Letter to my freshman self
(05/26/23 7:52pm)
Dear freshman Leela,
Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 23, 2024
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Dear freshman Leela,
I made my last batch of brownies today. Not my last batch ever, of course, but my last batch for a few, specific, important people.
Believe it or not, one of the hardest goodbyes I’ve had to make at Hopkins was to a building — the Gatehouse to be exact. The grayish-green building, worn down yet exquisite in its architecture, that remains unknown to most of Hopkins represents much more than a corner of campus: it houses the institution of The News-Letter, an organization that I have dedicated my entire Hopkins career to.
I wish I was cynical about goodbyes. No matter how many times I’ve had to close a chapter and let go, nostalgia and sentimentality always get the best of me. As I lament the end of not just my Hopkins career but the time spent with my friends, I’ve always envied those who are able to rationalize goodbyes and move on, though I know this graduation is going to hit differently for all of us.
As someone who started at Hopkins in the fall of 2020, many of my “college firsts” were virtual. It’s hard to define when exactly my college experience became “normal.” It could have been in my first in-person class sophomore year or the first show I was able to perform without wearing a mask. However, at some point, Zoom chats became study sessions at friends’ apartments and asynchronous classes turned into saving a seat for your friend before a lecture. Even though my current relationships have illuminated a bit of what COVID-19 stole from my college experience, I think it’s made the minimal “normal” time I’ve had at Hopkins all the more special.
Speak Out Now is a socialist group that advocates for active participation in ending capitalism through revolution. According to their website, a socialist system means the “common ownership and sharing of the world’s resources and productive capacity under the democratic control of the world’s peoples,” rather than the exploitation of labor and the ownership of profit by a small number of capitalists.
People notice the flashy moments of activism the most: the massive protests, the inspiring speeches and the ratified legislation. Activism is much more than that. Sometimes activism grows through spontaneous spurts of growth, and other times, its roots take time to spread. It's kept alive through the cultivation of continuity through tough moments of growth and active moments of flourishing.
In June 1976, roughly 10,000 students in Soweto, South Africa organized a peaceful protest against new legislation decreeing that Afrikaans, alongside English, be used in Soweto high schools. Afrikaans was known as the “language of the oppressor” in apartheid South Africa. Upon their peaceful march toward Orlando Stadium, the protesters were met with heavily armed police. What started off as a tear gas attack eventually turned into firing rounds of live ammunition. Hundreds of people are believed to have died and images of this police brutality spread internationally, sparking a firmer liberation movement by international forces against apartheid.
“When we first came here, many of us found that we were not entirely welcome. A great number of men came to Johns Hopkins not wholly receptive to the addition of undergraduate women. There were those who resented the intrusion of women into their male sanctuary; there were those who considered women incapable of surviving academic pressures; and there were those who feared women would be equal competitors. In many instances we felt unusually isolated from the rest of the community.”
The Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD) has been at the center of public debate since the University first announced its plans to create a private police force in 2018.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ Day edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious in its reporting.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious about its reporting.
More than 200 students and demonstrators surrounded Homewood House (now known as Homewood Museum) in protest of military recruiting on campus on April 17, 1970. The protest occurred following the events on April 16, where 40 activists blocked the entrance to Levering Hall to protest the U.S. Marine Corps recruiters inside.
Divestment has been a demand leveraged by student activists to fight several social issues, including apartheid in South Africa and the unethical practices of tobacco manufacturers. For a little over a decade, student activists have found a new cause around which to mobilize and demand divestment: climate change.
Affiliated with United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), the University’s graduate student union Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE) officially won recognition through a union representation election facilitated by the National Labor Relations Board in January 2023.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious about its reporting.
At the very core of society’s progress, activism has always been integral to sparking change. From macroscopic protests advocating for women’s rights to smaller movements concerning local issues, the freedom to assemble is ingrained in the very founding of the United States.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious about its reporting.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ Day edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious in its reporting.
APRIL FOOLS’: This article was published as part of The News-Letter’s annual April Fools’ edition, an attempt at adding some humor to a newspaper that is normally very serious about its reporting.