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.
For most seniors, myself included, the prospect of graduation carries a degree of uncertainty and fear. Since age five, we’ve had the certainty of school. But now that’s over. For many of us, this means moving “out into the world” and finding employment.
I remember the day I realized that I needed to seek professional medical help. I woke up halfway through a scheduled organic chemistry exam, dazed and confused and still in bed wearing a nightgown that read, “Sleep All Day, Party All Night.” I panicked and ran to class, still dressed in my seemingly ironic garment, only to find the lecture hall full of staring, accusing eyes, and no empty seats. It was an infamous nightmare come true, and it happened to me more than once. I soon found out that narcolepsy was to blame.
If you’ve happened across the news in the past few weeks, chances are you’ve heard the word “sequester,” along with its description as “devastating,” “ruthless” and “draconian.” In 2011, President Obama and Congress agreed to enact a series of automatic budget cuts if Congress failed to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget over the next ten years. A bit less than half of the cuts target the discretionary side of the budget — funds which the federal government isn’t legally obligated to pay — while the rest target mainly non-defense discretionary spending, and a portion of Medicare.
The opinions that were expressed in an editorial observer about the Foreign Affairs Symposium in last week’s issue of The News-Letter exemplify a clear lack of understanding of the mission of FAS. The Foreign Affairs Symposium aims to provide a forum for thoughtful and intellectual debate. Through the events that we organize, we hope to generate discussion about current and pressing issues of international significance. If the line-up were to cater to the views of individual students, it would not be doing its job. It would only be reinforcing generally accepted views. Instead, our speakers are selected for their ability to captivate an audience and spark dialogue.
Eddie’s market has been a crucial part of the Charles Village community for more than fifty years. Through donations of goods and services, it has been a strong supporter of many Hopkins projects. They have a commitment to buying local brands and produce. Most crucially, they hire locally, and support their permanent employees with health benefits and pensions. All of their workers are unionized, an increasingly rare thing in the area. Some of their employees have been with Eddie’s since the eighties.
The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences has recently made available a Global Social Change and Development (GSCD) track within the International Studies major, with a stated focus on changes in wealth and power distribution, new forms of global conflict and “the degree to which we as individuals can influence global social change.” Students who pursue GSCD will graduate with a double major in International Studies and Sociology.
As one of only two guest lecture series during the academic year, the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) is expected to offer students a window to the world. It prides itself on generating a substantive discourse on the most pressing issues of the day, aiming to “inspire the next generation of leaders in the Baltimore community to think analytically about issues, learn from innovation and consider the persisting problems that we must face and overcome in a rapidly changing world.”
An undisclosed incident involving several members of the Hopkins Men’s Lacrosse team recently resulted in a violation of team policy. The team’s head coach, David Pietramala, responded by pledging to bench two different members of the team who were involved in the incident during games throughout the season.
Following the Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) installation of full body scanners and the enactment of limitations on the size of liquid containers, some frequent flyers grumbled about the added inconvenience, but most embraced these precautions for the greater protection they promised to provide. Since September 11, these enhancements of airport and in-flight security and surveillance are part of a concerted effort to safeguard our skies and protect against future hijackings or terrorist attacks.
“I am the bullet in the chamber.” Those are the now infamous words that appear in the 2011 Nike ad featuring the South African double-amputee Paralympic star, Oscar Pistorius. After making history at the 2012 Summer Olympics as the first double leg amputee to compete in the men’s 400 meters and 4 x 400 meters relay races, Pistorius, dubbed the “Bladerunner” in reference to his blade-like prosthetic legs, was charged on February 14 with the murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, inside his home in Pretoria.
I have a love/hate relationship with drones that is ironically based on my romantic relationships. I remember my first exposure to the notion of “unmanned vehicles.”
Last week, the Johns Hopkins Spring Fair Committee, in partnership with the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), made an announcement presenting the L.A.-based indie band GroupLove as the highlight of this year’s Spring Fair Music Festival. Known for its hits, “Colours,” “Tongue Tied,” and “Itchin’ on a Photograph,” GroupLove is scheduled to perform in company with a diverse lineup of artists from April 12 to April 14.
General Stanley McChrystal kicked off the Foreign Affairs Symposium last night. In his speech, the four-star general and former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan focused on the importance of understanding differing national perspectives and the significance of international relationships. He spoke at length about the U.S.-Iranian relationship and argued that the events of the past 70 years can be retold differently from both sides. Ignoring one side’s perspective, he concluded, is a recipe for disaster.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley writes, “From eighteen hundred bottles eighteen hundred carefully labelled infants were simultaneously sucking down their pint of pasteurized external secretion.” Hyperbole, sure, but also a prediction of the major flaw of the 20th and 21st centuries: mass production.
The U.S. federal government invests in many programs that aim to benefit its people, its economy and its global standing. While many of these programs are relatively successful, the U.S. has fallen severely behind is its policy toward technological innovation, especially in the field of energy.
In response to the recent triumph of Argo at the Academy Awards, the Iranian state television channel called the film an “advertisement for the CIA.” This brief exchange serves as a painful reminder of the nature of the U.S.-Iranian relationship, one that has been marked by mutual distrust and deep-rooted animosity.
Last week, Hopkins J Street U held a discussion about Israeli-Palestinian border disputes. The nationwide organization advocates for a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. Considering how complicated, relevant and heated this dispute is, this page believes promoting more dialogue to better understand the issues is valuable to a University campus.
From Feb. 8 to Feb. 9, the University implemented a dry weekend policy to curb alcohol use during sorority and fraternity recruitment events. According to the Office of Greek Life, alcohol is already banned from new member activities, but there have been problems in the past with heavy drinking right after sorority recruitment, which is why they chose that particular weekend to be alcohol-free.
This past Sunday, I drove down to Washington, D.C. for a protest against the Keystone XL Oil Pipeline. Proposed in 2005 by TransCanada Corporation, the pipeline has been a hot-button issue for environmentalists and political leaders alike. They argue that its construction will cause irrevocable environmental harm — both by increasing “dirty” carbon emissions and through likely oil spills — and that it will reduce American energy security.
Growing up in New Jersey, I never knew what it was like to “have a team.” Unfortunately, my state is more widely known for its tanned people who lounge on the beach all day than for its athletic achievements.
