Opinion

Opinion

Year-round love trumps flowers on Feb. 14

February 12

Valentine's Day was invented by greeting card companies to make single people feel lonely. So it is said. But guess what? The roots of this holiday are very old, and the original point was not what we think of today. Valentine's Day now represents, more than anything else, a ploy by companies to get people to buy stuff.

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Opinion

Abstinence-ed deserves debate

February 12

Abstinence-only education is a controversial topic anywhere in the United States and is especially so on AU's campus. AU hands out condoms like lollipops, and they are often used for the same reason. While there are surely abstinent members in the AU community, the campus culture is not one conducive to that choice.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Students are not being "brainwashed" just informed

By Kelly Nolin | February 12

In an Op-Ed piece last week, professor Caleb Stewart Rossiter asserted "AU's 'Green Teaching Certificate' promotes bias." As the manager of the Center for Teaching Excellence's Faculty Corner, which administrates this program, I feel that professor Rossiter misrepresented the intent of the Green Teaching Certificate.

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Opinion

U.S. needs pragmatic foreign policy

By Jong Eun Lee | February 9

Two years ago, I asked panelists at a Kennedy Political Union forum, "Why is it that whenever the United States intervenes in an international problem, nations accuse her of imperialism, but when the United States chooses not to intervene, they accuse her of indifference and neglect?" Certainly being a global leader is no easy task for the nation - so often the citizens of the world contradictorily demand both assistance and autonomy from the United States.

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Opinion

AU's "Green Teaching Certificate" promotes bias

By Caleb Stewart Rossiter | February 9

Imagine my surprise when I turned on my computer at the Faculty Corner in Hurst Hall recently and read that the Center for Teaching Excellence will "reward me" with a Green Teaching Certificate if I: "Require students to undertake actions to reduce their ecological footprint .

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Opinion

A message to Housing and Dining

February 9

The university plans to host three student forums in the coming week to determine what food options students would like to see on campus. The move comes as the university plans to get rid of Chick-fil-A and Pura Vida, two notoriously unpopular eating establishments in Mary Graydon Center.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Founders' Day planners "acted with good judgment"

By Patrick McGill | February 9

The Eagle wrote in Thursday's issue, "Last year's Founders' Day Ball hosted 1,000 students; it makes little sense to cut the available tickets in half for a popular event." "However it is clear that certain wrong decisions were made, decisions that could have been made correctly based on past experiences.

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Opinion

Daschle hassles No-drama Obama

By Joe Wenner | February 9

Sometimes, political irony is just too much to handle. Need an example? In 1986, voters in South Dakota were treated to what seemed to be your average congressional reelection campaign ad. On the television screen, a 1971 Pontiac cruises along the D.C. streets.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Eagle's construction editorial needs to get facts straight

By Peter Brusoe | February 5

The best editorials are those that challenge the way that you think or challenge authority or stand out for some wrong that has been perpetuated against the people. While The Eagle often has a well-written editorial that challenges something going on at AU, this past Monday's issue was so far off the mark to be laughable.

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Opinion

College culture needs overhaul

By Charlie Szold | February 5

The longer I stay in college the more I fear for humanity. Let me out of this place - now! Tuesday night - drink; Friday night - drink; Saturday night - drink. Not that I'm not above it. I'm not. I drink, I party, I can throw down too. Ask me about that time I peed on my best friend's basement wall.

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Opinion

Corrections for Feb. 2

February 5

Two corrections from The Eagle's Feb. 2 issue.

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Opinion

Growing pains and pleasures in Pa.

By Kate Matthews | February 5

My little sister thinks I am her hero. Ann is a 12-year-old 7th grader who struggles with middle school politics, popularity and ponytails. I am a 22-year-old college senior, who struggles with some of the same things every day. Last year before spring break, two friends and I drove home to Gettysburg, Pa.

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Opinion

Bad blood mars Founders' Ball

February 5

Drama has continued to unfold as those directly and indirectly responsible for planning the Founders' Day Ball have traded endless recriminations with one another. 600 tickets originally available sold out within hours of going on sale, forcing almost 200 students onto a wait list.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Who died and made Knepper king of culture?

By David Grossman | February 5

I can't believe I missed the meeting where everyone declared Alex Knepper the sole arbiter of culture. Before he declares an entire medium dead, perhaps he can be bothered to research modern poetry, as opposed to just Googling Elisabeth Arden. I'll even give him a couple tips - Derek Walcott or Mary Jo Salter.

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Opinion

A poem without thought is no poem

By Alex Knepper | February 2

Poetry is dead. It's hardly a contested point anymore: the most casual of observers can discern that poetry is that odd, rare art practiced by more people than observe it. It is not dead because there is nothing more to be contributed to the art form, it's dead, rather, due to a cultural decline into a society that worships self-expression and instant gratification above excellence and merit.

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Opinion

Op-Ed: "Shiny Objects" column isn't in on PETA's joke

By Mark Devries | February 2

The Jan. 29 column by Ben Moss and Brittany Meyer was right about at least one thing. PETA's "attempt" to change the word "fish" into "sea kittens" sounds like a joke precisely because it is one. It's a big joke, but it has an even bigger point lurking behind it.

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Opinion

AU's construction secrets

February 2

In recent years, the university has embarked on a construction binge as it expanded the Kogod School of Business, renovated the bridge and front steps of Mary Graydon Center and began construction on a new School of International Service building. It is not these projects that are troublesome; in fact, many students will agree that the renovations have added a nice new aesthetic to campus.

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