In an email to the University, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Rachelle Hernandez and Associate Vice Provost for Student Engagement and Dean of Students Brittini Brown wrote about Nguyen's involvement on campus and his impact on the Hopkins community.

"Joey was passionate about helping others learn the art and skill of debate, and volunteered his time to virtually teach debate to middle and high school students back in Vietnam," they wrote. "Those who knew Joey recall his bright smile, warm personality, sense of humor, and the gratitude he showed towards others."

Students wishing to express their condolences to Nguyen's family may do so by writing an email to "The Family of Joey Nguyen" and sending it to the Dean of Students at deanofstudents@jhu.edu.

Hernandez and Brown encouraged students to support one another during this time.

"The loss of a student is felt deeply across our community," they wrote. "In the coming days, please look for opportunities to help and support one another."

Mental Health Services can be reached at (410) 516-8278 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (closed 12-1 p.m.), on Friday from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., as well as Wednesdays from 1-6 p.m. Please leave a message during the 12-1 p.m. hour or press 1 to reach the on-call counselor.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, contact the Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team at (410) 516-WELL (9355) to speak with a crisis support clinician. To speak to a counselor on call, students can contact (410) 516-8278 (option 1).

Student Outreach and Support is available for appointments by calling (410) 516-7857.

Religious and Spiritual Life can be reached at (410) 516-1880 from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. from Monday through Friday.

A Place to Talk peer listening group is available Sunday through Thursday, 7 p.m.-1 a.m. in Brody Learning Commons 4010 and 7-11 p.m. in AMR I.

The TalkNow virtual counseling service is available through timelycare.com/jhu.

Students who live in residence halls may contact their Resident Advisor or Residence Director or stop by a Residential Life office. Residential Life can be contacted by phone on (410) 516-8283 or by email to residentiallife@jhu.edu.

For years, students at elite universities have used this phrase to describe a fundamental career dilemma: One can either pursue their passions and interests or choose to "sell out" by entering high-paying industries and careers that are much less aligned with one's moral compass. With so many students confronting this question, there appears to be a larger systemic issue with how universities disproportionately emphasize "sellout" careers over other paths that align with students' values. The peak of these "sellout" industries? Finance, technology and consulting, often grouped together as FTC.

There is a clearly established pattern of elite college students taking the "sellout" path and entering FTC. The 2024 Harvard University graduating class, for instance, saw 50% of its employed students working either in finance, technology or consulting sectors. Yale University's 2023 graduating class sent 40.8% of its employed students to FTC fields, and a whopping 70% of Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2024 employed graduates entered these industries. Meanwhile, nonprofit and government work remains scant: for the class of 2023, less than 8% of Georgetown University (GU) graduates end up in the government or nonprofit sector, despite the university's prestigious political pedigree. Compare that to almost 15% of GU grads working in investment banking alone, and the rosy picture of college graduates giving back to their community suddenly looks very bleak.

Hopkins too is not immune to the "sellout" epidemic. Around 41.5% of the 2023 graduating class who were employed ended up in FTC. A little more than 20% of employed graduates hold explicitly consulting or finance positions, and consistent top employers include Deloitte and JP Morgan. At Hopkins specifically, the military-industrial complex (MIC) is also highly overrepresented, likely due to our strong engineering presence and our ties with the Applied Physics Laboratory: it's not uncommon to see Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin or Booz Allen tables at Whiting Future Fests and coffee chats. It seems that despite our university's motto (Veritas vos Liberabit: The truth will set you free), many students find themselves shackled to the "sellout" train.

Astute readers will question the usage of the word "shackled": after all, there are undoubtedly many driven students who actively choose to "sell out." A New York Times article centered at Harvard University captures the struggle many Generation Z students face when deciding between FTC or something they truly care about. There are, of course, valid reasons to go into FTC - genuine passion, perhaps or intellectual interest. However, as the name implies, a sizable number of "sellouts" choose this path because of its perceived income, status and prestige. Also prevalent is a strong herd mentality: Students follow what they think is the popular path.

To what extent is choosing to "sell out" a personal choice? Although it's tempting to place the blame solely on the ambitious, cynical attitudes held by the nation's "best and brightest," there is a dark underbelly behind this whole system.

"We should get beyond thinking of just students who want the payout or the employers as the only source of the problem. Instead, we should look at the university campus as the place where the matchmaking gets done," said Professor Amy Binder a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora professor at Hopkins, in an email response. "Since this is an organizational problem, then the solutions must also be based at the organizational level. The university must take a look at what's happening on campus, own it, and then think about solutions."

Career fairs, speaker panels and coffee chat events are all examples of ways universities subtly push students towards FTC.

"Students come to campus as first-years very ambitious but naive about the landscape of jobs and that leaves them susceptible to any kind of messaging on campus. If the messaging is that the best and most prestigious jobs are in this narrow band of fields, then they learn to compete for these jobs," explains Professor Binder in her email response. "Once that happens, all other jobs are compared to those jobs, and those other jobs are seen to be unexciting, ordinary, and not the best. This is how students learn to want this very narrow band of jobs."

Ostensibly, the role of the University should be to nurture students' talents, interests and passions, not to funnel them towards careers they might not even enjoy. Yet, at top universities across the U.S., the exact opposite is happening: Students enter the campus bright-eyed and visionary but are quickly jaded and pushed towards traditional paths to success by their families, their peers and their university. In the end, it's not our fault: It's on the university for funneling us into this small set of careers.

The real tragedy comes not from people joining FTC but the simple issue that students aren't doing what they want to do. Students who choose to "sell out" despite their best interests, in part because they want the prestige and in part because it's all they know, are active losses both to themselves and to society as a whole. Elite universities have a responsibility to minimize these losses as much as possible. But that raises the question: Will they take it on?

There's a large and growing network of students at elite universities who have taken it upon themselves to push for change. Class Action - a national student activist organization - has centered their mission around holding elite universities accountable for the power, money and influence they hold over our society. At Hopkins, we can be part of the movement and push the university to make meaningful change.

Because, as we all know, the only way to end an epidemic is to stop it at the source.

Yvette Shu is a sophomore from Claremont, Calif. studying International Studies and Political Science.

As Chief Judge of the Newark Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey, Pratt also presides over Newark Community Solutions, an alternative sentencing program providing an alternative to jail and fines for low-level offenders. She has advocated for criminal justice reform across the United States and abroad, and has given a TED talk, guest lectures and keynote addresses on the matter.

During the event, Pratt shared insights and anecdotes from her two-decades-long legal career, as well as her childhood experiences that shaped her outlook on law and justice.

"My upbringing was a combination of first generation immigrant values, the Black is beautiful, and the Civil Rights movement," she said. "My parents taught me that you treat everyone you meet with dignity and respect, no matter how they spoke, no matter how they dressed. The principles of fairness were instilled in me at a very early age."

Pratt then transitioned to a discussion of procedural justice and its impacts on society. She noted that the interactions most people have with the criminal justice system are hostile and that many are confused on the nature of proceedings and their consequences. Pratt stressed the importance of dignity, respect and fairness to improve people's experience with the system.

"The simple idea of procedural fairness to others... is an evidence-proven idea that, if people believe they are treated with dignity, respect and fairness, they will trust the justice system," Pratt said. "It builds the public's trust in the system. They will also accept judge decisions, even if the judge goes against them, if they believe that they received dignity, respect and fairness."

Pratt then expounded upon the principles of procedural justice: voice, neutrality, understanding and respect. Beginning with voice, she underscored the importance of giving people in the justice system the opportunity to speak, tell their story and ask questions. Next, she stressed that court officials must remove their personal egos and biases from the legal process instead of making presumptions or allowing prejudices to influence decisions.

She then described the principle of understanding and that people develop more trust for the
legal process if they understand what is going on -instead of "legalese," Pratt argued for the use of "plain English." Finally, Pratt talked about the value of respect: if you respect each person and meet them where they are, she noted, they will respect the authority of the courts.

To illustrate these principles in action, Judge Pratt recalled different moments in her judicial career, emphasizing how everyone in the court system, from judges and prosecutors to bailiffs and clerks, has a role to play in ensuring that people passing through the system are treated with dignity.

In an interview with The News-Letter, sophomore Kiran Sabharwal reflected on Pratt's commentary on personal bias in the criminal justice system and how it can be applied to careers outside the legal realm.

"Something that really stuck with me is... releasing ego from the equation when thinking about the justice system, and I think this applies to every job that people can take on," she said. "It's really important to leave your initial stereotypes and gut reactions out the door, and really be open to understanding people. That's how you can really help people beyond the strict confines of your job."

Pratt then demonstrated how procedural justice can transform people's lives when approached in a way that adheres to its principles. To illustrate, Judge Pratt referenced an example of a woman who, after being rehabilitated from a drug addiction and years of prostitution, has become a powerful voice on Capitol Hill advocating for women's rights.

Pratt concluded with a call to action: "You have to do that thing that you think you cannot, because that is where the magic happens." She urged students of all academic interests and career plans to pursue their aspirations, regardless of how unrealistic they may seem.

Max Rho, a third-year undergraduate student at Hopkins, described his reasons for attending the event in an interview with The News-Letter.

