Opinion Columns
Carlos Arias Vivas | DNA tests don’t define your identity
Even though I was excited to receive my results, I knew that the outcome wouldn’t dramatically change who I was. Whatever 23andMe had in store, my upbringing is already set in stone.
Rebecca Alifimoff | Don't feed the ravenous internet mob
We can no longer completely separate our private lives from our technological footprint.
Jennifer Lee | What designer threads and Penn Crushes reveal about our desire to be seen
Many Penn students’ fixation on fashion is due to the simple fact that we know people will be watching.
Mateen Tabatabaei | What we can learn from problematic historical figures
How should we deal with great works by ethically dubious people or communities, even in the past?
Amy Chan | To be a small fish in a big pond
I never realized how worthless being mediocre can make us feel. I’m sure that everyone at Penn has experienced at some point the sensation of being “less than,” of trying one’s best and still falling short.
Isabella Simonetti | The price tag of sisterhood
What happens when the cost of joining a Panhellenic sorority is as opaque as it is exclusionary?
Christine Olagun-Samuel | Police response to Eagles riots reveals double standard
In the case of actually violent and disruptive acts, the police force wasn’t prepared to keep fans accountable. Yet, in the case of peaceful protest, advocating for protection against unjust law enforcement, police reinforcement seem prepared with a militaristic response.
Lucy Hu | When the liberal bubble is justified
The lives of racial minorities should not be used as horseplay for political banter. This is a realm where viewpoints from the right seek to silence those who have already been traditionally suppressed.
Dylan Reim | Disagreeing on politics is one thing. Demonizing your opponent is another.
One of the deepest benefits of my education has been teaching myself to unlearn. Unlearning that our natural outlook is the objectively best one.
Carlos Arias Vivas | Navigating Penn with your best friend
Imagine another four years with the same people you’ve come to know and love.
Rebecca Alifimoff | From cornfields to Connecticut: missing my hometown
In high school, I wanted more than anything to move away from Indiana and never return. Now that I’ve gotten my wish, I miss it with a longing ache.
Amy Chan | Honoring those we have lost means keeping their individuality alive
To live the way someone would have wanted us to live is a grand, beautiful task, because it requires intimate knowledge of the person we lost and it acknowledges that they were more than some casualty in the circle of life.
Jay Shah | We all have a role to play in the Campaign for Wellness
We should not view the process of changing campus culture as an interview where one individual asks questions and the other has answers.
Jessica Li | Combating 'toxic' masculinity
While women have often taken the initiative to discuss matters of sexual assault and violence, the absence of men in these spaces speaks louder than words.
Sara Merican | Reflecting on my first Super Bowl
We soaked in Philadelphia in all its brilliant, flashy, beeping, honking, waving, screaming, shouting splendor
Spencer Swanson | Gone with the Wynn: Why Penn must tread lightly with the legacies of controversial alumni
We must guard diligently against rewriting the past just to please the popular opinion of the day and to make people comfortable in contemporary society.
Isabella Simonetti | How hookup culture has stolen our manners
Making out, sex, and everything in between — all with no strings attached. Sounds perfect, right?
Lucy Hu | Fraternity pledging needs to end
Despite many fraternities’ cult-like efforts to keep pledging under wraps to avoid prosecution, most Penn students have heard accounts from pledges about sleepless nights, humiliating activities, and servant-type orders from pledge masters.
Jennifer Lee | To experience Philadelphia, Penn students need to ride SEPTA more
Throughout the entire journey, from hopping onto a packed trolley car to emerging aboveground through the beautiful glass head house of Dilworth Park, I feel completely immersed in the Philadelphia community.
