While most of you took a class on the Hill, interned, or went somewhere exotic and scored a nice tan (of which I am, I must admit, extremely jealous), I thought I'd take the road less traveled and live at home to remind you all how lucky you were not to be at yours.
A homeless man lives near my house in Paris. In one hand he holds a cup. In the other, a sign: "I'm hungry. Please give me a little money." And at his feet, in a box lined with straw, sits a rabbit. I've been here for nearly a month and I'm still not sure if his sign is a plea or a threat.
On February 23, you have two important questions. The Student Government Association (SGA) needs you to vote for them to improve our school and save a stagnant organization that, in the past, has cared too much about itself, and less about what is best for the school.
The SGA Reform Working Group has produced a new constitution for SGA, which will be presented to the student body by referendum. The suggested changes seem to make sense but upon a closer look many questions can be raised about where SGA's priorities lie. The proposed changes can be broken down into the "new" constitution and the changes made to election guidelines.
We have a lot to worry about these days. Not only is the economy a mess, seniors graduating in May face incredible uncertainty in the job market. Students on this campus are the kind of people who tend to care enormously: about their grades, about participation in extracurricular activities (Echo editors included) and about larger issues-conflicts across the globe, environmental problems, educational inequality, poverty in Maine.
When was the last time you talked about race? For most people on campus, probably not since last fall. We all remember what happened last fall, right? It's hard to believe some of those events happened so recently, given the lack of conversation on the Digest of Civil Discourse over the last few months.
Over the weekend, a friend of mine (hereafter L) had a guest of the Good Pal from Back Home variety. I was only in the company of said good pal (hereafter Friend One) for about half an hour, but I got a good vibe. Spunky but in an understated way, friendly without trying too hard, clever and quick-witted without being exhibitionist about it: sort of an Ellen-Page-as-Juno thing.
Please do not support the proposed amendments to the SGA Constitution. There are several problems with the proposed amendments that if passed would render SGA a less efficient, less transparent and less responsible body. While the SGA leadership and the SGA working group that put together this overhaul will say that the most important change will be in moving Hall President elections to the fall semester, an interesting idea that might have merit, they have not given the students an honest up or down vote on this issue.