Maya Rawal | What's in a name

By Maya Rawal · Oct. 23, 2014

“What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” These two questions are nearly ubiquitous when we meet a new person.

The Vision | Beyond the surface

By The Vision and Stephanie Jideama · Oct. 21, 2014

There are countless organizations on campus dedicated to promoting mental wellness. But many of these organizations don’t deeply explore the ways in which intersectionality may affect students’ mental health.

Jeremiah Keenan | Becoming a racist

By Jeremiah Keenan · Oct. 21, 2014

People assume a lot about me because of the color of my skin. First off, I’m a racist. Then, I am rich, unaware, stuck-up, and out to keep the black man down.

Sophia Wushanley | Putting life on hold

By Sophia Wushanley · Oct. 20, 2014

There’s a persistent mindset that non-career-related personal goals and relationships are something we’ll get a chance to do over, but that possibilities for career advancement are the real once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The biological clock doesn’t tick as loudly as the countdown to final exams or a quarterly review.

Penn Democrats | Treat every body equally

By Penn Democrats · Oct. 20, 2014

The attack on women in America needs to end. Despite being one of the most developed and influential countries in the world, we are decades behind many other countries when it comes to reproductive rights. While European countries provide free access to contraceptives and encourage comprehensive sex education, in America, women’s health care autonomy is limited by the religious and moral views of others.

Dani Blum | Core values

By Dani Blum · Oct. 19, 2014

It sucks that I have to put off that creative writing course I’m interested in until next year, but I want to become a more educated person. Requirements raise us to a level of competency so we can graduate with the knowledge base we need to take on the world. English majors need rudimentary math skills to survive; Wharton kids need to know how to write. Learning across disciplines allows us to pick up skills we wouldn’t otherwise have, to teach us how to think. If that’s not the purpose of college, I don’t know what is.

Jonathan Iwry | A dose of reason

By Jonathan Iwry · Oct. 19, 2014

Unfortunately, the cult of the natural has overstepped its bounds. These people are no different from the fanatically religious; they cling mindlessly to dogma, guided by simplistic maxims like “nature good, technology bad.” And their lack of insight is putting everyone at risk.

Katiera Sordjan | A family affair

By Katiera Sordjan · Oct. 15, 2014

Why is it that when a tuition bill is posted to my account, my parents are notified immediately to pay up, but when it comes to the deaths of our classmates, they are left in the dark?

Roderick Cook | Politicizing Halloween costumes

By Roderick Cook · Oct. 15, 2014

“Given that culturally appropriative Halloween costumes are caricatures of the cultures that they aim to emulate, they’re a means of exercising control over them,” Huynh says. “In this mindset, white culture gets to be complex. It cannot be reduced to a certain type of clothing or mannerism. But ‘East Asian culture’ can be reduced to the geisha girl. Cultures can be bought and worn for Western entertainment.”

Shawn Kelley | Old school

By Shawn Kelley · Oct. 15, 2014

I am not a doe-eyed freshman who just graduated from high school in the town I spent my whole life in. In fact, there are many students who don’t fit this description at all. Yet there are professors who still give lectures as though their class composition consists of this very stereotype.

The Vision | I, too, am Penn

By The Vision · Oct. 14, 2014

Whether in the bold declarations of humanity as displayed in the "I, Too am Harvard" Conference play or the solemn memorial of the black lives lost to state-sanctioned lynchings, it is an inconvenient fact that racism is America’s silent curse. If we are to ever move past this nation’s traumatic youth, we must be willing to endure the growing pains that shatter our complacency with our current state of affairs.

Jeremiah Keenan | The price of selling sex

By Jeremiah Keenan · Oct. 14, 2014

Theoretically, human trafficking would decrease when prostitution is legalized because victims forced to work as prostitutes should no longer be afraid of the police. A detailed 2012 study, however, came to the opposite conclusion. Countries with legal prostitution are a prime destination for victims from all over the world. The ease with which kidnappers can market the services of their slaves outweigh any difficulties with registration.

Sophia Wushanley | College admissions, take two

By Sophia Wushanley · Oct. 13, 2014

“You’re more than just a number” is the motto for Goucher College’s new video application option, for which students submit a two-minute video talking about themselves in lieu of test scores or transcripts. All they need in addition is two works from high school, one of which must be graded.

Guest column by Penn Dems | Say no to Corbett

By Penn Democrats · Oct. 13, 2014

Corbett, the Republican governor elected in 2010, has used his one term in office to cut education funding, halt economic growth and attack women’s rights and LGBT equality. He hasn’t earned our vote, and he hasn’t earned yours.

Dani Blum | Mock the vote

By Dani Blum · Oct. 13, 2014

Rock the Vote’s video implies that the way to reach millennials is to play up drinking culture and show off actors from our favorite Netflix series — how can we not vote if Natasha Lyonne’s doing it? Rock the Vote isn’t wrong for trying this approach, but it’s a sad commentary on how society views us.

Yessenia Gutierrez | An undocumented history

By Yessenia Gutierrez · Oct. 12, 2014

Undocumented immigrants are a part of U.S. history not simply because immigrants as a whole are a part of U.S. history. Undocumented immigrants are a part of U.S. history because U.S. policy has directly affected conditions necessitating the migration of millions of people to a country with a large role in their own dislocation.

Jonathan Iwry | Deus ex metro

By Jonathan Iwry · Oct. 12, 2014

That said, the personal nature of religious belief doesn’t excuse it from the hot seat of free expression and intellectual discourse. To witch-hunt people who criticize religion is to say that an opinion is more valuable than the freedom to express one’s discontent — and no idea should ever be put before a human being.