Opinion Columns
Kurt Mitman | Researcher or hack?
When your research begins to step into the fray of politics, your motives immediately start to come into question.
Rachel del Valle | Call me crazy
One of the rules I used to have for myself was that I’d never see a therapist. I thought that therapy was self-indulgent, excessive, the stuff of Woody Allen movies and not something you do in real life. But that changed two weeks ago.
JY Lee | Can entrepreneurship save the world?
While I celebrate our entrepreneurial energy as vibrant evidence that the American Dream is alive, profit-driven startups should be balanced by social enterprises guided by the public good.
Morgan Jones | Let’s get naked
When I came to Penn, I brought that superhero mindset with me. If anyone asked me how I was doing, I’d answer, “Good!” It’s easy to give that automatic response and move on — I mean, is Superman ever not good?Arielle Pardes | Playing Playboy
Unlike many of our peer institutions, Penn has made it a priority to promote conversations about consent.
Arjun Gupta | Bubble gun
It’s surprising how quickly we can forget to be aware of things beyond ourselves if we don’t make a conscious effort to do so.
Ola Osinaike | The new god
If we have this much dedication towards making only money, we might as well call it what it is: a religion.
Ryan Daniels | Hungry for Apples
Technology companies are constantly improving and refining their products, but our incessant desire for a game changer has forced them to market touch-ups as turning points.
Caroline Brand | I’ll find a title, sometime
Instead of telling you that “college flies by” or “it’s the shortest four years of your life,” I have a new tidbit of advice: Stop using the word “sometime.”
Rachel del Valle | Freshman friends are not forever
I have a theory that the student body of Penn is composed of maybe 30 percent introverts, and of that 30 percent, about half of those spend their first few years trying to pretend they’re extroverts like everyone else.
Jeff Nadel | Startups vs. the state
Uber brings a better, more efficient service to consumers — and that threatens the livelihood of entrenched taxi unions and the City Hall politicians and bureaucrats beholden to their interests.
Xavier Flory | Channeling our insecurities
It’s easy to think we need an even higher GPA and more impressive extracurriculars if we are to compete with students from HYP.Arielle Pardes | Digital Get Down
In most cases, sexting holds the same appeal as any other erotic act — the only difference is that it’s digitalized.
Kurt Mitman | Unilaterally ending unilateralism
Amidst all of the noise about Syria coming from the talking heads in Washington, a bigger point has largely been ignored.
Sindhuri Nandhakumar | The other end of the scale
There is a large discrepancy between the medically accepted notions of healthy bodies and the images encouraged by popular culture, and I’m not the only one who’s been affected by it.
Ali Kokot & Hayley Brooks | SWAG, not SWUG
We’re seeing senior women with full courseloads, a work-study or part-time job, relationships and leadership positions who, shockingly, want to take a few hours to themselves sometimes. What’s so wrong with that? Washed up? We think not.
Ryan Daniels | Your world, delivered
According to some analysts, Amazon Prime is part of a huge scheme to alter the way internet consumers consume.
Rachel del Valle | Get Real
Acting like a real person means, essentially, acting like a grown-up, an adult. But it doesn’t have the same, sad, unexciting connotation as those other terms.
Clarissa O'Conor | The Problem with Band-Aids
The discourse of empowerment makes us feel good about putting a Band-Aid on something while avoiding actually questioning our role in systematic racism, oppression and injustice.