Opinion

Dani Wexler | Staying in touch with family

Do you speak to your parents more than four times a week? Discuss course selections with them before you register? Seek their guidance when something in your residence malfunctions? Welcome to the "Umbilical Cord" clan. That's the term my professor once used last year to explain what she deemed an unhealthy attachment to one's parents.

Emily Fox | Stars aren't significant

Last Saturday, Bruce Springsteen Barack-ed out for fans and politicos alike on the Ben Franklin Parkway in support of his favorite presidential candidate. As the voter registration deadline loomed in Pennsylvania, The Boss took the stage to inspire us to vote in favor of The One who was born to run, Senator Barack Obama.

Your Voice | Letters

Defending the GRE To the Editor: Christina Domenico's column last Wednesday was sadly misinformed about the Graduate Record Examination. Many have claimed throughout the years that GRE is useless for predicting college success or that you can't boil down someone's ability to a number.

Stephen Krewson | Discovering Wallace

A few weeks ago, a man named David Foster Wallace took his own life at the age of 46, ending a protracted battle with depression. This fall will surely be remembered as when the financial sector began its collapse - or, assuming the rosiest scenario, survived a convulsive restructuring.

Callum Makkai | Trickle-up solutions

I never thought I'd see the day when a top Republican publicly decried "greed and corruption" on Wall Street. In last week's debate, Sarah Palin let loose a stream of words you'd normally associate with the left: "Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money.

Opinion Art | Jennifer Lesser

Jennifer Lesser is a College junior from Minneapolis, Minn. Her e-mail address is lesser@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Editorial | Dining after dark

Got the late-night munchies? Too bad. Stores underneath 1920 Commons - including Subway, Starbucks, and the C3 convenience store - are now closing at 9:30 p.m. instead of midnight. That leaves very few options for students hungry after 9:30 p.m., which in college-time, isn't very late at all.

Opinion Art | Janice Dow

Janice Dow is a College sophomore from Los Angeles, Calif. Her e-mail address is dow@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Christina Domenico | A better BFS program

I often wonder about the point of many things: "recommended" books for class, bug-eye sunglasses, the food court at 34th and Walnut streets. But my recent ponderings have been about the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program. The majority of BFS students are mysteriously selected as incoming freshmen and must take at least one Benjamin Franklin seminar per year to graduate with recognition as a scholar.

Editorial | Greener water

Plastic is on its way out. Recently, White Dog Cafe on 34th and Sansom streets decided to stop selling bottled water because of environmental concerns. While it's not a widespread movement, crusaders against Aquafina have a point - bottled water does carry high transportation and disposal costs.

David Kanter | Offering an online option

As I awkwardly balanced the clipboard on my knee, I scribbled my information onto a voter registration form. While I walked away from the Obama campaign worker who assured me that my registration was now all set, I commented to my friend that the whole voter registration system seemed remarkably inefficient.

Opinion Art | Amira Fawcett

Amira Fawcett is an Engineering senior from Houston, Texas. Her e-mail address is fawcett@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Julie Steinberg | Wikipedia's war

Perhaps the two most important pieces of advice freshmen receive are to avoid dating people in their hall and to avoid citing Wikipedia in a paper for class. While the first is questionable, the second makes sense most of the time. After all, when the Benjamin Franklin statue in front of College Hall was renamed the "Liora Pollick Statue" on Penn's Wikipedia page, no one noticed for two months.

Your Voice | Letters

Library use on the rise To the Editor: Last week in an article and subsequent cartoon, The Daily Pennsylvanian implied that use of Penn Libraries is in decline. To correct the record, I offer a few relevant metrics. In the five years between 2003 and 2007 (our latest complete statistics), circulation of books, videos, audio materials, microforms and laptop computers increased by some 20,000 items.

Meredith Aska McBride | Showing some respect

The other night, as I was walking home from rehearsal, I overheard a conversation that disturbed me more than anything I'd heard in a while (interviews with Sarah Palin notwithstanding). I was walking down 40th Street in front of a couple of guys, clearly Penn students, who were talking about a woman they knew.

Jacob Schutz | There'll always be student debt

In May, I was dumped by e-mail. I received an notice from Student Financial Services telling me I would need to select a new lender for my Federal Stafford Loan. My original lender - along with 136 other institutions - had stopped offering the loans. A couple months later, a friend at another school updated her Facebook status to say she "thinks student loan companies can suck it.

Editorial | Cutting the fat

If Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has her way, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be a shadow of its former self. Under Spellings's recently proposed plan, FAFSA would cut the number of questions it asks from over 100 to roughly 27.

Opinion Art | Alicia Puglionesi

Alicia Puglionesi is a College senior from Havertown, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Ryan Benjamin | Financially illiterate

Have you noticed the financial crisis developing right before our eyes - this country's worst since the Great Depression? Most of us know it exists but don't understand it to the extent we should. I randomly surveyed over 120 Penn students, and only 31 percent reported that they were "extremely confident" or "pretty confident" in their ability to understand the current financial dilemma.

Opinion Art | Alex Jacobson

Alex Jacobson is a College junior from Los Angeles. His e-mail address is jacobson@dailypennsylvanian.com.