Opinion Columns
Emily Hoeven | Intellectual weight-lifting
Building intelligence is like building muscle. You don’t get stronger from lifting weights that are easy for you to lift. You get stronger from lifting weights that are a bit too heavy for you to continuously lift comfortably.
Toe the Line: College Republicans | Immigration reform
"As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families." Pope Francis said in his opening remarks to his trip here in the United States last week.
Toe the Line: Penn Democrats | Immigration reform
As the 2016 presidential campaign has progressed, it has become clear the issue of immigration represents one of the fundamental differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Vaios Triantafyllou | Papacy under the microscope
Last week, during the pope’s visit to Philadelphia, much of the city was forced to shut down (as happened in New York and Washington, D.C.) The events took place despite the existing separation between church and state and the fact that less than a fourth of U.S.
Jeremiah Keenan | Not a chance
Many believe that the Theory of Evolution scientifically confirms a strictly materialistic view of the origin of life.
Theodore L. Caputi | Separation of schooling and state
Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently wrote an op-ed about her plan to mitigate America’s $1.2 trillion student loan burden by imposing fines on universities whose alums are unable to pay off their student loans.
Ravi Jain | Understanding Ahmed’s Story
The incredibly strong social media response in support of Ahmed Mohamed may seem like an indication of a changing tide in United States attitudes to Muslims, but the handcuffing itself is evident of an entrenched Islamophobia that will take many decades to heal.
Gina Elias | Smart compromise
Most of us students face the problem of constantly feeling that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done that we need to.
Louis Capozzi | A wholly political pope
The arrival of Pope Francis in Philadelphia last weekend was a mixed blessing. While the Pope’s arrival christened a classless Friday at Penn, the pomp surrounding his visit created a trinity of chaos, store closings and traffic.
Alessandro van den Brink | Give the pope a chance
By the time this article is published, Pope Francis will be in Philadelphia. While that may excite a huge portion of the school, as it should, I’ve noticed that there’s a portion of students that have simply been uninterested in the pope’s arrival simply because they’re not religious.
Toe the Line: Penn Democrats | Syrian refugee crisis
The United States government should welcome any person seeking refuge, provided they do not pose a threat to our national security or to the public safety.
Toe the Line: College Republicans | Syrian refugee crisis
For over a century, “The New Colossus,”the sonnet adorning the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, has challenged us to accept the world’s huddled masses.
Clara Jane Hendrickson | Time for tits
Breast cancer awareness month begins a week from today, initiating thousands of fundraising campaigns to support breast cancer research.
Alec Ward | The numbers racket
Don’t get me wrong, I like external validation (almost) as much as the next Quaker. US News’ approval, however, is something I can do without, given what’s necessary to gain it.
Giavanni Alves | Sexual healing? … I think not
I have been groped from virtually every possible angle, dragged to the wall, pulled away from a female friend that I was dancing with and flung onto a guy, been at the retrieving end of “f**k that bitch” one too many times after ignoring men’s thirsty presence and repeatedly grabbed and attempted to be danced with by men that I resisted.
Emily Hoeven | Don't follow the leader
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in an artificially created world, as if I’m part of some big social experiment I don’t quite understand.
Alec Ward | Romancing the Screen
As a kid growing up, my parents gave me a daily allowance of what we then called “screen time.” At first 30 minutes, later extended to an hour, this was the single portion of the day when I was allowed to watch TV or use our family’s single computer — my Dad’s office desktop.
Dani Blum | My sinusoidal freshman year
There are no neat conclusions to draw from a year at Penn. But if I had to assign a label to my freshman year, it would be “sinusoidal.” The past eight months have been a sequence of peaks and troughs, memories and mishaps.
Alec Ward | But for Wales?
It strikes me that, in calling for the punishment of images they find offensive, SOUL is calling for the destruction of the very rights which uphold and protect their ability to strive for the achievement of justice as they understand it.