Delivering American University's news and views since 1925 | Wednesday, June 7, 2023
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A Boston University study published this past February found that depression and anxiety amongst U.S. college students has reached an all-time high. These results are not particularly shocking considering the pandemic and the general unrest in this country combined with the usual financial, emotional and mental toll that college enrollment takes on the average student.
Being berated for our choices as consumers can feel irritating and overwhelming. It’s uncomfortable to assess the weight of our decisions when all we truly want out of a transaction is our desired good or service. That is why it’s easy to brush off conscious shopping practices as performative or meaningless.
Internships are an integral part of the American college experience. At American University, that importance is magnified given our location, our signature ‘Wonk Culture’ and the type of student the University attracts. The impact that the coronavirus has caused on the internship scene in 2020 cannot be understated, but what is not yet known is how long this impact will last. Now that workplaces and students alike have tested the remote internship model, we can speculate on whether or this format will become standard practice, and evaluate its pros and cons.
“Cancel culture” exposes our complicated relationship with moral purity, shame, accountability, sensitivity, ostracism and ignorance. The relationship between “cancel culture” and consumerism is an important thing for us to discuss. When handled with care, dialogue pertaining to this phenomenon can be enlightening and fruitful.
On Oct. 26, American University, upon releasing its plan for the spring semester, decided to cancel spring break “to support the health and safety of our community.” It is a perfectly understandable move, considering what most of the college-aged population does with it. After all, when you google ‘spring break,’ you are greeted with images of crowded parties and intercontinental escapades — a recipe for a never-ending pandemic.
I cringe when I reflect upon my middle school years, when I became invested in the political zeitgeist. I cackled at memes of Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama’s supposed bromance, I memorized all the words to the “Hamilton” soundtrack and I crowded my walls with posters encouraging people to “feel the Bern.” Meanwhile, former president Obama was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians, the founding fathers personally enslaved people who built a nation on stolen land, and idolizing another Senate seat-warmer leaves little room for the criticism and accountability that democracy functions on.
