Blog Proj Week 8
In this week’s article published the 27th of March 2024. Titled “Senate committee passes its Medicaid plan” by Denton Jenkins. This was informative in a neutral and actual tone not picking any side as it was political in nature, being the Mississippi state legislature. The journalist got some of the statistics, it seems like it is from the bill that was being passed, as well in two interviews with congress government officials, as well as a senator and a student’s thoughts on it from the school. It got an opposition thought from another senator of the same political view that disagreed on it. Politically though I thought it was interesting because it showed some disagreement within political parties. There were seven well rounded interviewed quotes in this article, two from students of different backgrounds and the rest government officials of two different parties. I thought this was well written and a good example of interviews and letting quotes speak in journalism and taking your voice out as the journalist, because there were so many quotes and interviews I felt like the journalist wasn’t speaking, only saying what they had learned and gathered from the interviews.
“PETA calls for UW to ‘stop experimenting on endangered monkeys’” By Scarlet Hansen
This week at the University of Washington, a demonstration took place from the non-profit “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA) on campus, calling the university to take action to stop experimenting on vulnerable and endangered monkeys. The university is well-known for their research programs, yet the school has been using primates as test subjects for their innovative medicines. PETA demands that the school shut down the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) for unethical treatment and abuse of multiple endangered species. A senior advisor from the primate experimentation industry quit the program after fourteen years to join PETA. This contact went on record to expose the WaNPRC for countless failed experiments resulting in the death of about 9,000 primates over the years (according to PETA). The ex-advisor described a few of the conditions faced by the monkeys such as disease, painful experimentation, receiving implantations, and no sunlight access. The article also included the perspective of the director of the WaNPRC, defending the conditions of the primates and restating the values of the program. Overall, this article is well-written and includes multiple perspectives on the concern of the endangered monkeys undergoing experiments in the UW facilities.
Something that really stuck out to me for this weeks Blog Proj. from The Daily Free Press by Boston University was an article written about a crime log. Kayla Baltazar recorded the campus crimes for the week of March 17-22nd. I found this article to very interesting and unlike one I have seen before from the BU paper. Baltazar structure this article with the just of the crime and where it occured before then going into the details with information such as the time and what the call in report stated. Overall I found this to be a very unique article and a style I would like to see more of.
Story 1: “James Joyce’s Classic Novel Gathers Students and Faculty For a 28-Hour Reading” by Parker Leaf https://www.bcheights.com/2024/03/24/ulysses-reading-event/
I have to say I looked into this article solely because I couldn’t resist the title – 28 hours of reading James Joyce’s Ulysses is so attention-grabbing, and I wanted to know more about the specifics. For the birthday of a beloved English professor at Boston College, Joseph Nugent, students organized an event where they would spend 24 hours reading Ulysses aloud at 15-minute intervals in Connolly House. The article briefly summarizes Joyce’s novel, where Leopold Blooms recounts his life on one day, June 16th, in Dublin, Ireland, in immense detail. It also provides some context as to the students’ dressing up as the main character, Leopold Blooms – some wearing fake mustaches and bowler hats and even replicating Bloom’s lunch from the novel by serving a gorgonzola cheese sandwich. While most didn’t make it all the way through the night, by 3:00 am, there were still ten students left, and the following morning, another gathering took place in the library for the reading of the last two chapters. Leaf introduced one student who stayed through the entire 24 hours, Nina Khaghany, Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences ’24, who is working with Nugent on her honors thesis and helped to organize BC’s first Bloomsday during her junior year. The 664-page novel is no small feat, but Leaf ended the article by highlighting the great bonding experience the students had and the ability to engage with their international students and programs, as BC also has a campus in Dublin.
This article by the Heights Editorial Board delves into an issue surrounding courses and the professors that teach them – opening with the concern that students should only consider the class and content rather than which professor is teaching it and whether or not it will be an easy class. Quoting the president’s message on Boston College’s website, which says, “Boston College endeavors to educate a new generation of leaders—men and women who will be capable of shaping the future with vision, justice, and charity” – the authors make a note of race for students come registration time to get into specific professors courses. Whether it is based on the rigor of the class or what information can be found on Rate My Professor reviews, the impact on students’ GPAs and what is taught has begun to come into question. Looking into the issue of course inconsistencies within science-based courses, the article quotes the psychology director of undergraduate studies, Andrea Heberlein, who claims she hasn’t heard any complaints regarding fairness and assured The Heights that it is a top priority that specific curriculum is covered regardless of which section or professor. The authors feel that urging for more curriculum oversight would help limit inconsistencies between testing methods and similar course materials.