"I wanted to hear a different perspective on how we could improve our justice system and make it more impartial," he said. "There's a certain stigma towards [the justice system], that people don't gravitate towards it because they fear that it will always be against them, so I wanted to see a different perspective on how we could possibly improve on that."

Lana Swindle contributed reporting to this article.

Overview and trends of reporting data

The OIE consists of 15 full-time employees and aims to maintain a safe and inclusive academic environment. In 2023, OIE received 992 reports, a 28% increase from 2022, and the first overall increase in annual reports since 2019. Most (68%) reports came from "responsible employees," such as faculty, coaches, resident advisors and other supervisory employees, who are required to inform OIE if they are aware of instances of sexual misconduct, protected-class discrimination/harassment or retaliation.

Specifically, the OIE noted an increase in reports of religion-based harassment and/or discrimination from 9 to 34 cases from 2022 to 2023. OIE noted that specifically that there was an increase in these complains following the conflict in Gaza and Israel following Oct. 7, 2023.

Additional reports included complaints of discrimination or harassment based on other categories, including race, disability, ethnicity, national origin, gender/sex, age and protected class identities. In 2023, students - including minor students enrolled in non-degree summer program - made up the majority (44%) of complainants in discrimination and harassment cases, surpassing staff members, who had been the leading complainants in 2022.

Sexual misconduct allegations constituted 38% of all reports, a 23% rise from the previous year. Among the 461 student-related complaints, 60% involved sexual misconduct, representing an increase of 49 reports compared to 2022.

Notably, nearly 34% of sexual misconduct cases were filed by students against other students, including 72 cases between minors enrolled in non-degree pre-college summer programs - a 9% increase from the prior year. 79% of discrimination and harassment complaints between students also involved minors in these programs.

The report noted for both sexual misconduct and discrimination and harassment complains between minor students in these programs, that "such cases rarely became OIE cases and were typically addressed under the program's conduct code/guidelines."

In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson stated that the increase in reports by pre-college minor students was indicative of a climate supportive of reporting incidents and that very few of these reports warranted investigation.

"We seek to encourage a climate where people have confidence reporting concerns, and this is often reflected in a high number of reports," they wrote. "Following OIE assessment, only a small subset of reports involving pre-college summer students merit further investigation."

The University also mentioned applicable regulations and available resources to pre-college students.

"Pre-college summer students receive information during their initial orientation on campus about how to report concerns and are made aware of the Code of Conduct at times throughout their programming," they wrote. "...Pre-college summer students are supervised by residence life staff members outside of class times, which include daytime activity periods, meals and evening programming."

The OIE also received 406 reports for disability-related workplace accommodations, marking a 25% increase from the previous year. These accommodations included requests for reduced work hours, leave and remote/hybrid work, with 67% of requests being approved.

OIE also received 1160 religious accommodation requests, a 17% increase from the year prior; an overwhelming majority of the requests granted (96%) included exemptions to vaccine requirements.

Outcomes of reports

After receiving a complaint, the OIE contacts the complainant to discuss the concern and possible next steps. Of the reports submitted by "responsible employees" (faculty, coaches, resident advisors and supervisory staff), 15% of complainants declined to proceed with the process, while 8% did not respond to outreach.

In 2023, only 24% of all complaints met the criteria to become OIE cases, meaning there was sufficient information to address the allegations, which, if true, would violate OIE policies, and the complainant generally desired OIE action. The report noted that in some situations, OIE has the responsibility to open a case even without the complainant's agreement. Table D in the reports illustrates the reasons that reports did not become cases, including most frequently (62%) that the matter was referred to another department. Reports that did not proceed to formal investigations may also be addressed through training or remedial measures.

Of the 24% of the total reports assessed or formally investigated by OIE, 51% involved allegations of protected-class discrimination or harassment, while 49% pertained to sexual misconduct.

OIE reported closing 242 cases of sexual misconduct and protected-class discrimination or harassment in 2023, with 85% being closed by assessment, 14% following formal investigation and 1% via informal resolution. Cases closed by assessment are closed due to not meeting the criteria for a formal OIE investigation or if an informal resolution is not appropriate.

A formal investigation is the only mechanism by which a violation of OIE policy can be established. The OIE noted that when conduct is found to be unacceptable but not in violation of OIE policies, the matter can be referred to other university departments or authorities. Of the 113 sexual misconduct cases closed in 2023, most were not resolved by investigation. 89 were resolved by assessment or remedial outcome and 7 were found to violate OIE policy following an investigation. For the 129 discrimination/harassment cases, close to 90% were resolved by assessment or remedial outcome.

OIE identified several factors responsible for delays in the case resolution process, including the complexity of cases, the need for translation services, concurrent law enforcement investigations and delayed participation by involved parties. The Office reported efforts taken to streamline the process and that the average time to close sexual misconduct cases was three weeks faster in 2023 than 2022.

To strengthen preventative measures, OIE implemented new policies to address harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct more proactively. The Office formalized efforts to prevent the "passing of harassers" between institutions by hiring an Equal Opportunity Process Specialist to conduct heightened pre-employment screenings for executive roles and faculty positions with tenure. In addition, all new students and staff are now required to complete Title IX and harassment prevention training and first-year students must complete bystander intervention training and a workshop on diversity, equity and inclusion prior to registering for second-year courses.

Graphics and data visualization by Rui do Rosario.

Samhi Boppana contributed reporting to this article.

The News-Letter: What inspired you to open your café? How did it all come together?

Charles Lee: Where do I start? I met my business partner, Min Kim, back in college - we were roommates at the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York. We always talked about opening a business together, but, after graduating, we went our separate ways. I worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City, and he pursued his own path.

Then, right before COVID-19, we started discussing opening a business again. We found a space in Canton and signed the lease. Then, a month later, the pandemic hit.

Even though we had fine dining backgrounds, we decided to open a small coffee shop first. We didn't have a lot of capital and wanted to start smal l- get to know the neighborhood and integrate ourselves into the community. My wife, who I also met in culinary school, joined us. She specialized in pastry and encouraged us to expand beyond just coffee.

We started by making croissants by hand and serving great coffee. The neighborhood showed us so much love and support. We began with a small production, but demand kept growing, and somehow, we've expanded to where we are today.

N-L: You mentioned being in the Canton area. Do you think the local community has influenced your bakery?

CL: Absolutely. Our menu changes monthly to keep things seasonal and fresh. When introducing new items, I try to incorporate local flavors like crab, corn and squash. While our products are based on French techniques - like croissants and laminated brioche - my Korean heritage naturally influences our offerings. For example, our Tamago Sando is inspired by a Japanese-style egg salad sandwich, something we grew up eating.

N-L: Your background is in French pastry. Would you say your baking style is more traditional, or do you experiment with your Korean heritage?

CL: We were trained in classic French techniques at culinary school and worked mainly in French restaurants. So, our foundation is traditional French. However, our culture naturally folds in because that's what we grew up eating. We try to incorporate the flavors we know with the techniques we've trained in to create something unique and true to ourselves.

N-L: Do you have a favorite item on the menu or one that has special meaning to you?

CL: I would say the croissant. I taught myself the art of making croissants by reading books and watching lectures. It took quite a while to understand what it takes to make them well. The croissant is something I feel very proud of because of the effort, time and passion I put into it.

N-L: For someone visiting your café for the first time, what's the one thing they absolutely have to try?

CL: It depends on if they prefer savory or sweet.

For savory, I recommend the ham and cheese croissant. We use a classic French cheese sauce called sauce mornay, which makes the cheese part creamy and pairs perfectly with the salty ham and crispy croissant.

For sweet, I'd suggest the crème brûlée tart. The tart shell is made from croissant dough, making it lighter and crispier than traditional tarts. The filling is a silky vanilla custard with a hint of cinnamon, and it's topped with a caramelized sugar crust for that perfect crunch.

N-L: I also noticed on your website that you have an unique bake schedule of baking items throughout the day and having certain items planned at certain times, which isn't something I've seen before. What made you choose that system, and how do customers feel about it?

CL: The main reason we implemented the bake schedule is that we believe the best way to serve our guests is by offering the freshest pastries possible. Since I didn't come from a traditional bakery background, I always wondered why bakeries didn't serve bread and pastries fresh out of the oven. Typically, by the time customers get them, they've already been sitting out for a while.

So, we decided to introduce a schedule where customers know exactly when items are coming out of the oven. This way, they can plan their visit and be guaranteed the freshest pastries. It's definitely unfamiliar for some guests at first, and it can take time for them to get used to it. But once they experience the difference, they really appreciate it.

Of course, this means I have to be in the kitchen as early as 3 a.m. to make sure everything is ready on time, but I think it's worth it.

N-L: Wait, you start your day at 3 a.m.? Is that typical for you?

CL: Every day. And not just me - the whole pastry team starts early.

N-L: When do you usually wrap things up?

CL: The pastry team finishes around 1 or 2 p.m. There's also a separate team that comes in later in the day for prep work.

N-L: Outside of all the delicious food you've mentioned, when people walk into Café Dear Leon, what kind of experience do you hope they have?

CL: Since our café is a small establishment, the first thing guests see when they walk in is our display case. It's not big, but we keep it neat, organized and full of fresh pastries. I want people to feel excited when they see everything laid out. Like a kid in a candy store.

