Opinion Columns
Joe Tharakan | Chasing success
For the last month, whenever someone has asked me, “What are you up to?” I’ve always given them the same reply: “I’m studying for the MCAT.” God only knows how many conversations I’ve defaulted to that lazy small talk. Sitting for the MCAT is a notable event that many students study several months for.
Michael Palamountain | A risky situation
Year after year stories reach the news about sexual assault on college campuses across the US. Yet my response remains different than the narratives I see presented by the media.
Group Think | Picking classes
GROUP THINK is The DP’s round table section, where we throw a question at the columnists and see what answers stick.
Toe the Line: Penn Democrats | Health care
Few focal points of the Republican presidential cycle stood out with as much singularity and clarity as the promise to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, a rallying cry for many of the Trump electorate, regardless of class, race, gender.
Reid Jackson | We're all hoping for a drained swamp
Tomorrow, at around noon, Donald Trump will become the President of the United States. The bombastic billionaire, whose improbable promotion to power shattered every political norm from fundraising to gaffe-making, will assume the most important political office on earth.
Amy Chan | Red lips, self-faith
I once wrote an article in which I refused to give up red lipstick despite surrendering eye makeup, and, with all the misogyny to which Trump's election has set us back, I think it's about time I explained why. What got me started thinking about it was a statement my friend made to me.
Calvary Rogers | Fruit tastes better than seeds
Have you ever bitten into a piece of pizza in a Dining Hall that you knew was too hot and burned your tongue?
Taylor Becker | The divided states of America
Our country faces a crisis that begins with the letter “D.” No, it is not our President-elect Donald Trump.
Emily Hoeven | Our invisible legacy
This semester will be my last one at Penn. I recently discovered that I have accumulated enough credits to graduate a year in advance.
Shawn Srolovitz | Be an active participant in your education
Tuition at the University of Pennsylvania for the 2016-2017 academic year is $45,556. If you assume a course load of 4.0 credits, you’re spending over $100 per hour of class time.
James Fisher | 'Privilege' does not exist to White Penn professors — and they keep 'trying it'
Last semester was honestly the worst semester I’ve had at Penn so far. And all because of one thing: the white professors I’ve had at Penn.
Isabel Kim | Perspective
The shirt read “THE PUSSY GRABS BACK,” accompanied by a drawing of a kitten attacking Donald Trump’s face.
Calvary Rogers | Not just Oklahoma
The scourge of "hands-off antagonism" has plagued Penn, where people are more likely to discuss explicit racism rather than the implicit racism that allows the former to thrive.
Emily Hoeven | Freeing time
When I finish my last day of classes each semester, feelings of happiness and relief sweep through me when I think about how I no longer have to wake up early, no longer have to speed-walk to class and come close to twisting my ankle on the Locust cobblestones.
Alec Ward | The windmills had it coming
I wish I could say that 53 were some significant number in my life — my home address, my lucky number, something like that — because that would be one hell of a lede.
James Lee | Reflections of a former wisenheimer
There are many ways to be end up at a place like Penn, but I suspect that my own path was not a particularly original one.
Cameron Dichter | Fake news is your problem too
Back when I was in middle school and I hadn’t even heard of the name Donald Trump, my science teacher gave the class a lesson on how to search the internet — specifically, how to tell the good sites from the bad.
Jeremiah Keenan | Free Government
The world’s most successful notion of free government arose from what was called “the principle of the sovereignty of the people.” This principle viewed government as a regrettable necessity.
Alessandro van den Brink | Stars and stripes
On November 9, the American flag stood at half-mast at Hampshire College as a “reaction to the toxic tone of the monthslong election.” The following night, though, the flag was burned by an unidentified individual or group of individuals.