The snow falls along with life's stressors
By Katie Toussaint | February 23, 2012It's Sunday night and snowing. I have already slid and fallen once and changed out of sodden boots twice.
It's Sunday night and snowing. I have already slid and fallen once and changed out of sodden boots twice.
A montage of media clips flickers into focus in front of my armchair, and a matter-of-fact voice says: "There is a moral panic in America over young women's sexuality." The voice belongs to feminist author Jessica Valenti, and the clips flash from her 2011 documentary called "The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women." My armchair is planted in the Westhampton Living Room, where I'm one of the few attendees outside of students from the Women in Living and Learning program who are hosting the screening.
It disturbs me to find places on campus I have never seen before. In the past week, I've found three.
When I was a freshman, contraception was a joke. The pail of complimentary condoms outside each resident adviser's door led to laughter - but was always empty - and free condom stickers cheerfully adorned bulletin boards and mini-fridge doors. Sex was a joke, too.
The side of my face is smushed against the carpet in a room in the Tyler Haynes Commons. A group of my girlfriends is sprawled around me, and we are all in rest-mode after an endless day of classes, homework and sorority rush.
The first LGBTQ history bus tour of Richmond hosted by the university rolled through the downtown streets Saturday.
During the pre-dawn hours of daylight saving time, the sidewalks of Charleston, S.C., were pulsing with the flurry of discombobulated people who had spent their extra hour out at the bars.
A University of Richmond student said he and his apartmentmates were disgusted when they discovered mold on the their bathroom wall during their first week on campus this semester.
A small group of University of Richmond students gathered in the kitchen of their rabbi's home Friday night for the first retreat organized by UR Hillel, the Jewish student organization on campus.
When I was traipsing around Scotland during my semester abroad, I noticed that the plastic bags at Tesco, the mainstream supermarket, were streaked with the slogan: "Every little helps." For the life of me, I could not figure out what the missing noun was. Back in America, President Obama's newest slogan seems to be: "Every little dollar helps." For students, that is.