In early February of 2023, the Union College Communications and Marketing announced they would be changing the school mascot. At the time the school’s mascot was the Dutchmen, a name given to the school by reporters covering sports in the early 20th century. The name stuck with the student body as they refer to themselves as Dutchmen or Dutchwomen. The school sent out an email with an explanation of their decision. Students and faculty alike don’t feel a connection to the mascot and it’s not a strong marketing point for the college. The school calls this change and others a general rebranding update. It’s “to strengthen how we communicate Union’s distinctiveness and the power of a Union education to prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.” The school received positive feedback from it’s members and revealed its new name to be The Union Squirrels, referring to the abundance of them on campus. Other names suggested were from Union’s professor of Physics and Astronomy, Francis Wilkin, who proposed Evie the Electron for the college town’s General Electric company. However, some negative feedback was complaints of the college rejecting its history of Dutch settlement despite them driving out the Natives in the area. Other people are frustrated that the change is more inclusive to nonbinary identities. The article wraps up by describing the unnerving costume of the Dutchmen and how going forward the school need to create a more appealing costume for the mascot, jerseys, and merchandise.
Back in May 2019, students struggled to get their packages through the typical email system until the school revealed its drone delivery system. The article is structured as a Q&A with back-and-forth answers. Jack Wittlestick and Maddie Moosher, members of the mail room speak about the new mail system. Jack admits it’s the perfect time to launch this new system which they have been working on for some time. The tuition department worked on finding funds from student payments. Maddie admits this has been a challenging project but it’s for the convenience of the students. The drones can deliver anywhere on campus and use facial recognition to identify the correct student to package. There’s a GPS in the drones that can wait to deliver the package to an area where the student is safe. They use gyroscopic sensors to determine the distance of the target. Despite the question of safety and security of the packages, this developing plan seems plausible. However, in the current day, it doesn’t seem like the school has drones delivering their mail today. The school has made no statement of ever going through with this plan.
This article is primarily about the suspension of the Coalition against Apartheid (CAA), which is the movement against the war between Israel and Palestine, however from a new perspective than is usually shown. The article starts with a discussion of the history of Jewish people in America and at MIT specifically, then delves into the experiences of Jewish students at MIT in the wake of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It specifically mentions that there have been calls to reinstate the CAA, even after it was found in violation of MIT’s code of conduct. It goes on to accuse the CAA of being “engaged in a protracted campaign of anti semitic bullying and harassment of the MIT Jewish community…”. It brings up a controversial guest speaker brought in by the CAA, Mohammed El-Kurd, who made accusations of the Israeli population that served in the IDF at MIT of killing Palestinean civilians. It then discusses the impact of the Oct. 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, and continues to assert that the activity of the CAA is directly resulting in antisemetic treatment and abuse of the Jewish students at MIT, and finishes by imploring the MIT administration to take action to stop this ongoing abuse.
This article discusses a recent guest speaker invited to MIT on Mar. 18th. Dalia Mogahed, who was once the director of the Research Institute for Social Policy and Understand, held the third panel of MIT’s Dialogues Across Differences speaker series. Her panel was called “Islamophobia: a Threat to All”. Her panel started by discussing Islamophobia in the US, stating that Muslims are the most likely to experience religious discrimination in institutional settings. She also stated that iIslamophobia does not just threaten Muslims, but society as a whole. She cites an increase in division and incitement of fear and discrimination in creating a society with less unity, saying it compromises the safety of every person in it. The article also mentions the effects of media coverage on the phenomenon of Islamophobia, specifically in the dissemination of false information about Islamic communities. She stated that anti-Islamophobia mandates should be given greater precedence in institutions, and people should be made aware of the discrimination they face. The article concludes with a description of the upcoming panels in the speaker series.