Our front-of-house team works hard to make sure everyone is knowledgeable about our products. They are there to help guests, especially first-timers, figure out what they might enjoy the most. We also have a menu with detailed descriptions in the waiting area outside, so guests can get a sense of what's available before they even step inside.

N-L: Running a bakery - or any business - isn't easy. What do you think has been the biggest challenge since opening?

CL: The biggest challenge has definitely been balancing life and work. Since this is my own business, I put 100% of myself into it, and it's easy to get burned out. I've experienced burnout a few times and had to learn how to manage my time better.

Now, I try to set limits, like not working too many hours a day and making sure to take at least one day off a week. I also take a vacation once a year. It's not just about rest; it's also a chance to experience new things and get inspired.

N-L: Has any of your travel influenced items on the menu?

CL: Definitely. Last summer, I introduced a mango Danish inspired by a trip to Cancún. I had this amazing mango there, and I wanted to create a pastry that captured that flavor. I added Thai spices to give it a bit of a twist; it's something fresh but also unexpected.

Earlier last year, I visited Korea, where bagels were surprisingly popular. That got me thinking: Should we make bagels at the bakery? So, we started offering them on weekends as a special item.

N-L: Looking back, what's one piece of advice you would give to your past self before opening the bakery?

CL: Honestly? I would tell myself not to overthink it.

This was my first business, and I had no fear because I didn't know what was ahead of me. If I had known all the challenges I'd face, I might have hesitated. But sometimes, not knowing is a good thing. It allows you to take the leap.

Running a business is full of valuable lessons, not just for work but for life. I'm really happy I took this path, and I still love what I do every day.

N-L: That's such an interesting perspective. So, what do you love most about what you do? What keeps you passionate about baking every day?

CL: I genuinely love cooking and baking. To me, it's an act of giving, of showing care for others. That's something I always remind my team: We are not making these pastries for ourselves. We are making them for the people who will enjoy them.

I try to set aside my own ego and focus on creating the best experience for our guests. Hospitality is about more than just food - it's about creating a space where people feel welcome and happy. That's something my business partner and I deeply believe in.

At the end of the day, nothing brings me more joy than knowing that what we create brings joy to others.

N-L: Do you have a favorite memory with a customer - maybe a moment that really stuck with you?

CL: We have a lot of customers from Hopkins Hospital - both staff and patients. There's one guest who used to come in regularly during her chemotherapy treatments. One day, she came in and told us that she was finally cancer-free. It was such an emotional moment, and we were so happy for her. It meant a lot to know that, in some small way, we had been part of her journey.

Moments like that remind me why we do this. Our café isn't just a business; it's a part of the community.

Tea Club was born from Guan's gap year in China in 2020. Opting out of online classes amidst the pandemic, Guan chose to study tea professionally, learning how to evaluate the quality and aromas of a variety of teas, as well as the social and cultural value of tea.

"People in China use tea as a starting point to start conversations, like friends or even businesses," he noted in an interview with The News-Letter.

By bringing his love for tea to Hopkins, Guan sought to introduce his peers to Asian culture and create what he fondly describes as a "legalized wine club" for undergraduate students to socialize. Connecting with Jiang through WeChat in 2022, Guan and Jiang bonded over their shared interests, and their shared passion for tea quickly blossomed into a collaborative venture.

Cross-campus connections

As Computer Music majors, the duo envisioned Tea Club bridging both the Peabody Institute and Homewood campus. However, establishing such a cross-campus organization was met with administrative difficulties.

"When I first went to the [Registered Student Organizations] people at Peabody, they told me the reason that Peabody students don't want a cross-campus club is because they want to keep their own identity. And then I asked her, is this a fact? Or just because nobody has ever done that?" Guan said.

Navigating bureaucratic hurdles - including dual constitutions, separate campus accounts and redundant officer training - it took a year to officially launch Tea Club. For Gwen Bergendahl, a sophomore Peabody BFA Dance student, Tea Club offers a rare opportunity to connect beyond her campus.

"It's hard to be a part of the social community over here [at Homewood], unless you're rushing in a sorority or a [fraternity], or making an effort to take a lot of classes over here," she says in an interview with The News-Letter. "Tea Club just felt special immediately to me. I knew I wanted to keep coming back."

General Body Meetings alternate weekly between campuses, encouraging students to make the 15-minute JHMI trip. To assist with navigation, Guan and the executive board even created direction videos for Homewood Campus students visiting Peabody, humorously noting the reversal of typical campus confusion.

"[The Mid-Autumn tea party event] was the [first] time when I saw something like 20 Homewood students trying to find directions in Peabody, where that happens to Peabody students [at Homewood Campus] daily," Guan remarked.

Beyond the brew

More than just an interest in tea, Tea Club members bring a variety of skills they contribute to enhance club events. The club's annual Tea Formal - which occurred earlier this month on Feb. 2 - is a two-hour-long celebration of club members who achieve tea ceremony certification after a semester of training. Hosted in the George Peabody Library, previous events featured roundtable discussions with fellow members, officers and guests like President Ronald J. Daniels and Vice Provost Rachelle Hernandez.

Cultural reflections

To many in the Tea Club, tea is deeply intertwined in ethnic and cultural identity. For Guan, opening a box of tea reminds him of home and allows one to indulge in the practices surrounding tea preparation, such as incense burning and socialization. Jiang also finds the tea ceremony meditative.

"I see the tea ceremony as a metaphor of meditation and self-reflection. Sitting on the tea table as a brewer always makes me tranquil, focused on doing one thing at a time," Jiang contemplated in The News-Letter.

For sophomore Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major Alfred Orellano-Pajulio, a Tea Club officer, learning about tea provided a chance to engage with his heritage and Filipino history.

"I know tea culture started in Vietnam about 4,000 years ago and then in the Philippines shortly after. It's close to my heart personally, because of colonization, especially what happened with Spain. What ended up happening is that there became a shift away from tea, specifically in the Philippines, [towards] coffee or other Western types of drinks and food as well. And so, it took away a little bit of the [tea] culture," Orellano-Pajulio said. "Having been in the Tea Club more, it reintroduced me to a lot more of the things that were traditional for [Filipinos] before colonialism."

Homewood Campus freshman Lia Carroll participated in the Tea Club-adjacent trip to China over intersession. The group's 14-day stay was spent at Zhejiang University at the tea science department is heavily involved in research. Carroll found that complete immersion into authentic tea culture was transformative and academic as well.

Carroll, like many others on the same trip, felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as all participants gained a deep understanding of tea within Chinese culture.

"I would sit down, things would appear in front of me, and then I would learn about it. It was amazing." she described in and interview with The News-Letter.

Challenge and triumph

Despite the club comprising about many members from all nine Hopkins campuses, their contributions in putting on major events, as well as pioneering cross-campus nature, Tea Club struggles with funding. Guam stated that when he was discussing funding options, he was told that the club should hold a donut fundraiser, an activity he felt failed to honor the mission and purpose of the club.

One might conclude that their active presence on two campuses means double the budget, but talking to Tea Club treasurer Zizhan "Max" Wu - a second-year Peabody graduate student - it is definitely not the case.

"Sometimes one campus thinks the budget should be another campus giving [funding] to us and sometimes it's the other way. Ends up, we don't have a lot of funding. We had a budget of what, $400 this year?" he said in and interview with The News-Letter.

Robinson Bui, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering freshman and member of Tea Club, summed the problem up humorously in an interview with The News-Letter.

"It's a "go ask your mom, go ask your dad" type of situation," he said.

Over gaiwans of yellow, Oolong, and Pu'er tea, through curiosity, exploration, and friendship, Tea Club continues to inspire connection and elevate the Blue Jay experience.

Hill's sentiment captures what many players and fans think alike: There's an unbreakable bond between the Ravens and the city it calls home.

Despite the strong connection between the Ravens and Baltimore, the Ravens were not always Baltimore's team. From 1953 to 1983, the city's football team was the Baltimore Colts, named after the city's history of horse breeding. Then in 1984, Colts owner Robert Irsay made a deal with Indianapolis, Ind. to move the team following a long-running controversy over the team's performance, attendance at games and the quality of Memorial Stadium where the Colts played. The controversial move left Baltimore without a professional football team for 12 years: a bleak period for Baltimore football fans.

In 1996, the Ravens were born when Art Modell - the former owner of the Cleveland Browns - chose to take his team and personnel from Cleveland to Baltimore. Since then, the Ravens have represented the blue-collar, hard-nosed city of Baltimore and have become a major factor in the city's economy and cultural landscape.

Wherever you go in Baltimore - whether it's the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Canton, Hampden, the Westside or Lauraville - you will see the iconic Ravens logo glimmering in royal purple, black and gold. Especially during the regular NFL season, it's impossible to miss the brilliant spots of purple that crop up all over town, from the exterior lights of M&T Bank Stadium, Under Armour's flagship store or the buildings that make up Baltimore's skyline -Ravens Purple is impossible to miss.

Together with the Baltimore Orioles and the Hopkins Blue Jays, the Ravens (a name inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's timeless poem "The Raven") have become an integral part of Baltimore's sports culture: a culture so prominent that one of the city's nicknames is "Birdland."

