THOMAS Jefferson called it the "opening south" -- that vacancy on one end of the Lawn, unmarked and untouched, that preserved the panorama of the Blue Ridge to the landscape of his Academical Village.
AN UNCOMPROMISING belief in the equality of opportunity lies at the heart of the "American dream." Horatio Alger's rag-to-riches stories perhaps best captured this conviction that working-class Americans could achieve success through hard work and determination.
YOU KNOW how it feels: stuck in the back row of a big classroom, notebook out, desperately trying to read the tiny words scrolling across the projection screen as the professor rips through the notes without so much as a pause.
ARTICLE one, Section six of the Constitution states in part that "no Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created." This constitutional provision prevents politicians from occupying more than one public office simultaneously.
IN A recent interview given to Beliefnet, a Web site designed to help people explore spirituality in all its forms, Republican presidential hopeful Sen.
IF YOU'VE been paying attention around Grounds you will have noticed signs and chalkings advertising Alternative Spring Break's upcoming fall and winter trips.
INTERNATIONAL travel has never been so popular, but in many respects it has never taken so much initiative to experience the distinctiveness of a foreign culture.
DO WE LOVE the Cavalier? The English royalists who escaped to Virginia during Cromwell's victory in the Civil War, and who were the direct ancestors of one Thomas Jefferson, would seem to be little more than an obscure mascot to us -- even more obscure than a fish that can drink three times its own weight.
KARL MARX once said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce. He wasn't right about much, but this quip might prove an accurate summary of American foreign policy under the Bush administration, which is moving in the farcical direction of war with Iran even as we remain tragically mired in Iraq. You might wonder who could be so reckless as to contemplate an Iran war with the unfinished Iraq war standing as a bloody monument to American hubris.
AS YOU are probably well aware, we have next Monday and Tuesday off for Fall Break. Unfortunately, this two-day break came at a price.
ALARM BELLS went off as I froze and read the frightful sign posted on the columns past the amphitheater: "Human Rights in the Bible and Qur'an." Putting aside my preconceived notions on the subject, I attended the discussion hosted by President of the Theological Education Institute Reverend John Rankin and University professor of Religious Studies Abdulaziz Sachedina that night.
SOME PEOPLE embrace diversity -- others scoff. At the University, some students spend the majority of their time here taking classes on such subjects as gender justice, African-American political theory, and the politics of developing areas.
IN THE aftermath of the controversyin Jena, Louisiana, civil rights advocates such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have been quick to argue that the demonstrations are the start of a new civil rights movement.
CITIES ACROSS America, including Newark, New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia, are currently beginning to consider banning baggy pants.
MANY OF you probably are not aware of "the cupcake problem" in this country. Many of you probably assume that cupcakes are merely harmless sugary confections, popular in elementary school classrooms and birthday parties.
NEED-BASED financial aid is a policy that receives support from across a wide range of political perspectives.
A FEW weeks ago, the Iranian Embassy called Columbia University and asked it to host a speech by controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
WOMEN HAVE been a part of military history since antiquity, but the debate on whether to systematically include them in full combat roles is a modern one.
How little we know what we most need to know. This is an exceptionally striking fact about the most promising new field to arise in our time, evolutionary psychology, led by Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker and our own Jonathan Haidt, author of "The Happiness Hypothesis." Its emphasis on natural selection serves as a valuable sanity check on the otherwise crushing power of political prejudice in the social sciences (I use the term loosely), especially through its politically incorrect discovery of the evolutionary basis of many sexual inequalities.
