Opinion

Editorials

OPINION | Untangling the Web: Weaving One Unified Spider Community at UR

By Everett Weaver | April 7, 2025

“Many Spiders, One Web” was a standard message on campus during the pandemic, and it inevitably resurfaces with each new round of admitted students. The message itself is clear: We are many individuals, but we share a community, both physically and interpersonally. This message promotes a powerful image, but unfortunately, it is simply not true.

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Columns

Music Mondays: The political ramifications of an absent-minded listener

By Sophia Sciulli | March 31, 2025

My music taste — eclectic some would say: 90s Garage Dad Rock, Frederic Chopin (while I am studying), Granola Indie/Folk music and 60s/70s British Invasion — ranges depending on my mood, nonetheless, I have always had a soft spot for folk and rock protest music.

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Opinion

Music Mondays: How Ex-Yugoslav music still unites the region

By Farah Šertović | March 3, 2025

There’s a moment at every Balkan gathering where someone picks up a guitar or the accordion or a song comes on the speaker, and suddenly, the room shifts.

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Opinion

OPINION | The marvel of our universe

By CJ Blastos | February 28, 2025

The multiverse theory, largely perpetuated by movies in the last decade and undoubtedly salient in American culture, in all its fun and exploratory possibilities, asks us to consider the nature of our universe critically. 

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Opinion

Music Mondays: Two artists electrifying my workout playlist

By Ann Sabin | February 24, 2025

 Musical artists BigXthaPlug and Yeat bring intensity and color to any workout playlist.

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Opinion

Music Mondays: Tweaker, Hurry Up Tomorrow

By Maddox Lowe | February 17, 2025

In my Spotify turmoil, I unveiled a mystery on the platform. And solved it for myself! I was perusing the platform in an attempt to broaden my taste, when I came across a song with an impossibly exceptional title.

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Opinion

Music Mondays: Four dollar love

By Jonathan Sackett | February 10, 2025

Sometimes falling in love is unexpected, sometimes it comes from a brief meeting and sometimes it’s a combination of the two mixed together in a crusty cardboard box nestled between a few other crusting cardboard boxes. 

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Opinion

OPINION | Setting the stage: Trump's first 40 executive orders

By Saxon Hernandez | February 4, 2025

President Trump signed the first of many executive orders, memoranda and proclamations with a clear goal in mind: to demonstrate the type of term he will lead.

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Opinion

Why Wicked worked (and other movie musicals missed)

By Gareth Woo | December 9, 2024

As someone who has watched many clips on TikTok (thank you slime tutorials), and heard “Defying Gravity” many times, I still fell in love with the movie.

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Opinion

Film Fridays: Three Study Break Films

By Sassan Fahim | May 3, 2024

During finals season, there isn't much time to go to theaters and watch a movie. Instead, here are three movies you can enjoy from the comfort of your bed for a quick study break. 

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Opinion

OPINION | The sustainability standoff

By Taylor McKie | April 14, 2024

As a student at the University of Richmond, I find myself grappling with a sense of disappointment and frustration over our school's decision to pursue funding for a fossil fuel-powered steam plant.  

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Opinion

Regrets? I've had a few

By Joe Hoyle | April 9, 2024

One of the most important decisions any college student makes is the selection of elective courses. Whether a student is wasting tuition money or making good use of it is wrapped up in those decisions. 

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Opinion

Music Mondays: Wednesday on a Monday night

By Toby Tate | April 1, 2024

Karly Hartzman, the lead singer of the alt-country indie rock band Wednesday, screamed her final lines to a sold-out Broadberry crowd on a Monday night with a surprising ferocity more in line with heavy metal than Lynyrd Skynyrd. However, her band may very well be the future of country rock.  

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Opinion

A love letter to community

By Grace Randolph | March 20, 2024

In college, we encounter more opportunities to engage with our community than we likely will in our entire lives. Not only is community more accessible to us as students on campus, but we are routinely encouraged to embrace it. However, how many of us choose to answer?  

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Opinion

Film Fridays: Five movies to shake off the spring semester slump

By Camille Duran | March 1, 2024

Sometimes, you get this itch to feel something. Instead of watching sad compilations with Subway Surfers running in the background, I suggest curling up in your dorm and trying out one of these five films that pack the perfect gut-punch to trigger a good cry. 

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Opinion

Music Monday: Albums Left Behind

By Jonathan Sackett | February 26, 2024

As far as by-the-books alternative albums go, “Friction, Baby” has to be one of the catchiest. Every aspect of the album just works; it does what it needs to do and knows what it is.  

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Opinion

Food review: Lehja, Richmond's modern Indian cuisine

By Grace Randolph | February 7, 2024

During our interview, Baweja shared what makes a restaurant like Lehja so great: excellent service, excellent decor and, above all, excellent food.

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Columns

The Israeli-Hamas War: A view from a student abroad

By Bettina Johnston | November 29, 2023

Editor's note: The views and opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of The Collegian. The United States can often feel like a bubble from the rest of the world. Being in North America, we are separated by an entire ocean from the issues overseas.

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Columns

What's on my shelf Sunday: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Julia Abbott | November 26, 2023

The constant allusions to the tributes as animals lacked subtlety, and much of Sejanus’ dialogue challenging the norms of the Capitol felt repetitive. In my opinion, the obvious fact that the games are wrong didn’t need to be repeated. 

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Columns

Why I enrolled in UR's innovative Design Thinking course

By Leo Barnes | November 21, 2023

I am excited to apply the entrepreneurial mindset and skills from Design Thinking to real-world problems.