The first article that I decided to read this week is “Gyllenhaal falls short in Amazon action remake” by May Lindeman. This article is a review of a recently released film titled “Road House”, which is about a young fighter trying to make it big and finding himself working as a bouncer at a bar and ends up saving it from local gangs. The article is structured in a way that makes sense, with the basic information about the film first, followed by the plot, and then the critiques and praises. The author had heavy critiques on the film, stating it needs much more work to become a good film. I was slightly confused by this statement as she seems to have a lot of positive things to say about the film, only picking out small points as negatives. The headline is misleading, as the article actually gives the film a lot of positive feedback. The negative feedback given makes sense, but I would say this is a neutral review, not so negative as the author says in the headline.
The second article I decided to read this week was “OPINION: The possible TikTok ban is an infringement on our First Amendment rights” by Joshua Yanes. The author discusses his beliefs on why TikTok should not be banned in the United States, using facts from cited sources, and describes why he believes this ban to be a violation of the first amendment. The argument is constructed in an order that makes sense, with the facts being presented first so that readers may begin to form their own opinion. The opinion piece of the article also makes sense, and everything in it is explained and cited. The only piece of this article that I think needed a bit of help is the wording. There are some points where the author is so unclear with his wording where it is very hard to tell what he is trying to say.
This talks about the recent NCCA elite 8 tournament loss for Duke. It starts with talking about the ending of the game and how each team did. The article then breaks down the game for Duke. Starts by talking about each of the key plays and moments of the 1st half. The article also goes into how different players performances as well as how each coach was changing their gameplans to help the team win. After heading into the moments of the first half it changed into how dukes game plan fell apart for Duke. The moments mentioned helped to give the story of how big of a game this was and how it was slipping form Dukes hands. The article goes on to give how different of a gameplan the teams had compared to previous games. The last paragraph of the article goes into the question of how the offseason will be for Duke and what’s next for the players of the team. https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/03/duke-mens-basketball-march-madness-elite-8-nc-state-kyle-filipowski-jared-mccain-dj-burns-jr
This article talks about a in person meeting on campus about climate change. The lead o the article talks about the Duke Office of Climate and Sustainability and what the meeting was about. The article then goes into some history of about what lead to this meeting and commitment. It talks about how it started on campus as well as around the world. The article includes a whole section to explain all that the campus has done and how we got to where we are today on the campus. After giving the history, the article goes into the students input on everything. This dives into the goals of the Commitment as well as the plan and action duke students are doing. The article ends by talking about what the students want to do in the future and their goals with everything. It as goes into students’ new opportunities starting. https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/03/duke-university-climate-commitment-town-hall-office-of-climate-and-sustainability-in-person-acir-ocs
This week I read “Healthcare Workers for Palestine Demand ‘Permanent Ceasefire’ at Harvard Medical School Protest” by Veronica H. Paulus and Akshaya Ravi. Twenty Longwood affiliates protested outside Harvard Medical School on Friday against Israeli settlements and Israel’s mistreatment of healthcare workers in Gaza. Many people affiliated with the school spoke out about the conditions that not only Palestinians are facing but also healthcare workers who are trying to save lives amid genocide. Assistant professor at Harvard Medical School Hibah Osman said that activists have been trying to speak with Dean George Q. Daley since November, but that he refuses to meet and isn’t even acknowledging requests for meetings regarding the situation.
The article I chose this week was titled “ SPARK GRANTS LOOK TO FUND COMMUNITY PROJECTS CENTERING ART”. The article was about how Ohio State’s office of outreach and engagement is offering 25,000$ spark grants for students and faculty who are trying to organize “arts-oriented” projects. The article goes into detail about how said grants are funded by a private organization based out of New York that funds the arts and humanities. The article goes on to detail what is needed for the application. Students/ faculty are required to complete a maximum of a two page proposal, a budget document and proof of community engagement. The reason I chose this article is because it’s something different as a student who is currently focused in the direction of arts and humanities. It was interesting to see what other schools do to try and give students opportunities in the fields. Along with this the lantern is usually so sports base that the article was a nice change of pace.
