Daniel Schwartz is a College sophomore from Decatur, Ga. His e-mail address is schwartz@dailypennsylvanian.com.
Avery Lawrence is a College senior from Charlottesville, Va. His e-mail address is lawrence@dailypennsylvanian.com.
With the '08 Election fast approaching, presidential hopefuls are busy rolling out their grand plans for our country. John Edwards recently turned his attention to American public schools and the educational disparities that still exist today. "No longer legally separated by race, our children are sorted by economics, often with a racial or ethnic dimension," Edwards said.
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Now that it's On Campus Recruiting season, I think it is safe to say that most of the senior class is freaking out. Because one bad interview, one bombed brainteaser, and you know you've blown your chance at future happiness. But don't fret, dear senior, you haven't.
Does the name Kurt Mitman ring a bell? He's the former Econ grad student who was exposed last January for leading the kind of double life - ambitious Ivy Leaguer by day, jailed sex offender by night - that seemed more suited for HBO than for Penn's campus.
The saying goes, "If a tree falls down in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" A timelier question would be, "If an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 rally in Jena, Louisiana, in protest of a case of unequal justice ignored by the mainstream media, does it matter?" I'm no philosophy major, but the answer is a resounding yes.
The saying goes, "If a tree falls down in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" A timelier question would be, "If an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 rally in Jena, Louisiana, in protest of a case of unequal justice ignored by the mainstream media, does it matter?" I'm no philosophy major, but the answer is a resounding yes.
Avery Lawrence is a College senior from Charlottesville, Va. His e-mail address is lawrence@dailypennsylvanian.com.
With the '08 Election fast approaching, presidential hopefuls are busy rolling out their grand plans for our country. John Edwards recently turned his attention to American public schools and the educational disparities that still exist today. "No longer legally separated by race, our children are sorted by economics, often with a racial or ethnic dimension," Edwards said.
Your Voice | Letters to the Editor
Sept. 28, 2007
Responsible reporting To the Editor: In response to the article published about the "Ask a Skeptic" panel ("Student group panel affirms atheist beliefs" 9/20/2007), we would like to clarify important points, the first of which being that Ellen Johnson does not represent our organization.
You've probably seen the video by now - the one where that University of Florida douche bag gets Tasered at a John Kerry town hall meeting. It occupies a special place in viral-video chronology; right after Britney at the VMAs and just before the Swedish hostess who threw up on live TV.
Back in 2002, Beth Linker was a third-year graduate student at Yale. Like all Ph.D. students, she had a lot on her plate - preparing for exams, teaching classes, doing her own research, worrying about the job market. And then she had a baby. That July was when her already busy life got a lot busier.
Opinion Art | Joanner Tong
Sept. 27, 2007
Joanne Tong is a Wharton senior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com.
Way back during my freshman year, a homeless stranger led a couple of my buddies on an epic quest for fried chicken. After wandering around West Philly late at night, they all ended up at Crown's on 40th and Market. Bonhomie flowed forth, and much crispy fowl was consumed.
From attacking a "sausagefest" to pictures of students urinating on Princeton's crest, this year's freshman-election campaign posters set a new bar for superficiality. And what the mildly amusing posters make abundantly clear is that Penn's freshman fall elections are focusing more on rhetoric and less on substance.
Opinion Board | Out of focus
Sept. 26, 2007
If you have a maintenance request, you better hope it's an emergency. That way you can call Facilities Services directly. Either that or be prepared to lie and say it is, because there's no way you're going to figure out how to use FacilityFocus, Penn's new Web site for service requests.
We might be unranked in football, but we've almost cracked the top 10 in the world's most-played sport. Penn took 11th place in the second annual Sexual Health Report Card, a ranking of sexual health resources at 139 U.S. colleges and universities released by the makers of Trojan condoms.
Amira Fawcett is an Engineering junior from Houston. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.
I wiped my savings account this summer and, in the last weeks, I lost six toes to hunger. I hope you fared better. Perhaps you worked as an intern, earned a tidy sum and wound up indentured to some soul-sucking firm. I heard that graduates on the International Teaching Assistants Program (ITAP) did very nicely.
This is a sad fact to many, but, unfortunately, Penn is not Hogwarts. Not even close. Sorry. We don't even have a talking hat to sort first years into Houses. No, we have "Assignments Operations" for that. Nothing magical here. Instead of housing students by their year in a dorm system, like most colleges, Penn tosses the freshmen into various College Houses.
Cuddle parties. Until accidentally picking up an old New York Times this past summer, I had never even imagined that such a thing could exist. But there it was, wedged under a photo of happily intertwined people lying on pillows and holding hands: an invitation to a cuddle party taking place right in the heart of inhospitable Manhattan.
Opinion Board | A refreshing change
Sept. 25, 2007
It's a new year and students and laundry-service provider Mac-Gray are off to a fresh start. The new machines, which were first implemented in Mayer Hall last year for a trial run, will be installed in the rest of the College Houses by the end of the month.
Alicia Puglionesi is a College junior from Haverton, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.
