2008 Woodie Awards
Immediately before the August congressional recess, the Democratically-controlled Congress signed legislation granting the National Security Agency the authority to wiretap international conversations without a warrant. As long as the NSA believes a possible terrorist connection exists, regardless of whether or not either party is an American citizen, the law applies.
And so another chancellor bites the dust. John Lombardi, who served as the head of UMass Amherst for nearly five years, has been kicked out of yet another university, although this time it wasn't completely his fault. After being asked to leave Florida State University for making a racial comment about a fellow administrator, Lombardi has been pushed out of UMass by the president of the University system for not agreeing to follow his new "plan.
That collective gasp coming from the liberal establishment last month was the response to the news that media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Dow Jones Empire was indeed official. The Dow Jones Company, it turns out, owns the Wall Street Journal, whose prized editorial page is a prominent platform from which opinionated political salvos are often launched.
Those of us born in the '84 to '89 range have a comparably larger awareness of world news and politics than most generations did at our age. Understandably, the events of the past few years have demanded our attention. I was a freshman in high school on Sept.
Debbie Almontaser lost her job as principal of a new Arabic language school in New York because she did not condemn the word "intifada." The word means "shaking off," according to the Arabic-speaking Almontaser, and is used to refer to the Palestinian resistance movements that occurred in the late 1980s and early 2000.
Although the age of old wooden ships charting new territories has passed, the age of exploration is still upon us. Not only do we look toward the heavens and travel to other planets, but we continue exploring our own. Specifically, the continuous warming of the planet has melted much of the ice over the once frozen lands of the North Pole.
This article was previously printed in the Collegian and has been reprinted - with permission from the author - for the benefit of first-year students and others new to campus. As someone who has daily contact with undergraduates, I often hear from frustrated students that they were not aware of certain academic regulations, or that they were never informed about an upcoming event or a change of policy.