Opinion
Response to "Debate team budget reduced..."
By admin | November 7, 2010Dear ______ We are the students of the SSIR Debate Program. We joined this program rather skeptical, and rather tentatively.
Dear ______ We are the students of the SSIR Debate Program. We joined this program rather skeptical, and rather tentatively.
I can remember the day like it was yesterday. It was a cold and damp morning in Pittsburgh on Oct.
Every student enrolled here at the University of Richmond is well-educated. But, it has come to my attention that academic proficiency is simply not sufficient at the college level, and that there is currently a significant problem with ignorance on the Richmond campus. I assume that most of us are familiar with these famous words of wisdom: "Ignorance breeds fear.
I decided to go home last weekend with the intention of getting some sleep, saving myself an estimated 3,000 extra calories and making significantly better life decisions so that when I woke up on Saturday and Sunday I could look in the mirror and be OK with the person looking back.
Upon arriving to Oxford, I was mentally prepared to tackle difficult academic meetings, lengthy professional lectures and rigorous class obligations.
Midterms signal a time for midway evaluation. It's a time to work on areas of weakness in preparation for an enhanced performance and a better product than before. Like the midterm evaluation, midway through the semester and thus midway through your fitness pursuits, check in with yourself concerning your midsection. Want better abs?
Three nights ago, I stayed up until 3 a.m. and got up at 8 a.m. Two nights ago, I followed that five hours up with an all-nighter and did not sleep at all.
There are a lot of questions out there, and there are certainly plenty of answers, but riddle me this: What did we do with ourselves before Facebook? I literally can't even remember what I did before Facebook came along to document every picture, quote, relationship status, "Like" or interaction of virtually every person ... and their mothers. One second you're just checking your Facebook before you head out for the afternoon and two hours later you find yourself still on the couch unable to tear your eyes away from some strange guy's pictures that you know only because he has mutual friends with a friend of your best friend's boyfriend.
So maybe you never want to be considered a typical gym rat, and you don't have to, even if you do want to flex during Beach Week.
During the past two months, there has been more crime on campus than most of us could have ever expected.
Ah, yes. Homecoming 2010 is upon us. And that can only mean one thing: The campus is crawling with Spiders. It's one of two weekends of the year (the other, of course, being the high holy day of Pig Roast) that alumni can return to campus without being perceived by their peers and students as lingering dingleberries. And during this magical weekend, age and consequences don't seem to exist.
I had a topic lined up for this week, but I'm putting it on hold because it appears to me that there are more pressing issues in need of immediate address. Last issue, I wrote an article about the dating culture here on the University of Richmond campus. And here we are, two weeks later and still -- I have not received one response.
Why is it that taking out the trash is actually one of the most annoying things in the world? It is one of those irritating little chores that you are in total and utter denial about doing, and for no particular reason. It literally takes two minutes to walk the 20 steps to the nearest dumpster, but I would rather clean up the entire apartment twice with nothing but a tiny toothbrush than take out the godforsaken trash! They warn us during the first UFA block meeting that you absolutely cannot leave trash bags on your front stoop thing (note: STOOP KID from Hey Arnold should probably pop into your head with the mention of the word stoop -- if not, hopefully you're at least laughing about it now that I mentioned it, but if that's not even the case then you may consider perhaps re-examining your childhood). Yet, despite this warning about the trash-free zone, when I walked out of my apartment this morning I saw trash bags on both my neighbors' stoops.
Rumbling down Route 60, crammed in the back seat of an over-crowded Jeep, the vestiges of Saturday night's debauchery still lingering, I half wished I had stuck to my usual Sunday routine of noontime D-Hall and an unproductive afternoon in the library.
I am a Westhampton woman, but I have always been somewhat perplexed by what that means. I know Westhampton contains wonderfully bright and talented modern women, but I haven't seen that modernity reflected in Proclamation Night or Ring Dance.
By way of background, I am a former University College/School of Continuing Studies student who tries to keep up with what is going on at UR.
I have spent some time poring over both Ms. Hailand's and Ms. Parker's arguments for and against Proclamation Night, yet I feel that there are some key points that have been neglected.
Last Tuesday I read the scathing letter an alumnus sent about student (non)attendance at the football game on Family Weekend. The letter lit a bit of a fire beneath many students' tushes because the author pitted the Richmond student body as over-indulged, self-absorbed, apathetic ninnies. I was angry, too.
What a week! This is just one of those weeks. ... It's one of those weeks where everything seems to be going wrong. You run out of print credits, you leave your phone in your room, you can't find your SpiderCard, the panini line is ALWAYS long, you have three midterms and five papers, your mom feels needy and won't stop calling, it's rainy, you feel chubby, you run out of underwear but you have no time to do laundry so you're wearing bathing suit bottoms and everyone thinks that you're wearing granny panties and if there's a hard object in a mile radius of your foot, you're probably going to stub your toe on it.