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.
Construction of the 1,170-mile Dakota Access Pipeline was officially approved by the U.S. federal government in Aug. 2016. Talks about the $3.7 billion project actually began back in 2014, but it remained outside of mainstream media coverage until recent weeks. It escalated particularly following the arrest of actress Shailene Woodley during an Oct. 10 protest at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation in North Dakota.
Last week on Nov. 4, JHU Snaps on Facebook returned from its hiatus with post #1042, a screenshot of a security officer apparently sleeping on the job and the caption “Keeping the lib real safe.”
I originally intended for this op-ed to have a much more positive perspective on the outcome of the election and what we could all do going forward. Given the results of the election, I am no longer nearly as optimistic as I was before about the state of our nation. However, I realize that this does not change the importance of the message of my original op-ed. If anything, for those of us that were devastated by Tuesday night, I believe this message is more important than ever before.
Bernie Sanders is coming to Hopkins on Nov. 17 as part of both MSE’s and FAS’s speaker series. Sanders is the most prominent speaker the symposiums have brought to campus in recent years, and in anticipation of a large crowd and an intense security situation, the University required the groups to dole out free tickets to the event.
The News-Letter officially endorses Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. We believe Clinton’s vast experience and sane policies make her a qualified candidate for President. Our endorsement stems from the belief that Clinton’s strengths make her not merely a better option than Donald Trump, but a strong candidate for the office in her own right.
Professor Daniel Webster of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and University President Ronald J. Daniels published on Oct. 21 an op-ed in The Washington Post speaking out against the recently enacted Campus Carry law in Texas. The legislation allows licensed individuals to carry open and concealed firearms on the campus of any public university in the state. Texas is the eighth state to pass this type of legislation.
On Sept. 26, the JHU College Republicans (JCR) announced their official endorsement of Donald Trump for president of the United States. On Oct. 19, the JCR posted a statement on their Facebook page explaining why they chose to endorse Trump. Bizarrely, in their statement, the JCR wrote “we... do not encourage people to vote for Donald Trump in this upcoming election,” yet they still stand by their endorsement, prompting the question: What the point of an endorsement is if not to encourage people to vote for a preferred candidate? Yet their most hypocritical and cowardly action is refusing to talk to The News-Letter or any press about their endorsement.
The first of November hit us this week, and that means a lot more than you’d initially expect. It means Halloween is over, and so are all the spoopy memes. It means we’re in the final stretch of the semester (yikes). It means Starbucks started selling its Christmas drinks.
If you scroll down your Instagram feed, what will you see? Besides maybe the few random cute puppy accounts that you follow, your feed will be littered with pictures of a group of girls with impeccable makeup, bright lighting and (if you look closely enough) most likely one foot propped higher than the other to make it look like there’s a space between their thighs. In other words, the classic look of the Instagram model, also known as the “baddie” makeup look.
Election day is right around the corner, and this year it falls exactly 11 days before my one-year anniversary of becoming an American citizen. No, I was not born in America — and this election, I can vote while my immigrant parents cannot.
As the daughter of two journalists, I have been surrounded by the media since birth. And I mean that quite literally. Two hours after I was born, the photographer at my mother’s station had a video of me on air during the 11 p.m. broadcast.
At a school where the social sphere as a freshman is dominated by men, where, as at many other colleges, there has been a troubling history of sexual assault and administrative responses to it, where we still have professors who believe that women are inherently more emotional and nurturing than men, the idea of a woman’s value is important consider.
When looking to elect a leader, or more specifically, president of the United States, empathy is one of the most important traits a candidate should possess. The role of the president is to govern and lead a diverse group of individuals, each with their own unique backgrounds and to put forth and implement policies that will benefit the common good. I believe empathy is necessary for this job, because without it, we risk appointing an indifferent or even cruel individual to make decisions that will have tremendous effects on us all.
With Donald J. Trump most likely headed toward defeat in the general election, many political pundits are talking about the impending death of the Republican Party. Nevertheless, these reports are very much premature. Thanks to successes in down ballot elections, the Republicans have a sufficiently deep bench of governors, senators, representatives and state legislators to remain competitive in elections throughout the next four years.
In American presidential elections, the short term rules. News cycles have been dominated by Donald Trump’s latest outrageous soundbite and conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s “failing” health. We’re told that Trump will immediately build a wall to “solve” the immigration crisis, and that as soon as Clinton becomes president, the email scandal will suddenly disappear.
The JHU College Republicans released an official statement on Sept. 26 endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The one-paragraph brief was posted on their Facebook page and garnered significant critical attention from the student body. Three weeks later, the College Republicans posted a longer statement explaining their decision, citing Trump’s experience as a negotiator and his tendency to be critical of both sides of the political aisle as qualities that bolster his candidacy. The statement then took a contradictory and confusing turn when the group did not encourage students to vote for Trump despite their endorsement
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Humanities Center at Hopkins, and it may also be the year it is eliminated.
The Hopkins Board of Trustee notes are only available 25 years after they are written; therefore, only records before 1991 are available. From 1985 until 1987, Hopkins undergraduates, graduate students and a few faculty protested the University’s investment in apartheid South Africa by erecting mock shanty towns around campus under “the Coalition for a Free South Africa.”
Prospective students on campus tours often hear references to the “Big Four” in relation to student activities at Hopkins. This is not a reference to the top consulting firms that entrepreneurship and management minors seek employment at; It refers to four large student-led organizations that plan events and programs for the Hopkins community: the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium (MSE), the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS), Spring Fair and the Hopkins Organization of Programming (HOP). These organizations contribute toward building community and traditions on the Homewood campus.
In recent years, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on issues of race. Not only are we challenging the integrity of deeply-rooted institutions like the police and the entertainment industry regarding race, but we are also opening dialogues about systemic racism in the smallest aspects of our society. Recently, programs focusing on these issues, like the one at Clark University introducing freshmen to the dangers of subtle microaggressions, have drawn a lot of attention.
