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.
Recently, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Kevin Schollenberger, has formed a committee to examine the University’s smoking policies on campus. The committee is exploring the possibilities of transitioning to a smoke-free campus or creating designated outdoor smoking areas.
This week, the University sent an email to undergraduates asking for their participation in a survey regarding possible renovations to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSE). The survey was extensive – asking students for their opinions on everything from chairs and tables to overarching questions about the feel, lighting, mood and structure of their preferred study spaces.
Editor’s Note: Jack Bartholet was not a member of the editorial board this week and thus was not involved in the discussion, writing or editing of this editorial.
I can think of no better person to spend a gloomy, rainy Saturday afternoon with than Bruce Willis. I love watching Tom Cruise sprint on camera almost as much as he enjoys watching it himself. I love action movies — always have, always will. As much as I would like to write a short piece about why I love action movies, doing so would be criminal in light of recent events.
Saying that college freshmen are stuck between childhood and adulthood is a cliché, but, from my freshman perspective, it’s a accurate cliché. Most of my peers and I are not living under our parents’ roofs any more. Many of my friends are no longer living with strictly enforced curfews. I voted this past fall. Yet I am still (luckily and gratefully) being supported financially by my parents. I can’t legally drink alcohol. Am I an adult? Legally, of course. Many developmental scientists would say that I’m in ‘early adulthood’ and will enter ‘full’ or ‘later’ adulthood in my mid-twenties. Personally, calling myself an adult makes me feel nauseous. I ate Ben and Jerry’s Americone Dream ice cream for dinner last week, which tells me I am far, far away from being an adult.
When Gillian Lynne was eight years old, she hardly paid attention in class and constantly fidgeted. She was thought to have a learning disorder and was sent to a specialist. The specialist left her for a minute, but as he left the room, he turned on the radio. As soon as he left, the girl was on her feet, dancing. Looking at her from outside, the doctor told her mother, “She’s not sick; she’s a dancer. Why don’t you take her to a dancing school?” Gillian Lynne grew up to be an acclaimed dancer and choreographer, best known for her work with Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Today we would label her as an ADHD child, tell her to calm down and medicate her.
I came to Hopkins under the assumption that I wouldn't have fun here. To some degree, I think we all did, but I know that I secretly hoped it wouldn't be the case.
I am no snob. I happily drink any coffee black, I wear comfortable clothes that fit and I acknowledge that a good $10 screw-top bottle of wine tastes just as good to me as any of the more expensive options. I firmly believe a hearty bowl of lentil stew produced over an open campfire in the backcountry trumps any aged steak from a swanky steak house. Yet I still can't seem to get over my recent pivot to musical snobbery.
Friday was a usual day for me. I woke up, went to class, had lunch and did some homework. It was not until dinner when a friend mentioned it was the admission notification day for Hopkins. To our surprise, our admission rate has decreased by nearly 3 percent. My friend even said, “Imagine what would happen in 10 years. Hopkins will have a 5 percent admission rate!”
Editor’s Note: Jack Bartholet, a candidate for executive vice president, is one of the Editors-in-Chief of The News-Letter. We recognize that this puts the Editorial Board in a position to be unfairly influenced. However, we are confident that we have evaluated the candidates with the utmost objectivity and as much distance as possible. In reflecting on our personal experiences with both Bartholet and with Jason Plush, who is a former Sports Editor of the newspaper, we believe that we have been able to make better-informed judgments. Bartholet did not have any role in interviewing the tickets, and he has not written, edited or read this editorial before its publication.
An article in this week’s paper reports on Adderall usage at Hopkins. Students commonly use the ADHD drug for purposes other than its prescribed use, namely to enhance their academic performance and for partying. In order to improve their grades, many students buy Adderall and similar drugs illegally. Though we recognize that students praise Adderall’s ability to help them focus, the Editorial Board highly discourages the use of Adderall by students who have not been diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed the drug by a licensed physician.
Time and again, students complain of their inability to influence the administration, that when it comes to issues like sexual assault and Greek life, no one listens to what we’re saying. Sometimes that may be true, and administrators can often have agendas that do not fully match our own. But when the student life administrators give us an opportunity to make our voices heard, we should seize on it. The recent panels on sexual violence and the reports of the alcohol strategy group demonstrated that students are not showing up. Attendance was lackluster.
When I was a baby, my mother used to take me down the driveway to the side of Pacific Coast Highway almost every night. Watching the occasional car blur by with that unmistakable whoosh of air consistently put me to sleep with a smile on my face. While I don't usually fall asleep on the sides of highways anymore, machines of all shapes and sizes still captivate me. Whether it’s whipping around the yard with the weed whacker, sitting in the passenger seat on the way to school or even brushing my teeth with an electric toothbrush, my childhood was replete with indirect appreciation of human ingenuity. This is why it was a terrible idea for my parents to give me that little $300 100 cc dirt bike on my 13th birthday. I was hooked the first time I swung my leg over the saddle.
As someone who has never stayed in a foreign country for more than four consecutive weeks, I made the decision to study abroad for a semester with the hopes of becoming immersed in a completely new culture. Argentina seemed like the perfect place for me, as I’d have the opportunity to hone my Spanish-speaking skills while also taking advantage of big city life in Buenos Aires.
I’m not the first person to use these pages to talk about Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE), and I’m just as confident I won’t be the last either. But I wanted to put my thoughts down on paper so there can be some kind of record to reflect how screwed up the University has become in the three years I have been a student here. Rather than establish a coherent policy that actually reflects how the Hopkins Greek/social scene actually works, the University has consistently followed an approach that puts short-term damage control above long-term stable policy. In order to change, the University needs to recognize the frustration of students and establish a body that will aggressively seek to reform policy, not pander to parents and donors.
Why do people argue that the ungrammatical nature of texting is worse than other forms of communication? Texting (and Twitter and other forms of online social media) are different media that require a different vocabulary and formality. I don’t talk the same way I write essays — I don’t use “whom,” and I end sentences with prepositions. Yet my verbal speech is no worse than my written speech; it’s just different. Similarly, I don’t text like I write formally or speak because it is a different medium with different nuances. This also does not make it worse.
Did you know that human brains aren’t capable of multitasking? Although it might seem as though we can, our brains are actually jumping between the things we’re trying to do at a very fast rate. This jumping takes time, which means our concentration is not as good as it would be if we were only doing a single task.
I wish I could spend time with every member of Congress in order to determine whether he or she is as unyielding, petty and starkly divided along party lines as the House and Senate collectively appear. My gut instinct is no because it seems unlikely that the group of people we elect to govern would so often neglect rational conversation in order to openly denounce those with opposing viewpoints. But I may be wrong. Controversy sells, and ridiculous statements or proposals may help previously unknown lawmakers vault into the public eye. How else could you explain the snafu that has just arisen surrounding talks of nuclear disarmament between the United States and Iran?
Our reality is shaped by the stories we tell each other, by our aspirations, by our dreams and the realities we choose to create from them. Our world and its peripheries are defined by our ability to reach out and explore, to go where no man has ever gone before.
I studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland at Trinity College a little over a year ago. While there, I studied, explored the city and visited more abbey ruins than I can count. I also experienced the Irish drinking culture — I went clubbing, listened to unknown 1970s American music in bars and had epic conversations with tipsy 65-year-olds until the wee hours. It was wonderful. Exhausting, but wonderful.
