Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
January 23, 2025

Opinion

The opinions presented below are solely the views of the author and do not represent the views of The News-Letter. If you are a member of the Hopkins community looking to submit a piece or a letter to the editor, please email opinions@jhunewsletter.com.



The Foundational Abilities should be restructured

Foundational Abilities, rather than liberating the mind to its fullest potential as a liberal arts education should, are restricting the pursuit of study at the University. Due to the limited overlap between major courses and distribution requirements, only a small portion of the 81 credits of the FAs can be fulfilled with one’s major; the FAs have become the bulk of a students’ education at Hopkins. 


COURTESY OF AYDEN MIN
With ever-increasing concert ticket prices and the current political climate on the brain, Min questions if these signs are pointing to the beginning of the end of music culture. 

We have to revive music culture — now more than ever

It’s a random Wednesday in the middle of the semester, and you’ve just woken up to an alarm you set almost a month ago. You furiously type in your login information and pull up time.gov on a separate window. Some of your friends are even using two or three different devices just in case one decides to self-destruct at the eleventh hour or leaving their house to find a “place with better wifi.” You have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and a (hopefully untouched) Plan D. It is a free-for-all; it is a bloodbath. To Hopkins students, it probably sounds like I’m describing that fateful day known as class registration. But I am, in fact, describing something else entirely: the arena of concert ticket online sales. 


THE WHITE HOUSE / PUBLIC DOMAIN
Hsu opines about where the Harris campaign went wrong. 

Blame game: lessons from the 2024 election

I, like many, was outraged and disappointed by the results of this election. But I don’t find it politically expedient to blame voters for what we perceive to be bad choices. Rather, we must examine the failures of the campaign and learn the right lessons.



JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR
Koldas discusses the impact of political polarization on interpersonal relationships.

It is okay to lose friends due to politics

From time to time, I noticed that some of my acquaintances had reposted the same post, which featured the caricature of a person pointing to themselves and had the caption, “Guess who will still be your friend no matter who you vote for. Know why? Because that’s called being an adult.” 


The new Critical Diaspora Studies major empowers students to take political action

In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, even the shock, fear, anger, and fatigue has taken on a horror-like, deja vu quality. It’s the same queasiness we felt after the 2016 presidential election, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and reversed affirmative action in 2023, and every time we open our social media to see images of the latest harrowing example of colonial violence. 


PHILLIP PESSAR / CC-BY-SA 2.0
Milman comments on the renaissance of cubism present in the Tesla Cybertruck’s design.

2D cars: The Cybertruck is today’s cubist artwork

Sharp angles. Bare sides. Flat features. Only lines. Am I talking about Picasso’s 1907 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon or about Elon Musk’s relatively new Cybertruck? If you weren’t sure either, maybe you’ve already made the connection that the Cybertruck is our modern version of cubist artwork. We’ve moved away from the canvas and oil paints and ventured into the world of stainless steel and armor glass. 


COURTESY OF NEIL MAHTO
Mahto predicts the results of the 2024 presidential election between former President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Predicting the 2024 electoral map

Last Saturday, the best pollster in the country, Ann Selzer, showed Kamala Harris ahead by the three points in deep-red Iowa, a state Donald Trump beat Joe Biden by eight points. Ann Selzer is one of the two best pollsters (along with The New York Times/Siena College) according to polling guru Nate Silver. 


CBP PHOTOGRAPHY / PUBLIC DOMAIN
Swaminathan argues that there is a migrant crisis that financially burdens cities, threatens U.S. national security and impacts victims of migrant crime. 

The migrant crisis is about real people

With the abrogation of immigration policies aimed at deterrence, prevention, and removal—coupled with executive actions that retroactively extended mass parole and temporary protective status to hundreds of thousands of otherwise inadmissible migrants—there first came a border crisis. In its wake came a national crisis, defined by burgeoning crime, financial burden, and threats to national security.



JIYUN GUO / DESIGN & LAYOUT EDITOR

Your STEM degree alone is useless

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, and perhaps it is ironic that in a month designed to celebrate music, literature and philosophy, we are reflecting on just how neglected these pursuits are on college campuses like Hopkins. 




The News-Letter's 2024 Presidential Endorsement

More than any previous election, this one is a test of American democracy, and one that we must answer by voting for Vice President Kamala Harris — the candidate who values political institutions, promotes American interests domestically and abroad, and who will responsibly wield the power of the Presidency. 


Is Johns Hopkins abandoning its founding mission?

Today, we confront a question that cuts to the heart of our university’s mission: as we’ve grown wealthier than ever, with a ballooning endowment and majestic buildings sprouting up across Baltimore and Washington, will we maintain our foundational commitment to graduate education? 



The rankings are out and caring about them is too

Admittedly, Hopkins may not have much school spirit, but there is one time of the year where we all rally: the release of the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings. This year, Hopkins rose from ninth in last year’s rankings to sixth — its highest position yet.


NIRMALYA NAHA / CC-BY-SA 4.0
Mahto argues that the rhetoric about immigration in politics is misleading.

There is no "migrant crisis"

Immigration was one of the most frequently mentioned topics by former President Donald Trump in the presidential debate on Sept. 10. “Migrant crime” is a term he often used against Vice President Kamala Harris. Nothing from that night frustrated me more than the fact that she did not once push back on his rhetoric. There is no migrant crisis: The “issue” has been incorrectly pontificated by Republicans looking for political gain.


Ron Daniels is the anti-democratic president Hopkins deserves

One could say that a man so consistently opposed to democracy has no business running a university. And, if the University were, as Daniels idealizes in his book, primarily an institution aimed at the pursuit of truth and cultivation of citizenship, then he would certainly be poorly suited for his job.