This week, I came across an article in The Chanticleer titled “Trump Rallies In Large To Crowd The Campus” Former President Donald Trump held a “Get Out the Vote” rally at the HTC Center on February 10th, speaking for over one-and-a-half hours. Attendees, including supporters of all ages, wore various Trump-themed merchandise, with slogans like “MAGA” and “Let’s Go Brandon” visible. Despite Coastal Carolina University not receiving requests to sell Trump paraphernalia on campus, a stand selling merchandise was set up nearby. The event drew a full house of 3,000 people, with standing room only for some. Trump’s arrival via private jet led to road closures for security. Opening remarks in support of Trump were made by Reps. Michael Waltz and Russell Fry, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, and Gov. Henry McMaster, before Trump took the stage to cheers. He discussed his primary wins, touted his past presidential accomplishments, and criticized President Joe Biden, whom he dubbed “Crooked Joe,” repeatedly calling him the worst president in history. He also criticized his primary competition, Nikki Haley, referring to her as “Tricky Nikki.” Throughout, he derided the press as “fake news,” a sentiment echoed by the crowd.
For week 8 of Blog Proj, I decided to read a piece by Rosina Boehm entitled “For the first time in SU history, Otto the Orange is played by an all-women cast”. In the article, the author details the history and secretive nature of being Otto the Orange, Syracuse’s mascot. Stereotypically, men are usually expected to be the people behind the mascot, so that fact that SU has had an all-women team of mascot performers for the past few years surprised many people. The article also describes the close-knit connection the members of the Otto team have to each other, and how many of them found the mascot program. I found this article to be really interesting and wholesome, and I think it’s great that their mascot program is thriving, despite the secretive nature of it. I also think that, since the mascot of any university is kind of the “face” of the institution, the university makes the opportunity available for everyone, since it brings in a lot of uniqueness to an otherwise uniform position.
The article I chose for this week’s Blog Project is called “Drip IV Therapy: Infiltrating the Wellness Industry One Drop at a Time,” by Kylie Valluzzi. I picked this because I just recently learned about something called liquid IV which is actually exactly what it sounds like, it’s just to drink. Apparently it’s for people who suffer from pots, which I had also never heard of until recently, but the only association I have with IV’s is with hospitals and those little needles that stay in your arm and freak me out. I don’t know why anyone would get that willingly, hence the reason why I clicked on the article.
The article starts off by introducing a woman named Tori Scearbo, a former nurse that left Portsmouth Regional Hospital after 20 years after stress caused by the COVID 19 epidemic. Apparently, about 100,000 registered nurses in the U.S. left the workplace due to stresses caused by the pandemic. The interview continues, and Scearbo talks about how people don’t really treat nurses well in the hospital, so she wanted a career change, and she wanted it to be with people.
Apparently, IV therapy is a way to inject large amounts of vitamins into the body directly through the bloodstream. Normally, the goal of IV treatment is to replenish the vitamins and minerals your body might lose while in the hospital due to various medical conditions and/or procedures. In recent years, however, these independent centers, or “bars”, offering IV therapies opened up and are marketing themselves to focus on wellness.
The entire process seems incredibly expensive, and the article itself delves a lot into the various benefits that may arise from the procedure. It does kind of sound like one of those new health fads, like nutritional yeast, or apple cider vinegar, only this one costs upwards of $100, but it seems interesting nonetheless. Apparently it aims to support anti aging, immunity or recovery, health support, detox, or just a vitamin supplement. It certainly seems like an interesting job prospect, especially for those in nursing that don’t necessarily want to work in a hospital, but wish to still help people.
For this week’s article I found something I was very excited to read: “A lesbian’s college survival guide” . This title absolutely killed me. This article was written by Luna Tibbals, an opinion columnist of the Cynic, and was published on March 29th 2024. This article is honestly the best thing ever and my favorite article I’ve ever read, it’s a more laidback comedic article with fun references for the queer community obviously more directed at lesbians. The article is a survival guide for budding lesbians and other queer folks in their freshman year of college, harking back to classic shows from our childhood like Ned’s declassified school survival guide, with a fun queer twist. The article was witty and fun, while also at the same time giving out really solid advice for queer people in New England. All in a hilariously uncomfortable way that hits too close to home at points, which I feel like is only something you can relate to if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community. This was the best article I’ve read so far, but I am extremely biased on that front. A lot of the advice given is stuff I wish someone would have told my introverted ass freshman year. Such a great time 101/10
15 thoughts on “BLOG-PROJ-WEEK 8”
Blog Proj Week 8
In this week’s article published the 27th of March 2024. Titled “Senate committee passes its Medicaid plan” by Denton Jenkins. This was informative in a neutral and actual tone not picking any side as it was political in nature, being the Mississippi state legislature. The journalist got some of the statistics, it seems like it is from the bill that was being passed, as well in two interviews with congress government officials, as well as a senator and a student’s thoughts on it from the school. It got an opposition thought from another senator of the same political view that disagreed on it. Politically though I thought it was interesting because it showed some disagreement within political parties. There were seven well rounded interviewed quotes in this article, two from students of different backgrounds and the rest government officials of two different parties. I thought this was well written and a good example of interviews and letting quotes speak in journalism and taking your voice out as the journalist, because there were so many quotes and interviews I felt like the journalist wasn’t speaking, only saying what they had learned and gathered from the interviews.
