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Articles by Edridge D'Souza
It’s good for you!
If you’re not cringing, you’re not growing Edridge D'Souza By Edridge D'Souza, Collegian Staff May 1, 2019 Filed under Archives, Columns, Opinion, Scrolling Headlines, Senior Columns Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification I didn’t have many expectations. “You’re a freshman and this is what freshmen do,” I told myself.
UMass needs a bigger rec center
The small Worcester addition isn’t enough Collegian File Photo By Edridge D'Souza, Collegian Columnist March 27, 2019 Filed under Archives, Campus, Columns, Opinion, Scrolling Headlines Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification The University of Massachusetts has nearly 22,000 undergraduate students and exactly three squat racks at the Recreation Center. Unless you’re an athlete with access to the more exclusive training facilities, that’s what you’re stuck with.
Take Howard Schultz seriously: ignore him
Let’s learn from our mistakes Gage Skidmore/Flickr By Edridge D'Souza, Collegian Columnist February 21, 2019 Filed under Archives, Columns, National, Opinion, Scrolling Headlines Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification Ever since former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced his intention to run for president, he has succeeded in the difficult task of getting the left and right to agree on something: virtually nobody wants him to be president.
In defense of headphone wires
So long to wires, headphone jacks and functionality Flickr Creative Commons/Chris Campbell Flickr Creative Commons/Chris Campbell Flickr Creative Commons/Chris Campbell By Edridge D'Souza, Collegian Columnist January 22, 2019 Filed under Archives, Opinion, Scrolling Headlines Send email to this address Enter Your Name Add a comment here Verification Over this past Christmas, one of the most baffling gift trends I’ve seen is also somehow the least surprising: Apple AirPods.
We shouldn’t perpetuate false controversies
I used to be of the opinion that we should give all ideas a platform. After all, once different sides voice their opinions, the public can decide which ones are right and wrong. Ideas that are bad will get little support and ideas that are awful will be ridiculed, while the good ideas stick around. It seemed reasonable that the best way to pick good ideas would be to give an equal platform to all sides of an issue and let the public decide which sides deserve to be taken seriously.
Technicalities and voter suppression
I have an apostrophe in my last name. Usually, it’s not too much of an issue. In countries like Ireland or Italy, where apostrophes and special characters are common in names, computer systems can run into issues processing non-alphabetic characters in a person’s name. In other aspects of life, it seems like a minor inconvenience.
Biology classes need more critical thinking
Massachusetts is seen by the rest of the country as the “Mecca” of biotech. Numerous top hospitals, research institutions and startups have given the Commonwealth its status as one of the top destinations for researchers in the life sciences. We attract the top talent from all over the world and act as a beacon of scientific progress.
Standarisierte Prüfungen verstärken Barrieren für Bildung
(Collegian file photo) Der Anfang des akademischen Jahres bringt einen neuen Ansturm von Studenten mit sich, die standardisierte Prüfungen ablegen, wie zum Beispiel SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT und mehr. Diese standardisierten Prüfungen bieten nominell eine Möglichkeit, die Leistung von Schülern und ihre Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit in der Schule zu messen. Ein Highscore sollte angeben, welche Schüler erfolgreicher sind und umgekehrt. Die Realität ist jedoch nicht ganz so einfach.
Russia doesn’t want you to vote, but you should
Elections aren’t decided by the people who vote. They’re decided by the people who stay at home. The United States, with its lack of mandatory voting in federal elections, has a problem of voter apathy, resulting in low turnout; a vicious cycle that reinforces itself and makes the problem progressively worse. The 2016 election had the lowest voter turnout in over two decades.
The case for quarters instead of semesters
We’re slightly more than halfway through the semester and it’s starting to take its toll. The semester system turns every course into a 14-week marathon, leaving us all fatigued around this point. Unfortunately, the last month of the semester is usually the most intense, and this is proving no exception.
Remembering a person means remembering all of them
The film “Chappaquiddick” came out this past week, and its subject matter has, predictably, polarized viewers. While film critics have praised the performance of the lead actor Jason Clarke, others have had dramatically different takes on the film which portrays the Chappaquiddick scandal of Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the late United States Senator from Massachusetts. In the New York Times, an OpEd said that the film goes beyond artistic interpretation and into the realm of character assassination.
Removing Amherst Town Meeting would remove the students’ voice
On March 27th, there will be a vote on the Amherst Town Charter regarding whether to replace the existing Amherst Town Meeting with a more regular Town Council. For those unfamiliar with the situation, the Town of Amherst created a Charter Commission of nine members to examine whether or not to keep the current town government structure. As it currently stands, the Town Meeting comprises 240 elected members as well as 14 ex-officio members from the local government.
Memes give us a false sense of consensus
It’s probably one of the most bizarre recent trends to storm the internet: People are sharing memes about eating Tide detergent pods, and it’s having real-world consequences. The joke, which started as a clearly self-aware trend comparing the colorful chemical pods to the biblical forbidden fruit, spread on social media to the point of ubiquity. Soon, the original irony and self-awareness was lost on some people, and the “Tide Pod Challenge” turned into a trend that teenagers followed in earnest.
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
The year 2018 is off to an interesting start. It’s been less than a month, and we’ve already seen a laundry detergent poisoning epidemic, a federal government shutdown and a false alarm Hawaiian missile crisis. It seems to go without saying that things are more than a little chaotic. Ignoring all the current global problems, there was one story at the start of January that provided a particularly important look at how media and culture can affect our lives.
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
I woke up a few weeks ago after setting my clock back an hour for the end of daylight saving time (DST). It seemed great to have an extra hour of sleep, even though I knew it meant losing an hour of sleep in a few months. However, the temporary benefits of the day soon gave way to its drawbacks. Most notably, it became a pain to plan my evenings due to the much earlier nightfall.
Fix the recreation center’s squat rack
I returned to the University of Massachusetts a little early this year. As part of Residential Life staff training, I had to return to campus two weeks before the start of semester. During this time, I saw many of my favorite campus locations operating at limited capacity. This was understandable, since many campus businesses and facilities rely heavily on student workers, so it was expected that there would be reduced functionality before the official start of semester.
Conspiracy theories and the culture of ignorance
We all want to feel special, even if we’re not. On some level, most people would like to be able to say that they’ve figured out something that nobody else has. At the very least, that’s the emotional drive behind conspiracy theorist. Conspiracy theories exploit the fact that humans generally enjoy feeling like they’ve ‘figured it out,’ and in this current climate, we’re beginning to see the resurgence of quite a few of them. In the era of ‘fake news,’ misinformation can spread pretty quickly.
After a tragedy is the best time to talk about issues
As usual, The Onion delivered. Following the Las Vegas shooting last week, and of course, the ensuing political games regarding the issue of gun control, the satirical news agency released an article titled “White House: ‘This Is Not The Geologic Era To Debate Gun Control.’” Like all good satire, it touches an uncomfortable nerve – that in the United States, the pro-gun lobby has steered the national conversation away from even addressing the debate.
Political factions oppose each other like passionate sports fans
This past weekend has been dominated with news of exchanges involving President Trump’s opinions on protests in sports. Sports, which at face value seem relatively apolitical, rely on the idea of people supporting a team. It doesn’t matter whether teams are objectively good or bad (although, up here in Massachusetts, we certainly can’t complain). Most people base their preference of sports teams on their geographic location, and then passionately support their side.
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
It’s around the time of year when I start buying textbooks. One thing I’ve learned from college is that you should never buy the textbooks in the course description until the class has already started, in case the professors say they’re not really necessary or that they can be substituted with something else.
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