During the 2024 season, Harper helped lead the Phillies to a National League East title. In 2022, the Phillies lost the World Series to the Houston Astros and have been on a quest for revenge ever since.

It is officially spring training for Major League Baseball, and most players take this time to focus on preparing for the upcoming season, whether that involves working out, batting practice or relaxing vacations with family. Through social media, Harper's videos provide a unique snapshot into the life of an MLB player during the offseason.

Many MLB teams have their own account on the popular social media app, where they interview players and make content related to the game like highlight reels. Some MLB players themselves have had TikTok accounts since the app's creation, but the majority of the content created by past or present players is focused on the technical aspects of the sport.

In early Jan., a video of Harper making an iced vanilla latte popped onto Philly fans' "For You" pages. This post racked up over 3.2 million views and was the start of Harper's status as a popular social influencer. A series of posts followed, mostly cooking with a bit of baseball content sprinkled in. Previous to this post, all of Harper's content was MLB related, save one video of his unique approach to snowboarding - what appears to be him tethered to a moving snowmobile.

After the success of the vanilla latte, Harper took to TikTok again to share his favorite banana bread recipe. He detailed the process from start to finish, including his specific ingredient requirements like coconut sugar, which he uses instead of refined sugar.

Harper has shown himself to be a coffee enthusiast, detailing his date caramel cold brew and banana cream cold brew. Other videos have featured oatmeal cream pies, his favorite dessert tiramisu, curry ribs, iced strawberry matcha, bagels, date chocolate bark, a post-workout protein smoothie and "nature's gatorade," his sports drink creation consisting of a freshly squeezed lemon, celtic salt, coconut water and hydrogen water. And - of course - a homemade Philly cheesesteak after the Eagles won the Super Bowl.

Some of Harper's ingredient choices have faced skepticism, like his use of raw milk in the iced vanilla latte. Fans in the comments section warned others of the dangers of drinking raw milk. Harper's influence as one of the highest paid players on the team and his mass following on the app is broad, and some followers have advised that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states raw milk can be dangerous. In mid-Feb., Harper was reported to be out for the first full squad workout due to food poisoning. It is unknown if this incident is related to the raw milk, but skeptical fans took to the internet to spread this rumor.

Through his account, fans learn other fun details about Harper. One video provides a glimpse into his closet and hat collection, while another features him unpacking and explaining the contents of his bag.

On Saturday Feb. 22, the Philadelphia Phillies played their first Spring Training Game of the 2025 season in Clearwater, Florida. Harper's most recent video was posted on Feb. 23, so it is unknown whether another TikTok is to come, or if fans will have to wait until the end of next October for another video. The Phillies' season opener is set for March 27, at the Washington Nationals.

College drama is exhausting - friendship fallouts, awkward crushes and that one group project where nobody pulls their weight. But Gossip Girl drama? That's the good stuff. Serena's surprise return, Blair's ruthless schemes, Chuck's morally questionable charm - it's like reality television but with better lighting and designer wardrobes. You get to witness all the betrayals, breakups and backstabbing without actually dealing with the consequences. Bliss.

Part of the appeal is imagining what it'd be like to swap your cramped dorm room for a Park Avenue penthouse. No roommates stealing your snacks, just an elevator that opens straight into your living room. Weekend plans? Forget frantically Googling "cheap things to do near me." You're hopping on a private jet to Paris. It's a fantasy, sure, but it's a fun one. And admit it: You've caught yourself mentally curating your Met Gala outfit more than once.

Okay, so you're probably not rocking head-to-toe couture between classes, but Gossip Girl still delivers serious fashion inspiration. Blair's preppy headbands, Serena's effortlessly cool outfits, Chuck's impeccable suits - watch enough episodes, and suddenly you're considering dressing up just to go to the dining hall. And, hey, a statement coat or vintage blazer can make you feel like the main character, even if you're just power-walking to class because you hit snooze one too many times.

Rewatching Gossip Girl is like flipping through your old high school yearbook, except with fewer questionable haircuts and more designer handbags. Even if you know every plot twist, there's something comforting about revisiting Serena, Blair, Nate and Chuck as they navigate love triangles and social warfare. Plus, there's a certain charm to the show's early 2000s tech: flip phones, chunky laptops and the mysterious world of blogging. Who knew a single text blast could cause so much chaos?

Is Gossip Girl a guide to moral living? Absolutely not. But that doesn't mean you can't pick up a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Blair reminds us that ambition and confidence can take you far - just maybe with fewer schemes. Serena proves that it's never too late to reinvent yourself. And Dan? Well, Dan teaches us that being an outsider doesn't mean you can't shake things up. Plus, if nothing else, the show is a solid reminder to lock your phone and never leave evidence of your latest scandal in writing.

Watching Gossip Girl solo is great, but watching it with friends? Even better. Few things bond people faster than collectively gasping at a plot twist or debating whether Chuck and Blair are endgame or a red flag factory. And even if you're bingeing alone, you'll inevitably end up texting someone with, "Wait… Dan was Gossip Girl this whole time?!" (Yeah, we're still processing that one, too.)

Years after its finale, Gossip Girl still resonates because it taps into that universal desire for a life that's a little more glamorous, a little more dramatic and a whole lot more unpredictable. Maybe it's the fantasy of wealth and power, or maybe it's just the thrill of watching other people's chaos from a safe distance. Either way, there's something irresistible about escaping into a world where anything can happen - and usually does.

After all, you know you love it.
XOXO, Gossip Girl.

Ruben Diaz is a freshman from Miami, Fla. studying Biology and Psychology.

For years, I've let numbers define me. The number on the scale. The number of calories consumed. The number of minutes spent exercising. It was a battle I fought silently, a war waged against myself, my body and my mind.

High school fueled my anxiety, perfectionism and desperate need for control. The pressure to excel academically, fit in socially and live up to unrealistic beauty standards weighed heavily on me. At first, controlling my food intake felt like a way to manage the chaos around me. It was methodical, a routine I could control when everything else seemed uncertain. I saw being skinny as an external feature that showcased my self-discipline, and every time I was rejected from an opportunity, I blamed it on my big round face, double chin and overly thick calves.

What began as a way to cope quickly became an obsession. I restricted my meals, counted every calorie and avoided social gatherings that involved food. I watched as my muscles became more visible while my body grew weaker, but in my mind, I convinced myself I was achieving something. I felt proud when I finished another set of dumbbell exercises, ran another kilometer or did another burpee. I enjoyed the sweat dripping down my chins. I enjoyed the hunger, which eventually diminished and left me with a skinnier shape. I felt like everything was going in the direction that I wanted to, and the feeling was intoxicating. I felt powerful and that everything was under control, except I wasn't the one in control - my eating disorder was.

The journey of pulling myself out of the marsh was not easy. I went through mental health intervention. I had to unlearn the harmful thoughts that told me my worth was tied to my weight. I had to face my fears, challenge my beliefs and accept that my body deserved nourishment, care and love. I leaned on those who supported me, even when I felt I didn't deserve it.

Luckily, I sensed a gradual shift, or recovery, in myself. I realized I no longer wanted to be small, fragile or depleted. I wanted to be strong. I began to prioritize weightlifting over weight loss, strength over shrinking and self-love over self-punishment. Food became a source of power, not fear. Exercise became a way to celebrate my body, not punish it. My goal weight stopped being a number - I wanted to feel powerful, capable and alive. Slowly, I began to see food not as an enemy but as fuel, not as a source of guilt but as a necessity for life.

I found an incredible community that supported my new fitness journey at the rec center. The variety of exercise options, including strength training, cardio sessions and group fitness classes, allowed me to enjoy and challenge myself in new ways that I have never experienced before. In particular, I started going to the F45 classes at the beginning of the spring semester. These exercises provided high-intensity functional workouts that built both my endurance and strength. Surrounded by people with similar goals, I felt encouraged to push past my limits in a healthy and fulfilling way.

Recovery isn't linear, and some days are harder than others. But I'm no longer striving to disappear - I'm striving to take up space, to be bold, to be strong. My goal weight of 2025? It's not measured in pounds or dress sizes. It's measured in confidence, in resilience, in the ability to live fully and fearlessly.

To anyone still fighting their battle, know this: You are not alone. You are worthy of recovery, of love, of a life beyond numbers. And when you're ready, strength - not size - can be your goal, too.

Kaiyuan Du is a junior from Beijing, China studying Molecular and Cell Biology.

Friday

Shamrocks & Shenanigans!, Power Plant Live!, March 14, 9 p.m.

Kick off your St. Patrick's Day celebrations early with a high-energy night at Power Plant Live! This annual event brings together festive drinks, live music and non-stop entertainment in the heart of Baltimore. Expect a lively crowd, plenty of green and an electrifying atmosphere to get you in the holiday spirit.

Meet in the Street, Claddagh Pub, March 14-15, 11 a.m.

Baltimore's iconic St. Patrick's festival is back! Claddagh Pub hosts a two-day celebration packed with live music, delicious food and a sea of revelers ready to embrace the holiday. The lineup includes performances by Social Drinking, Starcrush and Crushing Day - making this a can't-miss event for music lovers.

Iron Crow Theatre Presents: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, M&T Bank Exchange, March 14-16, showtimes vary

Experience the Tony Award-winning rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch in an intimate, immersive setting. Blending raw emotion with soaring rock anthems, this powerful production takes audiences on a journey of identity, resilience, and self-discovery. Tickets range from $40 to $65.

Saturday

Shamrock Stumble Bar Crawl, Fells Point, March 15, 6 p.m.

Grab your best green outfit and get ready for an epic bar crawl through Baltimore's top spots. The Shamrock Stumble offers exclusive drink specials, themed giveaways and a chance to party with fellow St. Paddy's Day enthusiasts. Whether you're a beer lover or a cocktail connoisseur, this crawl has something for everyone.

