Opinion Columns
Zachary Bell | Preoccupied in protest
That weekend, I tried to pair my observations of the mass actions with personal conversations — on both sides. I spoke to police and protesters, removing the blue helmets and black masks, asking whether the police are part of the 99 percent or part of a police state in which violence is the closest one can get to “dialogue.”Josh Bolton | Will you accept the JRP Summertime Challenge?
But to be honest, “summer break” has never made much sense to me. Yeah, it’s a break from all the work and stress of the academic year — but sometimes all the work of the school year feels like a break from the “real work” we accomplish during the warm months.Arielle Pardes | Sex and the summertime
While there isn’t a scientific consensus on why people tend to find romance during the summer, lovers in pop culture (think: Danny and Sandy in “Grease,” Noah and Allie in “The Notebook,” Johnny and Baby in “Dirty Dancing”) combined with our own experiences confirm that summer is the season for getting frisky.
Sara Brenes-Akerman | Four good years
I am four years older than the kid that cried at the airport, four years more certain of who I am and four years more confident. But I’m not quite sure of all that much, except that the past four years have been good.
Brian Goldman | Gradually warming to graduation
Graduation is the nudge that gets us out of college and into the real world.
Charles Gray | How I see the color gray
Words in a column, book or a speech, for that matter, mean nothing without action to supplement them.
Samantha Sharf | Stories a nutgraf can't tell
At 15 years old, I already harbored fantasies of bylines containing my name. If that were the whole story it would, of course, be a very boring one. My path up till now must look nauseatingly straightforward from the outside. But like most students, my years at Penn have been anything but simple and very different from what I expected.
Zachary Bell | Will Occupy Spring create another world or another left?
I began May Day eager to see a space that embodied the movement’s values. However, after 12 hours of activism, this other world that Occupy was trying to create seemed messy and racked by many of the contradictions that haunted the New Left in the 1960s.
Sally Engelhart | The fastest and best four years
We all know from experience that the perception of time passing is not constant. Just think about how quickly the hour of an exam can fly by or how slowly an hour lecture can.
Rachel del Valle | Picking up London's call
I’ll be leaving on a jet plane. Soon — I mean, relatively soon. I’m studying abroad in London next semester. Now that classes are over, that statement actually feels like it means something.
Zachary Bell | Grateful to graduate
Ironically, the knowledge I have gained from my liberal arts education is exactly what has made the reward for its completion confounding.
Hayley Brooks & Ali Kokot | Declaring 'Game Over'
Open dialogue between the sexes at Penn is just not happening because the “game” we subscribe to requires crafty disingenuity.
Brian Goldman | Mingling with Millennials
Young people are often lamented for their lack of organization and mobilization around youth causes. But I’m not sure if this will ever shift, because young people hold such varied political viewpoints.
Aya Saed | Not so different after all
The Class of 2016 — who will be joining us next fall — promises to be more diverse and representative of the shifting demographics in this country. The increased diversity creates new potential to unite students from all walks of life.
Ernest Owens | Why Penn seems ecstatic for Molly
Penn’s current policy encourages students to become repeated offenders and develop poor health habits.
Joseph An | Captain (Asian) America
No one can be defined. Asian Americans, through all their struggles, are not asking to be viewed as comic book victims or heroes.
Charles Gray | A thing about Spring Fling
The whole weekend is built around the idea of the momentary. After all, that’s why they call it a “fling.”
Kyle Henson | Embracing our addiction to stress
It would be naive to think that the obnoxious type-A personalities that helped many of us get here in the first place disappeared after our matriculation.
Hayley Brooks & Ali Kokot | On the outside, looking Fl(in)g
From the guys at Allegro’s who served us pizza at 3 o’clock in the morning, to the accepted students who toured Penn for the very first time — we were curious about how Fling fared for those on the periphery.