Even more indicative of the problems with the political process of the Penn Undergraduate Assembly was the widespread propagation of the idea that the UA is not the place for activist work.
I’ve been told by too many people to remember that it must have been easy for me to get into Penn. That I have it so easy because I am on full financial aid and don’t have to take out loans. That I was the perfect diversity candidate. And I am sick of it.
Furthermore, as college students, we’re consumers of a product. Penn’s tuition is $47,668 a year. If the average student takes five courses a semester, that’s $4,766.80 per class. We wouldn’t buy a $4,000 dress without trying it on, and we shouldn’t have to register for courses without testing them out.
The Latest
By
Jonathan Iwry
·
Nov. 24, 2014
We should be relying on universities to teach us not what to think, but how to think.
The problem ... stems from the fact that people conflate freedom of speech with being given a microphone and a pat on the back.
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
I’ve been told by too many people to remember that it must have been easy for me to get into Penn. That I have it so easy because I am on full financial aid and don’t have to take out loans. That I was the perfect diversity candidate. And I am sick of it.
Furthermore, as college students, we’re consumers of a product. Penn’s tuition is $47,668 a year. If the average student takes five courses a semester, that’s $4,766.80 per class. We wouldn’t buy a $4,000 dress without trying it on, and we shouldn’t have to register for courses without testing them out.
As the past President of Penn Hillel and a proud Penn alum, I was embarrassed by the Daily Pennsylvanian’s coverage of the Students for Justice in Palestine meeting (“Palestinian University Students tell Penn peers, ‘We are Violated’, 11/19). While it is shameful enough that at such a distinguished university, students would be subjected to one-sided, hateful speech at an event like this, I would have expected the DP to make the effort to properly educate its readership on the controversial remarks spoken.
Hannah Rosenfeld is a College sophomore from Tokyo.
While none of us really need to learn how to build a fire or hut anymore, mirror neurons are still important in the modern world. As college students in an environment that will shape our lifelong opinions and beliefs, we should use these neurons to expand our knowledge of other people, times and places.
Fraternity pledges are stripped of their belongings and clothing and forced to parade around. New student leaders are verbally belittled before assuming their positions. Members of a club are dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, doused with alcohol comma and pressured to drink.
Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com.
Across the country, similarly misguided school authorities have ordered the removal of nominally religious images and quotations (such as an educational poster featuring the five pillars of Islam or a Ronald Reagan quote that mentioned God) and banned or bullied religious clubs.
There are plenty of people walking around with fancy positions who haven’t accomplished much. And then there are those without any formal recognitions who will always be remembered for the impact that they have had.
I understand where my friend is coming from. Part of my selfish, pre-frosh fantasies about Penn was making something more of myself, of standing out somehow in the massive crowd. I didn’t know how that would manifest or what I would do to achieve that, but I wanted to be different. I think we all did.
Guest column by Dia Sotiropoulou | The blue-and-red-eyed monster
By
Dia Sotiropoulou
·
Nov. 17, 2014
As I’ve scrolled through my Facebook news feed recently, I’ve stumbled every so often on emphatic promotional blurbs urging me to “beat Harvard.” With a “like” to the Daily Pennsylvanian’s Facebook page, apparently, I can stick it to those sneering Cambridgeites and help overtake the popularity of their altogether-too-revered Crimson.
Hannah Rosenfeld is a College sophomore from Tokyo.
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
A feeling of too many problems to be able to affect change has begun to permeate the activism community. Too many problems and too little time. How is a student supposed to spend time contending for a cause, while also keeping up with school work?
I should be able to identify as a Zionist without being called a fascist. I should also be able to criticize particular policies by the Israeli government without being anti-Zionism. As the debate stands, it’s all or nothing. It’s inaccurate and unfair to those of us who are looking for a middle ground. To put it simply, it’s unreasonable.
This pervasive notion that black people have to change their bodies is ingrained in our society and makes it difficult to recognize how external forces have been internalized. Whether this self-loathing comes in the form of using makeup or chemicals to brighten skin tones or using heat or treatments to straighten hair, the goal has been to meet a standard of beauty that elevates one group of people and simultaneously demeans another.