Sunday

The Millennium Tour 2025, CFG Bank Arena, March 16, 8 p.m.

Calling all R&B and hip-hop fans! The Millennium Tour is back, bringing nostalgic bangers and high-energy performances. Expect a stacked lineup of throwback favorites, creating an unforgettable night. If you haven't grabbed your tickets yet, don't wait! Prices range from $95 for standard tickets to $1,129 for VIP packages.

Baltimore St. Patrick Parade & Shamrock 5K Race, Downtown Baltimore & Inner Harbor, March 16, 1 p.m. (5K) & 2 p.m. (Parade)

Wrap up your weekend with Baltimore's signature St. Patrick's Day Parade, one of the city's most cherished traditions. The festivities begin with the Shamrock 5K, where runners take to the streets in a sea of green before the main event. The parade follows, featuring marching bands, Irish dancers and festive floats - making it the perfect way to close out your St. Paddy's weekend.

A few weeks ago, I submitted a poem for a workshop at around 10 p.m. I'd revised it, refined it, read it out loud to myself and my friends -I was ready to submit. This was a pretty busy week for me: various responsibilities for The News-Letter, creeping philosophy deadlines, a growing pile of history readings. So, when I emailed my poem to my entire class, I didn't review it. I submitted it. Then I turned to my readings, called my friends, and went to sleep. Everything was alright.My poem was okay, and I'd submitted it by 11:59 p.m.

Unbeknownst to me, however, I, with that one click of an Outlook "Send," ended up submitting four pages of drafts on this poem with all my personal thoughts on the subject matter: my ex-boyfriend. I was blissfully unaware of this for a while. But when workshop rolled around two weeks later, I realized my mistake. I'm sure you can imagine my horror when my professor kindly asked if I intended to submit the whole four pages or if it was just the first page I hoped to workshop.

I didn't submit four pages, I said.

Yeah, you did, my classmate confirmed.

Oh.

Now, the best way to recover from this is to acknowledge that what's done is done and to realize that my classmates do not know me very well and likely forgot about this anomalous workshop a few hours later. I, however, did not. And this draws attention to a part of me that is particularly sensitive to embarrassment, especially unwanted personal revelation.

I have written about this before, albeit from a different perspective. I've mentioned my struggles with sharing, but in the abstract - a kind of vague discomfort with vulnerability. I've never talked about what I think would happen if I shared my emotions, my thoughts about people, my memories of my ex-boyfriend. My concrete wall is insurmountable, fortified and unscalable because I'm worried that if someone were to cross it, they would find something radically embarrassing.

Well, despite this, in my fatigue-induced absent mindedness I chopped a whole doorway through that wall with one click of an overconfident hand, inviting a flood of potential humiliation.

If you really think about it, it's not a big deal. Submitting internal thoughts about an ex-boyfriend to my poetry class is embarrassing, yes, but more funny than damaging. Despite my heightened embarrassment at the time,I will forget about it, just like my classmates who have likely (hopefully) forgotten about it by now. But maybe, possibly, it's a good thing -especially for me.

I am someone who struggles to share her personal thoughts. So, maybe the best thing for me is to have those thoughts accidentally revealed to a group of people I don't really know. Not because the outcomes of this specific event will be ideal - my classmates now know all my personal thoughts about relationships and my strange way of finding ideas for my poems. But it will be helpful because it has taught me, and will continue to teach me, that sharing isn't so bad, and that when it does happen - albeit unintentionally - it isn't that important. It's eventually forgotten. In simple words: it's not that deep. And every day that passes when I forget about it, preoccupied instead with all the pressing things that do matter, I realize that maybe sharing isn't so bad after all. If I can reveal my personal thoughts about my ex-boyfriend that showcase the strange and often embarrassing inner workings of my writerly pursuits, and if I can write about this experience without reliving it and agonizing over it, then maybe sharing isn't that big of a deal after all.

There is so much that puts these minor moments of temporary humiliation in perspective. I am learning to realize that this tiny, insignificant bit of unwanted sharing is, though momentarily embarrassing, so minor an experience to agonize over. That it's something to laugh at and forget, and, most importantly, that sharing maybe isn't so scary after all.

Lana Swindle is a sophomore from Princeton, N.J. majoring in Writing Seminars. She is a News and Features Editor for The News-Letter. Her column views her everyday experiences from a different perspective.

Cruz claimed that the "Biden administration weaponized federal agencies to push a far-left ideology" by awarding grants to these researchers, and that Congress had to "restore integrity to scientific research." The various grants were labeled as falling into four categories: "Social Justice," "Race," "Gender" and "Environmental Justice."

17 of the grants listed - totaling nearly $12 million - were for work carried out by Hopkins researchers.

The largest award at Hopkins listed was for the Research and Mentoring for Postbaccuelratues in Biological Sciences program (RaMP), an NSF-funded program that aims to facilitate mentorship and training programs for students who lacked biological research opportunities in college. Hopkins received nearly $3 million for this program - which provides individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM, first generation college students and individuals from under-resourced institutions the opportunity to train in biological sciences and is described as aligning with the NSF's focus on "foster[ing] the growth of a globally-competitive and diverse research workforce."

Following President Donald J. Trump's executive order on Jan. 20, calling for the end to "radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing," the NSF announced that it was canceling all of its grant review panels, leading to a complete freeze in new NSF funding. Although it is unclear which of Trump's executive orders led to this pause, researchers have suspected it is due to the DEI orders. As of nearly two months later, this pause has not been removed.

Just last week, staff at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were instructed to identify and cancel grants studying gender identity, DEI, environmental justice and transgender populations, according to reporting by Nature.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Engineering Andrew S. Douglas, shared his perspective on how the actions of the Trump administration have led to science and research becoming politicized.

"Our principal investigators, who are submitting research grants to the federal government now have a list of words that they have to remove from their grants," he stated. "So there's a scrubbing going on, which is very unusual in an academic environment because we tend to focus on the truth and try to get politics out of science, but politics has been injected into science."

In response to the broad reduction in federal funding for science and technology in various divisions, including the NIH, Douglas stressed that the diverting of funding from these pursuits will hinder the U.S.'s advantage in global innovation and security.

"If you look at what has been so good about the United States, it's the ability to lead technologically, and that's led to well-being in this country. It's led to economic growth and national security," he stated. "[...] I think that the reduction in funding, which started at the NIH - [and] Secretary Hegseth has mentioned a reduction in funding at the Department of Defense as well - undermine the ability of the United States to be at the leading edge of technology, which keeps us ahead of our competitors in economic terms and in well-being terms and in national security terms."

Other grants at the University noted by Cruz include a $600k award to the Chemistry Department for a project led by Professor Art Bragg and Professor J.D. Tovar that examines how chemical changes in pi-conjugated building block molecules will affect the properties of organic molecules. The NSF noted that this research and its findings could lead to advances in high-speed transistors, which are critical for computing and data and signal processing. The grant also involves outreach to high schools in Baltimore to promote participation of women and under-represented minorities in higher education programs and research. Cruz labeled the grant in the "Gender" category.

Douglas also emphasized the importance of communication with impacted individuals on the University-level.

"I think that communication with individuals is extremely important. One is that we really are worried about our people, and that means the students, the staff, the faculty and we will try to do what we can to protect them," he stated.

The cuts in federal funding also have the potential to impact graduate admissions and the ability of faculty to support graduates, leading to some programs at Hopkins reporting smaller incoming classes than prior years. Douglas stated that 70% of support for the School of Engineering's doctoral students comes from external contracts and grants with federal agencies.

Douglas emphasized that Hopkins researchers, many of whom have been impacted by the federal policy changes, receive funding based on the merit of their projects and their excellence and not just because they are at Hopkins.

"Our funding is merit-based. It's not block-granted," he said. "We don't just get it because we're here. We get it because we have the best researchers in the country."

Brendon Davis currently serves as the Vice President for Science Policy after his previous role as the group's Science Policy Coordinator. Davis is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Biology, whose research focuses on using stem cells in Drosophila as a model to study the mechanisms of cell fate determination following DNA replication. Davis described that his involvement with the group has developed his passion for the intersection of science and diplomacy.

"For scientists, I think it is kind of under-appreciated how much expert opinions play a role in policymaking or in diplomacy," Davis said. "The goal is to promote those types of initiatives and science-conscious policymaking, and beyond that, help graduate students - and largely the general student body - learn about these fields."

The organization focuses on advancing science policy and diplomacy by operating through two subdivisions: science policy, which engages with domestic policy initiatives, and science diplomacy, which addresses the international implications of scientific work.

"[The fields of science policy and diplomacy] tend to be underdiscussed, especially when talking about it as a career path. So we help students to recognize that these are valid career paths. And even if it's not a career, it's certainly a space to be involved in if you want to shape how science is used by policymakers," Davis explained.

The group hosts various events throughout the year, including Congressional Hill Day, where students will develop policy initiatives and schedule meetings with congressional offices to discuss their ideas. Last year, the group's Hill Day pushed for better pathways for international STEM graduate students to remain in the U.S. after graduation, promoted sustainable agricultural initiatives and advocated for increased funding for women's health research.

In addition to policy advocacy, they also run memo-writing workshops, organize public outreach efforts through a YouTube channel and a blog, and host embassy visits in Washington, D.C. Their Meetups at the Embassy series has facilitated discussions with science officials from countries such as Rwanda, India and Japan.

When asked about the situation regarding federal research funding cuts, Davis stated that the science-related policy development have been damaging to science and that the group has been discussing the changes and its impacts.

"What we are seeing, including at Hopkins is programs shrinking, acceptance letters for graduate programs being rescinded and labs being worried about their funding and having to close," he explained. "When those things happen, you lose scientists, you lose labs, you lose data, you lose model organisms and all of that is incredibly detrimental to the future of science, not just now but 10, 20 or 50 years down the line."

