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.
Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Board elections took place over the weekend and drew a noticeably larger voter turnout. Last year, 1,371 voters participated in executive board elections, triple that of the previous year’s turnout. This year, the trend away from apathy continued, and 1,421 undergraduates cast their vote.
Free Food at JHU, a new food waste initiative, recently launched a pilot version of its program on campus that informs Hopkins students about leftover food after events. The initiative, started by recent graduate Nemo Keller and the Office of Sustainability, sends email and text message alerts with the amount of food left over and its location.
On April 1, President Trump declared that April would be Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, eliciting a collective “Seriously?” from the greater population of Trump resisters. Not only has Trump been accused of sexual assault, but Sexual Assault Awareness Month was established in 2001.
Three of my classmates walked into class 15 minutes late this Monday. The cause of their atypical delay was a “too fun to resist” bouncy castle that was on the beach. While 15 minutes of instructional time was lost, one could potentially argue that the memory of missing class to jump on a bouncy castle will probably stick around longer than the content covered in the same time. This is in no way condoning skipping class, but surely many can agree that there’s something special in these small moments.
Student government at Hopkins needs to change. The Editorial Board has unfortunately seen the Student Government Association (SGA) stagnate, and students have undoubtedly lost respect for this critical institution. But because SGA is the only official representative of students, it must regain their respect.
Since the election, there have been numerous articles trying to get to the bottom of the motivation of Trump voters. Are Trump voters the result of racism and xenophobia, economic anxiety or a mixture of both (spoiler: According to exit polls, the answer is racism)? And, depending on your answer to the question, how best can liberals and leftists reach out to them?
When I arrived on campus for freshman orientation in August, I was apprehensive. College was like nothing I was prepared for, it was a whole new space in which I needed to reestablish myself. But I quickly grew comfortable and was pleasantly surprised at all the social issues that the University seemed to take responsibility for.
In the age of fragile liberal snowflakes, there’s a phrase that I see thrown around quite a bit: “Practice self-care.” Now don’t get me wrong, it is incredibly important to take care of yourself, but we need to examine what we actually mean when we say something like that. If eating a pint of ice cream instead of watching the news is your idea of “self-care,” aren’t you buying into the idea of being a fragile snowflake?
The Editorial Board strongly condemns Student Leadership and Involvement (SLI) and Homewood Student Affair’s new branding policy for student groups. Kirsten Fricke, the SLI’s director, notified student group leaders of the policy on Thursday March 16, right before Spring Break.
The University’s Hopkins Local initiative, a program that commits Hopkins to supporting local and minority-owned businesses, was introduced in September 2015. A new progress report released March 9 details future plans to expand the program and reiterate the University’s mission.
From the halls of our dorms to the walls of our bathrooms, we are constantly reminded to turn off the lights, to take shorter showers or to drink out of reusable water bottles. In light of Earth Day coming up in a few weeks, it’s important to remember why someone took the time out of their day to cut out a bunch of tiny signs and post them around campus.
Remington, the neighborhood just south of the Homewood Campus, was originally inhabited by Baltimore’s working class families. In recent years, however, the area has seen a spike in housing prices and experienced an influx of single, white Baltimoreans in part due to its proximity to Hopkins.
For those with criminal records, seeking access to higher education can often seem pointless. The obligation to report any past convictions on college and graduate school applications has discouraged former prisoners who want to better themselves through education.
Spring break is finally upon us, and for me, that means three things: Procrastination will rise to an all-time high, visits to the dog park will become essential and my newsfeed will be full of pictures of friends visiting places like Cabo and Puerto Rico.
Change is the only constant. In student administration, this premise can certainly be applied broadly. Indeed, many who facilitate conversations about student leadership and involvement often preach the importance of adaptability, to be creative to avoid being stagnant, to innovate to achieve greater things, to experiment as a way toward new beginnings.
Since the day the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, became law in 2010, the Republican Party has successfully attacked it to the point that the Repeal and Replace movement has appealed to many Americans.
Sam’s Canterbury Café, located just a block north of campus, opened early last month to replace Chocolatea. Sam’s serves breakfast and lunch like any café, but it’s mission is what sets it apart.
The free speech debate is raging on campuses. Again. This time the think pieces stem from two events: the widely publicized canceled Milo Yiannopoulos event at UC Berkeley and conservative Charles Murray’s speech at Middlebury that was thrown into chaos by protesters.
In many respects, Kemalism’s death warrant was signed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 20, 2016. Following an abortive coup d’état, the Turkish president predicated a state of emergency. In other words, it was a constitutional suspension of the Turkish constitution on the destabilized sociopolitical atmosphere of the country, prompting a widespread culling of dissent within Turkish society.
When some students hear the word “college,” they perk up and think about the fascinating classes they are taking, the lifelong friends they are making and the exciting freedoms that come with living away from home. Others might cringe and recoil upon hearing this word.
