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Articles by Zachariah Chou
Zachariah Chou: Suspending AP courses will hurt students’ education, wallets | Opinion
The state of education in Florida has gone topsy-turvy these days. Back when I was a student, education was about learning things. These days, education in Florida is all about what you can’t learn. There’s lots going on at the moment as Gov.
Buddy Carter called marijuana a gateway drug. Is he right? Here's what the research says.
Over the weekend, a clip from C-SPAN of Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Savannah) was posted to Twitter, gathering over a million views. In it, Carter makes an impassioned speech against a recent House bill decriminalizing marijuana. "Mr. Speaker, as you know, I'm a pharmacist. I know addiction. I know and I've studied addiction. I can tell you: marijuana is nothing more than a gateway drug," Carter says. But is he right? It's complicated. What does the CDC and NIH say?
Georgia GOP talks about not silencing different views yet they barred students from speaking Original
Zachariah Chou serves as an opinion coordinator for the USA Today Georgia network. The GOP loves to talk about how its members are silenced for having differing views. One wrong opinion will have you censored and cast out of society for life: canceled and ostracized.
Pain at the pump? Congress might help put money back in your wallet with rising gas prices
With high gas prices causing pain at the pump and in the wallet, governments at the state and federal level are considering what they can do in order to help Americans around the country. While Georgia lawmakers are poised to suspend the state's 29 cent gas tax, lawmakers at the federal level have several different proposals in mind: Gas Rebate Act of 2022 Introduced by Reps.
Pain at the pump? Congress might help put money back in your wallet with rising gas prices
With high gas prices causing pain at the pump and in the wallet, governments at the state and federal level are considering what they can do in order to help Americans around the country. While Georgia lawmakers are poised to suspend the state's 29 cent gas tax, lawmakers at the federal level have several different proposals in mind: Gas Rebate Act of 2022 Introduced by Reps.
Farewell to UF’s Karl Marx study room, more perplexing in death than life
This has already been a strange year, but I must admit, the University of Florida removing Karl Marx’s name off of a study room in one of its libraries was not on my 2022 bingo card. Here’s what happened: A Campus Reform reporter, formerly employed by the Trump Victory Committee and Republican National Committee, published an article about the existence of a study room at UF named after Karl Marx.
Inflation on the rise? How some companies sneakily maneuver around increasing prices
The phrase "baker's dozen" is understood to represent 13 of something. The reason was because bakers would include an extra roll or loaf of bread so they wouldn't get into any legal trouble if any of the baked goods they sold you were a little undersized. These days, with inflation on the rise, some companies are also trying to cut corners in how they sell their goods, a move called "shrinkflation." Read on to find some examples that'll make you wish the baker's dozen was back in fashion.
Where to-go next? How open container laws are evolving beyond Savannah
A Savannah St. Patrick's Day must-have is a "traveler," or to-go cup. Savannahians can carry alcoholic beverages outside bars and restaurants throughout the Historic District every day of the year. Those boundaries are expanding for the St. Patrick's Day parade and celebration, stretching south to Victory Drive. Savannah is far from the only city in the state, let alone the Southeast, to play loose with open container laws.
Timeline: The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project was a deep - and lengthy - dig
A span of 25 years and 40 miles is down to 15 days and 2,000 feet. The Savannah River deepening will conclude March 15 when dredges dig the last shovelful from the riverbed near the Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City Terminal. The work, known as the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project or SHEP, deepens the shipping channel to 47 feet from its previous depth of 42 feet. The Port of Savannah has gone from a sleepy cargo terminal to one of America's busiest since SHEP began in 1996.
Sarah Palin v. The New York Times, 'The Golden Girls' and war in Ukraine: ICYMI
It's Saturday and we all know what that means. It's time to turn our newsletter over to the top premium columns we posted this week. These are columns our subscribers loved or that people subscribed specifically to read. Not a subscriber? Do not worry. You can join the cool kid's table by subscribing today to take advantage of our Presidents' Day sale. Already a subscriber? You are the best and may proceed. — USA TODAY Opinion editors 1. Sarah Palin v.
Banned books: Georgia authors have penned many novels that met with censorship
Parents, school boards and politicians across America are taking issue with some of the books available to students from school libraries, especially ones having to do with the topics of race and gender. Georgia has a long history of censorship. Here are some books by Georgia authors and how they have been challenged in the past. More opinions on banned books:Classroom censorship bills are a dangerous game 'Dear Martin' by Nic Stone The author was born and raised in the suburbs around Atlanta.