Davis further underscored the importance of being informed and communicating about science persuasively, and shared that the group is focused on helping students get involved in such communication, whether through writing op-eds or just talking with friends and family.

"I think it is more important now than ever that we get involved and are writing statements about how science can be used by the government effectively," he stated.

Davis noted that due to the close proximity of Hopkins to the nation's capital, the group aims to involve itself in many advocacy events in D.C., including the recent Stand Up for Science rally. The rally was held on Friday, March 7 under the Lincoln Memorial and drew thousands of people in protest of the Trump administration's federal funding cuts. Several members of the Science Policy and Diplomacy Group, including Davis, attended the rally.

When asked about how he felt about attending the rally, Davis was surprised by his own positivity towards the situation.

"It was positive in the sense that it felt like we can still cheer for science, we can talk about science, we can have this hope of what science can bring and love what science and research can do for us. Obviously there's the negative undertone of all of that is going away right now, but it's nice to see the appreciation for it," Davis recalled.

Davis further highlighted that a sense of community truly defined the rally on Friday and provided hope about the future of science, despite the uncertainty.

"From a personal level, listening to all the people talking about their own experiences and others, who are very excited about their own research - clearly worried - but also really passionate about what they do, is hopeful. It inspires me to be even more involved, just for the sake of community and being able to push science forward together," he said.

For students interested in getting involved with the Science Policy and Diplomacy Group, Davis suggests staying informed, engaging in advocacy efforts and joining the mailing list to be notified about events. Upcoming events the group plans on hosting include informational workshops on the situation at the National Institutes of Health, a Congressional Hill Visit Day and a visit to the Australian Embassy. Davis also recommended interested students visit the Science Diplomacy Hub based in the Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C for a Science Diplomacy Summit on April 14 and 15.

Davis stressed the importance of those in the scientific community as well as all individuals continuing to speak about and acknowledge the current political developments, rather than being quiet.

"The important thing as a science student or a person not involved in science [is to] be aware of what's happening and developing and sharing opinions with others, because public opinion is ultimately what sways politics," David stated. "We should keep talking about all of these things and keep the conversation going. We live in a crazy news cycle that is constantly evolving: the NIH has laid off new employees, the NIH is rescinding grants, data is being scrubbed off government websites. All these things, don't let them die in silence."

Samhi Boppana contributed writing to this article.

It is the Board that is responsible for voting for and periodically evaluating the University's president. It is the Board that sets tuition for academic programs and votes on tenure.

It was the Board that was consulted during the pandemic to implement and then reverse fiscal mitigation measures including the suspension of employee retirement contributions and hiring restrictions. It was the Board that created the Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee, which makes decisions on the University's endowment and financial investments.

Yet, despite the Board's immense power, there is little transparency with the public about how exactly it is advancing the University's mission.

Currently, the activities page of the Board's website has not been updated since the 2022-23 academic year, leaving all of us to wonder what exactly they have achieved since then - if anything at all. Even the sparse updates that have been posted from 2013 to 2023 consist of a meager three to six bullet points, with more descriptions of the concepts discussed rather than actual progress made.

This is not the norm. At peer institutions, like Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania, several page-long meeting summaries have been posted within a week of Board meetings, clearly articulating actions taken and major topics discussed. Following Board meetings at Brown University, the president sends a detailed email to the community, summarizing the Board's activities and discussion.

The News-Letter reached out to the Board of Trustees on Nov. 4, 2024, inquiring about when the website would be updated with new information. We received a response the following day, on Nov. 5, that the Board's staff was aware and working on getting it updated.

Now, over four months later in March 2025, the website still has not been updated. With the amount of power that the Board yields, it is unacceptable that this is the level of transparency (or lack thereof) provided to students, staff and the public. The decisions of the Board impact all of us in the Hopkins community; by leaving us entirely in the dark on their work, how can we trust that they are advancing our interests?

Furthermore, the website's FAQ page has been quietly discontinued, and there is not even a list of which committees each of the 35 trustees and ex officio serve on. At peer institutions, including New York University, Yale University and Duke, the website for the Board clearly states which members serve on which committees.

In 2011, the Board also removed their young trustee position, which was created in 1971 to allow one recent graduate to serve a four-year, nonrenewable term with the same powers and responsibilities as other trustees, including full voting power. For four decades, the young trustee position provided young alumni with a voice at the highest level of University governance.

The Board's justification for eliminating the young trustee position was that the young trustees were almost always selected from graduating seniors from Homewood, leaving out students from the University's other divisions. Based on the Board's concern, it seems that it would be wise to expand the number of young trustee positions and create a standing committee of diverse students with whom the Board consults.

Instead, the Board made the baffling decision to eliminate the young trustees position altogether and create the Student Life Committee, which they claimed would include a diverse group of current students.

Key word: claimed.

In reality, no students sit on the Student Life Committee, in voting or non-voting positions, as stated in a 2023 resolution by the Student Government Association (SGA). The committee instead consults undergraduate students on a limited basis and generally only consults SGA ahead of a single committee meeting in the spring.

The Student Life Committee page on the website has zero updates on what work the committee has recently done and no descriptions of meetings with student organizations or students. From having a young trustee, with full voting power, to now having a Student Life Committee that has strayed from its mandate to include diverse current students and is only composed of nameless trustees, the Board has taken a major step backwards in listening to students.

Ultimately, the Board of Trustees is out of touch with Hopkins students and operates with little to no transparency of how it is using its power. As the Board transitions to new leadership, it must take steps to increase its transparency and restore confidence. It is unacceptable for any group, much less one as influential as the Board of Trustees, to wield their power shrouded in secrecy.

The Editorial Board calls on the trustees to take action immediately to update their website with the activities of the Board during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years as well as continue to post updates within a month of their four annual meetings. The makeup of each of the Board's committees must also be publicized and also regularly updated with descriptions of topics discussed and actions taken.

Peer institutions also have meetings of the Board that are open to the public. UPenn's regular Board of Trustees meetings are open to the public, whereas there is not even information on when or where the Hopkins Board of Trustees meets.

The Board must take initiative to solicit student feedback and input through more standardized and accessible channels than selecting student leaders or SGA to hear from on an irregular basis, such as through an email or form. Moreover, the Board of Trustees should reinstate the young trustee position, allowing young alumni who are more connected to Hopkins, to share in governance. Several peer institutions - including Brown, Cornell University and Duke, have young alumni trustee positions, where students that have recently graduated can participate and vote in Board proceedings.

At times when higher education is seemingly under attack, it is critical that the Hopkins community is able to have faith in the Board that runs this University and knowledge of their actions.

On Jan. 29, 2025, President Trump issued several executive orders that changed the status quo, but one in particular restricted transgender identity and limited healthcare access to the trans community. Although the orders target younger transgender people, the entire LGBTQ+ community will be affected.Trump's education secretary has also displayed apathy or disregard for individuals and students with disabilities. Individuals falling into both categories, transgender and disabled, are among the most vulnerable during this upcoming administration.

One of the consequences of this executive order is that college students coming from conservative states that ban the X option - denoting another gender - can no longer use this option on their official university identification. When these students apply for college admission and other benefits, they must now show their identification, which displays their biological sex. Having such identification without the gender identity of choice can cause stress, anxiety and depression.

Moreover, disabled transgender people have now had their healthcare banned, which translates as having less control of their healthcare, including mental well-being. If disabled transgender people do not have the healthcare they need, they are more susceptible to worsening mental health and overall well-being. No healthcare means no gender treatments and support. Younger people are more affected as they see their treatments disappear and they have little recourse.

A report from Health Affairs indicates that transgender individuals experience poorer health outcomes and more significant mental health challenges compared to cisgender individuals. This disparity is due to inadequate healthcare and higher levels of discrimination and social stigma, negatively impacting their mental well-being. Additionally, those identifying with a gender different from the one assigned at birth may be more susceptible to disability.

Transgender veterans are also affected by new orders that dismantle DEI and inclusion programs in the Veteran Affairs (VA) Healthcare System, which previously provided access to gender identity support. Many veterans face mental health disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and the removal of these programs increases their vulnerability to discrimination in a sector primarily managed by former military members.

According to the HRC organization, many disabled transgender people do not have equal rights. They often lack access to proper medical care, support services and face discrimination from healthcare providers. In the VA healthcare system, many providers do not understand or respect transgender identities, manifesting in worse patient experiences and outcomes. This lack of education makes it difficult for transgender individuals to get the care they need. There is an urgent need for better awareness and training in this area.

Discrimination has been a longstanding challenge within the realm of U.S. politics. During Barack Obama's presidency, many Americans felt a sense of hope and progress as he took significant steps to promote equality, notably by lifting the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This landmark decision allowed trans service members to serve their country openly, embracing their identity without fear of reprisal. However, the subsequent administration under Donald Trump rolled back many of these crucial advancements, leaving the LGBTQ+ community exposed and vulnerable once more in a political landscape rife with uncertainty and division.

Transgender and disabled people are among our most marginalized communities and the Trump administration just made their lives harder. The rhetoric alone opens up these groups to more discrimination from Americans who don't fully understand their experiences. Regardless of their labels, transgender disabled people are people and they deserve access to healthcare and liberty to expression.

Donald Trump embodies the explosive consequences of a society that has long suppressed its discriminatory undercurrents. After years of silence, these hidden tensions have finally emerged, revealing the raw emotions and frustrations that have been simmering beneath the surface. These anti-transgender policies should make Americans aware of that nothing can be taken for granted and that the rights they have today can be taken away in the future in a blink of an eye.

Disabled transgender individuals are currently facing the repercussions of systemic issues and societal misunderstandings. This situation may catalyze greater awareness and activism, highlighting the necessity for constant vigilance in protecting human rights. History shows that rights can be eroded if individuals do not actively defend them, reinforcing the importance of advocacy in safeguarding against potential regressions in civil liberties.

