Opinion

Opinion Board | Missing the mark

Last week, the Yale Daily News reported that the university will be cutting ties with Aramark - the Philadelphia-based company which manages their dining services as well as Penn's - when their contract comes up for renewal in January. If only Penn's contract with Aramark was coming up for renewal that soon.

Meredith Aska McBride | A labor crisis ignored

Many of those who have followed the AlliedBarton guard unionization controversy have been subtly manipulated into believing that workers should only organize in response to labor-rights violations. But unionization "is not only for money, benefits, power .

Opinion Art | Amira Fawcett

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

Elizabeth Song | I'm singin' in the streets

It's New York, 1967. You turn onto 128th and Lexington Avenue and right on the corner is Dizzy Gillespie and his coterie of jazz musicians playing up a storm. Their audience is a mix of housewives in aprons, old couples sitting on front porches and children dancing in the street.

Michaela Tolpin | Cheating the student body

One-fifth of Wharton's sophomore class could be in serious trouble. For those of you who, like me, are not lucky enough to inhabit the hallowed halls of Huntsman or Steinberg-Dietrich, OPIM 101 (short for Operations and Information Management) is a required first-year introductory course for all Wharton students.

Opinion Art | Alicia Puglionesi

Jim Saksa | Not worth the risk

This summer, a gay nurse at HUP asked me to go on a date with him. And I said yes. But we weren't interested in getting down and dirty (I'm straight, and he has standards.) We wanted to make sure we were clean. We got tested for HIV. Together, my friend and I ventured into the heart of the Gayborhood to the Washington West Project, an LGBT health clinic associated with the Mazzoni Center.

Opinion Board | More of the same

When Ben Kweller was picked to headline the Social Planning and Events Committee's fall concert, many Penn students had the same reaction: "Who?" Last Thursday the DP reported that only five out of 62 surveyed students were familiar with Kweller. Given his lack of popularity at Penn, Kweller is an odd choice to say the least.

Cassandra Tognoni | Shop 'til you drop

Harvard starts classes today. Correction, my friend tells, me; they start "shopping." I have always been jealous of other Ivies' shopping periods. The whole concept sounds so free and fun. Students can register for as many classes as they want and then pick the ones they like best.

Opinion Board | Let them eat cake

Something about that cheesesteak seem off lately? Don't blame Geno's just yet. The city's celebrated trans-fat ban which prohibits eateries from frying foods in trans fat and from serving trans-fat-based spreads (like margarine) went into effect on September 1.

Ted Gomez | A road not taken for SEAS

As a Penngineer, I've been prejudged as a socially awkward Asian who's good at math but inept at the English language. This stereotype is almost true: I'm actually not very good at math. Self-mockery aside, I find that the typecasting of engineers as poor speakers and writers manifests a common tendency to create a divide between the arts and sciences.

Stephen Krewson | Dispatches from a divided campus

"If you have somebody in your dorm who's a blowhard-and this is off-the-wall-carry one of those army-recruitment posters and tell them: 'Sign up-you can even use my pen.'"

Jenny Zhan | Take a nap. Ask me why

On Wednesday, July 11, 2007, thousands across the United Kingdom celebrated a very special occasion in a rather unconventional way. They dozed off at work for 20 minutes right underneath their bosses' scrutinizing eyes. Yes, it was National Siesta Day. Talk about getting creative with holidays in Europe.

Rina Thomas | Pimp my dorm (in 25 years)

What if you woke up one day with your OPIM professor's face staring down at you? If you decide that non-linear optimization problems are just too much in the morning, the offending academic could be exorcised from your dorm room by a simple touch on the wall.

Opinion Board | Out with the old

Penn students generally don't agree on much, but one thing they seem united in is their distaste for Penn's online technology. And for good reason. Penn Course Review is poorly configured and needlessly time consuming. As for PennPortal, it may have been cutting edge when it was introduced in the mid-1990s, but now your average computer-science major could draw up a far superior, more intuitive design.

Mara Gordon | The debtor's dilemma

Opinion Art | Joanne Tong

Joanne Tong is a Wharton senior from Manila, Philippines. Her e-mail address is tong@dailypennsylvanian.com

Meredith Aska McBride | I can't believe it's not processed!

Freshman year includes many collective rites of passage: NSO Convocation, taking a writing seminar, the meal plan. But some people miss NSO events; many people ditched last year's convocation due to the pouring rain; and some people don't take a writing seminar until sophomore year.

Opinion Art | Amira Fawcett

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

Daily Digit

20Millions of dollars which need to be cut this year from Philadelphia schools' operating budget. Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer Here