COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES — SHERIDAN LIBRARIES
Yatchisin covered then-student president Michael Steele, pictured with former University President Steven Muller and Robert Friedman in 1981.

Growing up in public

By GEORGE YATCHISIN | May 17, 2021

It’s 1981, a few months after U2 released their debut album Boy. Perhaps the editors at The News-Letter knew a good joke when they saw one, so they assigned a boy to review it. That’s how I, a freshman and not even 18 yet, got to pen a review that’s not quite as embarrassing as I feared it would be upon re-reading it 40 years later. “Since all members of this group are under 21, musical history could be rewritten if this act gets itself together,” I offered in a bet-hedging opening graph.

COURTESY OF EMILY SCHUSTER
Schuster (left) and Jha (right) pictured in the Gatehouse in 1997 when they were both Features Editors.

Eat This!: G is for Gatehouse

By EMILY SCHUSTER and SANDHYA JHA | May 17, 2021

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly 25 years since the two of us were spending every Wednesday night in the Gatehouse basement, churning out the Features section late into the night and developing valuable skills and a lifelong friendship. After polishing stories from our writers, putting the finishing touches on our own features and laying out pages, we would use our last bit of sleep-deprived, slap-happy creativity to put together the “Cartoons, Etc.” page. This included constructing a quirky Word Find — with themes such as “Parsnip (And Other Words We Like)” and “After This, I Get to Go to Sleep (And Other Things to Be Happy About)” — and of course, writing “Eat This!,” the recipe column.

One of Gum's most memorable stories was covering the address to freshmen by then-University President Steven Muller, pictured in 1987 with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Alfred Carl Toepfer.

A look into The News-Letter in the late 1980s

By ERICA GUM BURSON | May 17, 2021

Walking into the Gatehouse, to the right sat a long table with mismatched chairs. On a good day, pizza had just been delivered. On a bad day, half-empty boxes sat with grease congealing on cold slices. The paper had an arrangement with local pizza places: free pizza in exchange for ads. For hungry News-Letter staff, it was mutually beneficial unless you were a discerning eater. Cokes and Pepsis, regular and diet, were the fuel of choice.

COURTESY OF CALEB DESCHANEL
“Henry James Korn and a plastered friend on a recent visit to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library.”

Telling truth to power in the '60s

By HENRY KORN | May 17, 2021

As a precocious kid growing up in the ‘50s, I was a daily New York Times reader and avidly followed the ups and downs of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the early ‘60s, I chaired a student World Affairs Council in high school and dreamed about becoming secretary of state.

COURTESY OF RUDY MALCOM
Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or consent by Hopkins Hospital.

From the Atlantic slave trade to HeLa cells: How racist myths persist in modern medicine

By BAYLEIGH MURRAY | May 3, 2021

Health-care disparities and vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. have been brought to the forefront of national conversation in light of the pandemic and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter.

COURTESY OF KATY WILNER
Using money from Johns Hopkins’ bequest of $7 million, the Hospital was founded in 1889 to serve Baltimoreans “without regard to sex, age or color.”

Investigating the life and legacy of Johns Hopkins

By MICHELLE LIMPE | May 3, 2021

Last December, it was discovered that Johns Hopkins, the University’s namesake and founder, owned enslaved people, invalidating the narrative that he was a lifelong abolitionist.

COURTESY OF KATY WILNER
Hopkins Hospital has used hardball tactics to sue thousands of Black and low-income patients in East Baltimore.

Activists fight to end medical debt lawsuits

By KATY WILNER and MATTHEW RITCHIE | May 3, 2021

Last spring, Hopkins Hospital paused its long-time practice of suing patients who could not afford their medical treatments.

COURTESY OF ELIZABETH BARBUSH
Gresham stands before boarded-up homes that EBDI promised to renovate.

"Uprooted and displaced": How the East Baltimore Development Initiative gentrified Middle East

By RUDY MALCOM | May 3, 2021

“There were many opportunities to do the right thing, to make a difference for those families whose lives will never be the same. The pain and the horror of the whole process, of being relocated and displaced, of gentrified community — you can’t imagine the pain that goes through your mind.”

COURTESY OF KATY WILNER
The first African American student graduated from the School of Medicine in 1967.

Improving the Black pre-med experience at Hopkins and nationwide

By TRISHA PARAYIL | May 3, 2021

“As Black students begin the daunting process of applying to medical school, the structural racism and inequality that they experience is not always visible to the public,” Shavonia Wynn wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

COURTESY OF RUDY MALCOM
In 2016, Baltimore entered into a 10-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement with anchor institutions such as Hopkins Hospital.

