Rebecca Alifimoff | A year after #MeToo, it feels like little has changed

The habits we form here at Penn — the things we chose to expect of our friends, the organizations we decided to be a part of, the behavior we tolerate on our campus — will shape the moral compasses that guide us through our infinitely more complicated post-graduate lives.

Rebecca Alifimoff | I’m in a sorority. Here’s what I wish someone told me before rush.

Don’t let the machinery of the process make you feel like you should be selling yourself to the sorority. In reality, the sorority should be selling itself to you. 

Rebecca Alifimoff | Trying to focus on finals while Paris riots outside my window

This weekend I slunk around the city avoiding protests that I could only half understand

Rebecca Alifimoff | How changing languages changed how I think

The strangest thing about speaking another language is all the tiny ways you are estranged from yourself.

Rebecca Alifimoff | As an American, the Kavanaugh hearings are personal

Weighed on crooked scales of justice, one alleged attempted rape balances quite nicely with two Yale degrees. 

Rebecca Alifimoff | I can explore Paris, and still update my Instagram feed

The urge to document and perform our lives has existed before social media, and will probably exist in whatever wasteland remains after social media.

Rebecca Alifimoff | How Penn can better manage student-professor relationships

Because the professor/student relationship can be so easily taken advantage of, universities have a responsibility to their students to take allegations of misconduct seriously, and when appropriate, respond to such allegations in a way that places the needs of the student body first.

Rebecca Alifimoff | Why chill is overrated

Instead of freeing me from anxiety or awkwardness like I thought, Chill became a straightjacket that only served to make me more aware of how much I wanted and how much I cared.

Rebecca Alifimoff | I'm a feminist, and I love The Bachelor(ette)

For a long time, I passed my Bachelor obsession off as escapism. I would watch episodes of it on my phone at the gym. It was the digital version of Skinny Pop, a sort of entertainment nothing with just the right coating of ballgowns and beaches to make it go down easy.

Rebecca Alifimoff | Girls just want to have fun: Why we should let sororities throw parties

The unequal rules surrounding alcohol possession and consumption in Greek life, which tilt the social power balance in favor of fraternities, are at the heart of some of Greek life’s biggest problems.

Rebecca Alifimoff | Fling is a time for unity — don't forget your tank

I understand that Fling tanks are silly and seasonally inappropriate. But on an emotional level, I think they’re wonderful.

20 Questions with Rebecca Alifimoff

Get to know Columnist Rebecca Alifimoff.

Rebecca Alifimoff | Why study abroad shouldn’t count in your GPA

Penn students should be trusted to make the most of their study abroad experiences, both academically and personally, without being limited by the narrow metric of the GPA.

Rebecca Alifimoff | Don't feed the ravenous internet mob

We can no longer completely separate our private lives from our technological footprint. 

Rebecca Alifimoff | From cornfields to Connecticut: missing my hometown

In high school, I wanted more than anything to move away from Indiana and never return. Now that I’ve gotten my wish, I miss it with a longing ache.   

Rebecca Alifimoff | For me, the CAPS referral process was barely better than Google

I went through an administrative process only to end with links to readily available databases. My CAPS experience wasn’t a referral as much as it was a brush-off.

Rebecca Alifimoff | How Aziz Ansari made me rethink rape culture at Penn

Throughout my high school and college years, I’ve listened helplessly as friends and acquaintances have described encounters with their own Azizs, and I’ve cried to them when I had my own.