My race may have played a factor in my college rejections, but I support affirmative action
Former Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust once stated that Harvard could fill its entire class twice over with valedictorians. And while I certainly wasn’t in the running to be a valedictorian at any point in my K-12 education, I like to think I had a reasonable shot at an Ivy League school when I was a high school senior.
Justice Breyer leaving Supreme Court after 28 years. How long does a 'for life' appointment usually last?
With the announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a new justice will soon be appointed to the high court. On paper, the appointments are for life, meant to ensure judicial independence from external factors. But as Breyer's retirement illustrates, "for life" doesn't necessarily mean "until death." According to the Supreme Court's website, the average length of a justice's tenure is 16 years.
Constitutional carry debate : A look at gun law changes being considered across the U.S.
Election season is heating up in Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp is facing a Republican primary challenge from David Perdue. The showdown has put a campaign issue, loosening gun laws, at the forefront of Kemp's state legislative agenda. Kemp's floor leaders in the statehouse have yet to detail the specifics of a constitutional carry bill. However, they have plenty of material to pull from, as several other states have similar legislation pending. More: Gov. Brian Kemp wants constitutional carry.
Diverse AI teams are key to reducing bias
All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. An Amazon-built resume-rating algorithm, when trained on men’s resumes, taught itself to prefer male candidates and penalize resumes that included the word “women.” A major hospital’s algorithm, when asked to assign risk scores to patients, gave white patients similar scores to Black patients who were significantly sicker. “If a movie recommendation is flawed, that’s not the end of the world.
How Pinterest built a more representative shopping experience with AI
All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality can work hand in hand to support innovations that can change the shopping and advertising game.
Intuit expanded userbase with AI assistants and virtual human experts
Zachariah Chou July 21, 2021 11:40 AM All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. When it comes to filing taxes, some people prefer to handle it all by themselves. Other people prefer to let the experts take care of everything. For the people somewhere in the middle, Intuit has a service called TurboTax Live, which utilizes AI to match customers with experts who will help guide them through the process.
Kohl's CTO on empowering people and optimizing supply chain with AI
All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. Say you have a product at a store you want customers to be able to grab off the shelf and buy. How do you balance that with selling the same inventory to people ordering online? How do you decide how much of your inventory you sell online? When someone makes an order online, how do you decide whether to fulfill the order with inventory from stores or your company’s warehouses?
Edge AI's benefits bring 'much higher' security risks, says McAfee data scientist
All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. Edge AI is becoming increasingly important with the internet of things (IoT) boom, but the security challenges make it more difficult for companies to adopt edge computing. As the size of the IoT ecosystem has grown, so have the risks.
Threat modeling can protect data used by AI assistants
All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now. The growth of AI-driven voice assistants has brought challenges to privacy and security. Jamie Tomasello, head of security programs and GRC at Gusto, sat down with VentureBeat executive editor Fahmida Rashid at a session of VentureBeat’s Transform 2021 summit to discuss the data security questions that need to be considered when developing or deploying AI assistants. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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Chou: My biggest regret at UF
As a person deeply interested in public service, it is no wonder that I gravitated toward the fields of journalism and politics. I spent many of my years fighting the good fight in UF Student Government, and it was both immensely rewarding and frustratingly Sisyphean. For those unfamiliar with SG at UF, it is not exactly a wholesome place. It’s where wannabe politicos try to cut their teeth, and the frat boy with the best smile gets to be king.
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Pandemic at the Polls: Student Government should not host in-person elections
UF Student Government has long been a legal and public relations liability to our university. Some years, our Student Body President gets arrested. Other years, SG drags UF into a lawsuit. This year, it looks like SG is chugging full steam ahead toward hosting in-person elections during a pandemic.
Opinions are back! Here’s why
As some of you may have noticed, The Alligator has not had a very active opinions section these past couple of months as editors worked to reformulate how the space could best serve the community we serve. Hello world! My name is Zachariah Chou and I am thrilled to be serving as The Independent Florida Alligator’s Opinions Editor this Fall.
