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.
Everyone experiences a culture shock when they go off to college. For some people it's the weather, for others it's the new city’s slang. For me, it was finding out how many college students are in long-distance relationships.
According to its constitution, the Student Government Association (SGA) was founded upon “the importance of strengthening student unity, representing student interests and providing a forum for the exchange of ideas.” Unfortunately, we’re not sure these lofty ideals are being met.
Social media is increasingly influencing political discourse, and TikTok is no exception, becoming home to political content for its 1 billion monthly users. However TikTok’s structure, algorithm and moderation are inherently hostile to productive political discussions and instead encourage extremism.
In the most recent step toward the implementation of a private police force, Hopkins Public Safety hosted a town hall at Shriver Hall last Thursday. The event was quickly interrupted by protesters, which included Hopkins students and Baltimore community members.
Last month, many students began what was their first day of the “normal” college experience: attending classes in 400-person lecture halls, grabbing food with large groups of friends and walking around campus unmasked. The months of wondering “Will this ever end?” seemed to be over as the first fully in-person semester since the fall of 2019 commenced.
Welcome to Week Four of the semester — classes are underway, midterms are right around the corner and life just got a whole lot busier. While high grades are a top priority for any student, especially here at Hopkins, we also want to emphasize the importance of maintaining your mental health and well-being.
“I am just a nurse.” These are the words my professors had me swear by oath to never speak during my first day of nursing school. I have never uttered these words because I have never believed them. I’ve always respected the nursing profession and, in general, disagree entirely with devaluing a much-needed component of a functioning society.
Over the past couple of years, Hopkins has been at the forefront of tracking COVID-19 cases and disseminating accurate information about the virus to the public. Now that in-person classes are back, it can be tempting to believe the pandemic has ended. Unfortunately that is not the case.
The recently released 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report college rankings place Hopkins at seventh among national universities — a jump from last year’s ninth. The annual rankings always spark conversation around campus. Over the last decade, Hopkins has gradually climbed to the top 10 and is continuing to rise through the ranks.
I hardly need to introduce Andrew Tate. The controversy surrounding his name is difficult to miss. The 35-year-old former kickboxer, who gained notoriety through streaming and social media platforms, is known for saying atrocious things such as “I’m not a f**king rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want” while explaining why he moved to Romania and that women must “bear some responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.
Every new school year brings change: different professors, different classmates, maybe even a different go-to order at Brody Cafe. But some of the recent changes on campus have us scratching our heads, wondering how and why the University has decided to alter key policies.
Taylor Swift’s place in the political sphere is complicated, to say the least. Early in her career, she stayed silent about politics. Swift has said that she acted this way for two main reasons: she believed that country music was hostile towards artists who spoke out politically, as was the case with the Dixie Chicks, and she did not feel educated enough to make political statements with the ability to influence millions of people.
This fall marks the University’s first fully in-person semester in three years. Along with this change comes the revival of classic college traditions and the process of adjusting to a repopulated campus. It’s both an exciting and scary time for all of us, even the ones who have been at Hopkins for a few years now.
In April I assumed the role of Public Editor at The News-Letter. What is that? How does one edit the public? I had similar questions.
Congratulations – we’ve made it through another year of college during a pandemic. This is no small feat, and being a student as the world tries to keep it together is an emotional rollercoaster.
A few weeks ago, Amazon and Hopkins revealed the JHU + Amazon Initiative for Interactive AI (AI2AI), a research-based collaboration to further advance artificial intelligence (AI) research in areas such as machine learning, computer vision and speech processing.
It finally feels like spring is here: The weather is warm, the end of classes is near and students are getting ready for Spring Fair. While there is much to celebrate, we also acknowledge that Hopkins has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases following spring break and the emergence of a highly contagious Omicron subvariant.
Three years ago, The News-Letter conducted an internal review of our staff’s demographics to determine the extent of our representation of the student body. We came away with mixed results and a firm resolve to do better moving forward.
Amid last year’s virtual classes, the 2021 Student Government Association (SGA) election showed a 66% decrease in voter turnout compared to the year prior. While this is understandable given that we were virtual, only 20.3% of students — compared to last year’s 12% — participated in the recent SGA election even now that we’re back on campus.
In response to “Students claim discrimination led to their dismissal from School of Education Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program” published March 10, 2022:
