Being a freshman at college is like being the new kid at school, except there are more than 2,000 of you and you’re all in the same boat. College will be intimidating at first, a new place, new people, new responsibilities, but don’t fear, The Western Front is here to help you get involved during what should be the best years of your lives.
If it wasn’t already apparent after the Ku Klux Klan recently made an appearance at the South Carolina statehouse, racism and hatred in the United States still exists. Whether it’s as apparent as the KKK was on July 19, or it’s disguised as a political statement by the one and only Donald Trump, racism is racism.
Editor's Note: This letter to the editor is a response to a Western Front editorial.
Editor's Note: This letter to the editor is a response to a Western Front editorial.
Even though the days seem much longer, summer quarter is quickly coming to an end and there’s one question that has been plaguing us. Why do so many students complain about class difficulty when we attend a university that offers nearly limitless options of support?
June of this year was a groundbreaking month. Same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide and talks to remove the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride spread across the country. Although this should be seen as a huge victory for same-sex couples nationwide, with all the excitement many may have forgotten that the fight to gain federal, state and local legal protections in employment, housing and commerce for LGBT people is ongoing.
The 2016 presidential elections are drawing closer, which means the crazies are coming out once again to announce their candidacy to potentially become the leader of the free world. This year the main attention-grabbing candidate is none other than, “The Donald,” also known as Donald Trump.
We live in a very strange era of education. Tuition is higher than ever, but how much of our education is actually coming from classroom experience with a professor?
We’ve all done it. How can we not? With a front facing camera that has decent photo-taking abilities, why not capture a quick image of what you’re up to?
The recent article titled “Protesting for cost-of-living raise” talks about members of the Washington Federation of State Employees union protesting in Red Square to send a message that they need a pay increase. I understand that the cost of living has been increasing, yet their wages are not. It makes sense that they want their incomes to increase. I would too, but where would the money come from to fund these increases? Money would have to be taken from somewhere else to allow for the increase in pay and I worry what the source would be. I also do not see this protest as being efficient. It was on Western’s campus where students do not really have a say what these workers get paid. I believe it is important to their cause to get more people, but I do not think that was the best way to go about it. I am interested to hear if the message had any effect and how many Western students actually paid attention to what was happening. These workers need that extra money just to live, which is very important. Many people in the United States are in the same boat and I believe some kind of larger change is necessary in order for the wealth to be properly distributed so that everyone in this country can at least live, meaning they get what they need to take care of themselves and their family.
I thought the last letter to the editor disparaging the actions taken by students at the Back2Bellingham event trying to raise awareness for the divestment campaign was rife with contradiction. The author did not agree with the Students for Renewable Energy and their president’s take on Western's support of the fossil fuel industry and he challenged them to "check their privilege." I think the author needs to as well. Living in the region least impacted by the effects of climate change and the results of the continued use of fossil fuels makes it awfully easy to criticize students who are taking brave stances against institutions that pose such threats to the future of our planet. The arguments provided seemed to assume that the easiest means of investment equated to the proper means of investing. When the president of a university is evaluated by how they maintain the status quo and not by the vision they have for the future, it means that easy, short-sighted economic decisions will continue. Multiple banks around the world have divested now, and it is becoming increasingly clear that it is an outdated and dangerous industry to trust our money and our future in.
The divestment demonstration during Back2Bellingham was an embarrassment for everyone associated with Western. Portraying President Shepard as a caricature receiving money from Shell is not only juvenile, it's also incredibly ignorant. If I were President Shepard, I would not be upset that students were insulting me, even after I stopped their tuition from raising by refusing budget cuts, but that students were so short-sighted and selfish.
Everyone gets burnt out eating top ramen. Fast food is only interesting for so long ,and seeing all of those expensive organic vegetables at Haggen gets pretty tempting after a while. Many of us work during college making minimum wage, but shouldn’t our college education provide us with more once we graduate? In our classes, we work hard with hopes of attaining a full-time, well-paying job so we can live a comfortable life.
San Francisco recently divested from fossil fuels, as did Oslo, Norway. These two international cities stand alongside hundreds of other cities, institutions and universities as testaments to making a bold choice to stop funding the primary cause of climate change.
Freedom of speech is a necessary part of what makes our country free. But this type of freedom involves outcomes that can be both good and bad.
Solutions by The State News