Zachariah Chou: As UF’s ranking rises, other measures get worse
By Zachariah Chou/Special to The Sun Friday Aug 7, 2020 at 12:01 AM Dear class of 2024, welcome to the University of Florida. I hope you enjoy your stay. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the incredible opportunity that awaits you at the Harvard of the South. I would also be remiss if I didn’t share with you what is happening at our school as we increase in our ranking.
Zachariah Chou: UF needs comprehensive diversity education
By Zachariah Chou/Special to The Sun Wednesday Jul 1, 2020 at 12:02 AM I’m not one to compliment my school that often, but I do have to admit that there were plenty of good first steps in University of Florida President Kent Fuchs’ letter on positive change against racism. Getting rid of prison labor? Amazing. Intensifying the recruiting, support and retention of Black students, faculty and staff? Love to see it. Getting rid of the "Gator Bait" chant? Uh-oh.
Dear administrators: Here are steps to fix UF Student Government
Student Government has always been a dumpster fire, and UF’s administrators have always been afraid to get their hands dirty while putting it out. But here’s the thing about dumpster fires. If you don’t put them out, eventually the whole town is going to stink. Divorce SG from the university committee selection process Remember Branden Pearson? The N-word guy? Yeah, that made UF look real good didn’t it?
Zachariah Chou: More transparency needed for UF ‘distance learning fee’
By Zachariah Chou/Special to The Sun Monday Apr 13, 2020 at 12:01 AM The University of Florida would not be the same without its students and the fees that students pay. Student fees have received quite a bit of attention this academic year and it seems that we are not quite at the end of the tunnel just yet.
Things that make you go ‘hmmmm’: how we lost our 24/7 Library West (Part 5)
Given this is my final column for the summer, I wanted to go over everything that went wrong in the way Student Government handled juggling Newell Hall and Library West.
Zachariah Chou: It’s not the “Chinese Coronavirus”
By Zachariah Chou/Special to The Sun Thursday Mar 12, 2020 at 12:05 AM It is a tough time to be Asian in America. People who look like me are getting verbally accosted and physically assaulted as a result of the xenophobia that has run rampant in light of the pandemic. Attaching a nationality to a virus is a dangerous move to make, one that not only harms Asians in America but the overall public health. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong with Rick Scott. Up until Feb.
Utilities Revenue Bill In Florida Legislature Threatens City Budgets Statewide
Gainesville officials are concerned about a bill pending in the state legislature that they believe would lead to a budget crisis for not only the city but also others statewide. If the bill, HB 653, is passed, cities would no longer be able to use money generated by their electric utilities to fund their municipal operations. Instead, any revenue from electric utilities would have to be spent exclusively on improving their own facilities’ infrastructure.
City And County Commissioners Talk Taxes, Fairgrounds And Sports Center
Over the course of five and a half hours on Monday afternoon, the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission discussed three consequential agenda items with far-reaching implications for the community.
Opinion | Why We’re Impeaching Our Student Body President Over Trump Jr. (Published 2019)
The president’s son spoke at the University of Florida for a $50,000 fee. We dug deeper. By Zachariah Chou Mr. Chou is a senator in the student government at the University of Florida. Nov. 21, 2019 Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle at the University of Florida last month.Credit...Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images, via Getty Images GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On Oct.
Butler North Newk’s Eatery To Open After Two Years Of Delays
The chain, which offers sandwiches, soups and salads, is set to open on Jan. 13. For some, it has been a long time coming. Butler Plaza representatives first announced the location on Facebook in March 2017. In response to a comment on the post, the Facebook page read that the location was to open the following month. That did not happen. In December 2017, Butler Plaza’s Facebook page made a post that mentioned the Newk’s location. A commenter on the post asked when it was scheduled to open.
UF Mobile Outreach Clinic Bus Loses Power, Brakes Before Rolling Downhill
Home / Law and public safety / UF Mobile Outreach Clinic Bus Loses Power, Brakes Before Rolling Downhill By Zachariah Chou November 4, 2019 Law and public safety It’s never too early for a Christmas miracle. At around 3 p.m. Monday afternoon, the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic bus was headed northbound, uphill on Newell Drive on the University of Florida campus.
Wawa Reveals Dates For Five Gainesville Site Openings Including State’s First Non-Gas Location
A giant goose costume, a hoagie building competition and hard hats and shovels marked the occasion Tuesday as Wawa held two groundbreakings to celebrate its expansion to Gainesville. Five of the popular gas and convenience stores will open in the city beginning as early as April, including one site just across from the University of Florida campus, Wawa officials said. That location – the former site of the UF Bookstore at 1614 W. University Ave.
