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.
We all see the construction along Saint Paul Street: It’s loud, imposing and causes us to reroute our walk across the neighborhood. The construction, part of the University’s Charles Village Streetscape Project, has made its way up the street since March and won’t conclude until December.
Four and a half years ago, the University shut down the Hopkins chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon after reports of sexual assault at one of the fraternity’s parties. In an editorial headlined “SAE suspension wrong, requires reversal,” The News-Letter called the decision “draconian,” prompting understandable pushback from readers.
I think it’s safe to say that we all know about how soda and other sugary drinks are extremely unhealthy and can increase our risk to certain diseases in the future. We also know that the largest corporations that contribute to these trends are PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, Hopkins has an exclusive pouring rights contract with Pepsi. The Real Food Hopkins student group is trying to break that contract up. Here’s why.
On Oct. 15, I attended the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium sponsored talk featuring Kenan Thompson, the longest-running Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast member. Although the night was mostly filled with laughs, during the question-and-answer section, one student addressed the recent SNL controversy surrounding Shane Gillis.
When the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) issued its first annual report on sexual misconduct at Hopkins last year, we were upset but not surprised by the findings. The report indicated that there was a lack of awareness among students around OIE’s services, a doubling in sexual misconduct reports from 2016 to 2017 and a majority of cases taking eight months or longer to investigate.
So last week’s editorial was titled “Does print journalism have a future?” Pretty dramatic. I bet the irony was especially tactile if you read that in the print issue. More likely, though, you were reading online. Maybe you were browsing our website or our Facebook page, and you raised your eyebrows and thought, this feels relevant to what I’m doing right at this very moment.
Growing up I always knew the second Monday of October as Columbus Day. Or, at least, that’s what I would say if you asked me what American holiday takes place in early October. Probably.
Since last March, Climate Strikes have been taking place about every other month. In every state, students skip school for the day, make posters and take to the trains to meet in the heart of the city. Their motive is clear and their voices are loud. They’re powerful, and I do believe that they will make a change.
On Monday, Sept. 30, The Diamondback — the University of Maryland’s independent, student-run newspaper — announced that it would exclusively publish content online starting in March 2020. The decision to discontinue The Diamondback’s print publications comes 110 years after the paper was first founded and just 47 years after it became financially independent in 1971.
I was troubled to read last week’s Opinions article “What I learned from student club rejections” by Keidai Lee. The article details Keidai’s difficult experience applying to student organizations here at Hopkins. His experience, and that of so many other incoming students who face rejection after rejection from on-campus student groups, is simply unacceptable. Your Student Government Association (SGA), of which I am a part, is entrusted with the power to regulate the majority of student organizations here on campus. We need to use it.
On September 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry against President Donald J. Trump. The allegations claim he unduly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of ex-Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Adam Schiff, the Speaker’s handpicked impeachment prosecutor, compared the President to a crime mob boss in an elaborate quid pro quo scheme involving military aid in return for dirt on a political opponent.
Impeachment is a blunt tool of national accountability on the President. It’s a sad day when we have no other recourse but to use this measure against a duly elected President.
You might notice that something’s a bit different this week — I’m not directly responding to reader criticisms! Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I haven’t heard from any readers recently. Y’all are out there and you definitely have thoughts, so continue to share those with me.
Democrats have an electability problem — they won’t stop obsessing over it. According to a FiveThirtyEight poll taken just after the last Democratic debate, a candidate’s “ability to beat Donald Trump” is the top 2020 concern of nearly 40 percent of likely Democratic primary voters. The next most important issue, health care, was the priority for a mere 11 percent.
This Tuesday, Oct. 1, the Student Government Association (SGA) met for the first time in three weeks. This marked only the third meeting of the academic year. The previous two meetings, scheduled for Sept. 17 and 24, were cancelled.
Before I read the article “Unbelievable is not for the faint of heart,” I hadn’t heard of the show it discusses, which is about a woman who has been sexually assaulted.
The News-Letter got a letter to the editor this week. It’s the first in quite a while — the first this calendar year, actually. In the last two years, the paper has only received 11 letters to the editor, three of which responded to a particularly spicy op-ed arguing that conservatives’ free speech was under attack. This made me wonder: what exactly is a letter to the editor?
Why does this damn school make us apply for clubs, anyways?” I thought to myself. The systematic, pre-professional style of going about extracurriculars felt both foreign and stifling. Shouldn’t these activities be fun? And maybe, a little bad. But definitely fun, right? Bad fun isn’t allowed here, I guess. It’s understandable. Bad fun is now for dimly lit Friday nights and frat parties.
In the third Democratic debate, the top 10 candidates went after each other’s policy proposals for either being too ambitious or not ambitious enough. The progressives on the stage, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, explained how Medicare for All would bring down the cost of health care. Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar attacked progressive proposals and made the pitch for a return to centrism. Senator Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg positioned themselves as the middle ground candidates with their compromise solutions.