“PETA calls for UW to ‘stop experimenting on endangered monkeys’” By Scarlet Hansen
This week at the University of Washington, a demonstration took place from the non-profit “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA) on campus, calling the university to take action to stop experimenting on vulnerable and endangered monkeys. The university is well-known for their research programs, yet the school has been using primates as test subjects for their innovative medicines. PETA demands that the school shut down the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) for unethical treatment and abuse of multiple endangered species. A senior advisor from the primate experimentation industry quit the program after fourteen years to join PETA. This contact went on record to expose the WaNPRC for countless failed experiments resulting in the death of about 9,000 primates over the years (according to PETA). The ex-advisor described a few of the conditions faced by the monkeys such as disease, painful experimentation, receiving implantations, and no sunlight access. The article also included the perspective of the director of the WaNPRC, defending the conditions of the primates and restating the values of the program. Overall, this article is well-written and includes multiple perspectives on the concern of the endangered monkeys undergoing experiments in the UW facilities.
Something that really stuck out to me for this weeks Blog Proj. from The Daily Free Press by Boston University was an article written about a crime log. Kayla Baltazar recorded the campus crimes for the week of March 17-22nd. I found this article to very interesting and unlike one I have seen before from the BU paper. Baltazar structure this article with the just of the crime and where it occured before then going into the details with information such as the time and what the call in report stated. Overall I found this to be a very unique article and a style I would like to see more of.
Story 1: “James Joyce’s Classic Novel Gathers Students and Faculty For a 28-Hour Reading” by Parker Leaf
https://www.bcheights.com/2024/03/24/ulysses-reading-event/
I have to say I looked into this article solely because I couldn’t resist the title – 28 hours of reading James Joyce’s Ulysses is so attention-grabbing, and I wanted to know more about the specifics. For the birthday of a beloved English professor at Boston College, Joseph Nugent, students organized an event where they would spend 24 hours reading Ulysses aloud at 15-minute intervals in Connolly House. The article briefly summarizes Joyce’s novel, where Leopold Blooms recounts his life on one day, June 16th, in Dublin, Ireland, in immense detail. It also provides some context as to the students’ dressing up as the main character, Leopold Blooms – some wearing fake mustaches and bowler hats and even replicating Bloom’s lunch from the novel by serving a gorgonzola cheese sandwich. While most didn’t make it all the way through the night, by 3:00 am, there were still ten students left, and the following morning, another gathering took place in the library for the reading of the last two chapters. Leaf introduced one student who stayed through the entire 24 hours, Nina Khaghany, Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences ’24, who is working with Nugent on her honors thesis and helped to organize BC’s first Bloomsday during her junior year. The 664-page novel is no small feat, but Leaf ended the article by highlighting the great bonding experience the students had and the ability to engage with their international students and programs, as BC also has a campus in Dublin.
Story 2: “Course Curriculum at BC Needs Greater Consistency and Oversight” by The Heights Editorial Board
https://www.bcheights.com/2024/03/27/bcs-curriculum-needs-greater-consistency-and-oversight/
This article by the Heights Editorial Board delves into an issue surrounding courses and the professors that teach them – opening with the concern that students should only consider the class and content rather than which professor is teaching it and whether or not it will be an easy class. Quoting the president’s message on Boston College’s website, which says, “Boston College endeavors to educate a new generation of leaders—men and women who will be capable of shaping the future with vision, justice, and charity” – the authors make a note of race for students come registration time to get into specific professors courses. Whether it is based on the rigor of the class or what information can be found on Rate My Professor reviews, the impact on students’ GPAs and what is taught has begun to come into question. Looking into the issue of course inconsistencies within science-based courses, the article quotes the psychology director of undergraduate studies, Andrea Heberlein, who claims she hasn’t heard any complaints regarding fairness and assured The Heights that it is a top priority that specific curriculum is covered regardless of which section or professor. The authors feel that urging for more curriculum oversight would help limit inconsistencies between testing methods and similar course materials.
