UNIVERSITY students have energetically debated the single sanction for decades. Yet never have single sanction critics come close to repealing or mitigating the requirement of expulsion upon findings of an honor violation. Nonetheless, die-hard sanction supporters feel compelled to permanently insulate the sanction from current and future debate.
TRADE PREVENTS wars, they say. This guiding prinicple has become the cornerstone of the United Nations and World Trade Organization (W.T.O.), especially under the Clinton Administration.
IF THERE is one similarity between Cheney's Quail-Gate episode and the dining hall's response to Green Dining's "No Tray Tuesdays" initiative, it is the rank smell of scandal and Dining's initial unwillingness to assume responsibility for its actions.
LAST WEEK, a United Nations report on the United States' prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, accused the U.S.
"HEARTLESS capitalists (i.e. lumber companies) are destroying the rainforests at a rate of 2 football fields an hour." We've all been told some variation of this statistic since elementary school.
LAST WEEK while conducing endorsement interviews for Queer & Allied Activism, I was shocked when a candidate for the Honor Committee asked me if I supported Student Council's resolution supporting domestic partner benefits, implying that it might have been an effort to make members of Council look good before elections this spring.
HAIR, HEMLINES and Husband. According to Marie Wilson of the White House Project, women are judged by these three qualities before they even open their mouths.
IT'S A testament to how awful the consensus clause is that despite numerous columns, editorials and letters that have appeared on these very pages, I was still able to hammer out an entire column with still more arguments against the consensus clause.
THE FEDERAL Budget currently is in dour shape. Tax cuts and reckless federal spending, especially in the defense sector, have left the economy with an enormous federal deficit. To add flames to the fire, recently the Bush administration has introduced its version of the budget -- a hideous mess of cutting programs designed primarily for poor and working class Americans while continuing to cut taxes for the rich.
ABOUT A year ago, I wrote a column about how student government here at the University had survived spring elections by the skin of its teeth, fending off an aberration dubbed "the consensus clause" by supporters by only half a percent of the vote. Now, a year later, a minimally moderated version of that same proposal that would just as effectively set the status quo in stone has made the climb to the ballot box.
SHAKESPEARE said, "That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet." The Bard has a point here.
JUST A MONTH ago, American policy in the Middle East seemed to be proceeding fairly smoothly. President Bush's plan to promote democracy in the region, while encountering obstacles, at least showed clear progress in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I SMOKED a cigarette once in my life and haven't made the same mistake since. Smoking over a long period of time poses about as many health risks as frequenting a toxic waste dump.
THE SHORTCOMINGS of the new Observatory Hill Dining Hall have become common knowledge. The facility's architecture, layout and expense are frequently cited as the greatest failings of the O-Hill project.
THIS WEEK, students who care about the community of trust can strengthen the foundations of our honor system by voting for the consensus clause.
I AM NOT a smoker. In fact, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. That being said, I am appalled at the latest attempt by the Virginia Senate to act in loco parentis by banning smoking in most privately owned restaurants and bars.
IT SEEMS the accountability push in education has finally reached the uppermost levels, and as the old saying goes, it has been promoted just beyond its highest level of competency.
WHILE the Honor Committee is brainstorming new ways to influence the outcome of jury trials, a separate group, Students for the Preservation of Honor, has proposed yet another "consensus clause," a ballot measure that would severely limit the ability of the student body to change the honor system during elections.
EVEN WITH annual tuitions and fees approaching $40,000 at many institutions, colleges and universities are not losing any persistence at passing the hat.
THIS UPCOMING election, one of the referenda on the ballot will be the consensus clause. The consensus clause states that to change the single sanction system in the honor code, 33 percent of students will have to vote for the change.