Eliam Levin is a graduate student in the Department of History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University.

The event featured various speakers, including NIH Intramural Research Training Award postdoctoral fellow Haley Chatelaine, University of Pennsylvania student and cancer survivor Emily Whitehead, former NIH Director Francis Collins and science communicator Bill Nye. Each shared personal experiences regarding the impact of funding cuts, workforce reductions and the broader consequences of Trump-era policies on scientific progress.

Chatelaine reflected on the shift from pride in serving the country through science to facing threats against DEI initiatives.

"I was so proud [since] I was setting up to do science in the best place in the world [...] for my country," she said. "If we want to find more efficient treatments for diseases, then we need diverse and inclusive scientists."

As the first pediatric patient to receive CAR T-Cell therapy, Whitehead credited scientific research for saving her life. Meanwhile, Collins emphasized the critical role of scientists in driving economic growth.

Government officials, including Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL.), reassured attendees that their voices would be heard while condemning the administration's policies.

Many demonstrators carried signs criticizing attacks on science and the actions of prominent public figures, including President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Elon Musk.

Numerous Hopkins groups and students showed up for the event and represented the Hopkins community. In an interview with The News-Letter, sophomores William Mariscal and Ja'niya Baptiste, currently studying in the Hopkins D.C. Abroad program, reflected on their motivations for attending the protest.

"Seeing how Hopkins had their funding cut, we felt motivated to attend for the cause since we stand with [the University]," Mariscal noted.

"[Funding cuts and diversity limitations] do not allow for multiple voices being included and for newer generations to step up and do research for future generations," Baptiste added.

Recent graduate Gavin Cressy expressed concerns about how the cuts could affect his career.

"I'm going to be a new employee at the School of Medicine, so what has been happening recently with the funding cuts could directly impact my line of work," he said.

Nye - science communicator, author and host of children's show Bill Nye the Science Guy - stressed the importance of science and innovation to the national interest; promoting science and engineering, he established, will stimulate the economy and reinforce U.S. power on the global stage.

"Science is in the national interest, censoring science is not," he said. "I encourage those on the other side to break ranks, become leaders and oppose the suppression of science. [...] Together, we can and must stand up for science."

Kendall Reid, a bioinformatics master's student at the School of Public Health, helped organize the local D.C. event and promoted the protest at Hopkins and neighboring institutions. In an interview with The News-Letter, he explained the rationale for organizing the event and the uncertainty surrounding the future of scientific research.

"There's great uncertainty as to what the future is actually going to look like. I was planning to apply to PhD programs in December, but many of those programs have either paused admissions or cut the size of their classes," he said. "We're doing fantastic [research] that needs to be funded."

He then spoke about his own research on HIV at the School of Public Health, stressing the risks posed by budget cuts. He noted that this research has contributed to alleviating the burden of HIV over the past two decades and that budget cuts threaten this work and progress.

Reid also highlighted the overall goal for this protest: a message to politicians and the community.

"There are people from all walks of life that benefit from scientific discovery and the application of the scientific method. The more we'll stray away from it, the unhealthier we become," he said.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the School of Medicine Kristin Bigos described her reasons for attending the rally, which included the recent cuts in research funding that directly impact her work at Hopkins. Her lab depends on funding by the NIH.

"I have one NIH funded clinical trial and kids with ADHD. I have another grant that has a fundable score that should have gone to council in February, but they haven't held council since this administration took office," she said. "And so, I know firsthand how important it is to fund clinical research and translation research and basic research. I just wanted to lend my support to the people who are up here fighting and appreciate the Congress people who come today and everybody else who's here to tell their stories."

Bigos went on to describe the potential impacts of further funding cuts on her lab and work. As she is expected to fund most of the salaries of the people working in her lab, including her own, she stressed that more Research Project (RO1) grants are required to maintain the efficiency, productivity and development of her lab's work. She currently has only one RO1 grant for her lab, and the second year of its direct funding has been cut by 15%. Without additional funding, she said the effects could be "catastrophic."

A spokesperson from DHS voiced the Trump administration's reasons for implementing these two directives in contrast to the immigration policy of the former Biden administration.

"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense," the spokesperson wrote.

Additionally, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 directing the development of measures to address complaints of antisemitism on college campuses and to help universities "monitor" international students for potential criminal or terrorist activity.

In a memo, published on Jan. 30, President Trump stated, "To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."

In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson responded to several questions regarding the impact of these new directives on students and life on campus.

While they noted that many areas within Hopkins and its various campuses are open to the public and thus open to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), some spaces are not open, requiring officials to obtain a legal documentation in order to enter.

"These include areas where JHU/JHHS identification is required for entry; for example, some clinical spaces, administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, residence halls and other restricted areas and buildings," the spokesperson wrote. "Federal law enforcement officers are not authorized to access these non-public areas without meeting certain legal requirements, such as pursuant to a valid warrant or court order."

The administration also stressed that the Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD), a newly implemented police force on campus, will not work with federal immigration officers as this is beyond their scope.

"JHPD officers are not immigration officials," the spokesperson wrote. "As our policy states: 'The enforcement of civil federal immigration laws falls exclusively within the authority of ICE officials.'"

The spokesperson provided a link to JHPD policies to underscore the restricted jurisdiction of these officers, as well as a link to their specific policy on noncitizen interactions.

They also noted that international members of the Hopkins community, including students, staff and faculty can seek support from the Hopkins Office of International Services (OIS).

OIS is currently monitoring changes in immigration and border policy that can impact the international community at Hopkins.

"The university and OIS are actively monitoring changes in U.S. immigration and border policies that could have an impact on JHU's community," an announcement on the OIS website reads. "It is not yet clear what the impact of many of these policy changes will be, and it may take time for federal agencies to determine how they plan to operationalize new directives."

The office also stated that, if someone needs legal assistance, OIS has compiled related resources and that public safety concerns should be directed to Johns Hopkins Public Safety.

Shirlene John contributed writing for this article.

The new four-story building, set to replace AMR I, will feature over 160,000 square feet of residential space with 400 traditional, dormitory-style beds, marking an increase in capacity from the approximately 196 students the dorm currently houses. The new structure aligns with the University's long-term goal of providing on-campus housing for over 80% of undergraduate students.

In addition to housing, the facility will include a 500-seat dining hall, serving as the new central dining space for students. The dining hall will have 6 dining stations as well as provide Late Night and Take Out options. The design aims to create a strong connection with the surrounding campus, particularly the Beach, a popular student gathering space.

The University's presentation to UDAAP marked the first formal design review of the project, with construction expected to begin in summer 2026 and completion anticipated by 2028.

One of the primary discussion points during the UDAAP review was the project's architectural approach. The University representatives emphasized their intent to preserve the traditional aesthetic of AMR I, honoring the history of the residence hall, which was built in 1923, while incorporating modern improvements.

UDAAP member and registered architect Osborne Anthony stated that most of the moves being taken are contextual gestures, and asked why this style of architecture has been chosen.

Senior Director for Planning and Architecture on the Johns Hopkins Facilities and Real Estate team Lee Coyle responded that these stylistic choices were made considering the alumni's perception of the AMR buildings as an University tradition to be maintained.

The University's AMR I presentation additionally included the plan to expand the building into the freshman quad. UDAAP Chairperson Pavlina Ilieva asked whether a scheme that is more of an H shape instead of a U shape would be considered since it would still work and end up saving some trees.

VMDO Architects representative and architect Jim Richardson answered that, although this suggestion was considered, the service needs of the University dining facilities had redirected them to the current plan and that the University did not want the delivery trucks to drive further into the site.

Accessibility improvements were also discussed. Unlike AMR I, which lacks elevators and automatic doors, the new building will include Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant pathways and entrances. A question was posed whether the ADA ramp entrance was too far from the main entrance, and Coyle responded that people will disabilities will also access the same entrance from both Charles Street and the Quad.

UDAAP representative and landscape architect Sharon Bradly expressed positive comments on the project, stating that she appreciated that the University is utilizing what worked well with the previous building and the ADA compliant slope.

Bradly suggested that removing some of the plantings along Charles Street to allow for seating facing the street would be useful. Anthony provided additional feedback, stating that there should be a clearer separation between AMR I and the dining hall.

Ilieva highlighted how traditional and modern approaches of architecture could be combined in this project, and expressed concerns regarding the scale of these plans in comparison to the surrounding buildings. She also suggested that, to make the building more inviting, the walls that lead into the dining hall plaza could be broadened and terraces could be made more integral and meaningful to the project.

Further recommendations included providing sitting spaces along the wall facing Charles Street and making the massing of the dining hall more contemporary, similar to the new Student Center. The University will consider working on a Schematic Plan for construction, with consideration of the recommendations made,

In light of the University's plans to renovate AMR I, freshman residents expressed their opinions and shared the sentimental value of the residence hall to them. In an email to The News-Letter, freshman Arjun Jasuja shared his feelings toward the news.

"Honestly, I think it's bittersweet that my freshman dorm building will be torn down," Jasuja wrote. "The [AMR I] dorms are very reminiscent of a typical college dorm, and I'll miss it dearly during my future years at Hopkins."

Looking to the future, freshman Manyaa Bhatia expressed her positive expectations for the renovations as a vessel for building community in a email to The News-Letter.

"[The AMR 1] renovations that provide a view of the surrounding campus would definitely help incoming freshmen classes develop a stronger sense of the community around them," Bhatia wrote.

Rubio posted a statement to his personal X account, claiming "The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States."

USAID was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, intending to unite several foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency. In fiscal year 2023 - the latest year with published data - the U.S. government allocated $71.9 billion in foreign aid, with $43.79 billion earmarked for USAID. However, the USAID budget total is only about 0.6% of U.S. annual government spending.

