34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
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Last Thursday evening was warm, and the energy at the rally portion of Take Back the Night was high. "Tonight is a night about emotions. However, there's one emotion we're not going to feel - fear!" proclaimed Kristie Thomas, a School of Social Policy & Practice doctoral student.
When shown a photograph of a condom and a gun and the statement "Which would keep [a rapist] from coming back for more?" would you do a double-take? I did when I first visited ConcealedCampus.org, the Web site for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. That photo is one of the first images shown on the site.
On Nov. 4, 2008, 96.4 percent of Penn students made it to the polls in what is now remembered as a truly historic election. That night, students flocked the campus en masse in celebration of President Barack Obama's victory. In those months leading up to Election Day 2008, I recall walking down Locust Walk and seeing the vibrant and energized student body here at Penn.
An open call from Mayor Nutter
To the Community:
During last year's 1st Annual Philly Spring Cleanup, friends, family and neighbors got together, rolled up their sleeves and went to work cleaning our neighborhoods and parks. The first Philly Spring Cleanup set a record as the largest single-day cleanup effort in U.
For longtime Philly resident Tamara Ali, William Penn High School changed her life. A 2000 graduate of the North Philadelphia school, Ali participated in its communications and journalism program, which at the time was one of the best in the city.
"I transferred to William Penn from Strawberry Mansion, which was in a bad neighborhood," she said.
Lately, President Obama has been all over talk shows, Sunday morning news programs and the Internet trying to sell his bloated budget. But he hasn't sold me.
Among his numerous planned tax increases on the upper income brackets is a proposal to cut tax breaks on charitable donations from 35 percent to 28 percent, effectively increasing the cost of giving.
Two days ago, potential members of the Class of 2013 logged on to the MyPenn Admissions Portal to find out whether they could stop praying for admissions and start praying for a room in the Quadrangle. This year, Penn accepted 17.11 percent of overall applicants, a negligible increase from last year and not a number to scoff at.
We've all been told to stop and smell the roses - but this is Penn. We don't stop for anything. I get annoyed if someone breaks to tie his shoes on a busy Locust walk. I don't even know what I would do if I saw a student stopping to sniff the daffodils in front of Huntsman Hall.
Last Thursday, President Obama hosted a small town hall in which he fielded a variety of questions submitted and voted on by an online audience. One of the most popular questions posed was whether decriminalizing marijuana might help the economy by creating a new source of tax revenue.
Tradition is the name of the game here at Penn, but we should realize that the best traditions are those that maintain their heritage while being relevant in the present. This year, more than ever, it was clear to us that Hey Day had to be carried out with an openness to change.
Spring Fling concert tickets went on sale yesterday - did you line up to throw down $30?
From my own casual observation yesterday morning, there was no line in sight at the Social Planning and Event Committee's table on Locust (aside from the line of Dzine2Show models posing on trash cans).
Last year, one message was beamed at our generation: vote. We heard it from celebrities, politicians, campus leaders, family members and friends. We were told over and over again that this moment was our chance to prove all the naysayers wrong and to show that we're not suffering from a collective apathy that threatens our futures and the future of America.
I have a confession to make: I don't want the Democrats to have a filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate. I know, I know, this is heresy, and I'm betraying all kinds of liberal-college-campus protocols here. But with a 60-vote supermajority, Democrats could pass whatever legislation they want without the slightest input from Republicans.
In a report released two weeks ago by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, most colleges in the U.S. were found to knowingly admit illegal immigrants.
Not surprisingly, this news has inspired a good deal of outrage. Commentators responding to a story about the report on The Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site expressed anger and resentment at the warm welcome they believe illegal immigrants are receiving in higher education.