Opinion-Columns
Roderick Cook | Rethinking the 'true academic experience'
Still, some who recognize this fact think that prefacing something with a trigger warning somehow disrupts the intellectual experience of reading or viewing it. As the DP editorial put it, “It is sometimes deemed necessary for students to experience visceral reactions to the material with which they come into contact. The purpose of such material is to be taken by surprise, offended and even, at times, disturbed.”This statement shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between being surprised or offended and being traumatized. Furthermore, it exposes the unsettling fact that many people out there genuinely care more about some assumed abstract “true academic experience” than the safety of students.
Katiera Sordjan | A mutual effort
A year sounds like a long time, but it took me most of that time to find a working medical treatment. Then, I had to address my classes or risk not being able to declare my major. In order to receive medical clearance, I had to mediate between my clinician and the Counseling and Psychological Services staff, who evaluated my current health status. I spent a lot of time making repeated calls, emails and campus visits to ensure the various conditions set by Penn for my return were met, and frequently worried about my ability to come back.
Shawn Kelley | In defense of the president
What’s really telling is when you look at the compensation per $1 million in total expenditures for each institution. Gee was paid $1,332, Zimmer received $1,113 and Gutmann $376.
The Vision | A weight we all must carry
We have the tendency to believe that sexual assault doesn’t affect us, that it happens to other people but certainly not to our friends, not at our parties, not by our people. This is a dirty lie. The longer we buy into it and coddle our ignorance, the longer we smother each other.
Jeremiah Keenan | ?Nap more, sleep less
But for some reason most Penn students don’t take a regular nap. Why? Because much as we’d all love to nap, we just don’t have the time. Of course, we’d feel better if we slept more. We’d also feel better if we spent four hours a day in the gym! But you just can’t do that if you’re taking six credits and working weekends in a lab. Napping isn’t an Ivy League thing.
Sophia Wushanley | What’s so special about leadership?
Our fixation on leadership worries me because it implies that the be all end all of a successful life is to have the greatest possible influence over the greatest number of people. “Leadership” has become one of those words that our brains automatically categorize as a Good Thing, and our conflation of the terms “leadership” and “good leadership” makes us believe that influence itself is the goal, rather than just a good first step to effecting positive change in the world.
Dani Blum | Give up the numbers game
We remind ourselves we go to a fantastic school, but we put ourselves down for being one of “the lower Ivies,” as I overheard someone refer to Brown and Penn. We use Penn as an ego boost, but we’re not satisfied.
Jonathan Iwry | Save America from itself
To ignore such issues and debate how safe we are is like crossing the street without looking both ways while pondering the danger of shark attacks. It’s tempting to assess our condition solely in terms of radical threats — terror has a way of stealing our attention — but whoever does so is looking through a faulty lens. National security and national integrity must go hand in hand.
Yessi Gutierrez | Driven to action
Undocumented immigrants deserve the same access to practical necessities as documented immigrants and native-born residents. They should not have to fear incarceration and deportation for deciding to run to the store for cereal, for dropping their kids off at school or carpooling to work.
Katiera Sordjan | A year on leave
The hardest part of being on leave was dealing with the shame of what felt like such a heavy failure. To me, every day I wasn’t in class was another day that I was being idle. It didn’t matter how much I helped my family out around the house, how much I volunteered or how many doctor’s appointments I went to. If I wasn’t a student, if I wasn’t employed, I wasn’t a productive member of society — end of story.
Maya Rawal | Informed in isolation
I found myself relying on my friends majoring in international relations and political science — and various friends’ Facebook statuses — to learn about major world news. I was unaware of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and the unfolding events of the Israel-Palestine conflict for hours or sometimes days after the fact.
The Vision | Being an angel saved no one
This ideology holds that if minorities would simply “respect themselves” by adopting the social and cultural standards of the dominant class, then and only then would they be privy to the full benefits and “respect” of all American society. This fallacy is not only wrong in that it puts the onus of racism on those stripped of power, but it is also elitist in its belief that pulled-up pants and collegiate degrees will somehow protect one from legalized suspicion and police violence.
Jeremiah Keenan | Maintaining monogamy
The problem with random hook-ups is that they achieve, in one leap, a physical intimacy that we afterwards realize was based on a hormone rush or too much alcohol — not a real relationship.
Dani Blum | Accepting Meh
I don’t want to accept that Penn’s losing its sparkle. I want to re-believe in the glossy admissions brochure images I taped to my wall back home, and to not feel gypped when every day isn’t an adventure.
Sophia Wushanley | Alone, together
Texts and emails that replace mundane small talk and logistical planning aren’t depriving us of deep conversation. Who among us hasn’t complained about the shallowness of brief introductions and perfunctory pleasantries?
Ariel Koren and Joyce Kim | To run or not to run
If you aspire to improve student life from a policy perspective, if you want to work toward understanding and meeting the needs of dozens of student groups, if you’re interested in managing funds that impact the entire undergraduate student body and if you hope to consult the administration on issues that are central to every Quaker’s experience, run to be a part of the Undergraduate Assembly.
Akshat Shekhar | Not just another game
Overall, though, the student body does not fear missing out on athletic contests because the University refuses to treat sports as anything out of the ordinary. We all know athletes and wish them well, in the same way that we hope for the successes of our friends who are a cappella singers and dancers.
Jonathan Iwry | Cause for concern
We can’t go around pointing fingers and echoing vague yet provocative ideologies just because our fellow activists espouse those views. We must ask ourselves at each juncture, “Am I really informed enough to make these assertions?”
Shawn Kelley | Heads or Tails
A student should have the creative thinking and communication skills required of a liberal arts major, as well as the critical thinking and technical knowledge of a STEM major.