Over the last six decades, the agency has been involved with improving global health, assisting with disaster relief, protecting democracies abroad and increasing education for girls. Notable projects include the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has provided life-saving HIV treatment and prevention services; the President's Malaria Initiative, which has contributed to reducing malaria-related mortality; and the Global Health Security Agenda, which helps countries prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats.

USAID has been increasingly scrutinized by the Trump administration, who put nearly all USAID employees on leave on Feb. 23 and instituted a 90 day review on all foreign aid programs on Jan. 20.

In an email to the Hopkins community on March 5, President Ronald J. Daniels stated over $800 million in USAID grants at Jhpiego, the School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs and the School of Medicine have been terminated, causing these programs to cease grant-funded operations.

"Because of these funding terminations, we are in the process of winding down USAID grant-related activities in Baltimore and internationally," Daniels wrote.

Dr. Thomas Quinn, founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, commented on the federal cuts in an email to The News-Letter.

"There is no doubt that faculty and students are both feeling the impact of funding cuts to NIH grants and in particular the loss of USAID funding," Quinn wrote. "We are having daily calls with our faculty and their collaborators, and each day brings a new unpleasant surprise in the form of another cancellation of a contract or grant. No new grants from NIH have been issued for the last few months and will unlikely be issued until mid-summer at best."

The News-Letter spoke with several faculty and staff members at the School of Public Health whose work has been affected by the termination of USAID grants or reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These interviews took place prior to Rubio's announcement on Monday and may not reflect the full extent to which projects have been impacted.

Canceled grants and projects

Dr. Peter Winch -a professor of International Health affiliated with the Center for Global Health -studies water use, sanitation practices and environmental sustainability. He discussed two of his government-funded projects that have been canceled in an email to The News-Letter.

Winch stated that the people most affected by these cuts are the populations served by the projects as well as the project staff. His first project involved reducing lead cookware in Bangladesh, which was funded by the U.S. Department of State.

"Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and can cause reduced cognitive development in young children," Winch wrote. "Our investigations have shown that lead is incorporated into cookware... when scrap metal is incorporated into the flat aluminum disks that are the inputs for manufacturing of cookware. Those who manufacture cookware... buy aluminum disks, and see that they look new and shiny. They assume that all is well but over time, lead leaches from the cookware into food, which then is ingested by families."

At the time of the program's cancellation, Winch's team had identified and characterized the supply chain responsible for the production of lead-contaminated cookware and were preparing to share their findings with the Bangladeshi government. However, the loss in federal funding has set back the project significantly, worrying Winch about the numerous families who will suffer as a result.

"Once developing nervous systems are harmed by lead, there is no way to undo the harm," he stated.

In Winch's second project, supported by USAID, he worked with government-affiliated and non-governmental organizations to increase agricultural productivity in regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This work has led to the re-establishment of rural agriculture in the region and the reduction of malnutrition in women and children, especially in regions affected by tribal conflicts.

Due to the shuttering of the project, Winch worries that there will be lasting impacts, even if the projects are able to be restarted.

"We have lost much time and effort, and it will prove challenging to reestablish the relationships and local capacity that had been established," Winch wrote.

Radha Rajan, a Research and Evaluation Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, part of the School of Public Health's Health Behavior and Society Department, outlined the current changes taking place. Most of the programs, which inspire the implementation of healthier behaviors, take place internationally in countries like Tanzania, Uganda and the Philippines.

Rajan estimated that 90-95% of the Center's work with varying stages of completion were impacted. One project, called Breakthrough ACTION, which focused on topics like malaria, family planning and reproductive health, education and nutrition, was nearing completion when the executive orders were signed.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Rajan stated that these orders halted projects that were nearly complete.

"The executive orders prevented us from sharing some of the project's research and archiving the data in publicly accessible databases. We had planned major dissemination events to ensure that the knowledge gained could be used by other organizations. But those events were abruptly canceled, so much of that valuable information may not reach the broader public health community," she said.

On the other hand, projects that were being planned were prevented from officially starting.

"We had a five-year project planned on knowledge management - essentially creating resource hubs for professionals in social and behavior change to share insights and best practices. That project was completely canceled before it even began," she added.

Rajan emphasized the potential long-term consequences in addition to higher disease burdens and unnecessary, premature deaths.

"When communities are surveyed and engaged in the early stages of a project but then see no follow-through, it creates distrust," she said. "People feel like they were used for data collection but didn't receive any real help. That damages future efforts and makes it harder to build credibility when trying to implement new programs down the line."

Lastly, Rajan discussed the effects on the Center's members, and she stated how many of her colleagues who have spent years building expertise in social and behavior change are now facing unemployment.

Speaking on the impact of the funding cuts, Rajan underscored the deep sense of loss felt by those in the field.

"[For many of us,] this work isn't just a job - it's a mission," she emphasized. "We care deeply about the communities we serve, and it's heartbreaking to know that those people are the collateral damage of these funding cuts."

Impact on students

In an email to The News-Letter, Lisa Folda - the practicum and alumni partnerships manager for the Department of International Health at the School of Public Health - described the impact of the recent developments on graduate students.

"There is certainly stress about job searching for those approaching graduation, particularly since there are recently dismissed federal workers with more experience who may now also be competing for the same positions," she wrote.

In particular, Folda highlighted the School of Public Health's practicum requirement, where a student gains hands-on experience in their field alongside experienced professionals, as well as similar requirements in other departments.

"That process is not unlike a job search - it uses a lot of the same skills, including networking and informational interviews," she wrote. "It can be stressful for some students in any given year, but the news cycle is adding a level of concern - are all the programs I'm interested in being frozen? Where will the funding come from? Will I be able to find something in time? What could change for me as an international student?"

Folda also discussed the effect of the current circumstances' uncertainty on the students.

"We still don't entirely know how things will play out, so it is something of a waiting game. Sitting with ambiguity can be hard," she wrote. "The students are learning and growing - being adaptable, being patient, thinking creatively and collaboratively... We - the department, the School, the University, our many remarkable alumni - are committed to supporting them as we all move through challenging times."

Shirlene John and Grace Oh contributed reporting to this article.

Editor's note, 2025: A previous version of the article incorrectly spelled Radha Rajan's name.

That night, I finished Dream State and returned to my dorm. My mind was a prelingual pileup of emotions and phantom pains, the ones left loitering when a book is finished and you realize that's all you'll hear from the characters, like leaving your high school on the last day of senior year. You feel these things after good books - or at least I do - but especially after Dream State.

While I don't have as much space as the book, nor Puchner's propensity for prose, I'll attempt to convey the plot. The setting is cardiac anesthesiologist Charlie's lakehouse in Montana, and the occasion is his wedding to medical school dropout Cece, who is alone at the lakehouse arranging the wedding. The conflict: misanthropic airport baggage handler Garrett - Charlie's best friend from college tasked with officiating the wedding - entertaining Cece before Charlie arrives and - though no one asked him to - falling in love with her. As he fails to prepare his speech and fumbles to interact humanly with Cece, he finds the time to drunkenly email her a profession of his love. Meanwhile, the fate of the wedding itself is in flux as the party is ravaged by norovirus.

Like leftovers from a good dinner, the anticipated wedding scene is wrapped up and saved for later. Suddenly, the cast leaps to the future as Cece and Garrett are married with one oddball daughter Lana, and Charlie marries a Greek lookalike of Cece and has two kids, Jasper and Téa. Charlie, inspired by a friendship fallout in the life of one of his patients, reconnects with Garrett and Cece to invite them to the lakehouse for a reunion. The night goes over like a boy fallen off his bike: bruised but smiling, trying to pretend nothing hurts. The car ride home, Garrett comments to Cece that Charlie was performing all night.

This is how the summers that Lana remembers spending at the lakehouse in Montana start, her and Jasper's parents making up for lost time while she and Jasper begin new times. Many years plus a near-death cardiac event and pacemaker for Jasper later, and the two's relationship has taken on the romantic connotations of summertime flings. Still, the two continue to grow up and apart: Lana veering toward Hollywood acting and directing, Jasper toward drug addiction and death cults.

And thus, old age prowls quietly. As the career of wolverines and wildlife that Garrett pursued after getting married nosedives due to climate crisis, Cece's career as an independent bookstore owner seems to reach a happy place. Charlie has seen the end of more than a couple of marriages now, and he's grieving the loss of Jasper, whom he couldn't save. But Jasper isn't the only loss readers must endure. First merely understandable confusions, Cece's day-to-day blunders are diagnosed as Alzheimer's. By the story's end, she can't even remember her husband's name.

The central actors of Dream State - Charlie, Garrett and Cece - seem to reach their final resting places. When the plot can march no further, Puchner exhumes the past in order to stick the landing. He gives readers the wedding.

Everyone is sick in some way or another: trying not to vomit in the case of Charlie, or wishing they could vomit and somehow cure their existential dread in the case of Garrett and Cece. The scene contains only the ephemera of peace before the axe falls and Cece declares she's staying in Montana with Garrett, leaving Charlie in California. The novel ends by depicting an interstice of joy in which Cece is young and free, before she becomes addled and aged.

Many reviewers herald Dream State for the way it deftly chronicles time, like a ballerina leaping across a puddle on a rainy day. I am no different than many reviewers - the pacing of this marathon-length novel is certainly why the ending left me stranded in Dream State, my ride home nowhere to be found. However, I admit, the decision to withhold the wedding struck friction with me at first. Then, by the end, I assumed it was a case of "writer knows best," and I should have been more patient. Puchner's response in an interview with The News-Letter tells us it's somewhere in between.

"I originally thought that I would just show the wedding when it was supposed to be shown, right?" Puchner said. "I do a sleight of hand, or a bait and switch [...] [I wanted the end] to move back in time and imagine this other whole ghost life that could have been led, which would have led to a different kind of happiness and unhappiness."

Puchner said that the ending came to him on a walk in the snow. "I was so happy I cried," he said.