How does the University's nonprofit status affect the city?

By KATY WILNER and LEELA GEBO | May 3, 2021

The U.S. government classifies most colleges and universities as nonprofits because of their “educational purposes,” exempting them from federal income taxes. This means that, despite operating four campuses in Baltimore, Hopkins is not legally required to pay the city any property taxes.

PUBLIC DOMAIN
To this day, Baltimore neighborhoods redlined by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the 1930s are structurally disadvantaged.

How has Hopkins contributed to and perpetuated redlining in Baltimore?

By ARIELLA SHUA and MANAVI MONGIA | May 3, 2021

Over the course of the past year, researchers have found that residents of low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods in Baltimore and cities across the country are at a higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19.

COURTESY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS ANIME CLUB
Professors are now able to integrate anime into their Zoom lecture sessions.

University announces implementation of Japanese media into virtual curriculum

By UwU | April 1, 2021

Due to restrictions for in-person labs, the University announced new changes to its curriculum to accommodate virtual classes. Students enrolled in labs related to biological sciences are now required to watch the Japanese program Cells at Work! along with its spin-off Cells at Work! Code Black.

After a terrible incident on Zoom, I realized that we must normalize farts

By RONNY D. JR. | April 1, 2021

It is with great embarrassment that I must share this testimony of mine. This story henceforth is my contribution to a greater and better public, so that anybody who can resonate with my struggles knows that they are not alone.

COURTESY OF THE VIRGINITY CLUB
If students hook up in each and every location, they win the challenge.

Hopkins students design pandemic-modified “Hopkins Twelve” sex challenge

By F.F. CEE | April 1, 2021

The Virginity Club launched a newly-revamped Hopkins Twelve contest on March 30. It is a pandemic-friendly sequel to the original Hopkins Seven, which challenges students to have sex in several designated locations across campus.

Hopkins junior presents for his breakout room that never spoke to one another

By CAMARA OFF | April 1, 2021

On Tuesday, junior Alex Smith assumed that his Zoom lecture would be like any other.

COURTESY OF JHNEEDSU FANSITE
Azure Fowler, a noted furry in several social circles, has a constant yearning for an intimate, loving and sexual relationship with Jay the Blue Jay.

Freshman falls in love with Jay the Blue Jay sex doll

By BEASTIE ALITY | April 1, 2021

Freshman and self-proclaimed furry Azure Fowler was kicked out of Charles Commons on Wednesday after being found in a lounge area making love to a Jay the Blue Jay sex doll. Witnesses report that Fowler was completely naked except for his mask and that he wouldn’t stop shouting, “Wear a mask please!”

Cut the monkey business: University discovers essay-writing service run by secret society

By JOE and LEMA R. BANANJAMOVIC | April 1, 2021

The Homewood Academic Council persecuted a group of students running an essay-writing business last Friday. This group, formally known as “LET OUR MONKEYS WRITE LLC,” was found to have captured a bevy of monkeys to perform the manual labor of their operation and, as stated in its business plan, “bolster capital accumulation and facilitate rapid returns on investment.”

COURTESY OF ALEX HECKSHER GOMES & ALEX HECKSHER GOMES
Alex Hecksher Gomes argues that Alex Hecksher Gomes has humiliating bowel movements, while Alex Hecksher Gomes disagrees.

Opposing Viewpoints: Alex Hecksher Gomes is a lying scam artist and I will be suing for libel

By ALEX HECKSHER GOMES | April 1, 2021

To start off, I want to make it clear that I do not want to be writing this little piece. Furthermore, I do not care for or endorse any of the second-rate, vomit-inducing garbage published by senior Alex Hecksher Gomes. However, I felt my response was merited considering Hecksher Gomes’ extremely flawed and overly indulgent writing on me.

Opposing Viewpoints: Alex Hecksher Gomes has chronic gastric blunders and doesn’t want you to know

By ALEX HECKSHER GOMES | April 1, 2021

When I first met senior Alex Hecksher Gomes — well, I don’t quite remember. As far as I can tell he’s been present since my earliest memory, which says a lot about how insidiously infectious he has become in my mind. He taints the brain until there is nothing left without him in it.

COURTESY OF NATIONAL AQUARIUM
SGA considered a proposal by Daniel Grumpf, a student who aims to impose a fish bowl mandate on the student body.

SGA considers mandating fish bowl helmets instead of face masks

By ELISA ESPOSITO | April 1, 2021

Daniel Grumpf, a sixth-year student, presented a business proposal to the Student Government Association (SGA) at its weekly meeting on March 30. Grumpf’s plan is to normalize, even mandate, wearing fish bowls instead of face masks around campus.

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