Gainesville To Host Second Community Meeting On Clarence R. Kelly Community Center Renovations
Donna Smith remembers going to the Northeast Recreation Center for arts and crafts as a child after elementary school. That was decades ago. Today, Smith runs A to Z Professional Childcare, a daycare center across the street from the center. She said she’s happy to see renovations for the center — now called the Clarence R. Kelly Community Center — coming to fruition.
So what’s up with SG and Israel? (part 2)
Last week, I talked about how Senate meetings have traditionally been canceled while senators were in Israel and our overall never-formally-explained coziness between many SG officials (who happen to be Christians) and Israel. I received positive feedback as well as critiques; I think everyone can agree that a complex topic deserves a follow-up. One of my Jewish buddies reached out to me after last week’s column and asked if we could chat over coffee.
So what’s up with SG and Israel?
I’ve been a senator now for quite a while and once you’re around long enough like me, you start to notice things. For example, I noticed that, for at least the third summer in a row, a Senate meeting was canceled while there was an event related to Israel taking place. In this case, the June 4 Senate meeting was canceled while Majority Party Leader Branden Pearson and Student Body Vice President Sarah Abraham were in Israel.
How to catch a liar (part 3)
Audrey Wikan was caught lying to the Student Government Senate about a job she never had. We brought our allegations before the Senate and attempted to rescind Wikan’s appointment to the budget and appropriations committee. We got Senate President, Libby Shaw, to read selections from a public records request which confirmed Wikan never served as district secretary, was hired as a clerk and had applied with the “intention of interning” under the actual district secretary.
How to catch a liar (part 1)
Wow, someone did something horrible in Student Government; we all sure haven’t heard of that one before, have we? Much like in other legislative entities, SG Senators have the ability to serve on committees. Unlike in the professional world, not everyone gets to serve on a committee, though, since the majority party isn’t interested in giving everyone a seat at the table and only cares about boosting up particular individuals. Some committees are more important than others.
Something is rotten in the SG Senate
Once upon a time, I used to be able to show up to Student Government Senate on Tuesday nights and leave around 20 minutes later. It was a time in which we would all sit there, pass legislation by unanimous consent, listen to a couple short reports and then move on with our night. Things are not nearly as rosy anymore for good reason.
Plagiarism in Student Government, part 4
It is no secret that our Student Government’s majority party likes to tout its close ties to Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Plagiarism in Student Government, Part 2
Now I know I have mentioned Student Body President Michael Murphy’s borderline plagiarized inaugural speech in my last couple of columns, but I feel like I should probably do my due diligence and write about other instances of plagiarism that have happened in the past.
Things that make you go ‘hmmmm’: how we lost our 24/7 Library West (Part 5)
Given this is my final column for the summer, I wanted to go over everything that went wrong in the way Student Government handled juggling Newell Hall and Library West.
(Un)willingness to pay: How we lost our Library West (Part 4)
Students here at UF pay a fee of $19.06 per credit hour called the “Activity and Service Fee.” Multiply that by however many credit hours students are taking, and this is how Student Government gets its $21 million budget.If anyone from SG is reading this, I suppose now would be a good time to point out that the link to the amended Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget under “Resources” on the SG website is broken: “404 - File or directory not found.”But since I’m a senator and I have it in my email, I...
Clear eyes, empty chairs, students lose: how we lost out 24/7 Library West (part 3)
It started out innocently enough. “24/7 Study Space Survey” says the subject line for the email that flies into my inbox from former Monroe County Detention Center inmate/Student Body President Smith Meyers. “Your responses to the attached 5-minute survey will be invaluable as we prioritize support for the overnight study spaces needed for your academic success.”That was October of last year. Flash forward to earlier this month during a recent Student Senate meeting.
Who bears the costs? How we lost our 24/7 Library
It started out innocently enough. Overnight hours for libraries had been a hot topic for several years in Student Government-land before becoming a reality during the 2012-13 fiscal year. Keep this in mind: SG was the entity that started funding overnight library hours (this will become more important later on).As I mentioned last week, then came Newell Hall — whose pretty high operating costs forced us to cut most of the money we used to boost Library West’s hours.
Enduring mysteries and little transparency: How we lost our 24/7 Library West (Part 1)
It started out innocently enough.
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