On Goodreads, one of the genres for Dream State is "Climate Change." No one can claim that the novel did not discuss the reality of the current climate, particularly in the American West. But the interplay between climate and characters in Dream State is more nuanced than sticker-brand terms like eco-fiction or cli-fi may suggest.

There are novels, whether purposeful or not, where the setting steamrolls the characters; Dream State is not one of those novels. In my reading, the characters seem to come more center stage than ever before in the end: particularly Cece, whose character finalizes itself in readers' minds ironically through her forgetting her own life. In an interview with The News-Letter, Puchner addresses both of these issues in one fell swoop.

"[It] was impossible to write about Montana and the American West without writing about climate change because it wouldn't be realism," Puchner said on the novel's genre. Later, regarding humans at the end of Dream State and Cece's Alzheimer's, Puchner elucidated the connection.

"I started to become interested in the parallels between the sort of loss of memory that [Cece] experiences and the Earth's loss of biodiversity," Puchner said. "There's something about the devastation of dementia that is maybe rhymed in the devastation that's happening to the earth."

Puchner said early in the interview that novels don't need to answer questions. Rather, paraphrasing Chekhov, they must ask eloquent questions. While an answer like that is meaty in terms of interpretation, it makes an interviewer sweat when one of his questions is, essentially, "What is one question you want to be asked about your book, and how would you answer?" Still, I fired away, and he provided a satisfying answer.

"I can't identify a single question that I want the book to ask," Puchner said. "I guess what I would want someone to ask at the end is, like, 'Why am I so moved?' I mean, that sounds pompous, but... the dream of what you want a book to do is... move somebody in a way that is, in some ways, inexpressible."

When you're a writer sitting in front of another writer who's responsible for a book you've just enjoyed, it's hard - perhaps impossible - to not talk about writing. Near the end of our interview, I asked Puchner: How can a writer move someone with words beyond words?

"That's the whole project," Puchner concluded. "It exists equally in the space between lines as it does the lines themselves."

For me, that quote defines the experience of reading Dream State. Everything around you will change. You will read more books and live more lives, the environment will continue to change for better or worse, but Dream State will forever be a snapshot of Charlie, Garrett and Cece in the declining Montana. Just as the photographer gets to leave the frame in which the subject is stuck like a mosquito in amber, the writers and readers of books get to step away while the characters are stuck inside the pages. What do you make of this; how do you cope with this? These are the questions that literature is concerned with, from beginning to end.

Returning to my dorm from Hodson Hall, missing the man asking for the lighter, swimming in the prelingual mess of my mind, one question floats above the noise:

Why am I so moved?

The report stated that around 73% of the population experiencing homelessness were Black or African Americans: a rate significantly higher than the 62% Black or African Americans who make up of Baltimore's population.

People who experience homelessness tend to have poorer health outcomes compared to the population with stable housing. The former group has an increased risk for many infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and HIV. They show higher rates of mental health issues like substance use disorder and depression compared to the general population. These individuals also tend to have a higher duration of hospital stays, yet are less likely to receive sustained medical care and stay on necessary medications.

However, these inequities are not only limited to health outcomes but also to faulty data collection about these diseases and disorders, which further worsen the population's overall wellness status. Multiple reports have shown that statistics regarding the people who experience homelessness tend to be misreported due to flaws and discrepancies in methodologies. For instance, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty revealed in 2017 that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Point in Time count of the homeless population relied heavily on volunteer counts, missing out on the significant group of individuals who stay in unconventional and non-visible places. Additionally, people who cycle in and out of homelessness (known as episodic homelessness) or become situationally homeless through factors like losing a job or domestic violence might be undercounted.

Most cities, including Baltimore, do not have a standardized reporting system when it comes to mortality counts of people who experience homelessness, which is another obstacle in collecting accurate data. Forms or reports for death are limited or incompatible for unhoused individuals. For example, a death certificate from Maryland filled out by doctors or other healthcare workers does not have a specific field regarding if the individual was experiencing homelessness at the time of their death. This leads to a difficulty of developing an understanding of mortality causes and their patterns across age and other subgroups.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Dr. Katherine Koh from the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program offered a physician's perspective on these "invisible deaths."

"The inequities continue into death. There are often no funerals, no obituaries, death notices or memorial services." she stated. "Often, you can't even find a next of kin, a family to claim the body or anyone to hold a funeral either."

Koh described a specific example where an unhoused individual was unable to have a proper autopsy.

"The autopsies aren't done, or they're incomplete. There was this patient who died, and in the weeks leading up to his death, he had urinary retention with his abdomen expanding. My colleague thought his condition might have been urosepsis, which perhaps could have caused his death," Koh said. "At the same time, he was an opioid user, and so he had opioid in his system when he died. That was said to be the cause of death, but they never checked for urosepsis."

She emphasized the importance of proper autopsies, as homeless individuals often might not be prioritized due to their housing status.

"So often, medical examiners assume that the person died of drugs. That could be true, but [the patient] also might have died of a heart attack, or died of urosepsis, or died of another cause," she emphasized.

Koh also highlighted the mental toll endured by those facing homelessness, one possible reason being witnessing the deaths of those around them. Risks for mental health disorders can increase when an individual is homeless, and around 70% of them experience mental health disorders such as substance use disorder and depression.

Koh referenced a practice that Boston Health Care for the Homeless program conducts in response to their patient deaths and to potentially provide comfort to others in their grief, in addition to the many services provided.

"We honor all the people who have died in the past year: We read their names and we have some chaplains that we partner with. It's always well-attended by other homeless people: they really care about and look after each other, and when other people die, they're really affected," she said. "I think they come to honor the people that they knew and loved and spent time with, but also, I think it also gives them solace to know that if that were to happen to them, they'd also be remembered."

One response to lowering disease and mortality rates in this population is through harm reduction. Patrick Winguth - a Hopkins alumni who graduated in 2024 who currently works as a harm reduction volunteer and organizer at the School of Public Health - spoke about his experiences in Baltimore regarding the relationship the homeless population has with health care.

"This varies from person to person - some people have said because they're using or have a history of drug use, they were negatively treated by hospital staff, and it wasn't a comfortable setting [for them]. Numerous people describe an inequitable power dynamic where they feel like they're disregarded as people," he said.

Winguth explained how harm reduction aims to be focused around empathy.

"We'll help you if you want our help. We won't try to force you into any sort of care, but providing a space where people can get basic needs taken care of opens the door for them to take their next step. There's an empowerment through choice, which is what engages people with us," he emphasized. "A big thing in harm reduction (yet not all-encompassing) is that [harm reduction] is also carried by people who use drugs too, providing a common area of trust. A lot of people in the space know what you're going through, they've been there, they know what you're looking for in this current moment."

World Drivers' Championship (WDC) predictions:

Samhi Boppana: Lando Norris

As much as I would love to see Lewis Hamilton (re)-claim his 8th WDC or Charles Leclerc finally achieve his first WDC, I don't know if this year is going to be it for Scuderia Ferrari - the McLaren Formula 1 Team has proven they have the faster car. Norris seems to have also found confidence in his capabilities as a driver throughout the title race with Verstappen. He earned multiple wins, including on notoriously difficult circuits like Singapore's Marina Bay, and is a strong contender. However, I'm not counting Leclerc out and neither should you. From his exceptional performance in Abu Dhabi and wins in Monza and Austin, he has shown that he is a competitive and strong driver who gives his all during the race. You can feel his passion for Ferrari and his ability to extract the most out of the car makes him another strong competitor for the WDC.

Shirlene John: Lando Norris

This season of F1 is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in recent years, with multiple teams and drivers vying for the championship. As this marks the final year under the 2022 regulations, teams have extracted nearly every ounce of performance from their cars, leading to an exceptionally close field. At last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, just three-tenths of a second separated P1 from P16 in the first qualifying session, highlighting how marginal the differences are. Coming into this year, several drivers are looking to make a statement and capitalize on the tightly contested field; however, the title favorite is seemingly Norris. He ended the year confident after faltering earlier in the season. If pre-season testing rumors are to be believed and McLaren has indeed produced the fastest car on the grid, Norris will be under immense pressure to deliver. Anything less than a serious title challenge - or even a championship win - will be seen as a missed opportunity. Norris must prove he can go wheel-to-wheel with the best and seize his moment at the top. Personally, however, I'm holding out hope for a Ferrari title challenge. We're moving in silence, but there is something about this year that is looking to be special.

Julia Mendes Queiroz: Lewis Hamilton (for the plot)

This year is going to be a mixed bag, for sure. Unless Red Bull builds another RB19 rocketship, I predict that this season will be a lot like the last, with several drivers picking up race wins. A Hamilton WDC at Ferrari would be an absolutely incredible turn of events - and could lead to his retirement - but he'd face consistent competition by his teammate, Charles Leclerc, whose years of loyalty to the Scuderia have earned him a lot of favor. After years of being the unofficial Driver Nº1 (2024 notwithstanding), Hamilton will have to adjust to a new "balance of power." Norris and Verstappen are the two other obvious candidates; the former had a great season last year, finding his groove and winning races, but a championship with so much competition will be an uphill climb. Verstappen, on the other hand, has been the dominant driver in the past three seasons, with talent and experience to spare, but he'll have to deal with a new car, team changes and a lot of moving parts. All that to say - I'm hoping for a change, and hopefully one in Ferrari red.

Talia Lehrer: Lando Norris

As a McLaren fan, my prediction for the WDC goes to Lando Norris. After finishing the 2024 season only 63 points behind reigning world champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, the battle for the championship was fierce until the very end. The British driver not only secured his first victory at the Miami GP, but also three more first place results throughout the rest of the season. While Norris is my pick for the WDC, the battle for the title will be intense. Don't write off Verstappen and Red Bull just yet. They may have produced a car that was outperformed by both Ferrari and McLaren, but the four-time world champion has proved his skill countless times, taking the car to multiple victories. Both Ferrari drivers are also strong candidates. Leclerc may be more familiar with the team dynamics, but Hamilton has proven his own abilities, also securing victories during the 2024 season in a car slower than both Ferrari's and McLaren's. Put Hamilton in a faster vehicle, and he may outperform his teammate. All in all, the race is just too complicated and close to be 100% confident in a Norris WDC.

