Archives - Andrew Otis
Language policy stifles intellectual curiosity
South Africa has 11 official languages, and I cannot get credit to study any of them.Why? UR's language department will not approve credit for any of these languages. I am currently studying abroad at the University of Cape Town where I wished to take a course in Afrikaans (classes start Friday, Feb. 5).I cannot get […]
Op-Eds
UR Performing showcases talent
Black floors. Black curtain. Black walls. A slight tension builds as the darkness looms. It's quiet in Todd Theatre as the sold-out crowd maintains a steady and patient silence awaiting the UR Performing expos. Man bolts out from the darkness a streak of light. Like a bouncing jackrabbit on a powerful stimulant, he runs out, […]
News
Woodlands a valuable resource
Under rain and dreary skies, Professor of Biology Robert Minckley's Ecosystem Conservation and Human Society class trudged through UR's Woodlands near Whipple Park in Brighton. Teaching Assistant and sophomore Margaret Ball gave instructions to the students from the front of the line, asking them to consider the function of each individual part of the woodlands […]
News
Migrating south
Since the 1920s, the University has expanded at a rate of about a million square feet per decade.By a combination of good luck and mere historical coincidence, the University has found itself in possession of vast tracts of prime real estate of an area known as UR woodlands. These woodlands exist south of the River […]
Ed Observers
Welcome to a non-argument
Welcome to a non-argument. Welcome to Dada reborn.In this article, I will refuse to follow the artificial constructs of the English language. Those evil and wicked grammarians began codifying what is right and wrong in the 18th century. How dare they arbitrate their will over me and what they believe is right.The rest of my […]
Editorial Boards
Look on the bright side
Do we ever contemplate life? So many people don't. They live life in a day-to-day shallowness that results in a boring monotony.This is our transitory existence, which will one day be gone. We live and often never acknowledge our own mortality a concept that is so absent from our daily thoughts and conversations that it […]
Op-Eds
Interpreting the poll results before the big day
On Nov. 4, the American populace will vote, the electoral college will decide and, on Jan. 20, 2009, we will have a new president. But who will it be?Poll results indicate a Senator Barack Obama lead by an average of 5.9 percent, according to the aggregation at http://www.RealClearPolitics.com. State-by-state polling indicates that the Electoral College […]
Op-Eds
Trust in Pakistan?s president may lead to success
Tensions are rising in Pakistan. There are now 250,000 refugees at its borders, and conditions are so poor in some areas that 20,000 Pakistanis have fled to Afghanistan, one of the most inhospitable nations on the globe.America is faced with critical decisions that will determine the stability of this nuclear-armed country and the future of […]
Op-Eds
A forgotten gray-scale complicates Pakistan issue
In the world of foreign affairs, there is no black and white. Merely shades of gray. Outside the American media and the politics that consume its attention, a complex reality faces us. Our conception of the surrounding world is typically that of good battling evil. But reality is starkly different. Sides are multiplicitous and situations […]