Baltimore's gritty soul has encapsulated what the Ravens have played with for all their existence; from the terrifying defenses led by Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, to the dynamic leadership and play of Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers, the Ravens mirror the persevering spirit of Baltimore and Baltimoreans.

Veteran Ravens defensive lineman Brent Urban spoke about this spirit in an interview with The News-Letter.

"Baltimore is a city that just feels really together. There is a definite culture about the city, and I think Ravens football is ingrained in that culture," he said. "It's a tough, gritty city that plays football the same way. The fans kind of encapsulate the identity of the city."

Ravens fandom

For many Baltimoreans, the Ravens are a symbol of civic unity and pride. Longtime die-hard fan Kevin Henderson says that the Ravens brought the city together, adding enthusiastically that "the fans, we are passionate, and we love the team!"

For longtime fan Alonzo Blue, Ravens fandom runs in the family.

"My dad was the one who got me into it. He grew up here and has been a fan ever since they came in the nineties," he added in an interview with The News-Letter.

Like many Baltimoreans, the Ravens have influenced Blue's life in a variety of ways.

"The Ravens definitely have impacted who I am," he said. "They're the reason I played football in high school, and football is how I met some of my best friends...football builds bonds like no other sport."

Ravens super-fan and social media influencer Zuha Islam - the owner of the Instagram page @markandrewsoursavior -commented on how watching the Ravens gave him a sense of community in an interview with The News-Letter.

"The Ravens have been part of a major chunk of my life. I've been watching them ever since they beat Pittsburgh 35-7 in 2011, and my interest grew even more when they won the Super Bowl," he said. "Me and my dad would watch games all the time together, and it was to the point where I would even cry as a kid after losses. To this day, the Ravens are a huge part of my life, as I love covering them on my page and still never miss a game, and if possible, it is something I'd like to expand upon in the future."

Game day atmosphere and traditions

Undoubtedly, the most iconic element of Ravens fandom are the game-day traditions that bring fans together. Ravens players themselves know just how much the fans contribute to the team's spirit and momentum.

"The fans are everything. The best part of the game is the energy they bring to M&T Bank Stadium. It sends vibrations through the team to get hype and get excited," Urban added. "Gameday is the best part of football. The energy in M&T Bank Stadium is what really gets us going and makes it so exciting for us."

The electrifying atmosphere on game days is something that players and fans treasure.

"Ravens game days are different at M&T Bank," Islam aggreed, highlighting the remarkable energy that fills the Baltimore air every time the Ravens take the field. "Personally, I haven't gone to a ton of games, but when I have, the atmosphere is top-notch. Ravens Flock always comes out and shows out, and there are so many little things to enjoy, from Real Fan Dan to the funny signs on the big board: a lot of them troll the Steelers."

The fun doesn't stop there. One of the most iconic traditions is the "Seven Nation Army" chant, from the famous The White Stripes song, and it's become a tradition on game days and a signature anthem of Ravens Flock.

"The 'Seven Nation Army' chant is a staple of the Ravens and was ingrained into me from a very young age," Islam added. "That was the song I associated with the Ravens' 2012 Super Bowl run as a child. When the Ravens make a big play, you can hear the whole stadium chanting the song."

Another prominent tradition Islam explained is how outside the stadium, fans rub the toes of the Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis' statues for good luck before heading inside.

A Super Bowl dream

For fans like Blue, Henderson and Islam, nothing compares to the idea of another Ravens Super Bowl win.

Islam said it best: "I would do nearly anything for a Ravens Super Bowl win, within bounds, of course. This city, team, and Lamar Jackson deserve a Super Bowl more than anything, and it would mean the world to relive that once-in-a-lifetime feeling and live on top of the NFL world."

The last time Baltimore celebrated a Super Bowl victory was in 2012: a moment that is enshrined in the hearts of Ravens fans.

"My best memory is definitely the Super Bowl win," Blue shares. "Ray Lewis was my favorite growing up, and he's still an icon."

Henderson says another Super Bowl win would mean the world to him.

"I'll rejoice, man, I'll be so happy, man, just celebrate, man… I could see myself now just getting with friends, and you know and calling up my peoples and talking about it, just enjoying it," he said.

The excitement and passion in his voice mirror the anticipation of Ravens Flock's dream that could be coming sooner than later. A Super Bowl win would not only lift the spirits of fans but also reinforce the positive impact of the Ravens' role as a cornerstone of Baltimore's identity.

As Islam simply said, "This city and this team deserve it."

Booming businesses

The Ravens aren't just central to Baltimore's sports culture: The team is central to the city's economy as well. Game days are particularly profitable for pubs, restaurants and alcoholic beverage retailers as fans flock to gather and cheer on their team.

Anirban Basu, the chairman & CEO of Sage Policy Group, an economic and policy consulting firm that he founded in 2004, estimates that for each home game, between $20 to $25 million are generated from visitors traveling to Baltimore for a weekend to watch the Ravens compete.

Local establishments near M&T Bank Stadium typically experience the most significant surge in business, with fans heading to nearby locations like Cross Street Market and Federal Hill to celebrate or unite after games.

The economic impact of the Ravens extends well beyond the stadium's immediate area, reaching neighborhoods like Charles Village, a 15 to 20-minute drive from the stadium. Despite the distance, local businesses still see substantial boosts in sales on game days.

Charles Village Pub, located at 3107 St Paul St. experiences the greatest crowds on game days. However, unlike downtown pubs, the crowds at these neighborhood pubs aren't just a gathering of fans from the stadium. Instead, community members will often flock to their local sports bars to watch games with their friends and neighbors. When the Ravens score or a big play occurs, one person will often buy a round of shots for the entire bar, including the bartenders.

Many businesses also have Ravens' decor throughout stores and unique Ravens products for sale. Charles Village Pub has the Ravens game schedule on its front door hanging from a flag the size of a whiteboard and a large "Flock Together" flag draping from the ceiling at the entrance - it's impossible to miss. In addition, the bar has been working on a "Ravens Shot," which is a shot that matches the Ravens' purple.

Ravens Flock is a Way of Life

Every chant of "Seven Nation Army," every tailgate in the shadow of M&T Bank Stadium, and every flash of purple across the city speaks to a pride beyond the football field.

For many Baltimoreans, the Ravens Flock is more than a fan base: it's a family. Whether rallying behind Lamar Jackson or cherishing memories of Joe Flacco, cheering at M&T Bank or celebrating in a packed pub at Cross Street Market or a local one, one thing is evident to all: The Ravens are Baltimore's soul.

Ye's Seafood House: Cantonese seafood that delivers family-style comfort

The moment I stepped into Ye's Seafood, I noticed that most of the patrons were families - a great sign for any eatery. Family diners often mean the food is reliable and satisfying enough to please both young and old. In fact, my first chance to really try the food came on my second visit. The first time, I arrived at dinner and found a long line, so I had to pass up the opportunity. Even when I managed to avoid the peak hours this time, the restaurant was still about 70% full. Clearly, the locals have given this place their stamp of approval.

When it comes to the food, Ye's Seafood House doesn't pander. There are no gimmicks or unnecessary flourishes -just seafood done right. Housed in what used to be a Boston Market on Route 40, this newcomer has quickly built a loyal following, and it's easy to see why.

The steamed fish is a masterclass in subtlety; gently cooked with ginger and scallions, its silky flesh is tender yet holds together just enough. The scrambled shrimp and eggs are equally refined, boasting a velvety texture and plump, fresh shrimp. Paired with a bowl of rice, each bite is incredibly satisfying, a true comfort food that soothes my tired stomach, long accustomed to salads and sandwiches.

Generous portions meant for sharing, a clean and unpretentious space, and service that is attentive without being intrusive all contribute to an effortlessly enjoyable meal at Ye's Seafood House.

UMI Sushi: Precision and comfort in equal measure

This family-run, women-owned gem in Historic Ellicott City truly understands balance. The menu spans a wide array - sushi, hibachi, bento, vermicelli - and, yet, every dish feels thoughtfully curated rather than an afterthought. There's a quiet precision here, the kind that doesn't shout but reveals itself in every bite. The vermicelli, an unexpected standout, is light yet richly flavorful, perfect for a quick lunch or a lingering dinner. The sushi is immaculate, with fish so fresh and rice that has just the right amount of texture.

And then there's the atmosphere: fast, attentive service, an impressive tea selection and the occasional night of live music. UMI Sushi strikes that rare balance: relaxed but never careless. It's a place where a quick bite can effortlessly evolve into an unplanned evening, all thanks to the subtle attention paid to every detail.

Chosun Hwaro: Tasty barbecue coupled with genuine hospitality

Korean barbecue is as much about experience as it is about food. After countless visits with friends, Chosun Hwaro remains my go-to whenever I'm torn between options in Ellicott City.

The Baekdusan Bulgogi, with its mountain-like presentation, is thinly sliced, delicately marinated, and meant to be savored bite by bite. The Emperor's Galbi, a high-grade Black Angus short rib, is buttery, perfectly seasoned and deeply satisfying. For those who crave variety, the Chosun Hwaro Combo offers prime ribeye, brisket point and Empress Galbi - each cut delivering its own unique taste experience.

