Opinion Columns
Sara Merican | To the freshmen: the search for home
The search for “home” and the need to belong often nags at the back of our heads and tugs at our hearts as we navigate our way through Penn.
Cameron Dichter | The danger in honoring monuments
After the recent events in Charlottesville, Va., the status of Confederate statues all across the country has come into question.
Jacquelyn Sussman | I'm for affirmative, not punitive, action
There is strong evidence of racial discrimination against Asian Americans when it comes to the college admissions process.
Urooba Abid | Penn's Tenure Policies Enable White Supremacy
Penn's antiquated tenure policies have protected professors from blatant acts of hate. It is time for them to be revised for the modern age.
Caroline Magdolen | Saving American Democracy Starts With 147 Republicans
The capitol insurrection highlighted a dangerous desire from some Republicans for political power at all costs. Halting this dangerous slide begins with the GOP taking action.
Matthew Liu | American opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns is history repeating itself
Americans' resistance to the lockdown orders that marked the early fight against COVID-19 take after a growing historical narrative of the US' growing distrust of science.
Agatha Advincula | Finding hope and strength at Penn in the new year
Within the confines of a Zoom call, Penn’s community still continues to thrive. Keeping the fighter’s mindset of 2020 will help us prepare for another year of unknowns.
Bruce Shen | 2020: The Year Penn Failed Its International Students
After months of last-minute decision making, Penn's international students are left bearing the brunt of the cost of a virtual semester, with potentially long-term consequences.
Editorial | Don't pack the Penn scene when you study abroad
While study abroad offers students a unique opportunity to live in new parts of the world, students who are leaving soon for unfamiliar places should make sure that they take advantage of the chance to engage with the people that live in these countries, rather than only sticking with fellow Penn students.
Juan Sebastián Pinto | Lessons from an African American colony in the Great Plains
Nearly all the town's buildings had been razed for scrap wood, and those that remained standing had either caved-in, or seemed to be held up by the dead trees rising besides them.
Juan Sebastián Pinto | Finding identity and responsibility in the environment
The trail began at the grounds of the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a pink concrete building perched on the slopes of Green Mountain, near Boulder, Colorado.
Vinayak Kumar | How to change someone's political views
Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it would take for someone of one political persuasion to ‘switch sides’. There’s a lot of merit to the idea that we, especially at Penn, restrict ourselves to ‘echo chambers’ where our communities and groups are just reflections of our own backgrounds and beliefs.
Vinayak Kumar | The special theory of ethical relativity
The rise of multiculturalism has created an environment where all backgrounds, and by extension all opinions, are given equal standing.
Juan Sebastián Pinto | A nature like us
Sometime in 1999 my father took me along on his daily ride to work. He was a landscape architect and had been working on planting a rose garden in the backyard of a large, concrete house.
Olivia Fitzpatrick | Why I’m throwing JFK a birthday party
I am throwing JFK a hundredth birthday party on May 29th. The signature drink will be the Jack & Coke; pun intended.