World Constructors' Championship (WCC) predictions:

SB: McLaren

After securing their first constructor's title in 26 years last season, McLaren are in for a repeat. Through the last half of the season, it has become clear that McLaren has the fastest car on the grid and has an advantage in speed unmatched by any other team. Like last year, I predict the Constructors' will be a close race and come down to McLaren and Ferrari, with the former once again edging out the Prancing Horse. Hamilton and Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri and Norris are both strong driver pairings, but the strength of McLaren's car pushes Piastri and Norris over the edge and on the path to claiming their second WCC.

SJ: Ferrari

Under Fred Vasseur's helm, Ferrari has shown signs of greater stability and strategic improvement, addressing some of the operational weaknesses that plagued them in previous seasons. With Hamilton joining Leclerc, Ferrari now has - in my opinion - the strongest driver lineup on the grid. The team also has completely changed their car concept for the 2025 season, switching from a pushrod to pullrod suspension system. While some might say that such a drastic change so late into the regulation cycle is a mistake, I actually think it's really exciting that Ferrari is being bold with their car and are confident in their ability to continue to progress and compete for the title. If the new concept delivers on its promise, Ferrari could finally find the consistency they've been missing and challenge for both championships. Additionally, both drivers seem genuinely excited and confident about the season. Hamilton brings a wealth of experience and a winning mentality, while Leclerc is in prime form; both drivers have performed in moments that mattered the most - winning both their home races last season. If Ferrari can maintain a competitive development pace throughout the season, they have a real shot at disrupting the established order and making a serious bid for the championship.

JMQ: McLaren

I'm going to go out on a limb this year and say that we probably won't have a Red Bull Constructors' win; the main reason being that they have a new driver (Liam Lawson), and not to use a cliche, but practice makes perfect. We've seen in past seasons that drivers struggle to adapt to the Red Bull seat, with some notable exceptions, so it's safe to say I think that the Verstappen-Lawson line-up will need some time to adjust. Secondly, Adrian Newey left last season - seeing as he designed most, if not all, of their championship winning cars, I think this might also impact their chance to bring a car that will compete with McLaren Racing's design. Therefore, I'm going to go with McLaren again; in my opinion, Zak Brown's team has the most well-balanced driver pairing in the Grid, competing in their third season together, and built a remarkably consistent car last season. And as a bit of a dark-horse, I think that Scuderia Ferrari has a chance to take second place, if they play their cars right.

TL: McLaren

McLaren will no doubt go back-to-back in the World Constructors Championship. Both McLaren drivers stepped it up during the 2024 season, driving to six wins between them and eight pole positions. Each upgrade saw a faster and more aerodynamic car, and McLaren is aiming to capitalize on this success. Red Bull experienced a downfall as the season progressed, and, if preseason testing is to be believed, have not created a car as strong as their RB19. With the loss of their second driver, and the replacement being Liam Lawson, a driver with limited racing experience, the team may not be able to recover from their slump. Adrian Newey, the legend and acclaimed engineer behind the success of Red Bull, left the team at the end of the season and joined Aston Martin -but Aston Martin still has a long way to go before climbing out of the middle of the pack. However, this departure signals the end of a Red Bull era.

Rookie Predictions:

SB: This season is full of young blood, and a far cry from the 2024 grid that was identical to 2023. With 5 rookies entering F1 for the first time, there is a lot up in the air. While I don't see any of the rookies reaching the podium this season, I'm looking forward to seeing how young talent Kimi Antonelli matches up against George Russell. I predict that he may have a rough start from F2, but will quickly adapt to Mercedes. For Haas, based on Ollie Bearman's superb performance in Jeddah last year, I predict that Bearman will quickly match Esteban Ocon and show off his talent (despite being in a Haas).

SJ: Many pundits and journalists are heralding Kimi Antonelli as one of the most highly anticipated rookies of the 2025 F1 season. After winning pretty much every type of single seater championship -from the Italian F4 Championship, the ADAC Formula 4 Championship and the Formula Regional European Championship - Antonelli faltered in his year in Formula 2, finishing only sixth in the championship. However, he is coming into F1 as one of the most prepared rookies of recent years; Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff stated that Antonelli has completed around 9,000 kilometres of testing in Mercedes F1 cars. I expect that he will be quick to catch up; however, as Mercedes do not seem to be title contenders this year, the pressure will be on Antonelli to focus on steady progress and learn from the experience rather than immediately fight for wins and the title.

JMQ: I have to say I am incredibly excited to see a Brazilian driver return to the grid, so my vote of confidence goes to Gabriel Bortoleto. After winning the F2 and F3 championships in his respective rookie years, I'm convinced he's got what it takes to come in and take advantage of the opportunity extended to him by Stake. Bearman's debut in Jeddah last year was also impressive, so I am looking forward to seeing how his season is going to go at Haas. I agree with Samhi that we might not see a rookie year podium - although I'm sure Mercedes are certainly hoping for one, and lastly, I doubt we'll see any of the five rookies be fired in their first season.

TL: This may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm expecting some skilled performances from Haas rookie Oliver Bearman. Bearman may not score the most points out of all the 2025 rookies - as his F2 competitor Kimi Antonelli is now in a rocketship of a car in comparison to the Haas - he has demonstrated a talent for driving at this high level. Not only did Bearman score his first point during his first ever F1 race with Ferrari, later in the season he also replaced Magnussen at Haas and scored another point. However, the Brit is also coming off of a not-so-dominant F2 season. He will face an uphill battle at Haas, and will no doubt need to work twice as hard for the same results as Antonelli in the Mercedes. F1 hasn't seen six new rookies in a season since 2001, so I can say with confidence: no matter who wins rookie of the year, the season will be full of excitement and drama.

Australia predictions:

SB: For the first race of the season in Melbourne, the past is prologue, and I predict it will end as the season did last year: a Lando Norris win and a Ferrari double podium. McLaren has proved last season and in pre-season testing that they have the fastest car on the grid. Norris, for his part, has shown that he is capable of capitalizing on the mechanical advantage of the car and converting qualifying success to race wins. With the reigning World Champion ruling out the possibility of a race win on the 16th, I predict that Leclerc's Ferrari will land at P2 and his new teammate Hamilton claiming P3.

SJ: As Verstappen has stated that "Red Bull can't fight for the win in Melbourne," I'm choosing to believe him, and predict that McLaren will lead the way, carrying through their form from last year. I think that this might be a preview of the season's early Mclaren dominance before updates from other teams, with Norris and hometown hero, Oscar Piastri, finishing on the top-steps of the podium. However, this Melbourne weekend is looking to be a rainy one, which could shake up the usual order, throwing everything to the wind.

JMQ: I never know with Verstappen; he might say the car is bad and then pull an absolute masterclass, or he could be serious, and he won't step on the podium in Australia. My bet is therefore on the hometown hero: Oscar Piastri will have a great start to the season, winning his first F1 home race and setting the tone for a year with McLaren as the Constructors' frontrunner, with Norris and Verstappen joining him on the podium.

TL: In the grid this year are two Australian drivers, and seeing either victorious at their home GP would make for an amazing start of the season. Oscar Piastri, however, has not only a dominant car but two years of experience in F1 more than rookie Jack Doohan. While the Alpine made some serious progress at the end of last season, it can't hold a candle to the McLaren. If history is any indication, neither driver will secure the P1 position, as no Australian has won their home GP. This fact makes me root even harder for Piastri to battle both his teammate and Verstappen for the pole and later the victory.

Addison Rae: From TikTok to pop stardom

Addison Rae, born in 2000 in Lafayette, La., initially gained fame through TikTok, where her dance videos garnered millions of followers. In 2021, Rae released her debut single "Obsessed," which received mixed reviews and led her to momentarily pause her music career. However, 2023 marked a turning point with the release of her EP AR, featuring collaborations with artists like Charli XCX. The EP's success led to a record deal with Columbia Records. Her first single with the record label - "Diet Pepsi" - released last year, showcased a matured sound, blending bubblegum pop with modern beats, reminiscent of Britney Spears' early work. The track peaked at No. 54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, solidifying Rae's place in the contemporary pop scene.

Tate McRae: Crafting the modern In the Zone

Tate McRae's latest album So Close To What has drawn comparisons to Spears' 2003 masterpiece In the Zone. McRae's ability to blend introspective lyrics with danceable beats resonates with the essence of early 2000s pop. Tracks like "Nostalgia" showcase her vocal prowess and storytelling, echoing the themes of love, heartbreak and self-discovery that were prevalent in Spears' work. McRae's music videos further amplify this connection, incorporating choreography and fashion that pay homage to the Y2K era while maintaining a fresh, contemporary edge.

And if the In the Zone comparisons weren't enough, So Close To What is proving to be a commercial juggernaut in its own right. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking McRae's first chart-topping project, though she already cracked the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 back in January 2024 with her single "Greedy." The album's synth-heavy, club-ready production has also dominated streaming platforms, with So Close To What breaking the record for the biggest debut week for a female pop album on Spotify Global in 2025. Clearly, Y2K pop's second coming isn't just a trend: It's a cultural reset, and McRae is at the forefront.

Olivia Rodrigo: Channeling the Spirit of Pop-Punk

Olivia Rodrigo's meteoric rise is a testament to the enduring appeal of early 2000s pop-punk. Her debut album SOUR is laced with the angst and rebellion characteristic of artists like Paramore and Avril Lavigne. Songs such as "good 4 u" and "brutal" feature gritty guitar riffs and raw vocals, capturing the essence of teenage turmoil. Rodrigo's fashion choices, often reflecting a grunge-inspired aesthetic, further cement her connection to the Y2K era. By embracing these influences, she has introduced the pop-punk genre to a new generation, proving that the themes of teenage angst and self-discovery are timeless.