But what makes Chosun Hwaro truly special isn't just the food, it's the hospitality. One night, after a late movie, I found myself at 10:30 p.m., hungry, with nowhere to go. Every other restaurant had shut their doors, but Chosun Hwaro was still open - just barely - closing at 11 p.m. We hesitated before stepping in, unsure if we'd be turned away, but the owner welcomed us in without hesitation. The service was just as warm as during daytime hours, the food just as carefully prepared.

It's the kind of place that earns loyalty, not just for its food, but for the way it makes you feel taken care of.

Final Thoughts

Ellicott City's food scene is varied, vibrant, and full of hidden gems. Ye's Seafood House, UMI Sushi, and Chosun Hwaro aren't just reliable favorites; they offer something for every occasion. Whether it's a casual outing, a celebratory meal or a late-night bite when everything else is closed, these places consistently deliver. Their inviting atmosphere, thoughtful menus and standout dishes keep me coming back, proving that Ellicott City is a true destination for food lovers.

Benito Mussolini was a dictator and founder of fascist political ideology, but the now-believed cancerous ideology has recently been associated with former president and now president-elect Donald Trump. It is often described by scholars as "a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."

Conservative media outlets like Fox News often blast liberal ones, like MSNBC, for hammering the label of "fascist." To them, fascism is a buzzword seeking to undermine an anti-establishment president. However, there is no denying that the Republican party has become fascistic, whether for better or worse.

Mussolini's "everything in a State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State," rings similar to Trump's populist "America first" policy which has both domestic and global aspects. Trump's plan to deport millions of migrants and claim that immigrants entering America are "poisoning the blood of our country" is famously a strategy of fascists. Trump's hesitance toward NATO strongly signals his desire for the U.S. to abandon our allies, reiterating his hyper fixation on the American state in a vacuum. He seeks to coerce universities into "defending the American tradition and western civilization," another popular authoritarian fascist tool in propping up their regimes.

Despite being ostensibly for small government, Republicans fear higher education teaching citizens any information that is critical of the state such as our history of slave labor. We can love our country and criticize its shortcomings, too: former President Bill Clinton said, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." Trump seems to not believe the people have the right to know about America's shortcomings unless he can scapegoat the political left for those shortcomings.

For the first time that I can remember, politicians like speaker Mike Johnson are openly telling constituents that we "do not live in a democracy." Fascists will tell you that democracy is beautiful in theory, but a fallacy in practice. To protect the state, they will suppress opposition.

Trump wants to do this by "ban[ning] federal money from being used to label domestic speech as 'mis-' or 'dis-information." The bodies that typically label facts and misinformation are journalists and scholars, and their freedom will be ceased if Trump gets his way. The federal government will aim to control how Americans perceive reality by invading your classrooms, newspapers and television screens to shield the administration from criticism.

He has already signed executive orders to fight "indoctrination" in schools which simply means history he perceives as left-leaning.

To this end, Trump has belabored the terrors of left wing economics like Marxism. Authoritarian fascism lives in direct contrast to left-wing economics such as socialism. Many on the right may confuse socialism as direct government control of the economy and people. Socialism is simply a theory that calls for worker-owned means of production; Republicans hate that. Worker empowerment would overthrow their centralized autocracy.

The GOP projects their own authoritarian tendancies to avoid confronting how the party has evolved. They will convince workers that immigrants exploit them more than billionaires to grab their vote while voting to cut social programs and labor protections. Because of this propaganda, Trump has the power to tweet that "He who saves his country does not violate any law" while criticizing leftists as vermin. I mean not to glorify Marxism and socialism, as they, too, have been applied in genocidal ways, but rather I seek to raise concern about Republican attempts to scrub left-leaning ideas out of society to preserve oligarchy.

In a recent Gallup poll, 12% of Republicans said they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. 53% of Republicans lack confidence in higher education. Despite the 17 Nobel prize winning economists that endorsed Kamala Harris' economic plan, 52% of Americans trusted Donald Trump to lead the economy. 71% of those intending to vote for him feel like what Trump says is true (despite 3/4 of his statements being varying degrees of false), which is higher than the number reported for trust in those voters' friends and families and religious leaders. A large percentage of Americans trust virtually no institutions, their peers, whether friends or family, but trust a single individual, Trump. That's fascism. If you phrased the question without mentioning the word, you might find that roughly half of Americans believe in fascism. If that's the case, then fascism is what we deserve.

"Fascism is a religious concept," according to Mussolini.

"Trumpism" has become its own religion, where no amount of scandal or immorality can shake the followers. No one is more to blame than the Left, who have spent so much effort demonizing the Right as a basket of deplorables. The Left's moral superiority complex has alienated people who simply want a better standard of living and because of that, many Americans prefer fascism. I would resort to extremes if I received the same constant condescension from the opposing party.

Donald Trump won the election and it wasn't close: either many Americans don't know what the signs of fascism are and therefore couldn't see how the former president is a fascist, or people know Trump is a fascist and still voted for him. The U.S. has given itself fascism. How will it unfold during the 21st century in a nation built on land of the free? More than anything, I sincerely hope fascism has some saving grace, because, it is clear that our 47th president will be a fascist.

Private equity ownership of healthcare is not new. Physicians or groups of small investors have often been sources of such investment; however, in the past several years, there has been a concerning shift in investment from physician groups and small investors toward large private equity firms.

The acquisition of a health care facility by private equity often involves the firms raising some amount of capital and then taking out a loan, using the health care facility as collateral. Once the private equity firm owns the hospital or practice, the debt is loaded onto the hospital and practice who are now responsible for paying it off. Another strategy used by private equity investors is that the health care organization is essentially sold for parts - with its land, facilities and assets being sold to other investors - and the health care organization must then purchase those assets back through regular payments to the investors. In both strategies, health centers are burdened with debt and almost immediately under financial strain from the moment of acquisition.

The consequences are dire for both patients and staff. A study by the British Medical Journal looking at private equity ownership of health care in eight countries found that private equity ownership was "most consistently associated with increases in costs to patients or payers," underscoring that private equity ownership has driven costs for patients up and only exacerbated the unaffordable nature of health care in this country.

Moreover, a 2023 study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Chicago found that Medicare patients at private-equity-owned hospitals had a 25% increase in hospital complications than those at non-private-equity-owned hospitals, including a 38% in bloodstream infections from central lines, despite private equity centers placing 16% fewer central lines. Further, the rate of surgical site infections was found to double at private-equity-owned hospitals, while control hospitals in that same time period saw infections decrease.

The senior author of the study - Zirui Song - attributed the results to staffing cuts, which are often forced on private-equity-owned hospitals that are attempting to repay their debt and also remain profitable to investors. In one particularly infamous case, the Steward Health Care centers in Massachusetts were saddled by rent payments to an investment firm and cut corners whenever it could to make these payments, leading to numerous reports of understaffed emergency rooms and canceled surgeries.

The debt that private equity bestows on health care can ultimately contribute to bankruptcy, leaving patients and staff stranded. In a report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), the organization stated that some of the largest health care bankruptcies in 2023 were health care systems or practices owned by private equity firms, suggesting that private equity ownership is correlated with bankruptcy of health care systems.

To be sure, proponents of the role of private equity in the health care system may argue that private investment can fill critical gaps in patient care, specifically in rural areas, where there is an absence of primary care physicians. It is true that over 80% of rural counties are "medical deserts" and PESP has reported that a quarter of private-equity-owned hospitals serve rural populations.

However, the presence of private equity in rural areas is not as much of an alleviating force as it may seem. Rather, the acquisition of rural health systems by private equity raises concerns precisely because of the lack of alternative facilities. If private equity ownership drives costs for patients up or provides inadequate care (as it has been shown to do), there is effectively no alternative for patients to turn to. If the hospital goes under, as private equity investments that offload their debt onto the health center can do, what benefit did they truly offer to patients?

Private equity in health care seems to be like water on pavement: It finds every crook and crevice. Getting it out of the health care system entirely is highly unlikely and may forestall the rare cases where private equity can be helpful, but there are critical opportunities for reform. For one, the government should limit the percent debt a private equity firm can use to make a health care acquisition, or force the firms to have joint liability for the debt they offload onto a health care center rather than hold only the health facility responsible.

In addition, there must be greater transparency with the acquisition of health facilities by private equity. Currently, only private equity acquisitions over $111.4 million must be reported, which often does not include physician practices being acquired. The government must also pursue strong legal action against predatory private equity firms. Under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission sued a private equity firm that attempted to dominate the market through purchasing health centers and driving up the price of services. Such proactive action by federal agencies is crucial and must be continued during the Trump administration.

There is a palpable and valid frustration in the U.S. with the health care system: It has let too many people down too many times. From health insurance denying millions of claims per year to the existence of "medical deserts," it is clear that the system is in need of dire reforms. Private investors promote a shiny and alluring idea that by "corporatizing" health care, it can be made more efficient, productive and better serve its patients. But, we should all be cautious of their efforts and finding the "hero" to the ills of our health care system in an industry primarily concerned with profiting and returns on investment.