Union College Mascot to change, for the better?
https://concordiensis.com/4563/opinions/union-college-mascot-to-change-for-the-better/
In early February of 2023, the Union College Communications and Marketing announced they would be changing the school mascot. At the time the school’s mascot was the Dutchmen, a name given to the school by reporters covering sports in the early 20th century. The name stuck with the student body as they refer to themselves as Dutchmen or Dutchwomen. The school sent out an email with an explanation of their decision. Students and faculty alike don’t feel a connection to the mascot and it’s not a strong marketing point for the college. The school calls this change and others a general rebranding update. It’s “to strengthen how we communicate Union’s distinctiveness and the power of a Union education to prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.” The school received positive feedback from it’s members and revealed its new name to be The Union Squirrels, referring to the abundance of them on campus. Other names suggested were from Union’s professor of Physics and Astronomy, Francis Wilkin, who proposed Evie the Electron for the college town’s General Electric company. However, some negative feedback was complaints of the college rejecting its history of Dutch settlement despite them driving out the Natives in the area. Other people are frustrated that the change is more inclusive to nonbinary identities. The article wraps up by describing the unnerving costume of the Dutchmen and how going forward the school need to create a more appealing costume for the mascot, jerseys, and merchandise.
Mailroom announces groundbreaking drone delivery system
https://concordiensis.com/1356/807-onion/mailroom-announces-groundbreaking-drone-delivery-system/
Back in May 2019, students struggled to get their packages through the typical email system until the school revealed its drone delivery system. The article is structured as a Q&A with back-and-forth answers. Jack Wittlestick and Maddie Moosher, members of the mail room speak about the new mail system. Jack admits it’s the perfect time to launch this new system which they have been working on for some time. The tuition department worked on finding funds from student payments. Maddie admits this has been a challenging project but it’s for the convenience of the students. The drones can deliver anywhere on campus and use facial recognition to identify the correct student to package. There’s a GPS in the drones that can wait to deliver the package to an area where the student is safe. They use gyroscopic sensors to determine the distance of the target. Despite the question of safety and security of the packages, this developing plan seems plausible. However, in the current day, it doesn’t seem like the school has drones delivering their mail today. The school has made no statement of ever going through with this plan.
https://thetech.com/2024/03/21/mit-jaa-suspend-caa
This article is primarily about the suspension of the Coalition against Apartheid (CAA), which is the movement against the war between Israel and Palestine, however from a new perspective than is usually shown. The article starts with a discussion of the history of Jewish people in America and at MIT specifically, then delves into the experiences of Jewish students at MIT in the wake of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It specifically mentions that there have been calls to reinstate the CAA, even after it was found in violation of MIT’s code of conduct. It goes on to accuse the CAA of being “engaged in a protracted campaign of anti semitic bullying and harassment of the MIT Jewish community…”. It brings up a controversial guest speaker brought in by the CAA, Mohammed El-Kurd, who made accusations of the Israeli population that served in the IDF at MIT of killing Palestinean civilians. It then discusses the impact of the Oct. 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, and continues to assert that the activity of the CAA is directly resulting in antisemetic treatment and abuse of the Jewish students at MIT, and finishes by imploring the MIT administration to take action to stop this ongoing abuse.
https://thetech.com/2024/03/21/mogahed-dia-ac-diff
This article discusses a recent guest speaker invited to MIT on Mar. 18th. Dalia Mogahed, who was once the director of the Research Institute for Social Policy and Understand, held the third panel of MIT’s Dialogues Across Differences speaker series. Her panel was called “Islamophobia: a Threat to All”. Her panel started by discussing Islamophobia in the US, stating that Muslims are the most likely to experience religious discrimination in institutional settings. She also stated that iIslamophobia does not just threaten Muslims, but society as a whole. She cites an increase in division and incitement of fear and discrimination in creating a society with less unity, saying it compromises the safety of every person in it. The article also mentions the effects of media coverage on the phenomenon of Islamophobia, specifically in the dissemination of false information about Islamic communities. She stated that anti-Islamophobia mandates should be given greater precedence in institutions, and people should be made aware of the discrimination they face. The article concludes with a description of the upcoming panels in the speaker series.
