Only the most cold-hearted and quite frankly misguided individuals uniformly support not giving aid to the homeless. Comparatively, there are many people who think the idea of giving money to the homeless is good and that supporting charity efforts to counter inequalities is the culmination of social responsibility to the disadvantaged. I see this sort of charity all the time: if people do interact with the town’s too-large and apparent homeless population, it takes the form of throwing a few coins into a cup.
It is the time of the year that seniors are preparing for their graduation after nearly four years in the College. Every year, seniors face an inherent problem — disposing of their bulky and durable appliances. For their time in College they have purchased fridges, televisions and perhaps bicycles and game consoles; there have been sporadic jumbo sales on campus yet there has not been a systematic and centralized way for them to come together to sell off their appliances before they leave campus.
I still remember the day that I received Angie Epifano’s powerful piece. I was watching Project Runway, and I decided to check my email during the commercials. I read the piece three times before I called my mother and told her about it, and that I was going to run it. “Can you get in trouble because of it? Can they expel you or take your financial aid away?” she asked. I hadn’t really thought about it until then. The way I saw it, it didn’t really matter. Journalism is about exposing the truth. It’s about making a difference and creating change and starting dialogue.
A school year has almost passed us. Ask anyone to summarize the collective experience of students this year and they will place the unfolding of much public drama at the center of it. Pleasant memories dot our individual recollections, but painful ones sit squarely within those memories shared by most all of us.
This exam period, for the first time in our collective student memory, students have as much to look forward to going into finals as they already have to not look forward to: first, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis promises to keep spirits up as students get excited about not having any use for their glass coasters and Spring Formal; second, students should also appreciate the generous end-of-year break we received — an extended “reading period."
As high school seniors prepare to send in their college deposits by May 1, they may breathe a sigh of relief that the admissions process is finally over. With the number of college applications proliferating and admissions rates plummeting, the process has never been more competitive and stressful. For those hapless few stuck in the limbo of waitlists, however, the pressure and anticipation continues.
This past year we’ve read the powerful words of rape survivors, as they bravely testified to their experiences of mistreatment at the hands of the Amherst administration.
We’ve seen a fraternity’s sexism and misogyny on full display in a deeply offensive t-shirt.
We’ve read and denounced an Amherst administrator’s shocking reinforcement of rape culture and its corresponding myths right here in The Student.
But it seems we still haven’t learned.