Private equity is not our savior, and health care is not a commodity to be invested or profited from. At its core, the mission of private equity is to turn a profit for its investors, and this is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of medicine to care for patients without bias and alleviate suffering.

Samhi Boppana is from Columbus, Ohio. She is an Editor-in-Chief for The News-Letter.

However, a recent paper published by Johns Hopkins researchers in the Department of Computer Science details the development and use of AbdomenAtlas: an annotated public dataset containing abdominal CT scans from over tens of thousands of patients around the world. This new extensive dataset serves as the training ground for early-detection artificial intelligence programs, which have the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In an interview with The News-Letter, two core members of the team behind AbdomenAtlas, Zongwei Zhou and Wenxuan Li, explained their work and its applications in medical imaging and diagnosis.

"Our team's ultimate goal is to create a very reliable AI to help radiologists detect diverse types of cancers," Zhou explained. "At the current stage, we can detect cancer from the liver, pancreas and kidney, and looking forward, we want to detect all types of tumors at earlier stages, classify them, and predict how they will develop over time."

Before AbdomenAtlas, a significant roadblock in AI-driven cancer detection came from the lack of adequate training data. To address this, AbdomenAtlas compiled and annotated 45,000 patient CT scans from patients around the world, including in the U.S., Asia and Europe. This marks a significant improvement from a previously compiled dataset, TotalSegmentator, which contained around 1,200 scans sourced from 1 data repository in Europe.

Additionally, AbdomenAtlas improves on previous models due to the diversity of anatomical structures it can detect and classify (in a process known as annotation); it can detect 142 different anatomical structures compared to TotalSegmentator's 117 annotated classes. The annotation of cancerous tissues by AbdomenAtlas is crucial to identifying tumors in their early stages and AbdomenAtlas's detailed annotation process includes precisely locating the boundaries of each anatomical structure, creating incredibly clear 3D maps of the abdomen for radiologist interpretation.

"We showed that the AI trained on our dataset can achieve very similar detection performance to humans, and we also showed that an AI trained on this dataset can classify cancers much better than humans," Zhou said.

Zhou described that the AI was proficient in annotating around 95% of cases and the remaining 5% was much harder to annotate and necessitated a rigorous human review process. The team worked with a dozen expert radiologists from Hopkins and beyond who reviewed the accuracy of the AI's low-confidence organ-boundary predictions, eventually resulting in the annotation of 45,000 CT scans.

In the short time since its initial release, AbdomenAtlas has already received significant updates improving its functionality and expanding its datasets. Version 2.0 improved the program's ability to detect lesions and tumors in various organs, while Version 3.0 has introduced integrated narrative natural-language reports interpreting and describing tumor growth, organ size and tissue health. Additionally, the team's dataset has also scaled up from 45,000 to around 80,000 patient abdominal CT scans.

As the new versions of AbdomenAtlas roll out, the team hopes to expand their work internationally.

"We want to integrate our AI into a web-based AI software that has similar performance levels of the average radiologist reported in the literature," Zhou detailed. "The software can be used in countries and areas where there are not many expert radiologists."

Through these efforts, Zhou looks to make expert medical imaging and diagnosis accessible for populations worldwide, improving their access to timely care and treatment. The researchers also carry high hopes for the future of AI-based medical image analysis, and Li views AI as a tool to annotate tissues quicker, accelerating treatment planning and increasing survival rates for patients.

"We are trying to help radiologists increase the speed of diagnosis and treatment," Li explained. "AI can be involved as a 'first reader' for radiologists; the radiologist may not be able to see details just based on imaging, but the AI can identify potential problem areas and give the radiologist more information to work with."

Zhou imagines a world where patients' preliminary scans can be transformed into a digital map, making the treatment process more interactive and personalized.

"Now, we can digitalize the human body and simulate cancer response to surgery and chemotherapy. We can even develop this into AR/VR devices that clinicians can zoom in on, zoom out on, rotate and distort," Zhou explained. "This is personalized and can improve the efficiency of doctor-patient communication."

In an email to the Hopkins community, Daniels and Johns Hopkins Medicine CEO Theodore DeWeese made it clear that the "abrupt and sweeping" cuts to NIH funding posed a significant challenge to the clinical and research efforts of the University.

The Editorial Board applauds this step by the University to protect the work done by its students, faculty and staff, and vocally oppose efforts by the Trump administration to cut costs at the expense of research and science.

Research funding cuts are not the only action of the Trump administration that hinders the work of the University. In an alarming and unprecedented move, the Trump administration is attempting to dramatically cut the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), reducing its staff from over 10,000 globally to just 294. This move - which a federal judge ruled must be paused until at least Feb. 21 - threatens to dismantle critical global health and development initiatives, including Hopkins programs that receive USAID funding like Jhpiego's global health programs.

The Trump administration has also made no secret of its disdain for higher education in particular.

On Friday, the administration sent a Dear Colleague letter to all educational institutions receiving federal funding and stated that "educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon 'systemic and structural racism.'" The letter argued that diversity, equity and inclusion programs were ways for educational institutes to inject racist stereotypes and "explicit race-consciousness" into training and practices. On Monday Feb. 17, Trump's Department of Education canceled over $600 million in grants focused on training teachers on "inappropriate and unnecessary topics" like critical race theory, antiracism and social activism.

Make no mistake. The Trump administration is targeting higher education and demonizing institutions like Hopkins, as they pursue their core mission of inquiry, discovery and care to the world. Attacks on biomedical research and public health initiatives, and attacks on the teaching of diverse literature and the history of racism, are fundamentally attacks on the University space.

During the first Trump administration, Hopkins demonstrated its willingness to stand up for its values. The University defended undocumented students through its support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, sued the administration to protect international students' visas during the COVID-19 pandemic and publicly opposed the so-called "Muslim Ban."

Now, again, Hopkins must continue to oppose attempts by the Trump administration to limit its research, academic and service mission, and defend the work done by its students and staff. Lives are at stake when cancer research funding is cut or when programs that treat infectious diseases in Africa are halted.

Moreover, the administration should not concentrate its advocacy only on the work for which the University is known: medicine, public health and the Applied Physics Laboratory. The free academic spirit of higher education will be damaged if there are attempts to restrict the humanities and academic freedom, and the humanities too deserve an equally vigorous defense. Many notable works of literature from 1984 to Brave New World can and have been characterized as "left-wing" and banned for their political and social themes. The Trump administration should not be given carte blanche to decide what students can or cannot learn.

It cannot be ignored that some Americans have concerns with the perceived elitism concentrated in the ivory towers of academia or scientific research. There is a place for a genuine critique of academic institutions, but Trump is exploiting those concerns to limit these efforts while purposefully ignoring all the good done by free academic pursuit and research.

The political situation is shifting every day, with policies being implemented then reversed or statements being made then walked back, and we understand the University's desire to wait until policies solidify to pursue legal or political action. But, the University ought to not wait too long that its silence becomes complicity in the dismantling of higher education.

Hopkins depends on federal funding and would undoubtedly suffer from Trump's wrath. We are not saying Hopkins should not comply with federal law, but the University should actively challenge harmful policies and defend itself and the Hopkins community. If the Trump administration's attacks on higher education and public health go unchallenged, the consequences will be devastating and cataclysmic.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedic play covering the conflict between two men who both claim to be a fictional man named Ernest. The stakes are all the more severe, however, when these mens' lovers, Gwendolen (Adrianne Lin) and Cecily (Briana Hemphill), will only marry a man with the name Ernest - they would never marry a man by the name of, say, Jack (Jackson Robien) or Algernon (Ryan Garza), the real names of their respective lovers.

Act One opens with a man named Ernest visiting his friend Algernon for the purpose of proposing to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen. During their talk, Algernon snoops through a cigarette case from a "Cecily," who calls Ernest "Uncle Jack." The cigarette case forces Jack to reveal that his true name isn't Ernest, and that he lives a double life when in London versus the countryside. He invented his brother Ernest for his ward, or orphan under his care, Cecily; now, however, Jack is considering killing off make-believe Ernest because Cecily has become too interested. In describing Cecily, Jack unwittingly fosters Algernon's interest in her.

Gwendolen enters the stage with her mother, Lady Bracknell (Gemma Watson), and Jack proposes immediately. Gwendolen accepts, but, in the process, she expresses her disdain for any name other than Ernest. Jack panics, knowing that, to keep Gwendolen, he must soon find a way to change his name.

Act Two opens with Jack returning to his countryside manor to relay Ernest's tragic passing (in order to claim the name for himself); Algernon also goes to the countryside manor - he, however, is claiming to be Ernest for Cecily's hand in marriage.

As soon as Jack laments his fictional brother's death, Algernon, disguised as Ernest, strolls on stage, and it's written off as a miracle. It's not much later that, like Jack and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily are engaged, but both women believe they are marrying Ernest. Moreover, neither woman knows of the other, so they cannot corroborate their stories. To remedy their unfitting names, Jack and Algernon separately seek out Dr. Chasuble (Omotayo Adenugba) to baptize and rechristen themselves Ernest.

