Minding our own business
By Eric Wang | December 1, 2004LIKE THE family fissures that sometimes erupt during holiday gatherings, the "public health" community couldn't keep it together last week.
LIKE THE family fissures that sometimes erupt during holiday gatherings, the "public health" community couldn't keep it together last week.
TWO WEEKS ago, University students lined the sidewalks by Garrett Hall and the Amphitheater in silent protest against sexual assault -- and the University's asinine way of handling it. The University's sexual assault policy had been discussed recently in the media, most notably in a revealing article in The Hook about Annie Hylton, a University student fighting the University's procedures, and the flaws in the policy. Yet, it was perhaps this eerily powerful demonstration, consisting of hundreds of students, that finally pierced the hearts of our administrators. The administration is often criticized for its slow response to some issues or sometimes accused of ignoring them completely.
POLITICS, they say, is the art of the possible. That art was censored last week when Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said that bills will not reach the floor if they do not have the backing of a majority of Republican representatives.
TO: MR. SANTA Claus From: Jim Prosser, Student, University of Virginia Mr. Claus, As millions of children petition you for the latest hot item of the holiday season, I'd like to take this time to ask for some gifts myself. While I'm sure that things like iPods and digital cameras top the list of many of my collegiate colleagues, I'd like to be selfless this season and ask for a few things, both tangible and intangible, for the broader University community rather than just for myself. With that said, here's my wish list of things I'd like for the University community this holiday and for the ensuing semester ahead, in no particular order:
STUDENT journalism is farfrom perfect, and publications on Grounds, this newspaper included, are no exception.
This column is not intended as a space to defend the particular program, "Soul Awakenings: Journeys of Race and Identity," that was degraded in Eric Wang's Nov.
One of the oldest principles of moral psychology is that habit builds character. If you can get people to do honorable things, they will become honorable people.
"STUDY finds Democrats dominant in academia," stated the headline in Friday's Cavalier Daily. The study found ratios ranging from 3 Democrats to 1 Republican in economics all the way up to 30 to 1 in anthropology.
I FIRMLY believe that the single sanction is the principal source of the honor system's strength and longevity, and that dismantling it would be an extremely damaging, if not fatal, blow to the system.
RECENTLY, I went to visit several broters of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at their chapter's new house on Fontaine Avenue.
LAST WEEK hundreds of students, staff and faculty members assembled in silent protest of the University's sexual assault policy.
When President Bush gave his "Axis of Evil" statement, it was not only his intention to raise awareness of the three countries named (Iraq, Iran and North Korea), but it was also part of an argument to show Iraq as the greatest threat, and the one that needed to be dealt with.
LAST TUESDAY'S teach-in on the charter initiative was an example of democratic discourse in education at its best.
THE Boy Scouts of America are again under fire. The latest volley comes in the form of the settlement of a 1999 lawsuit brought by the ACLU against the Department of Defense.
THE CAVALIER Daily has helped make the debate over the Honor Committee's single sanction policy a major part of the University community's agenda this year. Throughout the fall semester, Cavalier Daily reporters have covered meetings about the topic, the managing board has repeatedly written editorials about the subject and columnists have chimed in with their own opinions.
OVER THE past 18 months, the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee has been examining issues of honor at the University.
AMONG the bitter jeremiads and bubbling jeroboams of champagne pouring forth from the respective ranks of liberals and conservatives this month, political pundits have re-focused the national spotlight on the so-called "religious right." Many of these pundits have attributed President Bush's election success to the strong turnout of evangelical Christian voters, who were spurred on by social issues to support the Republican Party at the polls.
IN THE past year, I have tried to be very vocal about this issue, and to many of you, it comes as no surprise when I write here that I believe the single sanction is wrong.
AS I stood in a circle with the other members of my new suite during fall orientation, it appeared as though the University's promises about diversity were true.
AS UNIONIZATION rates decline, as the percentage of uninsured Americans rises and as we colonize Iraq, it is appropriate to seek the origins of these seemingly disparate phenomena.I suggest that they are the direct and predictable result of an economic system created and maintained for the benefit of the plutocrats. Classical economics fails us as a society because it promotes a fraudulent ideology at the expense of human welfare.