The first article that I decided to read this week is “Gyllenhaal falls short in Amazon action remake” by May Lindeman. This article is a review of a recently released film titled “Road House”, which is about a young fighter trying to make it big and finding himself working as a bouncer at a bar and ends up saving it from local gangs. The article is structured in a way that makes sense, with the basic information about the film first, followed by the plot, and then the critiques and praises. The author had heavy critiques on the film, stating it needs much more work to become a good film. I was slightly confused by this statement as she seems to have a lot of positive things to say about the film, only picking out small points as negatives. The headline is misleading, as the article actually gives the film a lot of positive feedback. The negative feedback given makes sense, but I would say this is a neutral review, not so negative as the author says in the headline.
The second article I decided to read this week was “OPINION: The possible TikTok ban is an infringement on our First Amendment rights” by Joshua Yanes. The author discusses his beliefs on why TikTok should not be banned in the United States, using facts from cited sources, and describes why he believes this ban to be a violation of the first amendment. The argument is constructed in an order that makes sense, with the facts being presented first so that readers may begin to form their own opinion. The opinion piece of the article also makes sense, and everything in it is explained and cited. The only piece of this article that I think needed a bit of help is the wording. There are some points where the author is so unclear with his wording where it is very hard to tell what he is trying to say.
This talks about the recent NCCA elite 8 tournament loss for Duke. It starts with talking about the ending of the game and how each team did. The article then breaks down the game for Duke. Starts by talking about each of the key plays and moments of the 1st half. The article also goes into how different players performances as well as how each coach was changing their gameplans to help the team win. After heading into the moments of the first half it changed into how dukes game plan fell apart for Duke. The moments mentioned helped to give the story of how big of a game this was and how it was slipping form Dukes hands. The article goes on to give how different of a gameplan the teams had compared to previous games. The last paragraph of the article goes into the question of how the offseason will be for Duke and what’s next for the players of the team.
https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/03/duke-mens-basketball-march-madness-elite-8-nc-state-kyle-filipowski-jared-mccain-dj-burns-jr
This article talks about a in person meeting on campus about climate change. The lead o the article talks about the Duke Office of Climate and Sustainability and what the meeting was about. The article then goes into some history of about what lead to this meeting and commitment. It talks about how it started on campus as well as around the world. The article includes a whole section to explain all that the campus has done and how we got to where we are today on the campus. After giving the history, the article goes into the students input on everything. This dives into the goals of the Commitment as well as the plan and action duke students are doing. The article ends by talking about what the students want to do in the future and their goals with everything. It as goes into students’ new opportunities starting.
https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2024/03/duke-university-climate-commitment-town-hall-office-of-climate-and-sustainability-in-person-acir-ocs
https://eglynos.uneportfolio.org/
This week I read “Healthcare Workers for Palestine Demand ‘Permanent Ceasefire’ at Harvard Medical School Protest” by Veronica H. Paulus and Akshaya Ravi. Twenty Longwood affiliates protested outside Harvard Medical School on Friday against Israeli settlements and Israel’s mistreatment of healthcare workers in Gaza. Many people affiliated with the school spoke out about the conditions that not only Palestinians are facing but also healthcare workers who are trying to save lives amid genocide. Assistant professor at Harvard Medical School Hibah Osman said that activists have been trying to speak with Dean George Q. Daley since November, but that he refuses to meet and isn’t even acknowledging requests for meetings regarding the situation.
The article I chose this week was titled “ SPARK GRANTS LOOK TO FUND COMMUNITY PROJECTS CENTERING ART”. The article was about how Ohio State’s office of outreach and engagement is offering 25,000$ spark grants for students and faculty who are trying to organize “arts-oriented” projects. The article goes into detail about how said grants are funded by a private organization based out of New York that funds the arts and humanities. The article goes on to detail what is needed for the application. Students/ faculty are required to complete a maximum of a two page proposal, a budget document and proof of community engagement. The reason I chose this article is because it’s something different as a student who is currently focused in the direction of arts and humanities. It was interesting to see what other schools do to try and give students opportunities in the fields. Along with this the lantern is usually so sports base that the article was a nice change of pace.