Unbeknownst to Jack, his fiancé Gwendolen decides to pay a visit to the countryside manor, where she meets Cecily. The two women, both recently engaged, are eager to share the news with any listening ears. So they both do, at which point they realize they are both engaged to a man named Ernest who is staying at the manor. Then, Jack and Algernon arrive, and their fiancés - now privy to their wickedness - have united in their wrath against them.

We enter Act Three with Gwendolen and Cecily giving their fiancés the cold shoulder. That is, until they rather quickly forgive the two after their short, heartfelt apologies and re-declarations of love.

Cecily's governess, Miss Prism (Liesel Arauz Vallecillo), then reveals that she had lost Lady Bracknell's nephew 28 years prior, accidentally leaving him in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station. This description will perk the ears of any audience member who recalls Jack's origin story, which matches up with this.

It is then confirmed that Jack was indeed the mistakenly abandoned baby, which makes Lady Bracknell his aunt, Algernon his brother and Gwendolen his cousin. Moreover, with the information provided by Lady Bracknell that Jack was named after his biologiclal father, the play ends with the revelation that Jack was rightfully calling himself Ernest all along.

Convoluted plays with several moving parts such as The Importance of Being Earnest are a gamble; the plentiful misunderstandings land as either well-received jokes or fly straight over the audience's head and result in confusion. As with any comedy being performed over a century after it was written, the script itself might not be up to the task of rousing laughter from a modern audience. It's up to the cast to breathe life and humor into the text, which is exactly what they did. Perhaps the loudest moment in the theater was when Lady Bracknell interrogated Jack regarding his worthiness of marrying Gwendolen.

I'm convinced both Watson and Robien are capable of pulling off one-person plays. They wielded skills that seemed clear even to a non-thespian audience member such as myself, such as their ability to create multitudes within their characters by fluctuating their cadences and mannerisms and second, rounding out their lines as contained, stand-alone conversations. Even though they are, I believe, capable of one-person plays, the howling audience doubtlessly appreciated having them both on stage at once.

Another shining example of skilled interpretation is Hemphill's Cecily. The first time the audience meets Cecily, Hemphill makes it a memorable introduction. With an expert sense of body and stage presence, Hemphill appears to fill the theater with the vibe of a young girl lying belly-down on bed, twisting the telephone cable around her finger, which is the perfect modern touch for Cecily's delightfully dramatic character.

While I doubt 1895 English reverends spoke or behaved like Dr. Chasuble did in the Barnstormers' production, no one in the theater seemed disturbed by Adenugba's direction - in fact, quite the opposite. If the aforementioned scene between Watson and Robien was the loudest moment in the theater, then Adenugba's first appearance as Chasuble may have come in second.

Director Mark Gonzales, when asked in an interview with The News-Letter what this cast of Barnstormers brought to The Importance of Being Earnest, spoke about Adenugba's take on Dr. Chasuble.

"One of our actors [Adenugba] grew up in Nigeria," Gonzales explained. "[He] gave a very different idea of what Dr. Chasuble would bring in, something I didn't think I was going to see until I cast him in the spot."

Gonzales is referencing a voice that few, if any, other than Adenugba could have conceived and executed for Dr. Chasuble, who is a reverend in the play. Dr. Chasuble's voice filled the theater with resonant, elongated sounds, which constructed sentences that lilted up and finished with head shakes and hand movements. For those who have had the pleasure of watching a preacher at work, one can understand what Adenugba was replicating.

Certain liberties like Adenugba's are what Gonzales was referencing when, in the same interview, he answered a question regarding the difficulties performing The Importance of Being Earnest.

"Any play that's public domain has the issue that you're dealing with, that this was funny and casual conversation when it was written - in this case, 1895, which sounds very different from today in 2025," Gonzales said. "Some lines are still funny. Some lines, we need to figure out what the actors are actually saying and how they are moving."

In a play that, at the very end, became so chock-full of twists, I asked Gonzales why this play was still relevant today.

"[The] big theme that comes across is that... materialistic idea of marriage, that you can be attracted to someone solely because of their name or one quality," Gonzales said. "So being able to [...] truly find that one person in your life who doesn't come down to all of the things society has told you is a very, very important thing that could come out of this."

The first ever performance of the play in 1895 was performed on Feb. 14. The Barnstormers' production of The Importance of Being Earnest clings to historical integrity, as it was performed in anticipation of Valentine's Day. But, despite this the play's romantic connotations, it ends in a rather unromantic way. While the play doesn't take issue with Jack/Ernest marrying his first cousin, modern viewers may experience discomfort at the thought. However, rejecting the play's ending may lead to a more meaningful reimagination. It opens up the interpretation that, perhaps more than romantic love, familial love and a sense of belonging - as epitomized by the newfound brotherly bond between Jack and Algernon - is what one should seek.

Walking into the Arden Club, one cannot deny the atmosphere of Americana. The venue is no larger than the houses it neighbors and no different in style or fashioning, save the ticket booth attached to an outside wall. Inside, it is a country cabin with exposed beams, fairy lights and a stone fireplace. The comforting must of the air pairs well with the painted portraits of gentleman and bards scattered over the wood-paneled walls.

Moctar and the band did not fit in with their surroundings. The group donned the small stage in shimmering jewel-toned kaftans and pristine white litham, traditional turbans worn by the nomadic Tuareg people of north and west Africa. As the band began their set, a tentative attunement to the space and to one another eventually grew into a confident rhythm and then a polyrhythm.

Moctar sat front and center, occasionally throwing one leg across the other in a gesture of nonchalance while his fingers fluttered over the neck of the guitar. His voice, along with those of Madassane and Ibrahim rose and faded, allowing for moments of pure instrumentation - which ranged from crunchy and moaning to mellow, sonorous and harmonic. Coltun's baseline and Ibrahim's drumkit - comprised of bass drum, African drum and cymbal - rounded out a sound that was thoroughly hypnotic but never stagnant.

Moctar's guitar itself was practically a fifth member, which sound engineer Mitch Midkiff explained in an interview with The News Letter, is a Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster. Moctar's particular model, which is decommissioned, is a hybrid between an acoustic and an electric - in his words "acoustic-ish." Its battery charges with a USB port, which Midkiff highlights is "super dumb and inconvenient for everyone involved." But Moctar plays it like a dream, capturing the wiry structures and galvanizing effects of an electric guitar along with the lusciously simple folk sound of an acoustic.

If there is one thing absent from the thrust of Moctar's music, it is convenience. His career as a guitarist began in his home country of Niger. His music, primarily electric but inspired by traditional Tuareg acoustic sound, was mostly spread through person-to-person mobile phone networks. Moctar made his first guitar himself, in the vein of his Sahrawi and desert blues predecessors like Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. When he was first scouted by Sahel Sounds of Portland, Ore., he thought that the American interest in his music was a joke being played on him by his friends. In 2024, Moctar released his seventh album, Funeral for Justice.

The album that the group is now touring is part of a project adapted from Funeral for Justice. It is an acoustic re-recording of the songs on Funeral for Justice under the name Tears of Injustice. The project came about when, in 2023, Mohamed Bazoum, president of Niger, was deposed, and the three Nigerien members of the group were unable to return home from touring in the United States for several weeks. Both versions of the album pull no punches; they address the suffering of Nigeriens and the Tuareg against colonial interference, government indifference, and the perversion of inequity and its casualties.

Surrounded by smoke and colorful lights, Moctar and his fellow musicians steadily beat out an elegy for justice. The sheltered atmosphere of summer camp and lake days was met with an iambic recognition of the weight of the suffering Moctar has witnessed, expressed in the form of his music.

The third song in the group's lineup was the title track of Funeral for Justice. Translated from Tamasheq, the lyrics ask, "Dear African leaders, hear my burning question / Why does your ear only heed France and America?" and, "Why solely invest in your own kin's learning? / While other children suffer on your watch?" Towards the end of the song, Moctar asserts that the nations to which his country's leaders appeal "possess the power to help but chose not to."

At a time when every other conversation I have among friends is a lament of the cruel irresponsibility of the current American political regime - particularly regarding the sudden withdrawal of aid from countries who have come to depend on it - Moctar's music feels especially relevant. Regardless of one's opinions on the matter, the fact that I cannot access the United States Agency for International Development's website to verify what countries it served should be concerning.

The chasm of understanding regarding morality and stability between the people of a country and its leaders is relatable. Even in a nation that Moctar criticizes for its role in the problems which often inspire his music, the frustration of coming second to the lusts of power is tangible. The fact that Moctar's words are in Tamasheq does not inhibit this resonance. The setting of these elegies to acoustic, more traditional soundscapes offers the opportunity to recognize that injustice permeates life. One cannot rage all the time, though injustice cannot be ignored.

After their final song, the band abruptly left the stage, and it seemed doubtful that the group would play an encore. Yet to the pleasure of the crowd, they reemerged. They began their last song in the same way, the moment before reaching full synchronicity producing an unexpected and thrilling dissonance out of the attuning of each musician to one another.

This time, however, it was not a song laced with traditional sound which found its way through, but a song to which we all know the words. It was drummer Souleymane Ibrahim's birthday, and the audience sang "Happy Birthday" all together. Life persists. Music persists in the name of life. If you believe these things, listen to the outstanding and outrageous music of Moctar, and consider seeing him live on one of the subsequent dates of his current U.S. tour.

