Everything you’ve ever put your name on has been tinged with your race and gender, be it a paper, an exam, a lab report or a resume. No matter how well you know your professors, and how earnestly they condemn prejudice in any form, a bulk of scientific literature suggests that who you are influences how they see the work you produce.
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.
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.
We want to reaffirm our support for a two-state solution, predicated not on concessions to terrorists, but on security and mutual trust.
We have had over five years experience with MEOR on two college campuses, one of them being University of Pennsylvania.
We have had over five years experience with MEOR on two college campuses, one of them being University of Pennsylvania.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The question here is not “Democrat or Non-Democrat.” The question here is not even “Democrat or Republican.” The real question is “liberal, conservative, independent, libertarian, socialist, progressive or none of the above.”
Sam Sherman is a College junior from Marblehead, Mass. His email address is samsherman6@gmail.com.
We must realize that the institutional popularity of colleges and sports programs is nowhere near as important as the lives and livelihoods of the innocent women, and men, they so readily sweep under the rug. Until then, an insidious culture that protects the image of influential organizations at whatever cost will continue to prevail.
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.
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.
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.
All in all, our political stance is complex, compelling and, most importantly, critical to the continued success of this phenomenal country.
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.
Hannah Rosenfeld is a College sophomore from Tokyo.
There is a problem when men dominate both the attendance and the questions of political on-campus events. There is a problem when women who hold leadership positions stick out because of their gender. There is a problem when girls like me, who rarely pay attention to these things, start to worry.
While personally traumatic experiences are important to address and treat on college campuses, trigger warnings are neither a fair nor sufficient solution to such issues and would ultimately serve to undermine the fundamental values of academia.
Solutions by The State News