This week, I came across an article in The Chanticleer titled “Trump Rallies In Large To Crowd The Campus” Former President Donald Trump held a “Get Out the Vote” rally at the HTC Center on February 10th, speaking for over one-and-a-half hours. Attendees, including supporters of all ages, wore various Trump-themed merchandise, with slogans like “MAGA” and “Let’s Go Brandon” visible. Despite Coastal Carolina University not receiving requests to sell Trump paraphernalia on campus, a stand selling merchandise was set up nearby. The event drew a full house of 3,000 people, with standing room only for some. Trump’s arrival via private jet led to road closures for security. Opening remarks in support of Trump were made by Reps. Michael Waltz and Russell Fry, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, and Gov. Henry McMaster, before Trump took the stage to cheers. He discussed his primary wins, touted his past presidential accomplishments, and criticized President Joe Biden, whom he dubbed “Crooked Joe,” repeatedly calling him the worst president in history. He also criticized his primary competition, Nikki Haley, referring to her as “Tricky Nikki.” Throughout, he derided the press as “fake news,” a sentiment echoed by the crowd.
For week 8 of Blog Proj, I decided to read a piece by Rosina Boehm entitled “For the first time in SU history, Otto the Orange is played by an all-women cast”. In the article, the author details the history and secretive nature of being Otto the Orange, Syracuse’s mascot. Stereotypically, men are usually expected to be the people behind the mascot, so that fact that SU has had an all-women team of mascot performers for the past few years surprised many people. The article also describes the close-knit connection the members of the Otto team have to each other, and how many of them found the mascot program. I found this article to be really interesting and wholesome, and I think it’s great that their mascot program is thriving, despite the secretive nature of it. I also think that, since the mascot of any university is kind of the “face” of the institution, the university makes the opportunity available for everyone, since it brings in a lot of uniqueness to an otherwise uniform position.
The article I chose for this week’s Blog Project is called “Drip IV Therapy: Infiltrating the Wellness Industry One Drop at a Time,” by Kylie Valluzzi. I picked this because I just recently learned about something called liquid IV which is actually exactly what it sounds like, it’s just to drink. Apparently it’s for people who suffer from pots, which I had also never heard of until recently, but the only association I have with IV’s is with hospitals and those little needles that stay in your arm and freak me out. I don’t know why anyone would get that willingly, hence the reason why I clicked on the article.
The article starts off by introducing a woman named Tori Scearbo, a former nurse that left Portsmouth Regional Hospital after 20 years after stress caused by the COVID 19 epidemic. Apparently, about 100,000 registered nurses in the U.S. left the workplace due to stresses caused by the pandemic. The interview continues, and Scearbo talks about how people don’t really treat nurses well in the hospital, so she wanted a career change, and she wanted it to be with people.
Apparently, IV therapy is a way to inject large amounts of vitamins into the body directly through the bloodstream. Normally, the goal of IV treatment is to replenish the vitamins and minerals your body might lose while in the hospital due to various medical conditions and/or procedures. In recent years, however, these independent centers, or “bars”, offering IV therapies opened up and are marketing themselves to focus on wellness.
The entire process seems incredibly expensive, and the article itself delves a lot into the various benefits that may arise from the procedure. It does kind of sound like one of those new health fads, like nutritional yeast, or apple cider vinegar, only this one costs upwards of $100, but it seems interesting nonetheless. Apparently it aims to support anti aging, immunity or recovery, health support, detox, or just a vitamin supplement. It certainly seems like an interesting job prospect, especially for those in nursing that don’t necessarily want to work in a hospital, but wish to still help people.
For this week’s article I found something I was very excited to read: “A lesbian’s college survival guide” . This title absolutely killed me. This article was written by Luna Tibbals, an opinion columnist of the Cynic, and was published on March 29th 2024. This article is honestly the best thing ever and my favorite article I’ve ever read, it’s a more laidback comedic article with fun references for the queer community obviously more directed at lesbians. The article is a survival guide for budding lesbians and other queer folks in their freshman year of college, harking back to classic shows from our childhood like Ned’s declassified school survival guide, with a fun queer twist. The article was witty and fun, while also at the same time giving out really solid advice for queer people in New England. All in a hilariously uncomfortable way that hits too close to home at points, which I feel like is only something you can relate to if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community. This was the best article I’ve read so far, but I am extremely biased on that front. A lot of the advice given is stuff I wish someone would have told my introverted ass freshman year. Such a great time 101/10