And if SOUR was Olivia's love letter to early-2000s heartbreak anthems, GUTS is her full-fledged pop-punk coming-of-age saga. With tracks like "bad idea right?" and "get him back!" she taps into the bratty, tongue-in-cheek energy that made Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing era so iconic. But it's not all playful chaos: Songs like "logical" and "the grudge" bring in the gut-wrenching storytelling that defined artists like Fiona Apple and even early Taylor Swift. GUTS isn't just nostalgic for the sake of it: It reinvents the angst and recklessness of Y2K pop-rock for a generation that grew up on TikTok instead of Total Request Live (TRL). And clearly, it worked: GUTS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Rodrigo the first female artist in nearly a decade to have her first two albums open at the top spot.

Lady Gaga's Mayhem: A nostalgic reinvention

Lady Gaga, a chameleon of the music industry, has once again reinvented herself with her latest album Mayhem, releasing on March 7. The album is a deliberate nod to her early 2000s persona, blending dance-pop anthems with theatrical flair. The lead single "Abracadabra" is reminiscent of her 2008 hit "Poker Face," featuring infectious hooks and a pulsating beat. Another standout track,"Garden Of Eden," showcases Gaga's ability to merge biblical imagery with modern pop sounds, creating a song that's both provocative and catchy. Critics have praised "Mayhem" as a thrilling revival of Gaga's pop essence, with The Times highlighting its high-energy production and undeniable parallels to the powerhouse hits that first put her on the map.

The Y2K Fashion Resurgence

But the Y2K renaissance isn't just about sound - it's about style, too. The early 2000s weren't just an era of pop dominance: They were a full-fledged aesthetic movement. And now, low-rise jeans, crop tops and velour tracksuits are back - not just in nostalgic TikTok videos but on high-fashion runways and the streets of every major city. Butterfly clips, chunky sneakers and tiny handbags - once staples of the pop princesses we idolized - are now the must-have accessories of Generation Z. Even artists themselves are leaning into the look. Addison Rae's "Obsessed" music video feels ripped straight from 2003, with glammed-up baby tees and ultra-glossy lips. Tate McRae's "exes" music video? A full-on Britney "Me Against the Music" moment. It's not just nostalgia: It's a cultural reclamation, proving that the Y2K era wasn't just tacky trends and bedazzled flip phones. It was the blueprint, and today's stars are remixing it for a new generation.

Social media: The catalyst for revival

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram haven't just played a role in the Y2K revival - they've been the driving force behind it. Short-form videos and viral challenges have resurrected early 2000s music and fashion in ways that traditional media never could. Think about the sudden resurgence of "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada - once a staple of 2000s club playlists, now a TikTok anthem thanks to thousands of dance challenges and nostalgic edits. Or how "Potential Breakup Song" by Aly & AJ went viral in 2020, leading to the duo re-releasing an explicit version 13 years after its initial release.

This digital renaissance has created a communal sense of nostalgia, even for those who weren't alive (or old enough) to experience the 2000s firsthand. The speed of social media, combined with the cyclical nature of fashion and music trends, has allowed these once-dated styles to blend seamlessly with contemporary aesthetics. The early 2000s were defined by excess, bold self-expression and an anything-goes attitude, and if TikTok is any indication, Generation Z is more than ready to reclaim that energy.

Why Now? The Psychology Behind the Comeback

The resurgence of Y2K culture isn't just about aesthetics: it's about escapism. The early 2000s, despite its quirks, represents a pre-social media era where pop culture was consumed in a different, arguably more carefree way. There was no algorithm dictating what you should listen to, no pressure to go viral and no endless doom scrolling. Instead, people tuned into TRL to watch Spears debut a music video, rushed to the mall to buy the latest Seventeen magazine and burned their own CDs filled with chart-topping bangers. It was an era of pop star mystique, tabloid drama and maximalist self-expression: things Gen Z never fully experienced firsthand but now crave in a world dominated by curated digital personas.

This cultural shift isn't happening in a vacuum. Gen Z's fascination with retro trends has led to the resurgence of everything from '90s grunge to early-2000s MySpace aesthetics. But Y2K in particular has struck a chord because it feels like the last era of true pop star dominance. Before social media leveled the playing field, icons like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Beyoncé weren't just singers: they were untouchable superstars. Today's biggest artists, from Olivia Rodrigo to Tate McRae, are tapping into that same energy, proving that the magic of the 2000s isn't just alive: It's thriving in an entirely new form.

The Future of Y2K Influence

As the Y2K revival continues to gain momentum, its influence is likely to permeate various aspects of pop culture. Television reboots, fashion collaborations with celebrities and music samples from the early 2000s are becoming increasingly prevalent. This trend reflects a cyclical nature in pop culture, driven by both nostalgia and modern access through platforms like TikTok and streaming services. TikTok amplifies these trends, with viral videos and fashion hauls celebrating early 2000s culture. The resurgence of reboots like The Hills: New Beginnings and Gossip Girl further fuels this revival, showing how generational tastes are blending, creating a rich mix of old and new influences.

In a way, the Y2K revival happening today is about taking the elements that made early 2000s pop so iconic and reinventing them for today's audience. Whether it's Addison Rae channeling Spears, Tate McRae embodying In the Zone, Olivia Rodrigo picking up where Avril Lavigne left off or Lady Gaga reimagining her electro-pop past, these artists are helping to reframe and redefine what Y2K means in today's cultural landscape. The revival is vibrant, emotional and - above all - personal. The past might be coming back, but it's coming back with a new twist, and it's undeniably better than ever.

There are many advantages to attending a school such as Williams College, with an endowment of over $3.5 billion and barely 2,000 students: your child will likely receive a more personalized academic experience and have greater access to their professors. Because of the few number of graduate students or other university ventures than the undergraduate college, undergraduates also get the attention of their university. Here at Hopkins, professors often have other priorities, like research and mentoring doctoral students.

While the existence of these liberal arts colleges may be a good intellectual activity for a small number of students, they are a terrible trade off for the United States as society and are the paragon of elitist institutions.

Liberal arts colleges attract one primary archetype: white and wealthy. Diversity at these colleges is not as profound as at large research universities. Tuition costs are nearly even but name recognition of even the 5 best-ranked liberal arts colleges (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, and Pomona) is not as notable as the Ivy League or its peers. Why then do many wealthy parents send their children there?

The reason is that these parents may believe that their children will receive more attention at such colleges, where student sizes are small but endowment per student is inflated. The 5 liberal arts colleges I mentioned above have a combined endowment of over $15 billion but less than 10,000 undergraduate students. I can't think of anything more oligarchical than concentrating a million dollars per student into a population originating from the top 1%.

When looking at endowment value-per-student, the top performers are not liberal arts colleges, but rather elite research institutions, such as Harvard University and Massachusetts of Technology. Yet, there is a difference in how this wealth is utilized. Liberal arts college faculty are often trading off research time for teaching with teaching/research splits ranging from 100/0 to 50/50. While wealthy private institutions like Harvard and Hopkins have bloated endowments that need to be criticized, these universities are centers of research in the United States, where cancer therapeutics are being discovered, new methods of sustainability are being researched, and more.

Further, stereotypical liberal arts colleges are often located in smaller northeastern towns, with four out of the five colleges listed earlier being in rural and secluded towns. Many large research universities are located in large cities, such as University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Columbia University in New York City. While these universities are not the pinnacle of diversity, their location allows students to learn about diverse experiences in the city around them. Smaller northeastern towns confine students, most of whom are already extremely white and wealthy, to echo chambers of experience and culture.

I don't believe Harvard should have an endowment worth more than $50 billion but I feel comfortable saying that Harvard had made investments in the world outside of the Harvard ecosystem. This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine went to a Harvard physician who discovered microRNA, a finding that has countless therapeutic applications and will contribute to saving lives. I would spend billions on discoveries like that alone: these research universities additionally, fund other programs such as Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins affiliated non-profit that focuses on improving global health, and Project ECHO, an initiative at the University of New Mexico that has connected people in communities across the globe to world class medical care through telehealth.

Liberal arts colleges aren't doing this kind of work. Liberal arts colleges do not have robust research environments, if they have research environments at all, and instead channel their entire institutional mission into undergraduate education, primarily for the wealthy.

Hopkins runs a multi-billion dollar hospital complex that has made mistakes but treats millions of patients with extremely complicated, often life-threatening, disorders. Liberal arts colleges do not have a mechanism of using their funds for community upliftment, with no hospital complexes, productive physics laboratories, policy think tanks, etc. Although schools like Williams do have labs in fields like physics, their research output is virtually nonexistent.

Universities are centers of scholarly activity not solely because of their education but because of their creation of new knowledge. Professors are not solely educators but also experts who dedicate their careers to discovering and making an impact.

Of course, there is value in reading Chaucer as a mathematics major or learning calculus as a history major, and the ideals taught by the liberal arts are important. Still, it is often not practical for students, especially those from poorer backgrounds, to engage in academia simply for the sake of learning. Learning should not be treated simply as an intellectual exercise and the applications of learning science or literature must be emphasized in the form of research, technology, and art.

Private universities such as Hopkins receive hefty criticism for their wealth while liberal arts colleges often fly under their radar despite their plentiful financial capital, most having more than doubled their endowments since 2007. Liberal arts colleges are evidence that America's wealth gap is deeply entrenched in our educational model. Liberals praising these colleges should remember their own ideals of economic prosperity for all and communal resources. Ultimately, liberal arts colleges are an amazing place to get your education but terrible institutions within their communities.

Neil Mahto is a sophomore from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He currently serves as the Opinions editor of the News-Letter.