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.
Chances are you’ve been faced with the college question — “Will you or won’t you go to university?” — posed by (hopefully) well-intentioned guardians, mentors or friends. Otherwise, you might be like me, someone from a community where college was never seen as an option but as an imperative.
The most devastating earthquake in over a decade struck southeast Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6. Following the initial 7.8-magnitude quake, the area was rocked by a series of aftershocks. Since then, the death toll has risen to over 36,000, and more than a million people have been left homeless in Turkey alone.
Teachers and Researchers United (TRU) — affiliated with United Electrical Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) — has achieved a historic milestone. Last week, after more than four years of organizing, Hopkins graduate students voted to unionize with a resounding 97% majority.
As Editors-in-Chief of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, one of our roles is to serve as the public face of the paper, which means we can often be found around campus delivering print papers, at tabling events or simply repping our News-Letter tote bags or crewnecks. It never fails to astound us when students ask, “We have a school newspaper?”
True crime, a genre of media that tells the stories of real-life crimes committed by and against real people, has boomed in popularity in recent years. There are hundreds of true crime YouTube channels, podcasts and numerous Reddit threads, including r/truecrime and r/truecrimediscussion, for people to hear and discuss true crime stories.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing higher education, but as we integrate ChatGPT, a language model created by OpenAI, into our classrooms, we must also consider the ethical implications. Privacy, accountability, and the student-teacher dynamic are all at stake. It's crucial that we take responsibility for ensuring the responsible use of this powerful technology, before it's too late.
After years of struggling with the University and barely improving working conditions, almost 3,200 doctoral students at Hopkins are finally voting to form a graduate student worker union. This is the culmination of years of organizing for a living wage, protections for international students, fair grievance procedures and so much more that graduate workers need to lead a dignified life.
At a school like Hopkins, it can seem like half of the student body is pre-med. You can’t walk through Brody Atrium without hearing someone mention shadowing, clinical research or biochemistry. From the moment their undergraduate experience begins, pre-med students are stressing about getting into medical school.
This week kicked off the start of the spring semester. Though we have new classes and new professors, it’s difficult to feel excited with Baltimore’s cold and gray winter weather hanging over campus. Our surroundings may be bleak, but it doesn’t mean our days should be, too.
We have come to the end of another semester at Hopkins. Fall 2022 was challenging, rewarding and in many ways the first “normal” semester since the University suspended in-person instruction in March 2020.
Hopkins has a worldwide reputation as a center for public health information that serves to protect people around the world. Despite this, the institution has continued to exploit its workforce, including the graduate student workers whose work generates billions of dollars in funding from grants, private donations and government contracts.
Ever since The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered on Disney Channel in 2006, I’ve wanted to go to Spain. Granted, I was 4 years old. I don’t think I even grasped what countries were then. Yet, I knew I wanted to see the streets of Barcelona where the girl group sang “Strut.”
On Nov. 15, former President Donald Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago residence that he would be running for president for the third time. Trump cannot be allowed to escape the consequences of his presidency. He denied the results of the 2020 election and incited violence at the Capitol in January of 2021.
If you didn’t know the United Nations’ Convention on Climate Change was happening last month, we don’t blame you. Representatives from almost 200 countries attended the summit, known as COP27, to advance global climate action. Despite its importance, conversations on campus about the conference were slim to none.
In response to “Hopkins Dining union hosts forum to discuss negotiations with the University” published November 15, 2022: As a leader in food service operations for over 25 years, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been all over the country working in universities, convention centers, hospitals, restaurants and even at a couple of Olympics. Last September, I came to JHU tasked with leading the transition of bringing our Homewood and Peabody dining operations in-house, and I can honestly say that it’s some of the most meaningful work that I’ve ever done.
Among other things, one of the main problems with Twitter has been too much censorship on the platform. While the censorship may have been undertaken by the company in order to curb hate speech and misinformation, the problem was this: the rules around what to censor and what not to censor were drawn up by a bunch of Twitter employees.
This week, our cozy Monday night staff meeting in the Gatehouse looked a little different. While it is usually a time for everyone to catch up and converse on the couches, crowded around the space heater, we instead found ourselves speaking primarily to a Zoom audience with only a few in-person attendees.
On Nov. 8, the U.S. held its midterm elections, the first cycle since President Joe Biden’s win in 2020. Although the results from several House and Senate races are yet to be determined, we now have a much clearer picture of the political landscape and what matters to voters.
While Hopkins boasts a “tradition of employment excellence,” recent protests demonstrate that current employees disagree with that assessment.
If you’re reading this, you probably already know The News-Letter is back in print! For many Hopkins students, this is the first time they are seen a physical edition of their school’s newspaper. It’s also the first time many of The News-Letter’s staff have produced a newspaper or seen their work in ink, myself included.
