After falling to number 11 last year, Hopkins has reclaimed its number ten spot in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings. Being a top ten school is something our University holds in high regard, publishing it proudly on The Hub and delivering the news to every student’s inbox. It is even listed as the fourth goal in University President Ronald J. Daniels’ Ten by Twenty plan.
Most of us at Hopkins are privileged in not having to think about disability accommodations, or even think about the challenges our peers with disabilities face. As the University moves forward with its initiatives, it’s time we change that. If we’re to successfully undo ableism at Hopkins, staying ignorant and passive is not an option.
Last Thursday, following decades of accusations from over 50 survivors of sexual assault and years of courtroom battles, a Pennsylvania jury finally found Bill Cosby guilty on three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault, which include sexually assaulting a woman he had drugged in 2004.