The full album recording of Tears of Injustice will be released Feb. 28, 2025.

The meeting opened with a presentation from the University's Off-Campus Housing office. Robbie Horwitz, the coordinator of the office, introduced resources available to students seeking housing, such as databases, brochures, advocacy and support. These include the Off-Campus database, which displays listings for rowhouses and apartments on its website.

SGA then moved to cabinet reports, during which senators discussed their meeting with University leadership regarding student life. Members also signed up for the Speed Dating Tabling, an event scheduled for Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall.

Following cabinet reports, SGA discussed non-legislative business. School of Arts and Sciences Senator Tanisha Taneja and School of Engineering Senator Amy Xu shared the survey questions they designed for the SGA mentorship program. The survey pairs incoming senators with current SGA senators to establish mentorship relationships. Senators provided constructive feedback for the survey questions.

Chair of Programming Tim Huang and Vice President of the Senate Srigouri Oruganty then discussed an upcoming initiative for students' mental health and wellness. The initiative seeks to raise awareness of mental health and provide education on coping mechanisms and SGA plans to collaborate with other on-campus organizations.

Rather than a lecture, this event was a discussion series where any member of the Hopkins community was invited to participate and discuss their own experiences with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Willow Goode - the Civic Life Specialist at the Center for Social Concern - opened the discussion series with guidelines for seminar-style learning. Each discussion table was given a set of questions to guide their conversations.

In addition, each person was provided with a copy of a Hub article titled Johns Hopkins Sees Shifts in Demographic Makeup of Incoming class in Wake of 2023 SCOTUS Ruling. The piece focuses on comparing recent years' demographic makeups, from the incoming class of 2028 to years as far back as 2010. During the discussion, these data sets supported conversations and discussion.

The first part of the discussion addressed the U.S. government's checks and balances system. Many students were relatively optimistic, claiming that they still have some faith in the system. Next, participants were asked about whether they have noticed any changes since the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision. Many students responded that they had noticed a decrease in diversity of the student population.

In an email to The News-Letter, senior Iris Gupta, a participant in the discussion, described her thoughts about how the affirmative action decision can hurt discourse on campus.

"Students have expressed concerns that the populations of certain minority groups have drastically decreased on campus since the decision. This may have a detrimental effect on students finding an inclusive community on campus, and discourse in classes or at other campus events will lose a lot of its richness as students will come from more similar backgrounds on average," she said.

Multiple references were made to the demographic chart in the article, which portrayed a steady increase in Asian students over the past 14 years and a decline in white students. Many students noted the statistics describing the enrollment of Black or African-American students at Hopkins, which rose from 5.8 percent amongst first-year students in Fall 2010 to 13.3 percent in Fall 2020, but declined to 5.7 percent in Fall 2024.

Late into the night on Feb. 21, Judge Adam B. Abelson, a federal judge in Baltimore, temporarily blocked several of President Trump's executive orders regarding the termination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The plaintiffs in the case included the Baltimore City Council, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, as well as the American Association of University Professors, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, amongst others. The plaintiffs alleged that the President's executive orders would cause significant harm and were overtly vague in language, leading to potentially arbitrary determinations regarding programs or grants.

In his opinion, Abelson also stated that the executive orders were unconstitutionally vague and made it unclear how grants and programs can be brought into compliance. He further asserted that the executive orders likely violate the First Amendment by attempting to punish private organizations based on their viewpoints.

Abelson wrote that the federal government is going against years of legal precedent by "leveraging its funding to restrict federal contractors and grantees from otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights."

February 18, 2025:

On Jan. 20, President Donald J. Trump issued two executive orders: "Initial Recessions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions" and "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing." The former revoked several Biden-era executive orders, including ones preventing discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation and advancing equity opportunities for Asian Americans. racial, gender, and sexual-orientation equity. The latter terminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government.

On Feb. 14, the Department of Education (DOE) sent a Dear Colleague Letter to all federally funded educational institutions, banning the consideration of race in "admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life" within 14 days. Institutions failing to comply may risk investigation and loss of federal funding. This directive expanded upon the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that deemed race-conscious admissions unconstitutional, extending the restriction to other educational services and University activities.

Additionally, on Monday, Feb. 17, the DOE rescinded $600 million in grants aimed at training teachers in topics such as critical race theory, social justice activism, antiracism and white privilege, deeming them "inappropriate and unnecessary."

In an interview with The News-Letter, Nathan Connolly, the Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History, contextualized the recent political developments as the latest in a series of efforts since the 1970s to undermine the creation of equitable and accountable institutions.

Connolly underscored that hiring Black faculty, accepting students of color and introducing women into the undergraduate population during different times in history was driven by threats to the University's federal funding, and highlighted the critical role of DEI initiatives.

"Diversity on its own was not enough, because once you start bringing in people of color, it became clear that the institutions are themselves not suited to protect the needs of these people," he stated. "You have to have more than just diversity - you need equity and inclusion."

Stuart Schrader, Director of the Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism and Associate Professor of History, discussed the implications of the Jan. 20 executive orders in an interview with The News-Letter. He stated that the executive orders would not affect his teaching due to strong institutional commitments to academic freedom and noted that the Chloe Center does not rely on federal funding.

"The executive orders don't have any effect on my teaching, nor do I think there will be any effects for the other faculty because there's a broad commitment to academic freedom. [Additionally,] the Chloe Center does not get federal funding," he said.

Regarding the Chloe Center's newly established major, Critical Diaspora Studies, Schrader emphasized its analytical and contextual focus.

"The design of the Critical Diaspora Studies undergraduate major is not group based or identity based. [Instead,] political and social power are at the core of what we analyze," he stated.

Robert Lieberman, the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science, discussed the impacts on his own research and the Political Science department in an interview with The News-Letter.

"Our department and the social sciences in general are not so directly dependent on federal funds compared to the School of Medicine or School of Public Health. [...] I don't see any colleagues that will be directly affected in the short term," he stated.

Last week, President Ronald J. Daniels, along with Johns Hopkins Medicine CEO Theodore L. DeWeese, sent a campus-wide email expressing their disapproval of the recent cuts to the National Institute of Health's (NIH) funding and stating that the University had joined several other higher education institutions in a lawsuit against the NIH.

Connolly voiced worries that the University's proactive approach to defend research and health may not transfer over to protection of humanities and social science scholarships targeted by President Trump.

"I am concerned that there might be an effort [for the University] to dig in their heels on questions of say, health or applied sciences, and offer as a kind of sacrificial offering those of us who are in more qualitative fields," Connolly stated. "I think it would be the height of cowardice to simply treat those of us who do history fields and humanities fields as being in the way of university's 'real business.'"

Connolly further argued that anti-discrimination practices and scholarship in race are interconnected with work done in science and the applied fields and useful for students and scholars of all backgrounds.

"I think it's important that the university really understands the braided history of anti-discrimination work and work in science, the applied fields and the policy arena," he emphasized. "All of that is connected. I worry that those students who fought for new majors and those students who are clearly thirsty for answers to social and political challenges are going to be undermined by a reactionary approach."

Lieberman echoed concerns to the University's response to the executive orders, warning against quick action and reactionary cutbacks. As a former University provost and Columbia Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Lieberman highlighted the role of diversity in education.

"Knowing that this administration is hostile to certain kinds of programs, institutions are trying to fit their programs into what they think the administration is going to want them to do in order to prevent being punished," he stated. "The mission of the university depends on diversity. It's a place where you bring together lots of people from different kinds of backgrounds who think about the world differently [...] and that's how we make progress towards new knowledge."

Additionally, Schrader cautioned that these executive orders disproportionately affect less wealthy institutions.

"The DEI framing tries to make an accusation that there is inequality within institutions, and the focus tends to be on elite institutions like Johns Hopkins, but the vast majority of institutions have less economic resources and are most imperiled by these moves," he stated.

Public universities have already responded: North Carolina's public universities no longer require DEI courses for graduation, the University of Colorado removed its primary DEI webpage, and Michigan State University initially canceled (but later reinstated) a Lunar New Year event after public backlash.

Lieberman highlighted the longstanding impacts of these policy shifts and cutbacks.

"[Trump] is looking to defund programs and fire people in the federal government, and it's going to be very hard and require a lot of effort to put things back together," he said. "He can do a very long lasting damage to these efforts in a short amount of time if [DEI] supporters don't get in the way."

The Dear Colleague letter from the DOE, which warned higher education institutions receiving federal funding about considering race in University activities, has also raised concerns about whether cultural student organizations and sororities and fraternities that are geared toward specific ethnic and racial groups would be permitted.

Some universities have already taken action regarding affinity groups. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point disbanded 12 student affinity groups while assessing their compliance with DEI orders, including the National Society of Black Engineers Club, the Asian-Pacific Forum Club and the Vietnamese-American Cadet Association.

A University spokesperson, in an email interview with The News-Letter, commented on the institution's next steps.

"We are reviewing the executive orders and other recent directives to assess their impact on Johns Hopkins and our community," the spokesperson stated.

Editor's Note, 2025: A previous version of the article stated that the DOE mandated the consideration of race; the DOE banned the consideration of race from several educational practices. The News-Letter regrets this error.